What did you do in the Apiary today?

[enrico]

Spent all the rainy afternoon sorting out brood box's and frames and supers and frames so that they are all ready for next year. Decided to code my frames using the plastic ends. Yellow are good ones, green are getting old and red will need changing next year! That way I can work the red ones to the end to replace them as necessary!
E

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Reunited the two parts of a colony that swarmed last month. Finally a test frame gave a 'queenless' result in the form of 8 emergency queen cells in the original parent hive. I do feel it's a bit late to be messing around with them now but I reckon that left alone, both individual parts would probably perish whereas together, with a decent laying queen, they now stand a fighting chance.

Hefted all the hives taking heed of JBM's advice on another thread and sure enough, 7 hives which I could hardly lift 2 or 3 weeks ago are notably lighter how, so put some feeders on and will top them up with some syrup tonight.

 

[user 6228]

helped the beekeeper removing shading growth from around the hives. The bees ignored the heavy duty hedge trimmer and the two stroke fumes,

 

[Amari]

Spent all the rainy afternoon sorting out brood box's and frames and supers and frames so that they are all ready for next year. Decided to code my frames using the plastic ends. Yellow are good ones, green are getting old and red will need changing next year! That way I can work the red ones to the end to replace them as necessary!
E

Good thinking Enrico!

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Had a brief bee related chat on 6music Radcliffe and Maconie - 2hrs 15 mins in

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04lc6jc

 

[BrianO]

Rehived a small five frame colony into a polynuc and fed.

Fed other large colony , hefted and a bit light. The learning process continues... And boy is it enjoyable

 

[Nige.Coll]

Scratched head a little.
Hives getting lighter but not taking syrup.
Tried to decide which hives to move to new apiary.

 

[DulwichGnome]

Feeding bees in the allotment and while scrumping some late raspberrys, noticed the bees on new flowers.

Mike.

 

[BrianO]

Sneaky visit ... when I should have been getting back to work.

Amazed to see on larger hive frenetic coming and going , never seen it so busy , piling in and out in sunshine. Some with pollen.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Alighted from the car and saw the ivy heaving with bees and other insects. Walked down to the apiary to see all 6 hives active in the sunshine. They had a few days inside waiting for the rain to stop so they will be topping up the stores today.

 

[Falesh]

There is a lot of honey in the brood box now so the winter preparation is going well. The number of bees is well down now, few enough that I was able to take the last super off.

I took out the second, and final, tray of Apiguard today which concludes the varroa treatment. The brood being reared now should be healthier due to the lower amount of varroa in the hive. This is important as the bees that overwinter have to survive for a long time compared to the summer bees.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak_hpEFc5vo

 

[enrico]

Checked all five hives for food and satisfied with all but one. Will give them fondant at Christmas if necessary. However, one hive that has been queenless for weeks, gave a frame of eggs a couple of weeks ago, now has a minute Virgin in there. They have kept a few drones in there obviously realising the necessity but none in the other hives. Two hopes of her being mated really and one is 'bob'. Oh well, will see what is going on in spring!
This is the first year I have ever had ivy open this early and lovely to see them working it.
What a year for honey.....what a year for my bees, thanks girls!
E

 

[BrianO]

What a day !!!

Posted this, this AM

Sneaky visit ... when I should have been getting back to work.

Amazed to see on larger hive frenetic coming and going , never seen it so busy , piling in and out in sunshine. Some with pollen.

Then this evening , after the idyllic morning conditions above, had to go out this evening in Hurricane force winds, lashing rain in the Dark, to check Apiary for damage, just as well did as fence had blown over draping green mesh over hive entrance.

What a day !!!

 

[masterBK]

Temperature hit 20 C today so checked three colonies that had superseded their queens in the 2nd week in september (killing their mother queens). I was worried they might not get mated so late in the year and so today was prepared to dequeen and unite these to others. Found mixed results one laying really well with 4 combs of sealed brood, one laying two combs of very patchy brood and the third a drone layer. Could not find the drone layer so a job for another day when I will shake them out to boost other colonies.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Drones up.

 

[einsteinagogo]

Just back from T* Sales in Rand, I pre-ordered so, arrived at 8am collected, went to shop for a browse, purchased some rectangular buckets, and left!

This years pre-order, was massive 70+ pallets of pre-orders, compared to 20+ last year! So I was informed from T* staff.

On the way back bad traffic past the Airport near Brigg, queuing from Bridge near Airport to the roundabout.

 

[user 6228]

watched the scouts checking out the oak trees and conifers...
dont think they found anything

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

watched the scouts checking out the oak trees and conifers...
dont think they found anything

They'd only turn them into camp fires anyway, I'm sure boy scouts would be more interested in chestnuts trees at this time of the year.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

They'd only turn them into camp fires anyway, I'm sure boy scouts would be more interested in chestnuts trees at this time of the year.

Are they allowed to play with conkers or have the Scouts succumbed to the health and safety taliban?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Nothing doing in apiary. I'm at the NEC looking at campervans