Spring Upon Us

My favorite time of the year is just in sight! I can feel the warm sun, see the buds and blooms, smell the earth, hear the sounds of new life. It's a new season. A new start. A busy time for all who care to be. A great time to make the most of this window of opportunity!

The bees from the cutout have been working good. I'll have to check 0n them and see how this cold winter (by Southern standards) has affected them. They're bringing in pollen, so that tells me the queen is stepping up production of a new work force to start this season.

Thank the Lord for Spring!

Looking Good

I did a quick check of the cut-out hive Friday (4th) and here's what I found:

Weather: PC, hot, humid

If you look closely, you can see eggs in the new comb.

On another bar, I observed larvae.

And, finally, I found the queen.


Here's a short video of her.

So for now, things are looking up for this colony.

Inspection of the cut-out hive

Date: May 22, 2010
Weather: Hot. Scattered Clouds.

I got to inspect the hive that I cut out of the wall.

Summary:

• Most of the brood had hatched & the cells backfilled with honey
• There was at least one queen cell on a piece of loose brood comb
• No eggs, larvae or new capped cells in the new comb
• I did not physically see a queen
• Bees were calm. They were chewing at the strings & some were tangled in the frayed string.

Here's a video of what I found.

My take:

• The hive is probably queenless or either a new (fresh hatched) queen has not started laying yet.
  

I need to keep a close check on this one, so that I can take action if needed.

A First For Me

Last Friday(5-7-2010) & Saturday I tried something for the first time. I removed a beehive from a wall in a church about an hour south of where I live. It took me two days, and help from my wife, my son, and the deacon, but I think it was a success. Now for the amazing part: I got one sting. My wife got one sting. My son got two stings. That's all! This colony was in the wall of a bathroom in a church that was built back in the late 1800s. The bees had been there for several years. The hive was about 4 feet tall, 3 feet wide, and six inches deep. I harvested some honey and was able to keep some to give back to the bees that I moved to one of my top bar hives. As promised, I now have pics and video.

Pics

Vid

Early Spring Update

Bad news. No bees. Hive #1 was full of dead bees. I checked them a month or so ago. What to do? I did get a call from someone wanting me to get a colony from a church building. I told them I would try when the weather warms a little more. I definitely want to keep trying. At least now I will have all my hives the same dimensions. Been busy gardening, hiking and enjoying the outdoors. This is my favorite time of year. I may even get a chance to call up an ol' tom turkey.

If I do get more bees this season, I think this time, I'm gonna leave the bees alone. I will check them and tend to them, but I think I'll lay off the manipulations (splits, divides, queens) until the colonies are well established. I may have stressed #1 too much. Plus, I should have made a fall inspection and maybe fed some sugar. Oh well, still learning.

Fall Update

We had a break in the rain so I decided to walk down to the hives today. My first stop was #2. DOOMED! Covered with ants. No activity. And they were doing so good! I guess the wet conditions didn't help. I don't know. I walked up to #1. It looked good. The wind had shifted the roof, so I adjusted it and left them alone. I need to open them up and further investigate. Beekeeping: the Roller coaster experience!

July Inspection

Date: July 11, 2009
Weather: Hot, breezy

Video

Hive #2 (was hive #3 from last inspection, but bumped to #2 because original #2 is gone): Lots of honey, nectar and pollen. I did not see the queen, eggs, larvae or capped brood. I decided to feed a little sugar water just in case she was in there somewhere. I read somewhere that , in the spring, it may induce the queen to start laying. Probably not good, since there was a fair nectar flow and I don't like artificial feed, but I had to try something.
Well, sure enough, I checked them a week later to take off the empty feeder and found larvae and the queen. Remember, this is the hive that I introduced the Caucasian queen into. This queen looked like an Italian queen. My thinking is, they had already started queen cells and when I introduced the Caucasian, they killed her. The new queen just had to have time to mate and get started laying. I just hope they have time to get established.

Hive #1: Doing fine, as always. I've made two (actually three) splits from this hive this season and it's still thriving. I didn't see as many hive beetles as before. I got some Boric Acid from the feed store and I think I'll make up some traps for the next inspection. I got a small piece of capped honeycomb, but I may be able to take some full bars before long. If not, that's fine. Just gaining the experience and confidence working with the bees is reward enough. For that I am thankful.