Honey Supers

Yesterday, we decided to add our honey supers to our hives. We actually were going to do it earlier in the week, but when we had the robbing problem, decided to wait until things calmed down.

Well, things have calmed down and are back to what seems like normal to me. We added the supers, and did a very fast check of a few frames in each hive. We were very happy to see some honey in some of the outer frames in the top brood box. Here is a photo of one frame:

You can see the honey in the cells. Along the top, where it is white, is where the bees have capped some of the honey. This frame was one of the outer frames in Rod's hive.

While we were working, we were being watched! Check out who was watching:

It's the Three Musketeers!

And that is not all - there was someone else that was very curious about what was going on.


Echoo the dog just really surprises me. She will sit right next to the bee hives, and spends a lot of time laying in the sun next to them. She does not seem concerned at all by the bees, even when they fly close to her. But, if there happens to be a fly inside my house, she is so afraid, she acts like a dog possessed. She runs around in circles with her tongue hanging out and a crazed look in her eyes until I remove the fly. Figure that out!

Robbers!!!

The last day or two, we have been noticing some different behavior in front of my hive. It seemed like there were a lot of bees hanging around on the front, as well as more than the normal amount of bees flying in front of the hive. It has been hot, so I kind of figured maybe the bees were cooling off.

And, I got the latest copy of copy of Bee Culture magazine. The picture on the front cover kind of looked like what was going on with my hive. It shows a lot of bees along the bottom board, more on the front of the hive and even more flying in front. The description says that they are young bees in an orientation flight to help them learn where they are in relation to nearby landmarks. So I thought maybe that was what was happening with mine. But I thought it was kind of odd that this behavior was happening in front of my hive, but not Rod's, since we got our bees at the same time and so far, they have been progressing at about the same rate.

So last night, about 7:45 p.m., we went out to feed the bees by adding more syrup to the top feeders. And I guess I was kind of startled when I looked at my hive. Here is a picture:

After watching for awhile, we could see that some of the bees were fighting. A bee would land on the front of the hive, and several other bees would immediately "pounce" on that bee, and there would be a lot of angry sounding buzzing. Also, there were areas that looked like a bee pig pile - a whole bunch of bees on top of each other. There was robbing going on! Here is a video of what we saw. Please click on the little triangle on the left to start the video:

You can see a couple of bees fighting, up to the left of the lower handle. And more below, along the bottom board. Also, you can see Rod's hive for comparison. His hive is usually what my hive looks like at that time of day.

After quickly looking in our bee books for advice, we closed off the top entrances and stuffed grass in the bottom entrances of both hives, so no one could get in or out. Today, after talking to Jim at Beez Neez, we took out the grass and used two boards on each hive to reduce the entrance. Here is what my hive looks like now:


You can see the boards Rod cut and put in to reduce the entrance. So far, it looks like things have calmed down some. I just took a look, and didn't see any more of the fighting behavior - just bees coming, going and flying. This is more like what we normally see at this time of day.

I read in one of the bee books that I have, that robbing could cause you to lose your hive - that all the bees end up dying from defending the hive. I hope that we have caught this in time and nothing happens to Queen Latifah and all the girls.

If you read this and have some ideas or comments, please leave them. We are new at this and would love to have input and suggestions!