Pollen finally arrives

The weather has been cold and rainy all year. There has not been many days for the bees to get out and forage. But finally there has been a couple of +10C days.

Bees have found a pollen source!

Seeing the bees collect pollen is a very welcomed sight.

Dead Hive: Autopsy report & Queen sandwich

 Last weekend I was finally able to take apart and clean the 'starved' out hive at my farm. To say it was depressing is an understatement.

The population of the hive seemed massive. Oddly enough the bees on the frame were not down in the cells like I had suspected a starved out hive to be. I was trying very hard to find the queen and I knew it was like finding a needle in a haystack. I was very curious as to how far she made it in the starvation. Would the bees keep feeding her until the last drop of honey was consumed? I found a frame that had a sandwich of bees on it.

The last stand: See queen marked with blue near center.

 I was amazed to find that they had kept the queen alive until the very end. This is most definitely a depressing sight, but amazing none the less. There was no honey left at all in this hive.

Popular Science: Bee Hacker

An electrical engineer who develops software for a living and who is also backyard beekeeper has come up with a technology that can help beekeepers monitor their hives. He runs a website called BeeHacker.com. He has designed several in-hive DIY projects such as: an accoustic recorder, humidity measurement and a scale to weigh the hive. His goal is to create opensource software that other enthusiasts can use to start collecting and sharing information about your hives. If you possess some unique skills and can add to his tools, I would strongly recommend visiting his site.

Popular Science Article:

PopSci: Bee Hackers helping bees

Spring Report: The good, the bad and the ugly

We have had a tough winter this year in South Western Ontario. It seemed as though it would never end. I was able to check my hives I am rather disappointed in what I found.
It is that time of the year again where you hope that all of your fall preparations will have paid off and that your bees are in great condition, ready for the next season. I have started feeding 1:1 sugar syrup to the bees to renew some of their stores so that they do not starve out before there is a nectar flow.

Hive top feeder

Today I have also started feeding them pollen pattys to encourage laying by the queen. This will get them to start building up their numbers again in preparation for the honey flow.

Pollen pattys placed under hive top feeder.

 There has been several nice days in a row now, which has allowed the bees to get out of the hives and clean up the inside of their hives. Bellow is a picture of the activity in front of my smallest hive.

Small hive activity on a nice day

 The side hive is shown bellow. They seem to have a bigger population. They also seemed to be a bit cranky. I got stung already this season for snooping around without my veil and gloves on.

Busy hive entrance on a nice day

Mystery spring flower. Any suggestions?

This is my third season as a beekeeper and I had not lost a hive until now. My 'monster' hive; which was my primary source of my honey last year has died. At first I did not know the reason. But after cleaning it out the other weekend I realized what went wrong. I designed and installed an alternate hive top ventilation box on this hive and it went horribly wrong. Based on moisture that I found in the hive and in that box, it appears as though the box filled up with blown in snow and then when it got warmer, it dripped and soaked the bees in the hive. This is a terrible shame. They still had 6 full frames of untouched honey left! Thousands of dead bees. I am quite disappointed in my loss.
On the other spectrum, the hive beside is doing phenomenal. I have never seen such as strong hive in the spring time; especially after such a harsh winter! I will have to make my replacement queens from this hive.

Big hive with lots of activity

I will continue to feed and monitor my hives. I hope the warmish weather is here to stay a bit, because the bees really need it to get better.