Jan 28, 2011 - Winter check of the hives. Both hives are thriving. Fondant added to the Italians.
Feb 15, 2011 - Fondant added to the Carniolans. Lots of dead bees in front of the hives; occasional bee seen flying in the yard.
Mar 8, 2011 - Checked both hives; Italians are doing well, and added more fondant to them. The carniolans did not make it. It appears they ran out of food. No signs of disease, either. All honey-stores and extra fondant had been consumed. No signs of it being too cold in the hive, just not enough food. Thinking that an entire super of fondant-filled frames will be needed at the end of this current season we are heading into. Ordered a 3lb package of russian bees to replace the carniolans.
Mar 11, 2011 - Checked on the remaining Italians; they are doing well. Two more slabs of fondant added to the hive as the other fondant had been consumed. I was stung once on the abdomen.
Mar 18, 2011 - Repositioned top entrance on Italians using an extension-shim (with hole); add more fondant.
Apr 1, 2011 - Checked Italians; fondant levels appear good, and consumption of fondant is steady.
Apr 16, 2011 - Rotated upper hive deep and lower hive deep. Positioned over-wintered honey super (which was used as extra brood space last season) between the two deeps. Added pollen patties and repositioned remaining fondant to be closer to the cluster. Leftover heavy (3:1) syrup left out for bees when weather appeared nice.
Apr 18, 2011 - Weather has been cold and damp; placing feed pail with 1:1 syrup on the Italians. No flying when it is in the high 30s. Russians arrive from Kentucky via Postal Service; hoping to install them on the 19th.
Apr 21, 2011 - Spoke with Marla Spivak of the UofM - she said to try to get the packages installed sooner rather than later and when the outdoor temperature was 45 or above; installed the two packages at the new Ahrens' Beeyard; 2.1/2 gallons of 1.5:1 syrup for each hive.
Apr 23, 2011 - Picked up and installed six packages of Carniolans - at the Ahrens' Beeyard. Long day (picked them up in Stillwater in the morning), but very nice weather for installing bees. 2 gallons of 1:1 syrup for each hive.
Apr 27, 2011 - Snow and rain continue; have not made it out to the Ahrens' Bee-yard since the install; checked the Italians here at the house, and refilled their pail with 1.5:1 syrup.
Apr 30, 2011 - Rain let up enough for a run out to the Ahrens' Bee-yard.
Suspect hive #4 to be Minnesota Hygienic Italians; queen cage was marked with an "M" May 2, 2011 - I followed up with the place I obtained the bees from; they said it would probably be a used cage; maybe at one time it held a marked queen; probably not MHI
Russian queened hives (#1 and #2) are slower to draw out wax, but doing well.
#7 did not show as much activity upon initial inspection; once I swapped the center frame with the third frame in, the hive was much more active.
Removed empty queen cages
Swapped center frame with third from edge.
May 9, 2011 - Hive #2 empty; bees swarmed - will installed previously ordered package into #2 instead of #9
May 10, 2011 - Installed a new package of Italian workers with a Russian queen into hive #2 at the Ahrens. All other hives looked to be doing well.
May 12, 2011 - Split the overwintered Italians into a new hive and installed a new Italian queen from Theresa. Will check status after returning from Michigan.
May 17, 2011 - Checked on split, queen never made it out of the cage; She was dead. Placed order for new Russian queen.
May 18, 2011 - Check Ahrens' Bee-yard hives. The recently installed package had taken, and the queen had been freed. All the other hives are doing well. Added a second deep to hive #6
May 24, 2011 - New Russian queen arrived for hive #9 - split from the overwintered italians (hive #10). It turned out the split more than likely had taken the queen from #10, which would explain the troubles with new-queen acceptance.
May 30, 2011 - David W. has asked for frames of brood to add to a failing hive; upon checking the overwintered Italians (hive #10), it was found that without a queen, all the brood had hatched. Will retrieve frames of brood from the Ahrens' bee-yard.
June 1, 2011 - Retrieved four frames from the Ahrens' yard - all carniolan. Also brought back two frames of Russian brood (from hives #1 and #2) for use in hive #10.
June 4, 2011 - Added Hive #11 - Canadian Buckfast hybrids from Thunder Bay - dubbed "Thunder Bay Breed" - hive will be moved out to the Ahrens' yard.
June 8, 2011 - Hive #10 appears to have requeened itself in the last week with the new brood from hives #1 and #2. Hive #9 is now very strong; a honey super was put on top to give them extra room. Another brood deep will be put on this weekend. Made another split from hive #10; a full frame of capped brood with two queen cells, and two frames of honey into a polystyrene nuc. To be brought out to the Ahrens' yard with hive #11.
June 9, 2011 - Hives #1 through #8 (inclusive) all look good. The cold weather seems to have dampened off their nectar collection, but comb draw-out continues and the queens appear to be laying eggs all the while.
June 13, 2011 - Beekeeper-Beth's Russian Queen arrived; Split made with bees from hive #10 - put into Nuc hive; set to simmer and let cook for several days.
June 15, 2011 - Shook more bees from hive #10 into Nuc hive; queen cage fell and queen not released, repositioned, again
June 17, 2011 - Moved Nuc to Ahrens' bee-yard and installed into Beth's new rosy hive; did a hive check of the other ten hives - all hives with second brood boxes have bees starting to draw comb in this second box. Thunder Bay Bees are doing well, and will need a second brood box possibly at next check; the queenless Nuc hive has a single, capped queen cell - hoping it successfully emerges, mates and starts to lay eggs.
June 24, 2011 - Routine check; Capped queen cell in Nuc still there. No signs that the new queen is trying to emerge.
July 7, 2011 - Capped queen cell in Nuc still unbroken. Second deep added to Thunder Bay bees; first honey box added to hive #5.
July 14, 2011 - No signs that the capped queen cell will be successful. Add honey supers to hives #7 and #8. Beth's bees are doing well, as well. Laying down comb and eggs. Hive #1 appears to have swarmed at some point. Very few workers and no queen.
July 25, 2011 - Queen cell still intact; most likely a dud. Added second honey box to hive #5 and first honey box to #6.
Nov 13, 2011 - I did do hive checks between July 25 and now, but never got around to logging it. The gist of the time frame not logged was...
We passed on harvesting honey from the Ahrens' bee-yard. The progress was so-so with comb draw out and even wanting to use the hive as a home (more on that shortly).
Overall the Russian experiment was a failure. There is nothing physically wrong with the particulars of this race of bees, but their need for management does not fit with my management style. We had a total of 5 of our 6 russian hives abscond (e.g. swarm) leaving us with no honey in these hives and because it was very late in the season, too late to get fresh bees to replace them.
We did, however, harvest from the Proctor bee-yard. With only two hives in this yard, it was a small harvest, but it was exceptional honey. We pull a total of sixty pounds from the hives. Sales have been brisk and we are left only a few pounds left.
