What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Amari]

Yes a barn owl box.
With squirrels you have to go into the box twice a week and throw out all the bedding. They give up in the end.

Twice a week! It took me five years to pluck courage to do the first check - triple extending ladder with SWMBO footing it. Is your in-house assistant available for hire?

 

[Michael ECB's]

Preparing for an emergency cut out in ceiling.... (Staff House)
Bees moved in +- 3 weeks ago and were well behaved.... No Harm = No foul!
However, gardener getting stung, new baby just born, puppy, ,,,, and worried about using front door as very close to colony entrance...
Apparently anyone walking into garden is getting "pinged" on the head....
Oh, when I say cut out I mean claw hammer, crowbar and brute force used to "gently" open up a hole to work through...
Mid summer, white denim bee suite and my fat body = Grumpy...
Will post some pics...

 

[Erichalfbee]

Twice a week! It took me five years to pluck courage to do the first check - triple extending ladder with SWMBO footing it. Is your in-house assistant available for hire?

It'll be exercise for you. in a few weeks you'll be up that ladder like a rat up a drainpipe.

You could of course just keep trapping them and throwing them out for the buzzards and the foxes. Badgers eat them too according to Winterwatch.

 

[The Poot]

It'll be exercise for you. in a few weeks you'll be up that ladder like a rat up a drainpipe.

You could of course just keep trapping them and throwing them out for the buzzards and the foxes. Badgers eat them too according to Winterwatch.

There’s not a lot badgers wont eat!
But then, Elvis ate them too.
Well done with the owl box - and well done to Stan climbing a ladder in wellies

 

[Swarm]

And there's not a lot Elvis wouldn't eat

 

[Michael ECB's]

Todays Bee work.. Nice large one. (still 3 removals on the list)
Very unusual structure below, fallen comb linked together forming tunnels and caves....
Always something new...

 

[The Poot]

Crikey!

 

[pargyle]

Big cut out ... I had a compost bin cut out where comb had fallen from the underside of the lid onto the top of the (very dry) compost and they had rebuilt the combs under the lid. They were still using the comb that had fallen down and had joined some of it together with new comb. Bees are opportunists ... if they need it they will use it.

 

[Michael ECB's]

Ran into these two naughty youngsters today whilst doing the rounds.. (Young bull and cow)
Must have broken out from one of the farms close bye.. Ok when young but very "cranky" once they grow up...
Fortunately no foot traffic here,,, well, no legal foot traffic anyway.....

 

[Brewer24]

Ran into these two naughty youngsters today whilst doing the rounds.. (Young bull and cow)
Must have broken out from one of the farms close bye.. Ok when young but very "cranky" once they grow up...
Fortunately no foot traffic here,,, well, no legal foot traffic anyway.....
View attachment 24182

My eyesight must be poor. I thought this was a picture of a disused double garage until I opened the picture for a closer look

 

[StephenT]

Weighed all 3 hives and they're about 5, 7 and 8lbs lighter than at the start of the month. Calculated that two have about 25lbs of stores still and one about 30lbs although I'm a bit paranoid that I'm doing something wrong (as I often am when beekeeping). Am hefting as well to try and get the hang of it.

 

[beeno]

Weighed all 3 hives and they're about 5, 7 and 8lbs lighter than at the start of the month. Calculated that two have about 25lbs of stores still and one about 30lbs although I'm a bit paranoid that I'm doing something wrong (as I often am when beekeeping). Am hefting as well to try and get the hang of it.

Sounds like you have got healthy colonies there. There would be a problem if the hive weight stayed the same!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Weighed all 3 hives and they're about 5, 7 and 8lbs lighter than at the start of the month. Calculated that two have about 25lbs of stores still and one about 30lbs although I'm a bit paranoid that I'm doing something wrong (as I often am when beekeeping). Am hefting as well to try and get the hang of it.

I get twitchy at 10lb of stores but never had them that low at this time of year.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Decided it was too cold to do anything outside so started emailing my invoices to my hive maintenance clients. A client I maintain two WBCs for was a bit slow paying this month. I emailed my invoice at 16.46 and it was in my account by 16.51! His quickest has been 3 minutes

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Weighed all 3 hives and they're about 5, 7 and 8lbs lighter than at the start of the month. Calculated that two have about 25lbs of stores still and one about 30lbs although I'm a bit paranoid that I'm doing something wrong (as I often am when beekeeping). Am hefting as well to try and get the hang of it.

Measured the weight drop on my one big colony last year for the first time. Most of the weight drop happened in January and February (roughly the same amount each month) and then it stabilized until May when they put on weight.
Weighed all mine yesterday and weight drop varied between 2 and 10lbs over month.
That's for my type of bees, in my location, in the weather we had last year so not sure how useful this is to you.

 

[Old brock]

Sad to see

 

[Newbeeneil]

Sad to see ☹View attachment 24201

That looks pretty normal for me after a period of "lockdown" due to cold weather.

 

[CaptainCymru]

Slapped some fondant on, last one for the winter hopefully

 

[gmonag]

Sad to see ☹

Did you witness the bees flying and dying outside the hive or are they corpses removed and dumped by undertakers? I don't think that is an excessive drop if it is the latter.

 

[Swarm]

Looks like they took the chance to remove the dead. Those at the entrance seem happy enough.