What did you do in the Apiary today?

[kazmcc]

booger! Well done Steve F who I think peruses this forum

Ah better luck next time

Arran is really coming along, and is learning so fast! The bees were frantic today, after the rain we've had this week, but he wasn't bothered at all. Didn't see a single drone. Showed Arran how to identify which flowers the bees have visited by the colour of the pollen. I'm really enjoying sharing beekeeping with him.

Really looking forward to going back to school and getting the project up and running again.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Shook out a nuc with a laying worker, prepared a nuc and a hive at Garn cottage for moving back to Brynmair tonight

 

[Fatbee]

Inspected calm, chilled out bees in a colony I had not been able to get in to for a month because they had been so aggressive. Can only assume they were going through queen replacement that caused them so much angst. Lovely patterns of sealed brood - certainly brings back the pleasure to beekeeping when bees so calm.

 

[hedgehog66]

spotted a swarm in my bait hive.......
must be one of mine, got to try to find out which one tomorrow
at least they stayed close to home and didnt bugger off elsewhere, some consolation i suppose

 

[Tremyfro]

Had a peak in my nuc this afternoon......and ....AHHHH..... It's packed with bees! Urgent now to re house into a hive tomorrow. Forecast good so it's my first job.

 

[einsteinagogo]

Got a little behind today, spent a few hours cutting kingspan for roofs, and creating dummy boards (maybe this should be in workshop!) using aluminium tape to seal the kingspan.

Got to the new apiary lots of activity across all the hives, far more than I've ever seen at the old Apiary 1&2 sites, hopefully this site is a good choice, very sunny today, but an evil wind, which kept blowing my hat/veil off my head...decided today was not the day to treat the hives so tidied up, removed final supers, clearer boards, and transferred the 6 frame nuc to new national, added two frames, and dummied down with kingspan. (a little odd, it took a while for the bees to enter the hive, and remained outside for 30-40 mins!) they eventually all went in. I noticed that this nuc, had eaten a lot of stores, about half a frame, so this evening, I've started winter feeding this nuc, with 4pint rapid feeder, with ambrosia.

Brought all the nucs, old roofs, and supers back on my bee barrow (new apiary is 3 minutes walk from my house!)

and then I noticed that two damn screws have fallen out of my smoker/bellows, cheap rubbish.....not been using this new smoker long...obviously overworked it today!

at one point, had to abandoned, a bee had got into my veil, maybe there is a hole, need to check, ran into next field, away from apiary, and got out of my full bee suit quick! Got rid of bee, put back on, and continue working....

and finally, back here now extracting the final six supers....of the year, these all wet supers will go back underneath tomorrow. (weather permitting!)

 

[pargyle]

I loved listening to the shipping forecast when I was a kid. It, sadly, was replaced by Radio Luxembourg under the covers with my head pressed to the tranee as the music ebbed and flowed amidst all the white noise.

Ahh ... that brings back memories ... my first tranny was a tiny little thing that I bought from an advert in the back of the newspaper for 2 guineas ... it had a single earphone so I could listen under the covers without my mum hearing ... I also had a pentorch so I could read Dennis Wheatley books as well ... scared me witless ...

 

[REDWOOD]

I never had a tranny, I don't think I would ever wont one, I'll stick to a real woman

 

[Erichalfbee]

I also had a pentorch so I could read Dennis Wheatley books as well ... scared me witless ...

The Devil Rides Out......ace!!!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Got a little behind today,

SWMBO wishes she could

 

[pargyle]

The Devil Rides Out......ace!!!

With the Duc du Richelieu ... I had all of them ... To the Devil a Daughter, The Ka of Gifford Hillary with Gregory Sallust.. I've still got them in the loft ! Very dated now... Wheatley was a very interesting character and still has a strong fan club (I'm not a member ... yet !).

 

[Tremyfro]

I never had a tranny, I don't think I would ever wont one, I'll stick to a real woman

HaHaHa.....tee Heee....that made me laugh!

 

[Headnavigator]

Just about to start treatment of my hives with Hivemaker's Thymol recipes, when son comes back from holiday in Crete and presents me with a pot of 'Honey with Thyme'. Do you think we could start selling 'Honey with Thymol' as a speciality?

 

[REDWOOD]

Requires a special palate and most will not give it the thyme of day

 

[Headnavigator]

Well I had to taste it after you said that, and it's very nice! Faintly 'extra' flavour but I wouldn't have identified it as Thyme and perfectly pleasant. And I'm one who doesn't particularly like the smell of Thymol.

 

[Tremyfro]

So assembled spare hive etc in readiness to transfer the nuc. Lovely sunny day...perfect. I lifted the nuc box and was astonished at how light it was compared to the last time I lifted it 10 days ago. As we transferred the frames...there were few stores...only on the top and side of one frame. There were eggs and BIAS. Lots of bees. So I fetched the feeder and filled it with Invertbee for them....
No wonder they have been out foraging like crazy.....
So starving can happen really quickly...we have had bad weather for over a week now and they had eaten almost all their stores..... Some of which they had been capping.
We saw a varroa on one bee....so have put on Apilife Var.
Read about starvation in the books.....but experiencing it is much more educational! Yikes......

 

[Stiffy]

Extracted the final 20 supers today, been a bumper year!!!!

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Requires a special palate and most will not give it the thyme of day

"If it tastes bad it must be strong medicine!" Manuka anyone?

 

[Mrs Shoot]

Just about to start treatment of my hives with Hivemaker's Thymol recipes, when son comes back from holiday in Crete and presents me with a pot of 'Honey with Thyme'. Do you think we could start selling 'Honey with Thymol' as a speciality?

Had some 'Honey with Thyme' while on holiday in St Ives. Very nice and goes well with cheese and crackers....yummy.

Checked Hive 2 and 2a both with Virgin queens (emerged 2 weeks ago), nothing yet so put in test frames in each from Hives 7 and 4. Went to take one out of Hive 3, but no eggs or larve, a bit if capped brood and 2 QC's, of which one was emerging. Watched the new Virgin walk down between the frames, so took the other QC out. Will leave them alone for a couple of weeks now. Still have plenty of drones about.

Mowed the grass around the hives. Not sure if the girls were impressed with my mowing skills, but I was joined by a cloud of them.

 

[REDWOOD]

Worked my only day off but managed to get away a bit early and check the bees, still lots of Hb coming in but no extra stores, must of been the rain so I'll leave extraction for another week seeing the weather over the next couple of days is going to be fine but cutting it fine as the ivy is not far away from blooming. Checked a unit I did last week as they were struggling to get going and needed them to build up for winter which they are now in a good position. My other apiary has managed to gather a bit of ling but not much to speak of so next year I will be moving a hive and plonking it right in the middle of the heather. ...................... is there such a word as plonk ?