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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.
 
#1,910 ·
Gww, the medium nucs are for a friend who runs 8 frame medium equipment. I still use deep bodies for my brood boxes and nucs. The nuc build up is anticipation of being sucessful in my queen rearing endeavors. If not, then they can always be used as swarm traps.
 
#1,911 ·
We made it to 67° today. Must be global warming! Or not. I was able to spend some time after work observing hive #5, a late summer nuc that was next to the one that mite crashed about six weeks ago. Pleased to say that the girls are still alive and active. Dead bees have been cleared from the entrance and there was some obvious foraging. Even saw a few bees bringing in what I assume to be dandelion pollen. Feeder jar was down at least 8 fl oz from last week too. If they can hang on for another 6-8 weeks, life will be good.
 
#1,912 ·
Looked at mine today also. Cloudy and no real bees flying (much). I saw bees at the entrance of all but my two smallest hives even if it was just one crawling to the opening and backing back into the hive. I think the two small ones are also alive cause they were flying on our last 55 degree day a few days ago. I have found that I cn not hear anything when putting my ear against any of my hives. Last year I could hear a roar sometimes. I am atributing this to those times the hives were louder were the times they were getting into stores. Or, My ears are even getting worse.
Cheers
gww
 
#1,916 ·
Someone posted that you can use a stethoscope to hear the bees in the hive. I have not tried it which is funny because my wife is a nurse and we have several of them here. You can get cheap ones at Walgreens or CVS. Walmart probably has them too.
 
#1,917 ·
Jw
That is funny you mentioned that. I almost put in my last post that it was one of the things I was going to keep my eye out for. When I thought about it though, I deleted the bit I had typed because I knew someone would mention that they don't cost that much and then people would find out just how cheep I am when I don't go buy one. This is actually true that I had typed part and moved it for that reason. So if I ever leave home and go to a real store and see one, I will maby buy it on splurge but untill then I will just mention it to my relitives and maby get lucky. They are real collectors and you would not believe the things they come up with. It is on my wish list. I do find it hard to worry too much when no matter what I find, I can't change it at this date but do also keep my fingers crossed that things go well.
Cheers
gww
 
#1,922 ·
I put my ear flat on the side of the brood box to hear them if I think something is not right.
Listen on all 4 sides if I have to. I tap an index finger on the box when my ear is to it.
Yes I know others have said it disrupts them when in cluster during the cold but I don't feel a finger tap disrupts them at all and certainly doesn't cause them to break cluster. In fact the quick buzz goes right back to a low hum a few seconds later.
I also flatten my palm lightly on the sides of the brood boxes and most times can feel the slight vibration the bees give off, the ear on hive is for when it's windy and the vibrations are hard to feel.

All this extra equipment talk gives me the willies. Less is more.
 
#1,933 ·
Hi Clyde, here in our location it’s been weeks of single digits and below zero cold; currently wind chill is -23 to -30. I am so happy I wrapped and added foam insulation inside outer cover and outside, in addition to the sugar shim up top and an extra super of honey. Treated end of November OAV. I’m still crossing my fingers on survival.

PS regarding the virus mapping program the hive I was monitoring had high nosema cerana and
i let it die.
 
#1,924 ·
Mostly we get enough days above 45 degrees that allow me to look at what is crawling at the entrance. I have stuck my ear to the side and not heard anything. Some of my earlier boxes have cleats and so it is harder then it should be. I don't think my ears are very good anyway and I have not tapped on the hives. Mostly, I don't have out yards yet and everything is in a field right behind my house and so I know many oppertunities come during winter when the bees actually come to thier entrances. I do live 40 miles from every store except one local walmart that is about 6 miles away and that I avoid like the plauge. Now if they sold them at the feed store, I do have to go there once a month. I have turned into a pretty big hermit since retirement and luckily my wife is willing to shop and so I even avoid the local walmart except maby three or four times a year.

I also usually only carry a smoker and a painters tool when I go to my hives. Even though close to the house, I leave a few extra supers set up like hives that I steal from when needing to add boxes. If I ever get extra comb that needs protecting, I will have to carry more back and forth but right now it is just a smoke and painters tool.

If I ever move some bees to dads 12 miles away, I am going to have to become much more organized then is my nature. I am guessing that we get more warm days here then in new york. If my warre with the smallest cluster, dies, I won't do anything and if it is one of the langs that dies, the hives all have sugar water in them and so I would not try and extract and so would probly leave them and hope that they don't get wax moth before I can make a split or something to use the comb in very early april. I am thinking I will be close to good with this plan and if not, I will learn better. My biggest fear besides the small ones and the fact that I did not treat will be starvation and it being warm enough and me being smart enough to catch it before I kill a hive that does not die of other reasons. So far they are alive but lots of winter/spring left to go.
Cheers
gww
 
#1,925 · (Edited)
We get enough flying days during the winter. Bees are rarely cooped up for more than 3 weeks without a good calm warmer day where they can fly.

