Beekeeping

[ScienceGirl]

Mixed up some sugar syrup for the girls today. You should keep it on them for as long as they'll take it. If there is a honeyflow, they won't need it, and therefore won't take it if they don't need it as they will be gathering nectar with good things for them in it. It should be changed about once a week to keep it fresh and from fermenting or crystalizing, or sooner if you are experiencing very warm weather. Check your feeder to make sure that it doesn't get plugged up by debris or crystalized, so that the syrup is accessable to your bees.

Make syrup:

Ratio I used: Sugar : Water 2:1

Heat up water on the stove, but keep it under boiling. Add sugar as water that you used. Stir until dissolved completely. Feed using the syrup feeder of your choice.

WARNING: If the sugar burns or carmelizes, dispose of it. It will make the bees sick - more on that later.

 

[Rick]

Why are you feeding 2:1 in spring? Normally that mix is reserved for fall emergency feeding. I do 1:1 which ends up being 2 qts of water to 5 lbs of sugar. Make sure you're using cane sugar and not beet sugar! And are you not adding fresh lemon to invert the sugar? If not you're actually feeding them the wrong type of sugar.

I saw some drones the other day. Can always hear them before I see them. I need to get into my hive and take a look. Haven't looked in there since last fall. I agree that the drones are comical to watch for sure. I probably also need to go ahead and take the mouse guards off the entrances. Getting pretty crowded there now.

 

[ScienceGirl]

Why are you feeding 2:1 in spring? Normally that mix is reserved for fall emergency feeding. I do 1:1 which ends up being 2 qts of water to 5 lbs of sugar. Make sure you're using cane sugar and not beet sugar! And are you not adding fresh lemon to invert the sugar? If not you're actually feeding them the wrong type of sugar.

I saw some drones the other day. Can always hear them before I see them. I need to get into my hive and take a look. Haven't looked in there since last fall. I agree that the drones are comical to watch for sure. I probably also need to go ahead and take the mouse guards off the entrances. Getting pretty crowded there now.

I'm just following what my beekeeper professional connection told me. It is 1:1 if you are measuring water by volume and the sugar by weight; I find it easier to whip up a batch of syrup without a scale to measure the sugars weight. By using volume for both sugar and water, the recipe becomes 2:1 sugar:water, as sugar is denser than water. This is what he feeds his bees. I'll try some other stuff as I become a more experienced beekeeper (if beekeeping were simply a written test, I'd get an A just from reading my many, many books!), but as my girls' days are numbered as they try to build their colony, I'm following his directions for now. My bees are only big enough for a nucleus right now - but their numbers are bound to explode any day now, as a new queen had been put in at the beginning of March.

Lemon?... I've never heard of this. Where did you hear about it, and can you explain what inverted sugar is and what it does?

I'm going to add more to the sugar making instructions later. Yes, I used cane sugar. Granulated white.

 

[Rick]

I'm just following what my beekeeper professional connection told me. It is 1:1 if you are measuring water by volume and the sugar by weight; I find it easier to whip up a batch of syrup without a scale to measure the sugars weight. By using volume for both sugar and water, the recipe becomes 2:1 sugar:water, as sugar is denser than water. This is what he feeds his bees. I'll try some other stuff as I become a more experienced beekeeper (if beekeeping were simply a written test, I'd get an A just from reading my many, many books!), but as my girls' days are numbered as they try to build their colony, I'm following his directions for now. My bees are only big enough for a nucleus right now - but their numbers are bound to explode any day now, as a new queen had been put in at the beginning of March.

Lemon?... I've never heard of this. Where did you hear about it, and can you explain what inverted sugar is and what it does?

I'm going to add more to the sugar making instructions later. Yes, I used cane sugar. Granulated white.

Well I am not going to tell you to go against the advice of your mentor, but what I posted seems to be what everybody I know does as well as those over at the natural beekeeping network. I do the 1:1, 1lb sugar to 1 lb water. 2:1 is for fall emergency feeding which would be twice the amount of sugar to water. But then again there may be regional differences.

Here is the wicki page about inverting sugar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_sugar_syrup

Doing a little searching I see some people don't agree with inverting by acid (lemon juice). I never heard of that when I started so just kept doing it. It doesn't seem to matter in my bees. I have very very strong colonies. So I would go with whatever your mentor says. My mentor inverts his sugar and I'll continue doing so.

 

[ScienceGirl]

My beekeeping order came today, so my part-time apiary weekly to-do list includes: coating the two screened bottom boards, coating a hive body, and after all of that comes moving the colony into the full sized langstroth hive.

Rick, how come you are moving away from topbar?

I saw a foragers trying to fly today. She kept trying to fly and made a few inches before plummeting to the ground many times. Turned out that there were three wax scales stuck on her wings. I gave her a lift to the entrance before I had to go.

__________________________________________

Hobby beekeepers have come to be known as part-time beekeepers or small-scale beekeepers. The government doesn't offer money for hobbies, but it does for the pollinators that our lives depend on. Without pollinators there would be less produce for us and less meat, because livestock consume plants pollinated by bees. Grains must be pollinated and grasses must be pollinated for seeds to grow more grains. All of us small-scale beekeepers should wear our labels proudly! :batman:

 

[ScienceGirl]

Here is a video of an observation hive that I found while searching for honey bee videos. The footage is clear and easy to see. The things that they captured are INCREDIBLE from an observation hive, because you can see the bees at work doing what they ordinary do. They are not disturbed with smoke for footage, as the walls are glass.

