What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Jimmys Mum]

Found another colony making swarm preparations! That's 3 out of 12 now.

The AS part of the first colony that I artificially swarmed 9 days ago has been piling in the stores. One super is full and being capped, the second is probably 3/4 full. It's definitely in full swing here now.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

don't worry - cold weather on the way, that'll cool them down a bit

 

[madasafish]

don't worry - cold weather on the way, that'll cool them down a bit

And then after that when it warms up, they'll be off on the first good day...

 

[Erichalfbee]

Looked into my colonies a day early as interest being shown in the bait hive.
Phew! just in time......
Lost count of swarm cells.
Two sealed............bugger!!!!
But upright eggs there so valiant search for queen amidst more bees than I have ever seen on frames. Finally spotted her at home so AS after Wally Shaw's modified Snelgrove 11 without a split board.
They had filled a super so I divided that between both boxes.
Other colonies are OK
Put a drawn shallow on one without an excluder as queen is really pushed for space.
A JBM says....cooler days to come.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Found another colony making swarm preparations! That's 3 out of 12 now.

The AS part of the first colony that I artificially swarmed 9 days ago has been piling in the stores. One super is full and being capped, the second is probably 3/4 full. It's definitely in full swing here now.

I know you did one AS ...Wally Shaw.
How are the foragers doing? (i.e. the box without the queen)
I put mine in a half drawn half foundation box with half the super the original colony had collected reckoning that the box with the queen and brood would need some food too so I split their super stores.

 

[Jimmys Mum]

I know you did one AS ...Wally Shaw.
How are the foragers doing? (i.e. the box without the queen)
I put mine in a half drawn half foundation box with half the super the original colony had collected reckoning that the box with the queen and brood would need some food too so I split their super stores.

With little brood to feed the foragers have filled most of 2 supers with store and are capping off the first. So all good in that respect. BUT they have not made much progress on the foundation in the brood box. I had no drawn comb to add. They had pulled out one side of each frame next to the two central frames of brood. But hopefully, now the queen is repatriated they will start to draw it out more quickly in order for her to get laying. I just hope that lack of laying space doesn't tip them back into swarm mode.

Contrary to Wallys advice, I did take precautions and before moving her back, I put the queen in a queen cage with a small wedge of queen candy stuffed up the end. Mostly because the bees were vile today and I was worried she may have been balled. Stingy and pingy. I'm glad I was only breaking down EQCs on 2 frames and not a whole brood box!

A few days ago I carried out the vertical equivalent of the Snelgove modified II ....aka AS - Wally Shaw! (it's a bit of a mouthful isn't it!) using a snelgrove board. I finally found a use for it after 3 years! Will be interesting to see how that pans out.

Also, I noticed that the original hive with all of the brood and the queen seemed to have increased their stores quite nicely over the last week. I think the weather has helped. If it had been cold and wet then I think they would have struggled so I think your plan to split the stores between the two halves is probably a good one in light of JBM's weather forecasting.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Thanks for that. We are away Friday to Wednesday so they better behave!!!

 

[tractorjohn]

Second supers on two hives on osr, marked six queens yellow that should have been done last year (I only use white & yellow on alternate years). Then finished my swarm vacuum rest day tomorrow.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Looked into my colonies a day early as interest being shown in the bait hive.
Phew! just in time......
Lost count of swarm cells.
Two sealed............bugger!!!!

Today, not a jot of interest in the bait hive after I sorted these out.
Somebody on the forum suggested a bait hive in the garden as an early warning system......something in that, I think.

 

[Cazza]

Today, not a jot of interest in the bait hive after I sorted these out.
Somebody on the forum suggested a bait hive in the garden as an early warning system......something in that, I think.

Works for me.
Cazza

 

[alldigging]

Swarm turned up in my garden just as I was due to vac out hubby's car. (Apparently it's my muddy allotment boots that make the mess, as is putting all sorts of junk in the back)

They tried to get into the empty hive in the garden, so I helped them. The almost settled down but then disappeared.

They went into the ex-beekeep's garden next door where we are not allowed to go and get them from. They have gone now so I assume another Oldham beekeeper has come and picked them up.

