I was very depressed about the hive named Fanny dying. That meant that my two best honey producers from last summer died. I figured that since they were my strongest hives that the other hives would soon be dead.

I was wrong.

I went out today and the hive that I bought as a nuc from New Jersey was showing lots of activity at the entrance. The Christine hive had some activity and even Connie, who I’ve had for three years now has bees around the front entrance.

The temperature hit 53 degrees today and it looks like it will do it again tomorrow, so I filled up a front feeder for each of these three and fed them. When I took out the entrance reducer they were very active.

I hope that I didn’t hurt them by feeding them. I don’t want a big buildup before the nectar flow stars, but I don’t want them to starve. I will keep feeding them as long as the temperature goes above 50 degrees. I think that if I do this I will have some strong hives in the Spring.

I like this reason:

8. You get to be known as the “crazy beekeeper friend” by your peers, which gives you carte blanche to act like a nut.

Top 10 Reasons to Become an Urban Beekeeper.

Cornell University has a Master Beekeeper program up in Syracuse each Spring and Fall. My brother has already reserved a space. I am thinking of signing up myself. These would be for the Apprentice level courses. I should be worth while. I have read quite a bit about bees, but I keep making terrible mistakes. Maybe a course like this would cure me.

http://www.masterbeekeeper.org/masterbeekeeper.htm

This week I checked my hives. Another one has starved to death. This was one of the best hives that I’ve ever had and I had three supers piled up on it in July. I must have taken 50 pounds of honey from it.

I never touched the bottom deeps, but in September I noticed that the hives were all nearly empty. This one had some honey in it, and I though she would make it.

The two other hives still have some life, but I am not optimistic. Connie, my oldest hive, seemed quite, but there were no dead bees on the bottom board. This is a Russian hybrid, and she can live through the winter with short supplies, so she may make it. I did not open up the hives that I think might be alive because it is under 40°.

I was a little worried that I might not have enough wood for 8 hives. I ordered 5 packages and 3 queens. I as going to split any hives that lived through the winter. Now, I guess, I’ll use some bees from the packages to make small hives for the queens that I ordered. if I take a cup or two of bees from each of the 5, there should be enough to start the three queens in hives of their own.

I am gong to order some fondant for winter feeding on the three hives that are left, and I’ll put on the top feeders as soon as the weather starts to get above 50° regularly. With luck, I will have two hives live through the winter.

What I have learned is that next August I have to watch the bees until winter sets in. If they start using up their honey I have to feed them as much as I can. It is cheaper to feed a hive $20 worth of sugar than to have to buy packages at $90 each.

I have my order in for bees with AZ Apiaries for April 8th. Today I found out that it is already sold out.

That was fast. I ordered my bees around Christmas last year and here it is a month later and they are all gone. Things are moving fast.

The next due date is May 8th.

If you want bees this Summer, you have to start now.

You need to order your bee packages or nucs now. If you live near me, North Jersey or Southern NY, the best bet is to pick up a couple of packages from http://azapiaries.com/ The bees will be sold out in February. Reserve now.

The bees from AZ Apiaries are coming April 8 to the Palisades Mall Parking lot. Probably 4 or 5AM. Put your order in now. The other dates on the website are for Connecticut pickup only. (The date is usually delayed depending on weather, but the word is that a mild winter has resulted in large bee populations and the delivery might be on time this year)

These are very good bees from Wilbanks Apiary in Georgia. I have bought bees from 4 different sources and these were the best by far. They are healthy bees with low verroa counts. The queens are vigorous and the hives build very fast.

If you are a first time beekeeper you should order a Starter Kit. This includes the wood, frames, some tools, gloves and a veil. They have all you need to get started, but don’t assume that it has all you’ll ever need. You will be buying more wood and frames as you bees fill their hives with honey. These are for standard beekeeping boxes. You can also build your own boxes using some interesting styles. If you want to harvest honey, however, these are the best choice.

https://millerbeesupply.com/beginner-kits/cat_1.html
(seems to be most for your money)

or

http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/Bee-ginners-Kits/products/3/
(The one I bought because the shipping is lower.)

or

https://kelleybees.com/Products/Detail/?id=3336333133353339&grouped=1

or

http://www.betterbee.com/Products/10-Frame-Hives/Assembled-10-Frame-Beginners-Kit
(you get much more stuff, but you have to it buy anyway. In NY you have to pay tax.)

This year I will be building a bunch of hive boxes out of cheap plywood and I’ll see if they hold up. The plans to build hive boxes are all over the place, just do a Google search. The plans, however, all require some woodworking equipment and expertise. I am going to see how far I can get with just a ruler and circular saw.

