It has been a good while since I've blogged. I had someone ask me just the other day what has become of my bees and me, so I knew then that it was time to jump online and do an update.
Its not because I don't care anymore or that I've lost interest. Oh no, far from it. It seems that I got lost in time around late summer when my brother got sick, and then his death. Then it seemed like I just didn't have enough time to do things. Throw in my yearly vacation and then back to work, and broadcasters will tell you that one of the busiest times of the year is between Halloween and the new year. So I've definitely had my hands full and unfortunately, blogging had to take a back seat. But I hope to get back in the groove and get back to blogging about my love for beekeeping.
My bees are doing okay. As you probably know, I have three hives. The yellow hive is the oldest and the orange and lime hives were established this year.
All three colonies are doing okay, but I have to admit that I'm a little worried about the lime colored hive. It seem to have the smallest number of bees of the three. As I took the top off the hive to check for honey stores, I could look down through the frames and see the bottom board. There were bees in there, but unlike the other two colonies still booming with bees, the lime hive has what seems to be lower numbers. And honestly I think its the queen in that hive. This colony was slower to get off the ground, the queen would do fine in laying for awhile and then get spotty, and it seems like they just didn't do as well as the other two.
The other two colonies? They're fine it seems. I have a feeling I'll feed them through the winter just to make sure they'll do okay; syrup until they stop taking it, and if necessary, the "mountain camp" method until spring.
As of now, I'm sure I'll replace the queen in the lime hive this spring, probably with a Minnesota Hygienic. As I look back now, I should have replaced her this fall, but with everything going on I just didn't have time. But if the colony makes it until spring, I'll replace her. The queen in the orange hive (which is a sister to the queen in the lime hive..they came from the same queen breeder) has done rather well and I hope she will keep going strong. And I plan to keep the queen in the yellow hive even though she has some age on her (she was my first queen) -- and she'll stay as long as she keeps laying a good pattern. So far, so good. We'll see if she cranks up and gets going this coming spring. Some beekeepers believe in replacing their queens every two years, but my theory is, as long as a queen does a good job, just leave her alone.
So that's it, a brief update. As you can see, we're all doing okay, and if we can all make it thorough the next few months, we'll get started up again this spring. As of right now, I'm making a list of things I need for the coming year including hive equipment. I have a feeling I'll have more bees this spring. Thing is...where will I put them? Wow...now theres even more to think about!
More updates soon!
Fall is here again and the girls are busy trying to get their houses in order before winter sets in. Spring and early summer was really nice with lots of flowers and rain and so the bees kept busy. But the latter part of the summer turned hot and dry and there was a definite lack of supplies for the girls to work with. One day I found at least twenty of my honey bees trying to get the food out of the hummingbird feeder And later during an inspection, I found the bright red fluid in the cells of my hives.
While fall is here by the calendar, the daytime temperatures are still in the 80s while a few nights the temperatures dipped into the upper 40s. But I know that it won't be long before the weather will turn cold and my colonies will cluster to survive the winter. But in order to survive, they need enough food to get them through the frigid season, so now the frenzy begins to make enough honey to store.
Thanksgiving is a day of rest for many. A day of over-indulging in all sorts of rich foods, parades, movies, football - and then dozing after all that fun. I'm no exception to that rule, after all, who am I to turn down my own generous helping(s) of my Mom's turkey and dressing with cranberry sauce?
The one common denominator for many on Thanksgiving is that its a day off from work. Some people get the one day off and many turn it into a long holiday weekend. But whichever it may be, usually very little work gets accomplished during this time.
Not for the honey bee!
Oh no, not my girls. As you can see in the picture above, the early morning of Thanksgiving, the temperature was still in the low 40s and the girls decided to sleep in some. But take a look at the picture on the left and you can see that by 11:00am, the temperature was up into the low 50s and the hive was wide awake. There was a flurry of activity, the traffic coming and going from the reduced entrance was constant, and lots of buzzing all around the hive. While I stood there to make the pictures, a few of the girls flew around me to check me out..but otherwise I guess they were too excited to take advantage of the warm, dry weather.
