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

[The15thMember]

Spent the afternoon cleaning up my little yard after the big die off. Lost five out of six hives so far and expect to loose the last one in a week or so. Broke down the dead hives, moved the boxes over next to the shop and started sorting and hosing off the frames hoping to at least save some equipment for the rebuild. Everything is getting sprayed with a 1% bleach solution then hosed off to remove any pollen and debris. After a good shaking I'm letting the frames air dry before putting them back in the boxes with some paramoth crystal. Not a fun day in any way but as a bee keeper I've learned to take the good with the bad and this was a bad day. Still not sure if I'm going to start the yard back up, a loss like this is disheartening after all the effort I put into it last year. Don't mean to be a wet blanket but I haven't posted for about two weeks and though everybody would like to hear how I made out.  Hope everybody's bees are doing fine.   

Ed

Sorry to hear that, Beeboy.    Hopefully at least the equipment will be salvageable.   Thanks for keeping us updated.  I'm sure it's hard, but at least by sharing your experiences we can all learn from them. 

[.30WCF]

Lost another swarm today. Raised a brood frame up this time, no interest. They flew off after a while. Added a few supers. The one on the left is already three full boxes of honey, half capped. I added a box of drawn comb and a box of foundation to it.
Added one box on the far right.









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[The15thMember]

The one on the left is already three full boxes of honey, half capped. I added a box of drawn comb and a box of foundation to it.

Ugh, I'm so jealous.  Stupid false spring.   

[.30WCF]

The one on the left is already three full boxes of honey, half capped. I added a box of drawn comb and a box of foundation to it.

Ugh, I'm so jealous.  Stupid false spring. 

Well, I reversed my left and rights, but I bet you can figure out which one is making honey.


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[Bobbee]

I was out taking pictures in someone else's. 

[Bobbee]

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[.30WCF]

Checked on the one hive that is queenless yet. I put a frame of mixed eggs and larvae of young stages in there yesterday. I expected to see some development of queen cups today since they had no other brood. Nope. Just eggs and larvae. I guess she?s about somewhere or out mating. It?s a small hive with a small population. It?s hard for me to think I missed her two days in a row, but if they aren?t trying to build a new queen, they know something I don?t.


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[Oldbeavo]

.30, are they polishing anywhere, middle to high on a brood frame.
They won't be polishing unless they are expecting a queen to start laying.
Did you bring the nurse bees over with the open brood frame?

[.30WCF]

I didn?t really look for that, but I can pop back in that one today and check. It?s only a double medium, so it only takes a minute to look.
I did leave the nurses on the frame, but there weren?t that many on there at the time.


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[lastfling]

Added additional supers on three of my hives.  The supers I put on 3/17 are nearly full - just need capping.

[.30WCF]

Found her. She looks mated, but I don?t see any new eggs yet. I?ll check back end of the week or something. That hive has been a little cranky since last year. Maybe she will straighten them out.


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[rast]

So far, got a full swarm trap out of a tree, came back and fixed another cup of coffee.  2 full traps to go another morning.

[Beeboy01]

The saga continues. I pulled #6 apart and found small patches of fresh brood on two frames so I'm not out of the race yet. Looks like the queen cell I grafted took. I also picked up a queen today before the inspection so had to change my plans of re-queening over to a quick split.  I moved the hive body with the brood over to a new spot in the yard and shook out the other two boxes into it. I then set up the two shook out boxes in the original location to catch the field bees and any that drift back and will introduce the new queen in that hive tomorrow. The girls were not happy even had one get in my veil. 

[Ben Framed]

Keep hanging in there BeeBoy01!! 😊

[rast]

Added a second mostly drawn comb supers to eight of my hives, second brood box to two of last months splits, reboxed to 8 frames two of my swarm catches. One was a mess with built honey comb on the lid.   

[.30WCF]

Just split a nuc that was packed out with brood and eggs. Only the outside half of the outside frames had nectar. The rest was eggs and brood, two boxes deep. They were harassing the queen pretty hard. Chasing her around and riding her back kind of acting like they were stinging her, but not. Pretty sure they were trying to slim her down or chase her out. She was still plump, and this years queen. Only a few weeks old. Not an open cell though.

I shook most of the bees into the queenless half and left it in the original spot.

Looked around in a different hive and found a halfway emerged frame that needed to be cleaned and polished and swapped it out for the youngest looking eggs I could find in the queen right split. I gave the queen and reduced hive the emerging frame to work on and a box of foundation and moved them over 6-8 spots on the stand.
The queenless hive will get the foragers and raise a new queen I hope and the queen right hive should be knocked down in population, have a frame to work with, and the rest of the frames were all capped and should be vacated soon. Between that and the new foundation, maybe she sticks around.


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[TheHoneyPump]

Today?   Did a round of checking feed pail levels. No truck access due to ground conditions so was walking through 6 to 8 inches of sopping snow, slush, and jumping over puddles. My boots and socks are so damp can feel the moss growing between the toes, and ankles so chilled every flex squeaks and creaks.

[Lesgold]

Thought I?d better make another inspection of a few hives to see if there is nectar coming in. The parrots are feeding in the trees of a daytime and the flying foxes (bats) are in the trees during the night which is generally a good indicator that there is some nectar being released. The hives are quite busy, which is also a good sign.

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Bees are producing some new wax which is also encouraging considering it is mid autumn in my neck of the woods.

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Looks like I?ll be extracting again in a couple of weeks. I?m really getting sick of the sight of honey. It?s been a cracker of a season.

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It would be nice to get away for a holiday but the bees are keeping me at home. (The sacrifices we have to make for these little critters lol.)

[.30WCF]

Looks like you have some work to do Les.


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[Beeboy01]

brand new fresh white comb is a sign that there is a flow going on. Looking good.