ready for battle
Yes, I tucked my pant legs into my socks, geek that I am. I was not interested in bees flying up my pants. This was my first visit out to the bees after being stung 9 times at once, so you can understand that I was taking every precaution. Including wearing my husband’s winter gloves. Yes, now I have to wash them because they’re sticky. It was worth it. I think I would have been stung otherwise, judging by the number of stingers I saw ready to strike, and the bees that were crawling on the gloves.
I opened the lid, and there were about 20 bees there with their stingers in the air, just daring me to come any closer. There were others around too, but they weren’t as protective. Most of them were moving very very slowly, due to the cold I imagine. There was no activity at the hive entrances when I got there. But when I left – the one hive had bees around the entrance, so I must have stirred them up enough to take a look around outside for a bit.
Here’s the end frame of one of the hives. The other side is mostly filled with capped honey. The other end frame is fuller on both sides, so I was happy about that! I want them to be all filled before winter. When I looked down into the bottom brood box, it looked like one end frame didn’t have anything on the outside yet. I couldn’t do anything about it, though, because I couldn’t lift the top brood chambers off the bottom ones! Even with trying to pry with my hive tool, I couldn’t budge them. I’m considering using single brood chambers only next year, for ease of use. And because I’m a weakling….
Anyway, the other hive was chock-full, so I was happy with those girls. They turned out alright after all. I was worried initially because they were populating the colony really well, but didn’t seem to be making honey. Now, it looks like it’s mostly honey they’ve got going on, so they’re taking care of themselves. Of course this is all judging by what I could see just taking off the covers. I tried and tried and tried to pull out some frames, but only succeeded in breaking a frame. And even that one wouldn’t come out.
So… I’m procrastinating. I will leave them be for the winter, and deal with it in the spring, when I want to split the chambers anyway. How’s that for an executive decision?
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5 Comments
Anonymous
The 1st hive you mentioned, I would put on a feeder and feed them. I don't like feeding if I don't have to. For me this is the first time in 8 years that I am feeding 2 colonies. I would waist time do it now and take advantge of any nice weather we get.
Ken
sarah
Hi Ken,
Thanks for the tip, I'll get on that. I'm thinking I'll do the ziplock bag method they were talking about at the meeting. I'll put it on top of the frames? I guess I'll use an empty honey super to keep the lid from squishing it. Planning to hopefully get it on there tomorrow morning.
s
Anonymous
I have some rims here you could use. Then the bees don't have to heat up all that empty space. That would take a lot of energy for them to do.
Ken
Ali
Hi Sarah,
What a great blog! I am a friend of Angie's from Fertile Ground and am thinking of starting with a few bee hives next season. I don't know a whole lot about bees and wondered what resources or courses you would recommend (I'm hoping to take the Introductory Beekeeping course with the Ontario Beekeepers Association this spring).
Thanks!
Ali
sarah hemingway
Hi Ali,
Thanks for stopping by! Bees are amazing. If you think you might like them, you'll like them even more once you work with them. I'm not familiar with the OBA course. I took my course at the University of Guelph – it was at the end of April, a 2-day weekend course. Will your course allow you hands-on experience? That was my big requirement for the course I took, and we did get to have hands-on experience both days. Are you planning on keeping bees as naturally as possible? If so I have a book that is useful: 'Natural Beekeeping' by Ross Conrad. Another good resource is a Nova video called 'Bees: Tales From the Hive'. It's very well done. I have a beekeeping manual that I received when I took my course, which you would likely end up with as well at your course. For supplies, I would recommend 'Better Bee' in Cambridge, or Centaur VA in Guelph.
I think the best thing for me so far, though, is having an experienced beekeeper looking over my shoulder. It's been so good to have Ken looking out for things I'm missing or doing wrong.
Thanks again, let me know if you have any other questions that I can help you with! If I don't know the answer I'll just ask Ken. 🙂
Cheers,
Sarah