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.