WDW - 99 Days

We've just planned our next vacation to Walt Disney World, and we're counting the days. Well I am at least. We're going to keep it a secret from the kids for as long as we can.

This year we're going to stay at the Contemporary Resort. I'm sure it will prove to be a great to our summer.

Bees - Hive Observations - 5/10/08

Hive #1 is still going strong. The bees are starting to draw out the comb in the upper 10 frames of the new hive body that I put on last week. They probably consumed about 2-3 quarts of sugar syrup in the last six days.

Hive #2 still has the new queen. She's been there two full weeks now so I'm guessing she's been accepted. Still can't tell if there is any worker brood in that hive. There is so much drone brood that it's hard to say. I found the queen wandering around in a fairly new frame of comb that had no brood at all on it yet. Wondering if she just gave up on the junk drone frames and is waiting for a new spot to start laying.

I also removed a full frame of capped brood from Hive #1 and placed it into Hive #2 in an effort to keep the population from dieing off before the new queen can start laying. I pulled one of the junk drone brood frames from the bottom and put it into the top hive body to make room for the frame of worker brood. I brushed all the bees from Hive #1 off the frame before transferring it. This was the first time I used a bee brush and it was very effective.

I'll be checking the hive in a few days to see how that frame looks. Hoping that it will indeed bring some new bees into that colony because it is very week. They barely took any sugar syrup all week.

Beer - What to brew?

Spring time is in full swing and the kegs are empty. I have a Irish Red kit ready to go and my ingredient list for Raspberry Wheat.

6.6lbs Alexanders Wheat LME (60/40)
1lb Malted Wheat - Steep @ 160 deg for 60 minutes
1 oz. Mt.Hood Hop Pellets (boil) 5.5 AA
1 oz. Hallertauer Hersbrucker (at 45 min) 4.6 AA
1/2 tsp Gypsum (rehydrated 20 min.) in boil
1/2 tsp Irish Moss (rehydrated 20 min.) last 20 min. of boil
1 pkg Wyeast Bavarian Wheat Liquid Yeast 3056
5 lbs Rasperries, frozen, thawed

Probably want a nice IPA to add to the mix. We'll see what the recipe books have to offer.

Bees - New Feeder

I've installed a new division board feeder in Hive #1 today. Previously I was only using a pail feeder placed over the hole in the inner cover. While this seemed to work fine I found that my bees were not consuming as much of the sugar syrup that others from my beekeeping workshops were reporting (5 gallons in 3 weeks vs 2 gallons in the same period) . Hive #1 is the stronger of my two hives and it is roughly five weeks old now. I have approximately 5 full frames of brood and 2 full frames of pollen/honey. They have not started drawing out the comb in the 2nd level hive body yet. I'm guessing that the larger feeding area that the division board feeder offers will allow more bees access to the food. Hopefully allowing for the frames in the 2nd hive body to get drawn out faster. After some really crappy cold weather of the last few weeks the bees are really starting to get active.



I'll be installing the other division board feeder in Hive #2 this evening. Hive #2 was also brand new this year from a package and the queen apparently didn't make it. I didn't notice this until about 3 weeks into the operation when I saw a lot of capped brood in Hive #1 and none in Hive #2. I introduced a new queen at week 4 and at that time notice larvae in the cells all over the place. Carefully checked for the old queen a few more times and figured that the colony had developed laying workers. Now in week 5 I have seen the queen is out and walking around but I can't tell if she's laying yet. The frames in hive 2 look crappy though because there is tons of drone brood throughout them now.



We shall see what happens I guess.