What did you do in the Apiary today?

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Hefted all hives and nice and added ultrabee. Tastes nice so have kept a slab for myself :D
 
Hefted all hives and nucs and added ultrabee. Tastes nice so have kept a slab for myself :D
 
Found my queen dead outside my overwintered nuc! 😢
 
Quickly checked all hives. Added fondant to nucs,mini mating nucs and Langs which had eaten past supplies. (in preparation for next week's cold weather)

Apart from one Lang on 6 frames (to be requeend when I start Q rearing). other Langs are on 8 frames and appear full of bees - much more than this time last year.

Crocus and snowdrops still out . Pond unfrozen and full of frogspawn - just in time to refreeze next week.
 
Watched gorse pollen, milky white and bright white pollen going into hive this afternoon at 530pm not quite shore where they were getting white pollen from but they were going down the hill.
 
Curly green fingers said:
Watched gorse pollen, milky white and bright white pollen going into hive this afternoon at 530pm not quite shore where they were getting white pollen from but they were going down the hill.
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It was nice to see them getting in a full day's work . They've been shutting down about 3.30pm before today.
 
Bejaysus...Sarth of Sheffield is an alien planet. Bees foraging, pollen coming in.....lucky yous.
Nothing flying up here today, torrential rain. Same forecast for tomorrow. Then snow and frost for the weekend.
I think the daffodils have given up even attempting to flower for this year.....Rape is so far behind other years it's going to make it yet (another) interesting season.
 
SDM said:
It was nice to see them getting in a full day's work . They've been shutting down about 3.30pm before today.
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Probably the first time this spring for me it was still only 9 c any idea what the white pollen might of been?
 
Newbeeneil said:
Found my queen dead outside my overwintered nuc! 😢
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Depending on the age and condition of the Queen she may have been superseded late on last year and if you are very lucky you may still have a mated Queen in there but you will not know till the weather has warmed up so you can have a look.
 
Millet said:
Depending on the age and condition of the Queen she may have been superseded late on last year and if you are very lucky you may still have a mated Queen in there but you will not know till the weather has warmed up so you can have a look.
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And if you don’t have a queen, make a judgement on the health and the size of the colony, and either introduce a frame of eggs and brood, or amalgamate them with another colony to give that an early increase in numbers.
 
thorn said:
And if you don’t have a queen, make a judgement on the health and the size of the colony, and either introduce a frame of eggs and brood, or amalgamate them with another colony to give that an early increase in numbers.
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Later in the year when mature drones are available, this may save the colony, but, a virgin would have no chance to mate now. If they have a mated queen, leave them to it. If they don't, combine them with one that does.
 
Erichalfbee said:
Have you or your neighbours got hellebores?
Click to expand...
I don't have hellebores I don't know about neighbour's my bees were heading down the hill and there's plenty of houses down their. There's lots of elder and hazel around.

Sent from my Swift 2 using Tapatalk
 
I inspected all colonies save one yesterday and had to make the first split of the season. The colony I split had 12 Dadant frames of brood and was boiling over with bees. There were abundant mature drones. Another 7 to 10 days and they would have swarmed. Three colonies need a bit of feed. They don't have enough to brood up properly for the spring flow. They are bringing in enough for maintenance but not enough to go full on with brood rearing.
 
Yesterday after lunch, went to visit beginner whom I am helping - the lady with three hives bought late season - with zero training etc.. Two out of three survived alive and apparently healthy but the largest died - looks like isolation starvation.

The dead hive had loads of stores, has been treated for varroa and was one the end of a row - nearest to the prevailing wind of the last cold spell end Feb. (We had at home two -6/7C nights - her house is higher up approx 200m above sea level and much more exposed.)

Added more fondant to the smallest - which had zero stores when bought . Hopefully from now on, they will gradually expand once the current cold spell passes.

She was quite cut up about loss- her husband was rather more prosaic about it ..
 
madasafish said:
Yesterday after lunch, went to visit beginner whom I am helping - the lady with three hives bought late season - with zero training etc.. Two out of three survived alive and apparently healthy but the largest died - looks like isolation starvation.

The dead hive had loads of stores, has been treated for varroa and was one the end of a row - nearest to the prevailing wind of the last cold spell end Feb. (We had at home two -6/7C nights - her house is higher up approx 200m above sea level and much more exposed.)

Added more fondant to the smallest - which had zero stores when bought . Hopefully from now on, they will gradually expand once the current cold spell passes.

She was quite cut up about loss- her husband was rather more prosaic about it ..
Click to expand...

Among many other reasons.. few days with minus temps had none with dying of colony. This is my opinion.
 
Yesterday I united, over newspaper, my nuc which had lost their queen last week with a double nuc I have..... fingers crossed the amalgamation will be bursting with bees in a few weeks!
 
Had a walk down to my apiary this afternoon and all was OK, but the wind chill was awful. Mercifully I checked they were Ok for fondant last week. I shall be doing nothing to them until it warms up, and stays up.
 
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