8.30.09

Sunny

temp 75 and breezy

Did a complete inspection of both hives today and was pleased at what we saw, Alpha as always is looking good, they built a lot of drone comb on the bottom of a a couple of frames, and this made it a little hard to remove some of the frames. Checked some of the drone brood still in comb and saw zero mites, which is great.

Also saw a lot of capped honey for winter stores, always nice and took some photos as well.

Bravo is a bit puzzling though, frames nearly full on bottom box, but little done in top box. they are building, and queen laying like crazy in bottom, but nothing in top box at all. even some capped honey in bottom box. I need to move them into a 10 frame deep very soon.

i also took some photos of bravo as well.

8.13.09

Both hives are doing fine. Alpha my first and my 10 frame hive is doing fantastic, started feeding them earlier in the month of July and they are really filling frames for the winter now. Bravo my small 5 frame nuc is also doing very well and building up quick. Weather has finally took a turn for the better and I beleive that nectar is now more readily available. I am very happy with the way things are looking now, outlook for the winter is much better.

I really cant believe how much I enjoy watching them every day. My son and myself sit out near the hives and just watch the action, and on my days off i get up early and go out and watch them (they are really active then).

8.1.09

Been checking food stores and after having several conversations with the local beeks, I decided to start feeding now, since all the rain that we have been having has cut the nectar flow to next to nothing.

Started feeding 2:1 now as the food stores they have are very little and am worried that there wont be enough to last them the winter. We have had rain and cloudy weather throughout the month of July (something like 20 days of rain and only 3 full days of sunlight the entire month)

will continue to feed until late september