Playing Catch Up On the Blog

I've neglected to write in this blog for a few weeks, all for good reasons. This entry is meant to catch everyone up on "doins" in Beelandia..

• I have reluctantly finished  4 of the hives treatnent with Api-Var.  While I would like to treat the bees "naturally", I recognize that my bees do not live and forage in a "natural" world, but a world of globalization,   monoculture, urban development, neighbors with pesticides and herbicides, and a nearby golf courses. Given the high mite counts, I made a decision to treat with the safest, most sustainable miticide. Nothing is ever fixed in my mind, so we will see how this works.
• I combined Bee Glad... with the nuc I had started earlier this spring. The nuc was too far behind while Bee Glad... went queenless.
• Lake No-Bee-Gone is now fishless. A local leopard frog got in the pond and ate all the fish while I was in the hospital. I will rethink the pond arrangement for watering  the bees.

Inspections: The Good and the Bad

I did two sets of inspections on my langstroth hives the last two days. Somethings look better then they were, others looks worse. The weather has been hot, clear and muggy finally!

Yesterday, I inspected Worker Bees... and Lib-BEE-taria and things look a bit better in these hives then last week. The bees are building up now though the brood pattern is still not to my liking. I added a third box to each hive though as it was getting a bit crowded in the two.

I am not really pleased with Bee Glad... at all. The brood is spotty, and the workers have raised supersecedure cells. I will see how the bees work this all out with a new queen but I am not confident.

I am inspected the nuc and while I saw the new queen who looks mated, I saw no signs of egg laying.

I don't know whether it is me or not but it seems to me that my langstroths are all not producing as many drones as they did in previous years. I am going to email some local beekeepers to see if they noticed the same thing in their hives. I hope there are some drones around the local area for mating.

24 Hour Mite Drop Count

I did a 24 hour mite drop count on the three langstroth hives. The counts were as followed:

• Worker Bees... - 2
• Lib-BEE-taria - 2
• Bee Glad... - 1

Looking back at my records, these are unusually low counts which I can't yet explain. I will look back at my records and look for any possible patterns to explain this.

Video: Bees on a Hot Summer Day

I filmed the above video this afternoon. Please forgive the mess up on Bee Glad... The view finder is so hard to see in the bright sun.

Top Bars, Nucs, and Swarm Cells

Today's entry is a "catch-up" post. With my busy schedule this week, I neglected to report on Sunday's inspections of my two top bar hives. I will also report on today's inspections of the "walk-way nuc" I created a few weeks ago, and my examination of Bee Glad...

Sunday, my grand-daughter Taylor and I inspected the two top bar hives. From all appearances these two hives are doing so much better than any of the langstroths I maintain. (Whether this has anything to do with being top bar hives remains to be seen.)

Both top bars are strong with great, solid brood patterns. The bees have brought in a good deal of nectar and pollen. The queens look healthy. There were no signs of swarm or superseder cells as well. I am very pleased with their progress in this cool, rainy June we've had here in Winona.

Today I inspected two hives. First I opened up Bee Glad..., a langstorth hive; the only one to survive the winter.

Bee Glad... seems moderately strong, though its brood pattern is too spotty for my liking. I also discovered 10 or so swarm cells not yet capped but containing brood. This was unexpected.( I probably placed too much faith in my first attempts at checker boarding.) I pulled some capped drone comb for mite prevention, as well as two frames of capped honey which I placed in the nuc. I will watch Bee Glad... over the next week.

The walk-away nuc I created a few weeks ago is doing fine. I saw the new queen though no sign of her laying any eggs. I placed two frames of capped honey on either side of the nucs broodnest. I will watch this hive closely as well.

Chalkbrood Continues, Mite Count Is Minimal

I did an inspection today of the langstroth hive, Worker Bees... and the chalkbrood problem has returned. I suspect the unseasonably damp and cool weather is partly to blame. The chalkbrood problem probably accounts for the spotty brood pattern in the hive. I will try to keep the hive strong by feeding some supplemental pollen patties. I may look to requeen from Bee Glad...

As far as mites, the 24 hour mite fall was 1. That's something to be thankful for.

Yesterday's Inspection

Yesterday I inspected all Beelandia's langstroth hives along with the nuc I started last week.  The weather was sunny but rather cool for a mid-June day.

Not much to new to report about the hives. In the hives installed this spring, the bees are working in the second deep box. The queen is laying eggs in  the top box, and the workers have stored or moved nectar up on the edges.

The walk-away nuc I created last week seems to be doing fine. I peeked in the top and saw queen cells capped and ready to hatch. I was a bit concerned about the number of workers in the nuc. I should've shook in more workers when I created the nuc. I will wait and see whether this creates any problems.

Video: A Trip Through Beelandia

I decided to video Beelandia today. I hope you enjoy watching the bees active outside their hive.

Today's Mite Count

I just checked the 24 hour mite count for 4 of my 5 hives. Here are the results:

1. Plan Bee... - 3 mites.
2. Worker Bees... 0 mites
3. Lib-BEE-taria 0 mites
4. Bee Glad... 0 mites

The sticky paper I placed under Metpropolis fell out during the night so no count was taken.

Yesterday's Reverse

Yesterday afternoon I reserved the boxes on the Bee Glad... hive. Before closing up the hive, I left a pollen supplement pattie. Hopefully today, the new packages come.

