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.

The Big Split

On the 22nd we split the two colonies we had, now we have four. They came out of winter strong in three supers, we split each into two brood boxes for the summer, And we didn't mix the colonies when splitting, just in case we didn't see the Queen and end up putting two Queens in the same hive. This would be very bad. They were very strong and tons of bees as you can see in the pictures below. When checked today if there were Queen cells in the new colonies, it was a hit and miss. The first one didn't have any Queen cells but I did see new eggs and very early development of some larva, which means I moved the Queen over when splitting them. The colony that we split if from turned out to have a frame with Queen cells, but when I pulled up the frame it pulled apart two cells, so we put it back and usually there is more than one frame with Queen cells. The next new colony had one frame with four Queen cells on it, we put it back carefully and will leave it until next weekend, It takes 16 days for a Queen to develop. Earlier in the week we put honey supers on the largest colonies to try and get dandelion honey, it is slow going. There were several frames in the brood boxes full of honey, so I know it's there, just a matter of time.

Lot of honey in this frame.

Loaded with bees.

You can see it's full.

Packed.

Hard to see, but it's wall to wall bees.

A healthy frame.

Just pouring over the sides.

After the split.

A warm day, I took out the bottom board insert for ventilation.

I added screened inner cover and will let the bees take there
time leaving the old inner cover.

All colonies are busy today.

Our little honey maker at work.

Three Queen cells, hopefully one will live.

A New Year

I took off the winter wrap a while ago and feed and medicated them last month. Today wanted to have a look at how they are doing and get ready to split them in a couple of weeks. Earlier I put down another patio stone so I'll be ready for four colonies. I only looked a couple of frames from each super, it was a bit breezy and only 15°C, I didn't want to disturb them too much. They were laying brood in between the supers, so I cleaned that out, they looked good, and very plentiful. This I hope is a sign of a health Queen. The frames had brood in the middle, with some pollen and honey on the outside, as it should be. They were busy and a bit aggravated at what was going on, and rightly so, but they weren't aggressive, thankfully. Here are a couple of pictures of who this years little crew.