Author Topic: What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today? (Read 72142 times)

Salvo · « **Reply #700 on:** April 19, 2024, 02:54:49 am »

Hi Folks,

Sitting back, sitting here waiting on a call from the Wilbanks Apiary trailer.

My club has around 900 packages getting dropped off within the hour.

This is more fun than waiting til the last minute to file your taxes.

Funny, the average age of the members who show up for the unloading is around 67 yo. Canes, walkers knee braces,..... I'm getting too short to work inside the trailer! The feeble and the feeble minded.

Sitting back, sitting here waiting on a call.

Sal

Ben Framed · « **Reply #701 on:** April 19, 2024, 06:56:06 am »

That is a lot of packages Sal! You must be a member of a well organized, well established bee club. I would be interested in hearing more about your bee club.

Phillip

Ben Framed · « **Reply #702 on:** April 19, 2024, 07:34:39 am »

Quote from: Caashenb on April 14, 2024, 06:51:25 pm

Took down three swarm traps and moved bees to bee yard, have one more to do in the morning. Put on some supers and checked on others.

Just my thoughts on the previous posts I have started using all frames with foundation in my swarm traps. My first two years I used open frames but with temps in the 90's on these fine Louisiana back roads I had to much of it collapse on me. Since I have started use frames with foundation I have not seen any difference in outcome, using four traps I usually catch 10 to 15 each year.

Thanks for the information Caashenb. .

Terri Yaki · « **Reply #703 on:** April 19, 2024, 10:30:10 am »

Quote from: Salvo on April 19, 2024, 02:54:49 am

Hi Folks,

Sitting back, sitting here waiting on a call from the Wilbanks Apiary trailer.

My club has around 900 packages getting dropped off within the hour.

This is more fun than waiting til the last minute to file your taxes.

Funny, the average age of the members who show up for the unloading is around 67 yo. Canes, walkers knee braces,..... I'm getting too short to work inside the trailer! The feeble and the feeble minded.

Sitting back, sitting here waiting on a call.

Sal

At 0154? God bless you.

Salvo · « **Reply #704 on:** April 19, 2024, 11:01:59 am »

Hi Folks,

Trailer rolled in at 0256.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/428594386540310/?s=group_other&__cft__[0]=AZXJklC8dbV-cTP0TVou9z4Wav-d9zD3AxI7NGbmBTDkXZHxpIhrNipblXipXYbIXBxg-HBJpMTc7nU-LnwDQHR8cEa2P0mahIwKX8Lz68xQcJJlGz4ygGciZsOKYLVwZLcR9fFOOcQlSLbfVoEM8KzGWleHQSXM3TNq19K8HjrnYpcYqnaMDqrkgs5myNyl60B3yH2trbGbtfo8Qk0dP-pyNzfaM2VRJxjeoXJZHSTPXQ&__tn__=H-R

Usually, it takes about 45 minutes for us to unload and broom clean the trailer. Today about 35 minutes. I think the trailer holds a few less than 1,000 packages, all strapped in, amazingly. Nothing moves, all boxes connected to each other. HVAC. Lotta heat generated by these bees. We'll keep them cool and ventilated for pick-up Saturday (tomorrow) from 8 AM to maybe 1 PM.

We have a lot of members, 700+. And about 80 new Bee School people. They have first crack at packages.

https://www.facebook.com/100094078868185/videos/1225153115530503/

https://www.facebook.com/100094078868185/videos/1093425265076427/

Sal

FatherMichael · « **Reply #705 on:** April 19, 2024, 07:43:54 pm »

Quote from: Salvo on April 19, 2024, 02:54:49 am

Hi Folks,

Sitting back, sitting here waiting on a call from the Wilbanks Apiary trailer.

My club has around 900 packages getting dropped off within the hour.

This is more fun than waiting til the last minute to file your taxes.

Funny, the average age of the members who show up for the unloading is around 67 yo. Canes, walkers knee braces,..... I'm getting too short to work inside the trailer! The feeble and the feeble minded.

