What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Swarm]

Beautiful day for it!
Things are getting a bit silly with with colony 2, five supers, hive as tall as me so put a clearer board on. The supers are packed with honey and bees and I'm beginning to worry about the stand. While they were off, began to go through the BB and there she was, a new queen happily laying away. The wife was quite upset that 'Sapphire' (last years queen) had been superseded. So we now have a nice big light queen named .. Solitaire

Colony 1 were not too bad today until a few frames into the brood, then they were more like the headbangers they've been lately. All in all, looking ok with 3 supers almost fully capped.

The Snelgrove experiment with colony 3 has turned out very good, with a fairly big colony drawing and filling frames well and a nuc that is bursting at the seams waiting to be inspected before selling.

I've grown a bit attached to my other nuc. Almost starved in May, recovered. Bothered by wasps, sorted. Still small but growing and very quiet.

Sat back later with a Cidre, very nice.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Had a quick look in the only super i have on at the moment - nearly full so put another one on above the brood. Bees are foraging flat out at the moment so fingers crossed they won't be long sorting this one out

 

[YorkshireBees]

Made up 3 more supers worth of frames in anticipation of my inspections. Planned my new out apiary gardening session prior to moving some colonies to the site.

 

[TJSnapper]

Arrivred home from 5 days in Finland and straight on with the bee kit and off to the hives. Pleased to report that all 4 queens are laying well and each hive hads expanded into 3 more frames in their respective brood boxes. Not a queen cell in sight, which is a great relief considering all the swarms we have had this year. Couple of supers full as well which is pleasing.

 

[Skyhook]

Having not managed to find either of my new queens until now managed to find, cage and mark both of them. Didn't find the queen in my swarm but didn't try too hard as that wasn't important- however found she is laying solid 14 x 12 rectangles!

All in all a good day.

 

[tonybloke]

watched as my student beekeeper transferred a 5 frame nuc into a full-size commercial brood box.

 

[kighill]

What did you do in the Apiary Today.

Ran out of equipment. Despite making up 40 brood frames only two days ago used the lot during manipulations.

Have now made up another 25 brood frames for further manipulations. Moving on some bees to free up some equipment.

 

[tonybloke]

Ran out of equipment.

oops!!

 

[TOBY-3652]

Collected another swarm and ran out of equipment started year with 3 colonies now got six 2011 queens laying 3 large colonies 4 swarms. 3 of these laying and one lot of bees out of a tree no queen

 

[Teemore]

Hived a nice prime swarm on Saturday and like some of the previous posters i now need to spend an evening making up some more deep frames..... Seems to be a bit of a flow developing so I'll be adding supers to a couple of hives in the next day or two.

 

[tonybloke]

had a queen hatch in my hand, and walk around on my arm, that's a first for me!

 

[chickendave]

Pull a queen today (that sound sa bit strange if taken out of context) and collected another swarm five in seven days starting to run out of equipment so I hope it starts to slow down now

 

[YorkshireBees]

Moved 2 hives from home apiary to out apiary on Sunday night. Not ideal as less than 3 miles but had to be done as the neighbor was having problems in his veg garden the otherside of the wall!
Placed old crown boards lent against the front of the hives to try and convince then to re-orientate themselves.
Checked yesterday at the home apiary, where one hive was any bees that had found their way back seemed to be very quickly joining a hive 2m away (ie no obvious mass return or problems). On the site where the 2nd hive was I would estimate approx 100 bees buzzing about confused and on closer inspection I would say that 80-90% of those bees are drones!
Checked on the hives in the out apiary and lots of activity, bees doing orientation flights etc.

Reasonably pleased with the result, will wait another week or so and then move 2 more hives!

 

[drstitson]

"on closer inspection I would say that 80-90% of those bees are drones!"

1. drones fly further from home than workers.
2. obviously plenty of forage close to new site.

 

[witchcraft]

Went to see my new swarm in their hive, All drawn with eggs and young larvae. I saw the queen too (unmarked) and added a super after watching the queen and multiple waggle dances. The new girls are so much nicer than the stroppy bunch in my purchased colony but they have raised my two supers of honey so far this year so I forgive them a bit

Mark

 

[YorkshireBees]

"on closer inspection I would say that 80-90% of those bees are drones!"

1. drones fly further from home than workers.
2. obviously plenty of forage close to new site.

Thank you, mystery solved then

I did check which way the bees from the hives already on the new site were flying to have an idea where the nearest forage would be and it was in the opposite direction to the old site.

 

[TOBY-3652]

Checked bees queen in largest hive just started laying after last queen died. Checked a swarm that ive had for 2 weeks and the bbbb bees have swarmed 1 unsealed q cell left. I suppose im lucky theres still half the bees left

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Set up lure hive in garden on the off chance that if I do lose a swarm they end up there

 

[tonybloke]

checked on a nuc, found a lot of drone brood amongst some worker brood. I'll leave her another week to see if she starts to lay properly.

 

[madasafish]

Temperature dropping, horrible forecast, restarted feeding - in between showers..