Hello Beepeeple!

[Happy Chooks]

Congrats!

I've had bees for 3 years now, and I still don't think of myself as a beekeeper. I'm still learning so much every day!

 

[Latestarter]

Well, I imagine that since they'll have an almost 2 month head start, that they'll do a darned sight better, don't you? Grats on being a newBEE haver/keeper

 

[Maggiesdad]

I"m as nervous as a new dad w a bunch of baby girls.

I didn't realize that the queen can make up the 1lb difference in less than a week, but I guess it make sense. Supposedly you can't tell a 2# start from a 3# start by 6 weeks out.

 

[Happy Chooks]

But if you get a cold snap after installation, the extra 3,333 bees will help keep her warm.

 

[Maggiesdad]

shush! We're going down to 22° tomorrow night.

That's why I'm nervous! lol

 

[Latestarter]

For someone with only book knowledge, you really jumped right in! I wish I could have afforded to do more than 2 hives to start, but the initial start up expenses are pretty steep. Starting from scratch, by the time my packages get here I'll be in it for almost a grand. A LOT less than I have invested in my chickens, but then my chickens feed me daily in one way or another None the less, I'm still pretty excited to get started!

Planted a 1/4 acre strip of native wildflowers outside the fence along my property line with the road about 10 feet wide. (20 foot wide swale so covered the fence side of the swale). It rained light and steady overnight the day after planting, So hoping that within the next month or so I'll have a bee garden starting to bloom.

Today I'm headed out to a real life hive splitting class held at the hives! A local BK and published expert puts on these classes and charges $40 to attend. Weather should be perfect for it too at about 70 degrees with full sun and very light breezes. I'll be headed out in ~ 10 minutes. Have my veil and got a full body tyvek suit from work. no gloves. will see how this get-up works out.

Hope everyone has a WONDERFUL weekend!

 

[Happy Chooks]

That's great Latestarter. Our beekeeping association isn't very active, so most of my learning is by reading/youtube videos and trial and error.

 

[Latestarter]

Well gee Happy Chooks... get your self active and take the association over ! Most of the time it only takes one interested and active person to generate the enthusiasm and get others active as well! You'd probably be surprised at the interest you could generate. Bees seem to be becoming all the rage They sure are getting a heckuva lot more free press lately .

Anyway, it was AWESOME! The BK wasn't wearing any protection at all, and I felt totally "over dressed" in the tyvek suit. Wasn't uncomfortable or wary at all, and felt right at home when they landed on my exposed hands. What a thrill to have them around me like that! They were loaded with pollen of several different colors. The hive was in great shape and perfect for splitting. There were drones and drone brood, as well as several frames of capped brood and eggs/larva. We did find the start of a single queen cell/cup on the bottom of one frame, so it appears the split was perfectly timed. There was even some fresh nectar in there so the bees are getting to flowers someplace.

With all the dandelions I have covering my property right now, I wish I could have my hives now rather than seeing all the pollen and nectar go to waste (some one ELSE'S bees!). OK, time to go work outside. Too nice to be indoors. My roosters seem to be having a crow-off to see who can be more obnoxious and loud.

 

[Happy Chooks]

How did he do the split? I thought I'd have to split mine this year, but they look okay still. The population isn't too large, so I let them be. I did reverse the hive bodies though, because the bottom one was completely empty and the top one was full.

We've been in bloom for quite a while. Now the lilacs, sweet peas, lupens and my apple and orange trees. My bees are bringing in a lot of different colored pollen.

As for kick starting the beekeeping association, I'm afraid I can't right now. My kids activities are keeping me pretty darn busy!

 

[Latestarter]

He basically did a "walk away" split. It was a 2 deep -10 frame hive. There was drone and worker brood in both upper and lower deeps. He took the upper and placed it on a new screened bottom board slightly behind and to the side of the existing hive. There was no real food (honey/nectar) in the lower, so he did swap one frame of honey from the upper down into the lower, and he also shook off one frame of nurse bees from the lower into the upper. Then put inner covers and outer covers on both, and that was it. I don't want to misrepresent, the whole training took almost 2 hours and we checked out both deeps very well. We didn't see/find the queen, but there were eggs/larva/capped brood/drone brood in both boxes. There were a lot of bees in both upper and lower deeps as well, so both hives should thrive. The bees I saw up close didn't have mites on them that I could see.

He'll go back in 7 days to re-open the hives and see which one kept the queen and see if there are queen cells in the other. It was really much simpler than I expected and though there were reports that this was a "mean" hive, he did use smoke and nobody got stung. There were like 10 of us all hovering around the hives while he worked and instructed.

Most of the members of my association are all (well) past retirement age, so kids don't seem to be a major issue. I know mine are all grown and on their own