Friday 30 mar 2018

Hello readers,

Today was a rather dry day up till the evening with temperatures up tot 13°C.
As I was working during the day I did not inspect the activity near the hive enterance. I expect my bees to have been busy.

I did find some time to make some calculations based on mr. Thomas Seeley's observations writen down in his book 'Honeybee Democracy' chapter 3 table 3.1 The subject there is how a nesting cavity for bees should idealy look like.

Extrapolating his findings on my hive I calculated my devider should be in the 21st slot of the hive, hiding 5 more frames to begin with.

I also concluded that if I do more hive inspections before my order of a queen arrives and the current hive is building up nicely; I might steal a frame from them to put into that hive so it can function as a swarm trap untill such time I actually catch a swarm.

Bob out.

Thursday 29 mar 2018 - Hive Project

Hello readers,

Temperatures today were up to 14°C, a beautiful day out in the afternoon and I had to restrain myself from opening the hive to see what's going on in there and move them into my boxes.
I was really keen on doing it but since the forecast for coming days isn't that good (lower temperatures again (8-11°C) with rainy days coming.

Still as a beginning beekeeper I'm keen on getting a look inside.  I actually made a call to a friend who'd like to learn first hand how to handle bees and if he had picked up the phone AND had time to come over, I might have done it.  Maybe some time next week...  We'll see if we have a good day then.

There was good activity near the hive.  Still mostly Yellow pollen being brought in.  But also some bees oriënting in front of the hive.

I went out to our bee-store to get some spacers and put them in place on my hive:

With the spacers in there I went from 30 frames to 26.  And I still need to take one out to put a devider in there.

I 've also put two strips of wood in the beginning and at the end of the hive and am now looking for a way to give the sides a more clean look.

On the bottom of the hive where I drilled the enterance I've screwed on a way to close off the hive:

Next up is cutting out a sheet of plastic to fit overtop the frames.  I've been thinking about using an insect screen (normally used to keep insects out of the house but create an airflow)
I'll see what I feel like when I get back to work.
I'll also need to buy some weather resistant cover...

I'll take this baby outside soon to install it.  I might want to do this before I move the bees over into my boxes, since the hive is to be placed in front of that hive.

I'll keep you posted.

Bob Out

Wednesday 28 mar 2018

Hello readers,

Temperatures today were just under 10°C.  I didn't see the hive today, since I had to work, I don't expect there to have been any activity.  It was cold and it rained most of the day...

Bob Out

Tuesday 27 mar 2018 - continuation on the hive project.

Hello readers,

 Temperatures today were around 8°C, it was also raining during most of the day, from small drizzles to pleasant showers.  As is to be expected in weather like this there is no activity near the hive.

Around 16:00 I saw a bee fly out into the rain and two or three came to take a look at the hive enterance when I cleaned away some dead bees in front of the hive.  4 of them still had pollen on their legs...

I also continued on my hive project today!

As per my previous post the inner covers were wrapped :

As you can see they stick out a bit on the lower (right) side, but I don't think that'll be to much of a problem.

Instead of working on the outer cover I drilled a 5cm hole into the hive, slightly sloped and put a piece of pipe in there to prevent the bees from chewing on the insulation.

I fitted in some frames to see what it would look like:

There's 30 of them in there,  Might become 29 since I still need to figure out how to space them and line them up propperly.  Also, I'll need some sort of reducer that seals of an entire section of the hive so I can play around with how much room the bees have.

Next on my to do list is cleaning some 2nd hand stuff I got:

I'll be hunting down a battery to put some foundation in the frames after I wire them up.  (I have a car shop across the street from me, so I'll go ask for an old but still working one)  That'll be used to 'heat up the wires so the foundation will melt in.
I'm thinking of using strips of foundation, not entire frames.


Bob Out

Monday 26 mar 2018 - Hive project

Hello readers,

Temperatures today were 12°C.
Very good activity near the hive, so still no feeding.
Color of pollen being brought in is unchanged, mostly dark yellow.

