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- CommentAuthorRossami
- CommentTimeJan 26th 2009 edited
2009 Jan 26 - I have two hives in my backyard (western Cuyahoga County). It's cold, cold, cold. It got above freezing for a few hours on Saturday but mostly the temperature has been in the teens (F). The colonies have about 16 inches of snow on top but are sitting high enough that entrances are mostly clear. They went into winter with good stores, I think, but the cold spell has been so long that I have no idea how they're doing. I keep thinking I should go out and put a stethoscope to the hive but frankly it's too cold. Nothing I could do right now if they're dead anyway. Watiting for spring - or at least for a short break in the weather.
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- CommentAuthorRossami
- CommentTimeFeb 3rd 2009 edited
2009 Feb 02 - 35F and sunny with knee-deep snow still on the ground. Lots of dead bees on the landing board and some on the snow in front of the hive. They must have found a warm spell in the past day or so to take some cleansing flights and do a little housekeeping. The groundhog saw his shadow, though, so we have a lot of winter yet to go. Still hoping...
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- CommentAuthorMargie R
- CommentTimeFeb 5th 2009
2009 Feb 05
OK... now we have 21" of snow on the hives and I'm hoping for spring to arrive sooner than the 6 weeks Punxy Phil predicts. At least I am selling lots of honey since the recent news articles on its health benefits.
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- CommentAuthorRossami
- CommentTimeFeb 12th 2009
2009 Feb 12 - Very high winds last night. It flipped the hive tops right off despite two heavy rocks and a reasonably sheltered location. Luckily, I still had hive-top feeders on with about an inch of feed. They stayed in place and protected the rest of the hive.
No sound or movement when I went out to put the tops back in place. It was cold and rainy so maybe that's okay but I can't help worrying about them. Still waiting for spring.
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- CommentAuthorMargie R
- CommentTimeFeb 25th 2009 edited
25 Feb 2009 - Well, it was 60 degrees and sunny this afternoon and both hives were active. Yeah!
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- CommentAuthorRossami
- CommentTimeMar 16th 2009
15 Mar 2009 - A sunny day and the bees were flying. Over the past few days, we've seen several bees at the crocuses and snowdrops in the front yard. The italians were out in force, returning with pollen baskets of tan or very light yellow. The russians were sending out a few cleansing/orienting flights but not much else. We also found several bees on the sidewalk who had flown their last. The winter bees are running out.
I put another 5 lbs of sugar (1:2) in the feeder for the italians a few days ago. The russians still had about a 1/2 inch from fall. As long as the weather doesn't go crazy on us, things are looking okay.
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- CommentAuthorMargie R
- CommentTimeApr 10th 2009 edited
9 April 2009 Well, the bees were coming in loaded with pollen so things are gearing up. More rain coming later though.
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- CommentAuthorRossami
- CommentTimeApr 24th 2009
23 Apr 2009 - Setting up a third hive this year. This one will be mounted on a feedscale for measurement as it grows. I'm not yet sure where I'll be able to post the results but the starting weight (top and bottom board, one deep with plastic foundation) is 23 #. If the weather holds, the bees should come on Monday.
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- CommentAuthorRossami
- CommentTimeApr 26th 2009
26 Apr 2009 - Finally had the time to really get into the hives on a nice day. Both colonies have basically one full deep of remaining honey, brood and pollen. The bottom deeps were empty so I reversed them, only swapping a few frames so the drone frames stay up top. Only had a little burr comb to clean off and almost no debris on the bottom boards. The italians already had a frame of drones filled and mostly capped. I swapped that frame for freezing. Some evidence of queen cups in both colonies but not sure if it's enough to suggest possible swarming. I'm hoping the reversal will slow them down.
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- CommentAuthorRossami
- CommentTimeApr 27th 2009 edited
27 Apr 2009 - Got the new package installed today. The bees were very gentle and went into their new home with no trouble at all.
The rest of the pictures of the whole process are here. The boys were a big help.
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- CommentAuthorRossami
- CommentTimeMay 4th 2009
2 May 2009 - Removed the queen cage from the new colony today. The bees are still very gentle. They hadn't taken much out of the syrup can but that might be because the holes were so small.
They also weren't drawing much comb. I think I made a mistake when I set them up - I gave them two full frames of capped honey (and several partials) as a head-start. Because it was capped, I don't think they felt much incentive to actually do anything with it. So I pulled both frames and scraped the caps off today. It turns out that a lot of the honey underneath was pretty crystallized. Uncapping it should force them to work the cells a bit more and maybe get more cleaned up and spread out (which also should stimulate some wax production). Now I just have to hope that I didn't drown the queen or too many of the workers with all the oozing honey that went back into the hive.
