Conditions: Sunny, 55F
Present: Just me
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hives about 2:30pm. Inspected representative frames.
Observations:
First of all, we had a phenomenally warm day, 55 on New Year's Eve. It was sunny, easily the nicest day since early November. Even more luck, I didn't have to work! With the bees flying so much, I had to check in on them. There were lots of bees near the hives on trees, snow, weeds, and anything else. They weren't flying far, maybe a dozen yards or less, then landing and just hanging around. Before I finished up, one must have landed on my leg and was just hanging out, too. I bumped my tray that I use to carry my hive tools, smoker fuel, frame lifter, etc. into her and she stung me on the inner thigh. I felt that one. Last sting of the year.
Newer hive:
Lots of food, about a half inch of dead bees on the screened bottom board, which I cleaned out for them. No pest damage, no mites seen. Some starved bees in the top-most super which was not full of honey to start with (I am overwintering with one deep and two shallow supers). They probably ventured from the cluster to eat higher up and got caught in a cold snap. Still plenty of bees there, not too concerned. I did not spot the queen, but there was a small patch of brood on the center frames in the lower deep and some newly emerged bees.
Older hive:
Not as much food as the newer hive, fewer dead bees, and maybe 50% more bees present. The upper super was not full to start with and the lower shallow super was pretty heavy. I spotted the queen on a center frame in that lower shallow super with a small patch of brood. She looked fat and happy. No way to be 100% sure because she wasn't marked, but this is most likely the original queen, 3 years old and overwintering for the second time. She's done well for me. Hard to decide to requeen when she's done so well or maybe try to rear some queens from her. I likely won't have too much free time this year to try my hand at queen rearing, but I'd like to someday. If I requeen, I'll likely get a Pioneer Queen from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms. David and Sheri Burns put out lots of great and FREE beekeeping information (with a sales pitch thrown in, but not in a pushy way). Anyway, I'll resume feeding in the spring after the thaw and likely put some pollen patties in around February and hopefully they'll all pull though!
The New Year:
What does the 2011 hold? Hopefully lots more hives, bees, honey, and some other hive products. Candles, anyone? We hope to produce enough to sell our surplus. People have been asking!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
10/16/10: Honey Removal and First Extraction
Conditions: Sunny, 58F
Present: Bud F. and I
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hives about 11:30 am. Inspected super frames for capped honey.
Observations:
New Hive: Took about 5 more frames of capped honey. All dark honey.
Old Hive: Took an entire super of capped honey. Some of this is fall honey that was light in color, which is surprising. Vast majority was dark honey.
I did not observe any varroa in either hive, though we didn't go down lower than the supers. This is still surprising given the time of year and the fact I have not done any treatment this year (did powdered sugar last year).
A combination of 10 shallow frames were removed from a the hives on 9/30/10 and stored in a large rubbermaid tote. An additional 19 frames were removed the morning of 10/16/10 (frames that were full on 9/30/10, but drying and largely uncapped). All 29 frames were extracted in about 3.5 hours with two people working (though who did the work traded off a bit)
We set up the extractor on a raised platform of cinder blocks and a wood pallet. The extractor was placed on (and later anchored to) the pallet. We allowed the honey to freely drain from the extractor into an intermediate pail from which we dumped the honey into a nylon strainer (course filter). The filtered honey was stored in 8 gallon pails with lids, one each of light and dark honey.
We used a combination of electric uncapping knife and serrated bread knife stored in hot water to uncap on a baking tray, with capping wax/honey stored in a separate bucket for later separation.
It was a blast! The boys (3 and half) even took their turns spinning honey in the extractor.
Lessons Learned (and tips for next year):
1) There are lots of sticky jobs during extraction. A tip I read to keep a bucket of warm water around to rinse your hands or tools was VERY useful. Next year I think I'll do two, one for the majority of the honey and a "second" that just gets the sticky honey water from the first off.
2) The honey will spill and drip. Cover with newspaper all high traffic areas BEFORE starting. This includes around the extractor, uncapping area and work surfaces, and the pathways from uncapping to extractor and from extractor to filter bucket.
3) The extractor sometimes gets off balance and shakes or tips. Screw it down BEFORE you spin anything.
4) Lots of bees tried to get in. We placed a fan in the window on the edge of the building to blow the honey smell in one direction. The bees gathered outside of that window instead of all over the outside of the honey house, including the door where we occasionally needed to exit and enter through. This worked really well.
5) We killed any bees we found in the shed. Sorry ladies, but this was surplus honey and we weren't going to give it back. I was not concerned about a few bees in the honey house so much as a few scouts telling the whole hive the secret to how to slip in and out of the honey house where "the motherload" was hidden.
6) We extracted on a day that is not hot, but warm enough for bees to fly. This meant any bucket, tray, knife, frames, etc that we were no longer needing could just be placed outside for the bees to clean up, which they did eagerly.
Our yield was approximately 65 pounds of honey, 20 light "spring" honey (very fragrant) and 45 dark "fall" honey (mellow and rich). We let it rest 24 hours for bubbles to settle out. I began bottling last night with a ladel and funnel. Next year a bottling bucket with a honey gate valve would be a nice addition, especially if we do lots of little bottles for sale. This harvest will be enough to split with Bud and hopefully get us to the next harvest. I think we'll be increasing the number of hives and might try our hand at marketing some honey. There are a number of neighbors, co-workers, and farmers who have expressed interest in buying our honey.
