Bend Top Bar Hive Check...all is well!

May 29, 2015
Still feeding 1:1 cane sugar syrup to the new hive--top bar in Bend. the hive is thriving; occasionally see bees doing orientation flights. Upon lifting the bars toward the end of the hive (left side facing the front) I found bees on all 15 bars up to the follower. And when removing bars from the top of the 'storage' area, I found hundreds of bees there. Seems there is enough space between the bottom of the follower and the lower screen for them to move freely back and forth. So, I removed all the items from the left side of the hive box and assisted bees to leave, with the use of spray bottle of water and a feather. Then I added five additional bars to the main hive space for a total of 20. There was comb filling about half of bar 11. Bees are still using almost a full quart of syrup per day. This is now day 27 since the package was installed so new bees have hatched and are working inside; at about day 42 they will be ready for outside foraging. Good job Carniolans!!

New Bend bees doing well...

May 2 was bee day in Sisters and Bend, OR. I picked up the 3# package of Italian bees with a Carniolan queen. The new emerging bees will be Carniolan and will replace the current workers, which are Italian, in several weeks. See past posts for bee life timelines. Package was installed in the new top bar hive on a warm morning, Saturday, May 2, and the first hive check shows a viable queen in that eggs can be seen in cells on the 4th bar and bees are returning with pollen. 1:1 syrup feeding begun immediately with shipping syrup can placed in hive, too. Will continue sugar syrup feeding until the bees do not use it.