Full super

June 7th, 2015

I went into the hives to especially see how the new one (Hive 2) was doing because I was concerned about the activity.  I'm still trying to figure it out.

Remember that I bought a package of bees rather than a Nuc.  I think it was my first package and perhaps that is my confusion.  Growth seems to be very slow.

I have two deeps on the hive, and added a super as well, but the real activity is still in the lowest deep where, when I finally got to it, had a small number of larvae which told me the queen must still be there.  However there was also a lot of uncapped honey and very little pollen.

I know there's a lot of pollen outside because Hive 1 is brimming with pollen and honey and I watch the bees going into the hive loaded with pollen.  Yet in Hive 2, I see a loaded bee come in but not nearly as often.  Is that because I just don't have that many bees yet?  Or something else?

In Hive 2, bees also had to make honeycomb since I didn't have enough frames with comb, so I think that might have held them up a little.  Are they trying to build comb instead of foraging for pollen?

I was happy to see some larvae in the lower deep, but I'm still a little concerned about this hive.  I'll keep watching.

Perhaps my queen is on her way out?

Hive 1 is a totally different story!

When I opened up this hive to see how things were going, I saw that the first super was totally full of honey.  I really could have pulled off the entire super and extracted honey!  So early!  But I wasn't prepared to do it that day so instead, I added on another empty super and let them go to work on that. However, I'll need to set aside a day soon and extract the honey from the first super.

I didn't look into the two deeps because I couldn't lift the super.  I'll need to empty it of most of the honey in order to see anything below.  It's just too heavy and I'm afraid I'd drop it.  That wouldn't be a pretty picture. Ouch.

Keep the grass clipped around fence

Today, I noticed that grass had sprung up around the electric fence.  I have roofing shingles laid on the ground under it but it's surprising, still, how quickly grass and weeds grow between any cracks or to each side of the ground cover.  I'm glad I checked.  Anything touching the fence wires causes a reduction of electrical charge.  That's what happened last year.  While away, grass grew and touched the fence wires which weakened the charge and the bears attacked the hive...and came back for more!  A nightmare that I don't want to have happen again.

So keep the grass clipped to make sure nothing touches your fence wires!

May 27th and bees doing well

I've been watching the bees all month and can report that things look pretty normal.

The left hive is loaded with bees and I think I'll be taking off the entrance reducer soon because, with this hot weather, the entrance is pretty crowded.  I think the hive is strong enough to keep out any enemies.  I may wait one more week though.

The right hive is the new one.  It's interesting to see them side by side because the new hive has much fewer bees.  I study it to make sure the bees are bringing in lots of pollen and it seems they are.  I haven't wanted to go back into the hive again after disrupting them a few times a few weeks ago.  But I will go into both hives next week and give them a good inspection:

• clean out any comb that is where it shouldn't be, or in a pattern that's odd like the one I showed on May 7th in this blog
• scrape off propolis that might be causing frames and boxes to fuse together
• check to make sure I see cells filled with larvae since that'll tell me I still had a queen within a few days
• clean out any debris or dead bees if needed

With my new marine battery, I'm not worrying about changing D cell batteries monthly and hoping they don't run out sooner.  I recharged the battery a week ago and it only took 20 minutes to recharge.  fIt had about 3 weeks of use at the time so if I'm carefully to not let any grass or plants touch the wire, I should be ok for at least a few months before needing to recharge.

However, I will be checking it often anyway, to make sure.

Pollen colors

I find it fun to check on the color of the pollen the bees are bringing in.  Over the past few weeks, it's bright orange, lemon yellow and an off-white color.  When I open the hive and look at frames, I expect those are the colors I'll see on the frames too. 

Bees loving the moss on rocks around pond

Bees on moss

As I was getting ready to drain my pond to clean it and separate the water lilies, I realized that bees were flocking to the moss on a few of the rocks.  I've never noticed that before, but I've seen the bees drinking the water when they can find a leaf or other safe spot to drink without drowning. Perhaps they are drinking from the moisture in the moss.

bees on moss that grows on rocks around pond

 Yesterday, May 6th, I went into the two hives to see how they were doing.

