Mountain Rose Herbs

Found a fantastic site to purchase my shea butter! They also have white sage bundles and sweetgrass braids!! Lots of essential oils, incense, spices, tea, etc. They are having a terrific giveaway also. Check out their blog! Very cool!


http://mountainroseblog.com/giveaway1/#comment-468

On May 28,2010

I am posting this late. We returned home from a vacation in the UP. I noticed something was not right in one of our hives... the foundationless one. Posted the following on Bee Source:

Got back from a week away and noticed right away that something wasn't right with one of our hives. Took a look inside and discovered that we have laying workers. A few capped drone cells and lots of cells with multiple eggs.
Now, what to do? Is it worth it to try to replace the queen? Is there anything I can do to make them accept her? Or should I shake it and try to find a nuc? If I can't find a nuc or a package, then I would like to at least try to requeen before I give up on it for the year. This is our first year of beekeeping and I figure it is all a learning experience.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

I ended up shaking the queenless hive in front of the queenright hive. The next day I put the deep from that hive onto the queenright hive. Now we have one hive with 3 deeps. Still feeding.

June 16, 2010

Started the day with 3 deeps and the entrance reducer on the larger setting. Still had sugar water on.

Reversed the 2 bottom boxes (both with Pierco plastic frames), and put our first honey super on (with Pierco plastic frames, white). No more feeding. Took the entrance reducer off. Everything is looking good. Lots of brood. Capped honey. No swarm or supercedure cells.

I hated to mess with them, but I knew I needed to learn from them. I can't see through the boxes so I torn their world apart and put it back together.

I don't really care about getting honey for ourselves this year. I just didn't want to go on vacation and leave them with no room. The top two boxes were at least 80% drawn out. The bottom box was only 70%. Now it is the middle box so I hope they start drawing it out more.

At any rate, I think they should have enough to get by until we get back from vacation.

Did our second hive inspection today. The hive with the Pierco foundation is doing well, but the second box we put on has a lot of cross comb. I think they are confused about where they are supposed to build. Otherwise, things are looking good. They were in a much better mood today, for certain. I didn't get stung either :)

The foundationless hive isn't ready for a second box yet. Looks like a lot of brood has hatched and they are cleaning the cells out. I believe in the end they might do much better. We shall see. They seem to be taking their time but being much more organized, if that makes sense.

Will post pictures later.

It has been fairly cold and rainy the past few days. I am a little worried about the bees. I hope they are okay. There were a few dead bees outside the hive a few days ago when this weather came in.

First Hive Inspection!

We opened both hives for the first time today. 23 days after hiving them. We started at 5pm. Some weather was supposed to be moving in but it was actually closer than I had thought. Wind was fairly calm. Smoker was working well for the first time.

We took a look in the hive with foundation first. There were a few bees that seemed to be a little aggressive. Maybe it was my nervousness or that of my husband's. Or it could have been the weather moving in? Seven frames were completely drawn out. I didn't pull out every frame. The first 3 had nothing. The 4th one had uncapped honey. The next one had uncapped brood and the next one had some drone brood. We took the frame of uncapped honey and put it in the middle of a new deep and put it on. Also decided to open the entrance reducer a little. Had my first sting from this hive today.

The second hive is the one that has no foundation. It was about halfway drawn out. This hive also had a third to a half of syrup water left in one bucket. The other hive had none, pretty much. I pulled one frame to inspect then put it back. I decided not to mess with them too much. I There was no cross comb that I could see. Looks like the hive is about 50% drawn out. These bees seemed to be more docile. Will plan on giving them another week or so and then maybe adding another deep.

First Hive Inspection

 

 

 

 

Took the outer cover off the hives for the first time today. Wanted to check to make sure they had plenty of food. Didn't touch the inner cover. Both hives had taken 1/3 to 1/2 of the first gallon that had fumigilin-B. I took the 2 cans from the packages out and put another gallon each on. This had Honey B Healthy in it. They were very calm. didn't act like they were concerned about me being there at all. Couldn't see into the box through the hole in the inner cover. All I could see was a frame and bees.

I did take the cork out of the boxes for the feed. The side cork... the accident ;) It has been rather warm and I wanted to make sure they had enough ventilation. Probably in the 80's today.

Our bees arrived!! These are our first bees. Two 3# packages from Lapps. Italians. Just got here today from California. They were either packaged on the evening of the 7th or morning of the 8th.

The hive on the right has the foundation cut out of it. The hive on the left has Pierco plastic foundation and frame.
Both packages had a lot of syrup left in the cans.

There was a small cluster on the front of the hive on the left, and a small cluster in the box on the right. I wonder if they will make it. Sky is clear. It was 60ish when we packaged them. About 6:00pm just a few minutes after I got home with them.

One gallon of 1:1 with Fumagiliin B on top. And a pollen patty.

Good night girls!

Our bees arrived today!! Our first bees and the first time we have hived a package. Very interesting, indeed!!

 

The time has come.

Spoke to Jackie at Lapps and the bees should be her on Sunday, 4/11/10. Won't know for sure until they are almost here.

We cut the foundation out of the frames for one hive. Going to use frames only in one hive and the Pierco frames and foundation in the other. Will be an interesting experiment.

Still painting and getting ready. The bees are supposed to be here at the end of next week, but I am told that is an approximation of when they will be here. We won't know until the truck arrives. In the meantime, I think I should watch the video of hiving a package again. Maybe twice :)

I used just regular 'ol outdoor paint on the brood boxes. When I went to Home Depot to buy more paint for the supers, the gentleman said I needed to either prime the bare wood or get a paint that has the primer in it. So I got the paint that has the primer in it. Will see which paint lasts longest.

We had a fairly heavy frost last night. I need to get a weather station here so I can keep track of such things. Maybe a program for the computer to track data. I am such a geek.

Spring is here!

Welcome Spring 2010!! We've been waiting for you!

We have purchased 2 hives and ordered 2 three pound packages of bees to start our beekeeping experience. The bees are due to arrive April 9th. The brood boxes are assembled and painted but we still have a bit of work to do. And pictures to take!!

This blog is where we will document our experiences as new beekeepers to share with whoever may be interested, but mostly to keep a log for ourselves so we remember what we have done and tried :)

Happy Equinox!