What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Cazza]

Finally got to look at my bees today goos job too as they are all very low on stores so fed them. No swarm cells any where but one colony has a supercedure cell in it so will leave them to it.

Must be warmer in your neck of the woods. 8c here and drizzling. Just been to feed and put a frame feeder in one.

I've can't remember actually feeling grateful that the bees are alive this late in the year before. Frighteningly my nephew is now old enough to drive and he was a mere twinkle when I lit my first smoker so my memory stretches a little way back. I think the weather is making me maudlin.......

Cazza

 

[piggy1]

why do you have a super above the crown board?

Warmth rightly or wrongly ????

 

[drstitson]

Checked hives in order to find which had swarmed yesterday - turns out it was the one which i'd tried unsuccessfully to use for first queen rearing attempt of the year 3 weeks ago - typical!

4 sealed QCs, 2 open with advanced larvae. PLUS one outer frame without brood had what appeared to be a stumpy emergency cell on face of comb. Opened it carefully from base and out popped a little virgin, not much bigger than a worker. Popped her in a swarm box that i had handy along with the bees from the frame and went to prepare mating nucs ready to receive QCs tomorrow.

Hour or so later went back to fill nucs with bees, including one for the virgin. In teh meantime she'd expanded her abdomen up to full size and was now a nice looking yellow/orange queen. She's now awaiting a mating holiday at friend's house along with the swarm.

 

[Headnavigator]

Constant rain/drizzle and no way of opening or inspecting; had two supers on as they had almost finished filling the first 2 weeks ago. Had assumed stores would be OK because of this, but FERA and Kate Humble's sad loss has caused me to panic. I can see through the glass quilt that the upper (newer) super is chock full of bees and am not deluded enough to think that they are busy drawing comb, guess rather that they are searching for stores. Have put another crown board over, and half a kilo of granulated sugar sprinkled over, hoping they can feed on that for an hour or so if things are at emergency pitch while I make up some fondant, which I'd much prefer to feed to them than syrup.
Am I panicking unnecessarily? Don't know but hope so!

 

[Swarm]

Finally had to resort to feeding. Too cold to mess about with anything else.

 

[witchcraft]

Called by the farmer on whose land my apiary is to say that one of my hives was swarming. It was 8 degrees and raining. I went up to have a look (not believing him) and it was too.

Swept them into a new brood box and tried to save as many as I could, it was really cold. Why don't they do what they are supposed to?

 

[iand]

Hefting and feeding this morning, to cold and wet for anything else.
Then local bee assoc meeting this afternoon to introduce potential new Beeks to the joys of beekeeping. Needless to say we didn't go near a bee, don't want to frighten them off before we get to the 1st hurdle.

 

[itma]

Fed 2:1 instead of 1:1 this week. starving . brood box crammed but they wont move up to super through crown board. Is this normal as its cold ?? Should i be worried as Brood box looks really full. When i did full inspection earlier in the week there was 9 frames of brood and eggs at various stages.

{Why the crownboard?}

Warmth rightly or wrongly ????

There may be at least couple of misapprehensions there.

They won't normally go up through the hole and use the (colder) space above.
What would you find above the crownboard? Well, the roof, maybe some insulation, and maybe a rapid or contact feeder and a shallow being used as an eke to give space for that feeder.
Just before taking off

You wouldn't normally feed with a (honey crop) super in place. Because of the probability of getting sugar syrup mixed in with the honey.
If you are thinking of giving them brood and a half, don't put a crownboard in their way. And in this cr@p weather, it has been suggested that giving extra brood space would be better done with a shallow box under the brood box (using it as a nadir rather than a super), I believe that is particularly advised if you don't have drawn comb to give them and must use foundation in the shallow. Its a matter of warmth.

Be careful feeding strong syrup. They will probably store at least some of it - emptying the feeder rather fast. The risk is that, what they don't eat, they could stash in the last of the free space that HMQ wants as laying space.
If you do feed thick syrup, this is something to watch out for.


Me? Today, I looked out at the rain on the windows, and didn't go the (cancelled) Association apiary meeting...

 

[fatshark]

Set out second bait hive ... it's going to be warmer next week

 

[johnmcc]

7° here, cold NE wind and rain all day. Fed both hives again and bees taking food like there's no tomorrow (but I hope there is for them). It's May on Tuesday, FCSake!

 

[MuswellMetro]

Thought that in a break in the rain that i would plant some hedging along the new fence around my out apiary ( blackthorn, dog rose and pussy willow)

But it soon started raining again and i got very wet and Muddy...so when i finished I went to the pub

 

[louiseww]

At this rate we will have to build an ark, feeding the bees as their stores are so low as to be almost non existent. Lets hope May brings some sunshine.

 

[johnmcc]

At 10.00am this morning it was 5° with about a force 4-5 north easterly wind and light rain here in Norfolk. I walked the dog wearing barbour jacket, hat and gloves (me, not the dog ) for the first time since February. My bees seem just dormant at the moment - barely even feeding on the syrup I put in yesterday - and yes, they needed feeding.

But a friend says he remembers that the very hot summer of 1976 was preceded by a wet and cold April . . . . so who knows?

 

[Erichalfbee]

At this rate we will have to build an ark

We have a thrush sitting on her nest in the ash tree. No leaves yet. The rain is lashing down and she is sitting tight......poor bird!!

But a friend says he remembers that the very hot summer of 1976 was preceded by a wet and cold April . . . . so who knows?

Ah 1976......my first year in employment and how I missed those long summer holidays as a student.

Oak before Ash in for a splash
Ash before Oak in for a soak.........let's hope so

 

[drstitson]

took swarm and keiler with virgin on a short holiday to friends.

set up 5 mini-nucs and 2 nucs using the queen cells from parent hive.

checked swarm yesterday - eggs already visible in many of the yet to be completed cells - very easy to see in photos vs the dark background of plastic frames.

 

[victor meldrew]

Checked on apiary , an ancient oak is on it's side, uprooted by one of these vicious squalls that are raging as I type
Every thing in apiary upright (for now at least).
Oak tree had a tit box ,occupied containing 4 eggs . Farmer re-located in another tree as no eggs were broken . I doubt tits finding it again but stranger things have happened !
VM

 

[Headnavigator]

Dashed out in a less drizzly moment to replace the emergency crownboard with gran sugar and give them some decent fondant. They were not amused to be disturbed and chucked off the sugar, but delighted to find the fondant. Shocked to see that they had all but finished drawing the second super; far more industrious than they've any right to be in this weather.

 

[Davelin]

Oak before Ash in for a splash
Ash before Oak in for a soak.........let's hope so

Oak is further out than ash here, so I'm confident all will be fine!

but what was I doing at 8 o'clock this morning?

Strapping down the hives in a howling gale, and its been lashing down all day!

 

[tonybloke]

sun came out at 2 '0'clock, watched the bees bringing a bit of pollen

 

[susbees]

Sloshed 10 litres of 1:1 around the commercials in the "lighter" torrential rain. Bigger colonies back in a winter cluster, supers abandonned!

Moved the extractor/settling tank/unmade frame and super stack off the back wall of the bull pen and got attacked by a pile of unmade super roofs for my efforts...luckily welly stopped nasty gash. Wonderful.

Now got a vertical heap of Ronsealed nuc OMFs in the back kitchen as the porch they were drying off in ain't dry any more. So that's beekeeping stuff in four rooms and a corridor now. And two sheds, one drier than the other.