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.