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Quail_Antwerp
Cold is on the Right, Hot is on The Left
Will be checking my own hive later today, so should have pics from that to share.
Adventures in Beekeeping - Journey To Liquid Gold - Pics
- Thread starter Quail_Antwerp
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Will be checking my own hive later today, so should have pics from that to share.
- Thread starter
- #82
Quail_Antwerp
Cold is on the Right, Hot is on The Left
Here's the pics from checking my hive today. Not a lot to report. Didn't put the second deep on, because they only have one side of frame five pulled out and are starting on 6.
Will check again in another week or so.
I checked them by 11:30 am today, and they didn't seem to be as upset about my presence this morning. Big difference in their behavior compared to checking them in afternoon - so going to keep hive checks to before noon only!
I did spray the empty frames with Sugar water mixed with honey bee super to encourage them to work those frames. Hope they are further a long in progress next week - i really want to add the second deep!
I did have a bit of disappointment that they weren't ready for the second super, but here's hoping they are ready by next week when I check again!
oh and, IMO, I think smoking 'em pisses 'em off - we couldn't keep the smoker lit this time, so I just sprayed them with sugar/hbh and they were more like mmmm food - and left us a lone.
Will check again in another week or so.
I checked them by 11:30 am today, and they didn't seem to be as upset about my presence this morning. Big difference in their behavior compared to checking them in afternoon - so going to keep hive checks to before noon only!
I did spray the empty frames with Sugar water mixed with honey bee super to encourage them to work those frames. Hope they are further a long in progress next week - i really want to add the second deep!
I did have a bit of disappointment that they weren't ready for the second super, but here's hoping they are ready by next week when I check again!
oh and, IMO, I think smoking 'em pisses 'em off - we couldn't keep the smoker lit this time, so I just sprayed them with sugar/hbh and they were more like mmmm food - and left us a lone.
Nice pics... I know that feeling of disappointment..!
Filling a deep, and getting a good start on a 2nd deep can be a tall order,depending on where you are,weather conditions and flows.This time of the year alot of places are getting into a dearth, some places are doing well.
If your area is dry and has little for the girls to work on in the way of nector or pollen, they won't be drawn much comb,and will eat the reserves that they did build up.I use all med. boxes, because i can interchange as needed.Three med. as the brood chamber works well for me in my area, then i add supers as needed. As i was taught, i only give the girls as much space as they can use/need..To much space invites pest and robbing by stronger hives in your area, especially during a dearth.Before i switched to all med. boxes, i used a deep and a med. as the brood chamber,then added a honey supers. usaully a shallow or med.box.I would think to use two deeps and be successful, you'd need a really good laying queen, and a very good pollen/nector flow going on.Are you using two deeps as the brood chamber, and adding honey supers as needed...?
I know that feeling of disappointment..!Filling a deep, and getting a good start on a 2nd deep can be a tall order,depending on where you are,weather conditions and flows.This time of the year alot of places are getting into a dearth, some places are doing well.
If your area is dry and has little for the girls to work on in the way of nector or pollen, they won't be drawn much comb,and will eat the reserves that they did build up.I use all med. boxes, because i can interchange as needed.Three med. as the brood chamber works well for me in my area, then i add supers as needed. As i was taught, i only give the girls as much space as they can use/need..To much space invites pest and robbing by stronger hives in your area, especially during a dearth.Before i switched to all med. boxes, i used a deep and a med. as the brood chamber,then added a honey supers. usaully a shallow or med.box.I would think to use two deeps and be successful, you'd need a really good laying queen, and a very good pollen/nector flow going on.Are you using two deeps as the brood chamber, and adding honey supers as needed...?
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- #84
Quail_Antwerp
Cold is on the Right, Hot is on The Left
We checked the hive again today and I FINALLY got to add the top hive body and 10 frames! YAY!!!!!!!!
It was a great check of the hive today, but we didn't get pics because I didn't think to check camera batteries and they were as dead as they could be!
They have worked all the way through frame 8, were pulling out on frame 9, and frame 10 had bees on it as well.
On frames 1-5 there was capped honey and brood - and I saw a lot of larvae in different stages. On frames 6-8 I couldn't see if there were eggs in the cells, but they were definitely filling them with necter and pollen.
We found my queen on frame 8 and she was looking wonderful! I was so excited that I spotted her right away! E looked, too, and said let me see - and he didn't want me to point her out, so he found her on his own - and put his finger towards the queen which brought 2 or 3 girls off the frame at him LOL He just backed away and they went back to the frame.
