One week with the second deep

It's Thursday the 27th of May, and it's been a week since I've added the second deep. I've been itching to see how they are doing - have they expanded upward?

Well the outer most frames each have more than a few bees on them, and as I get closer to the center, as you can see, there comb is being built out nicely. They all seem really focused. almost as if I am not there (which is nice).
As I removed the top deep to take a better look at the 1st level deep, the bees were not as happy with me. Several were pinging off my veil, and I was glad I had it on. The fact that I had to separate several frames that had burr comb built on it, probably was the key factor - they seemed fine until I disturbed the comb. My smoker while initally lit and working fine had begun to peter out on me - turns out I burned all the pinecone and needles in the smoker :( ... so I took a deep breath and just persevered. I escaped again without being stung. It's interesting that the bottom deep still has little comb built on frames 1 and 2 ... perhaps the orientation of the entrance facing more S, SW has to do with it? Many frames were heavy to lift, and seemed packed with capped honey. I once again found the queen, and seeing lots of eggs and larvae stages, I felt secure that the hive seemed in order. I put the second deep back on top, along with the top frame feeder, freshly topped off with 1:1 sugar syrup.

Size comparison - drone vs worker bee

Here is a fairly good photo showing a side by side comparison of a (female) worker bee on the left and a (male) drone bee on the right.  Note that the drone is much larger and also appears to have no space between the eyes.

I made the newspaper.

I was "interviewed" by staff writer Julie Cohen of the Norwood Transcript & Bulletin via a series of Q & A's. I think it's a great article - click on this link: This hobby is the bee's knees The article in the newspaper had 2 pictures in it - these do not appear on the web view.

Adding on a second story ... another deep

Thursday 20 May Unexpectantly being home at lunchtime today (a water main break on the street where the elementary school is, forced a cancellation of school mid-morning, so I am home with Colin) I was able to spend some time with the bees at lunch. The single deep has well developed comb on 6.5 of the 10 frames. The hive entrance faces due south and the 3 eastern most frames have bees on them, but little comb development at the moment. It's a beautiful sunny day with nary a cloud in the sky and a temperature of almost 75 degrees by 12:30 - the girls are very active today flying in and out of the hive. I decided that being away this weekend for the annual (35th this year) GEOGE golf tournament, I should consider adding another deep super rather than risk the thought of swarming while I am gone. So after an initial inspection of the hive, I have added a second deep to the top of the hive. Lots of room for expansion. The bees seemed to be in a good mood today - no one seemed really concerned that I was in there. My smoker once again didn't stay lit, so it's a good thing the girls seemed calm and collected. I pulled and looked over 5 frames - never did see the queen, although I saw lots of larvae and lots of eggs. I grabbed some photos as I went along, and in reviewing those photos, I found the queen! I need to be more observant! She's about in the middle of this picture with the blue dot.

I think the comb looks great. I can find lots of eggs, and lots of developed larvae, capped cells, and pollen cells.

A very interesting couple of things happened as I was putting the top frame feeder back on top of the now double high deeps ... first I saw 2 bees obviously battling each other, finally ending up with one fly away with the other in it's grasp ... could this have been robbing going on? I did have the feeder with sugar syrup exposed to the air for quite a lengthy period of time ... perhaps 10 min? The other thing was when I placed the feeder back on top of the supers, with a min or so, the sound coming from the feeder area increased in volume and pitch ... very noticeably. As I bent my ear closer to the area, and gazed in for a look, I couldn't believe what I was seeing ... the bees seemed to be just standing in place(s) and slowly beating their wings - as if they were trying to cool the area down. I took my little digital camera and attempted to capture some of what I was looking at - hopefully you can see it here . The comb you see here in the feeder is brace comb I scraped from the inner cover.

Adding syrup to the feeder

It's Thursday and it's been a great sunny warm day.  I checked on the bees when I got home tonight and there was a lot of hive activity.  It's going to get cooler and will rain tomorrow. I'm worried that there isn't enough syrup in the top frame feeder to keep them for the day, so I decided to add some.  It takes a while to make up the syrup - 5 lbs sugar to dissolve in 2.5 qts of boiling water.  It takes longer to let it cool enough to put in the feeder - even if you try to force cool it by placing it in the freezer.  By the time I was able to get out to the hive with the syrup, it was 7:35, and the sunset tonight was at 7:58.  The temperature had dropped to about 57 degrees F and the hive activity had really dropped off when I got there.  Hat, veil, gloves, no suit, no smoker.  I thought I'd just crack open the top cover a bit and pour in the syrup ... yeah, right ... curiousity is a powerful thing and I fully pulled the top cover off to see what was going on inside.  The bees were very VERY docile.  I might have gotten away with no protective gear; but, I realize that is a bad practice to get into.  Surprisingly I did resist the urge to pull the feeder off and then look at a few frames - I'll do that this weekend.  The bees that were in the feeder area hardly flexed a wing muscle or noticed I was there.  I poured the syrup in evenly on both sides, replaced the top cover and the task was done!

