Winter Check 2

Dec 24, 2009

Checked on the hive at the Peczuh Farm. Looks like the cows have been bumping into it. The corners of the corroplast roof were turned up and there were cow prints all around the hive. The cows aren't usually loose in this field - I might have to keep an eye on that. Couple of bees frozen in the snow outside. Gentle hum inside when I placed my ear up to the entrance hole.

Winter check

Had the chance to drop in on our house in Price today to do some repairs on the garage for the renters. I took along some corks to plug 2 of the entry holes. She was covered with snow. The roof seems to be holding up well.

Saw this little girl about 8 feet from the hive. Must have gone too far on her cleansing flight.

Apparently there was no need to bring the corks as the girls had plugged up the holes nicely themselves. I realize I should have done this a couple months ago before it got cold.  There are quite a few bits of wax cappings around the entrance holes and on the small landing board. I take this as a sign that they are uncapping their stores (or possibly hatching brood?). A few dead bees around the middle entrance (see middle hole in picture above.  I'm not sure what to make of that - perhaps it's just too cold for the house bees to properly clean them out.

Check out that reduced entrance. Makes me feel like they don't really need me at all (I think that's a good thing).

We have more queens!

Time: 10:00 ish

Weather: mid 80s - no breeze

Inspected hive1 again. Found the queen again. Saw no eggs, however we did find one frame with a dozen or two larva growing in various stages - ALL in queen cells with royal jelly (milky white). None of the cells were capped yet. Will check back in a week to see what's happening. I suspect that the queen they were able to raise was not laying well so they will replace her.

We have a queen!

Time: 11:30

Weather: 80ish - sunny - no breeze

Hive1 - inspected the queenless hive again today. There were bees coming and going at the entrance (which is still reduced). Found no sign of a queen. No eggs. No larva. Had looked at all 9 frames. Decided to look again paying closer attention for eggs. Found the queen on frame 3. She was surrounded by attendants and appeared to be laying eggs. I could still see no evidence of eggs. The comb was rather dark so I should have been able to see them. We've got a queen though. Not sure if she's mated yet. We'll check back in a week to see how she's doing.

Midnight bees TBH inspection (brief)

Time: 7:30 ish

Weather: 80s slightly breezy

Drove out to the farm (Peczuh's) on my way home to check the bees. Lots of bees coming and going. They were noticeably irritated even before taking off the lid. Tylor got a sting to the side through her shirt.

Because of their current foul mood I only looked a bit in the north end. The 2 partial combs that have been drawn out on the north of the aluminum comb guide are perfectly straight. Happy to see that it's working.

The comb that had collapsed last time was now fused to the side/bottom. Didn't want to stick my hand in there today to get it out so it'll stay right where it is for now.

Peaked underneath to see if i could see anything. There appears to be some scratching in the screen bottom. Almost like something with claws was trying to get in. This might explain their moodiness. I Saw no scratching marks near the entrance at all. I'll have to watch this to see if it gets worse. If so, I might just close the bottom board.

Update Schampel TBH

Time: 7:00 pm

Weather: perfect

Checked in on the hive this evening. The staples holding the plastic roof to the frame were coming out. Reattached it with 2 screws in each corner and by retapping the staples in place. The wind has been rather nasty lately (lost shingles off the garage too).

This hive is full!!! Also heavily propolised. She was glued together good. Even the follower boards were propolised in place.

On my last visit I had added 3 bars to the north end. This was the end that had the straightest comb so I thought I'd let them build out this way to encourage further straight comb. Wrong. On the 3 new bars they have drawn out comb at almost 90 degrees from the bars (and the rest of the comb). Decided not to break it all up at this point. I will have to address it later in the fall when it cools down or maybe in the spring so I can see how much they needed for winter and take the rest. I think it's all honey but I'm not sure as I wasn't able to get into it really.

The curved comb at the south end was very thick and full. I didn't measure it but I'm guessing it was at least 2 inches at the top. Mostly capped too. I added 5 bars on the south end to give them room to grow. Since its all going to be honey and will be removed in the spring, I'm not overly concerned with the curve of it. When I take the honey out in the spring, I'll replace the bars with some that have better guides for comb building.

