What did you do in the Apiary today?

[sunhivebee]

Today requeened a pig of a colony.

They were aggressive at the best of times- but nobody stings me in the face when I was innocently standing nearby ...and gets forgiven!!!

She was a great queen for laying- textbook... I took her out and stuck her in a queenless little colony to boost it for a couple of weeks. Then when I get the first decent queen cell from a good hive- she is history..and the little colony will be improved too.
Got an Italian queen (no locals available) for the pig hive so hopefully in 6 weeks they will be good.

Checked the rest- all now in lay- so just topped up syrup 1:1 and closed up to let them proceed undisturbed for a while.

Oh dear, that post will give me a sleepless night - so much food for thought!

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Oh dear, that post will give me a sleepless night - so much food for thought!

It certainly will!

All that talk of pig!

Mmmmmmmmmm

Bacon, ham, pork scratchings...........

Dusty

 

[Erichalfbee]

It's supposed to get up to 13 with a real feel of 17 today. Apiary is quite sheltered so my plan is to look in the one cedar hive that I feel I need to.
I know they have little stores and they are tucking into Nektapoll.
They may need to go in a poly nuc but if they don't I'll change them into a new box and floor anyway then top them off with some syrup.
The other two polys will have to wait.

 

[VEG]

Moved another 2 hives to my apiary all went well with no problems.

 

[WelshPaul]

Sat and watched masses of bees bringing in plenty of pollen today, been wondering when the flow will start and I have to put a super on.

 

[For want of a better word]

said good bye to the last of the Buckfast swarms that moved in / collected last season.. all dwindled away... the ones re-queened with Amms were all out collecting pollen.. survival of the fittest !

Need to raise more Amm queens this year

ALSO.... uncorked the first bottle of last seasons HoneyCider..... delicious
slightly dry with gentle bubbles.. the Champaign yeast has done its job

You won't find that in M&S !

Cheers

 

[madasafish]

First decent day for a quickie look see.. all 3 nucs and 3 hives bringing in loads of pollen.

All three nucs with BIAS: all OK.

Two hives with BIAS.. queen (unmarked) seen in one (bad tempered by my standards) - due for requeening this year.

Best hive: no eggs no brood except 6 capped QCs - looked like supercedure ..Approx 20 drone cells. Bees running on combs and noisy - typical Q-. Lots of bees on 7 frames.

So what to do now? Requeen from nuc?, unite with nuc? Or hope they will produce a queen who will get mated successfully? I have a small number of drone cells across all hives - maybe 50 tops...

Hmm...

 

[victor meldrew]

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Not this ,I think it's more to do with testing the equipment than removing the bees?
VM


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[victor meldrew]

Sorry ,fallen foul of the link removable genie!
Prefix u- tube to reach the vid
VM


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[Mellifera397]

Short inspection today, pleased to see lots of brood and loads of pollen looking forward to the coming season

M

 

[theeggman]

1st. Inspection Today

Cedar hive: 0.5 seams of bees.
No brood or eggs, some stores. Q very thin and small.
Remove Q and shake out in front of other hive methinks.

Poly hive: 7 seams of bees.
Brood and larva on both sides of 6 frames. Q large and plump.

Tim

 

[Ely]

Replaced the floor and brood box with a clean one I scorched yesterday. Marked and clipped a queen....and dropped her, 3 times. Shes got her back in safe.

 

[flemage]

Marked and clipped a queen....and dropped her, 3 times. Shes got her back in safe.

Now that sound like one of my inspections!

Inspected 3 hives for first time this year

two on 2 frames of bias and a few stores

one on 3 frames bias but with 11 frames of stores (double brood boxes)...............how did they do that?

 

[Loubylou]

Carried out first inspection of the year today. 2 inherited hives (first time seen inside) have 3-4 frames of bias and needed a damn good clean out, not very impressed with old owner as the debris inside looked like years of build up. So much gunk on the floor of one that the blue bottles had laid eggs in it and the maggots were writhing!! aaargh...horrid. My other hive (swarm collected last year) is not looking so good, suspicions of an unmated or partially mated queen seem likely as there was a lot of drone brood on one frame and the other 3 were speckled with db. There was some worker brood too. Probably 50/50 db to wb. What to do?? Also didn't see Q...

 

[user 6228]

Only saw 11C or 12C today and with the forecast only showing a brief spell of 15C we topped up the fondant. Looking through the perspex top, one of the hives has voted for brood and a half with brood up to the top of the super frame. We could see worker brood with one or two drones at the edge.
Still no full inspection but all 4 flying strongly in the bright sunshine

 

[Martin G]

Varied findings

Checked an out apiary. The ‘main’ hive which I suppered a couple of weeks ago is growing really well. Loads of brood, sealed and newly laid. Loads of drone brood, mostly in brace comb around the frames, some broke open as I removed the frames with a couple having some mites so I removed all I could easily do.

Next hive, although it had a good population and stores there wasn’t and sign of brood and I didn’t find the queen, will recheck later in the week (next forecasted nice day) and if there’s still nothing occurring perhaps do a dedicated, slower ‘fingertip’ Queen search. At least if the worst comes to the worst the hive next-door has a good selection of newly laid eggs for a transfer.

Got the first sting of the season, through my trousers right at the top of my leg where it could be painful when sitting, fortunately it isn’t!

Checked one of the home hives and all went well, it had loads of brood, stores and bees and I even found the queen, unfortunately she was walking around on the floor outside the hive, luckily I saw her and popped her back so hopefully no harm done.

Martin

 

[abi-e]

Inspected both hives which are both strong and expanding on a lovely sunny afternoon. Managed to find and mark one of the queens and left both hives on brood and a half so they have room to expand.

 

[meirch1]

General duties

Hive 1, saw q last years girl, two full deep frames of brood, eggs, larvae and sealed, plenty of pollen and some early nectar, temper 3/5.
Hive2, saw q another from last year, 4 frames brood, e,l,s. temper 2/5,
Hive 3, a bit of an end of season mix of nuc and shook swarm last autumn which I didn't think would make it through winter, but new q seen, and nice laying pattern in double brood, so too many empty frames in both boxes, brood kept together with HM and best of frames selected for single bb, winter super cleared of stores so removed, temper 4/5 (best of the 3)

All 3 hives taking syrup so further top up as weather forecast poor for tomorrow, and no signs of spring in these parts yet!

Old boxes blowtorched ready for reuse, old frames put for wax extraction
Washing up done
Whew! A really fine day of beekeeping!

 

[La Folie]

Got our first nuc and transferred it to the hive. Then went to the Association apiary for the spring health check. Good bee day!

 

[poshpikey]

First inspection today.

The one on a solid floor was on seven strong frames of BIAS. Plenty of drone cells. Swapped in two sheets of foundation and took out two old frames. Saw queen who is marked. Might want to put a super on?

The one on an open mesh floor was barely on four frames. Marked and clipped the queen. Saw a mite on one of the bees so might need to check the drop.

What a difference some good weather makes. Happy days!