Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Thursday April 29, 2015

today it is glorious outside and the bees are laden with pollen.
nevertheless, it can still freeze in Minnesota until June 1, so I put pollen patties on and filled the feeders.
the queen is laying in each hive and all is well.

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Sunday April 26, 2015

I decided to take photos through the windows of the hives, so I would remember how far along they were at this point

The bees are very active today and LOADED with bright yellow, pale yellow and some almost white pollen.

The first one is the top box of the SE hive the last two are the top and bottom boxes, respectively, of the NW hive

I started the top boxes with comb from last year, that's why they are so far along in 2 wks!!



Saturday, April 25, 2015

Saturday April 25, 2015

After some very cool rainy days, it is sunny and 60 degrees today so the bees were loaded with pollen moving in and out of the hives.
Here they are:


Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Friday April 17 (day 6) and Tuesday April 21 (day 10)

It was really warm during the first week of the hives - up to 70 degrees. I filled the feeders on day 6 (they were pretty low - but I had only filled them 1/3 full initially). I left for Boston and on day 8, it got cold, in fact, yesterday, April 21, it was SNOWING when I went to the hive. The wind was blowing hard and my hands were SO cold.

I filled the feeders but they were only down ~1/4 so not sure why they weren't taking down more syrup. I put some pollen patties on top of the top bars, under the cloth - and placed them above the clusters on each hive. I smoked the hives when I did it but honestly, it was so chilly, I probably didn't have to.

Closed up the hives and will wait for warm weather to check on them.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Day 3

The feeders (though only filled 1/4 when I put them in) were nearly empty so I filled all 4 quart jars completely.
I smoked the hives and opened them to remove the queen cages - it was sunny and 70 degrees out.
Put it all back together and will leave them "bee."
They were looking good, and all over the combs which were from last year.
Lots of activity!

Sunday, April 12, 2015

One final video of April 11, 2015 hiving the bees


Videos of the two 2# packages of bees

Videos of the packages

(Mark photobombs, of course)
(and by "don't want to kill anyone," I meant my worker bees
both of the corks in the queen cages were crooked, I'm surprised my queens did not escape!!

Getting ready to install the bee packages today

So I have readied the hives - it is Saturday April 11, 2015 and fortunately, a warm sunny day.
The sugar syrup (1:1) is mixed and in my feeder bottles as well as my spray bottle.
Here are photos and videos of the preparations!

My assembled hive with feeder box on top of 2 top bar boxes:


The inside of the feeder box - the inverter syrup jars go in those holes:
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 A comb from the top box:
 The other side of the same comb - the capped cells on the upper left are honey comb:
These videos explain my hive boxes:




These two videos show how the bottom board is all chewed up: