What did you do in the Apiary today?

[kazmcc]

Hardly ever use smoke, only to shift them off the edges of the boxes when putting them back on. Does a blast of smoke in the entrance before inspecting even do anything?

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Final extraction for 2015 all done!
Really hate that job. Now just need to find homes for it all........

Just waiting for a break in the weather to pull the tabs on two new queens still in their cages. It's been persisting down for days. Then I need to put varroa treatments on the last 5 hives that need it and things should finally calm down a bit!

 

[For want of a better word]

Final extraction for 2015 all done!
Really hate that job. Now just need to find homes for it all........

Just waiting for a break in the weather to pull the tabs on two new queens still in their cages. It's been persisting down for days. Then I need to put varroa treatments on the last 5 hives that need it and things should finally calm down a bit!

OMG... we have not even started yet!!

Yeghes da

 

[Firefly]

Thymol on. Apiguard and Apilife Var. I did not show the bees what they are getting and there are 2 hives with each product, so that's a double blind trial

 

[Jimmys Mum]

OMG... we have not even started yet!!

Yeghes da

Yes it's the earliest I've done it too. But the remaining supers were steadily getting lighter not heavier I've had a good harvest this season so I reckon they can keep anything still due to come in

 

[Thymallus]

Yesterday I moved a weak Nuc that was being badly robbed from one site and hid away in secluded corner in my back garden. Only to find the bees at home apiary have found them this afternoon and started robbing them. It was mayhem, wasps and bees free for all.
Now moved them to an isolated site and would you bloody believe it, what did I find but a ruddy feral colony in a hollow tree in a nearby wood (within a few 100 yards). Just hope their paths don't cross. Just about out of places to move them to if they do....

 

[For want of a better word]

Foam them in..... Hivemaker's recipe!!!

Yeghes da

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Yesterday I moved a weak Nuc that was being badly robbed from one site and hid away in secluded corner in my back garden. Only to find the bees at home apiary have found them this afternoon and started robbing them. It was mayhem, wasps and bees free for all.
Now moved them to an isolated site and would you bloody believe it, what did I find but a ruddy feral colony in a hollow tree in a nearby wood (within a few 100 yards). Just hope their paths don't cross. Just about out of places to move them to if they do....

Don't worry; there's no such thing so relax, you're just seeing things.

 

[Tremyfro]

Finally...a day that bees could be looked at....after all the rainy days!
Feeding all round for the smaller colonies...each one had some stores this time....but not enough. Lots of brood seen in all the colonies. The nuc is still on 2 frames of brood....the queen is a slow layer,I think, and that might be why they decided to superceed her. If she doesn't buck up her ideas....I will have to combine with another colony as I don't think it will survive the winter...still some weeks before having to make that decision though.....thankfully.
The superceedure colony now have a new laying queen...2 frames so far but looking good. She was hiding today so as yet unmarked.
Over at the Pond apiary...my stack has 11 frames of brood....some stores in the brood boxes and about 7+ frames in the supers....they keep filling them...then eating it! They have found the HB and very busy today.
The double decker nuc over there has an empty queen cell...just one and opened from the side...so not sure if a superceedure is going on or not.....I didn't see an unmarked queen but I did see the original queen in there...she was busy laying. Time will tell.

 

[nantmoel]

I fed two colonies that we moved to a new apiary just over a week ago, they seemed to be working fine, one is a suicide hive, they kill a Buckfast we introduced after a month (she was laying really well), then raised their own queen, she went missing after another month, she also was laying well. When we looked at them on Monday evening there were queen cells just about ready to emerge. We will just have to see what happen.

 

[BrianO]

Opened Double Brood colony, huge amount bees and loads BIAS
Slowly filling super

Opened Polynuc, previously couldn't find queen...

At last got her , clipped and marked.

All 9 hives now with clipped and marked 2015 queens .... Ready for domination of the World honey market next year !!!

 

[nantmoel]

Sat by a hive and killed a load of wasps! Then made up some jam and water in a jar and placed it under the hive - there were 6 wasps in there in less than 2mins.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Sat by a hive and killed a load of wasps! Then made up some jam and water in a jar and placed it under the hive - there were 6 wasps in there in less than 2mins.

Well done - just built yourself the perfect wasp magnet (not really what you want in an apiary )

 

[Erichalfbee]

Sat by a hive and killed a load of wasps! Then made up some jam and water in a jar and placed it under the hive - there were 6 wasps in there in less than 2mins.

Agree with JBM
All you will do is attract more wasps.
Have a good read of the beekeeping link on the Waspbane site.
Once you understand how wasps behave once they start sweet feeding you would realise what a daft thing you have just done.

 

[Tremyfro]

I have to say that I have read all I can find on wasps and their feeding habits. Followed the advice to the letter....still heavy invasion of wasps. All around the hives...trying their luck. So far the bees are seeing them off. Entrances are down to a nub. Which is making it difficult for the bees as we have a little flow on here...when weather permits. Not just in my Bee Yard but in the house...next door...all our friends. All my traps are well away from the hives...but there are so many wasps that they still get as far as the hives.

 

[Erichalfbee]

My Waspbane traps are placed at each hive entrance.
My hives are all in a line with the prevailing wind going along them so that there is more or less a single plume of honey scent.
The only trap with any significant numbers of wasps is the one most downwind.
Little actual wasp activity at the entrances
So far so good

 

[Tremyfro]

My Waspbane traps are placed at each hive entrance.
My hives are all in a line with the prevailing wind going along them so that there is more or less a single plume of honey scent.
The only trap with any significant numbers of wasps is the one most downwind.
Little actual wasp activity at the entrances
So far so good

Ha ha ...the wind changes direction from hour to hour here! So mine are along the fence line...the wind has to travel along this direction. It's strange...some days the wasps are really bad ...other days only a few. I think it's just a really bad year for bees and wasps alike. The foraging has been very poor...temperatures low...rain...wind etc. the weather today is windy but warmer and sunny...the bees are out in force on the HB.
I see wasps around the hives but very few are at the entrances.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

2nd week of Apilife Var and queens seem to have all gone off brood. Sufficient stores in all while still leaving plenty of space for baby bees should the queens get back in the mood.

Returned one super box of unripe/crystallised stores underneath a brood box for the first time, never had much joy returning them on top so will follow the lead of others here and remove it, hopefully clean, in the spring.

 

[Tremyfro]

2nd week of Apilife Var and queens seem to have all gone off brood. Sufficient stores in all while still leaving plenty of space for baby bees should the queens get back in the mood.

Returned one super box of unripe/crystallised stores underneath a brood box for the first time, never had much joy returning them on top so will follow the lead of others here and remove it, hopefully clean, in the spring.

When I nadired a half brood box with some stores last year...by the time I could open the hive...the queen had already laid up 5 frames!

 

[kazmcc]

A very enjoyable afternoon at Dusty's house, inspecting the bees. Arran took sick, so we left him on the sofa in charge of the remote while we sneaked off to do the bees.

I inspected both hives today. It was one of those days where everything is going well and the bees behaved perfectly. Hive 2, you wouldn't even have guessed we had opened them they were that quiet!

Lots of balsam coming in, lots of balsam bees waggle dancing. Good times