Andrew Siwko’s Blog #2

I’m copying off Roller posts and preparing to decommission.  The date in a post will be the original posting date from Roller.

[linode ~]# uptime
00:04:42 up 2 min,  1 user,  load average: 0.02, 0.03, 0.00

My linode is undergoing maintenance.  I’ve got to migrate it to another box.

[linode ~]# uptime
23:38:54 up 713 days, 23:55,  2 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

Pretty good!

I got another linode, copied the image to it and got it to boot by turning on the xen helper.

Now it’s time to migrate the original!

It’s been 23 days since I took a quick peek in the hive.  We haven’t had a freeze yet.  John affirms that the bees are there, “see bees, not dead.”

It was a nice day today.  Noah and I went out with the camera to do an inspection.

We found and killed 3 hive beetles.  I tried brushing bees off a frame to see what they were up to which they didn’t like at all.  I saw the queen.  There’s a lot more honey than last time and there’s even some pollen.  I’m encouraged that the bees will live.  Later I looked at the pictures and I didn’t see the queen in them.  She could be too quick for me.  I hope I didn’t get her with the brush.  I don’t think the brush really added any value.

I took the sugar water out a week or two ago and the bees have been living off the land.  There’s much more honey than in my last set of pictures 6 weeks and 2 days ago.  I hope it came from the land, but I can’t say for sure.  It looked like the bees may have been eating honey because there were bees inside some cells.

Let’s take a look at the changes since the October 8th inspection (6 weeks, 2 days):

Frames 1, 2, 3: no change

Frame 4 (outside): I think there’s more comb built out on this side, but the big change was that frames 4 and 5 were stuck together and there’s a big hole in frame 4 about 8 cells in diameter.  The bees appear to be either using the cells in the hole or repairing it.  We’ll see next time.

Frame 4 (inside): There’s a nice wide band of capped honey on this frame now.  It’s about 8″ wide and in the top half of the frame.  The cells below the band look like they have water or nectar in them.  There were more bees on this frame than last month.  They’re mostly on the cells below the capped honey.

Frame 5 (outside):  This frame is now about half capped honey.  There’s a ball of sealed brood in the center.  I see some larvae and some empty (maybe with eggs) cells.  Other cells appear filled with liquid as before.   There appear to be far fewer bees than last month.  There are few bees on the capped honey, they’re all on the other cells, so perhaps the bees are elsewhere in the hive.

Frame 5 (inside): Fewer bees on this frame, but lots of activity in a band around the brood.  Few bees on the honey.  The queen was on the very bottom of this frame before brushing.  I’ll bet she ran over to the other side!  This is the dirtiest capped honey I’ve ever seen.  This must be a high traffic area.

Frame 6 (inside): Capped honey extends almost to the bottom of the frame around the circle of brood in the center.  Last month is was just in the top corners with a little band across the top.  There was far more brood last month.  This is the largest brood patch in the hive.  There is sealed brood and larvae and some empty cells.  The honey is as dirty as on frame 5.  Not many bees here.

Frame 6 (outside): Almost the same as the other side of this frame.  Plenty of brood, honey almost to the bottom of the frame and dirty.  There are pollen cells.  Not many bees here.

Frame 7 (inside): Mostly honey on this frame.  There’s pollen where the brood would be.  Not too many bees on this frame.

Frame 7 (outside): Lots of bees here, many more than last month.  I can’t see what the bees are doing, but I suspect they’re filling this frame with nectar for honey.

Frame 8 (inside): There were fewer than a dozen bees on this frame last month.  Now there’s some good activity.  There may be some comb built up, it’s hard to tell.

Frame 8 (outside): No activity.

Frames 9 and 10 show no change.

I closed up and put in a jar of sugar and an overflow jar (6 cups 1::1 made more than one jar).

I heard from Naomi that Noah heard from Gabriel that Art’s bees are gone.  Noah was worried about our bees.  I was worried about our bees.  We both checked to see that they were coming and going nicely.

In the afternoon I put on the bee jacket and gloves and took a quick look at the hive.  I didn’t use smoke.

I saw, and squished, two beetles that were a bit like roaches in that they were flat and light brown.

Half the sugar jar has been consumed.

The bees seem to be smaller, but as the camera is in the car, I have no pictures and can’t compare.

I pulled frames 1, 4, 5 and 8 today.  Frame 1 is unused as before.  Frame 4 inside has a lump of capped honey about the size of a grapefruit in the middle of the frame.  Frame 5 was really, really heavy which I take as a good sign.  The bees don’t seem to be doing anything with frame 8 as in the past.

It’s been about 10 days since I fed the bees.  I figured the syrup would last about 6 days and after 10 it was pretty clear that it was long gone.

After I took out the old jar, one bee came out through the inner cover, into the feeder, roamed around a bit then went back down into the hive.  I guess she was just checking to see whether the syrup was back.

I did a quick inspection with no smoke this morning.

I had been worried about robbing, but I didn’t see any capping flakes on the bottom of the hive.

Frames 1,2,3 unchanged.

I scraped propolis off the spacers of all frames before closing up.

Frame 4 is showing a bit more comb on the outside.  I can’t tell, but I think there might be a bit of liquid in the cells.  The inside has yet more bees than than last time and possibly a little more comb drawn.

