Antcliff Farms: November 2008

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Getting ready for Winter

Did some cleaning up to get ready for winter. I went into the top box of the hives to see what was going on. A fellow beekeeper recently reported a hive collapse, so I thought I should take a look. I had put additional supers on a few months ago to give the bees some room to put up additional stores. It seems like they did not take advantage of the space. I went ahead and took the additional supers off of Hives 1 and 4. They had not put anything into these supers and there were only a few bees hanging around in them.
Hives 2 and 3 both had lots of bees up to the feeder in the top box, so I left them there.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

More Feedin'

Went out and checked the syrup today. Hives 2,3 and 4 were all empty. Hive 1 still had a full jar - no clue. Everybody looked fine from the top.

Sweet Accounting

20012 Honey

4/21...16 pints (9 frames)

2011 Honey

8/13... (5 frames, 2 shallow)
7/17..39 pints (11 frames some shallow)
7/4 .. 10 pints (6 frames, (4 shallow))
6/12 .. 18 pints (7 frames)
5/28 .. 20 pints (8 frames)
5/14 .. 25 pints (9 frames)

2010 Honey

afraid my records were poor this year, but based on sales/gifts about 20 gallons.

'09 - honey - 24 gallons!

10/23 . 16 pints (9 frames)
9/18 ... 38 pints
7/11 ... 42 pints (14 frames)
6/21 ... 47 pints (18 frames)
6/13 ... 26 pints (11 frames)
5/26 ... 24 pints

'08 - (# of frames of honey harvested)

Hive #1 (deep frames)
5/21 ... 4
5/29 ... 2

Hive #2 (medium frames)
5/29 ... 3
6/8 ..... 5
6/15 ... 1

Hive #3 (medium frames)
5/29 ... 2
6/8 ..... 3
6/15 ... 4
6/25 ... 1

Dictionary

Brood Box - where the brood (the eggs, larva and young bees) are raised. Normally the bottom most box.
Checkerboarding - Interspersing empty brood comb (or even foundation) into the brood area. This is done to give the queen more room to raise brood and hopefully not swarm.
Entrance Reducer - Just a wooden stick made to fit in the entrance and make the entrance smaller. This will help keep in heat and allow the bees to guard the entrance better against bees that do not belong to the hive (robber bees).
Orientation Flight - The first trip out of the hive by young bees. They try to understand their location so they can make it back home. Also occurs when the hive is moved.
Super - meaning "above", is actually any box above the brood box (or boxes). Normally the location of honey!
Syrup Feeder - Essentialy an upside down canning jar with pin holes punched in the lid. This is placed in the hive to feed the bees as needed.

Antcliff Farms