What did you do in the Apiary today?

[coatesg]

I've noticed that in full boxes eggs laid near the bottom of frames can lead to "impossible" timings due to their remaining viable despite being untended and relatively cool. I have only seen QCs that were three days "impossibly young" but I bet the limit is higher, given the ability of eggs to be sent by post etc.

ADD. Even without that effect, 7 days (=4 d.o. larva) could perhaps just (3 days, easily) give a viable, albeit not ideal, Q for the colony to then go on to supersede. Better to invest the extra 2 days and even then be wary of the effect I mention.

Interesting about the timings, thanks - and yes, would definitely have gone back into the box in the next 2 days to check, but timings (and weather the previous week) completely scuppered me, and another friend who was going to check for me. I'll keep an eye out for any attempts to supercede in the next week or two...

 

[madasafish]

Nice warm sunny day. Added comb of emerging brood to requeened Lang hive #6 which was weak due to prior queen (chalkbrood)


Inspected Lang #5 - QC left capped 20th July. Eggs,brood but no capped brood yet. Assumed queen properly mated so marked white.

Inspected Lang Nuc#1 .QC had been added 28th July and prior DLQ killed. Eggs and brood seen. Assume not DLQ so marked queen white.

Inspected TBH hive with swarm from 26th June. Very weak. Rehoused in TBH nuc . Will feed this evening.

 

[nantmoel]

Whilst out the garage finishing an OMF I heard the humming of a swarm! I only went through the hives I got here a few days ago, so looking to the sky I could see it was a small cast, thinking it might have been a hive that perhaps swarmed yesterday. I went to where they settled and it was in fact a small cast. While they were settling down to cluster I went and looked through the 4 hives and two Nucs I have here at home, well all was fine. Thinking about the size of it I wondered wether it was a swarm from an Apidea, I looked in the first two of the 3 and all was fine the third one was in fact empty, it was the one that had absconded! There's a VQ in there waiting to mate. Well they are all back in there, I wonder if she decided to go on a mating flight and the rest just followed.

 

[psafloyd]

This is something I did last week. Not in my apiary, but the bees are now...

https://youtu.be/Gcj5WqYXHNI

 

[Plenty of honey]

This is something I did last week. Not in my apiary, but the bees are now...

https://youtu.be/Gcj5WqYXHNI

I enjoyed this video, i especially like the bit where one second their all in comb, and brood on the tree, the next shot, their all in the box. Is that one of them new "teleport cut out systems" Astonishing!!

its a nice video. well done !!

 

[Hivemaker.]

Checked some heather sites and added a few supers, cleared supers at another site.
Took the last 56 queen cells for this season from the incubator and bunged them into the mating nucs.

Tomorrow start on making up six frame nucs to over winter.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Took the last 56 queen cells for this season from the incubator and bunged them into the mating nucs.

Pete; there's a whole science behind that word "bunged" and I have learnt this year how hard it is to get virgins accepted. Could you do some poor unfortunate 12-hour-old bee larvae a favour and spell out "bunged" to a few sentences?

 

[psafloyd]

I enjoyed this video, i especially like the bit where one second their all in comb, and brood on the tree, the next shot, their all in the box. Is that one of them new "teleport cut out systems" Astonishing!!

its a nice video. well done !!

Thank you.

Alas, no. It's down to an iPhone having a dodgy battery and conking out.

 

[philipm]

Checked hives today even the hive from hell that had somehow requeened itself (read post angry bees)took off some full frames ready for extraction.Amazing the difference a couple of weeks can make they were all a pleasure to inspect today I can now go back to wearing one beesuit.

 

[Eyeman]

Amazing the difference a couple of weeks can make they were all a pleasure to inspect today

Or the fine weather we are having?

 

[nantmoel]

Prepared 7 Apideas and 2 queen castles that are split into 3, each section holds 3 frames (14x12), all ready for QC's we got emerging in an incubator on Thursday.

 

[Robbo8916]

Met Gregior at my 'apiary' to check what the hell the bees are up to now.

Was pleased to see there is a real flow on and the bees are piling in the nectar. Beautiful pure white brand new wax in the super, but the bees were very noisy and fanning a lot. We went through the hive and found what we think is a virgin queen but she could possibly be mated as she wasn't tiny. There was absolutely no brood at all in the hive so the plan is to give her a little more time to see if she starts laying then decide on their fate.

They are still only on 5 frames, two of which are stores. So they are essentially smaller than the nuc colony now. They have swarmed themselves into serious decline, no matter what I have tried they have still carried on doing it.

It is looking more likely that they will be downsized into a nuc for the winter, depending on how they do on the balsam. Every single bee coming back was covered from head to foot in white pollen.

The nuc, on the other hand, are as Greg described them 'perfect'. They are on 4 frames of brood both sides and nectar packed in everywhere they can fit it. A textbook laying pattern, hatching from the centre outwards, beautiful honey arcs and pollen packed in. BIAS and queen seen, she isn't the biggest but she is laying like a trooper. She is a gorgeous dark colour and the bees appear to be getting darker as the older ones die out.

They were really placid and Greg seemed fascinated by the fact that they have a clear crownboard so you can see them without disturbing them lol. They were looking pretty full to be fair. We turned the outermost frame round to give the queen the empty side to lay in. As an 'emergency' queen raised from a queen cell post swarm she is doing really well. We were both really impressed.

They are actually looking like they might need to move into a full sized hive before winter but we are going to give them a little bit longer.

The plan is:

1. Check 'main' colony again in two weeks to see if queen is laying.
2. Probably nick a frame of brood from the nuc and give it to the 'main' colony to give them a boost of bees.
3. Reduce the 'main' colony down to 6 frames and put them in a nuc for the winter possibly.
4. Cross fingers and hope like hell that I can get at least one of them through the winter.

 

[Millet]

Pete; there's a whole science behind that word "bunged" and I have learnt this year how hard it is to get virgins accepted. Could you do some poor unfortunate 12-hour-old bee larvae a favour and spell out "bunged" to a few sentences?

PUT, is that a good enough sentence.

 

[chrisb]

thought was under raid from wasps as walked to check up on them this afternoon, loads of yellow bodies flying at entrance.
Turned out to be the bees, some where absolutely covered in bright yellow pollen, Hi Viz bees thats one over the Lassi mine are health and safety

they must be at it heavy as under hive was dusted in what had been dropped while going over the OMF, collected a sample to bung under the microscope for curiosity yet realized later had lent it out

 

[gregior]

Had a look at Robbo's bees as mentioned above and noticing the huge balsam flow decided to make sure mine had enough super space.
Bees drawing out the starters really well,the queen had popped up and laid in the starter super in one hive so i cut out the brood (which was all drone) and checked it for mites-not good tons of the little buggers need these supers to be filled asap so i can start treating.

 

[coatesg]

Not in the apiary, but had to try and dispatch a wasp nest in the dormer above youngest's bedroom window this evening. They were not best pleased. Fun...

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Real non-balsam flow on here. Brood and supers filling fast. This was 8:50am.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Etton]

A couple of my hives seemed light on honey so I fed them and they seem to be filling the brood box with the feed, is that the norm at this time of the year. They seem to be ignoring the foundation frames in the super. Have removed the QE to make easier access to the super. And do they cap sugar feed as they do with honey?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes and yes

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

why would you want a super full of sugar syrup anyway?