I have so many bees in my hive with the blue cover! SO many! They are producing honey but I feel they are about 4 weeks behind schedule. The weather we have been having this year is throwing everything off. I'm not sure if I will extract this year. I may only extract 4 frames or so. I really want my bees to survive the winter so they can come back strong next year!
My silver covered hive doesn't have very many bees at all. They aren't producing very much honey and I do not expect to extract any from that hive. I do not expect that hive to survive the winter. The laying pattern of the queen is very odd. She is laying a really nice pattern in ONE frame. Only ONE. The other frames are very sporadic and very bare. The bees are confused and their buzz is panicked. I made sure to find the queen yesterday. She's present. She's huge. Not sure if I should squish her or if I should leave them be and seal their own fate.
Kind of a depressing year. I've had worse. The weather has been very mild. It is the middle of August right now and the temps are in the 70s - 60's in the morning. It would be a lot better if they were in the high 80s or 90s. My main goal is to keep at least one hive over the winter.
Hoping for HOT weather in the months to come!
Monday, August 12, 2013
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Mid July
Bees are everywhere! I went to the hives yesterday evening - in the 90 degree heat and man, were they active! I opened up blue lid and found a lot of bees. I started pulling out heavy frames, full of nectar. The queen was laying very little in the top box but had a nice brood pattern in the bottom box. I added another level so the bees wouldn't swarm. I am expecting honey from this hive in 2-3 weeks.
The silver lid hive was not as productive but there was a lot of nectar in the frames, along with brood. Not quite as many bees.
Year one: My bees were in Anoka County, in a shaded area - no honey yielded.
Year two: My bees were in Anoka County, in a shaded area - no honey yielded
Year three: My bees were in Isanti County, in the woods - about 50lbs honey yielded
Year four: My bees are in Hennepin County, in the woods - honey yielded, TBA
The silver lid hive was not as productive but there was a lot of nectar in the frames, along with brood. Not quite as many bees.
Year one: My bees were in Anoka County, in a shaded area - no honey yielded.
Year two: My bees were in Anoka County, in a shaded area - no honey yielded
Year three: My bees were in Isanti County, in the woods - about 50lbs honey yielded
Year four: My bees are in Hennepin County, in the woods - honey yielded, TBA
Beeland 2013
-Kimmie
Monday, July 1, 2013
6-30-2013
I had such a fun time in the hives this weekend! The sun was shining, the winds were calm, and the bees were busy.
I opened my first hive - the one with the silver top - and found a beautiful pattern of brood in the second level along with normal nectar patterns for the outside of the broods nest. For those of you who have never been in a hive before, the bees draw out wax to hold the nectar/brood/honey and week to week, I have to peel the wax apart from each frame because the wax glues everything together. It isn't uncommon to have larvae fall out of frames due to the wax being separated in a weird way. This week, I noticed a larvae fall out of a frame and land on top of another frame. A bee quickly took the larvae and passed it along to another bee who passed it along to another bee and so on and so forth until the larvae was back in the hive. It was such a neat thing to watch!
When pulling out each frame, I noticed the bees were bringing in a lot of pollen and a lot of nectar. I love when bees are carrying pollen - it can be very colorful.
I opened my first hive - the one with the silver top - and found a beautiful pattern of brood in the second level along with normal nectar patterns for the outside of the broods nest. For those of you who have never been in a hive before, the bees draw out wax to hold the nectar/brood/honey and week to week, I have to peel the wax apart from each frame because the wax glues everything together. It isn't uncommon to have larvae fall out of frames due to the wax being separated in a weird way. This week, I noticed a larvae fall out of a frame and land on top of another frame. A bee quickly took the larvae and passed it along to another bee who passed it along to another bee and so on and so forth until the larvae was back in the hive. It was such a neat thing to watch!
When pulling out each frame, I noticed the bees were bringing in a lot of pollen and a lot of nectar. I love when bees are carrying pollen - it can be very colorful.
