inspecting my 9 weakest hives

 today............ 29/08/2022

this morning, I checked out my weakest hives - all currently on a pallet on a small box trailer at my in-laws farm. the trailer cause no lifting just hooking up trailer to vehicle and shifting to take advantage of nectar flows at a moments notice (see trailer image attached)

9 hives in total

Two hives have been here for about five-seven weeks and are doing much better now having access to the many flowering trees around and on my in-laws farm near the Adelaide river

The other seven hives have only been here a week and due to the sparsity of anything looking like a flower at my rural block and thus being only fed on banana pulp and sugar syrup I have supplied, all hives were drastically needing a nectar flow to strengthen the hive towards my goal of double brood boxing each of them with the intent to split before the top end wet season takes over

I looked at the weakest of the weak to start with – as if they needed a frame of brood from the other hives these would be the ones that would. And thus, when checking the stronger hives if plenty of brood frames, grab one and place in the weaker hive.

For a while thought no queen in the first hive box – but found a young queen and a small patch of brood. Hopefully, she gets on with it now amongst a few varieties of flowering natives and introduced species of plants about and around the farm

I found the queen in every box - Woohoo!

Two queens seemed to not be laying much, despite the drawn out comb available – will check on them is a few weeks as they might be non-laying queens and will need to be replaced.

A few of the queens were not marked and I marked them when found with last year's colour as not sure when they were born (must keep better records and mark queens from splits - ASAP) - maybe you can spot the fresh white dot queen in the attached image.

I did take a couple of “ideal” sized frames of capped honey – as wife hasn’t tasted our bees honey in a while now as I have feeding sugar syrup. The stronger of the hives at the farm have filled several ideals sized frames in just a few weeks that they have been at the farm with fresh golden honey (as compared to the almost clear honey made from the sugar syrup – which I leave in the hive for food stores). these "ideal" frames being drawn out from scratch and mostly filled and capped in such a short time really indicates the flow happening around the farm.

I am fairly confident that all these hives will be quite strong after 4-5 weeks at the farm (and if trees keep flowering!)

here's one of the nearly marked queens - can you spot her?

Here is the trailer I mentioned - put some cardboard in bottom of box trialer so it doesnt reflect as much heat into the hives.

Helping another couple of Rural bee keepers

 Had a few fun hours (4) today helping out some other Darwin rural beekeepers inspect 8 old hives today

Some we thought were weak but had plenty of brood, larva and bees, once the hives were open – awesome!

Most hives were very gentle - despite a full inspection of nearly every frame. All required lots of scrapping of burr comb between, on top and bottom of each frame that needed to be removed to make future inspections easier.

We didn't spot the queens but so much evidence of their good work and effort to expand their hives

Many had plenty of drone brood clearly see as the raised cells - so looking to swarm maybe? Lots of those lazy males and their big eyes.

Most had no more space left to them (so maybe the drones did indicate swarm prep)

Due to time between inspections (unavoidable for many reasons), every hive had heaps of burr comb with a couple of buckets for wax processing and another full 20 litre bucket for honey extraction via the pressing method of the burr comb

We double brood boxed the hives taking away the queen excluders as the goal with this apiary overall is expansion – taking some honey good but hive numbers the goal

We managed 10 full depth frames of capped honey (the rest we left with the hives as uncapped or only portion of the frame drawn out with comb and 3 “ideal” sized boxes of capped honey as well – for extraction with a 3 frame hand spinner I have lent them.

Two hives needed major action given the wooden boxes were totally succumbed to wood rot. The frames broken, soooo much burr comb. We placed a new box on bottom, shook bees off each frame into new box, added a queen excluder and placed the old broken frames as best we could in a full sized super box – so nursery bees will come through excluder and help the remaining brood hatch before we remove the broken frames. Best we could do with what we had – hope it works! We shall see in a few weeks.

Darwin weather is so very hard on painted wooden boxes – the heat the extreme sun, the wet season – certainly don’t get the 20 years out of wooden box like some say. – still constant maintenance does extend the life of such

The three of us: learned lots, shared some wild stories, ate some very fresh and sweet watermelon.

Hives are now tidied up and ready for expansion in 4-6 weeks. Then we will find the queen, place her in bottom box, give a lid and base to top box and turn the other way. The queen in bottom box will keep doing her thing. As well, hopeful the bees in the top box will make a new queen from a fresh egg or larva – but 2-3 weeks later we will inspect to see if successful – if not order some mated queens for postal delivery that now that our “turned” box is hopelessly queenless.

Well, that’s the theory!

