Flowers in the Garden this Week – July 25, 2013

Hive Checks – July 20 – 21, 2013

I check the hives at both locations this weekend,

The hive in my backyard had two deeps and two supers. It was full of capped honey and brood. I added a third super to this hive.

I checked on the hives a my inlaws, including the captured swarm. The first hive there had two deeps and two supers and it was full of honey and brood. It looks like a queen mated and took over that hive. I added a third super to this hive.

The swarm hive has one brood box and two supers. All boxes are full and now I’m fixing up old boxes and frames to add a deep to this hive.

The Honey Bees Swarmed

While out shopping on June 26, I received a phone call that Beekeepers dread and anticipate receiving. My honey bees had swarmed and were found clustered in a tulip tree. I left my purchases behind and headed to the location of swarm. My husband gathered the spare bee boxes and my bee suit. He met me at the site. The bees were clustered up on the top branches of the tree. In order to get the bees I used an empty box, ladder and a broom.

The swarmed bees are doing fine now in a hive next to their old home.

The Birds and Bees

I checked on the new hive, with the swarm I caught two weeks ago, and found birds camped out side. The birds were flying by the entrance and eating bees. Not sure what can be done about this problem.

Traffic Jam at the Beehive

Last week I installed a wire screen, one foot in front of the beehive, to prevent my dogs from getting too close to the entrance. It appears that’s causing a bit of a traffic jam at the entrance of the hive. The screen is big enough for the bees to get through but they have to slow down and crawl through the screen or fly up and down to the entrance. It looks like I will have to install chain link fencing this weekend.

Hive check 5/26/13 – irises

The first beehive was checked this weekend and the queen has been a busy girl. The second brood box had four frames of brood. Two supers of honey were added to help feed the growing population.

Here are some more photos of the blooming irises.

5/4/13 – Checked on the beehives

Checked on both of the beehives yesterday and they are doing great. Both hives have several frames of capped and uncapped brood. I gave them another deep with 4 frames of honey and drawn out frames. Since I have so much honey left over from last year, I’m feeding them honey instead of sugar water.

The bees should not be starving right now with all of the flowering trees and flowers. There are lots of open flowers and flowering trees blooming. Right by the hive is a maple tree with blooms, tulips, daffodils and irises.

The weather forecast looks great for this week. The temperatures will be in the 70’s and 80’s. The bees should be happy this week.

 

Spring Beehive Feeding – Gone Wrong

Beekeeping Safety Poster

Yesterday, I went out to feed the bees.  In past years, I’ve just cracked the corner of the hive where the inline feeder is and topped up the feeder without much notice from the bees.  Normally, I would wear my bee suit to do this but as I was just going to top up the feeder I though it would be fine to not wear one. Well these new bees sure noticed me cracking the corner of the hive. Before I could even start pouring the syrup I had multiple stings.  At first I was fine but as more of them came out and started to sting me I started to panic and ran.  As I ran into the garage, I tripped over the threshold and stumbled down some stairs and into a shelf and concrete wall.  As a result of my panic, I now have a black eye and bruised leg.

This experience inspired me to make these posters for beekeeping.  The poster above will be placed by my beehives.

 

Spring Beekeeping Safety Poster – Spoof

Related articles

• Videos of Bee Package Installations on 4/14/13 (myhoneybees.wordpress.com)
• The Honeybees Are Here! (myhoneybees.wordpress.com)

Videos of Bee Package Installations on 4/14/13

Here are the videos of the bee package installations from Sunday.

This video is the installation of the bees in my backyard. The bees are being fed with an inline feeder with 1:1 sugar water and frames of honey as needed.

 

This video is of the installation of the bees in my in-laws backyard.  The bees in this hive are being fed with an exterior bottle feeder containing 1:1 sugar water and frames of honey.

 

 

The Honeybees Are Here!

My packages of bees arrived today.

Unfortunately it’s cold, windy and snowing outside.

The bees are safe and sound in their packages but we’ll have to wait until tomorrow, when it’s a little warmer, to install them in their new homes. For now they are my spare bedroom taking it easy after a long journey from California.

I’m going to prepare the 1:1 sugar water for feeding them tonight. I was told to take all of the honey off of the hives and just start feeding them sugar water to get them started. Each package of bees will be put into one brood box. I’ll be taking the rest of the boxes off and extract the honey from last years honey crop. They will have some honey left on the frames from the old hive but otherwise they will be getting sugar water for feeding.

Hopefully it will be nicer tomorrow to install the bees and I will do a video of the installation of at least one of the packages into a beehive.