Ready For Winter

The top feeders and robber screens are off the hives now and the entrance reducers are set to the smallest opening.

The SHB oil pans are empty and clean and reinserted.  The telescoping covers are slid forward so the inner-cover notch is exposed.  I am hoping there's enough clearance around the oil pans in the bottom that there will be sufficient ventilation in the hive like this, while keeping it warm inside.

The hives are too heavy to lift, so I'm thinking there's enough stores for the winter.

In Febuary, I'll try to lift the hives and peep inside to see if they need sugar (mountain camp method).

The next couple of months will be good for inventory, repair, maintenance, and planning.

Have a great winter everyone and I hope your hives make it to next spring!

November Brings Cooler Temperatures

The good news is that the hives are too heavy to lift.  I have been feeding syrup with Honey-B-Heathy but they're slowing down taking the syrup.  It's time to start thinking about moisture in the hives.  Starting this coming week, the temps are going to be lows around 40 and highs around 60.  I plan on takking the top feeders off and maybe doing some open feeding behind the house, away from from the hives.  Later on I'll probably put some sugar in the hives (the mountain camp method).  It's time to plan for Old Man Winter.

End of the 10-Frame Hive

I've thought about this and studied about this and don't have any definite answers.  But we went into the 10-frame hive today and it had bees inside, and lots of pretty comb, but no eggs, no brood, no honey, and no queen.  Just lots of worker bees and drones.

The best idea I can come up with is that they swarmed, and the ones that stayed didn't make a queen.  Or else they got weak and another hive robbed them out.  Some of the comb looks torn.  But there's no drone cells or no laying workers.  And there's a robbing screen on the front.  So I figure the bees that were in there were after the syrup in the top feeder.  I had put a screened oil-tray small hive beetle trap underneath the hive, and there were lots of beetles in the oil.  I guess the beetles got in there and since there wasn't anything for them to eat, they ended up in the oil tray.

So here's the 10-frame hive now:

There's some perfect comb in the deeps, so I'll stick them in the freezer for a few days and save them for next spring.  If I catch a swarm or do a split, that comb will be useful.

I'll probably use the boxes for swarm traps.  I think I'm going to go all 8-frame hives.  If my back keeps going at the rate it's going, I may go to medium brood boxes and shallow supers.

On a positive note, there's still lots of goldenrod and other flowers blooming, and the bees are bringing in tons of pollen.

A Late Update

Haven't upadated lately.  I've been feeding the bees some (although I probably should have been feeding more).  The goldenrod is blooming like crazy and the entrances are very yellow, so I assume they're bringing in lots of pollen.

The 10-frame hive isn't doing so well.  I think it may have gotten robbed out before I got the screens on.  There are lots of bees in it, but no honey and I didn't see any brood.  I tried putting a new queen in (I ordered it from WT Kelley, and it came in the mail) there a couple of weeks ago, but I haven't looked into it lately.  Maybe tomorrow I'll get inside and see what's going on.  The other hives are doing ok, with one doing extremely well, judging from the weight.

It's going to be time to get serious about winter soon.  The daytime highs have been in the 80s lately, and this next week is going to be high 70s maybe 80.  So cool weather is right around the corner.

Still Undecided

Well, I just don't know about this 10-frame hive. We went into it again this morning, and most of the bees were in the top super. There's lots of capped cells (not honey but syrup that I've been feeding them). Didn't spot a queen. The bottom two deeps are drawn comb, but empty - no brood or capped cells, just comb. Saw one hive beetle and squished it. No wax moths. But there were many more bees than I remembered being in there.

I just have a feeling the queen is in the top super and maybe has stopped laying because of the dearth. Or maybe there's not a queen and the bees are capping cells out of instinct. It seems to me that if there were a laying worker, there would be some eggs and some capped drone cells. But there's not. Just empty cells. And if all the bees were robbers, they wouldn't bother capping the cells.

