Feb 2, 2014 update

Yesterday was a good day to get into the hives and see what was going on since the temp was around 65 degrees and I haven't actually been 'down' into the frames since shutting them up last winter.  So, here's what I wanted to do, and found ..

H1 - the single deep that I was concerned about for several reasons, but mostly because I wasn't seeing as much activity as the other hives during 'good flying' days.  This is also the hive that I'd placed a pollen patty into last Sunday and not replaced the syrup in the top gallon feeder .  It had 3 to 4 frames of bees, some brood and looked pretty healthy considering what I was afraid of.  I had another hive beside it that I lost last week and was concerned about this one also.  Whenever I removed the top, the bees had consumed approx 90 % of the pollen substitute I'd put in there last week and I had 3+ frames of almost fully capped honey stores.  I won't need to feed this hive any more - thankfully.  Here's some pictures of the pollen substitute, or what's left of it -

this was approx 2" wide and 11" long originally

Hmm - the middle must have tasted better then the ends ..

A close up of the buffet..

 I ended up moving what was left over, and giving them another patty to encourage them to continue building up. 

H2 -
This the single deep, with the 2 4-frame nucs sitting on top.  It has had, until yesterday, a top feeder on it.  They'd stopped taking sugar water and I hadn't really 'fed' them in a couple of weeks.  I also noticed some brood, and 3-4 frames of capped honey in it.  I didn't go down into the bottom box (wish I'd had time) but the bees were occupying both "top" 4-frame nuc boxes so I was encouraged about their capacity at this time.  I removed the top feeder, and replaced with an inner cover and regular top cover.

H3 - the mean bee hive ..

This hive is a single deep hive and was, until recently taking allot of sugar water.  I removed the top feeder and put the remainder out in the yard for everyone else to eat off of.  I noticed 4+ frames of capped honey - so they need to eat some more of their stores so the queen has room to lay.  I also noticed the queen yesterday, she looked kind of 'thin' as compared to previous viewings and don't know if this is normal during an over winter process, or not.  I did though see her dropping a egg into one of the cells.  Of course the bees weren't too happy with me removing their 'roof' and I actually got stung 3 times.  If they decide to supersede her this year, that would be fine with me.  This is actually an offspring of the 'original' queen from the Nuc I got bought last year, and has always been a 'mean' hive for some reason.  If they don't supersede her and they continue to be more hostile, then I might have to re-queen this hive this summer some time.

I also noticed a good bit of flight activity from all 3 hives yesterday and also allot of bees coming back with pollen.  I don't know what's blooming right now, but as long as they do - that's all that matters at this time.

Got our monthly bee club meeting tomorrow, and I'll get the timeline for the other 'package' I ordered, and also get a chance to talk to Danny and determine when I can get my other 3 hives back - from where he over-wintered the queens for me.

Snow time in the apiary..

We were expecting anywhere from 3 to 6" of snow last night, which is not only rare for us - but also this early in the year.  We usually don't have more than a dusting of snow but typically do get some ice - usually towards the end of February, so this surprise was really nice.  We ended up with just over 2" of snow, on top of about 1/2" of ice.  I spend the day working from home, which was nice also and got a chance to wonder over and see what was going on.

Here's what I found ..

The top picture with the double hives and glass gallon feeders on top only has the hive on the left with bees in it as I'd lost the other hive due to, what I believe was "leakage" from the feeder on top.  This is the hive that I added a single Megabee patty strip (actually is the length of the hive, but covers 2 frames nicely) to last Sunday while the weather permitted access.

The middle picture has the double-nuc box and is doing fine so far.

The last picture has 2 hives, but only has bees in the hive on the right.  The hive on the left is another deep that I removed and 'concentrated' the bees into 1 deep/brood box for the winter.  This is also the angry box.

I cleared the entrances that were covered with snow, not that I think they need access to the access, that the CO2 levels would get to high .. but I really just wanted to, and knew that if started scraping/knocking on their front door - I'd know if they were alive.  Needless to say, they all answered back quickly.  :)

Anyway, it's going to be 13 tonight and about 19 tomorrow night and with the weather still in the lower 40's during the day till this weekend, I know they'll stay hunkered down.  I know I would if I lived in a box like this during this weather.  The 10 day forecast calls for 65 on Sunday then followed by mid 50's as highs after that.

