What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Eyeman]

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...

40 foot up a tree!!!
I wont go higher than the step ladders I take with me in the car.

 

[colinc]

Our syrup swimmer is no more

Queen who took a swim a few weeks back is no more. No eggs or young larvae and in the past week the bees have filled the emerging brood area with nectar. They have however raised 3 big fat healthy QC's across 2 frames. So moved one frame with 2 QC's with some donated emerging brood and young workers from the big hive to create a new colony, then left one big fat QC with the parent colony and should be good for some expansion. Will look to request both of these when Queens available as they are 2nd generation mongrel so expect them to be a touch warm.

The joy of garden bees.

 

[beeno]

Queen who took a swim a few weeks back is no more. No eggs or young larvae and in the past week the bees have filled the emerging brood area with nectar. They have however raised 3 big fat healthy QC's across 2 frames. So moved one frame with 2 QC's with some donated emerging brood and young workers from the big hive to create a new colony, then left one big fat QC with the parent colony and should be good for some expansion. Will look to request both of these when Queens available as they are 2nd generation mongrel so expect them to be a touch warm.

The joy of garden bees.

In my experience big fat QC may be dud.

 

[madasafish]

Yesterday added 10 x Nicot larvae plus 10 x cell punched larvae to QR frame and installed in upper 5 frame nuc - with Cloake Board underneath top one. Closed CB..and fed pollen sub and sugar solution.
Checked today - approx 10 taken - which is fine as I don't really have spare bees to stock 20 mini mating nucs. Checked for rogue QCs in upper box - none (Only capped brood but always best to check just in case - caught out last year and when one rogue Q emerged it slaughtered all my queens.)

Lovely weather 21C, little wind, sun, and some light cloud: bees bringing in loads of pollen and nectar - one hive on 4 supers - unheard of this time of year. Another on three supers and the rest (6) definitely mediocre and struggling with one super .

Washed bee jacket as filthy after two weeks usage..

Five Frame mini mating nuc (BE's double mating nuc frames) self made from Celotex absolutely stuffed with two capped frames honey so removed and gave them frames to draw. (Queen is a mongrel - just using her to populate a couple of mini mating nucs with bees and drawn foundation.... Destroy any Drone brood as bees runny but not aggressive.)

T shirt and veil time...except for the naughty hive (four super one) which attacked me on Thursday when opening up - Marigold job after multiple stings to hands. I now will smoke before opening up - never use a smoker on other hives.

This is the life...

 

[colinc]

In my experience big fat QC may be dud.

Being open to interpretation, please describe “fat”.

I was using it to say they are big healthy and not stunted short emergency cells I have seen previously.


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[Bunn]

Added a third super to the QR colony I performed my first ever AS on Monday. Had checked BB yesterday and squashed one queen cell. Pollen and nectar still coming in fast with only a few frames left in the first two supers to fill and honey starting to be capped. Not making the mistake of being too cautious adding a super again. It’s a fantastic feeling seeing frames and frames of golden nectar being capped this early in our first full season!

Left the colony with QC alone to do its thing. I do have a question regarding space in this hive. Given that that are a few frames of foundation and still some brood to emerge before the queen hatches, what are the chances of them filling the drawn foundation with pollen and nectar before queen gets a chance to lay? I had contemplated just adding a super so that they drawer and store and leave plenty of space for queen to lay when she eventually is ready to do so but didn’t want to get too far ahead of myself. I use 14x12 poly if it helps, so lots of space.

 

[beeno]

Being open to interpretation, please describe “fat”.

I was using it to say they are big healthy and not stunted short emergency cells I have seen previously.


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Age of larvae that the queen cell is constructed around.

 

[Beagle23]

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.

Thank you. It's nice when things go right isn't it

 

[Beagle23]

Added a third super to the QR colony I performed my first ever AS on Monday. Had checked BB yesterday and squashed one queen cell. Pollen and nectar still coming in fast with only a few frames left in the first two supers to fill and honey starting to be capped. Not making the mistake of being too cautious adding a super again. It’s a fantastic feeling seeing frames and frames of golden nectar being capped this early in our first full season!

Left the colony with QC alone to do its thing. I do have a question regarding space in this hive. Given that that are a few frames of foundation and still some brood to emerge before the queen hatches, what are the chances of them filling the drawn foundation with pollen and nectar before queen gets a chance to lay? I had contemplated just adding a super so that they drawer and store and leave plenty of space for queen to lay when she eventually is ready to do so but didn’t want to get too far ahead of myself. I use 14x12 poly if it helps, so lots of space.

