June 26, 2008 - 9:30 am

Checked the bottom board bin for mites. Saw a few but not as many as the last two times. That could be due to not getting enough sugar through both supers or quite a few mites were knocked off from the last dusting...nah

Put down some insecticide around the legs of the hive stand to kill the ants or at least slow them down for a few days.

Saw a couple of bumble bees hanging out on the backside of the hive. Hopefully they are not staging for an invasion!!!

June 25, 2008 - 8:30 am

Today was the final day to "dust" the bees.

There were ants around the legs of the hive stand and on the bottom of the hive. Thursday or Friday I will put down some pesticide.

Opened up the hive today. Since there are two brood chambers I only opened up the top chamber and inspected it.

There is alot of activity in this second brood chamber. Four frames are being worked by the bees. Two frames are almost completely drawn out, two frames are partially drawn out.

There are many more bees in the top brood box, they cover five frames.

I noticed that a large number of the bees in the top box are newly hatched.

I didn't see the queen in the top box.

I looked for other pests and did not see any other than the ants.

These three photos are from the top brood chamber

June 23, 2008 - 10 am

Its been a couple of days since I visited the hive.

Today the area around the hive looks good. Did not see any ants or other pests. That could be because of the amount of rain we received in the last few days.

Hive activity seems to be about normal. The bees now are using all of the front entrance area to enter/exit the hive.

There are alot of bees bringing in pollen!

I checked on the empty jar I put in the top super. So far no comb building going on in it. I think I will use some of the burr comb and melt it and apply it to the inside area of the jar to draw in the bees so they will build comb.

This coming wednesday is the day for the bees to be "sugar dusted". This should be the last consecutive week that I do that. Then I will do monthly or bi-monthly "dusting" depending on the number of varroa mites.

I am trying to finish building a frame holder that sits above the hive so its easier to photograph.

June 20, 2008 - 11 am

Didn't make it on site. Called Dadant & Sons to find out when my honey supers will arrive. Still looking into other "organic" ways and means of pest control. Pondernig if I should put in a grease patty since I do not have hive beetles...yet.

June 19, 2008 - 9 am

Since I used powdered sugar to dust the bees yesterday, I went back to the hive today to see how many varroa mites were in the bottom board bin. I didn't see as many this time around.

I checked for signs of ants and didn't see any even though there was powdered sugar all around the hive stand legs. I also did not see any signs of hive beetles.

June 18, 2008 - 8:30 am

Today was the day for the second powdered sugar dusting, one more week to go!

Looked around the hive for ants and other things and didn't notice any. I looked for the small hive beetle but did not see any kind of beetles around the hive.

I setup a camcorder to record what happens when I put the powdered sugar all over the hive. I recorded about ten minutes of footage which I will convert to a web friendly format and post.

I opened up the hive and found that 8 out of 9 frames are in use by the bees.

I found the queen and she seems to be doing okay.

On the middle four frames there were about 90% capped brood.

On a couple of the frames I noticed what I think(and hope) are drone cells. They were much larger than the worker cells. They didn't resemble queen cells that I have seen in other hives.

I would like to have photographed them but I didn't have any place to hang the frames. The frame hanger that I made already had three frames in it. So I am going to have to make another or make one that sits above the chamber.

Today I removed the entrance reducer. There seem to be so many more bees. I am hoping that it was not a mistake to remove that piece even though I "dusted" the bees.

When I put down the sugar the bees once again went down into the hive then right out the entrance

Heres a few photos...

June 17, 2008 - 9 am

Checked the hive today. There are so many more bees nowadays, which is a good sign. Didn't see any sign of ants, probably because of the rain. Since there are such large numbers of bees I will remove the entrance reducer the next time I do the powdered sugar procedure, which should be some time this week. I took a few photos of the bees. I have also been recording the bees on a camcorder, later this month I will copy the sessions to a dvd and then post them.

June 16, 2008 - 7 pm

Didn't make it out to the hive.

Its been raining alot anyways, so one less disturbance for the bees is better.

Last Friday I ordered two medium supers and a queen excluder. Now that doesn't mean I am expecting a harvest this year, I'm just preparing for it. I'm still looking into a honey extractor and a couple of other tools needed for the harvest.

June 15, 2008 - 4:30pm

Since there have been several storms, I checked the hive and it looks okay around the hive and stand. Saw a few ants but nothing to worry about, I'll put down some insecticide monday or tuesday.

Theres a few more bees hanging out at the front of the hive. Today there were a few that were just crawling about the front area. They weren't using their wings, they were just crawling around - they didn't appear to be eating or cleaning. Could be due to the weather.

June 14, 2008 - 1pm

Didn't make it on site. And since I removed the feeder jar that won't be addressed for some time if at all this year. Still doing some research into "organic" treatment of varroa mites and trachial mites.

June 13, 2008 - 11am

Went on site. I decided to remove the syrup jar since the girls appear to be getting a better food source else where. As an experiment I replaced the feeder jar with an empty jar with the lid removed so the bees can get into it. I am hoping they will build comb in there.

I looked for ants and other outside pests and didn't see any.

