It's been the craziest weather lately. Cold one day and hot the next. Dry a few days then a monsoon for 3 days. Yesterday I went to the farmer's market and got sopping wet and came home and turned the heat on. It's just whacky crazy here.
So I was worried about my bees. I hadn't seen a lot of activity the past few days. I got my hat, long sleeve shirt and gloves on. Filled a mason jar with organic sugar water and got the water thingy that goes on the front of the hive.
When I first went out, there were no bees out. Just some dead ones in the front. That's why I decided to check on them. I put the sugar water on the front. Then took the top off. That's when I see bees. They did this in the front, all at the bottom.
I lifted the top lid and then I saw a lot more bees. All happy and healthy looking and working away in the top box. I had put the queen excluder in between the 2 top hives last week. And I was just a bit nervous and not really knowing what I was doing. So didn't even think to look for the queen. Then I worried about her being in that top box this whole time. She may be, I don't know yet. But the bees look good here. I did see what looked like little brown roaches in the top when I took the lid off. I smooshed them. Are they hive beetles? Or roaches? Yuck anyway.
This is after I was done. They didn't llok all clustered up at the entrance then.
Right now, the locust trees are blooming. And the Princess trees are too. They are so pretty all purple. With all the rain, some of the blooms are being knocked off the trees. I was reading a bee blog from Atlanta and she was saying how with all the rain they've had, that the Tulip Poplar flowers are all falling off. Not a good thing. I hope all will be ok when this rain stops. It's supposed to rain some more today, then clear a few days. It's just been crazy! But I am happy to see the bees are ok.
All you bee experts out there, do they look good to you? Am I doing this right?
3 comments:
The little black bugs are hive beetles. Hate those boogers. The bees tend to trap them in little corners and when you open the hive up, you let them out. I find it a balancing act on how much to check the bees.
As for the queen, when I put my queen excluder in, I looked for brood in the upper box, not the queen herself. I figured that was easier and less of a chance that she'd get hurt.
When I checked it last time, the frames in the top box were black. I hope she's not up there. I'll have to look again real close. I wish I could just spot her fast and be done.
I killed those beetles that I saw. They look like roaches.
I counted 15 dead bees this morning. I know there are more, just didn't see them. All the rain and cold is really messing with the poor bees. But maybe it's old age too?
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