Guilfordbeekeepers.org

Somedays I don't know if we'll ever get the hang of this or not. We spent quite a bit of time in the little angels' hives today and I didn't see what I expected in any of them.

Caleb's hive: He has got to have the most active queen in the world. Last week we put a 2nd deep on it for a 2nd brood chamber because those bees were literally out of room and were building comb out the top of the inner cover and trying to put honey in it. He now has all but 3 of the frames completely filled with either honey or brood!! Those are some seriously working bees but the majority of those frames are filled top to bottom and nearly to both sides with brood, eggs, larva, etc and just around the edges is honey. The only problem we have with those bees is that they are so MEAN Someone gets stung every time anyone goes anywhere near that hive!! Today they came out enforce and chased Troy and Caleb both all the way back to the house!...they both got stung. Taeler wants us to requeen Caleb's hive so the bees won't be so mean. Caleb says he doesn't know if he wants to give up all those awesome baby bees.

Taeler's hive: We didn't see a queen but this time there are eggs and brood and lots less drone brood so we are assuming that whatever problems the queen was having last time we were in there have been resolved. She already has a full super of honey and a deep and a half of brood.....along with some really neat looking red pollen that they have stored in there.

Jared's hive: has no eggs, no brood, no larvae....just lots of worker bees and half a deep of honey. We are going to go take another look in there in a few days and try to see what's going on. We realized today that though his hive is only 5 feet away from the other two that it isn't getting nearly as much sun as the other two hives are so Troy spent this evening clearing the brush in a better spot and we'll move the hives to a sunnier location.

Should I still be feeding these bees?
Should I be worried about Jared's hive?
Should we do something about the extremely aggresive nature of Caleb's bees?
Am I the only person who really likes all these cute little faces and buttons?

Thanks so much for letting me ramble on!! Have a great night everyone. Tomorrow we go play in Jessica's hive. I'll let ya know how it looks in there too.

>>>>Should I still be feeding these bees? <<<<

NO

>>>>Should I be worried about Jared's hive? <<<<

Yes. It would be a good idea to take a frame containing eggs from Taeler's hive, brush off all the bees, and add it to Jared's hive. Trade it for an empty frame from Jared's hive.

>>>>Should we do something about the extremely aggressive nature of Caleb's bees?<<<<

It is a trade-off. A gentler strain of bees may not produce as well. It is a personal preference decision.

Hi there again!!

Wally, me and the kids had beat ya to it this time....sorta. Jared wanted his bees to be more like Caleb's bees so Taeler said to take a frame from Caleb's hive and put it in Jared's so that's what they did. Jared's hive should be bursting with bees soon enough the way Caleb's queen fills the frames!!

Jessica's hive looks great too....but now her queen is missing a wing too, last week it was just a leg. She lays really well though and Jessica said she doesn't want a new one yet. If it was my hive I would probably get a new queen and squish that poor gimpy one.

So far other than trying to get Jared's bees to make a queen everything looks really good and the kids are having a ball. The vet came out to give the dogs their shots today and the kids were telling her all about the bees and hives and so on..... the vet says she can't wait for the honey!!

Those boys like MACHO bees. They don't want those gentle, sissy bees.

I just hope they confirmed eggs in the frame they moved. They can't make a queen from larva more then a few days old.

Jessica's hive is one I vacuumed out of a house last year. I may have damaged her in the vacuum system. If so, she has lasted over 6 months, so should last a while longer. If not, they will replace her with her daughter, so she will have the same genetics.

Tell the vet it is going to be self-service honey sales.

Macho bees ????? my boys???? bwahahahahaha. Just kiddin' but that is pretty much what they said too when they had their little "what are we gonna do about Jared's hive" meeting in the livingroom. They must listen to you better than I thought..... I almost spit tea on the screen from shock when I read your last post telling me to what the same thing that they had already done, it's just too bad they don't listen that well ALL the time. And yup, the kids did make sure there were plenty of eggs in the frame before they put it in there. They are yelling at me now that they checked on both sides of the frame too...... and Jared says he is going to get back into his hive again next week and try to take pictures if Taeler will help him so he can keep track of what the bees did when.

Jessica's going to be really relieved to learn that she may be blameless in the legs and wing missing from the queen.... she looked crushed for a minute, then went back to cooing at the bees.

I was hoping to trade the vet some honey for doggie care but your idea sounds so much more fun!!!