good news/bad news

Good news...girls are alive...making babies and gathering pollen and nectar
bad news...they haven't pulled as much comb as i would like to see.

I need to research what to feed them to kick them in high gear on that

I also got a couple in my hair. I guess i really will need to get a hat.
wont need too till August tho, cause Im not doing anything but feeding them till right before I go to the retreat.

I have got to get them through the winter. That HAS to happen. that is my goal.

wish me luck

Grease Patties

These are grease patties. They are made one part Crisco, two parts granulated sugar and half part syrup with wintergreen essential oil.

There are a lot of grease patty recipes out there on the interweb, and even my dad has one, but I chose to go with the simple recipe I got from nice gentleman at http://www.ruhlbeesupply.com/ in town. He said to mix it until its the consistency of mashed potatoes

I mixed it with my hands, but you don't have to. I than took parchment paper and made them into sandwiches and put them in a plastic ziplock bag. The next day the sun is out, I'm going to put a couple in the hive.

I believe you are suppose to lay them on top of the frames....pretty much forces them to eat it and the wintergreen in it helps keep the mites down.

Ill post more when I have more.

The Ladies, an update

Well, look at my girls. They are just buzzing and rocking it. It was the perfect day to take a look at them, and they seem to be on the right track.

If you will remember in the last post, that we had to take some rouge combe off and I took the combe out and placed it in the top of the hive, in the "bee attic" in the hopes they would hatch the babies and clean the combe.

well, it worked!

Look how beautiful the combe is! It is the very definition of Organic homegrown natural combe! It brood combe, but it still smells like honey. :) I have the largest piece at home on my shelve. It's awesome! 

So, today I chose a different way to access the hive. It was a perfect day, the sun was out and it was toasty and I didn't use the smoker. I went to Ruhl Bee's and got another pollen patty, cause they have tore the last one up! That's a good thing, getting their groceries on. :) They told me to add some wintergreen to the syrup I'm feeding them, as it helps keep the mites down. I'm also going to make a grease patty, but first I have to research ingredients. Dad says to use powdered sugar, but the bee guys say that they corn starch in it is something the bee's don't like. The recommend using crisco, sugar, and salt. Apparently, they need salt and don't get it naturally unless they get it from animal urine. I'd prefer to feed it to them. Bee Salt Lick? hahahah

Anyways, I used a spray bottle with wintergreen/sugar water and misted the bee's and they didn't fly crazy, and didn't get all butt hurt and let me inspect and it was super easy. So, as long as its a sunny super warm day, I'll use the mist. You should only open it when its a nice day, but there is a little leeway. I'm going to err on the side of caution and only use the mist when the sun is blazing down. :)

So, that is about it. We are up to date now. I'm thinking next month we will open them up again and rotate all the empty frames to the middle...get those pulled and filled up! :) 

Bye!