What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Paul_Ward1]

Have you other hives? What are the drops there like?
I have one out of seven continuing to drop large numbers
I’m vaping every five days till I get only a few. I once had to do one seven times….. years ago, before I gave up and put in Apivar which led to none dropping at all. I guess the seventh one did it.

4 hives - all in the same apiary. All drops much bigger than expected after low drops after 3x Gasvap. The Sublimox produces loads more sublimate cloud than the Gasvap so I think it was my poor technique with the Gasvap. Not had anything to compare it to before. Will do as suggested and repeat until the drop reduces

 

[markb2603]

First warm day and swarm of 2024! FFS

Edit: doesn’t look to be one of mine. All queens seen but still FFS

 

[Moobee]

So much for leaving full supers on over winter checked the bees and most needed feeding so that plan has gone out of the window.

Ditto. Nearly all the supers I left on are half empty at best.

 

[Moobee]

4 hives - all in the same apiary. All drops much bigger than expected after low drops after 3x Gasvap. The Sublimox produces loads more sublimate cloud than the Gasvap so I think it was my poor technique with the Gasvap. Not had anything to compare it to before. Will do as suggested and repeat until the drop reduces

If it’s any consolation, I always found it tricky to judge when the temperature was right with my GasVap.

 

[Hedgerow Honey]

Started putting Apistan strips in the Colonies that have had the supers removed.
I did our second nuc apiary also.
61 nucs of which only 11 needed feed, all Marco Queens.
It's like bee armagedon at the yard today, robbing is at biblical proportions, and it's not our own which is frustrating.

 

[Erichalfbee]

It's like bee armagedon at the yard today, robbing is at biblical proportions, and it's not our own which is frustrating.

There are some pretty hungry bees out there. Lots of my broods have few stores, despite leaving uncapped honey in supers for the bees to move. This is the first year I’ve ever seen such a stampede for syrup in the feeders that there is a layer of dead bees at the interface.

 

[lindsay s]

There are some pretty hungry bees out there. Lots of my broods have few stores, despite leaving uncapped honey in supers for the bees to move. This is the first year I’ve ever seen such a stampede for syrup in the feeders that there is a layer of dead bees at the interface.

I was intending to remove feeders from 7 hives yesterday because I thought they would have had enough by now. But after hefting all them it was obvious they were needing more. So feed I had made up for nucs and hives’s at another apiary was diverted to them. I don’t like to skimp on their feeding. My sugar bill is not far off £100 this autumn and it’s going to get higher!

 

[The Poot]

There are some pretty hungry bees out there. Lots of my broods have few stores, despite leaving uncapped honey in supers for the bees to move. This is the first year I’ve ever seen such a stampede for syrup in the feeders that there is a layer of dead bees at the interface.

It’s the same here, but so far without dead bees, thankfully. The bees are desperate to get at the feed.

 

[Garry R]

I fed mine from about two weeks ago - six hives after super removal. 60kg between 6 colonies which had a reasonable amount of stores. They have golloped it down and hefting shows all but one I can hardly lift so that will get a splash more. Then off with the feeders and leave them to the ivy. Fondant on top of the frames about Christmas/New Year and keep an eye out.

 

[Swarm]

Vaping yesterday, I hefted the hives and they are all nicely heavy. The nucs and single boxes who had a slurp of half a gallon when the supers came off are in a similar position. The old Oak tree colony is now two single boxes, one has not been fed and the other has not touched theirs, both a good weight.
The bees are still working Balsam.

 

[Penninetrader]

This morning robbing started from a Nuc that yesterday I had removed a Queen from. Until reading these other posts I had thought the removal had induced this. She has gone back from whence she came and was not happy being put in the cage. Was serving no purpose and had to go, the remainder of the bees had been huddled on one frame whilst bedlam took place this morning around them. I had prepared a place for them within another colony via a paper divider so transferred them on the frame, not one attempted to fly back. A discussion recently on here regarding Nucs and weak colonies. as to whether you feed syrup or fondant, the vote I observed today says Fondant. The robbers, including wasps, ignored some lumps of fondant in preference to the syrup

 

[Garry R]

Took advantage of the sun and heat to get the solar extractor to get a couple of really nice wax blocks from cappings. Should get 8 of these from cappings so all loaded up this morning ready for the sun .....................

 

[The Poot]

Took advantage of the sun and heat to get the solar extractor to get a couple of really nice wax blocks from cappings. Should get 8 of these from cappings so all loaded up this morning ready for the sun .....................

I did the same. The afternoon clouds that bubbled up caused a bit of a stop go effect, but it was all done by four thirty.

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

Fed syrup as required in both apiaries over the last two days. I was very surprised to find that empty supers which I'd placed on hives after harvesting three weeks ago are completely full in one apiary; ie one super per hive. So glad that I didn't start feeding when I removed the summer honey! This is the first time I've had anything in September. Wonder if it will have a distinctive taste?

 

[Wilco]

Fed syrup as required in both apiaries over the last two days. I was very surprised to find that empty supers which I'd placed on hives after harvesting three weeks ago are completely full in one apiary; ie one super per hive. So glad that I didn't start feeding when I removed the summer honey! This is the first time I've had anything in September. Wonder if it will have a distinctive taste?

If it's ivy, wait a few months before eating/selling it. But extract soon!

 

[ericbeaumont]

Just noticed the misstypes

Just noticed the mistype.

 

[rolande]

Fed syrup as required in both apiaries over the last two days. I was very surprised to find that empty supers which I'd placed on hives after harvesting three weeks ago are completely full in one apiary; ie one super per hive. So glad that I didn't start feeding when I removed the summer honey! This is the first time I've had anything in September. Wonder if it will have a distinctive taste?

A bonus from the SFI scheme?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

DASH audit today, 50 % of my colonies to be inspected, bees behaved impeccably, so much that when I warned the lads that one colony may be a bit lively they just laughed and said they wished that all the colonies in our area were as 'lively' as these indtead of the monsters they usually deal with!! In the words of one SBI "are you sure they're not Buckfasts rather than AMM?"
Just by chance the random sample the RBI had picked for inspection (Plus the extra one I threw in for luck as we were passing) were the most pleasant locations I have - including the castle which was bathed in gorgeous late summer sun today.

 

[Erichalfbee]

DASH audit today, 50 % of my colonies to be inspected, bees behaved impeccably, so much that when I warned the lads that one colony may be a bit lively they just laughed and said they wished that all the colonies in our area were as 'lively' as these indtead of the monsters they usually deal with!! In the words of one SBI "are you sure they're not Buckfasts rather than AMM?"
Just by chance the random sample the RBI had picked for inspection (Plus the extra one I threw in for luck as we were passing) were the most pleasant locations I have - including the castle which was bathed in gorgeous late summer sun today.

Sounds like a good day. Brilliant weather too.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Sounds like a good day. Brilliant weather too.

the lads loved it, Paul has done some of my apiaries before when he was a newbie and Franks (his boss) asked me as a favour to take him around some serious apiaries to cut his teeth on and be put through his paces. rather than two hive backyard hobbyists.
Today was more of a treat for us rather than work - we were even treated to coffee and cream scones by Angharad at the castle when we popped in for a break and to tell them they had a broken gatepost in the woods.