I just said good-bye to the Old Hive and the Split. Mary, a lovely woman we met in the Beekeeping series at Green Gulch, is taking the bees to their new home in Oakland. It was a bitter-sweet moment saying good-bye to our first hive and parent colony. Now the backyard apriary is down to just the TBH. Can we still even call it an apiary?
While our backyard apiary is dwindling, the total number of hives under my charge doesn't seem to be changing much. Martin's apiary has gone from one hive to three in a matter of weeks!
Growing up in my family, there was never a shortage of cats. Our family maintained a stable population of four to five cats at all times--when one would kick the bucket or wander off, another one or two would show up looking for a meal and a bed. It would seem that bees are the new cats.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Xylocopa californicus
I swung by our new place this evening after work to stand in the backyard and imagine it full of lovely plants and busily humming bees. As I left, I noticed a big black bee on the ground. I think it was a carpenter bee (Xylocopa californicus). It looked like this:
I took it home to have a closer look. These photos really don't do it justice--it is a beautiful bee with a shiny yet subtly furry abdomen and thorax, black wings and furry legs. It looked positively cuddly.
Alan's Nuc Gets a Home
With the rain clearing up today, I was finally able to get into the hives. The first thing I did was move a frame of drawn comb into the center of the upper deep on the old hive. I pulled it up from the bottom box on Saturday but put it next to the hive wall. Tim and I decided this morning that the drawn comb should really be above the brood chamber in the middle of the box. The bees seemed to agree; they were trying to build comb upward from the tops of the lower frames at the center of the brood chamber. They were not happy when I removed the wax they had built above the frames. Several bees flew directly at me, and I'm sure I would have been stung w/out my protective gear. I'm not sure if this hive is just feisty and should perhaps be re-queened or if just has some insecurity issues that will be solved with time and space.
Next I did the same maneuver on the split and added six new empty frames to fill out the box. I was a bit short on deep frames when I initially added the second deep. These bees were mellow and lovely.
Then I headed over to Martin's and put Alan's nuc into an 8-frame deep. I'm not sure about that nuc anymore. I didn't see any larva, and the cappings on the brood looked a little bit dry. Amazingly though, they had licked up every drop of honey that I spilled on my last visit. I'll keep an eye on these guys and hope for the best.
Tomorrow I want to get the big hive at Martin's split.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Learning
So, I gotta tell you, I've been struggling with the bees lately. It's a number of things...the bad weather (which prevents me from checking the hives regularly), bad tempers (mine and the bees' but probably mostly mine), and lack of enough hours in a day.
As you know, our apiary exploded in February, going from one hive to five in a matter of a couple of weeks, which was manageable but only because Tim was home and on swarm watch through the day. More recently, my friend Martin's bees went berserk. Martin is a very busy man, so I have been taking care of his bees. The problem is that I am a very busy woman who doesn't really have time to take care of Martin's bees either. But when it comes down to it, I simply have more optimism than sense.
Anyhoo, on Friday when I finally got around to doing an inspection of Martin's hives, it had been two weeks since my previous inspection. Let me tell you right now, not a good move in the spring. If you take nothing else away from this blog ever, remember this: get into your hives every week or be prepared to deal with the consequences.
Let's take this one hive at a time:
Alan's nuc: This is a swarm of bees that Martin literally sprayed down from a very tall tree a few weeks ago and put into a nuc box (on loan from Alan). Miraculously, the queen seems to have survived the dousing because there was brood when I checked the hive on Friday. However, she might not have survived the honey flood that I created when I removed the lid and accidentally shook loose a full lobe of comb that the bees had attached to the lid because they were missing a fifth frame. What a mess. I removed the lobe from the bottom of the nuc box and looked for the queen among the dead--I didn't see her. The plan is to get that colony into an 8-frame deep ASAP.
Matin's Swarm: This is where it gets crazy. Someone sold this swarm to Martin in early February. Yes, a swarm in early February--perhaps the first sign that madness would ensue. It consisted of one deep and two supers. Originally, it had one deep and one super and then a super was added between the two original boxes--creating a rather strange hive configuration. For a few weeks, the bees were building drone comb perpendicular to the frames and we had to remove it. This week, I was relieved to see the drone comb going parallel to the frames, and all looked stupendous until I got into the deep and found 10 swarm cells!
I have to confess, I wacked them! I was leaving for the weekend and Martin was unavailable, and I knew that the bees would swarm themselves silly like our hive if I left the swarm cells in tact. I hated to do it, but I cut all of the swarm cells from the frame, letting them fall to the ground. Odd as it sounds, I was somewhat consoled by the fact that the queen cells provided sustenance for some chickens in a neighboring yard. I momentarily considered sucking out the royal jelly, as one old timer beekeeper highly recommended, but that SO did not happen!
