Hive inspection and box reversal

[misfitmorgan]

wow thanks for all the info that pretty thoroughly explains the syrup and package vs nuc. i have seen people using queen excluders in your experience is that a required item usually? i have seen a lot of people not using them to so i dunno if it is just person preference or when your hive gets to a certain size. In spring when they bring up the bee boxes for the farmers they have some big big ones with 3 deeps and 3-5 supers on top, i dont know if it is because they leave them there until fall or what the reasoning is, they do have smaller ones as well mixed in. Last year the company who does the bee rentals for the farmers lost a lot of hives something like 200 hives of the 600 some they have.

 

[Latestarter]

Queen excluders are a "debate" item... some swear by them, others swear about them. Personally I don't use them and see no need for them. If you have set up a 2 deep (3 medium) brood chamber as your hive basis, that is typically more than sufficient room for the queen to continuously lay eggs and not run out of room/empty cells to lay in.

When you first get your package bees, you will start with only one deep. You want to place 2-3 fully drawn frames in the center of the box and partial or empty frames out from there to either side. The hive always builds from the center out and bottom up. you'll need to check each deep about every week to 10 days to make sure they are progressing; building comb moving out from center, storing pollen (bee bread - fed to larva) and honey (food for adults), the queen is laying eggs, you're seeing all stages including new eggs, larva and capped brood. You will want to look for the queen to make sure she's healthy and moving around, still there.

Once your hive has grown to 7-8 drawn frames, THEN you'll put on a second deep with frames, again, if you have some drawn frames, you'll place them in the center with empty frames outward from them. Then the wait and watch process starts again. Once the 2nd deep has 6-8 frames completely drawn out and being used, then you will pull the syrup and put on your first super (honey). By this point, the queen has more than enough drawn comb with empty cells recycling between bee hatches and egg laying that she shouldn't need to go into the super to lay.

The trick is to not give them too much room all at once, but at the same time, you don't want them to start feeling cramped, like they're running out of room, as that will cause the bees to swarm, and you'll lose 1/2-2/3 of your hive as well as the queen.

That's where "splitting" hives comes into play. If you have a super strong hive, you'll get a new deep or two and "split" the frames from the old strong hive into the new empty hive. You'll want to make sure you move over frames with all stages of brood, as well as frames with pollen and honey, then "bang off" a couple of frames of new worker bees into the new deep. OK, before I get rolling, this is another whole course in and of itself

 

[misfitmorgan]

Alright well hopefully today we are going to inspect the two hive box set ups that are here locally that hubby owns. The other 6 setups are about an hour away so that will be for a different day. After we inspect the hives i will know what i am working with for drawn combs or not. They have no syrup feeders as far as i know so can i use fondant or patties?

 

[Latestarter]

No, not really, fondant and patties are for winter use. Right now, if you get bees, you'll want to use syrup. syrup feeders are not that expensive and you can get the internal kind (what I used) or the external type that you place right in the entrance to the hive. I don't like the entrance kind because other bees can access it and steal food from your bees, and leakage can draw in pests you don't want around your hive.

Herre was right after I installed my package in the lower deep. I used an internal double feeder on top of the inner cover, inside a 2nd deep then put the outer cover over it all. The can is the can of syrup that came with the package. I put in also becasue it wasn't empty.

After I put the top cover on, I set the package on the ground outside so the remaining bees could find their way into the hive.

 

[misfitmorgan]

Alright that helps, thanks for the pictures too. Should i move this chat over to a new thread? i mean we are pretty much getting way off topic here.

 

[Latestarter]

Nah, there are only a few of us that are crazy enough to keep bees No big deal.

 

[babsbag]

Crazy is right. My last hive is most likely gone My friend reports that it was active in Feb. but last week no bees coming or going but she did hear a faint buzz. Her DH even stuck his head right next to the entrance and looked in and no activity. Our weather has been nothing but rain since she told me this so maybe Monday or Tues. next week I can go and look.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I do use queen excluders and haven't had any trouble using them. I don't want the queen laying brood in my super, so I place an exluder on when the super goes on. When the super comes off, so does the excluder. I'm thinking of using a top entrance this year, so I might give that a try and see how it works.

As for your flows, you have to learn what plants are high nectar plants. It takes time, and I'm still learning the different plants in our area and what the bees use them for. Maples are an early source from what I've been learning. Manzanita, Catalpa trees, fruit trees, citrus trees, blackberry (or any berry really), star thistle, Laurel, scotch broom are all sources for your bees. To confuse you more, then you also learn pollen colors too. I still get stumped by some of the pollen colors that I see coming into the hives. A mentor or someone in a beekeeping club could help you with the flows of your area. The bees will also tell you when their is a dearth, they get agitated when you get in the hive, but this too takes practice. Here in Northern CA, we have a dearth after the spring blooms, before the blackberry blooms in early summer.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Crazy is right. My last hive is most likely gone My friend reports that it was active in Feb. but last week no bees coming or going but she did hear a faint buzz. Her DH even stuck his head right next to the entrance and looked in and no activity. Our weather has been nothing but rain since she told me this so maybe Monday or Tues. next week I can go and look.

Oh no. I hope they are still there.

I was worried about mine since they were already brooding up before this big rainstorm. I wanted to make sure they can still raise brood, so I gave them a patty and sugar syrup. They are taking the syrup slowly, but are attacking the brood builder patty with a vengeance.

 

[babsbag]

It is just frustrating to get them through winter and have them die off now. I did the mite treatment with Hopguard last fall and fed them and they had plenty of stores of their own too. They made it through all the rain in Jan. and then when the flowers are blooming and trees are budding (manzanita is in full bloom) they die; makes no sense. Maybe the super nice weather in Feb. caused them to swarm, but seems awfully early for that. I hadn't checked them as she said they were busy and happy last month so I thought all was well.