What did you do in the Apiary today?

[jenkinsbrynmair]

A surprise was waiting for us in the second hive: swarm cells. So now we have to work on a swarm prevention plan for that hive unless they change their mind after I put on a new super for extra space and removed the existing swarm cells.

Sticking your head in the sand won't stop them swarming, you found queen cells, you should have conducted an artificial swarm. They'll be busily making more now, and they probably won't wait another seven days before going.

 

[itma]

...
A surprise was waiting for us in the second hive: swarm cells. So now we have to work on a swarm prevention plan for that hive unless they change their mind after I put on a new super for extra space and removed the existing swarm cells.
...

As per JBM, they won't "change their mind".
Don't fool yourself.
You have probably rather less than five days to actually perform your "swarm prevention plan" - because you have knocked down their swarm cells they may well leave BEFORE the next lot are capped. Bees do that. Which is one reason why knocking down "swarm cells" is not just not recommended, it is strongly advised as something not-to-do.

You need to do an artificial swarm ASAP, and then come back in a few days to select (and cull absolutely ALL but that) one open QC, and then again in exactly a week after that to ensure it is still there and then remove absolutely ALL other new ones.

 

[enrico]

Any honey would be nice this year......if the lime fails I am sunk! How can two years be so different!
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[drex]

Made a split with sealed queen cell into my second TBH on 13 May. Eggs spotted today. I was getting worried. Have another 4 hives in this position, waiting for a new queen to come into lay. The weather has been so cold I was thinking they might have had problems mating. Let's hope they are not drones! Only one test frame generated queen cells.

 

[beecology]

was watching flight lines from a distance of 20 metres away fro the hives, sat there quietly and relaxed, then bam - took a sting to the top of the ear! had plenty of stings but the past few have been agony, extremely intense burning pain.

This may sound stupid, but I have removed a few stings season and I am convinced, some of the bees appear (especially a vile swarm I hived a while back) to have much longer stings than the others.

Also interesting is that one hive looks to have quite big workers compared to the others?

So, bee gurus, have any of you noted sting length variation and if so, was there any correlation with pain?

 

[Charlieanne]

Checked my hives today after finding a queen cup with egg on Saturday and added a super (Nuc from beginning of May). Now that one has disappeared but another empty one has appeared on a different frame. They are up to something... Check again Monday I think

 

[madasafish]

Inspected all hives. All new queens now laying so all marked...

 

[Erichalfbee]

Dangerous work today.
One lot came out and sat swearing all over the front of the hive.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Dangerous work today.

Had a spell of low blood pressure induced by lifting a near-full deep to on top of five more. Damn near ended up on my back with it on top of me but managed to "take a knee". Wish they'd seal some of this stuff...

 

[einsteinagogo]

I was going to have a quiet evening, and I got a call from the Allotments, there's a swarm of your bees up here, at 8.30pm. My bees, not likely....I have no bees at the allotment - oh don't you, oh well, there are some up here...

I went up to have a look, a small cast in a small tree....dumped in bait hive..

on leaving I spotted a perfect ball in another tree, which I not seen before, and it was a smaller perfectly formed cast, in the bait box it also went.

later in a 5 frame nuc, in my quarantine apiary. Bees cover 4 frames. We will see what comes of them, over the coming weeks.

 

[stucat]

In a forest full of 100ft pine trees with not a branch for a bee to land on for the first 60ft.
I had a swarm come land on the only bush around just about at waist height. It was too kind an offer for a been to refuse, so.... a half hour walk back to the car, a half hour drive, pick up a box and return. Just got back in now, 5 frames of very black bees(which makes a nice change for me).
That's my 9th swarm this year, all with high varroa loads. The last one, just 5national deep frames of bees had a mite drop of 65-75 a day. A dose of OA crystals had a drop of over 600 in 48 hrs. How are they swarming with loads like that ?

 

[BeeJayBee]

Any honey would be nice this year......if the lime fails I am sunk! How can two years be so different!

I'm half convinced the lime trees near my apiary are teasing me. The buds are still tightly shut, it's as if they don't want to open!

 

[newpete]

Found this in my garden is it a black honey bee there was a few

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

 

[Erichalfbee]

Fly?

 

[YorkshireBees]

Sneaky, sneaky!
Was just re-arranging / moving some old brood frames after a combine when I was mugged on the way to the car....

 

[Fatbee]

I'm half convinced the lime trees near my apiary are teasing me. The buds are still tightly shut, it's as if they don't want to open!

Heat wave forecasted for next week with high levels of humidity so perhaps the lime flow is on it's way.....

 

[Falesh]

As per JBM, they won't "change their mind".
Don't fool yourself.
You have probably rather less than five days to actually perform your "swarm prevention plan" - because you have knocked down their swarm cells they may well leave BEFORE the next lot are capped. Bees do that. Which is one reason why knocking down "swarm cells" is not just not recommended, it is strongly advised as something not-to-do.

You need to do an artificial swarm ASAP, and then come back in a few days to select (and cull absolutely ALL but that) one open QC, and then again in exactly a week after that to ensure it is still there and then remove absolutely ALL other new ones.

That's interesting because in Guide to Bees & Honey by Ted Hooper he says that it is possible that if you remove the queen cells they will not swarm. He goes on to talk about checking if the queen is still laying fresh eggs (which mine was) as an indicator of whether this will work. My initial plan was to wait 5 days or so then check again and do an artificial swarm if there were new queen cells, however since a number of people have said that is a bad idea I think I'll go with that rather then the book.

 

[newpete]

Collecting pollen ?

 

[bontbee]

Thrilled to watch a humming bird hawk moth dipping into the scabious flowers in the apiary

 

[YorkshireBees]

That's interesting because in Guide to Bees & Honey by Ted Hooper he says that it is possible that if you remove the queen cells they will not swarm. He goes on to talk about checking if the queen is still laying fresh eggs (which mine was) as an indicator of whether this will work. My initial plan was to wait 5 days or so then check again and do an artificial swarm if there were new queen cells, however since a number of people have said that is a bad idea I think I'll go with that rather then the book.

I'll 2nd the theory that they may leave before a QC is capped if you just remove QC's!
I had it happen a few years ago, didn't have the necessary equipment with me and by the time I got back to that apiary only a couple of days later they had swarmed!