What did you do in the Apiary today?

[deanrpwaacs]

So you advocate on opening a hive in this wild weather, with sleet and gales that will not allow any flying bees to survive such a manipulation.

I expect he has used a top feeder like a miller type so only needs to take the lid off to top it up and not expose the bees ?

 

[Millet]

Edited. and sorry i hate witch hunts for new people trying to learn, its like flies to dung at the moment.

 

[gregior]

Removed entrance blocks to have a peep under the tightly clustered colonies between the snow showers,did an AS on one last week and stupidly chose to leave a cell that was hanging from the bottom of one of the brood frames,worried now the cell will get chilled.Bees were flying and collecting pollen in the sunny spell between the showers.I'd imagine they're polishing off the last of the winter stores at quite some rate!

 

[Millet]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Dg-g7t2l4

Something worth thinking about.. silence .. ??? .

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

i'm clueless so let me know.

You make that obvious by your comments - the only attacks I see are the ones you instigate.

 

[Tremyfro]

I cleaned up after sorting through all the bee stuff in the Bee Shed. The weather has deteriorated after a good start...now rain sleet hail and cloudy.
My plan for spraying has been delayed. At this rate the docks will be taller than me!

 

[pargyle]

I cleaned up after sorting through all the bee stuff in the Bee Shed. The weather has deteriorated after a good start...now rain sleet hail and cloudy.
My plan for spraying has been delayed. At this rate the docks will be taller than me!

Forget the phosphate ... one of these is just as quick, environmentlly friendly and even gives you a bit of exercise ... plus, it becomes addictive, there is something very satisfying about seeing a dock root come up out of the ground and just get shot into the bucket. You can then dump the roots in a tub of water for a week or three and they rot down to a really good feed for your plants/rhubarb/fruit bushes etc.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fiskars-10...461766661&sr=8-1&keywords=fiskars+weed+puller

It will also do other weeds .... I have one and it's brilliant !

 

[Tremyfro]

Ha...you are welcome to come and get your exercise in our paddocks.....years of neglect by previous owners means we have inherited lots of docks/ragwort/buttercups. Forget bucketful....it's trailer loads! This year is the spraying year...we do dig out the ragwort as it takes so long to rot down. We have cleared several of the smaller paddocks by digging up the docks ...buttercups are a different hurdle...liming..I think.

 

[Plenty of honey]

Fed 20 hives this morning, Hail and rain, heavy showers, absolutely freezing cold and wet. Bees are retracting back, eating what they started to store last week.
Fed to give then something to work on, they may be confined for another few days if this current weather continues. It was mainly on stock that i transferred in to 10 framed hives, so keen for it to expand.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

woke up to the odd patch of snow this morning - been cold all day. Bees have been out flying through it all making the most of the last of the willow.

 

[yeogi75]

found queen on floor between hives ,warmed her up now its pot luck if she survives the cold or being put back in the wrong hive,

 

[beeno]

found queen on floor between hives ,warmed her up now its pot luck if she survives the cold or being put back in the wrong hive,

Was she clipped?

 

[yeogi75]

no she wasn't, it was a hive from my farther who died recently and I brought his hives home to sort out, and eventually take to my sites, when fully checked out, moved over winter so still waiting to go in and sort out.

 

[victor meldrew]

Both at 6-8'



Likewise, steps are fine, but life's too short to be clambering up ladders for swarms

7 foot or thereabouts!

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Ok, a slightly extended tale - but one which might be of interest to, particularly, newer beeks.

I look after 4 hives on the roof of Manchester Cathedral.
Last year I had two hives with green queens, one with blue (Hive A)

The fourth hive (C ) became aggressive - and contractors replacing the lead in the roof got stung. (Cost me 4 jars of honey, that did!) Needed to be re-queened.

So, I saved up three weeks pocket money and bought one of HiveMaster's best Buckfast queens - so she was a blue queen. But by the time she was happily esconced, I'd treated the others for varroa; treated that hive late - too late.
They got varoosis. This meant the winter bees were compromised. So I had to treat them again in November.

