What did you do in the Apiary today?

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Did my first ever cut out today. They'd taken up residence under the floorboards in an outbuilding and the landowner, a friend, needed them gone. I think it went ok, will return tomrrow to check they are all still safely in their new 14x12 brood box. I didn't see the Queen but hopefully, judging by the way they all marched in and the fanning going on, she's inside. Blinkin hard work, not sure I'd volunteer to do another in a hurry. It was mahoosive!!
 
Well done Jimmys Mum. Hope you have a Queen excluder on to keep them in after all that hard work.
 
Went down for a quick varroa count on the inspection boards.
Spotted a young cat eating the fallen bees on the ground...oh dear....that's another bowl of food to leave out.
Hedgehogs, birds, Red kites, now the kitten........they are eating me out of house and home.
 
Made a visit to try for second time to find the Q in a collected swarm.
She is there --- BIAS. She is to be culled but no joy.

Planning a break, then another visit to put the bees through an excluder.

It will be Sod's Law that I set everything up and then easily spot the Q on a frame.
 
Caught and marked my first queen, and she was none the worse for it [emoji51]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Set off a massive robbing frenzy. Ooops.

Bees found a way into the stack of empty supers and obviously some Drone had a little bit too much mead and put it on social media. Next thing you know there are cars parked in the flower beds, bees puking in the pool and the police got called.

well thats what it looked like.

credit to my better half for noticing what looked like a swarm in progress.

lifted all onto clearer boards then this evening when empty of the last few revellers locked them up securely in an outbuilding.

Then they all got a dose of OA to make them think about what they did.
 
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Checked stores and Fed two hives 2:1 syrup to keep them ticking over, who said we get a brood break this time of the year these Queens are still laying for fun eggs and brood in all three hives, loads of pollen coming in, i'm in two minds whether too stick another box below one colony as it is nearly bursting with bees.
Gassed the Yellow and Blue colony but i forgot my wooden inspection tray for the white colony who is on a plastic inspection tray (when it is in) so i will do them next visit, shuffled some frames around on the double brood colony but in all everything is looking hunky dory.
 
The 1-week old 'swarm' that had settled into a shed roof I went to pick up today turned out to be a med-sized colony with lots of wild comb & BIAS but not much stores. Well and truly settled. Talking to the house owner - apparently they turned up in June. They only called me when it got in the way of them dismantling the roof for a DIY project. They were going to spray them but couldn't get close. House-owner got stung on cheekbone when a guard bee went on a kamikaze mission when I was dismantling the shed roof to get to them. Now safely located in my back garden in a 14x12 nuc. Will leave alone for a few days, then feed.
 
Did the third vape on the hives today.
The last two have been problematic in that Stan and I have run out of daylight so I tried an experiment.
We tried vaping them without blocking the entrances.
Very little vapour escaped from the front. Apart from one colony that bearded a little, the bees went about their business flying in and out as if nothing was happening.
Two colonies of VSH bees not vaped.
Of the others the LASI bees have had the lowest drop :)
 
All in all a good season for me. I successfully overwintered a weak swarm. It came out of winter with one frame of brood. I now have 3 colonies (it swarmed twice) and 15 litres of honey. Don't let anyone tell you can't get a little honey and make increase.
 
Helen said:
The 1-week old 'swarm' that had settled into a shed roof I went to pick up today turned out to be a med-sized colony with lots of wild comb & BIAS but not much stores. Well and truly settled. Talking to the house owner - apparently they turned up in June. They only called me when it got in the way of them dismantling the roof for a DIY project. They were going to spray them but couldn't get close. House-owner got stung on cheekbone when a guard bee went on a kamikaze mission when I was dismantling the shed roof to get to them. Now safely located in my back garden in a 14x12 nuc. Will leave alone for a few days, then feed.
Click to expand...

Is there a need to wait before feeding? It's a cut out not a a swarm so they won't have gorged on honey plus presumably you have tied their comb into your frames so they aren't on a comb building mission. (Bit of securing and instilling perhaps)
 
Gilberdyke John said:
Is there a need to wait before feeding? It's a cut out not a a swarm so they won't have gorged on honey plus presumably you have tied their comb into your frames so they aren't on a comb building mission. (Bit of securing and instilling perhaps)
Click to expand...

:iagree:
 
Gilberdyke John said:
Is there a need to wait before feeding? It's a cut out not a a swarm so they won't have gorged on honey plus presumably you have tied their comb into your frames so they aren't on a comb building mission. (Bit of securing and instilling perhaps)
Click to expand...

Just wanted to let them settle a bit. Fed them this afternoon
 
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