What did you do in the Apiary today?

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Ivy honey is underrated, I love it. Really distinctive flavour.

It's looking very good here this year as well, might try and get some myself.
 
Last night was the first time I had smelt honey/nectar in the garden in a couple of months, despite having a blocked nose. There was a definite nectar smell coming from the hive entrances but it had a musty type tinge to it. What sort of smell does Ivy nectar have when they are drying it?
Took out the inspection boards that had been in for 3 days after Apivar was put on about 10 days ago. Hive 1 had a massive drop of approx 300 mites, Hive 2 about 150 and Hive 3 about 30. There's a number of crawling bees outside Hives 1 and 2 of which a few have shrivelled wings. Hopefully the treatment will bring the varroa and virus load down sufficiently for better winter bees. No such issues with Hive 3, the local mongrels, who are faring much better than the 2nd generation Buckfast colonies. Could be down to the type of bee or a number of other factors.
 
Mad dash to try and get enough supers ready.... Same as every year...

..spring 2021 cut.jpgspring 2021.jpg
 
StephenT said:
Last night was the first time I had smelt honey/nectar in the garden in a couple of months, despite having a blocked nose. There was a definite nectar smell coming from the hive entrances but it had a musty type tinge to it. What sort of smell does Ivy nectar have when they are drying it?
Took out the inspection boards that had been in for 3 days after Apivar was put on about 10 days ago. Hive 1 had a massive drop of approx 300 mites, Hive 2 about 150 and Hive 3 about 30. There's a number of crawling bees outside Hives 1 and 2 of which a few have shrivelled wings. Hopefully the treatment will bring the varroa and virus load down sufficiently for better winter bees. No such issues with Hive 3, the local mongrels, who are faring much better than the 2nd generation Buckfast colonies. Could be down to the type of bee or a number of other factors.
Click to expand...
Find a big bush of Ivy in full bloom and sniff. Very pungent.
 
Removed the last of my supers today a bit of heather to finish off the season, feeding and treating now
 
I ran around getting the last of the supers off yesterday and at one apiary there were cells with pink nectar dotted around the frames. I have seen this before at another apiary when I was late removing supers. Does anyone have an idea what it is, could it be from berries?

I would take a photo but the supers are in the car and I am really hobbling today.
 
Took out the MAQS from 31 colonies (they were put in two weeks ago.) Had no problems with them : no bearding after insertion , no piles of dead bees, no queens lost although it looks like several stopped or reduced laying for a few days (but my queens often take a brood break in late august/early september anyway as there is no local forage). The above has been also been my experience of using MAQS in the past. I run mostly doubles and they are laid across the tops of frames of the lower BC. Four hives were singles but I added a BC to those to give the bees somewhere to move too temporarily other than going outside the hive. 25 had mesh floors and 6 had solid floors (entrance block removed). The only time I had a pile of dead bees was a few years ago when a few of my colonies had chronic Bee paralysis and most of the dead were bees with characteristic syndrome 2 signs. The last three years have used Apivar so need to ring the changes to avoid resistance. Don't bother with thymol based treatments these days as proved to be not very effective in the past due to low temps in "sunny donny" !
 
Took 10 supers off today, very good balsam flow on which should be enough for their winter stores. Bees were incredibly passive, I removed the supers from the last few hives without a suit or gloves on which for my bees is bordering on suicidal but they didn't bat an eyelid.
 
madasafish said:
Now we have sold all our honey, thinking about winter.
I have 9 mini nucs in various strengths.
Two are strong enough to overwinter.
The remaining seven are not.
So making a plan of what to combine with which. (two appear Q-).

My brain hurts! :eek:
Click to expand...


Have done nothing yet.
One Q- mini nuc appears to have young larvae.
Can I find the Q? Can I ... rude word.

Oh my eyesight is failing as badly as my grey cell s.

The advantage of making no decision .. yet.:devilish:
 
Brought eleven supers home today, clearer boards popped under the last four. They seem to be doing well on Balsam and I was really pleased with look of the brood boxes, feeding may be quite light this year.
Currently extracting, I think I just uncapped the best super I've ever had, eleven frames, all snowy white and not a single empty cell.
 
tonyofarr said:
I ran around getting the last of the supers off yesterday and at one apiary there were cells with pink nectar dotted around the frames. I have seen this before at another apiary when I was late removing supers. Does anyone have an idea what it is, could it be from berries?

I would take a photo but the supers are in the car and I am really hobbling today.
Click to expand...
Having watched the bees on blackberries while I was picking them, I wouldn't be surprised. Do you have Japanese Knotweed nearby? That's a red nectar and it's in full flower now.
 
masterBK said:
Took out the MAQS from 31 colonies (they were put in two weeks ago.) Had no problems with them : no bearding after insertion , no piles of dead bees, no queens lost although it looks like several stopped or reduced laying for a few days (but my queens often take a brood break in late august/early september anyway as there is no local forage). The above has been also been my experience of using MAQS in the past. I run mostly doubles and they are laid across the tops of frames of the lower BC. Four hives were singles but I added a BC to those to give the bees somewhere to move too temporarily other than going outside the hive. 25 had mesh floors and 6 had solid floors (entrance block removed). The only time I had a pile of dead bees was a few years ago when a few of my colonies had chronic Bee paralysis and most of the dead were bees with characteristic syndrome 2 signs. The last three years have used Apivar so need to ring the changes to avoid resistance. Don't bother with thymol based treatments these days as proved to be not very effective in the past due to low temps in "sunny donny" !
Click to expand...
David Evans has told me that as long as I rotate Apivar in late summer with OA in winter, the risk of resistance is very low as OA has a different mode of action and wipes out the majority of any remaining mites if you time so broodless. He said if I only ever used Apivar (& didn’t use OA in winter) it would need a rethink. Made sense when I thought about it - effectively you’re rotating between the two. I thought like you, that I’d need to start changing my treatment, as I’ve used Apivar for the last 3 seasons, hence my question about resistance to him. It’s his choice of treatment too (Apivar late summer followed by OA in broodless period)
 
The apiary with the pink nectar is new and tbh I have not had time to go exploring further down the road to the sea so there could very well be Japanese knotweed around, I have seen it in full flower in other areas, thanks Swarm.
 
tonyofarr said:
I ran around getting the last of the supers off yesterday and at one apiary there were cells with pink nectar dotted around the frames. I have seen this before at another apiary when I was late removing supers. Does anyone have an idea what it is, could it be from berries?

I would take a photo but the supers are in the car and I am really hobbling today.
Click to expand...
I spotted my bees collecting beautiful salmon pink pollen from field scabious last week, not sure of the colour of the nectar though.
 
Still feeding twice a day and they are draining it. Often wondered when I've read other beeks buying in bulk and taking about sugar prices. we have only four hives and going through 6 bags a day!!!!
Hefted yesterday, weight starting to increase two were around the 9 and 10k they are now in double figures the other two are around 14k. Need to remove the aiguard from one to replace with a second tray but tipping down with rain, hope we can get a break to change it today
 
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