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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #10091  by MickBBKA
 23 Feb 2021, 22:57
Started putting together section frames today. Never tried them before and that's the reason I got some. Everyone has said ' Good luck with them ' LOL................ God loves a tryer..Ha !
 #10092  by MickBBKA
 23 Feb 2021, 22:59
Steve 1972 wrote:
22 Feb 2021, 13:39
As predicted the weather is pants today with very little activity which is a shame as the crocus have gone into full bloom...so i have given the four Hartlepool colonies pollen subs to tide them over till the weather warms up again allowing the bees to gather natural pollen again.
Its the Teesside thing to do. My colonies at Dalton Piercy were getting a good pasting from 40mph winds but at least they have pollen sub to be munching on. :D
 #10114  by Steve 1972
 27 Feb 2021, 19:49
Well it was glorious weather today and the bees where out in force..two types of pollen was being delivered..one of which was snowdrop but the other pale yellow pollen has me stumped..i checked the pollen subs and fondant on all colonies and everything seems to be going according to plan..for now anyway :roll: .
 #10119  by MickBBKA
 28 Feb 2021, 18:15
Yellow may be Crocus or even some of the smaller daffodil varieties. Lots of mine are coming back looking like they have been on OSR which I think could be a type of Daffodil. Not had chance to look at any under the microscope though yet. Weather has been amazing, this time 2 year ago we were under snow. The local cherry plum is in full bloom and Blackthorn now flowering. Every year I can remember this has been destroyed by the last of the howling westerlies and lashed with rain long before the bees ever got to it. Touch wood this year is a first. :)
 #10136  by NigelP
 01 Mar 2021, 16:18
Spent most of today constructing two new hive stands for my "valley" apiary site.
Tremendous thanks to Steve for the scaffolding idea and also for sourcing (scrounging) me the scaffolding.
Way beyond the call of duty....Thanks...
I kinda slightly changed your design....mainly as I had to carry everything down from the top of the valley as still too wet for truck....call me lazy :)
These guys will take 5 hives per stand and are not going anywhere in a hurry. Need to cut a couple more middle struts for hive strap attachment then done.
Place is full of hazel so no pollen shortages around this site.

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 #10137  by Alfred
 01 Mar 2021, 16:22
'Creative sourcing' is good for the environment anyway ;)

Feed run this morning found my wards have all consumed around 25% more this week gone despite the warmer weather over the weekend.
Something's brewing :)
Not only more fondant has been scoffed but also they're tucking into the outer frame stores which is, in a way, reassuring because I was concerned about denying brood space by overfeeding.
I was giving them a 2"x2"x3/8" square of candipoline and the same of my own sugar cake on the frametops each week, which was just about lasting through, but I went there today, two days early, and it was all gone in every hive.

Also observed three workers through the perspex doing waggledance.
This was on the least-active hive which is again good news (and mesmerising to watch :D )
 #10148  by AdamD
 02 Mar 2021, 09:45
I carried out a weekend check for food on most hives; Generally they are OK with sufficient stores, a couple were cause for concern so I am pleased that I looked. All nucs and full-sized colonies are alive, bar one, although I only checked a couple (quickly) for laying queens. The 'bar one' colony looks like varroa was the main concern - it was small going into winter in any case and a quick 'autopsy' indicated that there were bees with deformed wings on the floor. It was alive in December when a second varroa treatment was given.

Out of 6 mini-nucs (Three Abelo mini-plus and three smaller ones), one mini-plus colony is dead and two of the others are too. My view with small colonies is that it's just a bonus if they survive winter and I have 3 useful queens as a result. The mini-plus colony was odd in that it had split into two at some point. Dead bees with their heads in the cells on one side and a dead cluster with food on the other side.
 #10149  by Steve 1972
 02 Mar 2021, 10:12
NigelP wrote:
01 Mar 2021, 16:18
Spent most of today constructing two new hive stands for my "valley" apiary site.
Tremendous thanks to Steve for the scaffolding idea and also for sourcing (scrounging) me the scaffolding.
Way beyond the call of duty....Thanks...
I kinda slightly changed your design....mainly as I had to carry everything down from the top of the valley as still too wet for truck....call me lazy :)
These guys will take 5 hives per stand and are not going anywhere in a hurry. Need to cut a couple more middle struts for hive strap attachment then done.
Place is full of hazel so no pollen shortages around this site.

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Excellent job Nigel.. ;)
 #10169  by Steve 1972
 07 Mar 2021, 14:40
Cracking weather today and the bees are very active..I checked the fondant and all but one have enough to get them through this month..I topped the colony up that needed it then I set out on foot to see where the pollen loads where coming from..not far from the apiary the gorse is in flower and it is covered with bees..

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