LAST WEEKS POST
Dealing with an over wintered single. First semi-invasive inspection. Temp was dropping and so was daylight so I had to act fast. Here is what I did and saw.
Of 10 frames, the 3 on the right had tons of capped honey. 4th in had half honey and cleaned open cells. # 5 had tons of bees on it. 6 7 and 8 also had bees on them. The # of bees per frame got a little less on each frame in order. I moved frame 5 into a a hive body and surrounded it by brand new frames with foundation (most natural wax and 3 the black plastic kind)
My only concern, unless it gets pointed out that my actions above were wrong, are that on frame 5 I noticed what I thought to be swarm cells hanging from bottom of the frame ( 2 cells) I removed them and there was nothing in them and they were sealed up tight.
The bees had about enough of me medling in their home at dusk and I put the second deep ontop and closed her up.
Any thoughts and or critisism on how I handled myself in the situation?
Todd
THIS WEEKS UPDATED POST
That was my post from last week..... now this week I removed the second deep.
after buying a bee jacket and veil my confidence was way up and I am now able to do a real beekeepers inspection. This is what I found.
going from right to left. frames 1 - 5 were all packed with capped honey . There were only bees on 2-3 frames following those frames. My hive apparently is weaker coming out of winter than I thought. I originally was in a panic about swarming and just added that second deep and hive top feeder on top of that. I was suspicious something was up when I realized the bees were not taking the delicious feed I have provided for them, and absolutely no activity in that added deep either. I removed the deep today and put the feeder on the single. The frames following the frames with the bees on them look like they were all cleaned out. I assume they organize this and as they eat honey from the right, they will make room for brood.
The good news, I saw capped brood on the frames that were covered in bees, and I saw fresh uncapped brood (I still for the life of me can not see an egg but that is ok, I saw my lovely queen. Does all of this seem like I am good to go for now? was I correct in removing that second deep at this point? and, What signs should I look for to indicate that I should put that second deep on there? I know I contradicted my first post with the amount of bees on each frame. Either bee population diminished, I just saw wrong because of lack of daylight, or they really packed in tight on the 2 1/2 frames with the brood that I saw today.
I know this is a very long post (actually 2) and If you made it to this point, I really appreciate you hanging in there. Any advice or comments greatly appreciated.
Todd
Dealing with an over wintered single. First semi-invasive inspection. Temp was dropping and so was daylight so I had to act fast. Here is what I did and saw.
Of 10 frames, the 3 on the right had tons of capped honey. 4th in had half honey and cleaned open cells. # 5 had tons of bees on it. 6 7 and 8 also had bees on them. The # of bees per frame got a little less on each frame in order. I moved frame 5 into a a hive body and surrounded it by brand new frames with foundation (most natural wax and 3 the black plastic kind)
My only concern, unless it gets pointed out that my actions above were wrong, are that on frame 5 I noticed what I thought to be swarm cells hanging from bottom of the frame ( 2 cells) I removed them and there was nothing in them and they were sealed up tight.
The bees had about enough of me medling in their home at dusk and I put the second deep ontop and closed her up.
Any thoughts and or critisism on how I handled myself in the situation?
Todd
THIS WEEKS UPDATED POST
That was my post from last week..... now this week I removed the second deep.
after buying a bee jacket and veil my confidence was way up and I am now able to do a real beekeepers inspection. This is what I found.
going from right to left. frames 1 - 5 were all packed with capped honey . There were only bees on 2-3 frames following those frames. My hive apparently is weaker coming out of winter than I thought. I originally was in a panic about swarming and just added that second deep and hive top feeder on top of that. I was suspicious something was up when I realized the bees were not taking the delicious feed I have provided for them, and absolutely no activity in that added deep either. I removed the deep today and put the feeder on the single. The frames following the frames with the bees on them look like they were all cleaned out. I assume they organize this and as they eat honey from the right, they will make room for brood.
The good news, I saw capped brood on the frames that were covered in bees, and I saw fresh uncapped brood (I still for the life of me can not see an egg but that is ok, I saw my lovely queen. Does all of this seem like I am good to go for now? was I correct in removing that second deep at this point? and, What signs should I look for to indicate that I should put that second deep on there? I know I contradicted my first post with the amount of bees on each frame. Either bee population diminished, I just saw wrong because of lack of daylight, or they really packed in tight on the 2 1/2 frames with the brood that I saw today.
I know this is a very long post (actually 2) and If you made it to this point, I really appreciate you hanging in there. Any advice or comments greatly appreciated.
Todd