What did you do in the Apiary today?

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Put underfloor entrance solid floors into all hives. Confused the bees for a while but they are foraging hard last few days.

943e56e4ad2661294542f5f35f7b7084.jpg


7b2900520a2084fca02c0b6eda6d2176.jpg




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Last edited:
Put underfloor entrance solid floors into all hives. Confused the bees for a while but they are foraging hard last few days.

943e56e4ad2661294542f5f35f7b7084.jpg


7b2900520a2084fca02c0b6eda6d2176.jpg




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Good stuff...

What is the dimension of the entrance groove? 9mm?

And how did you come to choose powder blue? And what actual paint is it?

I agonise over paint colours as I want to come to a final decision and stick to it... of course as soon as you do, the company who provides your paint changes it's products or some-such!

I would show you my new floor design... but I ended up putting it under a hive before photographing.
 
Good stuff...

What is the dimension of the entrance groove? 9mm?

And how did you come to choose powder blue? And what actual paint is it?

I agonise over paint colours as I want to come to a final decision and stick to it...
of course as soon as you do, the company who provides your paint changes it's products or some-such!

I would show you my new floor design... but I ended up putting it under a hive before photographing.

If the OP is like me (unlikely I know) ...it was on offer/cheap.
 
Good stuff...



What is the dimension of the entrance groove? 9mm?



And how did you come to choose powder blue? And what actual paint is it?



I agonise over paint colours as I want to come to a final decision and stick to it... of course as soon as you do, the company who provides your paint changes it's products or some-such!



I would show you my new floor design... but I ended up putting it under a hive before photographing.



On average 9mm yes. Varies slightly along the length but should be mouse proof too. We have cedar boxes unpainted and then mixtures of brood and supers in pine painted powder blue and a pale pastel green which looks blue until you put it next to the blue [emoji6]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Inspected my three hives and put in the second Apiguard. One Queen is still laying where she can, the other two are not laying, probably because there is no space. Every cell, even drone cells, is being packed with ivy nectar.
 
Huge flow on today. The apiaries are heavy with the smell of ivy honey and the entrances very congested. Shame it wasn't like that when the limes were in flower.
My cut out from last month is thriving with 4 new frames of brood and masses of store. So now I have 12 colonies to overwinter. Creeping up again!
 
Huge flow on today. The apiaries are heavy with the smell of ivy honey and the entrances very congested. Shame it wasn't like that when the limes were in flower.
My cut out from last month is thriving with 4 new frames of brood and masses of store. So now I have 12 colonies to overwinter. Creeping up again!

Glad your cut out is doing well. Huge ivy flow here too - horrible smell from the hives.
 
Made up some of "hivemakers" recipe and added it to my syrup, filled up my feeder. Last inspection of the year all looking well so fingers crossed for overwintering
 
Spotted a EU Hornet around my garage apiary today.watched it for approx 10 mins. didnt seem to bother the bees, who were very busy, think they are on the ivy, I have no sense of smell, and no boddey was brave enough to have a sniff.
 
One Queen is still laying where she can, the other two are not laying, probably because there is no space. Every cell, even drone cells, is being packed with ivy nectar.

One of my hives is exactly the same... didn't see any eggs or young larvae ... I was a little worried. I am using Rose OSB so I put another box of (mostly undrawn foundation, with two drawn frames i had) on underneath the topmost box (almost all capped honey and the tip of the broodnest) to give her more space.

Didn't think it was normal for a queen to stop laying this early. I should mention I have Apilife Var treatment on.
 
Last edited:
I popped up to my hives just after dark and I could smell the ivy from about 20 metres away and the hives were humming away like it was a midsummers evening. There is a strong flow on and all hives are putting weight on if the quick check at the weekend is anything to go by.
 
Not in the apiary, in the kitchen. Am filtering wax and just cleaned up a spill from the hob and watched another spray of wax drops come out of the slow cooker. I think I added too much water and the level is too high. :(
Switched off now and will go and clean it up again shortly.
 
Spotted a EU Hornet around my garage apiary today.watched it for approx 10 mins. didnt seem to bother the bees, who were very busy, think they are on the ivy, I have no sense of smell, and no boddey was brave enough to have a sniff.

Quite a few around this year Bryan , which is nice to see.
 
Was doing my 3rd round of vaping today when the car battery I use packed in so will have to finish them tomorrow. United a very aggressive hive with my weakest colony.

Still lots of balsam nectar coming in and lots of orange pollen too.

Surprisingly every colony still has lots and lots of drones and is showing no signs of booting them out yet.
 
What i did oue my bees today

I did not use synthetic miticides, and avoided pesticide exposure.
 
I had a collected swarm from several weeks ago. Following and defensive. Some weeks ago I made it Q-. Destroyed all the subsequent capped Q cells.

Yesterday, did a paper unite with a better tempered Q+ colony. I am hoping that the pheromones from the Q+ colony will calm things down.
 
Was doing my 3rd round of vaping today when the car battery I use packed in so will have to finish them tomorrow. United a very aggressive hive with my weakest colony.

Still lots of balsam nectar coming in and lots of orange pollen too.

Surprisingly every colony still has lots and lots of drones and is showing no signs of booting them out yet.

Same here with the HB, there was a gap a couple of weeks ago but it's back on again, also on the ivy and orange pollen (no idea what that's from). Not seen a drone though for over a month
Wingy
 

Latest posts

Back
Top