Another beekeeping year and yet another attempt to keep up this blog.
There was so much I should have written about last year but didn't. Probably my hi-light came in August down in Marion when I was fortunate enough to introduce Charlie and Katie Sheldrake to my bees. Although young(6 & 8?), they trusted me enough to get them close - with protection of course- and they were rewarded with the taste of fresh honey direct from a frame. We collected enough for them to take some home with them. They also witnessed the birth of several bees breaking free from the comb.
I can sum up the year overall as this: the hive in the Norwood community garden was strong. It survived the winter and spring and continues to look good. My Marion hives looked good, although one hive was much stronger than the other even though they were side by side. Unfortunately the weaker hive did not make it through October - one day they all were gone, no signs, no warning. The other hive survived through winter; but, spring was not kind to them. They looked strong but slowly dwindled away. I initially saw brood, then nothing.
Saturday, June 14, 2014
New bees in Marion
I really didn't think I'd be able to find and buy a package of bees so late into the season, but I guess they are late coming up from Georgia.
I bought a 3 lb package of bees along with a queen. I picked them up yesterday and installed them today in the hive.
Click here to Watch me install bees
I bought a 3 lb package of bees along with a queen. I picked them up yesterday and installed them today in the hive.
Click here to Watch me install bees
Friday, May 10, 2013
I'm in here waiting for you ... Got'ya!
May 9 Checking on the Marion Bees
Ouch
We ran down to check on the Marion bees after work and to give them some 50/50 syrup. A quick look when I got there, both hives looked good, so I walked back to the house to mix the syrup and get my bee suit on. It was getting dark and I didn't cherish the thought of doing too much after sunset so I was working fast. I carried the syrup in two containers down to the hive area, set them down and flipped the hood over my head on the bee suit, securing it with the 2 zippers. Nice and tight nothing getting in. I walked over, put the syrup into the two hives. One has a top feeder that takes about 2 gallons, the other has an inverted jar feeder that sits inside a deep. I closed both hives up, and started to walk away.
Bzzzzz, bzzzzz, bzzzzzz. Not unusual, they frequently buzz around me, on on near the veil. Nothing to worry about.
Bzzzzz bzzzzzz - this time quite loud. Obvious it was only a single bee. By now I am 20 feet from the hive.
Ouch! What? How'd you get in here? Either this was a carryover bee from last night's foray at the NGC bees or else one managed to sit on my hat as I was putting the hood on. She was inside the veil and stung me cleanly on the neck, right next to the adam's apple. Yes it hurt, but I was more surprised than hurt.
Her last words udoubtedly were "Yup ... I was waiting for you. Yes, I got'ya!"
Ouch
We ran down to check on the Marion bees after work and to give them some 50/50 syrup. A quick look when I got there, both hives looked good, so I walked back to the house to mix the syrup and get my bee suit on. It was getting dark and I didn't cherish the thought of doing too much after sunset so I was working fast. I carried the syrup in two containers down to the hive area, set them down and flipped the hood over my head on the bee suit, securing it with the 2 zippers. Nice and tight nothing getting in. I walked over, put the syrup into the two hives. One has a top feeder that takes about 2 gallons, the other has an inverted jar feeder that sits inside a deep. I closed both hives up, and started to walk away.
Bzzzzz, bzzzzz, bzzzzzz. Not unusual, they frequently buzz around me, on on near the veil. Nothing to worry about.
Bzzzzz bzzzzzz - this time quite loud. Obvious it was only a single bee. By now I am 20 feet from the hive.
Ouch! What? How'd you get in here? Either this was a carryover bee from last night's foray at the NGC bees or else one managed to sit on my hat as I was putting the hood on. She was inside the veil and stung me cleanly on the neck, right next to the adam's apple. Yes it hurt, but I was more surprised than hurt.
Her last words udoubtedly were "Yup ... I was waiting for you. Yes, I got'ya!"
Looking Good at the Gardens
May 9
Checking on the Norwood Community Garden (NCG) bees tonight quickly before it rains. They seem content. I can see many arriving on the landing board with their pollen sacs full - always a good sign. When pollen is coming in to the hive, it means there are bee larvae to be fed. I added a deep box on top and placed a gallon feeder filled with 50/50 sugar mix as an added help to get them established here.
Done, just in time as here come the rains.
Checking on the Norwood Community Garden (NCG) bees tonight quickly before it rains. They seem content. I can see many arriving on the landing board with their pollen sacs full - always a good sign. When pollen is coming in to the hive, it means there are bee larvae to be fed. I added a deep box on top and placed a gallon feeder filled with 50/50 sugar mix as an added help to get them established here.
Done, just in time as here come the rains.
The Nucs Are Here!
