Bee Keeping

[short cut sally]

With the past few days being unusually warm and sunny, I decided to investigate the hives.
I got into my dad's hive first, I had to go back and get the smoker, they were a little on the irritated side to say the least. The top brood/honey storage box, was getting filled with pollen, and liquid gold, it was heavy and also filled with bees. The bottom brood box, was full of active bees. I found the queen. She's still healthy, lots of eggs and larvea filled the comb. They were so active it was amazing. They are really consuming the pollen patty and block of sugar that I put on the top of the hive frames.
I lifted the lid off of my hive, and noticed that they were all active on top. I didn't remove any frames, but I lifted the top box off and in the bottom box, there were empty frames, a few straggling bees here and there but no activity what-so-ever, but the bottom board was full of dead bees (I already cleaned them out once). I thought, not good. I've noticed they only are flying in and out from the top vent hole in the inner cover, and not using the entrance. So, my time frame didn't allow me to pull apart the top box of frames to see what they were doing or should I say, how poorly they might be doing. I was hoping as today was going to be nice and warm again, that I would be able to investigate my hive better, but it's so windy out that I'm not going to take any chances. Only time will tell. And here I thought for sure, they were gonna make it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they hang in there. They are all over the sugar block, but not really using it, but they are using the pollen patty.
Oh well, I keep everyone posted!

[short cut sally]

Well, I got to take the hive apart and do an inspection. There appeared to be lots of bees when I took the cover off, however, they were just at the top. There is only a handful left, and there is no queen. I looked twice thinking maybe I just missed her, nope, no queen. So they are doomed, if I had noticed sooner I would've been able to introduce a queen and maybe make things work. With it being the holiday weekend, and my work schedule, it would probably be too late by mid week to get a queen. I will have to make a phone call to see. It might be a pointless venture with so few bees to work with. Time will tell. Enjoy the day.

[tulip]

Sally, so sorry to hear about your hive! I'm glad your dad's is thriving. What can you do if it's too late to introduce a queen?

Lisa, your Mason Bees are really cool. I would love to keep bees, but I'm not sure that I can keep honeybees, as I was very allergic to the stings when I was younger. I keep an epipen with me, but i haven't been stung in decades, so I don't know if I still am allergic. Sometimes kids outgrow it, I've heard.

But I could keep Mason Bees (or at least provide them with tubes)!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

But I could keep Mason Bees (or at least provide them with tubes)!

Exactly. And you could feel good about helping our native bees.

Sally, I would take those leftover bees and do a 'newspaper combine' to put them in your healthy hive rather than just let them die off.
If you can get your good hive built up enough, you could just do a split.

[short cut sally]

Bleeker, I thought about doing the paper split to combine the dwindling hive, my husband did too. I should've done the paper split last week, to be honest, but then I thought, what if they were diseased by something, and I introduced something into the strong hive. Then I would be really upset. It was a 50/50 thing I debated about. They looked healthy but I'm a newbie at bees and maybe I'm missing something that I hadn't been exposed to yet. ( I did a couple of hive days last year with an experienced bee keeper who showed me different things but that was last year, and my memory goes empty at times like my cats food dish after he's been sleeping all day). The total bees last week might have covered one side of a frame, if that...it was a gamble, and still is a gamble.. I'll update when I go and visit the hive..thanks for the concerns everyone!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

My two new honeybee colonies arrived and I installed them into their two new hives yesterday. Very exciting! All went well, totally gentle bees and can't wait to see them fly today...supposed to hit 74F and sunny! Woo-HOOOOO!!!!
YES!!!!

[short cut sally]

Oh Bleeker, you will so enjoy them. I know I have.
To update on my hive that was essentially doomed. There is a shining star looking out for them yet. I see today that there are larvea in small to large stages, so I'm thinking maybe they made a queen. I inspected today and even though I didn't see one, there must be one. They had some spunk today too. It was too bad I used all my cornhusks and peanut shells for the smoker for my dad's bees. I'll know next time to take all the stuff in the bee yard with me instead of leaving it behind. My dad's bees are going great guns, I think I'll be adding another hive body on next week or so..they are like everywhere..