I knew my queen was around because the population is growing like crazy! I was able to find her fairly quickly and noticed she had grown since I'd last seen her (is that common?). I continued on and was pleasantly surprised at how everything was coming along - we are still behind but maybe only about 3 weeks behind now.
I opened my second hive - the one with the blue top and was very happy to see that since I've added the second level, the queen is laying in a much nicer pattern. The population in this hive is smaller than my other one and they aren't taking in as much nectar but things are moving along. I found my queen in this hive as well. I think this hive is still about 4 weeks behind.
I've been encouraging people to come out to the hives with me because I enjoy being asked questions and either answering them or finding out the answer if I'm not sure. I have one little guy interested in coming with me but he says I have to find a "costume" his size.
Thanks for reading - hoping to have someone with a camera come out with me sometime soon so I can post more pictures!
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
June 16, 2013
I inspected my hive on Sunday and found a lot of bees. Ha. It was about 80 degrees and sunny. My bees are in the woods and are fully shaded. When I approached the hive, I did not see much action at the entrances at either hive.
I inspected the first one - with the silver cover - and found A LOT of capped off brood. That queen is very busy! I also found a good amount of nectar. These bees seem to be on par for the season. I added a second level and hope to see a lot more nectar coming in next week.
I got to the second hive - with the blue cover - and these bees didn't seem as strong. I pulled out a frame. It was very light and completely empty, save for maybe 10 capped off brood. This made me wonder if I even had a queen. I pulled out a few more frames and they didn't seem much better. There is very little nectar. I was surprised to find a queen. I hope this hive is doing better next week. There seemed to be a lot of bees in this hive so I added a second level to this one, too.
If anyone has tips about how to make my blue cover hive stronger, please leave them!
On a side note: no stings. no headbutts. Just bees yelling at me. I attract mosquitos more than anyone I know but bees seem to like me.
Until next time...
I inspected the first one - with the silver cover - and found A LOT of capped off brood. That queen is very busy! I also found a good amount of nectar. These bees seem to be on par for the season. I added a second level and hope to see a lot more nectar coming in next week.
I got to the second hive - with the blue cover - and these bees didn't seem as strong. I pulled out a frame. It was very light and completely empty, save for maybe 10 capped off brood. This made me wonder if I even had a queen. I pulled out a few more frames and they didn't seem much better. There is very little nectar. I was surprised to find a queen. I hope this hive is doing better next week. There seemed to be a lot of bees in this hive so I added a second level to this one, too.
If anyone has tips about how to make my blue cover hive stronger, please leave them!
On a side note: no stings. no headbutts. Just bees yelling at me. I attract mosquitos more than anyone I know but bees seem to like me.
Until next time...
Monday, June 3, 2013
21 days
June 3, 2013
Yesterday, I saw my bees for the first time in 21 days. I honestly expected them to either have flown away or to be dead. I'm not sure why. I guess I figured I did something wrong when I installed them. I was a little nervous because I made entrances out of sticks and am very happy my DIY entrances did the trick! It was about 65 degrees in the sun yesterday. My bees are not in the sun and were not very active at the hive but I figured it is because it's still fairly cool.
I opened up the first hive and pulled out a nearly full frame of brood! I was SO excited! Not only was the brood capped off and ready to pop but there were eggs and larvae. I even found my queen right away! There was about 2 frames of brood and 2 frames of nectar. There was a frame of pollen and 2 frames of honey (from last year). I took the feeder out and added an empty frame. Typically, I would cram 9 frames in one box but this year, I decided to give them a little more space and do only 8 frames per box.
The bees got quite active and angry from me being in the hive. I am pretty excited about this because it was cool outside and I smoked them pretty good. I think I have aggressive bees this year and hope they produce a lot of honey.
I opened the second hive (I thought this hive would not do very well) and had pretty much the same story. Phil came with me and I think he was pretty excited he found the queen before I did ;-). Complete success!
I will start going to the hive once per week now and continue that throughout the summer. I'll try to snap some photos sometime soon.
Until then...
