2002
6/21/2002
Bees have stopped pulling in orange pollen and are now pulling white.
Are drawing out comb on 4th box.
6/26/2002
Installed new feeder of my own design “Braun Feeder”, works as planned.
7/09/2002
Found 2 Varoe mites on a bee. Treated with Apistan strips will pull in 6 weeks
(8/20/2002)
7/15/2002
Pulled feeder because they were grouping in causing platform to weight down and drown
those on the bottom, also too much at a time was causing a fermentation and drunk bees.
Ouch!. Replaced with entrance feeder.
8/02/2002
Bees pulling orange pollen.
8/20/2002
Pulled Apistan strips and installed mid entrance.
9/07/2002
All doing fine, worker bees seem to be going to the field still.
10/01/2002
Installed entrance reducer.
11/02/2002
Turned cold, it’s in the 60’s now maybe 50 at night and the bees are slowing down. Still
feed syrup.
12/22/2002
Gets cold at night and sometimes during the day, usually warm during day around 60’s.
Bee’s active in pollen gathering, but has slowed on the rate of sugar syrup consumption.
2003
1/9/2003
Nothing more than last month. Will get frames next month for next hive.
3/21/03
Found bee killing intruder bees on the hive #1 entrance. A lot of bodies on the ground
near hive entrance including bee larva in final development stages.
3/29/03
Installed 2nd hive today. Bees are pulling yellow pollen.
3/30/03
Released queen in 2nd hive.
4/10/03
The 2nd hive has drawn comb on the top box as far as I can see. Don’t know if they drawn
bottom boxes?
4/26/03
The 2nd hive is drawing wild comb in open spaces and up onto frames.
8/16/03
Pulled out 3 ½ frames from hive #1 and extracted 6 litters of honey (2 litters = 3lbs).
2nd hive doing good.
10/13/03
Workers are pulling brood out of hive 001, after examination I noticed the brood have
malformed wings and as you would guess Varoe mites. Pulled top super off hive and
medicated with Apistan strips. They have pulled a little more come on this box but
nothing significant.
10/22/03
Workers still pulling in pollen, and removing brood affected with Vorroa mite.
This queen would make good breeding stock, as this is one of the three traits
(HYGENETIC) that make for a Vorroa resistant bee.
NOTE*****************************************************************
Thinking about going to a Russian variety and breeding my own queens using the
Hopkins (Case) method. I would like the MCBA to get a program together where the
association breeds queens for ourselves, but will need AI (Artificial Insemination) to
make this more practical and useful to all who participate.
10/25/03
Temperature has dropped to the 70’s-80’s during the day and 50’s-60’s at night, so I put
on the entrance reducers.
10/27/03
Insulated the hives for the winter.
2004
1/19/04
Bees are still moderately active in hive #1 and somewhat in hive #2.
Temperature has dropped to the 60’s during the day and 40’s at night
2/17/04
Checked hives and both are doing fine. Hive #2 still has honey in top box don’t know
about lower boxes. Put additional box on #1 and will add one on #2 as soon as I get
frames on the 3/1/04.
3/5/04
Removed all winter insulation from hives and checked condition of hives.
Both seem to be doing great, so put honey super from last year (half drawn with comb)
on hive #1 and new honey super on hive #2.
Got new entrance feeder so both hives will have one, will be using this method as it is
easy to work with.
Temperatures are hitting the 70’s now with consistency.
3/17/04
Temperatures are warm during the day and cool at night. Have settled on entrance feeders
in a top feeder box as this allows me to control sugar syrup from fermenting (Bad drunk
bees ouch) and wasting sugar.
Have new Hive stand ready to install in April when new queen comes. Will ask harry to
weld other ones as needed.
Concluded old queens will make good hive starters for making hive splits as this will not
affect the honey producing hives and will cut costs by $50 a hive to start. Also will be a
good source for my eventual queen-rearing program, which will cut, costs by $13.50 a
queen per year. Need to get John started on learning hive maintenance so he can help
with all this.
3/22/04
As on 3/21/03 I found bees repelling intruder bees on the hive #2. There are a lot of
bodies on the ground near hive entrance.
Entrance feeder was empty and I refilled it.
