BUSY BUSY BUSY

Wow have I been busy. The 2 hives are booming. I have been busy removing all of the foundation from all of the frames. I am going foundationless. It is slow going and I will probably not have much honey to sell if any. The bees are first and foremost. No chemicals of any kind. As you all know I did feed Fondant this winter but I will not be feeding this next one. I bought 3 packages of bees from Lookout Mountian Honeybees. I installed 1 on HSC, doing great, and 1 in a homemade  topbar hive, it obsconded on day 3, and the replacement I hurried and bought to replace #2  was put in a langstroth hive with foundationless frames, doing great also. I added empty deep of foundationless frames to both new package as well as swapped the deep between brood and honey to encourage growth. The flow should be about to start as I saw first blooms of honey suckle today. The book that I have been waiting on was released today," The complete idiots guide to beekeeping". I will pick it up this Thursday. I will let you know how it is.

Hive inspection March 6th

Opened hive #1 and removed all frames and moved them to a new box. The lower box was totally empty as was expected. Reversed boxs and put 2nd brood box with 4 hsc seperated by empty frames, no foundation on top. Replaced the pollen patty and fondant due to the fact that they had some stores but not alot.I found several small patches of capped brood, and larva as well as pupa. I didn't see the Queen but looks like she is busy. Will look again in 2 weeks.
Opened hive #2 removed all frames and put in new box. I combined all the brood into one box with full frames of honey nearby. I then put remaining honey and pollen in new box on top with some foundationless frames spaced in there about 3. More brood than hive#1 but it was all capped no eggs, larva or pupa seen, maybe the begining of a supersedure cell. I will check again in 2 weeks.

Inspection Feb 21 2010

It was a wonderful day today in the upper 60's here in north Alabama. It was a little windy when I began the inspection of my 2 hives around 1pm. The bees were flying quit a bit and some even had some purple/reddish lookin pollen.

 The first hive was 1 deep and 2 supers. There were bees in both of the supers with plenty of honey and very few bees in the deep. I pulled on deep frame a put in a hsc frame to see how they do with it. I saw no brood , however I did not take every frame put of the supers there was alot of cross comb and I did not want to make a huge mesws with honey everywhere. I did see the alot of different supercedure cells, not sure if they were old and the queens had already hatched or they had not been fully finished before the cold setteled in here. 

The secound hive was 1 deep and 1 super. There were alot of bees in this hive also, alittle aggressive I might add. They came pouring out of the inner cover hole as soon as I pulled off the top. I saw basically the same as in hive 1 not many bees in the deep and lots of honey and a little pollen being collected.  I pulled a frame   and replaced it with 1 hsc just to see. I will try to post some pictures of the 2 frames I pulled later on.

I think my first winter is going to be a great one.

Bees have been out and about

The weather here in North Alabama has been in the upper 40's and 50's. The bees are loving it! I have one hive that is out in the upper 30's and lite rain, while the other hive waits for the upper 40's and 50's. I will try to make my splits this spring from my better foraging hive, if I make splits at all.
I will be transfering both hives over to HSC( Honey Super Cell) this spring. I hope that it will not set them back a whole lot as everyone I talk to wants some honey. I will keep you all posted of the progress as it develops. For now I will continue to mark all of my frames for the Housel position and finalize my sping time plans. I will be making some video's and taking a lot of pictures and will post these when I get them.
Happy BEEKing
William

More Fondant added

I placed some more fondant on the hives a few days ago along with 1 pollen patty each,thinking that one hive was about dead out but to my surprize it was up to the top box with quite a few bees across the top. The strong hive was a little agressive, with bees darting out straight to my face. I would back away from the hive and they would follow a little but would calm down in a few seconds allowing me to return to cover them back up. I was a little catious since I had no hand protection. Still a little apprehensive being a new beek and all. I do not intend on feeding anything accept their honey after this next season rolls around. I will go to all natural beekeeping to insure their, The Honey Bee, survival. My equipment is just about ready just a few more frame to Housel position(link to follow) and all of my boxes to label and we are set for our first full season, it should be a very interesting one.
http://www.beesource.com/point-of-view/ed-dee-lusby/more-on-small-cell-foundation-for-mite-control/housel-positioning-how-i-view-its-importance-to-beekeeping/

Hive check Jan 12

Checked the hives yesterday it was a little warmer in the high 30's maybe even 40. I took off the mouse gaurd and swept out a small amount of dead bees in my weak hive and a paper plate full from my stronger hive. I took them inside to inspect them for mites. I found several mites and about 13 bees with the damaged wings and around 12 to 15 small hive beetles. I am going to regress my bees down to 4.9 as soon as the spring hits if they survive. I do not intend to get any honey from them this next season but I do intend on getting them as strong as possible. I may even combine the 2 if need be. I have been offered some free bee stuff from a guy I grew up around, it was in his family,Aunt's husband who passed recently. He told me that he had alot of bee hives and different equipment, alot of it was handmade. It is local and I need all the help I can get. I'll post some pictures later after I get it all home.

New Beekeeper Hive Move

I received two complete hives and lots of equipment from a wonderful lady who goes by the call name Queenbee45 here in the Birmingham Alabama area. I went to move the hives to my apiary around the first of November 2009 and when I got there it had been raining and it was too wet so I made arrangements to come back and remove the honey supers from each hive before I moved the hives themselves. I went by after work at around 3pm, mistake #1. I lit my smoker,suited up and headed for the hives. I cracked open the first hive, the weaker looking of the 2 and all went fairly well. I took my time and gained lots of confidence,mistkae #2. I cracked open the stronger hive and started smoking the bees on the top bars,they were turning white as I did this,I thought this was weird but continued on. I decided to speed things up with all of my new found confidence so I broke all the frames loose and began pulling frames a sweeping the bees off into the air,mistake #4. I was smoking the bees and turning them whiter and whiter and was about to put the inner cover on when I discovered a liitle visiter inside my veil. I freaked and squished it on my nose without thinking first, it stung me which as WE all know sets off the sting phermone and so bees being bees began to sting me around the neck area where they were hanging out. I thought that they were all inside my veil so I started running and swatting and stipping off my veil and gloves and jacket. I wish someone had videoed it now. Going back to the hives to get my smoker I was popped again. I puffed the smoker to try to calm them but the smoker was out. I opened the smoker to relight it and there was nothing in the smoker at all. I had been blowing ash all over the bees turning them white,mistake#3. I refilled the smoker and relite it put the inner cover on closed the hive and got the heck out of there with some valuable lessons learned (and some wonderful tasting honey). I escaped with about 17-20 stings not so bad considering the goofs I made

Winter

This time of year for beekeeping is hard for me as a new beek. I want to get in the hive to make sure the ladies are still alive. I check them almost every day. It has just now finaly gotten really cold, below freezing for most of the days and all of the nights. I think that I took off too much of the hone y when I first got the bees, so after I had discovered that I started to feed with sugar syrup 1:1 and fondant on the top bars. I do not have the intentions of making this a habit. I think if they are managed the correct way and ther winter stores of honey are not stollen again they will be just fine. I have a great deal to learn and don't want the bees to pay bthe price for stupidity.