What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Nannysbees]

Queen arrived in the post this morning, but cold, raining and windy hoping for better weather tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Moobee]

". . . . not worth a fly." Apparently.

View attachment 40572

July is the new June apparently!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

found a gap in the weather, so rather than spend the whole day vegetating, popped down to the Llety'r deryn apiary, it's only four hives but as I was there I thought I'd pop the lid on a nuc waiting queen matinf - it's only been four weeks since I made it up from a Demaree with a, eight day old QC so I didn't expect too much, but not only have they fully drawn all the frames with just foundation, but the queen has already mated and filled four frames with brood!!

 

[Do224]

Watched scouts at the swarm trap in the garden for the first time in about two months. There was loads of activity for about two hours early afternoon….then suddenly they all disappeared. I made a cup of tea and sat waiting for the swarm to arrive. Nothing. An hour later the scouts were back in force. Never had them go and come back like that before…will see what tomorrow brings.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

". . . . not worth a fly." Apparently.

View attachment 40572

And . . . I killed the queen!
Found her on the sheet, got her in a clip, hung clip from a frame in the box using thin string, came back the following evening to let her out and they'd chewed through the string, clip falls to the bottom of the box and queen is dead. ! Seriously thinking my bees might do better without me.
Now there could be another queen in the swarm, they fought and queen died but maybe I'm not that lucky.
Put a frame with eggs and a couple of frames with pollen in the middle and hoping they make some emergency queen cells. Is this possible? Are there enough nurse bees to make a cell?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I killed the queen!
Found her on the sheet, got her in a clip,

I've said it more than once, those clips kill more queens than EFB, best place for them is in the rubbish bin

 

[Roger.Wilco]

said it more than once, those clips kill more queens than EFB

What do you suggest to use instead?

 

[Erichalfbee]

What do you suggest to use instead?

One of these



Here's one on eBay

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

What do you suggest to use instead?

why do you feel the need to enclose/isolate the queen all the time?

 

[Do224]

Watched scouts at the swarm trap in the garden for the first time in about two months. There was loads of activity for about two hours early afternoon….then suddenly they all disappeared. I made a cup of tea and sat waiting for the swarm to arrive. Nothing. An hour later the scouts were back in force. Never had them go and come back like that before…will see what tomorrow brings.

Arrived

View attachment IMG_9312.MOV

 

[Gilberdyke John]

My father-in-law told me this morning that he'd been "attacked" by a bee from one of my home hives yesterday. After some discussion it transpired that he'd been wandering around close to the hives in the middle of the day whilst the bees were hanging outside trying to keep the colonies cool and working like crazy! If I'm honest I'm surprised it wasn't more than one. I'm really struggling to have much sympathy on this occasion.

James

A couple of years ago my pre-teen granddaughter complained about being stung (and she said nowhere near a hive). She didn't get much sympathy when CCTV proved otherwise.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

And . . . I killed the queen!
Found her on the sheet, got her in a clip, hung clip from a frame in the box using thin string, came back the following evening to let her out and they'd chewed through the string, clip falls to the bottom of the box and queen is dead. ! Seriously thinking my bees might do better without me.
Now there could be another queen in the swarm, they fought and queen died but maybe I'm not that lucky.
Put a frame with eggs and a couple of frames with pollen in the middle and hoping they make some emergency queen cells. Is this possible? Are there enough nurse bees to make a cell?

If you really must use a clip why not pass a cocktail stick through the slots and span between frames? String, especially thin string is easily chewed.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

why do you feel the need to enclose/isolate the queen all the time?

Wandering round outside the apiary fence yesterday afternoon I passed under a low overhanging tree and realized I had buzzing close by my ear. Instinctively ducked and took a step away then turned and saw I had passed within inches under a clustered swarm. I found an empty paynes polynuc with frames and foundation. (I Knew it would come in handy) and with a pair of secateurs clipped the branch and shook the swarm into the nuc. A fair few bees became airborne during the process so I put the frames in and lid on then left the nuc for them to find it and go inside. As I've had instances when scouts have returned bearing news of better Des res sites during the finding and going in phase I dialled the entrance disc to Q E position. Having gone back at 9 o clock all the flyers had gone into the nuc so I relocated it. Set the entrance disc to open as I've no idea if it's a prime swarm or a virgin queen who needs to go off on her courting sessions. I've left them to it.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Arrived

View attachment 40603

Good one. Never fails to fill me with wonder

 

[The Poot]

Arrived

View attachment 40603

Brilliant stuff! Your sky is a very difficult colour to around here today….
Boxes on roofs seem to do well

 

[Curly green finger's]

Nothing really just trying to keep up!

 

[Swarm]

Nothing today but went to visit a friend on the weekend and took a few virgins who emerged with perfect timing. It was lashing with rain when I got there but it blew over thankfully and the sun came out. He has some very heavy supers and all the colonies were working their socks off, which was nice to see. Also nice to see a consistent shade of black in the new colonies and a splendid brood pattern with the last queen he had off me from farm stock. Can't wait to see how this latest batch of queens get on.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Stan managed to spot a virgin on the third test frame we had put in. Hooray, what luck. Obviously not mated so pinched her and started uniting back to the original queen now on a National and a super. Smoked the bees up to get as many into the top two supers and moved those over. Third super being cleared so will unite the brood asap. Doing it that way due to stand height problems.

 

[Moobee]

Incredibly heavy supers on most hives so did a bit of swapping out capped frames for new frames and amassed about 5 filled supers that now need dealing with. Not much was even half capped but all passed the shake test and as I checked most and they were at 16%. Will have to do some clearing and extracting soon so I can rotate the empties back in.
They’re still foraging like mad, I’ve never seen so many blackberry flowers around the hedgerows.
One hive making swarm preps with QCs so queenie is now in a nuc.
Another hive was requeened last week but there are no eggs and queen is AWOL. I’ve given them an almost capped QC from the previous hive that was conveniently on a half frame of eggs so I’ll see what they do. The queen was clipped so they can’t get far if they decide to swarm.
Oh yes, and marked and clipped a nice new queen in the out apiary who’s already laying well. Made a bit of a hash of the clipping as she stuck her other wings out just as I was snipping!

 

[gregior]

Inspected 15 at the home apiary today,perfect weather and nectar pouring in.
Was expecting a pretty easy day as all the colonies here have now been split so was mainly just checking for mated queens and progress in the supers. I was wrong 3 of my splits with newly mated queens were swarming ! The queens had been mated for maybe 3 weeks so the 1st brood cycle was just hatching and they only had 4 or 5 frames of brood but there were cells everywhere, one swarmed while I was there and settled right on top of a tree well out of reach so I put a polynuc with some old comb nearby hoping they'll go in there.
All these swarming colonies have loads of room for the Q to lay so maybe I need to work on their genetics a bit.
Can't say i'm too bothered as all my supers are deployed and will be full by the end of the season.