Bee Hives

[leechmann]

I did pickel farmer. Everything went great. The only thing I forgot to bring was a camera. I'll have to take some pic's in a few days when I work the hives. I have 8 hives now. I just looked at them and they seem to be cleaning house. They are hauling all the dead bees out of the hives. It's pretty cool out today, so I don't think they will venture far from home.

[Pickelfarmer]

Well thats good to hear.. Yeah they will clean out there hive and get rid of all the riff Raff. keep us posted.

[leechmann]

What a great day for the bees. They were extremely active, flying all over the place. We had company at our home for mothers day and everyone wanted to know about the bees. Everyone left saying that those bees are incredible creatures.

I have all the hives in my yard, on the patio, for now, as I have to treat the hives with medication for approximately 15 days. Then I plan to move the hives to 3 different locations, just to see if the honey production and honey quality will be different. I'll take a few pic's tomorrow. I'll answer any questions anyone has about the bees, and will ask the picklefarmer to chime in as he he much more the expert than I.

[leechmann]

Hey guys, here I am in action. I got my first bee sting in my left knee just after this picture was taken. I put my hand down on my knee and squeezed a bee and she let me know it. She didn't get me too bad, but I did have a hole in the knee of my pants, so she had a pretty good shot at me.

In this picture you can see the inner cover that is in my right hand. I have the smoker in the left hand and I'm about to feed the bees some sugar water. You can also see some yellow stuff on the top of the frames in the super. This is a pollen patti, and is used to feed the bees also, as there isn't much necture in our area yet. Also you can see all the dead bees out in front of the hives. The bees are busy cleaning out the hive, which includes hauling out all the dead bees and any other debries, getting ready for the honey flow. It won't be to long before everything greens up.

[Pickelfarmer]

Looks like you got some really nice equipment leechmann. Is that a frame feeder I see on your side of the box? They work pretty good for this time of year. I won't use one over winter (as I only run 8 frame hives) but with your 10 frame equipment you should be just fine.

How many frames of brood did the hives come with? Looks like there wall to wall bees witch is good.Just make sure come June they don't get to strong and swarm on you.

When do you plan on adding a second story box on them?

Keep an eye on the bees when there flying during the day now. I bet you'll see them coming in with alot of Pollen on there legs. I was down watching mine today a little and they were just loaded with pollen. The Dandy lions are starting to bloom as well as willows and other flowers.Its all coming together now. Your Lookin good in that bee suit. Although I'll say its a little to CLEAN if you ask me. you'll have that thing sticky with honey before you know it. Lookin good so far.

[leechmann]

I think your right Pickel farmer. I look like a rookie. Maybe I should go buy a bottle of honey and smear it all over that clean white suit. Then I could roll around in the grass for awhile.

Yeah, I'm using frame feeders. I'm going to add a box went I'm done with the medication, about 11 more days. Yeah, the bees have been coming back loaded with pollen. Just in the last 2 days, the pollen color has changed to a real fright yellow color, started out being more of an off white color.

Pickle Farmer, I was going to tell you that I had captured a hive of bees that had wintered in a old rotted out bee box on my budddy's farm. He called me and told me that the bee guy had died several years ago and that he bees had moved in last year. We went and looked at them and there they were. I moved them into a new box and brought them home. This was about a month ago. They seemed to be doing good. The queen looked healthy, but there weren't but about a thousand bees left. I've been running that hive through a course of tylan and fumagelin and everything seemed to be going good. The queen started laying some eggs and everything looked to be on track. I just looked at them again yesterday, and the hive seems to be on life support. There aren't that many bees left. The brood pattern is very small and no solid. I found the queen again, she still looks good, but I couldn't see any new eggs or brood. I'm afraid this hive is not going to make it. Any suggestions Pickle Farmer?

[Pickelfarmer]

I think your right Pickel farmer. I look like a rookie. Maybe I should go buy a bottle of honey and smear it all over that clean white suit. Then I could roll around in the grass for awhile.

HaHa, Don't worry after a week or two you'll have that suit lookin like it should .

