What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Swarm]

I've just found that my "almost lost cause" has just ignored what I said was its last chance!

My friend has one like that, I'll have to find out what happened to them. He found a new queen at the start of the season who disappeared not long after and for weeks they sat there quite content and probably kept going by the frames of eggs donated to them. They refused to draw queen cells and there was no sign of anything laying. It went on for weeks.

 

[pargyle]

Well ... if they do they do ...it's always a risk. I think the larvae in there were mostly too old for them to consider making queen cells and if they do and the new queen survives the introduction her pheremones, by then, should stop them in their tracks. Of course, they may decide to supercede her once she starts laying - not unheard of. If that happens I will probably extract her from the hive and let them get on with it. Make up another nuc from a split and put her in there ....

It's all a bit of a gamble at times isn't it ? Putting a variety of plans (and kit !) in place for the multiplicity of potential outcomes is is not something I am good at .. inevitably I end up fire fighting when they catch me out !

Yes .. I considered doing it that way but what I did in the end was put the open Nuc on a bench in front of the hives and just took a frame out of each of the donor colonies (opening one at a time) and popped them straight into the nuc with the roof off. When all three frames were in I shook a couple of super frames of bees from the last colony into the nuc as well. Put the frame of stores in, a drawn empty brood frame and the celotex dummy and the queen in her cage - put the roof on and moved them to the stand where they are going to be.

There was a lot of movement around the frames as I put them in but no fighting .. it certainly looked by the time I freed the queen next day as though they were all getting on - no signs of dead bees or general agression.

There's always more than one way of getting it right (or wrong !) in beekeeping.

I don't know .. I made the Nuc up from three colonies in order to not weaken any one of them and from two colonies they are prone to fighting ... three seem to accept each other amicably.

I really dithered about keeping her caged for a few days - or just running her into the new colony .. I hadn't decided even when I put her into the Nuc in the cage ... I was really dithering. I was going to leave her for a few days and then a mutual friend came to my aid .. and confirmed it would, probably, be safer to keep her caged so I relaxed ... and then he changed his mind... and I let her go !

We shall see ... I'll let you know in a couple of weeks or so !

Well ..the white spot queen has survived her introduction - had a very quick look this afternoon and there she was on the second frame I pulled. No sign of eggs on the frames I took out but as soon as I saw she was there and alive amd kicking I closed them up .. no point in pushing my luck. They still have a frame of stores and they are filling cells around the edges of the brood frames with nectar.

Really pleased .. going to leave them be for a couple of weeks now and see how she gets on once the capped brood on the frames I imported to start with has emerged.

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

Nice one Phil
My introduced queen (to a queenless colony) appears to have been done in

 

[pargyle]

Nice one Phil
My introduced queen (to a queenless colony) appears to have been done in

Sometimes you get lucky ... I half expected to find a dead queen on the floor and them trying to make queen cells out of geriatric larvae ! Breathed a big sigh of relief when I found her .. I never begrudge the cost of decent queens but nobody wants to see £40 disappear down the pan.

As for your bees ... sometimes they don't know what is good for them - beggars belief

 

[pargyle]

Had a wander round to the apiary about half an hour ago ..it's about 13 degrees and very humid (showers and drizzle on and off for most of the day) .. every colony has several hundred bees sitting on the landing board next to the entrance .. my supers are still on and all hives have two or three supers on them. Can't think they are short of space but I might have a quick look in tomorrow ... still forage about and nectar coming in so it's possible they need more room. I've no drawn super frames left and I really don't want to extract so might need to shuffle a few frames about with some undrawn ones in between. Might even think about taking another nuc off ... 'er indoors has not commented on the white queen nuc yet so might get away with it ...

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

weather not been too condusive to beekeeping the last few days although I did manage to move two hives up to the range yesterday and, in between showers put a super on one of them as they are bursting. the rain was handy though as it meant that, on the way back I could call in at the castle and shut a nuc up for moving home as there were no fliers, even at midday. At the same time I united two strong colonies (one hopelessly queenless) as, again, no fliers. I used newspaper as I'm not going to go near them for a few days so using any other method was not saving me anything.
Rain got worse today so again, moving nucs from the out apiaries to bring them home.

 

[AndyTh]

Hi JB, how is the heather progressing near you?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Had a wander round to the apiary about half an hour ago ..it's about 13 degrees and very humid (showers and drizzle on and off for most of the day) .. every colony has several hundred bees sitting on the landing board next to the entrance .. ..

Strangely I was out about the same to to let dog out
The bait hive that I foolishly left on the potting shed roof was the same.
As I turned though I was treated to a minute of one of our barn owls hunting in the garden.

