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End of 2008 - In the end our split bee hives only survived 1 of the 2 splits. The queen died or the worker bees didn't accept her. By the end of the season there were a total of 3 hives that we wintered over for next year. We closed off as much of the hive as possible, condensed the supers to only two supers per hive which we accomplished by splitting the hives, and added granulated sugar over newspaper across the top of ten frames. Condensing the hive allows the bees to keep a smaller small warm and less food to feed the bees. The granulated sugar help them have an emergency stash of food.
We had hoped we had a total of 5 hives but this is a learning process. Now we can't wait for Spring of 2009.
At christmas time we purchased an extractor from Dadant which holds two frames and is hand cranked. We will report how well this worked during the honey flow of 2009.
8/30/08 I ordered two Italian queen bees and they arrived yesterday via priority usps. Our hive 2 was full of all brood with no honey so we decided to split the hives. We split our two bee hives into two more bee hives and placed a queen bee in each hive. We have one hive with two deep hive bodies and two deep hive bodies with two shallow honey supers on top. The other hive two hives are one deep hive body each.
7/31/08 Last week we had split our super bee hive. My husband took out 1 frame of honey, and 3 frames of brood and placed it into a new hive. We fed it one quart of syrup and then another quart. The bees consumed the jar in one day. The bees looked like it was thriving. Today we looked at the 3rd new hive and all the bees were dead. The honey frame was empty too. Larva was extracted from the cells of the brood frame and were dead on the bottom board. I think what happened was when I made the batch of sysrup, I saved a jar. When I gave the syrup to the bees the syrup was left uncovered for a couple of weeks. I noticed some evidence of mold possibly growing on the top but I poured that part of the syrup out. I think I killed the bees with mold. My husband was very disappointed and now we are not sure if that is what happened. The other two bees hives still look fine and are growing strong.
4/19/08 The gallon jars of syrup did not work. The jars were still full when we checked the hive this weekend. However, Hive 1 and Hive 2 were both going strong. We even see evidence of honey! The bees could not get through the queen excluder to reach the gallon jar of syrup, their bodies were to big. This also means the excluder will be useless to us in the future to keep the queen away from the suppers which is what we will use for our own honey consumption.
We took the gallon jar off the plate and placed it lid down on top of the foundation frames. I think the bees will be able to feed this way but we will know more tomorrow.
4/13/08 The bees are now consuming a quart of honey syrup in one day, per hive. We are concerned about feeding them until we are back next weekend. Therefore, we ordered 2 more mason jar feeders for each hive.
I took a gallon size glass jar and filled it with syrup. I placed it upside down on a plate of rocks. I am hoping this will feed the bees and not drown them at the same time until we get back in a week. We placed this in the hive on top of the queen excluder, one per hive. This gives them a total of 11 quarts for the week.
4/12/08 Hive 2 had honey comb and brooders. There is evidence of hatched bees.
4/11/08 We arrived back in WV around 9:00 pm. Christopher checked on the bees and both mason jars were completely emptied. We will have to wait till morning to see how the hives are doing.
4/8/08 We had to leave early this morning to go to Virginia. We replaced the mason jars of sugar water with a completely full jars and hope they don't complete the sugar water before before we get back.
4/7/08 Today Hive 1 consumed 2 cups of sugar water and Hive 2 barely any. We could tell there was a problem. Most of the bees from Hive 2 were now in Hive 1. Christopher removed one foundation that were full of bees and placed it in Hive 2 to even them back out again.
4/6/08 There is an overcast and light rain. The bee hives were silent and there wasn't much buzzing noise but they were busy surrounding the queen. I could see some wax being made on one side of the foundation wall. The bees will clean house and take out any dead bees from the hive. Bees will live about 21 days. There was a small collection of bees laying at the entrance way to the hive that were no longer alive.
The bees hives barely touched the sugar water when we observed them that morning. By the dusk, Hive 1 consumed 1/2 cup of sugar water and Hive 2 none.
4/5/08 The bees have used about 1/2 cup of sugar water in 24 hours. We are told they will go through a quart of sugar water in 5 to 7 days. Each hive will need 20 pounds of sugar to get them started.
