What have you done today bee-related?

[AdamD]

I have done Demarees (maybe for queen-rearing maybe not) and then later on put in a top entrance to allow the last queen to mate in the case of queen-rearing. I guess this would be a Demgrove?
It can all become a bit of a kerfuffle to inspect the stack of boxes, as you point out Mick.

[Liam]

the other 2 had queen cells at various stages but no larvae in any them! Never seen this before. Destroyed the cells and gave them both a second brood box. Will reinspect later.

Strange, I just came across the exact same thing today, I have never seen QC near fully built out and yet nothing in them? total peanut ones. Snelgroved all with swarm cells method II and did a few with no QC method I just to confuse myself. Loads of honey tho, cant complain, many on 3 supers and no OSR here.

[MickBBKA]

[/quote]Same as these duff queen cells I'm finding filled only with royal jelly. And now heard another 2 beekeepers have seen exactly the same issue[/quote]

Well, there you go. I inspected 12 colonies today and apart from one single QC exactly as you describe there wasn't any QC's in all of them. Just one full of royal jelly but no larvae. Just shows, never 2 years the same. I wonder what has got into their little heads this year.

[MickBBKA]

I have done Demarees (maybe for queen-rearing maybe not) and then later on put in a top entrance to allow the last queen to mate in the case of queen-rearing. I guess this would be a Demgrove?
It can all become a bit of a kerfuffle to inspect the stack of boxes, as you point out Mick.

Demagrove maybe to refine it.

[Alfred]

Got that feeling
That dejavu feeling
The one where I'm sure I said never again last time .
Swarm call-probably a cut out.
The usual calm stoic voice that has as edge of desperation at the end of the sentences.
And I'm a sucker for it.

Lovely people with a " house full of bees"
No I don't do it sorry.
Please?
No
Please?
Bugger.
The beautifully done out old cottage was indeed full of bees that had landed in the chimney and sent further scouts down three separate flues to the bedroom,behind the kitchen units and into the woodburner.
By the time I had got there after work most of the explorers had ascended back to the cluster so we were able to light the woodburner with smouldering fuel,block the upstairs fireplace and dismantle the kitchen to ducttape the old stove exhaust .
They were surprisingly open to the idea of coexistence if the woodburner predictably didn't do much.
An evening's entertainment,no casualties ,grateful victims and a donation to the hospice.
Got away with it once more.....

[MickBBKA]

You are living the dream Alfred

So here at my inland apiary during a scorching blast of 16c I managed to inspect them all. No QC's yet, my best colony has 3 full but not yet capped supers ( never had that in April ) so put on No4 and they are rammed with pollen in the brood boxes( never had that before either ) The hard frosts we had the last 2 nights have only killed half my grape vine in the poly tunnel but the outlook for the next week is a bit better. Finger crossed for a nice May because for once I can't complain too much about the Spring. Been some good articles in the BBKA mag as well

[Alfred]

Been some good articles in the BBKA mag as well

Ok what's the punchline Mick?

[jmwny]

Kept bees for over 50 years and changed to Buckfast last year. They are lovely natured cf. all previous bees but I have had to adapt to some new timings with their speed of brood increase.
Had my earliest ever swarm on 20th April from a stock I had not supered as was giving them to a friend but got delayed (had space when checked in last warm spell!) . Old queen productive in new home, and fingers crossed that mating goes ok for the new queen who was out yesterday if I understood the signs right.
Swings in weather and cold temperature made inspections but still the bees brought in the goods, must have been in short bursts of activity.
All seems well again but this, my first post, is to say thank you to the experienced members sharing their issues without any embarrassment....confirms that bees do it their way regardless of our attempts to diver their attention.

[JoJo36]

Welcome 'jmwny'
I completely agree with you regards this helpful forum as normally any topic will have different beekeepers views and what they suggest to do which varies enormously, so, I just pick what the easiest/simplest method i can use!!
You'll get to know the names of the "experienced folk" and the "rookies" like myself who ask lots of questions!!
If you've kept bees yourself for more than 50 years I would regard you personally as one of the "experienced folks" for sure!

[Patrick]

Welcome indeed.

If you have kept bees for over 50 years you must have encountered many characters along the way. I think one of the problems beginners have is the apparent certainty many of us inadvertantly slip into when trying to describe what they should do next. It's well-intentioned and probably not putting in too many caveats but as you say things have a habit of taking unexpected and sometimes unwelcome turns.

A recent example was having clipped several hundred queens without incident, this year I discovered a couple of swarm cells in a large colony which had one of the last unclipped queens in it. Having decided to knock down the queen cells, I picked up a particularly bonny queen and having marked her, slightly changed my grip to clip her and she suddenly wriggled free and walked up my hand and disappeared up the back of my forearm. No amount of gyrations or yoga moves revealed her whereabouts.

Assuming she had either flown off, fallen off or wandered onto the back of my suit I checked the grass then carefully moved a few paces and then jumped up and down to dislodge her. No evidence of her on the grass then either so after a bit (in case she was flying around) closed up and left it a few days. Came back - no evidence of new eggs in the hive, queen underneath the floor or emergency cells raised. Waited a week, still no queen, emergency cells or eggs present, so popped in a foil encased queen cell from another hive.

My first mess up when clipping in years and if they had swarmed I would have lost the queen anyway, so no disaster but still mighty careless I do know that I would have lost countless swarms (and queens) over the years if I didn't routinely clip so its a shrug and move on moment but still felt a bit of a plank