What did you do in the Apiary today?

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Enthusiasm is off, so willingness to apply additional effort is non existent. So then come varoosis and nosemosis ( N. Cerana), along with other beekeeper's mistakes. Nothing misterious..
Buying and selling... Have no desire or will to explain much, no use, the system is dead. Not much more optimistic for EU either..

Saddens me to hear your position, Goran. :(
 
I found my first case of CBPV for three years on Tuesday, massive colony, majority of bees hanging on the outside of box with lots crawling away from the hive on the ground, lots of shiny hairless.bees too.
 
This was on the 4th of April 8inches of snow at my home apiary now I've supers on and a steady flow .
The weather has not been warmer than 12c since, and yesterday it was 10c and both hives in the garden were busy , even osr coming in from 2 miles away my amms are hardy little gems of black and as every season goes by I love them more and more.
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Made the most of the cold temperatures and lack of flying bees to strim the apiary and start setting up platforms for my mating nucs.



Haha. I thought the same and started on the job of digging the rockery over that lies right in the flight line and is full of weeds.


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Haha. I thought the same and started on the job of digging the rockery over that lies right in the flight line and is full of weeds.


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Mine are flying this afternoon , no activity this morning but there foraging now dandelion pollen , gorse and white/cream pollen which I think is thorn or fruit trees .

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I found my first case of CBPV for three years on Tuesday, massive colony, majority of bees hanging on the outside of box with lots crawling away from the hive on the ground, lots of shiny hairless.bees too.

I have been told this helps I'm no expert just going off others advice to deal with cbpv

Cage the queen, bring the hive 50 m away from original location,dump all bees out of hive any healthy bees that can fly will return to original location with new brood box comb and foundation
 
I have been told this helps I'm no expert just going off others advice to deal with cbpv

Cage the queen, bring the hive 50 m away from original location,dump all bees out of hive any healthy bees that can fly will return to original location with new brood box comb and foundation

Not dumped on the ground, but tossed into the air. Those that can fly do, those to sick dont, you shake them upwards so as not to get a cluster of sick and healthy bees infecting each other on the floor.
Top tip. Dont put the caged queen in your pocket whilst shaking the bees unless you always wanted a bee beard.
 
Not dumped on the ground, but tossed into the air. Those that can fly do, those to sick dont, you shake them upwards so as not to get a cluster of sick and healthy bees infecting each other on the floor.
Top tip. Dont put the caged queen in your pocket whilst shaking the bees unless you always wanted a bee beard.

I tried that on a couple of colonies with CBPV, those two were the only two that died out of the 65+ that had it.
 
I tried that on a couple of colonies with CBPV, those two were the only two that died out of the 65+ that had it.

Very pleased to read your comment, as I have one colony that has been very busy stopping CBPV infected bees from re-entering the hive for a couple weeks, but all seems normal at the alighting board now. It was not a very heavy infection judging by the amount of bees on the ground. Time will tell.
 
Yes indeed, I hope things pick up for you.

Good things with the bees is that I am never in minus nor I have some debt to pay. So if I have to pay for fondants or patties more or same as I will receive for the honey, no way.. Easily I returned them their honey ( Spring honey 2018.).
Rain stopped, we now await for black ash. Wild cherries were cut by the snow and rain, some apples will last some, dead nettle is in bloom .. Aronia almost opened.. True service tree will follow. And when someone tell me such honey is junk honey..
Bad thing that I will have to extract it to have clean frames for pure black locust honey which somehow mostly find buyers for decent price, even after looong time..
 

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Inspected all mine today ready for the nice weather. Of the 9 I have 7 are going great guns with between 8 to 14 frames of BIAS of the other 2,one has a poor queen and isn't building up so will requeen when I have one spare.The other one was OK on last inspection with 4 frames of brood and a new queen from last autumn which I clipped and marked but today had disappeared and a new virgin was seen so I will leave these to it.

Lots of pollen and nectar coming in especially in the apiary near some OSR where there's a really strong flow on. Lots of play cups around and one hive had eggs in them. Varroa at lowish levels in most hives but too high in a couple so will be doing a round of vaping.
 
All is happening really fast, true service trees and aronia opened, bees are back in business.. Our true service tree near beehives is humming, can feel excitement of bees..
 
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Went through three hives today in this glorious weather..
First one is doing well with plenty of brood so queen excluder and super went on..

Second one on brood plus half was jam packed with bees and brood with several charged Queen cells but the Queen could not be found..I will try again tomorrow..

Third one was my suspected Queenless colony..and my suspicions where correct..no Queen and no brood just angry bees that had moved in from my angry colony(someone said this can not happen) it did to this hive...they all got shook out in the middle of four hives..
Hives surrounded by OSR and we have a flow on..
 

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