What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Swarm]

Life got in the way so not been able to remove the last feeder I had on a colony that was toppled over by sheep a couple of weeks ago. It was nice at the apiary this morning, crisp air and sunshine, with the bees happily bringing in pollen.
The toppled colony are settled and happy and feeling nicely heavy. The inspection board was still there so that came off as well. Still a lot of brood by the look of the board.

 

[oGri]

First bad frost this morning, so I've been and fitted woodpecker guards.
Hefted all and all feel solid.

 

[bjosephd]

Healthy couple of drones happily coming and going from the hive by the house!

 

[BrianO]

Looking at the weather mild temps about to come to a crashing end, for the moment, to be below normal temperatures for next few days as a polar air mass follows ( here ) yesterdays flooding !

Time to get to that last out apiary to put the remaining Mouse Guards on !

 

[Brian Bush]

My Landlord called yesterday afternoon to say a hive had been toppled over.It was a large hive all strapped together and we could not understand why. It was upright on Thursday and we have had no wind since. I stood it upright, the bees had been flying in the sunshine and were in a large cluster. Puzzling over what had happened we found deer hoof prints near the hive. We think it must have been a deer leaping the sheep fence that collided with and toppled the hive. I have had muntjacs scratch against hives in the past but this is a new one.

 

[Blunt Spike]

I hear venison is very tasty - 2 birds 1 stone Lol.

 

[madasafish]

Fed mini nucs with fondant yesterday. Light snow overnight.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Took a picture

 

[Blunt Spike]

Today I have put polystyrene insulation boards on each side of my hive in addition to some I put under the roof several weeks ago in a bid to give them better insulation.

 

[Millet]

Took a picture

I think i can see the Queen.. , nice image by the way you can even see the old expired bees on the mesh.

 

[Insy]

Just up the apiary checking everything is still upright, all is well by the looks of things etc 1 Nuc had a rather large pile of bees ouseide the front which I’m being optimistic and sayings it’s die off from old

 

[Millet]

Just up the apiary checking everything is still upright, all is well by the looks of things etc 1 Nuc had a rather large pile of bees ouseide the front which I’m being optimistic and sayings it’s die off from old

Have you pushed a bit of kindling in the entrance ready to burn incase of American Foul Brood..

 

[Insy]

Lol well this is what you call bodge job entrance block .

I went up one evening couple months ago when I started feeding and every hive/nuc was getting hit hard by wasps, 1 hive had 15+ wasps running around the side of hive.

Wasp bane killed tons but just wasn't enough so I just shoved broken dried bramble sticks in every entrance to reduce the entrance size to like 1-2 cm and the bees seemed to defend sooooo much better.

Its only the poly nucs that still have them I removed them from the full hives

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Popped down to the association apiary (Penllergaer near Swansea) just remembered some still had feeders on!!
No need for beesuit, bees well hunkered down (could see them in a tight cluster as I covered the feed holes) and no evidence of any brooding under the hives. Looks like the scheduled OA demonstration scheduled in a fortnight is spot on!
Amazing the difference keeping bees suited to the local environment does.

 

[For want of a better word]

Popped down to the association apiary (Penllergaer near Swansea) just remembered some still had feeders on!!
No need for beesuit, bees well hunkered down (could see them in a tight cluster as I covered the feed holes) and no evidence of any brooding under the hives. Looks like the scheduled OA demonstration scheduled in a fortnight is spot on!
Amazing the difference keeping bees suited to the local environment does.

Especially when reading on another thread that the bees were out of stores already!

Yeghes da

 

[Hivemaker.]

Especially when reading on another thread that the bees were out of stores already!

Bit odd that, winter feeding only finished a little over three weeks ago, so odd that they have used all their winter stores in just over three weeks.

 

[Beefriendly]

Especially when reading on another thread that the bees were out of stores already!

I just happen to know the OP of that thread keeps local "well adapted" mongrels....
My imported, not adapted, exotic and alien Buckfast bees are showing no signs of needing fondant.

Just goes to show you should be careful when making assumptions.

 

[Beefriendly]

Amazing the difference keeping bees suited to the local environment does.

I'm presuming you also have bees in your apiary that are "not suited" to the local environment to compare them with? Perhaps you could enlighten us as to what your aliens are doing that is different to your locals?
Currently both my Amm's and Buckfast are all tightly clustered....well as tight as they get in those thermal hives.

 

[Goran]

Especially when reading on another thread that the bees were out of stores already!

Yeghes da

That sounds more like: Just when I learned them not to eat.. they die..

Our carnies in this period spend about 1kg per month of stores ( slight increase start from January, from February serious " work on stores"). Just ordinary wooden hives 2 cm thick walls.

 

[For want of a better word]

I'm presuming you also have bees in your apiary that are "not suited" to the local environment to compare them with? Perhaps you could enlighten us as to what your aliens are doing that is different to your locals?
Currently both my Amm's and Buckfast are all tightly clustered....well as tight as they get in those thermal hives.

I expect that jenkinsbrynmair has a lot more experience of local bees than most!

Ignore button seems to not beefreindly working ... shame!

Nos da