What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Brigsy]

Did you get a specific heather press or something that doubles as one? Might be the way forward with the jam my bees seem to make.

Don't worry. I see now.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

My Poly brood and a half have nearly taken 20kg of 2/1 syrup in about ten days. Bit wary of offering more for fear of no space being left for brood.

Ample for a national - especially with stuff still coming in

 

[Brigsy]

Cheers.

 

[nantmoel]

Bottled some of our late summer crop of honey, I could not resit taking this photograph compared to our early summer crop. The dark one does contain a small amount of heather.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Last of the unites started this afternoon.
10 frame Swienty going on top of an 11 frame BS Nat.
I'll leave them to it once I take the QX off and sort them in the Spring

Quite a bit of fighting going on. First time I've ever had a newspaper unite go wrong. Might end up with no queen then. I don't know whether to look for her when I take the QX off and upset them even more. Oh well. I'll leave them a few days and time will tell.

 

[beeno]

Not at all - just the usual with people believing comic book beekeeping - big swarm=prime, small=cast.

It's been discussed and disproven time and time again on here. Bit the same as the myth that laying workers can't fly and a sprinkling of icing sugar will wipe out varroa

You better get on with it then, rewriting the books. Ted Hooper: “The old queen which has gone with the first or prime swarm, which is the biggest in number, ...”. Mark Winston: “... prime swarms are large, containing 60% or more of the adult population at the time of swarming...”. Clive de Bruyn: “Under normal conditions the old queen and 30-70 per cent of the bees leave after the first queen cells are capped.”.

Maybe the state of British beekeeping is going down the pan as 70% of next to nothing don't amount to much.

 

[Brigsy]

Quite a bit of fighting going on. First time I've ever had a newspaper unite go wrong. Might end up with no queen then. I don't know whether to look for her when I take the QX off and upset them even more. Oh well. I'll leave them a few days and time will tell.

Did you use a tabloid

 

[Erichalfbee]

No the Telegraph. Maybe some of them are Corbynistas?

 

[Hivemaker.]

The old queen which has gone with the first or prime swarm

Sometimes the old queen remains in the hive, still laying... and the bees swarm with a young virgin queen that emerges.

 

[Anduril]

Under normal conditions

Not always a perfect world!

 

[Brigsy]

No the Telegraph. Maybe some of them are Corbynistas?

Hehe

 

[Obee1]

Checked on the colony over at the farm who had made themselves a supercedure queen that hadn't yet mated. I found the original queen last week and squished her. Two days later sieved them to find the elusive virgin. They promptly balled her under the QE . Today the hive had many eQC which I cut out. Then did a newspaper join with a nuc I'd built up with a queen from our breeder queen.
Put apiguard on all the other hives at the farm apiary as its a lot of effort to trek out there every 5 days to vape them. The newspaper join colony will have apiguard added when I rearrange the frames after the merger. From the two biggest colonies I pinched 3 frames of capped brood to build up my nucs that I'm hoping to overwinter a few of my spare queens in.

Still haven't spun out my supers as been away. Tomorrow hopefully.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Let me know how you get on with the heather loosener.

Tried two bits of kit - the needle roller type affair which I bought from big T's I think and which cost less than a tenner and the proper job stainless steel needle loosener (which would cost near £150.00 I think if bought new) the roller did the job and was easy/not much work to use but did damage the comb a bit more than the loosener - although not as much to be a worry but didn't shift half as much honey as the big loosener (both times extracted tangentially, the roller didn't shift that much radially)
So it's the loosener from now on - just wondering whether the newer ones are lighter than the one I have being all S/S as with the weight and all the shiggling around by the end of the day my right arm feels like a public schoolboy's after a night in with his favourite Grattan catalogue (or pig breeder's monthly if you're an old Etonian)

 

[Millet]

Tried two bits of kit - the needle roller type affair which I bought from big T's I think and which cost less than a tenner and the proper job stainless steel needle loosener (which would cost near £150.00 I think if bought new) the roller did the job and was easy/not much work to use but did damage the comb a bit more than the loosener - although not as much to be a worry but didn't shift half as much honey as the big loosener (both times extracted tangentially, the roller didn't shift that much radially)
So it's the loosener from now on - just wondering whether the newer ones are lighter than the one I have being all S/S as with the weight and all the shiggling around by the end of the day my right arm feels like a public schoolboy's after a night in with his favourite Grattan catalogue (or pig breeder's monthly if you're an old Etonian)

Or a sheep farmer from Wales with the Auction Mart schedule catalogue..

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Or a sheep farmer from Wales with the Auction Mart schedule catalogue..

Ey! mind your mouth matey - I'll have you know that some of my best friends are sheep!!

 

[Millet]

Ey! mind your mouth matey - I'll have you know that some of my best friends are sheep!!

, is that why you have the beard, too tangle it around the horns while the procedure is done,

 

[nantmoel]

So it's the loosener from now on - just wondering whether the newer ones are lighter than the one I have being all S/S as with the weight and all the shiggling around by the end of the day my right arm feels like a public schoolboy's after a night in with his favourite Grattan catalogue (or pig breeder's monthly if you're an old Etonian)

Thank god I went to a comprehensive school!!

Thanks for the reply, as mentioned previously I pressed some heather honey in a hand press, I won't be going down that road again.

 

[Helen]

Got a call to go help the local rubbish tip team. A couple of days ago, some tw*t dumped at least 2 supers-full of frames in the wood dumpster in the town-centre tip, and then did a runner. The local bees found it first, then went and told all their mates, who told their mates, and soon, there was a cloud of bees, wasps and bumbles over the tip. The tip team got the dumpster onto a lorry, and took it to an out-of-town dump.

I popped out, and spent a little while sorting through the dumpster retrieving the supers. They were full of stores and even fuller of wax moth. Some of the supers looked like they were moving, they were so full of wax moth maggots. Yeuch. The local bees, wasps and bumbles had found it as well, so it was like working inside a swarm as there were quite a few.

Managed to bag up the supers which will now go for incineration.

The tip team are attempting to identify the dumpers to go have a word with them.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

That would stop skip diving

 

[B+.]

Managed to bag up the supers which will now go for incineration.

The tip team are attempting to identify the dumpers to go have a word with them.

Thats a great way to spread disease. I completely agree that they should be burned. You have no way of knowing what nasties they're carrying.

I hope the offender is caught and given a swift kick up the derriere