What did you do in the Apiary today?

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One of my colonies is preparing to swarm
Queen cells, and the Queen has stopped laying.
Tidied things up as best I could and have kept one of the uncapped Queen cells in a 3 frame nucleus.
Will review next week.
May need to take the Queen out, but not sure.
 
steve1958 said:
One of my colonies is preparing to swarm
Queen cells, and the Queen has stopped laying.
Tidied things up as best I could and have kept one of the uncapped Queen cells in a 3 frame nucleus.
Will review next week.
May need to take the Queen out, but not sure.
Click to expand...
if you have a hive full of QCs you need to take the queen out, not a QC, otherwise try some other form of A/S
 
JamezF said:
I thought the queen didn't stop laying pretty much until the moment of departure
Click to expand...
That's usually the case, they may slow down the laying rate but seldom stop.
Has the OP seen the queen or just assuming she's still there?
 
JamezF said:
I thought the queen didn't stop laying pretty much until the moment of departure. I may well be wrong though.

James
Click to expand...
I thought the same. I'm told she slims down for the flight, so I'm guessing the bees change her diet
Maybe this effects her rate of lay.
She is a 2022 Queen but may have mated poorly.
I shall inspect again next Monday.
 
Tried giving some honey away this week but failed.
People insisted upon paying for it !

This was last year's soft set that had melted during the last heatwave.
It's not setting again
As it was last years I decided to give people a jar with their runny honey purchase.
I explained what it was, and they insisted on paying for it
 
This morning I placed scrunched up cloth on top of the roofs of hives I had clearer boards under the supers of .
I use rhombus clearer boards .
reason being ,I put the boards under a couple of days ago .
as they can exit the supers pretty quickly.the guy to do the lifting for me ( I’m incapacitated at the moment ) is due tomorrow I thought if the bees have vacated them already, they may not be able the keep then cool enough !.,the roofs of the hives the sun hit first were too worry be hot to touch ( metal covers !
never had to worry before but it was Scorchio early doors .
 
Combined all the nucs with the bottom of the league full hives.
Spent the other half of the day scrubbing propolis from polystyrene.
Delightful
At one point I wished I was back amidst the sticky hell of extraction.
I did notice one thing that I have always missed- some of the nucs(maisemore) have screwed down mesh while others have it moulded in.
The latter therefore have double the bbs.
I thought it was individual colonies that had the idiosyncrasy to brace comb the living daylights but it turns out to be the kit.
 
A jarring up session with two grand daughters. One was filling and passing the jars to “quality control”, who weighed them to ensure correct for selling, fitted the lids and boxed them up. They’ve been part of the process throughout the season, accompanying me on inspections, helping with extraction (doing most of the handle turning, while I gave encouragement) as part of an ad hoc “apprenticeship”.
Today they proudly went home with a 12 oz hex jar of honey each, which they labelled up, wearing their personalised trucker caps which came all the way from the USA. They were properly made up! A really nice afternoon😀
 
Moved another hive to the heather site. Nothing quite like carrying a ratcheted shut hive through two gates, two lots of electric fence and over a stock fence, all spread out, in the dark.

Beautiful moon though. Didn't spot any meteors but I'm sure we're close to the Pleiades one.

Edit, paused in my garden just now for a minut or two and saw a spectacular meteor, possibly one of the biggest I've seen!
 
Last edited:
Wilco said:
Beautiful moon though. Didn't spot any meteors but I'm sure we're close to the Pleiades one.

Edit, paused in my garden just now for a minut or two and saw a spectacular meteor, possibly one of the biggest I've seen!
Click to expand...
Peak is on Saturday
We have been in Wales for 10 years. This is the first year we will have clear skies (except maybe 2018 but I wasn't on this planet then)
Looking forward to spending a little time meteor gazing
 
Erichalfbee said:
Peak is on Saturday
We have been in Wales for 10 years. This is the first year we will have clear skies (except maybe 2018 but I wasn't on this planet then)
Looking forward to spending a little time meteor gazing
Click to expand...
Clear skies maybe, but full moon (or near as damn it) which isn't ideal. The brighter ones will still be visible though.
 
Wilco said:
Beautiful moon though. Didn't spot any meteors but I'm sure we're close to the Pleiades one.
Click to expand...

I'm fairly sure this weekend is the Perseiids. I've seen a few over the last week without really even trying, but lying back in a deck chair for a while is probably the best way to do it. Then try not to fall asleep :D

James
 
Erichalfbee said:
Fifteen supers off this morning. Blistering heat already at 10am. I’m looking at them stacked up on the kitchen table wishing I had a slave.
Click to expand...
Where is he then ? Gone on a reciprocal holiday ? There's no womens football on the TV today ... altough the beach volleyball is scheduled for later in the week !
 
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