Present: Bud F. and I
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hives about 11:30 am. Inspected super frames for capped honey.
Observations:
New Hive: Took about 5 more frames of capped honey. All dark honey.
Old Hive: Took an entire super of capped honey. Some of this is fall honey that was light in color, which is surprising. Vast majority was dark honey.
I did not observe any varroa in either hive, though we didn't go down lower than the supers. This is still surprising given the time of year and the fact I have not done any treatment this year (did powdered sugar last year).
A combination of 10 shallow frames were removed from a the hives on 9/30/10 and stored in a large rubbermaid tote. An additional 19 frames were removed the morning of 10/16/10 (frames that were full on 9/30/10, but drying and largely uncapped). All 29 frames were extracted in about 3.5 hours with two people working (though who did the work traded off a bit)
We set up the extractor on a raised platform of cinder blocks and a wood pallet. The extractor was placed on (and later anchored to) the pallet. We allowed the honey to freely drain from the extractor into an intermediate pail from which we dumped the honey into a nylon strainer (course filter). The filtered honey was stored in 8 gallon pails with lids, one each of light and dark honey.
We used a combination of electric uncapping knife and serrated bread knife stored in hot water to uncap on a baking tray, with capping wax/honey stored in a separate bucket for later separation.
It was a blast! The boys (3 and half) even took their turns spinning honey in the extractor.
Lessons Learned (and tips for next year):
1) There are lots of sticky jobs during extraction. A tip I read to keep a bucket of warm water around to rinse your hands or tools was VERY useful. Next year I think I'll do two, one for the majority of the honey and a "second" that just gets the sticky honey water from the first off.
2) The honey will spill and drip. Cover with newspaper all high traffic areas BEFORE starting. This includes around the extractor, uncapping area and work surfaces, and the pathways from uncapping to extractor and from extractor to filter bucket.
3) The extractor sometimes gets off balance and shakes or tips. Screw it down BEFORE you spin anything.
4) Lots of bees tried to get in. We placed a fan in the window on the edge of the building to blow the honey smell in one direction. The bees gathered outside of that window instead of all over the outside of the honey house, including the door where we occasionally needed to exit and enter through. This worked really well.
5) We killed any bees we found in the shed. Sorry ladies, but this was surplus honey and we weren't going to give it back. I was not concerned about a few bees in the honey house so much as a few scouts telling the whole hive the secret to how to slip in and out of the honey house where "the motherload" was hidden.
6) We extracted on a day that is not hot, but warm enough for bees to fly. This meant any bucket, tray, knife, frames, etc that we were no longer needing could just be placed outside for the bees to clean up, which they did eagerly.
Our yield was approximately 65 pounds of honey, 20 light "spring" honey (very fragrant) and 45 dark "fall" honey (mellow and rich). We let it rest 24 hours for bubbles to settle out. I began bottling last night with a ladel and funnel. Next year a bottling bucket with a honey gate valve would be a nice addition, especially if we do lots of little bottles for sale. This harvest will be enough to split with Bud and hopefully get us to the next harvest. I think we'll be increasing the number of hives and might try our hand at marketing some honey. There are a number of neighbors, co-workers, and farmers who have expressed interest in buying our honey.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
9/30/10: Inspection and honey removal
Conditions: Sunny, 65F
Present: Bud F. and I
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hives about 5:30pm. Inspected super frames for capped honey.
Observations:
New Hive: Took about 5 frames of capped honey. More frames of uncapped honey present. Will return again before extracting for the fall. 2 more weeks?
Old Hive: Same as new hive. Also removed a super that was nearly empty with no real new comb to speak of.
The weather has been good with enough rain and plenty of warm, sunny days. We're going to have a fall harvest after all!
Present: Bud F. and I
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hives about 5:30pm. Inspected super frames for capped honey.
Observations:
New Hive: Took about 5 frames of capped honey. More frames of uncapped honey present. Will return again before extracting for the fall. 2 more weeks?
Old Hive: Same as new hive. Also removed a super that was nearly empty with no real new comb to speak of.
The weather has been good with enough rain and plenty of warm, sunny days. We're going to have a fall harvest after all!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
9/9/10: Twelveth Inspection and Geagua County Fair
Conditions: Cloudy, 62F
Present: Just me
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hives about 6:00pm. Inspected a few frames.
Observations:
New Hive:
Two frames of capped spring honey left. About 3 frames of fall uncapped honey drying. The hive was quite defensive. Not sure if it was the weather, the season, or what, but they came boiling out several times. I cut the inspection short after watching a worker intentionally sting my glove. Sufficient bees, spotted larva 5-6 days old.
Old Hive:
As reported at last inspection, no remaining spring honey, though fall nectar is coming in nicely. I observed approximately one super full of uncapped honey drying. The queen is still laying in every open cell she can find, though now that the workers are bringing in nectar they can fill it into newly opened up cells in the supers after the brood has emerged. This is no good for cut-comb as the comb where brood was laid is darker, but hopefully will be great tasting honey once extracted. The super I placed on top did have lots of bees in it, but they have not built out comb on any of the foundation or foundationless frames (I put in three empty frames to see if they’d build those out. There must not be a shortage of open cells, then. Spotted larvae 5-6 days old.
