My next adventure...

I have a full bee suit, but so far I just use a jacket, veil, and gloves... Hope to lose the gloves at some point... So far so good...

Boone said:

Btw, going in for my second 'inspection' tomorrow. Hopefully, it'll go better than the last one. Improvements I intend to make:

1) make sure I prepare my 'smoker' correctly so it lasts for as long as I need it.
2) verify eggs/larva are present (confirmation a queen is laying)
3) ID the queen if she presents herself
4) check and see if the bees are building in the 2nd brood box.
5) refill sugar water feeders
6) open up the entrance to a slightly larger version
7) try and level one of the hives (not sure how well I can accomplish that one without stirring the girls up)

Wish me luck!

Click to expand...

How'd things go?

I'm leaving my entrance's at the smallest opening for a while longer. Of course mine are way behind where yours are. It'll be a while until I even have to add a second brood box to mine.

And I didn't get marked queens, so the last time I'm sure I saw then is when I first installed the packages. Kinda wish I had, but I figured this would force me to learn how to find it.

Well, I felt a little more comfortable today. My daughter was 'filming' it (she's a journalism major and is taking a video editing course and needed some 'hobby' footage) so that was a little distracting. Finally figured out how to properly prep the smoker so that made things easier. I did not see either queen, and in the first hive I didn't even see larva/eggs, but on the other hand, no queen cells either. So who knows what's going on there. 2nd hive, saw lots of larva so that was at least something. I really need a mentor but am just going to have to keep at it and hopefully will eventually have a better idea what I'm looking at. They are drawing out comb in the upper brood box now, so at least things are progressing. I'm starting to think this first year is just going to be one big learning curve. I did open up the entrances a bit today. I'm going to do my next inspection midday in the brightest possible sunshine so I can see eggs/larva better. Maybe they are there and I'm just missing them... One weird thing I saw in the second hive - a very large larva was either being tended to by other bees, or was being pulled out of the comb by them. I couldn't tell which. Maybe they were getting ready to cap over it, I don't know.

http://action.sumofus.org/a/home-depot-lowes-bees-neonicotinoids/8/12/?sub=fb

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It's not just that they sell nicotinoid pesticides, but that almost all the plants and flowers they sell are sprayed with them. I'd like to see this category of pesticides banned outright. People don't realize the impact a devastating reduction on the bee population would have. A huge percentage of vegetables and fruits require bee pollination.

SNF, how go the hives brother? Man - went in today just to fill top feeders and needed to better level one of my hives, and it's unbelievable but they have almost completely drawn out the foundation in both lower deeps. I was expecting that to take 1/2 the summer but they are comb-building maniacs! I moved a couple of the outer frames in so they'd better draw them out, but they are really thriving so far. I'm using something called 'Honey Bee Healthy' in my feeders - maybe they're all roided out, I don't know My friend installed her nucs a week or two before me and she says they are just starting to draw out her foundation in her upper boxes. I am looking at adding honey supers before long so they'll start drawing them out. Going to go in this weekend for a full inspection... How are things with yours?

I found that once the level of sugar water gets low with one of my top feeders, there is a tiny gap between the screen and the side of the troughs just big enough for the little suckers to squeeze through. Unfortunately they end up drowning there, so that was my first experience with drowned bees in the sugar water.

I got some aquarium caulk to fill the gap, figuring it'll be safe for the bees, but clearing out the feeder so I can fix it is more of a process than I expected. They've built a bunch of comb in between the two troughs where the screen is and I couldn't get them all out yesterday. I left the feeder on its side yesterday to let them gradually make their way back to the hive, but when I checked earlier this morning, there was still a clump of bees surrounding the comb to keep what's inside it warm and alive. I guess I'm going to have to scrape it all out in order for them to lose the urge to protect it and go back to the main hive.

I do really enjoy these bees though. This second group gets itself riled up when I go out there, but they are not actively aggressive. They get loud and a large number start flying around, but they don't attack me at all. I do still wear the hood, jacket, and gloves, but they don't land on me. They just make a show of strength. Really cool stuff! I love this hive!

