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.

9/27/19 - All's well

I see I haven't posted anything this month, for good reasons. I had a family emergency and lost a brother unexpectedly, which turned my focus to family rather than my bees.

Today I did a few things:

• Added mouse guard
• Added feeder to the top
• Repositioned this tall hive since it was leaning forward and as soon as I touched the first box, I stopped it from tipping over!  Oh boy, what a disaster that would have been.
• Upset my bees and got a few stings today
• Added Apivar strips to the two top deeps.  The bottom deep still has the Oxilic acid paper towels there so I thought I  may need extra help with the varroa since my bottom board didn't have  many mites on it.
• I added a new sticky board to see if I see more mites than I have been seeing

There still appears to be a queen since I saw brood in the middle deep and upper deep.  I didn't disturb the lower deep since I would have torn the oxilic paper.

Lots of honey, capped and ready to eat when needed.  I'm not taking any for myself this fall. I added the feeder so I will begin adding sugar syrup very soon but don't think they need it yet.

I'm worried about the height of my hive.  I fear something bumped into it which is what made it tippy. But it's too late, I think, to create a Nuc and have it winter over. I may get a few more cement blocks to add under the front so that it can't tip off.

8/25/19 - Hive check and varroa treatment and mite check

I was anxious to get into the hive with all the talk of mites this week and saw that this is the exact time of year when they begin to really multiply.  The last time I checked, I didn't have any.  But I decided that today was the day I was going to do the Oxilic acid/glycerin treatment on the work towel.  To me, out of all I've read, that seemed to be the easiest solution and it's supposed to be very effective. I followed these instructions.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg1Vm-v2pRY
We'll see.

I also added the sticky board again but I should have done that three days ago so I can see how the solution works.  But it's too late now so I'll at least have a count in three days and then check it again in a few weeks and hopefully will see less than I'll have on Wednesday when I pull and count.

I was anxious to see if I had drone brood, still thinking of last year when my hive was overcome by drones.  The few cells I saw, I scraped off to get rid of them but also to see if they had mites in the brood.  They did.  But my green drone frames had no brood this time.  They were actually filling one corner with honey.  Whatever.  They have space to lay if they want to.

There's a lot of brood throughout the three deeps and a lot of nectar and capped honey.   I'm not taking any honey this year so that they have plenty to winter over.  In the spring, if there's any left, I can see if there's enough for me to take some.

It's not about the honey this year.  It's all about keeping the hive going!.

I did notice several queen cells, hatched or otherwise empty.

I also got my first sting of the year.  I've had much more aggressive bees than these. They probably thought, if they think at all, that I was going to take away  honey.