N.B.'s

Three N.B.'s:

1. Made up fall-formula sugar syrup, two parts sugar and one part water measured by weight (turns out to be 2 kg sugar/4 cups water), can't be brought to the boil because this renders it indigestible for the bees. Makes crystals so easily that it makes a thick rim on the pot, and on top of the surface as it cools in a plastic water bottle; must be strained as it's poured into the feeding jars. What a mess! Next time, make it up with a bit more water, or take it to the barn fully equipped with funnels, wet cloths, etc.

2. We put the burr comb which the yellow hive had made between two frames of their bottom brood box (and which was lifted out with the top brood box when we installed strips) onto the inner cover for the bees to clean. A mistake. When I lifted off the top cover to place the feeder jar on the surface of the inner cover, discovered a crowd of bees tending the burr/brood comb there, and very defensive. Must light the smoker, get suited up and remove this, either crush it and put it in front of the hive, or toss it out. Or, could put the queen excluder below the outer cover. Lesson: don't put brood comb above the inner cover without a queen excluder in place. Put in front of the hive what you want cleaned.

3. We extracted 20 liters of honey from the yellow hive (more to come). Honey is measured by the pound, and using equivalency tables on Google, we extracted 30 kilograms of honey. See NYT 20 September '09 (AP), "Paris Rooftops Abuzz With Beekeeping": "'In Paris, each beehive produces a minimum of 50 to 60 kilograms ... of honey per harvest...' said Henri Clement, president of the National Union of French Beekeepers. 'But in the countryside, one beehive only gives you 10 to 20 kilograms ... of honey...'" So, our yellow hive is doing better than the average of those in the French countryside, and worse than those in Paris!

Another factor: TLC. Betcha city bees are more carefully monitored.

RE monitoring: We've been monitoring our varroa-levels every few weeks with Crisco-slathered file folders, and a wax-moth trap hung out, and walk by the hives several times a day. There's no way, if we had 100 hives, that we could give this much attention. Note: We might do better next year, if we use drone-comb for varroa control; each drone-comb frame is said to equal one varroa treatment, and we gave each hive one drone-comb frame last April and removed a month later; I wonder if we could keep levels lower if we replaced more frequently, and if so, how frequently. Would we place new drone foundation weekly, and remove that given 28 days before? We could keep four frames rotating from April until November, because we have two brood boxes on each hive; impossible if we kept one brood box on each hive, as is customary now.