What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Tom Jay]

Full inspection of four of my five hives. It went well! This is my first full season and I have one huge colony - brood and a half with four supers and chocker with bees - so I was pleased with myself that I stayed calm and focussed especially with the complication of inspecting through two tiers of brood nest. Didn't spot the queen though! She is obviously there with still seven frames of brood in the main box and tiny larva on three sides of frame.

In fact, with her not using the supers much as her brood nest [just three of them] I took three others full of only honey 50% capped and put them in boxes above the QE, swapping them with three part-drawn empty frames from higher up. Lots of late summer forage in this garden suburb so they will fill their 'own' super below the QE again, I am sure.

I have a queenless colony. Swarmed a few weeks back [and I hived them from off my outhouse roof] and I guess that in all that cold windy weather the poor daughter queen never got herself mated. So I was looking for a frame of brood with eggs to give them from one of my others, but - oh dear! of the other three good colonies I inspected today I never saw a queen yet! I know they are all three there, but could not contemplate shaking bees off a frame which might have the queen on it, let alone accidentally robbing a good colony of its queen! So the queenless lot will have to wait. They are still pulling in the nectar which impresses me.

Another hive needed the finishing job of a union. The two brood boxes, on top of one another for five days now, between them had twelve 'active' frames, so I put them all together, brood nest central with stores each side, closed up with a super for good measure, and then the emptied brood box on the roof with a two inch overhang with the twelfth frame which had some honey in it, in that box, for them to rob out. Spare roof on the top of that.

Hey ho! If I've done something terrible please tell me! I can take it!

Tom.

 

[Obee1]

Used the absence of Madame A to make up a few gallons of autumn feed (she's not keen on the thymol smell)

Sent from my SM-G901F using Tapatalk

Is anyone keen on the smell. When I had it on my garden hive last September the whole street reeked of it. Poor bees having to live amongst it.

 

[Obee1]

Full inspection of four of my five hives. It went well! This is my first full season and I have one huge colony - brood and a half with four supers and chocker with bees - so I was pleased with myself that I stayed calm and focussed especially with the complication of inspecting through two tiers of brood nest. Didn't spot the queen though! She is obviously there with still seven frames of brood in the main box and tiny larva on three sides of frame.

In fact, with her not using the supers much as her brood nest [just three of them] I took three others full of only honey 50% capped and put them in boxes above the QE, swapping them with three part-drawn empty frames from higher up. Lots of late summer forage in this garden suburb so they will fill their 'own' super below the QE again, I am sure.

I have a queenless colony. Swarmed a few weeks back [and I hived them from off my outhouse roof] and I guess that in all that cold windy weather the poor daughter queen never got herself mated. So I was looking for a frame of brood with eggs to give them from one of my others, but - oh dear! of the other three good colonies I inspected today I never saw a queen yet! I know they are all three there, but could not contemplate shaking bees off a frame which might have the queen on it, let alone accidentally robbing a good colony of its queen! So the queenless lot will have to wait. They are still pulling in the nectar which impresses me.

Another hive needed the finishing job of a union. The two brood boxes, on top of one another for five days now, between them had twelve 'active' frames, so I put them all together, brood nest central with stores each side, closed up with a super for good measure, and then the emptied brood box on the roof with a two inch overhang with the twelfth frame which had some honey in it, in that box, for them to rob out. Spare roof on the top of that.

Hey ho! If I've done something terrible please tell me! I can take it!

Tom.

I'm not understanding the 'emptied brood box with the overhang and frame of honey' bit. Have you left that frame of honey accessible to bees that don't live in your colony? If so you will attract wasps and other bees.
Also puzzled as to why you didn't pinch a frame of eggs n larvae for donation to the queenless colony. I did it myself yesterday. I couldn't find queen either so I removed first frame into a nuc by my feet - leaving bees on frame. Shut nuc. As it's the first frame queen is less likely to be on it anyway. You now have a space to shuffle frames around. Then select frame from brood box you want to take - I shook bees off into the gap to see the larvae better. You need the tiny ones. When shaking - or brushing Keep the frame low in the box and the bees drop in rather than fly off. Shuffle frames back up and retrieve the frame with bees from nuc. Remember to invert empty nuc over broodbox to tap in any bees that are on walls or floor. Add new frame at end of brood box to make full complement.

