I went into the hive this week...just a week after my last inspection. This time, I think I saw the queen in the most outside frame in the lower deep.
But I didn't see any eggs in the lower deep this time. I saw some eggs in the upper deep though, but not many. And I saw one frame that had a bunch of drone brood so I removed that frame.
There were still a lot of bees but I'm not really sure what's going on right now. Could it be a new queen I saw? I did find an empty queen cell so maybe the queen I saw was a new queen that hasn't had her flight yet.
Last week's sugar syrup was gone so I added more. I left the supers on the hive for another few weeks and then I'll take off what I can and hope to see more eggs in the hive.
It's mushroom foraging season. At this time of year, my free time is spent walking in the woods looking for mushrooms. Yesterday I found some lobster mushrooms and various fresh boletes, including porcini. There were others but weren't fresh enough to take. Then time was spent cleaning and frying up. Then into the freezer. Sometimes I dry the harvest but it depends. Some mushrooms dry up very well, like black trumpets. Others, like chanterelle, get rubbery if you dry them so I fry them up and then freeze them. That works well.
Monday, August 22, 2016
Friday, August 12, 2016
Taking off some honey
When checking on the hive yesterday, I see several frames in the supers full and ready so I took off 4 frames that I will extract. I will leave the rest there for now.
When I looked into the honey stores deep, I found capped and uncapped honey...more capped than not. I also saw brood in various stages and bees bringing in yellow pollen. I think the dearth is over with goldenrod blooming. But in my yard, there's not much goldenrod blooming yet. Not sure I'll have that much this year since I deadheaded them last year. I think that was a mistake so I won't do it again. I want the goldenrod for the bees. Not so good for my sinuses but it's the price you pay I guess.
I was pleased to see the activity in the hive.
However, when I removed the top hive feeder, it had a lot of yellow jackets in there dead. I have a yellow jacket nest somewhere in my porch ceiling. As I read more about the dearth at this time of year, I read that stealing is a major concern with other insects wanting the sugar water or honey. I decided to close off the venting. I have holes in two boxes, a deep and a super, which I drilled to give more ventilation in the hive. I plugged them up with corks yesterday. I also added back in the entrance reducer at it's widest opening to further close up the entrances to the hive.
I had been noticing a lot of flurry there at the hive and I think it was due to fending off predators. Hopefully they can now relax a bit and not use their energy to fight them off.
And I filled the feeder with more sugar water to keep the bees fed in case there's not enough flowering plants to satisfy.
It's time to begin thinking about wintering over the bees. I will need to buy bales of hay one at a time since I no longer have a truck. That is, unless I can figure out another alternative.
When I looked into the honey stores deep, I found capped and uncapped honey...more capped than not. I also saw brood in various stages and bees bringing in yellow pollen. I think the dearth is over with goldenrod blooming. But in my yard, there's not much goldenrod blooming yet. Not sure I'll have that much this year since I deadheaded them last year. I think that was a mistake so I won't do it again. I want the goldenrod for the bees. Not so good for my sinuses but it's the price you pay I guess.
I was pleased to see the activity in the hive.
However, when I removed the top hive feeder, it had a lot of yellow jackets in there dead. I have a yellow jacket nest somewhere in my porch ceiling. As I read more about the dearth at this time of year, I read that stealing is a major concern with other insects wanting the sugar water or honey. I decided to close off the venting. I have holes in two boxes, a deep and a super, which I drilled to give more ventilation in the hive. I plugged them up with corks yesterday. I also added back in the entrance reducer at it's widest opening to further close up the entrances to the hive.
I had been noticing a lot of flurry there at the hive and I think it was due to fending off predators. Hopefully they can now relax a bit and not use their energy to fight them off.
And I filled the feeder with more sugar water to keep the bees fed in case there's not enough flowering plants to satisfy.
It's time to begin thinking about wintering over the bees. I will need to buy bales of hay one at a time since I no longer have a truck. That is, unless I can figure out another alternative.
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