It's been a good Spring so far

Is been a busy Spring but it's really been good over all.  My two packages of Russian bees came a week early at the end of March.   A couple days later we had several days of below freezing weather.   I managed to take some comb from the KTBH and wire it into my new Warre hive so the bees would have some place to stay warm. I put syrup on the KTBH and the Warre but I was afraid they wouldn't be able to get to it so I made some fondant and put it on both hives,  too.  I also wrapped the Warre with insulation and threw a blanket on the KTBH.

I was really kind of proud of how I fixed the fondant in the KTBH.  First, I put the fondant in a plastic sandwich bag and cut one end off.   Then, I tapped a small nail into the top of a bar next to where the queen cage would be.   Finally,  I hung the bag on the nail with the open edge facing the cage and cluster. The fondant was just the right size to fit between the comb. That way the cluster didn't have to move to get to the food.

When I opened the hive to see if the queen was released,  the heat came pouring out of the hive, so I knew they were fine.   The Warre came out fine, too.  The problem with the Warre was that the comb I wired on had become brittle because of the cold.  The comb,  and the queen cage,  fell to the bottom.  The queen and the bees survived but weren't very happy.  My biggest issue with my Warre hive is that it was so cold when I got the bees that I couldn't get in and check on them much.  With top bar hives it is very important to monitor the comb building often for cross comb especially if there is no existing comb for them to follow.

You basically need to check it every few days to a week at first.   If the comb isn't straight you need to remove it and press it back on straight. Ideally, you will do this before the comb is more than a couple inches long. In my case, because of the weather,  I didn't make it into the hive until the whole first box was full. Now it is a cross comb mess.  I'm going to have to let it be rather than destroy all of their work.  They now have three full boxes (of cross comb) and I will need to add another box this weekend.

The KTBH is going terrific so far.  It had a lot of comb left over from the colony I lost this winter.   This colony has now expanded to fill the entire hive with the exception of three empty bars that I added tonight.   Now I'll have to keep checking it and either pull bars of honey to make room or end up making a split.   I'll keep you posted.

Now that I'm caught up on working the hives,  building a house for our new ducks, and planting a few bee-friendly flowers I'll have more time to post.

The bees have arrived

I was going to make a joke about being like Crimea since the russians arrived, but couldn't make the joke come out right.  In any case,  my packages came in on Saturday.  It was a wonderful day around 70F.  The bees went in rather  uneventfully and I got the hives put back together.

Things changed a little later when my brother and I went to his house to install his packages.  (He has two Warre hives.)  The wind picked up to about 20 mph.  I stood next to the hives as he dumped them in to try to block the wind.   Of course the wind was from a cold front that was moving through.

Yesterday the temperature was in the forties and today it was in the thirties. Since I knew it was going to be cold,  I put fondant in plastic bags and hung them between the bars of comb in the Kenyan top-bar hive next to the queen cage.  It worked out well because when I went into the hives today to pull the cork from the queen cages the KTBH was really warm.

I'm a little concerned about the Warre hive because the comb that I had wired up fell along with the queen cage.  I pulled the cork out and set the cage next to the cluster,  so she may be okay. 

The bees are coming!

This week I was informed that the bees I had ordered were coming a week early.  That happens to be next weekend.  I was expecting March 29.  The problem is that it has been and still is pretty cool up here in Maryland.  Not so in Georgia where my bees are being packaged for their trip here.

I still have to finish preparing my hives for the packages when they arrive.  I finally got around to cleaning out my Kenyan top-bar hive this weekend.  It's either been too cold or I've been too busy to deal with it.  This is what I saw when I opened it:

All the bees were huddled around each other trying to stay warm.  Unfortunately, they couldn't reach the food that I gave them and didn't have enough energy to keep themselves moving and died.

The cluster was mainly on some old Langstroth frames that I had cut down and the comb was getting pretty dark so I just through it out.  I also took out a bar with brood comb on it (the darker color) and gave it to my brother so that he could put it in his Warre hives when his packages come--the same time as mine.

I consolidated the bars with comb, left around four empty bars at the end before the follower board, and then closed it up.  The four empty bars are so I can put a jar feeder inside the hive with the bees.  I could leave the hive the way it is, but I wanted to replace the bottom screen.  Looks like I may not have time.

My Warre hive still needs its screened bottom and the cloth to go over the top set of bars.  Then I need to notch the ends of the top bars so that I can remove them easily (since I will use a nail at each end to keep the bars from sliding side-to-side).  With snow tomorrow and freezing rain on Wednesday, it looks like Thursday and Friday will be my only chances to get it done.

I'm glad I'm getting my bees earlier than last year, but I wasn't prepared for this early.  I guess I've learned my lesson.

Sad news

Looks like the bees didn't make it.  We've been having a few really cold days over the past few weeks, and I doubt that the bees had enough food stored away in the comb to hold them over.  I did have some fondant in there to try to keep them going, but it didn't help.

When I found out that they didn't make it, it was kind of like a friend passing away.  I enjoyed checking on them and seeing them flying on warm days.  The only thing I can do now is try to figure out what went wrong, and try to keep it from happening this year.

Good luck with your bees, and I hope you have better fortune than I with overwintering.

Beehive in January

My hive in January.  The boards leaning against it are from when I moved it. They are supposed to make the bees reorient themselves so they can find their way home.

I'm planning for the new year, and I'd like to host two more colonies this year.  They will probably be two Warre People's Hives.  I'm not giving up my Kenyan top-bar hive.  I haven't had any big issues with it, and the observation window has really been helpful with beginning beekeeping.  The People's Hive is another type of top-bar hive designed by Abbe Emile Warre, so it is in keeping with my current beekeeping method.

Now, my current issue is where to get the colonies.  I could try making a split in the spring--that's if my current colony survives.  I'd really like to let my current colony be and get a couple packages.  Those couple packages would ideally come with locally raised/mated queens, so if anyone knows of a good source in the Maryland area, please leave me a note.  And if those packages come with Russian queens, even better.  I'll let you know what happens.

For anyone out there thinking of starting beekeeping this year, a lot of bee suppliers just started taking orders, and they have limited supplies.  So, now is the time to be planning:  finding a local beekeeping club, signing up for a class, researching getting equipment and bees, etc.

Not much new here.  The temperature reached the 50s (F) again this past week and the bees took to the air.  I feel a little relief every time I see them flying.  They had a hard summer this year just getting started (and their host just getting started, too).  I will be keeping an eye on the temperature and whenever it gets up in the 60s again, I'll be adding another cake of fondant.  So far, so good.