Time To Cool Off

It has been very hot here for June. Temps have been in the mid to high 90's now for over a week. Tomorrow the high is going to hit 100 degrees. The bees have been bearding for several days as I call it on their front porch.  They are still bringing in pollen and nectar, they work very hard!

These are my girls and I am trying to take very good care of them.  I have not been in the hives a lot as I am just letting them do what bees do best: make brood and honey.  I expect that I will need to put a third box on the left hive in a few days.  And by the middle of July a forth box on the hive on the right. Do not want them to get honey bound so will check the hives the first of August to make sure they have plenty of room to make the brood for winter and next spring.

Placing a third box on the Warre Beehive

Well the time has come that I have the time to place a third box under one of my Warre Hives. I have two hives and one of them is a lot stronger that the other. The strong hive needs an additional box and within three weeks the second hive will need the additional hive box.

I once again did not smoke the hive as I removed the roof, the wood chip box, and then moved the two hive boxes at the same time. I put the third box on and reassembled the hive.  They did not even seem to care that I had moved the hive and settled down quickly after I reassembled the hive.

Quick Update Warre Beehive

It has ben awhile since I was able to post. I have had some major events in my life and did not have the time to post. The best event that just happened was yesterday when my great granddaughter was born.  She is so sweet and very small and am thankful to God for allowing her to be born healthy.


I have been watching my bees as much as possible the last two months and decided it was time to add another box. The problem was that with my wife in the hospital and with her recovery I did not have time to build my own boxes.  As a result I made the decision to buy two boxes and assemble them myself.  Now, I think it was the right choice as I was able to see some ways to improve my boxes.

This picture shows the side for the inspection window. I tried to place one in my box and it did not turn out well. Now I know how to put on in and not having to worry about it not staying in place.

Also, I was able to make a pattern to hold the top bars in place so they will not move without having to use nails.  If you look at the left side of the picture you will see the places the top bars slide in place. Look at the above picture and you can see a better view of this.



What I did is make myself a pattern from one of the unassembled boxes and will now use it to make my next hive boxes.  Happy Beekeeping!

Busy Bees

It has been raining about three times a week for the last three weeks even so the bees are very busy bring in pollen and nectar. As I cut the grass today it was very windy and the girls let me know they did not like the mower around their hives as the bumped me a few times. They did not try to sting me but just wanted to warn me they were unhappy. As I watched the hives one of the hives looked much stronger that the other so next week after it rains again I will take a look in them. Have I ever said I really love bees?

Checked on Warre Beehive

Yesterday was a busy day with studying for Wednesday night Bible study. But we had a warm day so I opened the Warre Beehives and checked to make sure the queens were released.  Monday and Tuesday were too cold to open the hives so waited until it warmed up. 


I again checked on the bees without smoking them. They flew all around me but never acted like they wanted to sting me. I did get bumped a couple of time and I just back off and let them settle down, They were drawing comb but I did not want to pull any out at this time. They are bringing in loads of pollen. and I have followed some of them to wild flowers and they are also getting nectar.


I had some jar feeders in the top of the Warre hives I needed to move them so that I could fix the bottom box that the top bars were not lined up correctly. Well in one of the hives I spilled the sugar water everywhere inside and outside the hive. This caused some robbing from the other Warre beehive so I had to move the opening to the side where the sugar water was not at the entrance. Within about 30 minutes they all returned to their own hives.


I will now wait until the first of May to open the hives and check for eggs and brood.

Warre Beekeeper Day 3

Today is day three since I have installed bees into two Warre Beehives. As a new Warre beekeeper I have had to make some changes to the hives.  The top feeders I made were taken out as the screen I used to keep the bees in the feeding side did not work. The bees were able to squeeze through the holes and I lost about 10 bees in each hive as they drowned in the sugar water. I took the top feeder off and put jar feeders in it place.


Today I need to check and see if the queens have been released. I was going to remove the frame that I made to introduce the queen so that I could check the queens release without disturbing the hive but it is cloudy and cool today and not sure I want to expose the hive to the weather as there is a freeze warning for tonight.


I have seen lots of bees in the yard on the wild flowers that are growing in the yard. They are very gentle bees as they have not tried to sting me anytime I have been in the hives or around the hives. Was out in the bee yard yesterday without any protection and they just flew around me as if I was not even there. I did not smoke them when I changed out the top feeders and had no problems with them. I will always try to work my bees without smoking them as I think the smoke disrupts the hive more than it needs to be.


If I decide to work in the bee yard today will post what I did and the results. I will check on the queens release to ensure the queens are freed and in the hive. Hope your day will bee great!

The Girls Are Here

Warre Beehives are full of bees! As a new Warre Beekeeper I am excited to see how much different keeping bees will be between the Langstroth hive and Warre hive. I know that last year I spent a lot of time taking care of the bees in the Langstroth hive. I am hoping that after my first inspection in a few days checking on them and make sure the queen has been released, it will only be once a month to check them.  With a top feeder I will not be inside the hive proper.


Sorry I did not get pictures today it was in the low fifties and I needed to get the queens in the hives and the bees covering them.  Both hives have around three thousand bees in them. Some of the bees are doing orientation flights and I have even seen some of the bees flying around the back door (I wonder if they are looking for me?)


They bees that I have are Italian bees. That is what I had last year and they were very gentle. Last year I only had one hive but this year I have two hives and hope both make it to next year.