May 30th hive check

Bees still working on filling frames.  There are a few frames with a lot of activity and brood, but there are still frames unfilled yet so I'm going to keep the one deep on there longer.  It's now been about 5 weeks now.  It feels a bit slow to me but perhaps the cold start to the month prevented them from being further along.

Otherwise all looks good in there.

Hive checks May 8 and May 19

The photos were taken during the May 8th hive check.  All looked good and the bees were active and I saw a bit of brood as well.  The most I did in this check was to remove the overabundance of comb!  I removed the sheet of comb and will melt it down for craft use.

Although this frame had comb already, the bees made another sheet of comb over the top. Go figure!

Today, May 19th, I took another look inside the hive to see what's going on now.  I wasn't ready to add another deep but probably will the next hive check.

The bees were bringing in all colors of pollen.  I saw a few frames of capped brood and capped honey in the upper corners.  Perfect.  The Drone frame had been worked on and had a lot of comb now but they weren't filled with brood yet but will keep an eye on that frame as we move forward.

I also added two mite strips...Apivan today.

Stubborn ole fool - 3/4/2020

A beautiful 60 degree day yesterday was perfect for getting into the hive.  I wanted to clean it out before spring...I did order a new package of bees to pick up in May.  That's why I'm a stubborn ole fool.  I NEED to get these bees through the winter months...all of them, not part of the winter. So will try yet again.

So here's what I found yesterday.

Not sure what this debris is . wax I guess. 

Here are two frames of honey...I ended up with about 4 full frames and another 3 or so with partial areas of honey.

This is the top deep (there are three deeps). I think they were up at the top because that's where more of the honey was.

Look at all the babies being born at the time they froze.

One empty frame with these black dots.  Not sure what they are but this will get a new foundation.

The paper on top of these frames had been one method of attacking varroa - Oxilic acid solution. I don't believe varroa was a situation.

Another frame with babies in the midst of being born.  It breaks my heart!!

Ugly frame.

 So the only thing I plan to do different this coming year is to make sure I wrap the hive.  I will also go back to adding bales of hay around them for added protection.  Otherwise I will stick to the same care as this year, but will probably change out the api strips for something else. 

Another sad story (:.

Damn, damn, damn - 2/25/20

Bees are all dead in the hive.  Mid-January they were alive and well.  Now all dead.  I have no idea what got them this time except for the cold.

I treated repeatedly for varroa mites
I took zero honey, leaving it all to them
I added a cedar pillow to the top to prevent condensation falling on the bees

I didn't wrap the hives this year however, since others seem to get by without doing that.  I did add some insulation boards next to the hive though and snuggled two empty hives next to them for warmth. 

I am undecided about this year.  I may or may not try to get more bees for spring. I'm pretty discouraged.

Jan 12, 2020 - 60 degrees

Yesterday, with the beautiful, unlikely warm weather, the bees were flying around the hive. They were cleaning house and I helped them by removing dead bees from the entrance.

I am just so happy to still have bees. I did things differently (but winter isn't over so...) :

1) treated for mites the entire season and
2) I didn't wrap the hive this year
3) Put cedar pillow in super at the top to catch moisture
4) took no honey myself last summer so there's plenty of food.

I did see dead bees in the snow as well which always makes me sad.

12/28 Hive check

i've been .dead bees in the snow but not a huge number but I was anxious to look inside the hive for a quick peek.

I changed up the cedar chip pillow at the top housed in a super with a screen bottom.  The top of the deep below the screen was filled with bs so I was happy to see that.  I did nothing except pull out the bottom board to see if there were dead bees there.  Nothing there.

Then I noticed that the front entrance had a lot of bees in front of the opening so I unscrewed the mouse guard and pulled out a lot of dead bees.  I then closed it back up.  No bees came out to greet me while I was doing that.  However a few had come out while I was changing out the pillow.

Overall I'm happy there are still bees in there.  I know I left them plenty of food by taking no honey for myself this year.  Fingers crossed.

10/28 quick check

I opened the hive today because it was the only day this week where the weather will be warm enough.  I probably should have taken it all apart and checked thoroughly but I didn't.  I wanted to see how many bees I have...LOTS.  And that is in the top deep.  There are three deeps.

The top deep has 8 frames and the feeder which takes up almost two frames worth of space.  I filled the feeder with sugar syrup.

I wanted to look at a few frames but got stung right away and it wasn't really warm enough to keep the hive open for long.  But I did see they were making wax on an empty frame so they are still busy creating space.

I'm so pleased to see a lot of bees.  I have treated for varroa twice.  Once with the Apivar strips and one with oxilic acid on paper laid over the top of the bottom deep. Very few mites have fallen off the bees though.  Some did at first.  But now I think I must leave them be until a nice day and I don't know when that will be.

I'm also thinking about not wrapping them this year.  I've heard of those who have had good luck not wrapping up the hives.  But I would move the two other empty hives close to the tall one and maybe  a piece of stiff insulation to the more windy side.  And close up the entrance.  I'm not sure yet.

I had added popsicle sticks to the top of the inside cover last month so that the sticks raise the outer cover just enough to remove any  moisture building up inside.  I saw no wetness on inner cover so  it looked to me like it was working well.  I also have cedar filled pillows I could add if needed but didn't want any more height to deal with. 

IF these bees survive the winter, I will do a split.  Perhaps I should have done a split this summer, in hindsight. We'll just have to see what happens over the winter and how many I lose.  Having an extra hive is something I want if only for comparison purposes and would like to  do it early to let bees make a queen.