Skip to main content

Dry as a desert - where to find water

We haven't had enough rain yet this spring which is having some serious affects on nature. The bees are bringing in nectar, but I honestly don't know where they are finding it! Since the beginning of April, the weather has been warm and dry, which is uncommon for central Europe in the spring.

Water is scarce, so the bees are trying to get it wherever possible. We even observed some bees trying to get moisture from my mother-in-law's freshly watered vegetable garden. My in-laws have a water container about 150 meters north of the bee house, and that is where the bees have been collecting water. My father-in-law placed a few pieces of old board in the water for the bees to float on, but now it seems there are too many bees congregating there. 

I suggested that they place a water container to the south of the bee house and to also empty the water container where the bees have been collecting water. Once the bees have found a constant and stable source of water, they will always go there. By having my in-laws empty the water container and turning it upside down, the bees are forced to search elsewhere. This seems to have worked as the bees have accepted the new water source.

The past two days we have received some rain and more rain is in the forecast for next week. This will be good on several fronts. Now that the vegetation has more water the blossoms will also produce more nectar. Even in the dry spell the bees have been busy drawing out comb in the honey supers. Colony 1 is the furthest along, with almost every frame in the honey super containing nectar.
I am estimating honey extraction by the end of this month.

While I wait for the right time to extract honey, I still have to check for swarm activity and drone frame production. This year I have decided to also be a bit more cautious with protective clothing. The past two years I've worked almost exclusively without protective clothing (i.e. veil and gloves). This year I decided not to tempt fate and I wear a veil and gloves. (I have been stung 7 times so far this season...not fun). I've also decided to perform swarm cell checks by using the tilt method. I will explain this in a later post.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Swarm season

This time of the year, the bees are really starting to bust out of the seams of their hives. Stronger colonies are in full swing, while weaker colonies are trying to build up their numbers to at least become stronger by seasons end. Curiously enough, both situations can also spark swarm behavior for both types of colonies,especially in Carniolans (Apis mellifera carnica). Carniolans have a higher tendency to swarm than, say, Italians or Buckfasts, so of course keeping Carniolans can be a bit tricky and nerve wracking. A few words about swarming. The act of swarming is a natural occurrence, and is necessary for the propagation of honey bees. Since the queen mates only once in her lifetime and each colony only has once queen at any given time, the ability to procreate depends on building a colony to a sizable amount and then by splitting the colony in two. Honey bees, of course, have a brilliant way of doing this. The first thing that needs to happen before a colony can swarm is they n...
Post a Comment
Read more

Housel Positioning: Simulating feral bee honeycomb building

Technically, I am an engineer. I know, writing software may not seem to be very engineer-y to you, but it does classify as engineering. We design, implement, test, and improve our product until the software does exactly what it should do. Why else do you think your apps are always updating? Engineering. Having said that, me being an engineer kind of also makes me a nerd/geek. I say I lean a little bit more to the geek side of that classification, because I just love anything that is science and/or technical. Well, anybody who likes technology and science needs to spend time learning about bees. They just know how to build stuff to the specifications of their own instincts. That brings me to todays blog entry: Housel Positioning. Housel Positioning gets its name from a beekeeper by the name of Michael Housel. Michael Housel discovered through observation, that feral bees build the honey comb with a specific order. If you were to take a look at honeycomb, and look closely at the bott...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lodging the artificial swarm

 On Tuesday, we lodged the swarm into its new home. Below are some photos and a video of the big move:  
Post a Comment
Read more