2017 06_June 06 Sunny highs in the lower 80s

So I took 6 frames from the Super in Florida ( and this was supposed to be my weakest hive lol). I left one medium super alone for the bees and extracted the 6 frames got 24 pounds (roughly according to Hive Tracks) and will bottle and give to friends.

I use a scratcher and then spin the frames... I have it down to a science and oh the wax was good!

I returned the frames back to the hive and will do inspections today.

This is nothing like fresh honey....shh don't tell my wife.

Any way the bees were calm  and were very happy to get the frames back I'll lookin on them shortly.

All is good

Considering I started with 2 colonies and now have 6 I think 'keeper' is the term not 'haver'.

2017 04 Apr 09 Highs in the 70s bright and sun shine

Interesting  happenings

It started with the splits I wanted to expand. I could not locate the queen so I made sure I had eggs everywhere. I had two colonies in 3 deep box configuration which may have been the smartest thing I EVER did  this season in January. The bees filled the boxes and in Virginia I simply moved that box to an empty setup. It turns out the queen was in that box as I did an inspection saw eggs, capped and uncapped brood in that box and more importantly saw almost completed queen cells on two frames in the now two deep configuration. so that may work out.

In Florida I split that top box into two double nuke setups (Sanford & Culpeper) with Sanford showing signs of the queen  with eggs and capped and uncapped brood. Then the other double nuc having a queen cell and capped larva. Then the mother colony also having queen cells with and capped brood.

Another 12 days for all the queens to develop and an inspection planned for this Saturday before Easter. This set of inspections is looking specifically whether the queen cells are going to produce queens. If so then I may make more nucs or diversify queens over ones that may not have queens. If I don't have enough then simply combine queen deficient hives.

Also a side story, I gentlemen stopped by who is interested in acquiring a hive. He kept bees in his earlier years and asked if I could part with a hive. I advised I'd be thrilled if I could give him a hive with a new queen. He asked what would I charge and I told him if it works he can have one. He is full of stories and at 88 years old reminds me of my grandfather.... I'd love to give him five frames for his setup and see how he does. Turns out I may end up with a constant supply of eggs for that colony.... seems bartering isn't dead and it saves me learning how to raise chickens..... which my wife and I thought about.

Small world and God does work in mysterious ways and I get to listen to some wild stories too. I think I come out way ahead on this one.

If you enjoy the blog please let me know and certainly if you have questions...I'd love to hear them.

2017 04 APR 03 Highs in the 60s

So this took place on the 1st and the 3rd.

I have two hives coming out of winter...... Obviously I want more bees and just success.... so what did I do...

I have two 3-deep box configurations. I put the third box and feeder on in Feb as I recall.

So for Florida I broke that top deep up and put it into two nuc boxes. and on each of those I put an empty box with 5 frames of foundation. so two - double decker nuc boxes. That was from Florida. and blocked off the entrance to both for a day.

Then from Virginia I just took off the top box and started South Carolina up again.

Then I placed a medium and queen excluder on both Florida and Virginia.

My goal is to have at least three hives by the end of the year and some honey.

What I don't know is where are the queens?
They could be in the nuc setups or in South Carolina. and Florida, or some combination of either.

Now since I did Florida on the 1st, I thought I might see some defensiveness from that hive today, but I didn't. This may indicate that the queen is in Florida and nuc setups (Sanford and Culpeper) are queenless.

I know Culpeper has eggs and maybe a queen. so I may be looking for queens shortly but I'll let the colonies stay as they are for a few days. Allo of them have bees and brood so they should be fine.

I may have to either combine Culpeper and Sanford or mix them with South Carolina... I just don't know.

Now another challenge I have to work with is wax moths and small hive beetles in Virginia. So this weekend I'll take pictures and look for queen cells in both Florida and Virginia. Virginia will also get a dose of OAd.

2017 03 Mar 21 High low 60s partly cloudy

What a day.......

So I had some time off today as I worked Sunday while being on-call I both my wife Teresa and Earl had doctors appointments and I worked on taxes (that's a blog on it's own). The Dr. appts went well Earl has more therapy and Teresa gets some more shots in her neck but more on the bees

So the hives are Florida and Virginia... we have cool weather coming in tomorrow night and I was anxious to get the Oxalic acid dribble in the hives.

So for both hives are still in a three deep configuration with feeders. I  filled the feeders last week and was looking to see if they took any of the feed and the bees did take it in it is almost empty.

