Newbee trying to read my bees

[JCD]

Hi,
Every day, weather permitting, when I get home from work, I sit and watch my bees for about 15mins to see if they're ok, and try and learn what they're doing. Read them. I make uneducated assumptions about what they're doing. I have a 5 frame nucleus hived about 3 weeks ago....maybe 2000 + bees. I watch them and about 1 in 5 bees returning to the hive are bringing back pollen. This strikes me as very healthy. My other hive is a small cast in a hive limited to six frames....maybe 500 bees. In contrast, only one in about 40 bees returning to the hive is bringing back pollen. What are the other 39 doing? Are they bringing in nectar? They look energetic and happy. I haven't opened them up for the last 8 days. Am hoping to open again weather permitting this weekend, and looking forward to seeing some progress now some better weather has come.
Should I be reading something into this difference of activity?
Thank you

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

Suggest you get hold of a copy of Storch's At The Hive Entrance, should help your viewing enjoyment and education

 

[Busy Bee]

If the bees have been recently hived I would by feeding no less than 1 gallon of syrup 2:1 to encourage combing building (if they are on foundation) and expansion, also its likely there is not much forage and could cause slow build up or starvation.

Busy Bee

 

[oliver90owner]

I would by feeding no less than 1 gallon of syrup 2:1 to encourage combing building

I would be checking to see if the stores are increasing naturally (after an initial feed for the cast swarm, after three days if appropriate). Observing their needs and responding appropriately is far better than blindly stuffing all available space with sugar syrup.

The nucleus should be simply a small self-contained colony which is able to expand on it's own and has adequate stores available in the comb to easily last until the next inspection.

The cast needs more bees, not more sugar syrup in the comb they build. House bees are required to service the brood, not make more and more wax to store the unecessary sugar syrup inflicted upon them. Until the queen starts laying they may well be building up a surplus of honey ready for the new brood, even though a very small colony. I would be reinforcing that small cast with a frame of emerging brood. 500 bees should not be on six frames and is really an unviable size, unless kept warm in a small enclosure.

RAB

 

[Gardenbees]

Suggest you get hold of a copy of Storch's At The Hive Entrance, should help your viewing enjoyment and education

There's a useful link to the book (i.e. to read it online) here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/54926139/At-the-Hive-Entrance-H-Storch

You can download it as a .pdf or .txt file.
Actual original hard copies are a bit harder to come by!

 

[Monsieur Abeille]

There's a useful link to the book (i.e. to read it online) here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/54926139/At-the-Hive-Entrance-H-Storch

You can download it as a .pdf or .txt file.
Actual original hard copies are a bit harder to come by!

Though it is now back in print, at least Thornes carry it

 

[Skyhook]

Though it is now back in print, at least Th**nes carry it

And NBB, I believe.

 

[Bluebell]

This book looks just what I need. I too am only 3 weeks into keeping bees and hoping the novelty will wear off a bit as I'm wandering down to look at them way too much and not getting anything else done!

I'm keeping a beginners blog if anyone's interested; http://http://tjbeebuzz.blogspot.com/

 

[Moggs]

Nice Blog Bluebell - welcome!

 

[JCD]

RAB - Thanks for your advice. I will wait and see if my five frame nuc has developed some before I take a frame of it's emerging brood and give it to the cast. There was no progress in it's development when I looked the week before last.....probably because of the weather, and being moved. The cast, however, had eggs and unsealed brood. I gave them both a small syrup feed then.

Everyone else - thanks for the detail about the book. I have downloaded it already, and am looking forward to reading it. I love watching my bees.....I find it so relaxing

 

[rockdoc]

Beware, watching bees this close to home can be seriously addictive, and you begin to react to the slightest change in your bees. You also tend to take actions you would never do if the hive was away from regular viewing. I found in my first year with my hives on a shed easily visible from the study, I spent hours looking down the binos, and then panicking when I saw or perceived I saw something wrong. It is great fun though and did nothing to diminish my enthusiasm for this rewarding hobby.
Good luck

 

[onriver]

if you want some more to feed that addiction, have you tried our beecam? my problem is that I now don't need to go outside but can still spend hours trying to work out whats going on!
here's the link:
http://www.blackhallmill.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=128&Itemid=93

 

[JCD]

yep....I've enjoyed your beecam