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

[BeeMaster2]

Reagan,
Those paintings are fantastic. Is your sister taking art classes or did she? 
My daughter is a professional artist. She went to Jacksonville University to be a plastic surgeon and she  took an art elective class. When her teachers saw what she could do with no training, they talked her into switching her major over to art. She did and has painted some amazing pictures. She was immediately hired to paint for Firehouse Subs. She still does but last year she finally started painting on her own. JU did teach her a lot about shading for 3d effect and other techniques.
Here is one of her paintings that she did in college. It hangs in our dining room.
It is three pictures combined into one. That is the Panama lake with a picture from her hotel in Panama and some plants added in. While in college, she dated the son of the VP of Panama.

[Ben Framed]

Outstanding!

[BeeMaster2]

Here is some of her recent work. Everything you see in the first picture is painted including the columns.

[Ben Framed]

Jim these look almost like portraits!

Phillip

[The15thMember]

Thanks, everyone!  And Jim, your daughter's work is amazing!  I was picturing her on her back painting the ceiling like Michelangelo until I saw your second picture. 

Is your sister taking art classes or did she? 

So I've actually got two artist sisters now and neither of them have any formal training.  Haley is the older one, and I've posted some of her work here (You can see more of Jim's daughter's work here too). 
https://beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=54500.msg495532#msg495532 
Haley has dabbled in many, many forms of art, but she now focuses mainly on drawing, journaling, knitting, crochet, and soapmaking.  She's the one who made the blue muffins recently, for those of you involved in that scandal on the What's Cookin' thread. 

Charlotte, who painted these boxes, is my youngest sister, and when she started to show an interest in art, Haley basically taught her everything she knew.  Haley doesn't paint much, she prefers to draw, but after watching some painters on YouTube, Charlotte was able to take what she learned from Haley's drawing instruction and apply it to painting.  Charlotte also likes to draw or paint just from an image in her head, whereas Haley prefers to use reference materials where possible if she is drawing something corporeal.         

[BeeMaster2]

Here is a picture of a painting she did while in college for a play her boyfriend was directing. The painting is 35 feet wide by 25 feet tall. She is standing in front of it.

[Terri Yaki]

80s and extremely humid here the last few days and the bees are hardly doing anything...except guzzling syrup. My mentor is considering coming over tomorrow and checking things out, maybe a mite check but if they're not out foraging, is that a good idea?

[beesnweeds]

Now is a great time to do a mite wash, you want a low count before they start raising winter bees.  4 mites or under per 300 bees off an open brood frame is fine anything over that greatly reduces the chance they will survive winter.

[The15thMember]

I agree with beesnweeds.  I'm about to do my fall mite checks once I get the rest of my sourwood off (if it ever stops raining, that is!).  The amount of foraging doesn't affect mite levels really. 

[jtcmedic]

Getting ready for fall flow, sumac is almost ready to pop, checked hives and made my last couple splits . It was hot out there 94 and heat index was 125.

[Ben Framed]

and heat index was 125.

Can?t imagine!

[The15thMember]

I finally was able to get into the apiary today.  I put 4 full boxes of honey from 3 colonies above escape boards.  I probably could have done some more, but I only have 2 escape boards, and there was some robbing going on, and I didn't want to make it any worse by opening another colony.  One of the colonies had some of their open honey fermenting in the comb, which was odd.  I didn't see any beetles except one or two caught in the Swiffer, so I don't think they are the culprit.     

[Terri Yaki]

I went through hive #1 this morning after almost two weeks since last inspection and mite count. I would expect it to have been built out more and busier than it was but I am still an apprentice. I could easily remove the top super and force it down into one but I didn't see any evidence of SHB or wax moths. I found larvae and capped brood but if there were any eggs, they escaped my eye. I did find the queen and she's moving around but I did not see her lay any eggs and I kept an eye on her for a little longer than I usually do.

Attached are videos of the inspection, if anyone is interested. I'll check with my mentor and get his input.

Inspection Part I

https://rumble.com/v5aoyky-august-12-2024-hive-inspection-part-i.html

Inspection Part II

https://rumble.com/v5ap722-august-12-2024-hive-inspection-part-ii.html

[beesnweeds]

There's too much space and undrawn comb with very little stores. I would remove both supers.  Pull ten of the best drawn frames and reduce the colony to 1 deep and put a hive top feeder on now with 2:1 syrup.  Fall is right around the corner.

[NigelP]

EFB outbreak near one of my apiary sites. Visit by bee inspector, clean bill of health. Phew, they think the source was less than 2km from me.....now in that great bonfire in the sky.

[Terri Yaki]

There's too much space and undrawn comb with very little stores. I would remove both supers.  Pull ten of the best drawn frames and reduce the colony to 1 deep and put a hive top feeder on now with 2:1 syrup.  Fall is right around the corner.

Thanks, that sounds reasonable, even to a newbee like me.

[BeeMaster2]

Nigel,
EFB is treatable. Why are they burning the equipment? We only burn to destroy AFB.
Jim Altmiller

[NigelP]

Normally this would have been shook swarm (EFB)...but owner had inherited previous mother s hives....with no frames and no inspections for several years. Total mess. So destroyed as impossible to do anything else.

[Terri Yaki]

Yesterday I went through my swarm hive. It's made of two deeps and we rearranged it two weeks ago, putting the nectar/honey up top and all of the activity on the bottom. They are gradually building out comb and filling it, probably with the syrup I've been feeding them. When we looked in there two weeks ago, there weren't enough bees to take a mite count and I was worried out them but they are building numbers now and I could probably have done it yesterday except I didn't have my measuring cup with me so I left them alone. Maybe next week.

[Terri Yaki]

I dug through hive #1 and rearranged things as suggested. I filled the bottom box with brood and food stores with the food stores going on the outer edges of the box. Queen was sighted and went with. I still have four frames with spotty capped brood and pollen so I put the top box back on with those in the center and six empty frames to the outside for now. I had ten frames of honey in the supers, which I put into one super and put it back on top and put the other, empty super on top of that and put syrup on. It's only 1:1 because that's what I had already mixed. I know that removing boxes was recommended but it just didn't feel right under the circumstances. If they're going to store syrup, they're going to need a place to put it, aren't they? Or should I force them to put it into the top deep?

Any thoughts on what I did and/or should do are welcome.