So the feeders got the hives through the winter now and I will remove them perhaps tomorrow after work or at least the floats.

With the three boxes on I am hoping that frames in all the boxes have syrup, pollen and bee bread and I will look at splitting the two colonies after Thursday.

Then put on mediums for the spring nectar flow. I am expecting the bees to have a weak time collecting due to the splits and that a good portion of the early blooms were frozen and died.

So at the top and bottom you see the brown flowers they should all be bright pink. Now tomorrow night we will get low again 24 degrees. but the bees have been hoping around so we'll see if we get any peaches..... again back to the bees

So I grabbed my oxalic acid 600 ml water, 600 grams of sugar and 45 grams of oxalic acid all mixed and refrigerated. I grabbed the 60ml syringe and filled it up. I let the OA warm up and then took off the feeder and top box and dribbled on the second box and top box between frames on the bees for both colonies.

I was hesitant to see how the first application did before doing the second colony but the inspection of the slide out on the bottom board showed mites in both colonies again. So assuming I didn't do anything wrong in mixing I think it was wise.

Having varroa is a given and it's not knocking them down that is the trick for the bees survival, its preventing the rise of varroa. I have enough solution to do more than three treatments so I'll go for three and then look at the results.... assuming the bees survive the first treatment.

Two colonies and each has 50ml on three boxes.

Other things to note are:

1) the slide outs had less varroa than the over-winter which is expected but higher than I thought I'd have

2) the colonies were good and strong with Florida besting Virginia. Below is Florida

The this was Virginia

Keep in mind that Virginia was the weakest colony going into winter.... it's amazing they are still there. This will be the colony I split.

So next steps on Saturday split Virginia and remove feeders and do complete inspections. I am using and subscribed to Hive Tracks (http://www.hivetracks.com). So Spring is in the air but we are going to have some cold days still. I just need to get going.

Below is a short movie of the bees in the peach trees...

Also if you stumble across this blog... please let me know how you found it, who you are and if you have questions... I'd love to try and answer them.

2017 03 Mar 15 High 32-ish YIKES

Ok yesterday some snow with ice but all in all not bad....

So why the Yikes The problem is the cold... I still have not made splits as I said previously that was a very good thing. for the next 5 days if we hit the 40s it's a good thing. The snow ice combo and cold with winds would have killed the brood.

Now I am just anxious.

I did pick up a 50ml syringe and have two containers of 12oz of oxalic acid. It may be a good time to treat the bees after this last bout of cold. I still have 4 bags of 25 lbs of sugar so cabs and the OAD I can do. I will need to make frames for the medium super for the spring and summer.

My other worry with this latest cold spell that I have not heard other beekeepers mention is the impact on the foliage. My peach trees had already started blooming and while there aren't any dandelions yet I suspect that will hit us early April. I'd love to see the bees on the peach trees in our yard but I suspect the blooms will again be wasted.

I just want to get in the hives and make a couple of splits so maybe next week.

Come on spring

2017 03Mar 09 - coming on strong clear very little wind Highs upper 60s

Well I spent a little time in the yard today.

I had a good feeling on the remaining two hives and wanted to verify  before I did my happy dance. From the previous post the third box on both hives was a good idea....

Virginia colony was in the third(top) and second(middle) boxes with capped brood, larva and I didn't want to cool them off too much but they were in a perfect configuration on the frames. They had honey arches then pollen and bee bread with eggs underneath. A picture perfect type of set up in 8 frames in the top box. I took the top box and the bottom box(pretty empty) and switched them. The queen was in the second box and got her covered up again.

I opened up Florida too but they were very defensive and I really didn't want to break the propolis ( tree and leave substance they collect) seals before we get the cold this weekend, so I will get them on Monday or Tuesday next week after work. but both were good with bees

They were bringing in pollen (light yellow (maple) and dark orange (ain't got clue what it comes from). Any way... they are going well. I have our peach trees out front budding and starting to flower....I just need the bees to find them. I didn't help that situation out much by putting the feeders on but maybe the pollen will get their interest.

I thought of splitting Virginia to make one or two nucs, but thought better of that with the cold coming.

The picture at right top is Virginia with bees on 7 frames.

Florida above this and doing well but there were a bit defensive and it was hot. I decided  to let them 'bee' and target another inspection next week.

My goal within the next two weeks is to make a split or two....

