Week 11 - BEE Inspection
we went to Dadant ( Bee Supply Place) and picked up some supplies...
9 Frame Spacer....allows the spacing in the Honey Supers
to be exact.
we also purchased this FRAME HOLDER...it attaches to
the Brood Box and allows you to put up to 3 frames on
it so you have room to check the boxes for activity (babies)
we found my queen this week...she is doing a FANTASTIC job!!!
we couldn't pull out the frames in my bottom brood box, so
we just tilted up the box to look underneath...everything
looks great!!!
here is a honeybee taking a drink
~~~~~~~~~ Overall my hive is doing wonderfully....lots of baby
bee larva and eggs....there was no activity at all in the Honey Super
(meaning that they had not started making any honey for us yet)...we will
see what happens this coming week ~~~~~~~~~~~
Now to Ross' hive.....
we were very pleased to see a ton of activity in the top brood box
because last week there was almost none....
here is ross' queen....she isn't as big (healthy) as the one in
my hive.....we did see lots of baby larva and eggs though....so we know that she
is doing her job...but just not as strong as she could be.
then we opened up the bottom brood box and we found this....
we didn't know what it was...so we cut it off,
unfortunately it was on several of the frames....we believe
it is WAX MOTH larva...
here is a side shot...now this is what we found out...keeping in
mind that we are brand new to this....a female WAX MOTH will
enter a hive if there is a problem in it.....ie...a weak queen or a hive
infected with mites or something like that.....we did notice that last
week that there was not much difference in ross' hive.....so clearly
that is when they entered the hive and started producing WAX MOTH
babies.....there is no product that can be put on them because it will
soak into the beeswax and then into the honey....so when we go out
to do the next inspection, we are hoping to not see any new moths.
OK if any beekeeper that has been doing this for awhile comes across
this blog, please tell me why all of the discussion about WAX MOTHS is
about how you cannot control them with any spray, what a frame looks like
once it has been completely destroyed by the moths and what to do
with the frames at the end of the year....but nothing at all about what to
do NOW.... so we are a bit frustrated about the lack of that kind of
info out there....but as I said we are learning as we go.
we did add the Honey Super on the top of ross' hive this week,
because 8 of the 10 frames in the 2nd box had been drawn on...
you can see in the box.....the queen excluder is placed on there so
the queen can't come up into this box and lay any eggs....this is the
box where they make the honey for us.....we are trying these honeycomb
starters on a few of the frames.....the bees are supposed to work
off of the little bit of beeswax already on the frame and work
down and build a nice thick beeswax and fill it with honey....then we can
extract the honey and use the beeswax for candles, soaps and chapstick.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
all in all it has been a great experience for us.....we are still hoping
for the best...I read a quote the other day .....it said you are either
a BEEKEEPER or a BEEHAVER.....we are very excited about
being BEEKEEPERS...working with the bees, watching them, sitting
back by the hive and listening to the HUGE noise they make, watching them
make a literal BEE-LINE to the back of the property in search of anything
flowering...not just HAVING them in the back yard and going back in the
fall to see if they made us any honey.
Pleasant Dreams!!!
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