General:
We went to the Geauga County Fair and tasted honey on Labor Day (9/6/10). I talked with a Geauga County Beekeepers Association (GBCA) member who said the fall flow will be disappointing and he’s already feeding his bees, expecting no honey crop. He said a botanist came out to the GCBA to talk nectar and he said goldenrod would produce pollen, but no nectar due to early maturity of the nectar-producing organ in the plant. This natrually made me nervous about potentially ending my second year as a beekeeper without a substantial harvest. I don’t know about all that business with goldenrod nectar-producing organs, but I was relieved to see my bees are finding fall nectar from somewhere. A couple more weeks of fall flow before beginning a winter feeding should leave us with a good honey crop. There have been a few occasional rains which probably helps boost the current nectar flow. August was really dry. The forecast is all days in the 60s with partial clouds, lows in the 50s.
Present: Just me
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hives about 6:00pm. Inspected a few frames.
Observations:
New Hive:
Two frames of capped spring honey left. About 3 frames of fall uncapped honey drying. The hive was quite defensive. Not sure if it was the weather, the season, or what, but they came boiling out several times. I cut the inspection short after watching a worker intentionally sting my glove. Sufficient bees, spotted larva 5-6 days old.
Old Hive:
As reported at last inspection, no remaining spring honey, though fall nectar is coming in nicely. I observed approximately one super full of uncapped honey drying. The queen is still laying in every open cell she can find, though now that the workers are bringing in nectar they can fill it into newly opened up cells in the supers after the brood has emerged. This is no good for cut-comb as the comb where brood was laid is darker, but hopefully will be great tasting honey once extracted. The super I placed on top did have lots of bees in it, but they have not built out comb on any of the foundation or foundationless frames (I put in three empty frames to see if they’d build those out. There must not be a shortage of open cells, then. Spotted larvae 5-6 days old.
General:
We went to the Geauga County Fair and tasted honey on Labor Day (9/6/10). I talked with a Geauga County Beekeepers Association (GBCA) member who said the fall flow will be disappointing and he’s already feeding his bees, expecting no honey crop. He said a botanist came out to the GCBA to talk nectar and he said goldenrod would produce pollen, but no nectar due to early maturity of the nectar-producing organ in the plant. This natrually made me nervous about potentially ending my second year as a beekeeper without a substantial harvest. I don’t know about all that business with goldenrod nectar-producing organs, but I was relieved to see my bees are finding fall nectar from somewhere. A couple more weeks of fall flow before beginning a winter feeding should leave us with a good honey crop. There have been a few occasional rains which probably helps boost the current nectar flow. August was really dry. The forecast is all days in the 60s with partial clouds, lows in the 50s.
Friday, September 3, 2010
9/1/10: Eleventh Inspection
Conditions: Sunny, 88F
Present: Just me
Equipment: Added Super to old hive.
Activities: Smoked hives about 4:00pm. Inspected representative frames.
Observations:
New Hive: Still a couple of frames of capped honey, some additional comb built, sufficient bees, brood, larvae. Nothing much of note moving into the fall flow.
Old Hive: All the capped honey (previously some 11 frames) is gone. The bees ate it in the past month during the dearth. The queen has filled all the opened up cells with eggs, larvae and brood. The deep and three supers, two of which were supposed to be honey supers. This is amazing to me. This hive has twice as many bees and more than twice as much brood as it’s neighbor. We are either going to get a huge amount of all fall honey from this colony, or nothing but a bunch of bees. There were some very small amounts of dark fall nectar drying, but they appear to be consuming it all faster than they can bring it in. Time will tell. I saw about a half dozen queen cups, which appears to be more than usual. I spotted the queen, but since she is not a marked queen I do not know if she’s the original or superceded. I did not spot any full-sized queen cells sealed or already hatched. I spotted LOTS of 1-3 day old eggs in pristine wax cells that were previously all full of capped honey.
Present: Just me
Equipment: Added Super to old hive.
Activities: Smoked hives about 4:00pm. Inspected representative frames.
Observations:
New Hive: Still a couple of frames of capped honey, some additional comb built, sufficient bees, brood, larvae. Nothing much of note moving into the fall flow.
Old Hive: All the capped honey (previously some 11 frames) is gone. The bees ate it in the past month during the dearth. The queen has filled all the opened up cells with eggs, larvae and brood. The deep and three supers, two of which were supposed to be honey supers. This is amazing to me. This hive has twice as many bees and more than twice as much brood as it’s neighbor. We are either going to get a huge amount of all fall honey from this colony, or nothing but a bunch of bees. There were some very small amounts of dark fall nectar drying, but they appear to be consuming it all faster than they can bring it in. Time will tell. I saw about a half dozen queen cups, which appears to be more than usual. I spotted the queen, but since she is not a marked queen I do not know if she’s the original or superceded. I did not spot any full-sized queen cells sealed or already hatched. I spotted LOTS of 1-3 day old eggs in pristine wax cells that were previously all full of capped honey.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
8/17/10: Tenth Inspection
Conditions: Sunny, 77F
Present: Just me
Equipment: Provided additional ventilation by propping the top and off-setting the lower deep from the other hive bodies. This effectively creates another entrance.
Activities: Smoked hives about 5:30pm. Inspected representative frames.
