Post by histopicker on Feb 9, 2016 17:32:03 GMT -5
My girls have been active on a daily basis so I did an inspection to see if the hives are ready for spring. Here is what I found.
Topbar hive one. The girls still have six frames of honey 1/2 to 3/4 still capped. I moved the bars of honey and made plenty of room for brood expansion. I left the honey in the hive for future use. The colony is fairly strong and packing in pine pollen. There is a small amount of capped brood.
Topbar hive two. As soon as I opened this hive I knew there was trouble. Spider web and cocoons all in the far end. I dug out masses of web which was full of bees tangled up in it. I crushed all the egg sacks that were attached to the bars. Finally I found the largest Black Widow spider I have ever seen and mashed her with my hive tool.
The bees had been destroying comb trying to get to the spider but they would get tangled in the web and get eaten.I had four bars of comb that were half destroyed.
After cleaning up the spider mess i started working up through the hive to find the beginning of the brood chamber. These girls have 14 bars of honey! That is about 16 quarts. I believe they have been robbing the neighbors hive. I finally found the brood area and it was only four bars wide and had brood. I moved the whole brood chamber as it was honey bound on both ends and gave them plenty of space to grow. I only took one half bar of honey because I plan on making splits within a month and will need the resources for the new hives.
For some reason the queen was piping in that hive during the inspection and running from one end of the hive to the other? I never saw her but her nurse bees were trailing after her. This inspection took far to long because of the spider mess cleanup.
All in all the colonies are looking very strong, they are packing in pollen and have plenty of honey left over.
We are going to have temperatures up to 70 next week and the creosote brush will be blooming then. My season has started.
Topbar hive one. The girls still have six frames of honey 1/2 to 3/4 still capped. I moved the bars of honey and made plenty of room for brood expansion. I left the honey in the hive for future use. The colony is fairly strong and packing in pine pollen. There is a small amount of capped brood.
Topbar hive two. As soon as I opened this hive I knew there was trouble. Spider web and cocoons all in the far end. I dug out masses of web which was full of bees tangled up in it. I crushed all the egg sacks that were attached to the bars. Finally I found the largest Black Widow spider I have ever seen and mashed her with my hive tool.
The bees had been destroying comb trying to get to the spider but they would get tangled in the web and get eaten.I had four bars of comb that were half destroyed.
After cleaning up the spider mess i started working up through the hive to find the beginning of the brood chamber. These girls have 14 bars of honey! That is about 16 quarts. I believe they have been robbing the neighbors hive. I finally found the brood area and it was only four bars wide and had brood. I moved the whole brood chamber as it was honey bound on both ends and gave them plenty of space to grow. I only took one half bar of honey because I plan on making splits within a month and will need the resources for the new hives.
For some reason the queen was piping in that hive during the inspection and running from one end of the hive to the other? I never saw her but her nurse bees were trailing after her. This inspection took far to long because of the spider mess cleanup.
All in all the colonies are looking very strong, they are packing in pollen and have plenty of honey left over.
We are going to have temperatures up to 70 next week and the creosote brush will be blooming then. My season has started.
