What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Erichalfbee]

sorting out the nadirs and floors.

Yes I need to do mine.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Yes I need to do mine.

only another forty odd to do, I didn't need to do it today but I needed an excuse to be out in the fresh air for a while so I used my 'reasonable adjustment' joker card

 

[Erichalfbee]

only another forty odd to do

I have two
And one other that for some reason has a super on top! So that will have a QX under at some stage

 

[Do224]

yes, clean floor put on the stand next to the hive - lift the deep off the nadir and put on new floor, remove the shallow, move the new floor and deep over, replace roof then brush off any debris off the floor and use it for the next hive - floors don't need any scraping, most were spotlessly clean.

Would you recommend removing the bottom box of a double brood colony around now too then (to allow for demaree later)?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Would you recommend removing the bottom box of a double brood colony around now too then (to allow for demaree later)?

only you know your bees, can they shift in a single brood? if so, why double brood them in the first place? I would probably think they would be in both boxes already

 

[Do224]

only you know your bees, can they shift in a single brood? if so, why double brood them in the first place? I would probably think they would be in both boxes already

Were your nadired shallows empty?

Last year was my first time using double brood and I wish I hadn’t bothered. Plan is to go back to single brood and try demarees this year

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Were your nadired shallows empty?

yes, but before long I may be finding a bit of brood in the nadir - depends on how the weather holds. but if they went into autumn on double brood, there's a chance they would have spread the brood over two boxes before contracting. If the bottom box is empty there is no problem taking it off, even if you have to leave it next to the hive for a while for the bees to drift back. If there is a bit of brood in there, you can just shuffle the frames around and consolidate it into one box. Just don't start off the early season with one box crammed with bees and brood.

 

[Do224]

yes, but before long I may be finding a bit of brood in the nadir - depends on how the weather holds. but if they went into autumn on double brood, there's a chance they would have spread the brood over two boxes before contracting. If the bottom box is empty there is no problem taking it off, even if you have to leave it next to the hive for a while for the bees to drift back. If there is a bit of brood in there, you can just shuffle the frames around and consolidate it into one box. Just don't start off the early season with one box crammed with bees and brood.

nothing is straight forward with this hobby

 

[gregior]

did you have EFB then?

No thet were Q and 6 frames worth of bees shaken into new box from colonies with swarm cells.

 

[Bernard Johnson]

So what I got there years ago, we will all drown in our own sewage eventually bees including

 

[The Poot]

So what I got there years ago, we will all drown in our own sewage eventually bees including

Well that’s something to look forward to. Thanks for that.

 

[JamezF]

Well that’s something to look forward to. Thanks for that.

It's a self-correcting problem though -- the more people who drown, the less sewage there is Fortunately for me, I live on top of a hill. Unfortunately for me, one of our neighbouring farmers has been out spreading chicken manure this afternoon, so it now smells like I'm drowning in sewage anyhow.

James

 

[Dr. Abe]

I had an unfortunate winter and lost 3 hives. Just this week it finally warmed up a bit and I prepared to store my extra hive boxes.

Has anyone had any experience with using Paramoth? Also, I am curious what freezing in a zero degree (F) freezer will do to wax moth eggs. I noticed that some of my frames with leftover honey had groups of white eggs in the cells. This kind of worried me about storing the frames and I am a bit apprehensive about using them for small, young hives.

 

[Penninetrader]

Today I took advantage of the sun and whipped the fondant out of a few hives, 3 to be exact, 2 were taking no notice of it and the third with the hardest was making reasonable use of it, that one I swapped out with one of the other trays of more pliable fondant.I will tomorrow replace with syrup and see how that goes.The girls were still bringing pollen in of varying colour, one bee landed so heavy due to being covered on legs and back with pollen she could hardly right herself. This girl decided to have a little rest before returning home with the shopping

 

[Sutty]

Just walked around and watched them all decide to orientate at once

 

[boywonder]

Not especially warm here this lunchtime, but I had specific reasons for wanting to lift the lid of 2 nucs, and quickly lifting and scanning the frames in one.

That had 3 frames with a large amount of BIAS, in a lovely pattern. Both were rammed with bees - as per attached.



Forewarned is forearmed, but I feel a busy April coming down the track !!

 

[Sutty]

My nucs are nowhere near as full, I'd put them in a hive soonish.

 

[The Poot]

Just walked around and watched them all decide to orientate at once

What a sight! It was too cold here for much bee activity and most that did fly were getting water.

 

[Sutty]

What a sight! It was too cold here for much bee activity and most that did fly were getting water.

I was surprised as I think it was only 9-10C

 

[Nannysbees]

Started to swap out the hive stands, scrubbing, painting and sorting out any repairs if needed, surprised to see very little debris on the floor just a small pile of dead bees. One of the hives given fondant, feeling very light and have consumed their last batch. Running low on our honey, hope it's a good spring or my porridge is going to be very boring!!!