What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Moobee]

Nice shot Moobee. Hope you‘re right about your queens....

I was!! Hive #2 loads of BIAS. Ridiculously happy

 

[Moobee]

Storm coming tomorrow so strapped both hives but not before I peeked into #2 which had QCs several weeks ago and no sign of her majesty. Ridiculously happy to see loads of BIAS
Not checking main hive for at least another week as no sign of pollen going in.

 

[Swarm]

Checking records and writing out ID labels for sixteen of this year's new queens.

 

[gregior]

Took 6 supers off for extraction and 1 super off for cut comb. Another 10 supers to do tomorrow.

 

[REDWOOD]

Bees don’t like giving up their hard work, mine were the same today but put on the long sleeve shirt and a base ball hat under my bee suit in hindsight as I noticed a few wasps about a few days ago

 

[catherinem]

Those normally come calibrated, so check before you start adjusting.

Thank you I took my honey off at 21% and did the Shake test, then I did a other test useing refractometer on honey I extracted it’s now reading between 17% and 18% do you think that’s ok.. I am using a 12 frame Electric extractor spinner any idea how how I should leave them spin for. I guess it was until frames Felt light

 

[Wilco]

Thank you I took my honey off at 21% and did the Shake test, then I did a other test useing refractometer on honey I extracted it’s now reading between 17% and 18% do you think that’s ok.. I am using a 12 frame Electric extractor spinner any idea how how I should leave them spin for. I guess it was until frames Felt light

Probably fine at that point, it's below 20% and passed the shake test which is what I aim for. Think this is discussed a bit under the honey questions section of the forum.

 

[gmonag]

Thank you I took my honey off at 21% and did the Shake test, then I did a other test useing refractometer on honey I extracted it’s now reading between 17% and 18% do you think that’s ok.. I am using a 12 frame Electric extractor spinner any idea how how I should leave them spin for. I guess it was until frames Felt light

Perfect

 

[catherinem]

Perfect

Thank you

 

[drex]

20% is the maximum legal limit for honey that is sold. The higher the water content the more likely it is to ferment, so the lower the better.
My concern is the variation in your readings, as just extracting would not lower the water content. Perhaps you just sampled some random cells prior to the extraction and were unlucky choosing some with a high water content.
Once honey has been extracted and settled I make sure I stir it well before taking a reading, as that can make a big difference.
What percentage of comb was capped?
As to time to spin for. No direct answer. Depends on viscosity of honey . As you say extract enough so frames feel light and honey stops spattering on side of extractor

 

[GuyNir]

Extracted first 4 supers taken from one colony. 50kg at 17%. Good start. First 2 supers very light honey (summer), older 2 supers darker honey (spring)

 

[drdrday]

Checked the three mini mating hives I put my queen cells in on 18th.
Unfortunately one queen never emerged. I can't see anything wrong with her, but obviously something wasn't right.
The other two queens have both emerged though. Managed to mark one of them but the other was walking across the bottom of the hive and they'd had their own plans for comb building so I didn't want to disturb too much.
From the small amount I checked there are plenty of eggs but no larvae yet in either hive. They would have emerged on 20th, so I guess checking back in abut 10 days to see if they successfully mated will be the moment of truth.

 

[pargyle]

Mainly just stood and watched ... they were flying like mad. I repaired the latch on the gate to the apiary and added a bit of timber to the bottom of the gate to close the gap between the gate and the floor (New puppy arrives on 7th August and I'm generally making sure the garden is puppy proof). The all of a sudden it was like a swarm arriving in each hive, the noise was incredible ... the sun was out although the clouds were building a bit in the distance ... absolute mayhem as they scrambled to get in to the hives ... within minutes, even with the sun still out, the rain started - a really heavy shower. Who was it saying that bees cannot predict the weather ? It's been like that most of the day so far, sun then a heavy shower then back to sun. The poor bees don't know what to do but they are flying like crazy when it's not raining.

 

[catherinem]

20% is the maximum legal limit for honey that is sold. The higher the water content the more likely it is to ferment, so the lower the better.
My concern is the variation in your readings, as just extracting would not lower the water content. Perhaps you just sampled some random cells prior to the extraction and were unlucky choosing some with a high water content.
Once honey has been extracted and settled I make sure I stir it well before taking a reading, as that can make a big difference.
What percentage of comb was capped?
As to time to spin for. No direct answer. Depends on viscosity of honey . As you say extract enough so frames feel light and honey stops spattering on side of extractor

Thank you, it is my first year at beekeeping and first taken off my own honey so any advice is really grateful I did the shake test and nothing came out of the frames over 70% was capped on 3/4 frames, the rest was fully capped.

 

[Moobee]

Woohoo! The hive I was hoping had requeened has done it successfully and she’s laying beautifully. Found and marked queen Beatrix and the bees are lovely and calm.

 

[gregior]

planned on taking 10 supers off today but had to stop at 4 as the bees went into a robbing frenzy! Think the mistake I made was putting wet supers back on the hives as soon as I had removed the full ones.I think I should have waited until all the full supers were all removed and put all the wets on at once.

 

[Angry_Mob]

planned on taking 10 supers off today but had to stop at 4 as the bees went into a robbing frenzy! Think the mistake I made was putting wet supers back on the hives as soon as I had removed the full ones.I think I should have waited until all the full supers were all removed and put all the wets on at once.

I try and remove them first thing in the morning or late in the evening; helps prevent that from happening.


Checked a few hives here, flow looks like its almost stopped; super frames hardly being drawn now however thats gave them a great opportunity to cap some supers so I put clearer boards on before I ran out of those as well and I have 19 supers to take off.

Wasps were being a pain and the bees seemed to want to rob at any opportunity.

One of the larger hives causing me a little concern, noticed about 3 bees on the stand on Thursday evening; glossy black, hairless and shaking but couldn't tell which hive it was from but managed to identify it today and looks like the early stages of CBPV? Some shakey black bees in the brood box; the only thing I could think of on the spot was to change the floor and they have enough space in the supers. Should I split it to make the hive less congested?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

the only thing I could think of on the spot was to change the floor and they have enough space in the supers. Should I split it to make the hive less congested?

https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/a-way-to-combat-cbpv.51048/

 

[Worker bee]

Checked all my hives and went to view a new location on the heather, sorted the strongest out to go on the moors on a test site for heather. Went back and locked up some hives to take tomorrow from three sites. Started at 9 this morning just got in and I'm knackard. Back to it tomorrow

 

[deemann1]

Painful day in the apiary today.
Went to put on some clearer boards onto 3 hives this morning.
Hive 1 - removed top super and put clearer board on and replaced the super without incident.
Hive 2 - removed top super and went to put on clearer board when I was hit by a wave of bees attacking my nether regions through my jeans. I retreated to my van to don the Ozarmour, returned to the hive but by this time the bees were out in force and by the time I got the roof back on I had taken about 20 stings to my wrists and hands and had to walk about 100yards to get rid of the followers.
Hive 3 - lifted the top 2 supers off and the bees went apeshit before I had a chance to put the clearer board on I was covered by thousands of bees.... my suit was black with them and they even went down into the top of my rigger boots! I did manage to get the hive back together but took another load of possibly 30 stings to all parts of my body..... several bees managed to get past the Velcro on the suit! (My fault - didn't check it)
So ...probably the largest number of stings I've ever taken in a day and from two hives that have never shown any sign of being extra defensive before. Could it be that the flow is over?

Sounds like a bad day , I took 12 or 13 stings off one hive today putting on clearer boards too ..I went home got another trousers to double up and doubled up gloves too ... the bees in that apiary were in a terrible mood