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.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
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.
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.
Friday, June 12, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, May 25, 2009
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.
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.
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