Fall flowers

Coreopsis, goldenrod, frost ast9r, and other fall flowers blooming in the beautiful sunlight of a fall morning.

Robbing the honey

For the past 5 years I've chosen the 4th of July weekend to harvest my spring / summer honey. I got set up today with my friend's electric extractor. Boy,  has that simplified everything. I made the choice to put the stickies on the north side instead of back on the south side where they came from.
So, what's going on?
The north eyes was treated with hopguard a couple of weeks ago and it really knocked down the small hive beetle population. This has gotten stronger. I had had to brood boxes on it but now I reduce them down into one. I put the stickies on so that they would have some food.
The crepe myrtle bloom is not over yet so I'll check and see what's going on with them in a week. I put a queen excluder between the brood box and the super.

On the south side, I knew there was honey, but when I opened it up it was running over with small hive beetles. So  I only  took 6 frames. This is the smallest honey harvest I've had. I attributed to a couple of things. Everyone has said the nectar flow has been and even this year, that's one thing. I also attributed to my crazy, crazy spring and not staying on top of managing the bees.

I left the south - with one brood box, 1 heavy honey super and one light honey super. I did that because I wanted to move the queen excluder below the heavy honey super. I will need to check this box in a week to make sure I did not trapped the Queen in the honey super.

I treated both hives with 3 strips of hop guard. It's a little old and not quite as juicy as I would like, and this will be the second treatment on the north side. It successfully knocked down the small hive beetles there so I'm hoping the same will be true on the south hive.

I should go into the hive between June 7 and June 10th.

Total harvest this year right at 17 pounds. About half my normal harvest.

Crepe myrtle flow

Everyone I've spoken with reports uneven and reduced levels of nectar flow this entire spring season.
Just before the summer solstice, the white crapes begin to bloom. This is the source of nectar that finishes off my honey. Their flow is going strong, at least for the next few weeks.
On the right side of this blossom head you'll see one of the ladies coming in for a load.
After these finished blooming I'll look for Spanish needles to continue to support the hives but I'm not sure what else will be available.
I extract once a year on the 4th of July weekend  After that I'll see how the bees continue to store and then begin feeding as necessary until the fall begins sometime in September.
After I extract I intend to push the bees down into a reduced number of boxes. That way whatever is available they'll be able to store more effectively. As mite, small hive beetles and wax moth populations rise to critical levels this will help them by reducing the area the police.

May 31, 2015: solutions kinda work

We are now moving into a season of rain and heat. It looks like the flow is back on in my area, although it has not been so for the rest of our town. I live on the northeast and it seems everything is a week or two later out here. I won't see the crepe myrtles blooming for another 3 weeks, maybe a month, and yet they're already in bloom in town.
The South hive is busy and full of quiet bees. They have already filled half of a honey super.The South hive had quite a few small hive beetles in the top. I added beetle blasters with a mix of half apple cider vinegar and half oil in order to drown the beetles once the bees trap them. 
I was concerned that the North hive with two deep brood boxes was ailing. When I opened it up it seems to be doing just fine. It had no small hive beetles in evidence.
I went ahead and added a queen excluder and a honey super to the North - today. I think it's ready.
In search of a solution of where to store all of this equipment, I had pitched a tent and put down an additional layer of plastic on the floor. It seemed to work for quite a while, but when I went into it today I noticed all of these black tubes on the ground particularly around the area of the comb. As I looked closer I saw two things. One was black tubes all over the white plastic floor, and ants had figured a way to get in. Here is one frame which I had  salvage, frozen, cleaned, and storage. That's why I didn't think it would have been wax moths. I had no idea what these tubes work. See the picture.
I now believe they are earthworm that had crawled up into the tent and reproduced during the heavy rains. They then dried when the heat  came on, and ants came to enjoy the feast.

May 16 Check in

Both hives seem to be doing well. Both had capped brood, but it was not as plentiful as I would have hoped. I didn't see any pest. Remember, I had to start feeding again about 10 days ago because the flow has stopped. The larger hive (south) is storing, the smaller hive (north) has very little stores. Both are bringing in pollen. I'm guessing the queen slowed down and she's only now starting to crank up her laying again.
On the north hive with two brood boxes, the lower box had no brood in it at all. This was the box that I thought might have lost its queen or have had a virgin queen trapped in the upper chamber. Since there is now no queen excluder between the boxes, and it is been two weeks, and  I see capped brood, I'm confident this hive will develop well.
I weighed the North hive. It came in at 51. 6 pounds. Usually I wait until a hive with a brood box and honey super weighs in over 75 pounds before I pull the honey super.
I could not weigh the south hive - because it was so much taller and the scale would not take it.
I'll check in with them again in two weeks.

