What have you done today bee-related?

[NigelP]

It's the Teesside curse in action, drawing that cold sea air into the interior. I left a warm starting day where we live and did a market at Stokesley yesterday, it was misty and vey cold. Sun finally broke through as were packing up. Back home had been glorious sunshine all day. Today we are forecast to be in the 20's whilst Wynyard (todays market) is forecast for mist and 15C.
You need to move location Mick.

[Cable_Fairy]

Friday morning had a call from a friend at the other side of the valley almost a mile away as the bee flies. We have a swarm and grandma (the beekeeper) is away picking up granddaughter. Threw all my gear in the car and arrived at their house just in time to see the swarm lift off from the small tree and head out over the valley. After a coffee and chat I arrived home and noticed that there seemed to be more bees than usual flying around and in the apiary they were going in and out of the bait hive. Just before noon yesterday, the swarm arrived and headed straight into the hive, the easiest collection I have done.

[MickBBKA]

Having been away for 9 days I had no choice but to inspect with temps at 12c and an East wind of death. I hope it wasn't too cold for you Southern softie Nigel at Wynyard today My best colonies needed a 4th super but they are few in number. Not one single colony had a queen cell. Cross checking my records averages this year are 75% smaller than they have ever been in the last 12 years of my beekeeping. Compared to all of my friends my bees have survived very well........ Just... At least I have bees. Having invested about £14,000 in my beekeeping business in the last 12 months I am more than fed up as usual about the disgusting weather we face here. 17c to 21c forecast for the rest of the country tomorrow, 14c here which usually means East winds of death and sea mist with 10c to 12c.................
Still never got my potato's in the allotment. All the other plants are the smallest I have ever seen. Roll on global warming.

[NigelP]

2nd Honey extraction of the season today and my darn extractor stops working. Electric motor won't turn the cage. Spend an hour fiddling with belt tightness's etc etc to no avail. Rang the place I bought it from "can I bring in for repair", basically told no, we are far too busy to be able to help the likes of you who spent a grand on a big extractor from us.....customer service nil.....
Fortunately I know one of the guys who works there so rang him on his mobile and he was able to diagnose what the problem probably was, he though the top bearing might have seized. To get at it I spent entire morning stripping everything apart to just to get to bearing, and yup it was seized. It was a right ???? to get off.
Thank goodness for Amazon prime; a pair of bearings (a spare one, just in case) ordered to arrive tomorrow, £7.....
A new extractor would now set me back 1400 quid.

[MickBBKA]

Well done Nigel, you could have borrowed mine if you get stuck. You have been fair with me in the past.
So, no extractions here yet, its been 12c, cold, wet and sea mists from East winds of death.
Thirsk was beautiful the other day, here it was bloody awful.

Having carried out inspections in 3 different locations over the last few days a very new and previously unobserved event is taking place in my colonies. They are ramming pollen and nectar into the brood area in both single and double brood set ups and ignoring the supers shutting out the queen. This isn't back filling ready for swarming as there are not even any play cups in the colonies. I think the bees have recognised the rain and forage disaster that has occurred this year and are consolidating what they have ready for Winter. We are just entering the June gap from June until May we have. My bees usually make their entire annual crop in 6 to 8 weeks we have to forage here. This year it has been 2 weeks. Just about everything is finished here, never seen the OSR disappear so fast. A couple of colonies had 11 frames of sealed brood and an empty super on top with no nectar in the colony.

Having made some big investments in my bees the weather has blown my brains out this year..........................................

[NigelP]

Extractor back in working order and finished the May Supers. Phew. Records from the previous 2 years show I am 50% down on my normal harvest for this time of year. Me thinks honey is going to be scarce this year.
But the good news we are on 47 acres of Borage in July and in August I'm taking hives to 100 acres of herbal Ley, so maybe will catch up.
Unlike yours Mick , one or two of mine have been ramming the pollen in the supers, several frames were just pollen and a little bit of nectar.
Swarming season is in full swing, I've snelgrove,s left right and centre.

[AdamD]

Friday morning had a call from a friend at the other side of the valley almost a mile away as the bee flies. We have a swarm and grandma (the beekeeper) is away picking up granddaughter. Threw all my gear in the car and arrived at their house just in time to see the swarm lift off from the small tree and head out over the valley.

They do that, the little bu**ers! Never do as they are told. Wasn't the old wives tale that you had to bang pots and pans to get them to land? Next time, you need a wooden spoon and a saucepan int he car too!

[MickBBKA]

Nigel, I have colonies with several brood frames of 90% pollen. Today I looked at 15 colonies and not one had a super of honey. Last year I had extracted about 600lbs with loads to come. I am already looking at getting my colonies set up to survive for next year in the vain hope it may be better.

[JoJo36]

Mick, my bees have filled up loads of brood frames with pollen also??!!
Something odd going on this year!!

[MickBBKA]

Nationally looking on social media its a disaster with a few locations still doing well like Lincoln, Yorkshire and Avon areas. Others have removed empty supers and started feeding again the colonies that haven't died. I removed 5 supers yesterday, that leaves me about 98% down from last year.