What did you do in the Apiary today?

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Put clearer boards on today. Very little OSR honey is actually capped but the odd frame I tried passed the shake test. Will be checked with refractometer tomorrow.
 
I felt today as Daffy Duck.. not sure is it vabbit or swarm season.. Heard from other beeks, a lot of swarming. Even my mentor has a lot of problems.. Too strong bees " rest" in a hives.. When nice day occur they fire out..
I had also few swarms which caught me in between steps. I now go harder on them, zero tolerance.. Couple splits gave to one beek friend ( I wait to he bring me some kits to fill for him). The rest queen massacre.. There are some fine colonies, which does not go that route and some got extra drone frames, some will get jenter..
 
1st week check of the bailey comb change, looks like its working albeit slowly.
 
Moved 3 garden hives to the out apiary I got last year, first hives to go there....

Overwintered 4 good hives, now upto 6 strong hives and 1 nuc.
The first queen to be mated in my garden apiary is very calm in a nuc and laying like a train, so will be 7 hives soon.... OR I may use her nuc to keep boosting the other hives.
 
Checked state of supers on main colony - some failed the shake test so need to give them a while. Top of Snelgrove I split not looking promising - no sign of any queen or eggs at all and furiously backfilling the nest with nectar. Gave them a super to use in case it becomes queenright and they need to free up space to lay in - will give them a few weeks yet...

Swarm I captured last Sunday appears to have been a small prime as it has a laying queen with ~3 day old eggs seen. Drawn half a box of fresh comb so far as well...
 
Checked two nucs for laying queens. Newly emerged virgins run in fourteen days back, eggs and young larvae in both.
Bees all steady, besides, supers filling.
 
Made frames and kept away from the bees - very weird weather, downpours of rain and some flooding, very humid.
Made a clearer board, rhombus type.
Watched swarm captured on Monday orienting in the rain!!
 
Approx 13 here today and odd light showers of rain. Checked a double nuc hive that I rearranged frames on last week as I thought they were going to swarm. Added a third super to my main Buckfast colony thats doing well, didn't bother inspecting the rest.

Bought three more BS honey bees nucs yesterday so gave them a first coat. Went back and painted along the bottom mating surfaces of the maisimore nus as it was annoying me that I hadn't done them. Also mixed up 20kg of sugar in my mixer barrel to have to hand.
 
A quick look through the hives today, almost all my queens are F1 raised off a Keld Island mated queen, I have to say I'm amazed how they have build up in the past few weeks. The last two Nucs I move into full size 14x12 BB's last week have drawn all the frames and are in need of a super. A lovely spring crop of honey on most of the hive, some with 3 super on. It amazes me how quickly supers disappear from the back yard over to the apiary.

My two queens that will be used to rear this years queens, another Keld Branstrup and a Dr Peter Stöfen each on double BB's both have three supers on them, such gentle, productive bees. It's good to see that Peter is using the sisters to the queen I have as a drone provider this year.
 
Cleaned out some boxes that I had stored from last year to re use as I am getting very low on everything! 2 boxes left, dropped a cloth over them and went for lunch - came back to finish them and a swarm had moved in already! Can't have too many bees it seems.
 
nantmoel said:
A quick look through the hives today, almost all my queens are F1 raised off a Keld Island mated queen, I have to say I'm amazed how they have build up in the past few weeks. The last two Nucs I move into full size 14x12 BB's last week have drawn all the frames and are in need of a super. A lovely spring crop of honey on most of the hive, some with 3 super on. It amazes me how quickly supers disappear from the back yard over to the apiary.

My two queens that will be used to rear this years queens, another Keld Branstrup and a Dr Peter Stöfen each on double BB's both have three supers on them, such gentle, productive bees. It's good to see that Peter is using the sisters to the queen I have as a drone provider this year.
Click to expand...



Amazes me how bee breeding has come along in the last 25 years.
 
Busy weekend.

Saturday - doing a cut out followed by a swarm collection and equipment prep.
Sunday - setting up a new mating apiary, populating Mating Nucs and adding Virgins from my first grafts of the year from my favourite Amm queen, inspections, adding Supers and two more swarm retrievals and in between all of that rehoming some bumble bees from a Tractor!

I need another weekend to recover :)
 
At the training apiary Sunday, one of the beginners commented on how old my crown of thorns looked. I said I'd had it since almost when I started beekeeping, even though it had been lost a few times but promptly found.
Went to the castle apiary today, grass is getting long in front of the hives so planned to strim after inspecting, It's a wonderful apiary, well sheltered but in the sun from morning until sunset, it's at the foot of the castle so the terrain is a bit rough and rocky as it's where a lot of the debris landed when the castle was slighted, anyway.......
COT sat on the edge of the hive until needed, my hand slipped, COT fell, bounced off my boot then into the long grass and probably fallen between some rocks as look as I may, I could not find it.
Bugger!
 
jenkinsbrynmair said:
At the training apiary Sunday, one of the beginners commented on how old my crown of thorns looked. I said I'd had it since almost when I started beekeeping, even though it had been lost a few times but promptly found.
Went to the castle apiary today, grass is getting long in front of the hives so planned to strim after inspecting, It's a wonderful apiary, well sheltered but in the sun from morning until sunset, it's at the foot of the castle so the terrain is a bit rough and rocky as it's where a lot of the debris landed when the castle was slighted, anyway.......
COT sat on the edge of the hive until needed, my hand slipped, COT fell, bounced off my boot then into the long grass and probably fallen between some rocks as look as I may, I could not find it.
Bugger!
Click to expand...

I lost one similar to you, bought another one and painted it white with a posca pen. It's now kept in the lid of a Stanley tool box.
 
Great day in the apiary.
Gave a colony to a friend leaving me a managable two stong colonies.
Have chosen swarm control by removal of nuc with Q this year - carried out on both colonies 2 and 3 weeks ago respectively. One colony now with laying queen, the other still waiting. Both nucs expanding well.
Four supers on one hive and three on the other with OSR still in flower and bees working it. Removed 15 frames from supers (shake and brush) with no drama and extracted about 35lb honey (which is already looking cloudy and ready to set).
Bees calm and pleasant to work with.
I'm buzzing!
 
Switched out the plastic vent pieces for solid poly inserts in my Abelo poly standard deep.

Didn't realise it might be a bit cold at night for them 🙄
 
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