A new hive has been started

Instead of purchasing the package of bees, like I had planned, I bought another Nuc.  The bee package had some issues:
1) I never heard from the vendor after trying to arrange shipment to ship after Memorial Day
2) Vendor charged my account without being able to contact them so I was suspicious
3) Vendor's voice mailbox was full so I couldn't leave a message
4) I tried emailing them twice with no response

So I disputed the charge on my credit card and ordered a Nuc from Imaginethathoney@hotmail.com.  These folks in Swanzey, NH are the people I took a course from last year.  This year, they had some Nucs to sell so I bought one for $130...the same as it would have cost me for the bee package.  Shipping was costing, from that crappy vendor, about $40-45.  I would have paid the same amount of money for fewer bees.  I was glad I contacted Jody in Swanzey because I hadn't realized until then that they were offering Nucs.

I added the bees to their new hive on Sunday and they seem to be thriving.  This one has a marked queen which will make it so much easier.  I gave up, last year, on trying to find the queen.  I figured that if I had plenty of workers and eggs were being laid, that I probably had a queen.

I'm watching last year's hive closely.  I'm not sure everything is great in that hive. I'm going to add a patty I had made last year that is made with sugar and crisco.  It helps with mites, making the mites slide off the bees. I will add that to the older hive this weekend.

Let's see how this year goes.

One thing I want to do before winter is to figure out if there's another, better way to insulate the bees.  I'd like them to be thriving in the spring.  I was lucky to not lose all of them this year, I think.

I asked about one member of last year's class to see how his bees fared over the winter and I learned that he lost them all!  He had such a great hive that he was splitting it in the fall, like I did.  But I don't know what he did in terms of insulating the hive.  Hopefully I'll see him around sometime to see what happened (and learn).  I do know he lives in a higher elevation but I would think that with proper insulation, they could survive there.  But again, I'm not sure what his strategy was, if he even had one! I think I'm learning that some of this is just luck.

Nuc failed - Ordering new bees

Well, my nuc failed.  I thought I had enough brood, drones and worker bees, and honey and took the nuc about 5 miles away from home.  I left it there for over two weeks.  In that time, they should have made a queen.

When I picked it up early yesterday morning and got them home and opened the Nuc, I saw there were hardly any bees left at all!  And certainly no queen.  I was very disappointed.  I didn't see any dead bees at the bottom so it's a mystery what happened.

One though I had is that we had a few cold nights during that time and I worried they might be freezing. These small Nucs just don't generate the same warmth as a larger hive does with their extra frames and larger numbers of bees producing heat.

So....I ordered a package of bees with a queen which cost me, with shipping, $130.  I will use these new bees to start my new hive and hope to get it well established before winter and hopefully have two thriving hives next spring.

Last year, I ordered a nuc with 5 frames of bees and a queen.  And I picked them up in Massachusetts.

This year's bees is a "package" versus a "nuc" so there won't be as many bees and they won't be on frames. And they'll be coming via USPS, which may traumatize them.

So I need to study up on adding the queen and the bees into the hive.  I've seen it done and read about it but actually doing it will be brand new to me.  Can't wait! 

The ramps are in

I learned about ramps (or wild leeks) while foraging for mushrooms with a group who also likes these kinds of activities. In the spring, before many mushrooms are out, what we look for are these delicious bulbs.  At this time of year in the Northeast, you can find them in wet places and you can see the leaves.  But later in the season, the leaves disappear so you can't see where they are growing.  This was my first find this year.

My ramp find

Ramps on table

 I then cleaned them up, removing leaves and roots and I got about two cups of ramps from the batch.  I just slipped them into a freezer bag just like you see them below, and they freeze wonderfully. 

They taste sort of like a cross between garlic and onions.

The leaves are also good to eat but I haven't used the leaves for anything myself.  I'm told they make a delicious pesto.  Also someone else told me they make a great soup too. 

I like them as a side dish.  I saute them in butter and/or olive oil until lightly browned and nearly cooked through.  Then I add a bit of cream to that and add ramps and cream to a small au gratin dish, lightly oiled.  I then add some parmesan cheese to the top and pop it in the toaster oven for a few minutes until the cheese melts and the ramps are cooked through.  They are awesome!

Ramps all cleaned up, leaves discarded

New nuc started May 2013

A few days ago, I went into my hive for a thorough inspection. Here's what I saw:

- I had practically no bees in the super that was directly above the two deep hive bodies (so I took off the super for now)
- In the top deep hive body, I found some activity and from here, I took out two frames that appeared to 1) not have the queen 2) had brood 3) had honey.  I put those two frames, plus another three empty frames into the nuc box and moved that box about 5 miles away where it will stay for the next 2-3 weeks. 
- In the bottom deep hive body, I found frames that were loaded with honey so I had to extract 3 frames of honey.  This was not at all in my day's plan but I had to deal with it.  I think I have at least 1 1/2 quarts of honey from that little harvest!!  I interspersed empty frames amongst the full frames in that deep hive.
- I thought there would be more bees but a lot died off over the winter. I should be glad I have enough bees to start me off this year....I hope.
_ I was gratified to see that there was larvae so even though I didn't find the queen, I knew she was there within a couple of days.

Yesterday, I sat and watched the bees come into the hive after being out foraging for pollen and their little pollen sacks were coming back very full of yellow pollen...probably the dandelion flowers.  But there are a lot of other wild flowers blooming too so I'm sure they are grabbing as much as they can hold.

I will be watching this hive closely to hopefully see a lot more bees in the coming weeks.

Year 2  spring hive with one super removed and top hive feeder added