What did you do in the Apiary today?

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Sunny morning about 8c but 11c in my walled garden apiary and i decided to add 300g of neopol to hives going onto OSR or having bailey changes

Bees collecting pollen and lots more collecting water from puddles especially those with sheep droppings in....heavy rain overnight. The Herdwick Tup was more subdued today as his flock of ewes and spring lambs have been moved to better pasture
 
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Bees out and collecting orange pollen. 15 degrees here at lunchtime, fondant all gone but not looked inside hive yet.

I assume I should replace fondant as I have read bees can starve in March and it is still winter. Not experienced enough to rely on hefting to decide.
 
Being the muppet I am, I had time to build up the hive parts I machined a couple of weekends ago.
The Dragon needed the car to go to hospital for a blood test so she dropped me at work with my bike.
Hometime tonight, I dutifully cycled the 11 miles home along Blackpool prom with instructions to get home & make tea.
Arrived home only 10 mins or so later than usual, took the panniers off my bike and started searching through them. Sure enough, the penny eventually dropped. My keys were still on my desk at the opposite end of the Fylde coast. I had put them out to make sure they went in the seat pack.
Luckily the garage was still open as it started to rain. I was starting to cool down too quickly & too much and there was the old garage coat in there. I picked it up to put on & realised there was a national waiting to be assembled.
The Dragon arrived home just as I was hammering the last line of pins in.
I think she has just about stopped laughing now.
 
Went Past Bodyshops head office in Littlehampton on the train today, whilst going to work and noticed they have an area fenced off, about 24'x24', with from what i could see from the train, 3 hives in the area.

I knew they were helping support the Lasi dept at Sussex uni but wasnt aware they had their own bees to.

dont think that 3 hives will produce enough hive products for the amount of cosmetics they produce.
 
Picked up the KBS wax order at the weekend

so started on making the frames up............made about 60 14"x12" and the box of foundation still looks as full as when i started
 
14 degrees here yesterday so cracked the crownboard a little and took a peek. Overwintered on brood+half and the super is still crammed full of honey stores, I only took a little from them last year and didn't feed syrup in autumn or any fondant since. Lots of healthy looking young bees in there and a big cloud on orientation flights in front of the hive. Masses of pollen coming in - bright orange, yellow, grey and an interesting pinkish colour that I've not seen before. It seemed that the older over-wintered bees were bringing in the majority. Removed mouse guard as it was stripping quite a bit of pollen off.

Some bees working the small patch of winter flowering heather we have in the garden (mental note - plant more this year) along with half a dozen of the biggest and noisiest bumbles I ever seen! Water gatherers were out in force too at the garden pond, 20 ft away from the hive.

So, all looking good so far for my first winter - I'm not getting complacent but if they die now it won't be due to lack of stores. Looking forward to it getting a bit warmer so I can have a look through the bottom box and assess space v. stores - roll on the spring!

Inspection tray left in while away on holiday for 3 weeks and had a sum total of 2 mites on it - oxalic on Jan 2nd looks to have done the trick then as they had masses of the little blighters before then.

Charged up the camera ready to get some pictures of the action today (should soon have enough posts under my belt to put them up here!) but now it's peeing down - grrr... :rolleyes:

Nick

.
 
Finished separating out the bulk order of wax I received from KBS into the individual orders (over 200 packs of national brood plus all the rest!).... Thanks to a 'gentleman' deciding he didn't want any foundation I now have some spare but judging by the fact foundation prices have had a bit of a hike since I placed and paid for the order, I'll not have a problem rehoming it!!
Bees are bringing in a lot of pollen including daffodil pollen - and yes they have a lot of Hazel, Gorse/Whin, Crocus and Primrose to choose from as well. It looks as if they are foraging on the daffodils by choice.
 
Put some fondent in the hive all the bees full of life, getting ready to change the hive this month,,
 
I visited my out apiaries to put neopol on all the hives but found to my dismay that a fence had come down in the wind and landed on one of the hives. I opened it up to find it totally empty! Just a few bees on the floor and lots of cappings. That was really bad luck as it was on 7 frames last week when i checked fondant levels. I presume they left in a hurry when the fence came down and that the other hives have been robbing.
 
Thanks Tony, just one of those things..... I should dwell on the good stuff really as the others are fine but I liked that one. It was the one you didnt like when you came over last summer but I had requeened it and it was lovely
 
Popped some Neopoll on as they'd wolfed down the previous batch, and after reading something Hivemaker posted a couple of years back which suggested that once pollen patties have started to be applied they should continue until sufficient real stuff is available.

Fitted a perspex crown board to one which involved the first opening up this year.
 
picton farm said:
Thanks Tony, just one of those things..... I should dwell on the good stuff really as the others are fine but I liked that one. It was the one you didnt like when you came over last summer but I had requeened it and it was lovely
Click to expand...

I never said I didn't like the colony, just the way they behaved! LOL ( I've never been attacked like that before or since, and I think 200+ stings to the bee suit must be some sort of record?)
anyway, glad all the other colonies are fine. I'm up your neck of the woods at the weekend, and I might pop and see you on saturday
regards, Tony
 
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