What did you do in the Apiary today?

[bontbee]

Odd they did not seem to like the rake!!!

QUOTE]

Mine hate the sweeping brush, also the mop - oh, and the smell of a certain product that cleans the baths without scratching...(one for the more mature beeks - mature as in "of a certain age")

 

[Hachi]

Supered my remaining hives and now fresh out of supers so just ordered enough gear for a further six supers worth. Will be ready to go by the weekend. After that, its honey in Brood Boxes if I'm pushed.

 

[steve56616]

Combined three hives into one.
largest hive dispatched queen and combined with AS (marked queen) taken on 17th June.
Third hive had virgin queen, also dispatched her and place that colony above.
Now three hives have become one.

So I have from bottom up:
I BB (stores and some capped brood), newspaper, QE, Colony with marked Q in BB and super, newspaper, QE, BB with other hives brood. Next empty super (foundation), super (honey some almost capped).
All other bees I shook out side entrance.
Fingers crossed it works and Queen carries on doing well as I have never combined more than two colonies before.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Mine hate the sweeping brush, also the mop - oh, and the smell of a certain product that cleans the baths without scratching

I can identify with that

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

I had two colonies that were Q-. Fortnight ago introduced a bought queen to each. On checking a few days later found one had been freed from the cage but no sign of eggs or grubs. The other was still stuck in the cage thanks to a dead attendant, I freed her.

Went back today to check on progress. The latter was showing a wonderful array of capped brood, the other no sign so I suspect the queen was not accepted.

Both are quite low in numbers so I am intending to unite, of which there will be a separate thread looking for advice.

 

[bontbee]

I can identify with that

ditto - they don't suffer it very often....

 

[jd101k2000]

Washed out the extractor and honey bucket.
Checked on two hives... one is promising nearly 100lb of ripe honey in the top 4 of 5 supers (plus lots of nectar). Clearer board on.
The other was a swarm (from one of my hives) 2 weeks ago. It now has 3 supers. The top two are full of nectar.

The upper of the full supers was a thing of beauty. 10 frames perfectly drawn, with perfectly flat faces all full of nectar. Hopefully it will be ripe in a few weeks. Had to congratulate the girls on a job well done. (You do talk with your bees, don't you?)

 

[Tonyatcwfarm]

Good day today-good inspection yesterday
All colonies seem to have settled into nectar gathering mode,no swarm cells and all queens spotted
Re hived 2 more nucs to nationals,one had 4 full frames laid up so not before time
Re queened a dlq or laying worker nuc with a queen I reared myself(first attempt),thanks to whoever posted on how to do it,queen spotted today among the frames
Made up 3 more supers and ordered myself a shiny new extractor

 

[REDWOOD]

Picked up a big swarm that came out of an air brick.

Sent from my GT-S5570 using Tapatalk 2

 

[maddydog]

Checked on the suspected q- colony. No qc‘s on the test frame but still no sign of q or e. Plenty of grumpy bees though, had clusters of them on my veil trying to sting me through the mesh, never had that before.

 

[Heather]

Checked a small Nuc where v queen introduced 3 weeks ago. Nice ripe looking Q... but head firmly jammed in a cell. Watched her for a while but she seemed to struggle without success. I eased the wax away from her on all sides and they all rushed to her, but she looks very sick. Struggling to stand well.
There were eggs so she was free after I left her.. so not beekeeper to blame.

Any ideas what happened here.. besides 'she got head stuck' replies

 

[stephenpug]

What is happening all my 7 (now) and 2 nucs have gone crazy pinging and chasing me I have to get suited and booted to go any where near them
They are usually quiet calm , could it be a major flow on as all the entrances are realy busy

 

[stephenpug]

What is happening all my 7 (now) and 2 nucs have gone crazy pinging and chasing me I have to get suited and booted to go any where near them
They are usually quiet calm , could it be a major flow on as all the entrances are realy busy

And they are all q+

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yesterday
Walking dog at 7am; lots of bees in the air.
Found two "swarms" 10 or so feet apart, one on a tree trunk the other in a hedge. By the time I'd got my gear together they were one, on the tree thank heavens!
There is so much nectar coming in that the brood nest are being back filled. I have supers on but I have to be braver and split the brood nests with the odd frame of foundation to give unoccupied nurse bees something to do apart from plotting!

Then on to check the odds and see which was the culprit. First hive I looked in...bit of luck
I thought I might take a look in the second most likely. They are emptying the brood nest into the super I put on five days ago......wonderful.
This colony now has five supers. In the second from brood (I under super unless the earlier supers get really heavy) where I had put a few "make your own" comb frames for cut comb there were two frames of capped drone. How on earth did that happen????? Queen happily living down in the brood box.

 

[meidel]

this evening there was a tight ball of bees on the floor under a colony which last time we checked, a few days ago, had one virgin queen newly emerged. As i got suited up and brushed them into a takeaway box and deposited them onto the landing board I saw a flash of long red legs and then heard the queen piping. So, either she was too exhausted to make it into the hive or she never took off on her mating flight. As the bees and queen gradually went through the entrance amidst much vigorous fanning I sure hope we'll see some nice capped brood in a few weeks' time.

Earlier this morning, helped another beek do more swarm control splits as yet another one of this year's queen was found to have been slimmed down again and filled playcups were seen

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Went to the association nuc to transfer a 5 frame nuc awaiting queen mating to a 6 framer as they were packing in the stores although last time I looked they were rearranging everything ready for laying - what I found were eggs and larvae so as I had to go back to work this evening I brough the nuc home to my apiary. Not bad - open QC on the 15th June when transferred to a nuc by Redwood - now laying (awaiting capping before stringing the bunting out!

 

[Bosleeu]

Checked a minihive that had laying workers, I shook them out, put a queencell in a few days ago, not having much hope. Today the bees are calm and happy and I spotted the emerged queen. No new eggs either. Result!

Also introduced a new queen to a Nuc with the smoking method as described on the forum, all appeared to go well and I saw her quite happy on a frame a few minutes later. Hoping for eggs in a day or two. Fingers crossed.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

(yesterday) Merged two colonies, and spun what honey there was in the surplus 2 supers and 14x12.

Watched them for a while, and the loose recently unhomed flyers seemed to get into their new abode without any visible resistance, in fact no dead bodies a couple of hours later. Will leave off checking the progress of the main box merge for the next day or two.

 

[Heather]

Success. Called to a swarm that had gone under eaves, all netted off to keep birds out, so bees had mass entrances. Put a bait hive near to edge with BIAS frame in, and old frames of comb. 24 hrs later bees had transferred. Just hope the brood didn't chill in meantime.. Just off to close the hive and bring home.

 

[Mrs Shoot]

Going solo

Had to go solo today as OH is poorly with flu.

Added another frame of eggs to hive 6 (hive the had laying worker and was dumped on the floor last week) as they haven't done anything with the frame given last week except the usual. They have now built some play cell on the frame (empty), so hopefully will get something done with some of these eggs.

Added a second brood box to hive 7 as all drawn out and 5 frames a full of capped brood.

Added another super to hives 2,3,4 and 5.

Virgin queen has emerged since I peeked on Wednesday in my nuc, so fingers crossed for some nice weather for her to get out, have plenty of drones about.

Think I managed ok on my own.