What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Noddy]

Found and marked an elusive Queen.
Combined two brood boxes.

Messed about with my newly acquired Lidl table saw, practicing with scrap plywood. I have a 3D printer, so I made all the parts for a bee vac, and will be making nuc boxes through the autumn/winter one of which will become the body the bee vac.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Found and marked an elusive Queen.

Always a bit reticent on marking queens at this time of year - you never know................................

 

[Cussword]

Why? I only ask as I've just marked two.
I was under the impression that you should be wary about marking in Spring, didn't know about late Summer.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If (it doesn't happen very often I know) they take exception to the newly marked queen, it will be a fair long while for a new one to emerge/get mated/settle in and we've already heard of some colonies kicking out their drones.

 

[Fatbee]

Finished summer extraction (have no balsam around me). No problems with bees or wasps getting in to garage unlike last year. Wasps not a problem yet...

Noticed honey bees on my victoria plums today.

Whilst extracting noticed had a lot of dark honey (had some earlier in season). What creates dark honey - I'm thinking hawthorn or dandelion?

 

[bpmurray]

Put on the second dose of Apiguard on all hives. The queen I thought was going to be superceded is still alive and laying well, and there's no sign of another queen. My evil have was requeened only three weeks ago and the bees were like pussycats today - it seems much too early to be due to well-behaved progeny, but I'm happy it was easy. And I marked the new queen in an apidea.

 

[pargyle]

Bees bringing in pollen - sort of yellowish colour and the smell of honey ripening is still overpowering, Quite a few wasps about at present but not bothering the bees - all strong colonies so I would be surprised if they chanced it. They seem more interested in the few dead bees around the hives ... still finding protein I assume. Have the Waspbane ready but not too worried at present. Planning for supers to come off this week (again) but will see what the weather's like...

 

[Brigsy]

Bad day at the office for me. Opened up one hive and placed clearer board.

Took out problem queen from my other hive I readiness to add a new queen.

Returned later to carnage. The queenless hive was now all out on the landing board with dead and injured bees being spat out of the entrance and dead bees a plenty infront.

Presumed robbing had initiated. So have reduced all entrances to one/ two bee space with some sponge and have covered both hives with wet bed sheets.

The action has quietened some this evening. Will see what carnage tomorrow brings. I am planning to take those supers off in the late evening.

Doesnt look good for the new queen as the colony is probably on red alert for intruders.


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[deanrpwaacs]

Back from 2 weeks hols . Checked all hives . All backfilling from supers . Some pollen coming in . Seems to be no nectar coming in so need to get the very light supers off and feed asap . Squished a queen and united one . We need some rain . Ivy that is about is starting to wilt .

 

[Plenty of honey]

If (it doesn't happen very often I know) they take exception to the newly marked queen, it will be a fair long while for a new one to emerge/get mated/settle in and we've already heard of some colonies kicking out their drones.

yup, i leave them until October, if its still warm enough. If not march or early April when it starts to warm up. Easy to find then in smaller numbers after overwintering . I see people marking virgins, that makes me worried apparently it makes not a jot of difference!!??

 

[Fusion_power]

Colony inspections for fall ongoing here. I've been through 4 hives (of which 2 are 2 queen using dividers) so a total of 6 queens in 4 hives. We have small amounts of pollen coming in mostly in the early morning. One of the new Buckfast queens has 1/2 of a side of a frame laid up with eggs, just a few have hatched so this must be the 4th day she has been laying. The second Buckfast queen is just getting ready to start laying after being released 3 days ago. Colony condition is relatively weak which is typical of my bees that cut all brood laying during the mid-summer dearth. I harvested 2 supers of honey from one colony and have 3 more supers to pull from another to finish off the harvest for this year. One of the colonies I inspected raised about 500 drones that hatched over the last week. I'm feeding them so the drones will be kept around long enough for mating. This colony was one that I had flagged to use for drones if I got the chance.

I plan to set up a colony to raise a round of queens so when I go back out, I'll separate the brood and the queen of a strong colony using a divider so the bulk of the bees and brood are on one side and the queen on the other with a back entrance. With a bit of manipulation, I'll get enough nurse bees to build 15 to 20 queen cells. I plan to put feed on which will get them in the mood for cell building. This will be the latest that I've raised queens but should be safe to do so especially given that I know there are enough drones available.

Temps today were up around 35C so plenty warm. This area will have decent mating weather for at least 5 more weeks.

 

[B+.]

I see people marking virgins, that makes me worried apparently it makes not a jot of difference!!??

I mark them with numbered disks as soon as they have emerged in the incubator. Its much easier IMO. That way, I can track their progres with complete certainty about which queen it is (so I know which dam it came from)

 

[Plenty of honey]

I mark them with numbered disks as soon as they have emerged in the incubator. Its much easier IMO. That way, I can track their progres with complete certainty about which queen it is (so I know which dam it came from)

When my French colleague marks mated queens, he finds and area of honey in the corner of a frame, jabs in his hive tool and pours it over the queen, she becomes covered and the bees start cleaning and licking her. It apparently makes her more acceptable after she's been marked and possible masks any odour of the marking paint. He swears by it!! I have my reservations!!

