Winter Time

It was time to put on the winter wrap again. This year I was a week later than last year and they got one more feeding of syrup, as the weather was still around 10°C daily, we even saw a few out this weekend. But this morning it was -2°C and we had our first dusting of snow, so it was time.

Wrapped to help keep them dry and dark to absorb the
suns heat, when it comes out.

That Time Of The Year

Well it's that time of the year again, when we feed and medicate our bees. On September 13 we put in two Apivar strips in each colony, between the supers to help fight against Varroa mites. As well we put on the third super so they can start getting it drawn out to fill up with food for the winter. Today I gave them each 3 liters of syrup (1 part water - 2 parts sugar). This will help them this winter, as well I added Fuagmilina-B, an antibiotic used overwintering colonies for nosema apis infections, which can kill a colony. I did an early mite count, we had 5 on the left and 3 on the right in a 23 hour time frame, and from what I have read this is low and good. I'll do it again next week as that will be the half way point for the exposure to the Apivar strips.

They look tall, it's just the top (4th) super is housing
the syrup pail. 

Harvest Time

Well it's harvest time and we did OK, not as good as we hoped. We only have two colonies, the left one didn't produce a Queen when we put the Queen cells in that came for the right colony, that is because the first one out will kill the others and we didn't notice the Queens were dead when I moved the frame over. We still have two very strong colonies, that did make us some honey. Not as much as I wanted because I switched a full honey super from the center colony the left one, when I thought it was just week. Well they didn't have many gatherers so they just enjoyed the full honey super, as it was fully drained when I looked.

So back to the harvest, we had only two boxes of honey and not all the frames were full only about half. I would suspect it's because I added two boxes to each colony thinking more is better, but that just make more work to draw out now comb and make honey. Lesson learnt and we'll be better prepared for next year. I used a scraper to remove the capping's and put four frames in the extractor at a time, gave a big spin to remove the honey, turned them, did it again and repeated the process until all the frames were empty. The honey went through a double sieve strainer and then I put it through a fine clothe, it's nice and clean ready to go.  We got about 14 lbs of honey and a couple of pounds of wax capping's. I cleaned out as much as I could and then put them outside today to let the "girls" clean up the rest, it's their honey after all. I'll give it a final cleaning when they have finished.

Two colonies left.

Very strong when we took off the honey supers.

Extraction set up.

A bit of honey and the wax cappings.

Capping scraper set up.

Lots of work done for me.

They are having a great time.

Full of bees.

A Good Day

Today's visit to the "Girls" was very productive, at least I thought so. We inspected each one to see if there were any Queen cells. In the right one were we thought didn't have the Queen, we found her there so no need for Queen cells, in the center we didn't see any, as well there seemed to be little going on  Not much if any honey production just a bit of pollen gathering, this was not good. In the left colony we found two frames with Queen cells, one had a single cell and the other had four cells so we put the four celled one in the center colony so they'll have a new Queen soon, we hope, and the remaining cell in the left colony should produce a health Queen. We also added a Queen excluder and two shallow supers with bees wax foundations for our honey harvest. As well I added a screened inner cover to the two new colonies for better ventilation.

First look after splitting them up, top super.

The bottom super, right colony.

We found the Queen.

A delicate touch is needed. No gloves.

Lots of honey production.

The single Queen cell.

Two of the four Queen cells on one frame.

Two Queen cells close together.

You can see all four in this picture.

There we are ready for the summers honey production.

Splitting The Girls

Over the past few weeks we have been watching the weather for the right time to split the colony and even with the chance of rain today was the time. Earlier in the week the dandy lions started come out and that is a good sign and the girls have been busy, the front of the hive is a bit yellow with pollen. Today we split the hive into three colony's, which went well. With all the pictures ReBecca took we were able to confirm the Queen was there and did get moved to an other colony. There was a lot to do, I moved into each super, four frames from the existing supers, all had honey, pollen, capped brood and other stages of development, along with four new frames for them to draw out and get started with. This should be successful, and in a few weeks we'll add a Queen excluder and then the honey supers for us, then wait for the fall to see how they did.

You can see the pollen on the front.

Busy even at the rear of the hive.

Under side of the inner cover.

The Queen is still with us.

Below the inner cover.

Carefully removing a frame.

Talking it out slowly.

Checking it out and looking for the Queen.

Still looking.

Lots of capped brood.

They'll build comb anywhere, bee space is important.

Lots of new bees.

You can see new ones chewing their way out.

Never stop bring in the pollen.

Lots of pollen to bring in.

Bee Yard Prep Work

Over the past few weeks we have given the "Girls" about 18 liters of sugar syrup, some with medication to help them come out of the winter and as previously mentioned, protein patties. When I added the patties, I thought they would be too thick to put just between the supers so I added a spacer, and inexperience showed, because when we removed the spacer they drew down comb and the queen did her job. This is not where we want the brood to be so this bit of comb had to be removed, to set the super back on top. They weren't very happy.

They have been very busy collecting pollen, as we can clearly see the pollen baskets are full, this is a very good sign. We started to prep the bee yard, clearing away old brush, around and an area behind the hive. This will give us future space to expand, if needed. As well I laid two more pads for when we split this one. It maybe ambitious but they are very strong, so we'll see about truing this one into three. There will be lots for them to gather as there are 6 acres just out their door and several other fields, larger less then a km away. We'll see how it goes throughout the summer.

The hive with the spacer, very active, nice day.

What I had to remove after the spacer came off.

Still busy collecting pollen.

You can see the different colour pollen in their baskets.

Getting ready to split.

Great Numbers

We realized after we left the girls yesterday that we didn't get any pictures of them, and we wanted to change out some old frames they weren't using. So here are a couple of pictures to enjoy and one in particular has a bee that has just developed wax and you can see the white wax on the left side. I put a red circle around her so you can see.

Top bar of the bottom super.

One nice looking frame.

A busy frame that will have to be changed out soon.

One more full frame that will be replaced later on.

Great numbers for the spring.

One making wax and one working on comb.

Spring Is Here

Today we opened the girls up for spring. We took off the winter wrap, did a quick look and they were plentiful, and busy. We changed out the bottom board for a new modified one, it has a bit of a ramp so the water will run off and not pool in front of the entrance causing a problem. We gave them pollen patties and 3 liters of sugar syrup with medicine. They have been out foraging because we can see several with their pollen baskets full. They still need the syrup and patties this time of the year to help them get stronger. With the amount of bees we saw today the Queen is doing great.

Before the wrap came off.

After the wrap came off.

You can see the pollen on them.

An inner cover for the feeding pail.

Three brood chambers and a super to hold the syrup pail.

ReBecca got the first sting this year.