What did you do in the Apiary today?

[bontbee]

Yes .. it's been a miserable wet day down here as well but I too was surprised to see a lot of bees flying. Mine usually don't mind a bit of drizzle and a few do fly but there were a lot of flyers and they were even flying when it was raining quite hard...

can't believe they were out collecting if the larder is full at home ?

Yes, I wondered why mine are insisting on flying in the - quite heavy - rain, too. I know they still have plenty of food. Perhaps you just can't keep a good bee down!

There are a lot of water collectors about, even in the rain. I guess they must be tucking into their stores and need to dilute them...

 

[Erichalfbee]

Mine are out in the rain too but they are on the balsam so I'm not surprised.
United two duff colonies two days ago and yesterday consolidated the brood boxes. Feeder on today and when that's empty they will get a new queen via a small cast with now four frames of brood.
Supers will be off midweek then treat and feed.
It will all have to be done in the rain.
That's it for this season.
Four supposedly productive colonies and only 50lb of honey!
It's been a real make honey eat honey year.

 

[alldigging]

Not even honey bee related or in the apiary, or today.

But me and a couple of neighbours sat and watched a lovely dark bumble bee land on the lawn and disappear and not reappear for ages. It finally re-emerged and I carefully had a peep underneath the leaf it went under. There's a hole in the ground there.
Very lovely to watch and the neighbours loved it too.

 

[madasafish]

Kept feeding. Will heft hives end next week to see how their stored are and do quick inspection. Forecast is lousy next 3-4 days..

 

[Tom Jay]

Inspected the queenless colony to which I gave a frame with eggs and tiny larvae eight days back. They'd developed four QCs, all sealed. I cut away three leaving of the two really fine ones the one that had more attendants. The cut away ones were just on the cusp of first pupation I think: very white but the beginning of shape. Plenty of drones still in the other hives so I'm hopeful of a mating flight before it's too late.

Inspected my most thriving colony and congratulated the Lady on her good work. She still has a brood nest on eight frames with lots newly laid on three sides of it. They're packing in the honey all around and on the other four frames downstairs and the four supers are a ton weight though the girls still need to seal lots of it. Still loads of forage around here [see my 'Gardens of Suburbia' thread] so I won't harvest until mid September. What a gal!

 

[nantmoel]

Finally seen the bees coming back with the 'tell tale signs' of them working the HB, its only taken then 3 weeks to find it!! Coming back like ghosts.

 

[Tom Jay]

Nice pic, Nantmoel!
Exactly what I saw today for the first time this year too.

 

[Glenviewbee]

Put some wet frames onto 2 colonies for them to clean up while the weather down here continues to be rubbish - drizzly, damp, overcast. The forecast for the next week is just as bad

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Mine are out in the rain too but they are on the balsam so I'm not surprised.

Same here - any break in the heavy rain and it's a constant stream of bees to and from the hives to the balsam

 

[Tremyfro]

All my bees out...dodging the rain drops....nothing stops the Carniolans once they get a taste for the HB.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

(yesterday) - pulled off supers from hives, inserted apilife var, and put on rapid feeders as they were all low of stores in the brood box. Spun and collected just over 50lbs from 3 hives (first collection since taking off the last of the rape in June) - not too bad as summer goes as they always pale in comparison with the OSR harvests. I had a two collection OSR strategy this year which seems to have worked as there were not too many crystallised frames left over.

Today getting going with the jars.

 

[Cussword]

Finally seen the bees coming back with the 'tell tale signs' of them working the HB, its only taken then 3 weeks to find it!! Coming back like ghosts.

So that's what they're bringing in

 

[nantmoel]

Bottled 84 12oz jars of honey and these more to do, we only extracted 36 frames so well happy.

 

[BrianO]

Opened after a week of good weather to find as suspected a good flow for last week.

Smell of ripening honey powerfull , and all of a sudded supers being drawn and filled .... and Murphy's law weather about to turn lousy !

Still a decent amount of Bramble in bud and bees all over the flowers.

 

[kazmcc]

Introduced my first queen today

 

[Helen]

Have a long Q- colony which was hatching drones on a couple of frames. Erratic pattern, so thought laying workers. Got a nice new queen, and popped her into my introduction cage (a slightly extended super with wire mesh covering the face, with emerging brood in the frame).

Looked through the colony, just to make sure no eggs or sign of a queen. Nope. I am pretty good at spotting queens and eggs, but didn't spot anything. Shook the colony out over the other side of the garden, popped the cage into the centre of the hive and waited for the bees to return, which they did. But not all of them. Went over to check, and the bees were walking circles around the sheet, with a blob of bees in the middle. I poked it a bit, and at the bottom was a queen! Damn. Where did she come from? Caught her in a cage, and brought her inside. Hopefully the other bees will return to the hive when they get bored.

