This may be the last video I post of our hives this year before we wrap them in tar paper for the winter. It’s not much, about a minute long, just a few quick clips from the last time the bees were active. The first few clips show Hive #2 with a small inverted jar of syrup over the inner cover hole, the inner cover having already been flipped to the winter position. The last couple clips show Hive #1 with a larger-than-normal number of drones pouring out the mouse-proof winter entrance reducer. I thought all the drones would have been booted out of the hive long before now, but I guess not.
THE FOLLOWING WAS LAST UPDATED ON DEC. 19, 2010.
It’s cold all the time now. It rarely gets above 10° C (or 50° F). Hive #1 has been slow-moving since September and Hive #2 went into a low gear this past week. Neither hive is taking much syrup from the hive top feeders, so I decided to remove them and replace them with inverted jar feeders, which the bees can feed from without breaking cluster or losing too much heat. One 500ml jar will probably do them for another week, maybe two, before I finally wrap up the hives for winter. Here’s a silly video showing the whole procedure.
THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN UPDATED SINCE ORIGINALLY POSTED.
I added a hive top feeder to Hive #2 ten days ago. Many bees lost their lives to the siren song of the sugar syrup. But a few hundred dead bees won’t kill the hive.
I’ll remove the top hive feeders from both hives in a few days and replace them with inverted jar feeders for another week before I wrap up the hives for winter. As Robo says, “The bees can cluster right up to the bottom of the [inverted jar] feeder and continue to feed without breaking cluster.” Not having to break cluster at this time of the year doesn’t hurt (it rarely gets above 10° C these days). The next time I use the hive top feeders (late winter, early spring), I’ll add some straw or cork for the bees to float on so not as many drown. I’ll probably add screens to the reservoirs to keep wasps out too. Anyway, here’s a short video of the drowned bees:
Read on . . . »
THE FOLLOWING WAS LAST UPDATED ON OCT. 18, 2011.
Winters in St. John’s, Newfoundland, provide a messy mixture of rain, snow and high winds with irregular periods of freezing and thawing. Wrapping Langstroth honey bee hives with a Type 15 asphalt felt isn’t a bad idea. Neither is installing mouse-proof entrance reducers. Preventing condensation, though, is the top priority. A 1-inch thick piece of R5-rated hard insulation over the inner cover in the winter position will prevent condensation from building up inside the hive during the winter. We used a 1.5-inch thick piece of insulation during our first winter (because we couldn’t find anything else) up until the end of January. Then we had to switch to insulated inner hive covers because the regular inner covers don’t provide enough room for candy cakes and pollen patties. A shim lifting a regular inner cover up an inch or two would provide enough space. However, an all-in-one insulated inner hive cover might be more convenient. It requires moderate carpentry skills (which means we’ll probably go with the shims instead), and it’ll cost a little more, but here’s how we made them if anyone is interested. We’ve tested them, and they work.*
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I added a hive top feeder to Hive #2 today. I also checked the hive top feeder on Hive #1 which has had a feeder installed for about a week now with about 6 litres of syrup in one side. That feeder may have had a slight leak. I noticed a clump of bees and wasps hanging around one spot between the inner cover and the feeder for a couple days. I’d brush them away and they’d fly back to the exact spot immediately. Here’s what it looked like:
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Then today as I was about to check the hive — this is a completely different topic — I noticed these dead bees and wasps outside the bottom entrance:
Read on . . . »
THE FOLLOWING WAS LAST UPDATED ON DEC. 23, 2010.
This is a follow-up to the previous post.
I just checked the hives to see how well they’re taking up the syrup from the frame feeders. I was able to add another 2 litres of syrup to the feeder in Hive #2 (that’s 2 litres since yesterday afternoon). It’s massive with bees. They still have about 3 empty frames left and they’re going nuts with building and taking up syrup. Nothing wrong with that.
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| Hive #1 bees in their glory days (August 2010). |
The bees in Hive #1, on the other hand, haven’t touched the syrup in their frame feeder, and they’re showing no interest in the frames I installed in the first honey super yesterday. So whatever is going on in Hive #1, it’s got them disinterested in taking feed or building comb.
Read on . . . »
I added a medium super to both of our hives today (for a total of two on each hive) and installed double frame feeders in each. The frame feeders are designed for deep supers, but two mediums will also do the trick.
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I added the 7-litre double frame feeder to Hive #2 (on the left) above the inner cover because the bees were sucking the syrup from the Boardman feeders faster than I could refill them. (The Boardman feeders were sheltered inside a medium super to keep wasps away.) We did a full inspection of the hive yesterday and noticed three or four empty frames, meaning those bees need to build a lot of honeycombs fast to have them filled for the winter. Adding the frame feeder is the quickest way to feed them, so that’s that.
But Hive #1 is a different story…
Read on . . . »
UPDATE: DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME. IT’S NOT THE GREATEST DESIGN FOR A FEEDER.
We installed 7-litre frame feeders in our hives over the past few weeks. The feeders take up the space of two frames inside the brood box and the bees go to town on the syrup faster than they ever did with the Boardman feeders, probably because about ten times more bees can get at the syrup. We like the frame feeders for that reason and because they only require re-filling every ten days or so, and they don’t seem to attract as many wasps as Boardman feeders. (Ants are another story.) The only downside to a frame feeder this large is that is doesn’t leave any wiggle room for the remaining eight frames. I had to use the frame gripper for the first time today because I couldn’t slide the frames to loosen them.
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We decided to remove the feeder from Hive #1 today because the bees have filled all the frames and they need the extra two frames of space the feeder was taking up.
Read on . . . »
THE FOLLOWING WAS LAST UPDATED ON AUG. 27, 2011.
We plan to install these frame feeders as soon as possible. They arrived today from beemaidbeestore.com. The feeders have bee ladders (photo): tubes of plastic mesh the bees crawl down as a way of drinking the syrup without drowning in it. The feeders hold 7 litres of syrup and take up the space of two frames in the brood chamber. (2 litres = 1.85 gallons.)
Our Boardman feeders attract ants, wasps and even big ugly slugs. (The Boardman feeders also encourage robbing at times from other bees.) It’s not a problem for Hive #1 because their numbers are so high. But Hive #2 is weaker and having wasps around probably doesn’t help.
Not having to poke around the hives as much may be another advantage of switching to frame feeders. Hive #1 sucks up about a litre of syrup from the Boardman feeder every three days. If the bees continue at that pace, it could take them up to three weeks to empty 7 litres from the frame feeder, though we’ll likely refill it every two weeks after regular inspections regardless. (UPDATE: The bees drink much faster from the frame feeders.)
Read on . . . »
I did a non-intrusive hive inspection this afternoon. I’ve been on a tiring film shoot for the past four days, and I missed hanging out in the backyard watching the bees, surrounded by all my veggies and things. I’m glad I had the day off. Here’s a shot of some bees in Hive #2.
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By non-intrusive, all I mean is I didn’t pull out the frames. I just removed the roof and the inner cover and looked down at the frames. The bees in Hive #1 have built more comb than those in Hive #2, probably because they went at least one extra week with a feeder. (No doubt about it, feeding the bees at this early stage accelerates comb building — more places for the queen to lay her eggs.) I scraped more honeycomb from the inner cover of that hive. I plan to use the wax (I already ate the honey) to build some starter strips. From what I could see today, the bees in Hive #1 have drawn out comb on at least 7 of the 10 frames, maybe more. I was impressed with what I saw. I’m not sure when I should add another brood box to the hive, but I’m thinking as early as next weekend, the weekend after that at the latest.
Read on . . . »
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