What did you do in the Apiary today?

[victor meldrew]

Cleaning up extraction equipment
Damned wasp tormenting as per usual .
Ignored it . Then the little B*>^<*d stung my forearm and sodded off before I could swot it
Then a Woodie being chased by a Sparrowhawk crashed into my dining room window and broke its neck! Should have been the bl**dy wasp
VM

 

[Chris Luck]

Would that be a Wood pigeon? Unusually large prey for a Sparrow hawk I would have liked to have seen that, very rare indeed. Normally it's only Peregrine and Goshawks that take them.

Chris

 

[VEG]

bees going like the clappers on the balsom still loads left around here and still more starting to grow. I did leave mine till october last year to treat with apiguard.

I have just given a sample of my honey to the local SBI to be sent off to test for organo phosphates (think thats how you spell it) Part of a random sampling. It will be interesting to see what the make up of the honey is as they supply a report at the end.

 

[victor meldrew]

Would that be a Wood pigeon? Unusually large prey for a Sparrow hawk I would have liked to have seen that, very rare indeed. Normally it's only Peregrine and Goshawks that take them.

Chris

No peregrines around here or goshawks but sparrowhawks spook wood pigeons all the time !
VM

 

[oliver90owner]

VEG,

WOT!?!

I did leave mine till october last year to treat with apiguard.

Even I think that was a bit late, but good on yer! Dates mean nothing. Conditions mean all. I say 'a bit late' because some of your winter bees may have had varroa infections, doing it that late. But, if the varroa loading was not that heavy and your bees were still brooding heavily, it was your risk on your knowledge of your bees.

BTW, did you need (or do) an oxalic acid treatment shortly afterwards? Just interested to know as the varroa loadings in January should have been fairly minimal (if the October treatment efficacy was good).

Regards, RAB

 

[YorkshireBees]

My bees never fail to surprise me. After the extraction run yesterday I put 3 wet supers on the 3 hives at my home apiary for cleaning (ie above crownboard). Went today to see if they had finished already and to swap them for 3 more wet supers, only one hive had finished and the other two were busy filling the supers back up with nectar!!

I guess there is a relatively good flow on at the moment with the Balsam and it having rained. The only reason the 1 hive wasn't filling the super is because I left them one super on as there were far too many bees to fit in the brood box!

Anyway did a full inspection on all 3 and one of them already has 6 frames of stores in the brood box! The other 2 are still quite light and will either need feeding or maybe if they collect enough honey I will just leave them the super.

Only time will tell but it will delay any varroa treatment / feeding.

 

[VEG]

Rab I followed up with oxcalic and had minimal drop in January. Where I live we have masses of balsom so treating any earlier isnt an option for me as the brood box would be too clogged with honey too early.

 

[Swarm]

RAB,
The Balsam went on well into October here and I know VEG has far more of it where he is. There were a few days where temperatures dropped but luckily, they did not last.

I did an oxalic treatment the week after New Year's Eve.

 

[oliver90owner]

VEG/Swarm

That's fair enough. I wasn't being critical. Just commenting re any heavy varroa infestation, doing it that late, affecting winter bees. But if VEG is aware, and was, obviously OK - oxalic may even have been the only treatment needed - or maybe oxalic was just overkill, I don't know, I wasn't there. Oxalic was the alternative main varroa killer had the thymol treatmernt been of poor efficacy due to cold weather, so no real fuss, either way.

My WOT!?! was really to gain attention, that is all. My thymol treatments extended into October last year (after my season had ended abruptly, at the end of September), so I am not complaining. As I said 'good on yer'. A good example for some of the paranoid beeks who have to do things by the calender date.

Regards, RAB

 

[VEG]

No offence taken from me

 

[Swarm]

Same here, it is late and I could well understand your 'WOT!!' as being one of disbelief (I considered it more of a wow btw). I agree with you entirely about the year .. calendar is just for human convenience

 

[zubzub]

Cleaned and prepared extractor made a couple of alterations,
removed part filled super and put on apiguard.

ZZ

 

[Chrisfnvs]

Made up some frames to replace a few in the B Boxes which have become full of Heather honey etc, (there seems to be a real flow on at the moment) drove 50 miles to pick some up after running out, got to the yard to late to do what i had intended, ended up re queening one colony with a failing queen, gave my AMM more space to lay in another and took of some suppers from 2 others then checked the mite drop on 10 hives, the weather forcast is not to good this week so they may eat some of their stores and save me a job Chris

 

[gingerbees]

well today was day 16 after our last inspection, at that time we found a new laying queen in hive 2 and a queen in hive 1 but no evidence of eggs, grubs or brood.
Today was the time to see if we had two hives to go through over winter or if we had to unite the two. Would hive one queen have come up with the goods?

And result both hives had4 /5 frame of capped brood, lots of grubs, stores and eggs

so two great hives for the winter, result

 

[ashleybee]

Would that be a Wood pigeon? Unusually large prey for a Sparrow hawk I would have liked to have seen that, very rare indeed. Normally it's only Peregrine and Goshawks that take them.

Chris

don't think so matey. My female spar will do pigeons all day long she even took a hen pheasant late last season.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Same here, it is late and I could well understand your 'WOT!!' as being one of disbelief (I considered it more of a wow btw). I agree with you entirely about the year .. calendar is just for human convenience

You make me feel better, thought I was being a bit daft in being reluctant to slow things down for treatment etc (being fairly new) when i was actually worrying that I might need another super 'Cos i haven't seen my bees working this hard all summer - balsam in my district and up towards the Neath valley (I was fishing there this morning) shown no intention of dying back yet. The whole back garden is golden with bees zipping back and forth in the sunlight (what little we get!)

 

[gingerbees]

Yesterday at our hives :

http://www.landshare.net/users/guy-and-tracey/blog/040911-garden-harvest-and-bee-inspection-all-good-news-/

 

[drstitson]

Extractor finally arrived. 1x 50% full super all ready to go but now can't remove chuck from drill in order to fit to extractor. waiting til after lunch to see if local mechanics can do it for me (and yes i know the screw goes clockwise).

 

[Magwat]

Would that be a Wood pigeon? Unusually large prey for a Sparrow hawk I would have liked to have seen that, very rare indeed. Normally it's only Peregrine and Goshawks that take them.

Chris

I have witnessed a sparrowhawk killing one of my chickens & on another occasion seen one struggling to gain height with a very large, still live, squealing rat.

 

[Chris Luck]

As I said ashleybee, "Unusually large prey for a Sparrow hawk I would have liked to have seen that, very rare indeed. Normally it's only Peregrine and Goshawks that take them." Which is factually correct and I'm not your "matey", I don't even know you to decide whether I would want to be or not.

Des recherches intensives effectuées au Danemark sur plus de 60 000 proies ont permis de donner une composition assez précise du menu de ce rapace. Pendant la saison de nidification, près de 98% du régime est constitué de petits oiseaux. Dans le détail, le repas est composé de la façon suivante : 13% de grives et de turdidés, 11% de moineaux domestiques, 8% de fauvettes et d'espèces de la famille des sylviidés, 9% de mésanges, 7% de pinsons des arbres et d'alouettes, 6% d'hirondelles, 5% de moineaux friquets, 4% d'étourneaux et 3% de pipits. En tout, plus de 150 espèces ont été identifiées. Les colombidés, les gallinacés et les petits faisans représentent une quantité assez négligeable, se situant en dessous de 1%.

Chris