What did you do in the Apiary today?

[B+.]

Wish we had kites.... still waiting for the Swifts to arrive ... verry late this year!

We've got loads of Red Kites here. You could take some of ours!
The garden is full of fledglings (robins & thrushes) at the moment. It seems the secret to having lots of birds in the garden is to keep hens that are messy eaters!

 

[Erichalfbee]

We have quite a few nests dotted about the garden with three on camera; Blue Tit, Great Tit and Nuthatch. Every morning a woodpecker uses the poor nuthatch box to drum on!
We had a Robin nesting in the potting shed withfour little fluffy chicks but we found the nest disturbed one morning. Stan put his hand in and a rat scurried out of it. I thought she’d be safe inside. So upset! Poison put daily in the nest has disappeared. Bloody things!

 

[maddydog]

Inspected all colonies today, supers filling nicely in the good weather.

One big colony had QCs with eggs in so that became the cell starter for today's grafts (once I'd removed the queen and QCs)

 

[Beefriendly]

Need to harvest next week as they are running out of room to store nectar. Pleasant surprise...a previous rather feisty F2 colony were like lambs today and the rape is out!

 

[Millet]

Need to harvest next week as they are running out of room to store nectar. Pleasant surprise...a previous rather feisty F2 colony were like lambs today and the rape is out!

I have the same F2 are like lambs also as is the Romanian but the F1 Danish is a bit touchy at the moment.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Need to harvest next week as they are running out of room to store nectar. Pleasant surprise...a previous rather feisty F2 colony were like lambs today and the rape is out!

I have the same F2 are like lambs also as is the Romanian but the F1 Danish is a bit touchy at the moment.

Are you two in some sort of secret club?

 

[Beefriendly]

Are you two in some sort of secret club?

Only one with funny hand shakes....
I gave Steve a nuc with an F2 queen, same mother as the one that was playing up for me.....

 

[JWF]

Need to harvest next week as they are running out of room to store nectar. Pleasant surprise...a previous rather feisty F2 colony were like lambs today and the rape is out!

Checked out my feisty colony and they're still very feisty.

They'll be getting requeened at the earliest opportunity!

 

[Millet]

Only one with funny hand shakes....
I gave Steve a nuc with an F2 queen, same mother as the one that was playing up for me.....

Funny hand shakes.. ? .. i do not really want to go there, i shake my own thank's ... anyway don't forget the frame of brood from the Hell Ye Queen that give me my first ever mated queen, F1.5 i think..

 

[Etton]

Inspected all colonies today, supers filling nicely in the good weather.

One big colony had QCs with eggs in so that became the cell starter for today's grafts (once I'd removed the queen and QCs)

Maddy dog- dont quite get why your grafting from a QC hive when you have the QC's you could use?
What am I missing?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Maddy dog- dont quite get why your grafting from a QC hive when you have the QC's you could use?
What am I missing?

possibly he doesn't want to raise queens from that bloodline?

 

[Etton]

possibly he doesn't want to raise queens from that bloodline?

Still dont get it, sorry to be so thick. Maddydog said he has QC's in hive, so intends to destroy them and move Q out and then graft from the eggs, but surely the QC's and grafted eggs all come from the existing Q, so no new blood line there!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Still dont get it, sorry to be so thick. Maddydog said he has QC's in hive, so intends to destroy them and move Q out and then graft from the eggs, but surely the QC's and grafted eggs all come from the existing Q, so no new blood line there!

Nowhere does he mention grafting eggs from the colony with QC's just that he is going to use that colony to start QC's for his grafts once he removes existing QC's - totally different matter.

 

[Etton]

Nowhere does he mention grafting eggs from the colony with QC's just that he is going to use that colony to start QC's for his grafts once he removes existing QC's - totally different matter.

Oh, I get it now, I think, thanks. Sorry to be slow, so he finds a strong hive with Queen cells then moves the Q out destroys the Q cells and then uses the hive to graft eggs from a different favoured Q.

 

[maddydog]

Oh, I get it now, I think, thanks. Sorry to be slow, so he finds a strong hive with Queen cells then moves the Q out destroys the Q cells and then uses the hive to graft eggs from a different favoured Q.

Bingo!

Big strong colony with the swarming urge to (hopefully) raise some nice QCs. I'd have had to find the queen and QCs in it to perform an AS anyway so kills two birds with one stone.

 

[birdsandbees]

Collected my first Swarm of the year!

nice easy one at the base of a Victorian lamppost, the guy had cordoned off the area with cones and hazard tape, the Boss let me leave early to go and get them but it was still three hours since they had arrived by the time I got to site, I was expecting the call to say that they had taken to the air again before I arrived but fortunately not.
now at my quarantine site and I'll check on them at the weekend and open the disc to fully open.

I never get bored with collecting Swarms and talking to the public while there

 

[Newbeeneil]

Spent half an hour this morning strimming in one of my out apiaries.
6 hives and not a peep out of them. Maybe they were just more interested in the OSR the other side of the hedge!

 

[carlg]

Collected first swarm of the year, unfortunately it was from one of my hives. Two supers added six days ago, all undrawn frames. They'd drawn them all and filled them in six days, so they were off. Collected them from 40 foot up a lime tree. I'm going to need to get a bigger ladder...

 

[Beagle23]

My girls swarmed today, leaving the hive surprisingly full of stores and bees and a queen that emerged the same afternoon. Managed to catch the swarm and donate to a fellow beekeeper.

I set out on this hobby to try and help bees and now in my 4th year I've had three successful over-winters, caught 4 swarms (3 primary and a caste) which have gone to other beekeepers.
It's no biggie but I feel, despite my occasional mistakes, that I'm doing alright.

I expect my next post to be about my hive full of dying bees.

 

[Eyeman]

My girls swarmed today, leaving the hive surprisingly full of stores and bees and a queen that emerged the same afternoon. Managed to catch the swarm and donate to a fellow beekeeper.

I set out on this hobby to try and help bees and now in my 4th year I've had three successful over-winters, caught 4 swarms (3 primary and a caste) which have gone to other beekeepers.
It's no biggie but I feel, despite my occasional mistakes, that I'm doing alright.

I expect my next post to be about my hive full of dying bees.

Queens emerging from cells the same day a swarm flies off reminds me of something I see in my hives with the queen clipped. Old queen may still be at home whilst first virgin flies off with swarm.
I used to collect a swarm or two each year from a beek like yourself who didn't want to increase and was happy to supply bees to others.
As your bees have survived 3 successive winters I would say you are a highly successful beekeeper- well done and put out of your mind any thought of bees dying.