Summer is here and the bees are buzzin'

Ben showing nice laying pattern on a frame with capped honey on the outside and top.

Well, so much has happened since my last post so I'll try to do a quick recap of what's been going on. We consulted with Ben Crawley on May 10th to help us determine exactly what was happening with our bees. We increased from 3 hives to 8 over two months because of the swarming and our catching the swarms. Craig made several trips to Busy Bee Apiary to pick up extra hive boxes and frames to have available for the splitting and swarming. Ben was a tremendous help and he marked the queen in each hive. We learned that we have some strong hives, with only one needing a bit of help with feeding. We also learned that we needed to take some honey to make space for more honey while it was flowing. While Ben was here to help with working the hives, we cleaned off comb and cut down queen cells in a couple of frames. The three hours spent with him was well worth the cost because we learned so much about where we stand at this point.

Equipment in these pictures.

A couple days after getting deep into the hives, Craig and Jim drove to Brushy Mountain in North Wilkesboro to get the extractor and the decapping bin. We were ready for taking our first honey. That weekend, we put on our gear, got our smoker ready and went forth to take some frames of full honey. Craig had plenty of replacement frames ready to put into the hives. We had a plastic bin with a lid and each fully capped frame of honey that we took from the hive had to be brushed to remove the bees. They didn't always agree with the process and we got a few stings on our hands. Once the honey laden frame was placed in the bin, we quickly capped the bin and moved on to the next frame. In all, we took 14 frames of honey which resulted in about 4 gallons of honey. The process went smoothly and I really enjoyed taking off the caps and Craig enjoyed running the extractor. The pictures below will give further details.

Bees are CRAZY today!

Here are some drone comb that we reomoved from between the frames.

Today we entered all 8 of our hives. If you have been following, we only had 3 hives last year but due to swarming and recapturing, we now have 8. So as we entered the hives, I marked the hive boxes with a number so that we can keep accurate records. I understand that if you have hundreds of colonies of bees, you must have an accurate system of documenting the health, status and how you worked the hives. Starting with 8, that's more than we are able to talk about without a system. I'm still looking for an online documentation program that is free so let me know if you know about one.

Well, we realized that two of our hives are probably without a queen and may need to wait for the workers to raise a queen or our question is, should we buy a queen and reintroduce to the hive.

When we opened hives 4 and 6 we found a lot of worker bees, a large number of drones and lots of honey. The brood seemed to have all emerged and there were NO NEW EGGS. Alert, Alert. Where is the queen. Well, either they are slow to start a new queen or the one that they had didn't come back from her maiden flight. I have wondered where those queens fly to get fertilized? Do they go out with drones from other hives? Drones from their own hive? Anyway, each drone that mates with the queen, dies after the process.




Anyway, we are doing the best that we know for now and feel that our hives are doing well. I'll let you know more next week. Today I got stung on the hand and Craig on the neck. I'll post pictures of his sting from last week. You will understand why he has an epipen.









Ending on a happy note. Happy Easter.

Art work by Brinae. Such a great illustration of my favorite! Thanks Brinae.

And another one of her favorites. She has experience drawing Winnie the Poo for many years! This is one of her favorites and one of the first pieces of art in her new sketch book.

Really? Seven hives in our Backyard?

April 7, 2011

Well, here we are at the beginning of Spring with seven hives in our backyard. We never intended to have more than two or three hives on our acre lot but the bees had a different plan. Swarming results in splitting and splitting requires more hive bodies (called deeps). Newbies to beekeeping, we had no idea that bees multiply so quickly after the winter solstice. After that point during the winter and when the temperatures are very cold, the queen gets on with her laying of eggs. Mark that up to winter boredom. They are all balled up yet having a huge birthing celebration. Everyone gets very hungry and it is common for colonies to starve during this time because they are working hard to keep the hive warm for their little ones. It reminds me of how I would wake up several times a night when my babies were newborns to make sure they were warm during the cold winters.

So after using honey from the stores during the winter, as soon as the earliest food resources start to blossomi in early spring, the colony growth takes a giant step. More brood emerges and the queen has more space for continued egg laying.

When you start raising bees, this aspect is important to understand as you move into spring - after acquiring bees the year before. Our good friends, Linda and Jim, had their first swarm today. We feel like pros after four swarms so Craig was free to go over and help them gather up the swarm and place them into a new hive box. Unfortunately, this was not what they wanted so they left that box. We would love to think that they returned to their original home or hive but that is most likely NOT what happened. I'll post later any information about their hives. By the way, they got their bees the same day as we did and our colonies have all split so it was just their time. Good luck Linda and Jim.

Here are some pictures from last year when we installed our bees. Enjoy.

Swarm, Buzz and Basketball

Today is April 4th and we have had 3 more swarms since I posted about our first one about a week and a half ago. Today is also the day for the final game of the NCAA tournament between Butler and UConn. Anyway, here's what happened.

