Hello everyone!
It's been a little while since I've visited my two hives and I'm impressed with what Ive found today!
I added my 2nd deep to both of my 1st year hives on July 4th weekend. Today, I checked my strongest hive and all new frames in the 2nd deep were full of honey! I didn't remove the 2nd deep and go into the 1st. I'm shocked that there was larvae in the frames too being that we're getting into the upper 40's here at night.
I have three questions:
1. We want some honey REALLY bad! Is it okay to rob this time of year, and if so, how much from the 2nd deep can we take? How much do the girls need to get through Winter? I have access to an extractor, but not sure if I can justify the use just for a couple of frames; rather I'm looking at the Crush/Strain method to get the honey.
2. Sugar ants: I came across little sugar ants in the weaker 2nd hive. What should I do to get the out of there? It was to bad in my opinion, but still makes me a little nervous.
3. With the strong hive going pretty good in my opinion, would now be a good time to add a Honey Super? All ten frames are completely built out.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Jim
Dahlonega, GA 30533
Also, if ANYONE is ever near the Dahlonega area, I would love for you to stop by and have a look at my hives. I'm just not confident i'm going about everything the correct way.
We normally leave them with 2 deeps. Sometimes people leave less. I like 2 deeps. What ever you take, replace with syrup. That July sourwood really filled them out.
As far as the ants, I use ground cinnamon and dust the inner covers liberally and dust all around the hive stands as well. Family Dollar or Dollar General usually runs the stuff pretty cheap so its not expensive to use. makes your hives smell good and the bees do not seem to mind.