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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #12950  by NigelP
 19 Jul 2022, 18:36
Sounds like their weren't big enough to manage their environmental cooling.
Left well alone today, 38C recorded on weather station. So took trip to moors to install hive stands for later occupancy, much cooler and pleasant up there. Judging by the Ling coming out the occupancy will be ASAP. Looks like heather is going to be early this season.
Solar wax melter got a good few days and cleared all my loose cappings and bits and bobs.
 #12951  by AdamD
 20 Jul 2022, 16:39
Colonies seemed to have survived the heat OK (34 degrees here).

I was called to a compost bin today where a swarm had taken up residence some time ago. There was emerging brood and comb re-laid with eggs - so they had been there for about a month. There was a decent amount of stores and they were very calm - almost languid. Some of the comb has now been taped into frames and I saw the queen in the upturned compost bin lid, so she has been marked pink and caged. The bees are in a box on top of the compost bin so I'll collect them at dusk when the stragglers have found their way to the queen and brood and the flyers have returned for the day. I remembered to take a container of water to wash my hands/tools with as I worked through it. :D Always a sticky job!
 #12952  by Cable_Fairy
 20 Jul 2022, 17:27
I went to check mine this afternoon now the temperature has fallen by 15 degrees. There is a big moorland fire about 5 miles up wind and all the hives were very quiet.
 #12953  by NigelP
 21 Jul 2022, 09:42
Nice cool morning so moved 4 hives onto the moors. On this particular moor the ling is early with about 1/10th already in full flower. Just hope for no moorland fires.......
 #12957  by MickBBKA
 22 Jul 2022, 01:19
Hoping to go to the heather in the next week. My guy tells me the Bell is looking great and the Ling just starting to show. I must make an effort to get some bell in the future as there is quite a lot in that location.
As the most weather sceptic person in British Beekeeping I have to confess for the second year in a row I have had a second flow in July. The June gap normally lasts until late April here. The colonies are full up and need extracting but OMG what a robbing storm when I tried to remove the supers. Clearing boards are going to be a must.
 #12963  by NigelP
 22 Jul 2022, 19:05
MickBBKA wrote:
22 Jul 2022, 01:19
. I must make an effort to get some bell in the future as there is quite a lot in that location.
I have a site that has great Bell heather, tried on more then three occasions to get a crop by taking bees their early July, long before any ling is out. To date nowt..... I've watched them feeding on the damn stuff but never seen them put enough in the hive to harvest. Weird.....Beginning to think Bell is even more precocious than ling in giving up it's treasures. Could be a difficult Ling year given the extended drought....but as they say if you don't buy a ticket.....
 #12964  by MickBBKA
 23 Jul 2022, 16:40
Been extracting supers today. Interesting to see how high the water content is considering its been very dry for July, over 18% in most. The Spring honey was like glue and almost down to 15%
 #12965  by Alfred
 23 Jul 2022, 19:01
Is that % from fully capped or mostly Mick?.

I saw a vid from a beekeeper in the southern swamplands of USA who claims he has cells capped at 20Pc
 #12967  by JoJo36
 24 Jul 2022, 04:42
I was thinking of leaving my extraction a week or two later this year as last year and previous ones I went for end of July and thought if I wait a bit longer there may be more to extract??!! Whether a week or two makes much difference I don't know??!! I'll keep an eye on the weather and decide as it looks quite settled for a couple of week according to the weather forecast! I'm always happy to get any honey but, one really bad year it wasn't worth dirtying the extractor and took more effort cleaning up !! :(
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