Beez pleezz

[Trish Stretton]

Wow, didnt realise it had been so long since I had last posted.
I have done a couple of inspections since then. On one, I did pull out 3 frames of honey from the original hive. with the new one I just moved 2 frames of capped honey over to the far end of the hive just in case i needed to give these back to them. Because they are all capped- thats where the honey cells are all closed up, they know they are there but shouldnt try to move them back over to where the rest of the hive is. Its worked out so far but I wont know if its worked this time til I open up again and have a look.

This summer has been so hot and dry most of the country look completely brown, apart from the trees.
I have avoided inspecting both hives in case this starts other bees robbing the hives.

I did put a number of frames in both hives so they would have somewhere to put their honey -that was about a month ago, so I should really be doing another round of inspections.

Today, I was leaning over the roof of 'Rua'=two, so i could watch how what they did when a naughty Bumblebee landed on their robber screen.
Going by the bare patch on this Bumble, I would say it has tried to get into the hive many times before and the bees have pulled off its fur, or part of it, mainly the band of black colored hair.
they didnt seem to be too worried about it hanging outside, til it started moving up towards where it could have got into the hive, then 1 or 2 bees started a tussle. At one point they wound up falling on the ground struggling with each other but then they all flew off.....so while Bumble bees do try to get into the hives,they dont just go for the kill.

A few weeks ago, I did find a bumble bee crawling around the parking area. Thats something you dont usually see, so took a closer look and found that it had no wings. I think it had annoyed the hive to the point that they had decided it had to go, bit off its wings and dumped it in the parking area.
I gave it Mercy.

 

[flowerbug]

Wow, didnt realise it had been so long since I had last posted.
I have done a couple of inspections since then. On one, I did pull out 3 frames of honey from the original hive. with the new one I just moved 2 frames of capped honey over to the far end of the hive just in case i needed to give these back to them. Because they are all capped- thats where the honey cells are all closed up, they know they are there but shouldnt try to move them back over to where the rest of the hive is. Its worked out so far but I wont know if its worked this time til I open up again and have a look.

This summer has been so hot and dry most of the country look completely brown, apart from the trees.
I have avoided inspecting both hives in case this starts other bees robbing the hives.

I did put a number of frames in both hives so they would have somewhere to put their honey -that was about a month ago, so I should really be doing another round of inspections.

Today, I was leaning over the roof of 'Rua'=two, so i could watch how what they did when a naughty Bumblebee landed on their robber screen.
Going by the bare patch on this Bumble, I would say it has tried to get into the hive many times before and the bees have pulled off its fur, or part of it, mainly the band of black colored hair.
they didnt seem to be too worried about it hanging outside, til it started moving up towards where it could have got into the hive, then 1 or 2 bees started a tussle. At one point they wound up falling on the ground struggling with each other but then they all flew off.....so while Bumble bees do try to get into the hives,they dont just go for the kill.

A few weeks ago, I did find a bumble bee crawling around the parking area. Thats something you dont usually see, so took a closer look and found that it had no wings. I think it had annoyed the hive to the point that they had decided it had to go, bit off its wings and dumped it in the parking area.
I gave it Mercy.

i didn't know bumblebees would even try nor did i know the bees would pull fuzz or wings off. interesting! glad to see you back writing.

 

[Trish Stretton]

Bumble bees are opportunists. There is no way they can get into Rua cos i made the entrance that is behind the robber screen, too small vertically, they can still get in to Tahi but i havent even seen them try to this year.
Its been an odd year and I have felt somewhat out of sorts, still working on the paths and veg garden beds though.

Last summer, I watch a bumble bee get more shiny as summer wore on. The last time i saw her she had only a few yellow hairs on her back. With out their fuzz, they are a vibrant shiny black color. I guess there is just no telling some to leave well enough alone.

 

[flowerbug]

Bumble bees are opportunists. There is no way they can get into Rua cos i made the entrance that is behind the robber screen, too small vertically, they can still get in to Tahi but i havent even seen them try to this year.
Its been an odd year and I have felt somewhat out of sorts, still working on the paths and veg garden beds though.

Last summer, I watch a bumble bee get more shiny as summer wore on. The last time i saw her she had only a few yellow hairs on her back. With out their fuzz, they are a vibrant shiny black color. I guess there is just no telling some to leave well enough alone.

this is shaping up to be an unusual year already here, but spring is coming on by the looks of the weather. getting back into the teenies C now at last a few days. more sunshine. not too much rain yet. i may actually be able to try to get some gardening done today of some kind or at least go out and wander around a bit more and see the last of the snow melting away. we can still get snow yet for another month and a half or so. if it stays warm like this we'll be seeing the early spring flowers soon.

i hope you get it figured out. i do understand sometimes needing a change of pace or a break from the routine to recharge or to ponder.

 

[YourRabbitGirl]

I bought myself a new years present in 2017- my very own bees to go in my very own hive.
At first, I thought I might be lucky enough to catch a swarm and waited...almost too long before I realised that it wasnt going to happen so I had better hurry up and buy some.

Its been an interesting couple of years managing to keep them alive sometime by the skin of our teeth due to lack of experience.

January is mid summer here and I have since been told that it is not a good time to get bees...no wonder I thought I had bought a lemon/dog. But, still they did survive and still are.

