Summer is bearing down on us quickly as we’ve just finished a great stretch of warm weather and multiple nectar flows. We’re in last half of the Himalayan blackberry bloom, not to mention everything else that’s been coming up over the last month–lupin, crimson clover, scotch broom, vetch, hawthorns, and most recently, escallonia.
Seattle Hives
Hive 3: Requeened this hive Memorial Day weekend. I’m embarrassed to say that it took me two visits to find and kill the old queen–a necessary step before you can install the new one. The new queen is an Italian that I picked up from Beez Neez in Snohomish, who get their queens from Wootens in California.
Queens in come a small wooden box called a queen cage (see photo series right–click to enlarge). The one I purchased was a marked queen, that is, a queen one that’s had a dollop of paint applied to her head so that she can be spotted more easily during hive inspections. The queen cage has an entrance that’s plugged with hard candy. To introduce a new queen you hang the cage between the middle frames. It takes a few days before the workers will accept the new queen–about the same amount of time it takes them to consume the candy plug and free her. Nine days after I introduced her, I found the new queen alive and well accepted, but with most of the paint worn off.
Hive 1: Over Memorial Day Weekend I applied a powdered sugar treatment, reset the drone frame trap by cutting out all the existing drone comb and replacing it empty in the hive–the chickens got the drone grub to feast on. I also put down a brand new screened bottom board and a new screened inner cover. This is supposed to keep thing cooler on hot days and thus increase honey production inside the hive. Last weekend I found almost 90 pounds (three supers) of capped honey.
Hartstene Hives
Not much to report with the two Hartstene Hives. The three things I’m tracking down at Hartstene include:
* Varrora management–powdered sugar treatments every so often and drone frame trap management. It took Hive 4 exactly a week to draw out a fresh set of drone comb, and another two weeks for the hive to fill it with capped drone brood.
* Hive expansion in Hive 5. Remember this was a remnant from a July swarm last summer. The workers have finished building comb in one deep, but have been reluctant to move up into the second deep. I decided move four populated frames into the upper box to see if the cluster would move.
* Honey production. Because it’s a new hive, I’m not expecting honey out of Hive 5 this year, but am hoping to get at least 60 pounds out of Hive 4.
With any luck I’ll find some time this weekend to harvest honey. There’s at least three supers of fully capped honey in the Seattle hives, and hopefully one or two down at Hartstene.
Barcodes on Bees
Today’s New York Times Business section included an article on the 35th anniversary of barcodes. The article mentions that not only are barcodes good for reading the prices of Juicy Fruit and tracking overnight packages, but that they’ve also been used to “study the pollination habits of bees.” Sure enough, after a little digging I found this promotional video from Intermec.
A New Queen, Start of Summer and Barcodes on Bees
Seattle Hives
Hive 3: Requeened this hive Memorial Day weekend. I’m embarrassed to say that it took me two visits to find and kill the old queen–a necessary step before you can install the new one. The new queen is an Italian that I picked up from Beez Neez in Snohomish, who get their queens from Wootens in California.
Hive 1: Over Memorial Day Weekend I applied a powdered sugar treatment, reset the drone frame trap by cutting out all the existing drone comb and replacing it empty in the hive–the chickens got the drone grub to feast on. I also put down a brand new screened bottom board and a new screened inner cover. This is supposed to keep thing cooler on hot days and thus increase honey production inside the hive. Last weekend I found almost 90 pounds (three supers) of capped honey.
Hartstene Hives
Not much to report with the two Hartstene Hives. The three things I’m tracking down at Hartstene include:
* Varrora management–powdered sugar treatments every so often and drone frame trap management. It took Hive 4 exactly a week to draw out a fresh set of drone comb, and another two weeks for the hive to fill it with capped drone brood.
* Hive expansion in Hive 5. Remember this was a remnant from a July swarm last summer. The workers have finished building comb in one deep, but have been reluctant to move up into the second deep. I decided move four populated frames into the upper box to see if the cluster would move.
* Honey production. Because it’s a new hive, I’m not expecting honey out of Hive 5 this year, but am hoping to get at least 60 pounds out of Hive 4.
With any luck I’ll find some time this weekend to harvest honey. There’s at least three supers of fully capped honey in the Seattle hives, and hopefully one or two down at Hartstene.
Barcodes on Bees
Today’s New York Times Business section included an article on the 35th anniversary of barcodes. The article mentions that not only are barcodes good for reading the prices of Juicy Fruit and tracking overnight packages, but that they’ve also been used to “study the pollination habits of bees.” Sure enough, after a little digging I found this promotional video from Intermec.