So, since I'm going to be working the next four nights, I'm going to feed them good and look at them next Tuesday. I ordered a queen today and it will be here hopefully next Thursday. If there's a queen in there, then the new queen will be unnecessary and will probably be killed, unless the queen that's in there is weaker than the new one. I'm just experimenting to see what happens. I will just lay the queen cage in there and see if the bees accept it or if they get mad (like there's already a queen there).

I was reading today that a lot of people lost hives to starvation this summer due to the bad weather. Maybe that's what has this hive in such bad shape. Anyway, no matter how it turns out, I will learn something!

Labor Day Woes

I went into the hives today.  The 10-frame hive had lots of bees, but no eggs, no brood and no queen.  I have been trying to figure out what might have happened to it.  Maybe she starved during the dearth before I started feeding them.  There's lots of bees in the hive, and some pollen and nectar.  And they beard some at night, so I don't think all the bees in the hive were robbers.  Besides the feeder was empty (I need to make some more syrup to feed all the hives because they're still drawing comb).

So now I'm going to try to find a queen for the hive.  If I can't find one, I guess I'll try the frame of eggs/brood a week for three or four weeks to see if they'll make a new queen, but it's getting late in the year for that.

The second hive I opened was plum full of bees.  I looked at the bottom box but didn't pull any frames out.  There was lots and lots of activity there and many more bees than the previous hive, so I think they're ok.  Although I saw more SHBs.  I've got to get some of those screened bottoms with oil tray for the 8-frame hives.

So in a way it's sad because I've got to get a queen for the first hive, but in a way it's good because the other hive I looked into was booming.

The other problem is that trying to pry the second deep off of the first hive pulled my back.  I've been thinking about that, too.  I may have to set another level of cinder blocks under the hive to raise it up so I don't have to bend over so far.  I may need a ladder for the supers, but I can reach easier than I can bend.  I may go to all shallows at this rate!

I'll post again when I have news about the queen.  Have a fun and safe Labor Day!

More Syrup, Please!

Fed the gals on Wednesday and again on Friday.  They sure are thirsty bees!  Hopefully Monday or Tuesday I'll have time to go into the hives and see how they're doing.  I can see white specks on the bees coming up to the feeders, and I assume that is wax flakes.  So hopefully they'll have the frames in the second deep drawn out.  I think they're doing ok.

Empty!

When I got home from work today, I thought I'd slide a top back and check the syrup.  Remember, I added 1 gallon to each hive on Saturday evening.  Monday evening, the feeders are dry.  Empty.

So I mixed up some more syrup and it's cooling now.  Dad will stop by tomorrow and feed the bees.  I'm sure they'll appreciate it.  They were all lined up to the trough this evening looking at the empty feeder.  So I'm sure they'll be happy when the syrup gets there.

Popped the top to check on comb building

I know this isn't the best time of year to be wanting comb.  But I had the second deep with empty frames and wanted to ensure they had room and food for this coming winter.  As cool as it's been this summer, I suspect this might be a cold winter.

Anyways, I looked into two hives today and they're definitely building comb, storing honey (well, it's the syrup I've been feeding them) and laying eggs.  I am very happy with the performance of these bees.  I think I took the right path when I started feeding them again (see previous posts).  I will feed them some more this week and look into the hives again in a week or so.

Adventures in Cusotmer Service (and other hive activities)

Since my bees are lagging along and not building comb like I wanted them to, I decided to put the top feeders back on and give them 1:1 for awhile and see if it would help. I put the feeders on top of the inner covers so they wouldn't build crazy comb up under them again. I also stopped up the notch openings in the inner covers to keep robbers and outsiders out. After thinking about this some more, it seemed that the hives could get really hot with no ventilation out the top (the telescoping covers fit snugly on top of the feeders). I had a 10-frame top vent screen I had won as a door prize at our beekeepers association meeting a year ago, so I put that on top of the 10-frame hive. I ordered 3 8-frame vent screens from Kelleys. They came Monday and I went out to put them on. Well, they sent me 10-frame screens.




