What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Goran]

Hawthorn and black ash start to flower.. Apples passed the peak in blooming.. Wild cherries almost all finished blooming. Bees calm.

 

[Brian Bush]

Glorious day here after the tremendous thunderstorms yesterday. Yesterday morning set up two NUCs inside WBC outer hives in a different apiary. Went over this afternoon to check what was happening. All the hives were very busy with foragers to-ing and fro-ing. Absolutely wonderful!!!!

 

[For want of a better word]

Looked at 12 colonies in friends apiary in Plymouth, Devon this afternoon... 5 totally empty with no sign of the bees... frames of capped stores in all... one small cupful of bees and a queen... remaining 6... new stores loads of brood and frames jammed full with pollen.
Truck thermometer was reading 17 degrees and the bees were really buzzing!

Only thought on the stripey yellow Mediterranean hybrid type bees was that the queens had been poorly mated and colonies simply collapsed... all had Apigard in Autumn, were well fed and did not suffer from midwinter dribbling or early season beeminder interference.

50% loss is not good
Thoughts?

Yeghes da

 

[Tremyfro]

I have huge sympathy with anyone who has lost colonies this winter...it's horrible poking through the dead bees looking for a reason why they died.
I was able to do my first inspection of the year today...yay.
3 colonies with good spreads of brood and last years queens seen....lots of stores too. One of the colonies wintered on its own honey and still had 4 frames of honey....so we took one out and gave her an empty comb to lay up.
I mourn the loss of my favourite carniolan queen which gave us so much confidence in our first beekeeping year. The bees were quiet and although the colony was huge we were able to do all our inspections without mishap. However, she has left behind a daughter...who is beautiful with brown spidery legs. She only has a small patch of brood ATM but we have plans to help her boost her colony....thanks to PH.

 

[Erichalfbee]

One of the colonies wintered on its own honey and still had 4 frames of honey....so we took one out and gave her an empty comb to lay up.

Peculiarly .....my two remaining strong colonies are on five well covered frames of brood each with four frames of stores largely intact. (I removed one in each and substituted a drawn frame to one side of the brood nest)
My bees certainly haven't paid any attention to all this talk of bees chomping their way through all their stores because of the mild winter.

 

[Tremyfro]

Peculiarly .....my two remaining strong colonies are on five well covered frames of brood each with four frames of stores largely intact. (I removed one in each and substituted a drawn frame to one side of the brood nest)
My bees certainly haven't paid any attention to all this talk of bees chomping their way through all their stores because of the mild winter.

Mine neither...you will need them for all the swarms you are going to catch! I've got spare frames of stores...still if we have a good summer and I make any nucs...they may come in handy.....I can't imagine any swarms would bother to climb my windy hill.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Looked at 12 colonies in friends apiary in Plymouth, Devon this afternoon... 5 totally empty with no sign of the bees... frames of capped stores in all... one small cupful of bees and a queen... remaining 6... new stores loads of brood and frames jammed full with pollen.
Truck thermometer was reading 17 degrees and the bees were really buzzing!

Only thought on the stripey yellow Mediterranean hybrid type bees was that the queens had been poorly mated and colonies simply collapsed... all had Apigard in Autumn, were well fed and did not suffer from midwinter dribbling or early season beeminder interference.

50% loss is not good
Thoughts?

Yeghes da

Went to Nanetti's lecture on nosema C in the convention - one of the symptoms of Ceranae apparently - older bees have a shorter lifespan and also lose their homing instinct - Queen and colony itself still looks perfectly healthy but bee numbers get less and less until it can't sustain itself. Just a thought.

 

[Plenty of honey]

Glorious weather here at last. Added supers to 8 hives yesterday. (others not strong enough yet but remarkable, seem to be catching up quick)
Transfered 20 nucs in to 20 hives yesterday , at two new apiary sites. Lovely bees, and not smoke needed during transfer.
Transferred another 6 nucs in to hives lost over the winter this afternoon. All lovely and strong on five frames,Partitions in place due to cold nights, when they want to expand they will.


How lovely to be working in the sunshine and warmth. The bees seemed to be relieved too!!

 

[For want of a better word]

Went to Nanetti's lecture on nosema C in the convention - one of the symptoms of Ceranae apparently - older bees have a shorter lifespan and also lose their homing instinct - Queen and colony itself still looks perfectly healthy but bee numbers get less and less until it can't sustain itself. Just a thought.

Did a broad brush look for nosema with 50 flying bees from surviving bees in colonys, did not see any nosema cells in the mash. No noticeable poo stripes from dysentry.
Thrown the sample away.. should have sent it to Apha labs!!!!
Wish someone would develop a simple diagnostic for the 2 types... would be useful!

