Fall 2022 update

 I reorganized the bee shed.  It had become very difficult to find and reach desired equipment.  It looks great now.

 

Honey harvest was poor; about 2.5 gallons.  Other beeks also had poor harvests, so the price of honey has gone up.  I realized that the costs and amount of labor is nearly the same for any size harvest.

I'm trying a new way to store the comb.  The combs have to be protected from wax moths.  There are several ways to do so.  Previously I froze the frames for a day or two.  This requires me to tote the boxes to a neighbors house, leave them in their large freezer one at a time and then switch boxes.  With the number of boxes, this takes a couple of weeks.  I wanted to use the B402 strain of Bacillus thuringiensis, but one get it in California.  The same is true of the dichlorobenzene crystals.  I found moth balls of DCB available in California, so I got some.  I am acting on faith that the balls are not contaminated with anything bad.  So, after cleaning the frames of propolis and wax, I put the frames into plastic garbage bags, put 24 moth balls on a small paper plate on top of the frames and sealed the bags with duct tape.  Time will tell.apivar

 

Because the bees had so little stored honey, I started feeding them today.  They may not be taking much yet as there is still some forage.

In July, I did a mite count and it was dangerously high.  I put in oxalic acid sponges.  Now that the honey supers are off, I will treat with Apivar.  Unfortunately, I don't have enough strips for all the hives and it's taking a while for my new order to arrive.  I expect it in the next couple of days.

Happy new year everyone!

Four hives and a nuc

 It's swarm season, for certain!  

Over the winter I lost two colonies.  One, #2, was always weak and just died out.  #1 had been my strongest colony, but it died due to mismanagement.  When I harvested honey in the fall, I assumed there was enough left for the bees.  I neglected to monitor, and when I returned from a trip to Seattle, I found them all dead.  They had starved.

The pile of dead bees inside the hive

So, I was down to two colonies.  

On March 11, I saw a good-sized swarm in the yard.  I believe it had been cast from one of my hives.  It settled on the fence by the Elericks ("What's and Elerick?) and I was able to brush it into a box and hive it in #2.  Then two days ago, our neighbor knocked and told me that there was a swarm in front.  Another good sized swarm was flying between our yard and Paul's.  It may have come from one of my hives, but possibly not.  It finally settled in our yard on the Cecil Brunner.  #1 hive colonized!

Then yesterday, one of my hives cast an after swarm.  I figure it was from my hives because it was in our yard and an after swarm because it was on the smaller side.  It settled in the Eureka lemon tree.  It's now happily ensconced in a nuc box.  

If there's another swarm, I probably will offer it to my neighbor or another beek.  Or maybe a second nuc.