Winona State Class Visits Beelandia

Last Tuesday, Winona State's Introduction to Apiculture class visited Beelandia to get their first taste of beekeeping hands-on.

Biologist Bruno Borsari and his bright and eager students, dressed in the 'armor' of the trade, spent a good hour and a half examining both beekeeping equipment and the population of bees in Bee Glad....

I spent a good deal of time fielding some very intelligent questions concerning the ins-and-outs of what I do day-to-day with the bees. The class included some very keen observers who actually watched the bees carefully as they came and went from the hive.

Overall, the bees were on their best behavior, as I was the only one stung through the entire class.

Yesterday's Beekeeping Activities

The weather was pleasant yesterday (50 degrees F and sunny) and honeybees in the Bee Glad... hive were out bringing pollen. It was a fine day to do some work in Beelandia.

I finally was able to prepare both top bar hives for bee installation later this month. I took all the insulation off, leveled the hives, and removed all the old comb (three years old or older) from the hive. As I suspected, the bees in these two hives had not collected very much nectar last summer and fall and had probably died of starvation.

After top bar tasks, I went on to work with Bee Glad..., the one hive to survive this winter. I remove the quilt box, hive wrap, and other insulation. I made a very brief inspection (I did not remove any frames). The cluster is at the very top of hive with very little honey left. I reversed the top two boxes, left some pollen patties, and put on a top feeder with syrup added.

I did make one discovery doing all this: I am stronger this spring than I have been in the last three. My previous weakness, which I had attributed to age, was probably due to my unrepaired surgical hernias. My December hernia surgery was a success!

Pollen?

It's the 30th day of March in Winona MN. The temperature was about 45 degrees F in the beeyard. The sun was on the one surviving hive (Bee Glad...) and a number of bees looked to be bringing in pollen. Except for the crocuses, I have not seen any other flowering plants in the neighborhood. I still would like to think the bees are bringing in healthy food.

Opening Up Bee Glad...

I went out and opened up Bee Glad... (a langstroth hive) very quickly to look at the state of the hive. The bees were in the top box (out of three) and in need of some food. I left a pollen pattie for them and shut up the hive without incident. I did bring a "hobo bee"for the cats to play with however.

Another Visit to Bee Glad...

I went out today and checked on Bee Glad..., the one hive that has survived the winter so far. The hive was alive and active, even on this cloudy, upper 30s day. I might open her up tomorrow and quickly leave a pollen patty. Hopefully, I can also bring in some boxes from the dead-outs.

Video: February Thaw

February Thaw and the bees are out II
Uploaded by WesBeek. - Watch funny animal videos.

I guess this is both good and bad news. It was over 40 degrees F in Winona today and at least one hive (Bee Glad...) showed a great deal of activity at the top entrance. In the next few days I will have to decide whether to order two more packages or will I increase solely through this hive.


February Thaw and the bees are out I
Uploaded by WesBeek. - Explore other animal videos.

Langstroth Inspections

Two days ago I inspected the three older Langstroth hives. Both Worker Bees and Bee Glad... are where they should be at this point in the year. The bees have stored much honey, there is much pollen, and the bees look healthy. It is Lib-BEE-taria that continues to concern me. The population is smaller than the other two and honey storage seems down. The queen does have a good brood pattern though and laying seems to have picked up. Perhaps the queen had been superceded and there was simply a gap in laying.

Belated Report

I inspected all the "older" langstroth hives on Tuesday between another "bout" of rainy weather. Everything seems to be fine with both Bee Glad... and Worker Bees... which are both jam packed with bees, brood and honey. My chief concern is with Lib-BEE-taria which is still rather sluggish. The queen seems to be laying fine but the bee population is relatively small and the bees are not comb building nor honey producing.

I dusted each hive with powdered sugar after each inspection.

Forgot To Blog Last Week

Time ran past me last week and neglected to blog about the goings-on in Beelandia. Here are the highlights:

• Reversed the three boxes on Bee Glad... 
• One of the remaining nucs sent out a swarm that landed in the same red maple as the last swarm. This time, however, we were unable to catch this one.
• Added a third box to the hive that is yet unnamed.

Hopefully, I will be a bit more responsible in blogging through this week's inspections.

Finally

Today's weather was finally summer-like: muggy, bright sun, and bees were out flying. All the hives had activity at the entrance. A few are just chock-full of bees.

I inspected the langstroth hives today. Bee Glad... has eggs layed in all three boxes. The queen is on the move. The brood pattern was fairly solid, and the bees themselves were very gentle. I pulled a capped drone brood frame, and replaced it with one that had been in the freezer for two weeks. (It was thawed!)

I cannot say that Lib-BEE-taria was not all that gentle. They were flightly, defensive, and running all over the comb. They still act queenless, and there was very little activity in the top box. I put some young open brood from one of the crowded nucs into this hive and will hope for the best.

Worker Bees... is doing fine. The queen is also laying in all three boxes, and they were as gentle as Bee Glad.... I also extracted some capped drone brood and replaced it with a formerly frozen frame. There were a few open queen cells in the hive but nothing was laid in them. I dusted this hive with powdered sugar as well.

I finished off inspecting the hive I created last week from one of the nucs I started in April. This hive is thriving. The bees were working on all 10 frames, and there was some crowding already. I decided to add a second box to the hive.

Aside: Any suggestions on what to name this new hive? Or am I getting large enough that I need to brand them with numbers?

I have run out of deep hive boxes so I will need to make a trip to B and B Honey Farm sometime this week.