Some very tardy bee inspections.
Aug 27, 2016 20:45:12 GMT -5
rosalind, grammagrace, and 1 more like this
Post by Shawn on Aug 27, 2016 20:45:12 GMT -5
We have barely pulled any honey off this year. Only about 2 supers' worth. It's so hot and DH and I both have had serious heat related headaches, so we're both gun shy about getting overheated. The weather has been extremely warm and humid here and it doesn't seem to be letting up. So from that I've deduced I could never be a big time beekeeper. But that's ok, as long as I can keep up with what I have.
So today I resolved to start going through ours and checking to see what they might need and if we need to extract. I don't treat for mites unless they're overrun with them, which has been one hive treated in the 5 years we've had bees. So today I went through 3 hives. The first one is light, they need some feed. So I put a bee escape on their 2nd super so that I could get them down out of it and it off there. Then tomorrow I will take the super off (leaving them 1 super) and I'll put a feeder on and see if we can get their weight up some. They're just really light in the brood boxes. They did have a nice frame with both sides packed full of brood though, so queen is good.
Second hive had good weight. I couldn't find any brood in the top box and it was so packed with honey I knew I could not lift it off to check the bottom box. I was working by myself, DH was busy elsewhere. Lots of bees though. They will probably pull in some fall honey. this is the hive we took one super of honey off of in July.
Third hive looked good, too. Good weight, found some brood. I think they'll make fall honey, too.
I tried to check the drone comb in each hive and found zero mites in them! That is good news. I know it's not definitive, but it helps. The "treating" beekeepers would scold me for not sugar rolling them or something, but I'm of the mind to "mostly" let them figure out how to overcome the mites.
Ok, tomorrow I should get up earlier and get to work before the sun gets over onto the hives. I've got 5 more to go!! Then, I hope to offer some for sale. We do NOT need that many hives. With spring splits next year, we'll (hopefully) be way over our heads again!
So today I resolved to start going through ours and checking to see what they might need and if we need to extract. I don't treat for mites unless they're overrun with them, which has been one hive treated in the 5 years we've had bees. So today I went through 3 hives. The first one is light, they need some feed. So I put a bee escape on their 2nd super so that I could get them down out of it and it off there. Then tomorrow I will take the super off (leaving them 1 super) and I'll put a feeder on and see if we can get their weight up some. They're just really light in the brood boxes. They did have a nice frame with both sides packed full of brood though, so queen is good.
Second hive had good weight. I couldn't find any brood in the top box and it was so packed with honey I knew I could not lift it off to check the bottom box. I was working by myself, DH was busy elsewhere. Lots of bees though. They will probably pull in some fall honey. this is the hive we took one super of honey off of in July.
Third hive looked good, too. Good weight, found some brood. I think they'll make fall honey, too.
I tried to check the drone comb in each hive and found zero mites in them! That is good news. I know it's not definitive, but it helps. The "treating" beekeepers would scold me for not sugar rolling them or something, but I'm of the mind to "mostly" let them figure out how to overcome the mites.
Ok, tomorrow I should get up earlier and get to work before the sun gets over onto the hives. I've got 5 more to go!! Then, I hope to offer some for sale. We do NOT need that many hives. With spring splits next year, we'll (hopefully) be way over our heads again!