What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Moobee]

Finally got to the out apiary - weather has been so hideous the last month I haven’t been able to inspect. So found all this in the eke and removed it all carefully (as no idea where the queen was) - it was part stores & part brood - mostly drone interestingly.
They had 6 frames of BIAS plus 4 of stores. OSR nearby so added a super of drawn comb over a QX. Home hive was full (6 BIAS) so removed the fat dummies & put 3 drawn frames back in.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Haven't done first full inspection yet, just checked a couple of frames in the top super of brood and a half.
Checked varroa drop over last 4 days. The busiest colony dropping 14 varroa/day. Floor slide running with condensation so they've found some nectar. The drone layers (I have 2 I think) only the odd varroa. Strange given varroa prefer drone.
Didn't get the OA dribble done late last year. Considering Apivar. . . again.

 

[Wilco]

So have I made a school-boy error here?....Thought a small amount of feed would encourage comb building on the foundation and repairs to the damaged/incomplete comb....I so very nearly didn't too!

Probably but it's not the end of the world. Just keep an eye on it now if they've taken down all the feed and if it's in a shallow then you could always separate it from the brood area with an eke and crown board to encourage them to move it into the brood area and use it. Nadiring might help. Obviously don't poke around too much if weather isn't great.

For reference, JBM usually advises no need for adding shallows until they have 8 frames of brood.

 

[Podilia]

Hello! Winter is over here. There were a few warm days even in February but now the weather is very good. Warm air from the Mediterranian has brought 24-26 C, that's very unusual for this time. Forecast promised this for 4 days and then return to more "natural" conditions near 15 C.
All my colonies are alive, no loss (if not taking into account 5 colonies in autumn). Today they were busy and happy in a willow grove. I have a lot of frames with last year honey but the bees prefer fresh nectar. I don't see this spring "shrinking" described in books where they recommend to insulate hives in spring and close all enters except one. If the weather is warm next weeks we'll get early swarming troubles. My hives are opened in summer mode and not insulated at all.
A few words about winter here. Lowest temp. was -17 at night. Daily temperature was around -5-0 or slightly above zero. The last snowfall happened in March and lived only two days. In total the winter was moderately cold and less snowy than usually.

 

[Nannysbees]

Why feed and add supers? Surely you're just going to end up with feed in the supers.

I thought the same!!

 

[Nannysbees]

Came back from holidays hefted, one very light so have a feed of syrup. One quite heavy which worries me a bit as I thought they'd have eaten stores due to the weather being so awful, hope there's nothing underlying!!!

 

[The Poot]

Came back from holidays hefted, one very light so have a feed of syrup. One quite heavy which worries me a bit as I thought they'd have eaten stores due to the weather being so awful, hope there's nothing underlying!!!

Perhaps they’ve eaten it all and put on weight

 

[MrMouse]

Popped over to have a look at my hive today.
Firing on all cylinders with plenty of pollen and nectar coming in.
Bees boiling over so super added.
Checked the couple of frames of foundation I put in 10-14 days ago to give the colony extra space - fully drawn out and laid up/BIAS. Really pleasing to see.
Going to have to watch it closely for signs of swarming in the coming weeks, I think.
Tempted by an early split but as I’ve been told previously, I don’t want to end up with lots of small useless colonies because of the urge to split at every opportunity.
Likely to end up taking a nuc off at some point as part of swarm control.

 

[Wilco]

Checked nucs. One starved in the last week. Thought I'd fed them. Shame as had a wonderful brood pattern, one of Jolanta's. Kicking myself. Others doing well.

