We've been in quite the drought. Although it has not been totally dry, we had two big downpours last week, it has been hot, humid, and largely rainless since I last posted.
I've been looking for signs of a late acacia bloom this year and have seen none. Quite the opposite.
So I decided it's time for more feed. Three more gallons.
I put a fresh gallon on the Benedictium (white and northmost (leftmost)). No problem.
I put a new, green deep on the Salomium, on top of the pink super which has been turned into another brood chamber by its ridiculously fertile queen. This deep is merely an attic into which I placed a pail of feed.
As I attempted to place a pair of spacers (bee-space spacers) there, I was greeted with amazingly swift defensive behaviors. (I'm glad I decided to go with long pants. No smoker though :(, Oh well.) I succeeded eventually.
Similar story with the Josephium, though they were less extreme.
All three hives look amazingly healthy and fertile. All three hives are bearding (very thick). I tried to remove the bee guard from the Josephium, but it seems to be glued in. I'll try later when the beard is not so thick.
Sunday, July 19, 2020
Friday, July 3, 2020
Inspection
Well the July honey flow is over. Or is it? I'm not sure I ever noticed that the acacias (a.k.a. locusts) were in bloom. Did I sleep through it? Or was the spring too cold?
I put another deep on the Josephium. They look like their going great. I put a fresh gallon of feed on top of the new deep; they had drained their previous pail.
The Benedictium looks like it's doing fine. They too had drained their pail, so I put on a fresh gallon.
My plan today was to put the bee-escape between the Salomium's super and its deeps, but when I peeked in I saw that they had turned it into an extra brood box! That made me wonder what the deeps looked like, and should I reverse them? When I began to disassemble them I saw they were packed with very angry bees, and there was plenty of brood at the top of the lower deep and bottom of the upper. At this point I was smoking full time to keep the bees at bay, so I chickened out and re-assembled the hive and got out of there.
What shall I do? The hive looks really strong. Brenda suggested adding a queen excluder to the top of the medium, and start with new supers. If we haven't had the acacia flow yet, that's a good idea. If we have, it's time to start feeding for the summer dearth.
I'll post again on Sunday.
I put another deep on the Josephium. They look like their going great. I put a fresh gallon of feed on top of the new deep; they had drained their previous pail.
The Benedictium looks like it's doing fine. They too had drained their pail, so I put on a fresh gallon.
My plan today was to put the bee-escape between the Salomium's super and its deeps, but when I peeked in I saw that they had turned it into an extra brood box! That made me wonder what the deeps looked like, and should I reverse them? When I began to disassemble them I saw they were packed with very angry bees, and there was plenty of brood at the top of the lower deep and bottom of the upper. At this point I was smoking full time to keep the bees at bay, so I chickened out and re-assembled the hive and got out of there.
What shall I do? The hive looks really strong. Brenda suggested adding a queen excluder to the top of the medium, and start with new supers. If we haven't had the acacia flow yet, that's a good idea. If we have, it's time to start feeding for the summer dearth.
I'll post again on Sunday.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)