Queen Beatrice is doing really well. There was a mess of burr comb filled with drone brood that I destroyed while going through the boxes. This is what happens when proper bee space is violated, they fill up the gaps and make it messy to do an inspection. I cleaned things up as best I could and left them some empty frames and an additional box to build up more comb. So instead of raising drone brood between frames they can just fill a frame if they need to.
When I was closely inspecting the drone larva (later, after doing the inspection) I did find mites. So it should be interesting to see how well this hive does and how they deal with them. I don't treat for mites. My desire is to have bees that don't need treatment. So far, this colony has been doing very well and hasn't shown any signs of weakness.
Video Link
Showing posts with label pollen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pollen. Show all posts
Monday, April 1, 2013
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Bee Vlog - July 19, 2012
Hive weigh-in
Queen Anne: 180.6 lbs (+13.4 in 12 days)
Queen Beatrice: 54.4 lbs (only +0.4 in 12 days, seems weird)
Checking on the honey super and seeing if they stopped back-filling the brood on the 3rd box. It looks like the bees had different plans than what I wanted and they went ahead and back-filled the brood nest on the 3rd box with honey, even though I gave them extra room. So perhaps they know something I don't know, or I gave them the honey super too late and they had already made up their mind to do so anyway. So not much honey got added to the honey super, but the 3rd box is full of honey.
At first I thought I should take some honey out. I'm not really sure why I thought that would be the thing to do. But after looking things over, and seeing that they still had a good sized brood nest with a good pattern in the 2nd box, I decided that I'm just going to leave everything as-is. If they continue to bring in more honey I'm hoping they'll put it up in the honey super. Then I can share it with Queen Beatrice who will not have enough stores when winter comes.
Video Link
The brood nest and pattern is still looking good with Queen Beatrice. The population is growing, but they still haven't managed to draw out the comb in all 10 frames yet. And the comb they have drawn out is crooked on the one end and bridging to the next frame. A pattern they propagated across the frames. This wouldn't be an issue if it wasn't crossing the frames. It's making for a very messy inspection where I tear the comb apart while separating frames. I may have to figure out a way to straighten the comb. I know this can sometimes be an issue with foundationless frames and top bar hives, so I'm sure somebody has already comb up with a solution.
Video Link
Queen Anne: 180.6 lbs (+13.4 in 12 days)
Queen Beatrice: 54.4 lbs (only +0.4 in 12 days, seems weird)
Checking on the honey super and seeing if they stopped back-filling the brood on the 3rd box. It looks like the bees had different plans than what I wanted and they went ahead and back-filled the brood nest on the 3rd box with honey, even though I gave them extra room. So perhaps they know something I don't know, or I gave them the honey super too late and they had already made up their mind to do so anyway. So not much honey got added to the honey super, but the 3rd box is full of honey.
At first I thought I should take some honey out. I'm not really sure why I thought that would be the thing to do. But after looking things over, and seeing that they still had a good sized brood nest with a good pattern in the 2nd box, I decided that I'm just going to leave everything as-is. If they continue to bring in more honey I'm hoping they'll put it up in the honey super. Then I can share it with Queen Beatrice who will not have enough stores when winter comes.
Video Link
The brood nest and pattern is still looking good with Queen Beatrice. The population is growing, but they still haven't managed to draw out the comb in all 10 frames yet. And the comb they have drawn out is crooked on the one end and bridging to the next frame. A pattern they propagated across the frames. This wouldn't be an issue if it wasn't crossing the frames. It's making for a very messy inspection where I tear the comb apart while separating frames. I may have to figure out a way to straighten the comb. I know this can sometimes be an issue with foundationless frames and top bar hives, so I'm sure somebody has already comb up with a solution.
Video Link
Monday, July 9, 2012
Bee Vlog - July 7, 2012
Hive weigh-in
Queen Anne: 163 lbs (+13 lbs in just 3 days!!)
Changed bottom board, added top entrance. New baseline: 167.2 lbs
Queen Beatrice: 54 lbs (+5 lbs in 3 days!)
I go through a full inspection, starting from the bottom box this time. I think I like this method. The weather has been really good to the bees and they've been bringing in a lot of nectar. But it looks like they're letting some of the honey encroach on the brood nest. So I moved a couple frames of honey from the 3rd box up into the 4th box to open the brood nest up a bit.
I didn't like the bottom board on Queen Anne's hive, so I changed that out for a sturdier one. I also added a top entrance to help relieve some of the congestion and give the foragers better access to the honey super.
Video Link
Queen Anne: 163 lbs (+13 lbs in just 3 days!!)
Changed bottom board, added top entrance. New baseline: 167.2 lbs
Queen Beatrice: 54 lbs (+5 lbs in 3 days!)
I go through a full inspection, starting from the bottom box this time. I think I like this method. The weather has been really good to the bees and they've been bringing in a lot of nectar. But it looks like they're letting some of the honey encroach on the brood nest. So I moved a couple frames of honey from the 3rd box up into the 4th box to open the brood nest up a bit.
I didn't like the bottom board on Queen Anne's hive, so I changed that out for a sturdier one. I also added a top entrance to help relieve some of the congestion and give the foragers better access to the honey super.
Video Link
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Bee Vlog - July 4, 2012
Hive weigh-in
Queen Anne: 137.6 lbs (+7.2 lbs from 4 days ago)
Added a new empty super. New baseline: 150 lbs
Queen Beatrice: 49 lbs (+0.2 lbs from 4 days ago)
No inspection today. Just adding a honey super. The weather is good, summer is finally here. I'm not sure if a nectar flow is on right now, but if there is they'll need the room.
Video Link
Showing our little patch of bee-friendly wildflowers. We planted Bachelor's Button, Phacilia (in bloom now), Borage (also in bloom), Catnip (didn't come up), Lemon Balm, & Lemon Mint.
