What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Newbeeneil]

nice, how much honey did you extract?

I didn't count up but I think it was about a dozen buckets but not all frames were full.

 

[Amari]

Spent the morning driving 50miles around Surrey to pick up 22 supers. Spent the afternoon changing the controller on the extractor then spinning the supers out. 22 supers in 41/2 hours on my own - hardwork but chuffed.

You must be some sort of super-Tarzan. 22 supers = c. 220 frames = 440 combs to uncap = 440/270 mins = 0.6 mins = 36 seconds per side! And you put them into the spinner, spun them, then took them out ?? Assembled your kit, cleaned it and put it away, all in that time??
PS: Hope I've got my maths right. I've just had a glass of wine and only scraped a pass at Maths 'O' level........

 

[Newbeeneil]

You must be some sort of super-Tarzan. 22 supers = c. 220 frames = 440 combs to uncap = 440/270 mins = 0.6 mins = 36 seconds per side! And you put them into the spinner, spun them, then took them out ?? Assembled your kit, cleaned it and put it away, all in that time??
PS: Hope I've got my maths right. I've just had a glass of wine and only scraped a pass at Maths 'O' level........

I can't fault your maths and I was sweating like a pig at the end of it but as I said not all were full and I just left the kit in my honey room and cleared it all up this morning...... I did ache this morning tho!

 

[deemann1]

Checked on 25 hives at the heather great flow on at the moment, put clearing boards on another apiary, checked 2 apiarys for feeding no need to feed lots of stores, came across 2 queenless colonies will go back tomorrow to sort out

 

[GuyNir]

Noticed the last few days the bees are really looking for water. Consuming stores I guess.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

popped up to the castle apiary and it seems that the wet weather followed by this warm spell has really kick started the heather with bees piling it in and needing more supers - so with here and Brynmair (and maybe the range)there will be heather honey this year) checked on a nuc I had up there which, four weeks ago the sheep had knocked over (the buggers had broken the latch on the gate) and all is well, even after having the frames scattered everywhere in the rain the queen survived and is now laying up three to four frames of brood.
Had a quick look at queen 46 a red queen which seemed to be slowing down last month to find they had already superseded her, there was a lovely big dark queen in her place and a good brood pattern on six frames.

 

[Swarm]

Noticed the last few days the bees are really looking for water. Consuming stores I guess.

I saw hundreds collecting water at the bottom of a few tons of sand this evening (it's their favourite watering hole )
Winter bees maybe?
Had a peek under the crown boards and put clearer boards under the next batch of supers ready for the morning. Did a final shuffle of the nucs to make room to drop a double brood situation on top of an old Demarree and put it alongside. Nucs are being cleared down to two boxes so a busy couple of days extracting.
Saw the first signs of Balsam this year and a lot of bees landing heavily, which was nice to see.

 

[Markthebuilder]

I recruited the help of second year newbie in the village who is much better at spotting queens than me. I'd resigned myself to culling the Qs from two colonies that are perpetually angry. If we failed to spot the Qs I planned to separate the BBs from the supers and move them several yards away for a couple of hours.
In the event both colonies were docile, so no action taken..... !

did your Newbee spot the queens yet or are you just happy they have calmed down

 

[Sutty]

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?

Have you washed your suits, or are they laden with alarm pheromone?
Had you been eating pear drops?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

popped up to the castle apiary and it seems that the wet weather followed by this warm spell has really kick started the heather with bees piling it in and needing more supers - so with here and Brynmair (and maybe the range)there will be heather honey this year) checked on a nuc I had up there which, four weeks ago the sheep had knocked over (the buggers had broken the latch on the gate) and all is well, even after having the frames scattered everywhere in the rain the queen survived and is now laying up three to four frames of brood.
Had a quick look at queen 46 a red queen which seemed to be slowing down last month to find they had already superseded her, there was a lovely big dark queen in her place and a good brood pattern on six frames.

I'm sat in my study with the window open (busily writing Covid risk assessments as all the local chapels have found out I'm an accredited risk assessor and I've just done one for my chapel), the apiary is a hundred yards behind the house and I'm overwhelmed by the smell of heather nectar!!, luckily I popped the crownboards on a few of the 'smaller' colonies this evening (after seeing the state of the castle hives) as they were begging for yet another super. They are this year's nucs, I have already taken two supers of summer honey off, now it looks like I'll have two supers of heather honey off them as well.
And the nearest heather is 1.58 miles away!!

 

[Amari]

did your Newbee spot the queens yet or are you just happy they have calmed down

1. Newbie spotted Q in one hive and we re-marked her fading dot.

2. Second hive: failed to find Q again - I had tried to find her her two days previously. Decided not to move the BB several yards away, as a method of finding her, because colony fairly quiet so culling not needed. We put a clearer board under a super.
Went back next day to remove super: it was still full of bees! Lifted out a frame: Lo and behold, it was rich with BIAS and there was the Q !!