So we put the upper hive body on and E sprayed the new frames with sugar water & HBH mix. Some of the girls were already climbing up on the top frames as I put the inner cover and top on.
At our last bee meeting I think they said we hit a dearth in August, so I'll be heading to the local bee supply place and buying some pollen patties for my girls.
I was super happy to see how much progress they had made in 2 and a half weeks! REALLY happy!
AND they've definitely increased in numbers! There's definitely double the amount of bees that I started with!
Hopefully I'll remember to check camera batteries next time!
It was a great check of the hive today, but we didn't get pics because I didn't think to check camera batteries and they were as dead as they could be!
They have worked all the way through frame 8, were pulling out on frame 9, and frame 10 had bees on it as well.
On frames 1-5 there was capped honey and brood - and I saw a lot of larvae in different stages. On frames 6-8 I couldn't see if there were eggs in the cells, but they were definitely filling them with necter and pollen.
We found my queen on frame 8 and she was looking wonderful! I was so excited that I spotted her right away! E looked, too, and said let me see - and he didn't want me to point her out, so he found her on his own - and put his finger towards the queen which brought 2 or 3 girls off the frame at him LOL He just backed away and they went back to the frame.
So we put the upper hive body on and E sprayed the new frames with sugar water & HBH mix. Some of the girls were already climbing up on the top frames as I put the inner cover and top on.
At our last bee meeting I think they said we hit a dearth in August, so I'll be heading to the local bee supply place and buying some pollen patties for my girls.
I was super happy to see how much progress they had made in 2 and a half weeks! REALLY happy!
AND they've definitely increased in numbers! There's definitely double the amount of bees that I started with!
Hopefully I'll remember to check camera batteries next time!
BeccaOH
Almost Self-Reliant
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- #86
Quail_Antwerp
Cold is on the Right, Hot is on The Left
Forgot to add, we didn't smoke them today, either. Just used sugar/HBH mix and I was out there before noon - this seems to be the best time of day for my girls. I don't think they get as upset between 11 am and noon as they do if I check in afternoon or towards evening.
lorihadams
Always doing laundry
Looking good darlin'!!! They really seem to be getting going....my second weaker hive took a while to get going but now they are doing really well. Feels good to add that second hive body doesn't it?
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- #88
Quail_Antwerp
Cold is on the Right, Hot is on The Left
Been a long time since I've posted in here about my bees. Quick Summary, we now have 2 hives, with hopes of expanding to 10 hives in a year or two.
But we're having bee problems.
We checked the hives today. We checked hive 1 first. I harvested one frame of honey from the medium super. There is more in there that I could ideally harvest, since their two deeps are fairly bursting with honey, but I'm thinking we're going to have a rough winter, so I'm only taking the one frame until spring. Until I see how they survive this winter, until I know for sure they have enough food for themselves.
But, I absolutely LOVE hive 1.
I'm using the crush and strain method for harvesting my honey, until we either build or buy our own extractor. My sweet husband is looking at the plans to build one, and knowing how handy he is, that's probably the route we'll go.
Which now brings me to Hive 2.
There are not enough words in the English language for me to adequately explain to you how 100% evil this hive is. It was all I could do to NOT burn the hive where it sits. Just out of revenge.
It started out well enough. We opened the top super and began pulling out frames, which I wasn't too thrilled with how they were looking. A few of the girls buzzed around our heads in warning, but nothing abnormal to be concerned with.
When we moved the top box to check the bottom deep super - Insanely EVIL bees!
They chased AND I MEAN AS IN A CLOUD OF BEES ABOVE MY HEAD me and DH the entire 200 ft to the pig pens! beyond the garage! They are insane!!
We turned on the water hose, set the nozzle to shower, and sprayed it in the air like rain above our head to get them to go away. They came after us again when they saw us coming back to close up the hive.
We closed them up, didn't find the queen, so I suspect she is dead, but did see a queen cell that I left. Came in and made a call to the State Dept and the State Bee Inspector is calling me back tomorrow, plus our local county bee inspector is going to come out to look at hive 2 for me. Especially since, 1- they had a couple cells with black(ish) stuff in it that I suspect may have foulbrood and 2- I think they are queenless and 3- I think that Hive 2 may have Small Hive Beetles. (only because I saw a worm larvae crawling on the top of the inner cover, and i squished it, and when I came in to look up foul brood found a pic of Small Hive Beetle larvae and it looked like what I killed).
I also think I may have some yellow jackets harrassing that hive. I squished (on purpose) one of those trying to get IN the hive.
Hopefully the County Inspector can give us some insight. We'll see. The State inspector is giving us a call tomorrow.
