Had several things on my mind for this inspection. My dad assisted again. It’s nice to have an added pair of hands and thoughts.

How was hive N1 responding to the added brood?

• Seems that the N1 bees were doing well. They are flying really well and the frame of brood I put in is 3/4 full of brood. The hive is full of uncapped nectar. I mean really full. They do seem to have a place to lay now.

What was the status of the two queen cells in N1?

• The queen cells in N1 were both empty. One had the capping chewed away and the other had a flap like something had chewed around the outside of the capping and opened it up like a door. My assumption is that the one with the flap was the loser and she was cut out by the bees. From seeing this we assume that we were queenless in this hive like we feared but now one on her throne. We looked but did not find her. The bees are working away and seem happy so we take this to mean they are not queenless.

Was N1 taking any sugar syrup?

• N1 had eaten all of her syrup this week (just 1.5 pints). I made up more and put 3 pints in this time. Also added 3 pints to A1. I want them building comb and figure this is the best way to keep them going.

How were both A1 and N1 doing with comb building?

• A1 has built out two complete bars in 17 days. N1 has built out 1 complete bar. N1 still has nuc frames to build out as well. Overall these bees seem to be poor comb builders. Is that typical of Russians?

How can I stop bees from coming out the side of the frames and out a crack under the top?

• Purchased some black fiberglass screen from Wal-mart, layed it over the top of the bars and frames. When the top is put on this makes a barrier so the bees cannot get out under the top from inbetween the frames. Was the easiest solution I could come up with.

Dad saw something that looked like a little roach and knocked it onto the ground. I never saw it. Was hoping it wasn’t a small hive beetle. Looked for others/damage. Saw none.

Posted on May 24th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Beekeeping | No Comments »

Had a pretty interesting inspection this morning. Bees were great except for one angry one. It buzzed my head, circled the girls, chased the wife, and then stung my father-in-law on the lip. Can it get better?

Hive N1 (Naomi) is still pretty far behind Hive A1 (Abi). Found a wax moth larva on a top bar but not in the hive. Inspected the hive for damage but found no other larva or damage. The following pictures should give you an idea of where they are. Also, notice my coverings for the bee frames from the nuc. This keeps the bees in and keeps the feel of a TBH.

I would like to see more activity inside this hive but think they will be ok. There are lots of bees flying. They aren’t bringing back as much pollen per bee, hardly any pollen. But they are doing something. They won’t take sugar syrup so they must be hitting the poplars. Also, some brown streaks on the front of the hive so I suspect Nosema.

 

Hive A1 is doing great. They have built out a whole bar and have two to three times as many bees flying as N1. They are bringing in tons of pollen today. Some bright yellow-orange but most of it was gray. Never seen gray pollen before. Also, they’ve started on a pure honey frame so that’s nice. Here’s a couple of pics:

 

All in all the bees are doing ok. I’m hopeful that N1 will pull through and start expanding.

Posted on May 17th, 2008 by John
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Got 5 frame nucs. Bees first full day was Wednesday. Put in feeders on Saturday and added 4 tops bars. Added 2 in the brood area on the ends and 2 in the honey area. Inspected today. Several bees were concentrating on the popsicle sticks in the honey area. I assume they are ready to build wax. Pulled a bar in the brood area and it was close to built out! I removed the feeders as they had been totally ignored.

I can’t believe how fast they can build. They had some building left to do in the original frames and they got this done as well. Tulip Poplars are almost full bloom and blackberries are full bloom. Mountain laurel almost open and sourwood coming next month! Already saw about 1/4 frame of honey. Dark like tulip poplar. If you can’t tell I’m very excited.

My dad thinks these TBHs are great. He was amazed at how they are doing. Even my weaker hive is flying like gangbusters. What a difference 3 days makes.

