What did you do in the Apiary today?

[pargyle]

I was waiting for that

Might as well go the whole hog and go barefoot !

Strangely, my bees are not generally that interested in getting inside my cuffs - either wrists or ankles .. but I have a beekeeping friend whose bees are a bloody nightmare with cuffs ... they go straight for wrists and ankles - standard practice at his apiary is duct tape round both ! Is it learned behaviour do you think ?

 

[drex]

Did my last unite. Was going to use the spare queen to re queen a feisty colony, but when I took the crown board off the first BB the bees were up in my face. No queen, no unsealed larvae, and just a few sealed . No sign of any old queen cells. No sign of a virgin, so just did a straight unite , as am away for a while again now. I had taken off my crop two weeks ago, and there were adequate stores left then. Today stores were very low in most of my hives, so I gave them all half a gallon of strong syrup, starting apiguard at the same time. It has been a funny year all round for queens. No idea what happened to this one, she was a 2015 queen and laying well

 

[Tom Jay]

I did nothing, but passing by I heard that wonderful "hmmmm" of busyness on a honey flow forage day in the warm sunshine! - Missed that most of the summer!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Went out the back now and could clearly smell the honey in the hives - about 200 or so yards away!

 

[Obee1]

Try slippers, the leather moccasin type, much more comfortable in warm weather.

Reminds me of the time I nipped out to the garden hives in my slip on slippers that have a fluffy band of fake fur across the instep. I teamed the ensemble with flared jeans. Back inside became aware of loud buzzing. About half a dozen bees had got caught in the fake fur hidden under the jeans and we're getting very agitated as they tried to escape and fly up my trouser legs. Slippers were swiftly kicked off and out the front door pretty sharpish. Never worn slippers round the hives since

 

[Tremyfro]

Loud buzzing from my hives today...the girls are busy gathering in the autumn harvest. Such a pity they were denied it all summer!

 

[Goran]

Cold nights. Autumn crocus started to flower several days ago. I am mainly busy with preparing honey samples and afterward to sell 5-6 barrels of honey.. Honey money.. Just to don't spoil something and prize is here

 

[victor meldrew]

My neighbour has had his honey crop robbed out by wasps . I checked mine and one colony likewise .
I was only saying that the poor Summer has seen a decline in wasp numbers this year!
Spoke too soon .
I have put clearing boards on mine and will sort out capped/ripe frames and return unripe frames to the hives .
I usually do this at the apiary before clearing but with so many wasps about I don't want to create a robbing frenzy !
Never had to do this in 25 years , it's been a rum old year


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[Glenviewbee]

Bees from all 3 colonies were working in large numbers today - bright yellow pollen and also gunmetal greyish pollen going in. Bit of a jam at the entrances because they are reduced due to the wasps that are in evidence around the hives, but unable to get in due to good vigilence from the guard bees
We have just come to the end of a glorious 5 days of weather - was able to get the hay cut, dried and baled hooray - but now it is tipping down

 

[dutney]

Had the day off work.

Delivered my entries to this year's Essex Bee Keepers Association honey show which is at the Essex Country Show at Barleylands again this weekend. Fingers crossed!

Then spent most of the afternoon with a film crew who were shooting slow motion footage of bees coming and going from one of my hives. They wanted it for their new website. They were from a digital advertising agency called "Hiveworks".

 

[BrianO]

Strangely, my bees are not generally that interested in getting inside my cuffs - either wrists or ankles .. but I have a beekeeping friend whose bees are a bloody nightmare with cuffs ... they go straight for wrists and ankles - standard practice at his apiary is duct tape round both ! Is it learned behaviour do you think ?

I noticed my guys at that during season, but quickly found with the material sleeve on the gauntlet leather gloves they were homing in on previous sting pheromone , removal of stings and heavy smoking ( to wrist area of gloves .... Not me!!! . ) sorted that out.

 

[masterBK]

guys?

 

[Erichalfbee]

guys is unisex, these days.

 

[Hachi]

cleaned extractor ready for longterm storage until next year. Finished some more floors. Sealed my used supers wet ready for next year. Put all the cappings into english feeders to go back on the hives tomorrow.

 

[kazmcc]

Proper Manchester bee keeping, in the pouring rain. Bees still foraging, bringing in balsam. Even the Common carder bees were out foraging. Took the remaining supers, and gave them a feed. Hive 2 still need treating, still seeing the odd deformed wing and a high varroa drop, despite the MAQS. Didn't inspect the brood today as it was pouring down, but we had to do it today as Dusty is very busy. The bees were really well behaved, well, they do live in Manchester, so a bit of rain won't bother them lol

 

[victor meldrew]

After leaving the clearer boards over night , I removed the supers . I used one board with porter bee escapes ,the rest with rhombus escapes . There were many more bees left in the supers above the porters than the rhombi .
Hardly scientific but I'll convert my remaining boards bar one for use in awkward situations such as finding a colony has learned to re-enter supers .


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[jenkinsbrynmair]

I'll convert my remaining boards bar one for use in awkward situations such as finding a colony has learned to re-enter supers .

've left them on for quite a few days before now - not once have they found their way back through the rhombus escapes.

sent from my laptop - I ain't got one of them ipad thingies although I am progressing and now have one of them haemorrhoid phones

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

.

sent from my laptop - I ain't got one of them ipad thingies although I am progressing and now have one of them haemorrhoid phones

You're in for piles of trouble now, JBM!

Dusty

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Put clearing boards on all the home hives - quite a bit more on there than I expected, just a matter of seeing how much of it is heather now - realised a little after I finished that one colony was still a lot bigger than I thought - more bees stuffed in the underfloor entrance 'lobby' and bearding the whole front than was sensible so rushed back up and put an empty super on to give them more room - the whole of the underside of the clearer board wa stuffed with bees and the supers were still full. Clearing all the stragglers in the other apiaries on Monday when I've freed up some boards, looks like a busy couple of days extracting

 

[einsteinagogo]

It rained so put granulated supers into warming cabinet to deal with this years creamed honey.

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