What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Stiffy]

Checked hives over weekend and all my locally adapted hives were bouncing and bringing blackthorn pollen in. From numbers flying it looks like they have all wintered well, will leave it a few weeks before checking through them though.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[Roola]

Sorted out the webcam I have on some of my hives... old one died so had to reconnect and port forward etc...

Then sat and watched the bees working the flowers in the garden, it was abuzz:

 

[Erichalfbee]

Checked hives over weekend and all my locally adapted hives were bouncing and bringing blackthorn pollen in. From numbers flying it looks like they have all wintered well, will leave it a few weeks before checking through them though.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Blackthorn......already?

Nice picture, roola.
I have lots of hellebores in the garden but it's arctic, at present.

 

[Stiffy]

Blackthorn......already?

Nice picture, roola.
I have lots of hellebores in the garden but it's arctic, at present.

Not a huge amount yet but noticed it when out and about last week and the bees have been all over it last couple of days.
S

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[jonnybeegood]

I had the varroa boards in my 3 hives just to check whereabouts the bees were by the wax dropped, all 3 were at the front of the hives, bits of wax & pollen along the front 3" of the board, & not one varroa on all 3 boards, which was nice

 

[Bosleeu]

Discovered some old pollen substitute in the garage, so I mixed it with some fondant and made patties. I popped it into 3 hives and watched through the coverboard. Although they have a fair amount of stores, the bees were over it like addicts.

 

[Firefly]

Replaced 2 empty trays of fondant. Watched bees happily flying in the sun at 3 deg C (though not fetching pollen today). Then watched them scurry home as the snow/hail approached.

Won a brief skirmish with encroaching blackthorn, but suspect I'm losing the war.

 

[Glenviewbee]

Bees out and about from all 3 colonies today -
One hive is about 15ft to the west of the boundary hedge , with the other 2 hives only about 6ft to the west of the hedge - the westernmost colony is always about an hour ahead in the morning than the other 2.
Bright orange and some duskier yellow pollen going in to all 3 hives.

 

[BrianO]

In allotment apiary, slapped a fondant pattie on national, checked polynuc, great to see bees through Perspex having tunnelled through the fondant I packed in spots on a rare warming day few weeks back, both colonies looking strong, other 2 hives in other apiary fed with fondant weeks ago, due a visit this weekend.

Time to get quotes and order equipment for grand plans this year !

Forecast 14 degrees on Saturday and sunny, busy bee time !

 

[BrianO]

Roola

Lovely picture, great to see, plan to buy some hellebores @ local home base, when soon they discount to sell them off , as they always do when flowers fade and they become yesterday's news

 

[RosieMc]

No daffodils yet!

4th March and not a single daffodil in bloom in my garden yet! Will spring ever come?

 

[beeno]

4th March and not a single daffodil in bloom in my garden yet! Will spring ever come?

We don't want an early spring as Mr. Frost will destroy all the blossom on the trees! My daffs are not out of the ground yet, never mind in bloom.

 

[madasafish]

Four daffodils out in a sheltered spot. Rest just above ground. Lots of crocus .. and snowdrops still out.

Too cold on most days to see any bees though.

 

[Jimmys Mum]

Lovely sunny spring day here today. Bees everywhere. More like May than March judging by the activity outside some of the hives.

Took the opportunity to remove a couple of nadired shallows from under 2 of the less busy brood boxes, clean as a whistle. Got another 6-7 to remove but will wait until the even balmier weekend weather arrives to do those.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I have seven to remove.
Rather than waiting for a warm day I like to take them off when the bees are clustered in the top box.

 

[REDWOOD]

Picked a few Crocus flowers for scientific purposes only

 

[theeggman]

Rescued 2 dozen bees that were trying to drown themselves in a plant saucer of water, the other 200 were sucking water out of the compost in the pots beside the saucer.

HOW can we train our bees to just take water from a SAFE source?

I / We were stood there in the middle of the flight path to the water from the hives and they ignored us, apart from bouncing off as we were in their way.

 

[wessexmario]

Rescued 2 dozen bees that were trying to drown themselves in a plant saucer of water, the other 200 were sucking water out of the compost in the pots beside the saucer.

HOW can we train our bees to just take water from a SAFE source?

I / We were stood there in the middle of the flight path to the water from the hives and they ignored us, apart from bouncing off as we were in their way.

you could fill the plant saucer with pebbles or sand (and water)

 

[pargyle]

Lots of bees from all hives flying again today in the sunshine - only 7 degrees but very busy with lots of pollen going in.

The inspection board in my Long deep hive had a small pool of honey on it this morning - about the size of a 2p piece. This was the hive that I saw two slugs in last week but I've not had a chance to get in and hunt them down. A pool of honey would suggest to me rodent damage but there is no way that a mouse could get into this hive so I'm a bit non-plussed as to what has resulted in a honey spillage ?

So .. it's going to be 15 degrees here tomorrow afternoon so a bit of a peek is called for ... if only to look for slugs before the copper tape goes on.

As an aside - it's a really big colony still after winter ... they were spread over 8 frames when I looked through the clear crownboard and I'm only seeing a varroa drop of about one a day at present so that's encouraging.

No sign of anything unhealthy - it's just lovely being able to watch them at close hand through the crown board. I notice that I have quite a motley collection of different coloured bees in there now - still lots of little black ones but quite a few with brown stripes - some with three stripes, some with four and I saw one that was black and sort of grey. She must have had a real dirty night out on her mating flight last year ...

 

[alldigging]

No pollen going in at any of my colonies. Am going to go and sit out again for a bit this afternoon - might video in case I am missing it.