Hope everyone else's hives are surviving and doing well ...

Jan 25, 2014

Other than the fact that this is my first winter-over, being a new bee keeper or just am tired of the cold weather, but I'm getting anxious about the weather and whether I'll be able to get all my hives back up and running in 'full' swing this year so I can experience a "typical" (lol) year of beekeeping.  We've had some pleasant weather over the weekend and it gave me a chance to check on one if my hives that I haven't seem much activity on and have been worried that there were issues in it.  I've been top-hive feeding as much as they wanted over the winter, only 2 gallons taken so far, but as I lost a hive I believe from cold water drip - I was anxious to get into the hive and see a little.

The top gallon feeder was empty and it was a good time to visit the hive yesterday.  I didn't plan on doing a full inspection as the weather was only about 52 and windy, but wanted to remove the top and check on the cluster.  Whenever I removed the top and looked in I had a "2 to 3 frame" cluster which both surprised and elated me.  The other hives have always had more 'flight' activity and this was still the case yesterday. 

I decided since I'd received my shipment of Megabee power the other day that I'd make up a 1/2 batch as I wanted to keep the strips I plan on putting in them, thin to try and allow the bees to fully cover the strips and hopefully prevent a massive build up of SHB.  Although I'd read how to make up the mixture, nobody ever mentioned it's "unique" smell while still in it's liquid form.  By making up a 1/2 receipt, I was able to pour 2 (approx) 11x14 containers while keeping the thickness to about 1/4 or a little thicker. 

I'd put some of the 'scraps and scrapings' on the front of the 3 hives and 2 of the hives had devoured it within a couple of hours.  Since I'd cut a couple of strips already (mostly so that I could wrap and store them effiently in the fridge) I decided to put one on the hive that I'd inspected earlier.  By the calendar date, I'd intended to start encouraging them to build up their numbers around the middle of next month - but like I said earlier, I'm anxious to get things going.  I guess they were angrier than I thought as I actually got stung once.  Oh well, such is the life of a beekeep.  I needed a winter vaccination anyway.   HA HA

I'll monitor this hive and update back as to how well they consume and build up from this initial feeding.  The weather today is supposed to be around 62 today - down to 27 tonight, followed by low 40's for a few days and not back into the (possible) lower 60's for a week.  I didn't give them any sugar water back, just the "patty" so by leaving them alone for a week, I should get a good idea of how well they like - and are taking it.

Anyway, more later ...

Mid January update

I've been providing sugar water to the bees all winter for 2 reasons:  One is that I knew there wasn't a lot of stored supplies for the winter, and two is that if they wanted it - they'd have it.  I haven't used too much sugar water ( not quite 50# for 4 hives so far) and I think it's worked out fine so far.  I've been noticing, during warmer days, activity from all the hives with 2 hives having more "flight" activity which I believe is probably normal as I had 2 hives that had a lot more bees in them then the other 2.

I've had 2 hives with 1-gallon feeders on top, and 2 with the common 'box top' feeders.  One of the box tops needs to be fixed as I've noticed that some of the bees have managed to get under the screening, and gotten trapped - and died.  I'll fix this feeder once the weather get's a little warmer, and I can remove it - but till then, I just don't put any sugar water on that side.  I've thought about something else too - maybe I can just open it up more - and put dry feed, like pollen substitute on that side if I use it again next year.

One of the 1-gallon feeders needed to be refilled a couple of days ago and since it was warm, I decided to have a little inspection especially since I didn't see any bee activity out front.  Whenever I removed the glass bottle and looked in, there wasn't any activity on the cluster so I pulled the top.  All the bees had died - what a sad day.  I inspected the cluster and hive and can only determine that even though the bottle was 'sealed' well with propulus, it must have leaked over the last couple of days with the extreme cold weather,  the cold water/sugar must have dropped onto the cluster/brood and killed the bees.  There was still some capped honey and stored sugar water so I know they had food.  I've taken the top off, and the frames out and made them available for the other hives to forage off of.