Sitting back, sitting here waiting on a call.

Sal

Fantastic!

cao · « **Reply #706 on:** April 20, 2024, 01:36:33 am »

Well yesterday I caught a swarm that I put in two 8 frame medium boxes because I thought one box wasn't big enough. Then today I started inspecting the hives in that yard. The first several hives I made some splits with eggs to let them make their own queen. Then I ran into a hive that had open Queen cells. Of course, they got spilt. A couple hives later, I ran into a string of 4 hives that had capped queen cells. I think one of them was the hive that through the swarm yesterday. The other three were still packed wall to wall with bees. So, a lot of splitting was done. In the last hive I thought I heard some piping and when I got close to the bottom box, I found a queen cell that hatched. It still had the lid attached, so there was a virgin running around there somewhere. I had to stop early because I ran out of nuc boxes. After all was done, I think I made 3 full box splits and a dozen or so nucs. I need to get some more boxes ready in the morning so I can finish going through those hives in that yard. I'm starting to run out of room to put all the splits. A little over a week ago, I made over 30 splits in my home yard. The bees started early this year and haven't slowed down yet.

Terri Yaki · « **Reply #707 on:** April 20, 2024, 08:20:10 am »

That sounds like you got a lot of work done there, congratulations. How many hives do you have?

cao · « **Reply #708 on:** April 20, 2024, 12:12:12 pm »

I came out of winter with about 45. Lost about 10-12 over winter which is about normal for me. I always seem to go into winter with several that I know won't make it. If all the splits make it, I will be somewhere close to 100. And it is still early. I don't really want that many but when you have the chance and have capped queen cells on frames, it is hard not to split them.

The15thMember · « **Reply #709 on:** April 20, 2024, 08:18:12 pm »

I checked the swarm that I managed to recover from my "Swarm Out of Reach" saga. There was only about 3 frames of bees in there, so I compressed them down to 1 box. I didn't see a queen, but the bees were acting so normal that I'm wondering if I just missed a virgin. Or the babies made them stick, in spite of not having a queen. I gave them a frame of BIAS from another hive to give them a population boost and allow them to make a queen if they need to. As far as established hives, I split one, removed the queen from another, and added my pollen trap to a third. There are a lot of queen cups being made, but I didn't see any actual queen cells. I undersupered 2 of the hives to give some more room in the brood nest. Still no significant drawing, and I can see from my notes that at this point last year drawing had absolutely commenced.

Ben Framed · « **Reply #710 on:** April 20, 2024, 10:21:19 pm »

Quote

and allow them to make a queen if they need to.

You should know very soon if they have a queen. I am interested, let us know if they proceed in making queen cells.

Terri Yaki · « **Reply #711 on:** April 21, 2024, 08:58:27 am »

Neighbor's apiary yesterday...about three weeks ago I was there and they had a good, strong colony going but last weekend when they looked, they were queenless so Matt's uncle got a queen cell from our club to install and I went down to help with the process and learn some more. That hive was where they placed the honey supers from the hives that died last fall so there were a lot of honey frames to be handled and we removed them, they're currently in a freezer at my house. We found a lot of bees yet and apparently, a laying worker. They don't use queen excluders but I can tell you that I will. Not that they would help with a laying worker situation. There is one sealed queen cell on the bottom for some reason that we all wonder what it's about. He installed the purchased queen and we noted where she was placed so we can go right to it next week. I suspect that something happened to the queen during that hive inspection three weeks ago. With as much time has passed since the last brood was seen and the life span of the worker bee, it will be interesting to see how this all pans out. Matt is prepared for it to be too late to save it. We shall see.

My nuc has been here for it's first full week today and I'm keeping a close eye on them. I have two jars of syrup on them and they seem to be taking about 1 pt/day. I don't know if that's good or bad but it seems to be consistent. Inside the hole in the inner cover is just teeming with bees and I look forward to seeing what the rest of the hive looks like on Wednesday when I open it. I placed a small piece of pollen patty in there but they aren't bothering with it so I guess I'll pull it out and chuck it. There is some correlation between pollen patties and SHBs, what is it?

cao · « **Reply #712 on:** April 21, 2024, 09:39:41 am »

Quote from: Terri Yaki on April 21, 2024, 08:58:27 am

There is some correlation between pollen patties and SHBs, what is it?

