December 31, 2009 - 2 pm

It was partly sunny and 64º at the bee yard. A really warm day for this time of year!!!

I have been putting off updates to the blog since the 10th of this month.

Basically the Alpha Hive has been getting a fresh jar every three days. Today another jar was put on.

The Beta Hive was not being fed since it had so much honey going into the winter. But today I thought I'd just see if the bees would take any feeding. So I added a full jar to the Beta hive today.

December 10, 2009 - 2pm

Alpha Hive

Replaced the feeder jar with a full jar today.

December 7, 2009 - 2 pm

My Dad put a full feeder jar on the Alpha Hive.

December 2, 2009 - 3 pm

I have not been out to the bee yard since the last visit. My Dad was able to change out the feeder jar for the Alpha hive today.

November 28, 2009 - 2:30pm

It was cloudy and breezy, temperature was 60º.

Alpha Hive

The feeder jar had less than half a cup so I replaced it with a full jar.

There was a lot of activity at the hive entrance and around the front of the hive. The bees are very busy bringing in pollen and food. There a lot of bees just flying around in front of the hive. It looked like quite a few bees were doing orientation flights.

Beta Hive

This hive was also very active at the entrance with quite a few bees bringing in pollen and food. This hive also had many bees flying all around the front area of the hive.


This is the activity of the Alpha & Beta Hive on this cool fall day





This is a quick movie of the Beta Hive

November 26, 2009 - 2 pm

It was windy and cool, temperature was 55º.

Alpha Hive

Checked the feeder jar and it was empty. Replaced it with a full jar. So far the bees consume about 1 cup of sugar water a day.

November 25, 2009 - 11 am

It was clear and warm, temperature was 63º.

Alpha Hive

There were alot of bees flying around in front of the hive entrance. I watched the bees entering the hive and saw quite a few bees with pollen.

I checked the feeder jar, it was down to two cups. They had a full 4 cup jar installed on monday and have only consumed 2 cups!


Beta Hive

This hive was very active at the entrance. Their activity matched the Alpha hive. Since this hive had so much honey stores I have not been feeding them sugar water.

November 23, 2009 - 1 pm

It was overcast, light winds and about 55º.

Alpha Hive

Replaced the jar today with a full one.

Even though its cool outside there were quite a few bees bringing in food and flying around the front entrance.


Beta Hive

Not much activity at front of hive. Very few bees coming and going. There was a dead bee in the entrance area. Something seems wrong with this hive. Next time temps are high enough I will open it up and see whats going on.

November 20, 2009 - 1 pm

Alpha Hive

The jar installed on the 19th November had only a half cup left. So I replaced it with a full jar today.

There is a lot of activity from the hive. There are a lot of bees flying all around the front of the hive. The bees are bringing in light white colored pollen. Quite a few returning bees have pollen.


Beta Hive

I have not been feeding this hive because they have so much stored honey. I hope I don't regret this decision.

This hive has some activity at the entrance but not as much as the Alpha Hive. The bees are bringing in pollen even this late in the year

Nember 19, 2009 - 1 pm

Alpha Hive

The jar installed on Tues (Nov 17) was replaced today.

November 17, 2009 - 3 pm

Alpha Hive

The feeder jar installed on Sunday was replaced with a full jar today! I have several jars ready to go now.

November 16, 2009 - 1pm

Temps were about 72º, breezy, clear skies.

Alpha Hive

The feeder jar installed on the Alpha hive Wednesday (11 Nov) was empty on Sunday (15 Nov). A new jar was immediately installed.

Today a quick check on the feeder jar on the Alpha hive revealed that half the jar had been consumed(2 cups) since this Sunday (11 Nov).


Beta Hive

Didn't disturb the hive.

November 13, 2009 - 11 am

It was clear, slightly breezy, and 72º at the bee yard.

Alpha Hive

Since I put a jar of sugar water on the Alpha hive wednesday of this week I thought I should check it today. The jar is a four cup mason jar. The bees have consumed two cups as of today. I didn't open the hive. Weather permitting I'll do that tomorrow.



Beta Hive

I opened up the hive today just to look around. I found the queen on the second frame I removed, so I carefully put that one back in the hive. This hive looks like they have alot more honey and pollen stored than the Alpha hive.

