What did you do in the Apiary today?

[maddydog]

Checked 6 colonies yesterday. All doing fine except my strongest most productive colony and the only one that hasn't tried to swarm this year. Basically completely out of stores so gave them two full frames of 14*12 that they'd drawn and filled earlier in the year.
Looks like swarming is over for the year which is always good for the heart rate

 

[user 3509]

Extracted five supers this morning. The first this year. Not an easy task when I had surgery on my foot only two weeks ago, but they need to go back on asap. Asked for help from my association after my foot surgery but sadly offers were not forthcoming, except from one person who has his own health problems and also from someone that does not really have the time to sort his own bees out properly.

 

[psafloyd]

Fitted a natty new punched galv travel screen I got from Wendy at The Bee Shed near Chelmsford recently and lashed the hive up ready for travel in next day or so.

Checked to see if the Warré that is doing well had started drawing any of the foundation strips I put in a new box for them. Not yet, nor is anyone drawing anything, so I think there's a gap on.

Finally, checked what was my strongest hive which had swarmed or lost its queen as I had introduced a frame from a neighbouring strong colony three weeks back to see if any developments as there were none last week.

Found HM –-a little small, but bright amber and not too shabby –-doing her thing and BIAS as well. Marked her and put her back.

Very pleased, so will leave that one to build back up for the winter.

Have at least half a dozen supers to extract, so I will be busy this weekend.

 

[Luka22]

Spend time cleaning up the Beeshed and killing wasp. They are surely out earlier this year and have killed 5 Apidea and 2 small Nuc with newly hatched queen so far. Just caught 35 Wasp in one Apidea and tried to drown them. After 1 hour, still alive so had to kill them 1 by 1. Now thinking what other way I have to kill them in a most friendly way.... Very sad to see my new Queens dying and wasp taking over

 

[Cussword]

Marked my new nuc queen, had some trouble finding her. Not only was she small but also black, her mother was an amber colour.

 

[einsteinagogo]

Rabbits have been knocking over my Apidea, in the mating apiary!

or something large!

 

[Obee1]

I finally found my elusive unmarked daughter of meangreenqueen who herself is not too kind. RABs method came up trumps -again - and she is now queenlure. In her place is b+ carniolan queen under a push in cage straight into the hive. eek! Nervous now. And this time will check for queen cells!

 

[Swinton apiaries]

Had a swarm turn up yesterday not mine watched it come up the road and land on the wall next to my hives so collected that and fitted clear boads to all hives with full supers so can get them extracted and back on for the heather

 

[beeno]

I finally found my elusive unmarked daughter of meangreenqueen who herself is not too kind. RABs method came up trumps -again - and she is now queenlure. In her place is b+ carniolan queen under a push in cage straight into the hive. eek! Nervous now. And this time will check for queen cells!

Onwards and upwards.

 

[Goran]

I don't have a camera to you can see beards on 39 celsius measured aside in shade.. At hives I believe around 45celsius..
Beside that some nice queens are hopefully growing in a breeders. I reduce the nr of larva for breeding drastically per colony, gave pollen rich frames, feed ( syrup, honey, fondant/pattie).. If I succeed, these ones will have bright future..

 

[Goran]

Does anyone have a change? I have days with 40celsius and want to exchange for 2 in 20celsius..
In suit these days awesome.. Also poor bees are mad due such catastrophy, all is scorched..
By the way I plan to buy a camel since we now have Sahara weather, so I can travel from oasis to oasis..

 

[YorkshireBees]

Discovered that although a beesuit helps stop most bee stings they are not nettle proof if your wearing shorts underneath!!!

Ouch!

 

[Swinton apiaries]

Taken supers off and made a hive queenless yesterday and introduced a queen this morning from this years stock so can go to the heather now onto extracting for the rest on the day

 

[Hachi]

Put the second of the Q's bought from HM into a full size BB. Temperament is divine I even wish some of the women in my world would have been as calm and forgiving as HM's bee prodigy.

 

[Obee1]

Well I never thought I'd say it but almost got fed up of looking at colonies yesterday. Started by inspecting 3 in my garden. Then went to bee club apiary meeting and looked through about 6 (followed by most delicious coffee cakes and pancakes provided by host . Then I went to bee inspectors house to check my 3 hives there and gave her a hand inspecting her hives - all 15 of them. Best of all we helped 5 virgins emerge in one hive. One went back in hive. One I was asked to squish, but couldn't, so I brought her home and put her in my nuc left over from 36bee. The other 3 virgins we put in an upturned lid and watched to see who would kill who. Great fun! They had a few tussles but all survived so we put all 3 in a queenless hive and let them battle it out in the dark.

Today I get to extract my honey. Woo hoo

 

[kazmcc]

What a lovely afternoon of bee keeping we've had. With Arran in full on pest mode, we got ready for inspecting. We discussed what we would be doing, as hive 1 recently swarmed, so we expected a virgin/ newly mated queen in there, and have a good look through hive 2 as they still haven't shown any signs of swarming yet. We decided we would have a peep in hive 1, as it has been over 2 weeks now, by my calculations, since she should have emerged and the weather here has been suitable, so we decided to have a look, I mean, what could possibly go wrong?!

Hive 1 - Four supers, mostly filled and some being capped. Got to the brood box and on the 2nd frame, lovely rows of eggs. Very fresh, 1 egg per cell, beautifully laid. Stopped what we were doing and put them back together. We are hoping for a nice queen, just like her mother. We shall see........

Hive 2 - Wow! Four full, capped supers, two full and being capped supers. Got to the brood box, saw BIAS, queen not seen but I saw very fresh eggs, so I was happy. Added another super! So now we have a sky scraper.

I am so relieved that requeening went smoothly for hive 1, let hope she doesn't turn out to be a nightmare! Arran was on wax scraping duty, and bee saving as usual. The weather was beautiful, so we had a potter around the garden, and we saw a gorgeous female, red tailed bumble giving herself a good clean in the sun. So everything is going to plan

 

[nantmoel]

We re-assembled our Thorne Mk2 (12 frame)honey extractor after having all the metalwork blue powder coated. I put all the electronics into a new aluminium box, with a new LED, Fuse holder and knob. It looks almost as good as new, it runs as smooth as if it was brand new. The new blue and the glitter of the stainless looks superb. A few week and we will put it through its paces. A bargain at £360

 

[Erichalfbee]

Kaz you must be getting muscles on muscles lifting those supers

 

[kazmcc]

Kaz you must be getting muscles on muscles lifting those supers

It was a joint effort, but there is no way we could put another one on, unless we had step ladders, so I think Dusty is considering extracting some soon

 

[Obee1]

We re-assembled our Thorne Mk2 (12 frame)honey extractor after having all the metalwork blue powder coated. I put all the electronics into a new aluminium box, with a new LED, Fuse holder and knob. It looks almost as good as new, it runs as smooth as if it was brand new. The new blue and the glitter of the stainless looks superb. A few week and we will put it through its paces. A bargain at £360

Photos please! Sounds very nice.