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!

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...

8/2/09: Ninth Inspection and Honey Supers Added

Conditions: Partly Cloudy, 72F (unseasonably cool for August!)
Present: Just me
Equipment: Added first honey super to each hive
Activities: Smoked hives about 5:30pm. Inspected one or two frames in the lower super of each colony. Inspected deep frames in the "Italian" hive.
Observations: Still plenty of bees in the "Italian" hive. If there will be a big population decline it has not occurred yet. Spent some extra time inspecting the brood frames. Lots of brood present on probably 6 frames. I was satisfied that whichever queen is in there laying (either new Russian or old Italian) she is doing very well. Wall frames still are not built out, but the lower super was pretty heavy with capped and uncapped honey. I added the first honey super.

The russian hive I did not disturb much. Checked the weight of the lower super, which was heavy with capped and uncapped honey. Added the first honey super here, too.

We'll see what progress is made in building out comb in the new honey supers throughout August. We may have a dearth affecting both colonies and population decline in the "Italian" colony before the fall nectar flow starts. Whatever honey is capped in the new supers will be for us!

Have seen lots of honey bees in the garden on squash, raspberries, buckwheat and cut-flowers.

7/5/09: Special Feeding

Special feeding of the bees. Took the deep frame that was previously removed from the Russian hive due to the number of drones, uncapped the honey cells above the now dead brood, got a few bees on it at the hive entrance, and stashed it 40 yards away in a cardboard box previously used for bannas (plenty of holes for bee traffic). In 15 minutes there was some light traffic. When I checked back 3 hours later, hundreds of bees were flying and in out. It looked like the entrance to a hive. They were still working it when I checked at 8pm, but traffic was dying down. Last night it was in the 50s. There was no activity at 6:15am and the sweets were not discovered by a skunk or coon in the night. I will check again when I get home at 5:00pm. I expect they will finish cleaning the honey out today, but will leave it for another night and day just in case.

Also took another pic of the varroa, this one under magnification. The drone had been removed from his capped cell two days prior, so he's a bit dessicated. The varroa was finally dead, though she did make it almost two days without a host. She had previously nestled in the ridge of skin alongside and on top of one of my fingernails, looking for a new cozy spot I presume. I did not oblige.

Update as of 7/6/09: The bees made short work of the honey in the extra frame from the special feeding. At 5pm there were maybe a dozen bees still on and around the frame, but it was already empty. That means about 24 hours of activity cleaned it out.

And just as I was watching the Russians come and go from their hive, trying to look for pollen load (very low) and varroa (none seen).... POW! One of the girls must not have seen me when she turned the corner quickly and smacked into my nose, which she promptly stung. That was painful. Quick stinger removal, Benedryl and ice kept the swelling down to a reasonable level. Mohammad, now I know how you felt. Next time I'll be wearing a veil. I'm learning I need to be more careful as the population builds, they more aggressively forage and are more protective of their honey.

4/27/09: Initial installation (Strongsville, OH)

Conditions: Sunny 65F
Present: Bud F. and I, Annie on the videorecorder
Equipment: 2 plastic hives w/ plastic bottom boards on wooden hive stands, elevated on angle iron and cinderblocks. Bud had the equipment after storing for 12 years and cleaned it up for this season. Each colony got some old comb (2 frames for the Italians, 3 frames for the Russians) and all empty frames were new w/ plastic foundation. We loaded the comb as much as we could with sugar syrup and placed pail feeders on top the inner covers. Each colony got 1 pollen patty. Entrance reducers were used, limiting the entrance to about 4” and half of full height. Got to test my new bee jacket/hood unit, which worked great.
Activities: Picked up bees from T.B. Jeffries at 11am. Installed both queens in cages with candy and all bees at 2:30pm. This went very smoothly. We followed the instructions in “Beekeeping for Dummies” as Bud had never installed packaged bees before.
Observations: The colony with the Italian queen was much more active with many more bees flying and coming and going from the hive entrance. Noticed all the attendants (5 or 6) in the Russian queen cage were dead, but the queen was alive and active. The Russians were much more reserved, which may be due to extra sugar syrup spraying immediately before hiving. Great weather and a great first time handling bees. No stings until I was gathering up equipment and smashed a bee between a bee brush, a hive tool, and my ungloved hand.