In my anxiety and partial blindness (it's hard to see through bee veils) I was moving too fast, and I stepped on most of the queen cells. But after I had re-assembled the hive, I looked down and noticed a virgin queen running around frantically on the swarm cell she had just emerged from. I picked her up, placed her on the 'flight deck' and watched two guard bees arrest her. I don't know if she was allowed to live or not.
Anyway, if you're looking for a beekeeping resource with all of the answers, this is obviously not the blog for you. Every day, often through trial and error, I learn volumes about bees and myself. Some lessons, I obviously have to learn more than once. The big ones being move slow, send the bees love (as they say in 'The Secret Life of Bees'), don't work bees when you're in a hurry.
There's lots to say about our hives, but I am going to leave that for another blog.
Thanks for reading.
As you know, our apiary exploded in February, going from one hive to five in a matter of a couple of weeks, which was manageable but only because Tim was home and on swarm watch through the day. More recently, my friend Martin's bees went berserk. Martin is a very busy man, so I have been taking care of his bees. The problem is that I am a very busy woman who doesn't really have time to take care of Martin's bees either. But when it comes down to it, I simply have more optimism than sense.
Anyhoo, on Friday when I finally got around to doing an inspection of Martin's hives, it had been two weeks since my previous inspection. Let me tell you right now, not a good move in the spring. If you take nothing else away from this blog ever, remember this: get into your hives every week or be prepared to deal with the consequences.
Let's take this one hive at a time:
Alan's nuc: This is a swarm of bees that Martin literally sprayed down from a very tall tree a few weeks ago and put into a nuc box (on loan from Alan). Miraculously, the queen seems to have survived the dousing because there was brood when I checked the hive on Friday. However, she might not have survived the honey flood that I created when I removed the lid and accidentally shook loose a full lobe of comb that the bees had attached to the lid because they were missing a fifth frame. What a mess. I removed the lobe from the bottom of the nuc box and looked for the queen among the dead--I didn't see her. The plan is to get that colony into an 8-frame deep ASAP.
Matin's Swarm: This is where it gets crazy. Someone sold this swarm to Martin in early February. Yes, a swarm in early February--perhaps the first sign that madness would ensue. It consisted of one deep and two supers. Originally, it had one deep and one super and then a super was added between the two original boxes--creating a rather strange hive configuration. For a few weeks, the bees were building drone comb perpendicular to the frames and we had to remove it. This week, I was relieved to see the drone comb going parallel to the frames, and all looked stupendous until I got into the deep and found 10 swarm cells!
I have to confess, I wacked them! I was leaving for the weekend and Martin was unavailable, and I knew that the bees would swarm themselves silly like our hive if I left the swarm cells in tact. I hated to do it, but I cut all of the swarm cells from the frame, letting them fall to the ground. Odd as it sounds, I was somewhat consoled by the fact that the queen cells provided sustenance for some chickens in a neighboring yard. I momentarily considered sucking out the royal jelly, as one old timer beekeeper highly recommended, but that SO did not happen!
In my anxiety and partial blindness (it's hard to see through bee veils) I was moving too fast, and I stepped on most of the queen cells. But after I had re-assembled the hive, I looked down and noticed a virgin queen running around frantically on the swarm cell she had just emerged from. I picked her up, placed her on the 'flight deck' and watched two guard bees arrest her. I don't know if she was allowed to live or not.
Anyway, if you're looking for a beekeeping resource with all of the answers, this is obviously not the blog for you. Every day, often through trial and error, I learn volumes about bees and myself. Some lessons, I obviously have to learn more than once. The big ones being move slow, send the bees love (as they say in 'The Secret Life of Bees'), don't work bees when you're in a hurry.
There's lots to say about our hives, but I am going to leave that for another blog.
Thanks for reading.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Keeping it All in the Family
Today my Aunt Chris and Uncle Mic became beekeepers! They mentioned that they were interested in beekeeping when we got our first colony last fall, but I was still surprised and delighted when Uncle Mic called me a couple of weeks ago to say that they were ready to start a hive.
I offered them Martin's nuc, and for about a week we talked a lot about bees and how to prepare to start a colony. Then, about a week ago, I looked in the nuc and saw a gorgeous solid brood pattern across four of the five frames. It was evident that the colony was about to explode with new bees and that they needed to get into a full-size hive as soon as possible.
