What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Roola]

Had a look through a couple of colonies after returning them from heather, loads of bees and a good quantity of heather honey in a thick arc. However no brood at all and alot of empty cells in centre of nest where last brood has emerged. This year queens, Gallon of syrup with thymol fed.

I'm the same Snelgrove, i'm only trickle feeding as concerned they'll fill up all those nice polished cells before/if queen gets laying!

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Sunny this afternoon. Clouds of bees around the hives and some of the ivy buds are opening. There are a few bees investigating the ivy but the major interest seems to be the coralberry bushes which are heaving with bees.

 

[Fatbee]

Watched lots of noisy drones buzzing about hive entrance today - being evicted methinks - amazed they're still about.

 

[beeno]

Watched lots of noisy drones buzzing about hive entrance today - being evicted methinks - amazed they're still about.

Got a bit of drone brood in one hive! Better add with queen and brood.

 

[dpearce4]

massive flow on so took out lots of full frames and added empty ones. actually got some honey now lol

 

[Marton]

The colony I had on the heather lost its queen there and had a virgin emerge. I don't think it swarmed as its still loaded with bees.

I thought I'd give her till today to mate and she's done it.

Loads of eggs there today in a nice pattern and at the base of the cell which saved me from plan A. Finding her and quashing to combine with another colony.

3 good sized colonies to take into winter.


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[TryingToLetThemBee]

Strong flow. Put a half-super on my heaviest hive. I expect screams, but I am learning and it is an experiment. The forecast is excellent and something (not ivy) is flowing.

 

[nantmoel]

Had a peek into two hives today one a Nuc to confirm what we thought a week ago is definitely queen less and the other which all summer has been hell bent on removing every queen they have either produced themselves or the one we introduce is also queen less. The Nuc will be combined with a hive that has only had a mated queen for about 3 weeks, the hive that has kept removing the queen is still in limbo (is it worth the risk of a unite). I had a look into the supers on 3 other hives and there is definitely a flow on, HB still in flower here and the Ivy is bursting into flower, we have are experiencing the best weather we have had all year.

 

[dpearce4]

massive flow on here so added supers to 20 hives, but fed 14, makes no sense.

 

[Tom Jay]

Well it was Friday last.
I discovered a very late mated queen is laying quite well!
I had given these queenless bees a frame of brood with eggs on 13th August. They made four emergency queen cells and I cut off three on 21st August.
Then such a long wait!
Now a smallish area of brood on four frames with new laid eggs, and they're stacking in the pollen.
Limited honey store so I am feeding them thick syrup, while they are on the ivy too.

What are my changes of a colony with so few young bees surviving the winter?

 

[Obee1]

I made a hive cosy prototype from my mountain of freebie insulation. As it is destined to live on the garden hive that is completely sheltered it won't be exposed to much wind. Therefore I only bamboo skewered and silver foil taped it. No glue used. Reason being I have no storage space for it after winter. I plan to slice through the tape/ skewers to be able to store it as flat sheets over summer. As I said its a prototype!
As for my big bucky hive - also in the garden- I never got round to feeding them as they found a supply of HB. Double brood set up and I keep having to remove full frames of honey to give them more storage space. They drew two sheets of comb from foundation in the past 5 days.
Off to Caerphilly mountain hives (3) this morning to continue vaping schedule and check feeders. Hope it's not too windy to light smoker this time!
Weather has been lovely here for the past few days.

 

[Somerford]

re feeding

massive flow on here so added supers to 20 hives, but fed 14, makes no sense.

So do you buy in the feed or make it yourself dpearce ? What volume do you make to feed 34 colonies out if interest ?
I've used a bulk amount of Maismore Ambrosia thick pre mixed syrup this season omg so much easier than making my own and less water in it which the bees seem to love.

 

[Itchy]

It needs to be airtight Obee1
And should stay on all year

 

[dpearce4]

So do you buy in the feed or make it yourself dpearce ? What volume do you make to feed 34 colonies out if interest ?
I've used a bulk amount of Maismore Ambrosia thick pre mixed syrup this season omg so much easier than making my own and less water in it which the bees seem to love.

Make it myself. I have 2 20l pans can mix up 30kg of sugar at a time. then take it up in 5l containers as easier to carry. I bought my sugar at lidl 300kg at 39p per kg got some very strange looks pushing 3 trollies full of sugar. makes those invert syrups a tad expensive.

I did think about contacting them to see if they would give me a discount for the amount I was buying.

I bring the water to the boil, pour in 15kg of sugar, give it a good stir and turn the gas off. go back 5mins later and give it another stir. job done.

make my own fondant to.

 

[Obee1]

I went to check my caerphilly hives. Good job I did. Hive one - the one with a local Welsh queen was left with a full brood box of honey above them a few weeks ago. Enough to last through winter. They had eaten the lot and worse still no brood atall. Or maybe they got robbed. There are loads of wasps there. Both boxes full of bees. 19 seams in all but not able to spot queen. No idea if they are queenless or she stopped laying as no forage up there.
The other two hives are smaller - single brood boxes. Both were fed a few litres a week ago. One had 8 seams of bees with three of brood. The other 7 seams bees with 2 of brood. Fed all three hives but will need to return in a day or two to top up. Reduced all entrances to a few bee spaces. There are at least 18 other hives on this site and it's rather cold and windy being on a mountainside- so I assume there is nothing for them to forage. Sooner I move them to a new site the better.

 

[BrianO]

Removed MAQS ( half doseage ) fed Nucs with syrup and nadired wet supers for cleaning.... and copped 2 stings to inside of one wrist.... Soooo Sore.

Got used to odd sting but this has to be one of the sorest places to get stung.

****** glove slipped down and bang in they got... Serves me right

 

[B+.]

Got used to odd sting but this has to be one of the sorest places to get stung.

I disagree: a sting on the tip of the finger, or, directly into a joint (e.g. knuckle) has to hurt more. Come to think of it, they all hurt.

 

[nantmoel]

I disagree: a sting on the tip of the finger, or, directly into a joint (e.g. knuckle) has to hurt more. Come to think of it, they all hurt.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I disagree: a sting on the tip of the finger, or, directly into a joint (e.g. knuckle) has to hurt more. Come to think of it, they all hurt.

They're all equal but some are more equal than others

 

[Cussword]

I disagree: a sting on the tip of the finger

And that's exactly what happened, blocked the entrance with a towel while sublimating. Removing the towel I was stung right on the tip of my index finger.

I said,,,, "Oh Dear"