Hive Visit: Sunday May 24

I visited the hives on the weekend for the first time since installation. Normally, I won’t be visiting (i.e. bothering) the bees more than once a week, but it is early days and I’m especially anxious. I want to make sure they are well fed and that I haven’t done anything to kill them all in the first couple days.

Hive A
Hive A has consumed about half a feeder worth of syrup. This seems pretty good to me, since bees are only little. The feeder holds 1.5 litres. In the good news department, I managed to spot the Hive A Queen. She seems healthy and active, and I now know that I didn’t kill her on day one. In the bad news department, Hive A is infested with ants – hundreds of little red ants. They seem especially interested in the sugar water that I spilled on the hive while filling the feeder and in the feeder itself. Seemingly ignorant of the ant problem, the bees are making wax. They have covered about half of the empty plastic frame with comb.

Hive B
Hive B has consumed two thirds of a feeder of syrup and seems determined to prove its dominance over Hive A. It has produced more new comb than Hive A, and clearly has more bees. Best of all, Hive B has no ants. I wonder if this is the cause of its apparent superiority or a result of it.

Treatments and Feedings
Both hive’s feeders topped up with 2:1 sugar syrup.
Tree chopped down to provide additional evening sun.

Thoughts
If you are thinking that this blog sucks without any photos, you are not alone. Next week I should be confident enough that I can take my gloves off for a minute or two and snap some pictures. At the very least, I’ll show you how silly I look in a bee suit.

I’m pretty pleased that I’ve got my bees in the hives, and the queens are alive and well. This was the first big test and it looks like I passed. The presence of the ants kind of pisses me off. It took less than a week to get my first infestation of something. There are worse problems than ants, but they are a problem nonetheless. We will see how the bees and I cope.