They already have brood going and while the mites and beetles aren't visible I'd like to put a drip of oxalic acid in both since there were a large quantity on the screen bottom boards from winter.

Funny story if anyone is reading this that I learned......

So I am researching what is known about Oxalic acid and trying to decide whether to vaporize it or drip/dribble it. I am looking at it what is known on both http://www.scientifcbeekeeping.com (Randy Oliver) as I have decided, after looking at the slide outs for the screen bottom boards that I will not subject my bees to that type of trouble. I made an interesting discovery is that oxalic acid(OA) is in our every day foods specifically spinach, broccoli and a few other things although not in the concentrations needed. I reflected on the as there was mention of these things over time causing kidney stones. Well my lovely wife has been susceptible to kidney stones  mainly when she is trying to diet, which is when she eats green leafy vegetables and cauliflower and broccoli. To this point both of us thought these stones developed over time from eating red meat. In talking with her doctor the pathology seemed to confirm the red meats with calcium deposits making up the stones. Then researching a bit more I found that some people can't process the OA in the vegetables and the creation of stones can happen quicker.  We'll see where this leads but I did tell Teresa of the correlation between the two. so I have two cartons of wood bleach (OA) and will go with the dribble where you make 1:1 sugar syrup and add OA to make it in concentration of 3.5% (v:w) So now I need a small scale and syringe and explain to people I am not selling cocaine or the like.

I have two links about Varroa Destructor and Oxalic Acid. A lot of beekeepers believe that OA is the fix all and in reality like any chemical mites can build up resistance.

• Varroa link good YouTube video of Dennis vanEnglesdorp(UM) Video
• Randy Olivers PowerPoint resentation on Oxalic acid slides

If you care to see some good videos give it a look.

Also if you have stumbled across my blog and have questions... just leave comments and I'll take a look. I may not know the answer, but I'll look it up and share what I find.

This is really my log for the hive. I do use Hive tracks to create and do inspections.

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2017 03Mar 06 highs mid to upper 40s

SO was out on the deck on my day off just to observe the hives I have a bowl of sugar syrup on the deck for the bees to discover and they have been taking drinks. Since my initial blog post this year I have stayed out of the hives and I believe that was the smartest thing I have done so far this year.

High level summary:
This is the earliest I have ever had the top cover off and I almost made splits from one hive. I believe now that would have been my dumbest move ever as I am sure the splits would have perished and the hive I split them from would be gone too.... still just too cold.

So let me reflect on my previous post and give next steps..... 2 of my four hives died over winter and while I do practice IPM (integrated pest management) I will add something new and see if my results are better.

My apiary is in a half square configuration, meaning that I have two side of a square one facing south east. More south than east and the other more east than south. two hives made it two didn't. It may say something that the two hives that died are both facing the same direction. Oh and each of the hives had a huge mite count on the slide out. That's not each of the hives that died had a huge mite count...all 4 had a huge mite count from fall & winter until Feb.

Next steps:
1) clean out all the nucs and queen rearing castle and get them ready for work.
2) get the deep frames I made ready for spring by installing the wired wax foundation. At least twenty frames. 15 for the nucs and 5 for the two hives that survived as I like to replace 2 frames per deep box that are older than5 years.
3) besides splits to break the brood cycle I will add oxalic acid drip to the two colonies that survived.
4) document everything to see the impact.
5) pickup oxalic acid, turns out that it's pretty simple and while I am sure Central Hardware or Clarke's Hardware store would have had it. Gary's Ace Hardware  store ordered it for me and now has it in stock. and I need a syringe too.

Concerns:
So adding oxalic acid to my beekeeping has been a hard decision but I have read a bit of it and checked Bee Source on line. I don't like having to add oxalic acid but I feel I could really improve on keeping bees. Meaning oxalic acid is naturally occurring in nature and some of our veggies have it but the concentrations recommended are definitely different than we consume. I have an interesting side bar on that as well. To state plainly what my concerns are...

If I am killing mites that are impacting my hives, what else am I killing without knowing it. Are there things in the hive that I will impact that are good for the hive?

If I kill the mites for the bees how will they ever develop to resist on their own?

Lastly, the definition of insanity, if I do nothing why should I expect different results.

So I will use a dribble method where you have a liter of sugar syrup and 3.5 grams to the liter and mix it well. Then apply 5ml per seam (between two frames that have bees) no more than 50ml per box. and let the bees spread it and the mites are impacted.

