What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Swarm]

As its a 60 kg bucket (88lbs)

40 kilos is 88 pounds.

 

[Tremyfro]

I am sure my bees are eating all the honey they brought in the last few weeks. Weather cold and windy today but did manage to get feeders on the last 2 hived nucs. So can now relax. Had a quick look at the double decker nuc by the pond....ready to feed but there was capped honey and nectar in the outside frames of the top brood box....so left well alone. All the rest of the hives all OK. Apart from the wasps...I can relax a bit.
Congratulations to all the harvested supers...well done everyone....just a little greenish here...but we will see what August brings.

 

[Obee1]

40 kilos is 88 pounds.

Oops. Typo- honest! I knew that. Did I mention the actual amount of honey was 75 lbs

 

[Obee1]

Poking around, 25lbs net extracted leaving wet combs intact seems to be a good average for 10-ish frame spacing in a National super box.

It is at this time of year I realise I made a pretty radical decision going for single-size (National brood) box beekeeping. They clock close to or over fifty pounds full I reckon.

Yes I'm regretting using so many brood size boxes - I can't lift them when full of honey. Have to lift out frames one at a time.

 

[Obee1]

Congratulations to all the harvested supers...well done everyone....just a little greenish here...but we will see what August brings.

Let's not forget your OSR harvest earlier this year. And you still have honey left from last years harvest. Some of us only just got our very first harvest.

Shame about the wasps. Hope they don't rob any other hives

 

[Goran]

queen killer.. these days..
2nd round qrearing from other line.. August queens..

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Popped up to Carreg apiary to replace the clearer boards from last week with crown boards - blackberry flowers almost over up there but loads and loads of flower buds on the brambles , the pink flowers now coming out and seems to be giving a moderate flow, which, supplemented by the HB looks good for a half decent harvest - all hives still bringing in a bit of stores despite the weather - another queen up there confirmed mated and laying worker eggs.

 

[Tremyfro]

Let's not forget your OSR harvest earlier this year. And you still have honey left from last years harvest. Some of us only just got our very first harvest.

Shame about the wasps. Hope they don't rob any other hives

Well yes...the OSR was very nice.
You enjoy your harvest.......the first is special.
I have spent the afternoon making wasp traps. Yesterday I reduced the entrances...so today there are queues...as the sun is out!
There is a lovely hum...in the Bee Yard.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I have spent the afternoon making wasp traps.

AKA wasp magnets?

 

[Erichalfbee]

AKA wasp magnets?

If you MUST make wasp traps keep them downwind of (prevailing wind) and well away from the hives

 

[Tom Bick]

Fitted four clearer boards and checked on the mating nucs and spotted two virgins on short orientation flights.

Went and combined one of my hives with a friends hive as she has a DLQ.

Finally went and checked an old apiary to see if it will be any good for me to keep bees there with just the small problem of a hive seemingly full of bees after a swarm moved into the one empty hive on site this summer and the outgoing and absent beekeeper wants to sell it. Little does he know beekeeping is a very cheap hobby for me

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Took off another round of supers today. The bees were very reluctant to clear out this year, despite using the same old rhombus escapes. Will extract tomorrow. Average honey per hive is well down on last year, no surprise there.....and only balsam left around here now and I haven't seen a single ghost bee yet. Too blinkin cold. Most hives have one or two part filled supers still on but realistically, I expect I will be nadiring them rather than extracting them.

Lots of activity spotted late afternoon today around one of my bait hives sods law it will be one of my lot 'making plans'! I do have a hive that had a few QCs being built last week but had convinced myself it was supercedure. Grrrr.

 

[andyphibb]

Just about to put a feeder on one of the hives, A swarm that we re-queened a few weeks back brood is about to emerge weather has not been good here so better safe than sorry

 

[Sadders]

Reasonable weather this evening so I took the opportunity to transfer a nuc to a hive.

Its a fine moment when you see one of the girls fanning and others respond.

 

[Tremyfro]

AKA wasp magnets?

No .....not wasp magnets ...I said traps.........like the waspbane....you may have heard of them. There have been quite a few posts about them. The idea is the catch the scouts so they can't go back and tell their mates where a free meal is to be found. They worked well last year....not many wasps caught but they didn't get to leave.
Don't worry Erica....I have read all of Karols posts and researched and asked questions about the Waspbane and where to place it.
Still saw a few around the hives today but not as many.

 

[Obee1]

checked my Caerphilly hives yesterday -
the full sized hive which was given a laying welsh mongrel queen has lots of brood and supplies
the first nuc which was housed in a full hive a few weeks ago and had eqc made from hivemakers bucky queen that they killed - has eggs. woo hoo.
the second nuc - was equal size but lack of equipment delayed it moving into a full hive until a week ago - has no eggs. it had the same amount of queen cells as the other nuc and hopefully will soon have eggs.
all three hives were very badly behaved - the old beesuit took many stings and my gloves let one sting through. can't remember the last week I didn't get stung.

back at the homestead I have two nucs I made up a few weeks ago to house newly bought queens.
Nuc one I stole the queen away - 36Bee - my Carni, and put her into a new hive. so the nuc was left queen-less on 16 July. on 18 July I put a new freebie virgin in. looked in yesterday 28 July to see if the freebie welsh virgin had got herself mated.... she had. eggs seen, but unfortunately so was a queen cell seen. I was so intent on not disturbing new virgin queen I forgot there had been eggs in there. You guys really need to pay attention when I tell you things as I keep making rookie mistakes. As it was only one cell I thought it may be a duffer so I closed hive up to go have a think.....then got really busy and the heavens opened...
went back this morning and cell is torn down. so I assume welsh mongrel killed carni virgin in the QC. oops...why when it was my expensive HM bucky queen at stake did the virgin from the QC win out but when it is a freebie queen she manages to kill the QC virgin?


nuc two - had a bought in a foreign bucky queen that started laying and I had plans for her. Except she didn't like my plans and absconded. one day I was looking at her - went to look one last time before closing nuc and couldn't find her. odd. looked again a few days later. no queen to be seen and no eggs. don't tell OH I wasted £40 on a lost queen. looked in yesterday 28 july and there are 3 queen cells and one looks to have just emerged. then spotted a new virgin queen. this one is a daughter of the missing bought in bucky. must have been eggs after all.
.. looked in this morning all the QC torn down now - so assume first one out killed em.
Didn't have time to look in my two mega tower hives in the garden.

as for my caught swarm housed in a garden a mile away - they are full of BIAS but nearly out of food. had to feed them a frame of nectar and some cappings to clean out.

how long before I stop making rookie mistakes?

 

[Tremyfro]

Ha ha ...Obee1 you will soon be Cardiff Queen Bee....I am losing track of all your colonies....you need to list them again!
Why are your Caerphilly bees still nasty....I thought they were requeened! Or is it the remaining Meangreenqueen bees that are still in them?
If you carry on with you colony increases....you will be awash with honey next year. Perhaps you need to get your name down soon for a stall at Cardiff Market......

 

[B+.]

how long before I stop making rookie mistakes?

20 or 30 years should do it

 

[Tremyfro]

20 or 30 years should do it

No hope for me then! I don't have that much time left!

 

[Hawklord]

United 2 queen rite colonies to 2 queenless nucs. Found and marked the queen in the nasty hive, ready for dispatch when new queen arrives.