Observations:
New hive: No changes. No observable change in the number of bees or amount of honey. No mites seen.
Old hive: No changes. Observed eggs in top super, which I placed on the top after the previous inspection as it had some brood in it. This means the queen was there laying 1-3 days ago, if she wasn't still up there. I was hoping she'd stay away, down in the lower since there is a super full of honey between the main brood area (deep) and this top super. No luck. I observed 5-7 day old larvae in the lower brood area, so the queen is basically laying all over. Also observed no mites on bees. Planning the next inspection for at least 2 weeks.
General: Goldenrod will bloom soon.
Present: Just me
Equipment: Provided additional ventilation by propping the top and off-setting the lower deep from the other hive bodies. This effectively creates another entrance.
Activities: Smoked hives about 5:30pm. Inspected representative frames.
Observations:
New hive: No changes. No observable change in the number of bees or amount of honey. No mites seen.
Old hive: No changes. Observed eggs in top super, which I placed on the top after the previous inspection as it had some brood in it. This means the queen was there laying 1-3 days ago, if she wasn't still up there. I was hoping she'd stay away, down in the lower since there is a super full of honey between the main brood area (deep) and this top super. No luck. I observed 5-7 day old larvae in the lower brood area, so the queen is basically laying all over. Also observed no mites on bees. Planning the next inspection for at least 2 weeks.
General: Goldenrod will bloom soon.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
8/10/10: Met a Local Beekeeper, Alan T.
Since I’ve only harvested a single frame of honey and we split that with Bud, we are still buying honey. I stopped in to meet a local beekeeper advertising “Local Honey” a couple of miles from my house. The guy running the show is Alan, a firefighter who also grows plants and keeps bees. He was kind enough to show me around his home apiary and tell me of his projects. In addition to the honey, he gave me spider flowers (which the bees love), plans for a top bar hive, and a lot of useful information including:
- where to get equipment without paying shipping
- what the most helpful and entertaining information sources he’s found on the web
- how he’s done “cut outs”, or harvesting bees and honey from hives that have established themselves in peoples homes or sheds
- how his bee vac works
- info about the Summit County Beekeepers Association
- how to use and even extract from foundationless fames
Thanks, Alan! Nice to meet you!
- where to get equipment without paying shipping
- what the most helpful and entertaining information sources he’s found on the web
- how he’s done “cut outs”, or harvesting bees and honey from hives that have established themselves in peoples homes or sheds
- how his bee vac works
- info about the Summit County Beekeepers Association
- how to use and even extract from foundationless fames
Thanks, Alan! Nice to meet you!
Sunday, August 1, 2010
7/31/10: Ninth Inspection
Conditions: Sunny, 85F
Present: Just me
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hives about 2:30pm. Inspected representative frames.
Observations:
New hive (pictured on the right): Plenty of brood, still a nice laying pattern. Observed young larvae. No new capped honey, still at approximately 5 frames. As there is no nectar flow so they are not building out more comb either. It’s a summer lull. Very calm bees.
Old hive (pictured on the left): I can’t get over how many bees are in this colony. All the boxes are full of bees. Observed young larvae in the lower deep, the lower medium, and the lower of the two honey supers. Just brood and bees everywhere. I put the honey super in which the queen had laid on top so there is now a honey-filled super between the lower medium and the honey super she was laying in (super reversal). Hopefully she was in the lower part of the hive during this process and if she goes up again to lay, will find capped honey in the lower honey super and will turn around and head back down. And hopefully the brood in the top honey super will hatch and the foragers will fill those newly opened cells with nectar. This hive is not out of open cells yet, so no need to super or swap full frames for empties. There are still several frames that were not built out. I estimate 11 frames of capped honey available to harvest, probably 40 pounds!
Present: Just me
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hives about 2:30pm. Inspected representative frames.
Observations:
New hive (pictured on the right): Plenty of brood, still a nice laying pattern. Observed young larvae. No new capped honey, still at approximately 5 frames. As there is no nectar flow so they are not building out more comb either. It’s a summer lull. Very calm bees.Old hive (pictured on the left): I can’t get over how many bees are in this colony. All the boxes are full of bees. Observed young larvae in the lower deep, the lower medium, and the lower of the two honey supers. Just brood and bees everywhere. I put the honey super in which the queen had laid on top so there is now a honey-filled super between the lower medium and the honey super she was laying in (super reversal). Hopefully she was in the lower part of the hive during this process and if she goes up again to lay, will find capped honey in the lower honey super and will turn around and head back down. And hopefully the brood in the top honey super will hatch and the foragers will fill those newly opened cells with nectar. This hive is not out of open cells yet, so no need to super or swap full frames for empties. There are still several frames that were not built out. I estimate 11 frames of capped honey available to harvest, probably 40 pounds!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
7/10/10: Eighth Inspection and Honey Harvest
Conditions: Sunny, 79F
Present: Bud F. and I
Equipment: No changes in the new hive. Went down to 9 frames in the newest honey super in the old hive.
Activities: Smoked hives about noon. Inspected various frames. Removed one frame of capped honey.
