Checked on queen today

Checked on the status of the queen this morning and they almost have her out, so I will let them do it.  They were in a nasty mood and one got me on the leg (shorts) and then they chased me to the house, where I put on my suit.  I went back and sprayed the queen with sugar water and a little Honey Bee Healthy and the area around her so they would all smell the same, that settles them down some.  She should be out this PM, hope they don't kill her.

Also checked on the trap out last night.  They have chewed through the foam I sprayed into the brick crevices so today I have to go back and do it right with mortar.

Nadired (placing the new box under the others) another box to the green hive today.  Will add another to the red hive this PM, when they settle down some.   Later

Checked this PM and she's out, picture fuzzy as I was being mobbed without protection.

New Queen finally arrives

After waiting 4 days for a 2 day special delivery mailing, my queen finally arrived.  I gave her a shot of sugar water, thinking she may be dehydrated, and then began to put things together for the installation.  I had previously checked the hives for signs of laying and found that the hive I didn't expect her to be in was where the new brood patterns were.  I also decided that as long as I was opening the hive, I might as well remove the super and do a harvest.  All went well and I have a small amount to honey for sale.  Both hives should get back to normal now.

Checking this morning, the hive with the new queen is more active and tomorrow I'll check to see if they have released her.  All is well otherwise.   Later

Hive split

Yesterday I decided to split my hive as I have not received any swarm calls.  Because I do not open the hives, I have no idea which new hive the queen is in.  Today I went to one of the Staten Island beekeepers and looked for queen cells to give to my hives but because it was overcast, her bees were testy, to say the least, so I left them be.  I guess I just have to hope that whichever hive the queen is in, the other has an egg which they can create one.  If it doesn't appear they had one in a couple weeks, I'll buy one on-line.

This morning I checked the hives and the one I moved away had no activity outside the entrance, so I switched places, which allowed the in-active hive to receive all the forage bees.  By mid-day, both hives had good activity at their entrances. 

Just have to wait and see now.  In about 28 days I should see new bees doing their entrance dance. Later

Queen laying strong

Checked the hive yesterday and found they are starting to build comb in the lowest box and the one above has bees covering every frame ( I don't use frames but you get the picture).  Have to pull the super to see if they are storing honey or just building up the hive to swarm.  Have put out a trap just in case.

The apple trees have set fruit for the first time and my apricot tree has fruit also.  looks good so far.  The Russian olive has just come into bloom so I expect the bees will be busy as this end of the island is full of it.  Last years blossoms only lasted 2 days because of the weather, but it looks good for this year.  It makes almost clear honey with a distinctive taste.

I got my first bee call last Friday, but missed it as I was at my annual derm. screening.  Think I will set out the trap today in Mariners Harbor.  Later

New bees out flying today.

Almost as I had predicted to my wife, the flight bees were out, doing their little dance in front of the hive, gathering in the scent of the hive before venturing forth to do their bee thing.  The number of bees coming from the hive has double today.  I was a little worried as the size of bee mass inside the hive has remained constant for the last couple weeks.  Hope this will be the major turn around for them.

Jean from the Bee Meetup group just lost her hive in February during a warm spell, in which they just all flew away.  Next fall I'm inserting the queen excluder just above the entrance, as I don't expect next winter to be as harsh as this one was, but who knows, maybe we have another ice age coming and as this is the first year my bees didn't do the same thing, maybe I can stop it in its tracks.

Time to get the swarm trap ready and in place, hopefully I can trap the swarms before they all fly away.   Later

Hive doing well

An inspection of the hive from the viewing window shows that the hive is expanding well.  They are now utilizing a new frame and are beginning to clean the next.  The size of the bees has also grown so I know that the queen is laying well, without having to open the hive.  The bees are working hard, bringing in lots of pollen.  The blossoms from the flowers and fruit trees should start to come in soon and I expect the bees to begin to move up into the top box soon.  I have an empty box on top and one on the bottom, left over when I added swarms (with queens) last summer.  All in all I had three thriving colonies in the hive going into winter and but only one small colony coming out this spring.  Can't wait for the swarm season to begin.  1st year without buying a box of bees.  I have modified all the boxes to accept a beetle trap to try and control that problem and am not going to expand the hives like I did last year as I think it caused to much space for them to protect.  Live and learn.  Later

PS:  My previous blog about White Oak apiaries has over 700 hits so far and I want to thank you all for the responses which have all been negative and with the same experiences I went through.  

Colony expanding

The colony that suvived the winter was very small, only using about 1.5 outer combs on the south side, where it was warmest.  They now have expanded into the fourth comb, with bees starting to clean the comb making ready for the queen.  It will take a little longer for them to build up but I look forward to seeing a lot more flying in the next couple weeks. 

The honey I salvaged from the upper box is very dark and strong tasting, but still quit good.  The comb I set out for the bees is being eaten quit fast, even with so few bees.  Only six more weeks till the swarm season, can't wait.   Later