What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Monsieur Abeille]

Went on a queen rearing course over the weekend run by David Kemp who worked at Buckfast with Brother Adam. Fascinating stuff. Back at my hives a lot of activity, but little obvious reward pollen-wise. 1 ltre light syrup added to one hive to encourage their bailey change. Zip starting to go on eBay suit and order placed for a proper one via bbwear.

 

[Otleybee]

Found my two 2011 queens who are now mated and laying well. Just waiting for the last one to mate and I will have a full complement of 2011 queens! Noted the big difference in the size of their abdomens after mating. They also wander round the combs very slowly making them much easier to spot. One of the queens has a slight deformity on one of her wings. I am hoping that this wont be an issue as she has already mated and is laying very well.

 

[witchcraft]

Took off around another 25 pounds of pale yellow honey last night and sold the first jar of it this morning to the plumber who was fixing the central heating and was desperate to buy some.

50 pounds so far this year off my one colony.

And its raining here in Suffolk at last!

Mark

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Took off around another 25 pounds of pale yellow honey last night and sold the first jar of it this morning to the plumber who was fixing the central heating and was desperate to buy some.

Hope you charged him double for extracting on a Sunday

 

[witchcraft]

Hope you charged him double for extracting on a Sunday

I'm about to crawl to the church on my knees in penance for working on the lord's day

 

[freethorpe bees]

yesterday opened my second hive with everything crossed hoping to see the newly emerged queen and there she was! Phew! No sign of her starting to lay yet but at least I know she is there.

 

[psafloyd]

I'm about to crawl to the church on my knees in penance for working on the lord's day

He's not my lord; I didn't vote for him...

 

[EdNewman]

He's not my lord; I didn't vote for him...

Since when did voting have any bearing on who any of our lords" are??!!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Seeing the bunch of self serving idiots, fraudsters' thieves liars and whoremongers that we've voted in the last few years I think we might be better off with the hereditary type!

 

[freethorpe bees]

He's not my lord; I didn't vote for him...

I haven't got one either - don't need one to be a decent human being - all I need is Mother Nature.

 

[susbees]

I haven't got one either - don't need one to be a decent human being - all I need is Mother Nature.

 

[susbees]

Called out by my mate the pest controller for a prime swarm on small piece of amenity land with houses on three sides. Took me an hour and ten to get the gear and get up there. Forgot small bucket. He had left his ladder at home as been told it was a large wasp nest in the grass. What a pair!

Swarm was 12 foot up a young hawthorn. Borrowed pest controller's bucket and big step ladder was offered by a householder and after some trimming knocked them into the bucket bungied to the end of the long loppers. Twice then trimmed branch right back. Text book skepping ensued.

The only box I had foundation ready for on getting home (dusk) was an ancient National. Knocked them in and worried all night it would be too small, as getting the frames to settle on the bottom of the box through the sea of bees took a while. Sure enough there's a large pile of them hanging out in the roof now and that's with the foragers out.

So, going to risk bunging a fresh commercial box under unless someone tells me it's daft very fast.

 

[MJBee]

Well done

As your main hive type is Commercial I would put the New box on top - queens like to work upwards - once she is up there laying you can put the National on top over a Qx to allow the brood to emerge then remove and wait for the next swarm call

 

[susbees]

Thanks MJB. Before you posted I saw a 20 minute window of opportunity (between thunder, rain squalls, wind gusts!) and whipped off the box complete with roof, perched the five frames they are drawing in the middle of the comm brood box (need to make up five mating nucs very soon for queen rearing group queens so can hopefully exchange them out again or move them up sealed, bunged on a QX and stuffed the National box on top. Next time I'll do it the simple way, yours.

They seem keen and well busy and the bee carpet has moved out of the roof.

 

[tonybloke]

collected another swarm this afternoon, put them into a commercial sized nuc this evening.

 

[Lois]

Had a look at both hives today, my new hive is bursting with life, the new queen is laying herself inside out, eggs, larvae and hatching bees everywhere, building up nicely.

My original hive is looking a bit sorry for itself (its less than5 feet away from hive 2), the girls were really sluggish and hardly moved at all, Not sure if the sun thwarted my attempts to find eggs and larvae but i couldnt see any. It might be that they are hungry or the queen has died, there are plenty of bees in the hive so I dont think they have swarmed, I am going back tomorrow to put some syrup on there, then look again at the weekend and take it from there.

 

[tonybloke]

moved two hives from the back garden onto an allotment this evening.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

(yesterday) - snuck off work early as I suspected one colony of queen cell building, glad I did (post to follow).

While there inspected other grumpy lot. Their temper has improved since queen appeared, but they made it abundantly clear they dont like inspections!

 

[Teemore]

Got home a bit early last night and since it was momentarily dry and a whisker over 10 degrees I had a look into my apidea (made up 28th May) and the Queen is happily laying away. From the position of the eggs she probably came into lay on Tuesday as there were no capped cells. I'll look in again through the perspex in a few days to see how the cappings look. So far I'm happy with my first use of an apidea and I have a nice dark queen to boot. Now to see what her progeny are like......

 

[davemacdon]

Inspected my 1st hive of bees for the second time today. Only had them 1 week. Found the queen!!! And managed to spend the time looking and finding all the small eggs. Thought all week that I had bought a queenless hive, but I admit I was worrying unnecessarily. Super is filling up and I now need to decide when the next one needs to go on.
Gonna have to keep experimenting with the smoker and fuel that lasts.

A happy day for me.

Now to record everything.