I checked through my hive and it was none of them. The other beekeepers have been told. We think we know whose they were cos they were quite yellow!

 

[Amari]

My strongest colony (brood and a half) has brood on 14 frames but no Q cells so I did a pre-emptive Demaree over a Horsley board - a first for me. The bottom brood box, with the queen on two frames of brood, contains mainly foundation. In retrospect I wish I had either searched for some drawn brood comb especially as cold weather approaches or delayed the procedure a week or so .

 

[maddydog]

2nd attempt at queen clipping - didn't go as well as the first! Hashed catching hm so she got spooked, when I finally got her I had a poor grip and she managed to wriggle free and flew off! Left the hive open hoping she would make her own way back while I looked at another. Had another practice on an unfortunate drone in the next hive, found the q and clipped her.

Back to the original colony. Had a quick look through with no expectations and low and behold she's there on the 2nd frame Didn't screw up a second time, q clipped and off to buy a lottery ticket!

Three out of five now clipped. I'm hoping practice makes perfect. Strong hand for wings and clipper, weak for thorax seems to do the trick

 

[beeno]

Yesterday actually, put my weak colony into Maisie's poly nuc purchased at the convention. Love the fact that it can be made into 14x12 when needed and the conventional feeder. Bees found the syrup pdq.

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Got in a last round of inspections before the weather turns.........

No more swarm preps seen at the moment. Plenty of time though....

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Checked my AS of a week ago. The Q+ side has drawn and laid up most of a deep of starter strips. amazing and so beautiful; all those eggs in virgin white wax. Shifted the "anchor" brood back to the Q- side. This is the colony that dropped 8,000 mites after Apiguard last autumn and a lot of the capped drones I killed (sorry guys) are coming out with DWV so it's OA in a couple of weeks. I take back what I said about breeding from these mites.

Buckybeast Demaree going well, but not the same industry as from the AS queen. The Q- section had drawn some supersedure cells but could not charge them, so I answered their prayers with the help of a fine paint brush. My first graft (I want to breed from this Q). 3 cells. Chance of one taking? Maybe 30%: fingers crossed for inspection on Monday week.

 

[Roola]

Did inspections of countryside apiary. Mixed bag really, some much further on than others in terms of numbers of bees. This is my first year with hives outside of an urban setting so not sure where they should be at this stage. I have **** now in flower around me but certainly not the bees to take advantage... Any others in the south give me some kind of idea of when you begin to see a big build up in numbers?

 

[Goran]

Boxes are heavy these days.. I was placing third boxes on hives, a bit late.. This year has to be that way. Some colonies due to that gone into swarming mood..
I split one colony which gone into swarming mood, for holidays I plan to rear more to replace all what I want for next season. One colony from my prime line has only few drone brood cells in hive, maybe that is the reason it hasn't ever swarmed. If I recall right at end of May or in June a bit increase of drone brood.
Many here has their theories, the best queen is from swarm cell, other from supresedure, some says just any emergency.. In my experience the best is planned rearing - less fails..
South European flowering ash is in bloom, for long time it hasn't bloom like now, seems giving nectar and its scent is now spreading through whole area, some wild cherry and other wild fruit still in flower in surrounding forests.. Still breeding with full lungs..
Seems will have to extract some spring honey before black locust..

 

[Falesh]

I do my second oxalic acid vaporization treatment today and talk about some how to use one with a polystyrene hive. In particular I found that it's a bad idea using a vaporizer below the varroa inspection mesh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9qyMVr923k

 

[einsteinagogo]

I do my second oxalic acid vaporization treatment today and talk about some how to use one with a polystyrene hive. In particular I found that it's a bad idea using a vaporizer below the varroa inspection mesh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9qyMVr923k

I would also wear a mask and gloves when handling OA!

Safety First!

I don't have poly hives, but I vaporize under the OMF, I use 3g, pressed into the varrox to get a good burn and vapour, I use a stainless inspection tray, cut to the same size as the inspection tray, the varrox is then press up against the OMF, so very little residue is found on the underneath of the OMF.

I do this in December/January, after monitoring the drop over 14 days.