What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Salamagundy]

Spent most of the afternoon with the bees. The nasty hives seemed to have calmed down since I stole their honey, so it was really pleasant and the sun was shining.

At home I checked the varroa drop after starting treatment yesterday, using Hivemaker’s recipe and oasis. The drop after day one is much higher than last year. Quite a few of the hives had taken nearly two litres of thymolated syrup. I’ll need to make up more syrup this evening. I wondered if thymolated syrup AND thymol treatment at the same time might be too much but they seemed to be ok. Spent 40 minutes looking for a DLQ in one hive but didn’t manage to find her. Chickened out of tipping them out – seems so brutal – I’ll try once more to find her.

Started varroa treatment at out-apiary one.

Tried to pay my landlords at out-apiary two (no payment requested but I wanted to offer them 2lbs of their lime honey per hive) but couldn’t find them – duh!

Looks like I'll need to combine three hives in total, which will give me a bit of spare kit for the start of next year.

All in all a very enjoyable day!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Red, White or Rose?

 

[einsteinagogo]

another busy day in the apiary, and I'm knackered.

Treated all hives with MAQS. It's surprising how the noise of a hive changes, the moment the strips are applied to the BB, and then closed up, no bearding noticed, although quite a number of bees "hanging around outside" immediately after applying. I assume not wanting to go in...

All was well on four hives, but the fifth I treated was particularly aggressive definite pinging of the veil and following....which is odd for this hive, because previously it's been a "pussy cat", make a note to check for laying and queen after treatment. Maybe wasps, (I stole the honey...), or ?

Returned this evening to check, no bearing, and all quite, all bees have gone in.

I cam back this afternoon, with my Bee barrow, and looked at all the supers, floors, roofs, excluders, travel screens, straps - I've now amassed in my 2nd season!

where does it all come from? and now I need to find somewhere to store it all!

and the comment from SWMBO , I'm not surprised you've got no money, you spend it all on Bees! - but would we have it any other way!!!!

 

[bontbee]

checked the cut out I transferred to a nuc two weeks ago.

Lesson for the day - don't prop frames precariously over the (former) coal bunker.... I managed to nudge three intertwined frames into the bunker. Picked everything up and fitted it all back together as best I could and the bees fanned their way home. I wasn't optimistic that HM had returned - it was such a mess - and it soon become evident that she was missing...panicking bees in the air, searching her out.

The bees went all out to find her and, after an hour, showed me where she was - trapped in a cobweb at the bottom of the bunker. I gave her a lift back to the nuc and it was amazing to see what I can only describe as "joy" and "rejoicing" - when she was rediscovered I know it's anthropomorphic, but the bees gave her such a welcome it's hard not to compare it to human emotion.... Such luck!

Gave them some more drawn comb to replace that which was wrecked; fingers now crossed for them to build up - such lovely gentle bees, both at the cut out and following my co' up today.

Didn't have the heart to apiguard them on top of all that

 

[REDWOOD]

Red, White or Rose?

Ha yes, I forgot about my alcohol days

 

[busybee53]

Put 2nd lot of Apiguard on both hives. Calculate 32 lb stores in one hive and 31 lb in the other. Gave them syrup to go with HB nectar they are collecting. Very pleased with them (and honey/wax/propolis yield) this season. Also bumper crops due to their pollination work.

 

[malx]

Removed the MAQS today, I thought they would have appear more "used", double checked I had followed instructions so all is well.

Colony was still a little annoyed with me but less aggressive than last time.
Found the queen and checked they had food before calling it a day.
No signs of any eggs but as there are no queen cells I assume all is well.

Will feed then again next week I think.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Removed the MAQS today,
No signs of any eggs but as there are no queen cells I assume all is well.

I think a lot of us have found that queens have gone off-lay for a few days, after MAQS was applied.

Dusty

 

[Itchy]

Looked at almost full tub of (now out of date) Maqs on the shelf...what a waste of money. Used some on one hive last year and decided it wasn't a great idea...lots of dead bees including queen.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I've put my spare, just out of date, into the freezer. I'm sure it will be OK to use next year.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

checked the cut out I transferred to a nuc two weeks ago.



