What did you do in the Apiary today?

[gregior]

Took advantage of the semi-decent weather to inspect all 5 of my colonies;

Hive 1 ; Brood 1/2 and 1 super ,6 frames bias in brood box,1/2 full of stores,super 2/3 full of uncapped honey.

Hive 2 ; Brood 1/2 and 1 super,7 frames bias in brood box and 3 frames sealed brood in 1/2,super 1/3 full of unsealed honey

Hive 3 ; Brood 1/2 and 1 super,7 frames bias in brood box and 5 frames sealed brood in 1/2 ,super almost full of honey

Hive 4; Q- part of Late AS on single brood,Queen mated and going great guns clipped and marked her,8 frames sealed brood! 2 unsealed,queen congratulated,clipped +marked a little worried they may get a bit short of space so may add a shallow to turn into brood 1/2 for over wintering.

Hive5 ; Q- part of another late AS on single brood,queen mated,clipped and marked her.

Now i made a mistake with this hive a few weeks ago,i had a small colony that had gone q- and had laying workers next to this hive so i shook out all the bees in front of the hive.On inspection today there was a mix of about 1/2 worker brood and 1/2 drone brood in the brood box (drone brood in the worker cells) now i'm thinking either some of the laying workers have been laying up the drone or the queen is young and just getting into stride or not properly mated
Decided to just leave things as they are with this one and see what happens,any one have any advice ? Also was wondering if the brood frames with drone brood will need replacing (will the cells that have had drone brood in them be permanently converted to drone only cells?

Also removed the MAQS strips i added to all colonies last week,no mites seen and all seems well

 

[Erichalfbee]

Went through supers in 7 hives. Sooooooo much yet to cap!!!!
Won't need much syrup this year methinks
I have to combine 4 colonies down to 2. All are really strong though...................sigh!!!!!

 

[Falesh]

I recruited my dad to help lift the supers off so I could save my energy for the brood inspection. While he was doing that he weighed the supers. Right now we have, very roughly, 5 stone (31kg) of honey. The bees are still very active and we have a lot of flowering plants nearby.

I did a sticky tray test for varroa which indicated that my bees could use treatment before winter so the winter bees are as healthy as possible. Upon getting advice I plan to take the supers off in a week or two and then apply Apiguard to the hive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPYRs7PwxlI

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I did a sticky tray test for varroa which indicated that my bees could use treatment before winter

for a more accurate indication of varroa levels, you shouldn't use a'sticky' tray, but rather a dry one so you can see the number of dead mites that are dropped on it.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

for a more accurate indication of varroa levels, you shouldn't use a'sticky' tray, but rather a dry one so you can see the number of dead mites that are dropped on it.

Sorry, JBM. please can you explain?

I thought the reason for using something like oil on the varroa board was simply to stop the little mites being blown off the board, especially when you take it out for the count.

Not sure what advantage a dry board would be.

Dusty

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Answer is.......don't examine the board when there's a wind blowing

with a sticky board you will trap all the live mites as well - all the calculations (for what it's worth) on the FERA ready reconner are for dead mite drop.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Took five supers off.
After frame juggling there are two to extract, two to go back on the strongest hives and one full of pollen.
Pollen will go back under broods together with uncapped frames when the last of the supers come off for the autumn.

 

[bontbee]

for a more accurate indication of varroa levels, you shouldn't use a'sticky' tray, but rather a dry one so you can see the number of dead mites that are dropped on it.

for info, taken from the Managing Varroa booklet on the NBU website - last revised Dec 2013, p.16

"Monitoring your colonies routinely using an open
mesh floor (OMF) and a sticky insert tray coated
with Vaseline will tell you how mite infestation is
developing".


Looks like NBU have revised their advice

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Removed unfilled super. Planning harvest week after next so want them to concentrate on finishing off the other three. Added entrance block/mouse guard as wasps in the vicinity.

