July 28 hive inspection - all looks good

4) Let's start with the Nuc...It has only three completed frames but I saw the queen.  Probably because there were so few bees.  But it looks healthy and I see brood in there so I did nothing to the Nuc.  I'll just keep watch.

3) Hive 3 is the new hive, second from the right.  That looks healthy and there was brood, capped and uncapped so I must have a queen in there but I didn't see her.  Because I had some frames that were new and not drawn out with comb, I added a top hive feeder and some 1:1 syrup to give them a boost.

2) Hive 2 appears to be thriving after such a slow start this year.  I removed a bunch of comb, added some syrup to the feeder inside the hive, and also put the super back on the top  in case it's needed.  They aren't really using it yet.

1)  I have a lot of bees in this hive but the second deep seemed rather light on honey stores...but I did move some frames out of this last time so I think it just hasn't had time to recover yet in 10 days, at least half of which were rainy.  So I added the top hive feeder again to hopefully help them build comb on the new frames faster.  I saw progress but this should help.  Then they should be ready for the goldenrod coming very soon.

I'm thankful for my flowers because I think they really help the bees in the slower times.  I did see lots of colored pollen in the hives...yellow, orange and white...

I charged the fence yesterday too so I think the bees should be fine for a week or two.

Lastly, others use tie downs to hold the hives together so I bought some..the kind with a ratchet at the end.  I added one to Hive 1 and Hive 4 and was tired so I stopped.  My fence has a strong charge so I think I'll be ok should a bear decide to break in.  I think (hope) they have learned to stay from this fence.

Soon, I'll pull off the supers from Hive 1.  That's probably the only harvest for this year.

Hive check 7/16/17 - and new pink hive

Exciting day yesterday when I add a new hive...the pink one, third from the left.  I had to purchase a new complete hive, with top cover, deep box, inner cover, 10 frames, bottom board and entrance reducer.  I expect I'll need to buy another deep hive over the winter for spring...if the new hive survives.

I'm excited because for the past 2-3 years, I've been trying to increase the number of hives with no success.  This year, I purchased two nucs so I could switch around frames and use them to shore up the weaker hives.

• Hive 1 is the tallest.  I need to pull off some honey from that hive soon.  One super is just about full.
• Hive 2 is the second tallest.  I added more sugar syrup to that one this week since many of the frames are not drawn out and I saw a lot of uncapped honey.  I also added a super in case they needed room for eggs.
• Hive 3 is the pink one which is now half full, with plenty of brood and seemingly very active.
• Nuc is on the far right.  I added some frames in there in case something should happen with them but don't expect much.  I saw little activity in there yet had bees going in and out so I'll watch that one for a bit.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with the progress this year.

I'm beginning to think about medications for the fall and insulation.  I remembered that I have a bunch of bubble pack type insulation in the shed that I used to use in the greenhouse.  I don't know why that wouldn't be good for insulating the hives.  Wrap that around the hives and secure with  bungie cords.  

In the past I've used bales of hay but thought I'd try this other method...but will run the idea by some other beekeepers to make sure this is a good idea.

Now we need lots of sun to get more flowers.  I know golden rod is coming but this year's rain has cut down on flowers I think.  I notice it in the vegetable garden too.

Hive check 7/8/17

In today's hive check, here are some of my observations.

1) Nuc has survived and I saw lots of comb building, larvae and enough capped and uncapped honey so I added half a sugar/crisco patty to the top and closed it back up.

2)

• Hive #1 continues to show lots of activity including many queen cells which I removed except for one frame that had a beautiful queen cell that I moved into another Nuc along with a few frames of capped and uncapped honey and some brood.  Just three frames into the new Nuc.  I just needed to remove some of the uncapped honey thinking this deep was low on space to lay eggs.
• The upper deep where I moved out frames last week is getting filled so all I did was remove extra comb and moved out one uncapped honey frame to the new Nuc.
• The lower deep showed larvae, capped and uncapped honey, capped brood, very little drone cells. Again I didn't need to do anything other than remove some extra comb and queen cells. The lower deep is very heavy so they are gathering enough honey to get them through the winter.
• I also checked the two supers...one is very heavy with honey but as I looked at a few frames in there, some was still uncapped so I left it all in there and think that in a few weeks, I can take honey out of this hive.
• The top super is being worked on but there's still plenty of space for them to store more honey

3) Hive #2 continues to build...the poor thing got such a slow start.  But I've watched the activity and lots of pollen is going in and comb is being built and eggs are being laid so I have a queen.  It looks like I have three queens  - one per hive - which is awesome...and maybe a fourth on the way in that new Nuc.

• I don't expect any honey out of this hive this year. If I can build up the population though, and keep it going through the winter, I would have a good start for next year.
• This might be a good hive to top with the first Nuc to winter over and it will help to keep the Nuc warm.

