Sunday, June 30, 2013
Swarm Cells
Swarm cells can happen anywhere on the frame. Usually they are on the bottom of the frame, sometimes they are on the top bars, sometimes in the corner of the frames.
Moved some hives today
I moved two hives this morning and put my queen bank hives in another beeyard.
Woke up at 4 am to move the hives before the bees started to fly. I took advantage of the cool morning and all the bees were clustered and not flying. I tried a new product, a moving screen. This screen fit perfect on the bottom board and is easily pulled tight with a ratchet strap. I had the bottom board attached to the deep box with hive staples. So the move went fast and easy with no disasters.
Woke up at 4 am to move the hives before the bees started to fly. I took advantage of the cool morning and all the bees were clustered and not flying. I tried a new product, a moving screen. This screen fit perfect on the bottom board and is easily pulled tight with a ratchet strap. I had the bottom board attached to the deep box with hive staples. So the move went fast and easy with no disasters.
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Put the supers on
I was in Chaska at my day job and stopped for gas at the Kwiktrip on 212. They have some small Basswood trees and I noticed the flowers were just starting to open. On the drive home I saw yellow sweet clover blooming everywhere. The nectar flow is coming to hive near you so get ready.
We need some warm days and warm nights with no rain.
We need some warm days and warm nights with no rain.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Last reversal
I was out in my beeyard and most of my colonies that I had drawing comb have finished their job. I now have done a full reversal. Top box to the bottom, bottom box to the top. What this does is it puts the darkest comb on top and the bottom box more than likely has pollen stored in the frames.
When the main nectar flow starts the bees will fill the new top box of the hive with honey. That will be their winter food stores. The top box now has pollen in the comb. The bees will cover the pollen with honey. The bees move up into the top box usually in January. When the queen begins laying in the top box the bees would have uncapped and exposed the pollen under the honey. The bees will now have natural pollen to feed the brood in February. Also the bees move up on to dark comb much better than new white comb.
One last note, if a beekeeper goes out to do the last reversal and the top box is very heavy with honey it is too late to do the reversal and the hive should remain as it is.
When the main nectar flow starts the bees will fill the new top box of the hive with honey. That will be their winter food stores. The top box now has pollen in the comb. The bees will cover the pollen with honey. The bees move up into the top box usually in January. When the queen begins laying in the top box the bees would have uncapped and exposed the pollen under the honey. The bees will now have natural pollen to feed the brood in February. Also the bees move up on to dark comb much better than new white comb.
One last note, if a beekeeper goes out to do the last reversal and the top box is very heavy with honey it is too late to do the reversal and the hive should remain as it is.
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Catching a swarm
Bob Sitko put a bait hive up under his deer stand. The hive is about 8 feet off the ground. He had frames in the bait hive and used lemon grass oil as an attractant.
Lemon grass oil is also in ProHealth with also very attractive to the bees.
The bait hive was up for around a week. The pictures show it was a big swarm. He took the box down and had to put the bees in a two deep hive right away because there were so many bees.
Lemon grass oil is also in ProHealth with also very attractive to the bees.
The bait hive was up for around a week. The pictures show it was a big swarm. He took the box down and had to put the bees in a two deep hive right away because there were so many bees.
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