Package Hive Queen 05/30/2009


Swarm Hive Queen 05/30/2009

Billy's Bee Blog

"Backyard Beekeeper"

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Collected Another Swarm
By Billy - 8/11/2009 Patty and I collected another swarm on Sunday Aug 9th. I was called Saturday, we went over to and checked it out. Once again the swarm was only about a mile from my place, but in the other direction. The bees were in a tree about 18 feet up from the ground. We decided to setup a NUC with a few a frame of honey and brood nearby and come back in the morning to collect them. Sunday we went over about 9am, the bees had not moved into the NUC. (I just could not get that lucky). The home owner had left there extension ladder in the driveway for me, as my ladder would not have reach that far. Patty held the ladder while I climbed up and sawed the branch. About 1/3 came off while I was cutting, not to bad. Shook most of the bees into the cardboard NUC I had along, quite a bit of them landed on the ground around the NUC. It was amazing watching the bees on the ground marching up to and into the NUC. The made a "BEE LINE" right for it. (Sorry could not help myself) We left for a few hours to let the bees settle down.
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More Ants
By Billy - 7/29/2009 When I removed the bottom board from the hives I expected that to take care of the ant problem. No such luck --- They just moved upstairs. The ants are now nesting between the inner and outer lids. Every time I open the top there are ants and brood there. Thinking about it I can understand there point of view, Warm, Dry, and plenty of sugar syrup in the hive top feeder.
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Ants - Second Deep - Green Drone frames
By Billy - 6/24/2009 Busy day here yesterday, I pulled the bottom boards out of both hives. The package hive has just a slide in mite check board, but the swarm hive has a pull out tray. I opened both hives to increase ventilation. When I pulled the tray out of the swarm hive, it was full of ants. The big black ones build a brood nest at the bottom of my hive. I can't see into the package hive do to the type of board, but I bet they are there to. I will be thinking about what to do about ants for the next couple of days. The 4 green drone comb frames I ordered arrived yesterday. They are part of a "Integrated Pest Management program" for varroa mites. I decided to added a drone frame to each hive and add the second brood box to the swarm hive. I numbered the frames 1-4. Frame #1 is in the bottom box of the package hive. Frame #2 is in the bottom box of the swarm hive. Frames #3 & #4 are on the shelf for latter. Patty and I were wiring up more frames last night, but ran out of wire. Need to get a spool this weekend. May need frames for a honey super soon.
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Smoked myself
By Billy - 6/22/2009 The entire house smells like smoke. I left the smoker light just outside the back door and left the door open.
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Still Buzzing along
By Billy - 6/22/2009 Both colonies are still growing and going strong. The package bees building out comb in the send brood box faster than i expected. I need to get a honey super ready this week, don't know yet how soon I will need it but it looks like they are getting close. The swarm hive is a couple of weeks behind the package, but they are catching up. As of today there is only one frame with no comb built on it. One that has comb on one side and the other 7 are front and back with comb. I move the one with no comb more to the center of the box to encorage the bees to build on it. Tonight I need to work on getting the second brood box ready, just need to install foundation on the frames. I think I might be addign it this weekend.
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Stung
By Billy - 6/15/2009 It finally happened, took 6 weeks, but yes I was stung yesterday. I was filling the syrup feeder on the package hive, one one of the girls got me in the leg. They seem to be more agressive since I expanded the hive to two brood boxes. I think the change in the hive may have upset them. So for the next couple of weeks I will suit up any time I do anything at the hive.
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No Free Bees
By Billy - 6/12/2009 The other day I got a call about a swarm in a mans yard, after work Patty and I headed out to see if we could capture the swarm. About 1/2 way there the man called to tell me that the swarm had just left. So no free bees that night.
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Two Story Bee Condo
By Billy - 6/12/2009 My orginal package hive is now two stories high. Just added the second brood box today at lunch time. Of the 9 frams in the hive all but one had comb drawn on it. I moved the syrup feeder to the new box, moved 3 frames of brood to the center of the new box and back filled the openings in the orginal box with frames. I should have filled the syrup feeder while I was at it, but forgot to take syrup out with me. It was only an inch or two down so will be ok for a few days. This weekend Patty and I are going Suba Diving so today was the only day I had to work on the hive.
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Expanding the hive - Next week - I think
By Billy - 6/8/2009 Adam and I inspected the hives Sunday. Things are just buzzing along. Both hives are growing fast. I expect to be adding a second brood box to the package hive next weekend. Maybe to both. The swarm hive looks like it is catching up to the package hive quickly. The number of frames built out and the amount of capped brood doubled over the last week. Patty too a few pictures of Adam assisting me. The neighber kids stood over by the fence to watch. I am still sting free. (no one got stung this weekend at all) We did not spot the queens, next week I will take a bit more time and look for them.
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To Bee or Not to Bee