With the current flow indicated by the melaleucas covered in flowers, the lemon trees and the rockmelon/watermelon on the property – all enjoying the warm days – perfect timing for the small apiary’s expansion plans.

One of the hives that needed its hive boxes replaced - the last few bees still clinging tohte old rotten box - get rid of it later.

the guys were very happy with their work today!

Mother-in-law and Wife get invovled

 August 1st 2022

Inspected a couple of hives at my inlaws property today that are there to pollinate her vegy patch and take advantage of any nectar in area (my place has nothing!!!)

Think the two hives are about to burst forth in growth and activity

Lots of brood, lots of larva about to b capped

Found both queens - awesome! - so much easier when they are marked

Found pollen, some honey stores - not bad for NUCs moved into full sized boxes only a few weeks ago

My wife and mother-in-law got involved and thoroughly enjoyed themselves - despite mother-in-law getting stung twice (black gloves??)

can we spot the white dot queen?

Lots of Pollen coming in and plenty of capped brood

lots of capped brood means lots more bees in the hive

These two now invovled and loving it - Wife and her mother!

some capped honey too!

Spreading the Hives - (and the love!)

 

August 04 2022

this particualr weekend, I was about shifting bees about the rural area - 2 hives at a time to friends rural blocks

this to take advantage of the trees about to flower if not already flowering near and on their rural blocks - seen Grevillia, some paperback starting to go white, and though without much value towards bulk honey production - have you seen a mango tree lately – almost ever single one is absolutely fully loaded with flower

seems to be a sort of southern spring about to happen in the Darwin rural area after the period of colder weather

still no signs of anything flower wise at my block south of humptydoo, at lloyd creek. Two years ago at this time I could fill a honey super at my block in a few weeks with great tasting honey from the woolly butts and other bigger trees which hard carpets of fallen flowers around the ground near them - but not this year.

but Girraween area, or Whitewood rd, or one block of a friend who backs onto a waterway at Humptydoo – enough flowers for a couple of hives amongst the rural 5 acre blocks

I am so keen to split all my hives with a double brood box approach prior to the wet season - taking advantage of this apparent "flow" that I feel is about to happen - here's hoping!

the People whose rural blocks I am placing hives on - hope so too, as one hive split from the hives on their blocks - will be for them with their hive boxes.

Just wish I had more hives, as I could do this on at least ten more locations. I have no hives left at home after the hive movements over the last few weeks.

Maybe next year! But maybe the eucalypts will flower thickly next year, and I can keep all my hives at my block for hive bee number growth and subsequent splitting!

Just a note:

Drop of a pair of hives at one location last saturday morning round 8am. Set up stand, placed hives and opened the hive door – bees orientate, and all is looking good.

But a phone call from block owner at 2pm to say – green ants all over the hive tearing apart the bees

Bugger! Rookie mistake!!!!

Seems I forgot to grease up the legs of the hive stand when setting up - so things such as green ants cannot climb up and into the hives. (This stand didn’t have anti–ant cups etc I usually set up.)

Chaos and stress ensues !!! panic even!

With the bee gear still in the ute - I race over (speed limits kept for sure!)

I arrive and suit up, as the bees are very much in defence mode even though I there to help them!

I hose off the hive stands the marching countless green ants, I brush off the hive entrance of the carpet of green ants all over the entrance attacking the guard bees. So easy to see 6 plus green ants pulling the guard bees apart. – not a nice way to go – drawn and quartered - arrgggghhh!

I clean up a few ant stragglers - wiping them off by a gloved hand, I profusely grease the hive stand legs - I also once ants dispersed - open up the hives and wonderfully, no green ants inside the hives!

So lucky the green ants hadn’t got fully into the invasion mode of the hives. The bees should be ok now.

Lesson re-enforced – prepare properly, expect the unexpected.

No photos sorry – it was all a bit of a rush and I totally forgot to take photos!

But still thought I would share.

 

emergency swarm box idea

Got a message on Facebook from a guy I had sold some chicken pullets to a while back, this wondering if I knew anything about bees. He might have seen all the bee hives around and under the eaves my chicken coop .

I said "yep! that while still learning, I had enough knowledge to get me into mischief - as I am hoping to retire from the 9-5 in the next couple of years to do bees full-time".

“What do you need?” I asked

Seems he had a bee swarm taken up residence in a boat on his rural property. He would like to keep them for pollinating fruit trees on his block

Further questioning identified – no bee suit, no gear, no hive box. But could I help?

