Bee hives

[TFOGGER]

Not sure if they got disease and died or if they starved. I did a treatment for mites, made sure their honey reserves were good and even put pollen patties and an in the hive feeder just in case. I wrap my hives with 1" insulation on three sides then silver backed bubble wrap for the winter. They will do very well like this but sometimes you do everything right and they still die. When I had them in my yard I never lost a colony in three years.

Packages come with one queen and 5000 or so workers.

I'll bet the FedEx guy doesn't accidentally bust that one open....

[10mm-man]

Not sure if they got disease and died or if they starved. I did a treatment for mites, made sure their honey reserves were good and even put pollen patties and an in the hive feeder just in case. I wrap my hives with 1" insulation on three sides then silver backed bubble wrap for the winter. They will do very well like this but sometimes you do everything right and they still die. When I had them in my yard I never lost a colony in three years.

Packages come with one queen and 5000 or so workers.

Thanks for the reply; that is AWESOME! Not that you lost them, but that you can get a Queen bee, and 5000 workers delivered! Good luck with these man...

[SamuraiCO]

Packages were from local bee keeper and I picked up at To Bee or Not To Bee in Denver. You can order from a whole host of breeders and have them Fed Ex as well.

Day three check and the queen boxes were empty indicating the workers ate up the marshmallow plug to release the queen. Closed back up and refilled their sugar water food.

Will check in a week or so for eggs showing a healthy and happy hive.

[10mm-man]

Packages were from local bee keeper and I picked up at To Bee or Not To Bee in Denver. You can order from a whole host of breeders and have them Fed Ex as well.

Day three check and the queen boxes were empty indicating the workers ate up the marshmallow plug to release the queen. Closed back up and refilled their sugar water food.

Will check in a week or so for eggs showing a healthy and happy hive.

That's cool man! Post up some pic's if you can, with the eggs, etc. Have you ever had a queen rejected? How long do you have to feed them for, before they are on there own?

[SamuraiCO]

If you need a place to put another hive I would be interested in learning as well!

I have just found out I have 5 trees
that flower on my property and I am sure the bees would love it.

30 raspberry bushes, 10 blackberry bushes, 3 grape vines, etc

Your letter was forwarded I hope someone comes forward with an extra hive or two. In the mean time pick up Be Keeping for Dummies. You can look up The High Land Bee Club and look for meetings to attend.

Keep trying someone may still need a home for a split or swarm hive. It has been busy season so far.

[SamuraiCO]

That's cool man! Post up some pic's if you can, with the eggs, etc. Have you ever had a queen rejected? How long do you have to feed them for, before they are on there own?

Last year my original queen was rejected or died and I had to replace her and that put me way behind last year.

You can feed all summer the bees will slow down or stop feeding on the sugar water if natural sources are available.

[SamuraiCO]

One quick pick from a couple days ago. This was on the day I checked if the queens were released from their cages. Girls are busy collecting pollen.
I will have more pics this week when I get a chance to check inside and see if the queen is laying eggs.

[GilpinGuy]

Interesting stuff. Keep us posted!

[SamuraiCO]

Ok checked the hives for the first time in three weeks after assuring the queens were released. I wanted to find the queen and make sure she was busy laying eggs. I wanted to catch her and mark her so it would be easier to find her as the population grows. I wanted to look for overall health of the hives and determine how long I needed until the second deep hive body needed to be placed. Generally when the frames in one hive body are 60-70% full it is time for a new hive body.



Here is a nice healthy frame. What I noticed right away there were lots of smaller and lighter bees indicating the queen already had brood hatching. She must have gotten busy right away laying eggs. That was a promising start.



Here is another nice frame showing honey in the top right corner (uncapped yet), a couple of rows of pollen and then a lot of capped brood. This is what a good frame will look like for this time of year.



Here is one of the queens we found and caught. Just scooped her into this device and GENTLY pinch her to hold her in place while she is marked with non toxic ink. There is a specific color for every year to help bee keepers keep track. We generally replace every two years to ensure an young and healthy queen.

Overall I was pleased with hives thus far. I do have some issues with them building some comb where they should not and it makes it difficult pulling out the frames and disrupts any brood that they have in that comb when it breaks apart. I need to check what to do about that.

Will be putting on a second deep on each one later this week. Probably no honey but will see how they do.

More to come.

[GilpinGuy]

So cool! It looks like you're doing pretty well so far.