On April 2, Craig was home alone when he watched a whirlwind looking swarm moving up into the wax myrtle between our house and the next door neighbor's house. He rescued those with a bucket on a pole and when I returned, he had them safe in a hive box where they remain - we think. The next day was Sunday, April 3 and about 10:00 that morning, he called me with an urgent message - another swarm. They flew up into a tree and a short time later, they moved over to the neighbor's yard, under a wooden bench. Craig used a wide shovel and buckets to gather up this bundle of buzzing maniacs. Let me say, he was none too pleased when I returned and promptly left for an important meeting as soon as my bee gear was donned. My job, and Emily helped, was to get them out of the mess of sticks, leaves, yard mulch, etc and into their hive box. Bees were everywhere but we managed to get the queen and enough of her supporters into the box where they are living until we get them transferred over to a hive. The box where they are staying temporarily is a nuc box with frames so we hope the transition will be a smoothe one.

So today, another swarm. We had zero equipment to house another swarm so Craig and I went over to Busy Bee Apiaries in Chapel Hill to purchase enough equipment to get us through the recent rash of swarms. Is the moon full or are they just being difficult? They landed in Cindy's yard next door in a tree above the home of her chickens. Cindy is a fabulous neighbor and supports the bumbling around of our bees. She has some great chickens (all girls) who are super curious about our bees. The girls closely watched today as we removed swarm number 4 from above their house. I was so busy helping Craig that I didn't get to take many pictures. They seemed to be cheering us on as Craig climbed up the ladder and I held the capture bucket.

We'll see what tomorrow will bring. The weather may be a bit rainy so let's hope the bees will stay put so we can focus on something besides swarm rescue.

Sting report: Craig 5; Debbie 0. Unlike the basketball game tonight, lowest score wins. Yay Debbie.

Swarms galore!

Today is Monday, March 28th, 2011 and we've had two swarms in the past two weeks. The first occurred around March 15th while I was in Ocracoke for a seminar. The weather had been very warm and nice and one afternoon, Craig walked outside and heard a loud buzzing sound which alarmed him - a swarm??? He looked everywhere and did not find it. The neighbor confirmed that she had also heard bees buzzing. The following week, we confirmed that one of our hives had swarmed. Our agricultural extension agent (bee expert) examined all three hives and showed us an empty queen cell. See picture.

Once the new, young queen emerges from the queen cell, she will work on taking over the hive so the older queen makes the exit and takes most of her workers with her. (The new queen may be younger but who do you think is smarter or am I confusing this with a friend of mine who's husband just ran off with a younger woman) This process where the workers grow a new queen is called supersedure. We lost those bees and when it happened, I felt like a bad parent, neglecting my children.

But, today when the hive swarmed, Craig was like a dog on point, spotting them right away. Thank goodness he came home early to find them huddled in a tight ball in the oak leaf hydrangea bush freezing their little stingers off. Right away, he contacted the Wake County Beekeepers call list of people that help with swarms. I think we could have handled it but it was very nice to have Frank Borge come over and offer his assistance. By the way, if you are ever in the presence of a swarm, and have no intentions of keeping them, please protect them as much as possible by getting online and contacting by phone someone who will come and remove the bees for you. http://www.wakecountybeekeepers.org/swarm-list/

Anyway, they were cold, filled with honey and cooperative so we were able to place them into an empty hive. Craig had an empty 8 frame body filled with frames and an additional empty hive box. He put the frame filled body on the bottom board, set it up near the swarm and then put the empty box on top. We did it this way to avoid the problem of getting the bees inside the hive body while frames may have been in the way. Some instructions say to remove half the frames and then shake the bees into the space between the frames. But, then you are challenged with placing the frames back in the hive later when the bees may be in the way. What would be terrible would be to crush the queen when you are trying to return the frames to the box.

After putting the majority of the bees back in the new box, the rest found their way within about an hour. It was getting cooler and the sun was setting so we were happy to see that all had found their way back to their queen. She may be old, but she's still their queen. Let's hope they make it through this night when Greg Fishel predicts the temps will hover around 31 degrees. Stay warm little bees.

Well, one year later

Here it is March again and we have had the bees almost one whole year. We've kept them happy and hopefully healthy so that this year in June we can reap the benefits. We are waiting a couple more weeks before we open up the hives to check to see if they have survived the winter without problems with verroa mites or beetles. Those dang little hive beetles are a tough tumble for the bees because of their hard outer shells. I have watched the bees run after the beetles and roll them over trying to get them out of the hive. We can squash them with the hive tool but my fear is that they will grow in numbers, infesting the honey. We will know soon just how they have survived.

The little foragers are returning to the hive with an abundance of pollen attached to their hind legs. If you have never witnessed this, it's amazing how much they can carry. I have not gotten any good pictures of our bees loaded down but here's one that is from www.beepollen4u.com/photobee.htm . Notice the orange fullness. We hope to find the queen still laying and the hive clean. One thing that we have noticed is a lot of drones hanging around the water fountain and the bird bath. They have been having trouble staying out of the water and once they get in, it is still so cold that it is next to impossible for them to recover and get out. I need to find out more about the best means for watering in the early spring when the temperatures go down so low at night but get up in the 60's during the day. Our next door neighbor enjoys having the bees visit her to help with pollenation of her garden. We hope to provide honey for her in return for fresh eggs from her 8 chickens. So long for now and I hope to keep the stories and pictures coming. Ta-da for now.