What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Michael Palmer]

Finished feeding yesterday What a job it was this. After a beautiful honey crop finished at the end of Linden, the drought got severe and the Goldenrod failed to yield. That flow is my winter feed, so the colonies were very light by mid September. Took 20,000 lb. of sugar, mixed into syrup, to bring everything up to winter weight. Am I glad that's done. Now we'll pick up feeders and wrap things up for winter. Ahh good old winter. Looking forward to it this year.

 

[tonyofarr]

The bee season never stops, there is all the preparation for the next season, building up frames, crown boards, boxes and writing shopping lists for the sales, checking your notes, hefting the hives etc.

Too true !

 

[ugcheleuce]

Okay, so this video is not from *today* but from 27 January this year (the outside temperature was 18 degrees C). What's curious to me is how one bee apparently helps another bee back into the hive, at around 01:38 to 02:02. Perhaps the one bee sensed that the other was rather tired.

https://youtu.be/kW7oPecAV-c

 

[B+.]

Ahh good old winter. Looking forward to it this year.

Whats wrong? Getting old Michael?

Do you make all that syrup yourself or have it delivered? If so, I'd be interested in how you make large quantities of syrup

 

[Finman]

Okay, so this video is not from *today* but from 27 January this year (the outside temperature was 18 degrees C). What's curious to me is how one bee apparently helps another bee back into the hive, at around 01:38 to 02:02. Perhaps the one bee sensed that the other was rather tired.

https://youtu.be/kW7oPecAV-c

They only helped with nasanov gland odor: This way!

Others were quard bees, which inspected do incomers have bombs, serie fire arms, liguids and so on.

That gut, what other bees seemed to help, was a quard bee.

 

[Michael Palmer]

Whats wrong? Getting old Michael?

Do you make all that syrup yourself or have it delivered? If so, I'd be interested in how you make large quantities of syrup

You'll understand some day Sonny Boy.

Yes, we make all the syrup. If you can believed it...in 5 gallon buckets with an electric drill and paddle. Zac mixes it and pours it into a fauceted tank, Kate fills the gallon cans, and I remove and replace can covers. We do 6-700 gallons a day. Not bad, really.

 

[mbc]

You'll understand some day Sonny Boy.

Yes, we make all the syrup. If you can believed it...in 5 gallon buckets with an electric drill and paddle. Zac mixes it and pours it into a fauceted tank, Kate fills the gallon cans, and I remove and replace can covers. We do 6-700 gallons a day. Not bad, really.

Pretty much how I do mine, without the help and slightly less volume, I can do about 20 gallons in an hour before setting off in the morning.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Get your entrance blocks sorted to stop the robbing, it is as easy as ABC, make a tunnel entrance that is impenetrable for wasps, i did last year and it is amusing when a wasp manages to sneak in then quickly turfed back out by several guard bees waiting at the other end of the tunnel.

I trialled a mid-underfloor entrance for a Paynes poly nuc I was worried about during (bee-)robbing season. Basically a correx inlay under the frames (wi' a hole!) Worked a treat.

ADD

Pretty much how I do mine, without the help and slightly less volume, I can do about 20 gallons in an hour before setting off in the morning.

2:1? How do you get it to dissolve so fast, even with agitation?

 

[Motobiman]

I trialled a mid-underfloor entrance for a Paynes poly nuc I was worried about during (bee-)robbing season. Basically a correx inlay under the frames (wi' a hole!) Worked a treat?

Just lost a poly nuc colony from a serious wasp attack. Grrrrr

Got any images of that entrance?

 

[Hivemaker.]

Finished feeding yesterday

Another week to ten days of feeding left to do here, be pleased when it is all done.

 

[B+.]

You'll understand some day Sonny Boy.

Yes, we make all the syrup. If you can believed it...in 5 gallon buckets with an electric drill and paddle. Zac mixes it and pours it into a fauceted tank, Kate fills the gallon cans, and I remove and replace can covers. We do 6-700 gallons a day. Not bad, really.