Memo to self (after 49 years of beekeeping): If you can't find the Q in the BB she might be above the QX in the supers. Quite how she got there I don't know.

 

[Markthebuilder]

1. Newbie spotted Q in one hive and we re-marked her fading dot.

2. Second hive: failed to find Q again - I had tried to find her her two days previously. Decided not to move the BB several yards away, as a method of finding her, because colony fairly quiet so culling not needed. We put a clearer board under a super.
Went back next day to remove super: it was still full of bees! Lifted out a frame: Lo and behold, it was rich with BIAS and there was the Q !!

Memo to self (after 49 years of beekeeping): If you can't find the Q in the BB she might be above the QX in the supers. Quite how she got there I don't know.

I had a similar exp this summer couldn’t find q etc but didn’t have an excluder in so it should have been obvious me . It did teach me how to probebly need to provide my bees more space especially if bb has a lot of stores

 

[Wilco]

popped up to the castle apiary and it seems that the wet weather followed by this warm spell has really kick started the heather with bees piling it in and needing more supers - so with here and Brynmair (and maybe the range)there will be heather honey this year) checked on a nuc I had up there which, four weeks ago the sheep had knocked over (the buggers had broken the latch on the gate) and all is well, even after having the frames scattered everywhere in the rain the queen survived and is now laying up three to four frames of brood.
Had a quick look at queen 46 a red queen which seemed to be slowing down last month to find they had already superseded her, there was a lovely big dark queen in her place and a good brood pattern on six frames.

Checked livestock last night and cracked a couple of CBs. This morning woke to this on the cam but can't sort it until this evening as I'm locuming all day. Edit: sheep are baa$+@?§$

Memo to self (after 49 years of beekeeping): If you can't find the Q in the BB she might be above the QX in the supers. Quite how she got there I don't know.

Had that myself this year! A few very small queens this year I've noticed.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Checked livestock last night and cracked a couple of CBs. This morning woke to this on the cam but can't sort it until this evening as I'm locuming all day. Edit: sheep are baa$+@?§$

I think sheep are worse than cattle - they just seem to be compelled to rub up against everything - lost a superb colony this spring when sheep got loose and broke into Garn Cottage's garden, bumped over a hive stand and one of the hives ended up in the river in full flood

 

[Wilco]

I think sheep are worse than cattle - they just seem to be compelled to rub up against everything - lost a superb colony this spring when sheep got loose and broke into Garn Cottage's garden, bumped over a hive stand and one of the hives ended up in the river in full flood

Agree, cattle are bigger so can do more damage but sheep can be right jerks and do silly things more frequently... Plus most of these are a flock of Jacobs which I manage for someone else and they're not the most functional breed at the best of times (much prefer my Lleyns).

That's horrendous, sorry to hear. Did you at least manage to retrieve the hive boxes? I've not had an issue almost all season, with sheep intermittently there and also thought they'd learnt their lesson previously (they've always given the hives a wide berth since a couple got too close when I was inspecting a grumpy colony and got stung). However, serves me right for not fencing it off properly. At least I didn't top up the syrup last night...

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Did you at least manage to retrieve the hive boxes?

Found the deep in an eddy a bit further downstream and salvaged the shallow before it was washed away, no sign of crownboard, roof or floor up to now. and the farmer down the road fished out a handful of brood frames that had ended up on the bank down near the milking parlour

 

[Michael Palmer]

I’ve been participating in the National honey bee survey for a few years now. The folks taking the samples have been telling me how much propolis my bees gather. I wouldn’t know as I only work with my bees and have no other stocks I can compare with. What do you think. Got Propolis?

 

[GuyNir]

I’ve been participating in the National honey bee survey for a few years now. The folks taking the samples have been telling me how much propolis my bees gather. I wouldn’t know as I only work with my bees and have no other stocks I can compare with. What do you think. Got Propolis?

Tiny bit, yea…

 

[The Poot]

Put clearers under the final two supers to come off. Removed queen excluders.
Start vaping next week and feeding as required - won’t be much this year by the looks of it and it will be high water content honey from unsealed frames.

 

[drex]

1. Newbie spotted Q in one hive and we re-marked her fading dot.

2. Second hive: failed to find Q again - I had tried to find her her two days previously. Decided not to move the BB several yards away, as a method of finding her, because colony fairly quiet so culling not needed. We put a clearer board under a super.
Went back next day to remove super: it was still full of bees! Lifted out a frame: Lo and behold, it was rich with BIAS and there was the Q !!

Memo to self (after 49 years of beekeeping): If you can't find the Q in the BB she might be above the QX in the supers. Quite how she got there I don't know.

Happened to me twice this year Giles. Like you I was flummoxed the first time, but second time looked in super pretty sharpish and there she was. Changed the excluders but probably needed to change the beekeeper