So I didn't check on my bees for a couple of weeks, and they started to outgrow their hive. I've since added addtional hive bodies, but they had already started forming additional comb under the hive. What should I do? I'm assuming I should just get rid of that comb; scrape it off, and not hurt any of my bees, and that'll be it. Anybody have any other great ideas for me?
I didn't expect this to happen. I guess because it rained a good bit for the first time in a long time last night, the ground gave in suddenly under the weight of Betty's huge hive and has taken a 90 degree turn and fallen over... One deep full of brood, one deep full of honey and three supers all have fallen over!!!!! They were on a low metal stand. One of the legs must of sunk into the dirt.
They are still going out to forage today now that the sun is out and the rain has stopped for now, but there are lots of bees mulling around, and of course the foragers are confused about where the entrance is and hovering around trying to remember where the took off from.
Sara is at work today, and I don't have someone to watch baby Naia while I try to heave all the boxes back over.
I hope they are all ok until tomorrow when Grandpa and Grandma are here to visit with Naia and Sara can help me!
My biggest fear is that they are all going to take off today.
By the way, Betty bees have been friendly, so to speak, in the garden lately. I have not gotten in her hive in a while. I decided that the risk of swarms was pretty low this past month, so I decided to not do my regular check every three week check for swarm cells.
So I am still trying to do something about my aggessive hive, otherwise known as Betty. I called Wooten's Golden Queens right after the August Alameda beekeepers Assoc monthly meeting, and they said it was far too hot to ship queens, and that I should call back after labor day.
I called back and left a message. They finally called me back today to let me know that it never got cool enough to ship queens, so they shut down production.
Anyone out there in beekeeping land know of another supplier that still has queens?
Hi. Well, since this is my first time posting a blog entry, I will tell you something about myself. I am a backyard beekeeper. I also have dogs and cats, and a new baby girl!
I am trying to connect with the alameda beekeeper's association, which has its own blog on vox. I need some beekeeping advice.
I have two hives. One we call Adeline, the other Betty so that we know which hive we are talking about. Betty has always been a bit feistier than Adeline. Both Adeline and Betty are going real strong and healthy this year. Betty was so strong about three months ago, she had 8 swarm cells. I have never seen so many swarm cells in either of my hives! With the baby due, and no extra honey super wax (the two supers on there were already pretty full) we decided that the easiest way to give her some more space quickly was to add a second brood box. This was a first experiment with a double-decker brood. By the time I got through the hive and got that second box on, Betty was really angry, and I didn't have a chance to carefully space out the brood frame, which would have been a good idea since we only had 9 brood frames.
Betty went crazy and drew out the comb and filled it with honey and tons more brood in no time. The few times that I worked through Betty's hive it was hard for two reasons, in my opinion. One, the extra space meant everytime I pulled out some of the frames I wrecked some of the free from brood Betty was happy to make in the free space. The second reason it was hard was that it takes forever to work two brood boxes! I honestly don't understand how anyone manages it without leaving the hive open for far too long! So Betty has not been happy with me any time I worked her boxes.
So my problem is that after the last three times I have worked Betty she stays pretty mad. How do I know this? The hive is in our backyard. For two-three days after going through Betty, as soon as we walk out the back door a group of bees end up buzzing around our heads. Sometimes darting at us. It always seems like one bee is on the lookout and she goes and fetches some of her buddies to come back with her to investigate us. They follow us around the side of the house even!
This seems aggressive, doesn't it? It seems like they have fixed on the area of our back door and are constantly patrolling it. The hive is about 20 feet from the back door.
Does any beekeeper have any ideas about what to do? Betty is stressing my hormone-driven girlfriend out in a major way! She lost her bee-nerve when she got pregnant.
This weekend I reduced the brood back to one box. The majority of the brood was downstairs anyway, and they can replace the brood with honey when the rest hatch out, hopefully. We also just got more wax, so I can put another super on her soon.
We plan to requeen Betty in the fall, since her hive seems overly agressive. Does anyone have any other idea?
All comments and suggestions are welcome.
For background, Adelidne has always been pretty chill. Betty started out as a swarm from Adelline.
Looking forward to your thoughts on on Betty.