I'm going to order another hive kit to give me a complete set, hoping to put the Nuc into the new hive soon and hopefully giving it time to grow before the winter.  Once done, this will become Hive 3...hopefully!

Inspection today sees evidence of a queen!

Last week I did an inspection of the hives and  Hive 1 appears to be thriving.  Today I inspected again and Hive 1 is still just bursting with activity.  I see a lot of uncapped honey and other frames pretty full so I went ahead and added a super onto Hive 1.  They seem to be doing fine with the entrance opening.  In a week or two, I will probably fully open the entrance.  They had a good amount of comb coming off from the bottom of the frame. I took it off.  I also took one of the frames that appeared to have some queens in development.  I moved that and another few frames to the nuc.

Let's talk about the Nuc

Two weeks ago, I moved a few frames into that same Nuc with the queen cell. but I didn't move the Nuc to another yard so when I checked on them, I saw that the bees were gone.  So I left the frames in there, including the frame that had the large queen cell and still closed up.

My intent today was to split Hive #1 and load up the Nuc and take it to another yard this time. I put a frame in there with one frame I found that had a bunch of queen cells in the making and a few other frames of honey and syrup.  I'm hoping they finish making queen cells and maybe I can get a new queen that way.  My intent was to raise a queen for Hive #2 that had no eggs in last week's inspection.
The one I purchased and added apparently didn't make it.  But today, there were eggs!  I was so excited.  There must be a queen in there now.it's more likely the queen I bought laid the eggs but I don't know why it would take her so long.  She came out of the cage on 5/31 and only started laying eggs sometime this week.  

I first thought it might have come from the Nuc since that queen cell now had a hole at the end.  She had hatched and she was gone...perhaps to Hive #2 This queen would need to take its maiden flights, etc. so think it's too soon for her to begin laying eggs.

Very positive inspection today.

May 25, 2017 - added queen to one hive

One of the Nucs I bought a month ago has not florished at all.  It has no eggs.  I thought about letting them build a queen cell, currently in production, but decided to get a new queen so that I don't lose any more valuable time this spring.  I bought my queen for $35 from Charles Andros up in Alstead, NH, making an early morning trip there.

I took out the frame that has the queen cell on it and added that to a Nuc along with another frame that has a lot of capped brood and honey.  I am hoping they'll finish making the queen and let nature take care of itself.

Meanwhile, I added the new queen to the small hive that has only one deep after seeing how the bees were with the new queen.  They seemed ok and not trying to kill her. Hopefully she will survive and I'll take a look sometime this weekend to see if she's out and alive.. This hive has a lot of uncapped honey in it so I also added an empty frame that she can use to lay eggs...but I believe it also needs comb built.  We'll see how things go.

On the larger hive, I saw a lot of burr comb down below so thought they may be thinking of swarming.  I'm told that doesn't usually happen the first year, but I'm keeping vigil so I don't lose these bees to that!

I also did a bit of checkerboarding in the lower deep, adding a few empty frames and move some of the loaded frames to the top deep.  And one of these loaded frames went in to support the new Nuc I started today.

Bees arrived

Two Nucs installed this morning, each with top hive feeders and sugar syrup.  I added some screens to the feeder to hopefully get less drowning, giving the bees something to stand on.  Not sure how they'll work so will keep a pretty close eye on them.

I noticed after the installation was done, that the back of the fence was in disarray.  The fence was fine but I have roofing shingles under the fence to keep weeds down, and then cover with hay.  I see the shingle a few feet away and the hay that was on top of it in a pile behind that.  Hmmm. So I walked around to put it back in place and noticed that some animal was trying to dig under the fence.  They didn't get far (thank goodness for clay soil) and hopefully they were zapped pretty hard.  The fence has a good charge.

All this was before the bees actually arrived.  Their empty hives were there, however, with 5 frames in each and so I bet it was a bear and he could smell the honeycomb.

I just hope I'll be able to sleep at night knowing my hives are being stalked by  a bear.

Picking up bees in 5 days

I am investing in more bees this year so that I have two hives.  I'm hoping that I can keep them both going. It's been a difficult few years because I haven't been able to keep a hive from year to year.  But with two, I'm hoping to have one of the hives doing okay to help boost a hive that  might be falling behind for one reason or another.  And to compare behaviors would be interesting and hopefully insightful into bee behavior.

Clearly, these are expensive jars of honey!  I haven't sold any yet.  I've had enough for myself and immediate family, which is good and delicious.  But I lose money on them every day.  So it's not about the money.  It's about the bees and thriving crops, which is, from a long range perspective, even more important than the honey they produce.

Anyway...off to another year of beekeeping. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

My goal is to have these same two hives thriving a year from now!