🐝💗Our Backyard Beekeeping Journey!💗🐝

[5Australorpasaures]

Me too! Thanks for the explanation.

I'm here to help.

 

[drstratton]

Last nights meeting was very productive. We learned more about how they treat mites. They also shared what they use for candy boards and some great ideas for top insulation and moisture control. I will share those as soon as we get them built.
We will be starting our OAV treatments next week when we get back home from a weekend spent with Dale's sister and her husband. Bike riding, dinner, drinks and golf. Should be very relaxing.

A Carniolan bee on our Crepe Myrtle!

Italian Bee!

 

[cavemanrich]

Bike riding, dinner, drinks and golf. Should be very relaxing.

Who is doing the cooking??

Spoiler: Still wondering???

 

[Sally PB]

Well.... No honey harvest today. We found a couple of frames that were about half full. Then a couple full frames. The other 4 were about half full. (We run 8 frame boxes to keep the weight manageable.) We decided not take those two frames. It's a lot of set up/clean up to do the extraction, and for just two frames... we decided to give them a couple more weeks or so. We have fields of goldenrod just about to bloom.

 

[drstratton]

Who is doing the cooking??

Spoiler: Still wondering???

View attachment 4196632

No words!

 

[drstratton]

Well.... No honey harvest today. We found a couple of frames that were about half full. Then a couple full frames. The other 4 were about half full. (We run 8 frame boxes to keep the weight manageable.) We decided not take those two frames. It's a lot of set up/clean up to do the extraction, and for just two frames... we decided to give them a couple more weeks or so. We have fields of goldenrod just about to bloom.

Yeah, it is a lot of work. They should fill those frames out with the goldenrod flow.
Just curious, does it look like you have a lot of bees in your boxes. Are the queens laying a good pattern?

 

[Sally PB]

We have two hives. The one we were planning to get honey from ("The Charlatans," as hubby named the queen Charlotte) had bees all over the frames of honey in its various stages when we looked down into the honey super. We used a fume board to drive them down into the hive. We didn't go any deeper than that box.

The other hive, The Newbees, has 2 brood boxes. We looked at several frames in the top box, and they were all beautiful brood pattern, with the nice arch of honey at the top.

We are thinking we'll put a 3rd deep box on top of The Newbees, no QE. This is their first year, so whatever they make, they can keep.

 

[drstratton]

We have two hives. The one we were planning to get honey from ("The Charlatans," as hubby named the queen Charlotte) had bees all over the frames of honey in its various stages when we looked down into the honey super. We used a fume board to drive them down into the hive. We didn't go any deeper than that box.

The other hive, The Newbees, has 2 brood boxes. We looked at several frames in the top box, and they were all beautiful brood pattern, with the nice arch of honey at the top.

We are thinking we'll put a 3rd deep box on top of The Newbees, no QE. This is their first year, so whatever they make, they can keep.

It does sound like they're doing really well.
I think that's a good plan. We opted not to use a queen excluder this first year. Thinking it would make it easier for the bees.
All hives and areas are different, results in one location, doesn't mean the same results in another. I'm excited for next spring, but we have to get these girls through the winter first.

 

[Sally PB]

I have started seeing bees on the buckwheat. It bloomed, and they ignored it (other pollinators didn't), and I told them, "Ladies, I planted that just for you!" (Not quite true, but oh well.)

Someone at the bee club said if they aren't where you're expecting to see them, it's because they found something else they like better.

 

[drstratton]

@Sally PB
This is all I know about a honey bound hive, from my experience.
We listened to a YouTuber telling us to feed, feed, feed our new bees, so that's what we were doing. Then upon inspection I realized the brood areas were being filled with nectar and starting to limit spaces for the queen to lay. They still had a lot of empty frames, but their ability to build comb could not keep up with the food available. So, we started feeding one 2 quart bottle per week, with only 2 holes in the lid, instead of 5 or 6. We must have caught it in time, as it seemed to balance out after that.