Wednesday July 04
Despite having been split twice now, The Boss needs a second box again! We are pretty amazed at the stregth in this hive. We will probably be putting one on there this Sunday.
June 17th, 2012
We went to see the bees today and it looks like The Boss is ready for a third super!! But, we are moving them relatively soon. So we think that we might split them instead. We will have to see, but splitting is looking like the best option. If we split we might get the split-hive to raise their own queen. Alternatively, we could buy a queen.
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| Can you spot the Queen? |
The Queen is a longer bee in general and is a darker colour than the rest.
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| Sugar Water |
When bees collect nectar, they also collect pollen in the 'pollen baskets' (the yellow pouches on the bee below).
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| Pollen Basket |
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| Queen Cup |
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| More Honeycomb at the Bottom |
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| Second Box on The Boss |
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Our second visit to the hives:
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Stuck Together
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Smoking the Bees
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They have built honeycomb at the bottom of some of the frames, we still haven't found a good way to scrape it off the bottom.
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Honeycomb at the Bottom of the Frame
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Smoking the bees so that they will stay calm and go further into the hive.
We had placed a feeder onto The Boss' hove, which they stuck to the hive. We feed them sugar water as needed to keep them going.
Since our June hives were taking too long to arrive, J ordered two from Foote Family Farms which we got on May 16th. This is the story of our strongest hive: The Boss.
Before the bees arrived we set up the hives and J blocked the entrance with a stick to help the bees protect themselves.
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Entrance Blocker
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We strapped down the hives incase bad weather or animals tried to get into them.
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Hives Set up and Strapped Down
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Then we drove to Foote Family Farms to pick up our Nucs.
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Purple Nuc = The Boss
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Getting ready to put the nucs into the hives!
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Ready!
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Opening The Boss
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J:
May 16, 2012 - Installed a 4 frame nuc into the hive, frames 4-7 at night while it was raining. They were not happy, buzzing around my ears. Fed them a 1:1 mixture of sugar and water (2kg sugar and 2L water) in the top feeder.
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Removing Frames with the Hive Tool
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We moved them on a wet night, and bees do not like bad weather or night time, so it was not the best idea but we did not have very many options.
The Boss' nuc was so full and happenin'
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Honey
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The bees weren't happy, and we were worried we would lose the queen.
Added a second box to The Boss. We were worried that this might have been a premature move, but weren't sure when we would be back.
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Other Visits to the Bees:
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