Drinking With The Girls

[jdmidwest]

Since I have gotten the beehive, afterwork hours have been spent watching the hive and the bees working. I discovered some problems the first week, small hive beetles and have bee treating the hive to correct it.

Last Tues. we received a shower in the afternoon. After that I noticed that the activity in the hive increased and bees were every where.

Light bulb went off, they were collecting water. Since that, I have been misting the hive after work and watching them come out and drink the fresh water. I also keep a bowl of fresh water next to the hive with a stick in it so they can land and drink. But they prefer the water off of the landing board or front of the hive body.

Something to kill the time while I am moving the sprinkler around the garden watering it.

[ness]

That's pretty cool stuff. Looks like some pretty good craftsmanship on that hive too. Do you know the story on it?

[jdmidwest]

It is a state of the art hive from Kelley Bee Co in Kentucky. It has the deluxe screened bottom board with the slanted landing ramp. Came with a plastic hive cover. Entire design is for ventilation and pest control. I have an insert on order that slides in under the screen from the back. Fill it with veggie oil and the small hive beetle larva drop thru the screen into the oil and drown instead of the ground to complete their life cycle. The screen can be used with mite control also.

I like the design. Most hives come with metal wrapped covers, I feel that would heat the hive up in direct sun. More workers required to cool hive, less out in the wild collecting.

Brood boxes have metal rails for the frames to ride on. Frames are slotted top. To install the foundation, you just slide it in and place some support pins along the sides. This eliminates the complicated wiring process and the equipment needed to do it with.

It came with shallow supers that have entrance holes drilled for more access to the hive. I have them corked now. The bees need to strengthen the brood box and build comb in the super. I am feeding 1:1 sugar water thru the top of the hive to stimulate that. Opened the hive this afternoon and noticed several young bees feeding on that.

I am going to pick up a new queen as soon as this heat wave breaks. They will not ship one now, they come thru USPS, and they can't climate control them from departure to arrival. Hopefully, that will increase the hive and I can get the fall nectar flow. That will allow them to build up honey stores for winter.

[ness]

So, I've spent about 20 minutes reading about beekeeping. It really looks like a great hobby. Not sure how it would go over here in the 'burbs though.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I can see the need to keep close tabs on them, and I suppose with the drought going on it beats watching the grass grow.

Interesting stuff JD.

[Tom Tricamo]

This is so phenomenally cool! What types of flowers are they collecting off of? I hear that changes the taste and color of the honey, as does the time of year you collect.

[jdmidwest]

With as diverse a crowd as we have on here, I actually thought there would be some fellow beekeepers chime in here. Beekeeping has been in my family for years. Grandfather on Mom's side and Great Grandfather that I never met on my Dad's side kept bees as a personal source of honey for years. It skipped a generation with Dad, he tells the story of watching GGpa finding bees in a waterhole and lifting them out on his finger to keep them from drowning. Dad tried it as a little boy and pinched them when he picked them up and got stung. That is where he lost interest...

It is really hard to tell what they are feeding on this time of year. Yard flowers and soybeans locally are my best guess. They were working on the cucumbers in my garden.

In the spring of the year, fruit trees, maples, tulip poplars, black berry and other berry vines, dandelions, clovers, and spring flowers are all good producers. Different nectars do affect the color of honey and taste.

In the late summer and fall, weeds, soybeans, goldenrod, gardens, and other fall flowers are what they feed on.

Main honey flows are early in the spring which my girls seemed to have missed are over. Late flow should start soon if we get some rains.

I call them my girls since that is the majority of the sex in the hive. 1 queen lays the eggs and all worker/gatherers are female also. A few male drones are around in the hive but they are only for mating a new queen and are expelled from the hive right before winter.

[jdmidwest]

Here are some links to sites about bees for those who want to learn more.

http://www.beesource.com/forums/forum.php

http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2009/03/splits-and-new-small-hive-beetle-trap.html

http://www.dixiebeesupply.com/Dixiebeesupply/Don_Kuchenmeister,_The_Fat_Bee_Man.html

http://midwestbeekeeping.com/

http://beehivejournal.blogspot.com/2009/01/build-it-yourself.html

http://www.heartlandbees.com/

http://www.gobeekeeping.com/

[Wayne SW/MO]

1 queen lays the eggs and all worker/gatherers are female also. A few male drones are around in the hive but they are only for mating a new queen and are expelled from the hive right before winter.

Never knew that.

[Ham]

Soooo they use the males for sex and then throw them out in the cold to die. Nice.