Yeah, one of my hives is more aggressive than the other, but like yours, mostly just louder and more active when I'm in there. I know what you mean on the top feeder, I have both the same issues (comb building on the underside between the 2 compartments, and drowned bees). I'm not seeing a lot of drowned bees, so I'm not too worried about it). I'll probably stop feeding in a couple weeks - they say if you feed too much, they can start 'backfilling' sugar water into brood space as brood hatches out. Once I get the feeders off I will also put some silicon along the edges of the mesh to help keep them out of there. Does your inner cover have an entrance notch? If not, you could also replace it with one that does. That would allow any bees that accidentally get in there to escape from the top cover exit. Only problem there is, it could also allow robbers from outside the hive to get in. I figure some dead bees are inevitable.

I read somewhere that they need to build at least some comb there to help get up to the screen. And yes, a few drowned bees were expected. The numbers just kept growing to the point that I felt I needed to fix this one. The other one seems ok, Not too many in that one.

I've read that too about not feeding for too long. I've also read some that say that you should continuously feed package bees the first year. I think we're both in the same boat and similar type people. We're reading and hearing various advice and opinions, figuring out what seems to be the best, trying it out and observing and adjusting where needed. I think the best I've read on the sugar water feeding is to watch for when they aren't consuming it as much and stop at that point. If I can keep them alive and here until next year, I'll try the "only feed when there's no nectar flow" advice. Of course at some point I'll have to figure out what qualifies as nectar flow.

Funny I that I hadn't seen or heard anywhere about how protective they were of whatever they had in that comb in the feeder. I never expected to see a large cluster of bees still in the feeder this morning. As long as I didn't kill the queen I should be ok this time though.

So, this weekend I couldn't find either queen, and in the 2nd hive, things didn't look quite right. Lots of hive beetles, fewer bees than I was expecting, and a number of queen cells (capped and non-capped). I thought I heard bees on the way out to the hive up in the trees - but didn't see any and convinced myself it was yellow jackets I'd heard. Went in tonight to put in some beetle blasters and went through both hives. Hive #1 looks good, bees were calm, didn't see the queen but did see larva.

2nd Hive, bees were immediately very aggressive. No queen and I'm about 90% sure they swarmed over the weekend sometime. I ran out of smoke, and the bees were very pissed even without it (I understand that's typical with a queenless hive). I even got stung THROUGH a leather glove - something I wouldn't have believed possible. Anyway, going to let that hive sit for 3 weeks or so and hopefully they will have replaced with a mated queen by then. We'll see. Going to put a honey super on the other hive next weekend.

I get the feeling beekeeping is just one continuous adventure...

Put 'honey supers' on a couple weeks ago. Those are the boxes that bees begin to store honey, and only honey, in. In my 'weak' hive, the one they are having to replace the queen in (post swarm), they haven't done a thing in those boxes. But in my booming hive, they have already filled the boxes with comb and will soon be filling it up with honey. You can get 40, 50, 60 lbs of honey from a single hive. Kind of exciting if I get that kind of production. Some say not to harvest honey your first year, but I figure the bees wouldn't be storing it in the honey supers if they didn't already have plenty stored down below in their main boxes.

SNF - what's going on with your bees brother?

Oh man, I want bees now. I can't think of anything better than fresh honey... maybe fresh maple syrup.

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A bit disturbing that they were able to sting you through the leather glove. I'm going to hold out hope that that's a very rare occurrence.

I still have one very strong hive and one very weak hive. The weak one is still nowhere near filling out the first box. I'm pretty sure they've been queenless for a while now, but I was never sure. They've never been an angry hive like you had though. I couldn't locate the queen, but she was unmarked and I'm an idiot anyway. I don't see eggs or larvae, but that's mainly because the cells are capped. Do keepers scrape off the caps to check eggs and larvae? I did finally get myself to take a frame from the strong one and put it in the weak hive. I really want to leave the strong alone as much as possible so I don't screw them up.

Also nowhere near time for a honey super for me. Very cool that yours have gotten that far!

Window decal from my daughter for Father's Day. :

I like it

Adventures!

