Hive One now taller than Hive Two.
This photo demonstrates how hives differ in larvae and honey production. The main variable is the efficiency of the queen - if she is producing enough eggs to grow into new workers, whether she decides to swarm and leave the hive, and the formation of her egg-laying pattern.
Hive Two has been behind Hive One since we hived (installed) the bees. We probably should have replaced the queen earlier in the season, but due to inclement weather, we thought we'd wait and see if her production improved.
The larger hive contains two full shallow supers of honey, above the two deep supers which house the eggs and larvae; a third shallow super was added today for additional honey storage room. In comparison, the smaller hive has only one shallow super filled with honey; the bees have not even begun to draw out the honeycomb in the top shallow super, which we placed on the hive a few weeks ago. Last season at this time, we already had five supers on our hive!
Unfortunately, this year has not been a "normal" year for beekeeping. Southeastern Wisconsin has experienced consistently high temperatures and very high humidity, in combination with little rainfall. We received only 0.9" of rain in July. This means that plants don't have the moisture necessary to produce a lot of nectar, which means the bees can't harvest as much for honey production.
Also, the extreme weather stressed the bees and was a factor in making not only Hive One, but Hive Two swarm! Now we have even fewer bees, collecting even less nectar. Things do not look good for a bountiful harvest.
Beekeeping is essentially farming - it is directly related to the blessings of Mother Nature.
This photo shows the interior of a shallow (honey) super, and two frames. The top frame contains new foundation, while the lower frame contains drawn comb built upon the foundation.
Here is a close-up of the two frames. Note the metal support pins and support wire inside the foundation wax, visible in the frame at the left. It is necessary to have these support structures because honeycomb full of honey is extremely heavy.
In the frame on the right, the bees have manufactured honeycomb cells on top of the original foundation, and have even extended the foundation to the edge of the frame (bottom of photo). This frame contained honey last season; it was extracted from the frame for our use, but the comb was left almost completely intact for re-use by the bees this year. This saves them time, as they do not have to draw out new honeycomb, but can immediately begin filling it with nectar. The bees will make any minor repairs that are necessary due to damage from the extraction process.
This is a native cousin of the honeybee - a bumblebee. You can see the bee's tongue in the flower. She uses it like a straw to gather nectar. The nectar flows into her honey stomach. Bees have two stomachs. The honey stomach is a storage vessel. The digesting stomach is separate and is used for nutrition, just like ours.
We frequently see honeybees and bumblebees gathering nectar and pollen in the same flowerbeds, side by side.
Bumblebees are about two to five times the size of honeybees. They are not aggressive.
Not much else happens at this time of year. We will be inspecting the hives weekly to see if the bees need more space to store honey. Now, all we can do is sit back and wait to see how much nectar they continue to bring.
We will be harvesting honey in late September.
(Jeff was gone week four.)
