What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Tim.S]

Home for lunch then back to work today. Managed to find 5 minutes to wander up to the hives in the gorgeous sun (no wind either!) and the bees are going nuts with masses of bright yellow pollen going in. Lovely sight!
Mind you rain and wind for the next few days so back to normal then!

 

[drex]

16 degrees and no wind. Decided to look in my strongest hive, which was building lots of comb in the fondant eke. Cleaned that all up, and eke removed. Brood on five frames. Not a lot of pollen, but sealed and unsealed stores ok. Over wintered on double brood. Quick peak in bottom box which unsurpringly was empty. Bees were nasty, last year quite aggressive and intend to requeen later. Other hives busy and left alone after hefting. Will start light syrup feeds next week, in frame feeders.

 

[deanrpwaacs]

Set the posts for the fence on the farm site . Gave the grass a strim and tidy . Leveled the stand . Noticed another field of OSR on the way . Also noticed a couple of woodpecker holes very close to the site and heard its tap and call . Should i be concerned ?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Green woodies are responsible for damage. Spotted ones are ok. What sort have you got? Either way there is probably enough wild food now for the hives to be left alone.

 

[drex]

Always hear woodpeckers tapping on the dead trees very near my hives. I netted for first two years. Not done so since and no problem so far.

 

[B+.]

Should i be concerned ?

According to the RSPB, green woodpeckers eat ants, etc during the summer months so, as these other insects become increasingly available, they will lose interest in beehives

 

[deanrpwaacs]

Green woodies are responsible for damage. Spotted ones are ok. What sort have you got? Either way there is probably enough wild food now for the hives to be left alone.

I didnt catch sight of it . Back there early doors tomoz so will see if i can spot it this time . Happy to stick a bit of wire net over if need be .

 

[Tremyfro]

Checked my hives today. Bees were flying well.
Have you ever been duped by the bees?
I have a nuc which over wintered...although we had our doubts about the queen. There were bees there in February....not a lot I admit.
Anyway....for while we have watched bees going in and out on sunny days. Being of a suspicious nature and inquisitive to how much stores they had.....we decided to actually peek under the thick wool insulation and replace the fondant if necessary. .....and what did we find?
Yeah...laugh now...cos you will be howling in a minute and holding your sides.
There were quite a few bees...we could see plenty of sealed stores and some open and the bees busy on them.....so in view of the doubtful survival of the queen I pulled a frame......what did I find...lots of little thieves. Filling their bellies...scrumping the honey.....emptying the vaults!
No queen ...no nuc bees....but a smorgborg laid out for the next door neighbours.
Talk about laugh....those naughty bees...we are such newbees that we didn't recognise that they were slowly emptying the nuc and we were busy filling it up with fondant...ha ha
Perhaps...we would have noticed some fighting but there were no survivors of the original nuc...the queen had died....no brood had been laid.

 

[Cussword]

Made a double hive stand. This time made sure I could put a poly nuc in the middle without it falling through.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Make approximately 100 seedballs ready for any suitable wasteland I spot on my rounds.

 

[chrisb]

a new side throw to feeding the next doors cat

 

[Goran]

Plums in full bloom.. But, cold and rainy.. Wild cherry start to open.. But again rains and frosts in few days ahead, hopefully it will stabilize.. If nature turn to be gentle, then it will skyrocket build up.
Today first "inspection" with frames taking at second apiary ( just dozen of colonies due to rain).. Not so bad but not so awesome. Two young jenter queens from last season give me smile on my face.. Others, well.. so-so..
Tomorrow hopefully will finish 2nd and go to main. At main apiary usually all is for level up..
These days..lot of questions for buying colonies.. Surprisingly not few asking for queens, even I never sold queens alone..

Tempting.. to lay off and sell all..

 

[Fatbee]

I didnt catch sight of it . Back there early doors tomoz so will see if i can spot it this time . Happy to stick a bit of wire net over if need be .

The green ones you don't need to see - they have a very distinctive cackle like they're laughing at you. Although, would rekax now spring is on way and they have more food to go at

 

[linoleum bonypart]

Wow Goran you must be 6 weeks ahead of us

 

[Goran]

Wow Goran you must be 6 weeks ahead of us

Now I watched some prognosis for a week.. But it is unreliable.. Cause here usually say possible sunny with possible rain.. So..
If let say it will follow that, it won't be so bad.

Colonies I inspect are most with 4 frames of brood, little less with 5 frames and few with 3 frames.. These with 4 and 5 will be OK. These are frames mostly completelly laid only thin honey arches and at the back with more.There are couple colonies with bigger arches around brood..
Mostly there is no drone brood, from none to max about 30 drone cells. From few to dozen drones in colony.
Bees mostly calm, remain on the frames or couple buzz around head, there were few which even try some stinging..

 

[Goran]

Today was such nice and sunny.. Working on both apiaries. Bees calm ( there are couple exceptions which scream for requeening..).
I thought I saw white tailed eagle which was annoyed by Goshawk.. Maybe I thought that I saw.. Maybe some overgrown goshawk with a smaller friend..

 

[Beecarer]

..

 

[pargyle]

Just been round to the apiary ... blowing a gale on the Costa del Fareham tonight .. trees are really rattling and despite being well protected I was worried that the wind was so strong the roofs might come off .. put an extra brick or two on the end ones and I think they'll be alright but I already have one fence panel down and another one shaking like the devil ,.... I reckon gusts nudgng 60+mph and the wind speed is increasing. Don't envy some of you a bit further West ... not a nice night to be out in the channel either I would think.

 

[madasafish]

At least the sleet/snow has melted from the hives this am. 5C and torrents of rain..local stream is 5 times its normal depth and 20 times the noise.

Time for reweighing all hives when the weather improves - I say "when " rather than "if" as I live in hope..

 

[Tim.S]

Bit breezy last night. Last time it was that windy we ended up with a tree on the roof - not this time thankfully. All the concrete blocks and tie-downs have done their job and the girls were flying happily this morning. Commiserations to Roger at Paynes along the coast who it seems were not so lucky as me according to their FB page.