🐝💗Our Backyard Beekeeping Journey!💗🐝

[drstratton]

Just finished the frames & filled the supers.

Nuc hive #2: 2nd super installed on August 21, 2025.
Frames were were checkerboarded. Rubbed wax, rubbed and heated wax.

Swarm hive: 2nd super installed on August 23, 2025.
Frames were installed with 4 rubbed & heated wax in the center, with two frames of rubbed wax on either side.

Package Hive: 2nd super installed on August 23, 2025.
Frames were installed with 4 rubbed wax in the center, with two frames of rubbed & heated wax on either side.

I hypothesize that the rubbed and heated frames will be preferred as the wax is more even.

The reason I gave the box with the 4 rubbed and heated frames in the center to the swarm hive, is because these girls have drawn some wonky comb. I'm hoping they will do a better job with the R&H frames. That being said, the wonky comb might be because of heavier wax in different places on the foundations.

I can't wait to see what they do with what I've given them.

My sister in law calls me a bee nerd, maybe she's a little correct in that...lol

 

[drstratton]

August 24, 2025

The bees are definitely bringing in nectar from the buckwheat. Our friend who also keeps bees told us it gives off a very strong smell, he said you'll wonder what died...lol. It's not that bad yet, curious to see if it gets that strong.

 

[drstratton]

August 24, 2025

Mite drop count so far.

Nuc hive #1: 3
Nuc hive #2: 7, not surprising
Package hive: 2
Swarm hive: 4, a little surprised

So glad we are treating. We won't be able to treat again until Wednesday as we are going camping with our family. Unless we come home early because the littles don't do well...lol

I picked up foam board from the dollar store and cut it to size to fit into the slots my husband cut into the screened bottom boards. We removed the foam boards as it's going to be triple digits while we're gone. I'm sure there will be more mites dropping that we won't see.

It's amazing the amount of debris you find.

 

[drstratton]

Just got home from camping. Looks like our temps will still be up in mid 90's to 100+ for the next week. Then it will drop down to lower 90's to mid 80's. It was much cooler in the mountains...lol

We'll be doing our 3rd OAV treatment tonight. Might pull some capped frames this weekend, tbd.

Drove by the buckwheat field on our way home, it is in full bloom. My husband did a little research. I guess the bees can only pull nectar from it for a few hours in the mornings. I've read about other nectar sources like that, but can't remember off the top of my head which ones. He also found charts on honey and pollen colors. Buckwheat is the darkest honey, from what he read.

Not bee related. The lake where we camped. We had perfect weather.
Walupt

 

[drstratton]

August 27, 2025

Just finished the 3rd OAV treatment. Hubs is sick, so I went solo. We did it after dark the first two times, this time I did it while there was still some light. Much easier.

You can see a few bees coated with OA, the bee on the left really stands out.

 

[drstratton]

We are definitely noticing a strong smell coming from the hives. So far it doesn't smell like anything died, but it's not my favorite.
Too bad, I can't record the smell and share it with everyone, I'm sure you'd appreciate it...lol

 

[drstratton]

Our Mimosa tree is still in full bloom.

View from the chicken pen, toward the garden and yard.

 

[drstratton]

August 28, 2025

24 hours after OAV, Varroa count:

Nuc Hive #1: 6
Nuc Hive #2: 5
Package Hive: 1
Swarm Hive: 0

 

[drstratton]

The Rabbit Brush and Sagebrush are getting ready to bloom. The bees might go to them, but the buckwheat will be their preferred nectar source. It has more nutritional value.

Rabbit Brush: Not the best flavor profile for honey.

Giant Sagebrush: Better than Rabbit Brush.

We have an abundance of Sagebrush around here.

 

[drstratton]

This entry finally brings us to the present day.

3rd extraction:
We pulled 14 frames. We got around 4 gallons. This is for our own consumption as it has sugar syrup mixed in.

The next extraction will be buckwheat.

We haven't used QE's this year as we wanted to make it as easy as possible on them for drawing comb. The result this go around is some brood in 2 of our supers, which I'm okay with, but was surprised to find. I told Dale I think they are storing the sugar syrup in the deeps. Because on the last inspection there was plenty of space for the queens to lay. He agreed to stop giving them syrup until after the buckwheat flow.

I also think we are going to go ahead and add the QE's, but we will wait until next week. We will do a full inspection to see how the brood boxes look. I will have some new deep frames ready to put in place, if we need them. The girls were a little spicy today.

I find myself constantly second guessing my choices. And there are days I feel out of my depth, but, I'm trying my best.

They had barely started to draw the new frames. I think spring will be a better time to run my experiment again.

Using the newly taught gif phone photo feature, here's a shot of the honey from the extractor.

I did get a taste of some of the buckwheat honey, still not really a fan...lol But, not as bad as I remembered.

I will be doing our 4th OAV tonight.