I didn't look around too much after finding the queen. Closed it all up. Took a few pictures and movies of the hives. I will post them when time permits.

November 11, 2009 3 pm

The weather was cloudy, cool and windy with a temperature of 63º.

Mixed a batch of 2:1 sugar water for the bees. It was enough for four, 1 quart mason jars.

The Alpha hive seemed like it needed to be fed so today was the day.

When I removed the top lid cover where the mason jar goes, the bees started to boil out of the opening. I had to quickly put the full mason jar in the opening to stop the exodus.

The Beta hive seems to have quite a bit of stored honey so I did not give them any extra food.

November 7, 2009 - 1 pm

It was a clear, sunny day, temp was 82º.

Alpha Hive

There are 4 full frames of honey in the top hive body. I did not check the bottom hive body. While looking through the frames I found the queen! I also found eggs!



















Beta Hive

The top hive body has 6 full frames of honey! They are storing more honey in the remaining frames.

The population is very large in this hive. The bees cover all frames in the top hive body and appear to cover all frames in the bottom hive body.

October 30, 2009 - 12:30 pm

Its been about three weeks since I have visited the bees. It was 83º, breezy with scattered clouds.

Alpha Hive

There was a lot of activity at the hive entrance. The bees were bringing in white/yellow colored pollen.

Inside the hive: at first it didn't seem as though there were many bees, but they were packed in the frames on the top hive body. I removed three frames from the top hive body and peered down into the bottom hive body. There were as many bees in the bottom box as the top. I counted six frames of honey/pollen as of today.

Found eggs, larva of various stages


Beta Hive

This hive has alot more bees in both hive bodies than the Alpha hive. The bees are still storing honey and pollen. I removed a couple of frames from the top body and looked through to the bottom and things seem okay, I didn't really want to disturb the girls too much.

Found eggs, larva of various stages

September 13, 2009 - 1:30pm

It was about 85º at the bee yard, very little wind, cloudy skies.

Alpha Hive

Opened up the honey super to see how they girls were doing. They are storing a lot of honey in there, about 6 frames have honey!!!

September 5, 2009 - 10:30 AM

It was honey harvest day for the Beta Hive! The girls capped eight and a half frames out of nine!

Extracted about 35 pounds of honey from 9 frames of a medium honey super.

Returned the empty honey super to the hive so the girls can clean it up. I'll check on that in a couple of days or so.

Looked through the honey super frames on the Alpha hive. Didn't see that many hive beetles. There were hundreds more bees up in the honey super. They have repaired damaged comb and have been storing honey!!

So, for this year the total honey harvest has been 130 pounds(95lbs from Alpha, 35 lbs from Beta).

August 15, 2009 - 11 am

Today's entry is in regards to a honeybee swarm.

Thursday of this week a friend of mine who happens to be a beekeeper got a tip about a swarm of bees. We checked it out and discovered the bees had recently taken up residence in what is called an egg cooler. The bees were very mellow, they were not concerned about us in any way. So their temperment seemed good. We setup our gear and began removing the comb and the bees. The bees made about three deeps worth of frames. There were so many bees. I used a dust bin and brush to collect them and then dumped them into the hive body containing their comb. It took some time to collect the bees with the dustbin but it seemed to go well. We took a couple of breaks during that time to let the bees settle and to cool off since it was so hot. We think we got the queen because more bees were flying over to the hive body and settling on it.

August 9, 2009 - 1pm

It was in the high 90s, clear skies and lightly breezey at the bee yard.

I used a watering can to put down insecticide to deal with the ants.

I used the weed eater all around the hive stand to clear away weeds and grass.

Next weekend I will attempt a thorough inspection of both hives.

August 8, 2009 - 4:30pm

Temps were in the low 80s. It was overcast with lite rain.

Alpha Hive

The honey super had ants all around the outside.
Opened up the honey super. The girls cleaned it up nicely. Bees covered three of the middle frames. Looked like they were repairing the damaged comb.

On the ground in front of the Alpha hive I found several bees that had deformed wings!!! So I need to start using the fogger to deal with the varroa mites.

An inspection of the lower brood boxes was not done.

Beta Hive

The bees have 2 frames 50% capped and are working from the middle of the super outwards.

I didn't remove the honey super to do an inspection this weekend.

