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Thread: todays news

  1. #3281

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    Been out all morning preparing hives for the heather. Still absolutely zero nectar though plenty pollen. Nests are bone dry with not a cell of honey. No local limes out yet though did see a grove of them in flower up the A9 at Ballinluig (we do not keep bees in that area). Some willowherb and the earliest balsam now out but nothing happening.

    However my guys report that there is nectar coming in at the bell heather, bees returning heavy and full and a significant smell in the air. About 40% up now, by Monday will have all the bell places occupied, forecast looks moderately decent. Its quite normal for the bell and lime to clash like this...wait for the limes then you miss the bell.

  2. #3282

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    Quote Originally Posted by fatshark View Post
    The big plastic box is just for storing it and carrying it around. You can fit a few odds and sods in as well - goggles, mask, gloves, a nice big tub of Api-Bioxal (ahem) and a bottle of water for cleaning the pan. It needs 240V ... easiest off the mains but I also have a portable generator (~700W if I remember) for out apiaries.

    I'd blame the lack of a UK distributor on Brexit ... but it's more likely the lack of demand. I only know a very few people who have them.

    Icko Apiculture provide good service and delivered quickly.

    I would argue that the Sublimox would be a good investment for some BKA's ... rather than individuals buying Varrox's or building some sort of DIY contraption a single Sublimox could be used to treat multiple hives in a single day. Apiaries would need to be reasonably close to reduce travelling time of course. Since the hive doesn't need to be opened treatments take 1 minute or less. With little or no fuss you can work out ways to treat any sort of hive ... and as if there isn't a suitable entrance it's easy enough to drill a 6mm hole through the sidewall of the floor to administer the vapour. Like this ...

    Attachment 2712

    ... vaporiser is inserted inverted (as shown), then turned though 180o to drop the OA into the heated pan. Count to 40 and move on to the next hive.
    Thanks fatshark I didn't have a clear idea of how it worked
    I thought it was a fan or something in that box

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  3. #3283
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kate Atchley View Post
    I think those "good days" missed us! Lovely today though.
    Don't give up though. Keep the apidea feeders topped up and if they are still queenright there is a good chance they will mate.
    I had a site with 50 apideas on it, most of them with queens 4 weeks old.
    I lifted 26 of them last Friday without checking as I was having problems with a Badger pulling them apart.
    I dropped them at another site on Friday evening and when I checked on Sunday 17 had eggs.
    Thursday 7th was a day for queen mating flights so they all took the opportunity after 4 weeks.
    These apideas were set out on 10th June. I was expecting queens to be laying around 20th June but better late than never.
    Similar story at other sites as well.

  4. #3284
    Senior Member Kate Atchley's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jon View Post
    Don't give up though. Keep the apidea feeders topped up and if they are still queenright there is a good chance they will mate.
    I had a site with 50 apideas on it, most of them with queens 4 weeks old.
    I lifted 26 of them last Friday without checking as I was having problems with a Badger pulling them apart.
    I dropped them at another site on Friday evening and when I checked on Sunday 17 had eggs.
    Thursday 7th was a day for queen mating flights so they all took the opportunity after 4 weeks.
    These apideas were set out on 10th June. I was expecting queens to be laying around 20th June but better late than never.
    Similar story at other sites as well.
    Your encouragement's very welcome Jon. Found a couple of queens laying yesterday that I'd more or less given up on. Saw a few more with accompanying bees very content so hope they may make it too. Spent 7 hours at the bees yesterday, the first fine day for ages. Dealt with drone laying queens, chilled queen cells and failed nucs by introducing new or overwintered queens etc. Fingers crossed for a milder spell now to step up the queen rearing again.

