What did you do in the Apiary today?

[madasafish]

Inspected the hive of a lady I occasionally help.. Queenless. Going to unite with a Q+ mini nuc next week - which should be fun.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Yesterday, I just spent my time moving hives around, had to move the Ty uchaf hives from the excellent site I had by the polytunnels to a new site two fields away which is absolutely superb - level well drained hard standing, can drive to within ten yards without going off the farm track, running water and loads of dry storage space for spare kit, it did mean moving all the hives away and bringing a new lot back, but well worth it.
Also moved a few more hives to the castle apiary and had to drag the carcass of a prolapsed ewe that had died further down the field, she was getting a bit ripe and bloated, she'd died up against the apiary fence so the farmer couldn't get to her as the bees kept getting a bit tetchy.
Late finish last night, closing up and loading hives for Ty Uchaf so they stayed in the truck, were moved into place this morning and opened up.

 

[enrico]

Thought about adding supers but weather turning cold next week. They can wait until after that. They have enough space for the moment.
E

Nope!!!I lied!
Couldn't stand seeing them so busy so slapped a super on top of them all. Everything in flower here!

 

[4sausagedogs]

Me too. Busy in West Sussex too

 

[deemann1]

Transferred nuclear to hive this evening they had comb and stores built into top of eke bit of a mess , gotta add supers to hives this weekend starting to fill brood boxes with stores all new brood foundation drawn out since Saturday and I'm not feeding syrup

 

[Curly green fingers]

I've moved 4 colony's to the osr as it's almost out , but forget about the osr there's that much in flower they were doing the night shift all 4 have 6/9 frames of bias in both brood/half supers added yesterday.
I've left my best 2 at home one colony is brood and two half's the other brood/half . Both as strong as the other 4 , the only difference is the hive with three boxes has now had a brood box change as it was pretty much empty .
I removed any fondant and brused some of the stores.
No syrup needed .
It looks like I've s superseded queen to mark from last year funny I thought I'd marked them all .

 

[colinc]

It looks like I've s superseded queen to mark from last year funny I thought I'd marked them all .

I had a couple I marked last year that had removed pretty much all traces of marker in a couple of weeks. What marker are you using? Mine got remarked and it was on going into winter but we shall see when they get a full inspection.


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[Poly Hive]

Absolutely nothing as was out on tour in the MH.

Not inspected yet and not going to as far too cold.

Observed OSR at 10% in Perthshire and thought that's very early for up here.

So it will be over and past before my hives are anywhere near strong enough to work it. Excellent.

PH

 

[simonforeman]

I see BS Honeybees have imported mated queens for sale. I know they are imported but still early isn't it?

 

[Fritillary]

It all depends where you are I guess. I opened a hive here yesterday to see if it would absorb the contents of a large nuc of bees. (Once I'd separated the latter from their queen. They were v aggressive in the autumn.) Well, inside it looked more like May than March! I'm now rather hoping the impending colder weather will slow them down, rather than just keeping them inside and encouraging queen cell production.

 

[Swarm]

It all depends where you are I guess. I opened a hive here yesterday to see if it would absorb the contents of a large nuc of bees. (Once I'd separated the latter from their queen. They were v aggressive in the autumn.) Well, inside it looked more like May than March! I'm now rather hoping the impending colder weather will slow them down, rather than just keeping them inside and encouraging queen cell production.

Sunny here but still a nip in the air. I have a 2018 ginger queen to crush (local beek has stirred the gene pool ) and her colony to unite with one of my dark locals. I had a quick look to see how they were doing but far too early for queen hunting. I wanted to unite these before they got too big. Never mind, her days are still numbered.

 

[Curly green fingers]

I had a couple I marked last year that had removed pretty much all traces of marker in a couple of weeks. What marker are you using? Mine got remarked and it was on going into winter but we shall see when they get a full inspection.


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A white Bosch marker pen from thornes.
Ill be remarking next inspection , it may of come of it has been 5 months since I did it , all my Queens are black and sometimes it's hard to see them .
How do you find the stability of your buckfast on the frames Colin?..

 

[Millet]

Had to take my nuc on a 1.5hr journey too Northumberland so I can keep an eye on it while I am lamming for the full month of April...the weather is glorious and the bees are flying strong piling pollen in..also the OSR 100 yards away is starting to flower..if this weather keeps up everything will be a month early compared to previous years.

 

[Curly green fingers]

Had to take my nuc on a 1.5hr journey too Northumberland so I can keep an eye on it while I am lamming for the full month of April...the weather is glorious and the bees are flying strong piling pollen in..also the OSR 100 yards away is starting to flower..if this weather keeps up everything will be a month early compared to previous years.

Happy lambing Steve , we are thinking of shearing in 6 weeks,only the Suffolk's so there ready for the shows..it's getting colder next week not good for all the blossom.

 

[Hivemaker.]

OSR 100 yards away is starting to flower..if this weather keeps up everything will be a month early compared to previous years.

Not far from the Scottish borders where my hives are the OSR is around ankle height with no intent of flowering any time soon..May at the earliest we might see a bit of yellow appearing..

Amazing what twelve days of nice weather can do, much the same here, would rather the OSR flowered later like it did last spring, much more productive when the weather is more settled.

 

[Stedic]

Came dangerously close to first inspections on my hives, but decided to hold off as weather wasn’t perfect and they are doing nothing to concern me.

Had a plan for my 3 weaker hives and got into those. The stronger of these now has a good number of bees and a lot of pollen coming in. As planned I added a national brood box to start the Bailey process. Perhaps a bit early but they needed space so thought it worth doing. Pulled a couple of brood frames, good pattern so all looks ok.

My weakest hive was still going but a look through the box showed it is queenless. I thought this may be the case. The double 14x12 nuc next door to it is doing OK, so I’ve switched them into a brood box and then united the two colonies using newspaper. With a bit of luck, next week I will find one stronger colony.

The other three ‘production colonies seem to be going great guns, with an early flow I think they could provide a good spring crop.

Sentinel bee suit and gloves worked well, no stings despite irritating a couple of hives quite a bit.

 

[Wingy]

Inspected all 3 today, strong garden hive was given another brood box 2 weeks ago with 7 frames of new foundation, it’s nearly all drawn, eggs & larvae already in central 3 frames pollen & nectar in others, original brood box full to bursting as is first super which the overwintered with, 2nd super on.
1st allotment hive doing well 1st super on and OSR writhing 100 yds
Weak hive doing better after a donated frame of brood last week

 

[masterBK]

16 C, sunny and calm so checked all 25 colonies today. All have come through winter and still have loads of stores left. 3 colonies had chalk brood and one had a drone laying queen (so thats my only real loss). Supered 4 colonies as they had lots of brood and both broodchambers were bursting with bees (I keep my bees on double broods). Lots of fresh nectar in the combs which I assume is from Blackthorn as nothing else flowering in any quantity in the area apart from a scattering of dandelions on the road verges.

 

[GuyNir]

First inspections done today. One tiny nuc is a goner as I suspected. Other than that all are doing OK and brooding is well under way. Couple of strong double brood hives were reduced to a single brood, QE and first super put on.
Noticed pollen coming in many different colours - beige/light yellow/bright yellow/orange/red.

 

[colinc]

A white Bosch marker pen from thornes.
Ill be remarking next inspection , it may of come of it has been 5 months since I did it , all my Queens are black and sometimes it's hard to see them .
How do you find the stability of your buckfast on the frames Colin?..

The bought in queens I have had are great. the Local mated daughters run a bit more but are not problematic. Haven't been swarms either.

I will DM you with a little more info.

Colin.