|
|
I decided that it was time to REALLY check out my bees for the spring… I’ve only got the one hive, so I’ve been wanting to add a box or two – to allow them to increase their numbers so that I can make a split or two off of it.
I decided to checkerboard my frames as such: I currently had (1) 10-frame deep and (1) Shallow super. I suited up, grabbed my hive tool and fired up the smoker.
I pulled the shallow super off of the deep box, then pulled a deep frame, and placed it into another deep box. This allowed me to move the other frames without worrying about rolling any of the bees (especially the queen!) between frames. I wound up, with the following layout:
Med Super: 0000000000
Shallow SUPER: XXXXXXXXXX
Added Deep: X0X0X00X0X
Original Deep: X0X0X00X0X (X = existing frame with drawn comb on foundation; 0= empty frame with wooden starter strip)
The shallow super had capped brood, developing larvae, and freshly laid eggs in it. There was still 2-3 frames of honey in the shallow super. There was also what appeared to be a swarm queen cell – placed between the original shallow super and the deep hive box. Unfortunately, the swarm queen cell was destroyed when I removed the shallow super. I was curious as to the taste, etc of the bee larvae, so I ate one of the larvae that had been in the destroyed cells from my removing the super. Kind of sweet!
I really hope that I have not created TOO MUCH space in the hive. I don’t want them to abscond from my giving them too much area in which to live. I’ll wait a week or two, and let them repair their propolis and hopefully draw some new comb on the empty frames.
Here’s a pic of my new hive brand for marking my woodenware. Made by a friend who is a welder/metal worker.
We’ve had such a mild winter – it makes me worried that we’ll have a cold snap in the next couple of weeks approaching Spring Equinox.
Today was such beautiful weather. At 7pm, it’s 75 deg. F., and we hit 77 today. We’re supposed to have lows in the mid-30’s this Friday night, though.
The bees have consumed quite a bit of the dry sugar that I had placed on top of the inner cover. That leads me to believe that the honey super may be empty (or close to empty) at this point. The bees are bringing in a HUGE amount of pollen, though.
Today I also worked on building several screened bottom boards, and I branded some of my hive bodies & supers with a branding iron that I had custom made by a friend that is a metal-worker. I’ll post a pic of the brand as well as the branded woodenware tomorrow.
 Fabien Cousteau and Rex Smith I just received word that I’ve been invited to spend an evening in April 2012 with Fabien Cousteau – grandson of Jacques-Yves Cousteau.
You remember him, right? Back in the early 1970’s, Jacques brought the wonders of our Earth’s underwater realms into the homes of America. I grew up with a healthy respect earned for Jacques and his entire crew (including his grandson, Fabien) that worked with him. The Calypso – though I never saw it in person – will always hold a dear place in my mind.
(Fade to John Denver singing “Calypso”)
How did I get such an offer? It’s part of the STEM scholarship that I received from my local county college (Richland College – Dallas County Community College) this spring. Scholarship recipients are invited to a STEM Summit in April of 2012 – which has Fabien Cousteau as speaker in the evening, then he’s available the next morning for one-on-one talks.
I am one happy “Nature Nerd”!!!
Sorry folks… There are too many ‘bots’ – and I’m getting about 50-100 spam comments per day. Turning off comments until WordPress can figure out a better method to protect site owners.
I wanted to share a few of the podcasts that I listen to in regards to beekeeping. If you read this, and are aware of others that I should take a listen to – then please send me a note to let me know what the link is – and I’ll evaluate it.
Organically Managed Beekeeping
(aka: Pragmatic Beekeeping Forum)
http://somdbeekeeper.com
iTunes or RSS Feed or online from the site
The Wildlife Pro Network (BeeMaster)
http://www.BeeMaster.com
iTunes or RSS Feed or online from the site
The Barefoot Beekeeper
http://www.biobees.com
iTunes or RSS Feed
The Beekeepers Corner
http://www.bkcorner.org
iTunes or RSS Feed
KiwiMana
http://kiwimana.co.nz/
iTunes or RSS Feed
Punxsutawney Phil is a punk! He says 6 more weeks… well my ladies say it’s time for spring. I’m crossing my fingers in hope that we do not have a repeat of last year’s weather patters. Last year – in Dallas we had 12″ of snow in late March! On the spring equinox!!
