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Author Topic: First Inspection of the Year  (Read 3755 times)

Offline Beeboy01

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First Inspection of the Year
« on: January 01, 2019, 04:24:06 pm »
Happy New Year Everybody. Had a chance to pop the tops of my hives for a quick inspection. It's been not much of a winter so far here in Florida with the last few days running in the mid 70's with today hitting 80 degrees. Been wanting to peek in the hives to check the stores and decided to hit them today. Glad I did but really didn't need to, all five have plenty of capped honey left over from last fall and I even spotted what looks like some fresh honey coming in also. Not sure of it's source but the maples are just starting to bloom along with the usual Spanish Needle and other weed flowers.
   Here comes the new year in the bee yard, it might be starting early this year and I hope I'm ready. :)
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Online Ben Framed

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Re: First Inspection of the Year
« Reply #1 on: January 01, 2019, 05:48:43 pm »
Nice weather!! BB, did you see any eggs, larva or even capped brood?
Happy New Year 🎈🎆 for sure!
Phillip Hall
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2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: First Inspection of the Year
« Reply #2 on: January 01, 2019, 06:14:36 pm »
Congratulations, hope it keeps up until spring.
Jim
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Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
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Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: First Inspection of the Year
« Reply #3 on: January 01, 2019, 06:16:51 pm »
Phillip,
BB only opened the tops. No way to tell if there are larvae or eggs.
Jim
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Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline TheHoneyPump

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Re: First Inspection of the Year
« Reply #4 on: January 01, 2019, 06:26:24 pm »
 :angry:
Braggers. ....
I will not see the insides of any hives around here until mid March, earliest.
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When the lid goes back on, the bees will spend the next 3 days undoing most of what the beekeeper just did to them.

Offline van from Arkansas

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Re: First Inspection of the Year
« Reply #5 on: January 01, 2019, 06:34:09 pm »
In the 80-F.  In new it.  I just posted yesterday one of the Florida beeks would be posting about FLOWERS, any day now.  Your killing me with envy BEEBOY.  Good for you.  4:30 pm and the temp is 34F in N Arkansas.  It?s gonna be a while, like March before I see flowers, maybe Feb. if I get lucky.  But when I think of HP and Canada, March does not sound so bad.

Enjoy BEEBOY and the rest of the Florida beeks.
Blessings
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I have been around bees a long time, since birth.  I am a hobbyist so my answers often reflect this fact.  I concentrate on genetics, raise my own queens by wet graft, nicot, with natural or II breeding.  I do not sell queens, I will give queens  for free but no shipping.

Online Ben Framed

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Re: First Inspection of the Year
« Reply #6 on: January 01, 2019, 07:25:32 pm »
@ Jim
Phillip,
BB only opened the tops. No way to tell if there are larvae or eggs.
Jim

I missed that but at least he got a chance to check inside!

Good for you Beeboy. I enjoy reading your post. Especially since the topic that you had about the varroa Mites and the experiments that you conducted. I commend you for that. Keep up the good work!
Phillip
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2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Online Ben Framed

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Re: First Inspection of the Year
« Reply #7 on: January 01, 2019, 07:28:55 pm »
Quote from: TheHoneyPump on January 01, 2019, 06:26:24 pm
:angry:
Braggers. ....
I will not see the insides of any hives around here until mid March, earliest.

Ah haa haa ha!! It must be nice at 80!!

Mr Van, was it just yesterday that you was telling us about the Florida guys and gals and their weather of paradise? Ah haa haa ha!
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2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Offline Barhopper

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Re: First Inspection of the Year
« Reply #8 on: January 01, 2019, 07:51:13 pm »
Looked in a lot of mine in the past few days. Saw eggs in all. Brooding more than I thought they would be. Actually added a super on two. Loquat is blooming strong in town, Lots of nectar with a fair amount of pollen coming in. Wild mustard on the rural bees seems to be doing fair. Have not seen any maple blooms yet but haven?t  been looking either. After what I found I'm going to have to keep up with them a little better than I have been. Had a relative from Maryland, who keeps bees, here that looked in the hives with me. She said she got her winter fix for bees but as stated above, it'll be a couple months before they can start looking in theirs.
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Online Ben Framed

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Re: First Inspection of the Year
« Reply #9 on: January 01, 2019, 08:08:59 pm »
Quote from: Barhopper on January 01, 2019, 07:51:13 pm
Looked in a lot of mine in the past few days. Saw eggs in all. Brooding more than I thought they would be. Actually added a super on two. Loquat is blooming strong in town, Lots of nectar with a fair amount of pollen coming in. Wild mustard on the rural bees seems to be doing fair. Have not seen any maple blooms yet but haven?t  been looking either. After what I found I'm going to have to keep up with them a little better than I have been. Had a relative from Maryland, who keeps bees, here that looked in the hives with me. She said she got her winter fix for bees but as stated above, it'll be a couple months before they can start looking in theirs.

