So, I trimmed the raspberry canes.
And, started the first round of tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi, cauliflower and celery. We'll see about the celery. It's Kylene's new desired veg.
It was nice to see blue sky!
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Sunday, February 3, 2013
It's official...
The colony is dead.
It rained a lot so I went to clean out the hive and found a pack of moldy bees. No happy bees came to greet me at the window so I popped the top. It didn't take a rocket-scientist (or a very good beekeeper) to discover the enemy:
K.____ says that it's not because I'm a terrible beekeeper (I'm still not so sure-maybe she is just saying this so I won't cry?)...Instead it's because the colony was too small to keep itself warm and dry. Moisture is the number one killer of colonies around these parts and since Colony #1 only had a little time to get established, it didn't have the numbers it needed to keep out the moisture. Too much moisture means = too much mold = dead bees.
So...I cleaned out the boxes the best I could. Four of the frames were full of really nice, capped honey. Good news: They didn't starve to death. They had plenty of food. On K.___'s advice I wrapped one of the boxes with the frames of honey and put them in our fancy deep-freeze (good thing Kylene got that for Christmas, right?). It seems this will kill the mites and bacterial and moldy spores. Then, Colony #2 can use it as start up stores.
Then, I cleaned the rest of the boxes and frames the best I could (the next step is to torch them to kill all the other bad junk). I also think I need to build the bees a little platform. The current hive wasn't right on the ground, but I figure if I can get some more air movement up under the hive it will make Colony #2's job just a bit easier.
There was one frame with just a tiny-bit of capped honey and otherwise pretty comb. I brought that one inside and set about finding a YouTube video about Warre' Hive Harvestin'.
The one I found was in French. I guess it was okay that I didn't really understand any of what he said because the visual was good and I set up a simple apparatus made from a colander, a mesh-sieve, a plate and two plastic cups. I need a smaller mesh to really get out all the comb-bits...Even so. We got to sample just a bit of Colony #1's hard work.
Next year I'll be smarter and better and we'll get the hive started up sooner and maybe I won't be making this same sad report. It's pretty lonely in the backyard without those buzzers.
It rained a lot so I went to clean out the hive and found a pack of moldy bees. No happy bees came to greet me at the window so I popped the top. It didn't take a rocket-scientist (or a very good beekeeper) to discover the enemy:
So...I cleaned out the boxes the best I could. Four of the frames were full of really nice, capped honey. Good news: They didn't starve to death. They had plenty of food. On K.___'s advice I wrapped one of the boxes with the frames of honey and put them in our fancy deep-freeze (good thing Kylene got that for Christmas, right?). It seems this will kill the mites and bacterial and moldy spores. Then, Colony #2 can use it as start up stores.
Then, I cleaned the rest of the boxes and frames the best I could (the next step is to torch them to kill all the other bad junk). I also think I need to build the bees a little platform. The current hive wasn't right on the ground, but I figure if I can get some more air movement up under the hive it will make Colony #2's job just a bit easier.
There was one frame with just a tiny-bit of capped honey and otherwise pretty comb. I brought that one inside and set about finding a YouTube video about Warre' Hive Harvestin'.
The one I found was in French. I guess it was okay that I didn't really understand any of what he said because the visual was good and I set up a simple apparatus made from a colander, a mesh-sieve, a plate and two plastic cups. I need a smaller mesh to really get out all the comb-bits...Even so. We got to sample just a bit of Colony #1's hard work.
Next year I'll be smarter and better and we'll get the hive started up sooner and maybe I won't be making this same sad report. It's pretty lonely in the backyard without those buzzers.
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