What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Ian123]

Checked the school hives today 1 lost due to a failed queen I suspect all others are doing well
View attachment IMG_0997.MOV

 

[StephenT]

First inspection of the year and two of the garden hives are very strong and we will increase the number of brood frames soon. One is already starting to fill a super. The other hive is a bit behind and the only one left with a couple of frames of autumn ivy honey. We also have a hive in someone else's garden and this one is busting out of single brood . Put a super on and will move it to double brood fairly soon. Happy to get all 4 hives through winter ok.

 

[E&MBees]

Checked on one apiary today. Upgraded two nucs which were on 12 frames to double brood, dummied down to 18 for now. Nice laying pattern, drone brood present. Remarked one queen, didn’t see the other.
Had to down size my most prolific colony to a nuc. They had over wintered on double brood, 22 frames in total. Discovered 14 frames of solid ivy honey, and a few of mouldy pollen. The 2021 queen was trapped on 3 frames of bias. Will soak the ivy bound frames with the aim to reuse once she has got going. This colony wasn’t fed syrup or fondant, they obviously gorged on the ivy.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Managed to get into the bees at last.
Supered five of the nine. One colony wall to wall brood … backfilling with nectar. I left the QX off that one.
Pleased overall

 

[Wilco]

Checked most colonies. Most disappointing was a full colony only on three part frames of brood. However, will see how they go. Checked a split from earlier in the week- no sign of QCs. Slightly flummoxed as the Q is definitely in the other part of the split. Put the Q from my Kieler into another split. Hope they take her.

Rearranged kit between apiaries ready for later in the season too, and set myself some targets for the next year.

Set up garden bait hive. Then made two more PIR squares for full hives and one for a five frame nuc. Still need to cut holes for feeding in the though. Have decided I dislike aluminium tape.

 

[pargyle]

Checked most colonies. Most disappointing was a full colony only on three part frames of brood. However, will see how they go. Checked a split from earlier in the week- no sign of QCs. Slightly flummoxed as the Q is definitely in the other part of the split. Put the Q from my Kieler into another split. Hope they take her.

Rearranged kit between apiaries ready for later in the season too, and set myself some targets for the next year.

Set up garden bait hive. Then made two more PIR squares for full hives and one for a five frame nuc. Still need to cut holes for feeding in the though. Have decided I dislike aluminium tape.
View attachment 35750

It sticks to itself as soon as you take your eye off it ... but it's still the best tape to use with PIR.

 

[masterBK]

Nice day today so did my Ist inspection of 2023 (not been to visit the outapairy bees since before Xmas). All (24 hives at outapairy and 2 at home) still had plenty of stores . They had variable amounts of brood with one with11 frames of brood (I use double BC national hives) while another had just 2 but most had between 7 & 10. One had chalk brood and another had sac brood but rest had no signs of any disease. Found 2 unmarked drone laying queens (autumn supersedures I reckon as all queens had been marked by end of august) plus one marked queen which was not laying anything at all. So I found/killed those 3 queens and united their colonies to boost others. Also found another completely broodless colony with no evidence of a queen but will need confirmation before I unite that to anything. Now down to 22 colonies and intend to unite down further over the next few weeks as I am finding the lifting a bit to much these days. This will allow me to cull a few queens not up to my high standards. Also found a dead queen EU hornet on one floorboard and a dead queen bumble (shiny black stripped of all its hairs) on another floor.

 

[Wilco]

It sticks to itself as soon as you take your eye off it ... but it's still the best tape to use with PIR.

It was more that it kept tearing at the edges as it unrolled! Looks tidier than duct tape though.

 

[pargyle]

It was more that it kept tearing at the edges as it unrolled! Looks tidier than duct tape though.

That happens when the edge of the roll has been dented or damaged by something ... really annoyinng when it happens as you have to go back to the start of the tear.

 

[boywonder]

First full inspection of the hives at the main out-apiary today. Bees in fine fettle. These (the busiest of the lot; 8 full 14*12 frames of BIAS) had several charged QCs, so I'll be back tomorrow to sort that out. Lovely temperament, but clearly not wanting to stick inside the hive whilst I footled around ... Never seen bearding quite like that; and that was taken over an hour after having been in. Hmmmm

 

[Erichalfbee]

They really didn't like you being in there did they?

 

[Mabee]

Checked all my out apiary hives, moved doubles nucs into full hives, lots of stores, looks like fresh nectar being brought in. One grumpy unmarked drone laying queen so removed her and united with another much nicer hive. Started bailey comb changes on 3, including the united hive (should have been 4), to get them off the commercials and onto nationals. Heaps of different pollens coming in. All bees really well behaved, it was only 12°c but felt much warmer in the sun with no wind.

 

[The Poot]

Hives now sorted for the start of the season - changed mouldy and wet cedar brood box (under a poly box) to poly with some new frames of foundation and a couple foundation free. Replaced the floor with a new one. Did away with the stand by adding a new pallet, which lowered the hive. Removed two frames of capped honey stores from the top box and fitted new frames. Re- introduced myself to the queen.

Other hive, removed the free comb from a gap left when I removed a delaminated dummy board at the end of the season and had forgotten to fit a good one! Doh! Fitted queen excluder and refitted the wet super I removed from beneath two days ago!