When do you apply Oxalic Acid(OA):
Best to do before the hive has brood  early spring (almost) now or late fall.
Also if you do create splits good to apply 25 days afterwards as the queen will have just been created and the brood cycle will have just begun.

I am really interested in seeing how all this works out. I have a few other projects to try but before I run I have to figure out how to walk (get the bees through winter and healthy).

So a few beekeepers will argue vaporizing oav versus oad(drip). To vaporize it you need a way of heating it up and a power source. Many will state it's easy  to do and my response is... it's an option but the drip doesn't require lugging a batter and heater to the yard... so I'll start with the drip and keep the vaporing for a next step.

How does OA work:
This is interesting, in that it does, if too strong a concentration, kill bees but in the concentration I will use will not. The bees tolerate it but the mites are 60 times more susceptible to it. I should see mites on the screened board slide out the next day as proof it worked.

So the funny/interesting story. While reading up on oxalic acid (OA) I found out it's naturally occurring in spinach, broccoli and other vegetables. Now originally that's the proof I needed it was available in nature but...

My lovely wife Teresa is susceptible to kidney stones, and has fought them through many a painful session and the funny thing is that it's usually when she's eating healthy. She'll eat salads with spinach and broccoli and peppers onions mushrooms etc. The doctor always said calcium seemed to be what her stones were made of.... I proposed to her maybe the OA in the veggies  was the issue or pain in her side.....her OTHER pain in her side.

2017 02 18 highs in the 60s sunny

It will be warm the next 5 days so I opened up the hives.

Went into winter with 4 but lost two already. I Will leave the two dead outs up until mid to late March.

Filled the feeders on the remaining two colonies and added a third deep on the two remaining hives as they had a lot of bees already.

So I am using Hive Tracks for tracking the colonies and while good for mapping and showing the configuration, it's a bit rigid for my tastes but I will push through and see if I become a fan. My immediate draw back is if you simply take a look no way to capture that inspection and I must say that is a bit disappointing.

So on with the inspection, but if you didn't take the boxes apart how did you do an inspection? So besides going into the hives there are a few ways to gain information. Here's the skinny.....

Executive Summary:

I have four hives in my backyard in an interesting configuration. The bases are 90 degrees from each other. One facing south and the other facing east. I have cement blocks with 4x4s supporting each. The south facing hives looking north has Florida and Virginia  and the East facing has South Carolina and Georgia.

So the two that have come out of winter are the south facing hives and that might be a clue why they survived. So Florida and Georgia are growing and to be honest I thought Georgia would fail as it was weakest of all four. So a bit more detective work and keep in mind this post spans two days. I reduced the two east facing hives to one deep box and moved those two boxes to Florida and Georgia so they are in a three deep box configuration as the boxes have drawn comb and stores.

The next thing I did was pull the inserts from the screened bottom boards for all four hives. The immediate observation is the bees absconded from South Carolina very early in winter as it was clean. both Georgia and Virginia had a lot of dead Varroa Destructor mites which leads me to my first ah ha moment. The mite counts need to be more religious and I have to weigh what I will do to fix/prevent that problem this year. I am not a fan of chemicals and this will be a huge step for me if I go in that direction. I use screened bottom boards left open so mites and beetles drop through. I now feel I will need mats under the hives that would keep the grass down and give me a way to control the beetle larva that crawl to burrow into the ground. I also had a large count of hive beetles in all hives.

I may start with beetle blasters to control the hive beetles and order some pest strip for the Varroa. It gives me hope that the two colonies I do have were strong enough to survive the Varroa infestation.

All this without out going into the hives.....now for the actions....

So below are Florida(top) and Virginia...... splits and fun this year as I grow as a beekeeper.

2016 05 May 30 highs in the upper 80s

So I went into 4 of the hives...mixed result.
Hive # 4&5.

Didn't spot the queens.......I did see brood capped and uncapped....even found eggs in box 4. I didn't dive down to the bottom  box of #5.... there was no need.

Then went into hive #1 & 2.... different story.
Hive #2 only had drone comb...are the queen is gone. So I then looked at hive #1 thinking if I could find new eggs I could then move a frame over. That was the thought...as soon as I took the feeders off I realized they were very antsy and alert. I was under-dressed shorts and a T shirt ....and went in to get my jacket and jeans.

Well I couldn't find  anything resembling eggs so I buttoned both up and will look later tonight after work to see if I can find some eggs for them to build out. If not I may combine the two and grab a queen as I have 4 queens on order with Eversweet Apiary.