Got some work in on my hive, and started working on the inner and outer covers.

Here's a quick picture:

The inner covers will be fitted with a thin sheet of plywood screwed to a wooden frame around them.
The outer cover needs to be reïnforced and fitted with a weather proof cover.  Not sure if that'll be metal or plastic yet.

I also made a recording of the hive enterance today, I might do that more in the future.

Bob Out

Sunay 25 mar 2018

Hello readers,

Temperatures today were 14°C and below, there was good activity near the hive.
Almost all of the pollen being brought in are dark yellow.

Did some measuring and thinking about my top-bar / long hive project and need to go out soon for supplies.

Hope to get some work in next week!

Bob Out

Saturday 24 mar 2018

Hello readers,

Temperatures today were going up as "high" as 14°C, a nice climb after the cold we had in march.  Getting ready for spring to come alive!

The activity near the hive was beautiful to watch!   Take a look at what pollen is brought in!

 Bob Out

Friday 23 mar 2018

Hello readers,

Temperatures today were around 8°C.
Almost no activity near the hive, maybe a couple of bees testing the 'water'.
No pollen seen.

Bob Out

Thursday 22 mar 2018

Hello Readers,

Another day-shift at work today, left home early, came home late.  Did feed my birds but only glimpsed towards the hive.
Weather conditions should've been better during the day so maybe the bees got out to collect some food, but I was no witness to that.

Forecasts say temperatures here were up to 10°C.

A picture of what the polystyrene nucleus entrance looks like?  Here goes:

Bob Out

Wednesday 21 mar 2018 - Top Bar Hive Project (or should I say long hive?)

Hello Readers,

After my post of march 20th I actually did find some time to continue the work on my project.
I went out and bought some materials; this is the result:
First dry-fitting the plywood in:

Seeing the cut-outs were good I glued it all together with TEC7 and cut out a long piece of insulation board so the frames can 'sink in' the hive.

After that I filled up the wholes and free spaces with insulation foam...

Now I'll wait for it all to set and next up is finishing the top layer. So you can't see the foam or insulation board anymore, and also preventing the bees to get to it.

Today, 21st I had a dayshift at work and didn't check on the bees after 04:30 in the morning.  And there was nothing to be seen then (as it was still dark and also below 0°C that shouldn't come as a surprise)

Bob Out

Tuesday 20 mar 2018

Hello Readers,

Today I'd have liked to put up some pictures of me putting foundation in my frames after cleaning the frames up.  Allas I have no way of heating the wiring of my frames to melt the foundation in.  I asked the auto-shop near me if they had any working but old battery's around, but all of them were sitting there for a longer time and were dead.

Maximum temperatures today were around 8°C shortly after midday.  No activity near the hive.

To fill this blog I'll put up a videoclip from a couple of days back when the weather was good and the bees were out!:

Study on my 'long hive' or 'top bar hive' project:

I now know after browsing the www that bees will build comb in any space larger than 0.95 cm and will propolise spaces smaller than 0,64 cm.
Giving me an avarage of 0,8 cm to work with as 'bee space' + margin of error of 0,15 mm.
This is pretty narrow for me since I don't have very precise tools to work with.

I have also decided to put a thin sheet of plywood against my insulation material.  So I have some measuring to do and then I'll have to go out and buy some plywood (that hopefully can be cut at the store into the pieces that I need for more precise work)

Bob Out

Monday 19 mar 2018

Hello Readers,

After a long periode at home from work I'm picking up the job again.
I shortly visited the area where my bees are before leaving for work @06:45 it was still -1°C outside so no activity at all...

Bob Out

Sunday 18 mar 2018

Hello Readers,

Not much to say about today...
It was to cold for the bees to go out..  I didn't see any activity at all.

Bob Out

Saturday 17 mar 2018

Hello readers,

0°C out today and dropping during the night.
No activity.