Frame 5 (outside): I’d guess there are about twice as many bees, but they’re all in the middle of the frame.  They seem lighter in color.  The sealed brood is lower on the frame.  There is now some capped honey at the top of the frame.  I see a few larvae, but not as many as before.  The bees are pretty thick, though.

Frame 5 (inside): There’s a little more capped honey on this side, but not much.  Many more bees, but clustered in the middle of the frame. It looks to me that the pollen stores are being consumed.  They’re deeper in the cells and look darker.  Even thought the bees are thick, there’s clearly more sealed brood.

It does appear that I reversed frame 6 last time.  I did not reverse again.

Frame 6 (inside): The queen is on this frame.  The honey is capped much farther down the left and right sides of the frame.  There are many more bees and as on other frames, they’re in the center of the frame now.  I didn’t see any pollen this time. but there appears to be sealed brood where there were larvae last time.  I don’t see any larvae this time.

Frame 6 (outside): As on the other frames, there are many more bees here this time.  There’s a bit more honey and perhaps some pollen, though it’s too thick to see through the bees.

Frame 7 (inside): More capped honey and more pollen.  Many more bees.

Frame 7 (outside): Fewer bees.  The liquid seems to have been drawn down.

Frames 8, 9, 10 unchanged.

I’ve seen a whole lot more pollen coming in to the hive recently.  I don’t know where it’s going.

Pictures here: http://linode.siwko.org/2009-10-08-inspection

I got just over 3 jars of syrup out of a 10 lb bag of sugar a few days ago.  Today I checked on the jar I put out.  They’ve eaten about 1/2 of the syrup in 3 days.  Let’s assume that 10 lbs of sugar went into 3 jars, that’s 3 1/3 lbs of sugar per jar.  They appear to be eating about 9 oz of sugar per day.  At $4.50/ 10 lb bag, the bees are consuming about $.25 a day in sugar.  If they ate all year round at this rate, they’d consume the dollar equivalent of 23 lbs of honey in a year.  This is a worst case for my hive at current consumption rates.

I’m feeding the bees just to get them through the winter.

I do not want Domino sugar honey in the supers (there are no supers on now).

I went out before the rain on Saturday to check the hive.  Noah took the pictures for me this time and we used a tripod, flash and the high resolution / high ASA settings on the camera.

It had been 12 days since the last inspection which is what I’ve adopted as my target until I learn more.  The weather is overcast today, bees seem to be coming and going despite the clouds but the hive seems fuller of bees than the last time.

We saw 3 small hive beetles and killed two of them.  Art’s getting some SHB traps for his hive.

The hive appeared clean, the bees weren’t angry.  They buzzed when smoked and none flew right at me.  One sat on my face screen for a few minutes and there were a few fly-bys but it was a pretty peaceful inspection.  Most of the children watched from behind Noah.

Frames 1, 2, 3 are as in the last inspection, largely untouched.

Frame 4 shows some change.  There does seem to be some drawn comb started on the outside.  I can’t tell whether there’s more.  The inside had many more bees than the last inspection.  I estimate that there were about 200 bees in the center of the frame and the comb was being drawn out more.  I’ll have to start taking pictures both head on and from the side next time.

Frames 5, 6, and 7 are the nuc frames.

Frame 5 (outside): The queen is on this side of this frame.  There are many more bees.  The bees have built up the comb on the top of the frame so that it bulges.  There is sealed brood in the center surrounded by larvae.  I estimate there are about 3 times more brood and larvae than 12 days ago.  The remaining cells appear to be filled with nectar, but the picture may show more young larvae extending to the bottom of the frame.

Frame 5 (inside): There are more bees (about double?).  Some of the pollen has been taken out.  The larvae from the last inspection are now sealed brood and there are more larvae where the sealed brood used to be.  The bees appear to be capping some honey at the top of the frame.  It’s in a band about 4 cells wide across about 2/3 of the frame.

Frame 6 (inside): More bees here.  About half of the sealed brood has hatched with more larvae about this time.  I missed some capped honey on the last inspection.  This time there’s a nice band across the top with the left corner coming down about 10 cells worth.  Pollen appears about the same quantity but moved.

Frame 6 (outside): More bees here.  The sealed brood / larvae appear to be cycling here as on the other frames.  Larvae appear to dominate this time.  As on the inside of the frame, there’s a good bit of capped honey, but the caps still have small holes in them.

Frame 7 (inside):More bees here.  Pollen may have grown slightly, but I can’t tell.  Honey is being stored across the top of the frame.

Frame 7 (outside):Many more bees here.  This may all be nectar.  All I can tell is that the frame appears fuller than before.  There is at least one pollen cell.

As before, I didn’t look at frames 8, 9, and 10 although, checking my notes, I did think I saw some drawn comb on 8.  I may have put 6 in backwards.  I’ll have to check against the pictures and number the frames next time.

My hope for next time is to see more honey and more drawn comb on 4 and 8.  I’m also concerned about the pollen and how much the bees need to make it through the winter.

The weather has been wetter and there have been many more flowers.  Coworkers have been complaining of pollen allergies.  I hope that this will be good for the bees.

Pictures here: http://linode.siwko.org/2009-09-26-inspection

I’d like to have the Nagios watch over Bacula jobs and report if they have not been run successfully after a period of time.  I think I’m going to use a “run after” job but on the director, not on the client.  Then I can check the log age with a file age check plugin…

Done!

When an incremental backup is more than 18 hours old I get a warning.  When a full backup is more than 4 weeks old I get a warning.