Bee Happy!

It's a good week here in the Wings of Liquid Gold apiary.  As I mentioned in my last post, I had moved my first hive and because of the tropical storm hadn't had a chance to get an inspection done.  When I got in the hive a week ago Friday, the bees had handled it beautifully. When I got in the queen was producing brood and there were loads of bees in the hive.  None of the bees are returning to the old location, so all in all "Great Success!".

That same day I inspected the long hive and things were not so good.  The queen was still laying, but there wasn't as much brood as I would have liked.  Also, there were lots of Small Hive Beetles that can destroy a colony quickly if you don't get on top of it.  I put in some beetle traps as well as some unscented swiffer sheets on top of the frames.  The bees chase them in to the sheets and it turns out the little spines on their legs get caught up in them and they can't get out.  

I was thinking that because I got my inspection done on Friday, I'd have a quiet weekend, but no.  Early Saturday morning I got a swarm alert from the local swarm network,  It was less than a mile from my house, so I grabbed my gear and went to take a look (plus it was a chance to try out my new bee vacuum, heh).  When I got there it turned out it wasn't really a swarm, it was what's called a cutout because it was an established hive inside a structure, and you have to open the structure to "cutout" the bees.  The hive was inside a hollow stone column, and it was NOT on the property of the lady that called it in.  I knocked on the door of the house and told the owner what was going on and that I could remove the bees, but I would have to drill in and open up the column.  He was not receptive and said to leave them be(e).  So I packed up my gear and went home.  I spent the rest of the weekend building a swarm trap (pictures later).  It came out pretty nice and I've got it hanging in a clearing out in the woods behind my house.  The nice thing about putting a swarm trap out there is that if my bees do decide to swarm they could choose my trap and then I'd just bring them right back home.  Or I could catch some totally different bees, who knows? The trap has old brood comb and lemongrass oil in it, plus it was made from old nucleus boxes, so the inside already smells like bees.

I noticed in both hives that the bees were not drawing out comb much.  It turns out we're in what's called the Summer Dearth.  That's when the local flora are just not producing nectar.  Bees require a lot of nectar/honey to produce wax so when food is scarce, they just stop building up the comb and the queen reduces her egg output.  The solution is fairly simple, feed them sugar syrup.  The strong hive is going through about a quart every 2 days, and the smaller long hive about a pint.  So every 3-4 days I find myself in front of the stove cooking up another batch.  I think I'm going to get one of those 30 quart outdoor cookers so can make and refrigerate/freeze bigger batches.  The process is simple, heat the water to about 150 degrees and then add an equal amount of sugar (by volume) and stir until it's clear.  Let cool and add to jars.  I use top feeders on both my hives, so I don't have to disturb the bees much to feed them.  I take off or open the top of the hive, open the top of the feeder and pour in more syrup.  The bees are in a small area that allow them to access the syrup but they don't come in the main area or they'll drown.  Bees are pretty smart and I've found only a couple of dead bees since I started feeding.  I can then replace the top of the feeder and close the hive.  The dearth should end by early September and we might (fingers crossed) get some fall honey.

So after all that, I got in the hives this morning between waves of rain because if I didn't get in today it would be mid week before I get another chance.  The langstroth hive looks great, a lot of eggs and brood.  In fact I may have to do a split here soon because there are so many bees in the hive.  I think I discussed splits and swarms in an earlier post.  With the increased feeding, the long hive looks back on track.  The queen is laying well and the workers are starting to draw out more comb and the beetle traps appear to be working.