I called them up and told them what had happened and forwarded them the order acknowledgment I had received from them. The gal on the phone looked through the catalog and told me she didn't think they had 8-frame screens. I forwarded the order acknowledgement I had received from them back to her. She found the 8-frame screens in the catalog and said she'd get three of them headed my way. I asked about the 3 10-frame screens and she said to just keep them. (I'm waiting in case they do decide to send me a return shipping label. If they do, I'll send them back. If they don't, I'll take them to the beekeeper's assocation and donate them for door prizes. Isn't that karma thing something?)

Anyways, I got them Thursday afternoon!  So I took them out and put them on the hives. When I got to thinking about things (it seems that's when I'm most dangerous!), it looked like, although the tops were raised a little bit, it was a tight fit and I couldn't see how there was any ventilation. Perhaps the screens work better on top of the inner covers, or maybe I need migratory covers. Anyways, I decided to prop up one end of the telescoping covers (remembering the stick under the top philosophy). I figured that since it was screened and nothing (except maybe SHB) can get in, it was safe for the hives, and it would increase ventilation.



Anyway, thumb's up to Kelley's for taking good care of me.

Feeding Update

I looked in all four hives today in the top feeders, and they were all plumb full of bees wall-to-wall. I guess that's what they needed. I hope it helps them to draw out more comb and have more brood. I feel like I made the right choice with the feeders.  I'll keep you updated.

A Command Decision

Well, I went into the hives briefly today. It's odd how I never seem to find what I think I'll find when I go in to the hives.

I did have bare-frame deeps over the brood deep, and below the partially filled with honey and comb supers. Today there are 1.5 to 3 frames with brood in each middle deep. The supers still had comb and some honey. All boxes had a lot of bees.

So after thinking a little bit about the conditions of the hives, and the time of year (and mumbling a lot), I made the command decision to go ahead and put the feeders on each hive. I won't get any honey this year, but hopefully they'll finish building comb and have plenty of stores for the winter.

Experiment That Didn't Go Too Well

My plan this year with two packages and two nucs was to try to get two deeps on each hive filled with comb and brood, and have strong hives going into winter.

I had about twenty five medium frames drawn containing half-capped honey in the freezer from last year. My thought was that after the bottom deeps were full, I'd take the feeders off, put another deep with bare frames on, then put the medium supers with the frames evenly divided between the four hives. My thinking was that the bees would travel up to the frames with honey, and maybe decide to draw comb on the middle deep while they were traveling.

I looked in the hives yesterday to make sure there weren't any wax moths, SHB, etc., and to see if they'd drawn out the middle deep boxes. Well, there was hardly any comb drawn on the middle deeps, and the honey was mostly gone from the top mediums. (Note 1:  I use plastic frames, but they drew out the ones in the bottom deeps great. Note 2: Three hives are 8-frame and one is 10-frame, but they all look the same inside.)

I don't know why they didn't build out the comb on the middle deeps. It's been awfully rainy and cool this summer thus far. Maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe I should have kept feeding them all summer (although there was some flow this year, and I thought that would suffice).

So now I'm thinking that it's getting late in the year, and that I'd better take the top supers off, and start feeding 1:1 syrup so that they might draw out some comb. I also got the suggestion to move a couple of frames of brood up into the upper deep to encourage activity in that level.  If that doesn't work, I guess I'll have to remove the middle layer deeps and put the medium supers with the drawn comb on top of the bottom deeps and see if they'll fill that with honey for the winter.

Hopefully Monday I can mix up some syrup and get the feeders on.  Hopefully, the bees will get the hint.

Updates will be provided when/if they happen!

The Swarm is Gone

Friday the swarm looked lively and was bringing in pollen. Today, there's not a bee alive. I had a jar of syrup on top of the inner cover with a box around it, but maybe all this rain and them not being able to get out, plus they were a small swarm had something to do with it. There's some dead bees on top of the inner cover. I didn't take the time to look in the frames. I'll go into it tomorrow morning. I hate it for the bees. But I've learned some lessons and hopefully the next swarm will fare better.

