What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Erichalfbee]

And the Police take care of them!

 

[beeno]

All colonies have a small percentage of laying workers.

However, when Q- the estimate is that after 3+ weeks you will have a laying worker problem. I think this is where Fatbee was going on this one.

 

[Fatbee]

Indeed it is Beeno which suggests a recent queen loss which is a bit puzzling although no capped brood so longer than 3 weeks. Makes me think she's still in there and gone off lay. Will try a test frame. Either way will probably do a shake out if can't see one - not worth wasting toouch time because have plenty of other colonies.

Thank you all.

 

[Hivemaker.]

However, when Q- the estimate is that after 3+ weeks you will have a laying worker problem.

Depends on the strain of bees, some will turn laying worker after only a few days, when broodless, Q-, often less than a week, others can take several weeks, AMC bees or bees with a lot of their genetics will turn laying worker quite quickly.

 

[maddydog]

Effectively down to four colonies now. Same apiary as my other loss so that's four colonies on 14*12 doing fine and two colonies on double national deeps (at the same apairy) either dead or dying (q was still there and laying but nowhere near enough bees to be viable). Will repopulate the apiary using 14*12 and see what happens

 

[Floyd]

Took advantage of the warm weather here in the Highlands to do a quick check.

Hive 1 BIAS on 6 frames queen seen 4 frames of stored honey loads of pollen removed Nadired shallow

Hive 2 BIAS as some however with small patch of capped drone brood. Removed Nadired shallow

Hive 3 The roof had been blown off and I have been away for 32 days. Despite this Bias on 5 frames with very fat queen. Nadired shallow still not empty so left in situ

Hive 4. The super was left on top as I had secured the brood chamber to the floor with L brackets when moving and it was too late once I remembered. However this does not seem to have affected the hive. Queen is laying on 5 frames in Brood box and also 3 frames in the super. Also there is nearly 1 full frame of necter/honey which I would assume has been moved up as I cant think of a nectar source at this time of the year up here unless they have decided to use to early gorse (never have before)

Will leave this hive as is configured as a little experiment. to see wether the extra space effects the build up compared to the other hives.

Pretty happy however weather changes tomorrow with gales and snow forcast so my have to look at feeding at some point

 

[maddydog]

Effectively down to four colonies now. Same apiary as my other loss so that's four colonies on 14*12 doing fine and two colonies on double national deeps (at the same apairy) either dead or dying (q was still there and laying but nowhere near enough bees to be viable). Will repopulate the apiary using 14*12 and see what happens

Decided I'd try an experiment. Took two frames of emerging brood plus bees and one frame of stores from my strong hives and put them in apolynuc. Found the queen and added her plus a couple of frames to the nuc and placed it on the original site.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Sorted through two boxes of a combine this afternoon. Never ever ever again will I procrastinate about combining colonies in the autumn.

Another being done this evening but should be less problematical as one colony is weaker than the other.

I have abandoned the third and will sell the spare bees. Anybody want a 14 x 12's worth of bees, worker brood on four/five frames?

 

[For want of a better word]

Moved it all 18 colonies... because " petrol head... ooo look at my nice new German mini man"... did not like the free beeswax polish the girls were depositing on his highly polished hairdressers car!
Told another neighbor to get rid of his chickens because the crowing woke him in the morning.....
and went around to every house in the village telling people not to light fires as the ash may get on his car / baby /wife.

Pillock!


Yeghes da

 

[Fatbee]

Could barely get a test frame in the suspect q- colony today. Don't want them even if there is a queen. Pinging the veil like crazy. At site of a livery so reluctant to do shake out if they are Q- given their mood so have put on top of another colony above a snelgrove board and will gradually bleed off the foragers.

 

[Moggs]

Tried Varrox. Converted.


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[jenkinsbrynmair]

Killed and shook out a DLQ - suspected she was poorly mated as she didn't really deliver the good like her sisters after being introduced last year. ho hum.
Went to remove some nadirs in preparation for selecting hives for out apiaries. First one (nadired due to the fact the queen ended up in the super last year so thought I'd leave themget sorted over the winter) they've decided to stay brood and a half shallow is choc a bloc with brood and slabs of brood in the BB as well she's a supersedure queen from a swarm I caught two years ago mated at home - I'll be keeping a close eye on her! The other two I checked were full of bees as well but I managed to switch the boxes. Last one was vicious so I called it a day then. Probably do a few more tomorrow before going on holiday Monday.

 

[Goran]

Sold 4 more colonies. Met two nice beeks. They want to buy queens from me, now I have to rear more.. What I reared till now only was for my colonies. Now this is something new for me. Time is killing me, so I don't know how I will achieve it.
And one bad news, one colony less.. Start of robbing. Not much dead or almost dead bees on the floor, no queen. Pretty much stores almost intact. On a frame 4 worker bees right to emerge from a cell, 6-7 drone cells. No other brood.. I think when I watched it in March it had 5-6 seams of bees.. Seems something happen to queen..

 

[Helen]

Watched a bee emerging from her cell. Never seen that before. She chewed her way out, touched antenna with a few other bees who had stopped to say 'hi', then wandered off stretching her wings and head-diving into nearby cells.

 

[For want of a better word]

Culled the last of the Carnolian queens and merged the remaining bees from those colonies to boost the weaker colonies of the overwintered Amms, Max and min thermometer was reading 22 degrees in the apiary, with a low of 7.4.... still cold at night!

Yeghes da

 

[Goran]

Over here all is in bloom, plums, wild pears, peaches, apricots and finally the majesty of Wild cherry start to show its gorgeous flowers. Air is filled with fruit scent, I breed with full lungs. "Happy days"
Can feel positive energy in the nature and in colonies which grow as yeast..

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Buckybeast politely asked for more space beyond their double brood, so I popped on a box, over a QE, preparatory to Demaree. This colony has had a Hivemaker Q since September and is spectacular. Makes me wonder whether the others have nosema.

 

[einsteinagogo]

Setup a bait hive, on the roof of our offices, this has taken 3 years to organize, get approval, health and saftey risk assessments, should have happened last year, but the key for the roof was lost, and then when a key was found, it was the middle of swarming season. So all kit was in use.

I may push it back to the wall, to it get more sun…I’ll have a think as I often like to be able to access all sides of the hive, when working on them, and in its current position, you do not have to pass the bee flight line.

So this year....here we are...this is the walk before we run approach, start with bait hives, bees turn-up, and we will see how things progress, before we use other spaces on the roofs, and before we get a Apiary Site for all to see!

We may add web cams, etc and promote for Bio-diveristy Plan etc

 

[Erichalfbee]

Ah.....so it's not just a bait hive but an embryonic apiary.
Well done.

 

[einsteinagogo]

Ah.....so it's not just a bait hive but an embryonic apiary.
Well done.

Yes, it is hoped to open up all the flat roofs here, to hives, the benefit to estates, it will stop the swarms going into the fabric of listed poorly maintained buildings..(we already have two colonies on-site), a very large swarm arrived last year, and was not destroyed, and left, but I fear this could leave to honey running down the walls this year!

again, also helps with their BioDiversity plan, and it's hoped we can also create a larger apiary for Staff, encourage new Beeks, and also find Closet Beeks, that have "not come out" yet.

We've so far got two beeks, but I'm sure there are more...