When I told Uncle Mic, he got right down to business building his hive boxes. He and Aunt Chris came for dinner tonight and left with Martin's nuc strapped to the bed of their pick-up truck! (Thanks for the loan, Martin. I promise we'll get the nuc box back to you.)
My dad asked if I was sad to see Martin's nuc go. In a way I am, but mostly I'm just thrilled that the bees are going to people who are enthusiastic about them. And it makes me so happy to think of what an amazing season of discovery Uncle Mic and Aunt Chris are about to begin!
I offered them Martin's nuc, and for about a week we talked a lot about bees and how to prepare to start a colony. Then, about a week ago, I looked in the nuc and saw a gorgeous solid brood pattern across four of the five frames. It was evident that the colony was about to explode with new bees and that they needed to get into a full-size hive as soon as possible.
When I told Uncle Mic, he got right down to business building his hive boxes. He and Aunt Chris came for dinner tonight and left with Martin's nuc strapped to the bed of their pick-up truck! (Thanks for the loan, Martin. I promise we'll get the nuc box back to you.)
Dad (left) and Uncle Mic strapping the bees into the truck bed!
My dad asked if I was sad to see Martin's nuc go. In a way I am, but mostly I'm just thrilled that the bees are going to people who are enthusiastic about them. And it makes me so happy to think of what an amazing season of discovery Uncle Mic and Aunt Chris are about to begin!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
English Bumblebees
I'm in England at the moment staying at my mum's house in Mickleover, Derbyshire. Spring has arrived here after an unusually hard winter and my mum's back garden is in full bloom with daffodils, grape hyacinth, primulas, and other spring flowers. It's difficult for flowers not to do well with long sunny days and the odd rain shower to keep everything well watered. There are also birds and insects everywhere. What's really surprised me though is the large number of bumblebees in the garden (and the complete lack of any honeybees). There are bumblebees everywhere and several different species to boot. All of them are huge.
I've had a bit of fun trying to take photos of the bees and work out what they are all called. There is a good website that helps with identification. The website also mentions cuckoo bumblebees which I'd never heard of before. This is a figure showing the most common bumblebees (click to enlarge):
The bumblebees in the back garden were tricky to photograph as they never stayed put for long, but here are my attempts.......
This is the bee that I've seen the most of and I'm pretty sure it's a queen Buff Tailed bumblebee:
Here's another Buff Tail that got trapped in the house. It's out of focus but the different coloured bands are visible and its buff coloured behind is clear. This bee's body was over an inch long:
There are also smaller bumblebees with white tails. I'm thinking these are either worker Buff Tails or queen White Tails:
I haven't seen them as often but there are also black bumblebees with red rear ends. I didn't manage to get a photo of one but here's an example that I've stolen from the web:
There was also this one which I assumed was another Buff Tail but when I looked more closely at the photo and saw the yellow band bridging the abdomen and thorax I wondered whether it was a queen Garden Bumblebee?:
That's it for now.....
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Tug of War
Today, I checked Martin's nuc, the old hive and the TBH.
I noticed some resistance when I pulled the top bars apart. I thought maybe the bees had bridged two combs together, but then I noticed them festooning across multiple frames of comb. I was playing tug of was with bees. It amazed me how strong they were!
The TBH has released their queen! I didn't actually see her, but the queen cage was empty. Hopefully, we'll see some eggs or the queen next week.
Martin's nuc is turning out to be a really strong little hive. I need to get it into a regular Langstroth ASAP. All of the frames are at least 1/2 drawn out, and there are ALOT of bees on the frames. I saw the queen. She has a nice long body, but she's not terribly fat. Nonetheless, she's doing a bang up job of filling the frames out with brood. They were packed. They seemed to have a good amount of nectar and pollen in storage too. Also, when I walked out into the yard this afternoon around 4:00, it looked like this hive might be preparing to swarm. It kind of freaked me out at first, but then I remembered that they don't have a spare queen. They did eventually settle down. Maybe late afternoon orientation flights?
The old hive is still a source of concern for me. There are LOADS of bees. I have to get a second deep on them this week. But the brood pattern is irregular, and I saw one of the bees with diarrhea in the hive. Not good. I'm hoping that will clear up with the better weather. There was also a supercedure queen cup on the third frame, and I have to confess that I removed it. There was nothing in it, and in a moment of panic thinking that the hive might swarm, I cut it out. In hind sight, I realize that it wasn't a swarm cell, it was a supercedure cell, and that the queen might be having problems and need to be replaced. Hopefully they will build another one if they really need it.
All of the hives have pretty decent stores.
I noticed some resistance when I pulled the top bars apart. I thought maybe the bees had bridged two combs together, but then I noticed them festooning across multiple frames of comb. I was playing tug of was with bees. It amazed me how strong they were!