Temperaments were good, but I got my first sting of the season trapping a bee with a finger.

 

[Into the lions den]

We have just finshed our wintertest where we used 100% heather honey to see if there is any truth to the myth of Heather being bad as winterfood. In 2020 we tried 30-50 % heather on all 9 hives with no winterlosses and this year we wanted to check if 100% heather would also work. At the same time we also wheighed the hive to see the winterconsumption per month and the result is really surprising. First of all no issues during the winter so that myth is totally busted; neither a smaller portion nor 100% heather causes any issues even if the winter is tough. This winter the bees have been sitting idle for 3-4 month with no chance to fly and still no issues. But what really surprised me was the food consumption: We started with a hive weight of 34 kg in early september (about 20 kg of honey and pollen) and in september to october the hive actually gained 4-5 kg. Even in November and december they found something so in end of december we still were on 5 kg plus. In January they started to use up the stores and now in early april the hive weighed 30 kg so netto only 4 kg from september to and of march. 4 kg!! We can also conclude that the brooding have started big time since they consumed 3 kg in March. The excess honey we have can then either be extracted as an early crop or we let it be and extract more of the new honey they collect. So, in conclusion there is absolutely no reason to replace honey with low quality sugar - the 6-7 kg will easily be recovered in early may. Even if there would be a minor net loss we have saved the cost of sugar, loads of boring job with the sticky sugar and our bees get the best food for them. In addition, all honey that is left can be used either for us or as high quality food for nuc's.

I can assure you it is NOT a myth that heather is an inferior winter food. Yes...most winters you will get away with it...but until you do a significant number of colonies over a decade of trying...which we have....you dont find the real pattern. Maybe one year in five or more it is a problem. Is it the weather pattern in the winter? Is it the conditions at heather time when they seal it? Dont know...but for SURE there are seasons when using high protein stores will catch you and your bees out big style. Most times you will get away with it, but in the year when you don't you will regret it.

There is plenty of science that goes against much of what you say. Well found clean stores devoid of waste matter is the BEST for winter food when all they need is the energy. Sugar in not low quality...and where you are coming from is perhaps encapsulated in those few words.

We would also NEVER ...EVER....feed nucs with honey.

Is this a trial with one hive in one winter? If your figures are accurate your bees have been bringing in something at a very strange time of year. May be ivy? If so it is (despite not being a nice honey to most) a relatively clean form of stores and may well have been consumed instead of the earlier heather. Will not happen most years, so do not generalise from a probable anomaly.

 

[Into the lions den]

I was aware the foundation wasn't attached to the sides or bottom of the frame. Didn't realise it wasn't attached at the top either. I do like the idea of ungrooved sidebars and single piece bottom bars though.

James

In all but a couple of specials for customers it IS iserted into a grooved topbar and then embedded..so the top section does not flop when it gets warm. The ones with no top groove are for those who want vertical wiring...in which case the wires themselves hold it in place. Its of limited relevance once the bees do their work.

Especially at the bottom bars...letting the bees attach it themselves does make for stronger flatter combs.

 

[Into the lions den]

Been out 'flagging' OSR sites all day ready for the teams moving bees this coming week.

Passed quite a few apairies of smaller scale beekeepers and amazed how many were in there, fully suited, opening their hives up and examining them. It was 11C and in this area they are not growing yet. Nothing to gain except beekeeper peace of mind yet......UP HERE that is.

 

[Into the lions den]

Probably amongst my very final posts of the season........things are marching on and spare time now vanishes...in the blink of an eye it will be September......that's how our seasons feel. May June July and August just vanish in a blur. November (my most hated month) December and January feel like years.

Unless something I cannot resist comes up...or I get asked to dip in to answer something..that's me off for the summer now.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Probably amongst my very final posts of the season........things are marching on and spare time now vanishes...in the blink of an eye it will be September......that's how our seasons feel. May June July and August just vanish in a blur. November (my most hated month) December and January feel like years.

Unless something I cannot resist comes up...or I get asked to dip in to answer something..that's me off for the summer now.

Have a good season Murray.

 

[Peter Vanstone]

Buy a nail gun! Best purchase I ever made.

Sorry to say this ,l’v nailed tens of thousands of sheets never a problem.my hands are size 10 ,l nail both bottom bars vertically.drop the sheet in from the bottom,you may need to trim the edge,lay flat push wire loops into top v ,if the loops are long bend the tip,forget where the loop is,nail in three nails vertically through wide side of wedge.buy best quality frame nails..l’v been sent rubbish lately,they truly drove me mad,l think this might have happened to you.l’v never known a wired sheet slip.

 

[Moobee]

Checked the drone nuc today as it was warm enough - pretty sure it’s a DLQ as could only see single eggs in the bottom cells, no signs of multiples. Can’t find the flipping queen though as there are still three seams of workers and increasing numbers of drones!
I can only think that late supersedure meant poorly mated so she laid up winter bees in the autumn but then failed.
So my conundrum is…… and feel free to shoot me down if this is stupid logic……. I’m thinking that as she is or was the daughter of a lovely dark queen who was prolific with super calm & productive daughters should I leave them be for a bit so good drones are available in the area or am I risking a mini varroa explosion? I guess that the population will eventually dwindle anyway as the workers die off.