What did you do in the Apiary today?

[tonybloke]

I was inspecting one of my hives yesterday, just looking at the frame with the marked Queen on it to see her suddenly fly off a yard or so into the tall grass. Gently picked her up to return and she flew off 2 yards in the other direction into even taller grass. Luckily found her and this time just popped her onto a top bar and she disappeared between the brood frames Now why did she do that, never happened to me before!?

she might not have liked your after-shave?

 

[Gardenbees]

Varroa are on the march...

Removed an unframed comb of partly capped honey and big fat juicy drone larvae from the orchard hive... must fit a blanking frame!

Lunch was fresh drone larvae ( after checking for varroa mite!) followed by honey sucked straight from the comb washed down with spring water.
Larvae had a nice walnut flavor... a waste to give them to the chickens!
And the sun was shining....... shere bliss!

Damn!! Why didn't I think of eating the drone larvae?!

Inspected 3-day varroa drop today. New hive with the queen they raised in April is doing brilliantly - no varroa at all so far, and the laying pattern is good. Can't believe I got such a well-mated new queen right at the beginning of April.

Hive 2 has a prime swarm caught in April. 2 mites on board - not bad for a huge colony, but I removed a frame of drone brood just in case, and sure enough there they all were - most of the drone pupae had a mite. GrrrThe little monsters are clearly having a good summer. Dispatched the frame of brood and replaced with an empty, minus the stored capped honey around the edge, which went very nicely with freshly-baked walnut bread!

Third colony were queenless and unhappy for most of spring but now have a new queen with a good laying pattern. Lots of mites though: last month there was only one, this month, twenty two. Not good. Should have removed drone brood last month.... Decided to treat with Apilife Var straight away, take advantage of the warm August weather whilst we've got it, and give them a chance to catch up on Himalayan balsam in September.

A busy day in my apiary - and absolutely perfectly-behaved bees, couldn't fault them. Little honeys!

 

[Mike a]

Had an association apiary meeting today, two colonies on site. The main hive has 5 full supers (2 fully capped which were removed) the others partly capped.

Lovely colony headed by a 2010 NZ queen, she is still laying several 14x12 frames wall to wall.

 

[MrB]

Larvae had a nice walnut flavor...

so do walnuts

 

[kazmcc]

You can't eat drone larva......surely!? Please tell me it ain't so!

 

[MrB]

Kaz,
Check this out!!!

http://http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3570&highlight=drone+soup

 

[MrB]

Kaz
Check this out!
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3570&highlight=drone+soup

 

[MrB]

ignore the first one!

 

[kazmcc]

THAT!!! Is the most disgusting thing I've seen in a long time. You lot are having me on!





erm....where's the leaving smilie? That was my favourite!

 

[victor meldrew]

THAT!!! Is the most disgusting thing I've seen in a long time. You lot are having me on!





erm....where's the leaving smilie? That was my favourite!

VM

 

[witchcraft]

I've just got back from moving my two hives to a new site right on the edge of a wild flower meadow (long past its sell by date) and 5 acres of sunflowers which are just coming into bloom - some more honey for me. Early start but well worth it. Sightly tarnished by Dominic (my 13 year old son) getting a bee up inside his jacket and a sting to the collar bone. He might change his view on the jacket vs coveralls debate

 

[Summerslease]

After a week of studying the books I did my basic beekeeping exam yesterday. The sun shone on the association apiary, the bees were calm, and the examiner patient and instructive (thanks Tony). Very good of him to give up his Sunday to help four keepers progress their craft. Fingers crossed for the result.

Today I will be mainly trying to find the queens in two hives at my mother's. This has been my mission for the past month- so that it will be easier when I unite them next month and do next year's artificial swarm. Fingers crossed again.

 

[psafloyd]

Two of my colonies were in a foul mood on Friday, so I packed up and left them alone. Turned out we were due a storm and they knew it better than I.

One thing I had noticed on my 'swarm' colony, was the supers with a QE between them were getting fused by comb. Realised my novitiate error when looking at the frames on the lower super (some brood in it) as all the frames were propolised down to the box, ie no runners.

I know how it happened. Instead of the box with runners, I managed to pick up that without as I'd run out of them at the time and placed this on that hive. Stoopid.

Swapped the frames over to the box with runners and they were nice as pie until I dropped the last very heavy frame in. These combs are somewhat irregular in width as I spaced by eye simply because I a) have no spacers, b) did not fit castellations, as I'm not sure I particularly like them and c) they needed a super, so they got one rather than nothing.

Anyway, due to mucking about with bees that have have been rather tetchy of late, I wore my leather gauntlets and I really do not like them as I find it very dificult to treat the bees with due respect particularly when I am running Out of space for my fingers. As a result, the frame and fingers with leather on would not fit in the available space, it got stuck on my finger and bounced in from about 1/8 of an inch. THis was the end for half a dozen bees who went for my veil as one. I apologised for my cack-handedness and closed up as my work was done there.

On my second colony I removed the super of undrawn frames I had placed there on Friday as I had to make a fairly swift getaway due to their very fractious nature. I moved it across to my strongest colony, making this the fifth super on this one, as it has pretty much filled the last one I placed at the top.

I will be extracting some of these at the end of the month but until then, I can but add supers. I placed it below the top one, in part so I might see how they are doing. I may even add my last made up super on to this hive before I go away.

This colony has been extremely fractious ever since it first got cramped though its mood does improve occasionally. I am sure some of this is my own fault, as I fail to anticipate their needs, but they have been going so strong that I have generally left them to get on with things and observed at the entrance and gone through some of the supers.

 

[Chris Luck]

5 acres of sunflowers which are just coming into bloom - some more honey for me.

I didn't think that you often got the temperatures for a flow on sunflower in the UK?

We aren't getting it high enough here for the last two weeks, seriously bad.

Chris

 

[grahambee]

Busy weekend

Moved two hives to a new apairy
found a small cluster of bees the following day from one of the hives moved so i reintroduced the bees with the paper method with another hive as they did not look very happy after losing thier home
Give the bees a dose of hive clean and the host hive so hopefully they should be introduced without too much bother

 

[beestie]

Queen disappeared

Just finished inspection, first for 2 weeks on one of my hives. Bees emerging from sealed brood, but no eggs and no larvae, and no full queen cells. Began to suspect 2 weeks ago when no Q in evidence. Bees filling empty brood cells with pollen and honey. No pollen coming in at the moment either. No idea where she's gone, and plenty of bees in hive. Guess I'll have to requeen before workers start laying . Anyone know a good source for Carnolians?

 

[Swarm]

Went to return another empty super to my strongest colony, I'd prefer to get them a bit lower than five supers but too many bees atm and they are filling them as fast as I'm extracting. A really nice colony.

Was going to check the frames of stores in colony three that was Snelgroved in May with a view to bruising them. No need, beautiful honey arcs around sealed brood, bees looking great. Only drawback was mucho propolis, much like her mother and they'd braced two combs in the super. Made rather a mess removing it, pulled quite a bit from the centre of one frame but it'll be tasty.

 

[tonybloke]

collected a swarm from the number-plate on the back of a volvo

 

[Vergilius]

Had a lovely afternoon inspecting my "pussycat" colonies at my grandpa's house...


Ben P

 

[milkermel]

wacked some more frames into a super I put in place 2 weeks ago. It was a weaker colony and only had 3 frames spare, anyway Thursday showed that they had drawn and were filling frames well, so knocked up the rest of the frames I had and got them in

Closed all the entrances down as there are now a few more wasps around. Dealt with a nest in the garden on friday and that has drastically improved things.

two larger colonies really busy today lots of pollen coming in.