The TBH has released their queen! I didn't actually see her, but the queen cage was empty. Hopefully, we'll see some eggs or the queen next week.
Martin's nuc is turning out to be a really strong little hive. I need to get it into a regular Langstroth ASAP. All of the frames are at least 1/2 drawn out, and there are ALOT of bees on the frames. I saw the queen. She has a nice long body, but she's not terribly fat. Nonetheless, she's doing a bang up job of filling the frames out with brood. They were packed. They seemed to have a good amount of nectar and pollen in storage too. Also, when I walked out into the yard this afternoon around 4:00, it looked like this hive might be preparing to swarm. It kind of freaked me out at first, but then I remembered that they don't have a spare queen. They did eventually settle down. Maybe late afternoon orientation flights?
The old hive is still a source of concern for me. There are LOADS of bees. I have to get a second deep on them this week. But the brood pattern is irregular, and I saw one of the bees with diarrhea in the hive. Not good. I'm hoping that will clear up with the better weather. There was also a supercedure queen cup on the third frame, and I have to confess that I removed it. There was nothing in it, and in a moment of panic thinking that the hive might swarm, I cut it out. In hind sight, I realize that it wasn't a swarm cell, it was a supercedure cell, and that the queen might be having problems and need to be replaced. Hopefully they will build another one if they really need it.
All of the hives have pretty decent stores.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Formic Acid in the Bee House
I just treated the split for varroa mites using a formic acid pad. They got pretty loud when I placed the pad in the hive, making me think that they aren't exactly thrilled with its presence. I hadn't realized how hard it is on the bees until I read that there is a fourteen day brood mortality. Not sure what that means exactly, but it doesn't sound good for a hive that's just starting to produce brood again. It's kind of a which is worse situation...mites or formic acid? The mite load was pretty high thanks to the fact that this hive got pretty much all of the drone brood from the split. And they're still making more drones!
I have to leave the formic acid on the hive for twenty-one days. Fun.
I have to leave the formic acid on the hive for twenty-one days. Fun.
Hive inspection notes
I briefly checked the split, the TBH and the combo hives at lunchtime today. Here is what I saw...
Split: small stores, lots of drone brood, and horror of horrors, a queen cup! I also saw a bee emerging from one of the capped cells. I need to treat this hive for varroa. There are wingless wonders about, and I have actually seen mites on the bees. The bees are in the lower box only, but it seems pretty full; I'll be making deeps this weekend.
Combo hive: a whole frame of honey, loads of bees on all of the frames, gajillions of uncapped larva. This hive rocks!
TBH: The bees seem fine. They have not released the queen yet, but she seems to be in good health--workers were mobbing the queen cage and have eaten a good bit of the mini marshmallow.
Split: small stores, lots of drone brood, and horror of horrors, a queen cup! I also saw a bee emerging from one of the capped cells. I need to treat this hive for varroa. There are wingless wonders about, and I have actually seen mites on the bees. The bees are in the lower box only, but it seems pretty full; I'll be making deeps this weekend.
Combo hive: a whole frame of honey, loads of bees on all of the frames, gajillions of uncapped larva. This hive rocks!
TBH: The bees seem fine. They have not released the queen yet, but she seems to be in good health--workers were mobbing the queen cage and have eaten a good bit of the mini marshmallow.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Sassy Bees
When I got the package of bees on Saturday, I noticed that some of them were light in color. Everything about them was 'blonde,' from their very light stripes to the fuzzy hair on their heads and thoraxes. They look very different from the darker bees in all our other hives.
Besides differing from our other bees in appearance, these blonde bees are sassy! When I accidentally grazed one of them while working around the hive, she put her little bee-hind in the air and stuck out her stinger! I have never seen any of our other bees do that. At first I thought I had hurt the bee and that she had partially ejected her stinger intending to actually sting me, and I felt bad for killing her. But then she retracted her stinger!
To see if this was standard be behavior, I started blowing on individual bees to see if they would stick their stingers out. Only the blonde bees in my yard seem to do this!
Fascinating!
Besides differing from our other bees in appearance, these blonde bees are sassy! When I accidentally grazed one of them while working around the hive, she put her little bee-hind in the air and stuck out her stinger! I have never seen any of our other bees do that. At first I thought I had hurt the bee and that she had partially ejected her stinger intending to actually sting me, and I felt bad for killing her. But then she retracted her stinger!
To see if this was standard be behavior, I started blowing on individual bees to see if they would stick their stingers out. Only the blonde bees in my yard seem to do this!
