Hive inspection and box reversal

[misfitmorgan]

Congrats Chooks i'm glad both your hives made it thru winter and are doing good!

Good to know Maggiesdad, Thank you. Now that we for sure have bees ordered i think we are going to start their super with foundations then when they get the middle three built up we will slide two foundationless between them and see what we come out with. i think the checkerboard idea is a good one. i did read some place though that however the first comb is started the rest will all follow suit, is that accurate or not really? Like if you first comb in the super looks good the rest should be the same?

 

[Maggiesdad]

It just depends. Like Pooh Bear said, "You never know with bees!"

Michael Bush said this weekend, you'll see more variation in a single apiary between 20 colonies of the same strain - than you will between all the strains. Russian, Italian, Carniolan, Buckfast, etc. Each colony is an individual supercreature with it's own temperament and tendencies. In one of my topbars, they never bother to attach the combs to the sidewall... in the one right beside it, I can cut them free and remove the attachments twice a week, and they will put them back every few days.

 

[Maggiesdad]

Correction - than there are distinct differences between the strains...

 

[misfitmorgan]

i get what you mean. Guess i will just have to wait and see what my bees decide they like or not.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I checked on my hives today. The bees in my small hive were a wee bit testy. I had to light my smoker to inspect them. Population is growing rapidly and the queen is laying well. The bees are covering about 2/3 of the box now. Not enough to warrant another deep yet, but it won't be long. Took a sting to my pinky finger before I finished. Smoked my finger to mask the pheromone. Added more syrup, they have a lot of brood to feed.

Then I got into my large hive, and I didn't need any smoke in them, calm as could be. The queen has moved up into the upper box since I reversed them a couple of weeks ago. A lot of capped brood and eggs. Everything looks great, so I filled syrup and closed them up also. I didn't bother getting into the lower box.

My pinky is swollen now, but I'll live.

 

[Maggiesdad]

Caught my second swarm yesterday! Just finished inspections and the swarm wasn't from my hives...


Beeeeeezzzzzz! LoL

 

[Happy Chooks]

Free beeeezzzzzz!

 

[Latestarter]

The way you're going Dad, you'll be at a commercial level before too long. You'll nee to make bee keeping your full time occupation!

 

[Happy Chooks]

I took a peek in my hives yesterday, as we are supposed to get some rain later this week and the bees have been working the yellow clover like crazy.

My original hive is bursting with bees. They were starting to block the queen in with nectar, so I moved the nectar frame to the outer wall and put 2 drawn but empty frames between the brood and the nectar so she has more place to lay. I saw my queen and great brood patterns. If there is an empty space to lay, the queen has been filling it up! They have great pollen stores, I have never seen so much pollen in my hive before. (likely due to the drought) The blackberries have just begun to bloom, so they will be supered next week.

My small hive is drawing comb in their single brood box. They have about 4 undrawn frames. The bee population has grown dramatically. I also moved a frame around to give the queen a place to lay. Saw the queen here too. Also nice pollen/nectar stores. They are close to needing a 2nd box, but not quite there yet. I won't get any honey off of this hive this year, as they will have a deep box to draw out, but I'll be interested to compare next year on production. I'm still feeding because we don't have enough of a flow for them to raise brood.

Both hives are having large groups of orientation flights every afternoon.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Sat by the hives last night and watched my bees. After several days of rain, yesterday was their first day out again. There was a lot of gray pollen coming in (along with yellow and red - gotta figure out what red pollen is) So, that tells me that the blackberry bloom is really coming along now. I've seen a few flowers open, but nothing substantial yet. This week is going to be a busy week for my hives. I'm going to add the honey super to my main hive today.