Very docile bees. I love this hive. It's my favorite to work. Jaden was right there with me with bees flying in and out (before I opened it up. Tylor and John (renter) got right in the thick of it with me (no protection whatsover). We all got a good finger full of fresh honey that was exposed when I separated the bars on the south end.

Varroa Mite

I got a closer look at the mite I found on one of the girls yesterday. These photos and video were taken with a hand held iPhone looking through a 40x magnifier at work (The video is a bit shaky).

These little buggers have one monster of a grip. When I first scraped it off of the bee with the end of my razor knife, It would not let go of the blade. I could not shake it off or knock it off by hitting the blade on the desk. I ended up scraping it off with another blade to get it on the desk for observation. The dead be was on the desk about 1/2 inch away from the mite. The mite crawled over and climbed back on the bee (though at that point it was just a bee head (half a bee?))

Underside

Top side (hairy)

Mite on Bee Head

You can see it crawling around on the "hair" towards the end of the clip.

Underside. I didn't get it on video but I watched it flip itself upright with those short stubby legs.

Lang updates again

Time: 10:00 am

Weather: 80ish degrees

Hive1 - no activity at all outside the hive. Opened it up and found plenty of bees inside (including a few drones). The girls were clustered up over the middle 5 frames. No sign of excrement all over like before.

There were 3 capped queen cells on the brood frame that was placed in here on July 16. Though I did not see attendant bees all over them like I've read I should. The inside feeder had lots of dead bees floating on top. Dumped it all out. Didn't put it back in. Added a frame of mostly capped brood from Hive3 (wild lang). Added all worker bees as well (after thorough inspection to make sure the queen wasn't on that fram). Observed for a few minutes - did not see any fighting amongst the bees. We'll wait another week and take another look. Noticed 1 worker bee with a mite on her back. Caught her and put her in a jar for later observation. I'd like to get the might under magnification.

Hive2 - plenty of activity outside the hive. Peaked inside to see if they've started drawing out wax in the empty super yet. They had not. I suspect that since there are 2 completely empty frames in the brood box (where I've taken out brood) that they are busy drawing those out and filling those. Though I did not open it up to look.

Hive 3 - these girls are HOT. Took a sting on the inside right elbow. Through my shirt. Very little work going on in the top box. Barely a hint of wax being drawn out. Took a frame of brood for Hive1. Replaced it with an empty frame from the top box leaving an empty space in the top box.

Lang updates

Time: 12:30

Weather: Mid 80's - no breeze

Hive 1

Checked on the queen less? hive today. Not seeing feces all over like before. Still some sugar water (1:1) in the internal feeder. Added 5 cups more. Lots of newly emerged bees. They've built up 2 small queen cells (see pic1). Added another frame of brood (mostly capped) from hive 2 to help build up numbers. We'll see how it goes.

Small queen cell right in the center

Hive 2

Removed another frame of brood for hive 1. Moved the full super to the top (4th spot) and put the empty super down (3rd spot). No evidence of comb building in the empty super yet. Replaced the taken brood frames with empty frames (including the foundation-less frame from last week). See in the below picture how much they've drawn out in just 6 days. They'll likely draw out these 2 empty frames before moving up into the empty super. These 2 small combs were pretty full of nectar also. I only removed them because the wooden ware had come from the "sick?" hive (hive2) and I didn't want it in there. I do realize that it's been in there for almost a week now and taking it out now might be pointless.

Wild hive (hive 3)

Still preferring the top entrance. No sign of wax being drawn out in top (3rd) box yet. Not sure how to rearrange these girls so they produce. Might eliminate the top entrance all-together.

Wax drawn out in only 6 days (and full of nectar)

Bad pictures - only had cell phone camera

Queen-less hive assistance?!

TIme: 10:00
Temp: mid 80's

Checked on the Langs again today. Jared has added a new box with new frames to the top of Hive 2.

He's also removed the top box from Hive 1 and medicated the bottom two boxes. Not sure what he did with the top box and I'm not sure what he used to treat them (he's off camping all week).

