Added A Box To Bee Glad...

I did my inspection of the Minnesota Hygienic hives Sunday afternoon. The temperature was in the low 70s, it was sunny, and the bees were out. I think that a good deal of their pollen is being collected from the basswood trees that are in bloom all throughout our neighborhood.

Both Metpropolis and Bee Glad... are healthy and thriving, nothing unusual to report. In Bee Glad..., the Langstroth hive, around 80% of the frames have been drawn, so I added a second box, set the bottom entrance to the next size, and unplugged the top entrance on the top shim. I took off the top feeder as well.

In Metpropolis, the top bar hive, all is well as well. I added another bar to the 13 already on and took out the feeder as well.

One thing that was truly noticeable today was how calm and gentle the bees were in both hives. While it is difficult to speculate why at this point, I am guessing that it was the time of day. I usually inspect my hives two and half hours earlier in the late morning. For a number of reasons, I did not get to the hives until 2 or so yesterday. I am guessing that most of the foragers were out and about by this time, and the younger bees were too busy at other duties to take much notice of me. In all, it was a pleasant time for all.

Week 9 and The Summer Flow is Coming

I just got through doing my 9th week inspection of Metpropolis and Bee Glad... . We just got through a rainy weekend but this morning was beautiful. The temperature was in the high 70s, the sun was out with light, occasional breezes. The bees have been busy at the entrance, and I've caught them around the neighborhood foraging white clover. I think the basswood trees are just around done flowering.

Bee Glad... has three deeps on now but not much work was happening in the top box. There was drawn comb on one frame but that was about it. The middle box, however, was heavy with bees, capped, and uncapped honey and occasional brood. The bees are drawing very little comb on the green plastic drone frame which is not entirely unexpected I suppose. The bottom box is filled with bees and brood in all different stages of development. When the bees move up in a week or so I will have to do alot of trimming of comb in that box. The cross-comb is terrible on three frames but it would cause too much disruption to do anything right now.

Metpropolis is living up to its name! The propolis is thick in this hive, but not unmanagable. As usual, the comb on most bars is straight, as the cross-comb "problems" seem to be slowly working itself out with a little trimming here and there. I cut off a whole section of capped drone brood from one bar as part of my mite control measures. Like Bee Glad..., the bees are bringing in plenty of nectar into the hive. I am very proud of the bees and I really hope all the neighbors appreciate the work they are doing.

Two Month Report

It's been two months since I first installed my bees in Beelandia, and all seems well in the two hives. It was a fine day to inspect the bees, after a rather stormy Sunday caused a postponement. The weather was sunny, a temperature around 70 degrees.

Bee Glad... was booming with activity. Following the suggestion in Furgala, Spivak, and Reuter's book, Beekeeping in Northern Climates, I had added a third deep box since the bees were at work on all frames in the second. As the photo above shows, they aren't too keen on the plastic drone I've installed for IPM purposes, building comb only here and there. However, they "love" building in the foundationless frames. I did have to trim some cross-comb. Before I closed up the hive, I dusted and brushed the frames with powdered sugar.

Metpropolis was even stronger with the bees building nice straight comb on 18 of the 21 frames now in that hive. My patient approach to its cross-comb problems seems to be paying off. The bees are working with me, slowly but surely "changing their ways". I dusted every comb containing bees with powdered sugar as well (using an old smoker as a "puffer") and did only a bit of trimming on comb.

The bees seem to be bringing in alot of pollen and there was much stored away in both hives. My guess is that most of this is coming from white clover, a few basswood trees, and my neighbor's coreopsis bed. My own narrow leafed milkweed and borage are very close to blooming and should provide the bees with a small amount of pollen and nectar in the future.