 

[Brigsy]

Went out to check on my robbing hives that I placed a sheet over. Looks like that was a major mistake. I have hundreds of dead bees on the ground inside the sheet. I suspect they couldn't find their way in to the hive and perished or got too hot and came out. Feel sick.

I want to have a look and see how bad the damage is but looking yesterday started the robbing frenzy.

 

[beeno]

Sorry to hear that Brigsy sounds bad. Weather permitting shut the hive that is doing the robbing up for 24 hrs and then open the entrance fully so they are busy defending their own. Put vick above the hive entrance of the hive being robbed and reduce entrance to one bee space. I did not cover entrance with the sheet when I did it just let it hang down to above it.

 

[pargyle]

Sorry to hear that Brigsy sounds bad. Weather permitting shut the hive that is doing the robbing up for 24 hrs and then open the entrance fully so they are busy defending their own. Put vick above the hive entrance of the hive being robbed and reduce entrance to one bee space. I did not cover entrance with the sheet when I did it just let it hang down to above it.

I think the bed sheet method comes from Beekeeping for Dummies - I'm not convinced it's a good method. They don't give a lot of detail in the book but not giving the bees a means of getting in or out of the hive in hot weather is a recipe for a disaster. The do say to keep it wet (and this will cool the hive) but trapping bees in at any time has its risks.

The best method of stopping robbing is to take steps to stop it happening in the first place.

Strong queenright colonies will rarely suffer from robbing - if you have small colonies keep them in small hive (or a reduced larger hive) robbing doesn't just happen at the entrance - it happens on the frames and a colony spread thinly over the frames will have more difficulty defending the stores than one that is covering the frames quite densely.

Don't leave frames with honey in them outside the hive when inspecting, keep supers covered when you are moving them to inspect. Don't spill honey or syrup. If you are doing manipulations that involve supers or feeding do it at dusk, not when there are lots of bees flying.

The obvious things about keeping entrances small and putting obstructions in front of them have all been stated on many occasions but, if robbing has started, then the best thing to do is move the hive/colony that is being robbed. Ideally 3 miles away but, if you have to, just move it within the apiary to another position and with the entrance facing away from it's original direction. Do this at night so the bees have to re-orientate when the come out in the morning - if necessary and weather permitting seal them in for a few hours to stop them returning to the old position immediately. Then, put an empty hive containing a frame with a small amount of stores in place of it - at a pinch a cardboard box with a small hole in it for an entrance with a saucer of honey in it will do the trick - the bees doing the robbing will stop when they have emptied the stores from the 'hive' being robbed. Once it is robbed out take it away and if you have one move a strong colony into the position.

It's not ideal, moving the colony within the apiary, but it's the best of a bad situation.

The key is very much to act quickly, bees are great communicators and opportunists and a day is almost too long .. a strong robbing colony can empty and decimate a weak hive in no time once they get to grips on it.

 

[Brigsy]

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to have a look when it stops raining and get the supers off and assess how bad the damage is. I'm not sure which hive is robbing whom.

Both are/were strong queen right colonies. One national brood and a half and the other a full commercial brood box.

I made the commercial box queenless yesterday morning to requeen and when I came back the carnage had started on them. So I also have that to deal with but that's a separate topic!

 

[Millet]

Seems as it raining and dull today I thought I would crank the gassing equipment up, first I had to make a modified inspection tray to fit the thorn open mesh floor which did not take long, into the shed I went to do a dummy run and the bloody battery is goosed, it was fully charged last month and never been used, it took nearly 5 minuets to totally vaporise the acid.
I have 2 spare batteries but they are 70 mile away so if will have too be next week now.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Haven't you got a battery in your vehicle?

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Discovered I needed to do AS immediately. At least three sealed QCs in a teeming colony in deep National with two supers. I had risked leaving it longer than nine days as the Lady has already swarmed this year. She's my really late emergency queen mated end August last year. Her original colony is teeming, now with her daugher laying well and two heavy supers, her second colony on deep brood frames is eight frames of brood and tons of store and also two heavy supers, and I've just put her in another National brood box - Standard, that's all I had, and not a full complement of frames as I only had seven spare - with her own supers above, and a new super on the deep box which is jammed teeming with house bees and all that brood to emerge. How much laying is that!

PS I have only ever done AS by lifting a frame of brood - or even two - with no QCs into the new box with the queen. As these were deep frames and I have no spare, I caught the queen in my clip and transferred her into the standard box that way. I hope she'll be OK with no brood at all for now. Her flying bees were of course pouring in in squadrons as soon as I had the empty box in its place.

Seems as it raining and dull today I thought I would crank the gassing equipment up, first I had to make a modified inspection tray to fit the thorn open mesh floor which did not take long, into the shed I went to do a dummy run and the bloody battery is goosed, it was fully charged last month and never been used, it took nearly 5 minuets to totally vaporise the acid.
I have 2 spare batteries but they are 70 mile away so if will have too be next week now.

No chance of getting a vehicle within reach of a heavy gauge extension cable? Keep the engine running while you vape to avoid hammering the battery.