Snow Winter Freezing Ice Geological phenomenon


White Granite Marble


BTW, if a few turn up dead I usually leave them where they sit until a good, warm dry day shows up where I clean out the dead bees,
look at the brood comb for disease, pull any honey frames and put them in a box in the truck and put it all back together where it stands until it's needed in the spring.

Same yard in the spring:

Land lot Pasture Meadow Natural environment Natural landscape
 
#1,926 ·
Clyderoad
I am going to take your post as advice. It is close to what I had planned and good to know I may not be way off track with my thinking and yes, I will try and not forget the inspection for cause. I like pictures and your boxes look much nicer then mine though mine are getting better the more I build.
Apiary Land lot Grass Bee Outdoor structure


new ones for next year.

Lawn Grass Land lot Yard Fence

Thanks
gww
 
#1,927 ·
They may look ok from a distance but in reality I have to start culling some and pulling out some popped nails and replacing with screws on a whole bunch of others. I have about 30 brood boxes built and ready for replacing in spring, which should leave me another 30 to get ready. The rest are ok.
My honey supers are in pretty good shape just need a little maintenance.

Would like to try some of those polypropylene hive bodies one day from Mother Lode, even though I'm a wood guy.
 
#1,928 ·
Clyde
I run all medium and have about 15 two medium box hives built ahead including tops bottoms and inter covers. I have new holes showing up every day on the first ones I built due to bees makeing new holes in corners and a couple of knots falling out.

My hives are made of all kinds of wood cause I make my own boards and air dry them (mostly hard woods) and my logs are not always the best quality. They are made out of every thing (hickory maple etc). I am sure they will not all last the same.

I am on year three of building and about 20 hives is where I am so I am slow but getting much better at it. I also build all the frames and so it takes awhile. I do not think they will all be filled this year but I never thought my extras would be filled last year and they were due to poor swarm control. I don't have a plan for expantion or anything but more just keep building because it gets me out of the house on something to piddle with.

I also would like to try the styrofoam hives cause they sure seem to be light and warm. I almost built a few with some two inch foam I scavanged from my brother in law who made a mistake when building a home. I intead just incorperated two inch foam into my hive covers so I could leave them on all year. The one I had out this year was getting pretty powdery already with one year in the sun and so now I put one coat of latex paint on them and we will see how they hold up. Glad I didn't make hives with it though.

I did read that to keep moister out of the foam hives that you needed to run a screen bottom. I read that on this site as a comment from some one. I don't know if I like that ideal and am running solid bottoms on my hives now though I am using slatted racks.

Your hives look to be along a creek line. Have you ever had water come out of those banks? I have several places on dads place that look about the same. Killed some deer off of some of them. Either way, it looks like a nice place.
Cheers
gww
 
#1,930 ·
Looked at the hive (meaning - I actually just looked at the hive, no opening, not even getting close to it). Wondered if their alive still (maybe I will tap the side and see).
Maybe that sounds cavalier... currently at around -10F (without wind chill) there is nothing more one can do. Forecast (lol umm..) reads that 30 minutes outside will possibly result in frost bite on exposed skin (wind chill at -20F to -30F).

This type of weather is expected to last at least 12-14 days then maybe climb back up into the 20s. But we expect it... It does make one thankful not to live further north :D

Maybe their alive? We'll see.
 
#1,938 ·
Opened the lid the other day and found the bees are still alive. They need additional sugar though.




In my opinion that would be a bit simplistic.
We average 6 months of winter.
On average (not using the word "normal"/"normally" because when weather diverts from what someone calls normal now - the world melts... so "average" is a safer word) we will get a killing freeze and then a warm up for a week or two. This year the average wasn't to be - the warmth lasted a much longer time - and from what I can tell the bees went through a lot of stores.
So intervention is needed during winter.
Minuses last few weeks (down into the -20s with wind chills into -30s/-40s). Then that storm rolled up the coast, afterwards we got into the 40s and today 54F. But now will return to normal. 54F today, -2F tonight (52F drop lol).
Supposed to get out of the singles and minuses later in the week (back into warm weather, 20s day/minuses and singles at night).

So I would not say prepare for winter - but don't expect winter to run according to your plans.
 
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