I did my first real hive inspection of 2008 on Sunday afternoon. Both hives looked healthy and had lots of bees. The bees in Mellona in the first picture were all through two boxes. The brood was all in the bottom box and had not moved up, to my surprise. The second box was still heavy with honey.
Last year at this inspection, Bermuda was a small handful of bees, with Varroa everywhere. But the queen was alive and with many powdered sugar shakes, the hive rebuilt itself. This is the hive where the original queen was cast out on January 6 this year. They obviously have a queen and are really building up. I scraped off the burr comb that you can see on top of a couple of frames.
I did a powdered sugar shake on both hives today and with the DWV (Deformed Wing Virus) that I saw earlier in the month on the dead bees on the deck, I will be shaking sugar every inspection this spring. Look out, Costco, here I come!
The sad news was that I had left a Ziploc bag feeder inside the Bermuda hive. There were so many bees in that hive a few weeks ago that I was afraid they would go through their stores. I knew when I put it in the hive that it had sort of folded over on itself, but I didn't do anything about it. The many dead bees I found inside it today let me (and preventively all of you) know that a ziploc feeder
must be sitting flat on the frames in order to keep bees from drowning as they get the sugar syrup.
I did my first real hive inspection of 2008 on Sunday afternoon. Both hives looked healthy and had lots of bees. The bees in Mellona in the first picture were all through two boxes. The brood was all in the bottom box and had not moved up, to my surprise. The second box was still heavy with honey.
Last year at this inspection, Bermuda was a small handful of bees, with Varroa everywhere. But the queen was alive and with many powdered sugar shakes, the hive rebuilt itself. This is the hive where the original queen was cast out on January 6 this year. They obviously have a queen and are really building up. I scraped off the burr comb that you can see on top of a couple of frames.
I did a powdered sugar shake on both hives today and with the DWV (Deformed Wing Virus) that I saw earlier in the month on the dead bees on the deck, I will be shaking sugar every inspection this spring. Look out, Costco, here I come!
The sad news was that I had left a Ziploc bag feeder inside the Bermuda hive. There were so many bees in that hive a few weeks ago that I was afraid they would go through their stores. I knew when I put it in the hive that it had sort of folded over on itself, but I didn't do anything about it. The many dead bees I found inside it today let me (and preventively all of you) know that a ziploc feeder must be sitting flat on the frames in order to keep bees from drowning as they get the sugar syrup. 
Linda:
ReplyDeleteWow! What an awesome blog you have. Your writing is so clear and straightforward and engaging and your photos are illustrative. I am super impressed with and also am pleased you posted that poem. I also love the "bee-loud glade" phrase - it has been in my head for many years as I mentioned. So glad to have visited with you and think this blog is terrific. Here's to two hives full of bees!
Love,
Your sister Beth
is the brood box pretty full at this point? ours is mostly empty, and we're also in atlanta (grant park). we're wondering about requeening...
ReplyDeletecraig
There are many, many bees in my Bermuda hive which has now made it through its second winter. The number of bees is probably about what one should expect from a second year hive. My other hive (first winter) has less bees - more Varroa problems. I am not thinking of requeening but rather of dealing with Varroa. Craig, you may need to address both issues, especially if your Grant Park hive is coming through its first winter. Many beekeepers requeen every year (usually in the fall).
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