What did you do in the Apiary today?

[victor meldrew]

I agree Heidi


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[gregior]

Watched the bees bringing in huge amounts of pollen-spring has finally sprung!

 

[Fatbee]

Dense fog first thing so no trouble blocking up entrance (not a bee in sight) strapping up and shifting to new apiary site. Fairly relaxed hum coming from inside so the 20 min journey doesn't appear to have unsettled them too much
Pleased that have seen all colonies flying in numbers over the weekend.

 

[nantmoel]

I'm sure trust in the magic twigs will be sufficient

Used the magic twigs, they seem to be fine. Moved them about 600 yards after to where there used to be an apiary before, really nice place its even got a picnic table.

 

[Tom Jay]

... and yellow flowers similar to dandelion.

I'm guessing coltsfoot. A bit smaller and flatter than a dandelion flower, with as yet no leaves at all to the plant? That's out here, and the book tells me it's a useful early source of both nectar and pollen.

 

[victor meldrew]

Been down the apiary , all occupied hives are very busy, whacking pollen in . One colony had never so much as looked at their fondant over Winter , I removed it the other day , rapped the hive , no sound , one bee wandered out onto the crown board , I ushered it back with my finger . Crown board was cool to touch ,I thought something wrong here !
Particularly as the other hives were flying strong .
However ,today it was as strong as the rest of the hives



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Cb50]

Added fondant to all four. Good to see activity.

Pollen coming in.

Move apiary in winter so good to see they are not going back to old site.

 

[linoleum bonypart]

Well Wales is the warmest today

 

[victor meldrew]

Could be embarrassment


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[masterBK]

Visited out-apiary (1st visit since putting on woodpecker netting in january) to do a bit of hefting and superficial checking. No losses and all 29 colonies were flying well today and level of stores seem OK for time of year apart from three colonies which were a little light (although not on verge of starvation) so gave them some fondant (only third time I have ever needed to feed fondant in my 57 yrs of keeping bees).

 

[nantmoel]

Sown over 200 'Borage Seeds' in the greenhouse just to make our out apiary look a little better come early summer. Also saw the first drone of the year, I did pick it off a hive, I was going to take a picture but my hands were far too dirty.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Dismantled a nearly dead hive and put survivors into a two frame poly nuc.
Hopeless but I couldn't bring myself to just leave them

 

[mbc]

SWMBO's going there in May - my treat is that I'm staying here

Lol. Difficult to beat a nice week in may in God's own country.

 

[Goran]

Plums in bloom, even some wild cherries start to open flowers. Bees are in the hives since it is pretty cold..
One colony I told will go, gone..

For about 2 weeks will come some buyers for colonies..

 

[B+.]

Sown over 200 'Borage Seeds' in the greenhouse just to make our out apiary look a little better come early summer.

Once you have borage, you should never be without it. It spreads everywhere.
Now all you need is a glass of Pimms, ice and a sunny day

 

[beeno]

Sown over 200 'Borage Seeds' in the greenhouse just to make our out apiary look a little better come early summer. Also saw the first drone of the year, I did pick it off a hive, I was going to take a picture but my hands were far too dirty.

Do let us know how you come by this drone in due course i.e. overwintered, this year's early crop or a drone laying queen.

 

[snelgrove]

Removed mouseguards and cleaned some floors where dead bees where blocking the mouseguards. First really good bee flying day, loads of pollen being brought in. Saw several queen bumble bees.
On the whole the they seem in fine fettle, next few weeks will weed out the failures

 

[nantmoel]

Do let us know how you come by this drone in due course i.e. overwintered, this year's early crop or a drone laying queen.

I would have thought it was an over wintered on to be honest, I have not looked into any of out hives so I don't know if the queen is laying, loads of pollen going in mind.

 

[B+.]

On the whole the they seem in fine fettle, next few weeks will weed out the failures

I swapped the floors and put in the sticky plastic under the floor to start monitoring varroa. The weakest of mine covered 6 Langstroth combs. The others were on 12 or 13. There were only a handful of dead bees on the omf so they over-wintered pretty well. They're all still quite heavy.

 

[Glenviewbee]

Watched bright yellow pollen and deep orange pollen being brought in to all 3 hives this afternoon. Took the roof off one hive to discover a sleepy queen wasp wandering around - gave her some encouragement to leave. Didn't disturb any of the hives any further.
The last few days have been beautiful down here in West COrnwall - makes a change from what has felt like an interminable period of wet, windy weather. We lost our top barn in Storm Imogen, but the hives all survived the 80mph winds.
Looking forward to what this year will bring and what I can learn from the bees