What did you do in the Apiary today?

[madasafish]

Inspected my last round of queens in mini nucs. 4 failures out of 11..did not emerge.. (Cold? we had a couple of cold nights)..

That gives me 4 surplus mini nucs to try again with..

 

[beeno]

There is a flow on here brambles, clover and possibly some lime.

 

[JWF]

There is a flow on here brambles, clover and possibly some lime.

I'm hoping that now it's warmed up we'll have a good flow in Kent, after all that rain. There wasn't too much nectar evident when I inspected at the weekend but hopefully it will pick up with bramble now it's warmer.

Fingers crossed.

 

[hexadecimal]

Working from home I'm normally able to just wander into the garden and view the little dears .... However I'm on holiday and I'm strangly sat here wondering what they are up to.

However, modern technology means I can sit and watch the boats in the bay and the bees in the hives on my phone from the cctv .

I know, I'm a bit sad haha

 

[B+.]

i know, i'm a bit sad haha

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[Glenviewbee]

Had to feed 2 of my smaller colonies - practically no stores at all. Other colonies in the same apiary have stacks of stores

 

[manek]

I transferred all the frames from a nuc into a National. The nuc had an eke to cover a feeder and the girls had built lots of storage comb up into it. So I tore down the comb (they weren't best pleased) and, abhorring waste, dumped it into the new hive. Hopefully they'll sort it out....

 

[drex]

Had to feed 2 of my smaller colonies - practically no stores at all. Other colonies in the same apiary have stacks of stores

Assuming disease free, why not just swap a few frames? simples.

 

[oGri]

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You can speak for yourself!

 

[Jed D]

Yesterdays mission...
Unite 9 colonies into 5 + make a couple of nucs...

Tonight and the rest of my evenings this week , assemble the super frames I should of done weeks ago.....

 

[Tonyatcwfarm]

Came back to house at 3pm and 2 bait hives were going crazy with scouts
315 all scouts gone and 345 a huge swarm arrived
The nuc they picked was a manky plywood nuc box with one frame so I chanced swapping them into a P polynuc with super extension.They seemed happy with the change and were still drawing in at 9 tonight

 

[Tonyatcwfarm]

And another swarm arrives
That's 8 in total so far this year
Spray painted 3 poly nationals

 

[Webby]

What do you use in your bait hives? I have two out with two frames of foundation in each and fresh wax on inside of lid plus a couple drops of lemongrass oil but no luck yet.

 

[Fusion_power]

Today was difficult. I had committed to send a blue dot breeder queen to Mike Palmer about a month ago. I described the queen's traits of highly mite resistant, non-swarming, gentle, and good honey production for 2 years.

I monitored this queen weekly since early spring. A month ago, the bees were on the verge of superseding her so I moved her to a nucleus with 3 frame of bees. She made it just fine in the nuc maintaining 2 frames of brood. I pulled a frame of eggs and larvae to get cells built last week verifying that she was still on the job.

Yesterday was the rubber hits the road moment so I prepared a box, queen cage, candy, and went to the hive to pull the queen. She was nowhere to be found. I did a careful search then and found a virgin queen walking around on the comb. The blue dot queen was nowhere to be found.

So today I called Mike and told him the queen I had promised was MIA.

The only good news is that I already have half a dozen mated queens raised from her and I will get perhaps a dozen more from the frame I put in the cell builder. Perhaps next year I will have a good enough breeder for some swapping.

 

[JohnRB]

Found and marked a Queen for the first time. Paint was a bit blobby so hoping they will just clean her up rather than reject her!

 

[Michael Palmer]

Today was difficult. I had committed to send a blue dot breeder queen to Mike Palmer about a month ago.

Yesterday was the rubber hits the road moment so I prepared a box, queen cage, candy, and went to the hive to pull the queen. She was nowhere to be found.

 

[user 6228]

Got up at 4am to place the newly occupied artificial tree on its proper floor/entrance in its proper location. Then at 9am added the fondant into the feeding box in the floor (Floor? yes, its a bit unusual)

 

[foghornleghorn]

Killed a few queens I bought in last year and replaced with some off my own newly mated queens. Not sure will I bother much with mini nucs in future found them very awkward especially for catching the queen

 

[Erichalfbee]

Small cast yesterday just 4 seams in the 14x12 nuc. Just catching stragglers to take back to apiary tonight. Rather bigger swarm this morning too big for a full size 14x12 bait hive so had to add a super. Will move these tonight. A swarmed hive have removed the one queen cell I left for them to look after till I united them with a nuc. Planned today Now have had to put in a test frame instead. I guess I missed a queen cell ........ sigh

 

[Tonyatcwfarm]

What do you use in your bait hives? I have two out with two frames of foundation in each and fresh wax on inside of lid plus a couple drops of lemongrass oil but no luck yet.

This year I'm using 1 wax moth damaged frame in a used 6 frame polynuc with a brood or super extension,cardboard covered varroa screen and I inject a few mil of honey bee healthy sugar syrup every week
Some of the baithives have been out in same location for 6/8 weeks now
Not many beekeepers near me but the two I know of don't worry too much about swarm control