It's a sad day whenever you loose a hive, and it's my fault.  I didn't really like the idea of having to feed all winter, but thought all the hives were 'surviving' well considering all the splits I'd done last summer.  I've ordered some MegaBee to try and boost the hives with for the spring build up and plan to feed it, mainly externally.  Using it externally should, whenever the bees can fly, provide some extra pollen for all the hives - prevent SHB build up ( I hope ), and also help with the spring build up.  I was reading in the Farmers Almanac last night that this year is supposed to be another 'wet' spring, and 'dry' summer starting in June.  As I made several splits last year, this year will be about getting the hives stabilized, maintain their strengths, draw out the honey supers, and if possible create another split or 2.

I talked with Danny, who I've had 'banking' 3 of my queens last fall for me and he said that 2 of the 3 hives have been doing well so this brings my apiary count to 6 now.  I've ordered a package and should get it the first week of March.  I've also been in contact with a breeder from NC who will have some VSH queens and nuc's available - but not till mid-May.  I'm unsure if this will be 'too late' as our typical pollen season is about to wrap up by then, but we'll see how the year goes.  I'd like to get a Nuc from her, and/or possibly a couple of queens earlier depending on how my hives do this year.

The queens that Danny is keeping were born last year, and 2 of the hives I have at home are also new.  One of the hives is still the queen from the Nuc that did so well last year.  I'm hoping that every year, if or whenever I need - to replace the queens with VSH queens so that I can prevent any issues down the road, and start introducing some better genetics into my apiary.  That's the plan anyway, and we'll see how it goes.  If I can replace and keep up with any splits or queen needs that I might have - then trying to provide from 'known' good stock would be nice.

Getting ready for fall. Hive changes, and new queens ..

Ok - so I'm slack. 

It's been a few weeks since I posted any updates, so here goes - and hopefully in chronological order ..

As you're aware, I've moved all 4 hives into their newest and sunniest locations about a month ago.  So far, 3 of the 4 hives have been doing well with a reduced number of SHB in them.  I still have 1 hive, H2 which has allot (or more than I want to have anyway) of SHB in it - but as it has the most resources (capped honey and bees) they bees seem to be taking care of them - or at least keeping them under control.  I wish I didn't have to still kill about 25 or so upon each visit, not including the traps that I'm still getting them in - but as it was the last hive to move, perhaps that's it's 'fate' for now.

9/5 - Even though I've been community and top-hive feeding, only 1 hive ( H2 ) has been really putting on the weight.  I noticed this on a full hive inspection on all the hives and decided to make a few changes.  I took some brood from H2, and gave it to the new split-hive I created this year.  I also took some capped honey and gave it to the Nuc box, and H1 because the bees in the Split and Nuc boxes were the lowest in bee counts and needed to build up their 'stock' some.  I also broke down the Nuc box and H2 from double-deep boxes to just 1 Deep.  I also noticed that the queens in the Split, Nuc, and H1 boxes weren't laying too much - and what they were was somewhat spotty.  This might have been due to the Mite treatments I've been using, Api-Var Life - but as the packaging doesn't state it should...who know's for sure. 

9-6 - I decided after talking to several people and making arrangements to have a local commercial beekeeper friend "bank" some of my queens to order some replacement queens so that hopefully I can accomplish 2 things - new queens to build up the stock for the winter, and be able to maintain/keep those queens over the winter.  Since I didn't have enough brood to make any nucs up and it's really too late in the season to start from 'fresh' this seemed to make the most sense.  The queens I decided to replace, albeight 2 of them were needed the most were - Split box from earlier this year, Nuc bomb, and H1.  I was fortunate to be able to find someone locally that had stock, and also wanted to have some of my genetics.  I searched around from some VSH queens, but couldn't find any and ordered my queens from JJ's Honey out of Georgia.  We've had several people order from him and although he's a small breeder, there haven't been any issues.

9-11 -

I don't know when the call came in as I'd gone to bed at 2am from working, but woke up around  8 and had already received a call from the post office saying that the bees were in and I could come get them.