Bob out

Friday 16 mar 2018 - Top Bar Hive continuation

Hello Readers,

Frosty temperatures out last night and forecast says more of the same this night.
During the day temperatures climb up to 13°C and the bees are bringing in all sorts of pollen.  From bright yellow to grey-ish tints.

I also worked on my Top Bar Hive project. (read previous post first if you're not up to speed on this project: 2018 03 15 thursday - top-bar-hive)   I cut up the insulation board and fitted it into the vegetable table.  I believe my frames fit in there just nice.

I do have some room under the frames, so I'll have to look up some numbers on bee-space and how deep I need to make the cuts in the sides of my foamboards to bring the bottom bar down a bit. 

(Metric system here so what you see is cm)

If needed I can also narrow the gaps on the side of the frames - but as stated above I need to reed up on beespace to know how much is needed before they propolise it shut and what is the maximum I can risk before they'll comb it up.  After cutting in the rut in the foamboards I'll probably add some spacers for the frames (Getting those tomorrow if all goes right) So I need to know how long the inside of my box is. (Checked the webstore and the frame-holders are 40 cm long...

As you can see here the length is just under 1 meter. 

So I should be able to get away with 5 (or 6 if I can't cut the 5th one through the middle.


Questions I ask myself now is about the material.  Won't the bees chew up the insulation?  Maybe I need to cover the board up with a more solid material.  If so, what should I use? (keeping in mind I want this to be a low budget project)  I have a thin sheet of wood laying around, but it's not big enough to cover the entire inside of the hive.
I have plastic sheet, but I'm worried what that'll do for condensation + how do I fix the sheet onto the board.  That being said, I haven't even thought about how to fix the board onto the wood.  It's just placed in there right now to allow me to change the distances a bit.  Can I use any glue in the hive whatsoever?  Is foam spray an option?

I'll have to answer these questions at a later time.  Next update on this will be a while...  Going back to work soon and checking my schedule; I have plenty other stuff to do...

See you next time around!

Bob Out

Thursday 15 mar 2018 - Top Bar Hive Project plans

Hello Readers,

Today the maximum temperature outside was 9°C.  It was also a rainy day, as a result the bees didn't fly out at all.

I have an answer to my previous question: 'can I split the 6-frame nucleus and make 2 hives'.  In short: It's too risky with only 3 frames so early in the year. (Low temperatures and brood that needs to be heated)

In a local store (much like a home depot) I found a 'vegetable garden table' (see picture below)
that was on sale due to it being broken (no glass panels in it) I payed 55 EURO for it and am going to transform it into a TopBar Hive that can fit my Zander frames.

I'll use sheets of insulation to help the bees with climate control.  I'll need to cut up the board you see in this picture, but I should have plenty since I have 2 of these panels at my disposal.

In the first picture you can already spot the first changes I made to the (soon to be) TopBar Hive.  The bottom were planks much like the sides, I have placed 3 panels on top of that made out of wood fiber.  I had to make some cutouts to make the boards fit and I don't have that much equipment at home.  I used a hand-saw and a drill to cut out the panels out of one sheet and to take away the nooks and crannies.  The boards aren't perfect, but I hope the bees will propolise the entire space and fit it to their needs.


Next in this project will be

1. the cutting and fitting of the insulation sheets (to make sure my frames fit).
2. Drilling in an enterance for the bees. (thinking of doing that in one of the sides or maybe the back, but not sure yet)  The back will be close to a wall so that might not be ideal.  I am sure I want to avoid a hole in the middle.  Winter storages should be all on one side without me having to rearrange the order of the frames (or topbars).  Since bees tend to keep the brood closer to the enterance of the hive I also want my enterance near the side rather than in the middle.  But this is TBD.
3. Finding a solution for the mixed use of topbars and frames.  As I think top bars sit snug against each other and the bees can't come up near the lid of the hive (I need to do further reasearch here too).
4. Find a solution to keep the hive weather proof.  Now there are 2 roof-pieces that open through hinges.  3-4 might come in one answer, but as it stands I'm more inclined to put a sheet of plastic or gauze on top of the bars and more insulation fixed to the two lids and then put an outer cover over the hive to protect it from weather.
5. Study more on the subject of Top Bar Hives to make further improvements!

