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Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

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  • From: Blair Christian <blair.christian AT gmail.com>
  • To: ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [ocba] Hive check feedback (beginner)...
  • Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2011 20:43:41 -0400

Hi All,

I did my first hive check last weekend, although I didn't quite
finish... It was basically a wellness check to make sure the queen
was doing well, but I didn't check for varroa mites (I have been
meaning to cut some screen and make a bee shaker).


Here's the hive story: I got a 5 frame nuc from the carolina bee
company on 6/15. Since then I've pumped 12.5 gallons of sugar syrup
in. They started in a deep body have, but I added a medium on 7/21
when Don Hopkins came and did an inspection.

Here's my bee log:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ajxus2rq3XxPdDVzT3pLOGNmMUlfN2lXYzB5U0JNQVE&hl=en_US

Here are my notes from Saturday:
"top super- built up except for frames 1/10. Killed 2 hive beetles.
Only got through half of deep super before I ran out of time- looked
good? Lots of larvae (old and very young in frames 3-4). Removed some
wax from bridges between frames. See photos. Didn't see queen. "

I went through each frame in the medium and made it through have of
the deep body before I ran out of smoke and my family came home, but
there were plenty of little tiny larvae in the deep body frames I
looked at. I pulled out some wax that they were bridging with- hope
that was the right thing to do.

I also made a movie of it (I set a camera on a tripod and had it take
photos every 5 sec; then I used picasa (google's free photo software)
to make a time lapse movie out of it:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/zym2V4ENbmKPpLAmho8tdw?feat=directlink

I have photos of pretty much every frame too if seeing those would
help with advice... Any pointers/advice would be welcome. Is it time
to stop feeding them sugar syrup, or should I continue? They only
have a couple of medium frames left to fill out...

(there were 2 smokers because I got my grandfather's old smoker from
one of his sheds and wanted to see if it still worked/was any
different- it's pretty much the same except it doesn't have the safety
cage).

Thanks, Blair




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