What did you do in the Apiary today?

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Did quick check of two colonies today - the first warm AND DRY day for yonks.
Hive 1 - Buckfast nuc bought last June - loads of stores in the super left on for Winter, fondant mostly uneaten! Four seams of bees, brood sealed & unsealed but sporadic pattern and small areas. Didn't see the queen or eggs - but I often can't see eggs.
Hive 2 - locally raised queen last Summer - no evidence of queen,no brood, empty brood box. All bees found in the super left on for Winter, some drones, a lot of dead. Signs of nosema - poops on the crown board around the fondant. All in all a mess and depressing.
Hive 3 - swarm housed in poly nuc plus second brood box left alone - they need housing in wooden hive but I judged it possibly a little too soon to do this?
 
Did quick check of two colonies today - the first warm AND DRY day for yonks.
Hive 1 - Buckfast nuc bought last June - loads of stores in the super left on for Winter, fondant mostly uneaten! Four seams of bees, brood sealed & unsealed but sporadic pattern and small areas. Didn't see the queen or eggs - but I often can't see eggs.
Hive 2 - locally raised queen last Summer - no evidence of queen,no brood, empty brood box. All bees found in the super left on for Winter, some drones, a lot of dead. Signs of nosema - poops on the crown board around the fondant. All in all a mess and depressing.
Hive 3 - swarm housed in poly nuc plus second brood box left alone - they need housing in wooden hive but I judged it possibly a little too soon to do this?
 
I checked two 14*12s that I look after for a lady. They were both on 5 frames of brood with 6 frames of food left. These are open mated daughters of my 2015 stock. I plan to retire them to nucs and requeen the colonies later in the year - not because there is anything wrong with the queens, they're still going great, but, I want to take nucs from them (which will be moved to London) after the flow - and this offers a good opportunity to start next year with good queens, raring to go.
There seem to be a lot of people whose bees have suffered over the winter, yet, others are doing well.
 
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A curious thing happened yesterday.
I wasn't sure how the colonies would behave (these hives contain two open mated daughters from my stock) after being confined to the hive for so long, so I took a smoker with me. The smoker had been left in my garage, still full of wood shavings from the last time I used it. For some reason, it wouldn't seem to light. I assumed the shavings were damp so I tipped them out onto the grass. Out jumped a field mouse that had made its home inside my smoker! Luckily, the smoker hadn't lit!
In 30 years of beekeeping, that has never happened to me before.
 
Seen much more flying and there are definitely more bees in the hive.
I've seen plenty of pollen stores and a few bees on the frames with full baskets.

One and a half frames of BIAS, with a very small amount of drone. I was hoping for more, but it is more than last visit. Seeing that the other one probably died because of too few bees, this might have been very small once activity restarted.

Unfortunately also A LOT of sugar in the frames yet. I definitely overfed them for the winter. Still, the colony is growing, so hopefully that will be gone by the time the acacia starts blooming in approximately 4 weeks' time. If not I'll just remove the frames and store them in case they're needed.
 
Checked on fondant this afternoon 3.5kgs gone! ,there was half left two weeks ago so they have been eating loads these last couple of weeks..
I put 1.5kg on the top bars , there's bees covering all 10 frames it was only 11c so I didn't do a full inspection to see how much brood there was but I'm wondering about space?. Hopefully I'll find out over the next few weeks if the weather stays settled. Lots of yellow pollen going into the hive and its not gorse.
 
B+. said:
A curious thing happened yesterday.
I wasn't sure how the colonies would behave (these hives contain two open mated daughters from my stock) after being confined to the hive for so long, so I took a smoker with me. The smoker had been left in my garage, still full of wood shavings from the last time I used it. For some reason, it wouldn't seem to light. I assumed the shavings were damp so I tipped them out onto the grass. Out jumped a field mouse that had made its home inside my smoker! Luckily, the smoker hadn't lit!
In 30 years of beekeeping, that has never happened to me before.
Click to expand...

Didn't you hear him blowing like fury when you dropped the match in?
 
First quick inspection.

All 3 hives overwintered starting with double brood and still have plenty of reserves without being fed at all this winter. Suspect this winter may have knocked the oldest queen (2015) back slightly as she only has 2 frames of brood the other two have 4 and the 2 daughter colonies have better brood pattern at this time.

All packing in the pollen, all could be reduced to single from double brood but will save that for 2 weeks time as the long range forecasts are high teens then. Made up that the old girl is still around as thought they were trying to supersede last year, I am certain they will supersede at some point this year.

I am not going to overwinter on totally solid floors again (with 9mm entrances), bottom brood boxes are a state, clusters of dead bees, mould and ruined frames. When warmer plan to switch back to OMF and then insert mesh and access for vaping to these solid floors.
 
Couldn't visit the forum because of a virus which redirected me to another harmful website. I tried many antivirus programs and wanted to change my Windows but suddenly the forum is avaliable again. I still can't understand what has happened...

Today is Easter, so I do nothing, but checked two hives that lost their queens during winter. Those colonies are in good conditions but do nothing as well. In Friday I joined them with small colonies with good queens. Seems they adopted new queens without conflicts. I didn't give them brood frames to avoid queen cells. Brood frames I added to other colonies. First drones will be in May.

After too cold March (second February) the weather is very good these days with temperature up to +20°C. Bees carry some pollen and work on water. Sunflower honey which they eat now is like a stone so bees need water not just for brood rearing but for consuming such honey. This season has started very quickly.
 
Bees were active, so move the entrance block to a wider entrance. Bees coming back (I'm in the foothills of the Pennines) with bright yellow Pollen. _ anybody know what flower it is?
 
colinc said:
All 3 hives overwintered starting with double brood and still have plenty of reserves without being fed at all this winter. Suspect this winter may have knocked the oldest queen (2015) back slightly as she only has 2 frames of brood the other two have 4 and the 2 daughter colonies have better brood pattern at this time.

All packing in the pollen, all could be reduced to single from double brood but will save that for 2 weeks time as the long range forecasts are high teens then. Made up that the old girl is still around as thought they were trying to supersede last year, I am certain they will supersede at some point this year.

I am not going to overwinter on totally solid floors again (with 9mm entrances), bottom brood boxes are a state, clusters of dead bees, mould and ruined frames. When warmer plan to switch back to OMF and then insert mesh and access for vaping to these solid floors.
Click to expand...

What about putting a second entrance in even if its a small one? In the top brood .
 
the top brood where the bees have spent their time are good bottom brood where nothing is happening obviously has a ventilation issue. I have plenty of time to decide before next winter what I will try next year. Thanks for the suggestion, another option to consider.....
 
Interesting day. Warm enough to inspect. Looked in my failing hive that I added a frame of brood to last week, had one large queen cell. The top was chewed off and in it were two grubs......
Just about given up hope on that hive! The other two were good and strong and bringing in nectar. Bright red pollen coming into one.
E
 
Gave four poly nucs a third coat of paint, gave inside feeders second and third coat of paint.

Made about 35 frames of various sizes.

Checked the hive, bees flying well. Seen a few different colours of pollen coming in, yellow, orange and a light grey.
 
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