Last night I made some "grease patties" to use to treat the varroa mite problem. Still looking into when to apply the patties since the powdered sugar method is being used for the mites.

There are many many more bees to be seen on and flying around the hive. When I removed the feeder jar I saw hundreds of bees in the second brood chamber.

June 12, 2008 - 11am

Checked the bottom board tray and counted about 40 adult varroa mites( that I could see) for a 24 hour period. Seems like alot to me. Talked with a local bee keeper and he recommends doing the powdered sugar method for three weeks. So I will do that.

June 11, 2008 - 11 am

Made it on site today. The feeder jar was at the half empty mark.

Thought I would try a more organic approach to the varroa mite problem. I obtained some powdered sugar to use to dust the bees. I used about a cup of the powdered sugar and put it on all of the top bars of the bottom brood chamber. I then used the bee brush to sweep the sugar in between the frames. Thats when the hive really woke up. There were so many bees in the air after doing that, it was just amazing to see. After about 15 minutes or so I checked the bottom board collector and found 6 adult varroa mites. I emptied it and re-installed. I will check again in 24 hours. I am hoping with this method and a couple of others will help with dealing with the varroa mite problem.

After dusting the bees, they were everywhere, thousands of them. They really were not concerned with me at all. The dusting caused an immediate grooming behavior. And it looked like it caused some sort of feeding frenzy as well. Where ever the powdered sugar fell, bees were all over it consuming it.

Here are photos and a couple of clips from today's visit;




Burr comb about to be removed



I see quite a few new bees in this photo



Added the powdered sugar...

June 10, 2008 - 11 am

Couldn't make it out to the site today.

Still looking into what can be done short term to deal with the varroa mite situation.

June 9, 2008 - 11 am

Made it on site. Feeder jar was fine, about 1/4 consumed, left it in place.

The bottom board that this hive is using is a screened bottom board. It has a small bin that attaches to the screened area for collecting. Most of the time the bin is not installed so that ventilation will be better.

Yesterday evening my Dad put the bin on. This morning at about 11 am I checked the bin and found alot of wax flakes and pollen. I also found three varroa mites!!! So I will be looking into how to deal with that particular parasite.

June 8, 2008 - 6 pm

Didn't make it on site. My Dad tells me that only about 1/8 of the syrup was consumed. Should be soon that a population explosion should occur and the syrup jar might become popular again. I'll continue feeding the bees with the jar until this week.

June 7, 2008 - 6 pm

Finally made it on site. Checked the feeder jar - it was down to half full. Since it has been there for a few days I changed the jar with a full, fresh one.

Took the top cover off of the hive body to see what the bees were doing in the second brood chamber. Didn't see much going on, but there were maybe 50 or so bees scattered about the 10 frames.

Seems there are a few more bees hanging out at the entrance. Could be due to the heat or there just may be more bees.

I noticed underneath the bottom board, that there were pollen and wax flakes. I took a couple photos of that, since I have never read about that or seen it before.

I also saw on the landing area a pollen "packet" that a bee dropped. Several bees were consuming it, so I took a photo or two of that.

I looked around the hive for ants and other pests and didn't see any.

Its been one day short of thirty days since the bees were installed. Any day now there should be new bees climbing out of their cells. I think I posted about that before, but here it is again anyways.

Heres some photos and a short clip of the bees.

















Heres a couple of shots of some wax scales and pollen that fell through the bottom board






This is a clip of some activity at the hive entrance

June 6, 2008 - 10 am

I wasn't able to go on site to check the bees.

My Dad told me that the bees are in the upper brood chamber feeding from the syrup jar. But they are not consuming very much syrup. The jar is about half full now. Since its been out there for three days, I will replace it with a fresh jar tomorrow.

There were no signs of ants or other pests.

June 5, 2008 - 10:30am

I didn't make it on site. My Dad called me to tell me that about 1/8 of the syrup was used from yesterday until today. So that puts the contents of the jar to 3/4 full. The jar was left in place.

June 4, 2008 - 11am

Went on site to see how the hive was doing. There were a series of thunderstorms that moved through the area. The hive was okay, no damage.

Although it rained, I still didn't see any ants. I might have to put down more pesticide.

Checked the feeder jar - it was down by 1/8. Left it in place.

Opened up the hive to see how far along the bees were in drawing out comb on the frames.

There was burr comb in a few spots, cleaned it out.

While I was getting a good grip on a frame I accidently pressed too hard on a couple of bees. One of them retaliated. I didn't feel the sting, but I did notice the bee was stumbling away and then I saw the stinger in the tip of my thumb. So that ended the inspection for that frame, I carefully put it back in place. So far it looks like I'm not allergic to the bees.

Put my frame holder to use today. It works quite well, holds three frames without problems.

Found the queen! It looks to me like she is doing a great job

The bees have 5 full frames capped brood , a 6th frame drawn on one side with brood and the other side half drawn out.

A 7th frame has workers all over it, looks like they are beginning to draw out comb on one side.

Installed a second brood chamber. This chamber has 100% beeswax foundation. It will be interesting to see what the bees do.

Heres a couple of photos...