The Italian bees were so docile today, we were able to walk up to the hive and watch them for a few minutes with a bee suit.
4/4/08 We got our bees!!! I shouldn?t start like this but I?m so excited. I need to go back a few weeks. We ordered our bees back in February and began looking at different manufacturers of hive equipment.
Our first hive was purchased from E-Bay. We were going to bid on it but found it cheaper on the sellers store front. We didn?t know what we were looking for so we ordered a hive kit. It came assembled and painted with white latex paint. The kit includes two large brood boxes, 20 frames with foundation to fit the brood boxes, a medium super, 10 frames with foundations to fit the medium super, an inner cover, an outer cover, and a bottom board. When the hive arrived we unpackaged it. All the components were there as described. I was a little disappointed with the construction. The boxes were assembled with butt joint seams and the paint job looked more like primer. Everything is made out of pine. The frames are assembled with staples and the foundation is made out of plastic. The inner cover is made out of plywood and has a thin frame attached to one side. The outer cover is topped with aluminum sheet metal. The bottom board consists of a frame with 1/4 hardware cloth and an area for the bees to land and take off from.
I did more research on the equipment we would need to house, and work with, the new addition to our farm. I found that all hives are not created equal. There are many websites dedicated to keeping bees. Some hive boxes are put together with butt joints, some are put together with rabbit joints, some with interlocking dovetail joints. All of the different manufacturers give different reasons for the seams they use. We have one hive built with butt joints and one with dovetail joints. Time will tell if one is better than the other.
Our next hive and the rest of our equipment was ordered from Dadant.com. Dadant orders their bees from beekeeping dealer, H&R Apiaries, PO Box 307, Jesup, GA 31598-0307. On the internet we found a number for them. (912) 427-7311. This time I purchased the hive components separately. Two large brood boxes assembled and painted, with frames and foundation, one medium super assembled and painted, with frames and foundation, one inner cover, one outer cover, one elevated plastic bottom board, a smoker, 5 lb. smoker fuel, cover-alls with hood, gloves, a bee brush, two feeders, two queen excluders, two entrance reducers and a hive tool. All of this equipment is not inexpensive. This hobby has set us back about $800 which includes the purchase of the bees. It will be some time before we recoup our investment.
I did not like the paint job on either of the hives so I repainted the outside of them with white UGL. UGL is a masonry waterproofing sealer. I have used it in the past on masonry and wood. It seems to hold up well to the elements. With all the money invested in the bee hives, I want them to last as long as possible.
We ordered our bees from Draperbee.com. They offer six different types of queens that may be purchased separately. We purchased two sets of package bees which were 6 pounds in total. Each package comes with an Italian queen and three pounds of workers. We paid $75 for each package plus shipping. The total was $198.00. Our post office called at 8:00 am this morning to let us know that our bees had arrived, 3 days after shipping. The bees were packaged in two boxes. The two boxes were attached to each other but separated with boards that kept the boxes about 18 inches from each other. The sides of the boxes are covered with screen. The screen helps the bees get air and allows us to feed them sugar water. The bees seemed to be extremely calm. They were grouped together in a large clump inside each box. They surrounded a can of syrup that is hanging from the top of the box to feed the worker bees. On the outside of one box are two bees that must have stayed with the package for the entire shipment process. I put the package in the trunk of our car for the ride home from the post office. When we got them home we feed them with sugar water (1 part sugar +1 part water) and honey. We drizzled the honey on the screen and sprayed the sugar water, with a new unused spray bottle, on both sides of each box. The bees would grab the sugar-water from the screen that is collected on and start to feed. They would pass food onto the other bees that were packed behind them. After we fed them we put the package in the coat closet because it was dark, draft free, and quiet.
It looked like it was going to rain and from what the weather forecast said it should be a warm sunny afternoon. However, it is idyllic to install the bees on a warm day right before dusk.
There is also a small cage inside each box that holds the queen and a few workers. The queen cage is contained within the same space as the bees but she is sealed in a separate container with a couple work bees and the opening is sealed with ?candy? The workers will chew through the candy and set her free. If every thing goes well the workers will accept her as there queen and she will start laying eggs. If not, I will have to order a new queen as quickly as possible. The hive cannot survive with out a queen.
