Red hibiscus mead... bee swarm almost stopped me.

[Arpolis]

Aropolis, your post is a little confusing. Are you saying that they were flying around and ok and within 2 hrs all died? You may have just been robbed out, that happens to small hives, all the bees you saw buzzing around were not your bees but robbers, when you opened the hive you saw the results of the fight your little colony put up against the robbers. The wasp was probably just scavenging. I lost a nuc yesterday just like this, I had the entrance blocked off but they were to weak and the other bees took every drop of honey. The important thing is that you got a taste for it. Make sure to put your nuc order in soon. WVMJ

Well that makes some sense. I will say that there is not a drop of honey or pollen left that I know they had stored. Here is a pic before I noticed them dead.



Now I did see two bees attacking one in the after math. Hmmmmm never thought of robbers. Would they leave the queen though? I looked today and what few brood were left were all dead. Ants were in one comb and there was 1 queen and a small handful of bees walking around. You are right I do have a good taste and I have already talked with a NUC supplier and will have the order in and paid for in January.

 

[Lungus]

Would they leave the queen though?

Could workers be hardwired not to harm a queen? Maybe it's only queens who fight queens when they are fighting for supremacy. I was thinking that the queens close entourage might have had enough of her pheromones on them to protect them as well. Of course this is all speculation from a know nothing, hahahaha.

 

[kc_in_wv]

Now that you have posted the picture of the hive when you thought they were active, I retract my statement of pesticide kill!!
I agree with Mountaineer Jack. They were robbed out. The picture is of a hive that is being robbed out. That is a tough situation to overcome this late in the year.

 

[kc_in_wv]

Something to think about. It is tough to keep a top bar hive alive in some climates. If you have winters with long stretches (over a week) of below 50 degree weather, it will be difficult for the bee's to keep access to winter stores.

The bee cluster will not leave brood in the winter time, so they have to have warm enough weather to break cluster (50 degrees) to get access to honey and move it to the cluster area. I have actually seen hives die with honey stores within 1/2 inch of the dead cluster.

Consider getting a 8 frame or 10 frame standard hive.

 

[Arpolis]

Something to think about. It is tough to keep a top bar hive alive in some climates. If you have winters with long stretches (over a week) of below 50 degree weather, it will be difficult for the bee's to keep access to winter stores.

The bee cluster will not leave brood in the winter time, so they have to have warm enough weather to break cluster (50 degrees) to get access to honey and move it to the cluster area. I have actually seen hives die with honey stores within 1/2 inch of the dead cluster.

Consider getting a 8 frame or 10 frame standard hive.

??? This is a 10 Fran Langstroth hive. If figured that was standard. My only difference is that it was foundationless frames.

 

[WVMJ]

I love the foundationless frames from Kellys, you never know what artwork the bees are going to create with them. One nuc I made up I was short a frame and left only 4 foundationless frames in there and then forgot to come back during the flow and add another. THose combs are so thick now that only the 4 will fit in the box, they can pull the honey comb much wider than you think. Some people say to start your foundationless in between some brood comb so the get the depth right and make it straight. But we just cut the comb out no matter what it looks like, do a crush and strain and then use our press on the wax to get the rest of the honey out. I would strongly suggest to get at least 2 hives and keep an extra nuc around to requeen with if needed. That way things will always be rolling along, if you loose one queen and you only have 1 hive you are pretty much screwed. The 2 and a half hives is a basic starter strategy, and if one hive is stronger you can use its resources to boost the other. WVMJ

 

[Arpolis]

I think that will be my plan. I am fencing off a section of yard with 6ft privacy fence with doors and all to meet city codes and all have room for 2-4 hives back there. The way I imagine it they will all be separated by privacy fence and all be about 15-20ft away from each other. And I do like the foundationless frames so far. All 3 combs started were all strait and really thick. I do thing I will have one hive box next year with foundation just to see how it goes.

 

[WVMJ]

You might as well get your library started on beekeeping. Its just like winemaking, beerbrewing or making mead or cider. A guy starts with his first kit, picks a few apples and squeezes them, makes a beer better than the stuff at the store, gets their first beehive. Next thing you know, the whole house is sticky, wife is pissed because she got stung by a bee on the doorknob because you got honey on it, your brown dog looks like a little bear and cant go with you to check the hives anymore, you have to put some combs in the freezer to kill the moths, you keep extra stuff around in case another swarm shows up - and then your whole garage is dedicated to brewing, or becomes a press pad, or starts to have 300 gallon fermentors in it, or you become the local honey house for your beekeeping group- and then you decide to turn pro, and then the fun really begins If you read any good bee books, most of those guys started out with a single hive and went nuts from there, just like starting with a single carboy, you always need more WVMJ

 

[kc_in_wv]

??? This is a 10 Fran Langstroth hive. If figured that was standard. My only difference is that it was foundationless frames.

Sorry they way my computer loaded the picture it looks very long.

 

[Arpolis]

Ok I racked this finally to secondary. I added Camden and sorbate and here a several hours I will add 2 more cans of the 3.3 raspberry purée. I will see how that goes and when I rack again in a few months I will back sweeten to 1.02ish. Looks good! Smells a bit acidic but that is to be expected with raspberry. Wish the brew luck.

