What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Ian123]

Spent the morning marking up new queens. I’m in touch with my feminine side!

 

[GuyNir]

Spent the morning marking up new queens. I’m in touch with my feminine side!View attachment 27565

Good colour. I mark all my Q’s neon green. Pop up very easily amongst the bees. Many times I can spot her on a frame still in the box…

 

[Erichalfbee]

I got an AFB alert from the NBU two days ago so been through the hives with a fine tooth comb. The largest Demaree has a few dead varroa bees but I knew the load was high. They’ve all got strips in and the newer brood seems ok
God, all the bees in the apiary must have been in the air! Who would be an SBI!
I did find this though. Poor bugger obviously couldn’t get in through the UFE and was flapping about under one OMF. First I’ve ever seen. Made my day

 

[GuyNir]

Took some more supers off & prepared the samples for the honey monitoring scheme.

 

[elainemary]

My queen and Nuc I united over newspaper in a push in cage has been released. Left her for 7 days after adding fondant to the push in cage 2 days after uniting and taking the newspaper away. Had been fretting as I found emergency cells straight after the newspaper unite which I thought might be down to not leaving enough space around the cage and the combs. The last unite I tried didn’t work and the queen was replaced with emergency queen cells. This time Eggs on 3 frames, saw the queen, bees very very calm. Relief. Will leave them alone now for another 10 days before I check again.

 

[deemann1]

Took off around 60 supers today very busy , got to extract now ..
Feed any hives that need feeding, not many as alot of stores in brood boxes ..
Need to prep hives for the heather move midweek

 

[Worker bee]

Took some hives within a mile of heather a few hours later they were piling in dark yellow pollen. Fingers crossed

 

[drdrday]

Inspected two hives before going away for just over a week.
Found a rather neat example of what happens to anything stupid enough to try it's luck in a bee hive

 

[Nannysbees]

Inspection day.Bluebell the swarm increasing nicely. Blossom the split put back to a brood, from a brood and a half, hope that was the right thing to do. Our hive with four supers of nectar finally gave us five capped frames which we took off and extracted, after the excellent advice given from our last four frame extraction which we didn't leave overnight to settle we are going to jar up tomorrow. Our fourth hive is working really hard. Did what we were advised to go slow when extracting as we wrecked the frames last time, brilliant advice came out unscathed.

 

[Angry_Mob]

Made up about 150 L of 2:1 syrup. Removed 20 supers ready for extracting. Released a caged queen.

 

[Swarm]

Confirmed another laying queen, quite petite and black as jet has sealed worker brood. One that was still a bit small had a frame of emerging/sealed brood last visit and they are looking much healthier in numbers. Just waiting on two cells now and that's the queens done for this year, thirty in total with the few I gave away.
Made the most of a beautiful day to assess the honey crop, the urgency to remove supers for extraction has abated for a while. The honey supers are looking amazing and if the Balsam kicks in like it did this time last year, we could have a bumper harvest to rival or even beat 2018. Adding extra boxes to early nucs rather than hiving them up and adding supers has been a good move, I've now got loads of snowy white, deep frames to extract ready for use next season.
Tidied up what's left of spare kit, I have no more poly extensions left so the storage area is looking quite bare now, a couple of old swienty boxes and two modified paynes nucs, some floors and roofs.
Worked out invert and treatment requirements before finally giving in and heading home.
Gorgeous smell of propolis today..... Winter is coming.

 

[elainemary]

Found a dead queen in my one remaining ‘problem’ hive. Strange how she was lying dead on the comb and hadn’t fallen to the floor, with a retinue around her and clearly all still strongly attracted to her. She had frayed like wings not like deformed wings just a bit tatty. So presume this is why I’ve seen polished cells but no sign of a laying queen and why no emergency cells built on test combs….Does anyone know if dead queens continue to emit pheromones? Removed the corpse and added a few cells with young larvae / eggs to double check there isn’t a second queen.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Does anyone know if dead queens continue to emit pheromones?

Only anecdotal but supposedly a way to find an elusive queen. Pin a dead one to top bars and she will come to kill her

 

[The Poot]

Only anecdotal but supposedly a way to find an elusive queen. Pin a dead one to top bars and she will come to kill her

Only useful if you happen to keep a dead queen in your pocket for such an eventuality

 

[Erichalfbee]

Only useful if you happen to keep a dead queen in your pocket for such an eventuality

Lots of us do actually… well maybe not in a pocket but in a jar of alcohol or in the freezer

 

[REDWOOD]

Nothing, I’m grounded, my Land Rover had it’s first MOT failure, not bad for a 17 year old, should be back on the road in a day or two though and plenty on indoor beekeeping things to get on with

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Up to the carreg apiary to bring back the first batch of cleared supers, tomorrow will be doing the rounds of the castle and Garn Cottage
I'm getting too bloody old for this!!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Up to the carreg apiary to bring back the first batch of cleared supers, tomorrow will be doing the rounds of the castle and Garn Cottage
I'm getting too bloody old for this!!

Yes time to take up Frank’s mantle

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Yes time to take up Frank’s mantle

Sssssh!

 

[Worker bee]

Where do I start I'm pushing my hives to the limit this year.

Up to the carreg apiary to bring back the first batch of cleared supers, tomorrow will be doing the rounds of the castle and Garn Cottage
I'm getting too bloody old for this!!

Can I have those supers you don't need them