Sometimes it seems like there just isn't enough time in the day for me, especially after Labor Day comes. At the television station where I work, we cover lots of fall events, festivals and such. Then once Halloween passes, we go full speed ahead through the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's holidays. I will get this coming Thursday off for Thanksgiving, but otherwise, its just a regular work week.
Reidsville, the city where I live, held its annual Christmas parade this past Saturday. I was one of the on-air talents and so I was busy all day getting ready..and had no time to check on my colony. For the past week, I wanted to get down there and check on how they're doing, but one thing or another came up and so I got sidetracked. I also wanted to refill the hive-top feeder which was probably empty.
Of course, the weather was beautiful, albeit cold during the parade, but afterwards.. the rains came. And it has been raining non-stop ever since. This has been the rainiest late summer and fall that I can remember in years, and I guess Mother Nature is making up now for lost time.
While my girls have a really nice winter store of honey going on in the hive, I'm one of those "what if" people. You know, what if it gets really nasty weatherwise in the next few months? What if I'm not careful and they starve to death? What if this.. what if that? So even though they have lots of honey, I mean packed, my cautious judgement tells me to keep the feed bag on. I think that as long as the temperatures stay fairly warm I will continue to feed them to make sure they're okay.
So while I was sitting at home tonight (10:30) I had a grand idea! Why not feed my girls tonight? After all, they're all resting and snug inside the hive. The temperature was 48 degrees and it was raining.. so why not run out, throw some syrup in the feeder and come back in the house? It would take all of five minutes and I wouldn't need a veil. So I made some syrup and while it cooled, I headed for the hive with a flashlight. And as I made my way, I thought to myself, surely the guard bees will stay in and not worry about what was making those slight noises outside. They're probably asleep. Right?
Wrong...
I got the hive top off and the inner cover off.. and that's when I could hear the slight buzzing start. As I started pouring the syrup in the feeder and occasionally flashing the light on the reduced entrance, I began to notice one bee come out, then two bees, and then more and more. Apparently feeling the vibrations, they decided to come out and see just what the heck was going on. By this time a fine mist was falling, so I hurried up to get the tops and the brick weights back on. Oh yeah, by the time I got everything back together, a healthy number of curious girls had started piling out of the hive entrance.. and I knew it was time to head for the house. While I knew they wouldn't fly very far from the hive if they flew at all.. I was practically standing just inches from it, so I figured they could possibly get up my pants or up my shirt sleeves, so I said to myself that it was time to go. And I did just that.
I have to admit that I do feel better that I got my girls fed. And I'm glad they'll have something to occupy their time during this nasty weather. But I learned a lesson. Even in colder weather, and even at night, your bees are going to check out those knocks and bumps. So if you're going to feed them or do some work around the hive, please, do it in the daytime. That or be prepared to take off if they decide to come out to take care of the situation!
To all my friends in the States and Canada, a Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
Take a look at what my area has experienced for the last week. Rain, rain, and more rain! The eastern section of the United States is waterlogged -- all thanks to what was left of tropical storm Ida turning into a nor'easter and pushing non-stop rain here for days. From the Carolinas all the way to the northeast, the region has been absolutely soaked. And tragically, a local woman was killed when a tree fell on her vehicle and crushed her. The tree was within inches of her two-year old son, who was in the back seat, and he somehow survived. Ironically, the first person to find the woman was her husband who was talking to her on the phone when it happened -- he heard it. It is a gut-wrenching story, but just one example of how the weather can have tragic consequences, even in the late fall.
I was able to get out last Sunday, one week ago, to do a brief inspection of my colony. The girls were very docile during the inspection, only a few head-butts, the rest of the time they just flew around. One thing I noticed is that they can't stop building burr comb on the bottom frames of the upper deep. They love to get crazy with their comb building even this late in the season, and so I had to go about cleaning up the frames yet again. The honey that came from the comb was golden and beautiful, and I was tempted to taste it, but I decided to wait until next year. Curiously, I noticed a few of the girls flying into the hive with dark golden pollen in their sacs. I have no clue where they're finding it, but they're bringing it in. To help them out, I put some Mega-Bee pollen substitute on the top frames because I am still giving them winter syrup, so I added some "pollen helper" to the mix.
