What did you do in the Apiary today?

[pargyle]

I’m still waiting to see why our opinions are odious.

Wasn't Odious the slave with the smelly feet in Up Pompeii ?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Wasn't Odious the slave with the smelly feet in Up Pompeii ?

It’s the only answer I’m going to get I guess.

 

[elainemary]

As per Mike Palmer, I use mine as brood factories, taking frames of capped brood out ( bee less) and using them to boost production hives. I replace with foundation. It is a win win, nucs do not get overly strong, production hives get a full workforce, and I get plenty of new drawn comb.

I have 3 older queens that I’ve taken out of colonies as part of swarm control and I’m using them for this purpose so there is extra brood and flying bees to unite just before the heather. I’ve also got 10 queens from grafting coming on stream, in 3 frame Nucs and Apideas for mating, so need to be agile re their management straight afterwards. Hope I’ve not bitten off more than I can chew!

 

[Swn58]

The usual Sunday escape to the solitude of the range today with sandwich and a flask so no need to hurry back. Inspected 15 colonies and shook out two nucs with drone layers. I think the queen in one of the other nucs has gone out to see the boys today as well as there was a heck of a lot of activity on the front of the nuc which has settled down a little while later.
After a leisurely lunch in the shade of the quarry, popped over to the castle to hive the nuc which looked a bit crowded yesterday. Queen emerged a little over four weeks ago, nuc now on four frames of brood and packed with pollen and stores.
Then back home for tea and medals (after patiently waiting for the clown in the merc to reverse slowly (and badly) up to the mountain crossroads as he didn't like the look of the layby where I'd driven into the shallow ditch to let him use to pass

AHHHH......nice wittering again....well done. You are obviously much better at it, than the wittering you pointed out I was making about hive types? Personally, I've had to reduce my 'witters' as I have a lot of work on at the moment. I know....MUST try harder!

 

[IndiBee]

I just moved a whole load of nucs in the car..............somehow I forgot to close the entrances!!!!!!!!! Must be getting old. Lucky I covered them with a sheet, they didn't start pouring out till I got them out in the car lights..

 

[GuyNir]

Another cloudy day. 13c and feels a bit chilly with the wind. Last week or so, we probably only had ~ half day of sunshine.

 

[Nannysbees]

Replacement queen can't in the post today, great service from the seller. Popped her into the hive with the clip on for a few days. God I hope they accept her

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Replacement queen can't in the post today, great service from the seller. Popped her into the hive with the clip on for a few days.

try and take the tab off as soon as possible, check after 24 hours, if the bees aren't agressively attacking the cage, pop the tab off

 

[Nannysbees]

try and take the tab off as soon as possible, check after 24 hours, if the bees aren't agressively attacking the cage, pop the tab off

Yes I'll do that thank you

 

[steve1958]

Collected a small swarm today (not from my hive).

Nice calm and gentle bees.
They must have read the books because they knew what to do, calmly walking into my skep ready for relocating

 

[The Poot]

Replacement queen can't in the post today, great service from the seller. Popped her into the hive with the clip on for a few days. God I hope they accept her

I hope so too. I had a queen killed last year as the “queenless” colony were hiding a virgin that hadn’t and didn’t get mated. Ended up shaking them out after spending £45
Good luck.

 

[Nannysbees]

I hope so too. I had a queen killed last year as the “queenless” colony were hiding a virgin that hadn’t and didn’t get mated. Ended up shaking them out after spending £45
Good luck.

I've got that t-shirt!!!

 

[Swarm]

Spent the day flitting between three apiaries setting out new mating nucs and checking those made up a fortnight ago with run in virgins who are now laying queens
Marked a couple of earlier queens as they now have very nice brood patterns, the batch of cells in the incubator will probably be the last for this year, we have some very nice black queens to bring on for next season.
Dismantled a demarree and split them into two colonies (two queens) Great fun watching the confusion with returning bees looking for the upper entrance of a tall hive, they were all looking at the one next door but couldn't find a way in. Peace resumed by the time I cleared up.
My friend visited today and complimented the behaviour of the colonies, they were outstanding, even one I went through yesterday. He mentioned his one grumpy hive and I met them later, nothing horrid but not the nicest. A candidate for one of the new queens.
A very good day.

 

[Moobee]

No June gap this year either, it's an odd year.
I have two failing older queen's one colony which has 5 supers on has swarmed and I knocked down 14 qcs they were crap even the one I left this colony has gone rogue to I'm moving them to sort them out.

Blimey ... I've got three supers on two of my hives and I thought they were doing well ... 5 Supers - that's something else in a couple of weeks post starvation levels ....fantastic. So how much have you spun out from your spring crop ... go on,,,, make us jealous !
[/QUOTE]
Very jealous! The high winds in May stripped so much blossom from the trees here, i think my girls are still playing catch up. Just one super filled (and incredibly heavy) and waiting for them to finish capping as water % is still a bit high (19.5%). Hoping we have our usual late season here which saw me taking honey off at the end of September and I was still able to leave them a whole super for winter.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I hope so too. I had a queen killed last year as the “queenless” colony were hiding a virgin that hadn’t and didn’t get mated. Ended up shaking them out after spending £45
Good luck.

Test frame?

 

[Moobee]

Morning run to check Tŷ Uchaf and Gelli apiaries the queen in the swarmed hive has now mated and is laying like a train, already three frames of sealed brood in the last week, also, for a swarmed hive it is still packed with bees so can't see there being much of a hiatus here waiting for new bees to emerge. Took another nuc off a Demarree'd hive at the Gelli (foolish not to as she's always been a productive queen - both bees and honey and I think they will be superseding her this season so, belt and braces time.
Not much forage around now as the hawthorn is well and truly over but the good news is, a lot of the bramble flower buds are showing a bit of white with one or two already open.
after lunch, popped over to the castle (catching up at the moment thanks to the wet weather) to check on the nucs which I expected the queens to get mated and laying by now. One has always been very quiet and I didn't have much hopes for her, but fair play, already two frames with sealed worker brood, another one there must have mated not long after mating as there are four frames full of sealed brood and not much room as they seemed to have gone bonkers storing pollen from the hawthorn, so another trip there tomorrow to hive them (the nucs are staying at the apiary to make up for winter losses.)

If it's not a daft question...... how do you know she has mated? Or is it just seeing her start laying? Does she look fatter?

 

[Moobee]

Assembled another super in case my small hived swarm kicks on. Put together some more brood frames using my newly made frame jig that our BKA chairman showed us. Found my hornet traps...

 

[Erichalfbee]

If it's not a daft question...... how do you know she has mated? Or is it just seeing her start laying? Does she look fatter?

Laying like a train is a clue
Mated queens are fatter than virgins, move slowly and purposefully (usually) and can be accompanied by a retinue whereas virgin queens are much more skittish and ignored by the other bees.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

If it's not a daft question...... how do you know she has mated?

She has laid eggs, they've hatched, larvae in a lovely classic pattern seen last inspection, now sealed and confirmed worker brood

 

[North End Bees]

She has laid eggs, they've hatched, larvae in a lovely classic pattern seen last inspection, now sealed and confirmed worker brood

They don't always lay in a lovely classic pattern straight away.
I've had new queens which have laid in a horrible pattern with drone brood dotted randomly around. Can take a few weeks to settle into a nice pattern whereas others lay nicely from the get go.