What have you done today bee-related?

[MickBBKA]

Strange problems with some queens this year. TBH it started last year. Multiple supesedures of queens. One is on to its 3rd queen this year. Lay 2 frames of brood then get replaced. First Q looked lovely

[JoJo36]

Maybe they only mated a couple of times due to the weather and are running out of sperm and the workers can detect this??!!
Not sure, in the end they seem to do as they see fit as though they know something we don't ??!!
Mine have brought in endless amounts of pollen this year filling up loads of brood frames

[NigelP]

All my early mated queens have now been superseded or disappeared. My initial thoughts were that it was surprising they got mated in the first place as the weather at the time was 15/16C not really optimum mating conditions. So perhaps their supersedure is not a great surprise.
On a more positive note the heather is yielding well this year, despite a lot of heather beetle damage,

[AdamD]

I posted earlier about a colony that swarmed; I caught the swarm and also found an unmarked laying queen remaining in the hive. The caught swarm had a (nibbled) 2024 queen which layed for a very short while and has now stopped. I have another queen of similar vintage in a nuc that has also stopped laying - I am not convinced this is just the slow-down we usually see at this time of year but faulty queens. A mini-nuc has lost it's queen and has a supercedure queencell in it and a caught swarm has the laying queen and a ripe queencell - just the one - so I expect her to be gone very soon.
I remember about 10 years ago I had a huge amount of supercedure at this time of year; I guess it just happens.

[MickBBKA]

I was very late to the heather this year and only taken 4 colonies. Main reason is they were still filling supers locally. On the heather I just checked and they have filled but not capped yet 3 supers each in 10 days and the heather looks amazing.
I also have colonies on buckwheat and they have filled everything in 4 weeks. One has filled 6 supers. First time on buckwheat and its an eye opener
All in all its been amazing what the bees have managed to do in 7 weeks, I never had a single jar of honey mid June.

[NigelP]

Jealous of the Buckwheat honey. It's on my beekeeping bucket list....

[AdamD]

Mick, I'm pleased that after some of your doom and gloom posts, you've had a few weeks of positivity.

[MickBBKA]

Thanks Adam, I do proclaim myself as the most pessimistic beekeeper in the UK
Nigel, are you still a member of CBKA ? If so you could have put some colonies there, its been a revelation

[JoJo36]

Good news at last Mick!!

[NigelP]

Thanks Adam, I do proclaim myself as the most pessimistic beekeeper in the UK
Nigel, are you still a member of CBKA ? If so you could have put some colonies there, its been a revelation

I could have done Mick, but with the EFB threat in my area decided it was wiser to not move any colonies, just in case. Next year a mate of mine is growing 5 acres of the stuff.....so probably wander along there