I inspected them at the post office, and had 4 queens with several attendants with them and all seemed fine.  They were much smaller in abdominal size than my current stock, and other club members have ordered from JJ's Honey before w/o issues - and I've heard that you can't always tell much from that.  Since you asked, I had someone else need one so that's why the order was for 4, instead of 3.  I'd arranged for Danny to come by and get my queens he as going to "bank" for me so I just gave the queens a drop or 2 of water in their cages until he arrived. This was the first time Danny had come out to the house and we did a full inspection of the 3 hives in question, and a preliminary one of the one that is doing well.  He didn't really have any "better" suggestions as to why the queens weren't laying very much, but thought that perhaps re-queening might help.  The only reasoning I can assume, and really hate to do that .. :)- is that perhaps their wasn't too many bees to cover the brood, and the Api-Var Life had 'shunted' them for a bit.  All 3 queens were quite large and healthy looking - but who knows.  We captured the old queens, and put the new queens, along with their cages in w/o any issues. 
Whenever we looked at H2 - he agreed that there were plenty of SHB in there and couldn't understand why either.  I also showed him the original location where they were located and he agreed that that location shouldn't have been any problem - but since they are doing better now ..  who knows.  I think since we have allot of pines around us, that might be the reason - but just not sure.  Before he left, he jokingly asked if he could sterilize his hive tools somewhere so that he didn't take any SHB pheromones back home with him.

9/15 -

I didn't have time to get back into the hives until yesterday. 

Split box already had the queen out so I removed the cage and refilled their top feeder.  I'm using a migratory top with a 1-gallon jar on it.  This seems to be working better for them as they couldn't seem to understand the other feeder.

The Nuc box still had the queen in it, although I don't know why.  As soon as I separeted the frames and pulled it up for inspection, she ran right out and into the hive.  There was still some 'candy' in place, but as I didn't have to remove it to release her - who knows.  I cleaned out the other candy and left on their landing board as a treat.  I'm feeding them with a top feeder, from Brushy Mountain, but they don't seem to take to it very well.  I've had this issue on other hives, but hope it's due to the "number" of bees in the hive, and not that they aren't smart enough to locate their dinner.

H1 - the queen was already out so I removed the cage.   I'm having to feed a gallon just about ever other day.  This is good news as I'm wanting them to stock up for the winter and they seem to like the migratory top/1-gallon feeder much better than the top-feeder from BM.

H2 - just a status update here on it.   I'm feeding it with the same type of top feeder from BM, and they are really taking it in - almost to the fact that it's a gallon a day.  If I kept it full all the time, I think they'd drink it up but I have to weigh that against them running out of egg laying area so I need to keep an eye on them.

I don't know when the other queens were released, but don't really care as I just have to look for some new eggs and brood towards the end of this week. 

That's all for now - I'll try to update after I do another inspection towards the end of the week.

Last hive move and current status ..

I've been delaying, for not any real reasoning except for my little friends (giving the Nematodes something to eat) moving my last hive (H-3) over to they sunnier place for too long - and decided to move them last night.  Now all the hives are in the same place again, and it's much sunnier for them.  Hope they like it now where it 'hotter'.  I need to clean up the area, but here's a couple of pics ..

I knew, from a recent inspection that the IPM board might be 'stuck or propolized' to the bottom of the Deep and that whenever I moved it I'd need to pry it loose a bit.  I wanted to move just the hive boxes and not the bottom board due to my last inspection whenever I found about 150+ SHB hiding inside, and outside along the bottom board.  As such, at about 8:15 I readied my new bottom board in place, took the hive tool with me along with the wheelbarrow and proceeded to their current (now old) location to get things going.  I pried some rags in front of the front entrance, loosened the bottom board from the bottom deep box and hoisted it. 

Can you imagine what happened next - but what I hadn't thought of - till I actually was about 1/2 way to the wheel barrow?  Yep - the bottom 2 hives were securely in my arms, but the rags were stuck to the entrance of the hive - which were attached still to the bottom board...which I didn't move.  What a strange feeling knowing that you have about 30,000 bees in a couple of 75lb boxes and no bottom board.  I quickly transferred them over to their new bottom board on the wheel barrow and start on.  No issues ... :) 

I left a nuc box laying on the top of the other screened bottom board for another 30 minutes or so to collect any remaining flyers and moved them over to their new location about 9:30pm.  I'd reversed the Hive boxes about 1 1/2 weeks ago and in doing so noticed that the bees had propolized the bottom board to the bottom hive box.  That's normal, but whenever I lifted up the screened bottom board - I noticed this quickly - and decided to kill as many SHB as possible.  I didn't get all of them though, but here's what I'm facing - and this is only 1 box.  The others aren't this bad - I hope. 

