Mars (was Neptune)

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.

[All other hives were fed today.] Venus and Mars are not getting extra food. Both have plenty of honey stores. I will give them winter patties when the weather turns colder and I put the insulation on top of the hive.

Venus and Mars are calming down in their hygienic activity after I put the Varroa strips in there. Both hives had huge numbers of mites.

Doing well.

Doing well. Soon I will switch from liquid feed to sugar bricks.

Moved the sensor to Mars.

Neptune is dying. I will combine them with Noob tomorrow. The colony is just so tiny, wax moths are starting to move in. It’s either combine and hope for the best or put them in a 5 frame nuc medium. I just don’t think they are strong enough to survive on their own.

Pitiful… trying to keep it together. Need to put them into a 5 frame nuc box. Removed the bottom board bc it was sweaty in there and I found mold on the back wall, and also wax moth tunnels. :( I adjusted the sensor to be in the middle of the ball.

*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.

Looks to be stabilizing!! Yippeee!! Need to keep feeding them 2:1 sugar water with hive alive and they just might make it!!

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.

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.

Neptune is going through a quart of 2:1 sugar water about every 2 days. The temperature was doing pretty well and it has dropped a little bit. Humidity seems to be doing OK, less than it was last week.

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.

[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.]

Neptune is still declining. Just a small ball of bees, trying to keep warm. I put a bottom board underneath to help it not be so drafty. I will combine them with Noob soon before the frost on Tuesday. Perhaps this afternoon if possible. I may even try a double screen board to keep them separate, yet able to share the warmth. I’m always excited about trying something new to me.

I would prefer is the hive was a little warmer, but it could be a ball to sensor issue.

[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.

Found a cockroach inside the box. :( Reduced it to one medium. Will need to combine with another. So sad. Removed the base sensor and put it onto the Big Earth colony. Treated with Varrox strips.

*Moved the base sensor #050 from Neptune to Big Earth

Looks stable.

This colony is pretty small. I may need to merge them again unfortunately. Or add bees.

Set the sensor back up into the middle of the cluster. Not a large colony even after combining. Found a spider inside and some wax moths lurking in the bottom two boxes. Removed them and condensed the hive down to two mediums. Gave the bees some bee juice*.

BOTH queens are still alive and living together. Both have green dots, but one has 4 legs and the other has 5. May still have to combine them with another before winter. Not sure if they would make it at this point.

*Bee juice is 1:1 sugar water with honey bee healthy supplement and some apple cider vinegar.

Verified that the multisensor has dropped to the bottom of the hive. [Still experiencing rain]

The multisensor is definitely really low in the box. I will need to fix it ASAP. Luckily, there’s a small sensor in there that is showing a stable colony. [Tennessee is still experiencing lots of rain due to hurricane Helene]

I prefer to leave them alone for a week after a merge. But there is something happening here. Something occurred around 2 pm today and the readings on the multisensor are weird. I believe the bees are collecting at the top of the hive boxes, which would leave the multisensor alone, or the sensor has fallen down to the bottom of the hive boxes. I will check tomorrow. Hopefully the rain will clear for a moment to check. [Middle TN has been experiencing rain due to hurricane Helene]

Newly-combined, acclimating, doing well. Orientation flights observed.

Originally a small weak hive, low bee numbers covering about 7 frames total (medium frames). Added a slightly stronger hive as a merge on 09/23/2024 about 3pm. I let the queens fight it out and will check in 4 days to see who survived.

Results: Excellent! It's noticeable that this small hive was robbed starting around 7am on 09/23/2024. You can also see how the temperature is different between the two sensors - indicating a lower temperature in the smaller weaker boxes before they fully merge. The multisensor is inside the smaller of the two colonies, the base sensor is held within the larger colony.