I thought you'd have a faster process than that but, when you break it down to 700/day, it doesn't sound quite so much.

I do understand actually (even though I'm 57). Its nice to recharge the batteries ready for the next season. I know that I'll be stir crazy by Christmas though.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Just lost a poly nuc colony from a serious wasp attack. Grrrrr

Got any images of that entrance?

Sorry no but I can easily describe what I actually have and what I would do next time. The floor itself is simply a correx board with a 1cm-square hole in the centre. The boxes are all Paynes poly nucs.

What I have is a box cut into two horizontally at a plane one bee-space below the bottom bars. This is well above the entrance. The floor simply sits in the cut, well taped-up from outside; you do NOT want to open gaps, obviously. So, from the bottom; OMF and entrance; correx inner floor; brood box. The feeder obviously is knackered but I have given up on that; so many drownings whatever I do.

What I will do next time is cut the board to fit then push it down and tape it. If you have a spare box you could trial that then pop the frames across in one minute flat.

No warranty but it's an idea and so far working for me. They seem to set up two lines of guards: the original entrance and little heads poking down below the correx. I wouldn't like to try it...

I'll find out in late March what layers of crud build up; I will not be treating them.

 

[Motobiman]

That sounds good.

Is that the older style poly nuc with the square hole or the new one with the round hole and disc?

I don't have a spare here at home to look at.

So if I got this right they use the normal entrance above the mesh and under the correx and then go to the centre of the mesh and up into the 1cm hole in the new correx floor.

Is that right?

 

[Millet]

Sorry no but I can easily describe what I actually have and what I would do next time. The floor itself is simply a correx board with a 1cm-square hole in the centre. The boxes are all Paynes poly nucs.

What I have is a box cut into two horizontally at a plane one bee-space below the bottom bars. This is well above the entrance. The floor simply sits in the cut, well taped-up from outside; you do NOT want to open gaps, obviously. So, from the bottom; OMF and entrance; correx inner floor; brood box. The feeder obviously is knackered but I have given up on that; so many drownings whatever I do.

What I will do next time is cut the board to fit then push it down and tape it. If you have a spare box you could trial that then pop the frames across in one minute flat.

No warranty but it's an idea and so far working for me. They seem to set up two lines of guards: the original entrance and little heads poking down below the correx. I wouldn't like to try it...

I'll find out in late March what layers of crud build up; I will not be treating them.

It sounds good but i do not have poly so i will stick with my invention for now. 100mm wide 100mm into the hive 8mm high, it has been reduced to 50 mm wide with a wooden shim in this picture, nothing but a bee and air will get through that.

 

[Millet]

Just mixed another 4kg of sugar up today which makes 2 litres of syrup just incase for tomorrow, no thymol left but hopefully the 8kg of thymol mix they have had upto now will do the trick, i will weigh them and feed accordingly.
One hive by the way i am no commercial beek,

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

It sounds good but i do not have poly so i will stick with my invention for now. 100mm wide 100mm into the hive 8mm high, it has been reduced to 50 mm wide with a wooden shim in this picture, nothing but a bee and air will get through that.

It's a great invention. I'm cribbing it next year.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Finman]

Just mixed another 4kg of sugar up today which makes 2 litres of syrup :

That is odd calculation. Should it be 4.7 litres.

.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

That is odd calculation. Should it be 4.7 litres.

.

depends on whether it's 2:1 or 1:2

 

[Millet]

depends on whether it's 2:1 or 1:2

Exactly , Finny may be picking but i'm done with kids for now, i have other stuff to worry and twist about, Crack on finny and light the World.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

That sounds good.

Is that the older style poly nuc with the square hole or the new one with the round hole and disc?

I don't have a spare here at home to look at.

So if I got this right they use the normal entrance above the mesh and under the correx and then go to the centre of the mesh and up into the 1cm hole in the new correx floor.

Is that right?

New and round, and yes.