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.

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.

I spilled a little bit of sugar water on the concrete block.

Bees walking across the wax bridge to their new home

I transferred the hives from the traveling boxes in to their permanent homes. These bees are extremely friendly. I had my jacket, but didn’t even light the smoker. Without any fuss, they climbed their way in to the hive. I also repeatedly adjusted the entrance reducers without any protection. The ladies didn’t seem to mind.

I’m still in the process of building them better entrance reducers. I currently have scraps of wood left over from building the hive bodies. They are not all tall enough to block the entrance and the bees will nudge them just enough to make a new entrance.

The ladies of Hegemone are finding a lot of pollen. Hopefully it's from the blooming Tulip Poplar trees. Tulip Poplar honey is delicious.

The Anteia Ladies are working hard this Saturday morning.

The following day, both hives were already hard at work bringing in the pollen and nectar. The left hive seems to be a bit stronger and had a constant flow of traffic. The right hive was not as active, but still had a steady stream of foragers. We still have not picked names for the hives, but at least we’ve settled on a naming theme. All of our hives will be named after Greek gods/goddesses.

While typing this entry, I’ve made the executive decision that the left hive will be named “Hegemone” and the right hive will be named “Antheia”.

[b]Hegemone[/b] – A Goddess of Plants and she was in charge of making sure they bloomed and bore fruit as they were meant to. Her name means “mastery”.

[b]Antheia[/b] – The Goddess of Vegetation, Lowlands, Marshlands, Gardens, Blossoms, the Budding Earth, and Human Love.

There was a lot of activity at the entrance of Antheia with lots of bees flying around in front. The hive was also buzzing a lot louder than earlier in the day. It was the weaker of the two hives and I feared it was getting robbed. To be on the safe side, I suited up and lit the smoker. I gave a puff to the entrance and then proceeded to reduce it to the point where only 1-2 bees could pass through at a time. I took off the top for a few moments to have a look inside. Probably not the brightest move since I thought they were being robbed, but it turns out it might have been a good thing to do. A local beekeeper, Bob, later told me that taking the top off the hive will get the bees to return to the hive to help defend it.

A few minutes after the entrance was drastically reduced and the top was put back on, the hive settled down. I did notice something a bit odd though. It looked as if the queen was flying around outside the hive. I don’t know if she left when I opened the top or prior to that, but I watched her circle a few times and then go back in to the hive. She was about the size of the other queen (maybe a little bigger), except with a much darker abdomen.

The most likely explanation for all of the activity would be many of the worker bees switching roles to becoming foragers. That would make sense due to the hive losing many foragers that were left behind when I picked up the frames in the middle of the day. During the whole “robbing” experience, foragers were still bringing back pollen.

Some other tricks mentioned by Bob.

• Turn on a sprinkler so the robbing bees think it is raining and leave.
• Put a brick in front of the entrance so the bees have to climb over and down in to the hive entrance.

It’s very enjoyable to watch the hives. The new foragers orientating themselves and dancing to tell their sisters about all of the Tulip Poplar trees in the area. I purchased a tripod to make it easier for me to take many pictures of my ladies.

A lone bee on the tree gator

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.