3 May 2009 - Added about 10 lbs of syrup in a hive top feeder. The car windshield is yellow with pollen. It seems like everything is blooming right now. Spring has been very sudden this year.
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- CommentAuthorRossami
- CommentTimeMay 20th 2009
20 May 2009 - Got home a few minutes early and decided to look in on the hives. The new package has been lost several pounds since installation but is now holding steady. A fair amount of capped brood visible, though, so hopefully they will start to ramp up soon.
The established Russian colony is poking along. Several frames of capped brood but they're still in the bottom deep and have not yet started to fill the top on. No need to super for a while yet. The Italian colony, on the other hand, is going gangbusters. They've almost filled their second super already. Might have to put a third on after the holiday weekend. I had been using a queen excluder on that hive. It certainly didn't slow them down any, though it did lead to a lot of burr comb. Took the excluder off and we'll see what happens...
The Italians also had the drone frames filled again. I wasn't expecting to have to swap them out tonight and had to pull my spares out of the freezer at the last minute. Before putting the frames back in the freezer, I checked for mites. (Take the uncapping fork and run it into the tops of a patch of cells at the edge of the frame then gently lift, tearing the tops off the cells and pulling out some of the drone brood with their heads trapped between the tines.) Zero mites seen. I think I'm in my fifth year with nothing for mites except drone brood trapping. It seems to be working, at least for me.
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- CommentAuthorRossami
- CommentTimeJun 5th 2009
31 May 2009 - The Italians are still exploding. They've almost filled two supers already. Put a third on just in case they need the space.
The new package bees are still muddling along. I saw about two palm-sized patches of capped brood and about the same of eggs or small larvae but their weight is holding steady at 59.0 lbs (including equipment and the hive top feeder). That's been constant for almost 2 weeks now. I've checked the scale - they're just not growing.
The older Russians, last year's heros, are just about dead. Maybe a thousand bees in the bottom box but no brood or eggs visible. Didn't check every frame, though. Maybe I should cross-level some bees or brood from the Italians over...
4 Jun 2009 - Well, I missed my window. The Italians swarmed today. They took up temporary residence in a bush on the property line. The old Russian hive was empty except for some robbing bees so I cleaned that out and rehived the swarm. Margie might have pictures up at www.rossander.org/gallery soon. Everyone seems happy in the new box. We'll see if they can get things cleared out and started up.
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- CommentAuthorRossami
- CommentTimeJun 13th 2009
12 Jun 2009 - I lost an after-swarm today. Margie saw them fly out but they headed up and east before settling. No way to know where they went to. Hope they make it.
13 Jun 2009 - Lost a second afterswarm today. This one, I saw (believe it or not, the first I've seen in the air). It looked pretty puny - a thousand bees, maybe less. They also headed up and east and out of sight.
I finally had time to get into the hives to see what was going on. The swarm I reboxed last week (see the 4 Jun entry above) have visible eggs on a bunch of frames so I think they're doing well. I removed the entrance reducer and left them alone.
The package I put in last month is still straggling along. A couple of partial frames of capped brood and more drone and queen cells than I would have liked but still lots of undrawn foundation. I swapped out two frames of capped brood from the middle hive to try to beef them up. If it takes (and hopefully I'll know in a few days), I'll finally have to put on the second deep.
The middle hive is clearly the source of all the swarms. They have already filled two mediums with honey and have a third almost ready to cap. They're just plain running out of space. I put a fourth super on today. I also reversed the two deeps, hoping that might disrupt their swarming behavior. Between that and losing two frames of brood (and some of the excess queen cells), maybe they'll finally stay put. Too bad I couldn't have gotten in there last week and maybe prevented all this...
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- CommentAuthorRossami
- CommentTimeJul 6th 2009 edited
5 July 2009 - A busy day today. I had some guests over who are thinking about taking up beekeeping. In a fit of machismo, I gave them all my protective gear (except a veil) and worked in shorts and without gloves. It turned into a longer session than I'd planned (see below) and I stressed the bees more than I'd have liked. They expressed their frustration on my exposed flesh. I haven't taken a total venom load like that since, well, maybe ever. No bad swelling, though, so maybe I'm finally developing a tolerance.
My captured swarm and new package are both doing fairly well. The swarm queen is laying very nicely and the bees are bringing in a little surplus honey. The package bees are finally drawing out some real wax and have finished off the sugar-water I gave them. Unfortunately, my hero colony - the ones that put on two full supers so early - appear to be dying. Lots of bees but no brood or eggs that I could find. I'm afraid that my last time in I might have killed the queen. And given where they were in the swarm cycles, they might not have been able to raise a replacement. Stole two frames of mostly eggs from the captured swarm and reseeded them back into the parent colony. We'll see if that helps.
