Spider with a bee corpse
I mixed up a large batch of 2:1 (40 lbs sugar, 20 lbs water) syrup for my three hives at the Garner community garden. Next time I’ll need to do 50 lbs of sugar to completely fill all of the feeders. Two of the hives were small swarms. During the last inspection, they had barely started to fill their second box. Today’s inspection showed that all three hives were doing well. They all had drawn out more frames and the right most hive even had 4 frames of capped honey in the top box. I only had enough sugar to fill half the feeder for this hive. I feel strongly that this hive will survive the winter. It’s already has a decent amount of stores and a several frames of capped brood in the bottom box. The hive has a screened top with a spider “foraging” on the screen. I managed to get a picture of it dragging around a bee corpse.
The middle hive had me worried after first removing the inner cover. Just like last time, there were a few wax moth larvae and a small hive beetle crawling around in the empty feeder. This prompted a full inspection. I didn’t see any signs of either in the hive. I guess the bees ignore the pests in the feeder because it’s separated from the hive.
I’ll need to bring an inner cover and two trays to start closing up the hives for winter.
I inspected the four main hives in the backyard apiary this morning. The split from Hegemone is replacing its queen. From the amount of capped drone cells, I’d say that the previous queen didn’t mate very well. There were a few capped and uncapped queen cells. They haven’t drawn out any more comb and their honey stores were looking a little empty. I removed two frames, one from each the top and bottom box and put the deep frame feeder. I ordered the wrong part from Brushy Moutain and ended up with a deep frame feeder instead of a medium. That should be enough food to keep them going and possibly encourage them to draw out a little bit more comb. I’m not sure if the hive will build up enough to survive a winter. I’m not sure if I’ll combine it with another hive or see if it can survive the winter.
Antheia is strong and doing well. The queen is laying in the bottom two boxes and the third box is mostly capped honey. As the strongest hive in the yard, I think that the hive has been getting most of the syrup from the communal feeding. Since all frames were fully drawn or mostly drawn, I gave the hive back it’s fourth box and pulled a frame of brood up from the second box. They already have plenty of stores for winter, so I’m hoping that they’ll draw more frames that can be given to other hives.
The split with the purchased queen is doing well. They still haven’t fully drawn the second box. I refilled the entrance feeder for the first time since the spring honey flow. The hive is strong enough that robbing shouldn’t be an issue.
Hegemone is doing well. I found some cocoons on the outside under the outer cover and on the bottom of the hive below the screened bottom. Could possibly be wax moth, but I’ll never know because I crushed them all. I saw a hornet snatch a bee off the top of the hive. My attempts to burn the hornet with the butane torch failed and it flew off.
I wanted to keep feeding the top bar hive without the flaws of using the screen. I bought a 2.75″ hole drill bit. This is the size needed for a regular mouth jar. It’s a very snug fit, so its best to either widen the hole with a file or use the drill to widen the hole a little bit.
First Two Hives in the Apiary
The nucs I ordered from The Carolina Bee Company are now happily in their new home. There was a little bit of confusion with my order, but in the end it was handled very well and I would definitely do business with them in the future.
My bees are Minnesota Hygienic and very strong. One of the queens is marked (green) and the other one must be a ninja because she couldn’t be found to mark. Even with the foragers out collecting pollen, the medium frames were full There were clear signs that she was there and laying. Since Monica couldn’t get the queen marked, I was given six frames, instead of five. I modified two hive bodies with standard window screen stapled to the bottoms. This ensured good ventilation without giving any of the bees the opportunity of riding up front with me.
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Beeyard
After an extensive landscaping weekend, my beeyard is ready for some bees. Every book i’ve read states that location of a beehive is very important. The bees want early morning sun to warm them up and get them moving. In the afternoon, they want shade so they do not have to work so hard cooling the hive. The local beekeepers say that too, but always add on “bees don’t really care”. Apis mellifera is very adaptable. They will start a new hive in full sun, full shade, a langstroth box, a wall, inside a tree, on a tree limb, etc. They don’t really seem to care.
The beehive pictured faces West and the early morning sun is fully shaded until around 11am. Then it receives full sun until the early evening. Not exactly the “ideal”, but they should survive. I’ve been to a few beeyards in the area that were more shaded. The location is good for being out of the way. Positioned about 50 feet from my porch and over 100 feet to the nearest neighboring house. The bees flight path should not go anywhere near people and the only problem could be if they choose the water fountain as their water source over a bucket I intend on placing near the hives.
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