I'd be surprised if they start filling the new comb with stores before your new queen starts laying, even if they do it will be offset by brood emerging from the existing comb, which will create more space.

 

[Brigsy]

Selected one queen cell. Put a spare in an Apidea. Extracted 45 pounds. Busy day.

 

[Bunn]

I'd be surprised if they start filling the new comb with stores before your new queen starts laying, even if they do it will be offset by brood emerging from the existing comb, which will create more space.

Good stuff! That’s what I wanted to hear. Thanks.

 

[colinc]

Age of larvae that the queen cell is constructed around.

That doesn’t clarify anything.......

It is something that you can’t possibly know. Thanks for criticising my comment.


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[jenkinsbrynmair]

That doesn’t clarify anything.......

It is something that you can’t possibly know. Thanks for criticising my comment.


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You'll get used to it - usual space cadet comment trying to justify a daft answer from that corner

 

[Beagle23]

Yesterday added 10 x Nicot larvae plus 10 x cell punched larvae to QR frame and installed in upper 5 frame nuc - with Cloake Board underneath top one. Closed CB..and fed pollen sub and sugar solution.
Checked today - approx 10 taken - which is fine as I don't really have spare bees to stock 20 mini mating nucs. Checked for rogue QCs in upper box - none (Only capped brood but always best to check just in case - caught out last year and when one rogue Q emerged it slaughtered all my queens.)

Lovely weather 21C, little wind, sun, and some light cloud: bees bringing in loads of pollen and nectar - one hive on 4 supers - unheard of this time of year. Another on three supers and the rest (6) definitely mediocre and struggling with one super .

Washed bee jacket as filthy after two weeks usage..

Five Frame mini mating nuc (BE's double mating nuc frames) self made from Celotex absolutely stuffed with two capped frames honey so removed and gave them frames to draw. (Queen is a mongrel - just using her to populate a couple of mini mating nucs with bees and drawn foundation.... Destroy any Drone brood as bees runny but not aggressive.)

T shirt and veil time...except for the naughty hive (four super one) which attacked me on Thursday when opening up - Marigold job after multiple stings to hands. I now will smoke before opening up - never use a smoker on other hives.

This is the life...

Heh, there can't be many hobbies in the world where extra safety precautions call for the donning of Marigolds

 

[beeno]

That doesn’t clarify anything.......

It is something that you can’t possibly know. Thanks for criticising my comment.


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The Queen is dead. NBU "Longer cells often contain dead, damaged or diseased larvae or pupae". All I am saying is that you are not out of the woods yet, but you only have 7 days to wait to find out i.e. check that they have emerged rather than close up for three weeks.
Neither of us know the quality of your QCs, but it is worth considering that they may not be first class in the circumstances IMHO.
If you are on this forum you have to learn not to take things personally. Good luck.

 

[Goran]

Tired.. Too stretched, cannot keep on all sides, have to clone myself, not selling the colonies this spring gave me extra work and already exhausted me.. Seems will merge this summer at large, since no one wants to buy any colonies - people are abandoning the beekeeping at large, soon will be boxes in ditches around..

 

[Anduril]

In my experience big fat QC may be dud.

A bit premature, how about some encouragement?
I opened up a small queen cell at the weekend and found one dead queen and one big fat queen cell that had emerged.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Opened the top door of a Snelgrove board following a vertical A/S performed 7 days earlier and closed the bottom door. Aaaaahem. I was amazed and relieved by a flood of bees. So undeservedly lucky. A shaded position and max highs around 23 helped. So completely unintentionally a fourth "door": shut tight. Did the A/S half no harm. Had all but drawn and laid the whole box. A keeper of a Q, even if apparently a bit swarmy.

 

[Noddy]

Inspected the hives at two apiaries, and made two 'walk away' splits.

I found one queen in the super, and she had laid up a storm in there. Caged her, stuck her in my pocket, thoroughly checked to see if the was another queen/princess in the hive, none found, no QC's either, so put her back in the brood box. Maybe she slipped through the excluder, she does look a bit thin - she is three years old, so I may replace her and put her in a nuc to use as a brood factory.

 

[drex]

Extracted my OSR crop, as most of the fields have gone over. It was a very poor crop, less than half the usual, but then circumstances only allowed them to work it for a week or two. Pleased that I timed it just right. A few cells in the corners of a few frames were starting to crystallise.
The shake test at the apiary showed plenty of nectar ? Hawthorn. A few of them that did shake out I took home anyway, and some were reading 19.5 on the refractometer!, but I still was not happy to extract from them.