  5. #3285
    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger View Post
    Thanks fatshark I didn't have a clear idea of how it worked
    I thought it was a fan or something in that box
    Too many boxes DR ... the box in the picture above - between the handle and the business end of the machine - contains some electrickery. Way beyond my level of expertise. There's a photo kicking around on the web somewhere of the contents, not by me. The pressure caused by the sublimation of the powder as it's dropped into the pre-heated pan causes it to be forced out through the small nozzle. If you do it in the 'open' the vapour jet is about 2-3 metres long. No wonder it reaches the parts other miticides can't reach

  6. #3286

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    Quote Originally Posted by Jon View Post
    Don't give up though. Keep the apidea feeders topped up and if they are still queenright there is a good chance they will mate.
    I had a site with 50 apideas on it, most of them with queens 4 weeks old.
    Would the four-week Q still be able to mate? I have been working on the basis that 2 wks is fine for mating and although three weeks is the limit, it will often will not give good fertilisation. Your email was posted just in time for me retain two apideas with virgin queens that were three weeks old, having gone through a long period of wind, rain and low-teen temperatures.

  7. #3287

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    Steamy morning. Glad all the bees on the move this morning are screened polys.

    Weather forecast very uncertain this week......changes every time its on. Good...then bad...then good again, and finally this morning its a one day heat event tomorrow then thundery breakdown overnight and back to cooler zonal westerlies for another spell from Wednesday......bummer.

    60% of the bees now on the heather, almost all our bell sites are full or partially full, the first ling sites starting to go in too now. First flower on the ling in the earliest spots will be within the next three or four days.

    Did the final grafting of the season at the weekend, and from now on in the queen unit winds down for the season. Lots of orders for this week and next though, but by the end of the month we will start vacating the unneeded mini boxes.

    I now this seems early to most on this forum, but honestly there is little practical use, and only a tiny market, for several hundred new queens in late August and even September even though it can be done. Have a lot of hives with the drones out from earlier in the month though this seems to have stopped for now. Limes around the home area now showing flower, quite a lot in some places, but no evidence of much nectar. The humidity of the next day or two should change that, and last time I had a BIG lime flow, near Edinburgh, they filled BS deeps from foundation (they were prepared for the heather shift) in three to five days. Not many bees left near limes now, and the bell IS yielding.

  8. #3288

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    In September a lot of people might decide their hives are queenless though C4u

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  9. #3289

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    Quote Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger View Post
    In September a lot of people might decide their hives are queenless though C4u

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    Lol...yes indeed. Got that a lot last year. Takes a lot of questions to newer beekeepers to be sure they REALLY are queenless and not just shut down for the season.

    Was up in Deeside organising some new and some amended places yesterday but also to add some boxes. Decent nectar flow in lower Deeside, but west of Ballater there was still virtually nothing even on good Bell. Half a box on good ones near Dinnet (and these are poly Langs run all on deeps, so half a box on them is closing in on a full BS shallow). In most places the bees look good, the heather looks in great condition, and the ling is only a few days away and has good moisture levels. The ingredients for a good season are there and it will be in the laps of the weather gods now. Got every spare hand waxing stuff up now in the hope......

    Down here there was nectar yesterday but it was still pretty sparse, except a few that seemed to have found phacelia.

    Saw a lot of unhappy homeless drones being dragged off out and trying to get back in. Many colonies still happy to carry their drone load.

    A couple of our chosen drone mothers at the home mating unit have rid them selves of their drones. Not great as the choice of males for mating declines. Removing surplus colonies from the unit now off to earn their corn at the heather. The starters were all reformatted back to normal hives on Sunday bar the last one doing the last graft. All go off to the heather this week. Finishers will go early next week but we are into our last four days of local shifting, and then onto the English unit after that. Expecting everything on the ling sites by the month end, bar a few (about 40 actually) drone mothers kept back at the two mating units. Those will go too once the need for them has passed.

  10. #3290
    Senior Member Bridget's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Calluna4u View Post
    In most places the bees look good, the heather looks in great condition, and the ling is only a few days away and has good moisture levels.
    Out for an early walk and the ling is very close. My notes from last year said on the 10th August "heather is nearly out". I agree. It looking in great condition.
    See your bees are on the moor - looks like you have a fair few more than previous years.


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