June Hive Inspections

My three hives have been buzzing along.

Backyard Lavender 8 frame hive:
ANT INVASION! So a colony of ants moved in! I went in to replace the bag of syrup I made that was beginning to show mold. Here is the video:

Italian Over-Wintered Hive: and Ferncroft 8 frame Canadians:
I needed to return to the Italian Ferncroft hive to replace the homasote board that helps absorb moisture, helping the bees fend off hive humidity. This is the hive I did the reversal on May 26th, 10 days earlier, (see video one-blog below) and anticipated that one of the honey supers may be ready to harvest.


I've never harvested honey before so decided on the spot to separate it from the rest of the hive by placing a new super full of new frames and beeswax foundation between it and the over-wintered hive deep that the bees seemed to have full of nectar and were busy drying when last I opened the hive. There were many drones...this is new. I have concerns that this strategy is based solely on the assumption that the queen is in the bottom of the hive....that she survived the upheaval of the hive reversal. Here is the video:

About Drone Bees - from Wikipedia:

Drone bees (left) are male bees characterized by their larger eyes, larger bodies (though the queen - pictured right with daughter worker bees - is usually even bigger), and stouter abdomens. They do not sting, but make a lot of noise which serves to ward off intruders. They live only to eat and breed. They live about 90 days...so we'll be seeing these same drones around for the summer. The girls kick them out to fend for themselves in the winter. The entire developmental period is 24 days...so these drones at the Italian hive on Ferncroft were already in the making when I did the hive reversal...Whew!

Spring Hive Reversal

Before going out to the hive, I made these notes - critical to remembering all my configurations of the hive supers:

I need to learn a Bee Victory Dance...

I successfully reversed the hive deep up to the top of the hive tower. This contains the original nuc frames i got with my hive last spring 2010 from Maine. It has not been disturbed for about a year and the queen has been laying again up into the honey supers. I attempted it last time, but those frames were sticking to the super above it and I was unprepared so closed the hive up again.

This time, I saw that the bees are doing well. They are filling that hive deep with nectar and are busy drying it into honey.

There are no swarm cells!

There are no drones!

I'm finally going to get honey this year!