Bob Out

Wednesday 14 mar 2018

Hello Readers,

Today it is 11°C out, at 11:00 the bees show good activity and pollen is being brought in.  We have some (night) frost coming in two days.  So I hope the bees don't cluster around the brood and starve should the cold last longer...
I prepared my Zanderbox and set it up next to the current hive don't know if it'll help the bees find their way easier or not after I move them in there and slide it over to the possition their box is in now.
I also got confirmation I'll have a european bee queen with my name on it come april or may.  So now I'm pondering ... do I move the entire hive over first chance I get into one Zander hive, or do I make a (walk away) split 3 frames each, hoping the bees will have enough resources to be split again when the queen comes in?  I'll ask on some beekeeping pages on fb...
Would love to do a split, but don't want to push the bees to their limit.

Bob Out

Tuesday 13 mar 2018

Hello Readers,

Today it was 6°C out, the hive had no activity whatsoever.

Bob Out

Monday 12 mar 2018

Hello Readers,

Today we reached 9°C in the morining. There was a limited amount of activity near the hive. I cleared some dead bees out in front of the hive, but no more than a dozen.

In the afternoon we had a lot of clouds with showers now and again.

Bob Out

Sunday 11 mar 2018

Hello Readers,

Today was a busy day for me, but not for beekeeping purposes...
By the time it was noon we had 11°C out.
I believe the new bees that were born early this year were performing oriëntation flights in front of the hive and above the opening in the ceiling of the place I keep my bees. 

I checked the hive again @17:00 but the bees were already indoors waiting for the next day...

Bob Out

Satruday 10 mar 2018

Hello Readers,

This morning we had 10°C. Good activity near the hive.

In the afternoon from 14:00 we had rain and no activiy with 14°

I had planned on moving the bees, but since it's raining out I figured they wouldn't be in a good mood. So I postponed the action (we'll see what the weather is like on wednesday).

Bob Out

Friday 9 mar 2018

Hello readers,

Today we had more rain outside at a temperature of 9°C.

The buzzbox app shows the hive is healthy @12:07.

Bob Out

Thursday 8 mar 2018

Hello readers,

Today we had more rain outside at a temperature of 5°C.
The late afternoon turned dry but not warmer.

I checked the hive in between 2 showers.
I saw no activity.
The buzzbox app shows the hive is collapsed @12:10, but this is not true, I changed the result and sent the result in. A second check @15:26 showed the hive as healthy on the app.

I moved the nucleus some 10 cm since weather forecast shows it might clear up by saturday.  If I find the time and the temperature rises above 15°C I might just move the bees into my own zander hive.

I cleared out the dead bees in front of the hive, some 21 of them.

Bob Out

Wednesday 07 mar 2018

Hello readers,

Today it was raining outside at a temperature of 7°C.

I checked the hive in between 2 showers.
I saw one bee coming back but no other activity.
The buzzbox app shows the hive is collapsed @10:23, but this is not true, I changed the result and sent the result in.

Bob Out

Tuesday 06 mar 2018

Hello readers,

It's 11°C outside around 10:23 and it's a steady temperature.

Very good activity near the hive and the load of pollen being brought in is growing.

I used the buzzbox app 3 times today @10:23 - 12:02 - 13:46 - giving me the healthy status every time.

Bob Out

monday 05 mar 2018

Hello readers,

It's 10°C outside and dropping (fast).

Very good activity near the hive and the load of pollen being brought in is growing.

My phone was charging, so no read out with the buzzbox app.

Bob Out

Sunday 04 mar 2018

Hello readers,

It's 10°C out.

The hive is very active. I even see some pollen coming in!

I see some more dead bees near the hive. 

The Buzzbox app tells me @ 13:24 the hive is healthy.

