Pollen Patty | Beekeeping in Richmond, Virginia

First January Hive Check

It’s been a tough few weeks with miserable temperatures and a couple of spots of snow. It’s really been an unusual Winter…at least when compared to the last few years. Regardless, I was able to check my hives today and all is good, despite my constant hand wringing.

To begin with, we had a couple of bee meetings this week. The first was ERBA’s monthly meeting, which really did not have much on bees that hit home for me. But, the Richmond Beekeeper’s Association had a discussion from 1st year beekeepers and their adventures. The main thing that I picked up from the folks that spoke here was that a purchased package of bees must usually outperform a nuke of bees in the first year. I think Tom Fifer mentioned something about this back in the Fall of 2008, but I do not think I really understood the difference until I saw what these other fellow’s hives did.

To begin with, they picked up their bees in late March, whereas I picked my nuk’s up in the middle of May. I really think this must have been the biggest difference, as one fellow was actually making splits with his bees in August! But, one of the fellows lost his whole hive! He went out to check them recently and found them in a tight cluster, all dead. Kenny (who is also a member of the Richmond Beekeeping Association) said that they starved to death. He also said the problem was the Queen. This circles back around to my initial strategy of getting local bees. Hopefully, they will prove hardier (over the long haul) then these other bees. I forgot to ask the newbs if they treated their bees, as I do not treat mine with anything except for powdered sugar and a heavy dose of my own ineptness. One of these days, I will purchase a package or two just to experience that kind of thing.

But, on to the good news. When I went out to check the hives, I initially glanced at the strong Hive (they face East and I come from the West, whereas the weaker hive faces South, so it is harder to see the landing board until I am up on it.) Not much was going on here, but when I got to the weak hive, I found all sorts of bees flying about and several on the landing board. I am assuming that these are some orientation flights, but regardless of the reason, it was great to see them moving about!

When I took the top off of Hive 2, I found them busily sipping up the syrup that was still in the feeder. Several were floating in the liquid. At some point, I need to figure out how to get them out of the syrup. I carefully removed the feeder to get a look inside. I was happy to see that the cluster had not already moved up into the top deep. I had been worried that their lack of stores would mean that they would be nearly out and already eating at the last of their stores. Instead, they had yet to touch any of their capped honey in the top deep (which is only about 5 frames worth, but is better then nothing!)

I placed several pieces of pollen substitute on the top of the upper deep and left it at that. All in all, I am very impressed with Hive 2.

Hive 1, what appeared to be the stronger hive last Fall, had much less activity. A few bees were hanging around on the south side of the hive, but only one or two flying about. This may be due to the orientation of the hive. It faces East, whereas Hive 2 faces South. At any rate, I opened these gals up and found a few hanging on top of the upper Deep. From what I could tell, these bees were also primarily in the lower Deep. But, I really needed a flashlight to look down in there and be sure. I hope to check on both hives with a flashlight tomorrow.

This hive has received no food since Fall, so I decided to put a single layer of paper down over a portion of the top and dump some sugar on it. I gave it a misting with the water bottle and immediately received a couple of dive bombers attacking me at every spot. Now that I have this food on (I also gave them some pollen substitute), I am much more comfortable about everything.

All in all, this was a resounding success. I look forward to a brief look tomorrow (with my flashlight!) and will report back then.

MegaBee Killer!

Wow, you would think that I would learn.

In my recent feeding, I decided to try the MegaBee again to see if I could give my bees a bit of a leg up during the hot month of August. This time, I increased the Sugar:Water ratio and hoped that it would dissolve a bit better. Well, it definitely did dissolve a bit better. But, the bees are drowning in the stuff like nobody’s business!

Basically, this stuff is definitely not for a top feeder. I cannot say for sure if it is worth a daggone for any kind of feeder, but I do know that I will not use it again in my current feeder setup.

In my weaker hive, I am basically going to have to replace the feeder today. It’s terribly hot, but I have no other choice. It will be good to take a look and see how many frames are being worked on. I am hopeful that I can put my second deep on the weaker hive soon.

Water and Pollen

The beekeeper that gave me my bees has many decades of experience with bees. He had a few hundred hives up until a year or two ago, when his health got in the way. He has a ton of no-nonsense knowledge, but getting information out of him is like pulling teeth! He’s very nice, but I think that he believes that most of the ‘new techniques’ are hogwash, but doesn’t want to say so outright. So, he loves to give an off-handed remark about it which is neither negative nor positive. He seems to like to talk about bees on occasion, but giving advice is not something he’s really on board with. It’s probably because I am so clueless he figures that I need to get some experience of my own under my belt. I am good with that and will continue to soldier on!

Regardless, the point of this blabber is that I specifically asked him whether I should feed my bees when I got home with them. I had read where a lot of folks put a 1-to-1 Sugar::Water solution and pollen on a new hive, to get them off to a good start. But, most of this advice was aimed at folks that received bees through the mail, which typically happens in mid to late-April around here. The thought is that the weather could be iffy and it’s a good idea to give them easy food to start.

But, I picked up Nuc’s, which you get a bit later since you’re getting local bees. I received my bee’s in what many call the Nectar Flow. Weather was good and food (nectar and pollen) was everywhere. But, I asked the beekeeper anyway. His only response was I’m not feeding my bee’s. So, I let it be and that was it. I should have realized that he was not answering me, but prompting me to figure this out for myself. I should have put more thought into it.

But, over the weekend I had some time to really read what a lot of regular first-time beekeeper’s are doing out there (on forums and discussion threads.) A bunch of them are feeding their bees and, with this easy food source, the queen will recognize all of the extra food and start laying more. This gets the hive rolling fast to take advantage of good times (which we are in right now.)

At any rate, I decided to feed my bees some of my pollen (of course, now I am wondering if the stuff is any good, as I had in in the garage and thought it was dry, cracker-like stuff and it appears that it is slightly damp…) I gave both hives a third of a piece this evening, placing it on the top board. We’ll see if this makes much of a difference. I might consider putting some sugar water on them later this week.

One final note that I wanted to record is the water drinking habits that I have witnessed over the past few days. Everybody always harps on how you need to keep water available for the bee’s (they use it to convert honey into food and, more likely at this time of year, to cool the hive.) You can either leave a faucet dripping all day or put out chicken waterers. I chose the latter, as the former will no doubt give me more well troubles.

Well, I think the only thing drinking out of my waterer’s are the birds and some mystery night-time visitors. I have never seen them on it. But, if I put some potting soil in a pot and water it, the soil will be covered with bee’s in NO time. They love some dirty water. I guess it’s easier for them to stand on the potting soil and suck up the moisture in it. Who knows. The bottom line is that I need to come up with a more permanent solution by July (when they will really need lots of water.)

At any rate, new experiences and lessons every day.