What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

[beesnweeds]

If a hive is so weak that its getting robbed, that hive would never survive winter in my area anyway.  I can't remember the last time I had a colony robbed out.  The best plan is to make sure all colonies are queen right with low mite counts during the summer.  Save the Vicks for a bad cold and keep colonies strong and sized appropriately with routine inspections.  If the risk is greater than the reward you won't have robbing.

[Michael Bush]

>Some beekeepers spread a commercial product such as Vicks VapoRub at the entrance to the colony. This product contains strong-smelling compounds such as camphor, eucalyptus oil, and menthol that confuse the robber bees.

I have.  Nothing is a perfect solution but this works as well as anything else.  I first thought it was ridiculous, but then I thought about it and it made sense.  I used it on my observation hive a few times mostly because reducing the entrance was difficult and the VapoRub was simpler.

>   Some beekeepers recommend removing the lids from all the hives in the apiary. The theory is that the bees become so busy defending their own hives that they stop robbing other hives. However, if the robber bees are coming from somewhere other than your own apiary, it won?t work. Also, it will do nothing to stop wasps and other predators from entering the hives at will.

I have not had the nerve to try this.  This is a Jim Fischer concept and it makes some sense, but only if the robbing originates in the beeyard and not from bees from somewhere else.

[Terri Yaki]

Hive activity is real low now so I guess that the dearth is on. I gather that this is the time to take a mite test as well so I am working on a home made lid for mason jars. I have put syrup back on my swarm hive and will probably add it to my nuc as soon as they are done cleaning up the extracted comb that I have on there now. Is there anything else I should do for them?

[Bill Murray]

Thanks guys/gals I have had MAJOR robbing issues in yards at times. I cut down from 44 hives in a yard to 32, because by the time I got to the end sometimes it was murderous during the dearth. Wet towels is not an option, and I normally let them sort it out. But those 2 options are worth a try.

[Michael Bush]

A large wet sheet is useful... a sprinkler, if you have water, is useful.

[Bill Murray]

Yea, no access to water except at home. I use the sheet/ towel method there, but the out-yards are a different situation. You should have seen the day I dumped the pallet of supers full of honey, it was on.

[Terri Yaki]

Yea, no access to water except at home. I use the sheet/ towel method there, but the out-yards are a different situation. You should have seen the day I dumped the pallet of supers full of honey, it was on.

Oh boy, that sounds worthy of an Alfred Hitchcock episode.

[The15thMember]

I've done the sprinkler thing too.  Just stood there with the hose on shower to make them think it's raining. 

[NigelP]

You need to try narrow tunnel entrances like this.
https://www.thorne.co.uk/health-feeding/pests-diseases/wasps/hyfegate-formerly-hivegate.html
Bees find it much easier to defend a long tunnel than an entrance

Or you can make your own with a 6inch plank of wood, just thick enough to slide in through the entrance, then cut a 6inch tunnel about 2 bees width wide along the plank.
They work a treat.

[The15thMember]

Interesting, Nigel!  I've never seen anything like that before.  I don't think bee suppliers in the US sell those. 

[Lesgold]

Just made a visual inspection of the hives around the house. All hives active except for two that went into winter struggling. Pleased to see that they are bringing in some pollen and enough nectar to keep them going. About half of the hives went into winter with no stores so I?m pleased that they were able to scrounge a bit of food to keep them alive. Only a few weeks until the first small nectar flow starts. It will give them a good kick along into spring which normally starts about a month earlier than the recognised season.

[The15thMember]

Another hot one here.  I got started earlier in the bee yard today.  I checked all the little hives, most of which aren't so little anymore.  I added the 4th box to one and the 5th box to another.  There is SO MUCH SOURWOOD coming in!  I had 2 of the colonies cramming wild comb in corners and beneath shallows because they had run out of room.  It was a sticky mess to clean up, but it was delicious!   

One of the hives just hasn't grown at rate comparable to the rest though.  They are still only in 2 boxes, and they haven't even drawn out all their frames, despite the really strong flow.  I'll have to see how they shape up as the season progresses.  I very well may combine them with someone else.  The only reason I'm giving them such a long leash is that they started out the season really behind, and it may just all be an extension of that.  I can always condense them down to one box and winter them over a big colony if I'd prefer to.  I'm also going to have to do something about their migratory cover, because it's so rotted that the entire front of it basically disintegrated when I opened the hive today. 

I put what I think is an entire box of capped sourwood above my escape board in the one bigger colony I checked.  The comb is quite a bit cross-connected, and I didn't want to break it apart, so I'm just going to take the whole box in the house tomorrow and we'll go from there.  If some of the frames aren't ready, maybe I'll donate them to the small colony.         

[max2]

I spent the cool part of the morning bottling and labelling more honey.
We had quite a good market on Saturday - people buying a lot of honey but no " extras": like candles and tealights.
I also made a large jar of Wildfire Tonic and will promote it in future.
It is quite easy to make and most of the ingredients are local.
Two of my hives " fell" from their stands. No idea how this happened. Elephants?
Anyway I had some help to get them back to where they belong.
The girls were not happy at all.
They had plenty of honey in them - the Blue Gum is flowering.
Lots of SHB - they don't seem to stop anymore. I had hoped that the cooler time of the year would slow them down but no such luck

[Ben Framed]

>Lots of SHB - they don't seem to stop anymore. I had hoped that the cooler time of the year would slow them down but no such luck

What is your strategy in combating SHB?

[max2]

>Lots of SHB - they don't seem to stop anymore. I had hoped that the cooler time of the year would slow them down but no such luck

What is your strategy in combating SHB?

! Use two Beetle Buster traps with DE per hive - I also have been selecting queens qith Hygienic behaviour for many years. My bees generally don't give the SHB a chance to rest.
SHB are a big issue in our warm climate and getting warmer.

[iddee]

Place the hives in full sun.

If feasible, let a group of chooks run loose in the bee yard.

[Terri Yaki]

Place the hives in full sun.

If feasible, let a group of chooks run loose in the bee yard.

chook
noun
A hen; a cooked chicken; a chicken dressed for cooking.

What are they going to do?   

[The15thMember]

Hopefully eat the beetles and their larvae when they exit the hive to pupate.  I also bet that if the chickens were confined to the area around the hives, by scratching around and fertilizing the area, they could change the soil conditions and prevent the beetles from successfully pupating, or at least make them have to travel farther to find the appropriate conditions.     

[animal]

amazing what a cooked chicken can still do, I suppose 

[max2]

Place the hives in full sun.

If feasible, let a group of chooks run loose in the bee yard.

chook
noun
A hen; a cooked chicken; a chicken dressed for cooking.

"chook" is Australian for "chicken".
Many, many years ago I established a number of hives in my "Chook yard" - with, as mentioned, the hope that the chickens would eat any larvae.
As is also suggested, hives in the sun are less likely to have large populations of SHB.
Problem: chickens don't like to stay in the heat of the sun. ( they are " Dschungel fowl")



What are they going to do?