What did you do in the Apiary today?

Got stung, and again, and again !!!

Removed second brood boxes from two sets that I combined on Thursday (Q+ & Q- in each case). I am away on business for an extended period from Monday so a window of weather and opportunity - that the Yorkshire mongrels did not appreciate - and very clearly communicated

Got wet.

I hate this weather.

Bees going crazy here, bramble everywhere and a mega flow on the sweet chestnut just started two days ago...

.....and two more late swarms collected.

Chris

Chris Luck said:

Bees going crazy here, bramble everywhere and a mega flow on the sweet chestnut just started two days ago...
Chris

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rather a pity that you are just outisde my 3 mile radius Chris, we have a good flow on here as well, water that is

Shook out a drone layer. Distributed some stores around new swarms. Checked two hives with recently emerged Queens. Unblocked sink (wax melting perils).

having got wet requeening two hives...

I decided to add some electricity to the mix, so I finished off my homemade cabinet warmer / brewbelt / incubator heater.

Th**nes sell a thermostat / heater cable kit for £80, and I wondered if you could make your own any cheaper. It turns out you can source cheap Chinese made digital thermostatic control units for between £3 and £13 on fleabay (£3 if you are willing to wait for it to come from China, £13 from the UK). I also picked up a 50W waterproof vivarium heater cable for £27 (the Th**nes version uses a 25W cable - you can get a 23W vivarium heater for about £18). Four quid for a trailing socket, and add in some bits and bobs from the spares box and hey-presto a 50W digital thermostatic heater unit for under £50!

The controller can be had in 12v, 24v or 240v versions. You can set it to control a heater or a cooler. You can set the target temperature and the range (it turns the heater off at the target temperature and on again at target less range). You can also set a temperature correction offset (although mine seems quite accurate). I could have wired the vivarium heater straight into the controller, but I thought that I'd put a trailing socket on the end so I can plug in other heat sources (like a lightbulb for my incubator or a submersible heater for brewing etc).

Now I just need to put it in a box...

I used one of these the 100 egg incubator

http://ascott-dairy.co.uk/acatalog/Poultry_Incubator_DIY_Kits.html

Extracted about one and a quarter supers of this season's honey. Has come in at about 25lbs. Very sweet and light in colour. Not as nice as the late season stuff from 2011 which was reddish and delicious, but nice nevertheless.

Just opened my first bottle of braggat (beer style mead) 3 pounds of cappings/honey and 2 oz of hops = 12 bottles of fantastic summer style "beer". Reward for worrying about queenless hives and endless swarming at last

Dilemma

Checked first hive- all well. marked queen seen

Checked 2nd hive all ok- but 2 charged queen cells- great brood pattern, eggs present. Dumped queen cells- ungrateful wretches. queen not seen.

Checked 3rd hive- mostly drone cells, no eggs seen ... but then saw a queen outside the brood box on her own,where the hell from... Put into queen cage.
Shook this hive onto sheet to find if drone laying queen...none seen.
Reintroduced queen to this hive after all returned to original site
Thinking ... 2nd hive - if queen from you - make a new one from day old eggs
3rd hive- you have a queen . lets see what occurs

Back to the wine bottle .. what will be will be! Thank the Lord for spell checker!

In a heavy shower I had to open up two hives to find a queen for my 14x12 Ulster observation hive

eventual found and marked a queen and added her on a 14x12 brood frames to the upper box and five frames plus a frame feeder in lower box......by that time my bees were not very happy with me and onee worked her way into my cuff....ouch ,but i dont now react other than itch

Then off to the local fete we attend with the adjacent BKA

Got all the usual stupid questions

why are you keeping wasp? hreerrrr, look mave, wasps in a box, If they are bees why are they not furry?, don't kid me they're wasps not bees ,How do i get honey from the bumble bes in my compost ?, i get yellow one of those in my loft, are the brown one like the yellow ones?,Wayne dont go near those you might get stung, Thats my worst nightmare, you must be mad keeping bees ( well maybe i am)

An interesting afternoon checking some of my hives, the highlight was finding the queen in the hive I had thought had swarmed last week. Last inspection I demareed the hive and couldn't find the queen, even though she is marked! I had to resort to shaking the bees into the new bottom box as gently as I could.
Still waiting on a few virgin queen to mate / start laying but notice that there is the start of a flow on as new nectar is starting to get stored!

