What did you do in the Apiary today?

[beeno]

It wasn't me.

 

[einsteinagogo]

It wasn't me.

whoops!

umm.... maybe I got it wrong....

 

[einsteinagogo]

I did it was @ Erichalfbee!

 

[Erichalfbee]

I did it was @ Erichalfbee!

What?
What did I do?

 

[Ginger19]

Took the bees to the OSR, just starting to flower. The joys of the North!

 

[Erichalfbee]

I used to live near Kendal. Where in Cumbria is there OSR?

 

[dpearce4]

took a colony of bees to work for the pupils. lovely to see them captivated by seeing the queen and all the other bees.

the new head wants me to set up a 2 hive apiary there but I cant use my kit as its all home made commercial stuff and weights a tonne. so need to sort out some national kit and suits now.

 

[Ginger19]

Hi Eric, we are near Penrith there is quite a bit of OSR...Mainly A6 North to Carlisle and A66 towards Scotch Corner.

 

[Tremyfro]

Iffy sort of day here....drizzle and then dry periods.
Checked the new nucs and put them on the hive stands in the Bee Yard. Strapped down against the wind! Hope they are looking after their beautiful big Queen cells.
Moving the Queen making brood box back on top of the colony tomorrow. A quick peek should show us whether any have been approved by the bees....also need to remember to look for Queen cells on the other frames....just in case!

 

[madasafish]

Quickly released Queen in queen cage which I had left in overnight. Queen accepted.

It then rained and rained and rained..and rained a bit more. It rained solidly form 3pm to .. when I went to bed..

Horrible cold end to April /start to May...(Left enough honey over winter for such events based on prior years.).

 

[Cussword]

We split our hive in two. The original was very strong with lots of bees, brood and honey. Everything went well with the bees being as calm as normal even though we were wrecking their old home.

It took quite a while to do and was very tiring, I've got Chronic Fatigue, but I had saved up enough energy to finish the job. I'm really looking forward to seeing how both hives do this year!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y_ggKaLT0s

Good video, you're a braver man than me.

 

[beecology]

shivered! and then got stung in the neck whilst watching the girls checking out the weather

 

[For want of a better word]

Cut. slashed. and chopped up a load of frames from a Abelo double mating nuc, that had been overwintered to fit in and attach to top bars for a new TBH I made!
Found the queen, smothered her with green UniPosca paint, and hacked top third of her right wing off.


Not a pleasant way to spend an afternoon... particularly as I had a heard of inquisitive ridiculous looking alpacas watching my every move...... waiting for me to get in range!!!

All this to pay forfeit if my prediction of a Labour victory did not come true.....

Yeghes da

 

[Erichalfbee]

Pleasantly surprised to find no QCs in any of the boxes despite bad weather delaying inspections........except the one I checked for emergence. Now we need that promised good weather, plenty of drones about

 

[Goran]

Barrel of spring honey.. Left second apiary to see what I will get. Black locust too mightily started to bloom, I think it will end so - too fast.. Bees calm. Few days ago had to make some splits, formed few mating nucs..

 

[Jimmys Mum]

And it was all going so well......Now I seem to have lost a queen in one of my artificial swarms. Arghh. All the clues lead me to conclude that I missed spotting a queen cell last weekend in stage 2 of the process I was following and she's blimmin swarmed. Either that or she's playing hide and seek AND gone off lay because I couldn't see any eggs. I checked soooo carefully for those QCs too!

I just hope her daughter, still to emerge in the other half, gets mated properly and is just as good as her mum.

 

[Michael Palmer]

Mmmm, the apiaries smell so good! Two weeks ago it was winter here with snow at night, and I never finished unpacking the bees until May 1. Absolutely miserable weather, until May 4 when all hell broke loose. Temps rose to the
80's F. The Maple flow hit with a vengeance and the bees, which wintered very well this year are exploding. Many colonies with 8-10 frames of brood. We've been reversing brood chambers and supering as fast as possible. Finished the Vermont apiaries yesterday and started the New York apiaries. 16 more to go. The air is sweet with ripening Maple nectar. A few Dandelions are popping, and I saw my first apple blossom yesterday. The race is on. So far so good. No swarm cells in the 250 Vermont colonies.

The ground is very dry here and we need rain badly. Supposed to get it tomorrow through Tuesday. The bees are doing their rain dance. If we get it, everyone take cover. Things will totally explode in the bee yards.

Woo woo woo woo. Woo woo woo woo.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Mmmm, the apiaries smell so good! .

I love the smells of beekeeping. today I saw one of the 2 virgin Qs from my A/S of 2 weeks ago leave on a nuptial flight. My first; brought a tear to my eye.

 

[Swinton apiaries]

Went throw all hives first A/S done and cup kit cage coved in honey / syrup mix and placed in hive

 

[Goran]

Finished extraction of spring honey. Black locust opened and seducing with its smell across area. Unfortunatelly strong, warm southern wind decimating flowers.. Lot of flowers on the ground.. If it continues to blow this way, then I can say: bye bye bl honey..
I can work with bees without smoker, they don't have time to bother with me. Nearby apiaries show increase in scale weight from 1 to 3kg per day. If wind stops it will go above 5kg..