Apiary Diary August 2021

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Grant

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The return of the Apiary Diary. Here is your opportunity to tell us (and remind yourself) about what is going on in your hives during the month of August 2021. The idea is you can look back and see when you placed treatments, what hives were strong, what were weak, when you re-queened, split, added boxes, what flows were on etc.

A more detailed analysis can be carried out by completing a log book and these are especially useful when asking for help. Please create a logbook entry here
 

tommy dave

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mostly wellington, sometimes dunedin
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back in may i helped out a friend by looked at a hive they had ended up with that was pretty unhealthy after not having had varroa treatments since spring ones had been pulled out. I've posted about it a few times. Apiary Diary June 2021
It's been reduced to one box for a while, and is now building up. Five frames of bees, just under 2 frames of brood, plenty of stores - i'd almost call it an ok nuc, almost. It's cleaned up all the frames in that box and fairly active on sunny days. Looking like it's going to pull through!
 

Grant

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Moderators you should start a thread about good education type vids can be posted.

We've got a whole media gallery for you to post your educational videos. 🤣

I'll let you post it there and close this one off as it will be good that someone starts using it👍🏼

 
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yesbut

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I accidently ended up with a tiny 3x 3/4 frame nuc over winter. It's been ominously quiet for a few days. Opened it up yesterday and had about 1500 pairs of dispairing eyes looking up from totally empty comb and a skinny queen glaring at me. Gave them a jar of syrup and the turnaround amazed me.....they've been crowding in & out all day.. I'm going to keep it as a 6 frame hive in narrow boxes, see how it goes..
 
3,578
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Hawkes Bay
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I am halfway through my spring round. I started a week early because everyone has scared me with talk of hungry hives and varoa.
So far the hives have come through quite a bit heavier than normal and I have seen a little bit of varoa but only two hives with visible symptoms. Losses so far are five queenless, one drone layer and two killed by wasps which isn't too bad out of 180 hives.
Shame about the wasps. There was no sign of them in the autumn or I would have treated with vespex., I suspect it was a pretty small nest in the autumn. All the hives in the apiary were knocked around and a bit weak. The nest was only 10 m from the hives and won't be troubling the bees again.
 

Alastair

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First day on the bees today, found some hives tipped over, probably from that 5 minute storm that hit a few weeks back.

Sites I did today are ones that did not have problems with the bayvarol last autumn, ie, I did not have to re treat those hives.

Cold miserable day with constant drizzle. A few hives weak and one queen beginning to lay a few drone eggs, but most hives in excellent shape, and zero losses.

Put in Apivar, feeling good about the coming season. Won't really know till I do few sites where bayvarol did not work properly.
 
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yesbut

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Opened hive #3 this arvo. Bunch of grumpy sods. Admittedly a bit hungry, but I don't like bees that don't give up until they find the weakness in my armour and chase me inside. They're going. I've found a victim I mean an experienced beek up the road who's building up his hive numbers who doesn't mind mucking about feeding & requeening.
 
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Bron

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Had our first picnic of the season today. Not all doom and gloom. Was pretty happy with the hives. Bringing in pollen & a bit of nectar, lotsa eggs & older brood, not so much larvae, we had a cold wet week or so, so mum musta gone on strike. Most of them are still chowing down on last years honey, and will be for some time. No sign of Dwv. Strips in. Pretty happy, however couch potatoes shouldn’t do too much first day out!
 

Mummzie

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I got through mine yesterday and with one exception they are well underway. Put in Oa/gl strips. I may have underestimated the amount of food required when I wintered them down, so will be looking to feed I think.
One year I will get the balance between space and food right ( I hope)
 
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Went for a Tiki Tour around some yards this afternoon. Mixed bag .....some heavy, some light, some strong enough to swarm, some dead. The queens were laying out solid frames of brood and no varroa visible.
I'll put the syrup tank on tomorrow and crack into it.
I'll also take the cappings scratcher and scrape some of the drone brood.
Seems quite early for drone brood .....
 
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Yep! @James! I told the girls today that they werent warm enough, late enough or rich enough for freeloaders, and what were they thinking! Drone brood! what on Earth
Yup, had a look at a couple over the weekend at home @Bron . . drone brood - and drones in there as well ! Top box packed out with honey. Wonder what they've been robbing? Hopefully not the numpty's dead boxes down the road.
Don't think there's been any brood break at all and so varroa levels will be interesting.
 
3,578
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Hawkes Bay
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Pretty windy today and it got worse as the day went on. Did a couple of sheltered yards and they were pretty good with good stores and reasonable strength. One of the apiarys was the one that had all the AFB last year so they got a pretty thorough brood check as well as having their entrances swabbed for some ongoing AFB research. They were all clear on the visual check so the swab results will be interesting. If they do have AFB it tends to show up later in the spring in my experience..Hopefully they are now clear.

The Taupo road was closed because of wind today which is the first time I can remember that happening so I definitely made the right decision not to go working bees up in the hills.
 
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Bron

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Yep, we did a few today too, got a bit cloudy and the occasional gust of wind, girls were not too pleased to see us, so we bailed! Of course as soon as himself took off his suit the sun came out! Collected pine needles instead. Hate, hate trying to light smokers with crummy needles. All was not lost!
 
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UK
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As we are the 'wrong side of the world' from you guys, we are looking at winter approaching rather than spring. The honey is off my hives and is nearly extracted. I have some wets to go back on to be cleaned out before they are frozen (to kill any wax moth that might have gotten in) before storage. Hives have varroa treatment on and are being fed where necessary. There's little forage at the moment although most colonies can just about maintain their weight; some beekeepers are looking toward Himalayan Balsam flowering - about now - which is an invasive non-native species that should ideally be destroyed, but is good for bees. (As a kid my father used to call them triffids). Ivy is a little way off but gives good pollen and nectar most years before winter sets in.
 
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canterbury
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Lockdown or no Lockdown ..... the bees don't care.
These babies are our Nuc Mothers .....young queens placed right next to the gorse and kowhai to encourage them to expand and explode in a month or so ....... when we will break them up, grabbing four or five two frame nucs , and leaving them with two frames of brood and the queen to rebuild.
They get a lite sugar feed every ten days, rain or shine.4AE88738-BEA5-411F-8D9F-B646A34CF226.jpeg
 
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Alastair

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On the plus side, got the first spring round completed on about 1/2 my bees, and wow they are looking great. After the issues with treatment last autumn I was expecting some bad news, and the first 2 or 3 sites I did were not stella so I was expecting the worst but since then it's got better and most hives are pumping.

Just lucky I got package bee sales organised or swarm control in the next couple months would be near impossible.
 


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