What did you do in the Apiary today?

[madasafish]

Yesterday I completed the work I found I needed after Saturday's inspection.

The most arduous was transferring a weak colony (1 lang frame of brood ) into a 5 frame celotex Lang jumbo nuc. Feeder added: they have a hope of survival now..

 

[pargyle]

(1DLQ, 1 tiny queen with no brood, 1 decent sized queen who isn't laying). Looks to me like last years queens didn't get mated properly.............

In some areas this appears to be the situation ... certainly down here there were a lot of poorly mated queens last year .. I've certainly got one and I know others around me that are singing from the same hymn sheet.

 

[JWF]

Hi JWF,
This is when you should have put a QE on them. It would have kept them in there if the Q was with them or if they went you would have known that the queen is still in the original hive. Have you checked for QCs?

Yes I realised about the Qx as they were swarming! Never used one before and always got away with it, alas not this time!

There were about ten QCs, two were sealed. Knocked them all down but one, and one which i moved into a nuc.

 

[Goran]

Ending wild fruits, apples stil holding ( late varieties). Dandelions also passing. Waiting for black ashhhh... But mostly not worried about forage since I have reduced colony numbers. So far will be some extraction of lively spring honey.
Some colonies spreaded at 13 frames of brood, but effectivelly that means 10-11 solid brood laid. So far no case of swarming, few play cups, few has more drone brood - first to pay attention.
Seems one colony lost the queen, must be me during last inspection of colony. Shame, was nice calm queen which wanted to see how will perform this season. I split it in 4 ways, even queens will be no great value, but will be OK till I manage to rear queens later.. Now I start to " replenish my ranks" ..

 

[Michael Palmer]

First pollen today. Ya-hooo!

Even better day today. 75˚. Bees flying strongly. Multiple pollens coming in. Nice looking bees. We've done 27/30 production yards and have a 3% loss so far. The nuc yards look great. Queens just starting to lay. Eggs and 2 day old larvae. Occasionally one with a few cells of sealed brood. The three nuc yards in New York, that shut down last summer as a result of the drought, look way better than I feared they might.

Buried the new truck in mud yesterday. Well, not really buried. Just so greasy that I was in the meadow until I got pulled out. Kork drove to the farm and Danny allowed Kork to take the tractor. Nice gent, him. Too busy sugaring (maple) to do it himself.

Yard done. Truck back on the road. 75˚ and big pollen loads coming in. Life is good.

 

[B+.]

I've often talked about how docile my A.m.c. colonies are and how I test them according to the criteria described on Coloss (http://coloss.org/beebook/I/queen-rearing/3/3/2) but, until now, I've only really talked about it in the abstract sense with the score I've given them. Well, I had to drop some boxes of foundation at the apiary this afternoon so I thought I'd take a short video of one of the colonies to illustrate what I mean (see: https://youtu.be/KGZ0ZmN-W8M). This is the sort of behavior I look for in potential breeding queens.

 

[Somerford]

3 hours of very satisfying hive examinations with a local beekeeper who has suffered health problems as well as loosing his very elderly mother over Christmas - invited him over to the main site and he quickly got to grips with his smoker and helped me as I delved into the brood chambers of 6 nationals I hadn't examined yet.

He was thinking of packing it all in after 45 years but he left refreshed and re-invigorated and commented on my calm and very industrious bees - he was amazed (as was I) how strong most of them were.

I'll be giving him a hand on the 30 or so colonies he still has and help him relocate 7 from an out apiary he has to give up this summer (due to owner's sale) which will be fun - it's easier examining hives as a pair for sure.

We left the bees with at least 1, in some cases 2 and in one case 3, yes THREE supers on and 2 made up to double broods as the queens were begging for space.

Spent the evening bottling up 50 for sale - sold half today already.

KR

S

 

[nantmoel]

A few weeks ago I move a 6 frame over wintered Nuc (on 14x12 frames) into a modified Paynes Poly which holds 8 frames, I looked at them today and they were busting with bees and had to move them into a full size hive. I have had to do this to all our home bred queens so far this year, even the one's which were over wintered on 3 frames in a queen castle have had to be move to 6 frame Nucs. Happy days.

