What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Erichalfbee]

I was one of the 'Bromsgrove three' from a few years back!

Yes, well worth reading again.

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=15235&highlight=work+experience+beekeeper

 

[oliver90owner]

I suppose

Not at all! You have come from absolutely nowhere to a trusted beek. From a fear of anything buzzy to a confident beekeeper in not so very long. A great achievement you can be very proud of! You have cleared all the hurdles in your path and succeeded, where many may have fallen by the wayside.

Cold (so most bees at home), weather and limited access all against your first attempted inspection, so not your fault at all. But you did not give up, like you might have done in your early experience. I'm sure you have done well.

Anyway, Dusty will almost certainly have arranged for you to be watched over - from above! Apparently he has good contacts up there.

RAB

 

[enrico]

Still love you kazz x

 

[einsteinagogo]

My neighbour, came to me this morning at 11.00am, he's looking after a house in the village, and found a ladder up against the wall, and bees coming out of the wall...I don't think the bees put the ladder there I told him!

He had no idea, what the situation is, because the owner did not mention this....Owner asked him to look after house and dogs, on Tuesday, for this weekend, so he has not seen the neighbour...

I had a look, and difficult to tell, what is going on, definitely honey bees, black bees.

Not sure if they are emerging from the brick work, or going in....BUT there are a lot of bees in the house, inside the window, and on the window sill (inside), and also clumps hanging on the window...(inside) - more bees inside, than outside...

Could not get access to the house, so I left a bait hive, on top of a dustbin wheelie bin, they are not paying much attention, so I dropped some old comb, in my swarm box, and this evening, they appeared to be going in and out...(still bees inside the house!)

Busy day and I'm done in, took off another four supers, removed clearer boards, and dropped on replacement supers.

Waiting now, for queens to emerge in the AS colonies, get mated, and then decide on uniting, later in the year.

Quick visual check on apideas, frames are now slowly being drawn out after swapping. Not sure if queens are mated yet, maybe check tomorrow after 6pm.

Checked on colonies, that had been under the OMF, the colony I swapped the floor for a solid floor, no bees under floor, the colony I swapped for a OMF, some bees under floor, will check regularly under the floors from now on!

 

[kazmcc]

I suppose

Not at all! You have come from absolutely nowhere to a trusted beek. From a fear of anything buzzy to a confident beekeeper in not so very long. A great achievement you can be very proud of! You have cleared all the hurdles in your path and succeeded, where many may have fallen by the wayside.

Cold (so most bees at home), weather and limited access all against your first attempted inspection, so not your fault at all. But you did not give up, like you might have done in your early experience. I'm sure you have done well.

Anyway, Dusty will almost certainly have arranged for you to be watched over - from above! Apparently he has good contacts up there.

RAB

Wow! Thank you Rab. Praise from someone I have such respect for means very much indeed!

I love you too enrico lol

 

[ugcheleuce]

Yesterday and today I added honey supers (with section frames) to all four my hives that have strong colonies (the video clips are boring):

Klarenbeek (buckfast F5) (9-frame):

https://youtu.be/zBY7yWsQIuU
https://youtu.be/_9_pc0A2vj4

Casimir Avenue (ligustica F1) (12-frame):

https://youtu.be/wD4vITgHQDk

Hoenderloo (buckfast F4) (11-framer)

https://youtu.be/UoFYQTI5OHk
https://youtu.be/fbm_TMt37X8

I also checked on my two mating nucs, and saw closed brood:

Casimir Avenue (buckfast F1) (11-frame, with 6 frames + feeder in it):

https://youtu.be/2QU5rp_W4rI

Hoenderloo (buckfast F1) (the bottom box) (11-frame, with 11 frames in it):

And I also checked on my two other tiny nucs, and saw closed brood:

Klarenbeek (ligustica F2) (5-frame, only 3 with bees):

https://youtu.be/ydRsVoTTzQ4
https://youtu.be/5LR4yk6GGc0

Hoenderloo (buckfast F6) (the top box) (11-frame, only 3 with bees):

The four hives with queen excluders on them now promise to give some honey. This will be the first year I get honey (the previous year I focused on making colonies, and I had a bad year flow-wise, and I had chalk brood).

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Wow! Thank you Rab. Praise from someone I have such respect for means very much indeed!

I love you too enrico lol

Errrm......

.......I'm coming back in a couple of days.
Will I "feel the lerv" like Kaz has?
I fear not.

I've said it before and I'll say it again:
Kaz has a lovely touch with the bees.
Better than me.

So I've been very relieved that she's been looking after them for me.
Just sorry that they've been acting up whilst Father was away.

And Kaz has been educating me about the bumbles nest in the garage fascia as well.

Thanks for reassuring her, guys.

Thanks, Kaz

Dusty

 

[kazmcc]

So I've been very relieved that she's been looking after them for me.
Just sorry that they've been acting up whilst Father was away.

Well, you still have bees.................don't you?

So that's good lol. With regards to their behaviour, the have already been told off, so don't be too hard on them. I just hope I haven't missed anything

 

[BeeJayBee]

... I have come a long way though, haven't I?

Yes, and you say things on fb too!

