What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Moobee]

Fed most colonies again. Two hives that did have 4 nicely filling supers are busy eating through those. A spring crop looks highly unlikely right now. We get a day of sun, the afternoon turns cold & windy and then a cloudy cool day to follow. Not great foraging weather. Blackberries are opening locally though. Just need some warm sunny weather…..

 

[drex]

Been away a few days so late with inspection. In the hive that I brought down from Essex with an ageing and slowly failing queen there was 1 capped queen cell on the face of the comb. HM was seen and still laying, albeit slowly. Hoping for the perfect supercedure.

 

[holmbee]

Inspected the two nucs set up a couple of days ago with queens from mbc. One nuc still keen to create own queens (squished) but no sign of any agression towards the queen introduction cages.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

Added a second drawn super on top of my double brood colony. Not taken any honey.
Let's be optimistic. Still 20lb below the weight they had last November.

 

[gwt_uk]

Had to check on a few colonies even though it was quite cool and windy. The bees were not happy.

Reduced Queen cells down to one in a colony whose Queen I had removed last week. Quite a few cells hidden in corners!
Added another brood body to a poly Nuc which needed some more space. Supered another colony, a split from a number of weeks ago - growing rapidly.
Popped the tabs on a Queen cage in a colony that had failed to make their own.

 

[alancooper]

Inspected today following a week of cold north winds and cloudy conditions 12-13C. Clover and Bramble cot flowering yet - June gap. Half the colonies on a brood break and not a lot of stores.

 

[Aneebe]

Called to two swarms today, one on the Aston Martin plant, they offered us a tour of the plant as a thank you.
The second just as interesting , in a compost bin. Successfully retrieved them both and both passed onto other Beekeepers

How totally fab re the Aston Martin plant. My hubby who is NOT a bee fan but rather a petrol head is salivating. What a great offer.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Interesting swarm call out yesterday, homeowners complained they had bees in their bathroom. When I got to the 18th century house bees were swarming out of a crack between a timber wall and a brick chimney. Unfortunately they couldn’t get out quick enough so decided if might be quicker to exit via the gaps beside the bathroom pipe work. I opened the windows to let the bees out and removed the drawers from the vanity unit to see where the bees were coming from.
Cleared the attached bedroom of bees and chatted to the owners about seeing if we could milk the bees out of the wall.
What was interesting was that all the drones had white eyes.

 

[Erichalfbee]

all the drones had white eyes.

All? Heavens!

 

[Newbeeneil]

All? Heavens!

All that I saw, I even got the two young girls from the family picking them up and putting them out of the windows

 

[Erichalfbee]

I even got the two young girls from the family picking them up and putting them out of the windows

Oh no!
Poor buggers! Best squished.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Oh no!
Poor buggers! Best squished.

I never thought about squishing the girls, a bit harsh?

 

[Erichalfbee]

I never thought about squishing the girls, a bit harsh?

 

[emoclewbee]

Brambles and Clover are in flower and the temperatures are in the high teens but nothing coming into the hives.
Most hives have eaten through their stores. Swapped in some leftover frames of stores I took out in early spring to some of the hives.

3 capped Queencells in one hive. All at the edge of the brood nest. Her laying has not been ramping up like the other colonies in the last 2 inspections, so maybe superceding but I found the queen on the next frame so decided to put her in a Nuc. They are not my best hive but my queen rearing hasn't gone the best this year, so going to let them requeen and not going to rear new queens from them despite my queen rearing shortcomings.
Knocked the cells down to one and will leave them to it for a few weeks.

Mostly just hoping for a Flow to start. Should be soon.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Knocked the cells down to one and will leave them to it for a few weeks.

Go back in a week to knock emergency cells down

 

[emoclewbee]

Go back in a week to knock emergency cells down

Yes of course.

 

[StephenT]

Shook out a laying worker hive that had failed to requeen after swarm control. The other two hives at the allotment site have a good amount of bees but not much in the way of stores whereas the two very big hives we have in gardens have filled one and two supers respectively. Only about half capped so are not taking them off. Not a patch on last year when we took off 70kg at the end of spring.

 

[Curly green finger's]

Let you know in a day or two I have one a little similar.

Mine didn’t make it

 

[Curly green finger's]

Moved 6 more colony’s out to the farm

 

[The Poot]

Extracted two supers of Spring honey.