Consensus from the experts is that queens did not get mated well last season.. all the losses were last years queens.... and colonies just run out of brood!

Yeghes da

 

[Obee1]

...I can't imagine any swarms would bother to climb my windy hill.

So put some bait hives at the bottom of the hill
Sorry to hear your fave queen died. I never got to look in mine yesterday. As I drove home from you I saw massive black rain clouds over towards my apiary site. Decided grumpy bees would use oncoming rain as even more of an excuse to attack me. Hopefully today....

 

[Tremyfro]

So put some bait hives at the bottom of the hill
Sorry to hear your fave queen died. I never got to look in mine yesterday. As I drove home from you I saw massive black rain clouds over towards my apiary site. Decided grumpy bees would use oncoming rain as even more of an excuse to attack me. Hopefully today....

After hearing about Mean Green Queens Daughters hive...I would definitely wait for good weather. How about wearing leather trousers under your beesuit? The weather here stayed lovely all afternoon but there was a big black cloud over towards Cardiff later on. It was great to see you and Nantmoel. If any of my bees become nasty tempered...I am calling you two in to deal with them....you are the Bee Busters!
We did the colony swap today...so fingers crossed but we do have a back up plan too.
I was sad that my wonderful queen didn't make it through the winter...we didn't even have a body to bury.....

 

[Erichalfbee]

Well, yesterday
Put these up in the garden and another two in the field next to the apiary

 

[Tremyfro]

That's a good place.....fingers crossed the scouts find it. Is that a place where you have caught swarms before?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes the little one on the right caught two casts last year and the big one in the field obliged too. I spent an afternoon watching bees come and go between the two boxes before the scouts marshalled the rest and decided on the larger one. I gave that swarm away to a beginner. It's going great guns and even gave her some honey last year.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Couple of warm days here and it looked good for this afternoon so decided to try out my shiny new smoker and shiny new eyes
This Dadant smoker is great - lit at the threat of a flame and copious smoke when needed but it don't half go through fuel!
Checked a few hives and selected ones for moving to Garn cottage - they will be supered as soon as they get there tomorrow.
All colonies checked were in great condition apart from one which had stored a load of fondant in the combs as well as being very economic on stores (must have had a lapse of concentration whilst hefting) lovely white cappings though
Eyes passed their first test - quickly spotted two unmarked queens I couldn't find to mark last year and can see even the tiniest larvae - light was a bit off to see eggs and I didn't try too hard as the newest eye is still bedding in.
Hopefully time tomorrow and the weekend to move chosen hives to the training apiary and Carreg as well as open a few more.

 

[MuswellMetro]

17c and sunny but thunder by 4 o'clock, then heavy showers

I managed to inspect 12 of my hives before the thunder, that included doing two shook swarms and a transfer of a 5 frames 14x12 Nuc into a full 14x12 box

All the others had more than 6 frames of 14x12 brood and emerging drones My two hive near OSr are now eight of brood and each have a super with nectar/honey in every frame of a super with middle frames being capped

sorry to all those in the rest of the UK, but London has been warmer

 

[nantmoel]

Moved two national Nucs into 14x12 Nucs, took out a few brood frames (stores) and replaced them with the larger 14x12 frames, one really strong which will need moving into a full hive in a week or two, the other can expand in the Nuc before moving. Just 4 hives to move up to the 14x12 then they are all done.

 

[Tremyfro]

Moved two national Nucs into 14x12 Nucs, took out a few brood frames (stores) and replaced them with the larger 14x12 frames, one really strong which will need moving into a full hive in a week or two, the other can expand in the Nuc before moving. Just 4 hives to move up to the 14x12 then they are all done.

Nearly done then....some of my colonies are moving over to 12x14 as soon as they are strong enough...a few more weeks yet. I'm keeping a close eye on pollen stores from now on...something else I learnt about at the Convention.

 

[pargyle]

Lovely day yesterday and this morning ... bees flying like crazy and loads of pollen going in ... but .. rain again this evening and looks like it's going to be more rain tomorrow .. but .. the weekend looks good and next week is promising ... so, I plan for a first look in the hives if the high pressure promised materialises and the temperature stays up. Oddly ... or perhaps not ... same week as my first inspection last year ...

Certainly one colony is going to get a super ... just looking through the clear crown board they are storing in some brace comb on top of the frames and lots of bees ...

 

[alldigging]

Had a quick check of my three remaining colonies. One is very weak. Might stick it in a nuc if it warms up enough for me to go out. Polynucs now painted.