Dealing With the Swarm on Tuesday

Well, I went out there this morning and the swarm is still on the limb. I don't know if they stayed because it got dark before they got into the hive, or maybe they're still not happy with how I cleaned out the box. If they're not in the hive in a few hours, I guess I'll have to get into my bee suit and put them in the box. It just doesn't seem like they can stay that way very long. They've been there around 24 hours now through 3 thundershowers. Where they're at is where the swarm trap was before I put them in the hive the first time.

Update 1:  So they're still on the limb at 1:00 pm EDT. I guess I'm going to have to suit up and put them in the box. I would have thought the LGO cotton ball would have lured them back into the hive, plus the fact that I moved it to about 3 feet from the limb they're on. Silly bees. I don't know what they're thinking. I hope the queen is ok.

Update 2: I put the hive box under the swarm, removed four frames, and, like the good hands people, I gently scooped them into the box. It's a small swarm (about a pound)(but many may have been out scouting or foraging). I put an entrance feeder full of syrup on top of the frames and put an empty super around that. Hopefully, that will be encouraging and welcoming enough for them to say this time. If I go out there this evening and they're back to hanging on the limb, I'll just give up.

I have learned a lot from this experience. I don't think I'll use the flower pot-type swarm trap any more. I'll just set a hive box with frames out so they'll get started right. Hopefully next year I'll have some drawn comb frames that I can put in the swarm trap to maybe make it more attractive. And I don't think I'll do any cutouts. That comb is a sticky gooey mashy mess. And, although I kind of knew it, now I really know that bees will do what they want to do.

I was really surprised the swarm hung under that limb through three thundershowers. They must be tough bees.

But, so far they're staying in the box. I hope it goes better this time around. 

Here's the hive right under the limb where the bees were hanging:

I May Have Dodged A Bullet Today

My Dad called a little while ago and said he thought the queen in the swarm I hived recently must not be doing very well. He said there was a swarm on a tree limb this morning close to the hive where I put the swarm. I told him that it had rained pretty hard a little while ago and it's doubtful they would still be there. But I went out and looked and they were still there. I was only going to pop the top and see if I could see a reason for them swarming, but there were a few bees on top of the inner cover around the entrance feeder I had there, so nothing unusual. So, since I had long gloves on, I took the feeder out and lifted the inner cover.

Ugh. Wax moths! Little worms everywhere. The comb I had tried to move from the swarm trap to empty frames in the hive had all kind of fell/melted into the bottom of the hive and there were hundreds (if not thousands) of little worms all in it. I guess the reason they had swarmed was they really were absconding. Luckily, they were only about 10 feet from the hive on a limb. So I took the hive box apart and cleaned out all of the frames, and scraped the comb/worms off of the bottom board. I set the comb and the frames out in the sun (from what I have read, wax moths and larvae are kind of like vampires: They really don't like the sun). I got some new frames and put them in the deep box and added a cottonball with some lemongrass oil on it, put the inner cover on and put the feeder on top and put the lid on. Me and Dad moved the hive box next to the limb so the swarm wouldn't have far to go and maybe they would smell the lemongrass oil and move back in. I tried to clean it up as well as I could. I told Dad either they will go back in or else they won't.

Here's the hive box and where the swarm was when I got out there to it:





And here's a close up of the swarm:



I did hear a very high pitched humming sound coming from inside the hive box after I had it reassembled. I don't know if it was a scout bee signaling the other bees. My initial thought was that it might have been a queen piping. It was such a unique sound, very different from any buzzing noise I had ever heard. And it was loud, too! Just one more thing for me to wonder about.

Anyway, I'm keeping my fingers crossed they will stay.

I Hived A Swarm Today

What a time Dad and I had today! There's been a swarm living in the swarm trap for over a month now, but I haven't been able to do anything with it until now.  I got an 8-frame hive assembly ready to put the swarm from the swarm trap in. The swarm trap is one of those flowerpot looking things from WT Kelley.