Observations:
Old hive:
Several frames of fully capped or nearly fully capped honey were observed in the top super. One was harvested for a sample of spring honey, our first harvest! The queen had made a short trip all the way up to the top super and laid a bit of brood (5-7 cells) along the bottom of three or four frames. She must have found no room to lay up there with all the nectar and honey and headed back down. Lots of capped brood and larvae were observed in the bottom deep and adjacent super. The lower honey super (added 6/29/10) had several frames with fully drawn comb. We removed a frame to get this down to a 9 frame super, though the wall frames were not fully drawn yet. Very good progress. The bees look very happy and healthy. No mites were observed on workers or drones when closely examining bees on 2 deep frames.
New hive:
Simliar to the Old hive inspection above with the following exceptions:- less comb drawn in lower honey supper (added 6/29/10), only 1-2 frames. For this reason we left this super at 10 frames for now.
- Queen spotted in the deep
- While doing well for a package, they can’t compete with the quantity of bees and rapid comb drawing and prolific nectar gathering of the overwintered hive
Present: Bud F. and I
Equipment: No changes in the new hive. Went down to 9 frames in the newest honey super in the old hive.
Activities: Smoked hives about noon. Inspected various frames. Removed one frame of capped honey.
Observations:
Old hive:
Several frames of fully capped or nearly fully capped honey were observed in the top super. One was harvested for a sample of spring honey, our first harvest! The queen had made a short trip all the way up to the top super and laid a bit of brood (5-7 cells) along the bottom of three or four frames. She must have found no room to lay up there with all the nectar and honey and headed back down. Lots of capped brood and larvae were observed in the bottom deep and adjacent super. The lower honey super (added 6/29/10) had several frames with fully drawn comb. We removed a frame to get this down to a 9 frame super, though the wall frames were not fully drawn yet. Very good progress. The bees look very happy and healthy. No mites were observed on workers or drones when closely examining bees on 2 deep frames.
New hive:
Simliar to the Old hive inspection above with the following exceptions:- less comb drawn in lower honey supper (added 6/29/10), only 1-2 frames. For this reason we left this super at 10 frames for now.
- Queen spotted in the deep
- While doing well for a package, they can’t compete with the quantity of bees and rapid comb drawing and prolific nectar gathering of the overwintered hive
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
6/29/10: Seventh Inspection
Conditions: Sunny, 70F
Present: Bud F. and I
Equipment: Added a second honey super to each hive
Activities: Smoked hives about 6:15pm. Inspected honey supers in both hives. Inspected deep super for brood in the new hive.
Observations:
New Hive:
Lots of bees and the honey super was full, but not fully capped. Changed number of frames in super from 10 to 9 and used 9 frame spacer. After the initial inspection we made up more frames and added a new honey super beneath the full one. Really want to stay ahead of them providing space to not have a late swarm. Finally spotted the queen, who is marked. She’s a fat one and laying happy. I’m thrilled she’s almost keeping up with the overwintered hive.
Old Hive:
Lots of bees and the honey super was full, but not fully capped. Changed number of frames in super from 10 to 9 and used 9 frame spacer. This colony is working faster as they had a 5 frame setback during the last inspection and still caught up to the new hive. (The 5 frames were destroyed due to excessive drone comb)
We should be able to remove a frame of capped honey from each hive to go down to 9 frames in the new supers at the next inspection, 1.5 to 2 weeks from now.
Present: Bud F. and I
Equipment: Added a second honey super to each hive
Activities: Smoked hives about 6:15pm. Inspected honey supers in both hives. Inspected deep super for brood in the new hive.
Observations:
New Hive:
Lots of bees and the honey super was full, but not fully capped. Changed number of frames in super from 10 to 9 and used 9 frame spacer. After the initial inspection we made up more frames and added a new honey super beneath the full one. Really want to stay ahead of them providing space to not have a late swarm. Finally spotted the queen, who is marked. She’s a fat one and laying happy. I’m thrilled she’s almost keeping up with the overwintered hive.
Old Hive:
Lots of bees and the honey super was full, but not fully capped. Changed number of frames in super from 10 to 9 and used 9 frame spacer. This colony is working faster as they had a 5 frame setback during the last inspection and still caught up to the new hive. (The 5 frames were destroyed due to excessive drone comb)
We should be able to remove a frame of capped honey from each hive to go down to 9 frames in the new supers at the next inspection, 1.5 to 2 weeks from now.
Monday, June 21, 2010
6/17/2001: Sixth Inspection and Honey Super
Conditions: Sunny, 78F
Present: Just me
Equipment: Old hive: Removed pail top feeder, added honey super
New hive: No changes
Activities: Smoked hives about 5:30pm. Inspected many frames.
Observations:
Old Hive: New frames in the medium super were all built out since the last inspection, which is great progress. Lots of bees, removed the top feeder and added a honey super. Got a sting on the finger when turning around the lower deep to have the shortcut hole (upper entrance on deep) moved to the front side. Bud installed this backwards when reversing during the last inspection.
New Hive: Lots of bees, plenty calm. Not much progress building comb in the honey super added during the last inspection. Really looked for the queen this time but still did not spot her. She continues to lay well, so no concerns.
If there is still not much comb building progress in the honey supers at the time of the next inspection I'll consider moving up two or three frames of capped honey from the other super to get bees trafficking there. Since these are older frames and may contain sugar-syrup feed instead of nectar-made honey, I would return them to the bees and only extract from the new frames once everything is built out.
