Noob

Once the rain and stormy skies cleared some this afternoon I got into some of the hives. I wanted to treat a little bit for mites, especially a swarm I caught last Friday. I used VarroxSan strips and didn’t over treat, just a bit to keep the mites from taking over during the brood boom during spring.

I also wanted to check on Noob. She has been especially noisy lately and I wanted to look for queen cells and any kind of evidence the she might be prepared to swarm.

Noob: only drone cells along the bottom, I carefully did a complete inspection, didn’t see one queen cell. I saw a LOT of uncapped honey, beautiful picture perfect brood patterns, lots of eggs. Lots of fresh wax.. well behaved/calm bees. I saw one hive beetle. I didn’t actually see the queen. But there are 4 boxes on the hive, she could be hiding.

Noob and Mars and Venus have been given another super box they are all doing well. I have swarm traps out and baited, but last I looked I didn’t see any swarm cells. But bees can be sneaky.

The beekeeper placed a "bee cozy" around the hive, just like an insulation wrap. We are hoping that it will help the weak colony survive the winter months.

Yesterday was the first sunny day in a while. Not particularly warm, but nicely sunny and the bees were happy. I put candy boards and insulation on all the hives. Some were more excited than others for the yummy sugar patties.

I did not delve into the frames and look for brood or anything. It wasn’t warm enough to do that. The bees should settle down in a day or two.

It’s been drizzly and overcast for a couple days now. I fed the bees today so they’re pretty excited about it. I believe that is why the 210-250 frequencies are a bit larger than normal.

Noob is doing better temperature wise with the extra insulation. They seem to be happy.

Noob is doing well. I put a winter party in a candy board with wood shaving insulation on top. (Prepped for winter.)

Curious to see how the temperature is affected.

Checked them after they were merged and all are together now. Just as I thought they had deserted the box where the sensor was and moved upstairs. I removed the bottom box because it was dead space, moved the sensor up into the middle of the two remaining boxes and gave them more sugar water. Saw the queen, they are storing honey for winter and have a little brood (normal).

Something is going on with this hive. I recently added a small hive to them and I believe the ball is sitting higher than the sensor.

Will combine with Neptune tomorrow. Neptune is dying and is not strong enough to survive the winter by itself.

Removed a medium box, merged the frames into a smaller space. Good numbers. But the sensor wasn’t in the right spot. Should see better results.

*Gave all a dose of Pro-Bios (probiotics).
*Noticed a few dead mites on the bottom boards from where I installed Varroxsan strips not long ago.

I am so glad I made note of where the sensors are located because several are lower in the hive box than I first thought. I will adjust where the sensors are next time I check.

Hives are looking great, no major concerns at this time.

Slid the bottom board to look for the sensor when I discovered all the bees in a ball at the bottom of the box. A nice large ball. So I need to move the sensor down, and maybe even remove a box if they aren’t using it. Will do this when the weather is warmer.

Chilly temperatures outside. Several dormant bees out and about who got caught in the brief sun before the weather really turned yuck this afternoon.

I also added the location of the particular sensors within the titles of each on the app. This will help me get an idea of where the bees are located within the box.

Yesterday I spun some leftover honey that I had from a separate location where I keep bees. I set out the equipment after I spend the honey, and it caused a crazy frenzy amongst my bees. My colonies in the front yard were covered with bees they look like they were being robbed, but there wasn’t any fighting going on. I think they were just happy about the extra Honey that was available to be had.

I was curious to see if there was a difference in the sound level of the hives during all of this external activity. But all of the hives with internal sound sensors did not show any kind of increase remarkable increase in sound.

Noob looks as if maybe the sensor dropped into the bottom of the box. They’ve been stable up until now. Their humidity looks high and their temperature is low because of where the ball is in comparison to the sensor. I can’t check until it warms up and sunny.

[We have a cold front with cold temperatures in the 30s at night. The bees can sense this, I believe a lot of the noise leading up to the most recent days is due to them prepping for the change because of the barometric pressure shift.]

[Started feeding sugar water.] Noob is stable but noisy-might be the new strips. Or because Neptune is right next to them and failing.

[General apiary notes] Colonies are very happy and noisy after giving them sugar water. Switching to a thicker sugar water today so they can store it better for winter. This past week I treated all colonies with mite strips. Beetle populations have decreased substantially. Bees appear to be doing better. Not much brood, a lot of bees, very few eggs. Calm demeanors.

Reduced hive and took top box. Not much honey inside. Nice amount of brood and lots of bees. Treated with Varrox strips.

Looks stable.

Status quo.. doing well-consistent.

Popped the top and she is FULL and feisty. Decided to try another day. It's rainy and overcast just not worth making them mad by checking.

Noticed some activity around 4:30pm. Looks like orientation flights. [Still experiencing rain]

The hive is stable and doing great. The bees are all quiet and snuggled up. [Tennessee is still experiencing lots of rain due to hurricane Helene]

Consistent and doing well. [Middle TN has been experiencing rain due to hurricane Helene]

Orientation flights around 3pm - seem to be acclimating.

A recently merged colony. Merged a split (small) with a caught swarm. Both underperforming and wouldn't survive the winter without help. Calm bees, seem to like to beard at the top, but all bees are merged at this point. Merged on 9/15/2024.

Results: Relatively calm colony. They do read as the warmest of all hives with sensors. Sound only spiked when I entered the hive to check, then calmed down quick. A solid colony after merge.