Bee Yard Upgrade

I've been trying to keep my operation small, so for so good, but some times I think I may want another one or two and then I scramble to make all the parts and the last thing I think of is a stand. So after a few years of visiting other bee yards during field days with the NBBA and seeing how others bee yards are laid out, I finally decided to give my yard a little upgrade. Gone are the individual hive stands, (which worked very well for me so far) and install new bench type stand with a bit more room. To me the area looks larger and much better, only time will tell. Here is a before and after look at the two sides of my bee yard. 

Spring is on the way

 The other day I took off the winter wraps and feed them syrup made by Ambrosia, a German company that also has fondant I use. Today the temperature is up and they are out and about and looking good. I also noted that there wasn't as much bee poop on the front as in previous years, a good sign of their health, I hope. I cleaned out the bottom of each colony with a piece of wood I modified to fit into the entrance all the way back to each corner to remove any dead bees, a few as to be expected. Here is a look them with the feeder pails on top and a short clip of the activity going on.

Hive Frame Tray

 Over the past few years when I clean out a colony or just a few frames that need attention I usually put down some plastic on the work bench and get at it. Recently I was working on an old tray to help contain the mess, left over honey from an old frame. I have been looking for a try that would accommodate a frame and I haven't been able to find one large enough. I remembered today that I bought a press break to fold light metal and I made a tray.  I folded the edges over, turned them up and just riveted a small piece that fit into the fold at each corner. It's crude but does the job nicely.

You can see the frame sitting on the old tray.

The new tray is large enough for the frame.

Spring Time

Today I took off the winter wraps and feed them 3½ lts of syrup to help build them up. Over the past few days they have been very active and are looking for food. It is about a week earlier than last year and I looked at last years temperatures, both day and night, compared them to the forecasted ones for the coming week and they are comparable. I put 7 colonies to bed for the winter and and lost only one, so far. I expected this as one seamed to be a little weaker than the others. This happens. Here they are ready to go for the new year.

Something New

 This time of year the girls are out for cleansing flight and looking for food. It's 10ºC out there and they need some food, so I am trying something new. It's too cool to put syrup feeder pails on, I heard about adding fondant to help them out. These pictures were taken two day after I put them in and they are working on it. 

Nice cluster.

This one looks strong as well.

Another good sized cluster.

 

Winter 2021

 It's been a while since I updated this site and I'll try harder. It has been getting warmer during the days and the girls are out for cleansing flights and looking for food, so I thought I would try something a little different. I put a syrup pale on a feed try out front to see if they'll take it. Today was a test and it didn't take. So I'll try again when it gets a bit warmer, before I take off the winter wrap and put on individual feeds for each colony. Here is what I did, I don't know if it will help or hurt, only time will tell.

 

Spring Time

Spring is here, at least it's starting to warm up, so today I took off the winter wrap and checked them out. I lost two colonies, and I believe it's because they were not as strong as they should have been, there were several frames full of honey still. My first winter loss, it's not that bad, just 22% of my colonies, it sounds bad but I still have 7 good ones. Four of them are looking really strong and the other three are good. I gave them each a protein patty to help them out. It does look like some of the trees and shrubs are starting to bud so they'll have some natural food out there. Once the temperatures are a little warmer at night I'll start feeding them syrup. Here is what I did and found today.

This is what I saw under one of the stronger ones.

Winter wraps off, I lost the two on the left.

There three were the strongest.

Winter Time

It is that time of year again when I put on the winter wrap. It is a thick rubber pond lining I picked up from a local garden center. It was scarp and they were happy I took it away. It does not have any real insulating properties but being black it will absorb the sun light and help out a bit. I also put a two layer insulating bubble wrap on the inner cover to help out. This should give them some help holding the heat in. Now to keep an eye on then throughout the winter, keeping snow and more importantly ice from accumulating at the front entrance, and suffocating them. These are dreary pictures of my bee yard, two sites but it is that time of year.

My first bee year.

An extension to my bee year, about 30 ft beside the first one.

Spring Start

I did a complete check of the "girls" and all looked good, except #3 which I notices earlier this spring that it didn't make it through the winter. It did have lots of honey filled frames, and the other colonies are helping themselves to it. I was also lucky this year to see 4 of the 5 Queens this year. I couldn't find the Queen in #5 because of the amount of bees in this colony, there are lots. When I was moving old frames out of #4, I sent on aside because of the bees on it and was about to shake the bees off into the super and took a quick look. The Queen was on this frame and I didn't see her when I took it out. She moves quickly and I'm lucky she didn't walk off when I sent it down. She was gently returned to the colony.  All are strong and in a few day's I'll try to split #5 and restart #3, move some of the honey frames around and put on my honey supers for the season. The dandelions are starting and I'll keep an eye on when they die out to see if I can change out the honey supers to try and separate dandelion honey from regular field and wild flower honey. I also changed out 2 1/2 boxes of old frame and comb with new ones as they were not using them, I have several more in #5 to do and will change them out when I split it. Here is how things looked and I got pictures of three of the Queens. My battery expired, sorry.

