Hive status: Overwintered from 2011
Hive origin: Nucleus in 2011, combined with 2012 Hive 5
Queen type: 2012 Italian from H#4 eggs.
Significant events/observations:
2/24/12: Installed a candy board with pollen patty embedded in it (experiment). Overwintered with a deep and shallow super only.
3/11/12: The hive had a small brood nest with eggs observed.
3/21/12: Reversed hive bodies (shallow on bottom, deep on top) and removed entrance reducer. Added a new deep hive body with drawn comb on top and replaced candy board on top of that. It is probably 80% consumed.
4/15/12: Smallish brood nest for this time of year with slower population build, but eggs spotted. Spring drones present. This hive overwintered with a shallow and a deep which were reversed in March. The queen has not started laying in the upper deep yet, which is largely empty. Will keep an eye on this hive as a potential need for population boost from a thriving hive.
4/29/12: Newly queenless on this inspection, no eggs and very little capped brood. Moved one frame with a nearly capped queen cell from H3. As a backup I also moved 2 frames from H4 in that had some eggs in case the one queen cell is not viable as it was moved at a sensitive time in the queen larvae's development. This is a setback.
5/6/12: No new queen spotted. 2 capped queen cells noted, generated from eggs moved over on 4/29/12.
5/22/12: New queen spotted! She's laying just a little on one frame so far, oldest larvae are about 5 days old. One supercedure (threat?) cell was noted and left. They'll likely tear it down if she proves to be a good layer. Moved extra super to H1 so they can focus on filling their 2 deeps.
6/2/12: Queen present but not laying. She was removed to a new nuc, 2012 Nuc 4 with one frame of bees and the rest combined with 2012 Hive 5. Refer to that post for additional info.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Spring weather - freeze warning 3/26/12
It is the warmest spring on record and everything is in bloom from flowering pears to wild cherries. Low of 26 tonight. I wonder if the bees will have forage come tomorrow! Spring dearth? I hope not.
Update 4/15/12: We've had a few snows and there have been some trees that have suffered (the magnolias look terrible) but things are blooming and the bees are bringing in nectar and pollen. I did not have to resume feeding.
Update 4/15/12: We've had a few snows and there have been some trees that have suffered (the magnolias look terrible) but things are blooming and the bees are bringing in nectar and pollen. I did not have to resume feeding.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Format change to blog
In 2009 and 2010 with 2 hives I generated a blog post for each inspection. I intended to do the same in 2011 with 5 hives, but my records were poor and sporadic. However, it clearly would have been difficult to track the progress of a particular hive through many different posts. This year I'll be trying a single post per hive. Significant issues/changes will be documented in the post body via an update. Minor inspections, feedings, and observations will be documented as comments. Hopefully this will allow the tracking of individual colonies. The dates on the main posts will not be relevant and the "labels" cumulative, but the comment dates will remain relevant. Not sure what to do with photos as bulking up the posts too much will make it hard to read.
6/5/12 update: I had to figure out how handle combines given the current posting format. I decided that I would keep the hive number of the hive that is queen-right during the combine and continue the updates for that hive. The non-queen right hive will be updated with a link to new hive and state that the hive ended on the combine date and that hive #/year combo retired.
For example, Hive 2 (not queen right) was combined with Hive 5 (queen right) to create Hive 5. The original post for Hive 2 was shut down and linked to Hive 5, which will continue.
6/5/12 update: I had to figure out how handle combines given the current posting format. I decided that I would keep the hive number of the hive that is queen-right during the combine and continue the updates for that hive. The non-queen right hive will be updated with a link to new hive and state that the hive ended on the combine date and that hive #/year combo retired.
For example, Hive 2 (not queen right) was combined with Hive 5 (queen right) to create Hive 5. The original post for Hive 2 was shut down and linked to Hive 5, which will continue.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Overwintering: Early spring 2012 Update
Of the 5 hives going into the winter, 1 starved out by late December. I inspected on a day above 55 at the end of December and that hive was dead, the one that had so many bees and had produced so much honey in 2011. I suppose I pulled off too much honey in the fall, even though I left a full super on top of the two deeps. It's too bad as that queen laid like crazy. Despite moving some bees from this hive to boost others there were too many bees going into the winter. They might have lived if I harvested NO honey.