 

[nantmoel]

I've often talked about how docile my A.m.c. colonies are and how I test them according to the criteria described on Coloss (http://coloss.org/beebook/I/queen-rearing/3/3/2) but, until now, I've only really talked about it in the abstract sense with the score I've given them. Well, I had to drop some boxes of foundation at the apiary this afternoon so I thought I'd take a short video of one of the colonies to illustrate what I mean (see: https://youtu.be/KGZ0ZmN-W8M). This is the sort of behavior I look for in potential breeding queens.

Fair play that is one big queen, and so calm. I will say I inspected a Carniolan headed colony today and they were far from calm!

 

[Millet]

I've often talked about how docile my A.m.c. colonies are and how I test them according to the criteria described on Coloss (http://coloss.org/beebook/I/queen-rearing/3/3/2) but, until now, I've only really talked about it in the abstract sense with the score I've given them. Well, I had to drop some boxes of foundation at the apiary this afternoon so I thought I'd take a short video of one of the colonies to illustrate what I mean (see: https://youtu.be/KGZ0ZmN-W8M). This is the sort of behavior I look for in potential breeding queens.

Even though i am half clueless i really liked watching that quick little link, see how they all give her a wide berth.. lol .

 

[B+.]

Fair play that is one big queen, and so calm. I will say I inspected a Carniolan headed colony today and they were far from calm!

As others have said, a lot depends on where you buy your stock from (not just A.m.c, but other races too).
There is quite pronounced differences between the lines I am testing this year already. The German lines seem more "flighty" than the Dutch lines but the season has a long way to go so I don't want to pre-judge anything.
That queen has already been tested for VSH so I have high hopes for her. She'll almost certainly go on to become a 2a mother in future years. In fact, I'll rear some daughters from her this year as an insurance policy and inseminate them with semen from drones produced by my best performing German queens. These will be tested for VSH later in the year too.

 

[coatesg]

Moved a nuc to my parents pre hiving up - I need to move it a way across the orchard, so using a double move to avoid foragers getting lost in the process...

 

[Heather]

Aaaahhhh. the best laid plans.....

Going away for 3 weeks in March. One hive- 14x12 with old frames - all need replacing. Strong colony, so did a Baileys.. seemed logical.

Yesterday... all set to put new under and old above to reconfigure the hive.. I found a deep box with 7 frames brood and 11 seams of bees.. and a standard box 6 frames of brood and 11 seams of bees!
Plus rammed with uncapped honey so tricky to lift either.

Decision..(may be wrong) but sod it.. keep both brood boxes for now, QE on top and 2 supers immediately, hoping they will take honey up. Going to be a huge colony, but no queen cells (couldn't even find the queen ).
Any opinions as to an alternative action???

 

[pargyle]

Aaaahhhh. the best laid plans.....

Any opinions as to an alternative action???

Buy a pair of steps - that's going to be a heck of a honey producer if they are anything to go by now ...

 

[Heather]

yep, I'm 5' 2"...challenge ahead
One to breed from though!
The bees ...not me

 

[Erichalfbee]

Aaaahhhh. the best laid plans.....

Going away for 3 weeks in March. One hive- 14x12 with old frames - all need replacing. Strong colony, so did a Baileys.. seemed logical.

Yesterday...
Any opinions as to an alternative action???

Yes
Give them to me

 

[user 15607]

10 days into the bailey comb change and I find active queen cells in the upper box, further inspection finds the queen, dead halfway through the queen excluder!

 

[Brigsy]

Oh god! That's not part of the plan. I'm coming to the end of mine and it's rather chaotic. Not that bad though!

 

[bjosephd]

10 days into the bailey comb change and I find active queen cells in the upper box, further inspection finds the queen, dead halfway through the queen excluder!

Ergh!

Horrid... haw horrible for you.

This is one of the many reasons I get nervous using a queen excluder... I have one on at the moment to clear some brood out of a super, but I really would rather never use them... and this one is on my queen of queens! Fingers crossed she's ok!

It's a pretty solid wire excluder, so hopefully that helps.

What sort of excluder was it... is this common? Makes my stomach churn a little.

 

[coatesg]

10 days into the bailey comb change and I find active queen cells in the upper box, further inspection finds the queen, dead halfway through the queen excluder!

Argh! Hope you have drones around and can requeen successfully. One of my queens apparently wandered straight through the excluder and laid right through the super....