Denim Deb
More Precious than Rubies
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Glad to see I can count! 
Beekeeping--a new beek's journey!PIC HEAVY (first week of Oct)
- Thread starter lorihadams
- Start date
S
sunsaver
Guest
Wow! Some really cool pics! I want to raise bees now.
keljonma
Epicurean Goddess
Great pics, Lori! Both hives look very productive.
I found it was easier to work without gloves because my hands got too sweaty.
I found it was easier to work without gloves because my hands got too sweaty.
- Thread starter
- #54
lorihadams
Always doing laundry
I like working without the gloves but I knew I had a bunch of scraping and cleaning up extra comb that it would probably be a good idea to wear them. They were sweaty on the inside and sticky on the outside when I was done
keljonma
Epicurean Goddess
I used to put the scrapings into a wide mouth canning jar and cover the lid quickly. You can reuse the wax for crafts; freeze it until you collect enough to do something with it.
- Thread starter
- #56
lorihadams
Always doing laundry
This past weekend was great for working the bees. A little overcast with a light breeze so we didn't roast and sweat to death.
We fired up the smoker and started with Hive #2, the weaker of my hives. The bees looked pretty good. They had eaten all the sugar water from the feeder and have completely drawn out the middle 6 frames and started to spread to the remaining 4 on the outside. I sprayed the empty frames with sugar water to encourage them to spread out to those frames. We found some brood and some larger larvae that look close to being bees so I am happy with how their numbers are increasing. I hope to add a second hive body within the next month.
Here are some pics
third frame from the right
looking good
And here is something we found, they had completely gone through the wax on the frame in a couple places, a perfect little hole. We didn't see anything in the way of intruders other than 1 small roach type thing that we killed and removed and a few ants.
We fired up the smoker and started with Hive #2, the weaker of my hives. The bees looked pretty good. They had eaten all the sugar water from the feeder and have completely drawn out the middle 6 frames and started to spread to the remaining 4 on the outside. I sprayed the empty frames with sugar water to encourage them to spread out to those frames. We found some brood and some larger larvae that look close to being bees so I am happy with how their numbers are increasing. I hope to add a second hive body within the next month.
Here are some pics
third frame from the right
looking good
And here is something we found, they had completely gone through the wax on the frame in a couple places, a perfect little hole. We didn't see anything in the way of intruders other than 1 small roach type thing that we killed and removed and a few ants.
- Thread starter
- #57
lorihadams
Always doing laundry
We didn't locate the queen on Hive #2 but we were able to find her on Hive #1.
Hive #1 is doing great! They have started filling in the upper deep and drawing out comb. We found brood on the middle two frames!!! Lots of brood, little tiny things! Looks like this queen is really doing her thing. I sprayed sugar water on the empty frames and replaced them. Here are the pictures of the upper deep. The bees, we think, have "eaten" away the foundation on the edges of the frames in the upper deep. We assume it is so that they can go from one side to the other easier. We didn't see any pests other than a few ants here or there but nothing to be worried about.
Here's the lower deep. They are plugging away, lots of brood cells and big fat larvae and lots of pollen and capped honey in the corners.
Here's an interesting one of the bees hanging onto the bottom of the frame, the smoke drives them down into the bottom of the hive so when you pick the frame up they tend to be hanging down off the bottom...sometimes you can see where they have linked legs.
You can really see the pollen (bright yellow) and the capped honey in the corners...kinda white looking.
And here she is, the queen from hive #1 with the yellow dot on her.
If you look closely in some of the cells you can see the larvae (brood) This is a pic of them, sorry it is a little fuzzy.
Chad, my husband, who usually is my right hand man and photographer decided to do the last few frames on this one.
Here is a closer picture of brood. There are fat white larvae in lots of the cells on this frame. If you look all over you can see them but the ones on the center toward the right are pretty big and close to being bees. There are some smaller ones closer to the edges.
And here is a good one of Tyler in the goat pen looking at one of the frames, we wanted to show him the brood that was visible. He seems to really be interested in the bees.
Hive #1 is doing great! They have started filling in the upper deep and drawing out comb. We found brood on the middle two frames!!! Lots of brood, little tiny things! Looks like this queen is really doing her thing. I sprayed sugar water on the empty frames and replaced them. Here are the pictures of the upper deep. The bees, we think, have "eaten" away the foundation on the edges of the frames in the upper deep. We assume it is so that they can go from one side to the other easier. We didn't see any pests other than a few ants here or there but nothing to be worried about.
Here's the lower deep. They are plugging away, lots of brood cells and big fat larvae and lots of pollen and capped honey in the corners.
Here's an interesting one of the bees hanging onto the bottom of the frame, the smoke drives them down into the bottom of the hive so when you pick the frame up they tend to be hanging down off the bottom...sometimes you can see where they have linked legs.
