What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Nige.Coll]

Did my Basic Assessment at my BKA apiary today. I realise I should have done more learning on certain areas such as bee diseases. Good exercise and I would recommend all beginners to do it.
p.s. Can’t be arsed getting into a debate about the BBKA.

Could have helped you with that. lol

 

[Nige.Coll]

Absolutely bugger all.
10 am wife is thrown from a horse.
1 hour later ambulance takes her away. I can't go because of covid.
5 hours later phone call says she has a broken hip.
6 hours later waving at her through a window dropping stuff off.
We have both had both jabs and are covid free.
8 hours later wondering what was the point in having the bloody jabs.
Surgery in the morning for her.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Absolutely bugger all.
10 am wife is thrown from a horse.
1 hour later ambulance takes her away. I can't go because of covid.
5 hours later phone call says she has a broken hip.
6 hours later waving at her through a window dropping stuff off.
We have both had both jabs and are covid free.
8 hours later wondering what was the point in having the bloody jabs.
Surgery in the morning for her.

Oh Nigel that’s a bugger. Hope you get her home soon.

 

[Newbeeneil]

I had an interesting day in my main apiary earlier this week.
I arrived to find a large swarm sitting in a hedge which was quickly put in a box, closed up and put on a stand. I would normally take to another apiary but due to infection control I'm trying to keep every thing in the apiary.
I started inspections but after about 15 hives I noticed the air was thick with bees and realised a double nuc was swarming onto another hedge!
SO......... i put a nuc over the swarm and carried on inspections until the swarm had filled the nuc, I placed it on another stand and they settled down.
I went to the original swarm and noticed a roaring coming from the box so I opened the entrance only to see a steam of bees which once again filled the air.
The large swarm swirled around for about 10 minutes and I assumed that they were off across the field but as I watched they descended onto the double nuc that the smaller swarm had just vacated and filed in with a bit of fighting at the entrance.
I added a third box on top just in case it was a bit tight for space in the double nuc.
This is the first time I've seen a hive usurped by a swarm.

 

[Murox]

I had an interesting day in my main apiary earlier this week.
I arrived to find a large swarm sitting in a hedge which was quickly put in a box, closed up and put on a stand. I would normally take to another apiary but due to infection control I'm trying to keep every thing in the apiary.
I started inspections but after about 15 hives I noticed the air was thick with bees and realised a double nuc was swarming onto another hedge!
SO......... i put a nuc over the swarm and carried on inspections until the swarm had filled the nuc, I placed it on another stand and they settled down.
I went to the original swarm and noticed a roaring coming from the box so I opened the entrance only to see a steam of bees which once again filled the air.
The large swarm swirled around for about 10 minutes and I assumed that they were off across the field but as I watched they descended onto the double nuc that the smaller swarm had just vacated and filed in with a bit of fighting at the entrance.
I added a third box on top just in case it was a bit tight for space in the double nuc.
This is the first time I've seen a hive usurped by a swarm.
View attachment 26928

Good catch.

 

[madasafish]

Checked my Nicot cage.
Some eggs - not enough.
Left Q in another 24 hours

(I have blocked off most of the cells with a sheet of plastic (milk bottle) and reduced cells from 100 to 20 - 10 would do me, Q still has full run of cage)
Check again today when it stops raining.

 

[Goran]

Some wise guy dumped hives about 100m from my main apiary and I now worry ( diseases, robbing, etc..) until it is resolved.. In such delicate and worrisome season I have additional hazard of total disaster from.. It distracted me big time. Also I am postponing my queen breeding cause I am fear of illegal queen imports and what it can turn in F1 and further.. Madness..
I was pleased that I don't have chalk brood this season so far and now.. it is minor problem..
It is amazing when someone do illegal act, how long it takes to correct it with legal means..

 

[BugsInABox]

Some wise guy dumped hives about 100m from my main apiary and I now worry ( diseases, robbing, etc..) until it is resolved.. In such delicate and worrisome season I have additional hazard of total disaster from.. It distracted me big time. Also I am postponing my queen breeding cause I am fear of illegal queen imports and what it can turn in F1 and further.. Madness..
I was pleased that I don't have chalk brood this season so far and now.. it is minor problem..
It is amazing when someone do illegal act, how long it takes to correct it with legal means..

In the end there might not even be a legal remedy in many cases. ☹

 

[Swarm]

Queen intros in the drizzle. Looking forward to checking the nucs for laying queens at the end of the week.

 

[Angry_Mob]

A family member saw bees swarming and landing in a tree, luckily not overly high up so step ladders out and got them shaken into a nuc box. Now need to figure what hive they came out of or if they are even mine.

I checked grafts that I did on Saturday, got 13 out of 20 which is a PB for me. Last grafts were 0 out of 30 so making decent progress.

 

[E&MBees]

Sorry to hear this Emily. Has happened to me too in previous seasons. I hear more and more stories of Pagden type swarm control not working ie queen with flying bees. I now don’t do this. A ‘go to’ friend who has been keeping bees for 30 or more years told me to only ever do this with foundation, not even drawn comb to slow down and switch the swarm instinct which can be v strong. Put queen excluder setting on Nuc or q/e under brood box until laying too.

