BlueRidgeBee

Bee keeping is always full of ups and downs. Fighting mites, beetles and other elements, as well as just keeping them healthy. It is always a challenge and you can not just ignore them or you will lose them. As I have said in my earlier posts, I had to re-queen my oldest hive because it lost it's queen during the summer. Everything was looking great and the hive was growing as of two weeks ago.  I was afraid they needed some extra nutrients so I stuck a front entrance feeder on this hive. I normally use a top feeder or fondant. It was helping them but last week I noticed what appeared to be a robbing going on. This is where another strong hive sees the easy food source of a front feeder and begins to rob it. They don't stop there either. They go into the hive fighting the bees of that hive and taking all the honey stores as well. They will also rip open brood cells killing the next generation. I found this situation had happened when I checked my hives this week.  My mistake I

So we installed the new queen. Went back a week later and she was alive and well. This past week, which would have been two weeks after initial installation of the queen in the queen cage, we went back in to see if she is laying eggs. Once an egg is laid it takes about 21 days for a worker bee to hatch, a queen 16 days and a drone 24 days. The average life of a worker bee is 5 to 6 weeks during active season and 4 to 6 months for overwintering worker bees. So I need my queen to lay eggs quickly and for those eggs to hatch quickly before there are no workers to keep the hive. Because I didn't notice earlier that my queen had stopped producing my time line is very tight. Good News on this weeks inspection we see that she is laying eggs and some are already capped which means they are 9 days old. Again the strength of the hive is in numbers so my time line is tight to get this next generation working. Then they will raise the overwintering bees that will live for 4 to 6 months.

When I started keeping bees I was told to always have two hives so you can compare the two. It has always worked well for me. As I told in a previous post, one of my first packages of bees was always less active than the other. The less active one eventually died off. The hive that was so strong last year was looking weaker this year. When I got another package I could really see how less active they were. They were continuing to make honey so I hoped they would get stronger. I noticed them trying to make some queen cells early in the summer and thought they were going to swarm so I got rid of the queen cells. That was my mistake. I think they knew their queen was weak and were raising some knew ones to challenge her. Bees are smart like that. So a few weeks ago I went through the entire hive looking for the queen or evidence of the queen, brood cells and eggs. But none were found, just pollen and honey see the photos below. So I went and bought a new impregnated queen from the local h

Towards the end of July as the temperatures are getting so hot that my bees are hanging outside to cool themselves and the hive off. We decided to harvest some honey.    Last year was my first year keeping bees and I did not harvest to give them plenty of honey for the winter. This year I said I have invested a lot in these pets and want some return. Plus with the heavy rains we got in the spring and early summer the flow has been really good.     So my wife and I went up and took out 6 full frames. You have to remember that any honey you take is stealing from the bees so I want to leave them with plenty as well. Also, each worker bee only produces about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in it's life time and it takes about 556 bees to make a pound of honey. From the 6 frames we were able to extract about 19 pounds of wonderful honey. I decided to buy my own two frame manual extractor so I didn't have to pay someone to extract for me. It actually worked very well.

If you have followed my previous blogs you know that I had one of my two hives die last year. I purchased a new package this year. There are two main ways to buy bees, either  a package or a nuke. A Nuke is four frames in a small hive box that has bees and queen already working on the frames producing brood and drawing out wax and such. Advantages are that you have a head start on production. Draw backs are that you may get some infestation with the frames. A Package comes in a little box that looks like a cage with about 3000 bees and a queen in a little cage. To install this you have you take a little cork out of the queen cage and place the queen cage between two frames in the middle of the hive. Then Dump the rest of the bees into the hive or take 4 frames out of the hive and put the opened package box into the hive over night and let them come out on their own. Every year they mark the queens with a differnet color this year it's blue. My wife doing the hard work o

Before I was a bee keeper I used to wage war on weeds in my yard. But now weeds have become my friend because my bees love  them. Dandelion, henbit and clover are all loved by my bees. Now when I cut grass and I see all those weeds I think, that will make great honey. Even kudzu makes a blueberry flavored honey I am told.  One of my bees enjoying some hinbet in the pre-spring seacson.  Dandelion, Henbit and Burclover - Some common lawn weeds in the south that honey bees love.

So As Spring is a approaching I want to keep my bees healthy going into the nectar flow season. So I want to treat for varroa, if needed, before they start making honey. Most treatments say to give them a couple weeks after treatment before putting on honey supers. I use Apivar and you need to put it in for  at least 42 days, so I wanted to put them in by end of February. For a complete guide on honey bee health go to the Honey Bee Health Coalition web site at https://honeybeehealthcoalition.org/ They have a guide you can download that is the best. I use the powder sugar method to check for varroa. You take a 1/2 cup of bees which equals about 300 bees and you put them in a jar with 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar. Shake them for a minute then shake it all out on to a plate. Then spray the plate with water to dissolve the sure and count the mites. You want a mite count of at or below 3% which would be 3 mites per 300 bees. I only found 2 but treated anyway. See the mites below. W

Late February in South Carolina and we are starting to see signs of Spring. I saw my bees bringing in the lime green pollen which comes for Red Maples. See the picture below I don't know if you can make out the color very well. The one in the middle has it's hind legs loaded down.  On warm days, above 50 degrees I take a look at the hive to make sure all is well. I found some mold that comes from the condensation in the hive. Condensation comes because it is cold outside and the bees are keeping it at 90 degrees in hive around the queen. I had to raise the lid a little to let the moisture out. I just used a 1/8th inch piece of wood placed on the top board.  The bees have been finding a lot of pollen but I have not seen much honey. So I have been supplementing the much needed carbs with fondant. This cuts down on moisture that would come from sugar water, plus it won't freeze. I just laid it on top of the top board and they consumed it all. Probably I should cut it th

 My bees making the most of a warm day to defecate outside the hive and forage. Warm is relative 45 to 50 degrees.  Winters are a hard time for honey bees as they like it warm since they are cold blooded and do not hibernate. So during the winter they kick out the drones and form a cluster around the queen on the brood area of the hive. The workers create heat to keep the temp in the hive at about 90 degrees. Because of this you have to watch out that condensation doesn't happen, so many keepers will put a shim under the edge of the top cover to allow ventilation. I have don this. Because they are creating all of this heat they need food. As said before honey is the carbohydrate and pollen is the protein. It is best for them to get their food from their honey store and pollen from nature. But sometimes you have to supplement. I am going to use fondant for the carbs and ultra Bee for pollen. Normally I use sugar water but the fondant will cause less condensation. On war