What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Erichalfbee]

I sugar roll before supers go on in the summer and before OAV in autumn. I'll get inspection trays in when I get back from Tradex

 

[piggy]

Put out Asian hornet traps at 5 location. Used Richard Noel type trap and attractant. Lets hope I don't find any a. h.

 

[coatesg]

Popped a little more fondant on a nuc that had locked the last lot clean. All colonies out taking water and foraging on the crocus that has opened up nicely in the sun.

 

[Goran]

Sunny all the day, but strong southern wind whipped my face. Now I feel that someone slapped me for good..
Even such windy bees out and after cornel mainly. Hazels are at the end, also snowdrops. Goat willow start opening. A lot of primroses all over the place, violets, even coltsfoot I saw ..
Still all colonies seems OK, it seems queen rearing paid off.. I eagerly wait to take frame in my hands as I feel there are some awesome colonies..

 

[B+.]

Still all colonies seems OK, it seems queen rearing paid off.. I eagerly wait to take frame in my hands as I feel there are some awesome colonies..

Congratulations Goran. I think we are all eager to see how our colonies look. Its that feeling of anticipation that we all get at this time of year.
How does your mentor feel about your queen rearing? He must be very proud of how much you have learned

 

[Goran]

Congratulations Goran. I think we are all eager to see how our colonies look. Its that feeling of anticipation that we all get at this time of year.
How does your mentor feel about your queen rearing? He must be very proud of how much you have learned

Yes, when meet mostly we talk about queens. Even I gave him some young queens I reared to see how they will perform at his operation. This " line" by feminine side is originated from his operation. He has some red queens which in 2016. still perform awesome and not prone to swarm. This spring they will go in jenter if all goes well..

 

[B+.]

He has some red queens which in 2016. still perform awesome and not prone to swarm. This spring they will go in jenter if all goes well..

Sounds good Goran

 

[taurus]

I was cleaning last year's super frames and watching both hives flying strongly, which was good to see......When a huge Tree Bumble queen flew past me straight into our compost heap. Lovely to see her.

 

[Somerford]

Spent the day at Bee Tradex - met up with PeteinWilts and we both had a good trawl of the show before dipping our hands in our pockets -Pete on Maisemore Nucs and me on Frames and foundation.
After lunch we attended the BeeFarmers' AGM
And this evening was spent filling frames with foundation - roll on Spring !

KR

Somerford

 

[Fusion_power]

I went through 4 colonies today and filled 3 of them up with total 14 frames. they had wintered on 7 Dadant frames and were ready to expand. One Buckfast colony is in exceptionally good condition. She is slated to be used as a breeder starting next weekend.

All colonies had abundant worker and drone brood. They are building up rapidly. At this rate, there should be some strong colonies just in time for apple bloom which should start in 2 or 3 weeks. Shortly after that the blackberries will bloom which will provide the first significant flow of the year.

 

[Barbarian]

Spread some clumps in the apiary. Snowdrops/Grape Hyacinth/Sedum.
I wish I knew what was cropping the foliage off the Winter Aconite. If I knew it might be doubtful if I would do anything about it.

Some of the bees were quartering just above ground foliage level. Not sure why.

 

[JWF]

Topped up fondant on a couple of hives - they're all feeling light so they've all got some on.

There was a brief period of sunshine in the afternoon and this was the result.

https://mobile.twitter.com/hernebayhoney/status/838043077537316864/video/1

 

[Cazza]

In my garden deer and rabbits.
Cazza

 

[ugcheleuce]

A week or two ago, the club apiary manager told me that I might have Nosema in three of my hives. Today was a sunny day (after 2 weeks of rain, and they predict 2 more week of rain) so I decided to do something about those hives. There is no cure for Nosema, but the official guidelines recommend drastically reducing the hive volume, and that's what I intended to do.

It may not be Nosema, after all, but ordinary dysentery due to the fact that most of the frames with sugar syrup in them was fermenting badly, there was quite a bit of mould on the frames, and the bees were also feeding on heather honey, which is known to be hard on the bees. However, there was bee poop all over the insides of the wooden hives, and the poly hive had plumes and plumes of of mould between the frames.

Colony 1 was in a 3-story 6-frame poly hive, but there was only about 1 frame of bees left (queen alive), and the hive was terribly moulded and pooped over on the inside. So I put a new 6-frame nuc box in its place, and gave the bees three frames that looked like they contained good sugar syrup.

Colony 2 and 3 were in 11-frame wooden hives (2 and 3 stories high), and contained quite a few bees. I put the one colony in a small poly 6-frame nuc box on 3 good frames, and the other colony in a wooden 11-frame hive that is made up of brand new boxes.

It remains to be seen what happens in a month.

 

[B+.]

It remains to be seen what happens in a month.

Good luck Samuel.
It sounds like quite a mess.

 

[drex]

Nosema is easy to test for if you have a microscope. Here, most associations have a dedicated microscopist, of which I am one. Sounds likely though.
Reducing the volume they occupy and getting them on to clean comb is a good start. A few times I have saved them by feeding thymolated syrup - see hive makers sticky post. I believe tremyfro has had success by spraying them with thymolated syrup, a tip, I think, in Ron Brown's book.

 

[Erichalfbee]

It remains to be seen what happens in a month.

Can you spray them with thymolated syrup?

 

[Millet]

Spread some clumps in the apiary. Snowdrops/Grape Hyacinth/Sedum.
I wish I knew what was cropping the foliage off the Winter Aconite. If I knew it might be doubtful if I would do anything about it.

Some of the bees were quartering just above ground foliage level. Not sure why.

Field voles have removed the tops of a good few of my spring bulb's.

 

[theeggman]

Nosema is easy to test for if you have a microscope. Here, most associations have a dedicated microscopist, of which I am one. Sounds likely though.
Reducing the volume they occupy and getting them on to clean comb is a good start. A few times I have saved them by feeding thymolated syrup - see hive makers sticky post. I believe tremyfro has had success by spraying them with thymolated syrup, a tip, I think, in Ron Brown's book.

Hivemakers recipe.

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6513

I hope it helps.

 

[Millet]

Can you spray them with thymolated syrup?

I am sure Trem rescued some her hives from Nosema by doing just that.