... I just hope I haven't missed anything

Don't worry too much, Dusty has a hotline (probably not the right phrase to use) to additional help!

 

[Mrs Shoot]

Today got to Maisie's bright and early five minutes before the start time to see the ruck had started and people already leaving!! spent quite a while stacking up my pile outside the tent before paying and trucking - luckily bumped into two of our beginners who helped guard my stash in exchange for advice on what they needed - they were overwhelmed by the melee and agreed this was no place for a beginner to 'shop around' nevertheless they were both excited at the thought of setting up their new hives and getting bees (one's fast approaching eighty and one left it behind a few years ago!!)
After paying for the sale stuff I then had to brave the crowd in the shop - whiled away the time in the queue chatting to Moggs - a fellow forumite who was behind me in the queue had overheard my conversation with one of ChrisB's mentees who happened to be in front of me and by chance leqrn I was one of the 'Bromsgrove three' from a few years back!
Back home now all my stuff sneaked....err I mean stowed away in the chamber of secrets and all the member's orders sorted out ready for tomorrow's handover.
Can't believe that after the journey back I'm a bit sick of the smell of cedar

Went Maisie's as well. After filling the pick up with supplies from the tent spent quite a while outside the shop while Mr Shoot queued inside. Was kept entertained by my two dogs, one insisted on doing a meet and greet to everyone who came to the shop. Had some lovely chats with other beeks outside. I was the lady with the two spaniels.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I was the lady with the two spaniels.

I was the one with the beard who spoke with you for quite a while (and gave your two dogs plenty of fuss) and discussed spaniels whilst waiting for my two honey tanks

 

[Mrs Shoot]

I was the one with the beard who spoke with you for quite a while (and gave your two dogs plenty of fuss) and discussed spaniels whilst waiting for my two honey tanks

It was lovely to meet you, hope you managed to get everything on your shopping list. Mr shoot forgot the casalators and mouse guards so had to go in again. He was much quicker the second time lol. The dogs slept all the way home.

 

[gregior]

Had a quick look through the hives a made a quick vid for my facebook page,all hives strong + healthy with a really good flow from the bramble and clover on,added new supers to all 5 hives.

https://video-ams2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/h...=ca6a1cf93cf0b0d167bb5cb9f52bf5b5&oe=5591CC51

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Put another super on a previously Demarre'd hive (now on four shallows and a deep) Demarree'd another hive, confirmed another queen mated and laying worker brood, bottled another batch of honey. Just popped up the apiary now to number the new queen's hive and all the aircon units are working full blast - happy days

 

[Tremyfro]

Beautiful day...all the hives were busy.
Put a small colony into a Nuc...so a smaller hive to keep warm to help it build up again.
Both my new Carniolan queens are laying well....the one in a Nuc has made 2 queen cells. So I took them out and made an extra Nuc with frames from a hive which could spare them.
The queen in one of the nucs I made previously, has still not laid any eggs....she is now on countdown until the weekend....if nothing by then well.....I will combine with another colony. She is such a lovely big fat queen though...such a pity.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Put another super on a previously Demarre'd hive (now on four shallows and a deep) Demarree'd another hive, confirmed another queen mated and laying worker brood, bottled another batch of honey. Just popped up the apiary now to number the new queen's hive and all the aircon units are working full blast - happy days

Can I come do some work experience with you please

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Just put the solar extractor out

 

[Tremyfro]

Just put the solar extractor out

What a brill idea.....I am going to use my cold box for doing that...just got to find a pane of glass.

 

[Obee1]

Just checked the nuc where my virgin queen from tremy lives. She's definitely awol ( Virgin not tremy). Bees all angry and fanning butts. Last night I ordered a new bucky queen for my tower block hive that the hivemaker bucky was found dead in. It will arrive tomorrow. Going to make me an introduction wire cage to place over a frame with brood stores and empty cells. Hopefully this new queen won't lead to a 15 page thread or RAB will complain.

Ooh and going to make me a solar wax melter too it's really hot here.

35 mins later. Wax is out in my improvised melter. I knew never throwing stuff away would pay off. Used spare hive roof for the shiny tin to reflect heat. Placed a placcy tub on it. Then filtering wax through an old seive and that old muslin square left over from when baby was little. ( she's now doing her GCSEs! Topped off with a double glazing sheet saved from grandads house. Placed it outside lounge window on patio so I can watch it melt. And OH says I do nothing all day whilst he's at work! Hah!

 

[Tremyfro]

Just checked the nuc where my virgin queen from tremy lives. She's definitely awol ( Virgin not tremy). Bees all angry and fanning butts. Last night I ordered a new bucky queen for my tower block hive that the hivemaker bucky was found dead in. It will arrive tomorrow. Going to make me an introduction wire cage to place over a frame with brood stores and empty cells. Hopefully this new queen won't lead to a 15 page thread or RAB will complain.

Ooh and going to make me a solar wax melter too it's really hot here.

I can't believe she's gone! How naughty is that! I told her she was going to be a Town Queen...much more upmarket than a Country Gal. All the bright lights must have dazzled her!
Can you give them a frame from your tower block? At least if there are eggs there...you know they are from the sadly departed Bucky queen.