Cold weather

Tonight it's getting down into the low 30s with snow predicted. I put a piece of coroplast in the slot for the sticky board under the screened bottom board. I also was looking at the hole where my syrup jar sits and figured out why the bees aren't drinking it - they can't! The holes on the jar lid are about 1/8" over the screen, and their little bee tongues can't reach the syrup unless it's dripping down. I moved the jar over the open hole with no screen. We'll see if that makes a difference. I figure with the cold rainy weather they'll appreciate the extra food. We'll see.

First Hive Inspection and First Newbee Mistake

When I got home from work I decided it was time to open up the beehive and see if the queen has been released from her cage. I fired up the smoker, put on my suit and opened things up. I found that the queen cage had all its candy eaten away and the queen was not inside! Excellent. The bad news was, apparently the bees don't like to Duragilt foundation very much. It bows to one side of the frame, and the bees built some wonky comb on the concave side. I decided to take out that comb. That was a mistake.

Here's a picture of the comb I pulled out:

Beautiful yellow wax, apparently not from the sugar syrup, because that was almost untouched. This piece of comb had nectar stored in it, and upon further inspection - eggs. Crap. The good news is that the queen was released. The bad news is that I pulled out a big piece of comb with new eggs on it. I figure it's too late to put it back in and have the eggs be viable. At this point, I know I have a laying queen so I'm going to leave the hive closed for two weeks and see what I find then.

Another pretty picture:

Stopped at Essie's at lunch again. Syrup is down another pint and there's more activity at the swarm trap. The bees are very orange colored like the ones in our hives, so it might not be swarm scouting behavior, rather, it could just bee new local bees checking it out.

Lunchtime bee check!

Cloudy and 62 degrees.

I stopped over to Essie's at lunch today and checked the bees. The sugar syrup on the hive installed yesterday is down about one pint. Tomorrow I will bring a half gallon jar in to have her swap out over the weekend once they get low on syrup. The bees were flying strong.

The swarm trap I put on one of her trees had scout activity. I counted about 10 bees that entered the box in five minutes. It would be really awesome if the bee tree in the back swarmed to this box. I couldn't really tell where the bees were coming from.

A couple cell phone pictures:

Both hives are started

Yesterday I started the 10-frame medium beehive at my house. It went pretty well for a first-timer. Corissa, Milo, Owen and Essie all supervised from about 20 feet away.

Today I went over to Essie's and installed her bees too. It went very quick and easy. They flew a lot more than mine yesterday. 

When I got home I checked the syrup level in my hive. They haven't used much since last night. The bees were going in and out of the hive a lot, so maybe they're ignoring the syrup and gathering nectar from flowers...