What did you do in the Apiary today?

[gregior]

Inspected my 4 for the 1st time this year,1 was very weak as i knew,covering 2 frames with a small patch of brood,transferred to a nuc box and crossed fingers.
Other 3 all about the same size as each other,bees covering 5 frames and brood on 3 frames.

Glad they all seem healthy and Q+ but disappointed at their slow build up

 

[Mellifera397]

Marked my first queen during my first inspection and did another inspection today. Both qright and strong. Pretty happy with them.

M

 

[masterBK]

Ist proper inspection today and found 5 very weak colonies (out of 28) so reduced colony numbers down to 23. No point in carrying "passengers" . Local OSR will be in flower in just over a fortnight.

 

[Fatbee]

Found another queen wasp (although this one had been squished by roof by looks of things) on crown board - makes me think I need to check how they got access ahead of robbing season. Shows they likely snug insulation.

First proper look at hives - all with a lot of eggs but not a lot of capped brood so queens only recently getting going. Surprised by the level of stores (up to 5 full frames) in some - all crystallised ivy stores. Removed some and added in some drawn comb.

Winter has not improved the mood of the grumpy hive so that queen is laying her last eggs - will merge with a spare colony. When inspecting the calm ones just emphasises that keeping those with a bad attitude is just not worth it.

 

[BrianO]

Removed fondant from three hives as suspect from visual non invasive ( didn't remove frames ) inspection that they have not much space due to untouched capped stores.

Weather crackin here 18 degrees hives going bananas with bees coming and going , piling in with orange cherry blossom pollen

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Busy day. Went through 7 of the hives today. All thriving with between 5 and 8 frames of brood. Added a super to the strongest ones. Swapped some store frames for foundation in those hives with excess stores. Frozen the store frames for later use.

Drones in all hives and seen flying from two today - although doubt they've 'got lucky' yet......

Marked and clipped 3 of last year's queens.

Saw the queen in my strongest colony being balled (this one was already marked/clipped last season) not sure why this happened, perhaps just because of an early inspection? Closed up pronto. Hope she survives it.

Oh and given how advanced things seem to be round here, I put up a couple of bait boxes.....just in case.

 

[einsteinagogo]

Went to my new Apiary Site, which I had last year, but due to commitments, and swarming, didn't have enough kit to use, I brought national hives to site, but there was an issue with access!

It's Urban, on the roof of our offices, on top of four floors, faces due south, and is screened off.

I will be bringing hive stands, and nationals to site tomorrow, initially as bait hives to try and encourage bees going into hives rather than into the building structures!

 

[madasafish]

Inspected 4 large TBHs and 2 TBH nucs.

One TBH nuc bursting at seems - needs rehiving ASAP.
One TBH nuc OK.

One large TBH with lots of stores but isolation starvation all through hive - even on combs with lots of capped honey. Very weak. Needs uniting.

One large TBH queenless , no eggs or brood and lots of bees. No queen. This is the one flattened in storm two weeks ago. Needs requeening

One large TBH with DLQ.. unmarked queen = a late season supercedure... Marked her to find her easily to squish .Needs requeening.

One large TBH - fine.. nectar and pollen coming in..


The colonies with problems of no queen/DLQ were easy to spot on opening : unhappy noisy bees and stung my hands on opening up..Fortunately my immunity to stings has lasted the winter

All to be sorted tomorrow... plans tonite.

Inspect langs later.. they look ok through clear crownboards!

 

[jonnybeegood]

Lots of pollen keeps coming in from foragers out while i moved their colony into a new hive.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Sorted a drone layer spotted on Monday.
The bees have filled a 14x12 frame ...both sides...with fresh nectar in 2 days!
Back to the apiary shortly to put the box on top of another to combine.

 

[Fatbee]

Final round of 1st inspections at 2nd apiary site. 1 hive streets ahead of other colonies at main apiary - think its a better site, certainly more sheltered.

Colony in the tree in apiary that I lost as a swarm in 2012 is still active - varroa not got them yet - could see pollen going in.

Other colony in apiary appears queenless. Absolutely nothing, no eggs or brood of any sorts. Will unite once I'm sure they're definitely queenless (queen was laying worker brood in September).

Question for folk - at what point do laying workers happen. Is it inevitable or do some colonies just remain free of them?

 

[jonnybeegood]

Interesting to see this, when i transferred a colony from this nuc to a hive i was suprised to see this yellow wall on the inside of the entrance, looks like the bees were coming up the front wall with pollen & then moving onto frames. Also suprised to see they have been chewing the poly entrance to the feeder.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Finished combining two hives tonight.
Taking the lid off the Q+ colony the bees had managed to make a hole in the newspaper and a few popped their heads out. Husband already had the colony, whose queen had been removed earlier in the day, lifted up. Having nothing to hand to cover the hole I quickly sprayed the newspaper and underneath the top box with Honey B Healthy flavoured syrup.
Fingers crossed. I'll check the floor for carnage tomorrow.

PS. Took an inspection board out from under another box. There were quite a few parcels of dropped pollen so I tasted them. How lovely
Sweet, zesty and an aroma of fresh flowers.....lovely

 

[jonnybeegood]

Pollen galore going in

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Not that much - up to my eyeballs on an audit I'm doing of all immigration enforcement radios.but had a 'relaxing hour in the garden lunchtime, had a little play with my latest freecycle find - a garden rotavator (means that even with my bad back the digging is almost finished) had to stop after a while because of the noise (not the machine - grandfather spinning in his grave with me using a machine to dig the garden - he stopped when he was 85!!) so watched the bees piling it in then went back to find an email from Lesotho the farmer who caught his swarm when I was out there has harvested another eight kilos of honey from his Basutho Bee Box (now I'm really missing not being there). and we discussed the possibility of another project.

 

[VEG]

did a stock take, sold some bees reducing numbers.

 

[curry756]

This is the colony I was debating the put the super on last week. Decided to add a new 14x12 BB and syrup and will will start Demaree at weekend (possibly) once they have drawn out some of the foundation. Brood on 9 frames, and lots of play cups - some with eggs in, but no royal jelly in any cups (that I saw) - this colony is on a mission

 

[einsteinagogo]

Just popped up to the new Apiary #2, and erected the hive stand, didn't have time to organise a bait hive last night, or this morning before work, but will bring one tomorrow, the heat today, I'm sure will encourage a few to swarm, ready for my bait box.

 

[madasafish]

Following yesterday's #13368

United weak TBH colony with DLQ one, after committing regicide.
United smaller of TBH nucs with big queenless TBH with lots of bees.

Moved bursting at seams TBH nuc into TBH vacted by weak colony.. (after cleanup and moving big TBH to site of nuc).

In between, one TBH leg broke when moving it and a hinge of the roof broke.. Mended those.

(In between re-linering pond, cutting neighbour's grass and weeding.)

A little tired.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Question for folk - at what point do laying workers happen. Is it inevitable or do some colonies just remain free of them?

All colonies have a small percentage of laying workers.