I got some empty wooden frames and some fishing line that I wrapped around them. Got the smoker and tool box and stuff up to the trap. Set the hive on a table a few feed away from the trap. Took the trap down and had to really pry with a hive tool to get the top and bottom separated. There was 5 big combs hanging down from the top. I shook the bees into the hive box and sat the top down on the ground with the combs sticking up. I took the hive tool and pried the combs off the top. I laid them down on the frames in the box until I had them all off of the top. Then I tried to put them into the empty frames with the fishing line. I learned I can't tie knots in fishing line while sweating profusely and wearing gloves! Then a thunderstorm came over and it rained hard for a few minutes. It cooled us off, but I don't think the bees liked it much. When I tried to put the comb in the frame, it just bent and broke and was a mushy mess. I really don't know how the big time bee folks do it. There must be a secret to it. But I stuck them in there as best as I could and I hope the bees straighten it out. I am thinking that they'll adjust the comb to allow for bee space, and hopefully connect it to the top. I have four empty frames for the comb in the center, and four regular frames (two on each side) on the outsides. I tried to get as many bees as I could into the hive. I hope I got the queen in there. I sat the top and bottom right under the table with the hive on it, so hopefully they'll realize that they live in a new house now. I'll probably give them a few days to adjust, then I plan on moving the hive a couple of feet every day until I get them where I want them to be, down with the other bees. I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures. Between the sweat and the rain and the bees and the ticks and the gooey comb, I pretty well had my hands full.

The moral to the story is this: I'll probably not use a flowerpot swarm trap again. I'll just get me a hive assembly and put some frames with old drawn comb in there.

But at least now I can say that I've tried it. 

Soltice Inspection

We went into the hives today looking for brood and comb.  All four hives are still alive, although they're not as strong as I'd hoped they would be.  A late start and cool weather I think is the cause.  But they say the flow has been spectacular this year, so I was hoping they would have drawn more comb than they have.

I had 20 frames of mostly capped honey in a freezer since last year.  We thawed them out last night and I put a super on each hive today.  The second brood boxes weren't drawn out as much as I would have liked them to be, so I guess now if you were to look in to the hive, you'd think they were bottom supered.  There's a brood box on bottom, a partially filled brood box next, then a super with comb and partially combed honey.  I'm hoping that the bees will be drawn up to the top super, so that will encourage them to draw out the middle box.  I think one of the reasons they haven't drawn out the second brood box was they lacked incentive.  Perhaps now they have that.

So I'll give them a week or so then look in and see how they're doing.

One of the package hives wasn't doing too good, and I didn't see many eggs or brood.  So i took a frame of eggs and brood from the 10-frame hive and put it in the weak hive.  Hopefully this will bolster the hive, and if they've lost the queen, there will be eggs to make a new one.

Didn't see any SHBs.  Saw a couple of mites on drone larvae between levels in the frames, but it didn't seem too bad.  I'll probably treat this fall after removing all supers.  If it will keep raining, things will keep blooming and hopefully there will be some honey later.

I got some wooden frames at the Co-op today.  We'll need to put them together so that we can have a place to ut the comb when we get into that swarm rap.  I hope to get to that sometime this weekend or next week.  That will give me five hives.

Be well!

Feeders Off!

We went out for a few minutes Monday and took the empty supers and feeders off of the hives.  There wasn't nearly as many bees in the feeders, which was good.  We leaned the feeders up against the landing boards so that the stragglers would go back into the hive that night.

Tuesday, there were still bees on one of the feeders.  That leads me to believe that there might have been some brood in those combs and the bees didn't want to leave it.  Hopefully they'll get back in the hive.  I hope to have some time today or tomorrow to go and check it out.  And hopefully, everybody will be back in their hives.

Successful Day at the Hives

We had a good day at the hives.  We spent yesterday doing inventory to see what equipment we had and what we lacked.  I'm glad we did as I hadn't calculated correctly, and we were short one deep brood box.  I had ordered two to put the swarm in, but they weren't assembled yet.  So we put them together and Dad painted them so they would be ready this morning.

We got everything loaded into the wagon and ready for the beeyard:

I've got to give credit where credit is due and say that Jim Gentry, our local beekeeper's association president sure knows what he's talking about when he told us about his guarenteed sure-fire super-duper smoker fuel - pine needles.  I've had 100% success lighting and maintaining smoke and even refilling the smoker with pine needles.  Only problem is that they do burn up pretty quickly.  I tried adding some Brushy Mountain smoker fuel in with the pine needles this time, but I guess I didn't add enough, as I still had to refuel about half way through our work today.