But we're having bee problems.
We checked the hives today. We checked hive 1 first. I harvested one frame of honey from the medium super. There is more in there that I could ideally harvest, since their two deeps are fairly bursting with honey, but I'm thinking we're going to have a rough winter, so I'm only taking the one frame until spring. Until I see how they survive this winter, until I know for sure they have enough food for themselves.
But, I absolutely LOVE hive 1.
I'm using the crush and strain method for harvesting my honey, until we either build or buy our own extractor. My sweet husband is looking at the plans to build one, and knowing how handy he is, that's probably the route we'll go.
Which now brings me to Hive 2.
There are not enough words in the English language for me to adequately explain to you how 100% evil this hive is. It was all I could do to NOT burn the hive where it sits. Just out of revenge.
It started out well enough. We opened the top super and began pulling out frames, which I wasn't too thrilled with how they were looking. A few of the girls buzzed around our heads in warning, but nothing abnormal to be concerned with.
When we moved the top box to check the bottom deep super - Insanely EVIL bees!
They chased AND I MEAN AS IN A CLOUD OF BEES ABOVE MY HEAD me and DH the entire 200 ft to the pig pens! beyond the garage! They are insane!!
We turned on the water hose, set the nozzle to shower, and sprayed it in the air like rain above our head to get them to go away. They came after us again when they saw us coming back to close up the hive.
We closed them up, didn't find the queen, so I suspect she is dead, but did see a queen cell that I left. Came in and made a call to the State Dept and the State Bee Inspector is calling me back tomorrow, plus our local county bee inspector is going to come out to look at hive 2 for me. Especially since, 1- they had a couple cells with black(ish) stuff in it that I suspect may have foulbrood and 2- I think they are queenless and 3- I think that Hive 2 may have Small Hive Beetles. (only because I saw a worm larvae crawling on the top of the inner cover, and i squished it, and when I came in to look up foul brood found a pic of Small Hive Beetle larvae and it looked like what I killed).
I also think I may have some yellow jackets harrassing that hive. I squished (on purpose) one of those trying to get IN the hive.
Hopefully the County Inspector can give us some insight. We'll see. The State inspector is giving us a call tomorrow.
Denim Deb
More Precious than Rubies
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And that's why I don't have bees! I'm allergic, so something like that could be a big problem for me. Hope you get some answers.
Boogity
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Hi Alycia - I'm an old beek and I'm in the process of downsizing my apiaries. I had several hives at 4 different farms in our neck-o-the-woods as well as 6 hives in my back yard. Now I'm happy to say that I only have three hives in the back yard and no others. Over the years I have dealt with angry colonies and I know it can be trying at times. Something that I was taught long ago is to not tolerate bad bees. It takes some time to determine if the colony is actually aggressive or if you just happened to be catching them at bad times. If you determine that they are plain old mean bees then get busy and remedy the problem.
Here in East central Indiana we have an active beekeepers club and we help each other out as much as possible. Our club has a few members who are experienced with grafting "Purdue Queen Eggs". This bloodline of queens have been selectively refined over the past 25 years to have the personality traits we always want to see in our colonies. 1. Good worker offspring 2. Maximum egg production 3. Mild and calm personalities.
I recommend that you find someone who has a mild mannered queen and graft several of her eggs into your colony. First you will have to kill your queen, get rid of all (if any) existing queen cells, and put the new queen cells into the brood area of your hive. Let the colony do the rest. They will hatch the new queen(s) and the first queen to emerge will dispatch any other queen larva in short order. Within 6 to 8 weeks you will have an completely new colony and hopefully they will all be mild mannered sweethearts. The queen usually controls the temperament of the colony.
Talk to your beek friends and they may want to help you out.
Here in East central Indiana we have an active beekeepers club and we help each other out as much as possible. Our club has a few members who are experienced with grafting "Purdue Queen Eggs". This bloodline of queens have been selectively refined over the past 25 years to have the personality traits we always want to see in our colonies. 1. Good worker offspring 2. Maximum egg production 3. Mild and calm personalities.
I recommend that you find someone who has a mild mannered queen and graft several of her eggs into your colony. First you will have to kill your queen, get rid of all (if any) existing queen cells, and put the new queen cells into the brood area of your hive. Let the colony do the rest. They will hatch the new queen(s) and the first queen to emerge will dispatch any other queen larva in short order. Within 6 to 8 weeks you will have an completely new colony and hopefully they will all be mild mannered sweethearts. The queen usually controls the temperament of the colony.
Talk to your beek friends and they may want to help you out.
