A little honey

[2busy]

I pretty much did a hands off in my bee hives this year. Just 3 hives and 2 we're pretty small coming out of winter.
At one point I had about 40 hives which required way too much time to try and manage.
Anyway I pulled about 30 lbs off the strongest hive to crowd them down to 2 boxes for the winter.
They still have a lot of honey for them to consume this winter.
I can always make a sugar block for them if they run low before spring nectar flow.

Moisture content is well below fermentation level.

 

[skyhawk1]

Yum

 

[TeamTomlyn]

Very Nice!!!

 

[Catt57]

Yummy bee vomit......

 

[2busy]

I just put a suicide swarm in a 5 frame medium nucleus box. They are called suicide swarms because this time of year they are usually very small clusters. It's usually a death sentence for the swarm and the parent colony it came from. No drones to mate a new queen in the parent colony and not enough bees to support the queen in the swarm.

I put a frame feeder with some sugar water and some honey to get some extra scent to get them interested. I'll have to do a thorough inspection in my hives and confirm queen's in them.
If I don't find a queen in one this swarm will be combined with it.

 

[2busy]

The best way to get the bees to stay in their new home is fasten some 1/8" hardware cloth over the entrance when they settle in for the night . Lock them down for 3 days with sugar syrup for them to eat.
Otherwise they may reject the new home before the queen settles in and the bees get the comb ready for the queen to lay eggs.

 

[2busy]

These bees don't have the numbers to defend a large area. The 5 frame medium nucleus box is the smallest space I have to keep their area less vulnerable.

 

[2busy]

Normally I would find the queen and put her in a queen cage so she can't leave. But this cluster is so small I didn't want to disturb them any more than necessary.

 

[2busy]

Decided to go ahead and find the queen just to make sure she stays in the hive. I'll turn her lose this evening and lock the bees in.

 

[GC7]

2busy is the emobodiment of prepardness and independent living. Just wow.