Well yes – but all my boxes are currently tied up in splitting and pollination services etc

(soooooo need to make some more hive boxes, buy more frames etc - and I mean real soon!)

Let me think about it – which worked out well given he was working elsewhere and wouldn’t be about for a week or so which gives me time to find a solution

The solution came in form of a foam broccoli box (grabbed 6 of them 12months ago and they had sat in my shed since – yeah the bees will eventually chew it out but perfect for short term until he can get a better box etc

So with my dabbling into CAD and 3D printing – I quickly designed some ventilation pods and an entrance with a landing platform that could be closed if needed – even with a queen excluder on entrance maybe.

Using calipers I measured the thickness of the wall of foam box and adjusted the design to suit making the wall thickness a constant in the CAD software - easy as!

The plan would be to get hive into this emergency box by putting any comb from boat into the frames in the emergency box. Then place it near entrance that bees were using to get into the boat - till they get use to temp hive box. then transfer location of boat - tranfer bees int oproper hive box etc.

Once parts designed and 3D printed, the box was marked and then the holes to right size cut out. put front vents down low and another pair on back but up high to help with air flow.

Results looks good, standard frames fit in well with a touch of wriggle room for bees

Will update you how hive transfer goes in a week or so

Update on the 4x walk away splits from 3 weeks ago - 

              bugger! 

                      not great!

Four hives needed a fresh frame of eggs and brood to boost them along. 2 had no brood at all, 2 quite sparce - so bad or weak queens present. a frame of brood might to the trick!

So now to wait a few more weeks to see if queens can be made.

Though hives strong in numbers - lots of stores of honey and pollen (a couple of colours here) - I woudl like to see a nectar flow happen in the trees around my rural block.

So slack lately with posts but four splits done today

So, a lot has happened since last post

Forgive my slackness – work life & personal life too stressed last 2 years.

During which from a bee keeping perspective - 

           I lost hives, 

                  I found and cuaght swarms, 

                     and I lost more hives

Focused on building numbers again

Got to change my career to bees full time. Well once I have enough hives (250-300 is the plan)

So, I made some more brood boxes from left over scrap timber from last box building spree. Now hoping pollination fees for current hives can help me buy 200x hot waxed and painted super boxes, 2200x wood framed plastic waxed foundation, 100x NUPLAS bits (vented bases, 10 frame feeders and lids)

that’s about 30k plus freight needed - uugghh that hurts!! But its is what it takes to get the hive numbers up without anymore free timber to make my own

Been helping on occasional weekends with a commercial keeper 3hours south of Darwin - super hot conditions but heaps and heaps of learning.

While there last time, due to the flowering about to happen in area, after inspection of 150 hives and prepping 60 more for pollination services (60 already on site), we added more than 350 ideal sized supers to hives. Every hive not going to pollination had two or three supers (a few four ideals high) in anticipation of massive flow about to happen.

Then this weekend.......

While I wasn't planning as of yesterday to do the following but this Sunday I was bored so......

So did 4x walk away splits on four of my hives this morning. I was for these four hives for the last few weeks - feeding syrup and finally this Sunday the high quantity of bees, brood and then a few capped drone cells prompted me to get at it rather than wait another week

Several weeks ago, in anticipation of this scenario, I added an extra 10 frame brood box to each of these hives when the bees were hanging out front each evening with so many bees in each hive - huge beards of them.

Back then I took four frames of brood from original brood box and put in middle of new brood box - arranging empty frames around the brood frames in both brood boxes creating a brood chamber in centre of the combined two brood boxes

I also due to scarcity of a honey flow - heavily substituted food in a feeder box on top of each hive - sugar syrup - that the ladies have been emptying from the feeders almost as soon as I top them up (every two days topping up current plan)

So, creating an artificial boom flow for each hive

They have also been collecting heaps of pollen, I assume from native long grass in the area surrounding our block (but not much if any nectar stores seen in combs)

Now today with at least 6 very full brood frames in each brood box, hopes are high.

That’s 8 brood boxes in total - so 48 frames of brood. All hives would be bursting at box joints very soon if I didn’t split 

Heaps and heaps of capped brood - these are my most prolific and gentle queens that I have - why I used them for this double brood box for split trial

Also, with a few spots on corner of some brood frames of drone cells - it is perfect time to split before they swarm

When rebuilding chook shed recently, I extended roof out from chook shed 1.5m to use for a bee lean-to type shelter - less rain & sun on hives - tropical wet season are very very hard on the boxes and the bees in them

So had a spot ready for the splits here next to chook shed

A stand was shifted into this new location, 4 more bases and lids - as too for each hive - a feeder box and an ideal super (space for when all that brood hatches)

Without searching for queen - I took one of brood boxes to new location placing on bottom board, adding super and feeder and lid

Repeated this for each of the four hives I had been preparing

Whichever box has queen will keep doing what it was doing. While the queenless box will make some queens from recently laid eggs - hopefully anyway, and if a new queen makes it back from mating flight (lots of dragon flies around currently) a successful walk away split accomplished. 