Some successes:
1) I have stopped routinely using the nitrile gloves. Now I have a stock of them that I can use if needed....like a hot hive #1. LOL . I do use liquid smoke and so far that has worked well for me.
2) I am still experimenting  with shirtless and just using my Ultra Breeze....but I'LL SPARE THE PICTURES.
3) Just  a having fun

Will update this week as I think more  about Hive #1 and which hive I might combine hive #2.

2016 05 May 22

Sunday overcast drizzle some rain some. Highs in the upper 50s.

So I found a spot to a quick peak.... with five hives that is no small feat. Starting with hive 5 furthest away the bees are OK and queen riģht. I haven't marked her but she was there. I eyeballed her. I also saw capped and uncapped brood....

Hive four I also eyeball ed the queen and she is marked.... blood capped and uncapped

Hive three also the same but I didn't spot the queen.

Hive two small cluster with some drone comb and some capped bròod. I will keep an eye on them..and do another inspection next weekend.

Hive one I did look inside seemed good and the slide out board had a bunch of pollen and wax plates.

Feeders on all five with sugar water..? Need a few more buckets (5 gallon) and a couple hundred pounds of sugar.....this will be a long summer.

2016 05 May 14

So the morning was cool upper 50s sunny.

I went into all 5 hives looking for status mainly. I don't need to find the queen at all but it gives me a warm fuzzy that I am nor squishing them when I do. Forecast is sunny tomorrow and Mondsy...then the rain returns for the rest of the week.
I need a flashlight on days where it gets cloudy.

First the Russian hive.
Not queen right that I can't tell if there were eggs or not. Need to remember to leave my glasses off. I also have a challenge seeing with just my right eye keeping my eyes together with a distortion in my left eye is hard.
Any way some new wax but not a lot. New bees make the wax. I did spot a few small queen cells. I may sit tight but split them.....later as I could use a few nucs from this hive.

Middle hive
Also similar.... queen right is quedtionable.....no eggs or larva.

Far hive
Better, a queen and larva....capped and uncapped I put it back together as soon as I saw her.

Furthest hives of two
Queen and larva

Hive closest
No queen, no larva

2016 05 May 08

So the weather the past weekend was good with sunshine in the late part of the morning. Things would dry out a bit and inspections and observations were possible. The overcast starting around 5:00 pm through the nite.

My theory is that for the four packages it wasn't all bad as the rain meant they had to get used to the hive boxes and would be encouraged to stay..... I installed packages one time nice weather and half of the bees left.

Also while their number are low...the tendency to defend is less as they build up in numbers. All five colonies are at the same stage building laying eggs and bringing in pollen and nectar. My theory is all colonies are perceived by me as docile towards the beekeeper when numbers are low. Note a three pound package will have roughly 12,000 bees. That sounds like a lot...12,000 of anything sounds like a lot doesn't it?

The underlying point here is there are several functions this group of bees has to do. There are roles to fulfill like nurse the queen, clean maintain the hive, defend the hive, forage and how do the bees decide who is doing what. So a bit on what I know, when an egg is layer in cells that cell is immaculate. When I installed the package the frames I used were in various stages of use and some while having hoeny, pollen and bee bread (mix of the two) some of the frames even had bees that were frozen from the winter that I couldn't get out. Who is going to clean them out.

So the bees in each package had some work to do. I put syrup in the feeders and they took some  but not all of the food. There are periods to forage and on the weekend they worked but didn't 'attack' the syrup. I then decided to mark the queens in all five hives but could only get two marked. The other three were elusive, so I'll do it them next weekend.

Note the marking was only to help identify if the colony swarmed easier.no other reason.... and I used last year's color....blue.

Further updates to follow.

2016 05 May 07

Saturday coolish with sunshiine.

So for all four packages the queen is released. I did give each of the packages a feeder with some sugar water. Since each of the bottom deeps has drawn comb I put on a second deep with a mix of drawn come and just wax foundations. In addition added either entrance reducers or swarm blocks to reduce the size of area to be defended or just restrict the size of bugs that can get in.

The same for the former Russian hive. All are active and pollen coming in. I'll do inspections next weekend and mark the queens. There are agreed colors for marking queens and I understand why in reality yellow or orange are the easiest to see so even though it's supposed to be white....I will use .....blue it's was last year and I don't feel like buying more colors to bee appropriate.

