Apiary Diary 2022

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southbee

Gold
318
264
Southland
Experience
Commercial
Hi dee hi….
We are back into it…. Had a quick look around the end of last week.
About a month ago the crew zipped around and gave everytthing a feed .
This time around, the bees look good, not to many deads….
Point of interest…. We left the Bayvarol strips in over tge winter. It was an experiment… This spring there are very few mites, slabs of brood, and new pollen coming in.
Who knows, maybe its because I am a whole month later looking in them?
So… busy in the shed slicing up brown card for O/A strips, which will stsrt to go in next week.
Good to hear you're back in the country and looking after them bees. Maybe it actually is because you're looking later, or maybe it's a general thing, ours are building up strong and looking very healthy, no treatment in the winter.
 

southbee

Gold
318
264
Southland
Experience
Commercial
There’s a time where lack of commitment can be a good thing….
I’m glad I didn’t commit to driving in any closer to the hives an managed to reverse out and go around to the other side which had better drainage.

lots willow nectar coming in and hives building up nicely.

View attachment 1512
That reminds me of last years spring down here, it was wet everywhere and we managed to get stuck twice in one day. The opposite here this spring, hardly needing 4WDR. Lots of willow nectar here too.
 
1,030
748
Christchurch
Experience
Hobbyist
Hives are wetter than I ever recall. Been a wet winter. And having just listed my over wintered nuc… it swarmed. Listing deleted, and nuc moved to a hive. Will see what happens. Might merge or sell later, don’t need 5 hives.

But all the hives have come through well, good residual stores, nectar coming in and we’ll behaved. (Except the nuc 😩)

Last year had swarms in January, this year September 🤪
 
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Mummzie

Staff member
1,284
1,161
Tasman
Experience
Hobbyist
Hives are wetter than I ever recall. Been a wet winter.
do you have any insulation on top?

I have a couple of hives making serious moves towards swarming. They are also bringing in lots of nectar, which seems early. This is supposed to be the dearth isn't it?
 
1,030
748
Christchurch
Experience
Hobbyist
No insulation. But a ventilated top which usually keeps them nice & dry. I used to have condensation issues, but ventilated tops solved that. I think this water is just rain, there has been a lot.

New project - Garden roof for each hive with nice eaves etc. might make an insulation option for winter go inside it.

My swarming nuc has nectar, drones, and I thought enough space (5 x 2 when I put strips in.😡
 
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5,764
6,323
canterbury
Experience
Commercial
Sooo…. We are busy feeding bees, pulling bayvarol strips out… yeah I know its late but I got sidetracked over the winter…. And we are putting in o:a treatements….
And as i see the bags of old synthetic strips piling up in the shed, I ask myself the question….. why do we not have a biodegradable strip impregnated with bayvarol or the likes that collapses when the chemical expires?
I think it might be also time I thought about getting a few queen cells going.
E86D0382-0B2D-4E02-AC32-28BE5F0E57E8.jpeg
 
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1,030
748
Christchurch
Experience
Hobbyist
Sooo…. We are busy feeding bees, pulling bayvarol strips out… yeah I know its late but I got sidetracked over the winter…. And we are putting in o:a treatements….
And as i see the bags of old synthetic strips piling up in the shed, I ask myself the question….. why do we not have a biodegradable strip impregnated with bayvarol or the likes that collapses when the chemical expires?
I think it might be also time I thought about getting a few queen cells going.
View attachment 1519
Totally agree, although I’m no chemist & maybe there are challenges with chemical release & the carrier material. But still, this should be something a boffin somewhere could solve.
 

Mummzie

Staff member
1,284
1,161
Tasman
Experience
Hobbyist
We have a Tui feeder in a tree near our house and get hours of amusement watching them. Today one surprised us by leaving the feeder and landing in front of a small nuc we have nearby, and putting its beak into the entrance several times before being seen off. I know they will hunt insects when feeding young, and my guess is this one was female as she was smaller. Has anyone else observed anything like this?
 

Alastair

Founder Member
Platinum
8,753
9,966
Auckland
Experience
Semi Commercial
Maybe it just smelled interesting smells and put it's tongue in to see what was there?

Honeybees are not something built into their genetic memory.
 

Mummzie

Staff member
1,284
1,161
Tasman
Experience
Hobbyist
maybe it’s a learned behaviour as a result.
Possible. I'm not guilty of feeding honey water- its too attractive to the bees even if it wasn't bad from the AFB angle, but maybe it recognised the scent. It was such a deliberate action and totally out of the usual routines which is what we observed last year last year when they were feeding young.
I can understand fledgling Tuis poking their beeks in......they are hilarious to watch learn their way in the world.
Seeing we are talking birds rather than bees, we had a Falcon visit a couple of days ago.
What a kerfluffle that made amongst the local birds.20220920_132456.jpg
 
961
1,726
Croatia
Experience
International
On Thursday I had encounter with white tailed eagle, it attacked hens. I got surprised cause it hit 2-3 meters from me, ignoring my presence. Weird.. It managed to escape from me, without hen but hen didn't survived, bones were crashed. First heard some fuss behind me of hens panicking then whoosh and strike like log been thrown. It is still unreal to me. Maybe it didn't pay attention on me cause I was in beekeeping suit preparing to go to the hives.. Nevertheless it circled after and other one joined him in the sky above, only one stupidly brave raven was chasing it away with distracting it ( thanks Raven)..
 


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