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Today in the Apiary

686K views 4K replies 397 participants last post by  AR1 
#1 ·
I will stick this thread at the top so we can have sort of a beekeepers diary. It will be neat to look back in time, in time. Share what work you did, observations, stories about things that happened in the apiary. Musings while you have your morning coffee while watching the bees. Let's see where this goes.

I checked a new swarm that moved into some empty boxes I had stacked about 5 days ago. Saw the queen when I transferred them into a new hive with frames of foundation. They're building comb, but filling every cell with nectar/feed. No eggs. Will have to put a frame with eggs into it right away.
 
#3,691 ·
#3,692 ·
Nice clear still day here, 55F and climbing, might get close to 60F today.
Checked
Hive #1. A handful of bees on the warm side at the seem between top two boxes. Bees look healthy, didn't pull any frames. They are dead but last of bees desperate and will get absorbed into hive 3 soon.

Hive #2. A handful of bees, I pulled the two frames they were on the top bar of. No queen, no brood no mite frass. I say queen failure. bees look shiny and healthy, same as in hive #1.

Hive #3. I didn't need to open, there was no need. Very actively working and foraging. Next time I'll check into it and see what space looks like. They are 2 medium 8 frame boxes, might need room soon.

The one hive will turn into 3 hives in a couple months and I'll be back up to numbers again.
 
#3,693 ·
As with what happens most times with a queen failure, the 2 dying/dead hives have a good amount of honey in them. I want to get out and make up a box of a good amount of honey and open cells to drop on top of the one good Hive #3, and then bring in some full frames to press the honey out of for me. Weather was good, but I got tired and fell asleep a little after noon and when I woke up 3 hours later, it was high windy out and I didn't feel like going outside, so maybe another day. It may be a little soon to be adding space above on Hive #3 anyway, but I will get out to pull some frames in to press out the honey one day soon.
 
#3,694 ·
I was able to get into my hive for the first time in a while this weekend. It was around 70F at the time of my inspection but cloudy and windy so I figured they would be pretty fussy and was expecting to get lit up thanks to my extremely cheap/thin mesh jacket that I was wearing. I had zero issues at all though, they were extremely calm for unperfect conditions.

I have 1 deep and 1 medium right now. I had about 3 frames of capped brood, larvae, and eggs. There was probably a total of 9 frames of capped honey and a decent bit of pollen. They are bringing in some kind of very pale yellow pollen but there were a couple of other colors sprinkled in there too. I also finally did my first mite check while I was at it. I did zero checks or treatments in my first year last year. Playing with fire I know but now I'm on the right track. I ended up with a 0.5% mite load. I'm not sure how time of year affects mite counts, or if it does at all, but I was pleasantly surprised with that.

Getting in there definitely has me ready for spring now. I am sure I will have to watch closely for swarming and add boxes early. I'd like to get some honey this year but also expand from my single hive to hopefully 3 hives total. I have a golden cordovan queen on order for April and hopefully will pickup and additional VSH queen from a nearby apiary sometimes in May.
 
#3,695 ·
nosema apis question: Today it is 1* at 3:00 PM and and very windy. I checked the insulation in the apiary and noticed dysentery on a hive entrance and landing, front (from upper entrance) and on outer cover. It wasn’t there when the hives were provaped 6 days ago so recent. Can anything be done for these bees at this time of the Winter? Thank you
 
#3,696 ·
First batch of queens are starting to hatch. I had a few remaining cells after getting them all into nucs. (I got 29 out of 30 grafts) I put them in the incubator as backups and right on schedule they are emerging. I just put some honey in their cages and removed the cells from the ones that have already emerged.

It's looking like a good year for queens!

Hand Arthropod Insect Finger Thumb
 
#3,709 ·
It could be that that was the only time they felt to go out to 'potty'.
Every hive is different but I wouldn't say for sure it is Dysentery unless you put it under the microscope.
Is there poop inside too?
Do you have pollen patties in there? Some people do do that and they don't Store Pollen patties, they use it and store it in their gut... which if this is the case then I would say it is just the pollen patties
 
#3,712 ·
It could be that that was the only time they felt to go out to 'potty'.
Every hive is different but I wouldn't say for sure it is Dysentery unless you put it under the microscope.
Is there poop inside too?
Do you have pollen patties in there? Some people do do that and they don't Store Pollen patties, they use it and store it in their gut... which if this is the case then I would say it is just the pollen patties
There have been flying days… The last I fed a PP (emergency) was end of September; I doubt there is any PP left from 5 months ago, it could be it would be a small amount (makes sense) but I doubt it, but who knows? 🤷🏼‍♀️ There is no more fresh poop or whatever on the landing board, and I replaced the mouse guard with a clean one, which will tell me if the bees are still “sick”. I looked in and they are happily munching on fondant. Did not see any poop on the top bars.
 
#3,713 ·
Got in the hive again today. I was surprised by the amount of pollen and fresh nectar in there. This whole week was cold (for my area) and rainy. They are stacking up the resources quick. More fresh eggs and brood.