The winter was unusually warm. I think I shoveled the driveway only 3 times. Seemed like everytime it snowed it was followed with weather warm enough to melt it. The bees fared well. The remaining 4 colonies have decent sized clusters and did not starve. 3 of 4 overwintered in two deeps and I began feeding pollen patties on Feb 24, 2012 and sugar syrup on March 7,2012. 1 of 4 overwintered with a deep and a shallow (started 2011 as a nuc) and I began feeding on Feb24 with pollen patty embedded in candy board.
Candy board was a new thing for me, courtesy of Allan T. For candy I used 10lbs of sugar in 2 cups water with 1 tsp vinegar and 2 tbsp Honey Bee Healthy. Once heated to a uniform slurry, I poured it into a frame that had hardware cloth on the back which I lined with wax paper. I embedded pollen patty in the candy and allowed it to cool and solidfy. The entire board went on top the super and under the inner cover.
Fingers crossed for the best bee and honey year yet.
The winter was unusually warm. I think I shoveled the driveway only 3 times. Seemed like everytime it snowed it was followed with weather warm enough to melt it. The bees fared well. The remaining 4 colonies have decent sized clusters and did not starve. 3 of 4 overwintered in two deeps and I began feeding pollen patties on Feb 24, 2012 and sugar syrup on March 7,2012. 1 of 4 overwintered with a deep and a shallow (started 2011 as a nuc) and I began feeding on Feb24 with pollen patty embedded in candy board.
Candy board was a new thing for me, courtesy of Allan T. For candy I used 10lbs of sugar in 2 cups water with 1 tsp vinegar and 2 tbsp Honey Bee Healthy. Once heated to a uniform slurry, I poured it into a frame that had hardware cloth on the back which I lined with wax paper. I embedded pollen patty in the candy and allowed it to cool and solidfy. The entire board went on top the super and under the inner cover.
Fingers crossed for the best bee and honey year yet.
Monday, October 10, 2011
2011 year in brief
Due to a crazy year starting a farm and also finding a new job my beekeeping records and especially this blog have not been adequately updated. I thought I'd do a post now that things are settling down to summarize the year, especially the developments/differences from last year.
It was a super wet spring so the spring flow was late, but we had plenty of rain all summer so there was essentially no dearth. Brief review of this year:
- lost one of two colonies over the winter
- installed three packages into new equipment I assembled and painted (April)
- did two late spring splits into nucleus hives (nucs) (May-June)
- encouraged raising of three new queens (for the two splits and requeening the overwintered hive which had a 3 year old queen) (May-June)
- split a weak colony and divided the bees to be combined into two slightly weak hives. (Hive 4 was split and combined with hives N1 and N2) (yesterday)
I will hopefully be doing some fall extracting by the end of the month. I had one hive that just went crazy building comb in the spring and they have 4 supers on the hive even after doing a split! I also plan on feeding any colonies that are low on food going into Nov.
I need to find out a better way keep records. I may do a single post for each hive next year and just log each record with an update to each post. The way I did it in 2010 did not scale.
It was a super wet spring so the spring flow was late, but we had plenty of rain all summer so there was essentially no dearth. Brief review of this year:
- lost one of two colonies over the winter
- installed three packages into new equipment I assembled and painted (April)
- did two late spring splits into nucleus hives (nucs) (May-June)
- encouraged raising of three new queens (for the two splits and requeening the overwintered hive which had a 3 year old queen) (May-June)
- split a weak colony and divided the bees to be combined into two slightly weak hives. (Hive 4 was split and combined with hives N1 and N2) (yesterday)
I will hopefully be doing some fall extracting by the end of the month. I had one hive that just went crazy building comb in the spring and they have 4 supers on the hive even after doing a split! I also plan on feeding any colonies that are low on food going into Nov.
I need to find out a better way keep records. I may do a single post for each hive next year and just log each record with an update to each post. The way I did it in 2010 did not scale.
Friday, December 31, 2010
12/31/10: One last inspection (#14)!
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!
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!
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.
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