Archive for August, 2012

August hive inspection.

Monday, August 20th, 2012

I have two hives that have eaten through the screening that I put on top of the “top feeder”. As a result, I have not been able to feed them without getting a face full of bees. So – I’ve ignored them. This is not good.

I bought a couple of top feeders and put the screening on them and suited up. I replaced the feeder on each hive and gave them 5 pounds of sugar mixed with 2-1/2 quarts of water each.

I finally acted on these hives because they have not been feed in a couple of months and compared to the other hives, they didn’t seem as busy. My other hives have long beards of bees on the front. I’ve been feeding them a couple of pounds of sugar a week.

When I opened the two hives, there was lots of activity. I pulled a middle frame from the top super and found it to be 100% capped honey. This was a surprise. I expected to find them to be starving, what with me not feeding them and the high heat and humidity all July and August. They must have been finding flowers because they were indeed packed.

I checked one of the hives that I have been feeding and the top super was so heavy that I could hardly lift it. It looks like all the hives have one or two supers of honey. I did not put a second super on some of the hives because I thought it would be a waste of time. I think that I’ll put on the rest of my supers this week and continue feeding them heavily until I harvest the honey.

I am going to harvest honey on Labor day and I hope to get a bonanza!