What did you do in the Apiary today?

[pargyle]

Helped out in the bee tent all morning at the Welsh game fair - Hard work being nice to people for a whole five hours you know! (luckily I'd popped an extra painkiller) then tottered wearily home and on the way I found some square galvanised steel pans propped up in the hedge 'I'm sure they'll suffice for hive roofs' I though so I took them home and pottered around the shed for a while.

Ding dong ding dong ... I hear the sound of bells from one leg - but it's a good cover story ! (Like that one - think about it ?) Nice looking roof !

I found two new hinges to replace the ones I managed to bend last week when the chain broke ... I found them on sale in Screwfix so I had to pay for them - blew all my pocket money at one go £2.12 ...

Came home, unscrewed the old hinges and replaced them with the new ones while the bees just flew around me ... no suit, no nothing ... stood in flight path, electric drill to put screws in and take old ones out. Are my bees on drugs ? So chilled out - they will probably catch me one day and are just biding their time till the day I leave my shirt off !

 

[WelshPaul]

Moves the garden hive 3 foot yesterday and put a sheet of glass over the entrance to confuse them after they were sealed in for 24 hours. My question is, how long should I leave the glass over the front of the hive?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Just had a mooch round and clipped some grass.
Back at home the beech trees in the garden are humming. I thought there was a swarm up there but it's bees, honey and bumble, collecting honeydew.

 

[Chris Luck]

Moves the garden hive 3 foot yesterday and put a sheet of glass over the entrance to confuse them after they were sealed in for 24 hours. My question is, how long should I leave the glass over the front of the hive?

I wouldn't have worried, three feet and no other hives nearby they would have no trouble finding it.

Chris

 

[garethjbarry]

I have put a caged queen into a queenless colony .... fingers crossed!

 

[skovers]

Put the entrance block back in. 2nd time this week. Something is trying to get into my hive!! Thinking of setting up a motion detecting camera.

 

[enrico]

Went through hives. One has swarmed.....left two nice queen cells, second was demareed last week and is going text book stile, removed last queen cell from top bb, third one is quiet and works like a Trojan with no sign of swarming and the last one, took the lid off, they boiled out like a volcano and so I put the lid back on again. If they want to swarm good luck to them, they are native welsh bees anyway. Bet you anything they are the ones that don't swarm this year!
E

 

[youngyoungs]

Inspected all colonies this week. Didn't see a queen, virgin or otherwise. Didn't see any sign of a queen either. Not as dramatic at it sounds, several hives either with QCs about to hatch or possibly virgin queens in situ. Just got to wait. I'm not good at this bit, so to liven up the day, I moved the swarm I hived last week from the top of the log pile and onto a nice stand, I also checked the colony, broke down the excessive comb being produced and added some new frames. Lots of flying bees were not very impressed by my behaviour.

 

[yeogi75]

Put the entrance block back in. 2nd time this week. Something is trying to get into my hive!! Thinking of setting up a motion detecting camera.

nice one in aldi £79 pounds
also luggage scales think £6.99

 

[Alabamaeee]

Checked on a small colony which are just transferred to a painS 14x12 nuc. Seems like the entrance design is too small as they were struggling to get in or out such was the traffic after the rain stopped.

Saw quite a few bees at the rear of the nuc box. On investigating I have either got a small caste from another hive or some of the nuc bees are just hanging underneath the box keeping cool.

Probably a daft question but how do I tell if it's a caste or they are just "hanging out"?

 

[whoosling]

Panicked !!!!

 

[abi-e]

went through 2 hives and a nuc that is ready to go into a hive. Saw BIAS in all 3 but the queens evaded me again... so 3 colonies 0 marked queens....grrrrr. Hoping to get the clearer board in later in the week and take 2 supers of honey off the strongest hive

 

[madasafish]

One of my larger hives had several hundred dead bees on the ground outside. None of the other hives affected. Could have been pesticide posioning - if so a local gardener as no arable around.

 

[Erichalfbee]

nice one in aldi £79 pounds
also luggage scales think £6.99

Thanks for the heads up yeogi

 

[Goran]

Summer come hard now.. Day temperatures over 30 celsius.. Today minor activities - returning few hives from tourism..

By the way when speaking of tourism.. Here are prognosis for whole next week sun, sun and extra sun, temps over 30.. If You are planning to come here for a holidays.. Even here inland will be higher temps than by the sea..

But this doesn't make me happy cause lime tree should open soon, and these high temps.. Grrrr....
Of course there never come only one disaster alone, some caterpillar is now destroying our forests ( You can see the whole mountain, trees without leaves- like in horror).

 

[Mike a]

Not looking forward to tomorrow.

I have to shift a colony that has been on the OSR, they are not going to be happy when I remove the top deep chamber for extraction.

 

[enrico]

Summer come hard now.. Day temperatures over 30 celsius.. Today minor activities - returning few hives from tourism..

By the way when speaking of tourism.. Here are prognosis for whole next week sun, sun and extra sun, temps over 30.. If You are planning to come here for a holidays.. Even here inland will be higher temps than by the sea..

But this doesn't make me happy cause lime tree should open soon, and these high temps.. Grrrr....
Of course there never come only one disaster alone, some caterpillar is now destroying our forests ( You can see the whole mountain, trees without leaves- like in horror).

I am sure we will be importing your caterpillar here soon, we seem to do that with everything that destroys our wildlife!
E

 

[YorkshireBees]

Extracted 8 supers of OSR to add to the 5 I did yesterday. Not all were full but the field has gone over now so needed doing!
Went back thinking I would add one of the extracted supers to each of the hives only to find the empty supers I put on Friday are almost full!
Now added 2 extractec supers to each of the 4 hives.

At this rate I will extracting again next weekend.

 

[dickndoris]

First extraction today and no osr by the looks Unlike last year when it was setting in the comb!
First 2013 virgin queen has mated and laying very well indeed and all very super calm bees. She now has a wee pink dot. Only a few more to mate which can't be long as the drones were out in force today!
I really can't believe how lucky I have been with my bees in temperament and looks;-) They really are so lovely I'm nearly to the point of no head protection! The no gloves is really rewarding. If bees are teaching me only one thing, its patience!

 

[Goran]

I am sure we will be importing your caterpillar here soon, we seem to do that with everything that destroys our wildlife!
E

Well, in case of rhinos are being to extinct and their horns are used aphrodisiacs or something.. I think these caterpillars are much better aphrodisiacs - and here are free to take so please come ( we can fill your backpacks for free)