Yesterday, I saw my bees for the first time in 21 days. I honestly expected them to either have flown away or to be dead. I'm not sure why. I guess I figured I did something wrong when I installed them. I was a little nervous because I made entrances out of sticks and am very happy my DIY entrances did the trick! It was about 65 degrees in the sun yesterday. My bees are not in the sun and were not very active at the hive but I figured it is because it's still fairly cool.
I opened up the first hive and pulled out a nearly full frame of brood! I was SO excited! Not only was the brood capped off and ready to pop but there were eggs and larvae. I even found my queen right away! There was about 2 frames of brood and 2 frames of nectar. There was a frame of pollen and 2 frames of honey (from last year). I took the feeder out and added an empty frame. Typically, I would cram 9 frames in one box but this year, I decided to give them a little more space and do only 8 frames per box.
The bees got quite active and angry from me being in the hive. I am pretty excited about this because it was cool outside and I smoked them pretty good. I think I have aggressive bees this year and hope they produce a lot of honey.
I opened the second hive (I thought this hive would not do very well) and had pretty much the same story. Phil came with me and I think he was pretty excited he found the queen before I did ;-). Complete success!
I will start going to the hive once per week now and continue that throughout the summer. I'll try to snap some photos sometime soon.
Until then...
Friday, May 17, 2013
Thoughts
May 17, 2013
Thoughts:
Bees. Why are people so afraid of them? Why do people call wasps and hornets bees? They are so misunderstood. Yeah, you can come in contact with abitch mean bee who only wants to sting you but for the most part, they just don't want any trouble. They're goal in life is to make more bees and make honey - not to sting people. When you see them flying around, its because they are looking for nectar. It is really interesting to actually watch what they do. They land, they suck up nectar, and they fly away. If there isn't any nectar, they move on. I highly suggest everyone, at some point in their life, jump in a bee suit, enter a hive a few times, and learn.
Thoughts:
Bees. Why are people so afraid of them? Why do people call wasps and hornets bees? They are so misunderstood. Yeah, you can come in contact with a
Monday, May 13, 2013
May 12, 2013
Installation day... and the night before
It was too windy on Saturday to install the packages so I decided to wait until Sunday. It was suppose to get down to 38 degrees Saturday night and ideally, I wanted my bees to stay in an area ranging between 50 and 70 degrees so naturally I brought them in the house and let them sleep in the closet overnight. My husband woke me up to tell me we had bees flying around in our entryway. Needless to say, we brought them back out to the garage for the night and boy, am I glad we did that! One of the packages had a small opening and on Sunday, we found about 100 bees flying around in our garage!
I went to my bee site around 5:00 Sunday evening. The winds were calm and it was about 60 degrees.
Equipment I brought with:
**Tips:
Installation day... and the night before for some humor
It was too windy on Saturday to install the packages so I decided to wait until Sunday. It was suppose to get down to 38 degrees Saturday night and ideally, I wanted my bees to stay in an area ranging between 50 and 70 degrees so naturally I brought them in the house and let them sleep in the closet overnight. My husband woke me up to tell me we had bees flying around in our entryway. Needless to say, we brought them back out to the garage for the night and boy, am I glad we did that! One of the packages had a small opening and on Sunday, we found about 100 bees flying around in our garage!I went to my bee site around 5:00 Sunday evening. The winds were calm and it was about 60 degrees.
Equipment I brought with:
- Husband
- Bee Suit, Boots, Gloves, Sweatband
- Smoker, Gunny Sack, Scissors, and Torch
- 1:1 Sugar Water and Medication
- Bee Tools
- Mini Marshmallows
**Tips:
- I put a mini marshmallow in the opening of the queen cage. This way, the bees eat through it and get aquainted with the queen a bit more before she starts ruling.
- I've been learning about bees for the passed 3 years and have left over honey and pollen from last year. You want to make sure you have pollen for the bees when installing them.
- Wind is your worst enemy. Make sure you set up your hives in a low wind area, like in the woods, or on the side of a building.
- Bees are most active during the day and when temperatures are above 50 degrees. They will be docile in the early morning and evening so these are good times to install.
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