After having installed my bees on Saturday, I opened up the hives today - the weather was warm, sunny and breezy...perfect! The bees had already begun drawing out the few frames of foundation that were among the drawn comb in the bottom brood boxes. bees were returning with pollen, and they've been going through the sugar syrup like crazy! I added a second deep to the first, and switched positions of the colonies, as one had about twice the number of bees as the other. i removed the queen cages and added the final frame. my top-bar hive is doing very nicely, but is not using as much syrup as the other two, but the other two are storing the syrup in drawn comb - that makes a world of difference. now i'll wait till saturday or sunday before i check on them again... hard to keep my hands off
It is the hardest thing for me to keep my hands off the bees for more than a few days at the time... I just love being in there, hearing the hum and seeing them dance... Do you have a marked queen? I love trying to find her--my is unmarked...
yes, unfortunately she is marked... i loved watching the waggle dance though!! and i can't wait to see brood in the hives. i will eventually end up with unmarked queens, through splits and supercedures. then i can have an honest search for the queen lol enjoy, justgojumpit
I agree, it's hard to stay out of them! Our are due for the 3rd week check up tomorrow, but it's supposed to rain so we might do it this afternoon instead. I can't wait to see what they've accomplished, as there's so much in bloom now, clover, blackberry and rose multi flora to start with.
I need to do a check of my hive too. I'm probably ready to add the second brood chamber and frames. They say to add it once around 7 or 8 of the frames are drawn out. At my 2 week check of the new hive, (a week and a half ago) they had 3 frames already drawn out, filled with brood, honey and pollen. I think i may check today after work. It is in the upper 70's-low 80's and sunny with a slight breeze today, so it should still be nice and warm after work. I cant wait to see how they have progressed!.
That's about exactly where ours were last week, at the 2 week checkup. It was really exciting today to find 6 or 7 of the frames drawn and most with capped brood today! The capped brood is really pretty, much prettier than the pictures in our books! It was a nice bright buttery yellow, not tannish. I'm sure I remember reading about different colored caps, I guess I'll have to go check again.
Well yesterday's check of the hive went well. they now have 5 frames drawn out. I still was not able to find the queen, but eventually i will find her (she's not marked) but i know she is there because there are newly layed eggs and young brood and some capped brood. I expected them to be a little further along when i checked yesterday. I had hoped to add the second brood chamber yesterday, but they did not yet have enough frames drawn out to warrant that. I think it was probably due to having a few cold days and nights last week. But this week so far has been very warm and sunny and it is supposed to be that way for the rest of the week. I think this will really get them working. I think in another week i will definitely be ready to add the second brood chamber. With the warmer weather they have been going through less syrup. Peace, Jason