I'd made some traps, out of small cd-cases about a 3 or 4 days ago and put one in the bottom of this box to see how well they would work.  I noticed, after moving that there was about 80 or so SHB that were dead in the trap.  So, at least that piece worked.  I still don't like potentially enticing the SHB into the hives and then trapping/killing them in there - but you got to do what you got to do. 



I got notification that my newer beetle-barns have arrived so I'll be placing them in the hives this weekend in anticipation of great things !!!  I've discovered a bait, which kills the beetles rather quickly but as it is in a 'gel' foundation I'm not really interested in using that process anywhere near the top of the hives or on the foundation because it is deadly to bees also.  This was one of the reasons that I ordered the beetle-barns so that I can 'control' the 'bait' better.  I still have to find another type of bait to use in the barns, but will continue to use the 'gel' solution on the bottom boards.

I need to treat for Varora Mites - so I'll be heading up for some supplies either this pm, or tomorrow am.  I've decided, after talking to several people to use the Api Var Life product this year - and not the Api Var strips - or MAQS.  The reasoning I'm using the "life" product instead of the MAQS strips is in hopes of not slowing down the brood cycle too much.  As everyone "should be aware",  both products - although are "Naturally made" and use the Thymol product (made from the Tyme plant) I want to not inhibit the brood cycle too much right now while I'm still trying to create some really strong hives to over winter with.  The MAQS are a single dosing and the Api Life product requires a 2-step process a week apart.  Who knows .. I'll just have to wait and see.  Thankfully in either case, it's only about $5 per hive to treat. 

More later, and hope everyone's life is well ...

A sad day for the Nuc. Other interesting info ..

Down to 4 hives now - 2 are double-deeps, and 2 are single-deeps.

I'd checked the Nuc along with all the other days about a weeks ago and things have bee progressing well and there was a increased activity of bees feeding from the top feeder, as well as good "flight" activity.  Whenever I went to check on them yesterday, I didn't notice too much activity on the hive and whenver I opened it up - most of the bees were dead.  There was some slight orange staining from the entrance hole and I think these bees might have suffered from Nozema and the SHB were attaching the rest of what was left.  If you remember, this was the Nuc that I'd created from one of my packages, and actually moved the queen over by accident.  I didn't see her in all the mess along the bottom of the screened board - so I hope she and a few other bees made it out.  I'd double-tapped the 4-frame nuc boxes together so that the SHB wouldn't get in - but it might have been too "tight" and there wasn't enough ventiliation for the rest of the hive - despite the bottom board being fully screened.   

On another note, I've been feeding sugar water with HBH in the 5-gallon feeder and refilled it the other day.  I've added a top (box style) to one of the hives and refilled the 1-gallon top-feeder on the other hive.

Here's the latest feeding activity ..

 

 It took the bees just over a week to empty this one, and I think it was due mostly to the poor weather, due to the rain.  We've had over 6.5 inches of rain in the last 4 days and things are really water logged.  7.21 " of rain to date for this month, and a "normal" rain fall for this month (with 10 days left in the month still) is 3.35".  The weather channel is calling for rain for the next 5 days - then about a week of no-rain ... so let's all keep out fingers crossed.

I went to a local 'health' food store yesterday and bought some Wintergreen, Lemongrass, and Spearmint Oils for some mixtures that I'm going to start using.  The Wintergreen will be using in the grease patties, and some new SHB preventative treatments.  I'll try to also reference that info on another page for anyone who's interested in following along or looking for additional link info.

I'd ordered some Beetle Barns before I heard about this trick (keeping the SHB out in the first place, mentioned above in the SHB link) but will be using the barns in the bottom of the hives also.  I'll probably, since I'm down to 2 hives now - try these 2 treatments --- and see how well it works. 

Hives 1 and 3 - paper towles/coasters (look down for the Feb 9, 2010 post)
Hives 2 and 4 - beetle barns. 

Will update everyone as things change ... hopefully for the better quickly ..

ps - got to make time to visit Mr. Crocker in Spartanburg and "brain-dump" from him.  He's been keeping bees for about 60 years now, and still has 25+ hives doing really well ..