What did you do in the Apiary today?

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Returned to the Orchard Apiary after yesterday finding charged queen cells but having no equipment meant I couldn't do much. Blossom is completely finished now. Put the green queen and four frames in a nuc and left one uncapped queen cell in the hive; removed an empty super as well.

Did my home rounds and one double nuc which was making swarm preps last week and I removed the queen; took a notion that it would be the perfect opportunity to graft so knocked down the few queen cells; went to what was my best hive last year and checked it for larvae, got my equipment and did 20 grafts. Very tricky at first but I think I got the hang of it.

Will check back Thursday and see? All being well they go in the incubator on Sunday?
 
Checked the 2 hives I took 110lb of honey off last week, they now have another 3 supers and 1 brood box almost capped and will need extracting next week! These girls are monsters!!!!
 
B+. said:
I managed to catch a short video clip of workers attempting to remove the "mating sign" yesterday.
Click to expand...
Amazing footage, great to see this as I spotted , for the first time, a returning mated queen with "mating sign" on the landing board of one of my nucs the other day.
 
monarda said:
Amazing footage, great to see this as I spotted , for the first time, a returning mated queen with "mating sign" on the landing board of one of my nucs the other day.
Click to expand...

Funny you should say that because I also captured some video of a queen returning from her mating flight.
I've seen it plenty of times but never caught it on video with my phone.

It would have been impossible to see her but I mark queens as soon as they emerge so you just see her blue tag darting around. She landed outside the nuc and was met by a group of workers. She didn't go straight in as some of the videos suggest she does - Dani and I were talking about this earlier today.
 
Now that was a brilliant piece. She flew about in and out of the entrance for quite some time. I’m really glad to have seen that as I presumed they always just shot straight in.
 
Erichalfbee said:
Now that was a brilliant piece. She flew about in and out of the entrance for quite some time. I’m really glad to have seen that as I presumed they always just shot straight in.
Click to expand...

That one didn't bee-smillie
She flew around for a while before she made up her mind to go in

Something else I've seen is virgin queens in the wrong nucs. I only know this because they all have numbered tags on. I have 3 at the moment that are in the wrong nucs....it could be that they're "hi-jacked" and guided to a queenless nuc by the workers while on an orientation flight. All I know is that I go back and find the number on the queen doesn't correspond with the number on the nuc
 
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Did they finally get the mating sign out and what did they do with it?
 
B+. said:
That one didn't bee-smillie
She flew around for a while before she made up her mind to go in

Something else I've seen is virgin queens in the wrong nucs. I only know this because they all have numbered tags on. I have 3 at the moment that are in the wrong nucs....it could be that they're "hi-jacked" and guided to a queenless nuc by the workers while on an orientation flight. All I know is that I go back and find the number on the queen doesn't correspond with the number on the nuc
Click to expand...
Had that with a newly mated queen once, the only one in a row of nucs I'd marked, found her happily laying in the nuc next door - no idea what happened to the original incumbent.
 
jenkinsbrynmair said:
Had that with a newly mated queen once, the only one in a row of nucs I'd marked, found her happily laying in the nuc next door - no idea what happened to the original incumbent.
Click to expand...

I've seen it lots of times. It amazes me that more people don't talk about it but, as you say, its only because they're marked that you notice it.
I think the Posca pen, which most people use, isn't enough because you don't have a unique identification - they're all the same (and they're usually arked AFTER mating).
I've always advocated marking virgins with numbered plastic disks as soon as they emerge but I appreciate not everyone can do things quite the way I do (nor should they) but there are some benefits. It's something to think about.
 
Early evening: whipped off the cover board on my biggest colony, bursting with bees and honey, with four supers on brood and a half. Plan was to move supers 1 & 2 to the top of the stack, above a clearer board so I can extract the capped frames. Have to now, not least because I've no more supers left, but also because I want to give them more space by giving them back the empty super. It's wall to wall brood in the basement.

Of course the bees didn't fancy the idea much and made their displeasure known (even though this is generally a very even-tempered colony) so I had to go off and light the smoker which, once deployed, made them think it was OK.

Now looking forward to seeing two supers empty of bees tomorrow morning...
 
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beeno said:
Did they finally get the mating sign out and what did they do with it?
Click to expand...

To be honest, I closed the nuc because I didn't want her to fly. They were still chasing her around when I closed it up - which is a good sign (the more she moves, the more sperm will end up in her spermatheca rather than being expelled when they remove the "plug".
 
manek said:
Early evening: whipped off the cover board on my biggest colony, bursting with bees and honey, with four supers on brood and a half. Plan was to move supers 1 & 2 to the top of the stack, above a clearer board so I can extract the capped frames. Have to now, not least because I've no more supers left, but also because I want to give them more space by giving them back the empty super. It's wall to wall brood in the basement.

Of course the bees didn't fancy the idea much and made their displeasure known (even though this is generally a very even-tempered colony) so I had to go off and light the smoker which, once deployed, made them think it was OK.

Now looking forward to seeing two supers empty of bees tomorrow morning...
Click to expand...

Hmm, now what? Opened the cover this morning and the top supers - above my clearer board - are still full of bees after an overnight wait. This hasn't happened before. Should I wait or dive in and brush them off?
 
manek said:
Hmm, now what? Opened the cover this morning and the top supers - above my clearer board - are still full of bees after an overnight wait. This hasn't happened before. Should I wait or dive in and brush them off?
Click to expand...

If it was a cold night, the bees will not move much.

Seen it on mornings with dew on grass following a clear night.
 
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