Temperature rose to 55 today here in Central Indiana. I wanted to get out earlier this year to recover any dead outs to minimize moth/mice damage and to bring in any full frames of honey. I went into 2013/14 winter with 13 Langs and 2 top bar hives. I picked up two bee trees along the way. 6 of the Langs and both tbh's survived. The first bee tree in the yard did not make it. However, there is hope for the newest bee tree near my house (bees still in there and I gave them some sugar and pollen). My other goal was place some sugar and pollen patties on the top of the frame/top bars and call it an evening. I took me 2 hours just to open the lids, peek in, shine my flashlight down through the frames, apply sugar/patties and pick up the dead outs. I can imagine how long it would take a keep with 25, 50 or more! I would have had to split my work up in a few days if I did full blown inspections.
So, my 3rd year as a keep. And, I have made some observations that you, more experienced keeps will recognize and maybe some things you will constructively criticize my conclusions/theories. So here it goes:
1. It does pay to stop taking the honey from the bees earlier than later in the proceeding season to aid them in winter stores.
2. 40-60% colony loss is a real possibility (it's sad to see all the empty equipment in the bed of my truck)
3. Experienced keeps know what their talking about when they recommend starting out with fewer hives the first year or two
4. Bees can and will die regardless of having plenty of stores for any one of a myriad of foes (cold, mites, nosema, etc.)
5. Mouse guards are not just a suggestion but a real warning for a real threat (one lang and both tbh's had nests in them)
6. Deeps are really heavy when they are 80% + full of honey!
7. Bees can survive a harsh winter (records broke) like we had in a top bar hive (My tbh bees survived with 10 top bars and mouse invaders)
8. When you crack the lid open to take a quick peak for life, I noted all the following behaviors on my survivor hives:
A. guard bees fly out in their usual numbers to greet you
B. I observe fanning (I was using a smoker today)
C. there are several frames covered with bees from top to bottom
9. If you are going to have more than 10 hives you had better have room to store the dry honey supers and all the dead-out wooden-ware
10. I didn't want to leave 9, so number 10 is: all the smells of the yard, hives, honey, smoker make me happy!
*I do have a straight up questions about the frames full of honey. I would love to take 3 of the deep frames and extract for my personal use. We only have 2 lbs left to get us through until first harvest. Is this honey just as good as it would have been if consumed last summer? That sounds like a dumb question to me since honey never goes bad but just curious. Remember, I don't treat my hives so nothing is in the deeps but golden goodness. I plan of freezing the rest to feed back to my hives or splits. Right now, I have them in a tube with a lid snapped tight in my cool workshop. I tested a small sample of a capped cell and checked it against my refractometer with a result of 18.5% moisture.
All in all, I feel pretty good about today's look-see. I will replenish my yard and more with splits, swarms and cut-outs this spring. I am all the wiser but still sooooo much more to learn. Here are some photos and a video of this evening in the yard.










