Another jar of syrup

I checked the hives yesterday. The original hive had finished its jar of syrup. The split still had half a jar left. I gave the original hive a new jar with Fumagilin so that should be 2 gallons for that hive.

It is pouring rain today so I will check the jars again tomorrow. I will try for a hive inspection this weekend, weather permitting.

Syrup & Fumagilin

Yesterday I gave the hives another jar of medicated syrup. The jars are less than a half gallon so I will be doing more than 2 doses to administer 2 gallons per hive for their fall treatments. They still have HopGuard. I'm glad it's not temperature sensitive. We got down to 29 last night.

Syrup & Fumagilin

Yesterday I gave the bees their next jars of syrup with medication. I think they are both well supplied with stores. The hives are heavy.

One queen at least

I checked the hives today to see if their misadventure did much damage.

I did not see the queen in the strong hive, but I did see capped brood, larvae and milk brood. I might have seen eggs, but the lighting was uneven so I'm not sure. They have pretty good stores. Most of the brood is in the middle box. I put in HopGuard and a jar of syrup. They should be good for a few days.

I did see the queen in the weaker hive. She is in the bottom box. I added in the 2 frames of honey from the other hive. If she keeps laying I think they'll be good for the winter. I did not move a frame of capped brood from the strong hive to the weaker since I did not find a good frame of capped brood. They were all partially filled with a mixture, and I really wanted just capped brood. I put in HopGuard and a jar of syrup. I will check the syrup in a few days. I got stung once on the back of my arm. I don't know why there. 

I will watch the syrup jars for the next week or so and try to leave them alone.

Gravity always wins!

I knew that the landscape timber my hives were sitting on was starting to sag. I was going to put a cinder block under the timber to support it. I waited too long. I heard a crack and a thump. I looked out the window and both hives were on their backs on the ground. Syrup buckets spilled. Bees flying around everywhere.

I don't own a bee suit, just a veil. I decided to improvise. I got out a light colored pair of cotton pants, socks, sneakers, an old white hockey jersey and a pair of leather work gloves. I tied the jersey tight around my waist and wrapped vet-wrap around the ends of my sleeves and pant legs. I put on my veil and set up new bases for the hives.

Fortunately it has been a week since I checked my hives so they were stuck together with propolis. I pried off the bottom boards and each of the medium boxes one at a time to reassemble them on the new bases. The frames seemed to be glued into the boxes by propolis so I'm hoping not too many bees were crushed. I'll check for the queens in a day or so since I still need to add HopGuard. The top box of the strong hive was full of honey so I pulled out 2 frames and put them aside for the weaker hive. I put a jar of syrup back on the weaker hive. I need to assemble a shim to put a jar on the other hive.

Overall it could have been worse. It could have been cold and/or raining. The frames could have fallen out. I could have had lots of bee stings. The hives are nice and stable now. Enough for today.

Fall syrup 1

Put on the first dose of Fumagilin-B with 2:1 syrup on both hives. I tried to work without a veil. Mistake. I was pursued around the corner of the house after I took off the telescoping cover from the booming hive. The weather was iffy so all the bees were home. Put on a white hockey jersey and my veil and finished with the hives. Much less stressful. It's supposed to rain tonight and part of tomorrow so hopefully they will make short work of the syrup. I will add HopGuard on my next inspection.

Status

Yesterday I inspected both hives.

The stronger hive still has good stores: larvae, pollen, and capped brood. I think I saw the queen. I did not see any sign of disease. They are using 3 medium boxes. The boxes,  are not full, but are in pretty good shape. I think next week I should start medications for both hives.

The split hive is actually doing OK. I saw the queen. She is marked with her blue dot and is considerably larger than the queen in the other hive. It makes me wonder if I really correctly identified the queen in the other hive. She has started laying eggs in the second box, the middle one. I probably should have pulled a frame of capped brood from the stronger hive to put in and boost the population, but I am still not completely sure about when to do that. I will probably do that next week when I start medicated syrup and HopGuard.