What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Anduril]

The mated queen I was going to dispose of, but instead ran her straight onto comb in a queenless hive is laying well. I now have chalkbrood in this hive. Will see if my queen rearing is successful.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

2 supersedure cells in one of the LASI boxes...................sigh.

Having a bit of a tidy up?

 

[pargyle]

Well ... not actually IN the apiary - just next to it. I've started putting a new roof on my workshop ... the closest hive is about four feet away ! Even I was a bit nervous of what the bees would be like with me doing some serious work so close to them. I'd bought one of those short veils just in case - I don't mind being stung but the face is a no-go area as far as I'm concerned.

So ... the workshop is a forty year old sectional concrete double garage - the old corrugated sheet roof was demolished by a tree that fell on it. The trusses are welded steel angle that would be more at home in Harland and Wolffes shipyard .. but the roof sheets came off leaving the rusted roof bolts in place ..

So, angle grinder on at least 50 rusted roof bolts, 100 + new holes drilled in the steel trusses, chop saw for the new timber bearers to support the new OSB and Roofing felt roof .. you name it I did it - including the Haka and some language that would have made a stoker blush when the drill bit broke and the broken stub cut a 5mm trench down the side of my left thumb ..

Bees - Nada - didn't bother one bit ... I couldn't believe it - even with my laid back bees I rather expected something - nothing. So laid back they must be on drugs.

And there were lots of wasps about ... hives very busy and the wasps were everywhere but not going near any of the hives. Fortunately, they also did not seem to be bothered about my engineering works ...

Wasted £12 on the veil ... at least for the time being ...

Mind you ... the smell of ripening honey this evening was something else - perhaps they were more interested in foraging than me !

 

[Erichalfbee]

Having a bit of a tidy up?

Well I'll never know if they are worth trying unless I do try. Not much point in producing a queen with supposed excellent attributes if her own bees don't even like her. Onward and upward. Now,your lot have a super on

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

My really staggering incompetence contines to be mitigated by good measures of luck. Thought I'd better take a peek at a June nuc that I have circled for merging with an incoming swarm in a couple of weeks. Sealed swarm cells (and a frame and a half of capped honey, referring to another thread). No Q visible so shrug and move on, until I see suspicious activity around the entrance. And there she is, so now sitting in a honey jar on my dining-room table while I work out how to do the AS.

ADD This was one of those situations where you do not have enough time to sit down and make a cup of tea (as per @jenkinsbrynmair a couple of months back). Doing that now.

 

[nantmoel]

At last the bees have found the HB, mind you there must have been something a little more tempting for them to ignore it for this length of time.

 

[victor meldrew]

At last the bees have found the HB, mind you there must have been something a little more tempting for them to ignore it for this length of time.

Bees will ignore balsam in favour of plants yielding higher quality nectar/pollen .


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[bpmurray]

I know there isn't much around now that the blackberry is gone, but one of my hives had only enough stores to see them through probably until tomorrow! Fed them a couple of litres of syrup in a rapid feeder so they should be OK now. They weren't very strong but had a half super of honey about 10 days ago, so I'm really surprised. I think I'll check all hives tomorrow.

 

[beeno]

I know there isn't much around now that the blackberry is gone, but one of my hives had only enough stores to see them through probably until tomorrow! Fed them a couple of litres of syrup in a rapid feeder so they should be OK now. They weren't very strong but had a half super of honey about 10 days ago, so I'm really surprised. I think I'll check all hives tomorrow.

Possibility of robbing as not very strong or having swarmed?

 

[Obee1]

Made up some nucs and noticed the waspbane trap suddenly has about 20 dead wasps in it. Until this week I only had one in there

 

[Plenty of honey]

Fitted bee escapes (rhombus types fitted in to crown boards) yesterday to over half my colonies. Never tried it before but was offered said devices.
Its an extra operation, but quick, and also if it stops me having to come in contact with our miserable bees, then i am up for it. My goodness their not a happy bunch at the moment!!
Will probably harvest this evening. See how it goes and if good, move the boards to other apiaries tomorrow. Also you can make up nucs whilst harvesting. you get a huge mound of bees ( a couple of pound) under the bee escape. So with one knock, their in the nuc.

 

[bpmurray]

Possibility of robbing as not very strong or having swarmed?

Couldn't have swarmed - she's clipped and marked. I suppose there could have been robbing, but I haven't seen any sign of it.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Old man's beard! And a blazing fortnight! One super back on double-brood colonies and fingers crossed!!


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[Hivemaker.]

Couldn't have swarmed - she's clipped and marked.

Yes they can, and it surprising where a clipped queen can get to.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Yes they can, and it surprising where a clipped queen can get to.

Further, I at least am seeing a lot of swarm activity now. A nuc made up 22 of June had a go, as did a swarm I caught on 30 June.


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[Teemore]

Yes they can, and it surprising where a clipped queen can get to.

Had one make it into a bait hive that was about 5m distant from the hive she and the swarm left and which was raised up on some stacked apple bins (getting close to 2m in height). I dont know if this was a direct flight or a tedious crawl. I have also had a newly clipped queen fly further than that - she took off in a nice, curved trajectory just after i set her back on the comb. Thankfully the fresh mark on her thorax allowed me to appreciate both the trajectory and where she crash landed in/on some stalks of long grass. I gathered her up and put her back in the hive. The lesson learned from that was to not clip queens who are recently mated and started to lay....

I have previously found clipped queens clustering under the floors of hives they have swarmed out of and over the past few years have lost a couple that never made it back into the vicinity of the hive they left (generally failed artificial swarms). At least, I couldnt find them...

 

[user 6228]

Watching robbing attempts from another apiary (with more italian in the their coloring ) fail. The guards really rough them up, bees can be quite vicious.

I wonder why they are trying it on now?

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Also you can make up nucs whilst harvesting. you get a huge mound of bees ( a couple of pound) under the bee escape. So with one knock, their in the nuc.

TOP tip. Thank you.

 

[nantmoel]

We inspected all the hives in the out apiary, all is well. The heather that is close by is starting to colour up really well, I wonder if the bees will find it.

 

[gregior]

Spent yesterday and today removing the crop (up to now) from my 5 production colonies took 220lbs so average of 44lbs per colony.This was a mixture of spring and summer honey and has a lovely golden colour.

Placed 1 super of starters on each hive for cut comb from the balsam which is now coming into full flower and is looking healthy.As my hives have gone from 2 to one super the bees are quite crowded now which i'm told is good for comb production.


Inspected all my colonies and all have lots of BIAS and well mated queens. Varroa levels definately on the up now so will treat as soon as the comb supers are off.