Overall, the hive looked great. While the boxes are still full of bees, it did seems like the numbers were slightly thinner, and I'm assuming that its the usual winter thinning of the population. Although I didn't see her, her majesty is alive and well because I found capped brood in the bottom chamber. Not as much as before, but she's still laying and rearing.
I expect that will be the last full inspection before spring. I don't see the need of breaking the hive apart at this point since I know they're okay and since the weather is clearing up and they're flying all around on warmer days. The front of the hive was busy yesterday, the reduced entrance was covered and a flurry of girls were coming and going. At this point, just to make sure they'll be okay, I plan to feed until the first hard freeze - which hasn't happened here yet. But I think it is coming soon...as soon as we get out of the remnants of hurricane season...in November!
Hope all is well with you and your hives! Talk soon!
This has been a hectic few weeks for me. Between all the fall festivals here and being ask to participate in this event or that event, I just don't always have time to soak up the atmosphere because I'm so busy.
But my friend Roy Sawyers, who runs a local blog about area events, captured this picture that I wanted to share. It was made a few miles out of town and shows just how vibrant the colors are this year. We haven't had great colors over the last few years because of a drought here in the Triad, but with a wet spring and a fairly steady summer of rain, the colors finally came out full force this season.
Since I missed my annual fall trek to the mountains of North Carolina this year, I don't feel so bad about it with all the fantastic colors I can see in my own area, and right in my own back yard too.
Happy November, everyone!
Anyone who knows me pretty well will tell you that I tend to re-think things I do. I guess its because I always want to do the right thing and not have negative consequences. But sometimes, no matter how hard I try, things happen anyway, so I re-think and then change my mind. And beekeeping is no exception. Freud would probably have a field day with me!
Several weeks ago I installed my mouse guard. I figured that with cooler weather here, now is the time to keep Ms. Mouse out of my hive, after all, she'll be looking for a place to nest for the winter, and a bee hive would be an ideal spot. All of the newsletters and information I read said fall is the time to those guards on, so being a newbie beekeeper, I followed the advice. But now I'm thinking I acted a little prematurely.
On Sunday, I go down to put some new syrup in the hive-top feeder and I saw that my bees were clogging up the holes in the mouse guard. They were in a clump on the front, something that I observed for the last couple of days which concerned me somewhat.
The first thing I noticed was that condensation had gathered on the inside of the outer cover. When I took the cover off, water dripped down into the feeder and the inner cover was somewhat damp too. So from my science days in school, I knew that the cool air outside...combined with the heat inside the hive...had caused the dampness above the feeder...and that probably came from a lack of air circulation.
Even though I have a screened bottom board...I feel like the mouse guard, which restricts mice from entering the hive...is probably restricting the air flow as well, and that's not good. I also noticed the other day that some mold had grown on the inside of the shallow super that covers the hive-top feeder. That comes from air restriction too.
The temperatures here have hit the 70s by day and the 50s at night. The lowest nighttime temperature so far is 48. I find it ironic that a mouse, no matter how bold she may be, is going to chance it and invade a hive full of bees. Maybe when it stays cold day and night, yeah maybe, but with the days still being warm and the nights cool, I don't think she's going to take the chance of being stung to death.
So anyway, I filled the feeder with more syrup and I removed the mouse guard for now. I am sure I'll put it back on pretty soon. And when I put it back on, to improve air flow inside the hive, I'll use the inner cover that has the popcicle stick risers. It makes a slight vent at the top of the hive and keep the air flow going through the winter. Supposedly it stops condensation from forming and dripping water on the bees through the winter.
My Mama always said it was okay to change my mind if the cause is right. And in this case, I think it was the right thing to do. I'll let you know when I put it back on and I may try to post some pictures of my inner cover with the popcicle stick risers so you can get an idea how it works.