Flow? No flow.

The flow which usually starts in March and continues well into April, for most people in this area, has dried up for the time being. It seems that the high winds, cool temperatures and weeks and weeks of rain has ended it early. Many of us with red clover had noticed that it was gone much earlier than it should have been. I stop feeding on March 21st and begin feeding again May 4th. I know my DS are feeding on the guest room, but I don't know what else there foraging on. When I went into the house yesterday they had almost no stores.

Lessons learned

The most important thing I learned this time around, since obviously I haven't learned it on previous occasions is: Don't experiment unless you're committed to having a time to follow it through.
Using the camping tent to store the honey bee equipment and woodworks et cetera has worked out pretty well. It has been a rainy, rainy six weeks and only a little bit got inside. All of the equipment seems to have weathered last fall and winter just fine.
What I didn't learn. When I put on the queen excluder as a way of separating hives and creating a nuc, I needed to be able to commit to checking up on a weekly basis.
It's been a whole month. It looked like things were okay. But we all know from the outside looking in there's no way to know what's going on.
So, today I went into the hive. Here's what I find
1) in the split that I have created earlier this season where I had a shallower box on the bottom and a brood box on top, I simply when in and reverse them. They were full of eggs and bees and capped brood and everything looked great. I put on a queen excluder and a honey super even though not all frames were totally built out on the exterior.
Feeling pretty proud of myself even though I haven't seen any swans this year and I have three swarm traps setup, I thought I was doing pretty good. I opened the hive that has two brood boxes and had seems very active. But, I had notice to things: the first was that there was very little pollen being brought in, that's evidence that there is no laying queen. The other thing I noticed was bee bodies, little bits to be bodies down on the bottom of the box. I use screen bottom so I can see what was going through.
When I open the hives it was apparent that in the top brood box there had been 2 or 3 queen cells that opened up. I wwa sure I saw what looks like a virgin queen. There was no evidence she was laying or that workers were storing honey in that entire brood box.
I remove the excluder and closed everything up. I then went to the other hive and took a frame of capped brood and hopefully some eggs and put it in the top brood chamber. If the bee I saw was a Virgin Queen, and if she is able to successfully mate in the coming week, and if she comes back and begins laying--- maybe, just maybe, this hive will be saved.
What did I learn: that you have to check it. I think my experiment could have worked if I had stayed on top of it and had taken the top box off with the Virgin Queen and let it become a nuk. Waiting a month meant there were bees that died, possibly drones that were caught in the upper chamber between the excluder and unable to get out, or perhaps they were other Queens.
It's been an interesting time.

April weekend

It's Passover and Easter and beautiful spring all rolled into one. So, I checked both hives today. I thought I might have been able to use the excluder to divide one of the hives passively. I'm not really sure. I'll come back to that in a minute.

The other hive had a shallow on top with a queen cell in. The Queen cell is open, there seem to be some larvae. The brood box on the bottom had no built out foundation yet except what I had to put in.
I reversed the order of the boxes so that if the queen is out and mated and back in laying eggs things will be fine. The bees will be able to build the foundation in the upper brood box. I gave her some drawn out foundation that she can lay in. I did notice some drone cells in the brood box before I moved it. We'll see what happens with that.

So back to the idea of passively splitting the hive with two brood boxes by putting a queen excluder in and waiting to see where the Queen was.The boxes are full of bees but I couldn't tell where the Queen was so I decided to leave the excluder in for another week and see what's happening. They are bringing in pollen which would indicate that there are brood that they want to feed. There were also stores from the sugar water I've been feeding them. That was true of both boxes.  Now that it's April when they have stores I will stop feeding them.
The weather continues to be cool at night so perhaps these boxes are just getting a slower start than the other hives in town. We'll see what happens next week or probably in two weeks.
Photo: Busy boxes before reversing order

Wax moth larvae and lime

That may sound like a particularly delicious hors d'oeuvre for a beekeeper. In fact it is a disgusting pest.
I use screen bottom boards and trays with agricultural lime to trap small hive beetles and other debris the bees can chase down into them. This allows a break in the SHB reproduction cycle. However, it also provides a trap for the wax moth larvae. When I was cleaning the tray today I realize I need to look into the hive to make sure there's not an infestation in the brood comb.
These little monsters can collapse the hive in no time at all by burrowing through the brood comb.
You can tell by the mud behind the hives that this has been a very wet winter.

