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Opening the Hives for the second time of the new season

It is spring time and that means its time to get an assessment of the beehives. It only takes an hour or two and I have taken some pictures to give you a look at what is done in this second opening of the season. In the initial opening we added feeders and sugar water to get the bees going

 

This is not a lot of work but there are some things that should be done including seeing if you have any bees! And checking for parasites or small critters that may have wintered in the hive. It does happen. So this initial opening is pretty much an inspection/assessment and the addition of medium supers so the the bees have more room to make and store the honey.

 

Dee with the hives

Here is a picture of Dee with the two hives. She is the primary owner/caretaker and I am secondary and learning about it as we go.

 

The feeder

This is the now empty feeder. We had previously poured sugar water into this. It feeds the bees very early in the season and gets them off to a good start. We now remove this because the bees are doing their normal pollinating and gathering thing.

Placing the medium super

In this picture we have taken the cover off the hive and are placing a medium super on top.

placing the medium super on top of the queen excluder and brood boxes so the worker's have a place to put all that beautiful honey they'll be making.

With any luck this will fill up with honey and we will add another one for even more honey!

Here is an explanation picture of what we did this time.

Diagram of the hives

 

Dee only wore her gloves and Helmet. She got stung three times! I didn't get stung at all :)

Bee stings

 

Want to learn more about bees and beekeeping?

Beekeeping for Dummies

Beekeeping For Dummies

Interested in raising honey bees? This friendly, practical guide presents a step-by-step approach to starting your own beehive, along with expert tips for maintaining a healthy colony. You get the latest on honey bee medication and treatments, harvesting and marketing your honey, and the impact the sudden disappearance of the honey bee has on our environment and economy.

  • To bee or not to bee? - understand the benefits of beekeeping and whether it's right for you
  • Build your first hive - gather the right equipment, obtain your bees, and transfer them safely to their new home
  • Get up-close and personal - see how to open and close the hive, inspect your bees at the right times, and know what to look for
  • Handle common problems - from swarming to robbing to pesticide poisoning, find simple solutions
  • Understand Colony Collapse Syndrome - learn what you can do to help save the honey bees
  • Gear up for the golden harvest - use the tools of the trade to extract honey, store it, and sell it