What did you do in the Apiary today?

[The Poot]

Inspected both colonies. All good.
Question: Colony on single brood with three full but uncapped supers. Brood box starting to be back filled. Queen running out of space to lay. One and a half brood frames not drawn out yet, but being honey filled as soon as cells are drawn.
I‘m anticipating a marked reduction in nectar flow any time now, so added a super above the brood box and fitted the queen excluder above the empty, (drawn &wet) super.
I‘m hoping the bees will move the honey in the brood frames up into the super, freeing up brood space and which will then be part of their Winter stores. Any nectar still brought into the hive can be stored there too.
Does that seem sensible at this time of year? Or am I missing a trick? I will extract the supers above the excluder, once capped and decide whether to refit them, or not, if not much flow on. I’m expecting a bit of a dearth in August as most late Summer flowers seem to be going over already.

 

[Wilco]

Inspected both colonies. All good.
Question: Colony on single brood with three full but uncapped supers. Brood box starting to be back filled. Queen running out of space to lay. One and a half brood frames not drawn out yet, but being honey filled as soon as cells are drawn.
I‘m anticipating a marked reduction in nectar flow any time now, so added a super above the brood box and fitted the queen excluder above the empty, (drawn &wet) super.
I‘m hoping the bees will move the honey in the brood frames up into the super, freeing up brood space and which will then be part of their Winter stores. Any nectar still brought into the hive can be stored there too.
Does that seem sensible at this time of year? Or am I missing a trick? I will extract the supers above the excluder, once capped and decide whether to refit them, or not, if not much flow on. I’m expecting a bit of a dearth in August as most late Summer flowers seem to be going over already.

You may end up with brood and a half though.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Poot it’s what I’ve done with honey bound boxes. Foundation over the brood but under the QX. Working very well. Drawing frames out and moving stores up. If you’re worried about queen going up move three frames full of nectar into the middle of the bottom super of foundation

 

[magor]

Inspected both colonies. All good.
Question: Colony on single brood with three full but uncapped supers. Brood box starting to be back filled. Queen running out of space to lay. One and a half brood frames not drawn out yet, but being honey filled as soon as cells are drawn.
I‘m anticipating a marked reduction in nectar flow any time now, so added a super above the brood box and fitted the queen excluder above the empty, (drawn &wet) super.
I‘m hoping the bees will move the honey in the brood frames up into the super, freeing up brood space and which will then be part of their Winter stores. Any nectar still brought into the hive can be stored there too.
Does that seem sensible at this time of year? Or am I missing a trick? I will extract the supers above the excluder, once capped and decide whether to refit them, or not, if not much flow on. I’m expecting a bit of a dearth in August as most late Summer flowers seem to be going over already.

i dont think them move stores only consume and if flow continue and block ya broodnest then the way may is to try draw more down the nest (nadiring?either brood box and you re-arrange frames either shallow and leave it up to them?) except if you want the broodbreak block?

 

[The Poot]

You may end up with brood and a half though.

There’s a down side to everything! I had decided to keep these on single brood and give a super for Wintering. I can do the necessary in the Spring without too much angst. Not the best I agree, but I thought the best plan as things stand (breaking my resolution to never have brood and a half again....)
Cheers Wilco.

 

[The Poot]

Poot it’s what I’ve done with honey bound boxes. Foundation over the brood but under the QX. Working very well. Drawing frames out and moving stores up. If you’re worried about queen going up move three frames full of nectar into the middle of the bottom super of foundation

That’s encouraging thanks
I‘ve put drawn comb there, not foundation, so hopefully the honey movement will be quicker....

 

[Dutchman]

I started pushing the bees down to go from brood and a half to a single (commercial) brood box which is plenty big for overwintering. The bees had done most of the work already and were back filling any newly vacated cells with nectar. Everything is filling up, some hives now have 7 supers all nearly full and beginning to be capped. Strange how things can change in a few weeks, last month I wondered if I was ever going to get any harvest.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I never enjoyed exams ... I collect knowledge readily and I'm told I am good at passing knowledge on, but regurgitating it in random chunks in a pressured environment has no appeal

I have enough certificates and 'qualifications' in relation to my career to cover the walls of my study (if I was insecure enough to feel the need to do so) so I have no desire to sit a load of made up examinations dreamt up by some organisation like the BBKA which amount to no more than a pile of baked beans.

