Apiary Journal 2011
by Caroline Abbott
Location: 1327 108th Ave. Otsego, MI 49078
Septebmer 12, 2011
Both hives were very active like honey flow and had a distinct smell of goldenrod nectar. Both had SIGNIFICNTLY more nectar than they had only two days ago. Definitely honey flow, and much more reassuring than the last inspection.
Activities done to the hive:
We moved all the frames from one super on hive #1 into a box with an upper entrance hole drilled in it and replaced it on the hive. We put a bucket of sugar water on the hive in an empty deep hive body and placed shallower ventilators on to prevent mice from getting in. We replaced seven frames of bare foundation with seven frames of drawn comb in hive #2 to encourage storage of honey for winter. We also put a bucket of sugar water on and the shallower ventilators.
Notes on future hive needs:
We will monitor the sugar water to see if they need more and replace as necessary. We will remove the buckets and the empty hive boxes when it gets too cold – when the sugar water would freeze.
September 10, 2011
The hives were both very active, lots of bees, looked like honey flow. We inspected both hives all the way down to the bottom box. Both hives had an abnormal amount of drone brood for this time of year, but also had lots of worker brood. Hive #2 had not drawn out any of the foundation put on a month ago. Hive #1 had more honey on it than #2, but neither had any significant amount, especially for this time of the year.
Activities done to the hive:
We put the box with the empty foundation down further by the brood nest in hive #2. We put mouse guards – ½# hardware cloth over the entrance of both hives.
Notes on future hive needs:
Hive #1 needs a box with an upper entrance. Both hives need to be fed sugar water, which we will do in a couple of days. We may replace the foundation in hive #2 with drawn comb, since we have some from when Janet extracted the fermented honey from the dead hives from last year. Before winter really sets in we will replace the upper ventilators with something a little more flat, leaving less room for mice to come in the top.
August 8, 2011
We collected a total of nine frames of honey, mostly from the tan hive, hive #2. We replaced the frames we took out with bare foundation. The hives looked good, lots of activity. They were not aggressive in spite of a light rain.
Notes on future hive needs: Next field day scheduled for September 10th, approximately one month from today.
July 25, 2011
Hive #1 – the tan hive had a full super of honey and they had started to work on the empty foundation in the top super. The honey was dark and didn’t look very attractive, so we think we should leave it on the hive for winter stores for both hives. We feel the forage is sufficient for them to finish filling the second super as well.
Hive #2 – the white hive had a nice full super of honey, with pretty cappings, although for some reason unknown to us the box has only nine frames, so the end comb is very fat, double thick. The top box had not been drawn out at all.
Activities done to the hive:
We left hive #1 as it was. We reversed the supers on hive #2, so the bees would be more likely to draw out the empty comb.
Notes on future hive needs:
We plan on collecting the one full super on hive #2 for our field day on August 6th. We will extract the nine frames which we estimate will yield about 9 or 10 quarts of honey for the club. We will replace that with a new super with ten frames. We think if we collect no more honey after that, they will have sufficient stores for the winter, based on how quickly they have stored honey since moving to the new location.
July 8, 2011
The hives looked great this morning. The bees were hovering in front of the hives, facing the hives to orient themselves to their new location before heading out to forage. They were very calm and didn’t even pay attention to us.
We added a super to each hive, both were bare foundation. We didn’t want to take a chance with drawn comb because we found a lot of nasty stuff in the equipment at the former location and didn’t want to introduce any of that to the hives. We added the ventilators and put a brick on top of each hive.
The hives should be ready for a field day in about a month. We will check in a week or so to see if they are storing up honey.
July 7, 2011
Today was apiary moving day. We waited until evening, then sealed up the hives and moved them to 1327 108th Ave., Otsego, MI., to a gravel pit. Hive #2 was stronger than Hive #1, but both looked good. There were so many bees in hive #2 we had to staple some of them into the screen to seal the entrance. Hive #1 had a clear entrance by the time we stapled the screen on to move it.
The hives were prepared for moving, loaded, moved and placed in their new location in the gravel pit, then the entrance screens were removed.
May 7, 2011
Again about 10 adults and one child attended. Most were the same as the previous meeting, but some were new. Hive #1 had not released the queen. The candy hole in the queen cage was enlarged and left for the bees to release her. This hive was weaker than the other hive.
Hive #2 had released their queen. She was spotted in the bottom brood box. This hive appeared stronger. Attendees asked questions about queens. It was observed that there were lots of dead mites in the wooden package boxes.
May 4, 2011
Club apiary field day to install two new packages. Toughly 10 adults and one child were in attendance. The equipment was prepared in advance. The leaders explained the process and installed the bees, answering questions as they did so. The child installed the second package with assistance.
April 1, 2011
All five hives were dead, which we knew going in, so we wanted to check inside to determine why they died, if we could, and to clean them up and get ready for pack installation at the end of the month.
Hive#1 – Appeared to have starved. The cluster was at the top with heads buried in empty cells and the only honey left on the hive was in frames at the edges where they probably couldn’t get to it.
Hive #2 and Hive #3 – Both had excessive moisture, which we think may have caused them to die. The entrance reducers left the entrances very small, and the top ventilators were positioned in such a way to limit the air flow. There was a lot of water/moisture in the hives. There was quite a lot of honey on both hives, which indicated they did not starve.
Hive #4 and Hive #5 – appeared to probably have been dead before winter even began, possibly due to queenlessness. The one hive had no bees, no honey, no nothing, indicating it was robbed out before winter even started. It was probably dead before it was winterized.
Course of action:
We saved out the usable honey to put on the new packages, cleaned up the equipment and left some out for Jacob’s bees to rob, and planned to store whatever else we wouldn’t need for the packages.
We determined that we are going to do a better job this year keeping track of the hives. Obviously the hives weren’t inspected at the time they were prepared for winter. One hive had an empty super on top that had obviously been empty at the time it was winterized. Another had half of the frames in the top super just bare foundation. The completely empty hive was probably clearly dead before winter and should have been taken down instead of prepared for winter. All good lessons of what to do better on next year, and we will hopefully learn from them and have a more successful experience this year!