What did you do in the Apiary today?

[JamezF]

I was joined in Frankenstein's greenhouse by a queen hornet today. She clearly wasn't happy being there, but didn't seem to be able to find her way out again. Rather than risk a hornet/head interface situation I decamped to the bee shed to check if she was the same one as was thinking of moving in, but no: there was a queen still there, too. I stepped out of the shed just in time to be buzzed by a third queen, who went along my hives, testing each one to see if she could get in. Not through my UFEs

The queen in the shed flew past, so I went inside and knocked down the nest she'd started, by which time the one in the greenhouse was gone and I could finish working in there. Afterwards I checked the shed a couple of times and that one doesn't appear to have returned as yet. Could be that she's still flying and attempting to restart the nest, but it's getting quite cool outside now so with a bit of luck she's moved on.

James

 

[Sutty]

I don't think I've evér seen a hornet in these parts. Though I saw some hornet-style behaviour 25yrs ago marginally further south - attacking landing bees, cutting off everything except the thorax, and flying off with it. I thought it was wasps at the time.

 

[JamezF]

I don't think I've evér seen a hornet in these parts. Though I saw some hornet-style behaviour 25yrs ago marginally further south - attacking landing bees, cutting off everything except the thorax, and flying off with it. I thought it was wasps at the time.

We had a nest of them in the roof space of a bay window last year. I suspect there was another nest in a tree cavity too, but I wasn't able to definitively locate it.

James

 

[Goran]

Unfortunately seems my beekeeping is nearing to its end.. No one buys honey at large, our buyers at large turned into buying chinese " honey" from german harbors and our honey is worthless. Hazels and bees are my only income.. Hazels still give some money, but bees became money drain.. for which I have no luxury unfortunately. I started to reduce colony numbers ( merging, not selling cause no one wants to buy bees). Now on my skin I found out difference between fictional and real ( there is one joke about it over here which strikes me in my mind - I became a joke..). Fictional - I have lot of honey and there so lot of money, for real have lot of honey but no money at all.. Winter preparations will be returning honey to them.. Desperate time require desperate measures. All these years of hard work and learning seems will go into drain..
Thank You EU for making me even more poor. I am so grateful..

 

[E&MBees]

Marked up the first of my 2024 queens. She’s laying nicely. Watched the cap of a queen cell starting to open as I removed the other unwanted qc’s. Obviously got my dates wrong, but thankfully the emerging queen is the only one in there now. Will leave her to get mated and start laying before I check again.

 

[Vanterrier]

I don't think I've evér seen a hornet in these parts. Though I saw some hornet-style behaviour 25yrs ago marginally further south - attacking landing bees, cutting off everything except the thorax, and flying off with it. I thought it was wasps at the time.

Maybe it was a Bee Wolf you saw?

https://www.nwt.org.uk/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/bees-and-wasps/bee-wolf
K

 

[Nannysbees]

Released the caps on the bee cage on psycho hive, they'd created loads of emergency cells!!!!! Not happy at all with us going in at all. United two hives with newspaper and a queen excluder. Supers on all five hives dry.
Called to a swarm in penarth. Lovely bees but no room at ours so passed them on to another Beekeeper unfortunately.

 

[pargyle]

Unfortunately seems my beekeeping is nearing to its end.. No one buys honey at large, our buyers at large turned into buying chinese " honey" from german harbors and our honey is worthless. Hazels and bees are my only income.. Hazels still give some money, but bees became money drain.. for which I have no luxury unfortunately. I started to reduce colony numbers ( merging, not selling cause no one wants to buy bees). Now on my skin I found out difference between fictional and real ( there is one joke about it over here which strikes me in my mind - I became a joke..). Fictional - I have lot of honey and there so lot of money, for real have lot of honey but no money at all.. Winter preparations will be returning honey to them.. Desperate time require desperate measures. All these years of hard work and learning seems will go into drain..
Thank You EU for making me even more poor. I am so grateful..

That's very sad Goran, you've been on this forum as long as I have and we always enjoy hearing from you ... will you still keep a few hives just to keep your hand in ? Is there anywhere near you that has tourist trade where you could sell your 'special' honey to the German tourists ?

 

[madasafish]

Been feeding all my poly nucs due to appalling weather.
Split two on double brood.
Started Queen rearing using Nicot again - eyesight too poor to graft.
Honeyed box and placed in hive from which I want to raise queens, caged queen with attendants in same hive. Will leave two days and then put Q in box to lay.
Started moving small Lang jumbo nuc to become a double six frame Lang jumbo nuc with Cloake Board.Will add brood /frames/pollen/bees later (air freshener job).
Forecast looks poor again for Sunday.

(Sainsbury's a good source for sugar £5 for 5KG bag plus nectar points. Doing my best to help food sales)

 

[Goran]

That's very sad Goran, you've been on this forum as long as I have and we always enjoy hearing from you ... will you still keep a few hives just to keep your hand in ? Is there anywhere near you that has tourist trade where you could sell your 'special' honey to the German tourists ?

