What did you do in the Apiary today?

[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.

Thought it would fit the Nuc I took round.
Got it home.... all frames rammed and roof deep in bees... in 14x12, much more comfortable
Good result.. But I don't need another colony! Ah well. Bees safe . Just running out of hives.
Going to treat for varroa in 3 days as they are feral colony. Should be interesting exercise.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

O Happy Day!

Oh, happy day
(Oh, happy day)
Oh, happy day
(Oh, happy day)

When Queenie walked
(When Queenie walked)
When she walked
(When she walked)

When she walked
(When Queenie walked)
My nuc in lay, yeah
(Oh, happy day)

HM. Buckie Q installed on Sunday has been up and laying for at least 4 days as of Saturday. Yeah!

Thanks, Pete, if you see this, and I'll phone. She's beautiful
.
I'd been a bit nervous about the quick release but, result!

 

[Falesh]

The first super I put on the hive is heavy enough that it must be almost full of honey. I stuck another on a couple of days ago and that already has lots of bees in it drawing out the comb.

The brood box is still pretty messy with some frames solid with brood and others a mix of honey, pollen and brood. One possible reason for this is that I didn't put supers on early enough and so the bees didn't have room for the honey and it got put where ever there was space. There was still lots of brood so the queen hasn't slowed down laying yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coowyiZv-2A

 

[Erichalfbee]

MAQS on most of the colonies this morning then off to a disease recognition workshop. Nice but horrid to look at diseased frames;much better than looking at pictures. Picked up a few tips and chatted to fellow beekeepers about swarms. Even our SBI is losing them
One chap having seen two very small swarms leave one of his hives told me he was waiting for the big one so that he could catch it
He wasn't having the real life version from me!!!!!

 

[beeno]

Oh, happy day
(Oh, happy day)
Oh, happy day
(Oh, happy day)

When Queenie walked
(When Queenie walked)
When she walked
(When she walked)

When she walked
(When Queenie walked)
My nuc in lay, yeah
(Oh, happy day)

HM. Buckie Q installed on Sunday has been up and laying for at least 4 days as of Saturday. Yeah!

Thanks, Pete, if you see this, and I'll phone. She's beautiful
.
I'd been a bit nervous about the quick release but, result!

Hi TTLTB,
Congrats! Do start a thread on quick release pls. I have just done Bulletproof.

 

[Polyanwood]

Put some supers to clear. Got stung quite a few times and my neck looks a bit like a bullfrog's. Took off a couple of unwired frames and now the cut comb has gone into the freezer for 48 hours to make sure there in no wax moth in there.

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Collected a large swarm (one of mine ). Despite looking through the source hive twice, I still can't spot the second queen cell - it must be well hidden!

Transferred a strong 6 frame nuc into a full sized brood box (my last one!)

Had a quick peek in two colonies that had a ripe queen cell introduced from my recent queen rearing efforts, YES, success, two vacated queen cells! Closed up swiftly and left them to it. Fingers crossed for good matings......

 

[Ben90]

Went and did my Basic

Requeened one of my hives


Took a super off another.

 

[charlievictorbravo]

The first super I put on the hive is heavy enough that it must be almost full of honey. I stuck another on a couple of days ago and that already has lots of bees in it drawing out the comb.

The brood box is still pretty messy with some frames solid with brood and others a mix of honey, pollen and brood. One possible reason for this is that I didn't put supers on early enough and so the bees didn't have room for the honey and it got put where ever there was space. There was still lots of brood so the queen hasn't slowed down laying yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coowyiZv-2A

I really enjoyed your video and seeing how calm your bees are. I have never plucked up courage to do inspections glove-less.

CVB

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I really enjoyed your video and seeing how calm your bees are. I have never plucked up courage to do inspections glove-less.

CVB

The real problem with gloveless working is getting propolis off your hands especially at an out apiary before getting it all over your car. Latex gloves don't provide sting protection although for hairy hands the bees don't get entangled

 

[YorkshireBees]

The real problem with gloveless working is getting propolis off your hands especially at an out apiary before getting it all over your car. Latex gloves don't provide sting protection although for hairy hands the bees don't get entangled

Having recently snapped a tendon in one finger on my left hand I was unable to get my tight fitting kid leather gloves on. I normally wear nitrile on top of them so I have had just the nitrile on my left hand. It is a liberating experience I must admit!

