A year with my bees

245

Comments

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin

    @tomandcara the bees in my area are all quite dark. There are some lighter colors in the mix but mainly dark.

    The Buckfast lines are mostly light and yellow in color.

    But even the commercial available bees have more or less the same color.

    When I see pictures of the American bees I am always wondering about the light colors 😉😁

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    @Jens I am a little jealous of your beautiful girls. Maybe because I read somewhere years ago that the dark bees were more resistant to varroa, or foul brood or something

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin

    @tomandcara 😁 my bees are unfortunately as receptive for Varroa as all other bees around here.

    But I understand what you mean. I get jealous to sometimes especially when I see a good big brood pattern or something similar

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin

    Have made the trip to the apiary once again.

    Everything fine. A lot of brood and a happy queen.

    In the below pic you can see the second or third set of brood next to the current set and larvae in different stages

    Remember the drone frame I put in the last time

    They are building drone comb and the queen is already laying in there

    So far so good not starting to store any honey but that is fine as the bloom is just starting

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    Beautiful pictures @Jens . Are you doing topbar hive keeping?

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin
    edited April 2020

    @Lisa K thanks 😊

    @tomandcara thanks 😊. No I use normal hives but thinking about starting a top bar just for fun and educational purposes for kids

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    @Jens then you are doing "normal" hives without using foundation? Now that's not "normal" here in the USA. Is that "normal" in Germany? My suggestion if you are going to tray a topbar hive, make it a longhive that has the same width and height as your "normal" hive. By the way, what is a typical hive type in Germany?

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin

    @tomandcara I use the Zander system. It differs some in the width and height from the Langstroth frames. But we have I think at least 5 different hive systems that all have different size frames and boxes.

    I have 2 deeps of brood with 20 frames out of which 19 have a wax foundation. In the top deep I have one frame without foundation in the second position from the outside. The bees will build drone cells in there and I cut this frame every 14 to 19 days and this way take out Varroa mites.

    And I have wax that is purely built by the bees and I sell this for making salves for quite some money 😁

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    @Jens thank you for the explanation. I agree about letting bees draw their of comb.

  • Debora Salmon
    Debora Salmon Posts: 14 ✭✭✭

    We recently discovered a beehive on our property! Our neighbor is a bee specialist with Texas A&M and came over and checked it out. He said it was active and okay👍 But the bees were a bit aggressive, probably due to not having been worked in a while. He is going to keep an eye on it for us and I hope to harvest honey when the time comes. Blessed

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin

    @Debora Salmon amazing to just find a bee hive on your property.

    Try to learn as much as you can from the bee keeper taking care of your hive.

    I guess we have three to six more weeks until we will have swarming season over here.

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin

    Today was once again bee day. Went to both apiaries and checked on my bees. A friend already had a swarm cell in one of his hives 😱

    So I thought I would better be safe than sorry and do a pre Easter check. The good thing first, no Easter eggs in the hives, no swarm cells.

    I check the honey frames first at this time of the year. A little bit was already in there so far so good.

    The next step is to open the hive between the two brood frames

    This way I can easily check for swarming tendency as in a two brood box hive the swarm cells are in 97% at the bottom of the upper frames. Here we had some drone brood build in between the two boxes.

    As you can see no swarm cells but the drone brood frame from last week is fully build (2.from right).

    Next I check the lower box for brood but in most hives the brood is only in the upper box. I put the second box back on top and start the inspection with the drone frame.

    As you can see fully drawn and partly capped in comparison to only a small one the last week. Remember this frame is without foundation. Notice the bigger cells?

    Next I go through the remaining frames and check for brood and if everything is good.

    As you can see a pretty brood nest topped up with some honey. Oh and don't bee fooled the "empty" cells either have eggs or small brood.

    Last thing is the cover frames those are usually honey and pollen.

    And as you can see the honey tastes really good fresh from the hive.

    OH and I spotted the queen also I do not search for her as long as there are eggs present.


  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    @Jens Great pictures as usual. Fun to watch your year progress.

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin
    edited April 2020

    @tomandcara thanks ☺️

    I hope I stay on this throughout the year. Have tried to take pictures throughout the last year already but either forgot to take a camera or if I brought it I forgot to take pictures. With my new phone it's easier as the camera is really good and I have it with me most of the time. Reduces the opportunity for flaw by half 😁

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    I for one, will continue "watching" your hives through your postings here. It actually is inspiring to me @Jens . What kind of phone do you now have? The pictures are wonderful?

