What did you do in the Apiary today?

[The Poot]

Just watched

Mine were the same today, each colony in turn as the sun reached the hive. A lovely sight.
I don’t think the wasps will trouble that lot!

 

[Nannysbees]

Mine were the same today, each colony in turn as the sun reached the hive. A lovely sight.
I don’t think the wasps will trouble that lot!

Hopefully. They are looking in good shape going into winter

 

[Curly green finger's]

breifly looked in on some colony’s marked the superseded queens that now have black queens instead of tan queens??
Marked some queens in late nucs and condensed a few colony’s down removing supers, most colony’s have good stores and fresh ivy nectar in brood frames.
One double nuc which has an orange tan queen in and is a huge specimen has 9 solid frames of capped brood they were very gentle too, one to rear from again next year daughters are a lot blacker than her but still as good.
Vaping tomorrow and Sunday.
Heather supers are now back and will get processed on Monday 16 to process some of which are for cut comb.

 

[The Poot]

First round of vaping.

 

[Moobee]

Just watched

What a lovely sight

 

[Wilco]

Another market, said bye to the head chef at one client (and got to try some Waygu beef, something I've wanted to try for years), continued with winter preps for hives, now watching Last Night of the Proms.

 

[lindsay s]

Normally my extracting would be done and dusted by now but the combination of a bad cold and then being extremely busy means I’m only starting tomorrow. 28 supers to do but unfortunately a lot are only part filled. After watching far too many honey processing videos on You Tube here’s my small scale drying room. I have taken over the airing cupboard and the supers contain uncapped and part capped frames that have passed the shake test. I have been doing this for a few years now and have learnt that overnight with the dehumidifier on is usually long enough to bring the moisture down. Too long and the honey will become as thick as tar as I once found out the hard way! I now keep an eye on it with my refractometer.

 

[pargyle]

Normally my extracting would be done and dusted by now but the combination of a bad cold and then being extremely busy means I’m only starting tomorrow. 28 supers to do but unfortunately a lot are only part filled. After watching far too many honey processing videos on You Tube here’s my small scale drying room. I have taken over the airing cupboard and the supers contain uncapped and part capped frames that have passed the shake test. I have been doing this for a few years now and have learnt that overnight with the dehumidifier on is usually long enough to bring the moisture down. Too long and the honey will become as thick as tar as I once found out the hard way! I now keep an eye on it with my refractometer.
View attachment 41269

If they passed the shake test they should be OK in water content - what did the uncapped honey read on your refractometer ?

 

[Swarm]

I've seen 23% pass a shake test.

 

[pargyle]

I've seen 23% pass a shake test.

Yes ... some thick honeys can fool you .. but I'd still put it on the refractometer before drying it.

 

[lindsay s]

I will be honest and say that I haven’t checked them yet. A lot of the frames are nearly full but due to the weather getting cooler and the chance that the bees would use up the honey, the supers had to come off. The supers have been stored in my garage for the last few weeks. As my dehumidifier gives off a lot of heat in a small cupboard, it’s handy to warm up the honey as well. Don’t worry I won’t over do it.
As I said in a previous post a friends capped honey was reading 25% but we thought it was probably syrup. No one replied to it.

 

[Swarm]

Loads of Hornets on the apple trees at the farm today, also noticed a few Wasps being turfed out at hive entrances. Last supers being cleared on my landlord's hives.

 

[pargyle]

As I said in a previous post a friends capped honey was reading 25% but we thought it was probably syrup. No one replied to it.

It probably was ....I recall they had been feeding with supers on.

 

[lindsay s]

It probably was ....I recall they had been feeding with supers on.

Yes that is correct.

 

[drex]

Removed 2nd dose of Apiguard a few days premature as it has put all queens off lay in all the colonies. The varroa drop has been very light. Some blocks of soon to emerge sealed brood. No eggs or larvae. Queens seen in half the hives. Apiguard is common factor in all of them. Might do a vape later on.
Just getting used to beekeeping in Devon as I moved here last year. May be looking at having to winter feed for first time in years. However I will not panic as still time for them to bring stuff in.

 

[Moobee]

Vaping and feeding today. Sadly lost a nuc as although good for stores last week, went in today and a dead out. First colony I’ve had from starvation but surprised at how fast this happened. They were very heavy on last check but we seem to suddenly have a lot of wasps at home which is very unusual. Possibly robbed?

 

[JamezF]

Talking of wasps...

I've just put a travelling screen on a hive that I need to move tonight. As a few people have mentioned here, whilst wasps don't seem to have been that much in evidence over the Spring and early/mid Summer, there seem to be huge numbers of them now. The hive in question was a bait hive on top of a dwarf wall with a concrete slab in front. I didn't get around to moving it when the swarm arrived so swapped them into a normal hive and left them. Now it's in the way. There are quite a number of wasps buzzing around it and plenty of guard bees out in the front of the UFE. The concrete in front of the hive is littered with wasp corpses. Looks like the UFE and bees are doing a fine job of defending the hive between them.

James

 

[Anduril]

I'm so behind this year. Just added my Apivar strips.

 

[JamezF]

Hive moved. Double brood nine-over-nine and I could barely lift it and stagger where I needed it to go. Hopefully they won't be running short of stores over the winter.

James

 

[E&MBees]

Completed first round of varroa treatment. Bees calm, busy on the ivy. Very strong smell of ivy coming from the hives. Shook out a q- colony.
Managed to tip over a quadruple brood nuc as I was adjusting the strap after vaping it. I hadn’t managed to transfer it to a full size hive due to lack of kit earlier in the season and I think it’s too late now to be doing it now. It split between the 2nd and 3rd boxes. Fortunately no structural damage other than some dents. Put it all back together and strapped it down well. Bees were surprisingly calm, no stings despite my incompetence. Just hope the queen is okay.