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  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #3210  by Japey Edge
 21 May 2019, 21:14
Took a few snaps of the entrance. Not many bringing pollen in. Most I saw was two at a time. Not sure what the rest were doing...
Stuck a feeder on, two pints of 1:1 syrup and used a shallow to space it out. All vents now blocked. Entrance down a little. Only 3 more days until I get to do my first inspection and see what the girls have done with the 5 empty frames since being transferred from their nuc.

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 #3213  by Chrisbarlow
 21 May 2019, 21:46
The abelo poly Miller feeders are a good investment, can get 2 gallon if syrup in them
 #3216  by Japey Edge
 22 May 2019, 08:48
Chrisbarlow wrote:
21 May 2019, 21:46
The abelo poly Miller feeders are a good investment, can get 2 gallon if syrup in them
Just had a quick look on their website. Is this the one?

https://www.abelo.co.uk/shop/feeders/ashforth-feeder/
 #3222  by NigelP
 22 May 2019, 19:46
Jazz...get that full entrance off...you can see from your photo they are queuing to get in (and probably out as well)....not a good situation...think of thirty people trying to get through your front door at the same time.....time and motion.... becomes really inefficient for a colony.
 #3226  by Japey Edge
 23 May 2019, 11:08
NigelP wrote:
22 May 2019, 19:46
Jazz...get that full entrance off...you can see from your photo they are queuing to get in (and probably out as well)....not a good situation...think of thirty people trying to get through your front door at the same time.....time and motion.... becomes really inefficient for a colony.
Will do Nigel thanks :D
 #3231  by AdamD
 23 May 2019, 16:56
Yesterday - went to check some grafts and then noticed bees going in and out of a mini-nuc which was supposed to be empty. The box in question has 8 frames of 140 x 140 - depth of super frames, so not as small as an Apidea or SwiBine. Although it only had a couple of drawn frames in it, it is now 2/3rds full of bees with some comb hanging from the crown board. Unless I find something unusual in the next few days, I can't believe that any of my own colonies would have produced such a small swarm so I have no idea where they came from!
 #3233  by NigelP
 23 May 2019, 18:29
Spent yesterday and today extracting honey from various sites...same tomorrow and more next week. Probably my least favourite job in beekeeping.
 #3235  by Patrick
 23 May 2019, 20:02
Due to unforeseen family issues not been able to actually get to look at bees recently - which with the prevailing weather has not been ideal. Managed to get to them last evening and was a bit of mixed bag.

This afternoon managed a couple of hours. Went to help a local family with a Tree Bumblebee nest in a bird box in small garden which has apparently stung the mother, will remove it to a safer location later this evening. Did a Snelgrove II on a hive I am looking for a mate after whilst he is unwell. Unfortunately I found EFB in other hives of his in another apiary three weeks ago, which have had to be destroyed. Not a nice thing to find when supposed to just minding a mate's hives whilst he recovers.

Then looked at a couple of hives for a friend on holiday in the States, both doing well. One has some CBPV but the other is an absolute cracker of a queen! May be "borrowing" a frame of larvae off that one.. ahem ;)

Lot of swarming taking place round here at the mo...
 #3237  by NigelP
 23 May 2019, 21:27
Patrick wrote:
23 May 2019, 20:02

Lot of swarming taking place round here at the mo...
You take on too much Patrick....
National swarm week me thinks.
Weird things going on....lost a couple of queens ...not a sealed queen cell in sight.
Have a couple of laying queens with several sealed queens cells present.
Sometimes its a bugger to know what to do....
With the later.... decided to be different ...destroyed queen cells (at least the ones I could find...they can be a bugger to find) and have queen in upper brood box with QX between them and lower.....see if they draw more as now added extra space.
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