So 5 hives this year all growing, because I had 3 die.

Then I have four queens coming in June..... two Carniolan answer two Italians...... so I'll make a few splits.

That's the plan any way..... and make more sugar water.

2016 05 May 02 Serendipty

2 May high in low 80s..... sunny mid day and rainy evening.

I was fairly dejected in mid April as I had three colonies
1st Colony were Russian bees (strongest by far)
2nd was Carniolan from a split and bought the queen.
3rd was Italian.

The last two did not make it through winter and I found the queen dead. The Russian bees had at least 60 pounds of honey and made it through winter. In early Feb I went into the hive,top box only and they were in fair shape. Then we had a late freeze and within a week the temps recovered  and I went in and they were all dead head in the cells and rear ends up in the air dead. I left the hive alone until early March. I then noticed in that hive some activity in the top. I figured it was robbing be a Ferral colony and I didn't touch it as I needed it cleaned out. So the activity continues into April and I go in again. This time my son and I look. A large cluster but I couldn't locate the queen and I don't see eggs, brood or lava. It's been a bit rainy and I decide to leave it and let them finish. Funny thing is I blocked the bottom and over the next two weeks I am watching and I see pollen being brought in. Strange if there isn' a queen, why would robbing bees bring in pollen.

I ordered four packages of Italians and get the other four sets of hive boxes setup. Then I breakdown the boxes looking for remaining honey. Note previously I through on a medium which had a bit of honey and pollen hoping the bees would clean it up. I go through the medium and it is empty of stores and I look at the deep under it there is a cluster small but they are there and I have a glimpse of the Queen running around. I back out and will look again on this Saturday. I may throw a feeder on there to see as I did leave it in a three deep with the medium.

Either they revived themselves from the cold ...... or I captured a swarm.... I don't know which....but serendipity.

Lessons learned.... forget treatment free beekeeping...
Adjust the hive so the food is directly above the colony.
Exiting from winter make sure to keep honey or feed into spring without honey supeŕs.... just to give the bees a chance until flowers and honey sources are available.
NEXT POST. ..... installing the packages.

2016 03 Mar 06

So it's 47 and sunny it's the start of the bee season. The queen to cranking out eggs and start building brood.  I'll need to get an inspection in and look at starting splits. Another goal is a shared colony so two brood boxes back to back with shared supers.

Next just building two new hives either with nuts or full boxes.

Not lofty and not easily achievable either.........

End of March Spring is here... highs maybe the 60s

Ok all sounds pretty good 4 all 4 hives made it through winter........

Summary;
Hive #1 Italians (2 deep box config).
This is my weakest hive of the four. Early spring signs indeed showed the colony to be ok. It had brood, capped and uncapped larva but low on stores (honey mainly). There was pollen and bee bread.
I moved a frame of honey to that hive from Hive #2. I know unless you are 100% sure that isn't always a good idea in case of diseases or mites. Nothing like giving a weaker hive something a stronger hive can keep in check.... good move JohnE-Boy.

Hive#2 Italians I think(3 deep boxes and one honey super)
This is the hive I picked up last spring very strong genetics and fast build up. They had tons of honey and are building very fast. If I were to read what I just typed I might think they were Carniolans instead of Italians. Yes, the type of bees do things differently for winter. The only reason I am saying this is the Dave Irby wasn't sure and this hive by last fall was Very strong. They simply could have robbed Hive #1. If they did rob Hive #1 then I am lucky that #1 made it through winter and Hive #2 is honey bound (meaning little room for the queen to lay eggs) I am hoping that the bottom deep is relatively empty and used for brood currently.

A side note some beekeepers reverse boxes because the bees are in the top box and they always work up, so placing them in the bottom box in effect has them starting over and working up. The fallacy there is that queen does not usually travel across the top of the honey dome. So if she is in the second deep and it has a ton of honey then she won't travel above that unless or until the bees use or reallocate the honey. This then slows down the egg laying and that stunts the growth of the hive when you need it most (early spring). So I added a third deep late fall for the bees to have growth room on top of the box they had for brood chamber. This serves two purposes:

1. Give the bees expansion room to grow in early spring. In theory to prevent swarming.
2. Give the bees plenty of storage for a hard winter. In reality except for nucleus(nuc's) hives I want three deeps on all my hives eventually. To make it easier to remove swarm cell frames to start nuc's.
3. A third point is to give me some room/time for error. I have learned that bees are somewhat resilient and given time, they can survive my errors.

