Bee Joyful

Dennis, from Wake County Beekeepers Assoc. came over today and inspected to see if we have a queen in either hive. We saw hatched queen cells, evidence of swarming and lots of HONEY! Rick will like to hear that! I won't go in for at least 3 weeks now and then I will check for new eggs and uncapped brood. Hopeful! If not, then I need to quickly get queens fro somewhere.

Today Alex and I went into the Beta hive. I saw very little activity all morning and havent seen much lately in general. The top deep (sits on very top) had the 4 frames we had given it with bees but NO building out of the foundation in the empty frames. The super underneath had a good amt of bees but no new brood and little older brood. The bottom super which was added becuase is was floundering and to give it some bees doesnt have any new brood and hardly any bees in it. Alpha hive appeared to swarm today but still has a couple of hundred bees hanging around the outside of the hive at 65F this am.

Okay, normally there won't be blog posts this often. I am thinking maybe 2 times a month? However often I go into the hives...Hopefully they will survive and so will this blog! Today, after a wonderful church service and a scrumptious, fun, dinner at Omi and Popop's house, I came home and went in the hive. Atley and Addison were playing in the yard, with the little chickies that we hatched and Alex and Rick were cleaning the gutters out. I am concerned they are going to swarm. They are hanging about the outside of the hive in big numbers at 8:00 am and temp @65 F. I am really unsure about what to do now. So, into the Alpha hive. I see lots of bees in the top super when I open it up but appearances may be decieving becuase they clear out quick. I see the wax foundation beeing drawn out and a lot of it being taken. I haven't seen more wax taken then the last time I viewed though. Middle super- LOTS of bees. No new brood and older capped...

Since I have all my notes on paper I am going to skip to this week. If you have any questions, feel free to post or call me! Big moving day... 4/20/2011 I took the bottom deep off of Alpha and placed it on the bottom of Beta. It had spotty capped brood and no new brood. I took the super that was full of brood and honey in Beta that was on the top and put it in the middle! Then I put the deep that was on Beta and put it on top of the super. That deep has 4 full frames; 3 from and shallow super and one from a deep. So, the bottom and middle have good amt of bees and the top is building. They may have the queen from Alpha. Alpha, left with one deep on bottom that is full. It had a queen cell. Then a full super and an empty super...

I started with one hive in the spring of 2009. It built up and survived winter with 2 deeps and 2 supers. A deep is a big, deep hive box and a super is smaller. The supers are for collecting honey in. If they are to big you cant very well harvest honey unless you are the size and strength of dear Andre the Giant. Last spring, 2010 my hive chugged along. I had still 2 supers on top. It survived winter but no honey. A friend of mine, Jeff, gave me a hive had that was full of bees and after a lot of learning and work, we transported it to my home. Betsey, at Busy Bee Apiary has been a huge help to me through all of this. Well, hive number one (now named Alpha) robbed that new hive and it was done. But Alpha took off in numbers. I fed it well, they made lots of food and survived a very long, cold winter for NC. So, Alpha took off this spring. New brood coming out of the hive, growth in great numbers... and swarming? Oh, I am learning this is a delicate art. More growth in numbers... I swit...

Welcome to my new blog! My first blog! I have named it Bee Joyful for two reasons. The first reason is the number one reason I have joy- I have been redeemed by my loving Savoir, Jesus and I know whose I am! :) That gives me unceasing joy. The second reason is my bees! This blog will be mostly about my bees. If I get into this, maybe I will blog a bit more but for now, it's bees! Every time you go into the hives you need to journal and detail what you see and did. I have been doing that in a paper journal and also taking pictures. My pictures have never made it into my journal and I realized it would be very helpful to my beekeeping, if I could add pictures. Helps my failing memory! Hence, the blog. I am very new at this so please bare with me as I learn, beekeeping and blogging!