What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Jimmys Mum]

...... noticed that there's nothing coming in an using stores. Bad year this up here.

Same here. Supers are getting notibly lighter. Only went in 2 hives today but both those queens are recently off lay and one hive is chucking out drone brood!

 

[Hivemaker.]

Crikey
or are you on holiday in Colonsay?

No, but a queen from Colonsay is coming here for a holiday.

 

[Obee1]

Put supers on 3 hives and gave my swarm another box to draw out. Had to take a workshop break halway through beeking when realised I didn't quite have 44 frames made up ready to go! . Checked the queen tremy gave me - all looking good so released her from cage and she ran down into frames.

 

[Tremyfro]

Put supers on 3 hives and gave my swarm another box to draw out. Had to take a workshop break halway through beeking when realised I didn't quite have 44 frames made up ready to go! . Checked the queen tremy gave me - all looking good so released her from cage and she ran down into frames.

Oh good.....now a little wait until she starts to lay. When will you combine with The Meangreenqueens Daughter hive? You do realise that you will have to rename that colony eventually?

 

[Jimmys Mum]

I put a frame of grafted larvae taken from 'the hive from heaven' into the queenless 'hive from hell' this afternoon. Two colonies at absolute opposite ends of the behavior spectrum! Let's hope the hellish drones are on vacation on the day of the mating flights.
The hive fom hell is boiling over with bees so hopefully will be able to produce some nice queen cells for my mating nucs.....oh and I might just let them keep one for themselves

Then back indoors to plan a 'honey themed' dinner party for the weekend. Found this fabulous book.....Spoonfuls of Honey by Hattie Ellis. Has some super recipes I'm going to try out.

 

[Tremyfro]

Spent the day moving all my Bee Stuff into the Bee Barn. O/H has fitted a worktop and cupboards ....apparently he plans to do shelves as well. How lovely to have places to put all the bits and pieces. There is a big shelf up in the roof....not that I can reach it...he has put larger items up there out of the way.
Oh...Lucky Me!...now my kitchen ..can be a kitchen once more.

 

[tonel]

Day off work today, good weather so day of beekeeping. Checked on one hive with newly laying queen..found her, clipped and marked (through COT, managed to snip through one of the threads in the process). Only a few cells capped but looks a bit lumpy and uneven, worried might be a drone layer..time will tell I guess. Went to help out at teaching apiary, went through a few hives, was persuaded into clipping and marking a queen by picking her up..quite amusing watching her running around on my hand whilst trying to get a hold of her! Managed to mark and clip in the end, queen seemed okay afterwards. More practise needed!

 

[deanrpwaacs]

I stood for a while to watch a large number of new foragers walking up the hive front and taking ever larger circular flights . Quite a sight . Had me a little worried at first .This then seemed to trigger the neighbouring hive into the same action . Do the bees know something we dont ? A good spell of warm weather and nectar flow to come maybe .

 

[oliver90owner]

-Do the bees know something we dont ?-

No. Orientation flights for new flying bees take place at around the same time any and every day there are new flyers and the weather is OK.

 

[deanrpwaacs]

OK . Thanks .

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Well last night delivered my first box of honey to my new retail customer - nice trendy greengrocers in the next valley (could say I'm in the export business now ) pretty enthusiastic and are alreqady asking about cut comb and chunk honey.
Today, first had to hive two nucs at Garn Cottage - new queens laying like trains
one only started laying just over a week ago and has almost filled a five frame nuc, the other laying a bit longer has completely packed a six frame nuc in the last week.
Confirmed another new queen mated and laying worer brood at Brynmair - also identified a failed nuc with laying workers - that's two this year who have lost new queens.
Moved a nuc down from Carreg apiary to be hived at Brynmair tomorrow.

Noticed that down at the valley floor that today.................

THE BRAMBLES ARE IN FLOWER!​

Won't be long before they open at Carreg - being a bit higher up the brambles are a bit later but have a longer season.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Noticed that down at the valley floor that today.................

THE BRAMBLES ARE IN FLOWER!​

Not long here...days
and I had to AS a colony yesterday and will probably have to do the largest ....sigh.

 

[Fatbee]

Brambles in flower - that's a bit depressing because that is my last major flow (I don't count that nasty tasty ivy stuff - although bees like it). Barely had a day above twenty degrees, what a cool summer it's been. Although for me the spring yield has been alright, hope the blackberry coming in to flower coincides with some warmer weather

 

[Erichalfbee]

Although for me the spring yield has been alright,

Spring yield?
What's that?

 

[Tremyfro]

Yesterday ...the Bee Inspector came to us. All was good...so that's a relief...you can never be sure you haven't missed something.....we had a lovely sunny day....even dare I say...warm! Then waved goodbye to 2 nucs...which have gone to a new beekeeper.....surprisingly...choked at seeing our first babies leave home!

 

[Erichalfbee]

That's your brood health inspection done then

 

[Tremyfro]

That's your brood health inspection done then

Yep! All OK. As a new beekeeper...it is worrying to think you don't recognise a disease...often only seen on video or pictures. Our Bee Inspector was very informative ...every step of the way. Also...we did a honey tasting of the different honeys from last year and our spring softset honey. The Bee Inspector is also a Honey Judge...so the comments were particularly interesting...about how the honey looks from the outside, smell, bubbles, flavour, texture etc. fascinating insight from a judges perspective. Learnt a lot and very grateful.

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Took MAQs off 2 hives. Everything seems as it should be. Queens seen, eggs present, no supercedure cells etc. just missing larger larvae as expected. Inserts were littered with varroa so hopefully it's done the job.

Put some starter strips in one super hoping for some cut comb,.... Oh and I used a pollen trap for the first time.

And had a message left from somebody setting up a local Tearoom wanting to sell my honey. Happy days

 

[Falesh]

We found the queen we added dead outside the hive that suffered supersedure so we must have either missed a queen cell or a queen had already hatched. Today's job was to find that rogue queen and catch it so I can order a new Buckfast queen to keep our stock the friendly bees we love.

A surprise was waiting for us in the second hive: swarm cells. So now we have to work on a swarm prevention plan for that hive unless they change their mind after I put on a new super for extra space and removed the existing swarm cells.

This year started with a runaway varroa issue, went to supersedure and a failed re-queen and now is on to swarming. It's harder work, I've cut back on everything I can to save energy for the extra inspections, but it is also interesting and is what beekeeping is all about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMeMnXaFSgg

 

[user 3509]

Watched a queen emerge from a queen cell.