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  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #4575  by Patrick
 18 Aug 2019, 20:35
Japey Edge wrote:
17 Aug 2019, 13:38
Any thoughts on this video I took?
https://1drv.ms/v/s!Av81dIXQWFUjpFdBtd_2IvqrHnB1

Robbing?
Only just had a chance to have a gander, agree with Chris - nothing amiss I could see either Jazz.
 #4576  by Japey Edge
 18 Aug 2019, 22:26
Party time! Cheers Patrick.

Today, I had a walk around the garden apiary and splatted a wasp sniffing about.

Also went to a farmer's market and pestered a beekeeper there :lol:
So easy when they're stuck at their stall ;)
 #4587  by Chrisbarlow
 22 Aug 2019, 18:15
Feeding up some nucs ready for over wintering.
 #4588  by Patrick
 22 Aug 2019, 19:10
Due to other commitments haven’t been into bees for about four weeks and was slightly fearing the worst. Normally extract by end July so wasn’t entirely sure of what I would find. Couple of supersedures, one inexplicably queenless and a lot of very packed supers and plenty in the brood chambers as well (for which read I didn’t have enough supers on, did I?). Think I am ok but a big push on extracting obviously imminent followed by MAQs, then feed. It’s going to be a bit more full on all at once than usual unfortunately but there we are.

Had a lovely 2lb wild brown trout this morning (returned natch) so a good day but happily knackered ;)
 #4591  by AdamD
 23 Aug 2019, 09:09
I am running late this year too, Patrick. I have my out apiary OK with supers off, treatment on and some feeding that's been done.
One brood-less colony now has eggs, so I popped some Apiguard in; being a cheapskate, I am wondering whether I can just do one treatment as all the varroa will be phoretic - out of the cells.

And with the warm weather upon us, it's a good chance for mating. There's a couple of virgins that need to get up, so if they don't do it this weekend, they never will.

At home I have some remaining supers to remove and some wets to put back on.

My process for dealing with extracted supers is that they go back on over a crown board with a porter bee escape removed. After a few days, the escape is put back - or I use a different clearer board to get the bees out of the supers. They then go in the freezer for a couple of days to ensure there's no wax moth before being stored for winter.

I have one really good clearer board which I need to copy. It has two porter bee escapes and a hole with a slider. Wets go on it with the hole open. After a few days, the slider goes across and the bees find their way down through the escapes. There's no need to lift the supers off, replace the porter escape and put them on again. Simples!
 #4593  by Patrick
 23 Aug 2019, 12:10
AdamD wrote: One brood-less colony now has eggs, so I popped some Apiguard in; being a cheapskate, I am wondering whether I can just do one treatment as all the varroa will be phoretic - out of the cells.

I have one really good clearer board which I need to copy. It as two porter bee escapes and a hole with a slider. Wets go on it with the hole open. After a few days, the slider goes across and the bees find their way down through the escapes. There's no need to lift the supers off, replace the porter escape and put them on again. Simples!
Not cheapskate at all Adam - entirely consistent with good practice on any pesticide use - use knowledge of the terget species and control mechanism of the pesticide to administer a minimum effective application and minimum period of effective targetted control. As you say, why put the bees under additional stress with a second application to deal with emerging mites that aren't there? Would actually be overdosing.

That clearer board adaption sounds very interesting and highly doable Is the board only used for clearing - if not how do you stop it getting propolised up? As described on another thread I already modify standard crownboards so adding another one is great. A few more and they can be used as props in the next Transformers film.
 #4596  by Japey Edge
 23 Aug 2019, 22:15
Adam, regarding wax moth - can you not just spray with Certan / Dipel and cut out the freezer stage?

I've just taken delivery of 500g of Dipel so I think I'm pretty much set for a long time...

Today my refractometer arrived, wooo
 #4597  by AdamD
 24 Aug 2019, 08:25
I probably could - I've never used Certan. However I have fumigated with sulphur strips and used acetic acid (ethanoic acid) too. I guess, I am fortunate to have a freezer in my bee shed so it's easy to use that instead. It takes 5 supers at a time and once they are 'done' for a couple of days they can be stored without too much worry of wax moth provided the stacks are sealed top and bottom.
 #4599  by AdamD
 24 Aug 2019, 08:31
Patrick wrote:
23 Aug 2019, 12:10
AdamD wrote:
I have one really good clearer board which I need to copy. It as two porter bee escapes and a hole with a slider. Wets go on it with the hole open. After a few days, the slider goes across and the bees find their way down through the escapes. There's no need to lift the supers off, replace the porter escape and put them on again. Simples!

That clearer board adaption sounds very interesting and highly doable Is the board only used for clearing - if not how do you stop it getting propolised up? As described on another thread I already modify standard crownboards so adding another one is great. A few more and they can be used as props in the next Transformers film.
For some reason the slider doesn't get too gummed up with propolis; it did need a scrape and a wiggle to get it working this season but otherwise it's OK and stays on the hive all the time.
 #4600  by Chrisbarlow
 24 Aug 2019, 15:55
extracting honey and putting wets back on
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