Division By Exclusion

Last week I decided to prepare for splitting the hive by putting in queen excluder between the lowest box and the other two boxes when I swapped the order. I put the shallow box, which I thought had the Queen in it, on the bottom. I then put the other two boxes above it. The theory was the Queen would be trapped below. This us swarm season and the hive maybe feeling it necessary to form a new queen cell in preparation for swarming.
On March 21, week later or actually 6 days, when I checked all three boxes I found larvae in the top two. Guess the queen was as in one of them when I put in the excluder last week.
I could not see any eggs because of poor lighting. The shallow box had no larvae in it but was full of capped brood. There was a queen cell -- at least one.
I took that box and built a new hive with a 10-deep brood box on the bottom and the shallow box with the Queen's cell on the top. I put it near, but not in the exact location it had been in.
I then took the remaining two 10-deep brood boxes swaped their order and put a queen excluder between them.
Again, the theory is if the queen is in the upper box when I switch the order she will be in the lower box if you put in a queen excluder she will not be able to go to the upper box and therefore will be easier to find.
I will need to check both hives next week to see what's going on. If for some reason the queen is in the new hive that would mean that the old live with the two boxes won't be queen right and may not be able to make a new queen. I did not check all 20 frames but I did not see queen cells anywhere in the five frames I checked.

A night visitor

The days have been very warm, unseasonably so. It's a busy season at work and in the hive. I'm concerned about swarms. I didn't see queen cells on the weekend so I'm waiting to the next one to check again. But, if I missed one (or more) a new queen will indicate the old queen has swarmed with 60% or more of the colony.

Till the next inspection, I'll go out each night with my stethoscope to make sure if I've missed a queen cell, perhaps I can hear her pipping before she emerges. 

Tonight was no different, just later than usual. I wanted to check on how much food the girls had been taking in on such a warm day, 80 degrees. And, just to say hello. 

As I stepped out into the moonless night, the sky was bright with stars. The darkness was full of owls hooting, cackling geese and restless squawks of waterfowl around the lake. I arrived at the hive to find a cluster of bees cooling on the landing platform. 

Clearly, if you look in the lower right hand corner, their presence had attracted an evening visitor. Look closely.

You never know what you're going to find when you go looking for something else.

Black is not the color

Ever wonder why beekeepers wear light-colored clothing? Or perhaps you heard that that bees don't like the color black, check this out. I forgot to take off my Fitbit. It has a black strap.
Today while checking the hive, I got 3 stings on the arm, five stings into the band itself.
Finally had to stop and take it off when two bees got caught between my arm and the band -- trying to sting it from the inside. Ouch.

Post Pi day swap

March 15, 2015. I decided today, rather than try to make a walk-away split, I would take the 3 boxes and swap the order. The top box had some capped brood and some sugar water stores. The middle box had been full of brood, 1 week ago. The bottom box had been the one that was full of bees walking on foundation but no brood last week. I put the shallow on the bottom with a queen excluder above it. I've put the brood box on top of it, reversing the order they had been. I've been put the box that had foundation but no brood on the very top. The theory is that the queen will move up. I am also feeding, so bees are going up to the top anyway.
I put this queen excluder between the shallow and the box with brood so that if the Queen was in the shallow, for some reason, she would be isolated there and it would be easier for me to find her and move her to a nook next weekend.
If she's in the middle box she will move up to the top and begin laying up there. I should see capped brood or at least larvae by next weekend.
I must check her on the 21st to make sure where she is.
The box is full of bees but they seem to have plenty of room. However, I put a notebook and a box out on the rack. Both of them have foundation in them. Maybe if they swarm they might choose to go to one of these. I also have 2 swarm traps in the trees on either side of the house so I might catch a swarm or I might catch one of my own.
As far as what's blooming: I believe we're still a bit cold out here. Other beeks are splitting their boxes, but I don't see queen cells in mine.
This past 24 hours has been warmer and lots of things have come into bloom in the neighborhood. My days are very busy and bringing in lots of pollen, that's a good sign! The oak and pine pollen is heavy. The dogwoods have just begun to the bloom. But I don't see any crimson clover. There is some small white clover. The Bradford pear trees in the area have come into bloom.

Early spring? Long winter 2015

It's been a long raw winter. One of the grayest February we've seen in a long time. Lots of rain. The land under the beehives has been wet. Its March 10th and it's one of the few sunny days we've seen in weeks. Saucer magnolias and red buds are blooming. Lost one hive --not sure why. The second one has two brood boxes on it and appears to be strong, but no sign of queen cells. Seems like winter is going to hang on for a while. The red buds are blooming but not much else. The box has lots of bees  they're not bringing in very much pollen. I've been feeding megabee in suspension for the past month. Put up two swarm traps in the area, just in case. Otherwise, I just bewildered.