What did you do in the Apiary today?

irishguy said:

Weather hasn't been great this last week on west coast but bees have been flying in and out of hives. Looked under hives and packed with bees. One hive had lots of either chalk brood or wax cappings, I couldn't tell but suspect CB because last inspection one brood frame was out ofhive to long IMO.

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Why would that be? isn't chalk brood due to a fungus?

http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/index.cfm?pageid=200

itma said:

The Queens producing these impressive bees seem to have come from some chap down Exmoor way ...

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Looking forward to the arrival of one this summer....

dpearce4 said:

Why would that be? isn't chalk brood due to a fungus?

http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/index.cfm?pageid=200

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I think he's got his ch's mixed up .. slight difference between chalk brood and chilled brood ...

Checked today first time for about 10 days. Both colonies have queen cells, and as normal I failed to identify queen, even though at least one is marked.

Bad beekeeper I know, but my out apiary I leave to its own devices re swarming - it always seems to produce well and rebuild post swarm quickly. I'm also limited by the amount of kit I have and colonies I want to have (max 3). So out apiary left alone (after reducing amount of QCs to 2), and bait hive set up near home apiary which the scouts already seem very interested in. Hopefully I'll get my one desired spilt without having to track down queen.

Lots of honey arriving, looks like a good year for the OSR.

Almost had a disaster today! Inspected my next to last hive, using a 14x12 nuc to put the first frames in to make space for the inspection. I wasnt looking for the queen as there were eggs & brood, i was just looking for queen cells. I finished, put the two frames back in & boxed up, there were 3 or 4 bees in the bottom of the Nuc when i picked it up & there was the queen crawling along the bottom!! I had to open back up & put her. back on a frame.
We live & learn. & i will never make that mistake again, lucky i put my frames in a nuc i guess

jonnybeegood said:

Almost had a disaster today!
We live & learn. & i will never make that mistake again

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I know how you feel.
I once shook out an empty rapid feeder and husband spotted the queen on the hive stand.....it could have been the ground!!!!!
She took off and reflexly he caught her in mid air.
I now put a square of plastic queen excluder over the feeder hole.

Tidied up the bee store to give myself dancing room to sort out supers ready for the flow and waiting for it to brighten up a bit to go and check a few hives (weather has stopped me going in for nearly a fortnight) when I heard a familiar noise in the apiary - walked up and the whole plot was a cloud of bees which I assumed had just left one of the hives. Nothing much i could do at that point but wait for the bees to settle so I carried on inspecting other hives, bees were taking a lot of interest in a pile of brood boxes which contained frames with stores in but weren't settling into a cluster but were sat here and there in the apiary (a load spred out on a log, another bunch on a water butt. I noticed that there was a heck of a lot of bees beqarding at the entrance to the suspect hive but still loads out in the hedge and apiary but after I had finished two inspections all had gone quiet. So, fearing the worse I inspected that hive - chock a block with bees, super pretty heavy and yes, got to the brood box and second frame in - two cracking sealed QC's but still loads of open brood - some pretty young. next frame - the queen! she is now ensconced in a nuc with a load of young bees, stores and drawn foundation and I found nearly a dozen sealed QC's in the hive!!.

Opened three hives and spotted queens on two of them! One is marked, the other not. Didn't have my new crown of thornes with me to mark her else I would have done.

Checked my grafts: 2/3 sealed QCs. Just hope the larvae were as young as they looked...

Set my cell builder up today fingers crossed for good weather now

After a good start, some of mine have slowed right down in recent weeks, despite an abundance of forage.

One swarmed today that had an uncapped QC on Saturday, but that had gone and one I missed was opened up. Will pick up the swarm after dark and move it the 15ft back to my other colonies.

Stuck another super on the hive it left as very busy in the half full super already on it.

Split a 14 x 12 as it had two lovely QCs. Couldn't find the queen, so split them anyway but managed to damage one QC in the process. Left the good one with the youngest brood but will try and find her in a day or so when I can get back and if I do may put her in a nuc.

Others doing OK but nothing but playcups and one hasn't fully drawn out the brood box yet, though is doing that now and using the super to good effect.

Another I have elsewhere I checked at the weekend and discovered the two supers it had on over winter are almost full and so added another. This colony is phenomenally strong and wonder if the apple tree in blossom above it is being hit hard at the moment.

Still, bound to lose something as go away for 9 days on Friday.

Whole area is smelling on honey, I must say I now adore spring. Such great smell, even our kid asked " what smells on honey". I think it must be honeydew. I saw a lot of bees on conifers, also on true service tree after blooming, and suspect they are on beech.. This year will be awesome spring honey.. If I manage - extraction for a weekend.

Black locust will bloom soon, all are nervously watching its flowers how they develope.

Went through 22 colonies, added extra supers for room (and hopefully more honey as they are only yards from 100 acres of OSR), clipped 8 queens, marked the only unmarked queen in the apiary and demareed 12 of the colonies.

We split our hive in two. The original was very strong with lots of bees, brood and honey. Everything went well with the bees being as calm as normal even though we were wrecking their old home.

It took quite a while to do and was very tiring, I've got Chronic Fatigue, but I had saved up enough energy to finish the job. I'm really looking forward to seeing how both hives do this year!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y_ggKaLT0s

Honey Scout Bees show an Interest in Bait Hive

Two honey bees came into my office window today, so I thought I better check Apiary 2, on the roof of the building, and check the bait hive which is located there.

I normally check the bait hive every day, but this week, I've been little pre-occupied, and I was going to check it later today before I left the office for the weekends..

so.. Honey Scout Bees show an Interest in Bait Hive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvssgseszTI

I'd be checking your occupied hives too.

oh and PS....It's 9˚ and has rained all day..........What did I do in the apiary today?
Zilch,nothing b****r all, nada. The bees, on the other hand are sitting plotting all sorts after being largely shut in by the weather for nigh on a fortnight!

Erichalfbee said:

I'd be checking your occupied hives too.

oh and PS....It's 9˚ and has rained all day..........What did I do in the apiary today?
Zilch,nothing b****r all, nada. The bees, on the other hand are sitting plotting all sorts after being largely shut in by the weather for nigh on a fortnight!

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Ah, Apiary 1, is 30+ miles away, and has been checked every day, and weekly inspected, so these scouts are not from Apiary 1!

Oooops.
I thought you had bees in apiary 2.

Erichalfbee said:

Oooops.
I thought you had bees in apiary 2.

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only a bait hive at present, small steps as this is the first apiary on the roof of a building...at the organisation I work. [apiary without bees, or embryonic apiary as beeno pointed out]

stop the swarms going in the fabric of listed buildings...one established it's hoped we will have more roof space used before establishing a larger apiary for the public to view, and other interested employees to keep bees. It also helps with the organisation bio-diversity program, and environment.

It has taken me 3 years this July, to get the red tape, paperwork, risk assessments, in place to get a bait hive on the roof! (and find the key!).

But I can also use as an out apiary if required, for nucs, almost overwintered my nucs here, because it's much warmer here, than my Apiary No.1 (and Urban, rather than my Rural settings!)