What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Nannysbees]

How much oxalic are you using ?and have your vapes been consistent - if for any reason the first attempt doesn’t work properly I will vape them again .

We vaped successfully all 5 times. 2.5 and measured correctly as we have done in previous years.

 

[Nannysbees]

Is that the overnight drop?

No left in for 48 hours as it was pelting down with rain

 

[Nannysbees]

I guess if you forget to block the mesh floor and the OA all escapes… or if the blow torch temp is too low and the OA doesn’t vaporise properly…

Blow torch?

 

[Do224]

Blow torch?

I use a GasVap

 

[Erichalfbee]

No left in for 48 hours as it was pelting down with rain

It’s still a lot. Some colonies are like that. Various theories
I would vape every five days till I got <20 in 24 hours.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

up the range today, drop off a load of syrup ready for feeding and give them the penultimate vape - managed to get it all done between one torrential downpour as I arrived and one that started as I left. all the woodlands stinking of ivy nectar with bees piling in the pollen as well as nectar, hives at all apiaries are putting on weight before even a single feeder goes on

 

[Nannysbees]

It’s still a lot. Some colonies are like that. Various theories
I would vape every five days till I got <20 in 24 hours.

Ok thank you we'll do that

 

[Gilberdyke John]

it doesn't make much difference, especially if you vape above the OMF, most of the sublimate rises to the crownboard, desublimates and settles all over the bees before starting to escape from the bottom - that's how OA works

As I use clear crown boards with a hole in the side for the gasvap emitter tube the OA vapour can be seen to condense into a visible plume a few mm away from the tube end and swirl around in the space above the frames before settling onto the frames with some falling into the space between. Bees move away from the immediate vicinity of the hot vapor but remain wandering about in the space, walking the deposited white powder/crystals all over. On completion of the exercise bee traffic returns to the area near the hole for the gasvap tube. There's normally a group of bees come outside to sit around the entrance during treatment but they go back within minutes.

 

[Matthew Roberts]

2nd round of vaping, went better by drilling a hole in the floor above the mesh. Getting used to the instant vap but still need to be a bit more organised. Wasps suddenly in quantity around the hives so fitted my wasp guards to entrances. Left a single bee space opposite entrance but will slide the entrance sideways once they are used to them.
Worst year for wasps for years. Will make more of an effort to catch the queen's next spring

How do you catch the queen's?

 

[pargyle]

How do you catch the queen's?

Start trapping early in the year before the nests are established ... but .. it's not a good idea. Wasps are very useful insects - they are predators of all sorts of garden pests when they are in protein feeding mode and should be left to get on with their lives. They only become a threat when they go to sweet feeding mode and strong colonies will always repel wasp attack. It's a beekeeper failing not wasps succeeding when a colony is decimated by wasps - there is so much that can be done to prevent it.

 

[enrico]

Unles

Start trapping early in the year before the nests are established ... but .. it's not a good idea. Wasps are very useful insects - they are preadators of all sorts of garden pests when they are in protein feeding mode and should be left to get on with their lives. They only become a threat when they go to sweet feeding mode and strong colonies will always repel wasp attack. It's a beekeeper failing not wasps succeeding when a colony is decimated by wasps - there is so much that can be doneto prevent it.

Unless you just don't like wasps in your garden. I know it's controversial but I hate them getting in my drinks and food, stinging the dog, eating/spoiling all my fruit. Flying round my bins and making nests in my roof. I know they do good but a nest can produce 1000 queen's so the few I catch is merely reducing the amount of nests I get in my garden. I will never eradicate them all, just cull them the same way pigeons, rats and grey squirrels should be culled.
I use a plastic bottle with sweet high alcohol cider and a one way entrance available for a few quid.

 

[enrico]

How do you catch the queen's?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/31481811...VgfoMV7XNJ4f2f2DZi8SVCozWm3v7tHhoCPiAQAvD_BwE

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Check for queenlessness of super before reunite with introduced queen in BB.
First box: No QCs Hanging onto drones. Calm. No open brood or eggs tho' yet.
Second box. Roaring. Given frame with eggs but pretty sure they are queenless.

 

[Redcap]

It's a beekeeper failing not wasps succeeding when a colony is decimated by wasps

Sad but true.

 

[Superlativesoul]

Only went and won a prize in my local honey show! Admittedly it was the novice class with not many entries, but now my "Award winning" honey will definitely be worth the £90 a jar I need to break even on this year

Congratulations on your prize ,regardless whether it's in a novice class ,it's the participation that counts and I'm sure your smile was as wide as the grand canyon. This is your first step of which I'm sure there will be many of collecting prizes along the way .I too am entering for the first time our local association honey show ,I'm not showing honey as none produced in my first year but am baking a honey cake ,and honey fruit cake to show ,never entered in any competition, so fingers crossed I'm sure if I was the only entrant in the class I would get 2nd place as it would not be good enough for a first
John.

 

[JamezF]

Congratulations on your prize ,regardless whether it's in a novice class ,it's the participation that counts and I'm sure your smile was as wide as the grand canyon. This is your first step of which I'm sure there will be many of collecting prizes along the way .I too am entering for the first time our local association honey show ,I'm not showing honey as none produced in my first year but am baking a honey cake ,and honey fruit cake to show ,never entered in any competition, so fingers crossed I'm sure if I was the only entrant in the class I would get 2nd place as it would not be good enough for a first
John.

I read a story the other day about an ex-president of my local BKA who I believe started beekeeping as a child. He began entering competitions and eventually decided to stop when he received his thousandth certificate

James

 

[Superlativesoul]

Ÿ

Congratulations on your prize ,regardless whether it's in a novice class ,it's the participation that counts and I'm sure your smile was as wide as the grand canyon. This is your first step of which I'm sure there will be many of collecting prizes along the way .I too am entering for the first time our local association honey show ,I'm not showing honey as none produced in my first year but am baking a honey cake ,and honey fruit cake to show ,never entered in any competition, so fingers crossed I'm sure if I was the only entrant in the class I would get 2nd place as it would not be good enough for a first
John.

Well ,I did rather well 1st for plain honey cake and a 2nd for honey fruit cake ,my wife and I got a 1st in the craft section with a pyrography exhibit .So my journey has just begun too .
John.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Well done. I'm always in awe of some of these exhibits and the time and passion taken to create them

 

[The Poot]

Managed to get stung feeding fondant to a nuc. My fault for being improperly dressed. I had that lovely little tickling as it walked up my arm, inside my sleeve, then a pause….did I imagine it….then wallop.
I couldn’t get the stinger out for some time having to finish up, then leg it to the garage to disrobe and find the stinger.
I have a nicely swollen forearm today. I’d done so well this year too…

 

[Anduril]

Managed to get stung feeding fondant to a nuc. I’d done so well this year too…

Another 249 stings to go, to be fully inoculated for this year