I will try to keep some number if I won't be forced to search a job for living too far. I am in inland, not much tourists here. Low population and low incomes, so locally can't sell a lot. There are some periodically visits from our people who live abroad, but most of them cherish Nutella cream rather than honey..
This year even nature hit us hard with horror weather and instead of two extractions I had one rather modest. I will send sample for testing, but as observing bees on plants it will be mostly combination of: wild cherries, wild pears, manna ash, common dogwood, plums, robinia, maples, hawthorn.. Its taste is awesome and is worthless..

 

[pargyle]

I will try to keep some number if I won't be forced to search a job for living too far. I am in inland, not much tourists here. Low population and low incomes, so locally can't sell a lot. There are some periodically visits from our people who live abroad, but most of them cherish Nutella cream rather than honey..
This year even nature hit us hard with horror weather and instead of two extractions I had one rather modest. I will send sample for testing, but as observing bees on plants it will be mostly combination of: wild cherries, wild pears, manna ash, common dogwood, plums, robinia, maples, hawthorn.. Its taste is awesome and is worthless..

That's a lovely colour Goran, I'll bet it tastes fantastic with the nectar it has come from ... we all feel your pain ...

 

[Curly green finger's]

That's a lovely colour Goran, I'll bet it tastes fantastic with the nectar it has come from ... we all feel your pain ...

I feel this Philip, @Goran have you thought about selling your honey to the uk - there are quite a few doing such things, I was speaking to a polish beekeeper who does just this he has a few shops over here and exports his honey over here.

 

[Dibbler]

Woke up yesterday to discover a swarm hanging in the yew tree. I know that are not from any of my resident bees as I inspected everything 5 days ago and no queen cells on any bb or supers.
So only one they could have come from was new colony that took up residence in a spare hive 2 weeks ago.
Forecast was pouring rain and so it began.
I got my nuc box ready and have some spare drawn out brood frame.
Smeared spare mixture of honey plus comb on 2 sides. The weather forecast is pouring rain and thunderstorms for next 48hrs.
Rain eventually stopped 7pm and we sprung into action.
Ladder out, sheet out, nuc box under swarm. Soft brush and small saw.
Husband up ladder sawed said branch off. Handed to me. One sharp shake. 75% of bees in nuc.
45 mins later all bees walked up sides and into nuc. Put lid on. Lifted nuc onto 2 bricks. Took foam out of entrance.
Phew, hopefully they will stay. But at least they won't face pouring rain and strong winds on a yew tree branch today.
These bees certainly keep you on your toes.

 

[StephenT]

Inspected the two garden and three allotment hives yesterday. In the garden the big hive had accepted the queen back after uniting the nuc she was in back with the main hive two weeks after doing swarm control (Pete Little method). Fingers crossed it works and they don’t decide to swarm again. The small hive had accepted their replacement BMH queen and she’s laying well. Looks like queen failed to return after mating in one of the allotment hives so stuck in a test frame. The other two have been slow to build up but are now on 8 frames over 8 so hopefully they will build up strength for the summer flow.

 

[The Poot]

Checked the reaction to my introduced queen after 24 hours … it all seemed good. It amused me that the cage was moving about on its own on the top bars as I observed the bees interact with it. (I’m a simple soul). So, opened the tab to allow the bees access to the fondant. Now a wait of a week to see if successful.

 

[Antipodes]

Quite a nice frost this morning. Apparently -8 up in the highlands at Liawenee.
I have a couple of queens that I calculated were due to emerge today, so it will be interesting to see if they get mated this late.

 

[The Poot]

Quite a nice frost this morning. Apparently -8 up in the highlands at Liawenee.
I have a couple of queens that I calculated were due to emerge today, so it will be interesting to see if they get mated this late.

That looks like a proper frost!
Good luck to your queens. I expect there’s still lots of lads still hoping to score…..

 

[jimmiestan]

I will try to keep some number if I won't be forced to search a job for living too far. I am in inland, not much tourists here. Low population and low incomes, so locally can't sell a lot. There are some periodically visits from our people who live abroad, but most of them cherish Nutella cream rather than honey..
This year even nature hit us hard with horror weather and instead of two extractions I had one rather modest. I will send sample for testing, but as observing bees on plants it will be mostly combination of: wild cherries, wild pears, manna ash, common dogwood, plums, robinia, maples, hawthorn.. Its taste is awesome and is worthless..

Goran, could you sell MEAD?

 

[Goran]

Goran, could you sell MEAD?

Over here people like schnapps of plums and pears mostly. Mead not so popular.. But again, would have to register distillery to can sell surplus of alcohol I produce.

 

[Garry R]

Inspected the two garden and three allotment hives yesterday. In the garden the big hive had accepted the queen back after uniting the nuc she was in back with the main hive two weeks after doing swarm control (Pete Little method). Fingers crossed it works and they don’t decide to swarm again. The small hive had accepted their replacement BMH queen and she’s laying well. Looks like queen failed to return after mating in one of the allotment hives so stuck in a test frame. The other two have been slow to build up but are now on 8 frames over 8 so hopefully they will build up strength for the summer flow.

Remember that eggs laid now won't become foraging bees until the second week in July and then effectively one day's laying per day. By the 3rd week of July I reckon the bramble flow is waning so the foraging window for any queen getting going now is pretty limited. Even heather honey gathering will be limited by later splits. I tend to forget this too and make splits etc too late for the main flows. I guess the moral of this story is to get really strong early colonies and get the fiddling about sorted by early to mid May at the least.