Archive for March, 2011
Hive Two Winter Configuraion 2010-2011
Saturday, March 19th, 2011Hive One Winter 2010-2011 Drawing
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
Hive Two Pictures
Saturday, March 19th, 2011Hive two had a large number of dead bees at the entrance, this was to be expected as I had not cleaned them off. The tar paper had also came loose and was removed. The streaks on the top have appeared over the winter and could be signs of nosema.
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- Hive Two with Tar Paper coming off
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- Dead Bees at the entrance
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- Hive Two Top Cover, leakage possible nosema
March Pictures
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
Hive One March 19th 2011
Hive one uncovered entrance
Tem. 41degrees F, Entrance obscured by tar paper, two dead bees at entrance, sugar candy still visible under the top cover
Spring Prep
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
Duct Tape on Top Feeder
Attached to this post is the 10 Frame Top Feeder I bought from Mann Lake. My first attempt at using this 2 years ago resulted in a large number of bees getting trapped in the mesh and eventually dieing. I have decided to try it again, but keep a better eye on the feeder and duct tape the edge of the feeder to better prevent Bee drowning.
February Bee Activities
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011Hive Inspection – 60 degree day
Feed w/ Bee Candy if required
April Bee Activities
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011
Wait to dandilions start to bloom, inspect hive for:
- Bees on 12-15 frames
- Brood on 6-10 frames
- 20lbs of honey (4 deep frames)
- 2-3 frames of pollen
Wait for dandilion honey flow, reverse both hives
Comb replacement, consider removing two frames per hive body per year.
Bee Candy Feeding
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011I am moving my bee journal online after four years of trying to keep bees. As of Tuesday March 8th I have two hives with live bees. I fed them ‘bee candy’ today as it has been a snowy winter and I was afraid their honey stores were low. The recipe can be found in Chapter 7 of “The Beekeepers Handbook” by Alphonse Avitabile, Diana Sammataro and Roger A. Morse.
Weather when I opened the hive was ~40 degrees F and clear, both hives were in shadow as it was 4:30PM. I easily placed the candy under the inner cover in the first hive (Hive One). I noticed a large number of bees at the top of the hive next to the inner cover.
The second hive (Hive Two) was much more difficult, the bees attacked me causing me to leave the candy on top of the inner cover. This hive is healthier but the bees are much more aggressive. Bees in this box were also clustered near the inner cover. I killed at least 20 bees from this hive attempting to drop the candy into the hive.