Unfortunately, Erica and I have had some problems with sick cats. We lost two in the last month. One is sick and the other one is waiting for the results of a biopsy to see if he has cancer. My cats live a long time, but right now that means that all my cats are old and getting sick. I did not get further with the honey than robbing that one box.

I used a bee escape for the first time. This is a little puzzle that the bees can get out of, but not into. I put this under the “super” and the bees go down to the hive, but can’t get back up into the honey.

There were about 5 lazy bees left in the super, but I knocked on the side of the box and they took off back to the hive.

I learned the hard way the the secret to using the bee escape is to not use an inner cover above it. The inner cover has a slit so that the bees can get back in from the top, rendering the escape useless. At first I used an inner cover so that the hive would be ventilated during the recent heat wave. This time I put it under the escape so the bees could cool off, but they could not get back into the honey super.

In the past I have used “bee-gone” (stinky) and “Bitter Almond Oil” (almost as stinky) to force the bees out of the super. They sort of work, but are not really acceptable. I have used a leaf blower to blow the bees off the frames, but it takes a long time and the bees return immediately. I used a brush to gently brush them off, but it takes an hour to do a box, and I am almost guaranteed that some genius bees will find a way to sting me. The escape is the only method to clear the bees that really works, but it takes two days to use it. I have only the one escape. (I have a broken escape that I bought a long time ago. I found it under some leaves in the back and the frame was rotted and fell off. I will try to fix it.)

A few minutes ago I put the bee escape on the next box. It takes 24 hours to 48 hours for the bees to exit the super with the honey, so I’ll look tomorrow to see if they are gone. A group of bees went up my pants leg and let me know that they were unhappy with the situation. If I take my sneaker off I will not be able to get it back on because of the swelling.

I’ll repeat this for each hive until I get all the honey. In the mean time I will be spinning honey and Erica will be bottling it.

I have another hive, a split, that is not really doing well. That one is not storing honey and it does not seem to have much of a population. I guess the queen is not well. I do not have high hopes that it will make it through the Summer, much less the coming Winter.

In a “flow” when the flowers are popping and bees are returning with pollen and nectar, the supers can fill up in a couple of weeks.

My hope is that I can harvest some honey a little early this year. The season is late and we are in the middle of a strong “flow”. It will not last long because all the flowers and trees are blooming at once. If I am lucky I can be extracting honey from the supers in a two or three weeks.

The three new hives are doing well. They will not be making any honey for harvest for a month or so. I usually have honey after Memorial Day and July 4th, and then again after Labor day. The new bees might have some honey for July 4th.

I will try splitting some of the strongest hives in a few weeks, so I have more hives going into the winter. This time I will be trying something called a “Cloake” board to aid in the splits. This separates the top and bottom boxes, but keeps the hive together so in total they are stronger. Beekeeping is very complicated. I spend hours each week reading about all the methods that “beeks” have developed over the last 200 years to help their bees survive and flourish.

A month ago I checked the bees when the temperature went up briefly and I saw live bees in 6 of the 8 hives.

Yesterday I saw live bees in 7 of the 8 hives. The clumps are small, but alive. If the queens live, I stand a chance of having 7 good hives to start the Spring.

I dug out the front of the hives and pulled the entrance reducers so the bees could get out and take cleansing runs. I put in front feeders with 60/40 sugar solution. I mixed 10 pounds of sugar so each hive gets over a pound.

So far this morning none of the hives have taken any of the sugar. It is still too cold for them to break their clumps up. The ball of bees around the queen keeps her warm. If it hits 50° today, I might see some activity.

It will be above 40° all week so I am hoping that the hives start moving around and take the sugar. I have 10 more pounds so I can refill the feeders.

In three weeks I will get three packages so I may need to buy a couple of hives. I have one empty hive and the hive where one hive died. It may be that I will lose another hive. If I don’t I’ll need a hive for the new package.

In May I will do splits so I will definitely need some boxes then.

I checked and was surprised that all but one hive seemed happy and healthy. I can only open the top in this weather and peek in, and a couple of hives had top feeders that were heavily covered with propolis, and in one of these I did not hear any bees. It is a heavy hive so I think it might be OK, but I can’t confirm its health.

The other hives were amazing. They seemed very active. Ward gave me some fondant for the week hives and the ones that had it were working their way through it. They still had extra food left. When I get a day above 50 I will suit up and open the hives and put in more.

I order 3 packages of bees for the Spring figuring that I would lose 4 or 5 hives, but if all 8 hives survive I will have to buy some new hive kits for the new bees.

The new bees are coming in the wee hours of March 28 at the last check. I will waiting at lonely parking lot at 3AM with $360 in my pocket and returning home with about 15,000 new bees for my yard..

You have to keep records or you can’t keep bees. I bought a notebook and have been keeping a running record of my bee events and be able to go back quickly.

For instance, over Labor Day I pulled some honey and treated the bees with Apistan for mites. I have to pull the Apistan strips in October, so I wrote down all the dates and I can check it quickly.

Look forward to honey late in the week.

I bought “bitter almond oil” which is used to flavor candy and smells just like almond croissants. The bees hate it so I put some on a “fume board” (a board covered with a towel and raise so it does not touch the frames). The bees leave the top of the hive and soon the the super is bee-less. I just lifted up the super, brushed off the stragglers, and then brought it back. Much easier than using the leaf blower.

I then split the hive. It has been very full of bees and has been acting like it will swarm. I put a half hive next to it and put the top box from the original hive on top of this hive body full of old frames. I then pulled some frames from the edges of this box and pushed the frames apart so there was a two frame gap in the middle. I pulled a frame of bees from the middle of the original bottom box and put it in the gap. I then kept pulling frames until I found one full of brood. I put that in the other open slot on the new hive. The bees will take a few of the newly laid brood and make queens. I put the two edge frames I took out in the spaces where I removed the two frames.

I now have two hives where I had one before. This is called a “walk-away” split and is the easiest way to increase your hives. It works about half of the time. Of the four I’ve done, three worked.

Watch for the sign to go up at the end of May or early June.