What did you do in the Apiary today?

Erichalfbee said:

Bees really aren't coping with the entrance change on the Bailey hives.
Possibly because the hives are MB ones and are not straight sided.
I nipped round the back of the hives and quickly flicked off the bottom closed off reducers. I just about managed to run fast enough!!!!

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Ericha, I had exactly the same problem with my Bailey CC but found that a 1ft wide board lent against the front of the hive directed them up to the new higher entrance beautifully, but I don't know if your set up would accommodate this?

Mmmm. I might just try that,thanks.

masterBK said:

I run double broods and most have 15 or 16 combs of brood in total at the moment. I demareed yesterday and sorted the brood putting all the sealed brood in the bottom box with the queen and the unsealed brood in the top box with three supers in between (2 of whihc are fairly full). The sealed brood soon emerges providing laying room for the queen and I find this avoids sky scraper hives and the step ladder that you might need if you do it your way.

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Really good advice, however in 2 of the hives on double broods I was a little delayed in inspecting, due to time available and weather, and found charged queen cells.

The theory is that demareeing them with no brood in the bottom box at all should present conditions similar to if they have swarmed! At least that's what I understand.

Last year I found that transferring just the queen and none of the frames from the brood box that was demareed was far more successful in preventing swarms than transferring the queen on 1 frame of brood (obviously after removing any queencells).

I prefer to run my colonies on single brood boxes, where possible, and keep demareeing them as and when required.

Went and AS my TBH into a national hive.

Checked my hive today after putting a super on two weeks ago. Super nearly full already and a number of Queen cells. Going to split them tomorrow using nucleus method. First time doing this so hope all goes according to plan. Queen isn't marked so hope she won't be too hard to find.

converted another one of my poly nucs to take 8 frames, gonna throw it out there as another bait hive.

I inadvertently set a hanging basket on fire while I was scorching some hives! Luckily all was well after liberal dousings with water. A beekeeping hazard I hadn't previously encountered!

Heath Robinson, eat your heart out!

Jimmys Mum said:

Ericha, I had exactly the same problem with my Bailey CC but found that a 1ft wide board lent against the front of the hive directed them up to the new higher entrance beautifully, but I don't know if your set up would accommodate this?

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Well, have cut down two bits of MDF to fit over the front and taped up gaps all round and the result is a slightly sloping from "landing board" to top entrance .....ideal
Seems to have worked with one hive.
The other........a few lone bees still struggling around the bottom (none thankfully under floor) but the others looking out of the top entrance refusing to come out.
WHAT a palaver!!!!!

What I did in the apiary today

I live in the foothills of the Cambrian Mountains and our beekeeping season is short compared to most of the UK. I was thinking that I would probably look in my hives early next month but my Neighbour said I should look sooner. I'm so glad I did. My three big hives were on jumbo British plus an extra super of stores and the other just the jumbo box. When I opened the smaller ones, all but one were bursting at the seems. So extra supers given. The larger ones, I thought were at the top! So my plan was to put the jumbo brood box on top of the supers. As I tried to lift the supers they were heavy and it was the same story all the way down to the heaving brood box. They had filled one jumbo brood box and three supers. I gave them an extra brood box to move into. That was my day in the apiary. Glad I didn't miss them swarming. I can now make plans. All I can say is the bees must be really busy in the warmer parts of the UK!

Erichalfbee said:

Well, have cut down two bits of MDF to fit over the front and taped up gaps all round and the result is a slightly sloping from "landing board" to top entrance .....ideal
Seems to have worked with one hive.
The other........a few lone bees still struggling around the bottom (none thankfully under floor) but the others looking out of the top entrance refusing to come out.
WHAT a palaver!!!!!

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I have to be honest, I'm really looking forward to Thursday when my 2 Bailey comb changes are over! Going to try a shook swarm on another one of mine when it's a bit warmer - reckon that will be a lot less of a 'palaver'

I hate all that loss of brood, mind you this year I have a failing colony that could do with strengthening.
Last time I did a shook swarm by the time I got the frames home lots of baby bees had emerged and were wandering disconsolately around the empty frames. I scooped them up and took them back home.

Erichalfbee said:

I hate all that loss of brood, mind you this year I have a failing colony that could do with strengthening.

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Ah-ha, light bulb moment I'm trying to build up a strong double colony for some queen rearing using a cloake board. Perhaps I can use some of the discarded brood from the shook swarm to strengthen that colony further!

Thanks EricA

Checked four hives, all doing well. Best one which I put on double brood (deeps) last week gave today's beekeeping lesson.

When you put a brood box (deep) on check all the frames are deep too, not just the outside ones! Nicely drawn shallow frames is where HM decided to lay. Fortunately saw her in lower box so transferred frames to super above QE.

Doh!

Simon

Inspection of two, no time for the third offsite. One colony appears fine, the other has one unsealed QC that I saw. Luckily this is the one with a marked queen so AS planned for later on in the week when I've got around to making up some frames and weather allows.

Too windy to do much today though both hives flying strongly. Chaos around the hives with lots of crash landings - fished a few out of the nearby pond and was thanked with a sting!

1st visit of the year. Last time we had warm weather I was in South Wales.
One of my 2 colonies survived the winter, the other started drone laying late in the season & they were too few to survive the winter.
Looks as if I have a verroa problem in this hive and there were 3 empty queen cells. Time to clear out the old hive & ready for an AS next week.

Swarms, swarms and more swarms....one on top of another.

Chris

Checked colony that I demaree‘d last week. Still seem determined to swarm as I found 4 charged queen cells in the new box. The other colony is undergoing a Bailey comb change and progressing nicely. Added a super to my home colony who were an over-wintered nuc that have filled a 14*12 poly. Also put out a bait hive

Added a super.

M

Sat and enjoyed and INSANE level of traffic. Pollen sacs the size of lentils (no horse chestnut, which is odd; it's in flower), orientation flights, drones going and coming with their gonads intact (WTF, boys!) Absolutely beautiful.