Rebounding! (And just in time)...

Fall has arrived in Texas - finally!  The humidity has relaxed and temperatures are lower, especially at night.  We have had a few weeks without much rain for our bees in Caldwell, and a burn ban is in effect in our region.  There aren't many blooms for the bees this time of year, but one faithful fall flower is hanging in there.  (Click on photos to enlarge - note that Mark takes these photos himself while we are working the hives; he's quite the photographer!)

The boneset flower with lady bugs, butterflies, and of course bees.

Boneset flower blooms in Caldwell, Texas.

A bee with white pollen baskets, thanks to the boneset flowers.

Mark and I spent time cleaning up old frames during our recent bee yard visit.  You may recall that within the past few weeks, some of our hives had extensive wax moth and small hive beetle (SHB) infestations.  We had removed these frames from the hives and placed them along the tree line for the bees to scavenge.  Mark and I removed the damaged foundations, but salvaged the wooden frames for future use.  This extra work saved us nearly $200!  We will replace the wax-coated foundations with new ones and reuse them in the spring.

Me, separating the wooden frames from the wax foundations for reuse
after the wax moth and SHB infestation.  Next, the wooden frames are frozen for
24 hours to skirt any potential re-infestations from the minute creatures.

Mark and I were so pleased during this visit.  We saw significant improvement in each of our hives!  No doubt this is because of the Apivar varroa mite treatment that we put in place a few weeks ago. 

Hive 01 had one deep hive and we added a new queen during our last visit. She is doing very well! The hive has about three frames of honey for winter stores and one frame with brood and eggs.  The hive looks great; it has no wax moths and no small hive beetles.  We didn’t see our queen during our visit, but her hard work is showing and we are very happy with the rebound of her colony.  We removed the Apivar strips and added a top hive feeder with one gallon of sugar water to help supplement the bees' food source.

Hive 01 with beautiful golden pollen. 
The pollen will be used to feed the bee larvae.

Hive 01 is rebounding with a better population and new brood and larvae.

We added a top hive feeder to hive 01 with sugar water for nourishment.
The sticks will help guide the bees to safety from drowning, above the floating pontoons.

Hive 03 also had one deep hive and we had added a new queen when we last visited.  The hive has two frames of honey and about one frame of brood and eggs.  We did see the queen and her population is improved.  There were no wax moths, although there were many small hive beetles.  We removed the Apivar strips and added a top hive feeder with one gallon of sugar water.  We took advantage of the opportunity to switch out the deep hive box and the bottom board and replaced both of them with the original components.  Hive 03 is back in business.

Switching back to the original hive 03 deep hive box and bottom board.

Good honey stores in hive 03.

Our new Italian queen from Bee Weaver has taken charge of hive 03.
Look around her, there are several new eggs in the cells.

Hive 03 with top hive feeder of sugar water for nourishment
to prepare the small colony for winter.

Hive 04 had two deep hives.  The hive is doing very well and has tons of bees in the top and bottom boxes.  So many, that I am a little worried that there are too many bees.  They have a good supply of honey going into the winter and they have no wax moths.  They had some small hive beetles, and there was a "brewery" smell above the hive.  There was a ton of brood.  Mark and I didn’t see the queen, but we are not worried, as the colony seems better than ever.  We did add some sugar water in the top hive feeder to help them a little through the winter season.

Hive 04 has a high population. This hive houses our
Buckfast queen from R Weaver.

Hive 04's population is marvelous!
The rusty spots are cells of brood, ready to hatch.

Mark and I added a sugar water feeder to hive 04. 
There are so many bees.  We wondered if there is enough honey for all of them!

Hive 05 had two deep hive boxes and one super.  The top deep hive box is full of honey, as is the super.  There are no wax moths, but some beetles.  We are excited that the bottom deep hive is full of brood and eggs.  Mark and I didn’t see our queen during this visit.  We did removed the Apivar strips, but we did not add any sugar water to this hive.  We feel the hive is in good shape to tackle our short, mild winter.

Hive 05 with good brood and larvae.

Hive 05 with good population and brood.

Hive 06 had one deep hive and one super.  The super was full of honey, and the bottom deep hive had plenty of honey as well.  The population in the hive is great.  One bottom frame is nearly full with brood.  We removed the Apivar and kept the super on the hive.  We did not add sugar water to this hive.

Hive 06 with pollen on the frame.

Hive 06 with good brood.

Hive 06 with honey, brood and larvae.

Hive 06 frame with even more pollen.

Hive 08 had two deep hives and one super.  The hive has tons of bees and a lot of brood and larvae.  There was just a little honey in super, not much.  And, a little honey in deep hive boxes.  We decided to  add sugar water to help supplement them and prepare for winter.  We removed the Apivar strips from top deep hive, but left it in the bottom deep, because it was a little risky to pull the boxes apart and potential do damage to the hive and queen.

This is a great shot of a frame in hive 08.  You can see capped brood, larvae, pollen and honey.

Here, Mark is adding sugar water to hive 08.  The bees LOVE this. 
They flock straight to the sugar water. Look closely and you can see that
they are all headed toward the top opening to get to the source.
It's like feeding stray cats!

Bees are trying their darndest to get to the sugar water from outside the hive. 
They collect near the top of the hive where the sugar water is stored,
but only to find they can't gain entry. 
This is good, as it keeps the "robber bees" from gaining access into this hive.

 

At the end of the day, the bees are working hard to gain access into each others' hives.
They now know that there is sugar water in the area and it is worth fighting for.  Not to fear, each of the hives have enough food to get a good head start on winter.