By Billy - 6/4/2009 I spotted what I thought might be queen cells on the package hive. Had me worried, were they going to swarm? were they going to replace the queen? Sent photos of the cells to barry, turns out they are drone cells. Nothing to worry about. The bees are takeing lots of syrup, I am having to fill the feeders every couple of days. I spent the last couple of nights working on frames, I have a brood box ready to go, and a second one almost ready. I will need one for the package hive soon. My garden was raided yesterday, something eat all the leaves off my egg plant. Did not touch anything else just the egg plant.
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I inspected the hive over the weekend,
By Billy - 6/1/2009 I inspected the hive over the weekend, I actuly got to see a bee eating its way out of a brood cell in the package hive. Could see the antina sticking out and the wax beeing eaten away from th inside. I did not want to keep the hive open to long so I did not wait to see it crawl out of the cell, But from the number of empty cells that were caped last week, I had a number of births this week.* Both hives are taking syrup, the swarm hive is taking it about twice as fast * Found both queens * Both hives have eggs and larva * The swarm hive seems to be putting up honey made from the sugar syrup - found lots of capped honey cells along the top of some of the frames I need to get frames built this week, I will soon have to put the second brood box on the package hive. Might as well assemble the frames for the other brood and the two honey suppers I have.As of yet I am not satisfied with the laying of the swarm queen. I will check again next weekend and make up my mind about replacing her then. Patty got stung again. This time it was not one of my bees but it was on the same finger. She was getting into her car and a wasp got her. Week 4 for me and not one sting.
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Found both Queens
By Billy - 5/25/2009 - 1 Replies Yesterday, Adam (Patty's 15 year old son) and I checked both the orginal hive and the wild swarm hive. This is Adam's first time there when I open the hives. He was nervus but handled a few frames, drew the line at handling a frame covered with bees. We checked both hives and spotted both queens. The bees are taking syrup from the new in hive feeders, in 24 hours they half emptied the 1 gal feeder in both hives. That is more syrup than they took in 3 weeks from the hive top feeder. Patty came out to watch, she ended up with a bee in her hair, and stung on her finger.
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Hived the Swarm last night
By Billy - 5/23/2009 Last night after I got home from my Son’s Wedding rehearsal I moved the wild swarm from the cardboard NUC into a permanent hive. I figured that if I did not do it last night it would not get done until Next week. On my way to the rehearsal I stopped over at Barry’s store to pick up a few things, purchased 3 in hive feeders, (the bees have not been taking syrup from the top feeder) some frames and foundation. Barry also had an x-large full bee keeping coverall with attached veil. Much better than what I was using. From the original package hive I pulled one of the partially combed frames, put in an in hive feeder. Moved the comb I took out to the new wild hive. I figured this would give them a leg up on starting the hive as they have some comb that there queen can start laying in right away. Time to get moving to today is my Son’s Wedding and Patty is the DJ.
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Wild Swarm
By Billy - 5/22/2009 I captured a wild swarm this morning. The other day I posted an add on craigslist looking for swarms. I have never actualy seen a swarm only hived bees. The first two calls I got were for bees in tree hollows, the next call was a guy he has an old house that has honey dripping out of one of the pillers on his front porch. The last one was a for a swarm that had flown into a tree in her front yard that morning.
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Honey Bees are clumsy
By Billy - 5/21/2009 I got a call yesterday from a man who had a bee swarm in a tree in his back yard and wondered if I could do anything about it. He was not sure if they were Honey Bees or not. By the time Patty and I could get out to his place it was dark so I took a spot light. Shinned the light up into his tree, but did not see a swarm. What I saw was a hollow in the tree. A couple of bees crawled out to investigate the light. So I was able to identify them as Honey Bees. While I had the spot light on them, a couple of bees took flight, but as soon as the hit the outside of the light they stopped flying and tumbled to the ground. I have also observed the bees coming in for what looked like a crash landing at the hive. Actually flipping over on there backs when they land. Many times they land on other bees as well, or even miss the entry platform at the hive entirely and up on the ground. Yes Honey Bees are Clumsy.
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Sugar Syrup
By Billy - 5/18/2009 For some reason my bees did not seem to taking the sugar syrup. Any time I would check there were no bees in the feeder. According to Barry they should be taking a quart a day, but the level syrup in my hive top feeder had not dropped at all. Friday May 15th, I removed and cleaned the feeder. Made a new batch of 1to1 syrup and filled the feeder Saturday. Yesterday when I checked there were a number of bees up in the feeder, so maybe they are taking it now.
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Observations
By Billy - 5/13/2009 A few random thoughts and observations. The bees seem to be mainly collecting 3 different pollens, a light cream color, a darker yellow color, and orangeish (is that a word) color pollen. I have a number of flowering plants in my yard but the bees do not seem to be collecting pollen off of them. I have seen a few bees on the honeysuckles but the azaleas only seem to have bumble bees no honey bees. Talking to my neighbor, she thinks they be going over to Robert Morris University (about 1/4 mile) they have plenty of flowering plants on campus.
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Hive Inspection May 9th 2009
