keljonma's Front Porch - Settling in and adjusting

[lorihadams]

We had a virus on our computer and that is when I went and got an external hard drive and all our photos and important documents are on it now as a backup in case something happens. You can get some nice ones for very little money.

 

[keljonma]

So sorry about your computer. That stinks. Hopefully the computer gurus will be able to get your info off of it.

I didn't know you were an author. How far along were your books?

I love your new avatar btw!

I have been writing some books for the grands, so they were stories about the childhood of my parents and TR's parents. One was just about done.... the other I was having a bit of a hard time writing. I am trying to remember as best I can and I have been putting them down on paper. Hopefully I will be able to read my handwriting!

Thanks, that is a close up of some bees in our hive.

 

[keljonma]

I hate it when computers get sick. I wish they sold a pill to fix them.

What a great idea, QA!

 

[keljonma]

We had a virus on our computer and that is when I went and got an external hard drive and all our photos and important documents are on it now as a backup in case something happens. You can get some nice ones for very little money.

I wish it were a virus.... the fellow I talked to on the phone said he couldn't make any promises since we were struck by lightening.

 

[keljonma]

Thursday I was out in the garden weeding. Then I heard the unmistakable ROAR of a honey bee swarm!

Yep, to my dismay, our beautiful Italian queen bee left the hive with about half the population (we're guessing about 30k to 40k bees). They landed on a branch of the hawthorn tree next to the hive. They were about 10 feet off the ground.

I called a friend for some assistance. While I waited for him to show up, I tied some foundation into a box (the kind from Office Max that contains printer paper), sprayed it with HBH sugar syrup, and set it up under the swarm. Friend said he had no swarm experience, but brought a deep super, frames and some foundation, as well as his extractor and the table for the extractor. We set up the deep super on the extractor table near the original hive.

After friend left I got on my kitchen step stool and shook the swarm into the paper box. Then I dumped it into the deep super. So far they are doing a great job of drawing beeswax.

The original hive has one capped queen cell and one queen cell started (not complete) but empty. During a look today, I found no queen walking around.

In the meantime, I think TR and I are heading to QueenRight in Lorain County this week-end to purchase another hive.


There is a saying ....

A swarm in July
Is not worth a fly

This is because they usually aren't strong enough to survive winter. And there is the "no honey harvest" thing too.... :/

So there is a chance that I may end up combining the two hive into one hive so they can survive winter. We'll see.......

Hope your days are going better than mine.

 

[framing fowl]

Wow! Sounds like a day. At least you heard them swarm. Do they do that a lot or is that a rare occurance when you keep bees?

 

[Farmfresh]

At least you were around to capture your swarm.

Perhaps you can save some full frames of honey from the old hive to feed the new hive over the winter to come.

 

[xpc]

I wish it were a virus.... the fellow I talked to on the phone said he couldn't make any promises since we were struck by lightening.

You may be lucky as hard drives seldom get damage from a voltage spike as the sm power supply will usually take the brunt of the surge and never makes it beyond that.

If you take the machine anywhere always tell them you want all the parts back (do it in writing if you have to). Not only is it the law but also because not every tech knows how to troubleshoot and plays swaptronics until the machine starts working, resulting in many parts that were not needed. My computer was hit by a power glitch awhile back and a new power supply fixed it inside of 15 minutes for $25.

Even if the hard drives in this case were damaged it is generally only the integrated drive electronics (IDE) and can be repaired at a cost but all the data is retrievable.

ps. those little usb hard drives for $50 are a godsend

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

wow on the swarm! and good/quick thinking to grab them.. hopefully they will work. will you feed them to see if they will make it thru the winter?

 

[keljonma]

Wow! Sounds like a day. At least you heard them swarm. Do they do that a lot or is that a rare occurance when you keep bees?

At the Beek Assoc meeting in June, everyone was saying that this has been a year of an extraordinarily high number of swarms. But all the books I've read (and my 2 mentors) say that it is unusual for a newly hived package to swarm.... of course, the girls obviously did not read the books!

There are things you can do to help prevent a swarm... but in Beekeeping For Dummies, the author says if a hive is going to swarm that there is a possibility that no matter what you do they will still swarm...... :/

I used to read books about raising chickens to The Ladies (not that it did much good ) but honey bees can't hear, so that just isn't an option. OR I would have read to them as well.