Bee Check In

I checked on the bees this week, while the weather was warm.   All 4 hives are doing fine.

WOOT!!

Here's a pic of the cluster in #4 under the quilt box, eating away at the sugar.  They're really happy!

I have to give credit to Rusty, from HoneybeeSuite, who gave me the idea for the quilt boxes because I really think that's what's making the difference this year [and last].  

Only one of the hives had a moisture issue in the quilt and that was because I had forgotten to put shims between the quilt box and the next lid up.   The cedar chips in that box were pretty wet, as was the denim liner under the chips.

I added the shims and all should be fine now.   The bees inside were doing OK anyway.  This week the weather will be warm and I'll check the chips in a few days to make sure they're drying out.

Maybe I'll start the spring with 4 hives?  
Maybe I'll get a real harvest this year?
Maybe I've figured out the key to overwintering here?

Stay tuned!

Successful Start to Spring

We took advantage of the glorious weather yesterday and started working for real on our spring To Do list.  

After losing a couple of buckets of sap to an over-curious dog, we still were able to end up with 6 pints of syrup.   Yum!   To see how we boil, check out the links in the sidebar.   It's an all-day and very smoky affair.  We make an event out of it.

While we were outside, I planted some peas, favas, radishes and arugula. It's supposed to be warm and rain for the next 6 days, so the soil should be just right for early peas.

Lily prepped the milk jugs so I could plant the tomatoes, pepper, eggplant, huckleberries, leeks and onions so they can get a head start on the season.   I tucked everyone in a small cold frame with a glass top.

Lily and I also inspected The Bees That Lived.   It's a tiny colony.   1/4 the size of a medium box - about the size of a nuc.   I think the reason they lived is that we had a well ventilated quilt box on them.   They still had a deep full of honey below them, but we're switching to all mediums so I pulled the deep and set it aside and condensed the hive space.   We saw the queen - beautiful!, made sure they had enough honey [plenty in the medium], put a pollen patty on top and some extra sugar blocks.   The brood was a tiny patch the size of your fist in 2 places.   They are slow to build up.  At any rate, now they have less space to defend and plenty of stores.  Let's hope the queen gets her act in gear and starts cranking out eggs.

I had set an unused quilt box on a stack of empty mediums and covered it up completely for the winter.  When we opened it, it was completely saturated with moisture and molding like crazy, even though it was filled with cedar and over an unheated stack of supers.   Good to know!   These quilt boxes are great - as long as they are ventilated!  I used regular construction shims/wedges to prop up one end of the inner cover I put over the quilt box on the bees.   Must have been just right because I didn't see any moisture or mold over the bees.

Lily and I took our first pings of the season.   That deep of honey I set aside started a bout of robbing.  My girls were pretty defensive and while we were taking care of things, I got pinged on the arm and neck and Lily took one on the ear.   I had to wet blanket the hive and that took care of it.  The rain the rest of the week should dampen any pillagers' spirit and leave my hive to build up - I hope. 

Afternoon update:  I checked the girls this afternoon.   All quiet on the apian front.   Thank heaven.

Flying!

A beautiful day today and the bees were out flying!  *heaves sigh of relief*

My pink hive [the last remaining one from last year] is doing well enough.  I opened the top and the cluster is not very big, but it is very vigorous.  And kind of defensive.  They have plenty of sugar left and I put a pollen patty in to help get them geared up for the season.   I see buds on the silver maple.  It won't be too many weeks before the early spring flow starts.   

I over wintered this hive with a vented quilt box.   Here's how it went from top to bottom:

• telescoping cover
• inner cover with notch down and open to quilt box.
• 3 inch quilt box shim with screened bottom full of cedar shavings AND construction shim/wedges on top on one end for good ventilation between it and the inner cover.   That tilted the lids a bit, but no problem.
• 2 inch shim for winter sugar
• medium super with honey
• deep super with brood
• solid bottom board with lower entrance only

I wrapped the whole thing in some left over tar paper [we're using that for the floors in the house remodel] and then stacked some very large bags of leaves around the hive to block the wind.

The combination of things seems to have worked.   It was not a large hive in the fall, but they were interesting and hard working.   This is the hive that requeened with 27 emergency queen cells in August.   I tried to do splits but almost every split absconded back home with the honey stores, which they put back in the mother hive in a super I had set on the hive ABOVE an inner cover that completely separated it from the brood box below.   I had been trying to reduce the space for the remaining part of the colony left from the splits since we were in the thick of robbing season.   Apparently they didn't want things that way.   I recombined everyone and prayed a lot.  

I hope this bodes well for my beekeeping this year.  I have a good feeling about these girls.   I'm hoping to get a lot of honey out of them this year.  And a nuc with these behaviors would be awesome. 

In a few weeks, I'll reverse the boxes, putting the cluster and brood, which is now in the top box, on the bottom and I'll add a medium super above.   We're switching out to only mediums from now on.