All the bees in Hive 1 were in the top box (middle box last week). Still no sign of a queen. Removed 2 frames from the middle box. Removed the bottom box completely. Added a new clean floor board. Put in the feeder from the bottom box and filled it with sugar water (1:1 - 6 cups). Also added a frame of brood/larva/eggs from Hive 2.

I'll check back next week to see if they are growing a queen. Might add more brood at that point.

TBH comb guide

Time: 5:00
Temp: 90ish - breezy

Midnight bees (Peczuh farm)
The girls have started out slightly cross combing. 7 combs so far. Each starting in the center of one bar and finishing in the center of the next. I had bent the southern most comb in and smashed the follower board up against it on my last visit. They have allready started cleaning up the comb - removing parts of it to give themselves their required "bee space" at the end. The last bar on the north side is only about half drawn out. I have 3 empty bars on this end of the hive for them to build on (all with wooden waxed guides). I inserted a "divider" between the last partial comb and the blank bars to encourage straight comb. The "divider" is a sheet of aluminum cut to the size of the top bar and hanging about 4 inches into the hive. Hopefully this forces them to build on the next bar straight (even if it causes them to not completely draw out comb 7). I had read about an idea like this on biobees.com forum but I can't find the thread just now.

We'll see how it goes.

midnight bees TBH inspection

Time: 5:30
Temperature: 90 ish slightly breezy.

Very calm bees. Have built 7 combs now (in just a week and a half). All combs gently cross from the center of one bar to the center of the next. Straightened out one of the end bars (flush with follower board). Removed all empty bars on the south end. Added bars with guides to the north end. Found the queen (actually tylor did). Lots of larva and eggs, all 7 combs had pollen and nectar. Left 3 empty bars (with guides) on the north end.

Lang inspections

Time: 11:00 am
Temperature: 80 ish

Started with hive 1 - 3 deep langs. Hive activity at the entrance is very very low. This was our strongest hive 2 months ago. Suspect that the bees absconded (midnight swarm). Excrement all over landing board and front of hive. Also around the top entrance. Almost no bees whatsoever in the top super. Very little honey. Most bees were in the 2nd super. Lots of drones. Lots of excrement all over the frames, the bees and even the floor. Very few and scattered larva. Very few and scattered capped brood (and many of those are drones). No eggs that I saw. Very foul smell in the hive. Busted open some drone cells and found mights.

Hive 3 (wild lang) - 2 deep langs. Bees still prefer top entrance. Lots of activity. Top box full of honey with some brood. Bottom box mostly filled up with brood. Found the queen. Lots of bees. Added an empty super. Still a chalk brood here and there on the bottom.

Hive 2 - 3 deep langs. Lots of activity. Top box packed full of honey (above queen excluder) 2nd box full of honey and brood with some queen cells (supercedure cells - one of them capped). Lots of brood in the bottom box. Did find mites. Need to add a super but do not have one.

Pictures to follow.

http://theotherdwayne.smugmug.com/gallery/8835104_PLDtZ/1/585450367_TBsZK

Midnight Bees Transfer to permanent TBH

Time: 12:30
Weather: 90 degrees, sunny, no wind.

Transfered my midnight swarm on the Peczuh Farm from my swarm catching hive to a permanent TBH (42 inch).

Wasn't sure how they'd behave so I took my gear (just in case). Ended up not using it. Very gentle bees.

They had built 4 combs of wax already (in just four days) and were busy filling them with nectar and pollen.

Slightly cross combed with some attached to the end of the box. Collapsed one comb trying to straighten it. Moved the other three (on four bars) as one unit.
Placed top bars with 1 inch wooden comb guides (rubbed with bees wax) to either side of what they had built - hope this straightens them out. Combs are too new for much manipulation.

Dumped the rest of the bees in (along with dried mud and sand from the bottom of the swarm box (didn't have a proper bee brush). Note to self: Get a proper bee brush. Left way too many empty top bars between the follower boards as I could not get the bees I dumped to move out of the way to place the follower board where I wanted it. Hopefully in a couple of days I can remove them - tighten it up a bit.

Did not see the queen. Nor did I see any eggs.

Placed the new TBH about six feet further north with the entrances on the west (instead of the east)
This confused some of the foragers who returned to where the swarm catching hive used to be. They just started hanging out on the pallet where it had been sitting.