Nice! Is this the usual for your area this time of year?
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2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Offline Beeboy01

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Re: First Inspection of the Year
« Reply #10 on: January 01, 2019, 11:22:03 pm »
Haven't seen any pollen going into the hives yet so not sure if there is any brood. Mainly was worried about honey stores and they haven't used as much as I expected so far. Even the 3 high nuc tower still has three full frames in the top box and hive #3 still has a full shallow on top. Spotted a total of three SHB's which might become a problem down the road if there isn't a January freeze.
  There is a line of about 20 maples along the driveway which always are the first to bud in my area and they are starting early this year but haven't seen any wild mustard blooming yet. With five hives and a hand cranked extractor I think I'm going to have my work cut out for me this year. 
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Online Ben Framed

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Re: First Inspection of the Year
« Reply #11 on: January 01, 2019, 11:37:12 pm »
Quote from: Beeboy01 on January 01, 2019, 11:22:03 pm
Haven't seen any pollen going into the hives yet so not sure if there is any brood. Mainly was worried about honey stores and they haven't used as much as I expected so far. Even the 3 high nuc tower still has three full frames in the top box and hive #3 still has a full shallow on top. Spotted a total of three SHB's which might become a problem down the road if there isn't a January freeze.
  There is a line of about 20 maples along the driveway which always are the first to bud in my area and they are starting early this year but haven't seen any wild mustard blooming yet. With five hives and a hand cranked extractor I think I'm going to have my work cut out for me this year.

I noticed that you are form port orange Fl.  I am supping that you are in orange tree country? Just for curiosity, and If so, when do the orange trees bloom there? And again, if so, do you make a lot of orange nectar honey?
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2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Offline Beeboy01

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Re: First Inspection of the Year
« Reply #12 on: January 02, 2019, 12:15:48 am »
Ben, the orange tree start to bloom in late February or early May. I'm in a residential/agricultural area without a lot of citrus trees, we got hit with the citrus greening virus two years ago which pretty much wiped out most of the trees in the area. The citrus industry has taken a real hit from citrus greening and the hurricanes over the last few years.  I still get a small honey flow out of mixed citrus but to get a true orange blossom I would need to move my hives inland nearer to an orchard. My main early honey comes from the saw palmetto which starts to bloom near the end of the citrus. I would love to set a hive up next to a big orchard but the commercial guys around here would frown on it and there would be a good chance the hive would disappear or catch fire.
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Offline blackforest beekeeper

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Re: First Inspection of the Year
« Reply #13 on: January 02, 2019, 03:06:07 am »
Hooo. Cool. I mean - warm!
Good for You.

I for myself may say: I can`t wait for climate change to really have an effect in my lifetime yet.
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Offline Barhopper

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Re: First Inspection of the Year
« Reply #14 on: January 02, 2019, 05:02:44 pm »
A little ahead of time for me. I left a super of honey on each hive but I?m assuming the loquat is doing really well this year. As stated my rural bees are not as far a long as the in town bees. They?re about where I would be expect them to be. We haven?t had a hard frost yet so there is a good bit of Spanish needle still blooming.
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Offline van from Arkansas

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Re: First Inspection of the Year
« Reply #15 on: January 03, 2019, 06:34:28 pm »
BEEBOY:  I would love to set a hive up next to a big orchard but the commercial guys around here would frown on it and there would be a good chance the hive would disappear or catch fire......

That is awful.  So there is a honey bee mafia?  I understand, BEEBOY, there are ISSUES here in Arkansas but I cannot discuss on a public forum.

There are a few that make their living off honey bees, most are honest.  However there are a few, very few, that will go to extremes such as theft, or poison or BLACKLIST you at bee meetings is more common.
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I have been around bees a long time, since birth.  I am a hobbyist so my answers often reflect this fact.  I concentrate on genetics, raise my own queens by wet graft, nicot, with natural or II breeding.  I do not sell queens, I will give queens  for free but no shipping.

Offline jtcmedic

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Re: First Inspection of the Year
« Reply #16 on: January 03, 2019, 10:10:22 pm »
I checked mine and have larva and bees building, have pollen coming in. I put some megabee in all of them and added 1:1 on my light ones will see how it goes.
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Offline Beeboy01

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Re: First Inspection of the Year
« Reply #17 on: January 03, 2019, 10:44:03 pm »
Stinger, I've never had it happen to any of my hives because I'm a backyarder but some of the old timers are very territorial and newcomers can have problems moving into their areas. It's not common and hasn't happened in years.
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Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: First Inspection of the Year
« Reply #18 on: January 03, 2019, 11:13:35 pm »
I hear the same thing about the Tupelo area. If they find out that you have bees in their area, even on private property, they will burn your hives if they can find them.
Jim
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Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline blackforest beekeeper

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Re: First Inspection of the Year
« Reply #19 on: January 04, 2019, 02:50:50 am »
Quote from: sawdstmakr on January 03, 2019, 11:13:35 pm
I hear the same thing about the Tupelo area. If they find out that you have bees in their area, even on private property, they will burn your hives if they can find them.
Jim

symptomatic?
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