What did you do in the Apiary today?

[YorkshireBees]

Hefted all hives, placed fondant on a few (They don't need it yet But I will be away for an extended period!).

Called round to talk to my local farmer who is asking me to put some hives at his other farm next year as they are growing a lot of field beans!!

So maybe will have a different honey crop next year.

 

[Goran]

How did you know they were broodless? Did you open the hive at 4 / 5 degrees?

We have carnies. They have brood stop, most of queens stop in september, some in october ( I have few which stopped at the end of August).
Feed - last needed feed we strive to end in August. Late feed may provoke the brooding ( not as in season, but..) - especially young queens.
Fondants are now counterproductive ( bees need a peace - they will remain active while working on it, also that will exhaust the winter bees too early even winter didn't actually started, also their digestive tract is earlier filled - when nature call and long time of cold - booboo in a hive).
Fondant as a stimulus I give second part of Jan/beginning of Feb. Depends.

 

[enrico]

Like your thinking on the fondant goran!it should only be used for emergencies but too often we see it thrown on 'just in case'. Maybe that is doing more harm than good!
E

 

[victor meldrew]

I was told 20 odd years ago that a beekeeper using fondant in Winter didn't trust his own ability to ensure adequate stores before the onset of Winter.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Goran]

Here is considered as new beginning of brood mid January. My intention with giving the fondants after in Jan./beginning of Feb. to encourage it. The reason is to build them strong for spring forages to have maximum honey yields. But that is easier to say than to accomplish as You know. I didn't invent something mine, I just use ( successfull) practice learned from my mentor.
Some also here disagree of any use of fondant at all. In season 2015/2016 I think will have more time to play with it, as I plan to reduce colony numbers.
To don't bother you more..

Regards.

P.S.
The picture is from February this year.

 

[MuswellMetro]

Applied Oxalic by sublimation on eight hives then went for a pub lunch to warm up

 

[MikeT]

Bees out flying at Lunch time in the sun. Bringing some pollen (yellow) only flowers out near the hives is a gorse bush about 1/2 mile away. No other flowers out in the garden or on the field margins except the last of the ragwort but haven't seen bees on it.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Applied Oxalic by sublimation on eight hives then went for a pub lunch to warm up

Glad you're still with us MM and hope your downwind neighbours fared as well.

I vaped the hive I am doing this year with a second dose on day 6. I think it is brood free, but just checking as I get a feel for this method.

 

[alanf]

Checked the drop trays after having been in for a few days. Mites dropping in all hives at levels where I'll be getting out the varrox shortly. Very little evidence of varroa in August. A long mild autumn with lots of brood has seen ideal varroa breeding conditions for nearly four months and they have made the most of it.

 

[BrianO]

A long mild autumn with lots of brood has seen ideal varroa breeding conditions for nearly four months and they have made the most of it.

For every silver Lining there is a Grey Cloud !!!

 

[Little John]

Bl##dy cold in this locale today, so have taken the opportunity to move one of my new Long Hives - which has been sitting on a set of wheels for a couple of months, just waiting for the weather to change - about 30 feet, to it's new location. Dunno if I can cope with all this excitement ...
Will also be dosing with OA anytime now.

LJ

 

[beeno]

Hi LJ and others,
Finished the rest of my colonies with OA treatment yday. All flying in the sunshine today with some drones still flying from the 'supercedure' hive. Count on one hive, first three days average 30 per day, and today 175! Glad I got in early on my colonies. Semi-clustered and strong at this moment in time. Good luck everyone.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Varrox arrived today.
I'll take the car down to the apiary tomorrow to see how long an extension lead I need.
I'm looking forward to abandoning thymol/formic acid forever.

 

[Amari]

Varrox arrived today.
I'll take the car down to the apiary tomorrow to see how long an extension lead I need.
I'm looking forward to abandoning thymol/formic acid forever.

Snap! Mine arrived two days ago but I bought an inadequate battery (see my recent post). Thanks to Forum advice I've ordered a 6m jump lead from Amazon so hope to proceed to apiary later this week.

 

[BrianO]

Visited 2 Out apiaries... Bloody Cold !!!

All very quiet... ended up laying underneath a couple of hives to peer up thru the OMF to see the little critters.. Happy to say all 4 hives in clusters . Also peered in thru the Mouse guards , I would NOT reccomend to others ... Disclaimer, but for me on this really cold day knew they would be non active and was a good way to check them.

Even got a semi reasnoble cluster pic

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Varrox arrived today.
I'll take the car down to the apiary tomorrow to see how long an extension lead I need.
I'm looking forward to abandoning thymol/formic acid forever.

Me too but mine is currently all wrapped up under the tree so the girls have a reprieve for a couple of weeks!

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Varroa monitoring inserts going in today. Let's see what's what.

Also will be wrapping them up in ther woodpecker protection - the resident green woody here is no fool and has been a nuisance in the past.

Then might make a few more candles for Christmas.

 

[Roola]

Popped down to see bees after a few months away... All looking ok. Nucs I'm overwintering are going mad. They ended up in 8 frame converted polys after filling 5 frames from the original 2. All of them have the eke on for applying fondant and they have proceeded to build comb up into the eke lol, they are still building comb, anyone else's bees still comb building? They are well insulated above so I guess that's why. Going to be fun clearing that all up come spring when they go into full hives. Big thanks to hive maker and his prolific queens!

 

[BeeBeeKa]

It was quiet and sunny in the middle of the day here. Only 3 `C, but I`ve decided to give a go a quick mesh floors sweeping, as there were a few hundreds of dead bees in every hive laying on the mesh and obstructing varroa mites to fall through ( If any).Besides I consider hygiene is very important eather. The procedure is very simple and does not require taking off a roof or any BB. I took the whole hive unit off, leaving a floor on a stand. It gave me a good impression – how much stores do my girls have ( All have plenty still) A quick brushing, and unit – on again Bees did not get bothered much and vast majority stayed in cluster. A smoker was applied of course, in order to crash as little bees as possible when put the unit on again… I think I crashed a few if any.
But amount of dead bees frightening a bit, as I do not see so many in BrianO`s hive above I.e.
(see 2 pictures of dead bees of 2 hives been cleaned)

My clusters look big enough though(as far as I can see through the mesh).
At the moment I have only 2 versions – why so many died :
1) Long term thymol treatment ( about 2 months )
2) Nosema, as I see some faeces on hives outside, and even on the mesh floors of some… not many though
But AFAIK all bees have nosema at a certain degree… And faeces is not an exact indicator of it… It also could be any other sort of their intestinal disorder.
On a landing board of one hive I`ve seen that dead guy (after whole procedure) :

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Vaping roolz!

"Counted", in the sense only a mathematician can count (i.e., to zero) mites under the hive I vaped on 30 Nov. Yippee! The second dose on 6th Dec only dislodged a few so turns out I was broodless on 30 Nov.

Assuming they come out to bat in February, this is so the way forward for me. Now I just need to use tomorrow's warmer more humid weather to pull the board out with minimum disturbance.