We fed the bees several times throughout the day by spraying the sugar water on them. At approximately 5:30 pm we fed them one last time. I put on my bee suit, hood, and gloves and carried the bees to the hive. My wife pulled her car next to me to take pictures as she hid behind the glass. We didn?t have a bee suite for her to wear. The hive at this point consists of a bottom board, one large brooder with ten frames, one medium super without frames, an inner cover, and an outer cover. When I got to the hive I removed the outer cover, the inner cover, the medium super, and all the frames with foundation. I sprayed the all of the foundation with sugar water and replaced seven of the ten frames into the large brooder. I separated the two packages of bees from each other by prying off the supporting bars that held them together. Then I pried the cover off of the top of one of the package of bees. I removed the can of syrup that shipped with the bees to feed them. I had to remove the can slowly so I did not crush them. Many of the bees were trying to climb out of the hole left by the can. I gently replace the cover that originally held the can in place. I slid the cover over just enough to access the queen?s cage and gently removed her. I slide the cover back over the hole created by removing the queen?s cage. I poke a hole in the candy on the end of the queen?s cage and gently place it between two frames in the large brooder. At this point sweat is dripping off my nose because the adrenal rush. Everything seems to be going surprising smooth. I was surprised by how docile the bees were. I tapped the package that contains three pounds of bees on the ground to dislodge the bees that are holding on to the box and began pouring the bees out of the hole that the can was in. I had never seen that many bees all in one place before. They came pouring out like water. I shook the package from side to side trying to get as many bees as I can out of the box but some were stubborn. I set the box in front of the hive with the opening facing the entrance to the hive. The bees that were left would have to find their own way into the hive. When I look back into the hole created by the missing frames the bees were calm crawling over each other as if this happens to them all the time. I placed the can of syrup on top of the frames that are in the brooder. Slowly I replaced the three frames that I had removed earlier being careful not to injure any bees. I put the empty super on top of the brooder; the empty super allows room for the syrup can. I left the syrup can because the bees were attracted to it. I replaced the inner cover and the outer cover. I breathed a sigh of relief, amazed at how well everything went. I repeated the same steps for the other hive. As I replaced the outer cover on the second hive I was astonished and pleasantly surprised at how well everything went. It was a piece of cake! Chistopher
2/21/08 Today we ordered the bees from draperbee.com. We ordered six pounds of Italian bees for $198.00 The Italian bees are a well known commercial bee. We will also order another hive in a couple more weeks.
1/22/08 Our beehive came in a couple of days ago. After looking it over, we have decided we can build another box and buy the frames that the honey are deposited on, separately. The description from the website states: "This is a completely assembled and painted beehive! Comes with a screened bottom board with entrance reducer, 2 Deep Supers each with 10 deep wooden frames each, fully assembled, with plastic cell foundation installed, 1 Medium honey super each with 10 medium wooden frames, fully assembled, with plastic cell foundation installed, 1 Inner cover with vent hole, 1 Outer Cover, WITH METAL COVERING--28 gauge steel! All the boxes include metal frame rests, making it easier to remove the frames for inspection and to harvest your honey. Made of 1" #2 pine (which actually measures 3/4".) Super, bottom board, inner and outer cover are routed rabbet joints and have been glued and nailed."http://www.honeybeesonline.com/servlet/Detail?no=1
The unit came fully assembled. The shipping was about $60.00 and and weighted about 67 shipping pounds. We will put one more coat of paint on this beehive and have the beehive on some kind of stand off, of the ground to avoid rot. The plasticell have a raised honey comb shape which I thought was neat. It has been suggested to put an electric fence around the beehive to avoid deer or bears from knocking it over or destroying the beehive. I have never seen a black bear in our development but I have heard they are around our county.
1/6/08 Today we ordered our first beehive from http://www.honeybeesonline.com/servlet/Detail?no=1 We plan on ordering one to two more hives. We use a lot of honey in bread making and cooking. We need to order a smoker and beekeeping clothing.
For more beekeeping information, see http://honey-bee-healthy.com/DealerLocator.html, http://churchviewfarm.info/Honey_Bees.html