Drstratton - My Backyard Journey Journal

[Mini Horses]

Scientists found the missing nutrients bees need — Colonies grew 15-fold

Scientists have developed a breakthrough food supplement that could help save honeybees from devastating declines. By engineering yeast to produce six essential sterols found in pollen, researchers provided bees with a nutritionally complete diet that boosted reproduction up to 15-fold. Unlike...

www.sciencedaily.com

Saw this about pollen and winter feeds. Just info.

 

[drstratton]

Scientists found the missing nutrients bees need — Colonies grew 15-fold

Scientists have developed a breakthrough food supplement that could help save honeybees from devastating declines. By engineering yeast to produce six essential sterols found in pollen, researchers provided bees with a nutritionally complete diet that boosted reproduction up to 15-fold. Unlike...

www.sciencedaily.com

Saw this about pollen and winter feeds. Just info.

Thank you so much. That was very interesting and sounds promising.

 

[drstratton]

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 he built. 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]

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]

Just finished up some chores.

Filled the chicken feeders. These hold very close to 50lbs of feed.

The girls have had grapes and now they are enjoying some watermelon.

After Astrid laid her initial 4 eggs she didn't lay another until yesterday and I missed it or she laid it this morning. I'm slightly concerned, it was soft shelled and broken. Hopefully she doesn't have reproduction issues, but I'm thinking it's probably because she's still so young.


Not chore related.
The corn and sunflowers are getting very tall. I think we will be able to enjoy some corn when we get home.

 

[drstratton]

Just got home from camping. We had a very fun trip. The weather was perfect, started to rain just as we left our campsites this morning. The kids did really well. They were filthy dirty and needed washed down each night before bed, so I'd say it was successful...lol

Walupt Lake

 

[drstratton]

Another surprise layer, Gwendolyn (Black Sex Link) a couple days shy of 16 weeks, laid her first egg today. Saw her standing in the nest box, I think she had just finished. It's the size of a bantam egg. So small.

 

[drstratton]

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.

 

[fuzzi]

Just got home from camping. We had a very fun trip. The weather was perfect, started to rain just as we left our campsites this morning. The kids did really well. They were filthy dirty and needed washed down each night before bed, so I'd say it was successful...lol

Walupt Lake

Lovely! You've given your children some wonderful memories.

 

[drstratton]

Lovely! You've given your children some wonderful memories.

I love that we took our children here when they were little and now we've gotten to enjoy it with our grandbaby's. It's come full circle!