The current status of the yard was two hives with packages and two hives with nucs.  We started with the two hives with nucs, as they were going to take the most work.  If you remember, we put the nucs into the hives on a rainy day, so we hadn't spent too much time on them.  Also, we didn't have enough cinder blocks to get them to the same height as the other two hives.  I was afraid we'd find hives full of wax moths and/or small hive beetles (SHBs).  So today Dad had to move the hive, move the mat and cinder blocks around to a level spot, add two more blocks, and replace the hive.  On the first hive, we changed the bottom board out because the one that was on there wasn't painted yet (we got behind in our painting chores).  Then we added another brood box to the one deep that was already there.  The bees had built comb up into the feeder, and the comb was full of honey (and some drone comb - no mites found - yea!) and it was full of bees.  I didn't want to leave four feeders with comb and bees out in the yard, and I was afraid I'd kill a lot of bees if I tried to scrape the comb out of the feeders.  So what I'm trying is to put the inner cover on top of the new brood box, then an empty super, then the feeder, then the telescoping cover.  I've got all four hives set up this way.  The reason I'm doing it this way is that I tried putting supers with extracted comb on top of the hive for the bees to clean out last year, and they filled the comb up with honey again.  I'm not complaining, but it doesn't help to get the comb cleaned out.  Supposedly, if you put an empty super between the inner cover and what you want the bees to clean, the space is supposed to fool them into thinking that it's outside the hive, and they need to bring the stuff back down into the hive.

Here's a picture of the comb in the feeder, and the top of the frames where the feeder was setting:

We got them all took care of and Dad decided it was a good time for him to mow since he was still suited up.  So he got that done.

I really appreciate his doing all the work since I've still got a bad back (I go back to the doctor next week to get a release for work).  He did a great job and I think he's enjoying this new hobby.  It's great spending time with him.

Here's the hives after our inspection today - cinder blocks, double deeps, and feeders moved up for clean out.  I did pull the bottoms out of the screened bottom boards (I had them in to prevent absconding during installation).  I couldn't find any mites.  I did see a couple of SHB larvae, but I couldn't find any in the hives, so hopefully the hives are strong enough to take care of the SHBs.

Dreadful Anticipation

Well, if things go right, I'm going to peek into the hives this afternoon.  I think I feel good enough to get out and have Dad be my hands and back.  It' been several weeks since I've been able to get to the hives because of my back injury, and I just don't know what I'm going to find.  I hope they're all alive and not in too bad of shape.  According to a thread on beesource.com, the nectar flow has been unusually good, so they're probably bursting at the seems or may have even swarmed.  I guess we'll find out.  I've to get some more boxes and frames ready before we open hives.

Spring is not the time for a debilitating injury if you're a beekeeper.  Please don't take your back (or any of your health) for granted.  And be sure to hydrate before, during, and after going out in the beeyard.

Lots of things going on (and not going on)

The good news is that all four hives are thriving and need more room.  The other good news is that the swarm trap has a swarm residing in it now.  The bad news is that I've been in bed for two weeks with a strained back.  I'm up and about now with a walker, but not ready to work on hives yet.  Hopefully by Monday I'll at least be able to suit up and point and Dad will be able to do the lifting and manipulations.

Went to the Cherokee Beekeepers Association last night and we had a fairly good crowd.  The presentation was Ten Ways To Kill Your Bees Dead.  I agree that the presented methods will definitely kill your bees.

Nectar in Tennessee - Where? When? How?

Here's a great chart I ran across that describes what blooms when and other information.  It lists the normal start and stop month.

The link for the page is here:

Nectar Chart

I tried to post it here, but I don't know enough about formatting to make it fit.

Odd Comb That Just Won't Behave

When I installed the nucs, one of them had a large chunk of comb they had built.  I tried laying it outside the entrance to the hive, but they didn't leave it.  Afraid of hurting the queen, I put a shim on top of an inner cover and put the comb on there, hoping they'd go down into the hive in a day or two.

