7 April 2013, 1:30 pm

Country Bees

The hive named hotel is not doing so well.  Opened up the hive today for the first time this year.  The top honey super was empty, no bees no drawn comb, but there were alot of roaches in and around the frames of this top super.  The next 2 supers had the 4 middle frames covered with bees but the brood pattens were spotty and no signs of new eggs or old eggs.  The bottom hive body has 6 frames covered in bees and spotty brood patterns.  There were drones scattered about on all frames that I checked.  I did not see new eggs or a queen.  I also did not find any queen/supercedure cells.  There was not much honey stored or pollen in any of the frames I examined.  I noticed that the bees were very very calm no matter what I did to the frames while examining them.  Also noticed that some of the bees were trembling or twitching as if poisoned or stunned.

The hive named India seems to be doing good.  The top honey super is full of honey!  Most is being capped!  I put another honey super on that one and left it alone.  I will inspect that one next weekend, hopefully.

Next weekend I will be picking up a 2 pound package of bees with a marked queen and putting them in a nuc box with the country bees.

2 Feb, 2013 3pm

At the country bees it was clear skies and about 62º.
Both hives appear to be very busy.

Each hive has 1 brood box, and 3 honey supers.  The top most honey super has a queen excluder.

2 "New" Hives at the Country Bee site

26 Jan 2013  6:30pm

Since the mid summer I have not had any bees.  Today my Dad and I went over to a local beekeeper's and picked up the two hives he was giving away.

We picked up the hives and drove them to the hive stand at my parents property.  Since it was after sunset, I opened up the hive entrances but I put some grass and vegatation at the entrance areas and left the bees

Bees

All the hives(backyard bees & country bees) have perished.  I will wait until next spring to get back into beekeeping.

Mike's Bees

Yesterday we harvested about 5 gallons of honey from Mike's bees.  Here are a few pictures...

Saturday, May 26th, 2012 - 10:30 am

Country Bees
Skies were clear, temp was about 85 degrees, very little wind.

Harvested the top hive deep of the three deeps.  Noticed on May 20th that the top deep looked like it was completely full of honey but did not want to disturb the bees until today.  Turns out the top deep was full of honey.  The harvest yielded just over 3 gallons.  It will be settling for a day or two and then it will be bottled.  Currently the Country bees have 2 deeps and 2 honey supers.

Bottled 28 and 1/2  pint jars from this harvest.

Friday - May 25th, 2012

Backyard Bees
Checked on the feed jar and found that the bees are not using it.  Removed it and will monitor the hive.