Willow

[gavin]

Today was the day the local grey and goat willows went from a few half-hearted yellow catkins to full flowering, and the bees knew it (http://www.sbai.org.uk/sbai_forum/entry.php?116-Willow-frenzy). The main road near the association apiary is lined with willow, but my own bees - several miles away - were also bringing back loads of loads. When I left I spotted some trees not far away that I hadn't noticed before.

Is it the same your way? Snowdrops really waken them up, but the willow is when you know they are really on their way to spring.

G.

[Rosie]

Willow around here is starting to show white on the tips of the buds. Thankfully we've had a few nice days so it might bring them on a bit now. My daffs still aren't out but the buds are showing promise. Bees are getting pollen from somewhere but I can't find anything in flower.

Rosie

[Neils]

Daffs are out here and a few other things are starting to come into flower. All mine are bringing in bright yellow pollen by the bucket load so I'm going to chance a look over the weekend if the weather holds having resisted the urge last weekend.

[Jon]

I have noticed some willow catkins covered in pollen since last week but most of the willows are yet to produce.
My bees are bringing in coloured pollen from several different sources.
I have several colonies which seem to be fairly strong compared to last year but still early days.
I will be giving drone comb or shallows to selected colonies within a fortnight with a view to grafting by the end of April and getting queens mated by the end of May. A drone takes 24 days to emerge and needs another couple of weeks to reach sexual maturity.

[gavin]

The other plant in flower today was lesser celandine. Not a great bee plant, but one that suddenly appears on a warm spring day just to let you know that the warmer weather is on its way.

Steve - the man on the Beeb just said that it will be cooling down again for the weekend, so you may have to wait a little longer.

It seems that suburbia is much better than the countryside at the beginning of the season as well as later too. My beekeeping buddy in the early days (he's saying that he might get back into beekeeping after a few years of largely working abroad) lives on the edge of Dundee and is surrounded by nice middle-class forage so his bees were always about a fortnight ahead of mine.

Sheesh! Grafting time approaches already. I need to get to grips with what all these little red plastic bits are for that come with the Apideas.

[Jon]

red plastic bits

One for the front door (after mating) and the other to Keep the queen from getting stuck in the feed compartment.

[gavin]

Thanks. Watch out for zillions of naive questions about grafting and the workings of Apideas in the coming months.

[Jon]

I am one year in from being an Apidea convert so don't take my word as gospel.
They do work though - on the basis of last year's results.
We are hoping to have around 100 of various shapes and sizes on the go for our bka queen rearing programme this year.

The red plastic excluder for the front door is best held in place with a drawing pin so that you can slide it open and closed when necessary.

[gavin]

Do folk generally paint their Apideas? They appear to be made of sterner stuff than the 6-frame nucs.

[Neils]

Not quite up to trying out apideas just yet, though am in the process of sorting out a few nucs for my first attempts at queen rearing even if only from making splits in the first instance. Roger's coming down to talk to us in May so I'm looking forward to that and getting a bit more knowledgeable about the whole affair first.

[Jon]

Do folk generally paint their Apideas? They appear to be made of sterner stuff than the 6-frame nucs.

The don't need painting but if you have them close together it helps to have different patterns on the roof to help the queen find her way back.
You can do this with gaffer tape.

Best not to have them too close together though.

[Jimbo]

I have used Apidea and the cheaper Warnholz. The Apidea in my opinion is slightly better manufactured. I have found no difference when it comes to mating. The Warnholz comes in white and I put coloured marks on them using ink markers to help the queen find her way home. I also prefer using the Cupkit system instead of grafting direct. This is only due to the location of my hives and the requirements needed for grafting and time restraints I also have. I average about 80% queen cells being produced using the Cupkit and about 50% - 55% successful matings from the mini nucs. I prefer using mini nucs due to the fact you don't need as many bees as you would in a 5 frame nuc per queen cell. One of my plans this year is try and increase these percentages and to produce more mated queens.

[GRIZZLY]

Bees pouring out of the hives today.Temp up to 15deg C so had a quick look inside.Found 6 full frames of sealed brood plus lots of eggs and larvae in various stages.Almost every returning bee was bringing back pollen-mostly Whins but the willows are starting to show as well.All the daffodils are well out and the bees seem to be taking an interest.Polyanthus well out and also providing forage.Am going to give them a little feed just to keep them ahead.Still only found 1 varroa under 1 colony so looks as tho' the OA did its job.