What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Angry_Mob]

Went back to the orchard to check on yesterdays swarm, still in the nuc so give them so feed.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Sounds rammed, Mark; perhaps they shifted drone eggs upstairs. I'd split the brood vertically (sealed in the bottom box) give another BB and another super, and watch the drone brood appear in the usual places.

Thanks for that, I did a vertical split, but the split has gone in to a nuc with a capped queen cell from one of my demaree colonys - an f1 Amm docile colony, as there very aggressive the existing mother colony.
Three frames of brood, one frame from the demaree with the capped qc and 1 frame of pollen and stores.
Replaced with comb so the queen has more space for now.

The genetics from the parent colony are Italians and they superseded last year, which in turn has made these aggressive now a f3 queen.
Hopefully they will except the dark queen when she emerges.
My plan is to unite the nuc back to the parent hive, hopefully!

I bit more info I tried to introduce a queen to this colony last year and they let her lay the smallest amount of eggs then killed her in favour of raising there own... The more aggressive colonys can be like this but allso very productive not the best mixed traits that's for sure.

Cheers again.

 

[masterBK]

Yesterday collected combined debris sample from under OMFs of several hives and posted it off to NBU today.
Apiary near airport & have been a NBU sentinel for several years now on the look out for SH beetle, tropilaelaps, Asian hornet.

 

[manek]

Examined my three hives, one of which will need a fourth super very soon!

 

[Angry_Mob]

Double brooded three hives, be interesting to see how this works out. Added more supers as well.

One of my hives I spotted an elusive queen which I think is the only one I haven't marked, think I damaged her abdomen though trying to catch her in the marking cage which is really unfortunate but did get her marked.

Buckfast nuc with a red queen; had a single supersedure cell so left them to it.

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

It was raining, so bottled December's mead and started a new batch.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Yesterday 9pm feed my three 6 frame nucs I've made up.
Yesterday afternoon I put a super on a swarm from last year. This colony were in 2 supers over winter, they got transfered into a deep nuc and then a deep brood box the end frame has bee's so a super of comb was added, I was going to put foundation but the comb will give them a head start.
I've a bit of an extra special liking for this colony cosidering they were a cast swarm not the biggest queen either but there gentle bee's.
I was going to shake them out in front of the other hives some time ago.

Out apairy 1.
I took drone brood samples from three colonys in the pink eye stage to test for varroa all three completely clear.
All round my varroa counts are really good.
I will be doing an alcohol wash in a months time.
Oh! I've collected lots of pollen already this year mainly from the inspection boards

Im drying the pollen in tubs in the concervatory then putting it into jars, then porrage for breakfast a spoon of pollen and a spoon of honey... some could say I'm living the good life Barbara!

 

[Levitt53]

I was just in the shed making a few frames when a queen wasp flew in and squeezed herself into one of the lids I have in my stack. When she flew out later I found a small nest with wiggling larvae. It is now on the lawn and I am in the kitchen having a cup of tea keeping my head down.

 

[Walrus]

Checked on my first batch of queen cells in my cell builder. 18 or 19 out of 20 accepted and looking good. Recombined to make queen right. The queen is in the bottom box, then QX, then x2 supers, then QX, then top box with cells. I might be getting the hang of this...

The bees are loving the weather

 

[drdrday]

Checked my one and only hive to see if the eggs in queen cups I'd seen on Saturday had become full on queen cells. They had, so I then spent the afternoon doing my first artificial swarm (good old simple Pagden for this first-timer).
Couldn't decide between feeling really excited and absolutely terrified! Fingers crossed for two full fledged colonies by the end of the month.

 

[Horseradish]

Swarm and swarm and swarm.... Crazy spring

 

[enrico]

Checked my one and only hive to see if the eggs in queen cups I'd seen on Saturday had become full on queen cells. They had, so I then spent the afternoon doing my first artificial swarm (good old simple Pagden for this first-timer).
Couldn't decide between feeling really excited and absolutely terrified! Fingers crossed for two full fledged colonies by the end of the month.

Well done......feel good about yourself.you deserve it!
E

 

[beeno]

Checked my one and only hive to see if the eggs in queen cups I'd seen on Saturday had become full on queen cells. They had, so I then spent the afternoon doing my first artificial swarm (good old simple Pagden for this first-timer).
Couldn't decide between feeling really excited and absolutely terrified! Fingers crossed for two full fledged colonies by the end of the month.

Be aware that the A/S sometimes swarm. I put a QX on until she is fat and laying at the next inspection.

