Colony update here in Pa

[DPLONG]

It looks like they have plenty of cells filled, I would think it's a bit too early but who knows with this weather. Could it just be left over capped honey from last year still, just surrounded by newly filled cells?

Has anyone noticed and drones yet? I think I had two hanging out at the entrance to my TBH yesterday but it seems early. I will take a better look this weekend.

[mjfish1975]

Thinking ahead if this weather holds. Who's thinking about reversing/checkerboarding and supering. I'm going to go in the hive tomorrow to evaluate things. I let you know want I find. So far the entrance is getting very congested (still reduced though) and lots of pollen still coming in. I did notice some of them that weren't carrying pollen were very heavy landing suggesting nectar is coming in also. Hope to see nectar in the hive since they had a terrible time in the fall with floating in the flood waters back in September. They made it this far. Mother Nature still could throw a wrench into it though.

[delber]

Update: Well guys they are DEFINITELY bringing in nectar. one hive of mine that I've checked has more stores and more capped then they did a week ago. They were only in a 5 frame nuc, so they're in a 10 frame now. IT'S ON!!! I'm not just a LITTLE excited!!!!

[Allen]

delber don't you mean this LOL

Dragonfly130, looks like there might be some drone cells on the left side also.


Am painting my new hives yesterday and today and also have to order a bunch of foundationless frames.
Hard to believe my new bees will almost be here.

Allen

[mjfish1975]

Went into the hive today. I was hoping to reverse them but when I lifted off the top deep there was about the same amount of bees in both. Lots of new nectar coming in and pollen. There stores have definitely increased and the brood pattern looks good. Their population surprised me I didn't think they would have built up so much. Being said, I didn't reverse them but added two shallow supers on top. FYI, dandelions starting here. My friut trees are really pushing with peaches just starting to bloom.

[virginiawolf]

This all sounds really good. I'm glad peoples bees are doing well. I only tried feeding syrup above one hive and they were barely taking it so I figure there is nectar coming in. I guess I'm going to put some shallow supers on to make sure they are there. There is room for the queen to lay but I will double check this weekend to make sure. Upon last check the brood is going through the center of two deeps on all the hives so there should be a good work force ready for the upcoming flow. This is such a nice intro to spring compared to last year when it rained every day all day.

[wildbranch2007]

a friend of mine from Penn. called yesterday and said the owner of the land where he has his largest apiary, he told me the county but I can't remember, its in the center of the state, that they had been sprayiing for two days. he had her call the county/state and they said they were spraying for black flies and mosquitoes but he didn't find out what they were spraying with.

[Allen]

Got our hives set up the other day to see how they fit in the spot picked for them.
Poor shots with the camera phone but you get the idea.





You can see our new cold frame in the background of one of the images.
The bank in front of them will be planted soon with bee friendly wildflowers.
Due to foot traffic near the hives, the hives are oriented towards the bank to get them flying up.

Allen

[Acebird]

"What did you do bury the cold frame?

[MeriB]

You are lucky PAHunter, the feeder in one of my hive was full of brood. Boy were they nasy for three days after I went in!
Meridith

[Allen]

Acebird, its on a lower level.
Our garden is right next to the hives so we pointed them away from the main traffic area.

[Acebird]

Ah, in ground cold frames made with bales. Super.

[Allen]

Isn't it though?
Going a little off topic here...
My neighbor changed out their patio doors so I was able to get them for free.
I'll be putting wood chips down on all the walkways and we're hoping the cold frame will be producing veggies into winter.
Btw, the locust logs have a mixture of compost and mushroom soil between the logs and two of them are being set-up for vertical gardening with pole beans, peas, cucumbers and cantaloupe.

[Acebird]

LOL a cold frame doesn't cut it when it is 20 below. Maybe it will work for you.

[Northwest PA Beekeeper]

Hello everyone in PA. It's nice to hear fellow PA beekeepers talk about their latest happenings. Hey Virginiawolf, your a "neighbor" - I'm from Brookville area.

I'm a "newer" beekeeper - the past 3 years, but did have several years of beekeeping as a teen.

I'm hoping to get several swarm traps up soon and kind of thinking swarming will probably be starting around mid - April due to the warm winter. What do you all think of when swarm season will actually start this year?

[virginiawolf]

Someone on our beeclub said they saw swarm cells in one of thier hives last week so I would say swarm season is right when you expect like 2 weeks Northwest PA Beekeeper. I put one trap out but may put out a few others. Do you have honey supers on?

[Northwest PA Beekeeper]

Beeclub? Is this something local? I don't think there is a "local" beeclub over here - at least not that I know of. I think regularly swarm season starts around here in May, and just from looking over swarm dates this year on this site - it seems to be about 2 weeks ahead of schedule. I don't really deal with supers - I just put on full hive bodies.
My one hive seems to be up in the 2nd or 3rd hive body instead of the bottom one - they aren't using the lower entrance. I'm waiting for a nice warm day to switch the boxes around so they are in the lower one.
I haven't put any traps out yet, but figured I should get some one in the next week or so.

[Allen]

Helped my friend split one of his hives today.
Turns out we are going to split the second one tomorrow or Tuesday.
And....
He is giving that split to us.

We saw some interesting things while going through both of them.





He added some semi-foundationless frames in both hives last Tuesday by knocking out all but a small strip of foundation along the underside of the top bar.

Here is a first look at their progress in a short period of time.
Take notice of the cell size on the foundationless vs. the foundation.
Check out the festooning.














We will have 5 colonies of bees. 3 Nucs, a package and a split.
Should be interesting to see how they all build up for Winter.
The plan is that if the split makes it through Winter, I will give a split back to him next Spring.

[Allen]

Got some feeder jars placed on the splits but they aren't really interested.
This method is really simple.

[delber]

I've had 2 of my 3 hives swarm already. One I was able to catch, one is just "gone". They were all 1 deep through winter, and the one hive was my strongest and about 2 weeks ago they had their second deep put on when they had been using most of the empties. Now there's no brood that's not capped and a small amt. of honey in all of the cells throughout the hive. Very little capped, but nectar is throughout. They still had frames to draw on so why????? I have no idea. How fast do you all put new boxes on? I thought doubling their space would give me about 1 brood cycle at least, but they swarmed sooner than that. They were super calm though. Well here's for learning. This at least is one way to combat mites. Interrupt the brood cycle. I just wish I would have seen this coming.