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin

    @tomandcara I have a Huawei P Smart something phone. Had an old LG but my daughter got the Huawei for birthday and it was so much better for taking pictures that I decided to get one myself.

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin

    Two days ago I got a little present for myself

    A queen rearing set, a grafting tool and bee paint in this year's color.

    So ready to start some queen rearing soon.

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin

    Yesterday was bee day. I went to one of my apiaries. The second one will follow on Monday.

    I did check for swarm cells by lifting the upper brood box.

    As you can see there is one possible swarm cell on the fourth frame. It indeed had an egg laid in it so I took apart the whole colony in search for additional cells but found none.

    To break the swarm impulse I made a split by taking out one frame of capped brood with some eggs and young larvae

    Added a frame with foundation and one frame with honey and pollen in one box with the brood frame adjectant to the box wall.

    Fixed with push pins so they cannot slide during transport I closed the new hive up

    And brought it to my other apiary for it to rear a queen on their own.

    I opened the entrance only one bee wide to prevent robbing and I will only check them again in 21 days when the new queen should have start laying.

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin

    @Lisa K thanks, I am always astonished how fast they grow in spring.

    Good to hear your wild hive is doing well. Looking forward to see some pics once your computer is once again friends with the forum 😉😁

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    @Lisa K Yes Please post some pictures when your camera and computer come to a peaceful resolution of their differences.


    @Jens Have you done splits before? Keep us posted on if the split prevents a swarm. I haven't tried splits in awhile because I just have been hanging on for the last few years with time for my bees while taking care of my mother. She is 98 and has been in a care facility since December, so I have more time for bees this year. Even more time with the covid shut down of my chiropractic office at this time.

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin

    I do this kind of split routinely each year and have this way approximately 3 splits from each hive. This is a quite effective way to slow the swarming impulse down as long as you in addition add some room like honey boxes.

    By doing such small splits you can still harvest a good honey crop from the hive.

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    Thanks for the picture @Lisa K

    @Jens Glad to hear that it is working for you. Checked my 2 hives today. No good pictures :=( but colonies are looking better that when I last checked them on 1 April. No swarm cells and brood is building. Put in some extra topbars on 1 April and those had new brood comb, put in some bar extra bars in the brood area again today.

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin

    @tomandcara it's good to hear that your hives are doing well. Now is the time of the year when the hives start to flourish or even explode. Building comb on their own requires the bees to have a good flow this can slow them down.

    Do you put the bars on the edge of the brood nest or directly in?

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I don't keep bees, but I am careful to provide food and protection for them in my yard.

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin

    @shllnzl food and protection is a really good way to support the bees especially the native solitary bees. These are the bees most in danger.

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin

    I have been to my second apiary today making inspections for swarming.

    No swarming so far although some hives have 16 to 18 frames with brood 😱😁😉

    Have taken out 9 frames of mostly capped brood from different hives as a means of swarm control and put them all in one box.

    These bees are now without a queen and have been brought to my other apiary. They will start to produce queen cells and all capped brrod will hatch in the meantime. I will be back to the hive next week and remove all queen cells. Then I will give them a rack with grafted larvae and rear my own set of queens.

    In addition I cut the drone frame which was capped in three hives.

    I will melt these tomorrow and get some pure bees wax from it for making salves and lip balm.

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    @Jens I actually put the empty bars between bars with brood. Yes. it slows them down, but I really am trying to prevent them from being too crowded and deciding to swarm. Your pictures are beautiful

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin

    @tomandcara yes that is a good idea. If the bees have plenty of room and are busy building comb they will less likely swarm.

  • Jens the Beekeeper
    Jens the Beekeeper Posts: 651 admin

    Here is the not so brilliant part of beekeeping, melting drone brood.

    This is two frames worth of comb and now it goes into the pot I have customly bought for this procedure. Do not use any pot from your kitchen you will not get it clean afterwards.

    As I could not find the camping stove I had to do this very carefully in the kitchen. Be sure not to spill anything unless you want to be killed by your partner.

    Bring the mixture to a boil.

    As you can see the wax melts and separates the drone larvae from the comb.

    In the meantime tie a woman trouser closed on the legs and put the resulting sieve over the opening of a big bucket.

    Pour rhe boiling mixture into the bucket and be sure not to spill any of it.

    Rinse with plain boiling water and remove the trouser with the leftover.

    You now have a suspension of water, fine debris and wax. The wax will float to the top and then harden. Tomorrow I will lift the clean wax of the water and put away for later use.

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    @Jens Are you familiar with Apilarnil?