Video Link
Queen Anne: 137.6 lbs (+7.2 lbs from 4 days ago)
Added a new empty super. New baseline: 150 lbs
Queen Beatrice: 49 lbs (+0.2 lbs from 4 days ago)
No inspection today. Just adding a honey super. The weather is good, summer is finally here. I'm not sure if a nectar flow is on right now, but if there is they'll need the room.
Video Link
Showing our little patch of bee-friendly wildflowers. We planted Bachelor's Button, Phacilia (in bloom now), Borage (also in bloom), Catnip (didn't come up), Lemon Balm, & Lemon Mint.
Video Link
Monday, July 2, 2012
Bee Vlog - June 30, 2012
Hive weigh-in
Queen Anne: 130.4 lbs (+13.4 lbs from last week!!)
Queen Beatrice: 48.8 lbs (+1.3 lbs from last week)
Lousy weather for an inspection today. On and off rain. Sometimes heavy, sometimes light. Never quite knowing when it would hit again. But I needed to do a quick inspection to get an idea of the state of their food stores. So I didn't go through the entire hive, I just looked through a few frames to see how much honey I could find. Once I was happy with what I found I closed things up.
Video Link
Queen Anne: 130.4 lbs (+13.4 lbs from last week!!)
Queen Beatrice: 48.8 lbs (+1.3 lbs from last week)
Lousy weather for an inspection today. On and off rain. Sometimes heavy, sometimes light. Never quite knowing when it would hit again. But I needed to do a quick inspection to get an idea of the state of their food stores. So I didn't go through the entire hive, I just looked through a few frames to see how much honey I could find. Once I was happy with what I found I closed things up.
Video Link
Monday, June 25, 2012
Bee Vlog - June 23, 2012
Hive weigh-in
Queen Anne: 117 lbs (+12.4 lbs from last week!!)
Queen Beatrice: 47.5 lbs (+2.5 lbs from last week)
I'm trying things a little different with the video length. I know the internet can often give us short attention spans so I've been trying to keep the videos somewhat short by breaking them up where it seemed most logical. But instead of breaking up this video into 3 or 4 shorter videos I just kept it as one piece and got a little more aggressive with the editing (cutting out most of the time where I'm just putting frames back or prying things apart). I kept this video focused just on Queen Anne though and have Queen Beatrice in the next part.
Some of my favorite YouTube series are longer length videos now, and I don't mind that they're 30-60 minutes. In fact, one show I like to watch is usually about 30 minutes each episode. They tried an experiment with breaking it up into 4 segments and the audience revolted. So maybe internet video is ready for longer formats and can stretch beyond the 3 minute mark. Let me know what you think in the comments, if you have a preference for more short-length chopped up videos (as I've been doing) or fewer long-length videos (like this one).
Anyway, on to the inspection - The brood pattern is still looking good and they have plenty of room in the brood nest. They continued to bring in a good supply of nectar (without me feeding them) and made some progress drawing out more comb and filling up their honey stores. There's a great deal of pollen in the hive, so no shortage there. In fact, I found it interesting the way they've organized their food stores. There's honey and pollen to be found in small quantities all over the hive, scattered within the brood nest to make for easy access. But the mass quantities of honey are stored, for the most part, in the top box, while the extra pollen is concentrated more in the bottom box.
Video Link
The swarm we caught 3 weeks ago (named Queen Beatrice) is doing very well. They have a very good looking brood nest and should be getting some "new recruits" this week. So far they haven't wasted any resources with building drone comb, but that's sure to change once the population gets higher and they have enough resources to spend on drones. They only gained 2.5 pounds over last week, but it looks to me like they've maxed out their comb capacity for the current population. I don't think they're going to be drawing out much more until they have more bees.
Video Link
Queen Anne: 117 lbs (+12.4 lbs from last week!!)
Queen Beatrice: 47.5 lbs (+2.5 lbs from last week)
I'm trying things a little different with the video length. I know the internet can often give us short attention spans so I've been trying to keep the videos somewhat short by breaking them up where it seemed most logical. But instead of breaking up this video into 3 or 4 shorter videos I just kept it as one piece and got a little more aggressive with the editing (cutting out most of the time where I'm just putting frames back or prying things apart). I kept this video focused just on Queen Anne though and have Queen Beatrice in the next part.
Some of my favorite YouTube series are longer length videos now, and I don't mind that they're 30-60 minutes. In fact, one show I like to watch is usually about 30 minutes each episode. They tried an experiment with breaking it up into 4 segments and the audience revolted. So maybe internet video is ready for longer formats and can stretch beyond the 3 minute mark. Let me know what you think in the comments, if you have a preference for more short-length chopped up videos (as I've been doing) or fewer long-length videos (like this one).
Anyway, on to the inspection - The brood pattern is still looking good and they have plenty of room in the brood nest. They continued to bring in a good supply of nectar (without me feeding them) and made some progress drawing out more comb and filling up their honey stores. There's a great deal of pollen in the hive, so no shortage there. In fact, I found it interesting the way they've organized their food stores. There's honey and pollen to be found in small quantities all over the hive, scattered within the brood nest to make for easy access. But the mass quantities of honey are stored, for the most part, in the top box, while the extra pollen is concentrated more in the bottom box.
Video Link
The swarm we caught 3 weeks ago (named Queen Beatrice) is doing very well. They have a very good looking brood nest and should be getting some "new recruits" this week. So far they haven't wasted any resources with building drone comb, but that's sure to change once the population gets higher and they have enough resources to spend on drones. They only gained 2.5 pounds over last week, but it looks to me like they've maxed out their comb capacity for the current population. I don't think they're going to be drawing out much more until they have more bees.
Video Link
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