Here’s a few pics that I took with my iPhone late this afternoon. Click the pics for close-ups.
 Lots of BIG pollen coming in today  Bee on Borage  Borage in Bloom  Borage Close-Up 
We have had a few cool nights this week, with temperatures down into the mid 30’s (deg. F). When today’s temperature got up to about 50 deg. F, I decided to go ahead and check the hive. Going into winter, I had put in 4 lbs of dry sugar onto the inner cover, then covered it with a deep super, and then the outer cover on top of that. Last week, I also placed a boardman feeder with a mason-jar of my homebrew of Honey-Bee-Healthy” (2:1 with essential oils) into the “covering super”. Up until this week, I don’t think they had touched the sugar. The 2:1 with EO’s they were drinking slowly. I suspect it took about a week for them to go through the mason jar.
Today, when I checked the hive, the bees were REALLY on the sugar. I think they’ve eaten about 2 lbs from the looks of what’s left. I refilled the syrup, and closed it back up.
The girls are out flying today, and I observed a few bringing in some pale yellow (more white, really) pollen. I’d bet that the last 2-3 weeks of warm weather, along with lots of pollen coming in over the last month, initiated the queen to start laying eggs for spring. Now more than ever, the bees will be needing protein in the form of pollen.
If it gets warmer this week, I’ll suit up and pull a few frames to do a closer inspection and see how much brood is really there.
Life always amazes me in some of the strangest ways. Today I has another reminder lesson of just what a small world it really is that we live in.
Folks & friends of friends converged from different walks of my life – and this evening – while studying for one of this semester’s classes with a classmate – learned that he is not only a record producer, but knows many of Shannon and my contacts in the music world that we’ve come into contact with via Earth Rhythms. He is also a band member of a band that I first remember WAAY back in the early 90’s that made it BIG on the pop charts. I promised to not reveal the band, though, until after the semester is over.
Anyway – it’s amazing the people we meet in our circles of life, and the contacts and networking that we can all do for each other on different levels of our lives.
I’m a straight shooter, so this will be the last of the vague posts about such matters…
1/30/2012
This last weekend was beautiful in north Texas. Friday, I saw a variety of pollen coming into the hive – including a nice bright yellow-orange color; some was a pale yellow-white in color; and other -(presumably henbit) was a blood-red. The henbit has been flowering for the last 2-3 weeks, now. Daytime temps have been averaging 65-73 Deg. F. Night-time temps are still in the high 30’s to high 40’s range (appx 38-48 deg. F).
Since the ladies were so active, I also gave them some sugar water spring stimulant. They drank 1 quart of it in 1 day. Here’s the recipe I used:
—
Homebrew Spring Stimulating Feed (compare to Honey “B” Healthy)
Recipe was given via podcast by Don K (the FatBeeMan).
1 – Gallon – of 2:1 Sugar/Water Mixture
20-25 Drops – Wintergreen Essential Oil
15 Drops – Spearmint Essential Oil
5 Drops – Lemongrass Essential Oil
Blend oils (in a blender) about 5 minutes into about 1.5 cups of Sugar Water to emulsify it, and add to 1 gallon of 2:1 mix.
—
I also placed (2) of my 15 swarm lure/traps in East Texas. The scent I used was straight lemongrass essential oil. I put 4-5 drops of the oil onto a cotton-ball, placed the cotton ball into a SMALL ziplock baggie, and closed the baggie about 90%, then set it into the swarm trap box, along with 5 empty frames. Crossing my fingers that this works!
|
|