Although I will still probably wear the leather gloves under the nitriles for some operations I may very well try nitrile only in future.

I wear them for hygiene purpose between hives / apiaries and as stated to keep propolis off my hands!

 

[madasafish]

The real problem with gloveless working is getting propolis off your hands especially at an out apiary before getting it all over your car. Latex gloves don't provide sting protection although for hairy hands the bees don't get entangled

Neutrogena hand cream- unscented. Rub into hands and fingers - a small quantity - and allow to dry. http://tinyurl.com/naoh93s

Makes cleaning much easier. Good for your hands as well..

 

[Falesh]

Neutrogena hand cream- unscented. Rub into hands and fingers - a small quantity - and allow to dry. http://tinyurl.com/naoh93s

Makes cleaning much easier. Good for your hands as well..

So far I haven't had an issue with propolis getting on my hands. I'm not sure if it is the young age of the colony or the construction of the thin plastic ridge that the frames in my hive rest on which means they don't put propolis where I pick the frames up. But if I do start getting it I'll try out that hand cream, I would really rather not wear gloves if possible.

 

[Nige.Coll]

Did inspection everything going well.
All but 1 of the splits seem to have hatched queens some laying and the others have polished cells and hatched Q cells. Hope this means there will be eggs soon.
very happy with all but 1 (this one lost the queen when she returned to the wrong hive)
This hive I added a frame of bias to see what they do.

Swarmy hive has a huge Q cell should hatch this week. They seem to have forgiven me for killing their mother but she wouldn't stop trying to swarm. Didn't know how old she was but trying to swarm every month was getting tiresome, I'm hoping her age was the reason.

One of the nucs I made has eggs and the other has a virgin queen in. I'm happy as this was just an experiment. I will be swapping them to 8 frame poly nucs for over wintering as soon as they need more space, just hope my timing is right for them to build up and go into winter strong.

 

[madasafish]

So far I haven't had an issue with propolis getting on my hands. I'm not sure if it is the young age of the colony or the construction of the thin plastic ridge that the frames in my hive rest on which means they don't put propolis where I pick the frames up. But if I do start getting it I'll try out that hand cream, I would really rather not wear gloves if possible.

Young colonies are generally good natured : it's when they get big and something goes wrong (weather, Q-) that they can be really horrible.. (see other thread on "Stings"

When a big colony goes bad, you need nitriles and marigolds.. the twin layer makes hand stinging virtually impossible. (nitriles/vinyl next to skin is easier I find). These kind of colonies are evil.. and climb up your trouserlegs, find all gaps in clothing and ill fitting veils.

(I ALWAYS check my veil is correctly fastened after an episode with bees up legs, under arms and in veil... not many stings luckily).Edit: amusing to watch in others!

 

[Erichalfbee]

MAQS went on yesterday so took a walk over to see how many bees bearding(lots last year). I was surprised to see little change from normal activity
Spotted these over the apiary pond.

Beast and Beauty, indeed.

 

[Tabby15]

Very happy as both my new queens have successfully mated since there are eggs and brood in both. Leaving them alone tested my patience but was clearly the right thing to do.
Managed to spot and mark one of the new queens.
Also the small swarm we took last week is thriving in the nuc, queen is laying and managed to catch and mark her too. Have offered her plus or without the bees to our local bka as we don't really want another hive.

 

[jd101k2000]

Checked over the two swarms from about a fortnight ago. One has runny bees and has gone into propolis production. The other has bald brood (on fresh foundation, so not wax moth)... makes me realise how good my other colonies are. Oh, and bottled 40lb of lovely honey.

 

[user 6228]

The beekeeper found a virgin queen in a hive so started dispatching the remaining queen cells. One seemed to have a dotted line around the top and when it fell to the floor I picked it up and thus queen emerged on to my hand.. So I ran it into a Nuc that was still waiting for its queen cell to emerge.
Hadnt seen VQs before and so now have seen 2 together (bit like buses )

 

[Swarm]

Removed five supers for extraction.