I am not the producer of the film, nor do I suggest their products, as I have never used them and I just wanted to share these amazing candid clips from inside a honey bee colony with you. This is actually a long and well made video, though, and I haven't seen one this good of the actions inside a hive before - NOVA's "Secrets from Inside the Hive" doesn't count, but get that video from Netfilx! It is very cool footage, and shows a mating flight of a virgin queen, too, along with other things.

In the youtube video is: a "bee dance," where returning forager bees do a waggle dance to show where they found nectar, pollen, or water. They will offer other bees "samples" of what they found to entice them, and interested bees will follow them in the dance to get directions.

A queen laying eggs.

Workers sharing nectar and honey.

And more....

Link:

Or search "A guided tour of a honey bee observation hive" into the YouTube search engine.

 

[sally]

That was a wonderful video! I can imagine having an observation hive in my house. That would be truly amazing.

 

[Rick]

Rick, how come you are moving away from topbar?

Both have pros and cons. I get tired of trying to correct comb. I think we determined that the plans we used for these initial hives were incorrect as far as bar width goes which contributes to incorrect building of comb. My first hive started off great in the brood area, but the honeycomb often gets jacked up as they build it. I looked into that hive this past weekend and they haven't built anything new yet.

 

[ScienceGirl]

Both have pros and cons. I get tired of trying to correct comb. I think we determined that the plans we used for these initial hives were incorrect as far as bar width goes which contributes to incorrect building of comb. My first hive started off great in the brood area, but the honeycomb often gets jacked up as they build it. I looked into that hive this past weekend and they haven't built anything new yet.

Oh. Did you know about beespace when you built them? Do you put foundation bars to start them off in it?

 

[ScienceGirl]

That was a wonderful video! I can imagine having an observation hive in my house. That would be truly amazing.

Yes, haha! And an interesting conversation piece....

I have no idea how they inspect them, though, and take it apart to correct problems... Would the bees get all over your house? I tried searching for answers, but nothing came up in Google. Let me know if you end up getting one, or find out more!

 

[Rick]

Oh. Did you know about beespace when you built them? Do you put foundation bars to start them off in it?

My friend had the plans. I knew nothing of bees at the time so I followed his lead. We built several hives and most had the issue. The top bars have a foundation strip but it appears it should be a bit wider.

Here are a few pics and a vid from this past weekend of one hive. My bees are active almost year round. If it hits 40 F they will become active, we have many days in the dead of winter that reach that temperature. It has really warmed up now into the 80's so these girls are very busy. Vid is best with sound on:

 

[jamurfjr]

Wow, yes, those girls are busy. Thanks for the vid. I'm still waiting on my bees.

 

[ScienceGirl]

My friend had the plans. I knew nothing of bees at the time so I followed his lead. We built several hives and most had the issue. The top bars have a foundation strip but it appears it should be a bit wider.

Here are a few pics and a vid from this past weekend of one hive. My bees are active almost year round. If it hits 40 F they will become active, we have many days in the dead of winter that reach that temperature. It has really warmed up now into the 80's so these girls are very busy. Vid is best with sound on:

Very cool! Thanks for sharing! What a lovely topbar hive, and what a strong looking colony! Those look like Italian bees- do you know their species?

Wow, yes, those girls are busy. Thanks for the vid. I'm still waiting on my bees.

Nice! What species are you getting? When are they expected to arrive?

 

[ScienceGirl]

Just came back from painting a screened bottom board and two hive bodies white. We also built a beautiful hivestand. Pictures and instructions to come!

 

[jamurfjr]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing! What a lovely topbar hive, and what a strong looking colony! Those look like Italian bees- do you know their species?

Nice! What species are you getting? When are they expected to arrive?

Italians like-eh half-eh my ancestry.

 

[Rick]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing! What a lovely topbar hive, and what a strong looking colony! Those look like Italian bees- do you know their species?

Nice! What species are you getting? When are they expected to arrive?

I believe they are. Don't really recall. Wasn't sure you could tell by just looking at them.

 

[ScienceGirl]

I believe they are. Don't really recall. Wasn't sure you could tell by just looking at them.

You can't ever be completely sure, as unless you have purchased an expensive inseminated queen, the possibilities of cross-breeding are many. The coloring does look like Italians, though. Gold on the upper abdomen, black on the lower and end... Another species with that coloration is Auroras, but those are a Hawaiin hybrid and they aren't very common.

 

[ScienceGirl]

Italians like-eh half-eh my ancestry.

Very cool. Who did you buy your queen from? Local, or Mann Lake?

 

[jamurfjr]

Very cool. Who did you buy your queen from? Local, or Mann Lake?

Queen comes as part the package. They're local. Coming from about two hours south of me.

 

[ScienceGirl]

Queen comes as part the package. They're local. Coming from about two hours south of me.

Very nice! They'll be accostomed to the climate and ready to make you honey!