Great pictures! I don't open up my hive as often as you do, I think. I am worried I will shake the queen loose and she will land in the grass and get lost! I really have to just suck it up and go see what they are doing in there!
Beekeeping--a new beek's journey!PIC HEAVY (first week of Oct)
- Thread starter lorihadams
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WhiteMountainsRanch
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Wow awesome thread! Thanks for the info and pictures! I can't wait to have bees!!! 
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- #63
lorihadams
Always doing laundry
I use the baggie feeder so while I have the top open to put more food in for them I figure I may as well see how they're doing. I also want to make sure that they have enough room, if I had let the stronger hive go another week they would have been pretty tight so I'm glad I checked it and added another hive body. My kids also are pretty interested in them and they like seeing whats going on too. We also end up with an audience almost every time we open them up so it has been a really good way to let people see what its like inside a hive.
I want to check on my weaker hive weekly too because their numbers are lower. I want to make sure they are doing alright. It bothers me that I haven't seen the queen in 2 weeks on that one but I have seen fresh brood so I know she's in there and doing her thing. The temps are pretty close to what the inside hive temps would normally be so checking every week doesn't disturb things too much. When it gets cooler we may go to every 2 weeks to check on the frames and still change the baggie feeder weekly though.
I wish the pic of the smaller brood had come out more clearly but cousin B took that picture and he isn't familiar with our camera. They look like little shrunken down grains of white rice when she first lays them.
I want to check on my weaker hive weekly too because their numbers are lower. I want to make sure they are doing alright. It bothers me that I haven't seen the queen in 2 weeks on that one but I have seen fresh brood so I know she's in there and doing her thing. The temps are pretty close to what the inside hive temps would normally be so checking every week doesn't disturb things too much. When it gets cooler we may go to every 2 weeks to check on the frames and still change the baggie feeder weekly though.
I wish the pic of the smaller brood had come out more clearly but cousin B took that picture and he isn't familiar with our camera. They look like little shrunken down grains of white rice when she first lays them.
I have read about the baggie feeder- can you explain how it works? Doesn't it drip? A bottom feeder that you put a mason jar in came with our hive so that's what I've been using. Where do you put the baggie? Under the top cover?
keljonma
Epicurean Goddess
That is a Boardman feeder you are using, val. They are notorious for attracting yellow jackets and robber bees.valmom said:
The baggie feeder is a ziploc style bag filled with your syrup. You lay it flat on top of the frames. With a very sharp bladed knife or box cutter, make a slit in the center of the bag. It should lay flat enough to fit under the inner cover. If not, you can add an Imrie-style shim which gives about 1/2 inch space beteen the hive body and the inner cover.
Here are some links about the Imrie shim...
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,13537.0.html
http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/10-Frame-Imirie-Shim/productinfo/211/
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- #66
lorihadams
Always doing laundry
Thank you Kel for answering that question, my wireless card decided to die and it has taken a week for me to get a new one that works. Gotta love technology.
So we checked the hives this past Saturday and we were excited to find the queen from hive 2 after 3 weeks of not seeing her. We are also very pleased with Hive 1's progress on the second hive body. We are also excited to report that Hive 2 will probably be getting a second hive body this weekend!!! We are continuing to see lots of brood and lots of honey in Hive 1 in the upper deep. They are leaving a space in the middle for the queen to lay eggs though and it is really neat to see. During our cleanup we put some of the beeswax into a glass jar to save for later and we scraped off some that had honey in it so the kids got to taste OUR HONEY for the first time!!!!
Here's the pics
We started with Hive 2 the weaker hive
here's the queen from hive 2
And here's hive 1
See where they have left the middle open for the queen to lay brood
First taste of honey, my son and daughter
So we checked the hives this past Saturday and we were excited to find the queen from hive 2 after 3 weeks of not seeing her. We are also very pleased with Hive 1's progress on the second hive body. We are also excited to report that Hive 2 will probably be getting a second hive body this weekend!!! We are continuing to see lots of brood and lots of honey in Hive 1 in the upper deep. They are leaving a space in the middle for the queen to lay eggs though and it is really neat to see. During our cleanup we put some of the beeswax into a glass jar to save for later and we scraped off some that had honey in it so the kids got to taste OUR HONEY for the first time!!!!
Here's the pics
We started with Hive 2 the weaker hive
here's the queen from hive 2
And here's hive 1
See where they have left the middle open for the queen to lay brood
First taste of honey, my son and daughter
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- #67
lorihadams
Always doing laundry
Here's my thoughts on baggie feeders....I really like that they hold a lot, you can actually put 2 gallon bags in there if need be, so I only feed once a week. They discourage robbing cause they are inside the hive. They are easy to use and you just toss them when empty. The downside is that you don't know when they are empty unless you open the top of the hive but I usually just lift the lid and look through the opening in the inside cover and you can see if the baggie is empty or not. You also have to have an empty super on top but that isn't that big a deal to me.
If you go back to my first post we should have pictures of the baggie feeder.
Here's how you do it---1.You fill a gallon ziploc bag with your food and zip it tightly so it does not leak.
