What did you do in the Apiary today?

[birdsandbees]

checked on hives, capping off nicely now and added a few clearer boards so I can start taking off tonight.

checked on my grafts, nine decent looking cells from 20 grafts, a couple in the incy, the rest in Mating Nucs and standard Nucs.

made up four splits into six frame Nucs with mated queens.

checked on the Q- swarm that I gave one of my queens last weekend, I put her on the top of the frames and after it being obvious that they liked her I released her straight in, lots of brood and eggs now, good news.

hoping to break down a couple of strong colonies once the Honey is off and the queens are mated to make some Overwintering Nuc colonies, I don't like having ten empty Nucs in the bee shed, I'd rather they had something in most of them, besides, I'll need the space for all the extra Supers that I have had to make up this year!

seven hot sweaty hours today! - its supposed to be a relaxing Hobby!

 

[Zante]

Checked if hive 1 needed another super, but they seem to be doing fine with what they have for now, so the super I prepared has been stored in the barn.

Checked hive A to see if the new queen has started laying. It's a bit early but I was curious. Also wanted to check how they were doing for stores. No eggs, but as I said it's still early, and they have enough stores. Decided to feed them anyway, as they have plenty of wax to draw, and there is no risk of polluting the crop with sugar, as I won't be collecting anything from this colony this year anyway. I want it nice and strong for winter, and Hive 1 will give me plenty for my own use.

I will have to do some sorting with hive 1's super frames though. I did a bit of a mess when I added the last (third) super. Nothing major, but I want to check each frame and gather the capped ones in the top super and redistribute them a bit, as the last super I added has some damaged comb and will need some work.
Basically some tidying up for my own convenience, nothing else.
Strangely enough they seem much calmer now that I removed the queen excluder. I wonder why...

 

[Beefriendly]

Went and set hive stands up in one my heather sites then went and readied a couple of hives to take to there tomorrow. The bell is looking pristine and the first bits of ling are showing pink tips....about 2 weeks off.
Hoping to get a super or three of bell before the ling blooms. Big colonies so good workforce...Kaptar hive lifter definitely required.
Put now emptied supers and clearer boards on all colonies that need them. All seem to be still piling it in.
Removed another 20 clogged brood frames and extracted them PM. Beginning to get the impression they are slowly starting to clear these clogged brood frames in some colonies.

Oh and we got a shower of rain ...it lasted all off 20 minutes. I gather further north and west had a good soaking.

 

[Millet]

Went and set hive stands up in one my heather sites then went and readied a couple of hives to take to there tomorrow. The bell is looking pristine and the first bits of ling are showing pink tips....about 2 weeks off.
Hoping to get a super or three of bell before the ling blooms. Big colonies so good workforce...Kaptar hive lifter definitely required.
Put now emptied supers and clearer boards on all colonies that need them. All seem to be still piling it in.
Removed another 20 clogged brood frames and extracted them PM. Beginning to get the impression they are slowly starting to clear these clogged brood frames in some colonies.

Oh and we got a shower of rain ...it lasted all off 20 minutes. I gather further north and west had a good soaking.

No just the same as you and now the ground is bone dry again..

 

[Angry_Mob]

Rained here all day yesterday and its started again this evening.

 

[Beefriendly]

No just the same as you and now the ground is bone dry again..

Oh wow.... just had an enormous thunder storm. More rain forecast for later tonight...felt like dancing naked on the lawn....but the neighbors

 

[simonforeman]

No rain here in South East Lincolnshire and none forecast for next 2 weeks...... it must be nearly 8 weeks since any fell.... everything is brown... At least I'm not on a water meter so flower boarders are getting the sprinkler treatment....

Also managed to take the last swarm I caught down to a field if thistles in full bloom 3 miles away.... they will be newspaper united with the nuc that has just gone into a full size brood box when they come back.

 

[Millet]

Oh wow.... just had an enormous thunder storm. More rain forecast for later tonight...felt like dancing naked on the lawn....but the neighbors

.. it is lashing down now thank the lord..

 

[Beecat]

Oh wow.... just had an enormous thunder storm. More rain forecast for later tonight...felt like dancing naked on the lawn....but the neighbors

Go ahead, if there's any trouble just tell em that you're a Celt and it's part of your religion.

 

[Popparand]

No rain our way for nearly two months now. Crops starting to die in the fields. On the plus side grass is totally browned off so no more mowing.

The girls are still packing it in so added a 5th super this morning. HB and knap weed starting to come into flower. Waiting for extractor to be delivered this weekend.

I thought beeking was supposed to slow down in July?

 

[Goran]

Finally these days will bees have the most of my attention..
OA/gly antivarroa, qe out, reshuffling, some queen management, prevention against nosema ( nozevit).. One thing is planning and other thing is realization.. Will see..

 

[manek]

Put a wet super above the cover board, left two honey-soaked cover boards by the hive entrance...

 

[Ian123]

" left two honey-soaked cover boards by the hive entrance..."
Dont leave anything covered in honey outside the hive it will just start them off robbing....even if you only have 1 hive it will just encourage wasps and any other hives in the area to have a go at yours and theres always the off chance of disease its just not good practice

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Put a wet super above the cover board, left two honey-soaked cover boards by the hive entrance...

Why?! - to both.

 

[manek]

You're right, I should retrieve the cover boards. As for the wet super:it's been extracted so I'm leaving it for the bees to clean up.

 

[citrus]

regards to leaving supers outside the hive for cleaning .....

I have some super frames that were treated early in the year that cant be extracted but i am using them as feed however some were nibbled by wax moth ... so have a couple of them exposed about 60m from the hives ... providing feed for the bees (and a few wasps) ... is that ok ?

(i have already put a few of them in the hives .. but the dodgy ones have been left outside)

 

[B+.]

Received queens from The Netherlands (https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/album.php?albumid=751&pictureid=3934).

It's just as well that I'd paid extra for overnight delivery because UPS put them in a plastic bag. Can you imagine what sort of an idiot would do that to living creatures?

 

[birdsandbees]

Received queens from The Netherlands (https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/album.php?albumid=751&pictureid=3934).

It's just as well that I'd paid extra for overnight delivery because UPS put them in a plastic bag. Can you imagine what sort of an idiot would do that to living creatures?

what the....

 

[Julie in Ash]

Today in the association Apiary we carried out a Varroa load diagnostic test. 300 nurse Bees put in a pot of powdered sugar and tossed around a lot etc. We needed to test this hive as it had displayed brood problems similar to Baldbrood last week but we could not see any sign of Waxmoth so wondered what the cause was. The test showed a Varroa load of 1.3% and the Mentor said no further action for Varroa at this time... as soon as we returned the Bees back to the hive, all looking like little Bee ghosts and with their heads spinning, we spotted a Waxmoth!

I asked where this colony had come from as they'd been described as a spring swarm. Turns out one evening when people turned up at the Apiary for the weekly inspections, this swarm had set up camp in a empty box beside the hut. It didn't come from the Apiary, they knew that much, no idea where it came from! I found it amusing.... it was like they were hanging around waiting for the guys to turn up and give them a nice new billet.

 

[masterBK]

Requeened 5 colonies by uniting. Chose to requeen those which underperformed and those that were runny, stroppy or followed or had chalk brood. Since not a single colony swarmed this year I will probably be overwintering more than usual without requeening them even though I have enough queens to replace them. Gives me the chance to be very selective.