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!

Moving Some Stores Around

I opened up both top bar hives yesterday in order to check honey stores and move bars around. Metpropolis, my problem hive this year, has absolutely no capped honey to speak of.  Plan Bee has a little more but still not enough to make it through winter. I left some fondant in both hives and hope that the bees are able to store some nectar in the next few weeks.

Like Night and Day

My 5 hives have come out of winter healthy which leads me to the next obvious question: Why did I lose my two hives last year, and, this year, have my 5 hives all survive?

First, I know it isn't due to how much food they stored. This year, I worried going into winter because the hives had little honey in storage. Bee Workers of the World Unite! had very little indeed! Last year in comparison, the two hives were packed with honey going into November and it was all still there when I examined the dead-outs in February.

Survival could be due to two factors beyond either the bees' or my control. First, last January had two weeks of continuous subzero temperatures. The bees probably couldn't move up to the capped honey within inches of the cluster. Second, I still suspect that my bees had a significant virus infection created by an immense varroa mite infestation.

But I did do other things to prepare the bees for winter that I didn't do last year:

1. I moved the hives slightly, so that they would receive plenty of winter sun.

2. Monta and I made quilt boxes for both the top bar hives and langstroths. These boxes absorbed a significant amount of moisture that rose up from the cluster.

3. While I kept the screen bottom boards on the langstroths, I did duct tape the openings, keeping the cold air out.

4. Besides wrapping the hives with black wintering materials, I also placed hay bales around the hive to cut down on strong winds.

5. I tilted boards in front of the bottom entrances. The bees could leave through the bottom entrances but didn't get full exposure to the chilly winds.

While these are the things I did, I can't be assured that these interventions were actually the key to the bees' survival. Honey bee survival/death is the result of a number of apicultural and environmental factors. It probably cannot be reduced in any particular silver bullets.

Week 1, Year 2: Picking up Packages at Nature's Nectar

Monta and I got up early this morning and travelled over a hundred miles to pick up our two 2 lb. Carniolan packages at Nature's Nectar in Stillwater Minnesota. We had an excellent trip thanks to google maps and also found that our Vibes' cargo strap system keeps 2 lb. packages very secure over a relatively long trip.

Early in the afternoon I installed both packages in our two new hives: a top bar named Plan Bee From Outer Space, and a green Langstroth called Lib-BEE-taria. The installations went well without much problem. (see videos below). I gave each hive a MegaBeetm pollen patties and filled each hives' feeder with 1:1 sugar syrup.




The packages seemed very healthy, if I compare them with last year's two. Only a few dead bees, and very, very few damaged in transit. I am quite pleased with Nature's Nectar.

Return to Feeding

After a week of rain and cold, I noticed, over the last two days, that the workers are ejecting young drones from Bee Glad... (interestingly, not Metpropolis, the top bar hive). I couldn't make heads or tails of the situation until I went over the postings on the Warre email list where someone mentioned the bees might be experiencing a shortage of nectar. To be on the safe side, I am placing the top hive feeder back on Bee Glad... tomorrow morning.