My brother lives up in Rochester, NY. He was emailing me regularly last night as the temperature dropped. It was 4° at 11 PM when I logged off.

It went down to 13° here overnight. I never did get around to wrapping the bees. I know that they can make it through the cold. The problem will be their honey stores. I hope that they don’t starve over the winter. If I can find time I will wrap the bees this weekend. It is sort of like closing the barn door after the horse is gone, but This won’t be the last cold spell we get.

My brother is ordering some mixed Italian-Russian-Carniolan bees from an apiary near him. These are what is called “Survivor” bees. They have proven that they can make it through the winter.

Some of the bees he has now are mixed parentage that the Russian seller called “Amerikanski”, by which he meant they are mixed breed bees from swarms and other sources that over the years have proven they can thrive in the Rochester summers and survive the Rochester winters.

I will be making queens this Spring and I am hoping that my brother will too, and we can trade queens to vary our stock.

I was back by the bees New Year’s Day. I put some sugar on top of the inner cover on the hives that are still alive. I almost got stung when they got a little upset with me. I was wearing a black hoodie – the very opposite of a bee suit, and I must have looked like a bear to them. As soon as dropped in the sugar they were upset and headed for my hair.

It was 48° when I gave them the sugar. There were a few bees around the entrance. Here are a few pictures of the front of the hive. You can see one or two bees wandering around the entrance to each hive. When you open the top, the vent hole on the inner cover is full of bees.

Compare this to October 22. These are a couple of pictures of the hives in 75° weather. I had taken off the top feeders in June when I harvested honey, so I was using front feeders in October. I certainly hope that I was able to get the girls enough stored honey to make it through the winter.

It is early, but Adam at AZapiaries.com has posted the spring schedule for bees. The bees delivery, stopping by the Palisades Mall in West Nyack, is always the earliest date so I can expect to get my 5 packages of bees on or about April 8, 2012.

The bees never arrive on time due to weather. There has to be a month of good weather in Georgia for the Wilbanks Apiary to grow enough bees to make the packages. They are often two or three weeks late.

The price did not go up. It’s $95 a package plus tax. That should be about $500, plus I ordered 3 queens so I could make splits. This will be just shy of $600. Beekeeping is expensive. If I don’t make any money this year it will be my last year.

Over the winter I will be studying up on Queen Rearing, and I will make various NUC boxes and queen castles out of plywood when the weather permits. I can sell queens for about $35 each and I hope to be able to sell a dozen or so every month. Selling queens makes more money than selling honey ($500 a month), I’ve heard. Queen rearing is an arcane science and I am trying to learn its secrets.

Now is the time to order your bees for the Spring.

I ordered 5 packages from Adam at AZ Apiaries. Adam and his crew stop by the West Nyack Mall in Early April, around 3AM. A couple of dozen beekeepers sit in their cars (usually in the rain) waiting for him. The thing to remember about ordering bees as that no matter what date Adam gives you, the bees will be late. The weather in Georgia controls when the queens will be ready and the population is built up enough to make packages.

Adam gets his bees from Wilbanks Apiary in Georgia, and the are very strong packages and do very well. These are the best bees that I’ve ever bought.

5 packages  is about $450 worth of bees at $90 a package. It may even be more this year. I figure that I will need three or four of them. If I have any left over I will sell them on Craigslist, or maybe even eBay. I’ll know how the bees are doing in March. Right now it doesn’t look good for three of them. I already lost my second hive this fall.

I have also ordered some queens and I will make nukes, either by borrowing bees from a good hive, or taking a few thousand bees from each of the packages.

All in all, I will have 5 or 6 hives and a few nukes. I will sell the nukes when they get established and any of the packages that I don’t use, so I have to see the $500 as an investment.

Last year, the two packages that I got from Adam were so strong that I got 40 pounds of Honey from each of them. I got no honey from the nucs that I bought in NJ. One nuc died and the other doesn’t look good. Connie, my Russian hive is hanging in there. She seems light, but Russians go into the winter light and still come on strong in the Spring when I start feeding. She struggled all Summer so I only took one super of honey, about 10 pounds, from her.

The shed where I store bee stuff was hit by a huge limb in the last storm. It is crushed and leaning over. Erica put in the insurance claim and we will have a new shed built back by the bees. Two hives are very near the shed, I have to move them so they will have room to work. I need to buy some straps to hold the hives together so they will not break apart when I move them. I moved a hive once and it was a nightmare. You can’t move an active hive because the bees remember where the hive was and can’t find it at the new location. I was scooping up piles of bees at the old location and putting them in the moved hive every night for a week. I must have lost thousands of bees. In the winter the bees are not leaving the hive so they can be moved without worry.