What did you do in the Apiary today?

[madasafish]

Finished my extractions this year: Down 15% on 2019

But then I started this year with 5 hives instead of last year's seven .. (Back up to seven again). And one swarmed (none last year) .

But the summer after early June has been very wet...until mid July..

 

[StephenT]

Went through the hive with 2 supers and I’m sure there’s less honey than a couple of weeks ago. Managed to consolidate the mainly capped frames into one super for clearing and the others I nadired (thanks for all the recent advice on that). The hive that I overfed the other week have nicely rectified the situation with stores on the outside frames and plenty of brood in between. Leaving the third hive well alone as they had a couple of nice supersedure QC's when I looked last weekend.

 

[Tim.S]

View attachment 21581Something tells me the girls are not too keen on the smell of apilife var, not to mention the yearly overcrowding problem!

I had another look at the nuc with the bees under and sure enough there had been a sneaky supercedure and the Queen was underneath. All back in the box now!

 

[pargyle]

Define large.....

Everything is relative .. for an estate house people decribe my garden as huge ... in Estate agents language .. Massive ... when the lawns and weeding has to be done - it's a PITA. In terms of those with country estatesn... it's a pocket handlerchief. The size is in the eyes of the beholder as I'm sure you've been told many times ...

 

[DaveG23]

Checked a few hives, lovely smell from those who have been busy with the the 2 weeks of summer we have just had, finally seeing some thick capped super frames.

 

[The Poot in Somerset]

Everything is relative .. for an estate house people decribe my garden as huge ... in Estate agents language .. Massive ... when the lawns and weeding has to be done - it's a PITA. In terms of those with country estatesn... it's a pocket handlerchief. The size is in the eyes of the beholder as I'm sure you've been told many times ...

Hi P,
Do you keep all of your bees at home or do you have an out apiary?

 

[Worldsend]

Took off supers I had spun last week all well and now back into the shed

One last check, knocked hood and baseball cap moved and was stung on top lip

Now look like I've had disastrous lip filler job

 

[pargyle]

Hi P,
Do you keep all of your bees at home or do you have an out apiary?

Currently all my bees are at home - 7 full colonies and a rapidly expanding 8 fame nuce. I did have a separate site at my mum's house (just in case) although we are selling that soon so not now viable and I also have access to another garden site at a friends house where I could put four or five hives if needs be.

I like having my bees on hand and the only times I tend to use out apiaries is when I need to get a colony away for a holiday for some reason. I'm not desperate to expand my beekeeping beyond about 10 colonies where we are and to be honest ... 8 is about right.

 

[Old brock]

Quick check of my hives, exchanged an annoying plastic queen excluder for a wooden framed metal one, and added another super onto another hive. The heather blossom is excellent this year. I’m not sure how much of it the girls will fill but the first super is rammed and mostly capped

 

[drex]

Just taken 6-7empty supers off, which, two weeks ago had decent amount of honey. At long last, we have had a bit of rain, not much but a drop. Will keep an eye on them. Looks like it is going to be an early poor harvest . I was expecting a low yield, but not this bad.
Every year so far it has been a good ivy flow, so fingers crossed. I like to leave them honey for winter, but may be feeding this year.
What can I expect when the driest town in the country is only 8 miles away

 

[beeno]

Just taken 6-7empty supers off, which, two weeks ago had decent amount of honey. At long last, we have had a bit of rain, not much but a drop. Will keep an eye on them. Looks like it is going to be an early poor harvest . I was expecting a low yield, but not this bad.
Every year so far it has been a good ivy flow, so fingers crossed. I like to leave them honey for winter, but may be feeding this year.
What can I expect when the driest town in the country is only 8 miles away

Excuse if you have told us before but do you sell the ivy?

 

[drex]

No. Leave it for the bees. Never tasted it. Told it is not good

 

[Angry_Mob]

No. Leave it for the bees. Never tasted it. Told it is not good

Ivy honey is the marmite of the world but I love it, such a unique strong taste.

 

[beeno]

Ivy honey is the marmite of the world but I love it, such a unique strong taste.

I don't like it myself either just wondered how much demand there is for it.

