Wow, you're moving along quick with this. How much does it cost for inspections/ tests for disease and such?
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Wow, you're moving along quick with this. How much does it cost for inspections/ tests for disease and such?
They could be robber bees from another hive. They are usually attracted by sugar syrup feeding.Quote:
Just looking at them this evening from a distance, I'm seeing population increase in foragers. There were probably 200 swarming in front of the entrance at once (although certainly some were flying in and some out)
RWC, in my state, there are no "inspectors" unless you are raising and selling queens. To get inspected, I'll have to call some of my friends from the Wiregrass Beekeepers Assoc. and try to sweet talk them with some good food, or perhaps some leather trade. Many states offer it free of charge, but I've been informed that it does not fit in GA Dept of Ag's budget. Best that I do my own inspections, since I took good notes at all those classes, and got a nice reference book with pics of the diseases and pests, and call one of my bk friends if I think I have a problem.
The sliding bottom drawer makes mite and beetle inspection really easy and unintrusive to the hive. So far all I've spotted was a few clumps of pollen that were dropped, and bee poop. Still got 11 days before I make a real inspection, but with the steady population increase I'm seeing, I think it's safe to say they are very healthy. Watching them go to bed has the added advantage of being able to eye the ones flying in and out to look for the mites on their bodies.
Gordy, I don't know of any other hives within a 2 mile radius, so I doubt they were robbers. Since this was a nuc with a full capped brood frame, I'd think the ladies are hatching and sending some of the attendants out to work the fields. I'm still very new to this, so you could be right about robbers, but they would have to enter the hive and climb all the way to the top to get any sugar syrup, as I'm using top-feeding with the jar enclosed in an empty super and a telescoping lid. At any given time you can spot 5 or more guards at the entrance with their agressive posture (tho they don't seem agressive towards me). I would think they would deter any robbers from making it all the way up through the hive and back out.
Are you familiar with the "betterbeetleblaster"? It's a top-rail beetle trap that uses canola oil to nab SHB. It was designed and developed by the same gentleman that I got these bees from, Mr. Laurence Cutts, along with the varroa treatment ApilifeVAR, which is made of all natural ingredients and essential oils. I feel lucky to live so close to all these folks even tho the closest ones are 45 miles away, and Mr. Cutts is about 80 miles.
Got a few more pics if I ever get around to uploading them. I gotta figure out how to change the shutter speed on my camera.. most of the pics look like the kids drew on them with orange crayons LOL. Those ladies are some really fast flyers!
They've drank very little sugar syrup in the last two days, so they are foraging something. I just don't know what. So many things are in bloom. I've sat near a few plants in the yard to try to figure it out but haven't spotted them on the things I would think they would be foraging on. Gonna have to get one or two (thousand) of them microchips you put in your pets for when they get lost.
actually, I'm gonna shoot a few emails out there and ask if theres a good way to figure it out. The garden has 0 blooms yet, so I'm hoping it's close by whatever IT is..
watched them for a little while this evening. Thought I'd share a few shots of these lovely ladies.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/DSCN5986.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/DSCN5990.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/DSCN5991.jpg
and their own personal water source, which they don't really seem interested in today LOL.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/DSCN5994.jpg
And I found one plant in the yard this evening, that they were foraging on. I was sitting in the shade softening a piece of leather when I found this little girl having a field day in the vetch.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/DSCN6000.jpg
I forgot about eating the bananas, I had one for a snack today, and when I checked the syrup again this evening, I almost got stung by one of the guards. Guess I shoulda washed my hands at least lol. She flew right into my right hand, bumped it (wasn't wearing gloves) as if warning me, so I walked away and didn't tempt fate (or the bees!!)
I never thought of insects being "pretty" before, but these really are! I watched them groom each other with a neighbor for a few minutes. neat stuff!
From the pictures, it doesn't look like robbers, it would be a lot busier, and the entrance would look crowded, as they overwhelm the guards.
Sometimes nucs can get wiped out by a powerful hive.
I feed small nucs protein if they were flagging, but if there is a good pollen, I wouldn't feed protein cakes to them.
Protein just gives them more strength, and they turn protein into more bees. You want to get them up to 2 brood boxes and 2 supers as quickly as possible.
Once you have big powerful hives, when the flows come you can get a lot more honey.
LOL, don't forget the banana factor, it's a doozy. One day you will not even be able to get close to the hive, on bad days leave the hive alone. Some days bees get really really angry, and there's nothing we can do about it, sept leave them alone.Quote:
I forgot about eating the bananas, I had one for a snack today, and when I checked the syrup again this evening, I almost got stung by one of the guards.
If the syrup isn't being used up, I'd take it out.
See if they'll take some protein cake. If they eat it all in 1-2 days, feed them some more until they aren't interested. Man bees can eat protein cake when they are hungry for it.
That's cool, ya got me wanting to try yet an other thing now, lol.
BTW< I thought you said you had to have them inspected in an earlier post, that's why asked.
I imagine that at some point or another I will have to have an inspection. I just have to do it without the help of the state. I think I've worked out a deal with some of the more experienced beekeepers from the club. While it won't be "official", at least they'll know what they are looking at. I've been sharing pictures with one lady who is pretty well versed and knows what things should look like. She seems to think we (the bees more than myself) are doing great.
It's important to police ourselves for the sake of the bees. The pests and diseases that have popped up in recent years can wipe out entire apiaries in a season, and can spread like wildfire throughout the state (or even country should a new pestilence develop). Tracheal and varroa mites in the mid 80's bankrupted many beekeepers and destroyed entire apiaries before anyone knew what happened. Foulbrood is one of those diseases, and if I even suspect with the slightest notion that it's in my hive, I will be calling somebody to come check.
