Early this evening, I went back into the Warre hive to see if I needed to change the top bar feeders.
Much to my surprise, I saw that they were over half full! That really had me curious since I wanted to know what was different this time around. I was feeding them in about the same length of time, but in the last two hive inspections they were almost out of the sugar syrup. Hmm… it seems the honeybees found reliable sources for their nectar? I know one source is our chestnut tree since I’ve seen a lot of them around there and I imagine they are happy with the multitude of pollinating crops on our property too and the surrounding properties/farms also. I doubt that the honeybees are hanging around our mulberry tree, since from my readings it seems they are wind pollinated. It’s nice to see that the honeybees aren’t as dependent on the sugar syrup.
You know what’s even better? I was pleased to see capped worker cells and I even spotted the queen! There she was on the last frame I’d inspected in the top box, surrounded by her workers. I even saw her going to an empty cell to lay an egg! If you remember, a few days ago, I mentioned that I hadn’t seen the queen on earlier Warre hive inspections. I “knew” she was in there somewhere based on the clump of activity I was seeing, but I didn’t actually spot her.
Outside the Warre hive I saw a flurry of activity from some ants! With the recent rain the cinnamon deterrent is now gone, time to do some outside maintenance tomorrow.
Naturally, this was the only occasion that I chose NOT to bring my camera! Sighs… oh well, let’s hope there will be other occasions.
Q – How exciting! I use cinnamon on the ants too! Also, talcum powder. They just can’t move with that stuff on their feet. I like to say that Southern California was built on one large ant hill! On my parents acre we had five different types of ants: fire, big red, little red, big black and little black. Sometimes there’d be a combo red-black ant. LOL! Do they get into the bee hive?
curls and q recently posted..Lavender’s Blue Dilly Dilly
@curls and q, This year, we’ve added fire ants to the ants we have. Before, we had all the others you mentioned. I could do without fire ants! I’ve experienced them in South Carolina, and not thrilled that they are here.
The honeybees do a great job of shutting down those within the beehives. I’ve read that if the hive is healthy, the bees will do a great job of killing the potential robbers. I’ve already discarded a few insect corpses.
Aynaria recently posted..Neem oil; effective in reducing our mosquito population
YES! Very exciting! Just proves how quickly they work, eh!? WOWZA!
Jennifer recently posted..Spicy Chipotle Stir Fry & Sunridge Farms Peanut Butter Power Chews
It sure does @Jennifer, I always knew they were hard workers and now I get to see it up close and personal. I love that!
Aynaria recently posted..Adventures in Beekeeping: Wednesday morning hive inspection