What did you do in the Apiary today?

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Introduced another virgin to the world. The patient wait begins! :)
 
I watch a queen fly back from a mating flight yesterday. I saw the bees on the front of a box fanning and as I bent down to see why she landed on a leaf just next to the hive.

Something I've never seen before a queen out flying/landing
 
Having undertaken two artificial swarms last wednesday when both origiinal queens were put in nucs with a frame of brood, a frame of stores and two drawn out frames I was suprised to see last night that one was possitively bursting at the seams. This nuc was this morning re-homed in a national hive. The original hives with queen cells had these whitled down to just one big fat one each.

As a brucey bonus, I have supers with capped honey in and with no osr within a fair distance I have no need to rush to extract it.
 
Before i went to work this morning i put i a bait hive on top of my shed roof with a couple of old combs and some crushed fresh lemongrass. Just got in from work and theres bees all over the hive not sure if they are scouts or are after the lemongrass, will check inside later could be my first swarm.
 
checked on 2 queen cells , one hatched and the other one I decided I was going to knock off so that I could reunite, anyhow I nipped the end off the cell and out she popped into the hive, oh well looks like I'll wait on both then see which lays the best.
I also put a couple of supers on other hives and installed clearer boards so that I can take off supers for extraction when I get home from uni tomorrow.
 
What a difference a day makes . Last night the girls were clustered, fanning the hive in 25 degrees , today 13 degrees wet and horrible , nothing venturing out of any of the hives . This is not a good year for south west France .
 
What a difference a day makes . Last night the girls were clustered, fanning the hive in 25 degrees , today 13 degrees wet and horrible , nothing venturing out of any of the hives . This is not a good year for south west France .

Actually it could be heading towards catastrophic, it's worse than last year by a country mile - fingers crossed but this weather is unheard of here; I just saw that keepers in the east of France lost 50% plus of their colonies this spring due to the weather.

Still, people keep telling me it will all be OK and that the climate will settle down, something to do with the Euro crisis.

Chris
 
something to do with the Euro crisis.

Chris

but according to President Holland speaking in Japan

"What you need to understand here in Japan is that the crisis in Europe is over,"

Not here Monsieur President , you need to talk to my bees .
 
Today I went to the isolation apiary to take in a couple of swarms collected last night and apparently I will be going back later to accept another one. After a slow start it seems swarm season getting going.
 
Hanging around looking/measuring wood. So wet/windy this week, that I've been unable to open up. I put a bought queen into 1 hive last week & am itching to see if she survived.
1 nuc was due to hatch their queen on monday. Could not check it at the weekend-bad weather again-so I don't know if that ones running aroun:hairpull:d
 
Made a carry box for 3 TBH frames for inter hive transport..

Made three stands for Association Apiary mini nucs.

Watched the rain. Went to the dentist - far more interesting :paparazzi:
 
So far today recovered two swarms that have flown from the hives in the garden... At least they touched down in our garden ... that sort of luck cant last.
 
Finished clearing a space about a half mile from where I have my hives so I can repopulate it with some hives.

Bees have been awfully swarmy and are really doing my nut in this year. Got back to my main apiary and guess what? Yes, a swarm. Or TWO, actually. One was really quite large, or possibly it got split in two, but one half was put in a skep and was going in , but as I thought, too much activity and buggered off.

The other is in my trusty cardboard box which has seen more bees than some of my hives this year and I will chuck it into a box tonight.

I will then close up a few more boxes for transportation tomorrow morning.

Oh, found that one of my 14 x 12s has FOUR big QCs in the middle of a frame, so will have to determine what the hell is going on in there as look supercedure, but she is laying well, though may have buggered off today. Jury's out.

:hairpull:
 
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Watched the bees flying in between showers (and some during!) Washed my beesuit ready for my stint in the bee tent at the Welsh Game Fair tomorrow. Worked on my honey warming cabinet and made up some floors and roofs; Quiet days really
 
Blast!!!! didn't know it was on and am away.
Must bookmark for next year.
Is it always in the same place or is it peripatetic like the english one?

No - used to be at Golden grove every year - now at the three counties showground in Carmarthen.
 
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