Went into the hives today and the come was bigger and had brood.  There was also brood down in the hive.  That queen really gets around!  So I gently hive-tooled the comb off of the inner cover and pressed it onto the frame in position #8 (it was bare plastic frame).  I hope they take care of it all and they are happy now.

As an aside, I tried out my big magnet in my suit pocket and it holds the hive tool in the "always ready" position. It's kind of hard to get off sometimes, but it's a strong magnet.



The good news is that all four hives are buzzing happily along, building comb and laying eggs and drinking syrup.  I am hoping the temperatures will straighten out (it was down to 40F last night) and they'll start taking care of business making comb, bees, and honey.

Installing Nucs in the Rain

Friday, Paul Barris, the WRCB TV weatherman said we were in for unheard of amounts of rain this weekend.

I worked all night Friday night. I got a call Saturday morning around 10:00 from Holcomb's Garden Supply in Chattanooga that my two nucs were in and could I come pick them up.  Luckily for me, Dad said he'd go down there and pick them up for me.  I was able to go back to sleep for a little while.

I got up around 1:00 in the afternoon and started thinking about what all I needed to do to get the nucs hived.  Looked outside and it was pouring rain.  Oh boy.

Got two rubber mats to set the hives on, found some cinder blocks (only two per hive, I'll have to get four more next week), bottom boards, deeps, frames, telescoping tops, feeders.  Couldn't find any entrance reducers.  I've got to come up with a better way to keep track of supplies and inventory!  I'll try to swing by the Co-op Monday and pick some up.  I've put robber screens on as an interim measure.

Dad showed up with the bees.  Two waxy-cardboard-type 5-frame nucs.  One nuc had 3-frames and one had four frames.  I didn't get to do a detailed inspection because of the cool, rainy weather.  But there wasn't any queen cages, so I assume that they're working nucs.  Hopefully I'll be able to peek in sometime this coming week and see.  There was some burr comb built in the nuc boxes with bees all over it, so I put that wax in the hives.  I didn't want to take a chance of missing the queen.  I'll have to clean that up when I can get in there.

I put top feeders on the hives and filled all the feeders up yesterday.  It may be a couple of days before it stops raining and the bees can get out.

Hopefully everything will be ok.

Nucs before installation:

Nuc leaned up against the hive for stragglers to walk in:



Now I have four hives!



Swarm Trap Installed

I ordered a swarm trap the other day and then I started reading up on them.  Well, you learn by your mistakes, I guess.  Most of what I read was that the fiber-type of trap doesn't weather well and is hard to get the bees out of.

At any rate, I got it up today, in the woodline around the corner from the hives (about 75 yards away).  I don't know if it will attract any bees or not, but I figured it would be worth a try, since I'm still learning about all things bee.

I got the trap and bait/lure from WT Kelley's.  There's about a 2-inch hole in the bottom.  It's supposed to resemble a knot hole in a tree.  Maybe it will work.  We'll see.



Top Feeder Repair/Maintenance

When we installed the packages, I used the Mann Lake top feeders with 1:1 syrup, lemon juice, and Honey B Healthy.

We put one on each hive.  A couple of days later, they both had a lot of bees in the syrup.  Many had drowned, and some were flying around inside.  I didn't know how they got in to the syrup.  It's screened off and seemed to work well last year.

As a stop-gap measure, I put the Brushy Mountain top feeder on the 10-frame hive and filled it with syrup.  They don't make that kind of feeder for 8-frame (I sure wish they did!), so I went back to the entrance feeders on top of an inner cover with a box around them.

Tuesday, I got a silicone-calk-type of tube gun and ran a bead of silicone around the screen edges, hopefully sealing the route the bees were taking into the syrup.  I put one on the 8-frame hive to test it and to make sure the silicone wasn't harmful to bees.

This also shows the neat new cart I got to pull boxes and frames from the hives to the shed.

