2017 Bee hive swarm information, history, lessons, successes, etc.

[babsbag]

I love the look of the wild comb that the bees make when we don't try and direct their energies into preformed combs.

I think that it is a true blessing that your bees do so well. I won't be taking any honey from the hives this year. Just to keep them alive is my goal. It is time to do a mite count, I have never done one before but I hate the idea of doing the alcohol wash so will probably use powdered sugar. I need to read up on this.

 

[soarwitheagles]

I love the look of the wild comb that the bees make when we don't try and direct their energies into preformed combs.

I think that it is a true blessing that your bees do so well. I won't be taking any honey from the hives this year. Just to keep them alive is my goal. It is time to do a mite count, I have never done one before but I hate the idea of doing the alcohol wash so will probably use powdered sugar. I need to read up on this.

Babs, yes I too like the look of wild comb! And I ate lots of honey last night too! Flow is still strong here and the star-thistle is blooming everywhere! BUT, I am seeing a reduction of egg laying and I wish the queens would continue to lay lots of eggs.

Trying to figure a way to stimulate the queen to increase her egg laying...not sure how.

Babs, for three+ years, we fed our bees like crazy just to help them survive. I think they would have died without the sugar syrup.

This is the first year ever that we have not had to feed anything at all. So we are kinda happy about that and look at it as a miracle and a direct answer to prayer.

If we can somehow see an increase in egg laying, then we could do one more split across the entire bee apiary, and maybe reach 60 hives. Presently we are near or above 30. Not bad considering we started with only 5 healthy hives in the spring...

One year ago, I was ready to throw in the towel and quit beekeeping forever. So do not give up! Perseverance pays off!

Regarding mites...so strange, so different according to various bee strains and locations...

During our inspection and clean up yesterday, we noticed some hives had hundreds of mites, while other hives had none. Another good way to check for mites is to break open drone brood. I too do not care for the alcohol wash because it kills all the bees!

Your sugar rolls should do the job well.

Wanna know what we did yesterday? We immediately installed sticky bottom boards in nearly all remaining hives that did not have one. Just a simply pull of the coroplast bottom, and we can easily see how the mite population is doing.

I would like to treat with the OA vaporizer NOW, but, that would require removing all supers filled with honey, and I do not wanna do that right now.

Remember, in another month, the mite population can and in most cases will grow super fast, and if action is not taken, then major problems will occur. DWV [deformed wing virus] is a big no-no.

I hope to harvest a lot of honey in August, then treat all hives repeatedly until all mites are dead as a door nail.

Hope this helps!

 

[babsbag]

I have screened bottom boards and I was reading last night that some use Vaseline to make the plastic sticky, that sounds simple enough. I need to make the sugar roll jar but the rest sounds pretty easy. One hive had a long break in brood rearing so I am hoping that helped with the mites. Need to get this done ASAP but it is soooo hard to work bees when it is 106° outside; hard to do anything.

 

[soarwitheagles]

I have screened bottom boards and I was reading last night that some use Vaseline to make the plastic sticky, that sounds simple enough. I need to make the sugar roll jar but the rest sounds pretty easy. One hive had a long break in brood rearing so I am hoping that helped with the mites. Need to get this done ASAP but it is soooo hard to work bees when it is 106° outside; hard to do anything.

Babs,

I heard that spraying bottom boards with vegetable oil spray works really well! I do not spray with anything because I kind of learned by experience when we are having mite problems simply by counting the number of mites on the bottom board once per day.

The best time to apply the OA vapor is when you have a break in the brood because then you have to apply it only one time as it is a 100% kill rate.

Another option if you have no honey is to place a strip of Apivar in each box. That stuff is incredibly effective and you will have a 100% kill rate after 42 days...

 

[soarwitheagles]

Swarm update:

Caught and housed another swarm earlier this week. Other swarm traps that I had not checked for weeks were terribly attacked by wax moths. I had to remove all frames, clean the boxes, then spray to kill all wax moth larvae. What a complete total mess! Next, reinstalled new frames of wax, sprayed them too to avoid all future attacks, then applied the swarm lure, and remounted up in the trees. Had scout bees all over 3 of the traps within minutes...

Oh, I also created 6 more nucs, mounted all of em' up in trees...

Busy me, busy bee!

 

[HomeOnTheRange]

Very nice @soarwitheagles. I really like your stands. Are those round items in the middle the way you can adjust the level?
I had to battle wax worms on some of the supers I had stored for a couple of years. Needed them this year... Should have checked sooner vs when I needed them!
Well done on getting those nucs up in the trees.

 

[soarwitheagles]

Very nice @soarwitheagles. I really like your stands. Are those round items in the middle the way you can adjust the level?
I had to battle wax worms on some of the supers I had stored for a couple of years. Needed them this year... Should have checked sooner vs when I needed them!
Well done on getting those nucs up in the trees.

Homeontherange,

Thank you for your kind words! So sorry to hear you too had the wax moth challenge! I am curious if you did anything specific to alleviate the wm problem?

Those round items are PVC end caps from HD. They are filled with high temperature brake lube and their purpose is to keep all ants from the hives. They work incredibly well! You can see how we put together this ant proof beehive stand here:

https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/how-to-make-an-ant-proof-beehive-stand.33467/

I hope this helps!

 

[babsbag]

I did a VERY quick check on my hive with the new queen and she is well and laying. She was actually on the one frame I pulled. I have three deeps on these hives and no supers as I don't expect any honey. The brood nest appears to be in the middle deep, right where they put it last year.

I am going to treat for mites before doing a sugar roll. I have to assume that they have them so I will treat now and then see if it worked. I have some options since there are no supers.

 

[Happy Chooks]

For the first time ever, I have brood in the honey super. It's just at the bottom of the center frames, but I didn't have this problem last year. I may have to put in an excluder before extracting.

My bees have been busy moving the honey around. My super was full, but now it's a couple of frames short. The privet and star thistle is in bloom, so they should be filling it back up soon.

 

[babsbag]

I discovered last year that the bees seemed to like a 3 deep hive. The bottom one they kept full of pollen, the middle was brood, the third was their honey, and the super was mine. No matter how many times I moved the brood to the bottom they moved it back up so I gave up and just gave them three boxes. I have never had brood in the honey, thankfully.