Bee Checkup

Thursday afternoon, Mr. Ellis and Jess (my favorite beekeepers) came over and we opened all the hives.  Our fall inspection - we might do one more in 3-4 weeks but everything looked really good.  All the hives had lots of brood and bees.  Couple of minor changes - put a super on #6 from #4 - they had 3 supers and two brood boxes so moved the top super over to #6 and that gives them more food for the winter. Also in #4, we took 4 frames with brood from the Swarm Hive and put in the second brood box.  There were several frames that had nothing on them.  Nuc #3, Nuc #1 and Nuc #4 - no changes were made.  In the Swarm Hive, we took off the top brood box - they were working but only 4 frames had any honey or brood so they were moved to #6.

It was great to have help and made quick work of checking the hives.  The bees are bringing in lots of pollen - goldenrod and aster.  I don't know what else but they are really busy.

Little Chicks

Steven and Sara have little baby chicks at the river.

Hurricane Irene

I was fortunate and had no damage from Hurricane Irene but some of my neighbors at the river were not so lucky.
Lots of big trees down but nobody was injured - nothing that can't be repaired or replaced. 
Lots of firewood for Steven.

Checking Bees

This afternoon I opened all the hives and checked to see how much food they have after the hot, hot summer we've had and the earthquake and Hurricane Irene - we've had lots of different weather lately.

All the hives have plenty of food but I did move some frames around and took a super off the Swarm Hive and put on Nuc #4.  Some of the hives have empty frames and I'll rearrange those before cold weather.  They're still bringing in some pollen.