What did you do in the Apiary today?

[B+.]

Availability of these bees to normal/amateur beekeeper?
(I know ....usual question)
Still relevant me thinks.

I've actually been producing open mated daughters from them all year as a back-up. Some of these were sold and went all over the country. I kept some back for myself though. These will be drone mothers for next year along with other promising material.
Nothing more will happen until the breeding values are published in mid-February. Then, I make a decision on how best to use them. Obviously, the breeding network may be interested but, either way, I would like to use them (and their progeny) to establish a breeding line for the future. I've already had requests for micro-pipettes of drone sperm for next year.
I just want to see what breeding values they get before I do anything.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Saw my first European hornet of the year today on my grape vine. Last year they were everywhere and the year before I would watch them trying to catch the odd bee by my hives.
Is this general for this year?

 

[Millet]

Took the honey..vaped the colonies and got full of ale..nearly set myself on fire .. but that's a different story..

 

[colinc]

Vaped.

Watched drones being evicted / murdered -thought my bees were gentle!!

Painted varroa boards white again.

Was that to hide the blood stains?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[B+.]

I collected a frame of sealed brood from each of the 2 highest scoring hygienic colonies [NL-55-35-18-2018 scored 96% and NL-55-35-16-2018 scored 100% - both are full-sibs).
I'm also seeing good results in the VSH test with lots of non-reproducing varroa or even dead foundress mites in the cell. The varroa seem to be having a hard time of it. No Chemicals. No treatments of any sort!
That is why we use high hygiene as a pre-selector for colonies that will be tested for VSH! The results are much more likely to be favourable!

The first colony (NL-55-35-16-2018) tested as 100% VSH. I'll do the sister colony today.
Interestingly, there are still varroa present but I counted no deutonymphs at all in the 212 cells I examined. This suggests that the bees are uncapping, and removing, the contents of cells which contain protonymphs before they mature. You can certainly see evidence of this in the scattered uncapped cells on the face of the comb.
I sent a photo and a description to my local beekeeping association to put on their website and they sent it back annotated with rings around the cells asking me to explain what it was. I did and they refused to put it on the website as they thought the average beekeeper wouldn't understand what they were seeing. Go figure!
I sent the annotated photo to my local seasonal bee inspector (SBI) to see what he made of it. He incorrectly identified it as bald brood due to varroa. I suppose Beds BKA are right in thinking that the average beekeeper won't be able to identify hygiene/VSH if the SBI can't either.
I do feel a certain amount of satisfaction at proving the BBKA wrong. They wouldn't award me the Bee Breeders Certificate in 2017 because I bred the wrong sort of bee (carnica). It shows they haven't a clue what real bee breeding is about!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Coukd you post it for us please, Paul?

 

[B+.]

Coukd you post it for us please, Paul?

The website wont let me post the photo (filesize is too big) but I have attached the result sheet. I did post a cut-down photo a couple of weeks ago.
This is still "unofficial" until my results are checked by another (Arista Bee Research, AGT & BeeBreed-NL) breeder.

ADDED: You may wonder why some cells are counted as "non reproductive" when the foundress has a male and protonymph female varroa. We consider them as non-reproductive because immature mites can't survive outside of the cell and the age of the worker cell examined (purple-eyed pupa) means the worker would mature and leave the cell before the varroa mite was fully mature. This limits the reproductive capability of the varroa mite and allows the colony to function normally without treatment.

 

[B+.]

The first colony (NL-55-35-16-2018) tested as 100% VSH. I'll do the sister colony today.

I'm not happy with the sister colony (NL-55-35-18-2018). It scored well in the general hygiene test (96%) but was absolutely rubbish at VSH! I inspected about a dozen cells and there was nothing special about it at all - the usual mite family situation in sealed brood cells. This one won't feature in my breeding next year.
The point of the story: you don't know unless you test!

 

[betterbee]

credit for your dedication to your craft,continued success

 

[B+.]

credit for your dedication to your craft,continued success

Thank you.
It's never one breeders success though. It's always the product of all the work breeders have done over many years.

 

[XYZ]

Queen arrived today by post. Wife looking after her until I get back around 4:30pm to introduce her to the queenless nuc I made up on Sunday.

Let's hope I do this right

 

[masterBK]

Gave most of my colonies a feed today as part of winter preps. Then went to Farmfoods to restock up on sugar and found they had put the price up from 2 kg for £1.10 (last weeks price) to £1.20. Bought 90 Kg and used one of their vouchers to get £5 off £50. Popped in to B&M on way home where sugar still 50 per Kg so bought another 30kg. Wife now giving me grief about how much space this sugar is taking up in the kiitchen

 

[Popparand]

Gave most of my colonies a feed today as part of winter preps. Then went to Farmfoods to restock up on sugar and found they had put the price up from 2 kg for £1.10 (last weeks price) to £1.20. Bought 90 Kg and used one of their vouchers to get £5 off £50. Popped in to B&M on way home where sugar still 50 per Kg so bought another 30kg. Wife now giving me grief about how much space this sugar is taking up in the kiitchen

B & M? Hacked off with Farmfoods. How can they justify a 10% price increase?

 

[pargyle]

B & M? Hacked off with Farmfoods. How can they justify a 10% price increase?

Still cheaper than most of the major supermarkets .. Asda between 63p & 65p a kilo depending on the size of bag ,, 1Kg to 5 Kg.

 

[Newbeeneil]

B & M? Hacked off with Farmfoods. How can they justify a 10% price increase?

Why do they need to justify it? In a similar way you sell your honey for as much as you can..... it's a market economy.

My next mission is to go to my local Booker to buy sugar for me and the teaching apiary ....... hope the van can cope with 1/2 tonne!
Booker offer of 2 x 25kg for £22 (44p/kg) ends on 3rd Sept.

 

[Podilia]

Interesting information. Does Britain produse sugar or import it? My country grows sugar beet and pruduses sugar. Sure this is not the volume of the past but it is still enough. Most of the factories were destroyed by mafia. They sold the equipment abroad as a metal scrap. Today sugar costs in your currency near 0.4 GBP per kg. Honey has been falling - it is 1 GBP/kg now in wholesale. In the local market honey costs 3-3.3 GBP/litre (1.3 kg) but not many people buy it.

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

Inspected colonies for "queen rightness" and checking brood amounts. One colony had loads of food but little brood - but some bias. A little worried the queen might be failing, but she might be just taking a break.

Put clearer under my final super to harvest
Vaped all colonies and put inspection boards in place.

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

Removed final super for this year and extracted straight from the hive.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Used my keys on the association apiary gate one last time, went home and emailed my goodbyes

 

[nantmoel]

Used my keys on the association apiary gate one last time, went home and emailed my goodbyes

Had enough or moving to pastures greener?