What did you do in the Apiary today?

[bpmurray]

Even though we didn't get the wind that kept the ferry from docking in Fishguard, it was a little windy so I strapped the last two to their stand.

 

[Paul in Poole]

Hefted 5 hives in a small orchard all ok and then delivered some rent honey to the land owner.
One jar per hive.

 

[Goran]

Again, winter didn't start and already some beeks report 50% of " winter" loses.. Varroa did the " job". Panic will last till the first extraction.. Dooh..

Day temps still reach near 20C these days.. Relative calm and sunny, blue sky.. For weekend some bad weather will be if is to believe.. Bees are some in the field..

 

[Michael Palmer]

Today? In the apiary? Nothing at all. -4 degrees and 8" of snow on the ground.

Bees are all tucked away. Looking good going into winter. Heavy, and with nice clusters. Nucleus colonies that I thought might be in trouble, raised another round of brood in our very warm autumn, and now have nice clusters.

Today is Thanksgiving day in America. Sitting here, in front of a roaring fire. Having a pint of a nice hoppy ale. The rest are in the other room waiting for Thanksgiving supper. Nice to have everyone here.

Thinking we should all take the time to give thanks for what we have been given this year.

 

[REDWOOD]

I do that every day [emoji120]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Barbarian]

Yesterday .... Checked my Manley style mouse guards ... All OK. Some bees flying and bringing in yellow pollen. Not sure what it is.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Bees here are just going for a poo in the sunshine then straight home

 

[user 6228]

pollen going in, entrance very active. 3 wasps attempted repeatedly to get in and repeatedly got duffed up. They then gave up. Spotted more dead wasps beneath the hive. Added the winter fondant "safety".

 

[bontbee]

Watched the bees flying, bringing in a little pollen - gorse and ivy would be my guess. The temp, according to my non-scientific thermometer, was 7C.

 

[Plenty of honey]

Moved the last load of nucs up out of the Valley this afternoon ( they were there on the Ivy, its stuffed full of the stuff). All closed down mid afternoon as none were flying. Always makes life easier. Nice and heavy, exhausting moving them all on your own, but nice that i shouldn't have to feed them until next spring, if at all.
Unloaded them all at home. Apiaries are full now. Not selling any next spring. I need them all for increase. I hope i can get them all through the winter, thats the next challenge!
Already fed a couple of mini mating nucs some fondant yesterday. They were worryingly light.
Made a small zip bag of wood shavings that allows me to feed fondant, then cover over with the bag of insulation(wood shavings) afterwards (inside another polystyrene body so their well insulated). Seems to cover them over well. Plenty of wood shavings this time of year.

 

[drex]

All my hives went into winter on double brood. I had taken no honey from the BB's and all hives were very heavy, plenty of stores, so I did not feed. Today I was branding the hives with my initials and two of them started to tip as I was pushing the iron. I would not usually worry about hefting this early, but 2 out of 7 hives hefted light ( one wood, one poly) so just dashed to the bakers to get some fondant, which will go on this afternoon. It is 10 degrees today. Bees have never really stopped flying yet, and so far have had no real frosts. Lesson learned.

 

[drex]

Just back from putting on fondant. Even worse than I thought. The poly was double brood with super on top - Paynes poly so would not go underneath ( all full of stores on shutdown) . The super was actually empty. All light hives had bees on top bars. The other hives are still nailed to the floor. My bees are home bred mongrels

 

[Hivemaker.]

( all full of stores on shutdown) . The super was actually empty. All light hives had bees on top bars. The other hives are still nailed to the floor. My bees are home bred mongrels

When was shutdown? and what was full of stores, just the super or the super + top brood, or more?

 

[Goran]

Today fog, temperature around 10C with small periods of rain. No bees around.. Giving fertilizers to hazelnuts whole day.. A lot of male catkins, if weather behave in time of "blooming" abundance of pollen available just few meters from a hive..
Got wet and a bit cold, now returning " working" temperature with hot rakija

 

[castanea]

What a surprise wandered up to see the girls whoo!! they were out doing orentation flights buzzing like mad what a beautiful sight. That's what I call being in the ring place at the right time.

 

[drex]

When was shutdown? and what was full of stores, just the super or the super + top brood, or more?

Mid to late September. Certainly super was full and all frames in both BB' s that did not contain brood. Brood nest was about normal size compared to others. I am surprised at the difference between hives now, as some are still nailed to the floor ( as were these) . There is usually plenty of ivy about too. Mind you, as I say, I might have shut them down, but there has been activity most days, and they were all flying well today

 

[Hivemaker.]

Mid to late September. Certainly super was full and all frames in both BB' s that did not contain brood. Brood nest was about normal size compared to others. I am surprised at the difference between hives now, as some are still nailed to the floor ( as were these) . There is usually plenty of ivy about too. Mind you, as I say, I might have shut them down, but there has been activity most days, and they were all flying well today

Perhaps some silent robbing has been going on.

Assuming that they had just one deep full and the shallow, they would of consumed over 80lb of stores, plus anything they have been collecting over the last two months.

 

[drex]

Thanks HM will bear that in mind. Will robbing still be going on now? Probably could expect robbing any time they are flying? The other two light hives are in wood. Both BB' s on each hive were full. They are nowhere near as empty as the poly was. I will have a watch of the hives tomorrow. At least I caught them in time and have learned not to assume anything, and in future will start to heft earlier. Having left plenty of stores in all my colonies I thought they would all go through with stores to spare.

 

[Barbarian]

Drex .... Some of your hives have become unexpectedly light. It may be worthwhile making a note of these hives. Next season, you could re-queen them using eggs from one of your hives that has behaved as expected.
You could be removing a poor wintering trait from your apiary.

 

[Fusion_power]

I cut 1200 wedges for wedge top bar frames today, then assembled 14 frames to fill a square Dadant depth hive. I need 450 total assembled frames with about 300 done. I can assemble about 14 an hour so another 11 hours of work. Why only 14/hr? I glue and nail and carefully square up each frame. it works out to a tad over 4 minutes per frame. I cut all of my own frames which means each frame has quite a bit of my time tied up in purchasing wood, hauling it home, cutting it into top bars, bottom bars, and end bars, and then assembling them.