August 6, 2009 - 8 am

It was 88º, clear skies and no breeze at the bee yard.

Alpha Hive

Decided to go ahead and harvest the honey. The frames were not as fully drawn as they were in the spring so there was not as much honey. There was a total of 26 pounds of honey and thats okay with me. Returned the super with the empty frames to the hive to let them clean it up. I'll check on that this weekend.

Beta Hive

Did not disturb this hive. I will check the honey super this weekend.

August 2, 2009 - 1 pm

Its been raining every day since last Saturday. Today it was partly cloudy and about 85º, little or no breeze...seemed like it was more humid than usual for this time of the year.

Alpha Hive.

Checked the honey super, and the girls have capped about 80% of all 10 frames! So by next Saturday the honey super should be ready for harvest.

The honey super had a lot of bees on the frames in areas where the cells were still exposed. I will be ordering a honey super to put on this hive for the fall.

I noticed that on the front of the hive there were large numbers of bees hanging out. Could be due to the high humidity or they did not have another super to work on....

Buttoned everything back up and walked away in amazement at how much honey this hive is storing.

Beta Hive

Also checked the honey super on this hive. All frames are filled with honey and the girls are just starting to cap. If things go well maybe in a week to two weeks this super will be capped and ready for harvest!

There were bees all over every frame in the super!

The front of the hive had a hundred or so bees hanging out, could be for cooling or lack of something do to....hmmm

July 25, 2009 - 11:30pm

Temps were in the 90s today. Slight wind and sunny and the bee yard.

Alpha Hive

I looked through several frames of the honey super and each of them was full of honey, there are not many cells capped at this time. All frames in this super have honey in them. I did not see any signs of wax moth or hive beetles.

I removed the honey super to look in the top hive body. I pulled three frames and found eggs and larva in various stages. I also looked down at the lower hive body and it seemed ok. The bees were packed in there pretty close.


Beta Hive

Checked on the honey super. There are more bees in the super this week. More honey is being stored in the super. Didn't see much capping going on. Removed the honey super to take a look at some frames in the hive bodies. The top hive body is loaded with bees. The bees are packed in pretty tight. There is more room in the hive body nowadays. Looks like the girls are moving honey up into the honey super...very cool! On the two frames that had brood I spotted eggs! So the queen is still at it. Although I did not remove the top hive body to look at the lower hive body, the bees were also packed in pretty tight in the bottom hive body. I think next week, weather permiting, I will do a more thorough inspection to check for swarm cells.

18 July, 2009 - 5 pm

The skies were clear, no wind and it was 85º.

I have been checking on the bees lately to see if they are still storing surplus honey and today the answer was a definitive YES!

Alpha Hive

There are bees on every frame of the honey super. Honey is being stored on every frame. About four frames are full of honey and they are at the point of being capped. The remaining frames have honey but not as much and none of its capped. I am guessing that the bees are moving honey up from the hive super and storing in the honey super, because there is so much honey in the super.

I did not see any eggs or larva in the honey super, but I installed a queen excluder just to keep the queen out of the super.

Beta Hive

The bees have been busy storing honey in the super. The hive does not have the number of bees that the Alpha hive has but they still have managed to store a lot of honey. They may be moving honey out of the hive body. I also installed queen excluder on this hive.

11 July, 2009 - 12:30pm

It was partly cloudy, light wind and around 90º at the bee yard.

I opened up the top honey super of the alpha hive and found that the girls are storing honey in various frames. So I removed it and got out all of the bees in that super and set it aside. I looked through three frames of the remaining honey super and found that the girls are busy storing honey and capping it throughout the super. So I left one honey super on the hive. I did not do a hive inspection at this time.

I opened up the beta hive. I removed and examined two frames. One frame has one side of fully capped honey. The other side has about two inched of capped honey and the rest is open cells. I found eggs in most of these cells. The second frame had some eggs, some capped honey cells and quite a bit of cells filled with curing honey. Today I put a honey super on this hive, but I did install a queen excluder.

July 9, 2009 - 10:30am

It was about 85º, partly cloudy and slightly breezy at the Bee Yard.

Since I harvested the honey from the Alpha Hive I thought I would check on the honey supers to see how well the girls cleaned them. The top honey super was clean and there were a few hundred bees scattered amongst the frames repairing the comb that was damaged during the extraction process. I didn't check the bottom honey super, I'll do that Saturday.

