Hive Visit: May 30

I visited the hives again this weekend. It had been a full week since I had bothered them and I was anxious to see what they had done in my absence. I quickly saw that both hives were able to finish their entire feeder of syrup. I took this as both a sign of their strength, and my negligence. I need bigger feeders.

And I finally had the stones to take my gloves off long enough to take some pictures. As my bravery increases, the pictures should improve.

Hive A

The best news of the week is that Hive A has rid itself of ants. I should have known that Queen Latifah wouldn’t stand for that crap. As you can see in the picture above, there are plenty of bees on 3 frames, and they are moving on to the next frame on the right. Hive A is filling up cells with eggs as well as lots of nectar/sugarwater. What you can’t easily see is how much pollen the bees are bringing back on their legs. Many of the bees have little balls of yellow, orange or even red pollen stuck to their legs. This suggests good foraging from a number of different types of flowers. One last thing you can see in the picture is that I didn’t push my frames tightly together, allowing for some wild comb production in the too-wide space.

Hive B

The worst news of the week is that the ants that fled Hive A have apparently set up shop in Hive B. Lifting the outer lid was like lifting a log off the ground to find an ant colony. I pulverised as many as I could, and will hope the bees can take care of the rest. But apart from that, the colony looks strong: lots of eggs and larva and nectar and pollen. The bees have started producing comb on the frames to the right and left of the original 3 frames, and are even starting to reach one further on the right side.

Treatments and Feedings
Filled feeders for both hives with 2-1 sugar syrup.

Thoughts
One of the trickiest parts of beginner beekeeping is that I have no idea how strong the hive is supposed to look. They look good to me, but should they look better? Would I have twice as many bees if I did something differently? There are simply too many variables, and my natural inclination is to start adjusting all of them right away. Increased patience is one of my personal beekeeping goals.

One thing I may try however is cutting down some more trees to increase the sunlight that the hives receive. I’ve been surprised how late in the day the bees start flying, but how late into the evening they continue. Increased morning sun might wake the lazy bums earlier. Or maybe my bees are just night owls. I tried to find a location for the hives that was open to sun but shielded from wind. I may have favoured the latter too much. Next week a chainsaw becomes a beekeeping tool.

To-do List
Look into getting bigger feeders.
Remember to smoosh the frames together tightly.
Maybe cut down some more trees.