🐝💗Our Backyard Beekeeping Journey!💗🐝

[5Australorpasaures]

After being house bound due to two days of rain (2.5") the hives blew up. Bees were pouring in and out from 11AM till 3PM up and over the Cedars and dropping on the Goldenrod, hope also it is an indication of winter bee numbers coming on. Doing deep inspection tomorrow and I think I'll be pulling my last medium, fingers crossed.

 

[drstratton]

Unless the bees are really weak wax moths are not a problem. Leaving empty frames of comb in equipment is usually when they become a real problem.

An easy way to find out is to put in a frame with eggs from another hive. If they start to build queen cells in a couple days, then they are queen less. If not, you have a new queen and she's not laying yet. Once the new queen is laying feed them 2:1 sugar syrup. It's almost always the latter. Packages and nucs come with mass produced queens so they aren't always mated or shipped well and are often superseded.

Thank you!
I didn't see any sign of wax moth and I looked at every frame. The hive still looks strong. So they have at least been cleaning house.

I will tell my husband and we can add a frame with eggs when we inspect the other hives on Thursday. I really think we will then combine hives if the queen is gone.

This girl has been laying an amazing pattern all summer. And the honey production has been better than any of the other hives. I'm really sad about it.

 

[drstratton]

After being house bound due to two days of rain (2.5") the hives blew up. Bees were pouring in and out from 11AM till 3PM up and over the Cedars and dropping on the Goldenrod, hope also it is an indication of winter bee numbers coming on. Doing deep inspection tomorrow and I think I'll be pulling my last medium, fingers crossed.

Wow, that's a bunch of rain. We rarely get rain like that.

I hope your hives look good and strong.

 

[drstratton]

Forgot to state we completed our 7th OAV treatment on the 8th.

We will be heading to town for our monthly beekeeping meeting this evening.

 

[drstratton]

Forgot I caught a video of a varroa mite crawling on the white board, after I removed it from the hive.

For your viewing pleasure...lol

Creepy, just like a tick...

 

[5Australorpasaures]

Did the deep inspection and I am happy. Zero mite count in all 3, Brood chamber jammed full with all stages of development and plenty of nurse bees to attend to them, nice nectar and pollen stores. Top deeps are, eh 95% +/- full of honey, hope the Goldenrod slows way down as I could become honey bound in one. Removed the last medium and 100% capped with a gross weight of 43.75. Installed the 1/2" square hardware wire mouse guards. Took measurements for milling up fresh entrance reducers. Didn't see any Drones being evicted yet. I pull the excluders when we get the first hard frost. DW remarked, "so I guess your girls gave you happy ending"? What a SA! Did not get blipped once. Have all the Honey and Mason jars washed ready for the sterilization. Extracting Thur and bottling Sat and Sun. Forty-eight lbs for vender the rest in the Mason Jars, looking at 90 lbs +/- for our pantry. An average year, very happy, now just have to get through the winter.

 

[drstratton]

Did the deep inspection and I am happy. Zero mite count in all 3, Brood chamber jammed full with all stages of development and plenty of nurse bees to attend to them, nice nectar and pollen stores. Top deeps are, eh 95% +/- full of honey, hope the Goldenrod slows way down as I could become honey bound in one. Removed the last medium and 100% capped with a gross weight of 43.75. Installed the 1/2" square hardware wire mouse guards. Took measurements for milling up fresh entrance reducers. Didn't see any Drones being evicted yet. I pull the excluders when we get the first hard frost. DW remarked, "so I guess your girls gave you happy ending"? What a SA! Did not get blipped once. Have all the Honey and Mason jars washed ready for the sterilization. Extracting Thur and bottling Sat and Sun. Forty-eight lbs for vender the rest in the Mason Jars, looking at 90 lbs +/- for our pantry. An average year, very happy, now just have to get through the winter.

I'm so happy for you. What an amazing year you've had!

 

[drstratton]

Dale was walking out to the shed where we keep our fishing gear, it's past the Apiary. He stopped for a moment and one of the bees stung him close to his left eye. I'm thinking it came from the queenless hive, they're starting to be angry. We will start the process of combing the hives tomorrow. Not going to worry about adding a frame with eggs. I know she's gone and we also don't want to get a laying worker. I will check one more time for eggs. Once it's done, I'll share how we do it. I'll be talking to the pros at our beekeeping meeting tonight.

 

[5Australorpasaures]

Forgot I caught a video of a varroa mite crawling on the white board, after I removed it from the hive.

For your viewing pleasure...lol

Creepy, just like a tick...

Hate the little SOBs!

 

[Apis mellifera]

I know she's gone and we also don't want to get a laying worker. I will check one more time for eggs. Once it's done, I'll share how we do it.

Yesterday you said the colony has open brood, so there was a queen in there less than 2 weeks ago. No such thing as "older brood" it's all capped by 8 days after the egg is laid. If in that time a virgin queen emerged, she will kill her mother and go on mating flights. Bees won't go laying worker with open brood. If you try and combine now before the new queen has completed mating flights, she may kill the queen you combined with. Then you could be left with 2 queen less colonies. I would wait until the weekend.

My youngest queen, only 3 1/2 weeks old and has 3 frames of open winter brood already.