What did you do in the Apiary today?

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Had to change a open mesh floor with a badly fitting inspection tray..I shook a laying worker colony next to it last week but most of them got through a small gap and clustered on the underside of the mesh..I replaced it with one of my DIY floors with a tight fitting inspection tray and that fettled them..they are all going where they should be now..into the hive.
 
Just the usual inspection, first time I've seen wasps lurking around the hives this summer.
 
Watched a swarm disappear over the farm next door. They have not been reading the books: Albeit I was a few days late on inspection, but they managed to swarm despite having 4 whole empty frames of drawn comb in brood and free room in supers. :hairpull:
 
Had to change a open mesh floor with a badly fitting inspection tray..I shook a laying worker colony next to it last week but most of them got through a small gap and clustered on the underside of the mesh..I replaced it with one of my DIY floors with a tight fitting inspection tray and that fettled them..they are all going where they should be now..into the hive.
Time you went to solid floors sir... Up there in the wild north
 
Inspected some of mine today,incredible flow on here,my strongest hive has added 120lbs in weight in the last 14 days! None of the honey is getting capped yet so it's a bit of a juggling act to avoid running out of supers.Also lots of fresh nectar blocking the brood boxes but only 1 hive was swarming.If we get the promised rain midweek followed by more warm sunshine it could be an epic season!
 
I had an "open apiary" afternoon so had about a dozen interested visitors come to see my bees.

Seem to get roped into these things as well, had an afternoon on queen rearing, etc, for local bka a few days ago, also hired the village hall for them to have tea and cake afterwards.
 
Collected a swarm from bollard in local high street outside Wetherspoons for swarm collector who had three others to deal with this pm..
 
Ran out of spare supers and brood boxes. Will need to remove some frames to spin out then replace. The girls are working hard on their air-con impression tonight.


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Had 3 call about bees within 2 hours today, all three relate to bees in bathrooms!
The first people could hear a hum from their bathroom wall so the removed the electric razor point only for bees to emerge. It appears the bees are going in via the roof tiles and have made a home in the wall.
The second couple returned from holiday to find "dripping" noises coming from their bathroom wall. The husband removed a small piece of wall then beat a retreat to ring me as "bees" emanated from the hole. He later rang me to tell me they were wasps.
The third guy rang me to say he had a swarm 45' up a larch tree. I said it was too high for me to deal with and just let it go. He them rang me 30 mins later to say the swarm had gone but there seemed to be a lot of bee activity in the bathroom extractor fan! I'm going to have a look tomorrow morning :)
 
Last Friday my biggest and best honey producing hive this year had 1 QC.... So I knocked it down and added a 6th super of all foundation for space. Checked today and hive is still heaving and no QC's, so hoping they have given up on swarm preps.

Also the foundation super is fully drawn and part filled, big flow on at the moment.
 
Last Friday my biggest and best honey producing hive this year had 1 QC.... So I knocked it down and added a 6th super of all foundation for space. Checked today and hive is still heaving and no QC's, so hoping they have given up on swarm preps.

Also the foundation super is fully drawn and part filled, big flow on at the moment.

Sure that’s not supersedure? Normally swarm prep have lots of cells created, especially in big colonies.
 
Sure that’s not supersedure? Normally swarm prep have lots of cells created, especially in big colonies.

Did think that last week when I knocked it down, but today i saw the queen and she is on brood + 1/2 all cells laid up apart from 1 side of a frame. She looked in good health and plump. She was a carnolian queen bought from tiger hill bees last year so only in her second year. Well pleased with her and first QC from her. Very calm hive for how packed it is.
 
Sounds like real beekeeping to me...excellent.

Thanks Beefriendly... nice to hear things like that when your still learning. I keep staring at this hive as I know people go higher but 6 supers high does look impressive in the flesh.

Loving this hobby.
 
Thanks Beefriendly... nice to hear things like that when your still learning. I keep staring at this hive as I know people go higher but 6 supers high does look impressive in the flesh.

Loving this hobby.

I have not been past five supers YET.. if i move to Lincolnshire that might change..:spy: ...keep doing what you are doing it obviously is working..;)
 
My biggest hive so far had a load of charged queen cells in it on Saturday, knocked them down shook a frame of nectar all over bb added second brood box and put a 5th super on , checked today they have stopped building qcs
And the 2nd bb is fully drawn with 5 frames of eggs , I couldn't believe how quickly they built that 2nd bb
 
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