Lazy Days of Summer!

Honeybee on Goldenrod

August 21, 2013

It has been a month since I wrote about the bees...During that period, we just looked and speculated how much honey were in the supers. It is always a good thing not to disrupt the bees. Inspecting too often slows them down, and "break" their bee-routine.

Overall, we will have a good harvest...if the bees decide to finally cap the nectar that is becoming honey! Last week-end, we saw that many cells are open, although full to the brim; the honeybees have not placed a little layer of wax on them yet. Therefore, we have to wait for them to finish their job, so we can do ours: harvesting.

In order for us to take the boxes full of honey, each frame has to be 80-85% capped. This how it works.

The foraging bees are still collecting some nectar, this substance has a lot of moisture. The bees inside the hive will agitate their little wings, fanning each cell. This activity will "dry" the nectar, and them when the water content is 18.6%,  other house bees will secrete some wax and deposit a thin layer of wax on each and every cell. this is called:capping.

Natural garden where the Russian bees are located

 We hope that this perfect very hot weather will encourage the bees to get busy. We hope to harvest during Labor Day weekend...but will they be done? We will see.

On another note, we had a misadventure with a hive in Shakopee.  Since Spring, this colony has been struggling. It had a very small population of bees, but nothing indicated that they were sick. Then the colony rebounded, and the population increased steadily. But in mid-July, the hive was quiet. We discovered that there was about only 300 bees! But the queen was still alive. However, a family of beetles (four spotted beetle), invaded the declining colony. In addition, a family of mice were happily lodging under the hive! These opportunistic pests had found a wonderful location...warm, cosy, full of food and safe from predators!

We "kicked out" all the intruders at once! However, I am afraid that this colony will not survive. It is very late in the season to "help" it, by giving them frames of bees and brood from our other healthy hives.

5-frame nuc

I am tempted to take the bees and queen and to place them in a very small box (called a nuc, or nucleus hive made of 5 frames only ), and to give them some pollen and honey.

                                                                               

This is what it would look like!

    Bring them back to Chanhassen, so the mini-colony is closer to me and I can keep an eye on them.  I will wrapped them in the Fall...and see. I have nothing to lose in doing so. I feel I have to do "something" but I am not optimistic. I love my bees. But sometimes, they are a headache .