One of the best nucs had a few frames like this:

 

[Nannysbees]

Sneaky peek at all five hives, capped brood in all. One or two have had too much fondant, removed some of the frames solid with the stuff, replaced with foundation. The swarm from Bridgend are bursting at the seams, didn't expect it at all, bit feisty, very dark bee, see how that pans out, the queen could be on borrowed time but the jury is still out at the moment!! Found a wax moth grub on top of one of the frames. Removed the insulation. Lovely to get the smoker going and suited up. Although to be fair we hardly used the smoker except on Winnie from Bridgend!!!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

One or two have had too much fondant, removed some of the frames solid with the stuff,

fondant, when stored is identical to sugar syrup 'Honey' they don't take chunks of it away and pack it in the cells, when people believe they see cells full of 'fondant' it's usually mouldy pollen

 

[StephenT]

Inspected hive no.6 today which is one that we look after for an elderly gentleman in their garden. My wife and I were shocked to find about 16 frames of brood and not much space for any more. Some queen cups and one did have an egg in it so they'll be off soon. Stuck a super on. Will inspect again next Saturday and assuming there are QC's, will do the nucleus method but may use a brood box instead of a nuc as 6 frames won't last long.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Checked nucs. One starved in the last week. Thought I'd fed them. Shame as had a wonderful brood pattern, one of Jolanta's. Kicking myself. Others doing well.

One of the best nucs had a few frames like this:

View attachment 39400

I had a few frames like that in nucs but very little stores so tomorrow its another round of placing fondant on the light ones.
I cleared out the 4 hives that starved over winter and recovered the old frames. I cut all but the top inch of comb out and will use these frames in my bait hives this year.

 

[Superlativesoul]

Today I did a manipulation on a colony of new bees I purchased Friday .These were housed in a langstroph hive and my hives are nationals .I would have kept them in the Langstroph but the seller wanted the hive returned as soon as possible. I made a plywood convertor board to fit the langstroph and national .
My friend came to help, we located the queen after 2 rounds of inspection and put her in a queen clip .I then selected some brood comb and cut it to fit my national brood frame .secured this to the top bar with 3 cable ties ,with elastic bands ,the bees will chew through these elastic bands but not the cable ties hopefully until they secure it anyway .
I put this in my national brood box with a drawn frame of foundation only one I had and the remaining frames of foundation, on top of the langstroph with its brood and stores convertor board, queen excluder .added some nurse bees added my clear crownboard which has a entrance for drones to fly out ,but have closed this with some rim wood
Added an eke with which I added a feeder with some invertbee sryup to help draw the foundation out .then closed off the arrangement with solid crownboard and roof ..
The bees in the bottom have gone into the top box to the feeder .Hopefully after 3 weeks the manipulation will have worked .
John

 

[Sutty]

Today I did a manipulation on a colony of new bees I purchased Friday .These were housed in a langstroph hive and my hives are nationals .I would have kept them in the Langstroph but the seller wanted the hive returned as soon as possible. I made a plywood convertor board to fit the langstroph and national .
My friend came to help, we located the queen after 2 rounds of inspection and put her in a queen clip .I then selected some brood comb and cut it to fit my national brood frame .secured this to the top bar with 3 cable ties ,with elastic bands ,the bees will chew through these elastic bands but not the cable ties hopefully until they secure it anyway .
I put this in my national brood box with a drawn frame of foundation only one I had and the remaining frames of foundation, on top of the langstroph with its brood and stores convertor board, queen excluder .added some nurse bees added my clear crownboard which has a entrance for drones to fly out ,but have closed this with some rim wood
Added an eke with which I added a feeder with some invertbee sryup to help draw the foundation out .then closed off the arrangement with solid crownboard and roof ..
The bees in the bottom have gone into the top box to the feeder .Hopefully after 3 weeks the manipulation will have worked .
John

Hope your conversion from Langstroth goes well

 

[Fellstoflats]

Another round of inspections, before I'm elbow deep in sheep..


Wall to wall BIAS, plenty of drone brood, with some emerging.

Toying with the idea of supers, but also want to make splits from this queen (great temperament, frugal store use), so maybe I'll leave them another week, to get rammed full and the urge..

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

before I'm elbow deep in sheep

literally?

 

[Fellstoflats]

literally?

Literally.

 

[Erichalfbee]

The sun shone and we managed to get into the bees. All ok but four not as strong as I would like. One nadired super got rain in and the floor was soaking wet with a healthy population of slugs. Got that off and changed the floor. Put one small colony into a nuc. Every year I've had to remove store frames, but not this year. Three need feeding.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Drones flying from a couple of hives. I expect to be shaking them out on first inspection at the weekend.