March check-up

 Last week was really cold some nights, as low as 14 degrees. Fortunately, the feeder pails look intact and the bees are eating, although I still have 5 or more pounds left in each pail.

February update: feed

 Sunday the 28th I put feed on all the hives. The weather had been really warm the previous week. The Benedictium showed some signs of life, the Salomium showed more, and the Lucium was really hopping.

January update: vape

 I needed to buy a new battery, but I eventually managed to get all three hives vaped: The Benedictium, the Salomium, and the Lucium.

Honey harvest update

 I got a good 12 or more pounds from the Salomium in November, so we had a very merry Christmas with plenty of honey (and lip balm) for everyone.

Feed and bee escape

 I pulled the two supers off the Salomium a few weeks ago and put a gallon of feed on top. The one super was quite full, the other fairly light.

Today, I replaced that gallon of feed, which the bees had hardly touched.

I put a bee escape on the Benedictium, and its super is not very heavy at all.

MAQS for three hives

 What a month! The bamboo honey flow should be starting any day now.

The first week of August, I put feed on the hives, and got stung.

The second week of August, I fired up the smoker, suited up and went to take the feeder off the Josephium and put in MAQS, and got chased away with multiple stings. I went back wearing bee pants (which I had never worn before) and leather gloves, and got chased away again with more stings in my hand and arm.

I taped up the gloves and went back and, finally, mission accomplished.

I ordered some real beekeeper gloves from Country Barn Farm and picked them up last week.

Today I went out with full armor and a fully fueled smoker. I put a super on the Josephium and took out its bottom board. I put bottom boards and MAQS on the Salomium and the Benedictium. The Salomium's super was HEAVY! I added another pink super to it. I added a super to the Benedictium as well. Here's to an autumn harvest.

I retired with no new stings.

Update and Feed

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.

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.

More feed

I put more feed on the Benedictium and on the Josephium. I had put new buckets on two weeks ago. The Benedictium left plenty in their old bucket, but the Josephium drained theirs dry.

Ants!

I checked out the Helenium today. I opened the telescoping cover and saw ants everywhere! There was plenty of feed left in the pail.

I proceeded to inspect the hive. There was one frame with some drawn comb in the right (facing east) upper center of one of the ten frames. There were a cluster of very active bees about it.

The rest of the hive was rotten with ants.

I removed the attic, which seemed to have an ants' nest in the southeast corner of it.

Beneath the hive there was a pit into which water was dripping. Was this from the pail? What dug out the pit?

After the hive inspection was done, I went to retrieve the attic deep. The ants' nest had re-congregated  in the southeast corner of it. I banged it out again and put it, ant-free, in the back of my truck.

I wonder what that tiny cluster of bees is?

Busy two weeks!

We put feed on the Salomium and Benedictium two Sundays ago.

Eight days ago, on Saturday, we caught a swarm. The 14-year-old apiarella, as usual, spotted it, and we put it in a green hive and christened it the Josephium. We moved the feeder pail from the Salomium to the new Josephium; it still had a bit of feed in it.

Then on Thursday, the 11-year-old apiariulus spotted another one! We put this one into a hive, also green, and christened it the Helenium. We put a fresh pail of feed on it.

Yesterday I put new pails on the Josephium and the Benedictium.

No stings for a change!

Feed

Two more gallons, one for the Salomium, and one for the new Benedictium. Their previous buckets were empty.

I managed to not get stung, despite not using smoke again.

Update, feedings and Two Stings

Last Autumn I vaporized oxalic acid in the Salomium. The Benedictium didn't make it out of the Spring.

March 8, I finally put a gallon of sugar water in the Salomium. The following Sunday I saw pollen going into the hive.

Sunday the 29th, the diocese went on lock down due COVID-19. The apiariuli, apriaria, and I celebrated a dry mass.

March 29,  I put another gallon on the Salomium.

April 5, Palm Sunday, I picked up a package of bees with a marked (blue) queen from Dale Thompson at Joe's Country Barn Farm. I installed them in the Benedictium and put on a gallon of feed. That brings my tally of feed for the season up to 3 gallons.

While installing the package I got stung.

I went out today to check on the Benedictium and remove burr comb. I didn't use smoke. The queen had made it out, so I put the inner cover on and put the feeder (half empty already!) in the attic. I picked up another sting and left early.

There is a gap in the Benedictium which needs a deep frame. Maybe I'll get to it tomorrow, or maybe I let them fill it with burr comb.

Status: Benetictium, one deep and an attic. Salomium: two deeps and an attic.

Mite drop

It is in the high eighties today, and they it it will reach ninety tomorrow. So much for our cool spell.

In light of this, I took out the bottom boards. There were loads of dead mights, one live hive beetle, and plenty more wriggly little live larvae of an unknown species. Clearly the MAQS were doing something.

The Japanese knotweed (a.k.a. bamboo) is in full flower, and the bees are busy.

More food and MAQS

Last Wednesday I put on another gallon of syrup on each hive. Over vacation, the bees had drained their  previous gallons.

Today I put on MAQS; the weather should stay between 50 and 90 degrees for the coming week. I took off the feeder pails: the Benedictium had about a quart left in it, and the Salomium was sucked dry. The bamboo is in bloom, so I'm surprised that the bees are so thirsty.

The Benedictium still has some undrawn frames in its upper deep. The Salomium has undrawn frames in both deeps. I doubt I'll super any mediums any time soon.

We saw pollen going in both hives over the weekend.

Two more gallons

One each of syrup on both hives.

More food

So I put four more pounds on each hive.

The Salomium had a very little bit left from last week.

Hive inspection and Feed

I opened up both hives today. In the Salomium I saw EGGS! So the Salomium looks good. I also saw plenty of capped honey.

In the Benedictium I saw plenty of larvae, so my non-observance of pollen in previous notes seems softened.

But I saw no eggs. And I saw no capped honey.

Both feeder pails were empty. Perhaps the Benedictium stopped laying because they were dry.

Anyway, I putt four more pounds of sugar on each hive.

Food and Pollen update

I put 4 pounds of sugar on each hive today. I noticed a bit of pollen going into the Salomium, but none going into the Benedictium. This might just be because traffic was light in the Benedictium, but it may be time for an inspection.

Beginning the July dearth

Well, each hive drank the full half gallon of last week's syrup. I put a new gallon of syrup on each hive today. The weather is very hot in the nineties and rainless, although the humidity is fierce.