Thursday, July 27, 2017

Second supers and k wing and more

Two weeks ago I went into #3.  I was pleased at how gentle my bees are.  I had looked into another beekeepers hive a day or two earlier and now I know what a hot hive is.  His bees were pinging us immediately upon opening, and Terry, who had on cloth gloves got stung several times. When we were done, the bees still came at us even when we were nowhere near the hive and I got stung on the cheek.
#3 looked very healthy.  The super had honey and a small patch of brood.  There was a lot of brood in the brood boxes as well as many empty queen cups.
Today I looked into #2.  The super was heavy and there was uncapped honey in the side-most frame.  I saw brood and eggs in the top brood box.  I also saw one bee with k wing deformity in the hive.
K wing deformity.  Not my picture
This can be a sign of tracheal mites. The best I can tell from my sources is that there is no need to treat now.  If I see a lot of crawlers with k wing, then I will.  Fortunately, formic acid is a good way to treat and, as you all know, that is what I use to treat varroa with MAQs.  It is likely that I will be treating in the fall.
I put supers on all three hives.  For curiosity (and because I had already removed the super in order to get to the brood box) I put the new super below the old one- bottom-supering.  The super on #1 had mostly drawn frames with some old honey and pollen in some while the super in #3 has all new frames.
I successfully moved the water source to my desired location by moving it 1-2 feet at a time and the bees are still going to it.

Friday, July 7, 2017

They like it!

Although one can not see them all, there are 10 bees on the rags and 3 or 4 flying around.
I have managed to move the station about 3 feet closer to its final destination.

Monday, July 3, 2017

Water source for my bees

Bees need a regular source of water, just like all other living things.  There are many ways of providing water for them and there are many studies regarding what they like to drink
Ever since I have had my bees, I have tried to provide a source of water.
Initially I placed a  small basin in front of their hive, which they never used.  Then I was told that they like their drinking fountain to be out of sight of the hive and in sun.  So I made a basin that was placed behind the new rose garden, hidden by plants from the hive and about 20 feet away.  Initially it had rocks in it, then sand, then peat moss, then a combination of sand, rocks, peat moss and cotton rope.  I had to cover the basin with chicken wire to keep out the raccoons.  Then I tried filling the basin with salty water.  And still, the bees were getting their water elsewhere.
A couple of weeks ago, I draped a towel in an old plastic wastebasket filled with water instead of the basin.  The towel kept moist by osmosis, giving them a safe and easy way to collect the water, but no bees.
Then... a couple of days ago I had watered some areas of the lawn (part of a large project to improve the croquet court)  and bees were there collecting water.  Brainstorm!  I moved the water source onto the lawn and added a blue rag to the red one that was already there.  I figured that even though the bees find the water mainly by smell I would make it more attractive by using a blue cloth as well since they see blue and not red.  Then I moved the wastebasket to the side of the lawn, out of the way. 
And IT WORKED!
My high-tech watering station
Two customers
I plan on giving them a few days to become habituated, then move it a couple of feet a day until I get it back behind the new rose garden.