You now have a frame of young larvae without bees on it ready for your queenless colony. It's getting late in the year now so the sooner they can get started making a queen the better.
I apologise if I have gone into too much detail. I thought this may help other newbies who are scared they will lose queen if they remove a frame. Only a few weeks ago I did inadvertently remove my queen into a nuc - in my defence I thought they were queenless so wasn't looking for her.

 

[Tom Jay]

I'm not understanding the 'emptied brood box with the overhang and frame of honey' bit. Have you left that frame of honey accessible to bees that don't live in your colony? If so you will attract wasps and other bees.
Also puzzled as to why you didn't pinch a frame of eggs n larvae for donation to the queenless colony. I did it myself yesterday. I couldn't find queen either so I removed first frame into a nuc by my feet - leaving bees on frame. Shut nuc. As it's the first frame queen is less likely to be on it anyway. You now have a space to shuffle frames around. Then select frame from brood box you want to take - I shook bees off into the gap to see the larvae better. You need the tiny ones. When shaking - or brushing Keep the frame low in the box and the bees drop in rather than fly off. Shuffle frames back up and retrieve the frame with bees from nuc. Remember to invert empty nuc over broodbox to tap in any bees that are on walls or floor. Add new frame at end of brood box to make full complement.

You now have a frame of young larvae without bees on it ready for your queenless colony. It's getting late in the year now so the sooner they can get started making a queen the better.
I apologise if I have gone into too much detail. I thought this may help other newbies who are scared they will lose queen if they remove a frame. Only a few weeks ago I did inadvertently remove my queen into a nuc - in my defence I thought they were queenless so wasn't looking for her.

Thanks Obee! and thanks for all that detail. There's my other hive to inspect and I ran out of time today and have time Thursday so I can do that then.

As to the roofed box on top of the hive roof just a bit overhanging - I used this as a way of drying out my harvested supers last year and it worked a treat in a matter of hours, so I thought I would do the same with this brood frame with honey in it. Just for the rest of the day. I don't notice any but the bees from below going for it, but I see what you're saying and will watch out for whether I am encouraging robbing by other colonies or worse.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Finally inspected the last 2 hives after up to a month since the last inspection.

A strong colony on double brood and two supers have filled 90% of the top BB with honey and are still on something like 12 frames of brood but seem to have removed all the honey from the super!

A weaker colony (been building up from a nuc) have 70% filled their 1st super and have a 2nd (drawn) super now for space. They are now on 8 frames of brood in a 10 frame polyhive.

Just as I always say, you learn something new everytime you inspect!

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Finally inspected the last 2 hives after up to a month since the last inspection.



A strong colony on double brood and two supers have filled 90% of the top BB with honey and are still on something like 12 frames of brood but seem to have removed all the honey from the super!



Just as I always say, you learn something new everytime you inspect!

I'm worried mine have done the same. Will you be able to extract it?

 

[YorkshireBees]

I'm worried mine have done the same. Will you be able to extract it?

I could if I wanted as they have capped all the outside frames and are just back filling the frames as brood hatches out but more likely I will just leave them with it and not need to feed!

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Took the supers off half the hives today and put the feeders on. Will wait a few days and then start varroa treatments. Bee shed is in dire need of a good sort out. Bee junk everywhere! Maybe tomorrow.....

 

[Tom Jay]

Following from 11th Aug posts:

Inspected my hive-from-a-primary-swarm of 10th July. At that time I only had foundation frames to give them, and I'm thrilled to see she has a brood nest on six frames, quite a bit of store in the brood box, and good work on six frames in the super. Given those cool windy weeks intervening, am I right in thinking this is pretty good going for a hived swarm? - Oh, I did give them one frame of store from my strongest colony a week in, as well as the syrup early on.

Anyway, good Lady that she is, I robbed a frame with eggs and plenty of tiny larvae as well a sealed brood [and honey and pollen!] to give my queenless colony as a last ditch attempt to get them viable on their own.