An inspection in a few weeks will tell me which brood box has retained the original queen. If a new queen not showing signs of existence, can add a frame of eggs and brood from a brood box with a queen to try again to get a queen made

With more hives the plan this year - also making up some more frames to do it all over again in 8-10 weeks this time with 8 double brood box hives - have sooooo learned from past mistakes (still learning too)

Here’s hoping for the successes of these walk away splits

Hoping too - a honey flow starts now wet season almost done

Would love to harvest some honey (keep using honey frames in splits)

If I can get and keep hive numbers up - keen for some small scale queen raising later in year - that will be heaps fun!

Need to 3D print some more hive doors and syrup feeders this week too. 

Side note: I was short 4x 3D printed feeders for the splits so used the zip lock bag method for feeding syrup

Sugar syrup in zip lock bag (freezer type strongest) - half fill, lay on top of frames under lid punch a few holes on topside of bag with bamboo skewer. This in middle area, on this I placed a large metal nut - sags in middle and syrup doesn’t run out. Bees don’t mind it at all.

 

Finally, some more action

 Just a few thoughts and sharing of ideas and efforts of today.

Currently, I have been focusing on expanding my hive numbers – very furiously!!

14 days ago - I took a queen away from a hive with a frame or two of capped brood into a spare NUC and took it to second property to settle in to new location. The original hive would be queenless with hopefully a heap of fresh eggs to make into queens.

Yesterday in a few minutes before i went fishing inspected the original now queenless hive - found they had made ten queen cells on two frames. Took one frame with 3 queen cells and two more brood frames in another NUC to shift to alternate location. Leaving original hive to finish off the other queen cells it has, and first queen to hatch out to Regicide its fellow princesses before they hatch.

I have been making my own brood boxes out of free timber from a city work site that protected new window glass for a high rise - most are 2mx 330mmx 36mm. Am up to 30 brood boxes made - with enough timber for another 50 before I run out of the free timber – while not the best timber – being free and still manageable, I do feel very lucky to have it. Gives me something to do on weekends anyway.

The focus has been Langstroth boxes and frames (also 1200 frames made by hand from scratch with same timber last year - now all in use), before now starting to buy the unassembled frames and put in those waxed plastic foundation to go in the brood boxes.

My supers are shallow “ideals” in size because the timber walls of boxes is 36mm thick due to the timber I got I for free being that size. So the 'honey super' size is also better for lifting when full of honey

Not that I am harvesting honey – as food resources get shared amongst the splits and such (much to wife's chargin who loves honey in the comb). And my focus is making as many brood focused hives I can, then making more brood hives - honey can come later. the goal is 250 hives - to be my own boss!making my own grafted queens, NUCs and hives

Having said all this I started my bee keeping with Top Bar Hives.

However, steered away from them due to the difficulty of shifting them and the potential damage to comb by the shifting.

I also wanted to swap frames between the Top Bar and Langstroth hives.

The story is getting long……….

For now my full time income job that pays the bills and buys me more bee equipment - is as a Design teacher focusing on CAD and 3D printing. And with thirty or so top bar hives sitting idle (built with student help at my last school)– I used my knowledge and tech skills and equipment to work out a solution to making the Top Bar Hives more movable.

Most of my Top bar hives are 15 frames deep (16 of them), but I had 10 more that are 32 frames deep. Made never intending to move them – bees at the time were an enjoyable hobby, I now want to be a my main income sourceas i move towards retirement.

I cut the 32 frame deep top bar hives in half and added new ends – this to make easier to lift and move - two hives from one.

Then using CAD software I designed connectors to to add side bars and a bottom bar to the Top Bar timber the bees build their comb down from. to create a full frame to support the comb they build.

the images attached are the result.

basically i designed, then 3D printed a connector rather than the weakness of a wood on wood joint of thin timber peices that would be weak also given the angles needed for a sloping sided top bar hive - not 100% strong. The connector also adds spacing advantage with width of connector.

This could have be done many ways, better ways even - but this one uses the skills I have, the gear I had, and I had fun working out the problems etc along the way

We shall see how it all works out.