Mid Year Bee Hive Inspection

I’ve had my new batch of bees since the beginning of May. Time to check on how they are doing inside the hive. I watch them from the outside regularly, so I know they are busy bees (ugh bad pun).

I have a top bar hive I built last year in my backyard. It sits in a sunny spot since the bees like the sun. It is surrounded by milkweeds on one side, a garden bed on the other, and a fence on the remaining sides.

The first step was to remove some of the weeds from the back side, and then take off the cover. I like working on the hive from the side opposite the entrance. This way, I am not in the way of the bees coming and going which I hope places less stress on them. Inside the cover, I found a small wasp’s nest starting. I removed it. The bees don’t need any competition so close to home.

Next, I carefully remove each bar one at a time and look at it. I use a sharp bread knife as my only tool. It comes in handy to unstick stuck bars and to cut the bridge comb. Bridge comb is some extra support bees sometimes add to the honeycomb by attaching it to the walls of the hive rather than to just the top bars.

I don’t usually use a smoker. I have one, but only used it once last year, and not at all this year. I have so far found, the top bar setup keeps the bees less stressed since I am only removing a small part of the hive, one bar at a time. The whole hive isn’t completely open, so they can keep working, hopefully feel safer, and less stressed.

An example of a fully loaded bar. The bees drew the honeycomb as they wished and then filled it as they needed. Looks like mostly capped honey: the white stuff near the top is capped honey for long term storage.

Since the honeycomb is supported only on the top, it is important to keep the bar horizontal and the comb vertical to avoid any unnecessary breakage. It was warm out, so the comb was extra soft!

Another fully loaded comb.

I worked slowly and carefully looking at each bar for obvious signs of trouble like mites or disease. Basically stuff that doesn’t look right or a bar that doesn’t match the rest.

These bees started with the old honeycomb from last year’s failed hive which gave them a jump start on the season. They had ten empty bars of honeycomb to start, and have filled those and made another 10+ which were also filled.

They have definitely been very busy. They seem much healthier and more productive than last years bees. I don’t plan on taking any of their honey; especially since my last hive starved to death over the winter. The honey is the bee’s food to get through tough times like winter or drought. I will check on them again soon. I am excited they seem to be doing well.

 

Thanks to Laura for taking the distant action shots.

Dead Bees

During the winter there isn’t much I can do with or for the honeybees I have in my backyard. It has been a normal cold Minnesota winter. During the winter, the bees move through the hive in a tight ball to keep each other warm eating the honey. If they do it right, they will be alive when the temperatures warm up in spring.

When I last checked on my hive, they seemed to be thriving and had a lot of honey stores. I didn’t take anything as that is their food to survive winter and other times of struggle.

I hiked through the snow to look at the hive a few days ago. I am not sure what I was looking for. I just wanted to look at it. The scene at the hive entrance has made me nervous. I am hoping they are still alive inside. There were several frozen, dead bees on the threshold. If I open the hive now to look, I will destroy their insulation. It’s too cold for them to reseal it. I don’t think there is much to do except wait until spring to see if they made it and let nature do it’s thing. I hope they are ok.

Checking on the Honeybees

It has been a few months since I last checked on my honeybees. It was a quiet evening and finally not hot. I put on my bee suit and went back to open up the hive to see how the girls were doing. I've see them flying around often, so I wasn't very worried.



The bees seemed pretty calm, so I didn't bother to fire up the smoker. I don't like using it. I concentrated on staying calm while moving slowly and mindfully. I didn't want to squish any of the bees while I checked things out.









The only tool I used was a bread knife to cut the bridge comb and loosen the bars. Bridge comb is when the bees attach the honeycomb on the bars to the inside of the hive. The bees did a great job making the hive airtight with propolis. The bars were all sealed together and to the hive body.



My first view inside the hive. This comb is almost finished and full of honey.



Further into the hive and lots of capped honey. I hope they are able to make enough to feed themselves through the winter. I don't plan on taking any of their food (honey).



A view of the comb inside the hive. This is the comb on the end and isn't quite finished.



The comb on the end taken out, so you can see it better. It was only partially attached, and much heavier than it looked. The weight is due to all the honey. I was very careful to turn it along the vertical axis to avoid breaking it.
I had a fun time looking at the hive. I added a few bars to give them more space since they had used up everything so far.

I am far from an expert, but they seem to be healthy. I didn't see any obvious signs of disease or pests. I'm very happy the bees seem calm. I might check on them one more time before winter if time allows.

Honeybees!

I’ve been wanting bees since last year. I used to confuse bees, wasps, and hornets, but then I read a few books and became hooked. They are amazing creatures. I tried to get them last year, but I was too slow. I didn’t realize you need to order them in Dec/Jan instead of April. I was ready this time.

I ordered the bees from a local supplier in southern Minnesota at the beginning of the year. The just shipped them this past Monday via USPS. I was excited and scared when the post office called yesterday and left me a voicemail, “Mr. Luhman, your bees are here. Please come pick them up by 6pm.” *gulp*

I rode over after work and picked them up from a post office warehouse. The box was smaller than I expected. I ordered three pounds. It easily fit into my sidecar. I took them home and let them rest in my dinning room for the night. It was very strange to eat dinner with thousands of bees safely buzzing a few feet away. My friend and I liked it.

I didn’t hive them the first night since it was too cold and rainy. The next day promised to be better. It was misty and slightly cold. Too cold for the bees to fly (below 50), and they also don’t fly in the wet.

I put the queen cage in first. I left the stopper and will remove it tomorrow. I wanted to give the bees another day to get used to their queen since they were probably first paired up on Monday when they shipped.

Queen in her cage

Queen cage installed in hive

Once the queen was safely inside, I bonked the box on the ground a few times to loosen the mass of bees.

Then I poured them into the hive in a big lump. It was a strange sight. I’ve seen it many times on youtube, but it was still weird to pour them out.

 

I put some sugar water into the hive as well. There is still nothing blooming yet since it has been so cold and wet. I will very likely have to replace it tomorrow morning. With the hive buttoned up, and the new cover in place. I went back into the garage. A few bees were stuck on my bee suit. They were cold and wet and couldn’t fly away.

So far, I think it was a successful bee day. I only squished a couple by mistake (newbie mistake) and I didn’t get stung. I’m VERY excited to learn from the bees. I bought them to learn from, pollinate my garden, and try to raise a healthy colony. If I get honey, ok, but it is not the main reason I am interested in them.

If you want to learn more about bees:

1) Watch “More Than Honey” a great documentary. The subtitles on netflix streaming are goofed, so get the disc or watch somewhere else.

2) Read: “The Thinking Beekeeper”

3) Watch: “OutOfABlueSky” or “GoldStarHoneyBees” YouTube