What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Swarm]

Had the bee inspector round. An enjoyable inspection, even in the rain. Very good feedback, nice to know all are doing fine.

 

[tonybloke]

took off a super of honey, the new 'rhombus' clearer board worked well.

 

[Onge]

tonybloke how long did you leave the board on?

 

[tonybloke]

22 hrs, put on @ 3 pm yesterday, took off at 1 o'clock today, there were about a dozen bees still in the super.

 

[For want of a better word]

Pondered why the nest of bees removed from a 1st floor city maisonette cavity wall yesterday would not settle into my lovely old Robert Lee WBC hive... re housed them in a Th*rnes cedarwood National bought KD some time ago... just looks so ugly next to to other garden hives!

and they settled in nicely... and I glimpsed the yet to lay queen!!!
Guess they just prefer the angular lines as opposed to the old rose cottage look!!

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Looked in nuc with newly introduced queen. No sign of her or any eggs. Will leave for another week, but fearing the worst

Hive which may have lost a swarm now has a hatched QC. Will leave alone for a few weeks.

Nasty colony on the other hand breeding like rabbits, but don't seem to be getting the bunny temperament. May have a serious effort in a week or two to re-queen, but that does mean trying to find the unmarked bride of Satan.

 

[circe]

checked weak hive which has failed to successfully requeen itself. No polished cells, lots of stores, declining bee numbers - plan was to unite with another colony. But on exiting apiary found a decent cast (about 3 lbs of bees). What to do? No spare hive - so have united them to the weak hive spraying one and all with Honey bee healthy and water and it seems to have worked. No sign of fighting and before 30 minutes was out bees with pollen going in! Hope they stay, as most likely from my best hive which I left to requeen having removed the queen to keep at home safe in nuc colony - apparently they have managed to sneak an extra cell past me - They all seem rather orange and mine are mostly black - can't imagine a swarm from elswhere would just arrive and dangle about 2 metres from the hive at a very convenient height in a blackthorn bush!

 

[nonstandard]

I was going to transfer 1 colony from the last of my Smiths hives to a Nat 14x12 but have discovered my newly acquired eke is only 75mm deep so the frames hang out of the bottom of the brood box.
I feel an irate email to the supplier coming on.

 

[tonybloke]

can't you use a deep floor?

 

[tonybloke]

collected yet another swarm!

 

[madasafish]

Made my first wasp trap of the year..

 

[victor meldrew]

Cleared some weed from behind some hives and erected a stillage in order to site a storage chest
Bees were too busy to bother about me even though I must have been setting up vibrations dashing away with the delving spade !
I commenced wearing a simple veil but it became too warm so discarded it when I realised it wasn't necessary

VM

 

[Poly Hive]

Had a very interesting demo of temperment.

I have two very strong queenless nucs and whilst checking for the progress of the queencells I noted with great pleasure that they behaved impeccably. Sitting on the comb politely and ignoring me completely.

I checked a swarm I took some weeks ago and it too has progressed nicely but when I opened it there was a nasty note to the noise and they took off in clouds. That is one nuc that is going to be re-queened sharpish.

Their behaviour just underlined how good the first two nucs are.

PH

 

[Orpheus64]

I confirmed that I'm rubbish at spotting eggs... Two weeks ago I united two colonies. I had run the second colony as brood and a half for about 2 weeks but I did not see any brood in the 'half'. So when I united them I put a QE on the top brood box and put the super that was the 'half' on top. Inspected them thisd afternoon to find the super contained 3 frames of stores and 3.5 frames of sealed brood. The queen is definitely in the brood chamber though as there are eggs in there. Note to self..get eyes tested.

 

[madasafish]

One warre hive had warped board. At 8pm drilled 4 holes , countersunk holes and inserted and tightened 4 screws with power screwdriver. Bees did not move at all.. (very warm sunny evening .. bees in very good mood).

 

[AndyJThompson]

Added a 2nd super to our bought colony this year very pleaded with the progress, bees a bid on the aggressive side. We caught a swarm on the 15th of June today workers emerging from cells so hopefully see them build in strength and finish drawing out super.

 

[beestie]

Horror!

Here's a good reason why not to use frame feeders:

Inspected a hive that was made from a nuc 3 weeks ago. A nuc bought from a commercial seller in poor condition (a different story)

Fed using a frame feeder because of wasps (assumed, probably wrongly, that being in the brood chamber it would be easier to defend).

Last weeks inspection went well, plenty of comb being drawn, eggs, brood etc in good nick, brood expanding well and plenty of bees, so decided to super today.

Removed frame feeder, noticed that it was still half full, but plenty of drowned bees (and a few wasps) inside, set to one side and continued with inspection. Hatched cells did not appear to have been replaced with more eggs, but perhaps there hadn't been time. HM not in evidence, but reassembled and supered anyway.

Went back to frame feeder, and to my horror saw a long black bee struggling along the wooden plank floating on the syrup. The Queen !
Must have been there a few days as she was completely black and soaked in syrup. Managed to get her to crawl onto a blade of grass and carried her back to the hive entrance. She was immediately attended by half a dozen workers, cleaning and coaxing her back inside the hive entrance. Back at the frame feeder, a dozen workers were fanning, presumably unaware that the queen had been removed and was back in the hive.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? Will she survive, and if so will she be any good? My instinct is to leave things for a week and look again next weekend. If eggs, leave alone; if not, or queen cells under construction, introduce a new mated queen pronto. I'd hate to squash her after that experience, but perhaps it would be kinder, or in any case better practice. She really was black, no hairs at all visible, but perhaps she will recover after a clean-up. Ran for the camera but they had her inside before I could get a pic. (I know, I know, keep one with you...)
Any thoughts?

 

[RosieMc]

Used my giant magnifying glass for the first time - NOW I can see the eggs

 

[Swarm]

I'd considered frame feeders for nucs but this has changed my mind. I reckon she will be cleaned up and none the worse for her experience. I hope so.

 

[nonstandard]

I was going to transfer 1 colony from the last of my Smiths hives to a Nat 14x12 but have discovered my newly acquired eke is only 75mm deep so the frames hang out of the bottom of the brood box.
I feel an irate email to the supplier coming on.

can't you use a deep floor?

I could, but it sort of limits moving the brood box, I cant set it down anywhere if I needed to; besides I paid for 14x12 ekes and I have some ekes that don't do the job.

I am going to do a temporary job with a couple of supers tomorrow until I can get the ekes replaced.