What did you do in the Apiary today?

[JamezF]

Simplest solution is to enlist an assistant to manipulate the gate while keeping the horse in as you drive through. I have horses and it can be tricky trying to keep the horse in while getting the gate open, car through and gate closed again. For that reason I have double gates so one is closed while the other is open. At least that way you don't watch a few thousand quids worth of animal running away from you towards traffic. Believe me you won't run as fast as they do. Alternatively take a head collar and lead rope but again you need an assistant, this time with horse familiarity skills.

Yes, there's no denying that it's a bit awkward. Hopefully if I go down tomorrow I might see the farmer who owns the land (I don't think it's his horse though) and we can work something out.

James

 

[Redcap]

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…

Don't beat yourself up...I blame those darn American beeks doing their hive inspections in just tee shirts and shorts...lulling us all into a false sense of security! Easily done.

 

[Moobee]

Finished the Apiguard treatment on all hives bar one. High ish mite drop on two home hives of 500+ and 700+ so deciding if an OA vape is in order. Both hives are very strong (one on double brood) so perhaps high number just because a lot more bees?
The 3rd home hive drop was only 131 but they are always very low.
I use an app called Visual Counter. Take a picture & use it back home to ‘dot’ the mites & it counts as you go.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

The high number just means the apiguard has done its job and killed a shedfull of mites, they will still fall for quite a while after the treatment ends as the bees clean out all the empty cells the dead mites have fallen into

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

got the final OA dose of the season done, then as everyone's wetting their panties over this bit of a blow, went home to rope down the patio furniture in case one of the chairs gets blown over

 

[BeeBird]

 

[user 819]

In this corner it is quiet just a normal breezy and a warm humidish day, OC but no rain.
Been cleaning up supers on the patio the afternoon .

 

[Podilia]

Usually it's a time for winter preparation. But the weather is far from normal for September. Some days the temperature reached 28 degrees. The bees (and wasps) are active, but they hardly can find something in the fields so robbing small colonies is an option. Got three colonies, completely robbed and killed. It's impossible to open a hive and to do certain manipulations without having swarms of robbers after a couple of minutes. You know how quickly this process can spread around. I reduced hive entraces and decided to complete the work in October although meteorologists say it's a new record and October can be also warm.

 

[Erichalfbee]

got the final OA dose of the season done, then as everyone's wetting their panties over this bit of a blow, went home to rope down the patio furniture in case one of the chairs gets blown over

Agnes not made much of an impression here either.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Agnes not made much of an impression here either.

one little gust did cause a dribble of invert to go all over my boot - not very often we get a wind directly from the South here and the apiary at Ty Uchaf is sheltered from all sides apart from the South as it looks over the whole valley

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Don't beat yourself up...I blame those darn American beeks doing their hive inspections in just tee shirts and shorts...lulling us all into a false sense of security! Easily done.

Sounds like his bees do any beating up necessary

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Feeding at the home apiary before tidying/stacking up the nucs for next season, then refilled all the OA one shot dispensers before packing all that kit away.
On the way back to the house I thought I'd pick up all the windfalls from last night's 'storm' Agnes - I don't think two apples (one already crow pecked) is enough for a tea of stewed apples and cream unfortunately

 

[pargyle]

Feeding at the home apiary before tidying/stacking up the nucs for next season, then refilled all the OA one shot dispensers before packing all that kit away.
On the way back to the house I thought I'd pick up all the windfalls from last night's 'storm' Agnes - I don't think two apples (one already crow pecked) is enough for a tea of stewed apples and cream unfortunately

I rather think the Met office are still sweating about missing the build up to the REAL storm of 15th October 1987 - which was a proper breeze ... Anything in Autumn that looks like it's building up in the Bay of Biscay and the met boys start getting excited and issuing strong wind warnings. We had a couple of hefty draughts here in the lee of the Isle of Wight and that was it - I don't think my bees even stopped flying !

 

[Murox]

Agnes not made much of an impression here either.

Same up here. Just a bit more rain than usual and it wasn't all horizontal by any means for a change.. The direction it all came from meant I could actually use the back door (faces west) without getting blasted.

 

[alancooper]

The plan today was to begin apiary winter preparations (following an August harvest of Summer honey). I had put clearing boards onto hives with Ivy supers a couple of days ago, separated from the brood boxes by Q excluder and a 10cm eke. Large numbers of bees were still in the supers today and had begun to build brace comb filled with honey. Queens were laying well.
I decided to remove clearing boards and ekes, given current Ivy flow conditions and likely mild weather forecast for early October.
Trying to convince myself that I am adapting management to climate change predictions of milder, wetter Autum/Winter weather.

 

[gregior]

The plan today was to begin apiary winter preparations (following an August harvest of Summer honey). I had put clearing boards onto hives with Ivy supers a couple of days ago, separated from the brood boxes by Q excluder and a 10cm eke. Large numbers of bees were still in the supers today and had begun to build brace comb filled with honey. Queens were laying well.
I decided to remove clearing boards and ekes, given current Ivy flow conditions and likely mild weather forecast for early October.
Trying to convince myself that I am adapting management to climate change predictions of milder, wetter Autum/Winter weather.

I still have supers on the strongest of mine and they're filling with balsam.I'd say around 50% of my crop this year has been collected since the beginning of September,sooo glad I decided to leave the supers on !

 

[Newbeeneil]

Spent today cutting out a colony from behind the tile hanging of a building. The bees were extremely pissed off so I was well wrapped up in my ozarmour and rubber gloves so didn’t get a chance to take any pics whilst doing the work.

 

[Superlativesoul]

Spent today cutting out a colony from behind the tile hanging of a building. The bees were extremely pissed off so I was well wrapped up in my ozarmour and rubber gloves so didn’t get a chance to take any pics whilst doing the work.

Great job ,Did you remove it all and put back ,Will you nuc them or is the colony big enough for a hive to over winter .
John

 

[Newbeeneil]

Great job ,Did you remove it all and put back ,Will you nuc them or is the colony big enough for a hive to over winter .
John

I removed it all but the builder is putting it back the tile hanging. The colony is large but I may unite with a small nuc I took out of an abandoned hive a couple of weeks ago,

 

[Erichalfbee]

Crikey Neil! You do a lot of these!