What did you do in the Apiary today?

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Thanks Brian I wasn't aware of this... I'll take extra precautions.
 
Protected drawn out punched QCs and replaced Queen in hive to finish queen rearing.


Inspected three Langs : no issues.

Inspected two national to Lang conversions... Queen confined to Lang brood box, checked for QCs in National broodbox and destroyed them. Added supers to both. National brood boxes will be free of capped brood in two weeks and conversion complete. Both brood boxes will then be full of honey (says he hopefully)..

Then I will requeen both in July.

Lots of very annoyed bees due to various manipulations.. Thankfully I cut the grass earlier today before I beebothered. Two hives have followers and are horrible.
 
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Quiet abit has happened in a week. Firstly split my only colony and introduced a new queen into the new hive. Then on Friday a swarm arrived in a bait hive that I put up. So within a week I went from one hive to three. Today I inspected the two hives (not the swarm) and was nice to see the queen had been released, saw her walking around on the frame and a few eggs can be seen. In the original hive I added another super as they had filled one and just need to cap a few frames.
 
Removed one super from my poly hive now OSR is just about over - 23lb extracted.

Inspected swarm from Thursday evening put into a 14x12 poly nuc, which will become my first 14x12 as still experimenting with which hive size i prefer. So far three frames drawn and found a small £2 patch of eggs, didn't see the queen, but hopefully she will continue to do her thing and soon be ready for a full size.

Haven't fed them yet but plenty of things in flower around so do i need to?
 
Removed one super from my poly hive now OSR is just about over - 23lb extracted.

Inspected swarm from Thursday evening put into a 14x12 poly nuc, which will become my first 14x12 as still experimenting with which hive size i prefer. So far three frames drawn and found a small £2 patch of eggs, didn't see the queen, but hopefully she will continue to do her thing and soon be ready for a full size.

Haven't fed them yet but plenty of things in flower around so do i need to?

I always feed a swarm on foundation. some say not to for a couple of days and if any disease is present it will be used up drawing comb
 
2seam swarm caught last Monday is up and running,marked queen and will combine to a q-colony if today's test frame proves +
A/Sd another colony for the second time,next time they can swarm and I'll try to catch them
Made up 3 nucs
Added third super to the demaree hive,at last weeks inspection I forgot to put the qx back on so she's now up laying in the first super over BB,I'll track her down next week
Put another frame of open brood from BB to demaree box on another hive,they are backfilling very well.Id imagine I'll be extracting a lot of brood frames this year
Have 3 more colonies either waiting to lay or queens to hatch
Sunny in the twenties over here,makes beekeeping a bit more enjoyable
 
2seam swarm caught last Monday is up and running,marked queen and will combine to a q-colony if today's test frame proves +
A/Sd another colony for the second time,next time they can swarm and I'll try to catch them
Made up 3 nucs
Added third super to the demaree hive,at last weeks inspection I forgot to put the qx back on so she's now up laying in the first super over BB,I'll track her down next week
Put another frame of open brood from BB to demaree box on another hive,they are backfilling very well.Id imagine I'll be extracting a lot of brood frames this year
Have 3 more colonies either waiting to lay or queens to hatch
Sunny in the twenties over here,makes beekeeping a bit more enjoyable

10 degrees cloudy here. :hairpull: gales force northeast wind
 
At last they are drawing out the super foundation and collecting honey! Two weeks next to acres upon acres of Rape and nothing. Was beginning to think the foundation was too old but on yesterdays inspection they've almost drawn in it all out.
Still no queen cells so i don't think they'll swarm just yet.
One colony are definitely more aggressive and not fun to work with but i'll hopefully replace the queen at some point. They are the strongest colony though.
 
At last they are drawing out the super foundation and collecting honey! Two weeks next to acres upon acres of Rape and nothing. Was beginning to think the foundation was too old but on yesterdays inspection they've almost drawn in it all out.
Still no queen cells so i don't think they'll swarm just yet.
One colony are definitely more aggressive and not fun to work with but i'll hopefully replace the queen at some point. They are the strongest colony though.

it's this bloody easterly wind, never be any better till it goes south westerly.
 
it's this bloody easterly wind, never be any better till it goes south westerly.

Yeah it's been a bit windy and i guessed that brought the temp down too low.
I think this last week was the best we're going to see in a while. The forecast looks pretty depressing :(
 
Move a Swarm on six drawn out 14x12 frames into a full hive and gave it its full compliment of frames. Added 3 frames into two nucleus colonies that were moved into full hives a week ago, Also added another super to a full colony and a swarm we have just a week also needed a super.

Made up another 12 brood frames to replace the ones I have taken out of the Poly Nuc's.

Phew all in all a productive day.
 
I watched the bees on the sycamore....not long left.
The hedgerows are groaning with the weight of hawthorn blossom. The weather is fine...hot and still a little humid after the storms of three days ago.........but not a single bee can I see on it!
 
I fed the newly hived swarm which is now happily building wax in my Warré - I was beginning to think it would remain empty. And I grafted a load of larvae into queen cups. So now I hope it all holds together for the next 9 days when I'm away!
 
The hedgerows are groaning with the weight of hawthorn blossom. The weather is fine...hot and still a little humid after the storms of three days ago.........but not a single bee can I see on it!

They're on it around here - apiary stinking of hawthorn honey being ripened.
 

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