What have you done today bee-related?

[AdamD]

Went back to my inland apiary as I forgot to take queen excluders last week and pleasantly surprised to find 4 colonies with a full super each after 4 days although not capped yet and no OSR there.
In my local area the colonies are very big but despite huge seas of OSR and billions of dandelions they are not touching any of it. Temps have dropped massively over the weekend, frost last night and its gonna happen tonight as well and only highs of 11/12c forecast for the next 2 weeks with the East winds of death from the sea. I know OSR requires warmth to create nectar but do dandelions require it to be quite warm as well ? I have never seen so many but walking amongst them there isn't a single pollinator to be seen and bees returning with pollen are not bringing it in. Taking 5 more colonies inland on Saturday.
Also got chance to change out the rotting outer frames from my Abelo poly hives today.

I seem to recall that OSR needs 14 degrees to yield nectar. On a sunny day and little wind, the plants should get to that temperature even if the air temperature is less. But 'little wind' is not your part of the world!
Last year, on the East Coast as you are, I only had 1 week of OSR as the weather was too cold for it to do anything useful.

[Steve 1972]

Yes Adam the cold North easterlies surtainly bring the temperature down..since my last inspection the bees have rarely been flying and it is too cold to do anything with them..

[Cable_Fairy]

On week ago I removed the super from under the brood, found the queen on frame 3 in the BB and after finishing the inspection placed a queen excluder on the BB and put the super on top. Today opened the hive for the inspection and glanced down between the super frames, strange there was drone brood on the top of the foundation. On inspection there is 4 frames of brood, including eggs, but I could not see the queen. Opening the BB there is brood of all stages including eggs on 8 frames, so obviously has found a larger gap in the QE. I have sent for some new QE's, when they arrive I think I will take the super frames with brood and a frame of eggs from the BB and form a new colony in a NUC.

[NigelP]

No 2 seasons are ever the same, but this is year is already turning out to be real weird one.
It's only April and one swarm already. Yesterday I found three colonies with queen cells, Snelgroved one of them...the other 2 had queen cells at various stages but no larvae in any them! Never seen this before. Destroyed the cells and gave them both a second brood box. Will reinspect later.

[Alfred]

It is early -I have just two left that are not already in swarm mode .
But that was three days ago

I am unable to do snelgroves this year due to my wretched employer so now I'm rapidly running out of kit again.

[MickBBKA]

Sounds crazy for you and your ' not swarmy Buckfast bees ' Nigel and I am not being sarcastic when I say that mate, or did you succumb to local matings last year ??
Very warm March followed by a freezing April and I am scared to go try do inspections tomorrow, 14c forecast. God knows what I will find but they have had over 2 weeks below 12c stuck indoors planning against me. I have filled my truck with supers, brood boxes and nucs, its gonna be a busy 2 days. I fear lots of bees and little stores and it feels like its the start of the season all over again. Bait hives out !

Ha.............. Love beekeeping

[MickBBKA]

It is early -I have just two left that are not already in swarm mode .
But that was three days ago

I am unable to do snelgroves this year due to my wretched employer so now I'm rapidly running out of kit again.

Simplified Demeree is the way to go. The second QE I modify to give it an entrance, raise a new queen and then once she is laying I either run a 2 Q colony or remove one, bees are free to roam between both boxes. One floor and one roof, cuts down on equipment. Once its a tower of bees it can take some inspecting though

[JoJo36]

Sounds interesting Mick, and I like the idea of 2 colonies on one spot to save space and bees allowed to go through both colonies??!!
I've just used the snelgrove 2 and rejoined to make a double brood as mine were trying to swarm a couple of weeks ago!
I'm hoping this will stop them now as they will have loads of space but I'll check in a weeks time!
I seem to have 2 good colonies and 2 rubbish ones but, I know it can change and less interference by me always seems to help!!

[NigelP]

Simplified Demeree is the way to go. The second QE I modify to give it an entrance, ra

Anything with a second entrance becomes a snelgrove variation, not a Demaree. Demaree is swarm prevention and does not have a second entrance. It is not used for pro-active swarm control when queen cells are present (which for me is my modified Snelgrove method 2).
Essentially we are both doing the same thing (with slight variations) I use a division board with mesh and and an entrance as opposed to a queen excluder with an entrance. But we calling them different names, which is confusing for many.

[NigelP]

Sounds crazy for you and your ' not swarmy Buckfast bees ' Nigel and I am not being sarcastic when I say that mate, or did you succumb to local matings last year ??

In general my open mated Buckfast queens (F1) swarm in their second season. Although the swarm I found is definitely one of last years queens, but an odd one as no capped queen cells in hive it came from. Same as these duff queen cells I'm finding filled only with royal jelly. And now heard another 2 beekeepers have seen exactly the same issue, so might be worth looking closely at any queen cells to make sure there is an embryo there before doing your modified Snelgrove . Rest of my stuff is all F2/F3 which are essentially local bees now and have picked up their annual swarming impulses.
My bought in island mated queens rarely swarm and they are usually good for 2-4 seasons when they are often superseded.