Beekeeping--a new beek's journey!PIC HEAVY (first week of Oct)

[lorihadams]

On to hive 1 from 7-16-11

We added a second hive body a while ago and I am pleased to report that there are new brood in the upper deep!!! Even with my bad eyes I was hoping to see newly laid brood in the upper deep since they have drawn out lots of comb up there. They have been making lots of honey and leaving the centers open for the queen to lay but until this weekend we haven't seen her lay any brood in there yet. It just really reaffirms that this queen is going strong. Everything looks really good and the honey in there in the outer frames of the upper deep is just beautiful. There is also lots of pollen being stored in the outer frames of the lower deep, one or two are almost completely full of pollen on both sides. There is a good mix of brood in different stages and everyone in there looks clean and free of parasites.

Here are the pics from the upper deep of hive 1

moving on to the lower deep, we also saw the queen here as well

and here's Her Majesty

 

[valmom]

Beautiful!

 

[lorihadams]

Saturday we checked the hive early in the morning, about 10 am, before it soared into the triple digits

We checked the entire hive for hive 2, our weaker hive but only the upper deep for hive 1 due to the heat. So how are they doing? Well, I am overall pleased with everything. Hive 2 is expanding pretty well into the upper deep and the queen is laying seemingly better. We found lots of newly laid brood, none in the upper but lots in the lower as well as some in various stages. That was very encouraging for me and I am happy with that. We did see the queen as well and she looks good. There were no supercedure cells so I am happy for now. Not a lot of clean up to do on hive 2 either. Here are the pictures from Hive 2

 

[lorihadams]

Okay, so I apologize for the blurriness in the close ups, we were trying to get pictures of the newly laid brood, if you look closely you can see a little white dot in the middle of each cell. She had laid in the entire 2/3s of the bottom of several frames all the way across and not spotty at all so I'm happy that she seems to be stronger.

Now, onto hive 1. We inspected only the upper deep on this one cause as the time went on the heat was worse and they were getting more and more agitated. Hive 1 has been pretty solid so far so we figured that if we saw new brood in the upper and lots of pollen and nectar/honey then the lower was probably alright. They have lots of room so I'm not worried about swarm cells at all. There have been some supercedure cells on the lower older frames that came with the nuc but they have always been empty and even though they need to be removed we figured it was best not to press it in this heat.

Here are the pictures from hive 1

Our only concern was a couple of frames that had cells that looked dirty. The inside of the cells looked like they had dirt in them, kind of blackish. I know that the queen has laid brood in the upper before so I am wondering if maybe those had "hatched" out their first brood and hadn't been completely cleaned out yet so she could lay more inside. Everything looked alright elsewhere, no evidence of disease or anything abnormal and the bees looked good. I'm just thinking that these were cells that had produced their first bees and were just dirty. You can see the ones I'm talking about in the above pictures and all of these are from the upper deep only. Any thoughts from my experienced beeks?

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Awesome pics, Lori!

 

[lorihadams]

7-30-11

No pictures today, I'm leaving to go out of town and the camera is packed. But, here are the findings from today's inspection:

Both hives had brood in the upper deeps on the middle 2-4 frames and lots of newly laid eggs. Lots of honey and pollen and the bees all look good. It was really hot, even this morning so we only checked to see if there was brood in the uppers and left the lowers alone. I am pleased with the way everything looks and I'm very happy that my weaker hive seems to have strengthened quite a bit since the beginning. I'm thinking they just needed more space and time to get going. I didn't pull any frames from the lowers but did peek down in there and they seem to be doing fine. Both have eaten 2 quarts of syrup each week in the baggie feeders and seem to be doing well on just that. The temps have been so hot lately that I don't want to do too much to them to disturb them. Once the temps go back down a bit we'll do a full inspection of both hive bodies for both hives. I'm thinking that I will not add a honey super and queen excluder until next spring when things get going again. They haven't drawn out all the frames in the upper deep so I think we'll be okay until the spring. I am prepared to add a super if it looks like they need the space but I'm thinking it might be too late to add it now.

I'll be out of town for VBS the week of my bee meeting so I'm hoping that hubby will go in my place but I'm not holding my breath about it. I think the novelty has worn off and now he is just tired of being out in the heat doing inspections. Maybe it will get better when the weather cools off some.

 

[lorihadams]

This past weekend I was out of town so my husband mixed up some sugar water and replaced the feeders.

I do have a question though....when do you stop feeding them??? Sugar is getting expensive

 

[keljonma]

This past weekend I was out of town so my husband mixed up some sugar water and replaced the feeders.

I do have a question though....when do you stop feeding them??? Sugar is getting expensive

Lori, stop feeding when the bees no longer take it. In the case of new colonies, this can be through autumn when daytime temps reach 40. Don't feed during winter. Next spring you can start feeding again until you see they aren't taking the syrup. The timing of this will depend on the nectar/pollen availability in your area.

ETA: Never feed when you have honey supers on the hive.

 

[lorihadams]

Gotcha! They are still eating the 2 quarts per week so I guess I'll just keep on keeping on. I don't have any honey supers on there. My first hive is getting kinda full in the second hive body so do I need to add more space for them? Could I add a queen excluder and honey super if they fill up the second hive body and just stop feeding them? I wouldn't harvest the honey this year but would leave it for them for the winter. What do you think?

 

[big brown horse]

Thank you for such a wonderful thread!! This should be sticky-ed!! Your pictures are fantastic!