What did you do in the Apiary today?

[dpearce4]

I bottled up lots of sweet and dry mead, just for shows. I just wish I could sell it I get asked all the time to but way to much hassle (paperwork happy to pay the duty if I could)

 

[BrianO]

Drove 80K to out Apiary expecting to super a hive and to check on a bait hive beside a 3 year old feral colony.

Got there and shown a cast swarm that had been in bush 2 days and ignored , only a few feet away my full baited national ( lemongrass oil , foundation frames and old ( for scent ) wax encrusted crownboard.!! Bees !!. My first ever swarm collected, interesting experience. Came up ( Ok probably been done before !! ) with a clever idea to stop stragglers picking up the Queen pheromone from where they had been hanging, sprayed with air freshener which worked a treat, had in car ready for unites I have to do.

Ended up driving away with a cast swarm, Apidea with queen cell and AS split...

Holy God this Beekeeping lark is not for the faint hearted !

 

[Erichalfbee]

Holy God this Beekeeping lark is not for the faint hearted !

Too true. I've had to do a lot of work this year to keep the bees together. Taking a break in London just now but have been spotting dark honey bees on the grime encrusted privet in Euston Square.

 

[bontbee]

have been spotting dark honey bees on the grime encrusted privet in Euston Square.

grime encrusted bees?

 

[einsteinagogo]

Checked Apidea and today for the first time, I've seen capped brood on inspection.

So it's taken at least 4 weeks for my virgin queen to get mated and lay.

I spotted a large plump dark brown queen on frame, still not drawn out frame 1....

I would have marked her, but I left my marking pens in the Datacenter (yes, you read correct the datacenter, I've been using them to mark cables, before a Cluster Memory Upgrade!).

 

[JohnyP]

I suited up before strimming yesterday and boy am I glad I did. Out they came and surrounded me in a cloud, like a scene from a cartoon.

Got one sting on each hand, through nitrile, before retreating! Mowing is no problem...

 

[Tremyfro]

Transferred 2 of my homemade nucs ...Nuc 1 and Nuc 3... to hives today...brimming with bees. All went well....there was quite a cloud of bees looking for the new entrances but after an hour they were settling down. Also transferred Nuc 2 to the empty end of my Long Hive....as may have to combine with the colony already in there later. I did see a couple of queen cells on the recent test frame I had added. We haven't seen the queen for some time and she had never laid any eggs...so I guess she is no more. After my holiday....I will see if they have been successful in making their own queen...if not...they are in just the right place to be combined.
Also...celebrations! An extra Nuc I made up using a queen cell from Nuc 3... I have no idea why they made it....they have a very nice queen which is laying up whole frames of brood....other than it was in a hole in the frame...they like making queen cells there! Anyway, checked the Nuc today....and she has emerged...didn't see her but she is there for sure. Hopefully, a nice big queen as the queen cell was a big one. She will be a Carniolan daughter....hope now the weather is better that she mates successfully. Go Tremyfro Gal...strut your stuff for the lads!

 

[margob99]

Spent my lunch half-hour at the bee hives, watching the activity at the entrances. No sign of pollen coming in to the hive with the new virgin queen. Fretted. I'm sure it will all be fine in the end ... there's still a week or so to go before I really need to worry.

 

[BrianO]

Up before work to closest out apiary to remove the overnight entrance block from my newly hive first ever swarm captured. Excited as were a feral colony that overwintered definitely 2 years running ( saw bees during winter ).

A moment of utter beauty that has has made the chaos of year 2 panic and AS's all worthwhile !!

Removed the block from the entrance to see the beautiful little native dark bees emerging into the rays of the rising sun, in 19 degrees morning temps ( not normal !!! )

Absolutely still with no breeze, fascinating to sit there and watch them orientate themselves to their new home, and immediately start removing bits of leaves grass etc that I had deposited whilst scooping them up and shaking them into their new hive.

Hopefully a good sign and they have a ultra hygiene trait that might have seen them cleaning Varroa alowing them to overwinter !!

