What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Mike a]

• Collected two swarms for bee keepers who belong to a neighbouring association, both of which were hanging a few feet away from the parent hives. Nice and simple to collect and rehomed into brand new hives minutes later.
• Collected a (sealed up) hive with a small cast swarm in it which is being donated to a new bee keeper.
• Called out to watch the remains of what was a good sized swarm earlier in the day in the top of a fur tree. This is the second day running they have tried to swarm but gave up and returned to the parent hive probably because the queen has been clipped. Owner of the fur tree was a little upset about them swarming into her garden.
• Called to collect a lovely swarm 15ft up an oak tree (caught in the cross fire of a long argument between the two very angry neighbours)

I really enjoy collecting swarms but ended up passing the details of another swarm to another bee keeper as I was shattered.

 

[george]

Bit naughty as I am technically at work , but ..

Nipped into one apiary ' on the way somewhere ' . Hive 1 no problems 2 supers filling slowly .

2nd hive ok till frame 4 , A sealed cell showing , a further 4 or 5 on the next few frames . Bees starting to mass out front . Had a bit of luck and found the queen on the last frame and popped her in a nuc with 3 frames of brood and also shook some bees into nuc from original hive . Bit of grass in the small entrance hole and shifted the lot 20yds along the hedge line .
Reduced the original down to 1 cell and added a 3rd super . The first two are almost full but the water content is still high as it runs out of the cells when turned side on .

Will check everything tmrw .

G

 

[psafloyd]

• 
  Owner of the fur tree was a little upset about them swarming into her garden.

You mean they DIDN'T ASK to sit in her tree. Bloody outrageous!

 

[sunshinemedic]

Watched with amusement as a Mason Bee tried several times to get into one of my hives. Guard bees were not having any of it!

 

[nosmoking]

Watched with amusement as a Mason Bee tried several times to get into one of my hives. Guard bees were not having any of it!

Obviously the wrong 'handshake'!

 

[YorkshireBees]

Just tidying up my bee stuff after attending to a swarm and decided to fill my container I keep my smoker fuel in. Got mixed up and opened (both ice cream containers) up the one I put scrap comb and bits of wax in to find a virgin queen still wandering around inside after I reduced sealed QC's in a hive yesterday evening!

Didn't quite know what to do so I let her out onto a flower.

Bit stupid now, maybe I should have squished her inside a swarm collection box but didn't have the heart to do it at the time.

 

[AnotherNewBee]

How the day should have gone:

• Go to apiary.
• Carry out full inspection on colony. Hopefully find queen.
• Add QE and super.
• Go away feeling happy and relieved that all is well.

How the day actually went:

• Receive call from owner of farm where hive is. The tenant of the nearby manor house has reported having 100s of bees in each of 3 rooms.
• Quickly pack car and head to manor house.
• Spend several hours clearing out bees, finding out where they're entering the rooms, and where they're getting into the building.
• Quickly check our hive in case they're 'our' bees. Apparently not (massive relief).
• Continue trying to work out what has been happening at the manor house. It seems the bees have now left. Probably just scouts that got themselves trapped. Perhaps we created enough smoke in the house to drive them away. Luckily there were no smoke alarms (a bit silly in such an old house with so much dry timber, IMHO).
• Search the surrounding area for a swarm. No luck.
• Start the planned work of the day. Full inspection.
• Very busy colony drawing wax and bringing in loads of OSR. No eggs, no brood and no sign of HM. Due to inexperience start wondering if the bees at the manor might have been ours after all.
• Finish inspection. Add QE and super. Need another lift.
• Go back to car. No lift. I'd left home in a hurry and forgotten to pick it up.
• Go home. Pick up lift.
• Return to farm. Add lift.
• Contemplate possible reasons for no eggs or brood. Still worry that the manor's problems bees might have been ours.
• 'Phone my tutor on the basic course. Turns out because the swarm was only hived 7 days ago HM probably hasn't been fattened up enough to start laying yet.

If my tutor is reading this he'll recognise the story. Many thanks for your help. It is very much appreciated.

Someone told me beekeeping is relaxing. They lied.

 

[Chris Luck]

Did some exploratory work on the planned cut out but decided to close up and leave to a later date - bees very aggressive, OSR just finished and may be about to swarm.

Hived two swarms and then found the mess in the photos - a full 2 metres long, totally the most massive bunch if bees I've ever seen. I speculate that it's at least 3 swarms if not more that have bundled together.

What would you do next?

 

[Luminos]

How the day should have gone:

• Go to apiary.
• Carry out full inspection on colony. Hopefully find queen.
• Add QE and super.
• Go away feeling happy and relieved that all is well.