So, drone-laying queen? Do they lay erratically? Popped her into a small queenless nuc to see what happens.

 

[madasafish]

Humid 24C at 4pm - near high for the year.

Association apiary in am - feeding/ rearranging for winter.
Fed Keiler Mini nuc this pm. Admired bees with white stripes - I wonder what causes that? (Joke in bad taste - see queries ).

Bees very busy before rain next week.. still feeding.

Awful year.. (gin helps )

 

[Mrs Webmuppet]

Checked two of my hives. Still can't work out what's going on with either. They don't appear to have laying queens and haven't had for quite some time .

One of them since the end of June has been queen less,despite repeated attempts at getting them to raise queen, so far they have destroyed one queen cell, raised a drone layer (now deceased) , failed to produce a queen cell from eggs pinched from another hive, then finally they came up with a rather small queen cell. And yes I have added young bees from another hive to help with the queen raising. Today in a last ditch attempt to see if there's a queen I have added a test frame of eggs and some young bees. If they raise a queen cell, then they will be united with another hive and the cell destroyed. If they don't raise a queen cell I suppose I will have to be more patient.

The other hive didn't raise a queen cell from the test frame I put in last week so I have to assume there's a queen in there somewhere (my mentor came over last weekend and went through both hives and was unable to find a queen in either.....) .

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Introduced my first queen today

..... which was my third!

I needed to requeen one of the colonies on the roof of Manchester Cathedral which had become aggressive - or, more accurately, highly proactively defensive! As I generally have to inspect alone - or with a volunteer from our award-winning programme for the unemployed (Volition), I was reluctant to inspect them.

It was further complicated by the fact that the lead roof is being replaced about 20 yards from the hives! So, a week ago - Wednesday morning - I got a mate to accompany me in a full inspection, to decide whether to requeen or cull (removing them from the roof isn't an option).

We decided they were salvageable and squished the queen. I went back 5 hours later to remove a second brood box - and the little beggars were waiting for me! Made my life hell while I did that and moved the box and frames off the roof. They were not happy! I was glad to get off the roof.........

......... but 10 minutes later they found the roofers and stung a couple of them!
Cost me half a dozen jars of my own honey, that did, when we went back this Wednesday to knock down the queen cells. They nearly walked off the site! (The roofers, not the bees.)

Anyhow, armed with one of Hivemaster's finest, Kaz and I went up and introduced the new queen. I feel confident that they will take to her, as Kaz gave them a real stern talking-to. Mind you, they were more subdued today.

I'll be back on Monday to remove the tab from the cage. I'll let you know....


Thanks, Kaz. Your company was well worth the tea and cake afterwards.

Dusty

 

[kazmcc]

..... which was my third!

I needed to requeen one of the colonies on the roof of Manchester Cathedral which had become aggressive - or, more accurately, highly proactively defensive! As I generally have to inspect alone - or with a volunteer from our award-winning programme for the unemployed (Volition), I was reluctant to inspect them.

It was further complicated by the fact that the lead roof is being replaced about 20 yards from the hives! So, a week ago - Wednesday morning - I got a mate to accompany me in a full inspection, to decide whether to requeen or cull (removing them from the roof isn't an option).

We decided they were salvageable and squished the queen. I went back 5 hours later to remove a second brood box - and the little beggars were waiting for me! Made my life hell while I did that and moved the box and frames off the roof. They were not happy! I was glad to get off the roof.........

......... but 10 minutes later they found the roofers and stung a couple of them!
Cost me half a dozen jars of my own honey, that did, when we went back this Wednesday to knock down the queen cells. They nearly walked off the site! (The roofers, not the bees.)

Anyhow, armed with one of Hivemaster's finest, Kaz and I went up and introduced the new queen. I feel confident that they will take to her, as Kaz gave them a real stern talking-to. Mind you, they were more subdued today.

I'll be back on Monday to remove the tab from the cage. I'll let you know....


Thanks, Kaz. Your company was well worth the tea and cake afterwards.

Dusty

It was my pleasure! You have to know how to speak to them. I think the fact that it is coming from a fellow woman helps, girl power and all that

My pictures came out if you would like to see them. I always thought that tales of bees disliking phones was a load of old bee poo. Apparently not.

It was lovely to see the apiary after hearing so much about it, and now I can add queen introduction to my list, so thank you. They didn't seem to be showing any aggression towards the cage so that has to be a good sign. I can't wait to see if they take her.

Thank you