 

[holmbee]

I have one brood box that is almost completely backfilled with nectar. Put one partly drawn brood frame in to give the Q a chance but the workers are drawing that and also filling with nectar. Meanwhile they have been virtually ignoring the super above the QX that has drawn frames from last year. So moved the QX up above that super but below the higher supers that are virtually filled and being capped. Just hope they are now prepared to move the nectar upwards.

 

[linoleum bonypart]

Ouch!
I wanted to go to Bristol but ended up in Glasgow

Sons doing his masters at Glasgow …always combine a holiday with a visit to his
Jolantas accepted not much going on otherwise … flow over … always seems too soon

 

[Erichalfbee]

Sons doing his masters at Glasgow …always combine a holiday with a visit to his
Jolantas accepted not much going on otherwise … flow over … always seems too soon

Glasgow is a stone's throw away from fantastic scenery.
yes...the flow's been manic then Bang! Like watching an eclipse.

 

[MJNT]

Agree with the stress of 5 years stuffing facts in your brain but I loved cpd …trying to retire now but . The novelty and contrast of being able to doze off in a lecture or only pick out relevant bits of information to retain in contrast to trying to learn the lot was never lost on me

 

[Moobee]

I come from a hard working working class family and was the first to go to Uni. I studied Biological sciences at Birmingham university. My parents had v little money so I got a full grant. Those were the days when you could go to Uni and leave debt free (I left £75 in credit which I used to go inter-railing).
Are you thinking of taking some bee exams? I’d recommend it, if you enjoy studying and it’s a nice project in the winter months when beekeeping is quiet.

My father earned too much for me to get any grant unfortunately and was too tight to pay for me to go. It still hurts that I couldn’t as I was so passionate about nature and wanted to be a marine biologist….
Anyhoo, I am where I am and totally adore keeping bees so it seemed a natural progression to study these fascinating insects.

 

[Ian123]

1 thing I discovered today…..queens are bloody hard to handle when you’ve got a bandaged finger from a dog bite

 

[magor]

I have one brood box that is almost completely backfilled with nectar. Put one partly drawn brood frame in to give the Q a chance but the workers are drawing that and also filling with nectar. Meanwhile they have been virtually ignoring the super above the QX that has drawn frames from last year. So moved the QX up above that super but below the higher supers that are virtually filled and being capped. Just hope they are now prepared to move the nectar upwards.

QX is brood excluder not nectar , imagine that brood and nectar have somehow kinda ''competitive relationship''

from what i read you are joined a situation where brood reduces from its own , that means less nurses needed for take care it and so more nurses pass into mid-age bees - the most complete worker who can do all works in a colony , a backup army - but them main job is to be crop receivers and store it around and above brood and also you are in a flow meaning more push on inside hive population to move on foragers, both these push brood down on each frame in broodnest and in whole broodnest box

bees are economy insects and when a forager pass the crop to a receiver then the receiver will move up and ll store it to the firsts cells ll find above and around brood and as brood reduces , receivers will not go far up to super to store it cause them find free cells in broodnest and can return back to dance areas, where crop exchange happens, faster and with less energy wasted

so may if you follow bees instict -nectar push brood down- and nadir your drawn shallow

 

[elainemary]

My newly pimped up bee-mobile. Took the photos in the garden and got vinyls printed and applied locally. Feel passionate about getting the message across about planting more for our bees!

 

[Wilco]

My newly pimped up bee-mobile. Took the photos in the garden and got vinyls printed and applied locally. Feel passionate about getting the message across about planting more for our bees!

I reckon it would be more of a deterrent to thieves if it read 'bees may be loose in this van overnight'.

Looks nice. I keep thinking of getting a magnetic one to stick on my batteredmobile

 

[The Poot]

Removed a capped super after fitting the clearer board yesterday - rhombus mounted centrally. Not a single bee remained in it.
Photos show the fat frames - it was a 9 frame castellated box and the quality job the bees had done.
It always seems a shame to destroy their wax works.

 

[madasafish]

1 thing I discovered today…..queens are bloody hard to handle when you’ve got a bandaged finger from a dog bite

even worse when your left index finger has been reduced in length by a saw blade, (circular of course)

I hold in my right hand (5 fingers) and mark with my left (4.5 fingers) despite being right handed. Some oddly marked workers as well,
Thanks for COT

 

[elainemary]

I reckon it would be more of a deterrent to thieves if it read 'bees may be loose in this van overnight'.

Looks nice. I keep thinking of getting a magnetic one to stick on my batteredmobile

I could get you a quote for a set of my vinyls!?