What did you do in the Apiary today?

[itma]

When the sun came out and they started flying purposefully, I decided that a peek below decks was in order.
Plenty stores, some capped and uncapped brood, and some space. No nasties, no mice, no worries. Do something about the garden instead!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Interestingly in one hive it was all bright yellow, but next door much more orange. Apart from hazel wonder what they are getting it from?

Grey willow and snowdrop or crocus?

 

[Davelin]

Yes it could well be willow, plenty of that in the vicinity.

 

[rbaz]

Cleaned and sorted all my gear out for the season ahead. Really looking forward to it
Prepared 2 supers and re attached my spare brood frames that I left the wrong way up in the summer heat and they started to fall out
Lots of bees flying in the last few days just like peak summer bringing in loads of pollen.
It’s my first spring and am worried on the level of stores so very keen to look inside maybe in the next couple of weeks just to check on stores, currently 10-14 during the day but still cool on a night.
I have a solid crown board so can’t put any fondant on without opening them up.

 

[dickndoris]

Cut the grass round the hives today or should I say moss! They just sat watching. I guess they like the smell of the castrol R that get's put in the mower to bring back me youth;-)
Amazing amount of pollen going into all the hives yesterday so happy so far. New foundation should be here next week to fill the 28 new 14x12 frames that will go into the new poly brood boxes that will then get put on top of the old brood boxes for them to draw out, and then,,,,,, the new radial 8 frame drill driven extractor should be here. Should be the last expensive item I should be buying;-) At least that's what I tell her indoors :-D

 

[oliver90owner]

28 new 14x12 frames that will go into the new poly brood boxes that will then get put on

Seems a peculiar multiple? Any chance of some further breakdown of what is actually going where?

 

[flytrapman]

28 new 14x12 frames that will go into the new poly brood boxes that will then get put on

Seems a peculiar multiple? Any chance of some further breakdown of what is actually going where?

Just guessing but it could be 2 broods and a poly nuc

 

[oliver90owner]

I need to move a National Hive (and bees) a distance of over 3 miles. From this site I have gleaned that the best time to do this is in the evening,

I thought that but this seemed tobe out of place: will go into the new poly brood boxes that will then get put on top of the old brood boxes

So I thought it better to ask rather than guess - probably wrongly

 

[iball]

Checked stores, put varroa boards in, removed mouse guards.

Lots of pollen going in, just need a little more warmth now.

Ian

 

[drstitson]

"removed mouse guards."

bit early yet? colonies are still dwindling and clustered part of the time so unable to defend themselves. better to remove when inspection schedule starts.

 

[user 6228]

The colony named "alwaysfoam" (because the colony has never been in a wooden hive including the queen) has today the following temperatures:

22C at floor level at the back of the hive
27C at the top of a non-central brood frame.

This colony has a PIR Tunnel entrance, deep insulated PIR floor, PIR brood. PIR feeding eke with polycarbonate top and bottom underneath a PIR roof with a small amount of fondant to monitor store requirements with minimal disturbance

The colony named "Waswood" (because the colony was bought in and kept until Autumn in a Th**nes Cedar wooden hive ) has today the following temperature
22C at the junction between the brood box and super at a non central location

This colony now has a bought in poly OMF floor, bought in poly brood, one PIR super and a PIR feeding eke with polycarbonate top and bottom under neath a PIR roof with a small amount of fondant to monitor store requirements with minimal disturbance


The ambient temperature at the time of measurement (7.15am) was 3 C.

 

[Black Comb]

So, what are your conclusions from the data?

 

[user 6228]

So, what are your conclusions from the data?

That if you insulate the bees including floor and entrance you get interesting differences in behaviour, and interesting similarities, to relatively uninsulated hives.
My information so far is statistically insignificant and really is to help formulate the questions so I can design better data gathering for next year. But the data so far might be of interest to those with questioning mind.
The questions raised in my mind so far are:

• What makes bees decide to cluster apart from internal nest temperature.
• What makes bees decide to go broodless, apart from nest temperature and food availability?
• Does nest insulation affect colony size?
• floor and entrance design how does that effect colony temperature distribution in summer amd winter?

 

[itma]

What makes bees decide to go broodless, apart from nest temperature and food availability?

Day length (and its change) seems to be a major influence, doesn't it?

 

[madasafish]

Lots of bees out today: sunny and dry. Wondered where all the white/grey pollen was coming from.. walked down road to see a large (0.75metre diameter) heather bush in the sun covered with bees with the same colour pollen.

(Lots of ladybirds everywhere including on the heather).

200 new crocus planted in autumn fully out and being worked by bees... we have about 2,000 - 3,000 crocuses and they all are being worked - if in the sun.

 

[billycasper]

Decided that it would be a good day to get into the hive and have a good look at numbers etc.
Nice to see them out and about on arrival. Got into the hive and the girls weren't happy and gave me a bit of hassle. Got a sting through my jeans ans was pulling barbs out of my jeans when i got home!

Really good numbers, queen evident and a few brood at varying stages from egg to sealed brood but only on one frame (although the queen was on a different frame on inspection.

Plenty of bees were also brining in a bright orange pollen.

Only worries i have are around the complete absence of drone brood (is it too early?) and the fact that 3/4 of my brood box frames have got capped honey in them. Will this stop the queen laying enough for the spring due to lack of room?

I was surprised by the amount of honey in the supers as well so added one that i took off in the autumn (it was empty and put feed in instead.

Next job is to get my head around artificial swarming!

 

[oliver90owner]

Is that 'three or four' or 'three quarters'. Can't tell from here and there is a subtle difference. Are these capped frames full? How many frames are there in total? What type of hive? There can be a considerable difference between types and frame sizes.

I do not underrstand the next para, either. Elucidate,please.

 

[stoneleighhouse]

what did I do round the Apiary today?

Sat with a cuppa and watched the pollen being flown in

 

[billycasper]

its a national hive and has one frame with some eggs, pupae and sealed brood in an area in the centre of the frame (both sides).

There are a couple of frames that have no pollen, brood or honey in them so i assume they are being prepared for future laying.

The rest of the brood box has frames that are full of capped honey. Above that I have a super (through a queen excluder) which i would describe as over half full of capped honey.

At the end of last year i head left two supers on but although both were developed, the top one had negligible stores in it. With this in mid i took in off, replaced it with an empty super with a contact feeder in it. The idea was to move the feeder closer to the bees. Due to the amount of honey stores in the remaining super, i have put the removed super back on.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Was passing (well sort of) my out apiaries at lunch time so had a quick look to check the hives are sill there and see what activity there was.

In one all hives seemed reasonably busy, one especially with orientation flights.
In the other there was what appeared to be a cloud of busy bees round my hives! Very busy and all hives currently alive (including the one that had started to worry me).

So went back to work with a smile on my face!