What did you do in the Apiary today?

[maddydog]

Makes me glad I live in the good old cold and dry east riding. Checked four colonies over the last few days , all have built up steadily through spring and are now taking advantage of the OSR flow. No 23 deg c/double brood 14*12/swarms and 3 supers in February here ;-) Just a few playcups and drone numbers building.

 

[einsteinagogo]

What?
What did I do?

quote about an embryonic apiary... in a post in this thread a while back...

 

[einsteinagogo]

Makes me glad I live in the good old cold and dry east riding. Checked four colonies over the last few days , all have built up steadily through spring and are now taking advantage of the OSR flow. No 23 deg c/double brood 14*12/swarms and 3 supers in February here ;-) Just a few playcups and drone numbers building.

SNAP, I'm glad that's what you are finding also...

 

[Erichalfbee]

quote about an embryonic apiary... in a post in this thread a while back...

Ah.

Taken the entrance blocks out...that's all.
Watched some pollen going in after lots of bad weather.
Sunny but so windy.....I have two virgins ready to mate

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Some errant bees snuck out of their nice warm hive to swap for a des res branch on a nearby lobelia. Now housed in a new wooden home prior to being relocated in temporary location this evening.

Other than that the OSR collection was obviously slowed last week with the inclement weather but now collection seems to be going full swing. Probably do first harvest next week when they've capped a bit more, but learnt my lesson last year about leaving it too late.

Jars arrived from Pattesons without hitch though the receiving Madame A wanted to refuse one parcel that rattled. Luckily before fisticuffs with the delivery driver ensued the box was opened to reveal 300 lids.

 

[madasafish]

Inspected all bar two.
Supercedure hive has now original marked queen plus new one.
Nasty nuc has now a mated queen. I could not find her when not mated - too small.
2 Langs full of bees supered last weeks - each with 9x jumbo brood frames full of mainly capped brood.
2 large TBH s fine.
One large TBH nasty bees to be requeened.

Did not inspect 1 TBH requeened last week.

No QCs seen..

First warm day for a week.. Busy busy bees.

No stings.. makes a change when weather is warm (18C)

 

[Floyd]

Absolutly Nothing. Due to the weather. Its been varying from teaming with rain down to a constant drizzle.

However the strange thing is that the bees are still taking advantage of the Sycamore flowering which they had been working for the previouos two days. The tree is positivly buzzing despite the rain.

I had already fed 2 of the hives in prepartaion for the poor weather, so hopefully they are getting some pollen in as the queens had certainly gone on a go slow since the previous inspection

 

[thefram4]

My first swarm

Not today, but yesterday my hive swarmed. We managed to capture it and seem to have successfully settled them into a new hive in which I had 7 frames of foundation 1 frame of honey and a frame feeder of ambrosia.
I had been trying for weeks to look in the brood, but due to work and poor weather at the weekends I wasn't able to get a good look. I knew it was strong, there were tons of bees, they had 8 frames of honey in the first super and begun drawing cells on the second. As a relative newbie I think I've learned to make sure I take advantage of any short spell of good weather up here in Northumberland. Worried about a secondary swarm now but daren't look in until she has had a decent chance to mate.

 

[Erichalfbee]

You should look in asap to reduce the remaining swarm cells, just treat the frames gently. They swarm usually when the first QC is capped though I have often found a queen still present.
Whatever, you have a week before your first virgin emerges and as they are a strong colony they will swarm with her and the next and the next until you have few bees left.
Choose an open cell with a larva in it. Mark top of the frame and destroy the rest.
I would have a look in a few days, maybe 4, to make sure there are no more QCs.

 

[Dadnlad]

Picked up a decent sized swarm from low in tree this afternoon that has come from a fellow elderly beekeeper - first of the year for me

He phoned me to tell me where it was, and as he was too old and couldn't be bothered to catch them these days, if I wanted to make the effort to collect it, it was mine

All went like clockwork (for a change) and dumped into a new 14x12 with qx under this evening - happy days

 

[thefram4]

You should look in asap to reduce the remaining swarm cells, just treat the frames gently. They swarm usually when the first QC is capped though I have often found a queen still present.
Whatever, you have a week before your first virgin emerges and as they are a strong colony they will swarm with her and the next and the next until you have few bees left.
Choose an open cell with a larva in it. Mark top of the frame and destroy the rest.
I would have a look in a few days, maybe 4, to make sure there are no more QCs.

