What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Curly green finger's]

Made a right pig's ear out of doing a Snelgrove artificial swarm using a split board. Luckily had 2 roofs and a spare box but still chaos. Hadn't thought it through. You start with a neat stack of boxes and you end with a neat stack of boxes but inbetween. . . . ! Evening, after the rain, all the foragers were home.
Sooo much easier to nuc the queen if you can find her. If she hasn't already gone.

I agree, I’ve read into the method you are talking about most of
The time I’ve found the queen in the top box on a frame of eggs

 

[Antipodes]

After I'd finished and taken my hood down there was a crawler which wound up on the back of my neck. I was doing so well.

Are you sure it didn't get in through that zip under your hood?

 

[Parsonage Bees]

I agree, I’ve read into the method you are talking about most of
The time I’ve found the queen in the top box on a frame of eggs

Queen is supposed to be in the top part of the split for the first stage and not in the bottom with the flying bees and the stores. To get there I had 3 stacks of boxes open, shaking frames to be sure she's not in the wrong stack.
Time will tell where she ended up.

Somehow there was a frame of foundation left over. Like having a spare bolt when you've been fixing the car. !

 

[Curly green finger's]

Aye I was talking about finding the queen to nuc her

 

[Newbeeneil]

Inspected 20 hives today and nuced 3 queens.
When I arrived at one of my out apiarys I saw a dear bound away through the gorse and out of the corner of my eye caught a glimpse of this lovely fawn trying to hide.

 

[gregior]

Bad day at the office today one of those days when you wonder is it all worth it . Visited my out apiary for the first time in 8 days of the 12 hives there i had already split 5. All the other 7 had sealed cells in ( at the last visit a couple had cells with eggs but nothing more) Found the Q in 2 of them so put them in nuc's. The other 5 I couldn't find the Queens so I think they've gone (I clip all my queens so no bees lost).No fun atall searching through monster queenless colonies for queens and cells and the bees were NOT happy atall. Reduced all down to 1 cell and will have to go back again next week to remove any new cells they are going to be pissed!
I've tried to improve the temperament at this site but it's close to some other bees where the beek takes a ' hands off' approach so i'm fighting a losing battle.
On the plus side there is a bit of honey on the hives so not all bad.

 

[Wilco]

Are you sure it didn't get in through that zip under your hood?

Certainly possible although it crawled up the back of my neck and only did it after I'd taken the hood down and then inspected another four colonies- no incursions occurred whilst the hood was up.

 

[Wilco]

Wasn't planning bee work today and was attempting to make a website but got a call for a swarm and went to get it. Not quite under an hour but close. Lovely prime swarm, now in a hive ready to go to quarantine site tomorrow morning. Slightly easier to collect than the last one.





Now rushing around prepping other kit as I've been offered some more by a friend. This time yesterday I wss planning to take things easy this season!

 

[Swarm]

Two more queens in nucs after finding charged cells, decided to make up another mating nuc as well. This was our other 2020 queen, she is a beast and had an enormous brood nest. Only one charged cell with the other colony but the queen was available, the rest are huge but happy at present.

 

[Jengles]

Shouldn't have skipped the full inspection last week! Checked on our biggest hive today to find the queen gone (she was clipped) and a dozen sealed and unsealed cells.

We'd stolen some eggs and larvae from this hive two weeks ago and replaced with foundation, thinking they'd draw it and make nice new drawn wax for the queen to lay in. Instead found wall to wall brood on the drawn frames and two untouched sheets First year beek mistakes I guess!

We made up a nuc with a frame of capped brood, a frame with a couple of qcs, one of stores and a shake of bees. Also wanted to experiment with the apidea so cut out a qc and added it with a cup of bees and fondant. We'll see how it goes!

Finally, went through the hive and tore down all but one qc. It feels a bit risky reducing to one and relying on it to emerge healthy and survive, but I'm guessing if you leave more than one the first to emerge will just bugger off with a cast swarm?

Will go back in a few days to tear down any new queen cells, and then close up and hope!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Demaree queens are roaring away. They are both big fat orange queens from BS both in their fourth year and no sign of getting old. Moved three frames up in each. Capped supers in each and the apiary smells of hawthorn.
Nuc’d two queens.
Have a lovely German queen from a friend put into an nuc three weeks ago, now in a full size box and storming away. Never tire of watching queens lay.

 

[Moobee]

Moved the two 3 frame nuc to the out apiary along with another nuc with Queen Camilla (from BS Honeybees) so looking forward to seeing how she does.
No activity in the two bait hives so refreshed the lemongrass inside and a few drips on the entrance.

 

[swyftie]

Inspected my one and only hive today...for the second time ever!
I Found & removed 5 queen cells but now wondering if I did the right thing.
Couldn't find the queen (after removing them) but did see plenty of eggs, larvae, and capped cells so hoping what I did bought me a little time and didn't harm the hives' prosperity.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Inspected my one and only hive today...for the second time ever!
I Found & removed 5 queen cells but now wondering if I did the right thing.
Couldn't find the queen (after removing them) but did see plenty of eggs, larvae, and capped cells so hoping what I did bought me a little time and didn't harm the hives' prosperity.

Hmmm, sounds like your queen has already swarmed, I'm afraid it was a bad move removing all the QCs without knowing the status of the colony - just hope they have young enough larvae left to try and make another queen.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Inspected my one and only hive today...for the second time ever!
I Found & removed 5 queen cells but now wondering if I did the right thing.
Couldn't find the queen (after removing them) but did see plenty of eggs, larvae, and capped cells so hoping what I did bought me a little time and didn't harm the hives' prosperity.

It won’t buy you any time at all. Sorry.
Have a read of this
https://wbka.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/wbka-booklet-english-PDF.pdf

 

[The Poot]

Well, after being away for a few days I was welcomed home by this:

My wife took a video of the intrepid beekeeper in the heat of the action:
View attachment IMG_3974.MOV

 

[Curly green finger's]

Well what a day I was looking at bees at 730am and finished at 530pm and I’m knackered.
I’ve demareed 12 colony’s nuced 5 queens moved 8 colony’s back on top of the hills ready for the clover , also looks like after inspections my number 9 sp colony swarmed yesterday and they were up in a maple tree to far to reach .
On a plus note I have some lovely new black girls and I was adding a third and fourth super to some colony’s more inspections tomorrow.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Well what a day I was looking at bees at 730am and finished at 530pm and I’m knackered.
I’ve demareed 12 colony’s nuced 5 queens moved 8 colony’s back on top of the hills ready for the clover , also looks like after inspections my number 9 sp colony swarmed yesterday and they were up in a maple tree to far to reach .
On a plus note I have some lovely new black girls and I was adding a third and fourth super to some colony’s more inspections tomorrow.

It’s a hard life being a farmer

 

[Curly green finger's]

It’s a hard life being a farmer

I wouldn’t want to do anything else

 

[Moobee]

Got called out to a lovely big swarm that had landed on a big garden settee thing. They went into the skep beautifully and I popped home to wait until a bit later for the flying bees to go in and collect the skep. Little b*ggers absconded an hour later. It was barely 2pm!