Checking on the Hive

Last night, I attended a webinar online by Brushy Mountain Bee Farm. The host talked about the equipment choices and procedures for harvesting and extracting honey. Turns out, it's not as totally scary as I thought. I need a bee escape but otherwise I think my kitchen has everything I need.

I learned a tip, though, during the Q&A. The host said that one should not put on the queen excluder until the girls have built out the comb in the super. I have been waiting and waiting all summer for any sign of life in my super and it must be because I have had the queen excluder on for several, several months. I took it off this afternoon so we'll see how that helps.

Two things. I'll do the gross thing first and then talk about feeding.

So, one of the reasons (excuses) that I had made up for why the bees weren't building out my super was because during all of last year, I stored the built and foundationed frames in the super beside the hive but not on it. I had a telescoping cover over it to protect it from the elements. When I went to put the super on at the start of the summer, I took off the cover and there were a few really gigantic, gross roaches in the super. How totally gross, right? I screamed, chased them away, etc. And then I put that super over the queen excluder on top of the hive and the bees never built it out. I am nauseous right now just thinking about them. So I thought the reason the girls weren't building was because of the previous roach presence. I think now that it was the excluder.

I checked on the hive today and, lo and behold, guess what I found in the super ON THE HIVE. A gross giant roach. Seriously, it was the size of my entire thumb. I killed its baby-sized friend but the big juicy one ran off. There was roach poop around the outside of the hive box which I scraped off with my hive tool (I'd rather lick the toilet than my hive tool for all the gross stuff it does for me.) but the inside of the super and the foundation was spotless. The bees were keeping it beautifully clean as they do all of the hive but they were just not building. Nevertheless, the roaches were in there. Surely now that the excluder has been removed, the roach will not dare return. If I find any further sign of them, I'm not sure what I'll do.

As an aside, I saw a slew of hive beetles, maybe a dozen. All but one were in the unoccupied super on the hive which gives me hope. I think there is a big problem with bees not protecting their resources. Other things move in and take over. Let that be a lesson to me :)

The other thing that I need to do is feed. I hate doing that but the honey supply was low and there was virtually no pollen at all. I'm going to mix up some feed tomorrow and get that out there for them. My mentor Libby had told me to feed back when the queen showed off but I didn't do it. Even the Brushy guy said his honey stores were lower than they were at the start of spring and he was going to feed until the next flow. I guess the good thing about feeding is that it will encourage the girls to finish building out the rest of the frames.