What did you do in the Apiary today?

[alancooper]

Some great stuff at the Eisteddfod this year?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Hasn't been yet - last week was the Urdd one - a bit old for that now. Haven't been since I sang against Bryn Terfel in Mold, 1984

 

[Wilco]

Y

In process of extraction.. Some weird season.. In couple decent days bees brought some honey.. What type of honey.. have no idea, since black locust failed greatly.. I will send sample for analysis so will see what smarter than me will say..
These days bramble started to open as " tree of heaven" also. I can smell the scent of it.. Well, of course we have again showers and scent can't be smelled..
If I live in UK, I would freak out of so much rain all the time. Here it is tearing my nerve beyond imagination..

You've probably had more rain than us in the last few weeks. It's distinctly dry here, which is concerning me!

 

[JamezF]

You've probably had more rain than us in the last few weeks. It's distinctly dry here, which is concerning me!

I'm not absolutely certain, but I don't think we've had rain here in the last four weeks.

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hasn't been yet

Yes. August

 

[enrico]

I'm not absolutely certain, but I don't think we've had rain here in the last four weeks.

James

True. Good old well being used every day. Ground hard and cracked. Nectar definitely slowing down. Thousands of lime flowers but not much hope of line nectar unless the weather breaks

 

[Beegarden]

Hefted my five hives: all heavy but because T=16C I removed the crown boards and checked the outside frames of the top boxes all of which showed capped stores. Bees busy and bringing in pollen. Hives were last fed in early September.
It was my first chance to test my Easy See: a kit with a clear plastic panel which you insert into the veil - brought back from a recent beekeeping convention in the US by @SteveG . Worked well but I'll have to wait until I examine brood frames to judge its true worth.
theeasysee.com

View attachment 35254View attachment 35255

Great idea! I just tried to order but note comes up ' sorry, we don't ship to England.'

 

[Amari]

Great idea! I just tried to order but note comes up ' sorry, we don't ship to England.'

Scotland maybe?
https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threa...-plastic-window-in-my-veil.54932/#post-867264

 

[Goran]

Like a book.. If season wasn't such disaster.. I would ran out of barrels.. Instead.. such frames are rare now.. Like one beek told: the one who cursed us didn't waste time ( or to more apropriate translation - was very studious)..

 

[Newbeeneil]

I extracted 5 supers from 2 hives in one of my apiaries on 30/5 and got 90lb. I replaced the supers that evening and went back today to inspect only to find that all the supers were 80% full again!!!!

 

[Newbeeneil]

I’m going away for three days and forgetting about bees

Same here, Sunday-Tuesday- playing golf. The bees can get on with it!

 

[StephenT]

Made another elementary mistake a couple of days ago. Nuc’d a queen on 13 May as the hive was in latter stages of swarm preps. Added a nuc super on 27 May as they were running out of space but they didn’t touch it and on the recent inspection discovered they swarmed about a week ago. Obviously ran out of space in the brood area and that triggered them to swarm. Should have been more proactive and added another nuc brood box with some drawn comb earlier. The queen from the parent hive had emerged when we did a quick check (see pic) so hopefully all will be well there as it’s our one totally mongrel hive (we like to have one of them going).

Was also extracting from another hive and one super frame was almost entirely drone cells as we had given them one frame without foundation for cut comb. It was drawn but not filled at all unlike all the other frames. Extracted another 62lbs of honey from 3 supers and put them straight back on.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Went to apiary 4 yesterday only demared colony’s there one has swarmed and three bait hives have swarms in them .
The swarmed colony had a newly emerged queen cell plus quite a few capped so I opened all some were duds two had workers in and two red tailed giants came out of two others while this happened a virgin took flight and landed on the landing board of another hive and walked in I’m going back there today to sort/split them up and find out what’s going on .
Three more swarms blimey .

 

[Moobee]

Looks lovely
Frustratingly, my lot don’t seem to want to cap the honey. One colony has four full supers and one half full, with nothing capped!
I think, the colony having swarmed, might be short of young bees that predominantly make the wax?
I cleared one of the supers and plonked it onto an adjacent hive with strict instructions to cap it!

I think they’re too busy to cap! I have 9 supers on three hives, all really heavy but could only take off two supers worth of frames that were about three quarters capped.