I opened up the Beta hive and found that the top hive body is packed with bees. I think I should put a honey super on to give them something to do.

July 4, 2009 - 8:30am

Today was harvest day at the Bee yard. The harvest began at about 9 am this morning. It was about 85º at the bee yard and very little wind.

The Alpha hive was the only hive to produce surplus honey. The girls managed to fill two medium honey supers.

Today, Gene and my Dad joined in the honey harvest. My dad took pictures at the bee yard. Gene and I worked through the honey supers clearing bees from the frames and preparing them for extraction.

The two supers yielded 6 gallons of honey and about 6 cups of wax from the cappings.

Currently the honey bucket is in the house settling. Tomorrow I will being filling containers of honey.


Here are some photos of today.

The Harvest begins...








Gene uses a refractometer to check for water content. We were looking for 14% to 16% and it was right at 16%





















At the house the extraction process begins...

June 20, 2009 - 3pm

It was about 98º at the Bee Yard...

Very little wind, clear skies.

Alpha Hive

I just had to see how the girls were doing with the second honey super.

They have drawn comb on 9 frames out of ten. The comb is deep enough and filled, such that they are starting to cap the honey cells throughout the frames!!!! The bees filled frames of the top honey super.

There is not a lot of activity at the front of the hive, could be the heat. The bees aren't flying around the front. They are either hanging out on the hive or they are flying in and out of the hive.

I took a frame out of the second honey super to see if I could get the girls to draw the comb out more. So now there are nine frames.

Beta Hive

The activity level matched the Alpha Hive. So its looking like this hive has its number back up!!! I need to add a honey super as soon as I can.

June 17, 2009 - 10:30am

It was around 98º at the bee yard. Very little wind, clear skys and so very very hot.

Alpha Hive

The recently added second honey super has a lot of bees working in it. The bees have drawn comb on every frame and are focusing their numbers on about 4 frames. The rest of the frames have a few bees and curing nectar.

I ordered a bucket bottling kit and it should be here just in time to harvest.

Beta Hive

I opened up the top hive body. There were a lot of bees in the inner cover. I am guessing they were helping with cooling.

The girls have been busy storing honey in the top hive body. So I need to put a honey super on the hive to give them something to do.

I saw capped worker cells and a lot of capped drone cells. I did a quick check so I didn't look for eggs or the queen.

June 13, 2009 - 7:15 pm

It was about 85º, partly sunny and no breeze at the bee yard

I took a look at the bees this time of the evening out of curiosity. I took a few pictures.

Alpha Hive

From the looks of things the girls were coming in for the night. There so many bees that they ended up hanging outside on the front porch. There were still quite a few inbound and outbound bees.

Photos from around 7 pm.










Beta Hive

There were a few bees staying out on the front landing area.

June 12, 2009 - 11:30am

It was clear and sunny, about 95º at the bee yard.

Alpha Hive

There was a lot of activity at the hive. There were a lot of bees in the air flying around the front of the hive and large number of bees entering and leaving the hive. I was curious about the second honey super I install last week. I opened it up and found that all of the frames have comb in various stages of production. And in some of that comb there was nectar!!!

Beta Hive

Activity in the entrance area was busy, there were bees bringing in pollen. The hive is still building up its numbers.

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Honeybees just amaze me.

June 6, 2009 - 11:30am

At the Bee yard...temps were in the high 80's to low 90's, there were no breezes and the skies were clear.

A friend and fellow beekeeper of mine, Gene, accompanied me to the bee yard today.


Alpha Hive

Activity at the hive entrance was very high. There were a lot of bees flying around the front of the hive. The bees are bringing in pollen.

This hive has had a honey super installed for some time. Checked on it today and found that all ten frames have drawn capped comb!! Since its so full and nearly complete I installed another honey super. This newly added honey super has the plasticell foundation and no drawn comb.

Once again I did not get into the hive bodies to do any inspections, I hope I don't regret this.


Beta Hive

There were a lot of bees coming and going at the entrance. But there were not many bees flying around the front area.