In the meantime, I need to get the honey off or they'll just raid the stores. They've already cleaned out pretty much everything in the brood boxes. Oh well, Margie had lots of people who wanted to see an extraction anyway...
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- CommentAuthorRossami
- CommentTimeJul 28th 2009
25 July 2009 - I've been in the hives a few times and getting more confused every time. The captured swarm is doing great. Lots of bees, lots of brood and packing honey away like nobody's business. The new package is still a little slower than I'd like but they have finally filled out enough frames in the top box that it seemed safe to take off the feeder. (It was getting a little gross so I'm hoping this is a good time to clean it.)
The middle hive, the heros from last year, still have loads of bees, but way more drones than I think they should and no visible stores. Essentially unchanged from a month ago. No brood or eggs visible either, though I'll admit that I didn't check very thoroughly. If they are making a comeback, I don't want to disturb it. Hypotheses:
- A virgin queen is in the hive but she's either hiding in the bottom box or just slow.
- I have a laying worker.
Neither hypothesis fully fits the facts. If it were a laying worker, I'd expect to see cells with multiple or misplaced eggs. I'd also expect to see the drone population rising sharply. There are many drones but the ratio is not increasing. If a virgin queen, well, the foragers should be more busy and I should have seen at least some stores... At this point, I think I'm going to leave them alone and see what happens.
In other news, the honey I took off a few weeks ago was crystallizing in the comb. It was a bear to extract and is already recrystallizing in the jars. Very tasty, though.
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- CommentAuthorRossami
- CommentTimeSep 22nd 2009
22 Sep 2009 - I haven't posted here in months. It's sad how much better my recordkeeping is in the spring. Let's see if I can get caught up. August was very slow. I got in the hives several times and the bees seemed healthy. My concern in the last post about the laying worker was apparently unfounded. The colony is doing fine now. No significant forage, though. They were flying a lot but never putting on weight.
Starting about September, we caught a flow. The smell of curing goldenrod was almost overpowering. They have been incredibly busy but are putting everything in the deeps, not the honey supers. The smell tapered off this past weekend so we may be done for the year already, though they are still flying strong and bringing in lots of bright orange pollen. If I get one box of fall honey, I'll count myself lucky.
Pulled all the drone frames a week ago. I've been spot-checking the drone brood when I swap the frames each time. Haven't seen a varroa on a drone brood all summer. Either my mite load is low or my sample size is too small. Despite reports of small hive beetle in our area, I haven't found any yet.
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- CommentAuthorMargie R
- CommentTimeNov 17th 2009 edited
17 Nov 2009 - Well, we put more sugar syrup on this afternoon as they are drinking the feeders dry. Some out flying in the sunshine but it is still chilly. The improvised feeder made from the angel food cake pan and soda bottle works great.
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- CommentAuthorRossami
- CommentTimeMar 8th 2010 edited
5 Mar 2010 - All three colonies came through the winter and were flying today. Beautiful pattern of voiding flights on the snow. (Okay, not really "beautiful" per se - but they're alive!) Refilled the hivetop feeders with 1:2 syrup. Stung in the ear canal for my troubles. My fault for not wearing a veil.
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- CommentAuthorRossami
- CommentTimeMar 22nd 2010
21 Mar 2010 - Got into all three hives today to install the drone frames. Weather was in the high 40s but dry. Tried to swap brood bodies but the cluster is crossing the two boxes right now. (Swapped the first hive before I figured it out. Hope I didn't hurt them too much.) Tons of burr comb to clean out but otherwise healthy colonies. The ones in the middle are looking a little weaker than the others. They were the only ones with dead bees still on the bottom board.
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- CommentAuthorRossami
- CommentTimeApr 11th 2010
4 Apr 2010 - Added an empty super with the new top-bars today. Hoping they will draw out some comb and maybe even put in some honey so the new colony can get a strong start. (See the "Adventures with a Top-Bar Hive" thread.)
11 Apr 2010 - Swapped drone frames today. The two end hives looked clean and strong. The middle hive had varroa mites visible on the drone frame. Have to guess that their infestation rate is high. All three were putting on lots of burr comb so I added a super.
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- CommentAuthorRossami
- CommentTimeMay 18th 2010
Since last post, I've swapped drone frames several times, split my strongest hive (see the "Adventures with a Top-Bar Hive" thread) and added a super to each colony. One is almost filled - the other two a little slower. The weather has turned, though. Cold and rain just as the locust bloom starts.
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