A half hour later while sitting in the "sun room" on the back of the house doing email I heard what is now a familiar "buzzzzzzzZZZZZZzzzzzzzz" ... apparently one of the girls came in on my clothing.  I tried to catch her to and give her a custom "limo" ride back to her abode; but by the time I came back in the room with a glass and index card to catch her, she flew in amongst the indoor plants and has apparently settled down given the temperature and lack of daylight.  I can't find her and I can't hear her - perhaps tomorrow in the morning light she will become active enough for me to find her.

Books about Bees or Beekeeping

I've done quite a bit of reading in preparation for this first year of beekeeping.  Here is a list or those books I own and read, or (from memory) those I have borrowed from the library and read. I love beeing married to the Director of a public library.  I also included a few books I hope to find to read.  I highly recommend the book The Queen Must Die and Other Affairs of Bees and Men - it is not a how to book, just a great read about the daily life or ethnography of bees.

Charlie

Saturday 8 May 2010.  I'm going to start this blog entry with a quick hello to a 6 year old young lady from England named Charlie, who I understand, likes to read about my bees.  I hope to one day meet her.  Maybe if the bees allow me some honey at the end of their year, I can find a way to send her some of my first year honey.  Who knows, perhaps one day she'll become a beekeeper herself and save the bees or the world ... or convince her Mom and Dad to begin keeping bees.

The day here started with thunderstorms, and near continuous rain till about 2:30.  When it stopped and warmed up a bit, I saw some bee flight activity.  Now was the opportunity to check on them.  I probably took a bit of a chance by wearing only the hat and veil netting and gloves; but, successfully did the hive inspection without getting stung (still). For the future, I must store some pine cones and pine needles inside someplace to keep them dry - this is the fuel I use for the smoker.  The rain made it nearly impossible to start, and sure enough by the time I had finished the inspection, it had gone out . Overall they have started to draw some level of comb out on 8 of the 10 frames.  The 2 outermost frames (#1 and #10) really don't have much happening to them yet.  The outermost of the 8  (#2 and #9)are really just beginning to store pollen. You can see the bright yellow pollen stores here on frame #2.

I found the queen without any problem.  She really does not like the light of day and was quickly scurrying to get to the other side - I did capture her here (blue dot).  Notice her size in comparison to the other bees - about 20 - 25% bigger than her female workers ... longer and fatter.  I don't think I see any drones here in this photo.

The top feeder is still being heavily used.  There is syrup still in it.  I probably should have topped it off; but, I didn't have any sugar syrup prepared because I thought it was going to rain all day and didn't really think I'd get inside the hive to check on them.  Tomorrow is supposed to be windy with gusts to 35 mph, certainly not a good day to be checking flying insects. Maybe I can quickly remove the top cover and pour some medicated feed in there.

I can really feel the weight difference now in the center most frames.  I can see that the 3 or 4 center most frames now have some capped cells.  I can also see that the queen is actively laying eggs - they look like tiny grains of white rice - very visible here in the photo below. 

I can also see where some have grown into quite large larvae - these are the ones that look like a large fat, white "C".  All these bees are nurse bees attending to the brood.

I think they are doing fine!

Some bee facts that might be interesting

There are three types of honey bees in the hive: the queen, the workers, and the drones.

The Queen:

• Will live normally between 1 and 4 years.
• Is fed royal jelly by the workers.
• Has a non-barbed stinger.
• Can lay in excess of 1,500 eggs per day.
• Without a queen, the colony will eventually die.
• Develops in 16 days.

The Workers:

• Can number between 40,000-60,000 in a strong colony.
• Are all females.
• Perform a multitude of tasks including: Tending to the queen, feeding larvae, feeding drones, ripening nectar, producing heat, collecting water for cooling, housecleaning, guard duty, and field collection of pollen, propolis, and nectar.
• Will die if she stings. Has a barbed stinger that is left behind.
• Will live 6-8 weeks in summer, working until her wings give out.
• Will live 4-6 months in winter when not actively working/foraging.
• Develop in 21 days

The Drones:

• Sole responsibility is fertilization.
• Leave the hive for 2-3 hours each day.
• Have no stingers.
• If the workers stopped feeding the drones, they would starve.
• Develop in 24 days.

