My family just got home from the beach for the last week and I have just finally had the time to actually look in my hives at home for the first time in a month.
All of my hives have queens and most of them have quite a bit of brood. I noticed some dark nectar that is being brought in, so there is a little bit of a flow going on. Maybe someone with more botanical knowledge then me can tell us what we have in flow?
The one thing that I didn't see much of was pollen. I don't usually give pollen substitute to my bees, but there wasn't enough in there for them to feed the brood so I made 1" patties and put one on the floor of the entrance of each hive. They immediately started to take interest in it. I don't like the idea of pollen patties over the brood chamber or larger then 1" squares do to the fact that SHBs LOVE to lay eggs in the patties if they aren't eaten very quickly. If they are in the entrance I can keep an eye on it and remove it if not eaten.
I also put in sticky boards in all my hives today to do a mite count. If your a beekeeper who does treat for mites, then this is the time of year to see if your at threshold. I'm hoping that only one of the hives is going to need to be treated since it's been two years w/o treatment and I did notice some wing damage, that suggests to me, at it's over threshold.
So how are things in your backyard hives? Problems, successes or questions? Let's talk about bees!
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3 comments:
I enjoy reading your blog.
Right now we have goldenrod, asters and things like joe pye weed and coreopsys blooming.
I would be careful putting the patty at the enterance. It will be more difficult for the bees to defend from the beetles. The middle of the brood nest or on top of it is where I usually put mine. I just make sure I don't put more than the bees can eat in a week. Less is more.
We have the Goldenrod as well. Plus the occasional night in the 40's for clustering. Almost no Varroa this year and a Nosema feeding this week.
My bees never went for the pollen patties. I wish they did since one colony needs more pollen.
The neighbors hives had a few SHB's but they've not found my hive yet.
I just got my first hive...had them a few days and they are still here..I will be back to learn all I can.
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