As for the Pollen coming in you can tell alot about what is blooming by the color of the pollen. The lighter colored pollen is ussually from willows. It is like a white to very light yellow. The Briter colored yellow that you are seeing now is no doubt from Dandilions. They have a very brite yellow colored pollen.

I have been called over the years from people who have a hive of bees in there yard or a swarm that has moved in and they want it removed. These swarms (hives) can be hit and miss. Rule of thumb says that if a hive is empty and a swarm moves in (Much like you have explained about the hive you got) You can count on the queen being at least 2 years old. It is very rare that a new Queen will swarm. So with that said I think what you are seeing with the hive that has the spotty brood is a queen that is starting to fail. Many times an old queen will start the season looking good then slowly start to dwendel becuase she just runs out of Fertil eggs. Remember the Queen only mates one time and when she's used up she's used up. I found that there is no since trying to BABY along a failing queen. My suggestion would be to order a new queen (RUSSIAN????) and introduce her to the hive with the failing queen. I found its best to hunt out the old queen and (I know this is going to sound bad) But Kill her and smash her into the comb that you found her on.This should be done about 2 days before you introduce a new queen. This way all the bees in the hive know that she is dead and it seems to better your chances of Re-introducing A new young mated queen. When you Kill off the old queen a good thing to do is take note as to how much brood you have in the hive. If the hive needs a little shot in the arm now is the time to give it more brood.Go to one of your stronger hives FIND THE QUEEN IN THAT HIVE and set her aside.Pull a frame of bees and SEALED brood from them (Make sure you don't pull the Queen from that hive) and give that frame of bees and brood to the queenless hive. Remember that the number of bees in a hive is a result of how much brood you have.So the amount of sealed brood you have in a hive today will determine how many bees are in the hive in about 10 days.Once you have introduced the new queen set and forget that hive for about 10-15 day. I know the temtation is there to peek in and see how shes doing or even if she took and the bees didn't kill her off but I find it best not to dig around to much with a new hive. just let them do there thing and soon your hive should take off. Either that or they'll kill the new queen you gave them and all the work you did will be for nothing. Welcome to beekeeping!!!!!

[glenn57]

i have to admit, this has been VERY INTERESTING to follow. truely am enjoying following this post. thanks guys.

[leechmann]

Pickle farmer, I would love to try introducing a new queen into the hive. I think at this point it would be a waste. The number of bees in the hive has dwindled way down. I am wondering why the bees didn't try to make a new queen, when she started laying a couple of weeks ago?

I also found it pretty interesting when the bees found a puddle of water in the driveway, when I emptied a minnow tank. They were just lined up there getting a drink.

[Pickelfarmer]

Yeah sometimes thats just the way it goes I guess. The hive sometimes just gets so low on numbers that there isn't much left to try save. maybe your best bet would be to just get rid of the queen in that hive and combine whats left of the bees and brood with another hive. If there is only a handfull of bees then I would just use them as a second story box. If you think they are strong enough that they might harm the queen in the hive you are combining them with you can use news paper between the two brood chambers. Just lay a couple sheets of news paper over the top of the hive your going to combine the queenless hive with and put the queenless hive on top of that. The bees will chew threw the news paper as there natural instinct is to clean the hive. by the time they chew up the news paper and are able to get to each other they usually are used to each other enough that the queenless hive will not kill off the other hives queen.

As for why they didn't try raise there own queen your guess is as good as mine??? I think it could be that it was early in the year and the bees know that there isn't enough Drones in the hive yet to mate with a new queen so they didn't bother Trying to raise one yet. By the time the drones were avalible the hive was just to week to raise a new queen?? That might be the reason but I'm not sure..

[leechmann]

That's some good information. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that hive yet. I'm really having a problem with the kill the queen theory. I'm suprised, I'm not a tree hugger, but I am a trapper, and I'm still having problems with the kill the queen. Go figure.

It's a little warmer this morning and the bees are already up and flying around. If the darn wind would go down, we might have a good day.

