Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: Well, I am new here....  (Read 2522 times)

Offline AdmiralD

  • House Bee
  • **
  • Posts: 114
Well, I am new here....
« on: April 07, 2005, 02:22:15 pm »
By way of introduction, I am rather new to beekeeping. And I am so glad that there is this ACTIVE site on beekeeping.  :)  

A couple of years ago, I went to a Washington's beekeepers meeting. There, they auctioned off various things, of which were 2 styrofoam single story hives, with bottom boards 10 plastic frames and  top covers which came home with me. I learned alot that day and it was fun.

2 years  and one move later, I went to california and took those hives and got 2 nucs of bees and brought them home in the trunk of my car. Now, we closed off the hives entrances with duck tape. But  with one of the hives, suffice it to say, some of the bees got out. [I nearly scared the gas attendant to death when she saw some of the bees in the tail lights] Me, OTOH, only had 6 or 7 bees flying in the back window, but I had a loss of about 50 bees from one hive. [For simplicity purposes, I will call this hive #2, and it seems to be very actives.]

After a 8 hr drive home, I placed the bees in between my shed and fence,  and gave them 1 quart each of combined honey and sugar water mix.  [The honey had crystillzed and I warmed it up to liquidfy it, and then added a 1:1 sugar solution to each of the quarts. ]

After 4 days, I coulden't wait any longer but had to lookin each of the hives. Hive #1, is very calm, and not too active. By that, I mean I do not see a lot of bees coming in and out of the hive. And they are  using  the solution at a  MUCH slower pace.  The quart of honey/water is about 1/4 used up. A quick look at the hive showed some propollis being put on the top hive cover.

Hive #2 seem to be much more active and I can see bees coming out of the hive and guarding it. This hive faces the sun also. The quart jar of honey/sugar solution is nearly gone as I write this. These bees seem more active than the other.

Question:  Am I just paranoid about hive #1 or does it seem that I need to get into the hive and see if the queen is laying egg?  Or do I have an aggressive hive in #2 and even possilby a quiet strain of africanized bees???  [said with tongue firmly planted in cheek].

Thanks for the advice ahead of time....I wil be checking here often and hopefully contribute what I get to observe from my very different hives.... :wink:

Offline thegolfpsycho

  • Field Bee
  • ***
  • Posts: 583
Well, I am new here....
« Reply #1 on: April 07, 2005, 02:57:04 pm »
I would position them both to get am. sun.  Gets em started on the day.  Most of the nectar is gone before noon (evaporates away) so the earlier they get started the better.  As a word of caution.  I would not feed honey of unknown origin to them.  Sugar syrup works just fine without the possiblity of introducing brood diseases.  I don't know about any method of determining if your bees are africanized without sending them to a lab.  Years ago they discussed a method by measuring or observing the veins in the bees wing, but I never learned to do it.  Hot hives are a pain, and candidates for requeening,  But a nuc is usually a population size that is easily manageable.   It the bees are lethargic, I would look and verify a laying queen, and look for brood disease.  Hopefully she wasn't killed when you transferred them.  If she is laying but sporadically, I would scrounge up another queen, or get them to raise one.  They should be going like a house on fire if the weather is decent.

Offline bobby

  • New Bee
  • *
  • Posts: 14
concrads.
« Reply #2 on: April 07, 2005, 09:41:08 pm »
congradulations, i'm still waiting on my bees . they will be
 here in the middle of may. i'm new to so wish me luck.

Anonymous

  • Guest
Well, I am new here....
« Reply #3 on: April 09, 2005, 09:07:07 am »
Yes get that hive open and look for the queen or signs of her. Could be she didn't make the trip in good health.
 :D  Al

 

anything