Winter condensation and what to do about it.

I use bee cozies on my bees in the winter.  After several several years of using them and not always having enough for all my hives I have seen the difference that having one makes.  They use far less stores to get through the winter, one of the main causes for winter hive death is starvation, sometimes with in inches of stores.  With the cozy on they don't have to cluster as tight and have a better chance of reaching the stores need to stay fed.

Mold from condensation.

The hive wrapped in insulation, the bottom board in place if using SBBs leaves the top to condensate.  All the warm air from the bees is pressed against the uninsulated top cover.  Condensation forms and drips very cold water on to the cluster below causing death and sickness.  A simple fix is to put a piece of insulation in the top airspace.  If you don't have an airspace on the top the next best fix is a nickel under the two front corners of the inner cover to let moister out.

Beekeeping 101 at Oakhurst Gardens

I'm so honored to be teaching a few classes this year at Oakhurst Community Garden.

January 29th I will teaching beekeeping 101.  I hope to cover the basics of what equipment to buy, from whom. What is and isn't really necessary for starting out and why.  Where to place your hive, how to install your bees ect.

March 19th I will teaching a advanced class.  I have asked for specific questions to be submitted a week before the class so I can try to address the student specific concerns and I know this will lead to lots of wonderful discussions about pest and problems.

April 23rd is the kids version of bees 101.  We will crush and strain a frame of honey, look at all sorts of tools, equipment and protective gear and of course taste some really honey.  If time permits we will also be making a rolled beeswax candles with some foundation.

Not ready for winter yet

I checked on my hives at home today and I would say that I'm not really ready for winter yet.

CSX split has one deep with brood and stores and a medium of capped honey
Package 1 has 3 mediums with two brood boxes and a box of stores
Package 2 is my testiest hive and it has two medium brood boxes and a medium box of partial stores
Demeter is just one deep of brood and a medium with hardly any stores.  This hive needs to be feed every day.
Demeter split I didn't have time to open but feels the heaviest at about 80lbs.  It will be check next week.

Mites were not out of control and the shb were few.

Oakhurst Garden Bees & Birds

The Oakhurst Garden's bees are finally in the coop.  I think this should greatly help with the SHB issues and it makes me feel good to experiment with this method of permaculture.

Bee Team letter

Hello Bee Team,

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!

lack of posts

You would think that my lack of posts means that not much is happening in the bee yards.  Actually, I have been getting Oakhurst garden ready for winter.  They have had a huge infestation of SHB and wax moths so all the old comb is coming out and every frame is going to be frozen.  Only two hives out of 6 remain, but this spring we will start new and it's going to be great.

The DHS bee yard is coming along well.  Both hives seem to be doing well, mites counts were done and both are with in my comfort level.  Club hive had about 12, CSX was at about 25.

The CSX split at my house had the SHB troubles.  I put in beetle eaters and only saw one alive beetle and the traps were full.  This hive seems to have it under control.

Atlanta Community Garden Assoc.

This Sunday I will be speaking about bees in the community garden at the ACGA.  I'm very nervous.  This is the first time I have done a talk with all adults and no hive inspection.  I find it much easier to talk about what is in front of me.