Posted on May 13th, 2008 by John
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Did my first inspection today. Dad came over and helped out. He had nine hives years ago and is used to being around bees so that was nice. This was my first time ever opening a hive and I really enjoyed it. Decided to go without gloves as we fully expected the bees to be occupied with a nice flow and I want to get used to going without gloves. The bees were super gentle (thanks fatbeeman!) and there must be a good flow on as we had no stings and very little interest. I just got these bees on Wednesday, May 7th, so I decided not to pull all the frames and do a full inspection. My goal was to add some top bars and just get an overall feel for how the bees are doing.

The first hive we opened was doing well. When we smoked the entrance the bees started making a huge noise. No bees came out but they just got really loud. There were nurse bees covering the middle frames and some had their heads buried feeding larva. I didn’t pull the frames out to see larva but I strongly suspect this was what they were doing. They also had some honey capped in the outer frames. Not much, but there was a lot of nectar. Overall they looked good.

The second hive was doing great. When we smoked the entrance there was no noise. They made the first hive look bad. I would say hive 1 had 1/2 to 2/3 the bees of hive 2. There were plenty of bees covering the brood and they were capping honey as well.

I added four top bars to each hive and a frame feeder. Wanted the frame feeder to help the bees if they needed it. I spaced the bars between frames, the feeder, and the follower board so they would have some type of guide to go by. Hopefully anyway.

Posted on May 10th, 2008 by John
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Finally found the time to get my hives done. I’ve had plenty of time to read, study, and ask questions on the forums so I feel really good about my setup.

I wanted the hives to be something besides white. I also want my girls to have ownership in the project so I let them loose with the brushes. The best helpers around!

I’m really excited about these hives. Counting paint I have about $40.00 each in them. If I hadn’t been so picky I could have built them out of scrap but I wanted my first hives to have that something extra.

You can see in the pictures below my basic setup. I have an electric fence to keep the bears out. I am also setup to have a top entrance or I can use a bottom entrance with the holes. I don’t have my bars in yet so the lid fits flush.

This is the view through my biggest blueberry bush. I know they are not the bees favorite but I have visions of thousands of bees pollinating my fruits and vegetables. I should have my bees by this weekend and bee a beekeeper for real!

Posted on April 28th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Beekeeping | 6 Comments »

We have started exploring power carving. Last time we discussed the basic things you would need to get started. Today we discuss what I think is the most important part of power carving, dust collection.

Dust collection is all about your safety. This is an important topic so please don’t mistake any humor as me taking the subject lightly. Read more…

Posted on March 30th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Woodcarving | 1 Comment »

I can’t remember the whole song or the name of the band but I do remember the catchy vocal hook “I’ve got the power!” We have discussed the manual side of carving. Today I would like to discuss some basics about power carving. Read more…

Posted on March 23rd, 2008 by John
Filed under: Woodcarving | 5 Comments »

Hold it!

Hold it right there! I bet the every time you hear this statement you think someone is in trouble. You might even be in trouble right now. I’m not there so I don’t know. I can tell you this: if you don’t have a safe way to hold your wood while you carve you will be in trouble very soon.

There are different types of woodcarving projects out there and they come in all different sizes. You need a holder to match what you are doing. I’ve included a few of the basic options. Read more…

Posted on March 16th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Woodcarving | 2 Comments »

The American Woodcarving School was founded in 1974 by Sculptor Michael Denike. Mr. Denike’s dream…a school that’s sole purpose is instructing and promoting the art of Woodcarving. The school holds regular day and evening classes 52 weeks out of the year, and approximately 6 weekend workshops per year.

The regular classes allow the student to work on whatever area they wish while under direction of a professional woodcarver. Weekend Workshops hosted by renowned woodcarvers from the US, Canada, and Europe, allow the more advanced student the chance to train under an artist of the highest level in his or her area of interest.

Posted on March 11th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Art | No Comments »

Against the backdrop of the world’s most ancient mountains is a special kind of place . . . A place where history lives . . . where tradition lingers . . . where people come together to discover their creative spirit. Read more…

Posted on March 11th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Art | No Comments »