What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Goran]

Today I was just helping someone to move bees for chestnut forage.. Hills with chestnuts are turning into yellow.. Damn hot again, around 35 celsius.. I was really squeezing sweat from my suit.. At least job done properly..
Later during the day will have to see my bees..

 

[alldigging]

Watched whilst someone checked their bees.
Spotted the new queen! She's lovely!

 

[WelshPaul]

Testing methods as I'm still learning, house two cast swarms today, one in a poly nuc and one in a wood nuc, poly nuc feeding with a bag of sugar soaked in water and wood nuc fed with 1:1 syrup. Advice, tips and comments good or bad, welcome.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Listened! Beautiful air conditioners!

Wet ground, Blackberry out, Lime trees budding, 25C for three days! Hope!!

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

MAJOR flow under way.

 

[Tonyatcwfarm]

Poetry in motion here today
Due to a/s my main hive tomorrow but they decided to beat me to it today.
Had a Very large swarm leave the hive at 1 o clock but with the queen clipped they didn't go too far but it gave me time to remove original hive to new site a Few feet away and place a new box of foundation on the ground with the supers on top,I checked the ground and out walked the marked queen,she walked up my glove and I placed her into the hive and closed up.Within 5 minutes the swarm had joined the queen
Happy days
I'm getting to enjoy this beekeeping lark

 

[oliver90owner]

up.Within 5 minutes the swarm had joined the queen

Lucky you! Not quite an A/S but the easiest you are likely to be presented with for a long time!

Hope you remembered to swap any supers accross. And don't forget to check both parts in six days for queen cell production and reduction. Might be good to remove the closed cells (even if there is only one capped currently) now, so timing of emergence is at your convenience, allowing you to further reinforce your foraging force with the old queen by moving the parent colony (either away, or to the opposite side of the swarm colony if your intention is to re-unite later).

The comment re one capped currently has a couple of valid reasons for removal. If allowed to remain, that is OK if you do not disturb that cell at all, which is impracticable, as just moving it could conceivably kill the still feeding larva by detachment from food supply. That first capped cell was very unlikely to be a duff one (bees don't swarm on an empty cell), but you would not know which to remove later as any later capped cells could be empty. You could leave them if you are confident of recognising ripe cells and are sure they were not delayed from swarming by the weather.

All about being a thinking beek, I suppose - and of not forgetting to finish the job later, of course.

RAB

 

[Tonyatcwfarm]

Hi rab
The supers are on new hive with old queen on original site
I assume the parent colony has queen cells either capped or soon to be capped
It was 3 days since I last inspected so must have missed one cell(I had knocked down 3/4 to give me time to set up a/s)
I would prefer to unite
If I wait 6 days to knock down all q cells won't that mean that they will be unable to requeen themselves
Would this make it easier to unite
If I make them queen less how soon after could I unite
I do intend to move mother hive to opposite side next week
Problem is,if I missed one charged q cell on Monday's inspection it's quite possible I missed 2/3/4 so this could(or could this?)cause me to lose some casts?)
I have plenty of nucs and also have 2 hatched queens in mating nucs(hopefully mated) to repair any mistake my inexperience causes
Thanks in advance

 

[beeno]

Hi Tony,
You probably did not miss a QC. Three days an egg + three day old larva = six days + 3 days till next inspection = 9 days = seald QC
I removed my queen six days ago, left one to emerge today, but I have a sneaky feeling there is at least one to come. Saw a very small larva. Me thinks six days may be a bit early to think you are home and dry (talking to myself here).

 

[Erichalfbee]

If you think you might have missed queen cells on Monday then have another look soonest, then again 6 days after queen left...no 3 day larvae left. In fact you must have or they wouldn't have swarmed. I have had one lot go before QCs were sealed ...in my first year.
I have three colonies on new comb and swarm cells have been the devil to spot. They have all been on the face of the frames buried in the newly drawn comb!!!

 

[oliver90owner]

Hi tony,

I did say 'queen cell... reduction', not total elimination.

Now, if you have been knocking down queen cells, the oldest ones in there currently could quite well be 'late conversions' and she may have completely gone off-lay as they had likely completed slimming her down, so be careful on when you go in and which cell(s) you leave. The maths shown above is rather misleading. More likely a one or two day old lava (day 4 or 5) capped 3 1/2 or 2 1/2 days later, hence the swarm issued. They do not work on 9 days before swarming, that is for sure!They could also go a bit early because the queen is just sitting there doing nothing (being completely slimmed down by the workers).

The usual conclusion is to retain the young queen on uniting - providing she shows good temperament, laying pattern, etc. The old queen is far less likely to swarm again - more likely she will be superceded just when you don't want it to happen. But in this particular case things are a little different from the norm!

The bees may well still be in swarm mode as so far they have 'aborted' their initial swarm en bloc, not transferred as flying bees, etc. Can't tell as it is not the normal A/S situation (queen portion still with a frame of open brood). You might get away with nine days before swarming from them as the queen may need a couple days to restart laying.

Think carefully about replies and draw your own time line - far better than accepting, without question, some of the replies.

RAB

 

[Goran]

Some light in this dark season, will get jenter to use for several turns. Hoping to improve my stock for next season. Have one great line, and second still undecided, have to consult with my mentor.
Really optimistic that next season will be better, where is my mind..

Tomorrow will have to finish preps of breeding colonies.

 

[whoosling]

Got stung !!!!!!

 

[Tim.S]

Came home from holiday to find a swarm complete with 3 frames of eggs in my bait hive. Nice welcome home present!

 

[Summerslease]

Went on a Healthy Bee course courtesy of Durham BKA with the RBI and four SBIs. Excellent and informative. Got to see frames with EFB and AFB which I hope I never see again. If you get a chance to go to one of these I can recommend it. One of the benefits of belonging to an Association.

 

[REDWOOD]

Added some supers

 

[Cazza]

Extracted some more honey.
Cazza

 

[Goran]

I watched one split ( made 21.5. with 3 frames of brood), today it is at 8 frames of brood. Nice.. I got him surprised when lift on it full lang box with honey ( had to remove excess frames from breeder colonies)..

The other is made 22.5. and is at only 6 frames of brood. Also surprised..

 

[Falesh]

We did a hive inspection later in the day today and found loads of bees. Part of that is due to up to 14,000 more bees having been born since last week, but there will also be more because there won't be as many out harvesting nectar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cHlgbF-deQ

 

[MuswellMetro]

We did a hive inspection later in the day today and found loads of bees. Part of that is due to up to 14,000 more bees having been born since last week, but there will also be more because there won't be as many out harvesting nectar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cHlgbF-deQ

nice calm bees,

but dont think you should put the honey super direct on the ground because you can get Clostridium botulinum into honey so it is not good hygiene pratice Clostridium botulinum is a source of infant botulsmin ,hence honey should not be given to infants under 6mths