Switching the Hive Bodies, New Bottom Board

Before: After:

(1) Come spring, if you have two deeps (two hive bodies, or two boxes), the bees will have mostly moved up into the top box. We switched the top and bottom boxes to give them upwards room to grow. The queen's job in spring is to make lots of baby bees to do the work of the active season. (I'm not counting the very top box in this account, since it is a feeder rather than a hive body.)

(2) There were still two frames full of honey on the outside of the inhabited box...one on either side. Since the bees still cluster in the middle when it is cold, they can't get to the honey if it is outside the cluster, so we took those frames and switched them with the two center frames of the emptyish box, which puts them now right above the cluster of bees. Top and center, ready to eat.

(3) We replaced the solid wood bottom board with a fancy screened bottom board. The screen will allow more ventilation, and will also help with reducing pests in the hive and doing studies to see how many mites and beetles and such are in the hive to begin with.

More on that later.

(4) The mason jar sugar feeder is still in that top box. It was a quarter full earlier in the week and was empty today. I'll make some more sugar water in the next hour or so to put in there tonight. We'll medicate the sugar water again to treat their ongoing stomach bug...see the telltale poopage on the front of the hive in this last picture?

Stomach bug or no, there were LOTS of bees in the hive. They're looking healthy and active on the whole.

Bugs and Babies

Good news and bad news in the bee yard. First the bad news. I think my bees have Nosema, a stomach bug common in spring. Bees get it when they've been cooped up in their hive during cold spells. The brown smudges around the entrance indicate they might have upset tummies. The first good news...I have medicine for them. I mixed in 1/4 teaspoon of Fumagilin-B with their next bottle of sugar water, so they'll take it with their food. We put this bottle of medicated food on this afternoon.

Better news...while we were out there, we inspected inside the hive and found many good things. The picture below shows the nursery...with shiny white larvae and tiny white eggs and brown capped brood. Plus nurse bees attending the babies. The eggs and larvae indicate that the queen is alive and well....but there was also a brief queen spotting. She ducked down in the hive before we could take her picture, but she is definitely in there!

More good news...the bees have lots of stored pollen (the bright yellow patches, below) and honey. The honey on this picture is the dark brown to the right.

This is the top of the assistant bee keeper's head, and a whole frame of honey.

Soon we will go back out and switch the hive bodies, putting the now empty lower box on top and the active top box on bottom. Bees like to move UP. We'll also switch out the solid wood bottom board for a fancy screened bottom board. More on that later.

March 1 snow

The bees are snuggled in their hive...hopefully 92 degrees in their cluster. We went out once last night and once today to poke the snow out of their entrance hole. Last night there were two bees frozen in the slush at the entrance.

Bees and Trains

The train track runs immediately behind the back fence. We were curious starting out whether this would disrupt the bees. As far as we can tell, the bees could care less about the quiet rumbling of the freight train. It doesn't generally bother the resident people, either, and small visiting children think the back yard train is the COOLEST thing.

(Picture from June 2008...drought evident on the lawn.)

Bee School Two

Just finished the second week of this year's bee school, which I attended this year as a volunteer. Learned some new things, but mostly celebrated how far I've come in a year. It was fun to be able to answer questions that the new students asked...and knowing that if nothing else, I'm a lot more confident about the bees than I was last year. Last year as school ended and I was ordering my bees I was completely terrified.

One Quart in One Week

The girls sucked down a whole quart of their own honey in a week's time. We have a couple frames of honey in the freezer that we'll put on in the spring. For now, we took the empty bottle off and added a bottle of sugar water (2 parts sugar to 1 part water). We'll probably use a 1:1 ratio next time. The bees have moved up in the hive over the winter, so they are clustered directly below the feeder now. You can see bees sitting on top of the frames in the picture below.

Here's the new sugar water with a few bees who leaked out the top. We took a stick and relocated them towards the front of the hive so they could go back home. No bee suit, smoker or fancy gear for this operation. Just a quick change of bottles and a little bee relocation.

We put the old honey jar in front of the hive for the last couple hitchhikers to go back in the entrance. Which they did.

I like the holes on these new caps. Smaller holes and more of them. Obviously a happy size for the bees, since they went through the honey so quickly. I can hardly wait for it to get warmer to peek in the hive. At this point, just trying to keep the girls from starving...the single largest threat this time of year.

POLLEN POSTSCRIPT: On warmer days there are bees flying into the hive with pollen on their legs...providing some protein that the queen will need for producing spring brood (babies). A couple trees are providing pollen right now...willows for one. Soon the maple trees will provide a huge burst of pollen.

Winter Feeding Update

Yesterday got warm enough that I peeked in, took the old mason jar of sugar water off the feeder and plopped on a big jar of their own honey. The sugar water was completely untouched and they had sealed up the holes. Hopefully, they have plenty to eat within the hive, but I'm wanting to be sure.

A friend's hive starved to death this winter...at least that is what the forensic evidence suggests. They had a jar of sugar water that they completely disregarded, too.

Hoping the honey is a better option for these cold days.

On the whole, still just leaving the hive alone as they huddle inside in their clump of bees, shivering to keep their inside hive temperature warm. They fly out on sunny days like yesterday, so there is still life in the hive!