I'm interested in using 9 frames in the honey supers which enables deeper cells containing more honey, so I'll have to watch the comb building process closely. I have to remove the 10th frame only after 9 frames have fully-built comb. Not sure how this works if some of the cells are capped. Do they uncap it and build it out to add more honey and recap? Hmmmm...
Present: Just me
Equipment: Old hive: Removed pail top feeder, added honey super
New hive: No changes
Activities: Smoked hives about 5:30pm. Inspected many frames.
Observations:
Old Hive: New frames in the medium super were all built out since the last inspection, which is great progress. Lots of bees, removed the top feeder and added a honey super. Got a sting on the finger when turning around the lower deep to have the shortcut hole (upper entrance on deep) moved to the front side. Bud installed this backwards when reversing during the last inspection.
New Hive: Lots of bees, plenty calm. Not much progress building comb in the honey super added during the last inspection. Really looked for the queen this time but still did not spot her. She continues to lay well, so no concerns.
If there is still not much comb building progress in the honey supers at the time of the next inspection I'll consider moving up two or three frames of capped honey from the other super to get bees trafficking there. Since these are older frames and may contain sugar-syrup feed instead of nectar-made honey, I would return them to the bees and only extract from the new frames once everything is built out.
I'm interested in using 9 frames in the honey supers which enables deeper cells containing more honey, so I'll have to watch the comb building process closely. I have to remove the 10th frame only after 9 frames have fully-built comb. Not sure how this works if some of the cells are capped. Do they uncap it and build it out to add more honey and recap? Hmmmm...
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
6/10/2010: Fifth Inspection
Conditions: Sunny, 76F
Present: Bud F. and I
Equipment: Removed 5 frames from shallow super on old hive and replaced with new frames of blank foundation due to excessive drone. Removed pail top feeder from new hive and added a honey super.
Activities: Smoked hives about 2:00pm. Inspected many frames.
Observations:
Old hive:
Notice a bunch of drone cells and little food in the lower (shallow) chamber since reversal. The bees have not been storing food here, and all brood is drone. We removed 5 frames of comb with high numbers of drones or empty drone comb and left 5 frames in that had honey, brood, or nothing, but were of normal cell size (not drone comb). 5 frames of foundation were added to allow drawing of comb and storage of food. This is a minor setback which did not allow for supering this hive with a honey super. I mixed up one more batch of sugar syrup to continue feeding until the new frames are fully drawn out.
In the deep, which was on top, we saw tons of bees, brood, and quite a bit of capped honey. The queen was spotted on a frame with lots of open cells, moving to a part of the hive to keep the laying going. She’s doing great laying in her second year and I don’t know whether or not to requeen in the fall. Some people (certainly queen breeders) recommend re-queening every year. The population was larger here than the new hive, which is to be expected. We reversed the chambers again to have the shallow super on top and encourage the building of comb by having those frames close to the pail top feeder. Hopefully the queen will stay down in the deep chamber now that there is lots of food and brood on the deep frames. Perhaps in a week or two we can super?
With all the reversing and pulling and re-pulling frames to decide whether or not to keep them we had this hive open a long time, maybe 20 minutes. The bees were good, but you could tell they were growing impatient with us the longer we were in there. No stings, but I changed from bare-handing it to wearing gloves as we went. I was pretty sure I would have gotten a sting (or several) if I kept at it without gloves.
New hive:
The upper (shallow) super was full of bees and capped honey. The lower (deep) had plenty of brood in a good pattern. So we removed the feeder and added a honey super! We did not pull every frame just to see the queen, so she went unspotted. Based on the young larvae and capped brood, she’s laying just fine. I hope to see this queen soon, though. Funny that I keep spotting the unmarked queen but haven’t found the marked queen yet. No reversals for this hive this season as they started in just a deep and I added the shallow from the other hive after that. The pollen patty was nearly fully consumed.
I think it’s been a good spring with early warm temperatures, sufficient rain to keep nectar flowing, yet enough dry days to allow for long days of foraging.
Now if I could just keep up with planting the garden…
Present: Bud F. and I
Equipment: Removed 5 frames from shallow super on old hive and replaced with new frames of blank foundation due to excessive drone. Removed pail top feeder from new hive and added a honey super.
Activities: Smoked hives about 2:00pm. Inspected many frames.
Observations:
Old hive:
Notice a bunch of drone cells and little food in the lower (shallow) chamber since reversal. The bees have not been storing food here, and all brood is drone. We removed 5 frames of comb with high numbers of drones or empty drone comb and left 5 frames in that had honey, brood, or nothing, but were of normal cell size (not drone comb). 5 frames of foundation were added to allow drawing of comb and storage of food. This is a minor setback which did not allow for supering this hive with a honey super. I mixed up one more batch of sugar syrup to continue feeding until the new frames are fully drawn out.
In the deep, which was on top, we saw tons of bees, brood, and quite a bit of capped honey. The queen was spotted on a frame with lots of open cells, moving to a part of the hive to keep the laying going. She’s doing great laying in her second year and I don’t know whether or not to requeen in the fall. Some people (certainly queen breeders) recommend re-queening every year. The population was larger here than the new hive, which is to be expected. We reversed the chambers again to have the shallow super on top and encourage the building of comb by having those frames close to the pail top feeder. Hopefully the queen will stay down in the deep chamber now that there is lots of food and brood on the deep frames. Perhaps in a week or two we can super?
