What have you done today bee-related?

[Alfred]

Finally got back onto forum?
Apparently 'offline' since Saturday
None of my machines would connect saying the sites certificate had expired
I set the clock on one of them back to Friday and got on but there were no new posts from anyone else until yesterday
Was I banned or did someone forget to feed the meter?
I reacted primitivly and thwacked a large insect with the maisemore catalogue.A very big hornet.
Took it home and with a sigh of relief identified it as European.
Still don't need them around the woodware though.
Watched an an enormous cloud of bees drift away over the hedge just as I was leaving the apiary
Didn't have time or emotional fortitude to check if it was mine.If it was then that's my
main supply of stock gone.Theyd just about finished my first ever super of honey as well.
I just finished the cutting list for new ekes and broodboxes-how damned impatient of them.
I was sure I knew the status with queen cells-where else could they have hidden one?

There's about half a dozen QC across the apiary,none sealed last week and half this week.Two are supercede the rest swarm.
Hoping I can steal a frame to fire up a new nuc.
Ordered an apidea as well when I got back home
It's a roller coaster ride for sure!

[AdamD]

Clipping queens wings is a good thing to do, in my opinion, and I have never seen any issue with supercedure or whatever afterwards. It means you keep the bees even of the queen does get lost as sometimes happens.
Clipping can be a bit nerve-wracking when you first do it - so as they say, you can try on drones first. I pick up my queens to clip and mark them however there are devices you can use so you don't have to.

[Chrisbarlow]

Adding mated queens to nucs already made up

[Japey Edge]

I've been quite good this week by not fiddling about. Inspection tomorrow, need to check weather.

All I've done is an unsuited check on the main hive and maisies nuc feeders, which are now empty.

Will see how they're doing tomorrow and if they need more feed or just leaving to it.

I didn't check the mini hive as that would require protection from curious bees. In my last inspection though, the queen had emerged and what not. I don't think I updated my thread with what happened there as the forum was down but I'll go add the latest now. Nigel can ignore as he already knows

[Alfred]

Put my worry hat back on its hook.
Those mouldy cells were blackberry pollen you idiot

[Japey Edge]

Well I've just done another inspection. 4 colonies last week only had one queen (to my knowledge).

Today:
Hive 1 - I heard piping and found her. She was running around like crazy. Decided not to mark her as I wasn't sure she was alone. There are also queen cells still present so if for any reason the queen I found dies, it's pointless marking..
They still need to build on two or three frames of foundation.

Hive 2 - always had the queen and she's still going strong. They still need to build on foundation. 2 frames need building up. Otherwise plenty of stores.

Nuc 3 - micro swarm - they're doing well and I found and marked a queen. I then noticed eggs so my move last week of gifting a frame of brood with a QC was pointless. She must have been hiding from when Nigel gifted me them.
They were pretty nasty today. Just kept going for me. Didn't follow me around but I'm thinking if they're like this while small they may get worse when they grow. Still, I don't want to waste a freshly mated laying queen...

Mini mating nuc - still going strong. Cleared out some comb in the feeder.

Question - should I continue putting feed on for the colonies that need to build up on their foundation? Is

Next Q is mainly for Nigel - I was going to tip out that micro swarm but now I see a queen I'm not sure if that changes things or not. Do you think I should monitor for a week or so and see if they continue with their aggression or should I just knack the queen and send the rest packing?

[NigelP]

She must have been hiding from when Nigel gifted me them.
They were pretty nasty today.

Well they are a swarm of local bees from my area /big grin/......glad queen is still around ...I was worried In had gifted you a duff budgie.

[Patrick]

Clipping queens wings is a good thing to do, in my opinion, and I have never seen any issue with supercedure or whatever afterwards. It means you keep the bees even of the queen does get lost as sometimes happens.
Clipping can be a bit nerve-wracking when you first do it - so as they say, you can try on drones first. I pick up my queens to clip and mark them however there are devices you can use so you don't have to.

For me, clipping queens was the turning point in my beekeeping. Up to that point, swarming caught me out every year and I repeatedly lost swarms if workers, the queen, much of the honey crop to date and any honey I might have had the rest of the season. Clipping gave me a much better chance of keeping my bees even when I had queen cells. I finally got a bit of a grip on it all.

I said to Chris I would do a post on clipping but didn’t. I will have a go at marshalling thoughts.

[Japey Edge]

What do you clip with? Nail scissors?

[Alfred]

Some of those thoughts on clipping if posted would be very welcome