What did you do in the Apiary today?

[Newbeeneil]

What's going on here, may I ask? Very intrigued!

From a lecture Mike gave at the NHS last year.

 

[JamezF]

View attachment 39546

He has is also been quoted by the NYT thusly:

"Dr. Lindzen accepts the elementary tenets of climate science. He agrees that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, calling people who dispute that point 'nutty.' He agrees that the level of it is rising because of human activity and that this should warm the climate."

Apparently he thinks that other effects will mitigate the rise in temperature. Back in 2001 he predicted that warming over the next one hundred years would be less than one degree. Right now that's not looking too safe a bet given that the estimate for existing warming appears to be around 1.1°C and the rate of change appears to be accelerating.

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

but be assured that the gammons, fruitloops and climate change deniers will cling at anything as an excuse to do bu**er all

 

[Moobee]

Well, I was going to do some inspections and make up a nuc ready for my new queen arriving tomorrow but as I type, the rain is lashing down and it's blowing an absolute hooley

 

[JamezF]

Well, I was going to do some inspections and make up a nuc ready for my new queen arriving tomorrow but as I type, the rain is lashing down and it's blowing an absolute hooley

Same here

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I was going to do some inspections and make up a nuc ready for my new queen arriving tomorrow

you get better acceptance if you don't make up the nuc until the new queen is in your pocket ready to introduce.

 

[JamezF]

Damn! I've just been out in the apiary sorting out a few bits and pieces so I have bait hives and extra brood boxes ready to go. Took the roof off a stack of boxes and put it on top of another roof. The top box (full of undrawn founationless frames) started sliding across the top of the box below because of the strength of the wind. I grabbed it before it fell and then noticed the removed roof sliding across the one I'd put it on. It wasn't a shiny new galvanised roof either. It's seen a few decades of use and the surface is mostly rust.

Working facing into the wind is near impossible because my eyes start streaming. (And the wifi doesn't have the bandwidth )

James

 

[Moobee]

you get better acceptance if you don't make up the nuc until the new queen is in your pocket ready to introduce.

Funny I was just reading an old post when you had said exactly that! Queen arrives tomorrow, and it’s supposed to be dry and sunny so that’s the plan.

 

[Beth]

All good for you southern folk!

We're busy lambing but I managed to get a quick 20 minutes while we had a brief and strangely weird warm front between fronts of freezing rain. I dare not delve in the hives, but they had made inroads to the comb of stores I had put above their CB's. So I quickly added another for insurance to each of them.

 

[JamezF]

3.5°C is a touch bracing! I reckon that ignoring the wind chill it's still easily over 10°C here. And despite the wind gusting to 40mph+, bees are still flying!

James

 

[Sutty]

7C here, got down to 3.3C overnight. Strong gusty winds, intermittent sun and heavy showers.
Occasional brave bees still flying from several hives!

 

[Murox]

All good for you southern folk! View attachment 39549

We're busy lambing but I managed to get a quick 20 minutes while we had a brief and strangely weird warm front between fronts of freezing rain. I dare not delve in the hives, but they had made inroads to the comb of stores I had put above their CB's. So I quickly added another for insurance to each of them.

Just a wee bit warmer down here, not that you would notice it though.

 

[alancooper]

Just a wee bit warmer down here, not that you would notice it though.
View attachment 39550

 

[alancooper]

Just a wee bit warmer down here, not that you would notice it though.
View attachment 39550

Yep - the bees are seem more tolerant of the weather down south than the beekeepers

 

[jeff33]

Last year I said I was going to cut down and today I have set up a new apiary. When will I learn!!
I have moved hives and nucs around and done 80% of my uniting. I had around 15 nucs going through the winter which I wanted to use to clear out poor stock.

 

[JamezF]

Where possible given the cold wind and horizontal showers I've been out in the apiary sorting kit into what's needed for what group of hives so it's all ready to go when I want it. Found a UFE that doesn't have a "vaping rim", so that disappeared off to the workshop to be sorted, hopefully tomorrow. Quite how I missed that when I was doing the others I really don't know.

Possibly I need a couple more bait hives, but I have four old section boxes that were useless before I even got them. I reckon I can glue them together in pairs, put a rail inside to support frames and that should be good enough for the box, really. As long as they don't have gaping holes in I can't see a swarm objecting to them too much. I'm sure I have a couple of floors/entrances spare somewhere.

I had four unassembled roofs in the bee shed. I know I need to replace one, so I've decided to make them all up, carry a spare in the car as I go around doing inspections over the next few weeks and replace any that are looking less than ideal. Making more space in the bee shed is quite welcome, too

James

 

[Newbeeneil]

Ooh, hope to see you there and maybe snag one of your nucs…,,

I think you stand a good chance of picking up a nuc this year as I’m told that there are the best part of 20 up for sale.

 

[Fellstoflats]

I think you stand a good chance of picking up a nuc this year as I’m told that there are the best part of 20 up for sale.

I see today that they're now at capacity for lots- should be a good day!

 

[lindsay s]

It was mild and sunny here on Friday afternoon, a balmy 14c. I inspected 5 hives in my sheltered apiary, high walls and a sun trap. 3 hives had 5 frames of bias and one had 4. The fifth hive had a failing queen with small patches of brood and one open charged queen cell. If it had been mid May I would have left it and hoped for a nice supersedure but it’s far too early for that up here. The temperature is forecast to barely reach double figures for the next 2 weeks and there won’t be many drones about till the middle of next month. So I dispatched the failing queen and will unite the colony with one of my over wintered nucs when there’s a break in the weather.
The hives were all rammed with stores so I removed some of the store frames to give the queens more room to lay. It will only be 7-8c max here for the next few days so I wouldn’t be surprised if laying stops for a wee while. I just hope they will be enough bees to maintain the brood that they have at the moment. Stop start laying is common here at this time of year. Finally our bees take a while to build up here and the number of brood frames is probably above average for this time of year!

 

[Garry R]

It was mild and sunny here on Friday afternoon, a balmy 14c. I inspected 5 hives in my sheltered apiary, high walls and a sun trap. 3 hives had 5 frames of bias and one had 4. The fifth hive had a failing queen with small patches of brood and one open charged queen cell. If it had been mid May I would have left it and hoped for a nice supersedure but it’s far too early for that up here. The temperature is forecast to barely reach double figures for the next 2 weeks and there won’t be many drones about till the middle of next month. So I dispatched the failing queen and will unite the colony with one of my over wintered nucs when there’s a break in the weather.
The hives were all rammed with stores so I removed some of the store frames to give the queens more room to lay. It will only be 7-8c max here for the next few days so I wouldn’t be surprised if laying stops for a wee while. I just hope they will be enough bees to maintain the brood that they have at the moment. Stop start laying is common here at this time of year. Finally our bees take a while to build up here and the number of brood frames is probably above average for this time of year!

Looks as if you winter has been relatively mild. Hoping that the trout on Harray, Boardhouse and Swannay have appreciated it too ready for my annual fishing trip and stay at the Barony Hotel in the first week in June. Always a fun trip and to meet up again with the super friendly Orcadians.