3/23/04
Entrance feeder on Hive #1 half full and Hive #2 is empty and was refilled. Seems
appetite of the bees is picking up, hopefully this is part due to comb building.
The intruding bees stop attacking Hive #2 sometime around mid day and started on Hive
#1 for an hour. Intrusion has stopped now.
3/24/04
Appetite of Hive #2 has picked up to 1 Quart a day. If there is no comb production I will
move the top honey super to a lower position, if it is than not drawn I will stop feeding
sugar syrup.
3/25/04
No comb being drawn on Hive #2 top super so I switched it with the one below it. The
one now on top is full of honey most likely from last year if its not sugar syrup.
3/27/04
Feral bee swarm at Ashland about 40 ft up a tree.
3/28/04
Swarm left.
3/30/04
Pulled Super from Hive #2 and extracted 1 ½ gallons approximately. Shared with all
concerned. They built some wild comb and I realize this was because they were given too
much room in this box when I left a gap from the Division board feeder. Will not make
this same mistake again.
4/2/04
Lost Hive #2 due to Wax moth and putting wet frames back on the hive. Found 50
workers and 1 queen dead in hive. I assume since there were 2 queen cells the other one
flew off and this was the swarm spotted on 3/27/04.
4/16/04
Requeened Hive #2 with 2 frames brood and 2 frames honey from Hive #1.
Hive #1 has very docile bees and it’s too bad I cannot rear new queens from this one.
4/17/04
Released the queen into Hive #2 and the workers seem to accept her.
4/30/04
Some pollen being brought into hive #2, but they are not building comb?
Hive #1 building comb in 2 boxes.
5/18/04
Hive #2 pulling a little comb on a frame, but this is not acceptable.
The reason is probably due to the wax moth I found yet again in the hive. It was caught in
time to eradicate the young larvae and only a inch diameter of honeycomb was destroyed.
Will have to do weekly (9day) maintenance checks just for this.
5/25/04
Hive #1 pulling comb nicely but Hive #2 not pulling as much. Hive #2 stopped feeding
on sugar syrup 2 days ago.
6/24/04
Pulled 7 frames from Hive #1 and extracted 4 gallons of honey and think they will
produce more next year with all the comb they pulled. The queen seems to be laying high
up (Box 5 out of 6). Will not interfere with queen excluder.
8/13/04
Hive #1 looks really good. They have pulled many of frames of wax, and have increased
there numbers.
Hive #2 looks ok and will not know the outcome of overwinter until spring 2005.
With that said I think we should order a new queen and a queen with 3lb bees.
If we don’t need to replace hive #2 we can always start a 3rd hive as planed.
9/1/04
Pulled all the drawn frames on Hive #1 down to lower boxes and all foundation to the top
boxes. Top box is only box to be drawn on Hive #1.
Both Hives are on Steel stands with screened bottom boards.
No signs of wax moth, but seen a beetle that resembled somewhat a hive beetle but don’t
think it was.
9/24/04
All looks well in the hives. Pulling white and orange pollen.
10/14/04
Getting cold at night and I installed entrance reducers and will insulate this weekend. I’m
still feeding sugar syrup. Seen a drone on 10/11/04.
Hive #1 consumes sugar syrup at a rate of 1qt every 4-6 days
Hive #2 consumes sugar syrup at a rate of 1 qt every 2 days.
2005
1/09/2005
Bee still active, and hive H002 feeding on sugar syrup when warm out as the temperature
fluctuates between warm and cold. All the hives are doing fine.
1/14/2005
Gets warm during the day (50’s), and bees pulling in orange pollen.
Still feeding sugar syrup because temp allows for defecation.
1/17/2005
Still gets warm during the day (50’s), and bees pulling in orange pollen.
Sugar syrup from last feeding still in feeder.
1/21/2005
Put Empty box on hive #001 and put two entrance feeders inside to start bolstering &
avoid startving.
Pulling Orange & White pollen.
3/1/2005
Treated Hives #001 and #002 with Check Mite+ for Small Hive Beatle.
Will pull in 42 days or as near as possible.
4/6/2005
Pulled Check Mite+ from hives.
Started Hive #003 and added new queen to #001. If accepted it will be 2 queen hive.
4/14/2005
Released queens.
6/1/2005
No honey harvest.