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

No Apiary visits today, filled six hundred 12oz & four hundred 8oz jars to go out on Saturday . Had a look at next years rape ground to plan access and stand placement, also a quick visit to a new land owner to get photos for the social media posts and videos that they have requested we do for their B & B enterprise.
Back on the bees tomorrow, clearing boards to go on first fifty rape hives, extraction starts Friday.
Found our first Q-cell of the year yesterday, next is week looking busy, we have queens coming from German stock which will go in nucs made from the strongest colonies to try and hold them back a bit.
Rain is drastically needed, some of the beans and most linseed is going backwards.

 

[Heather]

Grabbed a huge prime swarm..filled 5 apideas (loaded with either caged virgin or capped QC) and filled a hive with the remainder, looking like covering 9 frames.

Just pray that the queen didn't go in the apidea, but couldn't see her... and they all walked into the hive well, so fingers crossed.
QE under for a couple of days and a syrup feed to keep them happy.

 

[G4WIL]

Beautiful weather this afternoon. Working on one hive . Inspected , replaced QX , heard a roar and thought give over you’ve been as good as gold .
nope wasn’t the colony I was working on , I added another super and closed the hive up . The roar have lessened somewhat, then increased to warp seven . Yes it was a swarm gaining access to an empty hive right next to the one I’d just closed up .
Good job I had or there could have been trouble as some of the swarm missed the clues and plastered over the wrong hive . I sat there for and hour . Gradually, things settled down . The hive guards relaxed and the colony started working again and all the swarm had orientated onto the correct hive .


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[Rooster007]

Well what a day. Started yesterday when I checked a hive as I wanted to do an AS as there was QC's. Couldn't find the queen even though I knew I'd seen her about a week ago.
Went through the BB 3 time trying to find her but it was rammed with bees so I thought I might of knocked her off somehow as I couldn;t find her.
This morning went to do an AS using the snelgrove2 method and while picking 2 frames to put in the fresh BB I found her so did the split as planned and all went well.

Came in the house for lunch and 30mins later, the neighbours knocking on the door saying the bees are swarming.
They settled in their garden under a bush so on advice from here about putting some old frames in a box while collecting them, I went to box them up and they stayed put.
It was only 10days ago a I lost a prime swarm and think this was a cast from the same hive as I didn't go through that hive once it had swarmed.

So tonight, around 7pm, grabbed the box (the bees had stayed put this time and were settled) took them round to my own house and shook them into a fresh BB with a couple of drawn out frames.
Put some feed on and came in for a beer.

I was running around like a headless chicken most of the day.
Its crazy at the moment.

Fingers crossed they don't all abscond tomorrow.

 

[E&MBees]

Checked the hives and nuc. The nuc has a very nice looking capped queen cell, so fingers crossed this one will be successful. The new hive with the 2019 queen who swarmed over Easter is laying very well. Hopefully the workers will be able to draw out the foundation quickly enough to give her the space she needs.

The second hive is causing some concern. The virgin queen emerged on the 22 of April, so she should hopefully be mated as it's two weeks later. Today there were eggs present, but in some cells there were multiple eggs. Do I therefore have

1) a young queen that needs to settle down into a normal laying pattern or

2) a laying worker because they have been without a laying queen since Good Friday (10 April).

Any suggestions or advice welcome. Thanks.

 

[madasafish]

Checked the hives and nuc. The nuc has a very nice looking capped queen cell, so fingers crossed this one will be successful. The new hive with the 2019 queen who swarmed over Easter is laying very well. Hopefully the workers will be able to draw out the foundation quickly enough to give her the space she needs.

The second hive is causing some concern. The virgin queen emerged on the 22 of April, so she should hopefully be mated as it's two weeks later. Today there were eggs present, but in some cells there were multiple eggs. Do I therefore have

1) a young queen that needs to settle down into a normal laying pattern or

2) a laying worker because they have been without a laying queen since Good Friday (10 April).

Any suggestions or advice welcome. Thanks.

1.

Quite common with a new queen. She will eventually settle on one egg.

 

[beeno]

Checked the hives and nuc. The nuc has a very nice looking capped queen cell, so fingers crossed this one will be successful. The new hive with the 2019 queen who swarmed over Easter is laying very well. Hopefully the workers will be able to draw out the foundation quickly enough to give her the space she needs.

The second hive is causing some concern. The virgin queen emerged on the 22 of April, so she should hopefully be mated as it's two weeks later. Today there were eggs present, but in some cells there were multiple eggs. Do I therefore have

1) a young queen that needs to settle down into a normal laying pattern or

2) a laying worker because they have been without a laying queen since Good Friday (10 April).

Any suggestions or advice welcome. Thanks.

Has she got enough drawn comb to lay in?