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General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #4862  by Japey Edge
 21 Sep 2019, 17:43
Full inspection on all three hives - couldn't skip the opportunity since this surely has been one of the LAST nice days this year at 24 degC and sunny.

Big colony with new queen doing great. Chocker with stores so I removed the Ashforth feeder and moved it over to my other Abelo poly which is doing good but only has bees on 7 frames. So hopefully they'll fill the spare combs with stores.
All three colonies have the same queen they has last time - an inherited 2018 queen in the nuc, the bought-in queen in the big colony and the home-grown queen in the other poly on 7/11 frames. That home-grown queen makes some nice calm offspring. Maybe the local bees here are nice? Hmm!
I also finally put on the Apitraz for the big colony, now they have the queen introduced and they're all united and settled. The Apitraz on the other two colonies will be coming off next week.

Mixed some more sugar syrup as I gave the last 5 litres to the small Abelo poly colony. The poly nuc needs a little bit more feed.

I collected some propolis as I've been asked for some by someone intending to use as a tincture. However, I'm not sure I should be giving them it if it has thymol in or comes from a hive treated with Apitraz. Any thoughts on that would be appreciated.
 #4905  by AdamD
 28 Sep 2019, 20:38
AdamD wrote:
09 Sep 2019, 20:05

And I have a nuc and mini-nuc both with open queencells with queens ready to mate. The forecast for Thursday and Sunday is for 21 degrees. There are still some drones around so maybe, just maybe.
It looks like the weather last week (24th/25th) was good enough for one of the queens to mate, with a few eggs seen in the mini-nuc this morning. The queen in the nuc has gone, I believe, as a frame of brood that went in 2 days ago resulted in queencells being made. So 50% success is OK at the end of September. I'll check that she is laying worker brood in a week or so's time, weather permitting, and then she can go into the queenless nuc. It's of a fair size so it should be good for winter if she is a good-un. There's a chance that she didn't mate well, of course, but I won't be able to see that, only the bees can tell me.
 #4906  by Japey Edge
 28 Sep 2019, 20:57
AdamD wrote:
28 Sep 2019, 20:38
AdamD wrote:
09 Sep 2019, 20:05

And I have a nuc and mini-nuc both with open queencells with queens ready to mate. The forecast for Thursday and Sunday is for 21 degrees. There are still some drones around so maybe, just maybe.
It looks like the weather last week (24th/25th) was good enough for one of the queens to mate, with a few eggs seen in the mini-nuc this morning. The queen in the nuc has gone, I believe, as a frame of brood that went in 2 days ago resulted in queencells being made. So 50% success is OK at the end of September. I'll check that she is laying worker brood in a week or so's time, weather permitting, and then she can go into the queenless nuc. It's of a fair size so it should be good for winter if she is a good-un. There's a chance that she didn't mate well, of course, but I won't be able to see that, only the bees can tell me.
Hopefully she'll be good enough to get you through winter and kick-start spring!
 #4926  by Chrisbarlow
 03 Oct 2019, 09:27
Putting some sugar blocks on nucs
 #4944  by Alfred
 05 Oct 2019, 12:33
Done a feed run and found the polynuc which had an insatiable appetite has slowed down-I was beginning to think the feeder had a big hole in it...
The cedar hive with the vile infestation which up to now wasn't taking any(would have been glad to see the back of them)now decide to start guzzling.
Typical.
 #4945  by Alfred
 05 Oct 2019, 12:34
Done a feed run and found the polynuc which had an insatiable appetite has slowed down-I was beginning to think the feeder had a big hole in it...
The cedar hive with the vile infestation which up to now wasn't taking any(would have been glad to see the back of them)now decide to start guzzling.
Typical.
 #4946  by Chrisbarlow
 05 Oct 2019, 13:07
Alfred wrote:
05 Oct 2019, 12:34
Done a feed run and found the polynuc which had an insatiable appetite has slowed down-I was beginning to think the feeder had a big hole in it...
The cedar hive with the vile infestation which up to now wasn't taking any(would have been glad to see the back of them)now decide to start guzzling.
Typical.
glad to hear your bees are doing well Alfred. I thought you'd gone MIA - Missing in't Apiary.
 #4947  by Alfred
 05 Oct 2019, 20:13
The bees probably felt I was AWOL too Chris! I got involved in non-apis activity which at one point meant the bees had to be abandoned.Luckily no valuable losses as a consequence but still annoying.
Mortals :evil:
 #4965  by thewoodgatherer
 08 Oct 2019, 23:04
Japey Edge wrote:Full inspection on all three hives - couldn't skip the opportunity since this surely has been one of the LAST nice days this year at 24 degC and sunny.

Big colony with new queen doing great. Chocker with stores so I removed the Ashforth feeder and moved it over to my other Abelo poly which is doing good but only has bees on 7 frames. So hopefully they'll fill the spare combs with stores.
All three colonies have the same queen they has last time - an inherited 2018 queen in the nuc, the bought-in queen in the big colony and the home-grown queen in the other poly on 7/11 frames. That home-grown queen makes some nice calm offspring. Maybe the local bees here are nice? Hmm!
I also finally put on the Apitraz for the big colony, now they have the queen introduced and they're all united and settled. The Apitraz on the other two colonies will be coming off next week.

Mixed some more sugar syrup as I gave the last 5 litres to the small Abelo poly colony. The poly nuc needs a little bit more feed.

I collected some propolis as I've been asked for some by someone intending to use as a tincture. However, I'm not sure I should be giving them it if it has thymol in or comes from a hive treated with Apitraz. Any thoughts on that would be appreciated.
I would not use the propolis if you have used Apitraz

I was speaking to a lady at the market I sell my honey at and she has to get her wax analysed to prove it is free of insecticide and that's for cosmetics.
 #4966  by Japey Edge
 09 Oct 2019, 07:31
Cheers TWG - I ended up chucking everything I'd gathered, which wasn't much but still a waste of the bees' resources and my time. A lesson learned.

I've done barely anything bee related recently. I think I'm about to order my second Abelo poly ashforth feeder, and maybe something else since I'm paying postage 8-)

I need a half-decent weather window to take the Apitraz strips out of the two hives that are now 8 weeks (I know! Sorry!!) in a 6 week treatment. Weather has been absolutely garbage.

Also another 4 weeks on the big colony's Apitraz treatment so no doubt that will be super fun to take out too...
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