Last Year I Started Beekeeping - So Exciting

[chigger bait]

In January and February I use the Mountain Camp Method to feed my bees for a spring jump start.

It works and is easy.

http://www.indianahoney.com/ihf/drysugar/drysugar.html

 

[chigger bait]

It is illegal to feed bees while you have honey supers in place (for honey for sale) as you are not producing real honey.

Amen.

We are not the Red Chinese.

 

[madamwlf]

So I went in and put a baggie feeder in until my top feeders come in. Did some brief checking. No brood but comb being drawn out. I didn't see the queen though I wasn't seriously looking for her. I did switch the boxes. There is a lot of activity at the hive. More then I've seen. Also tons more activity at the feeder. Tonight I'll take the free feeders out and put the entrance feeder back in. How do you stop the ants though??? Sorry for all the questions. I'm still learning here. Okay, so how do I know I still have a queen? Without going in and seriously looking, I don't want to stress them too much. From just watching the hive activity, how do I know there is still a queen in there? Will the bees leave if the queen is gone?? Thank you for all your help! It is greatly appreciated!

And to add, I did see a few bees with pollen legs.

That was awesome to see.

 

[jamesbwood]

If you see eggs, you had a queen within the last 2-3 days.

If there are eggs and no queen, they can make a queen. If there are no eggs, they can not.

I'm told that the bees are a lot meaner w/o a queen.

I'm new to this too and have had my hive for about a month. I took a class last weekend and joined a local bee club.

 

[sgtmom52]

Comb being drawn is a good sign. The only way to tell if the queen is there is to actually see her or see eggs, in which case she has been there within the past 3 days. Sometimes if a hives is queenless they become a bit aggressive. Sometimes when a hive goes queenless one or more workers will start laying ~ you will be able to tell this as they only produce drones and tend to lay a more irregular pattern than a queen. The bees do not leave when the hive is queenless, however as there are no new replacement bees being born, the hive will die off as the worker bees die ~ usually within a month. The bees may just continue to work as usual even without a queen.

Pollen coming in is a good sign as they need it to feed the larva. It is amazing the colors of pollen they find ~ yellow, orange, red, white, blue and green. There is a color chart with pollen sources here ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollen_source

I would give them a few more days to draw out comb and then check for eggs. I usually start checking for eggs about a week after installing a package. They will most likely be in one of the center frames. I also have been marking my queens when I find them to make it much easier to spot them. I learned how by practicing on drones first.

 

[madamwlf]

She's already marked which is why we quickly found her in the grass after the first swarm. I did notice a lot of bees were on the center frames. I'll check early next week since it looks like it will rain this weekend. Or I'll check when my top feeders come in. I know they are drawing out comb slowly but my hive isn't as big as it should be. Hopefully we'll make it through and I'll know better with the next hive.

I have found that they aren't aggressive at all. I just put an entrance feeder in without a second glance from the bees.

 

[chigger bait]

The sun came out and it warmed up today, so I got to check my hives.

On both of my 2 new hives, from packages, I found brood.

They have 4 of 10 frames drawn out and are working on 5 and 6.

I am a happy camper.

This my first time with packages.

All my other bees have been from 5 frame NUCs.

 

[Blarneyeggs]

Chigger! Woo Hoo! That's great news. Still waiting on my nucs here.

Since we don't have a nuc box to hang from a tree, I took some lemon grass oil put it on a cotton ball and stuck it in a super right on my porch. It's facing Southeast and it's elevated a good 12 feet or more from the ground. I don't expect to catch a swarm, but I figured it couldn't hurt and makes me feel like I'm doing something.

 

[chigger bait]

Chigger! Woo Hoo! That's great news. Still waiting on my nucs here.

Since we don't have a nuc box to hang from a tree, I took some lemon grass oil put it on a cotton ball and stuck it in a super right on my porch. It's facing Southeast and it's elevated a good 12 feet or more from the ground. I don't expect to catch a swarm, but I figured it couldn't hurt and makes me feel like I'm doing something.

Both swarms I caught in the last two weeks were low for some reason.

The 1st one was at eye level in a large dog wood tree and the 2nd one was about 5 foot high in a large spirea bush that was in full bloom.

Luckly it was fairly cool early in the morning and they were just clumped together not wanting to go anywhere.

 

[madamwlf]

I am so happy!! I took a peek under my extender and the bees are happily slurping up the syrup from the baggie!! Yeah, I'm thrilled!