Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Top Bar Hive on stand 12.11.13

We finally got the Lang’s hive moved to the far end of the stand. We’ve been moving it a few inches each evening so as not to confuse the Honeybees.

There are no Honeybees in the Top Bar yet. When one of the hives is big enough to split next spring, I will try putting some in it or maybe a swarm will move in. They tell me March is swarm season.

Right now it is in place so the bees can get used to it….and maybe no one told the feral Honeybees when they can swarm.

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The Top Bar now has a center entrance…you can see the 3 holes.  I don’t think the entrances of the 3 hives are too close, but if I find it could be a problem, we can extend both ends of the stand another 8 inches.

I had considered putting the Top Bar on a stand of it’s own but the big red ants are a problem here, and right now I have been able to keep them off this stand. Mechanics grease on the legs and wood ashes around the tiles on the ground under the stand. So far…so good.

I was putting all pink flowers on the hive on the L but the only deep with a window in it was the double flowered pink and it ended up on the hive that was supposed to have blue flowers…..so when the one on the L is big enough for another deep box it will have blue flowers on it…..so much for naming them “pink” and “blue”……guess it’s back to Left and Right.

I don’t know what is blooming now. All the asters in this area are going to seed. I do have 3 small bushes like the ones that were blooming down the road a month ago. They are starting to bloom but have only seen a couple of Honeybees on them.

The Scarlet Bodied Wasp Moth is feeding on them.

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Just look at the brilliant colors and the center of the wings is clear.

They resemble a wasp. Guess that is their protection.

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If these are the same bushes that were blooming a month ago….it may be there are more of them in the woods. The Honeybees are bringing in lots of light colored pollen but have not been working my 3 bushes hard yet. I check them several times a day.

Now there are a few more bushes we cant cut down. Love those late bloomers.

Each morning around 9 the pollen starts coming in.

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