Lesson for the day - don't prop frames precariously over the (former) coal bunker.... I managed to nudge three intertwined frames into the bunker. Picked everything up and fitted it all back together as best I could and the bees fanned their way home. I wasn't optimistic that HM had returned - it was such a mess - and it soon become evident that she was missing...panicking bees in the air, searching her out.



The bees went all out to find her and, after an hour, showed me where she was - trapped in a cobweb at the bottom of the bunker. I gave her a lift back to the nuc and it was amazing to see what I can only describe as "joy" and "rejoicing" - when she was rediscovered I know it's anthropomorphic, but the bees gave her such a welcome it's hard not to compare it to human emotion.... Such luck!



Gave them some more drawn comb to replace that which was wrecked; fingers now crossed for them to build up - such lovely gentle bees, both at the cut out and following my co' up today.



Didn't have the heart to apiguard them on top of all that

Blimey! What a tale!

 

[Bosleeu]

Came back to a rainy Hampshire yesterday morning after a lovely holiday in the sun. All hives and nucs checked quickly, no apparent disasters appeared to have occurred whilst I was away.

Two nucs that had queencells when I left, now have what appear to be still virgins, and quite a few drones in them - fingers crossed for some good weather soon. Time to get the Autumn treatment and food ready.

 

[ugcheleuce]

Today... I removed the chairs in my Klarenbeek apiary on which the hives stood, and replaced it with a second-hand oak coffee table.

 

[einsteinagogo]

too late to visit the apairy last night, it was dark when finished work.

Visited today, and had a quick peek under the roofs (clear crown boards), 48 hours after MAQS, all colonies except two, had bees on the top bars around the strips, two colonies had none! Umm?? No sign of bees.....maybe they were deep down in the bb, or have buggered off!

No excessive signs of dead bees around the hives like last year (at 24h, 48h). I'll just have to wait and see on Sunday, at 7 days, when the strips come off, weather permitting.

Some good news, the nuc moved into national has found their syrup, 4 pints gone, so fed another 4 pints, fantastic to see, all their tongues lapping up the syrup.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Introduced a new queen to a Q- hive at the apiary (DLQ probably despatched by the bees, but shaken out just in case last Sunday) will go back tomorrow to uncover the candy. Went up to Carreg apiary and Garn Cottage to put clearer boards on in readiness for extraction Thursday.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Put on clearer boards to get the refed supers off to be replaced by rapid feeders - they don't seem to be taking much nectar in at the moment so might as well start.

Inspected at same time and one colony has no brood that I could see, they also are techy-er than normal. Test frame from other colony inserted, so will wait and see.

 

[Elaine]

Removed the trays of cappings that I had given them on Sunday . Lovely job of cleaning the wax up - but I had left it too long and they had started gluing them down!!!!

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Took delivery of some candle making gear! This will be interesting as I've never made candles before!

Set my daughter to work painting the bee shed

Rotated another batch of extracted supers through the chest freezer.

Took another box of honey jars down to the local village tea-shop where they are selling like hot cakes.

Watched two poor hives bearding over the front entrances. That will be the Apiguard then!

 

[Summerslease]

Patience is a virtue they say. I was about to unite a nuc that I'd set up to produce an emergency queen as a spare back in July. They raised three emergency QCs and the victor should have emerged on 5th August. No eggs by last week and no queen seen, hence the decision to unite. When I checked today though I was pleased to see there were two patches of young larvae and eggs. I reckon it was 26 days from emergence to laying. That's my longest so far.

It wasn't all good news. One of my colonies which has been taking feed like it's going out of fashion has been a bit tetchy for the past week so I thought I'd inspect to see if it was still queen right. 33 days after a MAQS treatment finished. The queen was there (this year's) but every cell was full of feed. There was either no room for her to lay or she had gone off lay and hadn't restarted. I replaced three frames with drawn foundation and took off the feed to see if she wants to lay. If not I'll have to unite them with a Q+ colony.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Put two of those frames in the middle?