By Billy - 5/11/2009 I inspected the hive over the weekend, and took pictures of the frames. Things are looking good, I was able to find the queen and looks like I got a goot picture of her as well. The bees are busy building out comb, storing nectar and pollen. I was not able to determin if the queen has started laying eggs yet. Next time I inspect the hive I will take a pair of magnifer glasses out with me to get a better look.
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Checking on the Queen
By Billy - 5/6/2009 I opened the hive today to check on the Queen, her cage was empty. The bees have been busy building comb. The bees have started building comb on about 1/3 of the center two frames. Both the front and back sides. I removed the empty queen cage and slid the frames together replacing the 10th fame on the back side of the hive. I will wait at a week to 10 days before I open the hive again. Tomorrow I will check the sticky pad at the bottom of the hive for mites.
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Bee Day
By Billy - 5/4/2009 I picked up my bees this morning. Just had a break in the weather so I was able to hive the bees today. I must say that your first time working with bees is an exciting.
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Set up the Bee Yard
By Billy - 4/30/2009 Yesterday I put a a couple of fence pieces and warning signs by the hive. While I don't expect the fencing to keep the deer out, I am hopeing that it will direct them around the hive. Also the signs are there in case any of the kids in the area cut through the back of my property. Better to be save than sorry. I also mixed up a batch of syrup so when the bees arrive on Monday I am ready to start feeding them. Bee day is coming soon....
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Beaver Valley Area Beekeepers Association
By Billy - 4/27/2009 Patty and I attended a meeting of the "Beaver Valley Area Beekeepers Association"
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Another Delay on the Bees
By Billy - 4/20/2009 Received another email from Barry over the weekend. The bee packages will not be in until May 4th. Here is what barry said "....I'm truly sorry for this but, the weather and bees are not co-operating very well this year" We those bees had better get Busy. Since I have not bees to work with, I went to my brother's and dug up horseraddish. Dug up a bucket of roots to transplant and a couple of nice ones that I ground up last night. Made a small jar of horseraddish with a nice flaver and a kick to it you don't get in a store bought jar.
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Hive status and landscaping
By Billy - 4/16/2009 The hive is almost ready, just need to do a little touch up on some of the paint, and finish assembling the frames. I spent most of today out back doing landscaping were I am planning on putting the hive. There was a large brush pile form last year that had to be moved. I also assembled a stand out of treated 2x3s I had and cinder blocks. As soon as I level the area out back I will put the stand, and setup the hive. Need to get it finshed the 27th is coming fast and the weather has not been good for working outside. Today on the other had is Sunny and 60.
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The Cost of BeeKeeping
By Billy - 4/15/2009 I added a page with a summary of what it has cost me so fare. Including a couple of books, the hive, tools that will be dedicated for beekeeping and the bee startup package.
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Backyard Beekeeping
By Billy - 4/14/2009 I picked up a copy of the book Backyard Beekeeping last night at borders books. Mostly for the great color photos in it. Patty has a 4 year old neice and I wanted to show her the pics, so that she knows were the honey comb in the kitchen came from I found my old electric nail gun last night, comes in handy when you have frames to assemble. I Put 5 together before I ran out of nails. Will do more of them tonight. The Hive has two coats of gray primer on it, will put the first coat of white paint tonight
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Bees will be late
By Billy - 4/13/2009 Just got word from Barry that do to the cool wet weather the bees will not be ready for pickup until April 27th. This is actualy good as it will give me another week to get things ready. I was feeling a bit uneasy about having everthing ready for the 20th considering Easter, and the 18th is The weading shower for my Son's feince. Then on the 19th I am driving up to Indiana PA to dig out some horseradish root to transplant at my place. Guess you could say that I am as busy as a bee myself. This will give me the weekend of the 25th with nothing to do but finish setting up for the bees.
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Bee Hive assembly
By Billy - 4/13/2009 April 12th, I spent part of the weekend assembling the hive. Glueing, nailing and put the first coat of primer on. Should have the hive ready by the end of the week.
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Bees on Order
By Billy - 4/13/2009 April 9th, I drove to Chicora, PA. A little over an hour from my place to buy a hive and order bees. Leicher Family farms is the local distributer for Mann Lake http://www.mannlakeltd.com. Berry Leicher will be driving south next weekend and coming back with a hundred or so bee packages.
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Beekeeping for Dummies
By Billy - 4/13/2009 April 1st 2009 -I was on a trip to Harrisburgh PA, with nothing to do one night I went to Borders Books and purchased three books. Two Sci-Fi paper backs and "Beekeeping for Dummies'. Beekeeping was one of the things that I had an interest in when I was young but never had an opertunity to do. Now that I have a place of my own, and some (not alot) of free time I decided to do it. Beekeeping for Dummies will be my "bible" for this project.
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[]

Late Summer Swarm
collected 8/9/2009


Patty and me
Each holding a frame of Bees

                  May 4th 2009   -> Hive 1
                  Purchased Package of Bees

                  May 28th 2009 -> Hive 2
                  Swarm Captured


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