When I opened that hive for the first spring inspection, it was a sorry sight. Queen, looking very bedraggled, and about 500 bees only. I put them in a poly nuc.

Hive A was also in a poor state. Lots of bees, a few dozen sealed brood, three poor queen cells, no open brood and no sign of the queen. I shut them up for a week. A week later, the queen cells were gone, no more sealed or unsealed cells - still no sign of a queen.

So - and stay with me, guys - last week, I put the Buckfast queen & retinue, into a queen cage and put it in hive A.

Today, heeding the warning about starvation, I checked for stores. Outside Hive A, what did I see? A dead blue queen.

B*gger!

I opened up and removed the queen cage to find..........

...... yes - you guessed! - the queen and retinue were still in there!
So, I set her free. She looked really good by now - such a contrast to when I saw her last!

So, chaps and chapesses, I guess the original blue queen was still in the hive - but failing. When the Buckfast was introduced in the queen cage, the residents turned on their failing queen and dispatched her, preferring the new one.

I guess I now have to wait another week or ten days to see if I'm right and they really have taken the new queen as their own.

Learned a lot of lessons today. Including: bees generally know what they're doing!



Dusty

 

[victor meldrew]

Ok, a slightly extended tale - but one which might be of interest to, particularly, newer beeks.

I look after 4 hives on the roof of Manchester Cathedral.
Last year I had two hives with green queens, one with blue (Hive A)

The fourth hive (C ) became aggressive - and contractors replacing the lead in the roof got stung. (Cost me 4 jars of honey, that did!) Needed to be re-queened.

So, I saved up three weeks pocket money and bought one of HiveMaster's best Buckfast queens - so she was a blue queen. But by the time she was happily esconced, I'd treated the others for varroa; treated that hive late - too late.
They got varoosis. This meant the winter bees were compromised. So I had to treat them again in November.

When I opened that hive for the first spring inspection, it was a sorry sight. Queen, looking very bedraggled, and about 500 bees only. I put them in a poly nuc.

Hive A was also in a poor state. Lots of bees, a few dozen sealed brood, three poor queen cells, no open brood and no sign of the queen. I shut them up for a week. A week later, the queen cells were gone, no more sealed or unsealed cells - still no sign of a queen.

So - and stay with me, guys - last week, I put the Buckfast queen & retinue, into a queen cage and put it in hive A.

Today, heeding the warning about starvation, I checked for stores. Outside Hive A, what did I see? A dead blue queen.

B*gger!

I opened up and removed the queen cage to find..........

...... yes - you guessed! - the queen and retinue were still in there!
So, I set her free. She looked really good by now - such a contrast to when I saw her last!

So, chaps and chapesses, I guess the original blue queen was still in the hive - but failing. When the Buckfast was introduced in the queen cage, the residents turned on their failing queen and dispatched her, preferring the new one.

I guess I now have to wait another week or ten days to see if I'm right and they really have taken the new queen as their own.

Learned a lot of lessons today. Including: bees generally know what they're doing!



Dusty

First inspection revealed small queen right colonies with plenty of stores ,no eggs or brood at all .
Three weeks later . Eggs brood all stages . Re-marked the Queens .
Three weeks at this time of year make a tremendous difference .

 

[Goran]

Today, I rushed to see did one colony waited before swarming. Due some circumstances, I was late a day than I planned.. Nothing to worry, due colod, frosts and rain they torn down most of the cells.. Good bees.. Now just black locust to survive this bad weather and this colony could give me 2 boxes of b.c. honey..

 

[B+.]

woke up to the odd patch of snow this morning - been cold all day.

Who would expect 0degrees C when the osr was flowering? It'll be a late season for me when it does start

 

[pargyle]

Who would expect 0degrees C when the osr was flowering? It'll be a late season for me when it does start

Yes ... Frost last night in the Costa del Fareham ... water stood on the top of the garden table was ice !! Cherry trees in full bloom now so I hope it was only a ground frost ... amazingly, 3 degrees out in the apiary this morning but sunny and bees already flying ... they just don't read the right books do they ?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Heavy ground frost at 0600 this morning - gone before eight although the water in the chicken's reservoir was still frozen over.