Checked back after work and all had found their way inside.

Midnight Bees

I got a call yesterday afternoon at about 5:30. My buddie's wife had seen a swarm of bees across the street from the their house (likely from one of our three langs in his back yard).

I've been waiting for this moment for over two months now. I've kept a small 9-bar TBH in my trunk all the time so I'd be ready when the call came.

When the call finally came, however, I was three hours away on work and no where near finished with the task at hand. It'd be at least another two hours before I could leave and then a three hour drive to get back home to where the swarm was.

He told me they were still flying and hadn't settled on anything so he'd keep an eye on them. He also told me that he didn't think they'd go far as it was just starting to lightly rain.

I had bees on the brain but went back to work. He texted me a while later to let me know that the bees had finally settled down and that they were now on the ground. I was worried that they might be queenless. I couldn't figure out why they'd bee on the ground with plenty of trees in the area. I'd heard of swarms losing their queen and becoming disoriented and "lost".

By the time I got home and over to his house it was midnight... and raining steady. The temperature was in the 50's. It would have only been worse if it were windy. I guess I can be grateful for that. We grabbed the flashlights and headed up the hill. The girls were in an area of tall grass balled up on a culvert in a ditch. They weren't even inside the culvert but rather balled up on the end of it and on a water gate to the side, out in the open and in the rain. They were completely drenched. I'd never seen such a sorry bunch of bees. At first glance they weren't even moving. I had to look close to determine that they were even alive.

Nearby and just up the hill, there was a large cottonwood tree with many low branches that, in my mind, would have made a much more suitable swarm site. I wonder if the scouts that chose the culvert were fired.

If the situation wasn't sorry enough, I was wearing shorts, a t-shirt and did not have my veil. I did however borrow a pair of gloves from my buddy.

I attempted to take a photo with my camera phone and the light from a flashlight but it didn't turn out very well (see photos). I then used my digital camera but without a working flash, it didn't turn out much better. As bad as the photos are though, they still show the sorry state of things.

I set up the TBH next to the ditch and went to work. Holding the flashlight in my teeth, I placed a piece of curled up cardboard into the culvert under the bees and began brushing them off the pipe and onto the cardboard, dumping the cardboard into the TBH about half a dozen times. I then was grabbing wet handfuls of bees from here and there and dropping them into the TBH. I cleaned up as many as I could (some had fallen into the ditch) but many were in the mud and tall grass and I could not get them. I placed the TBH as close to the ditch as I dared and covered it and the surrounding area with some pieces of cardboard to keep the rain off the remaining girls, hoping that they would find their way into the TBH.

After about twenty minutes, it was clear that the bees in the mud and grass were not interested in moving at all. I picked up a few more small clumps that I could reach, and packed things up hoping that I had the queen. I placed the hive in my trunk and drove it about 5 miles to a small farm where I had arranged permission to place the bees. It was now 1:00 am and still raining.

I set up the hive on a pallet that I had set as visibly level as I could in the dark and the wet. Not having a proper roof, I covered the top with an aluminum sheet (from the printshop) and placed a cinder block from the farm on top to hold the sheet in place.

I checked on the hive at about 7:00 am this morning and they were fanning at the entrance (a good sign). I took another couple of pictures and left them there to see what they do. I won't be able to return to check on them for three more days. I'll take one of my 42" TBH to transfer them into next week sometime.

So... I hived swarm of bees at midnight, in the cold and rain in shorts and without my veil and I only got 2 stings. Both stings are on my left leg (about an inch apart). They must have crawled up my bare leg out of the wet grass as I worked. Not a bad price to pay though, if the bees survive.

One for the mountains!

I found out yesterday (through her facebook page) that a friend had seen a swarm of bees near her cabin in the mountains above Mount Pleasant. She had even taken pictures. The swarm was huge. HUGE!

I contacted her immediately and we made plans to go up after work to see if they were still there. We didn't know where they came from or even how long they'd been there.

I even arranged to get off work a couple hours early (I love my boss) Sadly, by the time we got there, they had moved on. We were sure could hear them in the top of a 50 foot pine tree above the road, but we could not see them.