Went out to the pond a couple of days ago to clean the filter. My wife pointed out that there was a lot of activity at the hives. The weaker hive was in an all out fight with robber bees. I got the jacket, hood and gloves on quickly and grabbed an entrance reducer. Just a nasty battle out there. I got the reducer on, and also noticed that even with the fight, or maybe because of the fight, no bees even landed on me, much less tried to sting me.

I came back inside to look for further reminders and instructions via forums and trusty google. With severe robbing in progress, the drastic measures are apparently a must - blocking the reduced entrance with grass for a couple of days,(they'll apparently work their way out over a couple of days), and draping a wet sheet over the whole hive. I asked my wife which sheet I could use, and of course she said none of them, so I grabbed a beach towel, with her blessing of course, soaked it, and draped it over the entrance, after filling the entrance with grass.

There are a lot of different robber screen configurations out there which are supposed to be deterrents. Apparently they won't stop robbing in progress, but if you set them up ahead of time, they discourage robbing and maybe it never gets started. The basic concept seems to be that the robbers are attracted to the smell of the honey, and fly straight to that smell, and the hive's bees are attracted to their queen and hive, and they will continue to try to find a way in if the direct route is blocked. The robbers get confused when the direct route is blocked and eventually are discouraged enough to stop trying.

The next day I took off the towel because there were no more robbers around and I unblocked the reduced entrance as well. Probably fifty or so bees marched out of the reduced entrance, two by two. Not sure if they were robbers that had been trapped inside, or hive bees that were annoyed that they couldn't get out and work. Of course I did this because I'm new to this whole thing and didn't think or realize that the robbers were still checking on a regular basis, so eventually they were back. At least this time I was a bit more prepared and put the wet towel back on. I do see bees working their way around the towel and a few right on the front where the direct route should be, so it appears to be working.

I'll leave it that way for a few days, and I think that if the weak hive survives this, I'm going to combine the two hives, rather than risk those bees getting completely killed off.

I noticed on my weak hive that they weren't really drawing out the honey supers I had put on. I don't have any delusions about getting honey from that hive this year, but I did want to try to get the supers drawn out at least. I took those supers and put them on my booming hive (which now has 4 honey supers on it). I put the hive top feeder back on my weak hive and filled it. I ordered two more honey supers/frames and I'm going to wax them up this weekend, and put them back on the weak hive and put the hive top feeder on top of them with the hope that the bees will be drawn up into the supers on the way to the feeder. I will probably only keep the feeder on the weak hive for one more big round of feeding. I am hoping supplementing just that hive for a couple weeks (with some supplements added to the sugar water) will get them cranked up producing new bees.

Pretty happy with where I am so far even with one hive having swarmed. I have not noticed any robbing going on but my hives are not in a location where I observe them often. I'm probably asking for trouble by feeding the weak hive - I have the entrance wide open, although at least i am using a hive top feeder which is less likely to induce robbing.

Cool. I didn't know you had a hive swarm. I'm assuming that it was the strong hive and it sounds like it's still going strong. Is that right? I guess your week hive produced a new queen also?

Well, at the time, both hives were booming - for some reason one swarmed and one didn't. They produced a new queen who is laying but that's a lot of lost production so the 'weak' hive is slowly rebuilding. The other hive is booming - going to get some serious honey out of that one I think.

What a day (it's all relative when you get older)...went out to my 'good hive' expecting to harvest a couple frames of honey this season - when I looked, every one of the 20 honey frames I had put on was full to the gills with capped honey. Boxes were so heavy I had to split the frames into 3 loads to get them in the house. 90 lbs of wax and honey in total. After processing, I ended up with 3.5 - 4 GALLONS of dark amber honey. I'm still working on it.

This is from a single new hive. I can't imagine what I might get out of my planned 4 hives next year. Bees are truly amazing creatures. The fact that my honey was created from nectar all within 3 miles from here, makes it even more amazing. I am hooked. If you have room, think about keeping bees. Keep in mind, my house is in a neighborhood - and the only folks who even know I keep bees are the neighbors I bothered telling.

Some pics of today's work...

20 capped frames of honey




A capped frame...




Scraping a frame out...




5 gallon buckets full of beeswax and honey - 90 lbs worth...




Straining crushed beeswax and honey...




25 pints and counting (3+ gallons of honey)




The finished product