Fascinating!
Saturday, April 10, 2010
1 Mini-marshmallow, 3 plastic bags, and a ream of tape later...
I installed my first package of bees! Alan dropped the bees off around 6:30 tonight. I thought it would be too late to install them and that I would have to wait until Monday (rain tomorrow). But Alan said I could do it tonight, so that's what I did.
I made a video, which I will eventually get uploaded for your comedic enjoyment. But basically, the bees come in a little wood and mesh cage, which includes approximately 10,000 worker bees, a tin of sugar syrup and a protected queen bee, who is separated from her subjects by a tiny cage with a cork stopper in the end.
I took a few of the top bars out of the top bar hive to make a space to shake the bees into. Then I removed the tin of syrup, which blocks a big hole in the top of the main cage. At this point a few of the bees started climbing out. Next, I removed the queen cage and set it aside. Then I picked up the cage of worker bees and shook for all I was worth to get them all to drop out of the hole in the top of the cage and into the top bar hive. Another example of demo videos making it look way easier than it is. You really have to shake those bees!!! Poor things.
Next, I replaced the cork in the queen cage with a marshmallow and rubber-banded the queen cage to one of the top bars. Then I tried to get as many bees into the hive as I could, and finished by placing the tin of syrup, which has holes in the bottom, over a hole in a specially designed top bar, which allows the syrup to drip into the hive where the bees suck it up.
It's going to rain tomorrow and possibly tonight, but I couldn't put the lid on the hive because the sugar syrup tin was sticking out the top. So, I taped plastic kitchen bin liners over the top of the hive. Ain't no water gettin' in thar!
I think I deserve a big glass of wine now:)
I made a video, which I will eventually get uploaded for your comedic enjoyment. But basically, the bees come in a little wood and mesh cage, which includes approximately 10,000 worker bees, a tin of sugar syrup and a protected queen bee, who is separated from her subjects by a tiny cage with a cork stopper in the end.
I took a few of the top bars out of the top bar hive to make a space to shake the bees into. Then I removed the tin of syrup, which blocks a big hole in the top of the main cage. At this point a few of the bees started climbing out. Next, I removed the queen cage and set it aside. Then I picked up the cage of worker bees and shook for all I was worth to get them all to drop out of the hole in the top of the cage and into the top bar hive. Another example of demo videos making it look way easier than it is. You really have to shake those bees!!! Poor things.
Next, I replaced the cork in the queen cage with a marshmallow and rubber-banded the queen cage to one of the top bars. Then I tried to get as many bees into the hive as I could, and finished by placing the tin of syrup, which has holes in the bottom, over a hole in a specially designed top bar, which allows the syrup to drip into the hive where the bees suck it up.
It's going to rain tomorrow and possibly tonight, but I couldn't put the lid on the hive because the sugar syrup tin was sticking out the top. So, I taped plastic kitchen bin liners over the top of the hive. Ain't no water gettin' in thar!
I think I deserve a big glass of wine now:)
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Right on the nose!
I was stung today for the second time since beginning bee-keeping. The first time I was trying to capture a swarm and one of the bees got caught between my thumb and my glove, the tips which are cut off to protect my hands but leave my fingers free.
Today, one of the girls from the combo hive flew up to me, grabbed my nose, and stung me...right on the tip! Well, that is how it seemed to me immediately following the incident. In retrospect, I was putting my nose pretty much in the hive, trying to get a close look through the inner cover. Someone flew up to check me out, I got nervous and tried to brush her away, she felt threatened (who wouldn't with a giant swatting at you) and I got stung. Owe!
Thank goodness I don't react like Tim or I'd have a giant red clown nose the size of a giant tomato!!!
Today, one of the girls from the combo hive flew up to me, grabbed my nose, and stung me...right on the tip! Well, that is how it seemed to me immediately following the incident. In retrospect, I was putting my nose pretty much in the hive, trying to get a close look through the inner cover. Someone flew up to check me out, I got nervous and tried to brush her away, she felt threatened (who wouldn't with a giant swatting at you) and I got stung. Owe!
Thank goodness I don't react like Tim or I'd have a giant red clown nose the size of a giant tomato!!!
Monday, April 5, 2010
Movies, movies, everywhere.....
It's taken time but I finally got on top of all the movies that I took during all the swarms we had and then the subsequent hive inspections. They are mainly a record for Jessica and I, but they are fun to watch if you are interested. They are tagged on the end of the relevant posts written at the time. My favorites are these though. They were taken during the time that the old hive and the split hive started to swarm at the same time...... it was a little bit of a shock to be there at the time and it all happened on my birthday.
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