What did you do in the Apiary today?

[jenkinsbrynmair]

found 2 of my hives are queenless strange really lol they are lugging pollen in

They will - and some eejits will still maintain they'll only bring in pollen when there's open brood in the hive!! Bees are forever optimists and opportunists - they will make QC's when there's no hope of mating, gather stores whenever it's available whether they need it or not and prepare for a laying queen and brood in the vain hope that all will be well.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Isn't that one of the main uses of overwintering nucs, to cover winter losses. If you've got the bees right in you apiary right at the beginning of April, then use them. Much better than having to buy some!!

If the colony is healthy and still fairly strong do it - sooner the better.

 

[Tdod]

If the colony is healthy and still fairly strong do it - sooner the better.

yes i agree the two hives are not that strong but still working hard, wondered whether it would be best newspaper combine or just call it a day on the hives that was my question and just replace with the nucs as they expand, did not want to damage or put back the nucs as they are building up nicely...

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

yes i agree the two hives are not that strong but still working hard, wondered whether it would be best newspaper combine or just call it a day on the hives that was my question and just replace with the nucs as they expand, did not want to damage or put back the nucs as they are building up nicely...

How strong is not that strong? and how strong are the nucs? - your options are, leave the Q- dwindle, paper unite, just shake them out or if your nucs are a good size and the others are mediocre to weak shake out and put the nucs in the place of the doomed hives if that is feasible

 

[Nige.Coll]

Put my suit on and it started to rain so i did nothing in the apiary today.

 

[Obee1]

I moved my 4 farm hives on Saturday - yet again- as farmer John sold the farm and the new guy wants to do lots of building work so doesn't want bees. So they have gone to farmer David next door - which is .6 of a mile. Luckily there were magic twigs just laying around in the hedgerow. Deployed said magic twigs and left 4 nucs in place of the removed hives. Went back Sunday morning to check for returners - found only one of the four hives had any returners - there were about 30 bees all with yellow pollen and quite a few flying round the area. Decided to pop back when they were in bed and lock em in ready to repatriate. However upon my return Sunday evening there were only 3 bees in there. Wonder where the rest went. Maybe the magic twigs made them reappear back at the moved hive.
Today - weather permitting I'm off to visit the bees - maybe take a quick peek and remove magic twigs. Was going to sell em on fleabay but if anyone here wants them I'll give you a good discount. You're welcome! Us forum Beeks must stick together.

 

[Tdod]

How strong is not that strong? and how strong are the nucs? - your options are, leave the Q- dwindle, paper unite, just shake them out or if your nucs are a good size and the others are mediocre to weak shake out and put the nucs in the place of the doomed hives if that is feasible

the nucs are probably as strong as the hives if not a few more numbers in the nucs ... i was thinking of putting the nucs on the hive stand and shakin the bees out but was a bit worried what would happen? would they fight? and my last querie is wont the flyers from the nucs fly back to where they was before the move as its only about 20 ft away...

i do love all the thinking that goes into beekeeping lol

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

the nucs are probably as strong as the hives if not a few more numbers in the nucs ... i was thinking of putting the nucs on the hive stand and shakin the bees out but was a bit worried what would happen? would they fight? and my last querie is wont the flyers from the nucs fly back to where they was before the move as its only about 20 ft away...

i do love all the thinking that goes into beekeeping lol

Go for a paper unite with the nucs on top of the Q- hives

 

[Tremyfro]

I moved my 4 farm hives on Saturday - yet again- as farmer John sold the farm and the new guy wants to do lots of building work so doesn't want bees. So they have gone to farmer David next door - which is .6 of a mile. Luckily there were magic twigs just laying around in the hedgerow. Deployed said magic twigs and left 4 nucs in place of the removed hives. Went back Sunday morning to check for returners - found only one of the four hives had any returners - there were about 30 bees all with yellow pollen and quite a few flying round the area. Decided to pop back when they were in bed and lock em in ready to repatriate. However upon my return Sunday evening there were only 3 bees in there. Wonder where the rest went. Maybe the magic twigs made them reappear back at the moved hive.
Today - weather permitting I'm off to visit the bees - maybe take a quick peek and remove magic twigs. Was going to sell em on fleabay but if anyone here wants them I'll give you a good discount. You're welcome! Us forum Beeks must stick together.

Wow....you must be an expert at moving hives...I will know where to come when I want one moved!
I hope they settle in well...are the descendants of the Mean Green Queen still nasty or have you got them under control now?
You should hold out for a good price on those Magic Twigs.....they have provenance now.

 

[Plenty of honey]

Go for a paper unite with the nucs on top of the Q- hives

you might have to move your nucs away for say 4 days, to more than 3 miles. But definitely just unite them with the older queenless colonies.
It's interesting you say your nucs are stronger than your hives, well it is true. Very often that is just what happends!!
I have many nucs much stronger than production colonies ( unfortunately or fortunately, depends how you look at it!)

Paper unite will pool your resources and give you a very strong hive with lots of foragers. It doesn't necessarily mean it will swarm early, you have a young queen in there!!

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

I have many nucs much stronger than production colonies ( unfortunately or fortunately, depends how you look at it!)

