What did you do in the Apiary today?

[SiOakleaf]

Hi, another option for roof covering is epdm. A piece large enough for a roof is under £10 and easy to fit to apex or flat. It is available by the mtr if you have a few hives.

 

[BeeJayBee]

......

Probably not really important, but masterBK's post was the 15,000th in this thread.

 

[B+.]

masterBK's post was the 15,000th in this thread.

What does he win?

 

[user 6228]

We have some roofing felt....but OH has said it will make the roof heavier....so opted for the marine ply. .

So funny ....

Marine plywood is about twice the density of ordinary....
paint the plywood with epoxy instead with a sheet of 0.5 ally on top

 

[Tremyfro]

So funny ....

Marine plywood is about twice the density of ordinary....
paint the plywood with epoxy instead with a sheet of 0.5 ally on top

Stop laughing..right now.....I got it wrong...just found out it is exterior ply! It's going to be painted for now but I can see OH keeps eyeing up the roll of roofing felt......bet he ends up putting it on.....

 

[Helen]

...just found out it is exterior ply!

Same as mine then. Mine lasted a year before needing to be replaced. I like the idea of rubber sheeting. I am having a flat roof built soon with rubber sheeting .... I may have enough spare for the 2 hives.

 

[Tremyfro]

OH is going to cover it I think. I expect he will use some of the roofing felt since we already have it...actually I have just lifted it up...it's light so I think with the added weight of the felt....should be ok. Just started raining again! Still the bees have had a good day in the sunshine.
PS. What is epdm

 

[Goran]

First round of nosema prevention ended.. Next shorter one end of Sept, beginning of October..
Still very warm..

 

[Tremyfro]

A beautiful day here...bright warm sunshine...light breeze .....except for the hour that I wanted to do colony inspections!!!! Then the heavens opened and the rain lashed down! Luckily it soon stopped and I was able to continue.
Fed 2 small colonies...managed to inspect 3 more...all doing well...so didn't need to feed...lots of bees in them. Still have wasps circulating the hives but the girls are holding them off.
Managed to get some more paint on my Dartington hive. A few more coats and it can go outside. Then the pleasurable part....choosing which colony to be moved into it...

 

[For want of a better word]

Fatigue,,, spent four hours beating in against the wind on a rising tide around Rame Head. crew of three in a Wayfairer... one constantly manning the bilge. picked up a mooring in the Lee at Cawsands... Excalliber towed us back to Saltash.... fish & chips and a couple of pints of Trelawney, SWMBO picked us up... saying she was not worried at all!!!


sorry wrong forum. !!!


Forgot smoker, set two colonies up with feeders and Apiguard ekes.... merged another two.... Gardener found some of the last of the years cider.... Mr Boss, Gardiner and meself finished it off. Black bees sang Trelawney... well hummed it as the girls can not ever remember the words!

Must try and find time for a hobby!!!

Yeghes da

 

[theeggman]

PS. What is epdm

EPDM is a "cheaper" version of rubber pond liner, from our experience it doesn't last as long in sunlight, but is keeping the water in the pond though, we hope.

There must be an expert on this forum to point us all in the right direction, NOT meant to be 'sarky' just after expert opinions.

 

[Tremyfro]

EPDM is a "cheaper" version of rubber pond liner, from our experience it doesn't last as long in sunlight, but is keeping the water in the pond though, we hope.

There must be an expert on this forum to point us all in the right direction, NOT meant to be 'sarky' just after expert opinions.

Ah...right...thought it might be something like that. ATM the roof is on my kitchen table ...still being painted! Thank you for the suggestion.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

checked last of the queens awaiting mating - all now laying bar one nuc which has a laying worker so shook out,one of my old yellow queen's daughters unfortunately, so I'll have to settle for three successors one of which I had to put into a full hive today as it's absolutely bursting with bees. Quick sort out of supers in readiness for the last extraction run which I think I'll delay for a week as they are shovelling it in at the moment (a bit of consolation for the load they took back down during that wet fortnight)Still loads of drones around.

 

[SiOakleaf]

EPDM is a "cheaper" version of rubber pond liner, from our experience it doesn't last as long in sunlight, but is keeping the water in the pond though, we hope.

There must be an expert on this forum to point us all in the right direction, NOT meant to be 'sarky' just after expert opinions.

EPDM is usually guaranteed for 5 years and over as a roof covering, widely available and cheap enough to cover things or use as a pond liner. I have it for both purposes, used as a koi pond liner in my 4000ltr pond and covers my chicken coop and smaller shed. It is excellent stuff as long as you buy the right quality, 1.5mm and thicker is best.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yesterday
Last queen to mate/not mate is drone layer..........that's three now
Couldn't find her so have sieved the colony with brood on top and will go look later today with a brolly.
This season sure is challenging with little reward!!!!!

 

[Tremyfro]

Yesterday
Last queen to mate/not mate is drone layer..........that's three now
Couldn't find her so have sieved the colony with brood on top and will go look later today with a brolly.
This season sure is challenging with little reward!!!!!

Awww...that's such bad luck. I hope I am done now with getting queens mated/laying. My last one has 2 frames edge to edge of BIAS on its second round. I gave her another comb but so far she has shunned it. You would think she would lay it up! Fed them again yesterday. I'm off to buy more sugar today!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Yesterday
Last queen to mate/not mate is drone layer..........that's three now
Couldn't find her so have sieved the colony with brood on top and will go look later today with a brolly.
This season sure is challenging with little reward!!!!!

Going by brood patterns all of my failures seem to be lost queens/ laying workers rather than DLQ

 

[Erichalfbee]

Well, you know this is a strange one.
I couldn't find her yesterday.....or on any previous occasions. There are single eggs in cells.
There are two queen cells in the making at the edge of the brood nest.
I defrosted an old queen and pinned her to the top bars while I got on with other stuff. When I went back she was not being attacked by a queen as I hoped but was surrounded by bees grooming her and investigating her with their proboscis.
So...there is a queen but her bees are obviously unhappy with her.
If I fail to find her today, having left just the two frames in the bottom box under the excluder I will shake these out and proceed to unite the remainder with a swarm doing well.
We'll see.

 

[pargyle]

Went through all six hives ... loads of BIAS in all the brood boxes but woefully short on stores in there.. enough for this week but they are clearly eating into it. The capped supers are still largely capped and not a lot of stores gone from them so they must be holding their own.

I didn't start inspecting until nearly 5.00pm - was still sunny and warm .. first five hives were lovely to handle .. lots of bees but really nicely behaved.

Last one I inspected has three supers of capped honey and three frames of honey in the brood box ... all was going well until I got to the brood, two frames of wall to wall capped brood in - still three to lift ... then they decided they had had enough ... took a dozen stings to my arms (through my suit so not too bad - I only had a t-shirt so bare arms under the sleeves) and I decided it was time to let them get on with it as all looked good. Put it back together and retreated ... enough is enough .. by the time I'd collected my kit and got back inside it had clouded over and was starting to rain ... perhaps they knew ?

Forecast is not good for the next week again so I'm leaving the supers on ... might have to feed the compost bin cut out although they seemed pretty up together but not a lot of stores in there.

My garden Ivy is now in bud but it's weeks off opening yet ...

It's not easy is it ?

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Went through all six hives ...

Dang, Philip; you're three beekeepers!