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.