To be honest, as much as I would have loved to catch them, I'm not sure my swarm catching hive was big enough for this swarm.

One for the mountains.

Feral Bees

When I was younger I remember hiking near a small waterfall in the mountains near my home. It's a short hike (but a long drive). I can't be certain exactly how long ago it was. I know for a fact that it was not in the last 12 years. Beyond that I can't be so sure. Most likely it was while I was still in high school or shortly after. So... roughly 20 years ago.

While hiking I stumbled upon a fallen hollow tree and noticed that honey bees were flying in and out of  the hollow. I remember watching it for a few minutes, fascinated by the fact that they were wild bees living in a hollow log. Miles from anywhere. Prior to this (and actually even since) I had never seen a wild colony of bees. My only experience was with the Langstroth hives my dad used to keep. I also didn't know back then that honey bees are not native to this continent.

Well, since taking up beekeeping again last year, I've been wanting to go back and see if I could locate that hollow log and see if there were still bees living in it. The desire became even stronger the more I studied natural beekeeping and the many problems that face the bees today.

Today I finally got my chance. I was worried about the weather. It was not ideal. Cloudy. Raining off and on. I was worried because I could not remember the exact location of the log and was hoping that I could rely on returning forager bees to help me find it. I was also unsure if the log would even still be there and if it was, would it still be suitable to host a colony of bees. My memory is hazy but it seems that the log was rather low to the ground and the hollow would be within easy reach of skunk, raccoon or even a bear (all common in the area). I knew though that if I didn't go today, it would be at least 3 weeks before I could get another chance.

We first hiked into the waterfall. Carrie and Jaden went with me that far. We took advantage of the scenery and took a few photos.

While taking photos, I noticed a dozen or so honey bees drinking from the side of the stream. I was very excited. They are still here! My wife tells me I was like a kid at Christmas.

It's late and I have to get to bed so I'll try to sum it up. I found the bees living in a Cedar tree a hundred feet or more above the waterfall. They are not in the hollow, fallen log like I remember but they are in the same general location. I could not even find the hollow log. I can not tell how big the cavity is inside the tree. There appears to be a split between where the two main branches fork and this is there the entrance is. The tree itself is hanging off the side of a rather small but steep cliff. It took a bit of work going up and around to where I could get to it. I was able to watch them for several minutes and even took some pictures and video. There were many foragers coming in. Many from the direction of the stream. Many had pollen and the pollen was all white. I even saw a drone hanging about the entrance. I was able to get my hand and camera to within a foot of the entrance and they didn't seem to even notice. Pics and video follow.

Notice the split between the branches.

You can see how steep the hill is.

The girls drinking. They're still here!

There's a couple of good looking bee hunters.

Coming and going. (and a drone)

View of tree and surrounding area.

It's time to make a bait hive!

Lang watch

Time: 3:00 pm

Weather: 80ish - very little breeze

I had a chance to watch our 3 lang hives for a few minutes today. In the 2 oldest hives (Hive1 and Hive2 - both 3 supers deep) there were bees hanging out all over the landing boards. There were also many drones coming and going.

In the newest lang (Hive3 - 2 supers) there were several chalk brood larva on the landing board. I saw no drones coming and going from this hive.

The boys are out

Time: 4:00 pm

Weather: 80ish - breazy - big clouds blowing around

I watched the hive entrance for just a minute while I was home on a break this afternoon. I had opened up all three entrances (pulled the corks) the other day as the girls were getting congested on their return to the hive. in under a minute I counted 4 different drones leave the hive. I had seen a few drone cells last time I was in there but this is the first I had seen them in action.

I love it when a plan comes together

Time: 12:30 pm

Weather: very slight breeze - mid 70s

I decided I needed to look at the back (north - right side really) of the hive to see what was going on there. They had also done just what I hoped for here. They had skipped the spacer and built their next comb in the center of the following (last) top board. They now have 7 bars of comb. Lots of Brood. I even found some drone brood. I found the queen. Got to watch her laying eggs. It's a blurry picture, but you can see her towards the top. I added another top bar to this end. With the 3 empty bars on the left (south) side, they now have 4 empty bars to build on.