I bred a daughter from my HM Q last August after the most scary comedy of literally chasing her across the garden (almost reached for the butterfly net) as she homed back to her Apidea after I "hived" her--she was mated by then, natch--rescuing her from her sisters who were NOT pleased to see her etc etc. So I sort of have a soft spot for her ability to survive my incompetence. Since then she has filled out a double-storey poly nuc and based on entrance traffic is heading my strongest colony. Going to have to promote her from "spare" at some point...

 

[Tremyfro]

Bright and sunny here today...so stood and watched the bees returning with pollen....there is still a cold breeze though.
A few more weeks and an improvement in the weather and the colonies can be moved into the long hives. The fencing man still has to return and finish off the fencing...he had best do it soon or he will be doing it wearing a beesuit..ha ha.
Then membrane to lay and wood chip on top. I think some trips to the garden centre for shrubs and climbers to do a bit of prettifying.

 

[B+.]

Continued natural mite drop - counting mites.

I am testing two I.B. Celle lines (C7-007 and C3-017) along with an AGT queen (6172-15-2013-K) I will use for breeding later this year. The C3-017 line has mite levels within expectations but one of the colonies in the C7-007 line has too many for my liking.
In theory, colonies should be normally distributed so it is possible that colony 71 is a statistical outlier but I don't like it one little bit. Paradoxically, it is often the colonies with the highest mite count that score highly for other traits.

 

[Plenty of honey]

I bred a daughter from my HM Q last August after the most scary comedy of literally chasing her across the garden (almost reached for the butterfly net) as she homed back to her Apidea after I "hived" her--she was mated by then, natch--rescuing her from her sisters who were NOT pleased to see her etc etc. So I sort of have a soft spot for her ability to survive my incompetence. Since then she has filled out a double-storey poly nuc and based on entrance traffic is heading my strongest colony. Going to have to promote her from "spare" at some point...

Ha yes, its weird how sometimes the "poxiest" looking queen, that you have as a spare suddenly becomes the strongest layer etc in the whole Apiary.
I caught a very small swarm once, overwintered in a nuc and it was bigger in early march that it was in the previous November when i last had a peek. Well, say no more, two great honey crops and made two colonies from her and she carried on until last year, her third year! If only they were all like that!!

Theres a lot of talk of always buying stock from profession breeders, but to quote Mike, "You can make a few good queens, from less than ideal stock, under ideal conditions, rather than struggling to get perfect genetics for grafting in to less than ideal conditions!!"
Sometimes the best genetics are in your own back yard, its the conditions they come together under, thats the challenge to get right!!
Nice to have spares though!!!!!

 

[nantmoel]

Finally had both the weather and the time to take a quick peek inside 5 other hives, the Nuc which we though was going into the winter queen less as she stopped laying very early last autumn was fine, plenty of sealed brood and BAAS. The others were all fine plenty of pollen and nectar coming in and BAAS. Just one more to look into!

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Shook out DLQ colony and received first sting of the year (can't blame them really!)

 

[nantmoel]

I bred a daughter from my HM Q last August after the most scary comedy of literally chasing her across the garden (almost reached for the butterfly net) as she homed back to her Apidea after I "hived" her--she was mated by then, natch--rescuing her from her sisters who were NOT pleased to see her etc etc. So I sort of have a soft spot for her ability to survive my incompetence. Since then she has filled out a double-storey poly nuc and based on entrance traffic is heading my strongest colony. Going to have to promote her from "spare" at some point...

Was your HM queen a breeder queen or an open mated one? I had bees remove a HM queen and raised their own from her eggs, they are bonkers, you can not get within 20 yards of them before the start dive bombing you. I'm re-queening them this May as soon as the weather warms up.

As I understand you shouldn't really breed from an open mated queen.

 

[B+.]

As I understand you shouldn't really breed from an open mated queen.

Not unless she was mated in an isolated mating station

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Just had a walk down to the apiary. The morning and much of the afternoon were cold and showery but the sun has come out now so too have the bees. The blackthorn hedge is just opening blossom and most of the air traffic is from that direction. There is also some willow further over so if the weather is favourable things should accelerate.

 

[Obee1]

Lovely sunny day here again - 15C. Time to have a look into my 4 recently moved farm colonies.
No 1 poly hive doing well saw eggs. Lots of food frames. Removed some and replaced with drawn comb
No 2 poly hive. Smallest colony. Saw eggs. Had enough food and room to lay.
No 3 wooden hive double brood.only looked in top box. Large colony. Saw eggs. Way too much food so swopped for some drawn comb.
At this point I should have quit - but the evil hive that attacked me when I took nantmoel to see the apiary was sitting there - and I wanted to know if they had a queen. So I opened them up. Instant attack. Banana smell. I pulled the 3 middle frames from top box. Food food and food. I suspect they are queenless. They had a drone laying carni queen last year but made a quuen from Bucky eggs late in the year. I did see brood in October but maybe she was poorly mated. Gave up at this point. I was covered in nasty bees. Got three stings on my legs through jeans and a second pair of waterproof trousers. Ouch. Then my new sherriff suit let me down. A sting through the arm despite having a cardigan under the suit. Ouch. Took a long hike away from hive to try lose attackers. They didn't want to give up. Then had to go back to strap hive onto stand. Did consider just leaving them. If they blow over tough luck and if anyone wants to steal em - then good luck!
Am rather glad I have some nice buckys on order - don't fancy doing the requeening though.
So not even the season proper and I've been stung on two different occasions.