Our 2nd Apis visit at Geraldson's Farm, it was a partly cloudy day with breezy conditions. The white sweet clover (Melilotus albus) had grown up around the hives since we visited last month. An adjacent field was also in bloom with this flowering plant providing pollen and nectar for our foraging bees.
Our goal today was to inspect the hives in general for signs of mites, wax moths, small hive beetles (SHB) and to locate and verify that the queen in each hive is without marking or clipped wings. We also planned to add 2 additional supers and 1 additional brood chamber.
Inspection of the first hive when well. Only a couple of mites were seen as we inspected the hive. This hive has 3 supers, most were completely drawn out with comb and full of honey. As soon as we are able to get use of an extractor, we will process some of this honey for our use.
We were able to locate the queen and verified that it was not marked or clipped. We reassembled the hive, replacing a plastic queen excluder with a new metal queen excluder. Also we added a Ross Rounds super directly above the brood chamber and below the existing 3 supers. We replaced the existing top with a telescoping cover. (See slideshow pictures)
The 2nd hive is the one that was quite aggressive during our last visit. After smoking this hive, we pulled the top cover and inspected the brood frames for signs of pests, but we failed again to locate the queen. The bees temperment was much more mellow today. This hive had consisted of only the brood chamber. It was quite full and healthy with plenty of capped brood, recently laid eggs, developing larvae and pollen stores. After inspection, we added a 2nd brood chamber, replaced the existing wood/metal queen excluder with a new metal queen excluder and added 1 additional medium super.
Our next visit we hope to mark and clip our queens and perhaps take some excess honey.
My challenge during this visit was to keep the smoker going and avoid stings to my hands through my gloves. I wasn't very successful at either.
As always, special thanks to my mentor and support person for assisting me in this wonderful adventure.
It was a beautiful day on the farm. I was able to share a taste of some comb honey with Adam, the Geraldson's Farm on-site manager. I look forward to my next visit.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
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