This have has had a honey super on it for some time. Checked this honey super to see what was happening. There were some bees in it but no clustering of bees, no comb building...nothing. So I removed the super. Now that the honey super was removed the top hive body was visible and accessible. The top hive body looked very packed with bees and drawn capped honey cells. Gene had some ideas about what to do with this hive. One of the ideas was to swap the top hive body with the bottom hive body, and maybe that would get this hive going. So we did that. We started looking through the newly repositioned bottom hive body and found the queen on the second frame. Several of the frames in this hive body had a lot of capped drone cells. Hopefully I don't have a laying worker, or a poor quality queen. I'll check again next weekend and see how things go.

May 31, 2009 - 1:00 pm

Clear skies and no breeze, temps were in the 90s.

Alpha Hive

I only opened the top honey super. They have 7 out of 10 frames with drawn comb and are in the process of capping all of it. Three frames are untouched. These frames happen to be on the north side of the hive. So my Dad and I mixed those untouched frames with drawn frames to see what they do.

I have been reluctant to get into the hive supers of this hive since it seems to be doing so well. I will leave them alone and just put another honey super on as soon as I can.


Slo-Mo movie of the Alpha hive



Beta Hive

I looked in the honey super and they still are not moving up into it to store food. I removed it and looked through the top hive super. Six frames have both sides of capped honey!!! So they have been storing food in this top hive body instead of in the honey super. I did see eggs in two of the frames in the top hive body. The eggs were positioned right down in the bottom middle of the cell, so it looks like its a queen doing that. I did not find the queen only those eggs, and capped brood in the bottom hive body.


This is a frame from the top hive body of the Beta Hive. This is what the six frames that are capped looked like.

May 25, 2009 - 1:30pm

It was cloudy, overcast and 80º, light breeze and thunderstorms with rain moving in.

Both Hives have a lot of mold/mildew on the exterior areas. I will have to clean that up next visit

Alpha Hive

There was a lot of noise and activity at the hive. There were 70 or so bees hanging out on front of bee entrance and landing area. There were many bees coming and going and it was easy to see how much pollen they were bringing in. I think most of the noise was coming from the gathering cluster of bees at the bottom of the screened bottom board. This is the same type of activity that the Beta hive was doing shortly before they swarmed.

I opened up the honey super and there were a lot of bees in there. They have spread out to cover eight of ten frames. They are still largely clustered in the five middle frames working on them.

I did not go through those frames or the rest of the hive because of the rainy weather.


This is a photo of the bees in the top honey super( so far only one is installed...)


This is another photo like the one above...



These girls were clustered to this rock I used to cover the feeder jar hole


This is what the Alpha hive looks like most of the day


Another Alpha Hive pic...






Beta Hive

The activity outside the hive seems to be picking up. The bees seem to be foraging more lately.

The solar ventilator that I installed was removed today. Its not square enough to fit well enough on the hive for the bees to propolize against the elements.

I saw that there were a lot of bees in the top hive body but none in the honey super. The bees are closing off sections of the queen excluder with wax and propolis. So I went ahead and removed the queen excluder to see if that is what is stopping them from moving into the honey super.


If the weather is suitable this week I would like to inspect both hives.

May 16, 2009 - 2 pm

It was 95º, very little breeze, partly cloudy at the Bee Yard.

Alpha Hive
There were a hundred, maybe more bees hanging out at the front of the hive. There were a lot of bees flying around the front of the hive as well as bringing in food.

Opened up the honey super and discovered that the girls finally moved in!!!

Five of the honey super frames in the middle have comb being drawn and already have curing nectar in the cells. The bees have just started drawing comb on two more frames but have not stored any honey.

All of this activity has been going on since removal of the queen excluder on May 9th. I am hoping that the girls don't swarm, because right now they are doing a great job of storing surplus honey.

I put the honey super back together and did not get any deeper into the hive.

Beta Hive
Some activity at the hive entrance. Not much activity around front of hive.

Opened up the honey super. Still nothing going on in there. Removed it to look in the top brood super. I went through each frame. There are still four frames full of honey, of those three are capped. The remaining frames have about 85% honey/pollen, with the remaining space filled with capped brood. It seems that the bees are storing honey in the top brood super instead of the honey super. I removed the top brood super to begin looking through the bottom brood super. There were a lot of bees in the bottom brood super, they started to "boil out" so I changed my mind about going through the frames. I put everything back in place. I think I will remove the queen excluder and see what they do.

