Splitting the colonies up

Today we split the 2 colonies into their separate hive bodies. The new hive has observation windows on both sides and a landing board for the girls.

3rd inspection

Today should be the day I move the colonies to their new painted hive body. This didn't happen, it isn't ready yet. Hopefully I'll be able to do it next week.

I did however, take a good look at both colonies. Spotted both queens and got some photos. Both hives have 6-7 fully drawn out bars with others in varying stages of being drawn out. Both colonies have 4 empty bars left. Hopefully it will give me enough time to get this other hive body finished and painted.

View down at the 4th bar from the front

6th bar from the front.

7th bar. From here on in until the very last bar this is pretty much what they all look like. This bar the comb is getting a little off center near the ends.

This is the only picture I took of the 2nd colony. This was bar #4 I think. Everything behind it save the bar up against the follower/divider board was full. Added 1 more empty bar to both colonies. There is no room for anymore.

Really need to get that other hive built.

Another inspection? So soon?

Decided to look into the colony again today. Since these are top bars I can do that without disturbing anything. All I did was pull off some end bars and look inside. Lots of new comb being build. Could see some clear nectar being stored so I pulled the feeders.

Killed 3 or 4 SHB in the feeder areas.

The hive body was built with a screened bottom board and a chamber to hold oil trays. Well today I installed the oil trays. Maybe I can do a better job of keeping ahead of the beetles this year.

First true inspection

It's been two weeks, time to take a look inside. I didn't bring my camera so I don't have any pictures.

There is already comb being drawn. One colony has comb on 3 bars the other on 2. Eggs are being laid, honey from my jar is being stored.

Didn't see any beetles inside the hive. Did find 2 in the feeding chambers. Bees were keeping them busy.

Refilled the feeder

Didn't take any pictures.

The bees are doing well. Gave them more honey but didn't go into occupied area of the hive. There were bees in the feeding chamber and they paid very little attention to me. Saw a fair amount of traffic at the entrance holes. Full pollen baskets coming in. Bees are on something that is giving them a grey/blue pollen. Very cool.

Also saw my first Small Hive Beetle in the feeding chamber. Not my very first mind you as I lost 4 hives to them last fall. But the first with the new colonies. Crushed it with my finger.

I hope this isn't a harbinger of the future. I'm still hoping that part of my problem last year was that the barrel hives and the frames I used in the Langstroth boxes just allowed the beetles far to many places to hide.

New bees / new hives

After my bees died last fall I vowed to try again. Instead of going 'local' this time I decided to order my bee's from Wolf Creek Apiaries. Wolf Creeks bees are all 4.9mm (small cell).

"Our stock is derived from the wild feral stock of the Duck River Basin. We add a little Russian genetics, so that the bees will fly at 38 degrees if the sun is shining and the wind is not blowing. Some Italian genetics are added for honey production. The gentleness and winter handiness of the bees is achieved from the addition of Carniolan genetics. The result is a gentle bee that is a good honey producer." - from Wold Creeks website.

Today my two packages of bees arrived. As expected the post office was glad to get rid of them.

It wasn't the best day to be hiving packages of bees. It was windy, it was overcast and it was sprinkling off and on. There was a break where the sun almost came out so I took advantage of it and hived the bees.

This is the first time I've dealt with packaged bees. My bees last year came as nucs. I've read forums and watched videos so I felt like I was prepared. The bee's on the other hand appeared to really like their shipping container. I wound up prying the wood and staples holding the screen on to get the bees out of the box. I later found another video on Youtube that recommended just that.

I had grand plans this winter. To build 2 new standard"ish" Top Bar Hives to replace my Barrel Top Bar Hives from last year. Lets just say that I build  one hive when I got the call from Wolf Creek that my bees were shipping the next week. The idea being that I would put each package on opposite sides of the hive and separate them with a follower board and an 'in hive' feeding chamber.

I got both packages installed without incident. Also without spraying them with sugar water nor puffing them with smoke. I was wearing a bee jacket and gloves. However they didn't really seem to pay any attention to me at all.

Here is a picture of the feeding chamber and a jar of honey from my old hive. 

There is another jar just like this on on the right side of the follower board covered with the bar labeled 2.

I reused the bars from my barrel hives, though I did have to trim them down a bit to fit the new hives.

It didn't take the bees very long to figure out the entrance hole and start milling around the entrance.

And here they are snug and bees in a beehive. The colonies entrance is on the other side of the hive. Hopefully that will avoid to much conflict.

You may also note that I didn't paint the hive. I just really didn't have time for it to dry. I literally finished it Monday morning before I picked up the bees. The plan is to build another, paint it and move both colonies into it. I'll then paint this hive and separate the colonies into their own hives.