What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Skyhook]

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!

Just saw this and had a lovely image of a notice on the wall of the members tearooms saying ' You don't have to be a self serving *****, fraudster, thief, liar and whoremonger to work here but it helps'

ps I love the fact that the abuse filter blocks ***** but not whoremonger!

 

[oliver90owner]

The queens which emerged on, or soon after, May 28 are starting to lay. Not checked them all but at least one has started. That should slow them filling the 3 frame nucs with honey.

Bees at the newest out-apiary are steadily filling the super frames with OSR.

RAB

 

[freethorpe bees]

Checked my as this morning. For temperament they scored a seven out if five! No sign of eggs however, lots of sealed brood and a supercedure cell on one frame.

 

[darren64]

I marked a new queen but when I took the cage off she took off and dissapeared into the distance,she had returned when I looked again 3 hours later

 

[aberreef]

Had a sneeky peek into my nuc and had my first sighting of the new queen (hatched about 2 weeks ago). I didn't check to see if she's laying yet but I doubt it. She is beautiful and plump though

Also gave the nuc 1 pint of syrup and the full national hive 2.5 pints

 

[dpearce4]

Checked all 3 hives today.

Hive 1 - didnt see HM no eggs or brood, bees very calm and sure i saw her last week when inspecting. had to close up quick as neibour came out into garden, so will have proper look next week. 7 frames still to fill out.

Hive 2 - the DODO, saw eggs, larvae on 2 frames, saw HM nice and big, workers have started to draw out other frames to. looks like not the DODO i thought she was, Yipee!! 4 old frames to replace, 7 other frames to fill out

Hive 3 - the swarm, drawn out 5 frames, 2 have eggs and larvae on no sealed brood yet, some stores on other frames. saw HM she is nice and large, not marked so hope she is this years stock. 6 frames to fill out still.

Hoping they will be big enough to survive winter but not expecting any honey from them this year.

 

[MuswellMetro]

well the Lime trees are flowering here so decided no more feeding of Nucs unless the weather turn really bad

did a bit of combining to reduce the numbers

i still have one large NUC about scale 9 out of ten left to deal with and one scale 1 out of ten re-queen nuc on three frames and a recent swarm nuc So I need to decide in what order to combine them

 

[TOBY-3652]

Marked 3 2011 queens couldnt find the 4th all laying well some brood capped. And took 30lb of honey off 2 largest colonies 150lb to date off 3 colonies sooo happy

 

[YorkshireBees]

Marked 2 more 2011 Queens bringing a total of 5 marked this week!
As suspected the swarm I had in my own apiary was from #1 colony and even though they are feisty they are now in my 2nd out apiary (field) so shouldn't bother anyone. Reduced the QC's down to one in the original hive.

As luck would have it the one hive I inspected today that has a Queen marked blue was the one hive I couldn't find the Queen in! Seems I can find un-marked queens better than marked today.

All in all a good days work and managed to do the inspections before the rain tomorrow.

 

[Headnavigator]

Woke to find heifer in garden, tops of hives askew. Second time in a year, last time it was in overnight and ate the entire contents of the vegetable garden and the raspberry patch. (Not the same heifer). Farmer not interested, 'stock-proof fencing' doesn't appear to be a concept he's familiar with. We've re-fenced since then. Seems it got in this time by breaking through a hedge from a public footpath. We're waiting for the fencers to put up 6' chainlink down our side of the hedge - it'll be none too soon when they finally finish it. Costing a fortune just to keep his stock out!

 

[Chris Luck]

In France the farmer, (or their insurer), would have to pay for any damage to another persons property and to make sure their animals are secure. This is the law.

Is that not the same in the UK?

Chris

 

[oliver90owner]

Is that not the same in the UK?


Yes, it is the farmer's resposibility to fence against their own stock. Farmer is liable for damage (personally, if not insured). Any farmer without public liability insurance deserves to be sued.

RAB

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Woke to find heifer in garden, tops of hives askew. Second time in a year, last time it was in overnight and ate the entire contents of the vegetable garden and the raspberry patch. (Not the same heifer). Farmer not interested, 'stock-proof fencing' doesn't appear to be a concept he's familiar with. We've re-fenced since then. Seems it got in this time by breaking through a hedge from a public footpath. We're waiting for the fencers to put up 6' chainlink down our side of the hedge - it'll be none too soon when they finally finish it. Costing a fortune just to keep his stock out!

Send him the bill - stapled to a solicitor's letter include payment for damage to crops, lost productivity with the bees, interference with your enjoyment of your land and anything else you can think of
Had a neighbouring farmer years ago who thought it was a great laugh to let his stock break into our land - eventually his bull broke in and 'covered' one of our heiffers , he wasn't interested and my dad didn't want the hassle of litigation so we lived with it - the resulting calf however was a cracker, won first in the winter stock sales and we sold it at a cracking price as did the suckling cow (made up more than the loss of not selling it's mother previous spring ) - unfortunately poetic justice is few and far between

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Went out to hive with intention of checking HM and starting a demaree. Started raining as I removed the roof, so beat a hasty retreat.

 

[Headnavigator]

Thanks CL and JBM - great story! Little real damage in monetary terms and I'm anxious to maintain good relations because there are so many bad spraying incidents around here - a bit of goodwill from a farmer may be worth more than £20 worth of veg or whatever. However I don't intend to be taken for a sucker so if it happens again, or he sprays without telling me the statutory 2 days in advance, well . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

[susbees]

Zilch. Nada. Nothing. Wall-to-wall rain.

 

[Ellem]

Lots of stuff I need to do, no suitable weather to do it in :-(

 

[MuswellMetro]

Zilch. Nada. Nothing. Wall-to-wall rain.

and then there is me sitting in london preying that the rain will continue here to stop the three months of continuous drought since March/April and bring some good forage for july ( and my allotment, lawn,grape vine, silage for farm and fill the pond the bees drink from)

 

[Headnavigator]

You can have ours - now the water butts and our 2 x 1,000 litre tanks are full again. Isle of Wight Festival weekend (mustn't smile - I said Mustn't) so wx bound to be capricious.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Nothing - been raining since the early hours - our association sec emailed us a 0900 to tell us the apiary inspection was off (I hadn't bothered getting up to read it!!)
spent the afternoon in the shed knocking up some crown boards and feeder boards. now going to potter around the house to keep she who must be obeyed happy (chance would be a fine thing!! )