How the day actually went:

• Receive call from owner of farm where hive is. The tenant of the nearby manor house has reported having 100s of bees in each of 3 rooms.
• Quickly pack car and head to manor house.
• Spend several hours clearing out bees, finding out where they're entering the rooms, and where they're getting into the building.
• Quickly check our hive in case they're 'our' bees. Apparently not (massive relief).
• Continue trying to work out what has been happening at the manor house. It seems the bees have now left. Probably just scouts that got themselves trapped. Perhaps we created enough smoke in the house to drive them away. Luckily there were no smoke alarms (a bit silly in such an old house with so much dry timber, IMHO).
• Search the surrounding area for a swarm. No luck.
• Start the planned work of the day. Full inspection.
• Very busy colony drawing wax and bringing in loads of OSR. No eggs, no brood and no sign of HM. Due to inexperience start wondering if the bees at the manor might have been ours after all.
• Finish inspection. Add QE and super. Need another lift.
• Go back to car. No lift. I'd left home in a hurry and forgotten to pick it up.
• Go home. Pick up lift.
• Return to farm. Add lift.
• Contemplate possible reasons for no eggs or brood. Still worry that the manor's problems bees might have been ours.
• 'Phone my tutor on the basic course. Turns out because the swarm was only hived 7 days ago HM probably hasn't been fattened up enough to start laying yet.

If my tutor is reading this he'll recognise the story. Many thanks for your help. It is very much appreciated.

Someone told me beekeeping is relaxing. They lied.

So what happened, ANB? Were they your bees?

 

[madasafish]

Inspected all colonies: Nectar coming in, no QCs - just starting to build up bee numbers.
Swapped the 8 frames of a mini TBH into a full size one placed on the same site, moved the mini TBH to the side and went away and left it to reorganise.

4 hours later all OK..

Went to association apiary, assisted in putting queen cells in various nucs,apideas etc.

 

[Queens59]

Watched my WBC 14X12 hive swarm 30ft up into an oak tree - and then return home. Now preparing everything to give more space tomorrow. Many keepers locally have had the same prob...heavy flow not enough space and no swarm cells! Oh joy - if only hives could speak people!!!!

 

[AnotherNewBee]

So what happened, ANB? Were they your bees?

No. I'm reasonably sure of that. I'm hoping HM starts laying before next week's inspection. That should confirm it.

 

[Mike a]

What would you do next?

Call for a skip to collect them in.

 

[SixFooter]

Checked 8 colonies. Did an AS. Cleaned out a defunct hive. Shook out a DLW hive. Added a brood frame to a broodless colony. Nice day for it, but hot in my Bee suit.

 

[YorkshireBees]

Starting making the next batch of super frames. Had a call about swarm of honey bees in a bird nest box! Doh, explained they are bumble bees and the best thing to do would be to leave them alone.

Went back to making frames.

Went out for lunch and then had a call for a swarm that had entered a wall cavity but as it was a bit further away I suggested they contact the local. They had tried unsuccessfully so I arranged it for them.

Just got off the phone doing that then I got a call for a swarm locally, went to fetch that and had another call. Referred them to the contact I had previously got as it was in the same area.

Got the swarm going into a box and went back to work to finish the frames.

Collected swarm tonight and will hive it tomorrow morning!

Let's see what tomorrow brings!

 

[Polyanwood]

Moved one of hives to new apiary as my apiary that is hosting the association swarms is now over run and no room for my own bees. 2 more swarms in today. One from Acton. One from Kidbrooke. Put one of the swarms into a hive because the hamstead swarm and the N7 swarm from yesterday decided to combine and they wouldn't fit in a nuc anymore. Blue marked queen seen. Tried to clip her, but I fumbled and she flew away, only to come back a minute later. I'm going to wait till she fattens up a bit and slows down before I try to clip her again.

 

[Snail368]

One swarm already today (one of my hives). Queen clipped, so swarm returned on its own. Found Queen and replaced in hive. Artifical Swarm later.

 

[Snail368]

New hive just arrived in time for AS later!

 

[YorkshireBees]

Hived the swarm I collected yesterday at 8.30am this morning. Seemed to be settling into Polynuc ok.

Had yet another call from Doncaster area but too busy at work to attend so referred to Swarm coordinator for that area.

 

[user 6228]

Watched my WBC 14X12 hive swarm 30ft up into an oak tree - and then return home. Now preparing everything to give more space tomorrow. Many keepers locally have had the same prob...heavy flow not enough space and no swarm cells! Oh joy - if only hives could speak people!!!!

Yesterday saw a 3Kg surge yesterday in colony weight today looks like more of the same ... tonight we a going to check inside and either exchange super frames or add a super.

Daily weight measurements (if you can do them) speak for themselves