First Pollen!

The bees were bringing in their first pollen of the year. And these photos are from March 16th!


Mouse guards knocking pollen sacs off! Opps.

Opened the lid of a hive

Last year they started collecting pollen April 9th, and I thought that was earlier. It is going to be an interesting season!

That's another wrap!

Two weeks ago I put the wrap on the hives because the nights were consistantly chilly. For my two monster hives I pushed them together and put some R5 insulation all around but not in between the hives and then I wrapped it with some used tar paper. I also placed a box and shavings on top of their inner cover. These shavings should absorb any moisture that does not escape.

My monster hives(each gave 200lbs) are wrapped an ready for winter.

A few days later I also wrapped my 4 hives at my home. I used a 'bee cozy' wrap for each one and I put insulation on the inner cover. Mouse guards have been on all hives for several weeks now. A few days after putting on my last covers, this is what I woke up to! For the first time ever, I had my covers on before the first snow.

First snow with covers

 A few days later it was almost 10 deg during the day. I placed all of my syrup from cleaning up the feeders into a plastic bottom and my bees were cleaning it up.

Bees foraging on hardened syrup.

The bees are still busy during the day when it is around 10deg. But I think winter is on its way and they should enjoy their freedom while they can.

Hives with 'bee cozy' on ready for winter.

This signals the end of the season, there is nothing left for me to do but hope that my preperations will hold the bees through the winter. On clear winter days, I do take off the mouse guard and scape out the dead bees that may block the entrance.

Fall Time: Treatments done

It has been a busy summer extracting a lot of honey and preparing the girls for the fall. A few days ago there was a lot of action at the hives because it was a nice day.
These four hives have taken in more than 120 lbs of sugar in the form of 2:1 syrup(sugar:water). This is an incredible amount. Now the hives are really heavy, which is going to be good for winter survival.

Lots of activity

Some drones are still around?!

Took off my custom mouse guard to let the bees clean out.

Broken hive stand! Collapsed under 200+ lbs per hive.

Moldy Wax? Too much moisture in hive.

Since the hive stand collapsed in the summer, I think this caused both hives to have extra moisture. I fixed the stand and placed it on some cement blocks. These bees really worked hard this year.

Fixed the hive stand so that the hives are off the ground.

Sorry to my few readers for the excessively long time between posts. The outdoor work is almost done! All the treatments are done for my hives now and I will be wrapping them in the next weeks.

Winter! Mouse guard cleaning

See dead bees in snow!

It is just crazy to see how much time has gone by since I have posted. I am sorry for the disconnect. You can tell that it is winter time in the bee yard because there are so few articles in the newspapers about beekeeping! It is rather depressing. I suppose it gives us time to catch up on our magazine subscription reading.

Custom mouse guard: with bee bodies stuck in between the nails

For the last 2-3 weeks in my area we have had sub zero temperatures, meaning that the girls have not been able to get out of the hive and fly. This leaves a fairly big pile of dead bees waiting to be pulled out of the hive to clean up the hive. When there is a nice day(I typically do this twice per winter season), I take off the entrance reducer/mouse guard and clean the dead bees off the bottom board.

Scaped out dead bees

Moisture buildup

My side hive which I combined to make a two box hive right before winter, had a fair amount of moisture build up on the bottom board. To counter this moisture, I put a wood chip on the edge of the hive cover to allow more air to escape and be exchanged from the hive. When I removed the mouse guard to scrape out the dead bees, I noticed that there were some alive bees mixed in with the dead ones! That is because this is the only hive that I do not have a slatted rack for! Which would have allowed for an air space (which helps with moisture and allows the bees to hang lower in the hive).