“Bee Diary”
Update on the hives and also they’re getting names. Referring to something using a name that has always been unnamed seems a little odd at first, but if I don’t do it now, I never will.
The naming scheme will be castles.
Standing behind the hives, from left to right
House Hives
- Calahorra: One of the three Rossman packages
- Belmonte: Neffsville swarm
- Warwick: Nuc started as an artificial swarm when Avila built swarm cells
- Sintra: Busy Bees Apiaries package
Alfalfa Hives
- Coca: One of the three Rossman packages
- Avila: One of the three Rossman packages
- Alhambra: Nuc started from a collection of removed frames.
- Osma: Keeney and Ziegler Apiaries package
So now, attempting to use the new names, is an update. All hives are queen right post Mite Away Quick Strip treatment.
Calahorra is still a booming hive, it’s almost unnatural. It’s working on drawing out its fourth box, and is about as far along on this box as Belmonte is on its second. The queen is the original package queen from Rossman. If they keep drawing at this rate, they may require a fifth box just to keep them busy.
Belmonte is doing reasonably well with respect to population, but behind in comb construction since they were nothing more than a swarm at the end of June. I put another gallon of 1:1 syrup on them today in the hopes that they’ll use it to draw more comb. I believe I’ll have enough comb from other hives to make up for any shortage, but I’d rather them draw as much as possible. Since I won’t get any honey from them, feeding them syrup isn’t an issue.
Warwick is doing well for a nuc, although little progress has been made on its second box. I’ve put a 1/2 gallon of 1:1 syrup on them to hopefully prompt them to draw a bit before the end of the season. Their queen was the original Avila queen, but they superceded her.
Sintra is doing well but superceded its queen earlier in the year. I believe this set them back a little bit. Their third box is almost completely drawn so I’ve just added a fourth box. They certainly won’t build it out completely but I may get an extra frame or two out of them before the end of the season.
Coca is working on its fourth box now and is doing well. It’s the second strongest hive only behind Calahorra. It has its original queen as well and has a few really nice frames of honey I’m eyeing up for a small harvest.
Avila is the hive that decided to swarm. I split them before they actually swarmed (the split is now Warwick). Their newly raised queen is my nicest looking and the largest by far. They’re working on filling out their third box of comb. They’re a bit behind since I had to take some for the split and they lost about 1/3 of their bees at that point.
Alhambra is still a mediocre nuc and I still plan to combine it with Warwick mid-September. The queen is laying small patches of larvae and only just keeping up with the normal die-off.
Osma is in need of a fourth box to keep them busy, but I have to get the frames assembled. I may simply give them some empty frames from Avila’s third box and give their drawn comb to Avila. This would be the simpler way of maybe getting a few extra drawn frames from them before the cold.
Overall, I’ll probably have to feed all the hives except for maybe Calahorra. All others have some nice frames of honey, but I don’t think they’re packed in enough for me to be comfortable with the coming winter. I plan to do my final winter manipulations inside the hives during the second week of September. I’ll combine Alhambra and Warwick and redistribute frames so each hive has at least three boxes of fully drawn frames with the top box being as much honey as possible. I also plan to start feeding 2:1 syrup at that time, and I’ll probably just keep it going until the end of September. At that point, the beginning of October, I’ll hope for a warm day and give them one last inspection and be done inside my hives for the season (outside prep is an entirely different matter…more to come).
I’ve been meaning to write a post about this for quite some time. I’d like to document it for myself and maybe it’ll help someone else along.
In going foundationless, there’s always the challenge of how to give the bees a guide on which to build. Many foundationless beekeepers melt wax and drip it along some sort of guide mounted to the top bar. Anything from paint sticks to popsicle sticks to strips of corrugated signs have been used. Kelley’s now sells a “foundationless” frame (link). The top bar is V shaped with the bottom of the V being the bottom of the bar.
My Method
While Kelley’s foundationless frame seems to be a good design, it offers no flexibility if one wants to use foundation for supers. I wanted that flexibility. So I initially bought wedge top bars, removed the wedge and turned it on edge so it was at a right angle to the top bar, providing a guide. The problem was then that the two halves of the top bar were uneven. The bees drew properly once I corrected much of the comb, but it always seemed to be a little heavier on one side of the frame. I then bought grooved top bars and glued three popsicle sticks in the groove. That worked to correct the symmetry, but the bees often chose to draw from the actual corner edge of the top bar, something I’ll admit the Kelley bar would help discourage.
I’ve now found something that really works on my third attempt. I have some foundation, good pure wax cut-comb grade. I do plan to possibly use wired foundation above an excluder in a honey super, when I ever get to the point that I have real supers on my hives. So I cut a sheet of foundation in half widthwise (top to bottom). I then cut those halves lengthwise (side to side) into four strips, so three cuts across each. This gives me 8 strips for an 8-frame box. I then put one strip into the middle of the groove in a grooved topbar frame. In the groove on either side of the foundation, I put a small drop of wood glue, and then insert a tongue depressor. The depressor is on opposite sides of the foundation on opposite sides fo the frame. This wedges the foundation into the grove until the bees can attach it and build from it. This method so far has given me excellently built straight comb right across the top bars. Some pictures would help the explanation. Enjoy.
The sun shone for long enough this afternoon for me to get some decent inspection time with the alfalfa hives. Here’s a summary of what I’ve found.
Keeney Hive: The hive overall looks sound, eggs found and the third box has a good heft, mostly nectar and capped honey. This hive has a fourth box but isn’t doing much with it.
Troubled Nuc: This is the nuc that had visible signs of mite impact. I drenched this hive with spearmint/lemongrass essential oil laced syrup about 10 days ago. It seems to have a bit of an affect. There was more brood, and no deformed bees spotted today. This queen is not prolific, and is currently tagged as an emergency queen only. I’ll probably combine this nuc with the other nuc to attempt to winter it. The other nuc though is in the process of superceding its queen, so we’ll see how that turns out.
Split Hive: This is the hive from which I started the nuc at the house by removing the original queen and some frames when they began making swarm cells. This hive is doing well, and the queen they raised is very nice looking, but as expected they’re a bit behind in building comb. In mid September when the time comes to feed 2:1 syrup they may need to get a donation of comb from somewhere else.
Original Rossman: This hive is the only of the three Rossman packages not to replace its queen (yet). The queen in this box lays in a great pattern. This hive is doing well and has a fourth box which they’re largely ignoring, so I rearranged some frames, moving a few up to the fourth box. The third box is very heavy with nectar so hopefully they’ll not need much help with respect to winter prep. I normally don’t include pictures with posts just to show off. I want the pictures to be illustratively helpful, but in this case the brood pattern from this hive was so nice I can’t resist. This is a phone picture so forgive the quality. This frame is laid end to end in almost every cell, just beautiful.
I apologize if you’ve found this page by looking for a Family Guy episode. I’m a huge fan, needed a dark side quote, and that came to mind. So why the dark side quote? My mind lately has been on the idea of treating my hives for varroa, something I completely opposed last year. Treating […]