What did you do in the Apiary today?

[biglad]

How the devil are you john . Hope you and the wife are well I will give you a call soon mate Neil

 

[Rock_Chick]

Checked both hives today,put on new floors and but on all new boxes, good to see no dead bees on the floor of 1 hive,other 1 only had a few dead bees,plenty of stores left,both queens seen and laying.
So all happy

 

[Tim.S]

Beautiful day today so on went the suit and out came the smoker (just in case!)
6 strong healthy hives with many bees flying. I just had a peek under the lid of each and a quick heft for stores as the breeze still has quite a chill to it.
So no loses this winter so far, which I put down to in no particular order:-
1, A mild winter
2, Fresh good queens every year
3, Careful feeding in autumn
4, Timely Varroa control
5, Insulation
6, Luck! (There always seems to be an element of this somehow!)
After 5 years of beekeeping I am finally changing from keeping bees to managing them. Here's to a good spring for everyone!

 

[hiveabee]

Hive 0ne, Checked out, Found last summers Queen, she looks ok and laying. I tuck the opportunity to mark and clip Her. Moved the super I had under brood box and cleaned the omf of debris.
Hive Two. BIAS, Found queen, she is marked yellow so I think I will think about changing Her. Moved super I had below brood box and cleaned omf.
Hive Three. this one I got going last summer. BIAS but couldn't find Queen, not to worry. Cleaned omf and fitted new roof.
Plenty of good frames of stores in all three hives.
It felt really good to be back at it.

 

[Roola]

Checked both hives, bees very busy out for cleansing/water/pollen.

Hive 1: Was a bit worried about these guys as they seemed a bit nasty at the end of last season but they were good as gold. Plenty of stores and loads of capped pollen, not much sealed brood but plenty of fresh eggs. Found the queen who has a knack of getting any marking cleaned off her, mark still just about there but couldn't find my marking pen doh! Hoping they go through more of their capped stores this week to give her more space to lay.
Hive 2: Was a new Buckfast queen last year, bees over all frames, plenty of stores and pollen, 3 frames with capped brood, found queen. All seems good here too. Very gently behaved bunch... A real pleasure to work with both today.

All in all very contented.

 

[itma]

Painted a couple of sale poly bits and then had a poke around the hives while the paint was drying in the sun.

Three full hives had been given wet++ supers under the brood in the autumn. Fished those out (no problems there), removed mouse guards and cleaned the floors.
Those 14x12s were heavy, OK I'm feeling feeble getting over a cold, and was working alone, but they were heavy. All 3 had masses of pollen going in. Memo - check through for space soon!
Another full hive has had much less activity on the pollen front, not desperately short of bees from looking through the coverboard, but less flying activity than I'd have expected. So, I thought a proper look was called for in that one. Some slugs at the back of the hive (evicted), plenty stores (looking crystallised though - likely Ivy) and plenty space. Just one small patch of brood, and its drone ... Saw Q, so she is DLQ. Considered terminating her immediately, but reconsidered, not having plan/kit set up for this eventuality. Just closed them up.

So, I thought about it slowly (my cold, remember?)
The plan for tomorrow (similarly nice forecast) is to go through a lightish but very pollen-active nuc, check for worker brood, then find and remove the DLQ before uniting with the promising nuc.

 

[Roola]

Painted a couple of sale poly bits and then had a poke around the hives while the paint was drying in the sun.

Three full hives had been given wet++ supers under the brood in the autumn. Fished those out (no problems there), removed mouse guards and cleaned the floors.
Those 14x12s were heavy, OK I'm feeling feeble getting over a cold, and was working alone, but they were heavy. All 3 had masses of pollen going in. Memo - check through for space soon!
Another full hive has had much less activity on the pollen front, not desperately short of bees from looking through the coverboard, but less flying activity than I'd have expected. So, I thought a proper look was called for in that one. Some slugs at the back of the hive (evicted), plenty stores (looking crystallised though - likely Ivy) and plenty space. Just one small patch of brood, and its drone ... Saw Q, so she is DLQ. Considered terminating her immediately, but reconsidered, not having plan/kit set up for this eventuality. Just closed them up.