Bob Out

Saturday 03 mar 2018

Hello readers,

 

Still cold out, but at least it's no longer freezing.

Some more bees dead in front of the hive and minor activity in spite of the cold near the enterance.

This time the buzzbox app shows me @ 14:38 the hive is healthy

Bob Out

Friday 02 mar 2018

Vrijdag 2 maart 2018

Still freezing.

Nothing special is to be notices, no activity.

The buzzbox app shows me @15u28 the hive collapsed.

I must say the hive enterance is to small to put my phone inside the hive... So recording could be off.

We'll see when the weather clears.

Bob Out

Thursday 1 mar 2018

Hello readers,

Still freezing out.

No extra dead bees near the hive.

The buzzbox app gives me 3-4 error messages in a row.

I listen to the hive myself, but can't hear anything.

A bit worried, but I know better than to open the hive, so I decide to wait for better weather.

Bob Out

Tuesday 27 feb 2018

Hello readers,

It's been freezing all week.

As a gift for helping out a neighbour / beekeeper who fell and injured his arm I was presented with a 6-frame nuc with Buckfast bees. (He's like 2' walking away)

The frame size is Simplex :

A= 360 mm
B= 218 mm
C= 340 mm
D= 198 mm
E=  37,5 mm
CxD = 673 mm²

Where I have bought 2 Zander hives with frame sizes:

A= 420 mm
B= 220 mm
C=  400 mm
D= 191 mm
E=  30 mm (ish)
CxD = 764 mm²

We opened the nuc to put a feeder box in polystyrene on top containing water and sugardough feed.

After that we closed off the enterance to move it to my beestand.

The moving didn't become an issue since the new bees didn't fly yet this year and the old winterbees are going to die soon enough anyway.

One hour after moving the nuc to my home I opened the hive enterance. Some bees, 4-5 at most, came out to almost immediately paralyse and die in the cold..

I'm a beta tester for the buzzbox app and at 18:49 I get the status: Healthy.

That's it for today,

Bob Out

Introduction.

Hello readers,

I'm a new beekeeper who's keen on starting this new hobby. I also want to keep notes as much as I can or think is needed where keeping bees is concerned.

Introduction:

Where did I pick up in interst in beekeeping?  Well I have always had an interest in nature.
I have a small vegetable garden out back, I have chickens, birds, a dog...

I guess for me bees where the next step.

I started browsing the internet and got lost rather quick in the overabundance supply of information. So many different ways to go about beekeeping! I concluded I would have to find my own way, based on what I could find.

I picked up some books about beekeeping and started reading.

 

After reading up on the subject I decided to take the step and become a beekeeper.  I looked around for a beekeeping club in my neighbourhood and signed up for a beekeeping course for beginners with that club.

I finished that course at the end of 2017 and started preparing for the real work.

I looked around to see what costs are to be expected to start keeping bees, hoped to stay on the cheap side, and so far I’ve managed that with buying second hand stuff and keeping my budget low.

What have I done so far:

1.  I read loads of information on the internet.
2.  I joined multiple facebook groups revolving around beekeeping and sometimes stumble on new ones.
3.  I bought a couple of books and read more from the library.
4.  I became member of Mellifica.be (a group that is trying to preserve and revive the european black bee - apis meliffica meliffica)
5.  I started following a course and became a member of the beekeeping assosciation Deinze (that’s a place in Belgium 20’ out from where I live)
6.  I bought 2 hives on the 2nd hand market for budget reasons. (no bees yet at that point)
7. I  got a 6-frame nucleus for free as a thank you for helping out a local beekeeper!
8.  I signed up to collect swarms in my area.
9. I am preparing to put up YouTube video's on my channel but nothing up yet when posting this.

What to expect here:

This wil be the place where I put up short notes after looking at (my) bees. It might have some thoughts on how to tackle problems, brainstorming sessions...

If I don't forget I might put the links to my YouTube video's on here... 

Not sure if this format will please everybody, but it might turn out to be nothing more than a logbook...

That's it!

Bob Out