BBKA Forum

All I know is my Abelo poly does 11 frames and I push them all to one end to allow the closest one some space to break free and lift out.

Today, my bee related activities have been talking to Nigel and him kindly gifting me a micro nuc for me to try and build up. Took them home to set them up. I also found out today that bees can in fact get from my boot into the cabin of the car. She was no bother but she got through somehow
Couldn't find her once I parked up though. Hope she's OK.

Sunday I was demonstrating the Miller method of queen rearing at our Association meeting with an Obs hive I prepped 15 days ago hoping to get the timing right for queen emergence, and I couldn't believe it but it was bang on. The new queen emerged half way through the afternoon.
Who says the bees don't read the books ? LMAO. I think a week of rain may of helped as I am sure she would have been out a day or 2 ago.
There are 5 more QC'S all about the same age ready to emerge as well so god knows what will happen next...LOL

Cheers, Mick.

Wondered what they mean by "June Gap".
Saw more pollen going in today than ever before.

Alfred wrote: ↑

17 Jun 2019, 16:15

Wondered what they mean by "June Gap".
Saw more pollen going in today than ever before.

Lol. I know what you mean, some years it's there others not. I'm contact feeder feeding some of mine. Others not

Checked one hive on Sunday where a failing queen with lots of drone brood had repeatedly been destroying queencells - so I had put her in a cage previously to stop her. As a result of leaving the colony a day too long (I forgot and only noticed that I had done it when I read my notes) there were open queencells and a couple closed. The closed two were 2 or 3 days off being ready as I checked as they were taken down. Rather luckily, I also saw a big virgin queen so removed the old one in her cage. I'm not sure how many there were but without queencells, they should sort themselves out without swarming.

Alfred wrote: ↑

17 Jun 2019, 16:15

Wondered what they mean by "June Gap".
Saw more pollen going in today than ever before.

Colonies are generally doing OK for food although mini-nucs can get very light very quickly.

The June Gap first dates from a long time back when the sources of natural and crop forage for bees were very different in composition and their abundance to today. Add climate and weather differences, geographical variations, colonies in different states of development and variable beekeeper management practices and the “June Gap” is a different experience (or not) for everyone.

Notably for me, since the widespread increase in growing OSR across the UK over the last 30 years, taking off honey to avoid granulation by end May inadvertently leaves many colonies critically vulnerable to poor weather. If you are not in such an area you probably wonder what all the fuss is about?

There used to a lot more clover than there is now and that generally flowers in June around here. I certainly see a 'gap' most years of up to a few weeks. Last year there was no gap.

https://ibb.co/FgfdRHn
Skip dipping- got this little beauty for lugging equipment,tools and supplies from base camp to the hives.
Sherpas were strangely underwhelmed,gathered in small groups and whispered about me

Wondered why a smoker lit for a one minute job will last for an hour but it's always vice versa on the flip side.

Made up a nuc....

Stood holding an umbrella over the bee inspector and counted the number of stings he was accumulating while he checked my hives in stormy weather (apparently we have EFB outbreak in the area). All clear for EFB at the moment but I did notice how one hive had nearly emptied two partly filled supers in the last two weeks.