 

[Tim.S]

Off out in a minute to go feed 8 more nucs, at long last they all seem to be laying nicely. I should just make 40 colonies for this winter.

 

[Mint Bee]

Phil, I have no doubt that the presence of the white queen nuc will have been noted and kept for use at a later stage

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Hi JB, how is the heather progressing near you?

No sign of any growth, most of the mountain was razed to the ground in a big wildfire at the start of lockdown. No fresh colour at all in the surviving breast

 

[pargyle]

Phil, I have no doubt that the presence of the white queen nuc will have been noted and kept for use at a later stage

Sadly, you are probably right ... biding her time until she needs to call it in !

 

[pargyle]

Strangely I was out about the same to to let dog out
The bait hive that I foolishly left on the potting shed roof was the same.
As I turned though I was treated to a minute of one of our barn owls hunting in the garden.

I wondered if it was the high humidity and they needed extra fanning to ripen the nectar ?

I love barn owls - we used to see the same one regularly in the early evening when we walked the dog in the local wood .. totally unfazed by us and on one occasion it actually dropped on a mouse that the dog disturbed when he was sniffing in the undergrowth - wasn't more than ten feet away from us and the dog. Fantastic sight .. although the dog never even looked up ! Labrador and a smell he's interested in .. no contest, the world would come to an end and he would not notice ... we still miss him a lot and there's no immediate chance of replacing him as there are no Duck Tollers being bred until later in the year at best.

We have a lot of bats visiting the garden in the evenings - so many insects this year above the pond and in amongst the trees .. I counted at least half a dozen flying at the same time and there were probably more.

 

[theeggman]

Do other countie's Wildlife Trusts run bat surveys? Down here int' south west we can 'bag' a kilometre grid square and then borrow a detector for 3 days. When we've done the recording you post the 'sd card' back to them and the results are added to the county's records and also sent to the recorder. This year's was put on hold but has now been reopened for punters. We're aware we have a good population of bats but it's nice to know what they are without great expense.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The time when breeders post good queens to their certain deathdeath

Bit of a mediocre morning, but it brightened up in the afternoon and as SWMBO had gone to St Fagans for a members 'soft opening' day (was great apparently, quiet, no grockles and no saeson to bring the pestilence over ) I decided to pop a few lids in the home apiary - nothing pressing, but still a few queens to mark and a hive where the (I know now) supersedure queen had sneaked up into the supers.
The August brood break is well under way, most hives checked have no eggs, very little open brood and plenty of space where bees have emerged.
If this is the same countrywide, I wonder how many panicked phonecalls have bee breeders dealt with so far?

 

[gmonag]

No sign of a brood break here in Suffolk. I inspected yesterday and there were eggs (and BIAS) everywhere in all hives.

 

[madasafish]

No sign of a brood break here in Suffolk. I inspected yesterday and there were eggs (and BIAS) everywhere in all hives.

Judging by my hives last week, broodbreaks in July here.. (rain,rain and more rain.. and it's raining today)

 

[Murox]

Went and had a chat with a local farmer who has been planting pollinators and soil improvers such as phacelia. turns out he does it for pleasure mainly and to improve soil for grass fed beef. Had a good look at a site he thought might suit for an apiary - no cattle ever on it - level ish woodland edge, a burn well below, loads of blackberry, meadowsweet and other stuff plus a few acres of phacelia(each year) plus sunflowers and annual pollinator mixes plus clover throughout the pastures around and in easy striking distance of a hillside covered in gorse. I took his hand off! The rent? well he suggested a pot of honey. Things are looking up for next year.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I wondered if it was the high humidity and they needed extra fanning to ripen the nectar ?

I love barn owls - we used to see the same one regularly in the early evening when we walked the dog in the local wood .. totally unfazed by us and on one occasion it actually dropped on a mouse that the dog disturbed when he was sniffing in the undergrowth - wasn't more than ten feet away from us and the dog. Fantastic sight .. although the dog never even looked up ! Labrador and a smell he's interested in .. no contest, the world would come to an end and he would not notice ... we still miss him a lot and there's no immediate chance of replacing him as there are no Duck Tollers being bred until later in the year at best.

We have a lot of bats visiting the garden in the evenings - so many insects this year above the pond and in amongst the trees .. I counted at least half a dozen flying at the same time and there were probably more.

I was going to ask about a new pup! What a shame. Have you booked one anyway?

Our owls raised three this year and the youngsters are the ones we see in the garden.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Do other countie's Wildlife Trusts run bat surveys? it's nice to know what they are without great expense.

I looked at a gizmo to attach to the phone but even that is expensive. I’d love to know what the bats here are