Hive #3 Russians (2 Deep configuration)
This is my weakest of the two Russian colonies but still fairly resilient and they were in the top box and active. This hive worries me constantly as it doesn't have much outside activity. This caused me to think it had died in early March until I looked inside (without my jacket and veil). They were not happy at that moment and I learned a valuable lesson..... again

Hive #4 Russian (3 Deep configuration)
Very strong hive and defensive. I am one of the few beekeepers who doesn't mind defensive behavior in his bees as long as I can't see a problem.

So what causes bees to be defensive?

1. Bees that are queenless.
2. Diseases
3. Excessive mites
4. Being robbed and one could say a beekeeper is robbing.
5. Animals (bears, skunks, dogs, etc.
6. Yes Africanized bees(AHB) also exhibit this behavior.  

I haven't observed any of these causes but then again constant vigilance is what is required.... and a veil at least ready to be put on quickly.

Now the peculiar thing I noted yesterday. strings as I call them on my two weakest hive (#1 &#3). These 'strings' are up to half an inch in length and are at the entrance and vent holes in the hives. This could indicate dysentery. I am not looking to introduce chemicals at all but I am researching Fumagillin B. Then I'll see how the bees deal with the issue after cleaning this up. off the hives.

I also made the fail of leaving my camera outside in the snow.....ARRRRG!!!!!

Just a look before the snow 62 degrees

March 2nd and we hit 60 then later tonight rain and mid-night snow and ice.

So what do all beekeepers do????

Go out and checkout their hives, I pulled the outer cover off on all of them and I had a feeder so I pulled those off on all but my weakest hive.

All four were bristling with activity flying, which is very nice to see. Last year at this time I was just demoralized as two hives died.

So Hive#1 Italian two deep configuration with a feeder. It was basically damp sugar so I pulled off the floats  so the bees could get there if they wanted. This would also absorb moisture too so a win/win for me.

I still didn't go into the hives  just pulled the feeders off. I also took a few pictures and a short movie.

I'll do an after shot once the snow has fallen.

The brown thing on top of Hive #1 is a hornet/wasp trap. I'll set those out when I return from Belgium.

Now we are down to 42 at 16:45 EST...... I love the moisture as we really need it.

Spring is just around the corner.

Supplemental post for 22 Feb

I mentioned on my Facebook page (supplemental blog) that while the snow didn't block the hive entrance it did set up a wall on hives #3 &4.

In fact Hive #4 the snow wall was touching the landing. Hive #4 is all Russian bees and the colder wasn't an issue. This was my strongest hive by far and to prevent swarming I added a third deep in the fall so they would have room. By strongest I mean quite simply this hive had the most bees. So this wall of snow when I went out there was preventing bees from pushing their  dead comrades  out of the hive.

The inspection yielded a bit more to the story as the snow has melted and what I suspected was there was indeed there.....

Literally hundreds of dead bees at the base of  hive #4 and  the landing..... although the bees worked on that a bit. I mention this in case anyone thinks of keeping bees or is a new comer. This is a normal although scary progression. You walk out to the hive to see tons of dead bees, but think about it. In the summer the bee population is literally 60-80,000 bees by next spring you go to about 20-30 bees. The bees don't fly out and drop them they just drop them out and go back to the cluster.

The only sure way to see if your hive makes it is something called an inspection. While the sun is out today and yesterday and the temps were in the 60s..... it isn't a good idea to inspect the hives as much as I would like to make that a goal. I broke the inner cover off and the feeder to see how hive #1 was doing but I was VERY nervous about that one and I didn't dive into the two deep again it was huge temptation. I just didn't want to and here is why.

In Virginia we still have a few more weeks of cold weather possible and in fact snow is forecasted for the week. if I go into the hives, into the second and third deeps  to look for eggs and maybe the queen, then I break the propolis seals between the boxes for my own comfort.

The bees will not be able to reseal it with propolis because the weather and sticky stuff is not warm enough for them. On top of that while in a cluster, if I break the seals and work the hives then I am cooling what brood is there. Think of it they are in a cluster at 95 degrees Fahrenheit. I open the boxes and disturb the cluster and introduce 60 degree temps in the depths of the hive..... not good to lose that warmth.