20 Day inspection

Time: 2:00 pm

Weather: sunny - no wind - mid 70s

Did a quick inspection today (mostly just to show the girls off to my sister, Amy). Decided to remove a couple bars to see how they were building their comb. They had done exactly as I had hoped. They had skipped over the half-width bar and built comb directly in the middle of the next bar. They had even started a small comb in the middle of the bar next to that. I didn't pull the bar in the back to see how there were doing there. The second bar had larva, pollen and honey. The third bar was mostly capped brood (very exciting).

I've been reading lots of posts on the biobees.com forum. Many suggested putting 1 inch (or so) strips of foundation into the top bar kerfs for the bees to use as guides for building their comb. Others us popsicle sticks or other strips of wood and coat them with wax. I've cut down a bunch of wooden strips for this purpose but have not had the time to install them.

The red lines represent where the girls had drawn out comb. The green lines represent where I had hoped they would draw out comb (and I was right).

Top Bar Day 5

Time: 10:00 - 11:00 AM

Weather: partly cloudy with a slight breeze - mid 50's.

Well, my top bar hive (Schampel TBH) has been set up and with bees for 5 days now. The queen was still in her cage so it was time to release her. The hive is built with a screened bottom that has a sliding wooden bottom beneath that can open or close from the outside depending on how cold it is. I'm nervous about leaving the bottom wide open when it's still cold at night so it's been mostly closed all week. I've opened it a few times at night to shine my light up inside and see what's going on (ok - I've done it every night - sometimes twice). They've been very active all week as the weather has been nice. I've seen them coming back in with pollen also.

Upon first opening the hive this morning I was surprised to find that some of the top boards were stuck together. I figured the girls had propolized them together and didn't think much about it. But as I slowly pried them apart, it became obvious that the comb had crossed over more than 1 top bar.

I was able to pull out 3 different bars with comb built up (or down) about 5 inches wide and 6 inches long. I was amazed at the amount of comb already produced in only 5 days. Wow! They were filling the cells up with honey and pollen already too.

When I had built the top bars, I cut a groove down the center of each bar about 1/16 inch deep and filled it with bees wax to give the bees a starting point for drawing out their comb. At least that was the idea. Well, they had their own idea. They completely ignored the wax strips and used the edge of the top boards as a guide for starting their comb. This is going to be a problem as the comb is now attached to 2 top boards (actually centered between the 2). I ended up causing the collapse of one of the comb. I wasn't sure what to do with it so I removed it altogether.

In hopes to get them back on track, without destroying all of their hard work, I cut one of my top bars in half to use as a spacer. My top bars are 1 3/8 inches wide. I put the 2 bars with comb attached to one side of the hive and next to the 2 bars, placed the half bar. My thinking is that when the bees move over to build their next comb (if they use the same spacing), they'll end up drawing comb in the center of the next top bar. I'll let them proceed this way for a while and will eventually remove the 2 bars with misplaced comb. We'll see how it works.

The queen is in there and loose now, so I'll be getting back in next week to see if I can find any eggs or larvae and to check to see if they're drawing out their comb where I want it.

Here's a video I captured right be fore I closed her back up.

Hive Inspections

I was finally able to go out and inspect our three Langstroth hives for the first time this year. I've checked them from the outside and was happy with the activity there but this is the first time I was able to get inside them. The weather was warm but quite breezy. We smoked the bees but found them all rather calm. The wind, I think, made them hunker down in the frames rather than come out after us.

Not sure how to keep track of each hive so we'll call them Hive1 (north), Hive2(south) and Hive3 (caught from a swarm).

Hive2 was the first one we got into. We had let her overwinter with the brood box, a large super full of honey and another large super about half full of honey. We wrapped all our hives with black tar paper before it got to cold making sure to leave plenty of ventilation. We found the queen in the second box. She's been busy. lots of brood comb. Also several empty queen cells (some in the middle of the frame and some on the bottom). We damaged some of the drone brood cells that were between frames and we found voroa mites in them. We're gonna watch this one for swarms. Possibly get a screen on the bottom also. We did place a queen excluder on top of the second box.

