Bees: Sunday, October 23, 2011

Weather: Sunny, 50's, no wind

Our goal this weekend was to remove the sugar water feeders and seal the hives up for the winter. As we approached the hives we noticed that the bees from Hive C had bundles of pollen on their sacks. Each bee was carrying different autumn color...reds, oranges, yellow and whites. The Nasty Hive wasn't as busy but there was activity. It seemed that both hives new what we were going to do and didn't give us much trouble.

We had all of our equipment handy...hive tool, popsicle sticks, duct tape, tar paper, box cutter and glue. We measured the supers for the tar paper and cut the proper sizes. Last year Jim read that putting popsickle sticks between the top cover and the telescoping cover will keep enough fresh air circulating and it prevents any moist air that would normally be trapped in the super from freezing on the bees wings. We did it last year and it worked. Our bees survived and were healthy. Jim prepared both hives with the popsickle sticks and glued it to the top covers.

We both cut the tar paper and used the duct tape to cover both hives. It's amazing how the black tar paper absorbs the sun and actually makes the paper hot. This is exactly what the hives need to help them expend less energy over the coming cold winter months.

Winterized Hives

We finished the project and won't have to really do anything with the hives until March/April. Even though they're closed for the winter...we'll pass by every few weeks to listen in to their wings all vibrating in unison to make that beautiful humming buzz.

Bees: Sunday, October 16, 2011

Weather: Sunny, 50-60's, slightly windy

There isn't much pollen around and the flowers are drying up. The only flowers blooming right now seem to be mums and you'll see an occasional honeybee or bumblebee on them. The leaves are all changing and I'd estimate that half of the leaves on the maple trees in front of the house have already blown away.

We went to check on the bees to see if we needed to add more sugar water and there was probably a gallon left in each hive. Jim and I decided to leave it on for another week and then remove it. If they're not feeding any longer, they've built up a nice reserve of food to last them the winter...at least that's what the hope is.

We reduced the entrance to the smallest hole on each. Our intention for this coming weekend is to place the wooden boards underneath each and then wrap each in tar paper like we did last winter. We'll use Jim's trick with the popsicle sticks by the top cover to keep the air circulating. We'll leave them alone until just before Spring when we give them sugar water and the cycle begins again.

Bees: Saturday, October 8th, 2011

Weather: Sunny, 80's, overall beautiful day

Today was Jim's birthday and the day couldn't have been better. Last night we made 3 gallons of sugar water and this morning we brewed another 3 gallons. Although we originally decided to not give the nasty hive any sugar water to see how well it overwintered, this morning over breakfast we changed our mind. It didn't hurt our Alpha hive last year and if it helps them fend off any illnesses, it's worth it.

We first went to Hive C and the first thing we noticed was that there was activity near the front entrance but nothing compared to the Nasty Hive. Hive C seemed like it had a number of drone bees milling around the front and we were trying to figure out whether they were tossed out and trying to get back in or just coming and going as they normally would. We opened the telescoping cover and saw that the 3 gallons we gave a few days ago was practically gone. Everything seemed to make sense, the drones outside not being bothered and all the sugar water being gone...it's possible that they have built up enough food storage for the winter and not worried about having the drones around eating since there's so much food. We poured another 3 gallons sealed her up and we'll come back to check in 2 weeks to check up on them again. We also decided to reduce the entrance to the smallest hole in order to minimize robbing situations and allow them to protect themselves easier.

The Nasty Hive

The Nasty Hive was beyond busy in the front without any drones milling around. (check out the video below) Jim noticed a yellow trying to get in but there wasn't any way with the number of honey bees out front that it would succeed. There were so many honey bees out front that I thought they were newly hatched worker bees trying to orientate themselves. When we opened the Nasty Hive I noticed something odd but Jim didn't feel it was anything too concerning. When I removed the top cover on the Nasty Hive last week, we tore through some comb with honey that the bees attached to the top cover. Honey was pouring all over the place because of it. Today it seems like there was no honey in that comb at all....like they emptied it out knowing we were going to remove the top cover while the feeder was in place. I shaved off all of the excess comb they built up on the tops of the Pierco frames, placed the feeder and filled it up. The honey bees all found their way to the top and began drinking right away. We sealed her up and also reduced the entrance to the smallest hole.

