What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Swarm]

Sure. I will burn the infected wax. I can save the wood frame and put a new plastic insert into it.

What is the reason for burning? Can wax moths do damage inside the hive?

With plastic foundation you could probably get away with scraping back to the plastic. They are generally more of a concern in stored combs and can make an awful mess so be especially careful with any comb that has contained brood or pollen. If you have poly boxes, they will tunnel through the panels, poly and wax moth don't mix.

 

[Swarm]

Start of the honey pull, first clearer boards went out today.

 

[Curly green finger's]

What have you done in the apiary - enough for me to drip sweat all over the bees

 

[Curly green finger's]

Classic orientation

 

[gregior]

Prepped a few more supers for removal, backbreaking work as everything is completely full to the brim.Never seen so much brace comb,i'm sure if I had some spare supers I could have had another 2 supers per hive filled-bonkers! Balsam is yeilding superbly for me this year.

 

[Erichalfbee]

What colour is balsam honey? Anybody?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

What colour is balsam honey? Anybody?

last time I had a crop of it - deep medium

 

[gregior]

What colour is balsam honey? Anybody?

It's pretty pale i'd give it 2/10 on the colour scale (0=water 10 = treacle)

 

[Penninetrader]

I usually do similar although being waspless thus far I have left full open, more for venting than entrance as they pick a side to enter

Sure. I will burn the infected wax. I can save the wood frame and put a new plastic insert into it.

What is the reason for burning? Can wax moths do damage inside the hive?

Just a precaution I would give a good flame over with a blow torch

 

[Erichalfbee]

End June my bees had nothing. The bramble had gone over leaving only Rosebay but the weather has been ideal for Balsam of which there is plenty and the bees have been really busy on it. Never had much from it in previous years.Honey is pale but not as pale as Rosebay. I've had a 100b off each hive which I know isn't much in the grander scheme of things but its from practically zero a moth ago

 

[Moobee]

Found three new queens in hives which were without a few weeks ago - one is a lovely, if quite small, very dark queen. Took some filled frames out of a particularly heavy hive as it was getting too heavy to move the supers around.
Sold a queen I had raised in a mating nuc last week and they’ve made a couple of QCs so might just get another Q or two from them this year. Still plenty of drones in my hives.
Debating when to extract. Nearby fields of phacelia and buckwheat in flower have made me pause…..

 

[Curly green finger's]

Found three new queens in hives which were without a few weeks ago - one is a lovely, if quite small, very dark queen. Took some filled frames out of a particularly heavy hive as it was getting too heavy to move the supers around.
Sold a queen I had raised in a mating nuc last week and they’ve made a couple of QCs so might just get another Q or two from them this year. Still plenty of drones in my hives.
Debating when to extract. Nearby fields of phacelia and buckwheat in flower have made me pause…..View attachment 41037

She looks a Buetifull girl, if the flow is still on then it would be silly not to wait too extract.

 

[Moobee]

She looks a Buetifull girl, if the flow is still on then it would be silly not to wait too extract.

The bees were a bit defensive yesterday but think you’re right, can’t waste the opportunity of some more lovely honey!

 

[Gilberdyke John]

End June my bees had nothing. The bramble had gone over leaving only Rosebay but the weather has been ideal for Balsam of which there is plenty and the bees have been really busy on it. Never had much from it in previous years.Honey is pale but not as pale as Rosebay. I've had a 100b off each hive which I know isn't much in the grander scheme of things but its from practically zero a moth ago

Speaking to Damien at abelo at lunchtime he commented a lot of beekeepers were gloomy about getting a harvest in June but over the last few weeks things had changed considerably.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Pulled a newly mated queen from a split to give to my neighbour. Despite explicit instructions on how to prepare the receiving colony we found the bees obviously trying to replace a failing queen. The owner tore down two gorgeous looking supersedure cells before I could stop him!
More instructions were given and I returned the queen whence she came.

 

[E&MBees]

Added clearer boards under the supers. Most colonies were bad tempered, which is very unusual and a couple of bees got into my boots and stung my ankle. Bit twingy now!

 

[Swarm]

Went to the Speedway Grand Prix yesterday so left collecting the supers until today. Not a single bee left in the supers which was nice and had a hand from my very organised wife which made things much easier. I'll get the rest in next week.

 

[Nannysbees]

Removed supers ,apiguard on all five hives. The requeened hive still very grumpy. Huge colony!!!! husband took quite a few stings, have to check the date when we requeened as I would have thought the temperament would have been better by now. Kitchen absolutely full of frames, empty and capped, don't expect much from the supers

 

[Erichalfbee]

don't expect much from the supers

I’ve left a super of uncapped honey on each colony. I suspect they will be going under in a couple of weeks.

 

[Wilco]

Late last night I collected 9 shallows from one apiary which I'd tried the stack method on. Last week I placed a stand with a flight board with the entrance set to open, on top of which were two cleared boards and nine shallows from four colonies of varying production levels, sealed at the top and strapped down. It was left for 24 hours before I shut the entrance as I was on reserves at the weekend. Last night there were maybe 10-20 (probably fewer than 10 but I didn't count) bees in the top shallow, 10-20 shut in below the clearer board and remaining shallows were completely clear. Very pleased with this method!

Now to do some other sites and also figure out when I'll have time to actually extract the stuff....