 

[Arpolis]

I racked off the pulp today on this mead. It smells really really good. Just like raspberries. Gravity is at .994 as is. A racked into a 3 gallon and a 1 liter bottles because the raspberry purée I added did not condense well so there is a lot of list volume. I will let it sit for final clearing and then will finally back sweeten.

I tasted the gravity sample and a bit more left in the siphon. It is really good now. If you like dry reds then this is great. Only a slight bitterness and not too acidic or tart. I think I will just incrementally sweeten this one to just bring out the raspberry fruitiness a bit.

Here is a pic:

 

[pghfett]

This is outstanding !!! The mead and the side story with the bees.
Thanks for sharing the pics.

 

[Arpolis]

No problem this one has been fun. I just ordered a full NUC of bees. This spring I will be able to have them installed in my hive and give it a go with a full hive this time rather than a small late season swarm.

 

[BBBF]

This is outstanding !!! The mead and the side story with the bees.
Thanks for sharing the pics.

Yeah, I don't know how I have missed this thread.

 

[WVMJ]

Just one? Really better to start with 2 so they can help each other and you can see if one is growing better than the other, and keep the nuc box to refill and make a queen bred from your local drones. If your single hive gets weak can someone help you with some brood if its needed, not to late to get another, and another, and another. I have to warn you friend, hives are like carboys, somehow they multiply in the dark while you are not watching WVMJ

No problem this one has been fun. I just ordered a full NUC of bees. This spring I will be able to have them installed in my hive and give it a go with a full hive this time rather than a small late season swarm.

 

[Arpolis]

Just one? Really better to start with 2 so they can help each other and you can see if one is growing better than the other, and keep the nuc box to refill and make a queen bred from your local drones. If your single hive gets weak can someone help you with some brood if its needed, not to late to get another, and another, and another. I have to warn you friend, hives are like carboys, somehow they multiply in the dark while you are not watching WVMJ

Actually I planned 2 for this year but here is what happened. Last year I planned to take the bee keeping classes they have going here because the two guys that sell bees here in my part of Oklahoma teach that class. As a bonus those guys let class members get first orders of the year. I could not take the class because my wife is finishing up a college degree and her class was the same time as this one so I stayed home and watched the kids... However! I got my step mother wanting bees and got her to take the class. So she is getting two hives and I was going to have her order me two. For Christmas she bought me one NUC so I did not have to. I think she was confused as to if I wanted one or two. I think she said that guy already sold out of this next years NUCs already. I do want to get a second but I need to get with the other bee keeper that sells around here. Heck I may just call it good because I am sure I will be over at my parents house all the time checking their bees out and if need bee we can swap brood out between the 3 hives to keep them strong. Also surly by next year we may be able to split hives or get them to swarm.

I think I can have 4 hives on my property. I am sure over a season or two I will have that filled. Then to find more land!

 

[WVMJ]

Man sounds like a good plan, always nice to have a backup, a few nuc boxes of your own sitting around, dont count them in your hive count, they are temp hives Make sure your new property has enough room for a big shed to store all the new beekeeping stuff you will need when you expand to 50 hives. One new beekeeper hint for happiness, always clean your doorknobs off after checking your bees, they will smell hive stuff on the doorknobs and sit in the knob to check it out, seems they like to set on the backside of it and its an easy way to get stung. I almost have my wifey trained to look at the doorknob to the house before she reaches for it to open up, I think I used negative conditioning or something like that WVMJ

 

[Arpolis]

LoL yea I am excited to see where it all goes. And that is a great esoteric bit of info there about the doorknobs. I will keep that in mind.

 

[pghfett]

For anyone who lives in and around the greater Pittsburgh Pa area and interested in our main mead suppliers - bees - and want to learn what Arpolis already knows, here ya go

http://burghbees.com/

 

[Arpolis]

I back sweetened this mead today to 1.010 and bottled it. I have 15 really nice looking bottles. Great color, smells super super great. I think I can get almost as much enjoyment by just looking and smelling rather than tasting. It also tastes great. I do think it needs some age in the bottles to meld some of the flavors a bit but overal it is on a great start.

 

[kc_in_wv]

The mead sounds good. I like most of my wines and meads sweetened back to 1.010 also.

 

[Arpolis]

Just a quick update to anyone following this thread for the bees. I dropped off a new hive body with an apiary about 4 weeks ago and just brought it home and un-packed t filled with bees. He gave me a queen and 5 full frames of brood, workers and honey. And they are working hard on filling the other 5 empty frames in there. I will give them a few days till I peek in there to see the progress. Here are a few picks for you:

 

[Arpolis]

 

[Arpolis]

 

[WVMJ]

Raise it up off the ground and put a big rock on top so a tornado dont relocate your hive! Congrats, it can be a lot of fun. We put 2 nuc boxes on fence posts around our orchard, mostly because they looked cool, and then last week both caught swarms! Just hoping they werent my bees swarming. Good luck, WVMJ

 

[Arpolis]

Gratz on the swarms. I'll get the hive a bit higher off the ground. I think it'll be fine from the high winds. I have the hive surrounded by a 6ft privacy fence with some serious concrete to hold it all down.

 

[WVMJ]

Good on the fence, that will keep most of the bears out Get your supers ready and wishing you a good flow! WVMJ