All in all a pleasing afternoon.

My lot took 2 litres of 1:1 over the past couple of days - and needed it.

Anyhow, they were making the most of the improving weather, so it was off with the feeder and back on with the super.

Then, having been inspired by our BKA microscopist, and therefore laying out well earned brass for the equipment, I proceeded to murder 30+ bees in the freezer.

Inspect tomorrow. What are they like on toast for lunch?

Dusty.

Spent the afternoon laying chippings under my hive stands to keep the grass down. After yesterday - a lovely day and I was wringing wet and rather aromatic afterwards. Bees not very impressed at me getting in the way of them doing their thing!

If it's a freshly white marked queen its mine!

If so I can't believe I fell for the old "homing bees" ploy...

Oh... and so as not to be acused of thread creep - I checked on my 14x12 that didn't leave - on to 6 and 2 1/2 (insides) frames now - so put a super on last week. They havent expanded but they are storing in the super now and have more brood/little stores in the BB. Might get my first honey this year after all!

Strictly not in the Apiary , but meet up with Chris58 and talked bees . Good to talk and have a day off .

Got a hive health check on all four of my colonies (and hive manipluation practical lesson on the side) from a local v. experienced beek. #1 is Q+ following last fortnight's A/S, still has last year's queen and is back up to four frames of drawn comb & fresh brood (only had one after A/S); #2 now has marked queen but spotty brood pattern and a lot of drone brood, bees are prickly and queen's abdomen is a bit dented so we may have to look at re-queening that one; #3 (hived swarm this year) now has marked queen, docile bees and great brood laying pattern but stores a bit light; #1A (A/S split) opened for a quick peek at the QC, her new maj. has eclosed so we closed up and left 'em to it (not to be opened again until at least 7th July), when she's mated and they're Q+ we'll tempt fate by calling 'em #4 instead.

Lovely day for beekeeping 'twas too, and very nice to know that I'd got the "queen unseen" A/S right this time after nearly losing both the hive and the split doing it last year!

Placed a frame of brood from one hive into one that appears to have gone queen less (she was new, so may have mated badly or not come back from a flight).
Going back to original hive, noticed lots of bees outside, looking awfully like it wanted to swarm. But just been through the box and NO QCs that I could see on the face, in curves or in the sides of frames. Will have to hope they stay as I've just put a second super on.
The one I took two supers off yesterday has mostly cleaned them up so I moved them below the crown board as I go away later this week and there's noone to add more.
One half of a split (AS) is building up nicely, moving to about 8 frames and laying nicely.
The other half was about to get merged with the former, even though I had seen a little dark queen a few weeks ago. As I haven't seen her over the past couple of weeks, I was going to combine, but today there are a couple of frames of laid up brood – eggs and larvae, none capped yet. Pattern good, not spotty, so she may have only just got started. Fingers crossed – she''l have a few weeks grace to prove her worth.
The swarm I moved to another site about half a mile away seems to be going great guns, but only viewed from boundary. Will get over there later, expand entrance and put on a super.

Popped out a bait box in case the buggers swarm again! Have to go out later so whats the betting it will bee then?

scuttlefish said:

Lovely day for beekeeping 'twas too, and very nice to know that I'd got the "queen unseen" A/S right this time after nearly losing both the hive and the split doing it last year!

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Hi Scuttle

What is your 'queen unseen' method please? Just incase of need - thanks.

FB

Not in apiary but got 2 epipens today following a rather 'dodgy' reaction to a beesting on Jubilee weekend. Crossing everything in the hope I don't need to use them!