Saturday, February 26, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
21 February, 1:00pm - 2011
It was 75º at the Bee Yard. Partly cloudy and windy.
Alpha Hive
This hive has two deeps. Opened up the top hive body and found very few bees. Most of the frames had curing honey and pollen and some capped honey. Did not see any eggs in any of the top hive body frames!
I did not look through the bottom hive body since the wind started to get worse. Buttoned everything up and will check on them some time this week.
Beta Hive
Did not inspect the hive, too windy.
Alpha Hive
This hive has two deeps. Opened up the top hive body and found very few bees. Most of the frames had curing honey and pollen and some capped honey. Did not see any eggs in any of the top hive body frames!
I did not look through the bottom hive body since the wind started to get worse. Buttoned everything up and will check on them some time this week.
Beta Hive
Did not inspect the hive, too windy.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
21 February, 12:30pm - 2011
It was 75º at the Back Yard Hive, clear skies and no wind.
Back Yard Bees
Since the weather has been warming up into the 70's lately I did a quick inspection. I have been feeding the bees a 1:1 sugar/water mix. This hive has two deeps.
The feeder jar was empty so I removed it and started a quick inspection. The top hive body was filled with bees on all frames. Frames 10,8,1,2 were full of capped honey and some pollen. Frames 3-7 had capped honey, pollen,brood,eggs,larva. There was more capped honey and pollen then brood. The top box weighed a lot! So I swapped the top and bottom deeps. The bottom box was much lighter than the top one, I did not go through those frames. The bees did not like this. It looks like there are a lot of bees and not much of a nectar flow. They were agitated but they were not landing and stinging, they were just flying all around me. I put things back together as quickly and carefully as I could. The bees have a lot of honey, so I stopped feeding the 1:1 sugar/water mix at this time.
Back Yard Bees
Since the weather has been warming up into the 70's lately I did a quick inspection. I have been feeding the bees a 1:1 sugar/water mix. This hive has two deeps.
The feeder jar was empty so I removed it and started a quick inspection. The top hive body was filled with bees on all frames. Frames 10,8,1,2 were full of capped honey and some pollen. Frames 3-7 had capped honey, pollen,brood,eggs,larva. There was more capped honey and pollen then brood. The top box weighed a lot! So I swapped the top and bottom deeps. The bottom box was much lighter than the top one, I did not go through those frames. The bees did not like this. It looks like there are a lot of bees and not much of a nectar flow. They were agitated but they were not landing and stinging, they were just flying all around me. I put things back together as quickly and carefully as I could. The bees have a lot of honey, so I stopped feeding the 1:1 sugar/water mix at this time.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
13 February - 2011
Harvested about 20 pounds of honey from 8 deep frames that were stored since june of this year. The plan was to put the frames back in the hives at a later date for food for the bees. Since this honey was in the frames and frozen for so long hopefully it will be okay. It has been bottled and put on the shelf. The yield was 7 and a half quarts of honey.
Cleaned up the frames a little and put them out near the Back Yard Hive. The bees cleaned up all of the frames.
Cleaned up the frames a little and put them out near the Back Yard Hive. The bees cleaned up all of the frames.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
12 February, 2:30pm - 2011
It was 55º at the Bee yard, clear skies no wind.
Alpha Hive
Many bees at the entrance, quite a few were flying up and down and sideways in front of hive. There also many bees bringing in pollen. Decided to go ahead and feed this hive again. Gave them 1:1 sugar/water mixture.
Beta Hive
This hive also has a lot of entrance activity. Bees are flying up and around the hive entrance, and there is also quite a few bees bringing in pollen.
At the Back Yard hive...
Feeder jar was empty, replaced with a full 1:1 sugar/water mixture. A lot of entrance activity today. Looks like about two thirds of the foragers are bringing in pollen.
Alpha Hive
Many bees at the entrance, quite a few were flying up and down and sideways in front of hive. There also many bees bringing in pollen. Decided to go ahead and feed this hive again. Gave them 1:1 sugar/water mixture.
Beta Hive
This hive also has a lot of entrance activity. Bees are flying up and around the hive entrance, and there is also quite a few bees bringing in pollen.
At the Back Yard hive...
Feeder jar was empty, replaced with a full 1:1 sugar/water mixture. A lot of entrance activity today. Looks like about two thirds of the foragers are bringing in pollen.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
6 February, 2:30 pm - 2011
It was 58º at the Back Yard Hive. Clear skies, no wind.
Replaced the empty feeder jar.
There is a lot of entrance activity today. Even when it was 45º this morning the bees were busy flying around the hive entrance and doing what they do. I need to look into swapping hive boxes.
I was unable to make it out to the Bee yard today, hopefully tomorrow I will make it there to replace feeder jars.
Replaced the empty feeder jar.
There is a lot of entrance activity today. Even when it was 45º this morning the bees were busy flying around the hive entrance and doing what they do. I need to look into swapping hive boxes.
I was unable to make it out to the Bee yard today, hopefully tomorrow I will make it there to replace feeder jars.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
29 January 2:30 pm - 2011
It was 67º at the Bee Yard. Clear skies and no wind.
Swarm Hive - Opened it up and found an empty hive. It was pretty clean considering it was a dead hive. The robber bees did a good job of cleaning out most of the honey and food stores. Took the hive apart stored for later use!
Alpha Hive - The bees have not consumed very much of the feed. Went ahead and removed the top cover and the honey super. The honey super had small amounts of capped honey scattered throughout eight frames. But there were not many bees in the super. Removed the honey super until springtime. The frames with honey will be fed to one of the other hives. Looked through the top hive body and found that 7 of the frames have capped honey and uncapped honey. I didn't go through the frames of the bottom hive body. I noticed as soon as I removed the top hive body that the cluster was about the size of 4-5 frames in the bottom hive body. I put the hive body back in place and left the hive with just the two hive bodies and the inner cover and telescoping outer cover. I will not be feeding this hive sugar water since it looks like they have so much food stored in the top hive body.
Beta Hive - The bees consumed all of the feed! And they were pouring out of the feeder hole. This hive still has a honey super on it and the bees may have consumed the stores, I don't know yet. I also did not inspect this hive at all due to the number of bees and their agitation with me.
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Back Yard Bees
The honey super that I removed from the Alpha hive is sitting on a table near the hive so they can use it.
Swarm Hive - Opened it up and found an empty hive. It was pretty clean considering it was a dead hive. The robber bees did a good job of cleaning out most of the honey and food stores. Took the hive apart stored for later use!
Alpha Hive - The bees have not consumed very much of the feed. Went ahead and removed the top cover and the honey super. The honey super had small amounts of capped honey scattered throughout eight frames. But there were not many bees in the super. Removed the honey super until springtime. The frames with honey will be fed to one of the other hives. Looked through the top hive body and found that 7 of the frames have capped honey and uncapped honey. I didn't go through the frames of the bottom hive body. I noticed as soon as I removed the top hive body that the cluster was about the size of 4-5 frames in the bottom hive body. I put the hive body back in place and left the hive with just the two hive bodies and the inner cover and telescoping outer cover. I will not be feeding this hive sugar water since it looks like they have so much food stored in the top hive body.
Beta Hive - The bees consumed all of the feed! And they were pouring out of the feeder hole. This hive still has a honey super on it and the bees may have consumed the stores, I don't know yet. I also did not inspect this hive at all due to the number of bees and their agitation with me.
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Back Yard Bees
The honey super that I removed from the Alpha hive is sitting on a table near the hive so they can use it.
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