Activity

Locust&Honey · Post by **Locust&Honey** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 4:45 pm

What types of activity are you guys seeing outside your hives? I am seeing massive amounts. Everything from pollen so big on the bees legs they can hardly walk to fist fights with the local hive raiders. I am seeing alot of drones coming in and out. My son catches them and tries to put them back on the hive. The ladies seem to be in high gear. I probably won't go back into the hive for a couple of weeks due to the fact of the flow being on. The last time I was in I was very excited to see a good egg laying pattern, eggs, bees hatching out of the comb, and bees in the supers drawing comb. Please chime in with your observations.

ski · Post by **ski** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 8:08 pm

The ladies are busy here as well, pollen coming in , first flights, a few drones. I did an inspection today, (my first solo) I got the nuc 11 days ago and started feeding syrup and they have been busy. The small cell in the deep brood chamber has one frame drawn out on both sides and another partial frame has been drawn.
The original nuc frames are jamed full of brood and honey and larva and some eggs. I think things are tight as far as laying eggs on the original 5 nuc frames I hope she starts laying on the small cell.
I also got 4 shallow frames of honey with the nuc and they have drawn out 2 or 3 of the shallow frames (large cell).
My current plan is to add another brood box, I think maybe tomorrow or after the cold snap. I hope they don't get itchy wings and decide to swarm.

The word SWARM used to be a neat word I don't know if I like it as much any more lol.

Locust&Honey · Post by **Locust&Honey** » Mon Apr 09, 2007 7:51 am

I don't know about you guys but I am more and more amazed with the honey bee. My bees were out all weekend and for the most part the were making their runs. I seen alot of pollen runs being made and could not believe it. The weather was pretty cold and I thought they would be taking it easy. Would they have been working inside as well? I added the new deep last week. I also saw something that I would like talked about. The bees were fanning the hive at the entrance. What was the pupose given the cold weather???

ski · Post by **ski** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 6:38 am

Were they fanning for ventilation or were they spreading the pheromone from their Nassanoff gland? They also fan to reduce the moisture content in the hive.

Locust&Honey · Post by **Locust&Honey** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 6:21 pm

What is impressing me now is the size of the pollen they are bringing in on their little legs. Even after a big rain shower. Anyone else seeing this???

ski · Post by **ski** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 7:45 pm

I am seeing some pollen not massive amounts per bee or otherwise. I did start with a nuc so not as many bees I would suspect. Also a lot of bees fly into the hive, they don't land on the porch. Between the orientation flights and the no landing I may not be seeing everything they are carrying into the hive.

Locust&Honey · Post by **Locust&Honey** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 5:29 am

I think that is true Ski. Almost all my bees land and walk in due to the high traffic of bees. When I watch the bees there are two things that happen. There are ALWAYS bees hovering around to land and go in. At the same time if you stare about 12 inches in front of the hive you will see a constant stream of bees shooting out of the hive. I use the word shooting because it looks like bullets are being fired from the hive to combat enemy planes

. If you remember what the pictures from the Iraq war looked like it is very similar to that. Really, really neat to see. But I bought two well established colonies. Lots of bees,

ski · Post by **ski** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 8:06 am

L&H
That is interesting when you mention the bees shooting out. I have sat next to the hive many times trying to see where they are going. Every now and then I can spot a bee's general direction but most of the time they are very fast and hard to see. I don't think bee lining would be that easy.

Locust&Honey · Post by **Locust&Honey** » Sat Apr 14, 2007 4:24 pm

The only time I can follow where they are going is when it is cloudy and I get below where they are flying out and look up towards the sky. I can then only follow just a couple. They seem to be going EVRYWHERE. I just looked into the top of the hives to see how far they have come up and the strongest hive had bees alway to the top. Very impressive to me. The other hive had a few to the top. Not many in the top super vs. the strong hive which was putting honey into the top super. Let me see if I can post a pic of my hives.....no can't figure it out. I have two deep supers(hive bodies) with a medium super on top.