This is the hive from which they swarmed. I think, in those cold windy intervening weeks either I lost casts or a queen never got mated.

Will they work better on producing a queen because the frame of brood is from their own mother? Or would that make no difference at all?

 

[YorkshireBees]

Following from 11th Aug posts:

...

Will they work better on producing a queen because the frame of brood is from their own mother? Or would that make no difference at all?

In my experience no difference at all.

 

[beeno]

They are all separate entities once they have swarmed.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Strongest flow of the year here. Helicopters at first light in fog. Why couldn't we have these conditions for the lime?...

 

[Tremyfro]

Raining here. After a few days of warmer dryer weather. The forecast for the weekend is better though...so now the HB is out around here perhaps we will get a flow too! ....and a cap broke off my tooth yesterday...so I have got to go to the dentist today....total gloom and doom!

 

[einsteinagogo]

Removed the bait hive, which was closed down and sealed due to AFB earlier in the year, (very close!) on the roof of our offices. Also roofers are re-roofing the entire building, so didn't want the hive and hive stand to end up in a skip.

Removed all the contents, old comb and frames and destroyed on the fire this evening, added a welcome heat to the lounge on such a rainy and damp day. Not taking any risks, disposal gloves throughout.

tomorrow, I'll flame the brood box, floor, crown board, roof.

 

[Goran]

Still warm as hell, with first honey money I will go after camel and some drilling equipment to search for oil. What a heck, if I have Sahara weather maybe I have some oil beneath..
Done some minor check, some planning and have to decide which colony I will give away ( one with this year queen will be).

 

[B+.]

I received a queen (6-172-15-2013-K) from one of my contacts in The Netherlands yesterday but the weather was a bit iffy. I'll be introducing her to a colony today which I have already prepared.
This queen is a 2013 queen so she'll be used as a drone mother for instrumental insemination next year if all goes well.

 

[dpearce4]

I received a queen (6-172-15-2013-K) from one of my contacts in The Netherlands yesterday but the weather was a bit iffy. I'll be introducing her to a colony today which I have already prepared.
This queen is a 2013 queen so she'll be used as a drone mother for instrumental insemination next year if all goes well.

whats the numbers mean

 

[Mrs Shoot]

whats the numbers mean

Default An offer too good to refuse

One of my contacts in the Netherlands has been kind enough to offer me a 2013 queen for use as a drone mother next year.
This is a rather special queen (a daughter of 6-172-31-2011 that I tried to get pipettes of semen from in the spring) so I want to maximise her chances of acceptance and success.

i'm sure B+ will let us know. But I'm thinking she's come from special breeding stock / program in the Netherlands.

 

[B+.]

whats the numbers mean

The 6 at the front is a code for the Hanovarian Beekeepers Association in Germany (https://www2.hu-berlin.de/beebreed/ZWS/Startseiten/englisch/Bienenzucht-Start.html)
The 172 is the code for the breeder who produced the queen (Dr Friedrich Terjung)
The 15 is the sequence number in his studbook for that queen
The 2013 is the year she was born
The K at the end means Korschein. Thats German for a ....sort of Breeding licence. It contains the pedigree, breeding values, selection class, etc

The selection class is Av:
2 Varroa criteria assessed
Varroa index over 100%
2 customary breeding values over 100%
2 customary breeding values not below 95%
6 sibling colonies or at least 0.38 certainty of all customary breeding values
At least three generations have been bred, or all relevant traits and performance can be documented
Physical features of workers and drones are typical for the breed

Its a bit complex but its all part of the BeeBreed categories...essentially, its been approved for use as a drone mother (4a in the pedigree structure)

My breeders number is 55 - 15 (55 is the code for The Netherlands breeding group run by Prof Brascamp) and my id number is 15...so all of my pure mated queens will have a prefix of 55-15

 

[BrianO]

United two colonies, here's hoping for a late end of Bramble flow.

Copped a sting to the chest before even had a chance to put on suit.

Bought yet more Bee plants , its becoming an addiction !!!