Thanks for the advice. I will hopefully be able to look in on Wednesday. I will let you know what I find.

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Bundled up my collected swarm last night, strapped down and put in the back of the car. Transported for 5 miles to out-apiary. Opened the boot to reassuring hum from within (hadn't actually seen any bees when packing up) but slightly aghast to see the strap hadn't done its job and the box had shifted 4" from the floor leaving a huge gaping hole for the girls to explore the car. VERY luckily none of them took up this option and stayed tucked up in the frames while I hastily rearranged.

Strap is quite old and not terribly good. Won't be using it by itself for transportation again!

 

[einsteinagogo]

Yesterday evening, a quick visible check on Apiary 1, and all bees very very active working OSR, I had my jacket and veil on, because up close and personal, a few bees did come to visit me in my veil, and at one point, just for a few seconds, stood in front of the entrance, and caused a little build up and queue of bees, returning with their payloads, or pollen and nectar.

Checked Bait Hive this am, in Apiary 2, after reports that one of the colonies in the building fabric had swarmed yesterday. Unfortunately, the bees despite scouts on Friday and the weekend, did not make it into our Bait Hive.

That's bees for you...

 

[Firefly]

Tried the "cut the wrong branch and then collect the bees from the floor" method of swarm collection. Worked in the end but a tad messy. Not recommended. Fun though

 

[jonnybeegood]

Moved bees from a nuc into a Bb & super ready to unite with the hive beside it tomorrow.

 

[Tremyfro]

Opened the door for the bees in the new nucs to come out ...if they feel like braving a wild day here...alternate rainy squalls and sunshine with a nasty cold wind. My advice was to stay in the cosy warmth of their Maisie's poly nuc with the restaurant on tap. I scuttled back to the kitchen to a bowl of chilli beef....

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Sunday my son said he thought hive 5 was swarming but when I attended about an hour later to inspect all hives there was no sign. No queen cells at any stage in any of the hives and expected quantities of bees in there.
During manipulations I shook out a doomed robbed out colony, bagged the frames, scraped the box and removed from the apiary to a covered area remote from the apiary where I planned to sterilise with acetic acid vapour. The acid had set in the bottle so I took it indoors to warm and liquefy, reassembled the hive pending acid introduction.
Monday I discovered a swarm moving into the empty hive. I went to the apiary where everything appeared normal but I noticed a number of bees hanging around an unlit bonfire outside the fence. On looking closer I noted wax deposits on some of the twigs in the bonfire.
I'm thinking the Sundays event might have been an incoming swarm that clustered in the bonfire, I didn't see them while concentrating on the apiary. They rested overnight then relocated to the empty hive when the scouts found it. Conjecture I know but I've not any other ideas.
I let the swarm settle then gently put frames of foundation into the box and closed up, let the stragglers all go inside and repositioned into a new position for the evening. I'll give them a few days and have a look when I think they have decided to stay put. This morning bees are coming and going and some are carrying pollen.

 

[alldigging]

Absolutely nothing although the grass in front did get mowed. It is blowing a gale here and whilst the sun came out the wind didn't stop.

 

[Goran]

Finally today with less wind.. And night temps will be higher. Even so, bees are working hard and impresses me each day what they can endure and how hardworking they are..
Some colonies I had to split are filling supers, and will have to add another or move stored honey to other hive.. Day inflow still vary from 2-3,5 kg ( I don't have scale but nearby coleagues says so). If tonite will be warmer and tommorow without wind I expect jump at least to 5kg and if prolongued must be over 10 at least..
This year I wasn't targeting honey, and was trying to sell colonies this spring. I got opposite, more honey and less sold colonies. Some which bought few colonies of mine are scratching their heads, why they didn't bought more colonies..
I tasted spring honey we extracted, I will sell it unwillingly.. Awesome this year.. So rich flavour and scent..
Up till now had to make 4 splits, one earlier seems I made too strong and have to add super or to remove honey..
Scratching head when I can take time for qrearing, had to renew queens ( at least 2 turns - 2 lines). I formed few mnucs to be operative, these days the rest of misery I have..

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Played 'hunt the queen' in one of my hives. Crafty minx had somehow got through the QE and was laying in the bottom super.

Checked through 6 of the colonies. All doing really well. So well that I'm already out of supers! Tonight' will be spent in the shed making up some more! The last 2 days there's been a spectacular flow on here, all change on Thursday though.....cold and wet weather returning