4/25 Cherokee Beekeepers Meeting

I attended our local beekeepers meeting last night and got to meet the state apiarist Mike Studer.  He gave a very informative presentation on bee treatments for mites, small hive beetles, etc.  We had a great crowd of over 50 people.  The prized door prize was donated by our president Jim Gentry.  It was a garbage bag full of "guaranteed to burn" smoker fuel.  Turns out it was pine tree needles.

Mike Studer showed us a innovative new type of hive top that is supposed to be helpful in the battle against small hive beetles.  In the winter, the solid top is turned down so it's like a migratory cover.  But in the summer, it's turned over and the holes in the side allow light in to drive the beetles down where the bees can corral them and the screen allows for better hive ventilation.  No bee supply company is making/selling them yet, but maybe me and Dad can make one (or several).  The pictures are not that good (it was dark and the flash wasn't cooperating) but the first one shows the screen side, and the next two show the sides with the slits for light and air to come in.

Package Installation Part 3

I took the bottom boxes with the packages out and all seems well. I put the packages and empty boxes in front of the hives so that stragglers could go into the hive. Syrup is in the feeder on top of the hives. The queens are in the middle of the hives with the cork out and the candy hole up. I plan on going in Friday to check the queen release.

As I said previously, the Kelley packages are not tight fitting at the top. Here is a picture of what it looks like after the can and queen box is removed:



Now that I know, I'll know what to expect in the future. If anyone else plans on ordering from WTK, keep this in mind and be ready.

So now I guess I'm back in the bee business! I guess I feel kind of like the bees do when the hive is queen right.

Package Installation Part 2

Short story:

1.  The bees are in the hives.
2.  Phone-Camera battery was dead.

Long story:

Got the bees home. Sprayed them with a little sugar water (the sprayer didn't spray very well, it doesn't like syrup). Took the wooden lid off the first one and the bees just poured out. The wooden cover of Walter T Kelley packages isn't a tight fit around the can, and the queen cell is stapled to the top, and there's lots of room for the bees to get out. It took me a while to figure out that I needed needle-nose pliers to get the can out. Once I got a grip, the can came right out. Then we got the queen box out (Dad was helping me). Took a knife and got the cork out. Put an empty deep with the package inside on the bottom. Put the frames with the best comb in next. There's a top feeder with syrup on top.

Repeated the above steps (it was a little easier this time, now that I knew what to expect) for the other hive.  So now I have an 8-frame and a 10-frame hive.

I'll go down there in a little while and remove the bottom box and package. They should be all out of it by now (or in a little while). Hopefully they'll like their new homes. It's got to be better than riding around in back of a truck in a package! They sure are buzzing around now.

I've got the phone charging now. I'll take some pictures of the Walter T Kelley packages so you can see what I mean about the gaps.

Package Installation Part 1

It was around 7:30 when I got the bees this morning at the post office. It was 40F outside and I thought that was a little cool to be fooling around with the bees. So I parked my car in the shade and left the bees in there. It's now 52F and warming quickly. I'll be doing the install in a few minutes.

Here are the first pictures of the packages at the post office and in the car:





There doesn't seem to be many dead bees on the bottom. That's a good sign. More pictures as things develop!

USPS

I have two packages of bees that were shipped from Kelley's yesterday. I got a call just a minute ago from the Post Office in Knoxville, TN. They said whenever they get live animals, they give folks the option of coming to pick them up or having them delivered. Since I had gone to the Post Office down the street here and made arrangements, I told them to go ahead and send them on and I'll get them in the morning (around 7:00 am).

I wasn't expecting that and I call that exceptional service. A tip of the hat to the USPS!

Preparing for new bees

I am expecting two packages of bees from Walter T. Kelley in a week or so, and a couple of nucs in May.  I have two hives assembled and in the yard but needed to make some room in the shed so we assembled two more hive boxes yesterday.  When we get them painted, we can set them outside.  Here's the new wood:

It's all 8-frame.  There's four deeps and four mediums for two hives, plus tops, bottoms, etc. I'll have to get some more, but this will get me started.

All the trees and flowers are really blooming now.  I'm anxious to get the bees and get started this year.