Sunday, May 25, 2014

May 24, 2014

Joe and I went to the hives, smoked them, took the feeder boxes off the top and added them with their top bars to the bottom of the hives.

Looked at one frame - to show Joe what it looks like - and all is well!
Here are some pictures:

 this is the top cloth on the top box after the 2 jar feeder was removed - these bees are covering their honey which was exposed when we pulled off the feeder - they were building comb onto the screen. they grab their honey and take it back to the comb inside the hive but we did get to taste some YUM!!!
 now I've pulled off the cloth you just saw in the first picture - the bees are on the top of the bars as well as on the combs.
 isn't their comb pretty and perfect? I am pulling up one top bar with its attached comb and bees
 there are pollen patties (pieces of them) still on top of the bar - 2 of the bees are seen eating the pollen patty
 the top cells hold honey
 the puffy looking capped cells are drone cells - after the 5th instar of a larva, the bees cap the cell so it can pupate. the "flat" caps are worker bee cells and the ones that are depressed are pollen
 a lovely little wood tick on the outside of the hive
we put zip lock bags with sugar syrup on top of the bars of the 3rd box (the one we just placed). I am going to ask my dad to build me 2 feeder boxes

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Week 4 of the new hives

So I obviously am moving the camera too fast - a repeat issue with me!
So....pause it frequently to look at the images. It is 72 degrees out and sunny, so a great day to check things.
The pollen is still adequate as are the sugar feeders.
No new updates but the frames and combs are looking full and healthy. Honey being stored, larvae seen, capped brood - lots of it.
We went to the U of MN Bee Yard last Thursday and our combs are MUCH further along than the ones we saw up there - and they were dividing their hives because they felt they were strong enough to do that!
They also started their bees a week BEFORE us, so I'm really happy with our progress this spring.


top cells have honey, capped brood - workers and drones

 the larvae are whitish looking worms/larvae!
the dead bees at the base of the hive - normal!

Saturday, May 10, 2014

May 10, 2014 - I opened the hive!!

Ok I know the point of a Warre hive is to keep it closed and not let the heat out but I'm a beginner and I wanted to see if there are larvae developing - i.e. are my queens healthy and productive?

And yes! They are!! It was so cool to look at the different stages of larvae development. My photos were blurry so this is what they looked like:

Tomorrow is day 21 - so new bees will start to emerge next week. 21 days from egg to bee :)
I pulled up the quilts and pulled a frame/comb from each box to look at them, it was SO neat - the bees just climb all over and don't do anything to me. I checked how much pollen was left in the patties and they were nearly gone. So I put new pollen packs on top of the bars of the bottom box, that way I don't have to open the hive to replenish the pollen next time. I can just slide off the top box and put new pollen on. The quilts have some mold on them - probably from the moisture from the pollen packs and the sugar syrup.

The feeders were ok so I did not fill them yet - I just filled them on May 6th.

Here's the second video:


Sunday, May 4, 2014

Day#14

May 4, 2014

It has been rainy and cool all week - down to the 30's overnight. We received 2 1/4" of rain over 5 days and they stayed in the hives during those days. Good thing I have sugar syrup (1:1 ratio) and pollen packs on the hives.

Today it is 57 out and they are very active.

I will post 2 videos to this blog.

Here are the buds of one of the many trees in bloom - this one is in our front yard, as I recall it is a maple and someday will be glorious and brilliant gold!!

And our goofy peacock, thanks to Jon, we always have peacocks!