The successful hive

[Cindi]

On Saturday I did a deep inspection of my one colony left over from last year.  Remember I have posted that I lost 10 throughout the fall?

I babied this little colony along, using a terrarium heater.

Yeah!!!!  Things are going wild in there.  I use Langstroth boxes, deep, 9 frames, and an inner frame feeder for the sugar syrup.  I saw about 6 frames full of bees.  There was two frames of sealed brood, I saw emerging brood.  The third brood frame was full of eggs, I saw her majesty walking over this frame, I saw her poke her head into a cell.  What a beautiful lady she is, there nothing more awesome than to look at this queen that is so subservient to the wishes of her attendents, and that is to lay eggs.

I would have to say that success has been mine with this little colony that I really did not expect to live.  I attribute the success to the terrarium heater that I put in it quite some time ago.  It has kept this little colony warm and alive. Yeah, I feel happy.

It won't build up to bring in honey this year I am sure, but that is OK.  It will build up and build up and that is my goal, to keep healthy and build up.  If I ever have extra brood that I can give to this colony, I will, that will help it also to become more strong.  All have a wonderful great day, the sun is shinin', good health wishes for all.  Cindi

[SteveSC]

Good deal Cindi...

I remember you saying that you thought you had lost all 10 hives - good to hear that you had at least one survive.  Did you have an extreme winter or was it CCD that killed your other hives..?  Just curious..

Steve in SC

[Mklangelo]

Cindi,

I'm happy to hear that not all was lost.  Will you try to rebuild back to where you were?  Perhaps next year, if so, best of luck!

[kgbenson]

Very cool.  What kind of heater was this?

Keith

[Cindi]

All, answers to questions.

The terrarium heater was one that I purchased.  It is used for heating amphibians, arachnids, whatever, I guess.  It cost me $15.00, but the peace of mind is worth it, and the success of my babied hive.  It is a flat piece of plastic with electrical attached, sits on the bottom of the hive under the screen, between the scrreen and bottomboard.  I kept the solid bottomboard for warmth purposes.

I am building up my apiary again this year.  It is going to be expensive, but this will hopefully be the last year that I will have to purchase bees.

Saturday past, hived 4 (2 pound packages)
Saturday next coming up, will be bringing in 4 (5 frame nucs)

So I am basically starting over.  I am armed with much more knowledge about keeping healthy bees.

Some words of wisdom to all new beekeepers follow.  These lessons I have learned the hard way through colony losses.  I did not lose any hives to this mysterious CCD, that must be the first thing known to all.

My losses I am now positive of were:  varroa mite issues, colonies swarming because of lack of room for the queen to lay her eggs, because of the lack of eggs being laid, the colonies became weaker, the varroa mite took over because of swarming and inadequate space for brood rearing, the eventual death of the colony.  Unable to recover because of the death of so many bees born with varroa mite damage. 

If you ever see bees crawling around on the ground with what it looks like chewed off half wings, or no wings, you have got a pretty bad varroa mite problem.  I saw this occurrence almost all the summer at my home.  I thought it was old bees whose wings had worn out.  But for surely I know I was wrong.

#1, always give enough room for the bees to store nectar to convert to honey, nectar needs lots of room to have the moisture reduced to become honey, That is probably one of the most important things

#2, keep the brood nest open, do not allow the bees to have to store all their nectar in there because there is not room elsewhere

#3, the queen must have lots of room to lay eggs, that it is why there must be enough room to store nectar elsewhere

#4, keep the bees drawing comb, if they are kept busy, there is a less likelihood of a colony swarming

#4, keep the colonies free of disease and/or varroa mite

It would be nice if someone else could add to this list for the newer beekeepers their thoughts about what a new beekeeper should seriously know.

I cannot stress how important it is to ensure that your colonies are healthy, pest free, and not inhibited to grow up strong and healthy.  Have a beautiful and wonderful day, good health to you all and your colonies. Cindi

[Brian D. Bray]

Cindi,
Your list is a good one for newbees.  It looks like you learned a lot your first year.  That makes it very successful dispite the loss of hives.  I would venture that you'll not loose nearly as many this next winter.  Keep up the good work and entertaining posts.

[Cindi]

Brian, I do believe that my knowledge and how to apply this new knowledge has increased dramatically since this time last year.

I have now been keeping bees two years.  I honestly still feel like I have only touched the tip of that iceberg.  I have taken every seminar that I could possibly attend, bee masters course, read every day for a couple of hours, whether it is this forum or books, books are which I read more before I found this forum "book".

So, new beekeepers, understand that it takes time, and lots of time to really get to know what is going on with the bees and how to properly take care of them.  This knowledge will not come in only a couple of months, you must be patient and expect to be "learning" for a long time.

This forum is one of the most useful tools that one could ever have for gleaning knowledge.  There are numerous experienced beekeepers that give great advice, advice that has stood the test of time.  That is the advice that is the most important in my own mind's eye.  Have a wonderful day, great life, love life, good health wishes for all.  Cindi

[carol ann]

Thank you for the words/ guide. very good timing for me as a new beekeeper. I have been so pleased with the wealth of information on this site. Seems I learn something new every time I come in to browse. So I have much to read about! And thankfully some bees that will tolerate me raiding their hive.
Thank you.
Carol Ann

[Cindi]

Carol Ann, go, go, go and have fun while you are workin' your bees.  Enjoy it.  Best of a beautiful day, great day, great health wishes to us all.  Cindi