They will lay eggs in it and the larva will feed upon it.

Terri Yaki · « **Reply #713 on:** April 21, 2024, 09:51:58 am »

Aaaah, OK, thanks. I thought maybe it came with the eggs in it. So should is it safe to leave in unless and until I see larvae action?

BeeMaster2 · « **Reply #714 on:** April 21, 2024, 03:42:10 pm »

Unless you have it somewhere that you can check on it on a daily basis, I would not recommend leaving it in there. You normally want to give them just enough for them to finish in a day or so. It only takes three days for the SHB eggs to hatch and infest the hive. If the bees aren?t strong enough to carry them out of the hive as they hatch they can take it over. A better idea is to feed the bees the pollen patties somewhere close to the hive where, if they need it, they can use it. Unless there are no flowers available, during the winter, they won?t use it.
Jim Altmiller

Terri Yaki · « **Reply #715 on:** April 21, 2024, 04:29:47 pm »

Thanks! My hives have doors in the side that come off and I can look inside. Since there's only syrup and that little piece of pollen patty in the top box, I can see both pretty good. They taking syrup pretty good but that piece of pollen patty is untouched so I may as well just toss it. The beek that I got them from said that they weren't big users of pollen.

The15thMember · « **Reply #716 on:** April 21, 2024, 06:45:04 pm »

Quote from: Terri Yaki on April 21, 2024, 08:58:27 am

We found a lot of bees yet and apparently, a laying worker.

I would just like to point out that it is rarely a single laying worker. Laying workers are kind of like ants, you don't have just one.

Quote from: Terri Yaki on April 21, 2024, 08:58:27 am

There is one sealed queen cell on the bottom for some reason that we all wonder what it's about.

I'm not understanding what's to wonder about here. They went queenless, so they made a new one. Unless the thing that is odd is that they had a QC and laying workers.

Quote from: Terri Yaki on April 21, 2024, 08:58:27 am

He installed the purchased queen and we noted where she was placed so we can go right to it next week.

If there were laying workers, did he do a shakeout or anything? Because I'd be worried they won't accept a new queen.

Terri Yaki · « **Reply #717 on:** April 21, 2024, 08:09:13 pm »

I may be off but I'm thinking that with the amount of time that seems to have passed, a queen made from the last eggs should have hatched by now, there is no other brood other than drone brood. If I'm wrong, then there is a queen but if I'm right, what is there?

And I don't know what you mean by a shakeout and we are worried about the success with this new queen cell as well.

BeeMaster2 · « **Reply #718 on:** April 21, 2024, 08:10:51 pm »

It is possible for a laying worker to produce a viable queen cell/larvae. It doesn?t happen very often. More than likely it was in there from a larvae before it got too old.
You will probably not notice the larvae in the pollen patty until it is too late. When they hatch they are very small and would be hard to see from outside of the hive.
Jim Altmiller

The15thMember · « **Reply #719 on:** April 21, 2024, 08:36:05 pm »

Quote from: Terri Yaki on April 21, 2024, 08:09:13 pm

I may be off but I'm thinking that with the amount of time that seems to have passed, a queen made from the last eggs should have hatched by now, there is no other brood other than drone brood. If I'm wrong, then there is a queen but if I'm right, what is there?

Oh okay, I understand now.

Quote from: Terri Yaki on April 21, 2024, 08:09:13 pm

And I don't know what you mean by a shakeout and we are worried about the success with this new queen cell as well.

A shakeout is when you remove the hive from the stand and shake out the bees. Then the bees will be forced to to beg into the other hives, who would only let in normal workers, not laying ones. But honestly, it was a dumb assumption on my part, since you were saying how this is his only hive.