People keep bees far to the North of you, but seeing as you still have snow, they'd be eating protein patties and sugar-syrup like crazy, while we have flowers already producing nectar here. I'm NOT saying it's not worthwhile, just that in your case it might be a little heavier on the budget in the "food" area for a longer duration. The biggest problem I could see for you, would be the startup cost, or time to make all the stuff yourself (one or the other lol).
Gordy, We got a recipe for the protein cakes at class. Might mix up some of that just to see if they'll go for it, or if they've found something nearby that they like. Many of them seem to be heading to the woods north of here, and I can only imagine what they've found. They go from dry, piney woods, to swampy, dense thickets in a matter of just a few acres, so there is a diverse ecosystem that might make it hard to figure out what they are foraging. Might be worth a walk in snake country just to see if I can spot them foraging.
I'm seeing the wax-flake pattern moving outward from the middle towards the sides of the box which would indicate they are expanding and drawing new combs on the blank frames. Hopefully they'll be strong enough by mid-summer to add them a nice surplus super for overwintering and split the hive next spring.
I'm fairly isolated right here from other beekeepers, no other hives within 2 miles that I know of, so hopefully the risk of cross contamination is very minimal.
Feed the protein, build that hive brother.
Found a few dead mites, and a few live ones over the last few days. Yes, bees get fleas too, and this is what one looks like:
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/DSCN6017.jpg
Finding them on the bottom drawer means to me that the bees are cleaning them out of the hive and off each other. These are very clean bees and I haven't actually spotted a mite ON any of the bees.
Rainy weekend made foraging a little tougher for the bees (I think) so I gave them a little sugar-syrup to help out. This little lady must have been thirsty!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...s/DSCN6022.jpg
Saw them bringing in LOTS of pollen yesterday, so I think I'll let them do their thing. Look at any random car and you know the pollen flow is on, now it's just a matter of time before I see them needing more space. Got a medium super ready as soon as the ladies are.
Aw, ain't they cute? Makes ya just wanna reach down and pet one. YCC and his pet bees. :)
So, how much honey can you expect get for yourself out of this setup?
I don't expect to get ANY honey this year. When all the big brood chamber frames are drawn and they start acting crowded, I'll add medium supers above and let them draw those out. I have two medium supers that should get me about 2 pounds apiece of honey, or maybe half a gallon next year, BUT, I'm hoping that they'll do well enough to want to split, so next year I'll have one hive to get honey from, and another raising. Of course, they have to have some to last them the winter, so If I get all my frames drawn this year, I'll feel lucky, and if I get any honey next year, REAL lucky.
One good thing, as long as you don't let them starve to death, overwintering should be easy, and in two years, should have a few pounds for personal use and double that every year, till I have enough hives to stop buying sugar :D
I would expect about half a gallon would be stored this year, but I wouldn't dare touch it. Of course, this is my first one, so I can't say for sure. Gordy could probably tell us both more what to expect. I'm not even sure how much honey weighs lol.
some of the honey supers at the class on Saturday were stacked 8 high, and if half a gallon each is a fair approximation, the one hive should make 2 gallons and still have enough to overwinter. But all their combs were drawn, so all the bees had to do was pack them.
Not sure about the technical lingo, but everything good comes with time. Plus, it will be neat to see how they progress.
"super" is lingo for a box with more combs in it, they come in different sizes for different purposes. We give the queen a big box to lay eggs and raise more bees, and generally anything above that is considered to be food storage. The topmost should be all honey.
It takes them a little while to start from scratch, and these ladies had a head start with 4 drawn frames, one that was capped brood. They literally work from the time they emerge to the time they die, so patience on our part is not optional.
To tell the truth, the honey is really of less concern to me, than the benefit they'll bring to all the other crops in the neighborhood.. blueberries, thimbleberries, elderberry, then there's the peas and butterbeans, pears, plums, peaches... Man, I'm gettin hungry!
Ya, I noticed the apple orchard has quite a few boxes out.
Did the two-week checkup yesterday. I won't bore you to death with lots of pictures, the album is here
There were a few cool shots I wanted to share tho, if only for their relevance to beekeeping in general. If you're thinking of getting a hive, these will be some of the things to look at/for.
On the left of this frame is capped honey, the rest in the picture is nectar being dried into honey.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...1/DSCN6152.jpg
They appear to be building their own mite trap. This is likely space for males where they built comb in a place where the corner of the foundation was removed.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...1/DSCN6154.jpg
You can see the growing larvae in these cells.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...1/DSCN6160.jpg
Capped worker brood, and a new bee emerging in the center.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...1/DSCN6163.jpg
Click this picture to see a slideshow of a bee emerging from it's cell.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...h_DSCN6163.jpg
This picture is of another bee emerging on the same frame. Sunday was a good day and I should be getting many more hatchlings over the next few days and start seeing a steady increase in population
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...1/DSCN6171.jpg
Here's my queen, depositing an egg in a clean cell. Watching her, she seems very selective in which cells she will lay in.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...1/DSCN6180.jpg
Not only can you see the difference in the queen, you can see pollen packed into the cells.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...1/DSCN6182.jpg
A male drone bee. Notice the big eyes.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...1/DSCN6184.jpg
This is one of the frames I built. They are already capping cells along the top and edge.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...1/DSCN6186.jpg
Just for kicks. This is white clover.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...1/DSCN6193.jpg
So, I only found one mite, no beetles, and no moths. I hope I never get to take any pictures of those evil things.. The bees looked healthy and happy, and I'm getting hatchlings, so I'm on the right track. I do wish they'd put less effort into burr comb and more into drawing frames, tho.
Looks like you are well on your way. Better start buiding another have body and supers.
Cool pics, definitely gives some insight into things I've never really considered about bees, like some having bigger eyes.