Fall Hive Check

Today I spent two hours in my hives.  I don't have the energy to write about it now and don't have time before I go to bed to transfer pictures from my camera...but I will say that they both looked good and I'm pleased. 

Two thriving hives and volunteering (pictures to come)

I haven't checked either hive in a few days, probably let too much time go by.  But they both seemed to be doing well.

In the Blue (strong) hive, when I took off the inner cover there were about 10 hive beetles hiding under the plastic baggie I'm using to feed.  So, they're still in there but at least they are hiding which means they aren't laying eggs.  I didn't pull out the two middle frames, I'd put in empty the last time I was in there, to see if they bees had filled cleaned/filled them.  I might do that tomorrow.  Today was just  a feeding day and I wanted to get in and out as fast as I could. 

In the Brown (nuc) hive, when I took off the cover I saw NO beetles running amuk.  There were beetles in the trap though, which made me feel pretty good.  Also, the dirty frames I'd put in the last time I was in there were all cleaned out!  I'm amazed that they do that.  I may try to get pictures tomorrow, we'll see how the weather is.  The frames in Brown were originaly like this : E E H/B H/B E.  (empty, empty, honey/brood, honey/brood, empty).  I switched them around so now it's H/B, E, E, E, H/B.  When I switched the H frames into Brown from Blue (last visit) I should have put them on the outside because bees work from the inside out.  So I just switched them around and now the bees should use the 1:1 that I put in there today to fill out the middle frames.

In addition to my own beekeeping, I'm now volunteering with the Sustainable Honeybee Program.  If you live in the area and want to learn more about bees, I would suggest contacting them.   The more you know about bees and the more you get involved the more fun it is.  Aside from being a great hobby, it's a very important hobby as well.  Without pollinators we wouldn't have many of the food options we enjoy today.

Here is a link to beekeepers in the United States.  Get involved, you won't be sad you did!   

Beetle traps and a second story addition (pictures coming soon)

So - last night I took the frames out of the freezer (but kept them in the black trash bag) and let them defrost overnight.  I took them out of the bag this morning and got a couple good pictures of the evil larvae that I froze to death.  It sounds horrible, but freezing is the best way to kill wax moth larvae. All told I counted about 6 large larvae on the frames.  I was able to extract three of the dead bodies.  They get no proper burial, I'm leaving them out for the hornets or yellowjackets or wasps.

The strong hive looked good.  I have decided to stop using the top feeder but I had left it on to test an idea.  The other day I put in the beetle traps and wanted to see how many the traps would have in them with the top feeder on because it seems like the beetles love to be up there.  I counted 5 dead beetles in the oil in the traps.  There were about 10 beetles in the dry top feeder.  So the top feeder came off today, and I put two traps in the strong hive and fed a baggie of 1:1 syrup.  If my theory is correct the next time I go in to check the traps there should be more drowned in the oil since there's no dry top feeder to hide in.  I'm going to feed more tomorrow, I didn't have enough syrup made today to do more than one bag.  As I was putting the baggie in the hive, some of the syrup spilled out and I had a good time watching the bees gather at the edge of the pool to drink it. 

Today was construction day, I added a second story to the nuc. 
I took 2 frames of honey from the strong hive to put into the new nuc hive. (Then I replaced those with some fairly good comb from the old hive that just needs to be partially drawn out and filled)  The frames I put in the nuc have some capped and uncapped honey and some larvae.  I tried to get the bees off as best I could but some ended up going into the nuc anyhow.  I put three of the "best of the worst" frames, that I'd previously frozen, into the nuc and then filled the jar feeder.  I took my first picture of the inside of the nuc, for posterity, and I did see the Queen but I was so scared of harming her that I didn't get a picture and put her frame back down as gently as I could.  I can't imagine something happening to her now.  I just got her!  She's got a lot of work to do to keep this hive buzzing through the winter.

Today wasn't a disaster, thank God.