VenDexter
09-13-2004, 09:21 PM
Our bees have been going like gangbusters all summer and a couple of weeks ago, I took some more pictures:
www.vendexter.com/HiveGallery4/ (http://www.vendexter.com/HiveGallery4/)
You can see in the one picture that we did find a mite on a drone, but our most recent 24-hour mite counts are as follows:
Hive 1 13
Hive 2 14
Hive 3 9
So, we feel pretty comfortable with the varroa situation. It would be nice to have zero but hopefully we'll get there. We have used the FGMO/Thymol treatments religiously and are pleased that we seem to have the upper hand so far. I have increased the fogging interval to every 5 days since the hive population is so large.
We have tons of goldenrod and ragweed blooming right now and our girls are bringing it in steadily. The hives have a very strong, but pleasant, smell coming from them almost all the time now.
All three hives like to build burr comb on a consistent basis so that has been most of the work involved when checking the hives.
I have been stung consistently over the summer while my brother-in-law and sister seem to be invisible as far as the bees are concerned. They can even work without a veil. I dont mind the stings but most of them were on my hands so I finally broke down and started wearing gloves. I work on a computer almost all day, so it got to be a hassle to try to type with one hand the size of a softball. The swelling has decreased with each successive sting, but I feel comfortable using the gloves and I smoke them well so the bees dont seem to mind that theyre leather.
Were using queen excluders and the verdict isnt in on them yet although Im leaning toward not using them in the future. I know this is the beekeeper debate of the millennium http://www.beesource.com/ubb/smile.gif but, were using the wood-bound metal ones and our inspection today revealed that they have built burr comb all over the excluder. Since were standardized with all mediums, if the queen did lay in the supers, it wouldnt be too much to trade out some frames. Ill keep thinking on this one and see.
One nice thing from our inspection today is that all three hives have at least 80-90 pounds of honey stored up. We live in a relatively moderate climate so we think this should get our girls through the winter with no problem, especially considering that they are still putting up stores. We did taste the honey in the burr comb and was it ever strong-flavored! I think its a bit too strong for my sister but my brother-in-law and I like it quite a bit. Its a beautiful dark golden color.
The bees in all three hives havent done much in the super above the excluder except propolize it well. Well likely get no honey for ourselves this year, but Im comforted knowing that well go into the spring with good strong hives which we will probably make splits from. My goal is to eventually have at least 100+ hives but I think the thought exasperates my family http://www.beesource.com/ubb/biggrin.gif.
Were also planning on trying our hand at making our own woodenware (except frames) over the winter well see how that goes. Ill try not to cut off anything important while using the table saw.
I remember looking at beekeeping equipment in the Sears catalog when I was young and thinking that keeping bees would be great. I never dreamed it would actually happen many years later and would bring so much more pleasure than I could have imagined.
Again, thanks to all of you for asking and answering questions both my own and others. As Ive said before, I learned a lot from books but those of you with real life knowledge helped me make decisions that led to a very successful summer.
Thanks for letting me ramble on in this post and philosophizing a bit as well.
Steve
steve@vendexter.com
[This message has been edited by VenDexter (edited September 14, 2004).]
www.vendexter.com/HiveGallery4/ (http://www.vendexter.com/HiveGallery4/)
You can see in the one picture that we did find a mite on a drone, but our most recent 24-hour mite counts are as follows:
Hive 1 13
Hive 2 14
Hive 3 9
So, we feel pretty comfortable with the varroa situation. It would be nice to have zero but hopefully we'll get there. We have used the FGMO/Thymol treatments religiously and are pleased that we seem to have the upper hand so far. I have increased the fogging interval to every 5 days since the hive population is so large.
We have tons of goldenrod and ragweed blooming right now and our girls are bringing it in steadily. The hives have a very strong, but pleasant, smell coming from them almost all the time now.
All three hives like to build burr comb on a consistent basis so that has been most of the work involved when checking the hives.
I have been stung consistently over the summer while my brother-in-law and sister seem to be invisible as far as the bees are concerned. They can even work without a veil. I dont mind the stings but most of them were on my hands so I finally broke down and started wearing gloves. I work on a computer almost all day, so it got to be a hassle to try to type with one hand the size of a softball. The swelling has decreased with each successive sting, but I feel comfortable using the gloves and I smoke them well so the bees dont seem to mind that theyre leather.
Were using queen excluders and the verdict isnt in on them yet although Im leaning toward not using them in the future. I know this is the beekeeper debate of the millennium http://www.beesource.com/ubb/smile.gif but, were using the wood-bound metal ones and our inspection today revealed that they have built burr comb all over the excluder. Since were standardized with all mediums, if the queen did lay in the supers, it wouldnt be too much to trade out some frames. Ill keep thinking on this one and see.
One nice thing from our inspection today is that all three hives have at least 80-90 pounds of honey stored up. We live in a relatively moderate climate so we think this should get our girls through the winter with no problem, especially considering that they are still putting up stores. We did taste the honey in the burr comb and was it ever strong-flavored! I think its a bit too strong for my sister but my brother-in-law and I like it quite a bit. Its a beautiful dark golden color.
The bees in all three hives havent done much in the super above the excluder except propolize it well. Well likely get no honey for ourselves this year, but Im comforted knowing that well go into the spring with good strong hives which we will probably make splits from. My goal is to eventually have at least 100+ hives but I think the thought exasperates my family http://www.beesource.com/ubb/biggrin.gif.
Were also planning on trying our hand at making our own woodenware (except frames) over the winter well see how that goes. Ill try not to cut off anything important while using the table saw.
I remember looking at beekeeping equipment in the Sears catalog when I was young and thinking that keeping bees would be great. I never dreamed it would actually happen many years later and would bring so much more pleasure than I could have imagined.
Again, thanks to all of you for asking and answering questions both my own and others. As Ive said before, I learned a lot from books but those of you with real life knowledge helped me make decisions that led to a very successful summer.
Thanks for letting me ramble on in this post and philosophizing a bit as well.
Steve
steve@vendexter.com
[This message has been edited by VenDexter (edited September 14, 2004).]