This next story is sad because of what we needed to do. We opened our wonderful Alpha hive and noticed it completely devoid of any honey. There were hundreds of bees but the reality of the situation was that there weren't any brood or eggs or honey or nectar. The activity we were seeing were basically robber bees taking any drop of food they could. Jim and I decided to torch the hive since there was a bit of mold and the wooden frames were decaying. We read that the best thing to do in those situations were to torch the supers since it could promote disease. We carried the boxes to the center of the field, laid wood underneath with newspaper and up it went once it was lit. It was sad but beautiful to watch nonetheless.

We're looking forward to sealing these last 2 hives up for the winter and making sure they have every bit of energy to make it to the Spring. The thought of having 2 hives with loads of honey next Spring is exciting.

What we did learn this summer was that we should let the bees do what they do best and that's letting them decide when they want a new queen. We will continue to stop any swarm cells but other than that, we'll let them BEE! :)

Bees: Sunday, October 2, 2o11

Weather: Cool, Sunny but slightly damp, 50-60's

Last night Jim and I watched the documentary "Vanishing Bees" about Colony Collapse Disorder and we became concerned because 2 weeks ago we noticed the Alpha hive wasn't as busy as the other two. We decided to build up their food supple for the winter so we created about 3 gallons of sugar water, healthy b and fumagillin.  We used a 2 to 1 mix of water and sugar. The healthy b is a mixture of natural ingredients that boost their immune system and keeps mites away with its peppermint scent. The fumagillin is supposed to help the bees immune system in case nosema disease comes into the hive. We let it cool overnight and this morning we put them in jugs and headed up to the hives.

As we approached the hives we noticed not one was busy...in fact no bees were present. I'm sure Jim's mind was racing as mine was that could it be possible that they've all left. I put my ear against the hive and was happy I heard busy. I'm sure they were clustered together to keep warm as the morning sun didn't generate enough heat for them to venture out.

The first hive we checked was the Alpha hive from last year. We opened the cover and all seemed ok as the worker bees all peered out from the hole in the top cover. As we removed the cover and removed each of the frames, we became disappointed at what we were seeing. Frame after frame of empty or dead brood, no honey stores and barely any pollen. We didn't see any drones and any worker bees we saw were probably robber bees from our other hives. The realization that our first hive, our hive that produced so much honey for us, was dead. It was a disappointment that took a few minutes to sink in. Jim and I decided to close her up and discuss what we'd do to it later on.

The next hive we checked was the Nasty hive. When we opened it we were amazed at the amount of honey they stored. We also noticed the amount of honey bees populating the hive was about 8 times what we saw in the Alpha hive. Jim let me do a test. The test was to let the Nasty Hive proceed over the winter without any sugar water or supplements. We closed her up and we decided to check on her in a few weeks.

The final hive check was on Hive C. Upon opening this hive we were happy to see that this hive was also another healthy hive that was going to make it over the winter. Their sheer number, honey store and brood were a wonderful indication of that. We checked frame by frame and lo and behold, the queen was busy doing her thing...checking empty cells to lay her eggs. The interesting thing about this queen was that the previous queen was either not good or died because the worker bees created this new one. Last month Jim and I noticed a few queen cells and one that emerged and killed the other cells. This was the queen we found today.

While driving home today, we decided to get rid of the old pine box and buy a cedar box for the Spring. Next week we'll use the stand from the Alpha Hive for the Nasty Hive. The Nasty Hive is heavy and the plastic stand isn't able to support it. We'll go to Lowes and buy 1/2 inch plywood to seal up the bottoms of the hive. As we get closer to the colder weather, we'll wrap each hive in tar paper. We'll also stick the popsicle sticks under the top cover. Both of these tricks seemed to have worked on overwintering the Alpha Hive so we'll do it again.