Late season lessons

Damn Small Hive Beatles are a pain

While I Have not yet seen any damage inside the hives, I certainly am seeing plenty of beatles in all but the big hive. The big hive has some mean bees at times, so my guess is that they also go after the beatles like they go after me :-)
I have done a permethrin soil drench and we have not had much rain, so it should work, will do another drench this coming weekend

I pulled another two full boxes of honey off the big hive this weekend. That makes it 4 supers of honey his season, wow , these girls know how to work. I almost forgive them for tagging me each time I work the hive - almost !!

I continue to learn each time I work the hives, the Ballinger swarm bees are very calm, never seem to worry about me working them, but are also slow to build up, while it was a tiny swarm we caught, they are only just filling up the last of about 18 frames now, still some open wax foundation, but brood pattern is good, and stores look fine, I will continue to feed once a week.

The Waynes bees are awesome, good brood, good build up and great stores. One of the two Hives is slightly busier than the other and filled their first super about 2 weeks before the other. Feeding them both to help draw out the foundation in the supers.

I am hoping all three smaller hives will fill at least one more super during the late summer flow

Back to the beatles, i found a nice site that detailed a beatle trap using a CD jewel case, I made 8 of these, and concocted a bait,using pollen patty , honey, and Boric acid (roach bait)

After 3 days I checked the traps and found a few dead beatles, but suspect that i need more honey to get them in...... Will check them this weekend and then adjust the bait again. I did look for Roach Jell but cannot find it locally, but I did find some Ant jell using Boron , so might try that now

How the time flies.....

We are already mid July and the NC dearth is probably on us. BUT My bees are working something local as pollen is still coming in (visual observation), but with so little rain there cannot be much nectar.

The hives are booming. The big hive has already produced 4 boxes of honey this year and is still 4 boxes tall. Only take the top box off each time and move frames around to encourage work in all regions.

The Ballinger swarm is the slowest hive but doing well. Plenty brood and 3 frames of honey stores full and at least 1 full of pollen plus scatterings on oter frames in deep Plus started new super as well. Feeding all the smaller hives. About a quart every 5 days.

The Waynes bee hives are both doing well. I am seeing small hive beetle in all hives, quite a few , but have not seen any damage yet and bees chase them whenever i open the hive. Kill any i see too. Have drenched the ground once and will do it again tomorrow. Ants remain a nuisance. I have ideas and must implement them sometime whenthe heat wave is over. 97 deg today with 98 forecast tomorrow. Phew!!

I am seeing some cool bearding in the hot evenigs. Will up load some pics soon.

So yesterday we opened all 4 hives

Been feeding the 3 new hives for last week or so, boy are they drinking up the syrup. Up to a gallon in 36 hrs.

Was worried the feeder was leaking , so checked the other hives and all are the same .... busy bees. I added some Honey Bee Healthy to the syrup, and this certainly had them excited.

All 4 hives have great laying patterns , we have almost 20 frames with half capped honey, already removed 12 frames from the big hive (Marc) . I always seem to get stung when opening this hive, and each time on the hands for some reason, I wasn't even on the hive when I had two bees hit me on my left hand. The queen is now laying in 3 boxes of this hive. We saw good brood in box 3 (Deep plus two Supers)
Very little in way of Mites or Beatles , we opened some drone cells and did not find a single mite in 5 cells. Saw only one beatle in the 4 boxes we took off. Nothing in the trap.

The Swarm hive is growing well and have worked 9 of the frames , so we moved frames around so they work the remaining side to draw it out. Have a super waiting if needed.

The two new Waynes Bee nucs , are also working well with great laying patterns , good stores already too. These are relatively calm bees too.

Once again I learned from Wally as he moved frames around to make the bees work all the frames. He approved of my wiring :-) after giving me a lecture about it previously.

I have discovered a new sw , that works wonderfully to keep track and record my hives.

Called Hive Tracks it is an online sw created by a team from NC, very intuitive and works on my iPad too. It has direct links to Weather Channel online, so even if you are updating a previous date , it can pull the weather from that date and time, NICE !!!
So in my case I created my hives and was able to use the original date and still pull in the weather from that time and date.

The swarm settles

Already first day the New swarm bees were bringing in pollen , usually
a good sign that they are rearing brood. Lots of entrance activity so
far too.

Wally suggested I leave it alone for a week and then move the frames
into my box. If strong they will go into a 10 frame langstroth , if
not into a nuc. So yesterday I built my own plywood capture box in
case i need it. It actually will take 6 or 7 frames at a squeeze. I
used external dimensions but used 5/8 plywood to build it ( scrap I
had lying around) and that is why it takes a few extra frames. Solid
bottom so easy to carry too. Still need to make an inner cover and
outer cover, and have cut the plywood to do so but ran out of time
last night.

I have chosen not to feed this hive yet, we will see after a week.
Wally put a frame of pollen and honey into the nuc , as well as a
frame of capped drone brood, so they have " things to do". Lol. The
reason not to feed is because the much stronger hive might rob it, and
also the flow is on with Tulip poplar in full bloom so no storage of
food.

Pretty cool that I now have two hives and yet the original bees I
ordered are still not here. Hoping for next weekend.

The first hive is booming. Supered up again this last Sunday as the
super from the week before was almost full. Weighed plenty.

Starting to plan to improve the hive location - decided I will build a
bench behind the hives and make a nice long rest for the hives , with
place for some 8 hives in total. The idea for the bench behind is
because everywhere I go beeks are putting things on the ground. Might
be nicer to have a work area close to the hive. in theory I might even
be able to build a storage cupboard. Will see about going too far :-)

--

Regards
Rick

http://zenzele-brewery.blogspot.com/

http://ballingerbees.blogspot.com/

Got called by my farmer neighbor, he had seen a swarm flying and they just landed in a tree in his yard. Used his Bobcat to get up to it, but my positioning of the nuc box was not ideal and Wally shook the branch and missed the box .....

Evidence of the apprentices mistake , the master suffers !


Easier than a ladder





Up there...


Perfect example of Nasonoving - fanning pheromone out to attract the rest of the swarm


Many more pics here:
Ballinger Swarm

Excitement and swarms

First Swarm

In situ

Iddee starting the cutting of excess limbs

One good shake and 80% are in..

Closing the lid

The remainder walking across from the now cut limb

Rob covered in bees

Rob bringing down the second swarm, 2 sec later the ball dropped off the limb

Bees walking across from limb

Wally the Bee Whisperer

Me holding up the second limb

The original swarm size - click to zoom

About a min later Wally found a second queen walking across

Working my own hive

A week after my hive was placed I decided to have a peek, Iddee came along to offer moral support and look over my shoulder , making sure I was doing it all the right way.

This is a super strong hive , thanks Mark

The biggest task was to put the frames into varnished boxes , as I had nothing ready when the call came. So I would be handling every frame  during this opening and moving them into new wooden ware. Deeps looked good with 7 fully drawn out, Mark had used plastic foundation on his deeps, the outer frames were not yet drawn, so we also changed the hive opening to make the bees work the eastern side a bit more.

First super had lots of brood including done cells, good honey stores too, my wife who was watching from a distance asked Iddee when can we get honey, so he pulled a full frame and said NOW.

Found the queen on the upper super, lots of eggs and larvae and capped brood.

Great Brood (the brown capped cells)

Busy entrance , now on RHS , few lost bees on LHS

Watering hole

Apple blossoms

Cherry Blossoms

Fun being a new beekeeper.