A look at Hive #1

Hive #1 on left

Hive #1 is the one that survived last winter and I hadn't gone into the bottom deep yet this year so that was one task.  Wow.  I had two broken frames in there and the bees had built comb everywhere, including the sides of the hive.  One of the broken frames, was loaded with brood and I didn't know what to do with it so I put it aside and did some research.  I found that someone mentioned placing it as intact as possible onto a new frame that had no comb on it and use elastics to hold it in place.  The bees would patch it up.  So that's what I did to one of them.  The other broken frame didn't have that much brood on it so I just replaced it with an empty frame.

I'm glad I did it now because I don't get into the bottom deep very often.  Once I have two deeps on, later in the summer, the top deep is too heavy for me to be lifting off so doing it in the spring, when there are fewer bees and less honey in the hive, makes it easier.  The top deep gets looked at and cleaned where needed more often.

Checking Hive#2

Hive #2 looks good.  There were many frames with brood and larvae and pollen and some capped honey...looks like a good, healthy queen is laying lots of eggs. And the comb pattern is normal.

However, I found these two frames with this odd comb pattern shown below. I've never seen this before and wasn't sure what to do.  I ended up putting them back into the hive, hoping they all get filled in eventually.  But then this morning I sent the photo below to the local beekeeping group to see if anyone knows anything about this sort of pattern to see what it means, if anything. I wondered if I should replace these but I don't have any frames that are already built with comb.  If I did, I would have just replaced these with others.  But all I have are bare frames in my "extra" pile. We'll see if anyone else has an answer.

April 30th - and all's well

We're getting off to a good start this year with one hive that wintered over and looks strong.  The second hive is a start-up where I purchased a package of bees and added the early in the month.  The bees seem to be happy and thriving in their new home.

This is the new hive with a package of bees added early April

This is hive that wintered over.  Note how dirty it is!  I need to clean it early morning before the bees come out. I just  made the opening larger because bees were backed up at the entrance

I switched from d-cell batteries to power my electric fence to a marine battery.  This will hold the charge longer so that hopefully I won't run low and bears attack, like last year.   My plan is to pretty up the area with potted plants that can sit on the stumps within the hive area.

I've also set up a viewing area in front of the hives where I get a good view with my binoculars. I love to sit there after work with a glass of wine and watch the bees to see what they're bringing in.  Last night the pollen was pretty bright yellow, where a week ago, it was more cream colored.

I am hoping this area is surrounded by plants later in the season!

my 100th post

I wonder who is listening :).

Today is April 3, 2015 and the temperature in southern Vermont was around 60 degrees.  The bees have been flying around these last few days of warmer temperatures.  So I grabbed my binoculars, and took my coffee with me to my chair near the hives so that I could observe.  I love to do this and this was my first time this year.

What I was surprised to see was them bringing in pollen!  They were coming in with something orange, something white and something more like grey.  The way they are working, I think there must still be a queen in there.  I haven't interrupted them yet but I'm anxious to get a look look sometime soon.

I have peaked in when I change out their cedar pillows, which I did a week or so ago. I can't unwrap them yet nor pull out the cedar pillow...there are still cold nights so I'll hold off on doing that until end of  the month or early May.  Perhaps I'll do it when the new bees arrive.

The bees that survived the winter are my older Italian bees.  The Carolins seemed to disappear after the bear strike last July.

Today, I checked the batteries for the electric fence and barely had enough charge to keep a mouse out of there so I changed the batteries.  Last year, the bear came about the second week of April so I'm on red alert.  I will need to check the batteries daily until I hook up the marine battery I purchased last week.  I am waiting for a local beekeeper to come over and show me this first time so that after this, I can do it on my own.  In the meantime, I'll use my D cell batteries that work fine for shorter times.
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Bees, bees, bees - March 25, 2015

I'm happy to report that my one hive I started with this winter appears to be thriving.  Today was warm enough for the bees to be out and about my yard as I began cleaning the greenhouse.

I remember last year, the bear came in mid-April and tore apart my hives, so I decided to electrify my fence today.  I wasn't sure I could given that there's still snow on the ground.  But I raised the bottom string on my fence above the snow line and put the batteries into the charger and then tested it.  It showed that it was charged.

I'm nervous about a bear because last evening, I saw a grey fox traveling through my back yard so feel like animals are coming out of hibernation.  It's still a bit early but I really don't want to lose this hive or traumatize them.

My goal this season is to not traumatize my bees!