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Amalgamated a couple of unites into single brood boxes and introduced a lovely new HM Buckfast queen to her new home.

I added yet another super to the hive of the very first HM queen I got back in 2013. She is still going strong, outperforming all the others by a long way.

Sadly the 2 queens I reared from her last year produced really feisty colonies and had to go but I will have another go with the grafting kit at the weekend and see what results! Would be a shame for her genes not to continue in my apiary!

 

[madasafish]

Took potential new beekeeper around my much depleted garden hives (after AFB down to one colony , now four.. Bee Inspector due for inspection next week as still on standstill)...

Bees in good mood due to sun: T shirt and no smoke (but veil) for me: visitor borrowed my beesuit jacket.. no stings, nothing...

 

[Cussword]

Great news!! My friend's queen that I gave a blue bath last week, survived and is laying well. It was quite surreal checking the frames, there were several drones with blue spots on their backs. We assumed that the workers that had cleaned the queen had walked over them. The queen still has blue wings and a blue striped abdomen.
PHEW.

 

[philipm]

Checked all my hives today for a change they were good tempered so whilst I had the chance I removed some brace comb from one hive. I had a bit of a surprise when before I took all the kit back to the shed and I went to put the brace comb in a pot there was my unmarked queen walking around in the bucket that I carry all the bits in, she must have been hiding amongst the comb I'd removed. Oh well it gave me a chance to mark her before popping her back into the hive. Think I need to go to have my eyes checked!

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Amalgamated a couple of unites into single brood boxes and introduced a lovely new HM Buckfast queen to her new home.

I added yet another super to the hive of the very first HM queen I got back in 2013. She is still going strong, outperforming all the others by a long way.

Sadly the 2 queens I reared from her last year produced really feisty colonies and had to go but I will have another go with the grafting kit at the weekend and see what results! Would be a shame for her genes not to continue in my apiary!

Fascinating. Frankly, the rate my HM Q is outperforing, I am tempted to buy a couple a year and forget it.

 

[dpearce4]

Amalgamated a couple of unites into single brood boxes and introduced a lovely new HM Buckfast queen to her new home.

I added yet another super to the hive of the very first HM queen I got back in 2013. She is still going strong, outperforming all the others by a long way.

Sadly the 2 queens I reared from her last year produced really feisty colonies and had to go but I will have another go with the grafting kit at the weekend and see what results! Would be a shame for her genes not to continue in my apiary!

Hate to say it but when the new queens from a bought in queen mate with local bees they always tend to be a bit feisty at best, down right vicious at worst. You need to start using local queens and improve them by selection than buying in unknown genes.

 

[madasafish]

Hate to say it but when the new queens from a bought in queen mate with local bees they always tend to be a bit feisty at best, down right vicious at worst. You need to start using local queens and improve them by selection than buying in unknown genes.

My experience of local queens is unprintable..Swarmy,stingy nasty creatures.. would not give any of them hive room.

All this local queens stuff is OK if you have good tempered locals. Otherwise in my opinion it's just BBE.. (Beekeeping Bull Excrement)..

 

[ugcheleuce]

Went to my one promising hive to check on the status of the honey frames above the queen excluder, and found... closed brood in the supers. Arghhh... how did that happen???

 

[jonnybeegood]

Had some scout bees going in my nuc bait trap today, ive been meaning to put sn old brood frame in instead of a foundation frame. Not sure if they were from my bees or a wild colony, i dont have any other beeks that close i dont think.

 

[Fatbee]

Discovered a drone layer (top half of an artificial swarm above Snelgrove Board.) new there was something up as soon as cover board was raised - very testy - they obviously know not all is right. Opened bottom gate to bleed off foragers and will dispatch drone layer and unite tomorrow.

Vast swathes of blackberry waiting to open - late for me this year.

 

[REDWOOD]

Nothing, not a sausage for the first time in ages I have not touched a bee or a hive. , thinking about it now I should have walked up the hills and had a look at the condition of the heather.