Sunday, April 26, 2015

More food

I put four pounds of sugar dissolved into syrup into the Benedictium yesterday, and four more pounds into the Jospehium. Today is a lovely, if cool day, and we have seen the first of our dandylions blooming and also there is plenty of young ajuga. The cherry blossoms are gone.

$4.00.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Food for the Josephium

Four more pounds of sugar, plus water, for the Josephium.

Lots of flowers in bloom now, Daffodils, crocuses, forsythia, periwinkle, and ajuga. Plus plenty of those little yellow mystery flowers under our pine.

$2.00.

Monday, April 6, 2015

Josephium Inspection

It got up to 68 today, and I saw a couple of dark colored workers mixed with the golden ligusticae coming and going at the entrance to the Josephium. Could these be offspring of our new black queen?

I opened up the Josephium. I saw that they had drunk all of their sugar, and that the cluster seemed to be on the northwestern side of the hive, perhaps for warmth. I saw a fair amount of nectar or syrup in the combs, and a fair amount of fresh white comb. I could see no eggs or larva, but then I was reluctant to pull frames out of cluster.

I put a second hive body on top of their single one, since they seem to be doing well, with ten frames mostly of empty comb, but also with some empty frames for the josephinae to fill.

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Paschate

It reached 60 degrees today, and there was much coming and going in both hives, including much coming with full pollen baskets.

I gave the Benedictium its spring inspection. I saw no brood in the lower body, but much honey, so I did a body reverse. I assume that the upper body held the queen and the brood. The feeder pail was empty so I replaced it with another 4 pounds of sugar mixed into water. That's another $2.00.

It should get even warmer tomorrow, and I'll inspect the Josephium then.

The water station seems to be a big hit. There are lots of bees there. They really like the big sponges and the cinder block.



Saturday, April 4, 2015

Sabbatho Sancto

We finally saw some flowers today. There were some crocuses at St. John Fisher which we saw during the Easter egg hunt. When we got home, we found some small yellow ground flowers underneath our pine near the basement door. I wonder what they're called?

Although these are the first crocuses I saw, Brenda saw some earlier down in the valleys, and saw that the bees were there, and they had some of that translucent pollen on their legs. So I guess our bees must have found some crocus last week, since we saw that same translucent pollen on their legs then.

The temperature has been cold all morning, but we seem to have reached 50 degrees up here by the ridges, and the bees are out chugging water (they really seem to like the new watering station) and buzzing around, but I don't see any pollen going into the hives.