A good looking frame, capped brood, pollen,
honey and larva.

Another good looking frame.

Lots going on in #2, lots of capped brood.

A look inside the top super.

You can see the Queen from #1.

Here is the Queen from #2.

The Queen from #4.

Coming Along

Since taking off the winter wraps, I've given them protein patties, 1 1/2 lts syrup, then 2 lts of syrup with medicine, and they look like they are coming along. I did lose one colony though, it looked a little weak when I took off the wrap and I was hoping it would come along, but it didn't. I checked inside and I didn't see any capped brood, larva or eggs anywhere, so I think not too long ago I lost the Queen. There was plenty of honey inside and some pollen cake but thing else, just a few workers left. I'll save what I can and use the the boxes for a split if I need too. Here is a little of what is happening right now.

Colony 1 & 2

Numbers 3 & 4. #3 didn't make it.

Numbers 5 & 6

Everyone coming and going with pollen.

Lots of activity, looking good. 

An Early Unwrap.

With a very strange winter that had temperatures very cold and then not so with sunshine, I was concerned on how the bees would make it through to spring. We've been checking on them throughout the winter, keeping snow from the front entrance, because it would rain and ice up quickly, they didn't seem too bad. Now that spring is here, and they are becoming very active I thought I'd give them protein patties, I only had two left and split them between all six colonies, I have more on the way, I'll give the some meds in sugar syrup to help them out. After I took off the winter wraps and gave them the patties, they were a little more active, even the ones that didn't look like they were very strong. We'll see how the next couple of weeks turn out and hopefully they'll all come through strong. Here are few pictures of our winter and after the wraps were taken off. This is the earliest I've taken the wraps off.

6th of March snow fall.

They need to be cleaned out.

One of the colonies, looked really good.

Another one, looking strong.

All unwrapped, ready for summer.

Busy looking for food, the first two on the left.

The middle two, not as busy but there is activity.

A slow start on the two on the right, but busy inside.

End Of Season

This morning I put on the winter wraps and took away the left over syrup, which there was quite a bit still in the pails. This, I hope, means they have enough food stored for the winter. I guess we'll see come next spring.

Ready for winter, I hope.

Honey Harvest 2018

It has been a good year for the bees but a slow one for this blog, sorry about that. The 'Girls" came thru the winter very well, I split them into 6 colonies this year, trying not to be greedy. As well I moved them back a bit for more room and a bit more winter protection. The season was a good one, hot but they like it that way, and they have a water source several yards behind them, which is a flowing brook. This years harvest was better than last years, and just as tasty.  I did run the honey thru the strainer a second time as there were some partials in it, small bits of wax, it cleaned up well. Now to enjoy what our "Girls" did for us.

Our improved bee yard and new colonies.

Setting up for the harvest.

A couple of medium frames spun a bit too fast, they gave way.

The pail on the left has hot water in it to loosen up the honey
a bit for better flow, the one on the right has pail inside to
store the newly strained honey.

This years honey harvest. several pails of honey, two of cappings
one has the broken comb with honey in it. Can't get it any
fresher than this.

Honey Harvest

The other day I took off the honey supers, a couple of weeks early because when I added the new brood super it had new foundation, so I split it up among the three supers to give them time to draw out the comb and get ready for winter. Bringing the supers and equipment down and back this year was easier, thanks to a friend who gave us a garden cart. I did some work on it and it now doubles as a bee cart. I extracted the honey today, we had two supers of shallow frames and four medium frames we took off earlier in the year to see if we can get a different tasting honey than what we would get at then end of the season. I had four honey supers but only two were full and the other two were light. They still had to draw out the comb this year, next year it will be better, like this is mush better than last year. Last year I estimated we got 14 lbs from two colonies, this year 68 lbs from four colonies. As for the taste test, I sampled a lot today and couldn't tell, I'll have to wait for ReBecca to do the official test.

Bee/garden cart.

Bee escape they are still escaping.

Lots of bees to go into the winter with.

Getting ready to spin out the honey.

Wax and honey everywhere.

Four shallow frames fit perfectly.

Six gallons of honey.

Out golden nector.