So, I thought about it slowly (my cold, remember?)
The plan for tomorrow (similarly nice forecast) is to go through a lightish but very pollen-active nuc, check for worker brood, then find and remove the DLQ before uniting with the promising nuc.

How will you go about uniting with the nuc itma?

 

[Amari]

Temp early afternoon about 17C. All 7 colonies have survived. 5 have 2-4 frames with modest patches of sealed brood, unsealed and eggs. Plenty of capped stores (not crystallised). 2 weak hives with very little brood and few bees ?amalgamate. Marked 2013 queens seen in all hives.
The 5 stronger hives have only modest number of bees - about 4-5 frames so difficult to believe that there will be enough bees to gather a good OSR crop - but I seem to remember thinking this in previous years in mid March and pessimism proved wrong. Here's hoping!

 

[madasafish]

15C and sunny. Best day this year so far.

Moved one comb full of stores into a nuc with very little. Enjoyed the sight of masses of pollen going into hives. Opened nothing else..

 

[itma]

How will you go about uniting with the nuc itma?

The nuc frames go into a spare brood box. Then standard "newspaper method".


When I condense them in a week or so, I might pinch some of the crystallised stores for my other three nucs (one of which was a tiny late-September swarm - not from my hives!)

 

[drex]

T shirt weather at last.

All hives flying. Quickish look in each. 5 had good number of bees, 1 a bit lower in numbers. All had bias, over, on average 4 frames.

Did not bother to look for queens as no need yet. One hive had very few stores, and another very little space for her to lay, so I swapped a few frames.

Cleaned the floors. Little pollen in hives, despite seeing a lot going in, so may make up a few patties. Well pleased.

 

[pargyle]

T shirt weather at last.

All hives flying. Quickish look in each. 5 had good number of bees, 1 a bit lower in numbers. All had bias, over, on average 4 frames.

Did not bother to look for queens as no need yet. One hive had very few stores, and another very little space for her to lay, so I swapped a few frames.

Cleaned the floors. Little pollen in hives, despite seeing a lot going in, so may make up a few patties. Well pleased.

Did you feed them in the Autumn or/and again with fondant ?

Big difference between hives ? Was the one with little space to lay congested with stores ?

Just curious .. new beekeeper trying to make sense of what happens.

 

[Chris Luck]

T shirt weather at last.

Strewth, 24°C in the UK already?

Chris

 

[pargyle]

Oops ...

 

[prana vallabha]

Girls working hard

Just had a quick peek at hive and 2 nucs and at the moment all is good queens spotted some capped brood and loads of eggs in each , so fingers crossed ... It's nice to hear the lovely hum of bees again pure bliss

 

[raathistle]

Took a quick peak this afternoon, just couldn't resist any longer. 3 good strong colonies with plenty of stores left, 1 with a surprising number of frames of capped brood. 2 small nucs still going with small areas of open brood, and one colony that got decimated by the wasps at the end of the year very small. Took them down to as few frames a possible with insulation all round and fondant to tide them through, probably have to move them into a polynuc at some point to try and save them

 

[lebouche]

Changed floor on one hive, took two full frames of stores and transferred to nut.
Moved the nuc into a polyhive and dummied down. Lifted several frames together so not to break them apart. Took fondant off them both as they both have more stores than needed now. The strong colony is still on 6 frames of stores with only small patches of brood. Put out three bait hives.

 

[REDWOOD]

Done a few apiaries today , watched bees taking in all colours of pollen

 

[chicken]

Done a few apiaries today , watched bees taking in all colours of pollen

I mainly watched too- and saw the same.

Some seemed so weighed down they could barely walk.
If they are taking this much pollen in then there as often as they have in the past few days, there will be no room to swing a very tiny cat/mouse/varroa mite in there.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Watched pollen piling in and gook a few snaps