Taking Care of Beta

I have noticed that the goldenrod is about to bloom in the area and there is a lot of it around. I have also been worried that Beta may be crowded since I removed the supers after the honey harvest. Because of this I have decide to put one super back on the hive.

The first thing I noticed was that there were about 20 SHB in the trap that I put into the hive last time. I guess that means it is working. however. I did see a few other beetles running loose in the hive. Beta has a lot of bees, honey, and pollen stored in it. But, I did not see very many young brood in the hive. I did see some capped brood cells.  The capped cells were not in the compacted pattern all of the books describe as a  sign of a strong laying queen. I also saw about 10 swarm queen cells and two supersedure queen cells. Does this mean that (1) they have lost their queen and/or (2) they are getting ready to swarm? What should I do about it?

I did not remove any of the queen cells because I heard on a podcast that that does not stop the swarming. Also, if they are replacing a queen, I do not want to run the risk of killing the new queen.

All these questions have convinced me it is time to start attend the ETBA meeting again. I wish I had an expert bee keeper to inspect my hives with me.

Except for the aforementioned problems, Beta looks great. I put a queen excluder, the beetle trap and a super with nine frames back on the hive. I am going with nine frames in hopes that if there is a fall honey production, it will be easier to un-cap the frames this time. In the last harvest, most of the caps were to low for the un-capping knife to reach them.

I made a quick inspection of Alpha while I was in the bee yard. It's beetle trap had about the same number of beetles in it. The Miller feeder was empty. I looked at four frames from the top brood box. They were heavy with honey. They also had pollen stored. The hive is looking good. It does not have as many bees as Beta, but enough so that I am not worried about it. I closed it up with out the feeder.

I am wondering where the bees are getting nectar. I do not see many flowers blooming, yet both of them had lots of honey stored. Alpha has had a feeder available, but not Beta. I guess they are flying far afield to find nectar.

If I can, I am going to build another brood box. I wan to be ready to catch a swarm if it happens. If I had a nuc available, I would seriously think about making a split from Beta.

Hive Report

Friday I opened the top of Apha to see how much of the sugar syrup the bees had eaten. Most of the syrup was still in the feeder. I had about another gallon of syrup available, so I added that to the feeder. I noticed that there were several bees that had drowned in the syrup. When I build my next feeder, I will extend the wire cover further between the boards to give the bees something to hold on to when they feed on the syrup.

I did not look at the beetle trap because I did not want to keep the hive open very long and I did not want to have to lift off the feeder because it had syrup in it. I saw several beetle on the hive cover. I hope the trap will reduced their numbers before they get to point where they will destroy the honey.

Alpha isl Loking Great

When I inspected Alpha today I went directly to the bottom brood box. Not a sign of wax moths! I think I may have saved it. The number of bees seems to be down. But I saw some brood and more importantly, eggs. This is the first time I have ever spotted eggs. They are small.

The bees have done nothing to the four frames I put in last week. There seems to be plenty of honey and pollen for them. I saw a two acorn cells. There are still small hive beetles in the hive.

I added a spacer above the top box so that I could put a Sonny-Mel SHB trap on the hive. Above that I put a hive top feeder with a gallon of 1:1 sugar syrup. I'm not sure that they need feeding, but I'm hoping it might get them to increase their brood.

I also opened up Beta. It's looking great. Plenty of stores, no unwanted bugs, and lots of bees. I took the supers off because they had not done anything to them. I didn't see any eggs but then the light was failing. Beta always gets short changed when I do my inspections. Next time I will start with Beta first. I added a trap just like I did on Alpha. I didn't feed them because they seem to have plenty of food.

Let's hope I Have Saved Alpha

On Monday I opended up Alpha to see if there was any more wax moth damage. There was good activity outside the hive with some bees coming in with pollen. I was saisfied with  the ammount of honey and pollen inside the hive. I did not see the queen. However, I did see brood. It looked like the brood was in a narrow age range. i saw one bee with a small deformed wing. I did not see any mites. Ther SHB inside, more than I cared for but I am not overly alarmed. I also saw one adult wax moth, two larvae, but not web.

There was one queen cell that looked like a queen had hatched. I also saw an acorn cell. I did not see any drones.

I added a solid bottom and new botttom brood box to the hive. I also re-installed the cleaned frames (4) that I had taken out earlier. I plan to clean the screened bottom board and hive box to use again.

The hive seems to be doing OK. I hope to check it again in about a week. I have it pared down to just the two brood boxes in hopes that they will fight the wax moths a little better. I'll open the hive again this weekend to see how things are going.

I wanted to check on Beta, but I didn't have time. It was Labor Day afterall and I had a lunch to go to. I  need to take off the supers. I really don't think there is any nectar left out there.

Saving Alpha

In an attempt to save Alpha, I have taken off both supers. I read online that this might encourage them to more aggressively attack the wax moths.

I also started building a new deep brood box for them. I just like the idea of putting them in a clean home.

I hope this will help.

A Belated Report

I have been a lazy beekeeper on two levels. First I have been doing only the bare minimum to keep tabs on my hives. I open them and then rush around trying to take care of any problem that arises. Secondly, where are the posts recording my adventures in beekeeping.

The good thing is that the girls gave me five gallons of the best tasting, prettiest color honey I have seen.

I inspected the hives this afternoon because I was curious what they had done with the frames from which I had extracted honey. Alpha had repaired the comb and drawn it out. The other supper looked untouched. The top brood box was loaded with honey, pollen, and grubs. I feel confident that they have enough to make it through the winter. I did not see any small hive beetles.

However, it all fell apart when I looked into the bottom brood box. All along one side were wax moth cocoons. Four frames had been infected so I pulled them out. They are in the freezer right now. I am going to build a new brood box and some replacement frames and use them in hopes of saving this hive.

I quickly checked Beta. It did not have any web moths.

I hope I can save Alpha.

Where Have You Been and Do you Still Have Bees?

Yeah, I know. Not a word from me about my bees for months. I still have the two hives. I have done inspections and they seem be doing well. We have had an uncommon stretch of very cold weather over the last few weeks. I have been wondering about how well the girls have been doing. But whenever it warms up a bit, I see them flying around the hive. More than likely taking cleansing flights. I would like to open the hives for a quick inspection, but I have not been home or available when the temperature was warm enough. I would like it to be at least 50 F before I take the lid off.

I have inspected the hives a few times between my posts. Both hives seem to be doing ok. I am concerned that there may not be enough flowers in the area to provide nectar enough to get the surplus honey that will be mine. I will be looking into what I can plant in the meadow for the bees.

I may start feeding sugar syrup soon to get the hives a boost in their brood production. It's ironic that that I worry about the amount of food available for the hives and yet I want to increase the number of bees in the hive.