Dead-Out

FlashMob hive is dead-out. I bought and assembed a new hive, and purchased 1 new 4# package (Oceanic815) and installed them in the old FlashMob hive. The Others hive is looking fine. I did a split (put them in the new hive - The Black Rock) and purchased a new queen, so I have 3 complete hives now.

Lots of Dead Bees

January 1st. I noticed large pile of new dead bees a few times this winter, both when it's been very cold. These photos were taken after a fairly cold few days and I noticed how many new dead bees there were within a few days because they were all on top of the fresh snow. How many dead bees are normal? Today I cleaned up the accumulated pile in front of 'FlashMob' and it was more than an inch thick in the center. I can still hear buzzing in both hives when I hold my ear up to the side. When I slide out the removable bottom board on 'The Others' there are fresh wax bits across all the frames. On 'FlashMob' the fresh wax bits are clustered to one side. Can't wait to open up the hives!

There is also a lot of mold in 'FlashMob' and a little mold in 'The Others'. I tilted the hives forward a little today, since I saw just a little water on the bottom board when I pulled it out. Around November I noticed a lot of condensation in both hives, on the inner covers and outer covers. Then the mold an mildew started. 'FlashMob' was the worst so I raised the cover just slightly to give them a little more ventilation. Not sure if anything else should/could be done about that but the condensation stopped when the weather got colder, so I put the top cover back down tight so the hive would stay warmer.

Christmas

Honey makes a great Christmas gift!

Honey Harvest

Honey harvest September 5th. FlashMob gave us about 22 pounds of honey, The Others gave us about 3 pounds.

The Darker honey in some of the cells in this photo tasted like blackberries.






We used the crush and strain method for extracting the honey. Messy delicious fun! My kitchen was sticky. I also ended up with about a pound of beeswax. Gavin made biscuits and corn bread a few times over the next week. Can't wait till next year!

FlashMob's honey was much lighter in color than The Others' honey.

Fall feeding and treatments for Nosema and Mites are done. The colonies look healthy headed into winter. Lots of dead drones outside FlashMob's entrance last week. The workers boot them out before winter.

Honey

Flashmob's first honey super has 8 frames full of capped honey! I added another super. I opened the hive just to check how many empty frames they had, it was early evening, and I didn't think I needed the smoker. But they were a little pissy.
The Others honey super had next to nothing. I wasn't surprised with the swarms earlier this summer. I just hope they survive the winter.

Honey Supers and Queen Drama

I added honey supers to both hives. The top brood box of FlashMob was so full of capped honey and nectar (90%) that it was all I could do to lift it off to inspect the bottom brood box. And it was very difficult to get it back up on top, I'm afraid I squashed more bees during this inspection than in all the previous inspections combined. I guess I will need a helper during my inspections from now on. The boxes won't be getting any lighter.
No new eggs in FlashMob. I saw 2 queen cells when I was inspecting the top box, as I was removing them the queens dashed out. I was able to capture one of them. I inspected the bottom box and saw no new eggs so not knowing if either of the new queens was healthy enough I let the second one loose in the hive along with the other one. I guess they will battle it out and the stronger one will survive? Or we will have a swarm.
The Others had the top brood box 60% full of nectar and capped honey. In the bottom box I spotted new eggs. Not sure if the queen is the returned swarm queen but the hive should be fine now. The weather has warmed up and blackberries are blooming.

Swarms

June 22 Garrett called me at work. "Mom, the air outside is filled with bees. I stick my head out the window and I hear buzzing." I could not leave work so I called Philip and he went right over to the house to try to capture the swarm. They had settled in the hemlock tree. He and Garrett went to gather some gear but by the time they got set up the swarm had vanished. I was not prepared for a swarm, everything I read said that a swarm would not be likely in the first year. The first swarm was The Others. July 5-6 another swarm. This time in a low branch on the cherry tree. We had just arrived home from camping and Gavin was going to help me with my overdue hive inspection. We were sitting in the garden serenely watching the hives, contemplating lunch and Anita came down and asked oh by the way had I had seen the cluster of bees over in the cherry tree. It was a surprise to us but thrilling to see. We simply lowered the branch into a box, cut the branch, and returned them to The Others hive after a thorough inspection. Lots of swarm cells, lots of drones, lots of larvae and capped brood but no new eggs in either hive. I spotted a queen in FlashMob. So hopefully both hives have queens now. I removed the entrance reducers and added some spacers in the lids to give them some extra ventilation - warm days coming up. Not sure what they're up to. I removed the feeders. They've had over 100 pounds of sugar between the 2 hives. I will check for eggs and queens next week.