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.
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| 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! :)
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