With all the reversing and pulling and re-pulling frames to decide whether or not to keep them we had this hive open a long time, maybe 20 minutes. The bees were good, but you could tell they were growing impatient with us the longer we were in there. No stings, but I changed from bare-handing it to wearing gloves as we went. I was pretty sure I would have gotten a sting (or several) if I kept at it without gloves.
New hive:
The upper (shallow) super was full of bees and capped honey. The lower (deep) had plenty of brood in a good pattern. So we removed the feeder and added a honey super! We did not pull every frame just to see the queen, so she went unspotted. Based on the young larvae and capped brood, she’s laying just fine. I hope to see this queen soon, though. Funny that I keep spotting the unmarked queen but haven’t found the marked queen yet. No reversals for this hive this season as they started in just a deep and I added the shallow from the other hive after that. The pollen patty was nearly fully consumed.
I think it’s been a good spring with early warm temperatures, sufficient rain to keep nectar flowing, yet enough dry days to allow for long days of foraging.
Now if I could just keep up with planting the garden…
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
5/29/2010: County Bee Inspector and Fourth Inspection
Conditions: Sunny, 76F
Present: Summit County Bee Inspector and I
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hives about 12:30pm. Inspected numerous frames.
The summit county bee inspector dropped by on Saturday 5/29 and we checked out the hives together. I was particularly interested in talking about my decision to reverse the upper and lower chamers on the overwintered colony and if that was working outwell. He said the old queen is laying all over the frames in the deep now (which is now on top) and he said everything looks great, very normal. So I guess it was a good move. No diseases noted in either hive and very low levels of mites. Lots more bees in the old colony compared to the new, but the new has more food stored up (from the previous colony), so they have a bit less work to do. Not quite time to super either hive yet, so I continue to feed sugar syrup. I will go ahead and ready some additional frames to super, maybe as soon as next week in the old colony. They'll have to build out comb in those supers, but they should produce some surplus honey, at least from the overwintered colony. I'm excited to super!
Present: Summit County Bee Inspector and I
Equipment: No changes.
Activities: Smoked hives about 12:30pm. Inspected numerous frames.
The summit county bee inspector dropped by on Saturday 5/29 and we checked out the hives together. I was particularly interested in talking about my decision to reverse the upper and lower chamers on the overwintered colony and if that was working outwell. He said the old queen is laying all over the frames in the deep now (which is now on top) and he said everything looks great, very normal. So I guess it was a good move. No diseases noted in either hive and very low levels of mites. Lots more bees in the old colony compared to the new, but the new has more food stored up (from the previous colony), so they have a bit less work to do. Not quite time to super either hive yet, so I continue to feed sugar syrup. I will go ahead and ready some additional frames to super, maybe as soon as next week in the old colony. They'll have to build out comb in those supers, but they should produce some surplus honey, at least from the overwintered colony. I'm excited to super!
Monday, May 24, 2010
Spring 2010 update summary and third inspection
I'm behind in my bee journal. Moving and family and work and projects have led to less time for updates. To sum up the spring:
Last year's Italian colony overwintered fine, ran low on food. Spring feeding has gone well and the colony seemed to have plenty of bees. No issues.
The Russian colony failed in early spring, sometime in March. I was initially thrilled that both hives survived in when I first got into them sometime in February, but was concerned about the Russian population level. There proved to be too few bees and, while they had lots of food, one cold snap in March led to them starving to death. They formed a tight cluster on an empty section of comb and froze/starved to death. There was evidence of lots of moisture in the hive in the form of mold. There was a bit of a sour smell, though I don't suspect it was foulbrood.
On 4/26/10 I installed a new package of bees with fanfare (Mohammad and Bud were there). The new bees went into the old Russian hive equipment, though the new bees are Italians. I guess this season they will be called the "old" (overwintered colony) and the "new" (package colony) instead of the Russian and Italian. The new package has a headstart over last year's package bees as there is lots of comb and some capped honey left over from the Russians. The installation went fine. The bees got fresh sugar syrup and a pollen patty in each hive.
Also on 4/26/10 we inspected the old Italian colony. The queen was there but had not started laying.
Some weeks after installation we had to move the hives to cut down a large ash tree that was too close to the house. The move lasted a day and a half where the bees were not allowed to venture from their hives. When they were released they were thirsty and happy to be flying, but fine otherwise.
Which brings us to 5/22/10 and the third inspection of the 2010 season:
Conditions: Sunny, 75F
Present: Just me
Equipment: Removed entrance reducers and added super to new colony. Removed queen cage from new colony.
Activities: Smoked hives about 4:30pm. Inspected a few frames.
Observations:
"New" hive:
In the "new" hive there were some new bees present, though I did not observe any emerging. All the bees were concentrated in a single deep as I did not have a super on after installing the package. They seem very happy in there. The queen is laying a lot with a good brood pattern. There is food and brood on both sides of the 3 or 4 frames I inspected. There was also new comb being built on frames that were not completely built out. I didn't spot the queen, but I didn't keep pulling frames just to find her. I was happy with the quantity and quality of laying.