 

[Moobee]

Checked on two hives that are requeening after being split. No sign of eggs or queens but lots of polished cells and pollen stores. Hoping this bodes well…..
One was split mid May though so popped a frame of eggs in to check status. If they are queenless, I’ll reunite with the nuc & old queen.
Crushed and strained two supers worth of honey last night, quite dark for spring honey and a lovely rich taste so I’m thinking probably hawthorn. Frames ranged between 15 & 17% water, even the part capped ones so all good.

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

Demarees have worked well for me this season - the first time I've done them. Rolling the frames is time consuming and I think it's necessary as long as we're still in swarming season. But yesterday, I found I'd messed up a Demarree. The brood was all in the top box after twelve days. Obviously I'd slipped up and the queen was up there. There were also a dozen swarm cells, some sealed. I wasn't too concerned about having lost a swarm, thinking that the queen was trapped in the top box. There were some eggs, but mostly young larvae. I soon realised she wasn't there, and they had swarmed.

It was only when I put the hive together again that I spotted a little hole in a corner joint of the top box. A swarm had gone.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Here’s an interesting one , so yesterday I was inspecting a few colony’s at this apiary I have some demaree colony’s which have qcs in the top box’s emerged about 4/5 days ago ( a first this season) I don’t know what made me look up at one of the top entrances but low and behold I clocked a queen coming back from her mating flight and trying to get in the top entrance , I thought right I’ll split them now so I finished what I was doing and walked over and closed the top entrance , I then went and grabbed a floor and roof, cb , insulation .
I split the colony only to find that the demaree board had a hole big enough for a queen to go through so I went through the split/brood box and nope no queen , I then went through the three supers nope no queen ontop of the qx nope no queen , where has she gone ?
I then checked through the bottom brood box but I couldn’t find her either the old queen was there so I’ve nuced her and put the colony back together .
Going to look again on Saturday to see where this queen has gone but at this stage I’m not sure , definitely a head scratcher .
What’s your thoughts?
Edit : just taken these of two colony’s out on the common , three supers 33 frames 90% are capped fully , end frames as usual are not .
I haven’t been able to work the supers much this season different things taking my time .

 

[Antipodes]

Here’s an interesting one , so yesterday I was inspecting a few colony’s at this apiary I have some demaree colony’s which have qcs in the top box’s emerged about 4/5 days ago ( a first this season) I don’t know what made me look up at one of the top entrances but low and behold I clocked a queen coming back from her mating flight and trying to get in the top entrance , I thought right I’ll split them now so I finished what I was doing and walked over and closed the top entrance , I then went and grabbed a floor and roof, cb , insulation .
I split the colony only to find that the demaree board had a hole big enough for a queen to go through so I went through the split/brood box and nope no queen , I then went through the three supers nope no queen ontop of the qx nope no queen , where has she gone ?
I then checked through the bottom brood box but I couldn’t find her either the old queen was there so I’ve nuced her and put the colony back together .
Going to look again on Saturday to see where this queen has gone but at this stage I’m not sure , definitely a head scratcher .
What’s your thoughts?
Edit : just taken these of two colony’s out on the common , three supers 33 frames 90% are capped fully , end frames as usual are not .
I haven’t been able to work the supers much this season different things taking my time .
View attachment 36518

One thought immediately to mind is are you totally sure she had come back from a mating flight (ie. with mating sign/s attached), or perhaps what you saw was her landing after an orientation flight only, and then she took off for a proper mating flight shortly after ( which was when you were looking for her)?

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

In the last few days my bees generally have been defensive and nervous, and it's a significant change of temperament compared to last week. I'm not sure why.

Here in the SE, we've had weeks of a relentless chilling NE wind, no rain for ages, and sunshine only later in the day. Perhaps this is affecting nectar availability? And the bees' temperament as a result?

 

[Anduril]

Travelled to my other apiary and what do I find. I'd left a space in the apiary where I shook out drone laying workers last week to put in place one of my other hives this week. Only someone else's bait hive in that spot, it consisted of a roof and empty nuc box and inside was a swarm of bees. Phoned the farmer who saw a blue BMW shoot off from the entrance last Friday, luckily he has the number plate, I took a photo of a Ford Focus today that parked outside the entrance after I had turned up. For all i know they may be totally unrelated and innocent. Their nuc box has now been removed and they will have to contact me if they want their decrepit nuc box back. There is only one beekeeper who has bees close by and he is an ex-policeman.

As an update after closer inspection as I was rushed previously. Did an inspection of the nuc box and there is plenty of capped brood, meaning instead of what I initially thought they were trying to cheekily take a swarm from my apiary. I've come to the conclusion I was given a nuc of bees without frames.