HONEY BEES: AN ADVENTURE: July Honey Bees!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

July Honey Bees!

July 17, 2012

Benoit starting the smoker!

Benoit looked after our honey bees last week as I was helping a grad. student survey the native bees in North Dakota!

Chanhassen: The four hives are doing well. The bees still looked healthy, and were busy foraging, nectar and pollen. They all have supers (our surplus honey), but don't seem too interested in sharing. Few bees are walking on the foundation, making a very small amount of wax, and not putting nectar in the waxed cells. But we have to remind ourselves that "usually" packaged bees don't make any surplus as they are focusing on surviving, increasing the bee population, bringing their own food for the winter and caring for each other.

Carpenter bee

Because of the unusual prolong warmth, Ben put more water in the containers surrounding the apiary. He also noted that a native bee was trying to enter a colony by herself. It happens to be a Carpenter bee! She was showing a very odd behavior, as they are solitary bees and either nest in holes in the ground or in dead trees. For the honey bees of course she was an invader, and they pushed her away.

Shakopee: Our 2 oldest colonies are fantastic! One has 7 supers, the other 5. We WILL have honey...and plenty. It towers now over Ben's head. I can't reach the top anymore to even put the rocks on the lid! We are seriously thinking about harvesting soon.

I talked to many beekeepers and all agree that we should have a very good season :)

The Russian Bees: After loosing 2/3 of the population, in the last 3 weeks we have been giving them a frame of brood a week to help increase the bee population. We take a frame in our strongest hive, brush all the bees off, and drive to the Russian apiary, placing the frame in the brood box. The Russian nurse bees then take care of the capped brood until they are born, becoming themselves nurse bees. Older nurse bees become foragers. The colony is healthier, and activities are resuming for the bees. We will keep a close eye on them :)