I did damage some of the comb on one side of the frame when removing the queen cage. I forgot to pull the two frames that were sandwiching it at the same time, then split them apart once they were both out. I pulled one of the two frames and dragged the queen cage straight down cutting through comb all the way. The aftermath was a strip of bare foundation on one side the exact width of the queen cage, the empty queen cage at the bottom of the hive, and a mass of wax and smushed brood. Oops. I hope I don't make that mistake again...
"Old" hive:
In the "old" hive I found the queen right away on the first shallow frame I pulled. She was laying only in the upper shallow super and all frames in the lower deep were empty with the exception of a few bees. I didn't know if she was not laying down there since there was no food on many of those frames or because she was preferring to be up high in hive. Because I use a shallow upper super, there is not much room for both brood and food on the small frames and I'm concerned about sufficient population build if she's not laying on the deep frmaes. I decided that either way it might be a good idea to switch the upper and lower. So I have shallows on the bottom, deeps up above that, and then a pail topfeeder. The hope is that the bees working the feeder put some food on the deep frames since they are now adjacent to the feeder, and that the queen starts laying there. I'll be happy to switch the deep back down to the bottom position in a week or two. Hopefully this is more helpful than confusing to the bees. I won't leave it this way for too long as I don't want them to pack all the deep frames with food so there is no room for brood. I might be meddling too much. The bees know what they are doing. I like to think I can help, though I'm not sure I actually do.
There was also a LOT of very large ants and ant larvae between the inner and outer cover. I still had a sheet of foam insulation on this hive and they had started burrowing in it to make a cozy home. I don't think the bees could get to the them to chase them out. I removed the insulation and all the ants I could. I trust the bees will do the rest.
Last year's Italian colony overwintered fine, ran low on food. Spring feeding has gone well and the colony seemed to have plenty of bees. No issues.
The Russian colony failed in early spring, sometime in March. I was initially thrilled that both hives survived in when I first got into them sometime in February, but was concerned about the Russian population level. There proved to be too few bees and, while they had lots of food, one cold snap in March led to them starving to death. They formed a tight cluster on an empty section of comb and froze/starved to death. There was evidence of lots of moisture in the hive in the form of mold. There was a bit of a sour smell, though I don't suspect it was foulbrood.
On 4/26/10 I installed a new package of bees with fanfare (Mohammad and Bud were there). The new bees went into the old Russian hive equipment, though the new bees are Italians. I guess this season they will be called the "old" (overwintered colony) and the "new" (package colony) instead of the Russian and Italian. The new package has a headstart over last year's package bees as there is lots of comb and some capped honey left over from the Russians. The installation went fine. The bees got fresh sugar syrup and a pollen patty in each hive.
Also on 4/26/10 we inspected the old Italian colony. The queen was there but had not started laying.
Some weeks after installation we had to move the hives to cut down a large ash tree that was too close to the house. The move lasted a day and a half where the bees were not allowed to venture from their hives. When they were released they were thirsty and happy to be flying, but fine otherwise.
Which brings us to 5/22/10 and the third inspection of the 2010 season:
Conditions: Sunny, 75F
Present: Just me
Equipment: Removed entrance reducers and added super to new colony. Removed queen cage from new colony.
Activities: Smoked hives about 4:30pm. Inspected a few frames.
Observations:
"New" hive:
In the "new" hive there were some new bees present, though I did not observe any emerging. All the bees were concentrated in a single deep as I did not have a super on after installing the package. They seem very happy in there. The queen is laying a lot with a good brood pattern. There is food and brood on both sides of the 3 or 4 frames I inspected. There was also new comb being built on frames that were not completely built out. I didn't spot the queen, but I didn't keep pulling frames just to find her. I was happy with the quantity and quality of laying.
I did damage some of the comb on one side of the frame when removing the queen cage. I forgot to pull the two frames that were sandwiching it at the same time, then split them apart once they were both out. I pulled one of the two frames and dragged the queen cage straight down cutting through comb all the way. The aftermath was a strip of bare foundation on one side the exact width of the queen cage, the empty queen cage at the bottom of the hive, and a mass of wax and smushed brood. Oops. I hope I don't make that mistake again...
"Old" hive:
In the "old" hive I found the queen right away on the first shallow frame I pulled. She was laying only in the upper shallow super and all frames in the lower deep were empty with the exception of a few bees. I didn't know if she was not laying down there since there was no food on many of those frames or because she was preferring to be up high in hive. Because I use a shallow upper super, there is not much room for both brood and food on the small frames and I'm concerned about sufficient population build if she's not laying on the deep frmaes. I decided that either way it might be a good idea to switch the upper and lower. So I have shallows on the bottom, deeps up above that, and then a pail topfeeder. The hope is that the bees working the feeder put some food on the deep frames since they are now adjacent to the feeder, and that the queen starts laying there. I'll be happy to switch the deep back down to the bottom position in a week or two. Hopefully this is more helpful than confusing to the bees. I won't leave it this way for too long as I don't want them to pack all the deep frames with food so there is no room for brood. I might be meddling too much. The bees know what they are doing. I like to think I can help, though I'm not sure I actually do.
There was also a LOT of very large ants and ant larvae between the inner and outer cover. I still had a sheet of foam insulation on this hive and they had started burrowing in it to make a cozy home. I don't think the bees could get to the them to chase them out. I removed the insulation and all the ants I could. I trust the bees will do the rest.
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