So I keep weigh the benefit and danger... I'll stick to what my brain says to do..... wait for warmer days.
So the pictures below are scary we are looking specifically at the base of the hive on the left (aka Hive #4) there are a few leaves in the grass but the darker color is that of dead bees at the middle and top of the picture. You might say  MY HIVE died but in reality it is a good thing.... it is when you don't see them in winter and spring that you need to worry.

A sunny Winter day 65 degrees and all 4 hives are doing well.

Wow 65 degrees - and the bees are out

Ok I checked in on hive # 1 this was the weakest hive (in the pictures this hive is in two deep config on the right next to the little nuc.

All the sugar syrup almost gone (that applies to all 4 hives though). I am at this time pleasantly surprised. I can't tell you the amount of second guessing I was doing of my set ups. It appears to have worked though the bees are ramping up and I have a lot of them already. This hive I took off the feeder and inner cover and pulled a few frames.  The bees were hunkered down over the honey and almost ready start cramping up production of bees.

So all the bees were out flying around. I looked in the top deep for swarm cells and there weren't any nor was I expecting to see any. While you can't tell from this picture the bees were all flying around getting oriented and stretching their wings. A few days ago (see below) they were all snowed in. It's very promising and I may meet my commitments this year and share some bees with a few friends.

We are still in winter and next week we'll be back with the snow and then on to building out the hives. Not much as far as pollen yet but there is a bit and the fact that all four hives are active is great.

As you can see it was a good deep snow.
My other hives the entrance wasn't blocked but there was a snow build up there.

Spring will beeeeeeeeeeee busy.

Splitting 'Timed' or 'Walk Away'

Splits with some out loud thoughts folks tune me out but I need to get this straight for a discussion I am having and the 'Why' behind my plan.
So recall I have four hives, two very strong and two moderate to week.

The Goals for this set of splits I have coming:

1. To end up with at least 6 hives, two of which that I can share.
2. Still have honey production.... Not for hand outs but that will happen....if all goes as I THINK/plan it will.
3. Not to get demoralized if it doesn't work. This is a distinct possibility as when I combined down to 4 from 5 I was contemplating my skill/art as a bee keeper.

The Risks:

1. I lose the two weak hives and two/or more splits that try to make.
2. Then I lose the strong hives with no replacement hives. Absolute worse case scenario. This is assuming I come out of this winter with the four hives I describe.

Discussion:

There are two types splits I will talk about. One type is called 'A Walk Away' split. Another type of split is more natural selection called 'Timed' split. So the second type of split makes sense but is somewhat harder. The idea is that in spring when the bees are really into a honey flow it gets crowded in the hive as the bees are bringing in nectar and filling cells in the brood and honey supers. This is prime time where the bees think about swarming. Swarming is basically where the bees plan and set up to send the existing queen (who goes through steps to slim down) and roughly half the existing bees go swarm and fly to a branch or perch near by up to 200 yards away. Before they swarm the bees have created several swarm cells at the bottom of the frames that will contain queens in 'queen cells' usually multiple cells over several frames in the hive. So that seems easy as the queen cells are about the size of peanut and it looks like a peanut. so they are very easy to see. The real challenge is that you want to see the queen cell with an egg in it or larva developing but not sealed all the way. If the cell is sealed then the bees will swarm and leave. This isn't too bad as it will leave a hive out in the wild but not the best for a beekeeper. So to this is where the genetics should be very good (strongest possibility) rather than having the bees make a queen from 1-2 day old eggs.
So with the frames with queen cells separate them from the hive and place them in a nucleus (5frame) hive and let the bees decide which cell survives aka natural selection. Then perhaps this prevents the swarming. THATS THE THEORY. Bee keeping is based on science but it is an art form, cuz what do I know about science...LoL (yes, I crack me up!)

So as I mentioned it is harder doing a timed split but more likely to succeed for the hobbyist.

To simulate a swarm perhaps move all the non-swarm cells and queen to a new hive setup. Yes I have a couple of spare boxes. to do that and see if that prevent the weaker hives from swarming. Then the theory is that if I split my weaker hives they could then go and mate with the two stronger hives that I will spread the genetics to the weaker side and continue to make my bees more muts (Russian and Italian mix).

Then I rely on my stronger hives to produce honey that I could store for winter and use for feeding all the hives in winter rather than sugar. This process will place me more active in the hives in the spring. Let's see if I have the time as March/April has me traveling in the spring right when I should be in the hive.

Now for the word for 2014..... Raspberry Pi..... Hmmmmmmmmmmm