 

[Beekeeper Brownie]

On Sunday morning I checked the hives at one site, all were good. Slowly capping the honey but not bringing too much in now compared to a week ago. The one nuc I have there has now got a laying queen in, I just hope see doesn't turn out to be a drone layer - there were only eggs in the cells, no larvae and nothing capped so I can't tell yet. I was getting on to the last hive and it had started spitting, nothing too bad I had taken the 5 supers off slowly looking to see how the capping was going. Once I got the QEX off and the first frame out there was a clap of thunder and it chucked it down and they went for me. I quickly checked the number of frames with brood on and that were eggs but in that process plus putting the supers back on I got stung 8 times , 4 on each elbow joint just above the end of my gauntlets.

I've just got back in from my other site and they're doing well, capping honey and still bringing some nectar in. On one hive which I put a drawn super on back on the 2nd of this month had already started capping some of that which was a surprise. I was debating at the time whether it was necessary to give them more space. The two hives I introduced two queens into from BS Honey on Tuesday last week were both laying well. Last week I knocked out what was probably a supercedure cell off the frame, today there were a couple, I left the uncapped one so hopefully she mates ok. I think I might be pushing my luck this late in the season, however there are still drones in the colonies and drone brood too albeit not a lot. Any suggestions? leave it and hope she gets mated and allow two Qs to over winter or knock it down now and allow them to sort her out in the spring?

In general I was pleasantly surprised with how big some colonies still are, one still had 10 frames of brood, but the average was 7 frames.

 

[Murox]

On Sunday morning I checked the hives at one site, all were good. Slowly capping the honey but not bringing too much in now compared to a week ago. The one nuc I have there has now got a laying queen in, I just hope see doesn't turn out to be a drone layer - there were only eggs in the cells, no larvae and nothing capped so I can't tell yet. I was getting on to the last hive and it had started spitting, nothing too bad I had taken the 5 supers off slowly looking to see how the capping was going. Once I got the QEX off and the first frame out there was a clap of thunder and it chucked it down and they went for me. I quickly checked the number of frames with brood on and that were eggs but in that process plus putting the supers back on I got stung 8 times , 4 on each elbow joint just above the end of my gauntlets.

I've just got back in from my other site and they're doing well, capping honey and still bringing some nectar in. On one hive which I put a drawn super on back on the 2nd of this month had already started capping some of that which was a surprise. I was debating at the time whether it was necessary to give them more space. The two hives I introduced two queens into from BS Honey on Tuesday last week were both laying well. Last week I knocked out what was probably a supercedure cell off the frame, today there were a couple, I left the uncapped one so hopefully she mates ok. I think I might be pushing my luck this late in the season, however there are still drones in the colonies and drone brood too albeit not a lot. Any suggestions? leave it and hope she gets mated and allow two Qs to over winter or knock it down now and allow them to sort her out in the spring?

In general I was pleasantly surprised with how big some colonies still are, one still had 10 frames of brood, but the average was 7 frames.

I see you are in Suffolk, maybe if I was too I would 'risk it'. Where I am I would not risk anything as the weather is just too poor as rule; I would do what was required to ensure I had a strong hive entering winter.

 

[StephenT]

Last week I knocked out what was probably a supercedure cell off the frame, today there were a couple, I left the uncapped one so hopefully she mates ok. I think I might be pushing my luck this late in the season, however there are still drones in the colonies and drone brood too albeit not a lot. Any suggestions? leave it and hope she gets mated and allow two Qs to over winter or knock it down now and allow them to sort her out in the spring?

Was just having a coffee break next to one of my hives and about 10 drones returned in the space of 30 seconds. Obviously didn’t get lucky today. This hive was chucking them out a couple of weeks ago but maybe that was just to make space for new ones. Do they work like that? I’ve got another hive superseding at present and am not too concerned over number of drones.

 

[drex]

No problem with August-September supercedure here, a few miles south of you. The bees know something you don't if they are trying to supersede.

 

[Firefly]

It's years since a sting during an inspection gave me a stiff hand and a swelling going half way up my forearm the next day

Why now?

It was a wasp!

 

[Murox]

It's years since a sting during an inspection gave me a stiff hand and a swelling going half way up my forearm the next day

Why now?

It was a wasp!

It isn't really but thanks for the chuckle.

Get well soon.