What did you do in the Apiary today?

[The Poot]

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!
View attachment 40604

Well, she definitely won’t fly away!

 

[The Poot]

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.

Crikey!

 

[Roger.Wilco]

why do you feel the need to enclose/isolate the queen

...
View attachment petal_20240708_233003.mp4

 

[Erichalfbee]

Have the bees kicked her out?

 

[madasafish]

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?

I never ever use string to suspend a cage in a hive.
Always use soft wire - easily bent , unchewable.
From garden stores

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Have the bees kicked her out?

looks like it - putting her in that clip just made it easier for them to kill her

 

[Moobee]

Well, she definitely won’t fly away!

Bellyflop out the entrance probably! Lots of hives have gone from merrily foraging to "oh i know, let's swarm" mode.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I never ever use string to suspend a cage in a hive.
Always use soft wire - easily bent , unchewable.
From garden stores

Paper clip for me.

 

[The Poot]

Bellyflop out the entrance probably! Lots of hives have gone from merrily foraging to "oh i know, let's swarm" mode.

I’ll be checking mine tomorrow if it’s stops raining….. I’m concerned they might be of a similar mind, despite being split earlier in the year.

 

[Roger.Wilco]

Have the bees kicked her out?

Not sure why she was out on her own? Didn't have a clue then - and still don't have a clue now...
She is now happily in a NUC; laying-up a storm.

 

[Parsonage Bees]

I never ever use string to suspend a cage in a hive.
Always use soft wire - easily bent , unchewable.
From garden stores

I had some frame wire on the hall table (as you do) which would have been ideal.

Discovered yesterday this swarm came from my hive. 18 days ago I pruned the QCs down 4 days after removing queen and they went on to produce a few more. Checked my chosen QC had emerged but didn't check for any others. There's a fair chance of more than one queen in the swarm. Interest in my second bait trap. Not lost a swarm in a few years. Getting careless.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

in between showers, hived a nuc, this was from a Demaree made in late May, nuc made up on the first of June with a newly sealed QC, now packed with stores and five frames of brood. I would have gone up to the range as I have a nuc there made up on the seventh of June which is at the same stage of development, but rain stopped play.

 

[Penninetrader]

Swarms, strange goings on, came home to find a swarm on a gazebo roof, very inconsiderate, used a brush to recover them into a nuc..several hours later they clustered outside near the box roof so i tipped them back inside. 3 days later they swarmed again traveling 50yds and landing in the heather, minutes later the majority took flight and returned to the NUC the balance have been swarming back and forth twice a day since but always landing close to ground. Very strange

 

[Murox]

With all this rain you might think it would deter a swarm, but no. Spent yesterday afternoon rescuing a good sized soggy swarm from a very wet and cold twin post fence in the town. I hope they appreciated it.

 

[The Poot]

Requeened a feisty colony with a stop / go queen that I’ve been prevaricating over all season; with a queen from Exmoor Bees. I eventually found the unmarked queen in the lower brood box (four frames from having to go through them a second time) and popped the caged queen in after assessing the reaction to her on the frame top. It looked really promising as they passed the “Velcro test”.

Inspected three others and assessed their supers. Disappointed that whilst the supers are filling, they only a few frames per super which are capped. So I may have to harvest individual frames rather than boxes if things don’t change. A pain.
No signs of swarming and the colonies were very calm.

A nuc I moved into an eleven frame brood box three days ago, has drawn the foundation on all but two frames and the colony is really busy. I may add a super, if only to nadir it for Winter stores. It will allow them to move the honey in the brood frames up. The queen is particularly prolific and will need lots of laying space. She was split away from her main colony on June 14th.

 

[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!
View attachment 40604

Guess what? The hive with the supposedly AWOL queen swarmed today - flopped over the fence and are now in a nuc! Most of the bees are inside the crate - big colony...

 

[Moobee]

Paper clip for me.

I always keep cocktail sticks in my hive box.

 

[The Poot]

Guess what? The hive with the supposedly AWOL queen swarmed today - flopped over the fence and are now in a nuc! Most of the bees are inside the crate - big colony...

They do like to keep us guessing! So that’s another one to look after…..

 

[The Poot]

I always keep cocktail sticks in my hive box.

I do too and used one today.

 

[Moobee]

They do like to keep us guessing! So that’s another one to look after…..

Once they’re over swarm fever I’ll probably unite them. The swarm is squeezed into a nuc but that won’t last long….