[Pickelfarmer]

Well...... I know it sounds kind of crude but Killing her off is a big part sometimes in the hives surviving. Look at it this way.One can't survive without the other. Thats to say that the queen can't survive without the workers taking care of her and the workers can't survive without the Queen laying an abundant amount of eggs to repentish the always dwindeling number of workers. If there is a week link in this chain (A failing Queen??) then the whole system goes down the drain. So sometimes its in the best intrest of the hive to sacrifice the queen in order to save the hive. If your thinking this is evil or sinister then remember this. This fall when it starts to get cold and the workers figure there done with the drones for the year, Watch the front entrance of your hives. They Kick the Poor and totally helpless guys out the front of the hive and quit feeding them as well as let them freeze to death. Its a cold cold world out there for a honey bee. All I'm saying is with a little help here and there all we as bekeepers can do is try point them in the direction we want them to go. It doesn't always work that way but thats all part of the deal I guess...

[leechmann]

Sounds like somthing Mike Rowe, the Dirty Jobs guy, would say.

Bees were very active today. I'm going to work the hives tomorrow to medicate them and feed them, and then to make sure there are no queen cells being built. Don't want any swarming. I was told if the hive has a good brood pattern, then I am supposed to scrape any queen or supercedure cells off. Your thoughts?

[leechmann]

PickleFarmer, I have a question for you. I wanted to move a couple of my hives to town, and put them in my Father-in-law's yard. I want to take advantage of all the flowers and fruit trees, etc. I'm concerned about people that spray thier yards with weed killer. It that going to be a problem, or will the bees stay away from there?

[klecker]

How are the hives going. My Dad started a few this year to. Something to do for retirement. Pretty fun watching them do there thing. Really amazing on the structure of the colony and how things work.

Chad

[leechmann]

Things are going pretty good. The weahter is a little chilly today. All the bees have fur hats and trench coats on. Can't wait for a warm up and get the honey flow started.

My dog, golden retriever,stepped on a bee that had landed on the sidewalk. It stung her in the foot. She thought the world was going to end.

[Pickelfarmer]

You had two questions leechman. One about the queen cells. one about weed killer.

1. If your hives are strong enough (Full box of bees and in a 10 frame hive about 6-7 frames brood) you should add a second box. As I said before new queens rarely swarm but they do need room to grow the hive. Your best bet is to add room for them to grow before they Swarm. If you have a good strong hive, any queen cells you see this time of year are no doubt SWARM cells and not supercedure cells. So give them plenty of room to expand the hive size by adding more brood boxes and yes pull out any queen cells you find. This should deture them from swarming.

2. Weed killer will not harm your bees as it's just that,WEED killer. But beware that some towns spray for bugs and this will hurt or even kill your hives.This as well as people spraying gardens and lawns for insects could be a problem. I would check with the city to see if they spray for insects. It wouldn't hurt to also check with them to make sure there isn't any kind of city ordanances against having bees within city limits.

[leechmann]

Just went through the hives. Everything thing looks great. I have a couple of really strong hives and the rest aren't to far behind. I saw were they had capped some honey in some frames. They must be making good use of that sugar water.

Above is a close up of a foraging bee with bright yellow orange pollen on it's legs.

Above is a frame of honey and pollen that the bees are actively working on. I should have taken a picture of the capped brood cells for you folks to see. I'll do that next time and also try to get a picture of the queen.

Picklefarmer, I didn't see any queen cells, so I guess thats good. The bees had used up all the sugar water that I had given them just 2 days ago. One hive has eaten the whole pollen patti too. I think I'm going to add the next super the next time I go through the bees. What do you think?

[Pickelfarmer]

Sorry leechmann, Been kind of busy so I havn't been on here in a while. Yeah I Would get your seconds on pretty soon. I went through my hives today and found 3 queen cells in one hive and 2 in another. I switched the bottom and the top box around and scraped out all the queen cells. All my queens are in there secound to third year so they will swarm if I let them. Hope I can keep it under control until I can get some queen cells from My Dad to make some divisions. Man were the bees out in full force today!!!! Nice to see them flying around after the long winter..

