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

[Bob Wilson]

I finished merging a swarm with a large queenless hive. They tore down the paper after two days. They are building comb quickly.

[cao]

The start of the first inspections of my hives.  Got about 1/3 of them done today.  Made up five nucs, reduced two hives down to 1 box and pulled two boxes of honey.

[Michael Bush]

I've had queens fly off.  The closer they are to when they mated, the flightier they are.  Pay attention and you'll see they get runny usually just before they decide to fly. Here's what I would do:
https://bushfarms.com/beesqueenflying.htm

[Occam]

Unusual warm weather today and tomorrow, 88 today in Tulsa, OK area. Bees bearding like crazy on the hive

[BeeMaster2]

Occam,
If bees are bearding, add some insulation under the roof. Makes a big difference.
Jim Altmiller

[Occam]

Thanks! Was considering moving them into the horizontal hives I have pretty much ready which have 2x walls and insulated tops. They just need to be painted, not a good idea to paint when the box is occupied, right?

[BeeMaster2]

I?m sure you could do it but the paint fumes would bee pretty bad and you would have 🐝 stuck to the wet paint so I wouldn?t  do it. Just paint it first then after it dries, move them in.
Jim Altmiller

[The15thMember]

Another eventful day of beekeeping.  I was planning on cleaning up my poison-out equipment this morning, but when I went outside, one of my hives, Queen Freya's, looked VERY active, so I figured I'd better get my new poly hive set up and leveled in case they decided to swarm.  Sure enough, at around noon they took off and landed on my oh so convenient 4 ft. tall swarm tree that never fails me.    They even decided to hang out on a vine dangling from one of the branches, so they were out over the ground and not all clustered on the trunk.  It was a BIG swarm; it took me 3 shakes to get them all, even with their ideal position.  I'm excited to see how they do in the poly hive, which is also my first 10 frame hive.  After lunch I did 3 inspections, including a check on my poisoned hive, which is still alive and seems to be on the road to recovery.   

[Ben Framed]

It was a good bee day for sure for you Reagan. Thumbs up. 

[The15thMember]

I checked 2 hives for new queens today, and I saw a new queen in one and eggs in both, so they are good to go.  I named the new queens Artemis and Aurora.  I also checked a swarm I caught on 4/11 and found BIAS, which means the swarm must have come from outside my yard, because I'm not missing any mated queens, and this queen must have started laying the day I hived her, so she wasn't a virgin from a queen cell I missed.  I named her Mystery after SpongeBob's seahorse who appears in a single episode, and not at all because I couldn't figure out where the swarm came from.   

[.30WCF]

Formic pro day for spring.
This is the top box of five mediums. Actually kind of hoping it kills the queens so I don?t have to deal with swarms for a bit. Just joking, or am I? It?s good temps for formic, so I should be good. I actually added it last Friday, and it?s been below 80.




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[The15thMember]

Formic pro day for spring.
This is the top box of five mediums. Actually kind of hoping it kills the queens so I don?t have to deal with swarms for a bit. Just joking, or am I? It?s good temps for formic, so I should be good. I actually added it last Friday, and it?s been below 80.




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Holy cow!  I've got a couple colonies in 4 8-frame mediums, but 5 already, and that full of bees! 

[BeeMaster2]

Not exactly in my apiary, completed the design of this beehive stamp. I copied it from the one Michael had made and has on his hives.
This is the first step. I?m 3d printing it right now. Once complete, Bill Murray will use these stamps to make molds and then we will do the final casting in brass.

Jim Altmiller

[Bill Murray]

Well Im almost caught up. But the interesting thing today for me was the Jar gadget that my daughter got for me X-mass I think 2 yrs ago finally has bees drawing comb in the jars.

Last year I had them in a double deep. they swarmed multiple times and never touched the jars. This year I made them queenless, in a single 8 frame deep  and viola. Drawing like crazy in the jars.

[BeeMaster2]

What a difference a day makes. On Saturday they weren?t building anything. They must have made the decision to build on Saturday.
Jim Altmiller

[BeeMaster2]

Here is a picture ot two of them that I printed yesterday. It took over 10 hours for each one.
Jim Altmiller

[Ben Framed]

Very interesting Jim. Let us know how this works out.

[BeeMaster2]

I will bee giving them to Bill tonight at our meeting. He will make the molds and pour the brass in the molds.
Jim Altmiller

[Occam]

Those are cool Jim, I've never gotten into 3d printing

I got off work a little early and found I had a little spare time when I got home so I stained one of my horizontal hives with deck stain finally. Happened upon a gallon of Cabot stain that was mistinted at Lowes for 10 bucks, figured it was good enough.

Unfortunately I've been extremely busy with other aspects of life and missed my chance to split my lang hive and they swarmed on me. Hopefully I had someone call me about an established hive about an hour and a half from me that's in the wall of a house they're getting ready to tear down and they'd like me to come do a cut out. Hopefully I'll be able to get them in a few weeks, I'm tied up the next couple weekends

[The15thMember]

I did a couple inspections today.  The first hive I opened, I heard a queen piping immediately upon removing the inner cover.  Then I saw her sitting right on the top bars of the top box!  She starting buzzing her wings, and I quickly, but carefully, put the lid back on.  I'll check again next week to see if she has mated.  I removed all the queen cells from my poisoned hive in preparation for combining them with the swarm I caught yesterday.  I also inspected my 10-frame poly hive for the first time.  The frame spacing is different in this hive, there is much less room than in my 8-frame woodenware.  Is all 10-frame equipment like that, or is it just this brand?