A few weeks ago I put together a solar powered hive ventilator. Today I installed it on the Beta Hive.

May 10, 2009 - 12 pm

It was hot today at the bee yard. It was 95º slight breeze and clear skies.

I did not want to disturb the girls today so I took pictures and captured a few movies

Alpha Hive

This hive is very active at the entrance area and in front of hive. There were quite a few bees hanging out on the front of the hive. There were also a lot of bees bringing in pollen and other resources.

Beta Hive

At 12:30 pm there was not much activity at the entrance of the hive or in front of it. At 4:30pm however there were much more bees than what I have seen at any other time of the day. So it looks like thats when most of the foragers return

May 9, 2009 - 10:30am

At the bee yard it was 88º, light breeze and partly cloudy.

Alpha Hive

At the entrance there was a lot of bees coming and going and a lot flying around in front of the hive, it was very busy.

Opened up the honey super and found that the girls are not doing anything in it! Removed it and started looking through the top hive body frames.

Found a lot of capped brood, some eggs and larva. So the queen is there somewhere...

Noticed that there were a lot of bees packed in the top hive body and the bottom hive body. Wish they would get busy in the honey super.

While looking through the frames for signs of the queen I found three frames( top hive body, outer two frames one side and two frames other side) full of honey / capped honey.

Put all the frames back in order.

Since the girls seem reluctant to go into the honey super, I removed the queen excluder.


Beta Hive

Activity at the entrance and front of hive was minimal. The were only a few bees coming and going and just four-six at most at the entrance area.

Opened up the honey super and there were no signs of activity. Removed the honey super to look through the top hive body frames.

There were significantly less bees in this top super than I have seen in the past. While looking through the frames I found some capped brood cells but not many like I was seeing from about a month ago. I didn't see any eggs, but I did see larva maturing.

In this top hive body four frames were filled with honey. Again its the outer frames that have the honey. Two frames have been completely filled and capped, the other two are filled with honey but only partially capped.

So I removed the top hive body and put it aside since I couldn't find signs of the queen or the queen.

I found some capped brood much like the top brood box. I couldn't see any eggs. The number of bees were also alot less than what I have seen in the past. I did find the queen but she looked alot smaller than a month ago.

For the last three weeks there was a massive buildup of bees, a decline in egg laying and now a significant decrease in the bee population. The beta hive appears to have swarmed.

I am hoping this new queen will get things going again and maybe I'll have some honey this year.

2 May, 2009 - 1 pm

It was 86º, light wind, partly cloudy at the bee yard.

Alpha Hive

Outside and at the entrance there was a lot of activity, much more than the beta hive. I opened the honey super and found that the girls are not doing anything in it!

I removed the honey super and began inspecting the frames of the top hive body. I looked through 7 of the ten frames. I found eggs so the queen is there and busy. I noticed that the top hive body has a couple of frames that are filled with honey and pollen. I am hoping they will have a surplus.

Three slo-mo Movies of the entrance area of the Alpha Hive







Beta Hive

It didn't seem as busy as it usually is outside at the entrance, but there were some bees coming and going.

Opened up the top honey super to see what the girls were doing. There were a lot of bees in the north side of the honey super on two frames but I could not tell if there was any comb being drawn. The rest of the honey super frames didn't have the bees on them.

I removed the honey super to look through the frames of the top hive body.

I looked through 8 out of ten frames. I didn't bother looking through the last two frames.

The eight frames had a lot of eggs and larva at different stages of maturation.

There seemed to be plenty of capped brood among the frames. I noticed that of the 8 frames 3 frames had only honey and some of the honey was capped. Hopefully the girls will move up into the honey super.


Beta Hive Photos

This is the tenth frame in the top hive super. The girls have begun drawing comb!!! Hopefully they will begin this process in the honey super




This is frame 9 or 8, either way this is what they look like right now! That frame is loaded with uncapped honey...




In these next 2 photos, couple of hatchlings can be seen chewing through the wax cell caps getting ready to climb out into the hive.





This is a closer shot of the previous image...





These three photos are of the same frame. Eggs can be seen, as well as several bees climbing out of their cells...









This is a slo-mo movie of the activity happening under the Beta Hive today