[leechmann]

Hey no problem picklefarmer. Yeah it was a great day for the bees. I just went through mine again. I feed them another 1/2 gallon of sugar syrup. I think that makes 2 gallons per hive. I'm going to move the bees on Friday or Saturday. Then I will put a second box on them. I went through and looked at each frame of each hive. I found nice brood patterns in all the hives. I also found eggs and larva in each hive. I also saw hatching bees, that was cool. I think three of the seven hives are super strong. The others are in good shape.

The wild hive is just about finished. I saw the queen 3 days ago, tonight she was gone. Only about 200 bees left. Wondering how I should evict them? Any ideas?

Are you going to get some queens from your dad, then split your hives? Thats really cool. Does your dad raise queens, if so how does he do that?

I have a couple of open hives. If you split yours, and don't have a home for them, I would be willing to buy a couple from you. Then I could get the "Russian" thing going.

Well, I've asked a 100 questions.I'll let you try to answer then and then I'll ask 100 more.

[Pickelfarmer]

well to answer your first question, shake the remainder of the bees that are in the dwendeling hive in front of a good hive. They will go in and become part of the hive.

Yes my Father grafts queens but no I have none for sale. I have been trying in the last few years to get a few hives that are resistant to all the B.S. that has targeted them in the last few years. Bees have been going strong these last few days. I saw a lot of new bees in the hive and alot of new drones. That is a good sign of a good season. Add your seconds now and give them room to grow.

[leechmann]

I am going to add the second box tonight. I am moving some of my hives to other locations on Saturday. I just wanted to try multiple locations, and see if there is a noticable difference in the honey production.

I noticed that it must have been, a little warm in the hives today, as they were standing in front of the hive, fanning the air, to circulate it and cool the hive down. Once I saw that, I removed the entrance reducer, to get better air flow.

Are you still feeding sugar water Picklefarmer? I gave mine anopther 1/2 gallon per hive, 2 nights ago.

[Pickelfarmer]

No , I'm no longer feeding. I quit about 3 weeks ago when the Willows started to bloom. I'm not really sure how much good it does to the hive feeding this late in the season though I know it does no harm so if your willing to spend the money on sugar by all means its OK to feed.

Well I had a swarm hanging on the tree today... I think I might have caught it in an empty box (We'll see if its there in the morning) but I sure wish I could have kept them from swarming.( For those that don't know. Swarming is a bee hives natural way of reproducing. Kind of like a cow having a calf.1/2 to 3/4 of the hive take off with the old queen after rasieing a replacement and the old queen and the bees that left with her start a new hive else where) I guess I must have missed a Queen Cell when going through the hive. One more week and I'll be fine. My father has queen cells started from his grafts so in about A week I can start to split them..

Yeah its good to spread out your hives and get a feel for whats out there. I know I have had hives in many different areas and I have found that even a couple miles will show different results as far as how much honey is produced. Good Luck!! Did you ever check about putting some at your father inlaws??? I hope it works out for you..Sounds like your doing everything right on track. Keep up the good work.

[leechmann]

Thanks, I did check with the City administrator and was told there is no city ordinance. I also checked with the maintenance engineer and he told me that Park Rapids never sprays for mosquitos. So it sounds like a go for the hives in town.

I have more good news. I was finally going to call it quits for the wild hive I captured. The last time I check the hive, a couple of days ago, I couldn't find the queen. There aren't that many bees in there, so I was sure the queen had died. So, I opened up the hive tonight and there she was. I noticed all the bees were by her and they were working a little area. I look real close and I saw that she had layed about 20 eggs in a real small area. They were already in the larva stag. So maybe she will lay enough eggs that the bees will make a supercedure cell and make me a new queen. I know the hive is extremely week, but I'm really wanting them to pull out of this. We'll see.

How many bees did you get in the swarm.I've read that you can put the swarm in a hive box and place a queen excluder between the bottom board and the box and that will keep the queen in there and the bees can make thier way in. The only problem is if the queen hasn't been bred, then she can't get out.

Hope that swarm stays in your hive box.

Talk later.

PS, what's your opinion on queen excluders Picklefarmer. Do you use them?

[leechmann]

Anyone else who has any questions and experiences in the bee world, is welcome to speak up.