You can really see the pollen (bright yellow) and the capped honey in the corners...kinda white looking.
And here she is, the queen from hive #1 with the yellow dot on her.
If you look closely in some of the cells you can see the larvae (brood) This is a pic of them, sorry it is a little fuzzy.
Chad, my husband, who usually is my right hand man and photographer decided to do the last few frames on this one.
Here is a closer picture of brood. There are fat white larvae in lots of the cells on this frame. If you look all over you can see them but the ones on the center toward the right are pretty big and close to being bees. There are some smaller ones closer to the edges.
And here is a good one of Tyler in the goat pen looking at one of the frames, we wanted to show him the brood that was visible. He seems to really be interested in the bees.
Denim Deb
More Precious than Rubies
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That is so cool! One day......
- Thread starter
- #59
lorihadams
Always doing laundry
Well, time for the weekly update.
6-26-11
It was a cloudy day and cool but humid. My husband's cousin B and his family came over after church and wanted to see the bees so we waited until almost 1pm to look at them this time. I checked Hive #2's feeder bag on Friday and it was empty so I bumped up the amount of syrup I put in the baggie feeders so that they would have a little more supply for the week. I also noticed ants so I placed the bowl of water on the ground in front of the hives and the ants are going in the water bowl (for now) and leaving the hives alone.
So, we started with Hive #2 again this week. We sprayed sugar water on the empty frames last weekend and they have started working on the second and 9th frames finally. They haven't touched the 1st and 10th frames yet but the others look pretty good. I'm hoping to add a second hive body in the next 2 weeks. There was lots of brood and some honey supply as well. I'm hoping that after we get the second hive body on they will start to crank out some honey for the winter, I know it is only June but I'm already worrying about winter.
Here are some pics of Hive #2, we still didn't see the queen in there but there was lots of brood, some very young so we know she is in there and doing her job.
You can really see the brood in this one
6-26-11
It was a cloudy day and cool but humid. My husband's cousin B and his family came over after church and wanted to see the bees so we waited until almost 1pm to look at them this time. I checked Hive #2's feeder bag on Friday and it was empty so I bumped up the amount of syrup I put in the baggie feeders so that they would have a little more supply for the week. I also noticed ants so I placed the bowl of water on the ground in front of the hives and the ants are going in the water bowl (for now) and leaving the hives alone.
So, we started with Hive #2 again this week. We sprayed sugar water on the empty frames last weekend and they have started working on the second and 9th frames finally. They haven't touched the 1st and 10th frames yet but the others look pretty good. I'm hoping to add a second hive body in the next 2 weeks. There was lots of brood and some honey supply as well. I'm hoping that after we get the second hive body on they will start to crank out some honey for the winter, I know it is only June but I'm already worrying about winter.
Here are some pics of Hive #2, we still didn't see the queen in there but there was lots of brood, some very young so we know she is in there and doing her job.
You can really see the brood in this one
- Thread starter
- #60
lorihadams
Always doing laundry
I can't for the life of me remember if this one is from hive 2 or hive 1 but I am thinking it was one of the outer frames from hive 2, the weaker hive. These are brand new brood cells...they are very very tiny so the queen hasn't long laid these. We were very excited about these!
Now, hive #1 is doing very well and has moved into all the frames in the upper deep. We examined all the frames on these and about half the frames on the lower deep after we found the queen. We cleaned up some of the frames and decided to call it quits after cousin B got stung. We looked at 5 of the 10 frames on the lower since it appeared to be doing well and the kids were getting whiny for lunch.
Here are the pics from hive 1, the stronger hive. The bald guy is cousin B and this is his first time examining a bee hive at all. He did very well!
Here's the queen
Here's cousin B with one of the heavy middle frames from the lower deep, he couldn't believe he was actually holding THAT many bees....it was really heavy.
Here's another good close up of some brood from the lower deep in hive 1
And for fun, here is one of our girls in our newly blooming gladiolas
Now, hive #1 is doing very well and has moved into all the frames in the upper deep. We examined all the frames on these and about half the frames on the lower deep after we found the queen. We cleaned up some of the frames and decided to call it quits after cousin B got stung. We looked at 5 of the 10 frames on the lower since it appeared to be doing well and the kids were getting whiny for lunch.
Here are the pics from hive 1, the stronger hive. The bald guy is cousin B and this is his first time examining a bee hive at all. He did very well!
Here's the queen
Here's cousin B with one of the heavy middle frames from the lower deep, he couldn't believe he was actually holding THAT many bees....it was really heavy.
Here's another good close up of some brood from the lower deep in hive 1
And for fun, here is one of our girls in our newly blooming gladiolas
