lesson learned...

babsbag

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I went and checked on my hive this morning and my guess is that they swarmed but it is definitely not a dead hive. I could not find the queen but there is capped brood and uncapped brood. And one empty queen cell. :\ A few months ago my friend had told me that she heard a bunch of bees in the trees on the land next to hers...probably mine. They don't have a lot of honey stored up and I will probably feed them all winter. The brood pattern is spotty at best and when I go back in a few weeks if it isn't better I will look for a new queen this fall. I realize that the spring build up in long past but the pattern really bothered me.

The hive has two deeps and a super on it. The bottom deep was mostly empty, some pollen and a little bit of capped brood. The top deep had brood and some honey and the super has about 3 frames of capped honey. In hindsight I should have reversed the boxes in the spring but I did it today and I took the one frame of brood that was alone and put it with the other.

This area where the bees are is just dry beyond belief. The community is on a water district that will make you mortgage your first born if you go over your allotment of water so NOTHING is alive, no lawns at all (no clover), no gardens, dead fruit trees, dead everything. The only thing in bloom is star thistle and lots of it, thank goodness the bees love it. But it is just so sad, even a year ago that area was a thriving little cluster of 5 acre family farms. I pray it rains this year in CA.

When I go back and check on them in a few weeks I may start feeding them now. Guess I need an entrance feeder for this time of year. I hate top feeders and frame feeders. I have a nice internal one that sits in a super, but don't want to do that now.

I also need to treat for mites, going to use hopguard.
 

Latestarter

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If there's lots of star thistle, you still have the chance to get honey this fall. Three frames of capped honey from the small hive there is pretty decent. Reversing the deeps and placing all the brood together was IMHO a smart thing to do. Little chance of them freezing in the summer, but at least it keeps them as part of the family so to speak. Hope it all works out.

I need to get out and break into my 2 hives tomorrow before it gets too hot. The one hive was queenless last I checked, and the other was blooming to the point I had to carve out pounds of burr comb with honey and brood just to get into it. I placed a 2nd deep on that one and want to see how they've done. There's a nearby field of squash about to bloom and I want to get a super on it before I miss this chance! With any luck, I'll still get a taste of honey this fall.
 

babsbag

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I am pretty conservative about taking honey after I starved a hive one year. :hitAt the time I thought that they would have enough stores in the deeps to allow me to have the super, not the case...I felt horrible. I may only take one frame and give it to my friend whose house they are at, I still have some honey from last year, we don't really eat much. Someday I would like enough to make meade. At this point I just want them to make it through next winter.
 

Maggiesdad

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Hang in there babsbag, :hugsWe are entering our summer dryspell and dearth. All 8 of my colonies are testy here and this past week was the first time I've seen the bees collecting water. The three nucs have no stores, and if I feed them the strong boxes roll right into robbing.
It's tricky alright.
 
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