My end goal was to be a treatment free beek.
I have come to the conclusion that in order to do this successfully, you really do need to be an experienced beekeeper. I'm not there yet, so that goal is still way over there on the horizon....but I do have a master plan to get there. so far, in spite of hiccups, I think we are a couple of steps further along.

I imported some plastic small cell frames from Mann Lake ltd and started them on the road to getting down to small cell.
In autumn/winter I messed up and almost lost them. Thankfully the man who does my legal AFB check realised that I was making the same mistake he had in his second year and helped me turn things around, saving us to go on for another year.

So, While I have not been able to get them to the point I wanted to get them to, that being on all small cell frames that had the width of the frames shaved down from 34/5 mm to 32mm; I still have live bees going into another winter.



And they still had enough spare honey comb this year so I could have some too.
Blessed, both by them and this amazing learning curve.

If I'm not extremely allergic of bees and won't surely have an antagonizing death when I get bitten. I will definitely raise some here.

 

[TEG Project Manager]

I bought myself a new years present in 2017- my very own bees to go in my very own hive.
At first, I thought I might be lucky enough to catch a swarm and waited...almost too long before I realised that it wasnt going to happen so I had better hurry up and buy some.

Its been an interesting couple of years managing to keep them alive sometime by the skin of our teeth due to lack of experience.

January is mid summer here and I have since been told that it is not a good time to get bees...no wonder I thought I had bought a lemon/dog. But, still they did survive and still are.

My end goal was to be a treatment free beek.
I have come to the conclusion that in order to do this successfully, you really do need to be an experienced beekeeper. I'm not there yet, so that goal is still way over there on the horizon....but I do have a master plan to get there. so far, in spite of hiccups, I think we are a couple of steps further along.

I imported some plastic small cell frames from Mann Lake ltd and started them on the road to getting down to small cell.
In autumn/winter I messed up and almost lost them. Thankfully the man who does my legal AFB check realised that I was making the same mistake he had in his second year and helped me turn things around, saving us to go on for another year.

So, While I have not been able to get them to the point I wanted to get them to, that being on all small cell frames that had the width of the frames shaved down from 34/5 mm to 32mm; I still have live bees going into another winter.



And they still had enough spare honey comb this year so I could have some too.
Blessed, both by them and this amazing learning curve.

Now you're as busy as a bee with your bees! Congrats on getting featured on the homepage!

 

[Trish Stretton]

If I'm not extremely allergic of bees and won't surely have an antagonizing death when I get bitten. I will definitely raise some here.

I did alot of study before I got my first hive and I honestly think anybody who is looking at getting bees should do a really good research before they do. Truth be told, I still do alot of study and still read everything i can lay my hands on.

Another good idea is to join a local beekeepers club, where you should be able to get some hands on experience and find a mentor.
I did find one, but his partner wasnt too happy about us spending so much time together so I let that one drift away. Sometimes, I just wish the guy who does my legally required AFB inspection could mentor me, but he is just too busy.

 

[Trish Stretton]

Now you're as busy as a bee with your bees! Congrats on getting featured on the homepage!

um...WOW!!
I wasnt expecting that. I feel like running back to page 1 to make sure everything is okay. lol
Thank you.

 

[Trish Stretton]

Today, I decided that I had to inspect both hives inspite of the hot dry weather; its been almost too long since the last one.

I start with Rua- my new baby hive.
I had to put three frames of honey right at the very end of the long hive to try to stop them from building fins out from the edge of one frame. I had sliced off the fins on three separate occasions but they just kept on with it, so I decided to do something that was maybe a bit extreme and move them out of the way so the 'Finland' frame was hard up against the far end wall.
Here's 'Finland.

Before these were sliced off to what you see now, they were a couple of inches long

Both hives look really good- lots of honey to go into winter and more importantly here in NZ, the brood looked nice and healthy. We have a problem with AFB so I usually check all frames at least every other time, more if its been 3-4 weeks between inspections.

I harvested the two dodgy honey frames. The second wasnt 'finned', but not nice and straight. The third frame I had at the end was still flat, so that went back over to the hive for just in case they still needed it, which after looking through, they probably didnt.

I finally managed to get the follower board trimmed so that it would fit into the hive- had to use my Rasp on it a few times, while the hive was partially open to get those last little bits out of the way.
This has gone at the far end-honey side, behind three new frames I put in today. I'm hoping that with the last frame they have been working almost full of nectar and partially capped, they will build these new ones out nice and straight too. The follower board at the end of them should make sure they dont do anymore fins.

Tahi gave me another three frames of honey.
For some reason, they are still insisting on putting their brood nest slap dab in the middle of the hive instead of at the entrance side like they used to.
I put back the three honey frames that had been stolen- these just have the top 1/2 inch of comb cos i am still having to do the crush and strain method to extract the honey. Its just not worth it to use the new extractor and have to clean it out for so few frames.

Closer to winter, I will probably need to rearrange the hive to try once again to get the brood nest back over to its proper spot. They are not going to like that, so I will only be inspecting them on that day.

And.....I didnt get one sting this time!!!! I absolutely hate being stung.

 

[valley ranch]

Love bees !