Frenzied hive activity

Yesterday was a glorious day of sun, warmth. I walked past the hive and there was a frenzy of activity. DIfferent than usual in that both hives had lots of bees flying around the entrance and hanging out on the front porch. Here are some photos.

Today, they are acting normally.

Fall update

I can not believe it has been 2 months since I posted. Sorry. I have visited the hives twice since the last post.

Beginning of August: looking to make sure there was enough work and room for all the hives. All were very active and full. I added another deep super with 10 frames that when filled will be their winter's food supply.

The bees with "tude are the queens of propolis, they use it to seal up the inside of the hive. They were more than happy to have more space. The cosmic hive is becoming my standard for they are tooling along in a nice steady way but not extreme in anyway.

Top bar hive was full- needed more bars to add or to take honey. All of the combs had honey on top, then brood at bottom. According to the book, they should be putting in full combs of honey by now. I also noted they had drones cells mid comb in almost all the the combs I checked. This is unusual. The drones are often found at the bottom of a frame or comb and at this time of the season, drone population should be decreasing. What could it mean? One comb broke off when I moved it so I gather some honey for landlords. Put it in a really cute honey pot I purchased at Betterbee in Greenwich. They have a small store in front where you can buy honey and gifts if interested.

Beginning of September: looking to see if there will be enough honey and the health of the hives, looking for deformed wings which indicates mites, anything unusual

Bees with 'tude hive is overloaded. Photo shows them hanging outside the hive in the morning. I am so glad I have goatskin gloves now when working with them. They still have attitude, still love propolis and are such workers. I am amazed they have not swarmed but am grateful. Noted drone cells in the middle of the honey frames here too.

Cosmic hive is plugging along - not quite enough honey so should feed them especially with nectar flow slowing with the fall. Will make bee candy to place in the hive so other hives do not rob this hive or fight over the food since both hives are next to each other.

Top Bar hive must have swarmed. They were not teeming and the combs are no longer have drone cells but not many are full of honey. Put a feeder in the field near them but it didn't seal so the bee tea just drained out into the grass. Bee candy for them too until the winter comes. I put all the bars into the hive so they have lots of work to do. One more reason to feed them. If they do not fill all the bars, I will need to pull the empty ones before winter. I feel they are okay but need a boost. I do not know how to tell with them as well as the Langstroth hives.

All hives will need to be revisited before winter again. I will remove the shallow supers from the Langstroth hives and any empty deep frames from next deep super so they don't travel up in winter to an empty frame and starve.

Thanks, Jane for helping.

Busy as a bee

Boy is it hot out there, especially in full garb. But my new goatskin gardening gloves worked really well. I could feel things (no squished bees) and yet protected me well. What a difference in hives - they continue to amaze me. The "Zen " girls are into sealing everything WELL. It took a bit of effort to pop the top cover off even, usually that is a breeze. I gave them a new deep super with 10 frames to fill with honey they will keep for the winter. Surprisingly, their shallow honey super was quite heavy which means filled with honey. I returned it above the deep super and will go and take it after they decide to focus on the super below. They say this not kosher but the girls are very adaptable.

Switch the deep super and the shallow honey super on the "Attitude" hive also. Their hive was hardly sealed at all so it was easy in and out. Their shallow super is loaded down with honey too, ready for a harvest. It was too hot and I did not have time. Since I do not have a "honey house" I need to close off the kitchen from the dog and cats, clean the surfaces and floor, set up the trays to cut off the wax caps off the comb and set up the frames to drain. It is a mess.

Also, you need to brush off all the bees the frames before taking it inside (obvious) and if you the wagon with the honey frames, the bees recover them trying to take the honey back. That was a hard lesson to learn my first year. So you need to be ready to harvest.

The honey is fine on the hive until you are ready. I am limited in equipment so I need the super to reuse. This means about 80 lbs of honey- 40 lbs from each shallow super. I cut all the comb off since I use shallows who do not spin well in the extractor. It means the fall harvest will happen only if the girls are ambitious making new comb. I don't use a deep super because they are around 80 lbs to lift when full of honey.

Teeming hives

Hot, hazy and humid- the girls are loving it. I visited all the hives over the 4th before the heatwave. The hive with 'Tude makes me put the full gear on- veil, gloves, jacket- and it is too hot for long. That hive has almost a full super of honey ready to go so I add a deep super. This gives them more room, more to do so they won't swarm and will be their super of honey for the winter. One deep super full of honey is about 70-80 lbs of honey so they should be fine. In the spring I will pull the lower super out and this super will become part of their hive body.

Top Bar hive is fascinating. They are building honeyed comb onto the feeder board at one end which means the queen is laying enough that they can start storing honey. I add 7 bars for them to build comb and fill. That took me to the end on one side so just 7 more bars and they will be at capacity. Once that happens, I have to take honey, bar at a time, to keep them busy. We should be headed into the lull in nectar and pollen. If you garden you know not many flowers bloom in July. It all starts back up in August.

So mid summer my job is to keep them busy with empty supers or bars, check the hive for strength and mites. I will dust them with powdered sugar so they groom each other and knock the mites off, dropping them onto the ground. Kind of funky going out with a sifter and sugar. They had being disturbed until the sugar hits and then it becomes treats.

Stay cool.

Cost of 1 lb of honey

A bee makes a total of 1/12 tsp of honey in her lifetime. That means it takes 556 bees to make one lb of honey. For the bees, one pound of honey would provide enough fuel for 16 bees to fly around the world.

Think about it. Amazing!

Deer at Hives

I went out walking the dog and there was a doe eating by the hives. She watched us cautiously but not enough to stop eating.

The hives are booming - getting a deep super ready for the 'Tude hive since they are at least a week ahead of the Zen hive. I will go covered this time to avoid stings. It seems that in the world of beekeeping, the competition is whether you go uncovered to your bees. This is a silly competition. Other than the outfit is hot, I use my hands and do not need swollen hands.

I need to make more Top Bars. How many new tools do you think it will take?

Check out this alternative hive- dodecahedron hive using sacred geometry- www.microecofarming.com - More for the bees than collecting honey. I think I will wait for it to be improved- saw a visitor center in Alaska that was very similar.

There is a beekeeper here who is interested in the Top Bar hive. Maybe this will start a trend- they are good for backyard bees. I hope to harvest some honey this 4th weekend from it.