Well I better not upload any of my videos on here, I’ll most likely get the same lecture. I must confess, it’s never something I ever worried about. I take the frame, with the queen to the camera lady.
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I’ve seen some of your bee videos Jeff and I found them very informative. Thanks for sharing your expertise. I expect to make plenty more mistakes as I learn about my bees.
Today they are bringing in pollen. I’ve continued to supplement their diet with 1:1WV sugar solution. They get a litre in the afternoon and it has run out by morning. Then they get to forage for a few hours until mid afternoon. I’m using pure white cane sugar as per the earlier advice.
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Wow, thanks Bob, well it looks like the bees are liking that sugar/water mix. I read that myself a few years ago about white sugar being the best sugar to use. I’ve never fed my bees, I tell a lie, I did it once & the bees swarmed shortly after, probably nothing to do with me feeding them. That was in my early days. It’s hot & muggy up here today, we look like getting storms this afternoon. I’ve got a hive to pick up one afternoon, the bees built their hive out in the open on a branch about 12 foot off the ground. I’m waiting for a storm free afternoon to do it in. It’s more than half an hour away, so I want to do it in one trip. I look forward to your next video, cheers
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I must admit to taking pictures of my first few inspections, and walking about with frames…never once dropped a queen, nor did she ever fly off. It’s a useful tool for a very beginner but I think if you do it routinely then it prevents your training to get your eye in. Watch bee inspectors at work. They can spot a single dead larva in a cell. That’s practice, and they were beginners once.
@sciencemaster , why are you feeding your bees?
I’ve given some serious thought about walking around with brood frames covered in bees. I think if the frame has a good covering of bees, your safe as long as you don’t drop it or bump it hard. I think instinctively, if I see the frame can’t support the amount of bees on it, I’ll let the excess bees drop back in the box or even give the frame a light shake to shake some of the bees off, leaving a good amount on the frame. I did something stupid the other day. I had a frame that included the queen, I wanted to isolate it so I knew where the queen was. I stood it up to lean on the rear of another hive. That hive had a small hole right where I stood the frame. The bees were using it as a second entrance. When I checked that frame for the queen, she was nowhere to be found. She must have went into the other hive. I didn’t bother looking for her, time didn’t permit. She was a brand new mated queen. The hive she came from is making another new one now. That was another lesson learned.
Dee, the recommendation to feed came with the instructions for the box of bees. As a newbie I rely on what I get told. Sure it may not be necessary given that there is a honey flow on but my old eyes are telling me the bees collect the syrup much faster than the nectar and pollen.
This morning when my bees weren’t getting fed syrup, forager bees were returning every 20 to 30 seconds. When I put out the syrup this afternoon loaded bees were buzzing back into the hive every second or so. The girls went through a litre of syrup in less than 4 hours.
I want to split my hive within a month so I need the population building as rapidly as possible. My flow units arrive in December and I want to install the three units in separate 6 frame supers.
Jeff, with one hive and one queen, I will be taking the camera to the frame I think. Probably leave the iphone on the stand taking the video and take the stills with another camera.
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Your right Dexter, that’s good advice. I’ve never heard it before, it’s new to me. It must be something you get told at clubs etc. Sounds like Bob’s taking that advice.
Hi Bob, that sounds like a good idea. I’m looking forward to seeing those photos, my money’s on a mated queen. If your bees are using the syrup, just keep using it, I reckon. I guess it’s like the bees having a 24/7 honey flow. You probably wouldn’t want to split the hive till you had at least 6-8 good frames of brood & bees. Also remember that by the time you want to do the split in a month a lot of the package bees will be burnt out or close to burnt out.
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Well I’ll throw my two cents’ in
I’ll admit first that I have no experience of package bees but here in the UK beginners’ nucs swarm frequently due to overfeeding. The bees fill the comb they are drawing faster than they can make it and the queen runs out of space to lay.
3 days ago you had one and a half frames undrawn. I bet they have been by now so I’d stop feeding if the bees are foraging.
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Thanks for the advice Dee. I had read about bees swarming after they ran out of space and I have an 8 frame super ready to put in place. I’m not planning to add it today but it’s ready if needed.
I’ve reviewed all of my video from three days ago and quite a few of the frames were only partly drawn. My bees had 4 frames of foundation to build on and 4 frames with starter strips. Some of the foundation had only small patches of drawn comb. None of the starter strips were fully drawn although a couple were close. One of the starter strips was perhaps 20% drawn and the one nearest the entrance was untouched.
I want my bee population building as rapidly as possible. The supplementary feeding is part of that strategy. Perhaps expecting to split my first hive after only 5 weeks is being too ambitious but I’ll find out soon enough.
This is all a learning experience for me and I’m loving it, bee stings notwithstanding. The support I’ve been getting is fantastic and very much appreciated. Thank you all.
G’day Bob, maybe the one time I fed my bees & they swarmed shortly after was a result of over feeding. However you are doing regular checks, so watch out for emerging queen cells while checking. When you do your split, I’d recommend cutting any large areas of drone comb out of the frames with starter strips. You’ll most likely find that on the outside frames. I’m tipping you’ll be buying a mated queen for the split. I reckon that would be the best way to go unless they start building queen cells before the split.
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Yes, I’ve arranged to buy one from Louie Kelbert of Kel-Bee Apiaries. The plan is to order one in three weeks time if I look like having enough bees for the split. I think I will buy a Nuc as well if I can get one.
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Well tomorrow became today with overcast skies in the morning and intermittent rain this afternoon. It wasn’t a day to open my precious hive. This morning I knocked together a little stand from a couple of bits of black bamboo and some left over cypress pine. I will clamp it directly over the hive. I plan to lift each frame up and take a pic. All I need is a few hours of sunshine.
The bees were less active this morning but they were bringing in some pollen. The hive is now literally humming. The girls sound very industrious.
I gave them their usual ration of one litre of syrup this afternoon. Half of it had gone by nightfall. I guess the weather was just unsuitable for full on foraging.
@jeff we need drones for diversity of genes. Jeff if you keep advocating people keep cutting out drone comb firstly the Queens will lay more and not concentrate on her job and have to keep replacing it which is nature and secondly the drones benefit other hives you are curtailing the natural gene pool and this will have a knock on effect to other bee keepers in the area.
@sciencemaster if you do find queen cells, you need to think of doing one of the types of artificial swarms. Do some reading on the types. Sorry I’m away on my nexus and having trouble typing.
Hope this edited OK
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But only the good ones.
if you do find queen cells
@sciencemaster, have a look here, an excellent guide to what to do
http://www.wbka.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/There-Are-Queen-Cells-In-My-Hive-WBKA-WAG.pdf
Every beginner should read this
@dee this thread was for newbees so teaching them to cut out drone comb is counter productive.
The Queens make the choice so if she feels the drones not up to it I’m sure she won’t mate with him.