I now put the queen with nurse bees away from parent and don’t put flying bees with her. Can always reunite later once swarming instinct has gone.

Thanks Elaine.

 

[drex]

Ten days since last inspection mainly due to weather. It was not ideal today and the bees were feisty. Some queens have again gone off lay. This has happened a few times this year, so am confident in my diagnosis. One test frame from last inspection had produced queen cells, so these were reduced down..
Going through one colony, which contained a lovely queen, there was no evidence of a queen in the brood box, but no sign of swarming. At last inspection I had put a QX on and a super. Looking in the super, there she was with lots of brood. I can only assume a wonky excluder as she was in the brood when I put it on.temporarily running brood and a half, which I detest until I get another excluder

 

[Nannysbees]

Inspection day
All four hives in good shape, our monster hive with four supers are full of nectar nothing capped!! Brood and a half but the half was full of nectar and nothing else so reduced them to one deep, hope that was a good move. Little tinkers started a queen cell in the hive with the bought queen, lovely looking and very big, laying like a trooper,lots of eggs, so removed the cell.

 

[Swarm]

Did a quick check on two nucs, beautiful, black queens seen (my haven't you grown) eggs and larvae only at this stage but looking good, just four more to check in two different apiaries.

 

[elainemary]

Mixed inspections today. Found queen cells in a hive with relatively newly mated queen who had produced 3 frames sealed brood. Bizarre why swarm so early & cells not sealed, no eggs, could it be emergency instead? Found marked queen, dead on bottom of hive
Was going to decide which queen to keep between this one or her sister in a Nuc next door, the bees decided for me. So United ‘Z’ style with newspaper wrapped over and around the last frame in the hive and put another layer beneath and around the 6 frames from the Nuc. Then super from the dead queen hive above. Put queen in cage to slow the unite, given the fate of the other.

On a positive note, 3 out of 5 grafted queenshave mated already in their 3 frame Nucs. Emerged 9 June and one had 3 beautiful frames of brood, 2 sealed.
Moved them into their own Nucs sharpish

All my double brood colonies this year still haven’t made any swarm preps, always swarmed before on a single box, will do this to more next year.

 

[E&MBees]

Mixed inspections today. Found queen cells in a hive with relatively newly mated queen who had produced 3 frames sealed brood. Bizarre why swarm so early & cells not sealed, no eggs, could it be emergency instead? Found marked queen, dead on bottom of hive
Was going to decide which queen to keep between this one or her sister in a Nuc next door, the bees decided for me. So United ‘Z’ style with newspaper wrapped over and around the last frame in the hive and put another layer beneath and around the 6 frames from the Nuc. Then super from the dead queen hive above. Put queen in cage to slow the unite, given the fate of the other.

On a positive note, 3 out of 5 grafted queenshave mated already in their 3 frame Nucs. Emerged 9 June and one had 3 beautiful frames of brood, 2 sealed.
Moved them into their own Nucs sharpish

All my double brood colonies this year still haven’t made any swarm preps, always swarmed before on a single box, will do this to more next year.

I haven’t seen the z style unite before. To double check, are you using two brood boxes or one? The frames covered in newspaper belong to the queen less colony and you have slotted the q+ frames into the gap and then covered with more newspaper. Have I got that right?

 

[madasafish]

checked my cut down Nicot cage. No eggs. Released Q

(Weather has been lousy past 3 days so assume Q stopped laying).
If at first etc.

 

[elainemary]

I haven’t seen the z style unite before. To double check, are you using two brood boxes or one? The frames covered in newspaper belong to the queen less colony and you have slotted the q+ frames into the gap and then covered with more newspaper. Have I got that right?

Hi Emily it’s when you want to combine 2 small colonies. You don’t need to consider which is queen right or queenless. Here’s the steps:
-Colony in existing brood box is rationalised (brood frames and best stores) to the entrance end of the brood box.
-Place newspaper over the frames and tuck it over the frame furthest from the entrance and down onto the floor ‘Z’ shape
-Line the rest of the box with a piece of newspaper so it comes up the other side
-Colony 2 e.g. a Nuc - Place in the remaining space so it butts onto the last frame from the other colony and on top of the newspaper lining the rest of the box
-If there’s a super (usually unlikely if 2 small colonies but could be if a colony has swarmed) , put a sheet and excluder beneath the super

I have done this a couple of times, works well and saves having to use 2 brood boxes

Elaine

 

[Erichalfbee]

I’ve just united two colonies in nucs by putting one nuc on top of the other with newspaper

 

[tonyofarr]

I went to check the orchard bees in the home apiary yesterday and as I get there I see a swarm in the air, it's got to be H6 I mutter to myself. Sure enough the hive is somewhat depleted of bees and there are queen cells. I was not that bothered because the queen is clipped and the hive was destined to be requeened with a less swarmy strain.

After checking through the hive, under the hive and all the grass around the hive I still cannot find the queen, the bees have returned to the hive and I carry on checking other colonies. When I get to the last hive I have almost finished the inspection when I see the bees balling something, I smoke it and find the missing queen which I retrieve. On the next frame is the lovely big fat queen that belongs in this hive.

The swarmy queen must have dropped out of the swarm and then crawled up into the hive 9ft in front of it. After 26 years bees can still surprise you!