What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Erichalfbee]

Yes. New queen cells. Often it's sufficient to have a look in 5 days but I'd have a look in 3 as well particularly if there were young larvae on the frame you moved. Sometimes the urge to swarm is still strong. I think that's why Pagdens fail sometimes.

 

[Robbo8916]

Inspected the girls earlier. I didn't get all the way through the brood box as I forgot my smoker (rookie error) and having come directly from the stables (summer turnout started today - yippeeee) I think the aroma of horses set them off as they started getting really tetchy and I was being pinged left right and centre, not their usual behaviour. So I closed them back up and they settled down really quickly.

I did see the Queen and BIAS, they have finished drawing the two frames that I moved round last inspection and the queen has laid the one I removed up. I will remember to take my smoker next time and have a proper look! But no swarm preps that I could see and there was a much larger number of bees in the super busy drawing frames.

I did put my phone by the entrance and filmed them for a couple of minutes. Just waiting for it to upload onto youtoob!

 

[Robbo8916]

There we go, one was checking out my phone thats where the really loud buzz comes from lol

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=93mJZ6KT5qI

 

[snelgrove]

went to couple of my Apiaries with my fleece on, thick cloud and 11 degrees. Didn't do much!!!

 

[madasafish]

Cell punched - 7 cells.

 

[Tim.S]

Removed about 100 pounds of rape from the hives. Loads more in there but I will hang on another week to hopefully see a bit more of it capped.

 

[drex]

Took off my rape honey today. Very little was capped, hardly any crystallised. Water content was 17.5 to 18.5. About 140 lbs. The fields went over very quickly this year, which is when I usually extract. Had a lot more crystallised in the past. For once I seem to have got it right. A couple of the buckets the honey has a citrus tang. Wondering if that is due to hawthorn?

 

[Fatbee]

I went expecting to do my last extraction of OSR but very little passing the shake test, they seem to be taking longer than usual to bring the moisture down.

 

[Griffo]

An eventful weekend here in North Wales. Having quietly strolled down the end of our plot (100 yards or so) on Saturday, to just have a little look at the comings and goings of my two hives, I had got halfway back to the house before I was attacked by a lone guard who had followed me back and managed to get one in on my forehead. Not a problem until this morning, when it appears my left eye is not going to be much use today.
Today I checked my hive with the QCs and took them all out except one (I'm hoping to catch the swarm as I'll be nearby all week). Then found the other hive that had a nearly full super, now had a super with 5 frames that had great lumps of drone brood on them. What have I done wrong here? How did the queen get into the super? So I shook all the bees in the super back into the brood box, then removed the contaminated frames, cut out the brood and recovered the honey. Good news is I've got a couple of kilos of nice mild runny honey at just over 19% moisture for immediate use. Oh, the sting on the forehead, one on the finger and another on my arm. Happy days.

 

[JWF]

Had a colony which had a Pagden two weeks ago which had continued with swarm preps, and i spent some time yesterday making up my remaining brood frames ready to do another today, but ended up going to World Rallycross finals at Lydden Hill instead.

When i got home i did the second Pagden, but when i finished my neighbour told me they'd tried to swarm earlier in the afternoon - i think the patchy sunny and cloudy spells made them come out then go back in again, so it looks like i got lucky! The weather is also supposec to be rubbish tomorrow, which should encourage her to behave while they draw out the frames and hopefully settle in a bit! Or maybe she's just got itchy feet.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

SBI was visiting the association apiary today so I could just sit back and observe - he opens up and inspects and someone else closes whilst I keep an eye on things.
We were all getting ready when he turned up first thing he said was 'you've got a swarm in the hedge opposite!' it arrived as he did - not from our apiary but from somewhere over the fields, so the workforce duly split up - some to watch a swarm being caught and the rest to watch the inspection.
Went smoothly with no upsets, even the feral beekeeper's one remaining (newly brought in) colony was not too horrendous although quite a bit of DWV in there.We had to check all the empty hives he had just in case another swarm had moved in - took the roof off the last one to find a mouse sat on the crownboard which amuse a few!!
Good news for us, one colony which had swarmed only a few weeks ago (dunno why - she had loads of room and I mean loads) has a queen already mated and laying, opened up my hive which has a fairly recently emerged queen - sighted the virgin queen and also pulled another in the hive which we ran into a hopelessly queenless hive we'd just put a test frame into. One of the mating nucs has a mated queen - only got to wait a week now to confirm whether she's laying workers - two very exited beginners now eagerly awaiting the results as they are first in the queue for a nuc.
then back home to potter around a few hives and sort the greenhouse out.
all in all not a bad day

 

[Erichalfbee]

two very exited beginners now eagerly awaiting the results as they are first in the queue for a nuc.

Ah bless
While you're here have a look at Brigsy's post about his Snelgrove 2
What does he do if none of the bees fly back to his AS?

 

[For want of a better word]

any particular reason?

Clowns placing their bait hives along the periphery of one of my apiaries not totally appreciated... and the landowner is not too happy about things either.. let his prize sheep out onto the A38 when they eejits left the gates open!
Gates now padlocked!

Nos da

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Ah bless
While you're here have a look at Brigsy's post about his Snelgrove 2
What does he do if none of the bees fly back to his AS?

a quick read indicates to me that the 'flying bees' hive is at the new location not the original. I'm just confirming things
could be me that's tired - as SWMBO's away I decided to put my old skills to the test and have rummaged the living room to find my innoculation records which she 'borrowed' to compare to hers for her Africa trip and then denied knowledge and a photograph of my great grandmother sat on the lap of her grandmother in a group photo with all her siblings and mother shortly after the death of their father and a victorian photo of the old chapel - both of which she moved from a safe place to a location known to noone ,

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I think you were on the money EricA with them being a bit close together.

 

[Brigsy]

Thanks guys

 

[Anduril]

Just got back from collecting 2 swarms 8 miles apart. Now relaxing with gin and lemonade.

 

[dlawr42103]

Swarmy Year!!!

No swarms in 4 years to 4 swarms in one week!
Captured 3, lost 1 cast.
Apiary getting congested with A/S's and captured swarms. Equipment almost depleted.
These bees are masters at hiding QC's!
Pretty sure I should finally get a breather for a while, but I have thought that before!

 

[Brian Bush]

Hi dlawr42103
I hope you have been careful with the swarms you collected in the Oxford area. Although the risks are small you should be aware of the 2 outbreaks of AFB in the county. Isolate all swarms for 2 to 3 weeks. Be careful!!

 

[Cazza]

Currently suffering beekeeper's back so I was unable to inspect the hives for a two weeks. Looked yesterday. Still no QC's on 4 colonies. Given that two others swarmed 3 weeks ago, I am surprised and relieved.
I have 3 bait hives up and no sign of interest in them either. (Usually a good early warning system.
Stuffed my back again this morning so fingers crossed once again.
Cazza