Something I’m noticing for the first time. They seem to be favoring the plastic frames for whatever reason. Going as far as skipping 1 wooden frame between some plastics and jumping 2 wooden ones to build comb on a plastic.
 
#3,716 ·
Clear day today, stiff wind but not too bad in the beeyard because of landscape, 60 degrees F @ 2:00PM

Good orientation flight, grabbed 3 to sting my right jaw joint area, it's been bothering me. Suspected problems from teeth I've had pulled and gums healing.

Grabbed a box of frames from hives 1 $ 2, a couple well waxed plastic foundation, a couple full sealed honey, a couple drawn empty, a couple part honey part space. Set the box on top of Hive #3 for added space and stores. First I've taken the lid off that one, they had bees over 5 frames in the top box so they have a good enough cluster to take the space over them now. Temps are in a warming trend, going to be mid to high 30's for next 4 nites but days in low 60 or high 50's. Once I got the lid off of them I seen the space was not critical, but added this box anyway. This will keep them fine thru the end of March now. There should be drones by then so will plan on making a split then, depending on the conditions.

I did not pull any frames out of Hive #3, they are doing fine and no need to risk pulling any frames for inspecting. Wild mustard is blooming for the past week maybe more now so they bringing in a lot of yellow pollen, probably some light amounts of nectar maybe? I dunno, kinda cool yet for nectar. The season looks to be off to a good start.
 
#3,717 ·
Checked 60 hives today. Intending on adding Mt. camp sugar. 40* when I started, 64* when I finished and very windy. Lost 3 more hives in the first yard. All 3 had 3 frames of brood and that is were they froze last week. They each had a 10 frame deep full of honey and 2 also had a supper full. All of the other 57 are looking good. only 1 felt light. 2 still had stores in the bottom box, with a 2nd deep and medium full. Did not feed them.
It felt GOOD to get back in the hives.
Also sold some equipment for an 83 year old beekeeper who just cant do it any more.
 
#3,719 ·
It has been working, I've had problems with that jaw and glands for a few years. It does not help as much as I like, but so far I've kept out of the doctors offices over it... Until recently, I had a bunch of teeth pulled and had abscesses and infections. Took Anti-Biotics for it and with the teeth gone it got better, but it's come back these last couple days. Tonight it seems to be a bit better so I'll see how it goes.
 
#3,722 ·
Today was a balmy +6C (43F) went out to the hives and thought it was too much work to shovel all the snow off the plank that covers the bottom entrance so I just turned the disc on the upper one to open and the bees all came out en masse. The snow around the hives is a lovely shade of yellow ( beauty is in the eye of the beholder). The are flying short distances and settling on the black hive top to bask in the sun and sip the melting snow.
Snow Automotive tire Tire Vehicle Sky



Of the three, one hive has barely any flying activity so I was concerned and took a look. But I guess they are content to stay in the hive. They are clustered up on the sugar bricks with nary a care in the world.
 
#3,723 ·
Just to add an observation to my above post. The hive in the middle has the largest by far, amount of poo. It was the one that started up on the sugar bricks as soon as I placed them in Nov. The nearest hive was next in amount of flying crew and was up on the bricks beginning of Jan. and the last to make it to the sugar was the hive that has the least amount of flyers. Is there a correlation with the need to do cleansing flights and honey or sugar consumption?
 
#3,726 ·
Sunny and 60 today went thru 2 of 7 hives. Master beek 15 miles from me added supers and checker boarded hers today. Maple pollen coming in can be seen above the brood. Both hives double deeps had 3-4 frames of brood and same amount of honey/nectar. Didn't see queens but larvae and capped brood.
You're getting those temps and pollen in early February, in Maryland?
 
#3,733 ·
Yesterday my neighbor came and mowed the grass in the beeyard and all yards around my house, then helped me remove a couple rail stands and reset one of them. Reducing the numbers of stands and changing position slightly of a couple of them. Was a nice day, has been last couple days. He came and we burned a brush pile a couple days ago. Getting the place cleaned up a little bit in this nice weather. It almost looks like someone might actually be living here now. :p

Set out the boxes from the 2 dead outs, there's 4 boxes with a fair amount of honey in them. The honey I pulled the end of September? Beginning of October? is crystallizing here in the house so didn't figure I'd try pressing any combs from the deadouts. I'll just leave them out there to be robbed back. There's no other beehives in the area right now because they all went off to pollinate almond orchards, so my hive will be the one robbing some honey back and they have room to put it right now.
 
#3,734 ·
63 and sunny went thru 2 more hives today and boxes were full of bugs, bees that is. Saw a drone but was by myself and couldn't catch up with him with my phone. Found a couple more of his brothers still in cells on same frame. Lots of pretty pollen coming in and couple frames of brood in each box. Gone thru 6 of 7 hives, it's been quite the adventure for a NEWBEE!
Beehive Pollinator Honeycomb Apiary Insect
Apiary Pollinator Beehive Insect Arthropod
Beehive Pollinator Apiary Insect Honeycomb
Plant Wood Wall Trunk Apiary
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Beehive Pollinator Insect Apiary Plant
Beehive Apiary Pollinator Insect Honeybee
 
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