Hive3 was the weakest of our colonies last fall so she wintered with the brood box, a full large super and 2 partially full supers (4 high). Also wrapped in Tar paper. This hive has preferred the top entrance since the day we caught them (last July - I know it was late in the year). We found the queen in the top box. There were several frames of brood. The bottom three boxes were full of crystalized honey. You could tell they had been eating it as a lot of it had been opened up and there were little white grains dropped all over the place. This hive was filthy inside. I was surprised to see all the junk that the bees had been dropping in there.There were dead bees, white grains of crystalized honey and feces all over the floor of the bottom box. The bees were stacked so high, the front bottom entrance was entirely blocked. We cleaned out all the dead and swept up best we could. We left a full box of the best looking frames of crystalized honey on top of the brood box (we put her back on the bottom). The others boxes of crystalized honey we'll clean up and reuse the frames. Didn't notice any mites in this hive but didn't break open any brood cells looking either.

Hive1 was the last box we got into. She's been the strongest all along. The top box had black mold on the north side, and on several of the frames. We removed and discarded the frames with mold on them. We'll have to improve ventilation in this hive. There were a lot of brood cells in this hive also. Again, we didn't see any mites, but we didn't break open any cells looking for them. We found the queen in the 2nd box (we left her there, but put a queen excluder on top of the second box).

We'll probably try to split the 2 strongest colonies in the next month (as soon as we can acquire some queens).

In all we were very pleased with the strength of all three colonies. We'll probably install mite screens on all three boxes. We're gonna watch for swarms also.

Here are a couple of videos taken before and after installing the bees.

The Package

Hive activity after the installation.

Hiving the Package Bees

Over the winter I build a Kenya Top Bar Hive. I became fascinated with the idea of "natural" beekeeping. I followed instructions found at The Barefoot Beekeeper

to build my hive. Most of the wood used in the building of this hive was from wooden pallets discarded at my work. I had ordered a 4lb package of bees with a Minnesota hygienic queen from Knight Family Honey about an hours drive from my house. I had a friend pick them up on Saturday as I was out of town. He dropped them off to me Sunday night and I was so tempted to hive them right then. However, the sun had just gone down and since it was my first time hiving a package, I wanted to take pictures. I decided to wait.

I kept the package overnight in the garage covered with a towel. They did fine. For Monday, I placed them on the back deck where they could get the sun in the afternoon while they waited for me. They were so anxious to get out and get working that they were actually trying to clean up the dead bees from the bottom of the package (though they had no way of carrying them out of the package).

The weather on Monday was perfect. It was still in the upper 70's at about 6:00 pm when I hived them. I had my helper keepers and we were ready to go. There was a slight breeze but not enough to bother the bees.

I had read about spraying them with sugar water but decided against it as I wanted a more dramatic hiving with bees flying around the yard. I had veils on my kids but did not bother wearing one.

The queen did not have the sugar plug that I was expecting so I'll have to get in the hive in a few days and release her. All in all it took about an hour. the queen was hung from the top bars and the box was dumped (as much as possible) directly in the top of the hive. I had only removed 4 of the top bars. Once the bees were dumped in, I replaced the top bars and placed the package on the table in front of the hive. At 7:30, when the sun went down, almost all of the bees had found there way home.

Some photos are posted here on this blog. The rest can be viewed here.

The girls inside the package - it's hard to believe there's 10,000 of them in there.

The queen in her cage.

My helpers in their veils (Tylor and Jaden)

Watching them all fly around.

Introduction (a bit of history)

This is basically a blog to help me document my hives and beekeeping activity - a beekeeping log if you will. I'm a new beekeeper. I started in the spring of last year (2008). I partnered with a fellow beekeeper on 2 hives and we were able to catch a swarm in the summer bringing our total hive count to three. All of our hives are Langstroth hives and they reside on his property in Price, Utah (a couple miles from my home). All three wintered very well and are very active. We have not yet inspected them this spring as the weather has been nasty every time our schedules permitted - perhaps tomorrow. My father kept bees when I was younger and I didn't get involved much. I remember earning my beekeeper merit badge. I remember harvesting. That's pretty much where the memories end. More details to follow (maybe).