 General Facts

• A single bee may collect 1/12 teaspoon of honey in a lifetime.
• To make one pound of honey, bees may need to fly 50,000 miles.
• Honey bees may forage up to 2-5 miles from the hive.
• Bees do not hibernate, but cluster for warmth and remain active in winter.
• Bees will maintain an internal cluster temp of 92 degrees in the coldest part of winter, while rearing brood.
• Bees will disconnect their wings allowing themselves to pump their wing muscle to provide heat.
• Bees will fly outside the hive when temps rise above 50 degrees.
• A beekeeper's main tools are a protective veil, smoker, and hive tool.
• Smoke inhibits alarm pheromones from alerting other bees. They also gorge themselves as their instinct tells them that a fire is approaching and if they need to flee, they want to take as much resources as possible.
• A beekeeper harvests the extra honey the bees provide beyond what they need to survive. The record harvested from one colony was 404 pounds from the Aebis family in 1974.
• Raw honey contains many beneficial minerals and vitamins. Honey also has antibacterial properties and anti-oxidant benefits. Many claim relief from allergy symptoms by using local raw honey containing pollen.
• There are many varieties of honey. From orange blossom produced in the South, award winning Tupelo, clover and alfalfa, to apple and blueberry.
• Honey comes as extracted or liquid, creamed, or in the comb.
• We only produce about 50% of the honey we consume in the U.S.
• Honey bees pollinate 1/3 of all fruits and vegetables.
• There are about 1/2 the number of beekeepers there were 25 years ago.
• We have lost about 1/3 of the colonies we had 25 years ago.
• For every 100 beekeepers, 95% are hobbyists, 4% sideliners, and less than 1% are fulltime or commercial beekeepers.
• Beekeeping can be a sustainable endeavor.
• Beekeeping produces the most "green" sweetener you can buy locally or produce yourself.
• Besides honey, you can harvest beeswax, propolis, and pollen.
• Renting bee hives to farmers in need of pollination generates a source of income for some beekeepers.
• Beekeeping is dated at least 4500 years.
• Beehives are kept on farms, in backyards, on balconies and high-rise rooftops, and all areas across the country.
• Honey Bees are kept or managed in all 50 states.
• There are local, county, state, and national bee associations.

Frame explanation

Taking the time this morning to really look at one of the pictures I quickly took one-handed while the other hand was firmly grasping a brood frame, I was amazed at what I had captured. You can see the queen - she's the one with the blue dot painted on her back. You can purchase a marked queen so you can easily spot her in the hive. They use different color markings for each year so that you can also tell her age. Typically a good queen lives only 3 or 4 years. The color for 2010 is obviously blue.

The hive started with plain foundation for the bees to build their comb onto. In the corner of the photo, you can see this plain foundation. Looking elsewhere in the photo, you can see where the comb is being drawn out. You can also see the pollen stores (yellow) inside the comb cell. Additionally you can see the clear syrup stores - I assume that this is simply a transfer from the top frame feeder, I think stored nectar has more of a yellow hue to it.

She's free and the hive looks great!

Didn't get back to the hive here till ~2:00 pm. Sunny, temperature about 80 F, lots of activity at the hive. Anxious to see if the queen has been freed and what the inside of the hive looks like. Made up 2.5 qts of sugar syrup for the top frame feeder, started the smoker, protective gear on, and off I go. Charlotte is following me out, and staying at a safe distace she's taking some pictures of me with the hive. I am anxious to take a look inside and see the queen, but, not nervous all about being stung. Approaching the hive from the rear, I puffed the smoker at the front entrance on both sides. I lifted a corner of the top cover and smoked a few puffs there too. Completely pulling off the top cover, I can see where I squished 2 bees a week ago as I put the cover on - must be more careful this week.

Not much syrup left in the feeder. It's a good thing I prepared some fresh syrup for them.

I removed the feeder, pulled off the inner cover, I had the space side down which had left room for bees between the top of the frames and the inner cover, this is now totally covered in bees ... I'm smiling to see them all there!

Smoke the top of the frames ... great buzzing hum coming from the hive body!

I can see the queen cage, some burr comb is to either side of it ... a good sign! As I remove the cage, there is no queen ... she's freed! I carefully pull out a frame, and quickly catch a glimpse of the marked queen before she scoots out of the daylight. This frame is beginning to have the comb built out on it.

I hold the frame up and carefully look at it, I can see the pollen stores, at least 2 different shades of yellow. I can see what I assume is sugar water stored in numerous other cells. I didn't notice eggs; but, then again, I didn't look very hard ... just thrilled to see all looks OK. I carefully put that frame back in place and pulled out the one next to it. It looks nearly identical, comb being built out on both sides. I scrape off as best I can the excess burr comb before placing it back in the hive. All told it looks like 4 frames have comb being built out.

The feeling of holding the frames with multiple hundreds of bees on each side is hard to describe. There is an inner calm that comes over me as I am standing there. This is nature at it's rawest form. I am part of saving the bees ... feels pretty good too!

So I carefully put everything back together, fill the feeder with syrup. I am careful this time placing the top cover back on. Done. Now, let them alone for perhaps 2 weeks depending on the weather. I might open the entrance up a bit; but other than that I'll just sit there with my binocs or camera.

It's Saturday May 1 and 7 full days have gone by since I installed the bees in the hive. Although yesterday was plenty warm enough to do a hive check, I didn't get back home till after 7 which is really too late to start gathering things together. There was still plenty of bee activity in and out of the hive through all the way till sunset.

The morning was gorgeous here - bright and warm and as I sat opposite the entrance to the hive watching the bees go in and out, I thought I could see pollen sacs full. With my eyesight and the quickness to which the bees would land and go in the entrance, I needed to get my binoculars out to really see what was going on. A quick look, then off to get the camera. Nice to see them carrying in basket after basket of pollen.