2.Place an empty super on top of your hive and then stand the baggie up on the narrow end and gently bounce it down on top of the frames so the bees scoot out of the way, hit it with a puff of smoke if you need to, until the baggie is laying completely flat on top of the frames in the hive body. You will probably have an air bubble in the bag and that's fine.
3.Using a utility knife or razor blade make 5 or 6 two to three inch slits in the top of the baggie.
4.Gently press down on the baggie until some drops come out of the slits and replace your cover and lid. The bees will do the rest. They drink the sugar water out of the slits and stand on the baggie so they don't drown.
Hope that helps some!
If you go back to my first post we should have pictures of the baggie feeder.
Here's how you do it---1.You fill a gallon ziploc bag with your food and zip it tightly so it does not leak.
2.Place an empty super on top of your hive and then stand the baggie up on the narrow end and gently bounce it down on top of the frames so the bees scoot out of the way, hit it with a puff of smoke if you need to, until the baggie is laying completely flat on top of the frames in the hive body. You will probably have an air bubble in the bag and that's fine.
3.Using a utility knife or razor blade make 5 or 6 two to three inch slits in the top of the baggie.
4.Gently press down on the baggie until some drops come out of the slits and replace your cover and lid. The bees will do the rest. They drink the sugar water out of the slits and stand on the baggie so they don't drown.
Hope that helps some!
Maybe I will try that baggie feeder- I have an empty medium super I can put on top that came with the package to be our honey super. Then when I finally need another super I have time to buy one. I do sort of worry about the bees being robbed, and we have a lot of wasps around here.
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- #69
lorihadams
Always doing laundry
I really like the baggie feeder and after hearing the struggles with the entrance feeder that others are having in the club I am glad I went with it.
I have also found that by moving my pan of water with the rocks in it down onto the ground it is keeping the ants away from the hive. They are more interested in the water and are leaving the hives alone. If I notice they are creeping back up into the hive at all I may put a little sugar water in that bowl to entice them to stay on the ground.
We had a good meeting last night and I learned some things I wanted to share. Our president gave us each a pot of African basil and spearmint to take home to plant for the bees. He said that he read an article that said there had been studies that showed that spearmint essential oil and basil essential oil were effective at treating varroa mites, a big problem for Virginia. The bees take back the pollen and some of the EOs when they go into the hive and studies have shown that the spearmint will kill and disrupt the varroa mite's reproductive cycle. There were also encouraging results for the basil as well.
All the more reason to plant an herb garden!
He also printed up a very interesting article that can be found here http://itotd.com/articles/218/honey-as-medicine/
Just copy and paste that into the google bar and it should go to the link.
Also check out www.scientificbeekeeping.com for some interesting articles
I have also found that by moving my pan of water with the rocks in it down onto the ground it is keeping the ants away from the hive. They are more interested in the water and are leaving the hives alone. If I notice they are creeping back up into the hive at all I may put a little sugar water in that bowl to entice them to stay on the ground.
We had a good meeting last night and I learned some things I wanted to share. Our president gave us each a pot of African basil and spearmint to take home to plant for the bees. He said that he read an article that said there had been studies that showed that spearmint essential oil and basil essential oil were effective at treating varroa mites, a big problem for Virginia. The bees take back the pollen and some of the EOs when they go into the hive and studies have shown that the spearmint will kill and disrupt the varroa mite's reproductive cycle. There were also encouraging results for the basil as well.
All the more reason to plant an herb garden!
He also printed up a very interesting article that can be found here http://itotd.com/articles/218/honey-as-medicine/
Just copy and paste that into the google bar and it should go to the link.
Also check out www.scientificbeekeeping.com for some interesting articles
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- #70
lorihadams
Always doing laundry
So we did the hives Sunday 7-10-11. It was really hot and we have had some severe weather this week with high temps and thunderstorms and heavy rain. There are lots of bees hanging out on the front of the hive today.
The hives looked pretty much the same but there was a lot more honey since last week. We started with hive 2 the weaker hive and they had not eaten quite all of the sugar water in the baggie feeder but most of it was gone so we switched it out. They had pretty much filled up 7-8 frames so we went ahead and added another hive body on hive 2. We also got to see the queen from hive 2, the first time in 3 weeks. We kept seeing brood so we weren't worried about her but there was definitely a drop in visible brood this week. I have to check my books to see when the queen starts slowing down brood production but I thought she would still be laying well. I am hoping that with the addition of the second hive body it may encourage her to move up and start laying more.
Here are the pics from hive 2
The hives looked pretty much the same but there was a lot more honey since last week. We started with hive 2 the weaker hive and they had not eaten quite all of the sugar water in the baggie feeder but most of it was gone so we switched it out. They had pretty much filled up 7-8 frames so we went ahead and added another hive body on hive 2. We also got to see the queen from hive 2, the first time in 3 weeks. We kept seeing brood so we weren't worried about her but there was definitely a drop in visible brood this week. I have to check my books to see when the queen starts slowing down brood production but I thought she would still be laying well. I am hoping that with the addition of the second hive body it may encourage her to move up and start laying more.
Here are the pics from hive 2
