NO!!!! I was apparently wrong!

They didn't swarm, they didn't abscond...I sent the pictures to Matt at BeeThinking and he says I have a healthy hive preparing for winter.
I forgot that all the drones die so the population should have decreased.
All is well.....yay

Absconded a second time

My bees are nearly all gone again. I went to the hive yesterday to put the bottom board in, nothing flying about, opened a window and nearly empty of bees. I doubt they split and are developing a new queen, looks like she's absconded. The others will leave soon. In which case I will try to harvest the honey. Unless the reason they left is that they ran out of honey or were robbed by yellow jackets or other bees.

Not sure why. Maybe I should have fed them but it seems silly to have to "feed" wild insects with artificial sugar/syrup.....

So yesterday, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013 (my Aunt Patty's 83rd birthday), I went out to check the hive. What an eventful visit.
Not the bees so much, they're still there and seem ok, but sometimes I worry that there are less of them??
They're really packed tightly in the top box and it looks like honey in all the comb I can see against the windows, so we'll just have to see next spring!

The combs in the bottom box are beautiful and still white/pale yellow, so I'm not so sure that they are doing much down there, but I cannot see in the middle of the comb.

Well, here's my video from yesterday....

But that obviously, is not what made this visit eventful.
First of all, it was supposed to rain, so my task for the day was to ready my CME talk for next Wednesday on How to Manage a Cirrhotic Patient in the Outpatient Setting. I thought I would have all day. So the visit to the hive was a break from my reading and Power Point preparation.....btw, I'm supposed to be doing my presentation as I type this - never mind, it will get done :)

Alas, as I was leaving the hive, I heard one of the horses coughing rather forcefully, so assumed it was Main Man choking a little bit, or Bear, 'cause he's just old.

But no, it was Lady, green-tinged mucus was pouring (I mean pouring by 1/2 cupfuls at a time) from predominantly her left naris, then her right! She kept making a weird clicking noise and I realized she had an esophageal obstruction. No fever, pulse normal. Called Dr Heidi, the equine vet on call, who came out with her assistant.

They tubed Lady, hit up against the obstruction, and then started lavaging her - 1 1/2 hours later!!! - the grass/hay was disimpacted and the tube slid into her stomach. Banamine for inflammation and pain, long-acting antibiotic for infection, and we were done. Well, there went my afternoon!
She's fine today, in the stall, eating senior feed as a wet mash.

It's always something with old horses. Main Man did this 4 years ago!! So he primarily gets senior feed.

I'm not sure anyone reads this blog, so if you do, leave me a comment, ok? So I know my journaling is not in vain!

Signing off....

August update

Well, we were in Italy the past week and when I came home, it was pretty hot outside. I was worried the bees may have swarmed while  we were gone, but they did not.

The first/top box is still very full with lots of activity.

The second box has more comb than when I left.

all is good....

30 July 2013

Week 11

It looks like there are less bees and they aren't building more comb. I'm distressed but it may have to do with the recent mowing of our thistle. Mark had to control it but I'm worried it removed too much of their "near forage" - plus mowing during the day kills alot of bees who are on the flowers.

Hopefully, the queen didn't swarm and now I have to wait for another queen to develop. I do not want to disturb the hive by opening it just to find that out. But if I've lost my queen, I guess what can happen is only drones will be born and if a queen doesn't develop soon enough, the hive will just dwindle away.

I will keep you posted.

Here's an interesting article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/beekeeping/10206225/Radar-antennae-reveal-how-disease-and-pesticides-are-harming-bees-navigation.html

Well now 9 weeks into this venture, the bees seem to happily continue building comb and presumably producing and feeding brood.

Here's my latest video - I put up a game camera because a black bear was spotted at the end of our driveway!

June 26 - I went to make sure there was still activity and I didn't inadvertently crush the queen.
Lots of activity at the hive so I'm assuming she is fine.
I cleared some tall weeds from in front of the hive tonight.

There was  a resting lightning bug which I caught to observe its fluorescence! I brought it up to the house so mark could see it.

All is well at the hive - and when I got back up to the house, I picked strawberries - YUM!!