Some Things that Catch my Eye

View from my chair

Second Post

Day 16 - Ok so Friday the 15th, I went over to a "neighbor's" house who has bees. I got his name and number from one of the Bee club's of which I am a member. He has been keeping bees for 3 years and is a very sweet fellow. He showed me how he goes into his hives (he has 3 deeps and 3 nucs) and we saw the queens and saw the brood and he told me I was a natural. I have a very gentle way about me and the bees totally ignored me. They actually ignored us because he too has a gentle way about him.

I felt my confidence increase so I went home and opened up my hives. It was just me so no pictures. I found the queen in one of my hives but not the other. I thought I saw a supersedure cell so I was worried. I did see eggs, larva and capped brood in both hives


Day 17 - I had been worrying about the hive in which I did not see the queen but everybody I talked to said that if I saw the eggs and larva and capped brood they were sure she was in there. However the state apiarist called and offered to come over and look at my hives. So even though I had just gone in there the day before I jumped at the chance to have him look at my hives.

He opened the hive and pulled out each frame. I did spot the queen in the hive I thought was queenless (yeah). And showed him the thing that I thought was a supersedure cell, he scraped it off declaring that it was simply burr comb. Then he did this maneuver on one of the frames which was like a flick where he forced the bees to fall into the hive. One of them got mad and tried to sting him. I saw her on his glove and she was really straining to get her stinger through the rubber. It was kind of funny. I pointed her out to him and asked him if she was trying to sting him. He said yes and flicked her off of his hand and she flew away unhurt. All the while they were still ignoring me.

He moved empty frames from the outsides in a couple of spaces and turned them around so that the bees would see that they needed to draw out comb on those spots as well.  He told me my hives were 70% full and that I should put another box on top of each which I did. Then he said I should keep feeding them so that they have what they need to draw out the comb in the two new boxes. So I made more syrup and made sure there was about 3 quarts in each top feeder.

Day 18 & 19 - I have pulled up a chair and put it outside the hives about 5 feet from the entrance. The apiarist told me that the bees will use it as a landmark.  I have been watching them come and go, they are actually very enjoyable to watch.  I realize that they have no rudder and have an issue steering. When they come into land they're kind of like a bowling ball heading for pins. I can hear them in my head yelling "watch out I'm coming in!" and then they bowl into the other bees who are standing at the entrance.

Day 20 - checked the syrup they still have plenty.

I have been reading about bees being gentle in the spring and being grumpy in the fall. Some people feel like this is because there are more of them in the fall, I'm wondering if they are reacting to not having an abundance of food...  If my bees are gentle because I am feeding them maybe I should just keep feeding them? But if they need adversity to become stronger maybe I shouldn't feed them?  In any event as long as they are drawing out comb I'll feed them. That's what the apiarist said so that's what I'm gonna do.