 

[ichbinpaul]

Thursday I was called to a farm to remove excessively stingy bees from a corrogated asbesteos barn where roofers had been repeatedly tagged, the bees were behind a 6' x 6' tool board of 1" corse fiberboard which had been nailed on with ribbed nails! I had to angle grind the heads off!, six hours of gentle hoovering on low vacuum(hoover set up as a Langstroth hive receptor) I got tagged 6 times through jeans through leather gloves-ear-bum-wrist! that was it tired and throbing the hoover got max'd, all sucked up and no way to tell if the queen was hidden in the vast cavitous areas, 60ish pounds of mixed comb honey and brood later cut out and elastic banded, had to re vac escaped bees when placing brood frames in, yesterday whilst raining! I placed the hive body on a new base and saw loads of expired bees! I expected that, but to my surprize they were not attacking me whatsoever, I was told these bees arrived early last spring, and I am told the roofers are coming back today to get their tools they left up on the roof I'll post a pic or two if my Son gives me a hand!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Put two half finished supers back on the two strongest colonies this morning. The "angry" hive lived up to their name and absolutely poured out when I lifted the crown board. Squashed a few putting that super back on.
Queen is destined for the chop when all the supers come off. They have brought me in a lot of honey but It's absolutely no fun working with them!

I had to angle grind the heads off!, six hours of gentle hoovering on low vacuum, all sucked up and no way to tell if the queen was hidden in the vast cavitous areas, 60ish pounds of mixed comb honey and brood later cut out and elastic banded,

Bravo!!!
I am in absolute awe of folk who extract bees. I would look at that and never know where to start

 

[ichbinpaul]

Bravo!!!
I am in absolute awe of folk who extract bees. I would look at that and never know where to start[/QUOTE]

hehe that's exactly the sentiments I had before I started(not knowing where to start) its very interesting but if hoovering with great care it takes hours on low vacuum, and your standing for a long time quite tiring, the worst part is opening up and putting in brood held in the frames with elastic bands loads of them go straigh back where you hoovered them from, and finding the queen is oft difficult if not impossible at times this farmer wanted them gone bad, and sprayed the remaining area with paraffin, so no point in coming back in daylight for a second look.(JP the bee man is an inspirig tutor via youtube)#
PS its often easier without hoovering in my opinion but Mr farmer didnt want many fliers!

 

[psafloyd]

Not today, but yesterday. Showed a young lady who is keen on bees the inside of a few hives.

After a couple of ok ones, had a shocker which has in the past two weeks lost all brood (queen must have been failing on last inspection) and been robbed to almost extinction.

Looked ok on last inspection and next to colony that was under serious attack, in protecting the other one, this must have been targeted. Other one I'll come to in a minute, but this one's super was full of wasps and with few bees, the wax moth has made a mess. Will scrap this comb, which was due for a change next year, and scorch frames and box.

So, that was embarrassing, but instructive for the noviciate and we then moved on to the one that had been under attack. Clearly the smaller entrance had worked and this one is thriving, so a nice one for her to see nice laying pattern, BIAS and to heft a full super for an understanding of the weight.

Still, despite a sting on her leg (her first), she wasn't put off and is raring to go.

 

[VEG]

Washing out the cappings with vodka. Oh my word it tasted great

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Washing out the cappings with vodka. Oh my word it tasted great

Had so much cappings this year decided to leave the bees clean most of it

 

[VEG]

I used 4 bottles of vodka to 2 buckets of cappings. Still got loads of cappings left.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

precisely, unfortunately due to my medication I drink a heck of a lot less than I used to (well, I'd have struggled to drink a lot more!) and we've still got some left from last year.

 

[user 6228]

The beekeeper shook out two small colonies, One which had continually failed to expand beyond 1 frame brood another which had gone worker layer.
About 50 bees had their applications to join one particular hive rejected with extreme prejudice

 

[Hivemaker.]

Made up some more nucs and introduced some black Irish AMM queens to them.

 

[REDWOOD]

Made up some more nucs and introduced some black Irish AMM queens to them.

Intrigued, I thought you were a buckfast /local bee man