After several delays in the delivery of the bees, my nucs are here for pickup. I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of these bees so I can re-establish my two hives that are at the Marion house, and establish the new hive that I have placed in the Norwood Community Garden.
How does one go about getting bees for a hive, and just what is a "nuc"?
You can get bees in a number of ways:
1) If you are lucky, or smart, or particularly crafty, you can catch a swarm, or track feral bees to their hive location and catch them in the wild. You capture the queen and thousands of workers. Not something that most newbies will do.
2) You can buy a "package". Typically this is a 3 pound package of bees along with (usually) a virgin queen in a separate cage. You install the bees by literally pouring them into the open hive. You suspend the queen in her cage between some frames and allow the bees to get used to her pheromones (she is new to them, they are not her offsprings). There is a candy plug in the end of the cage, and over the course of manys days, the candy is eaten away, freeing the queen. By then, the bees are used to her pheromones and (most usually) accepts her into the hive. About 3 weeks from that point you should start to see new baby bees.
3) You buy a nuc ... or nucleus. This is in essence a mini somewhat established working hive. It has 5 frames, usually with mostly fully drawn out comb. There is a mated queen, laying eggs. There is packed pollen, larvae, and perhaps some honey. You put the 5 frames into your 10 frame hive in exactly the same order as they were in the nuc. There are several thousand (10?) worker bees. The hive is immediately off and working. No delays.
So I bought 3 nucs at $110 each, and put one in the Norwood Community Garden bee hive, and two down at the Marion hives.
The nucs don't take long to install. More time is usually spent getting the suit on, smoker lit, and pieces all together.
At the NCG hive, I had several spectators watching and taking pictures. I handed Vic Babel a hat and veil to put on. He had a long sleeve sweatshirt on already. I told him that he could get quite close as I installed the frames from the nuc, and as long as he didn't wave his hands about in panic, the bees should not bother him. I think he was a bit to a lot nervous at first, particularly when several hundred bees came out at once and began flying about - mostly at me. Vic did great. Several landed on him, many were buzzing about the veil, and he stood calmly in one spot watching. He had a great introduction to the bees. That install went well, as did the two down in Marion that I did by myself.
How does one go about getting bees for a hive, and just what is a "nuc"?
You can get bees in a number of ways:
1) If you are lucky, or smart, or particularly crafty, you can catch a swarm, or track feral bees to their hive location and catch them in the wild. You capture the queen and thousands of workers. Not something that most newbies will do.
2) You can buy a "package". Typically this is a 3 pound package of bees along with (usually) a virgin queen in a separate cage. You install the bees by literally pouring them into the open hive. You suspend the queen in her cage between some frames and allow the bees to get used to her pheromones (she is new to them, they are not her offsprings). There is a candy plug in the end of the cage, and over the course of manys days, the candy is eaten away, freeing the queen. By then, the bees are used to her pheromones and (most usually) accepts her into the hive. About 3 weeks from that point you should start to see new baby bees.
3) You buy a nuc ... or nucleus. This is in essence a mini somewhat established working hive. It has 5 frames, usually with mostly fully drawn out comb. There is a mated queen, laying eggs. There is packed pollen, larvae, and perhaps some honey. You put the 5 frames into your 10 frame hive in exactly the same order as they were in the nuc. There are several thousand (10?) worker bees. The hive is immediately off and working. No delays.
So I bought 3 nucs at $110 each, and put one in the Norwood Community Garden bee hive, and two down at the Marion hives.
The nucs don't take long to install. More time is usually spent getting the suit on, smoker lit, and pieces all together.
At the NCG hive, I had several spectators watching and taking pictures. I handed Vic Babel a hat and veil to put on. He had a long sleeve sweatshirt on already. I told him that he could get quite close as I installed the frames from the nuc, and as long as he didn't wave his hands about in panic, the bees should not bother him. I think he was a bit to a lot nervous at first, particularly when several hundred bees came out at once and began flying about - mostly at me. Vic did great. Several landed on him, many were buzzing about the veil, and he stood calmly in one spot watching. He had a great introduction to the bees. That install went well, as did the two down in Marion that I did by myself.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Year 2013
OK, it's another year, and yet another promise to blog more. Unlike 2012, this year we'll not be selling 1 house, buying and moving into 2 others, celebrating the wedding of 2 of our children, and closing a storage unit that eyes had not set on in 10 or more years. My bees (and my golf) will be a priority this year.
The year 2013 will be different for many reasons. First, I have 3 hives this year, one more than last year. One is in a community garden in our new home town of Norwood. The other two hives are down at our Marion vacation/retirement home. I can't wait to compare and contrast the taste of the honeys from these two different locations. Putting it in wine terms, the terroir should result in a different taste. Second, one of my "followers" over the years is moving from England to this country. Her father is and has been a close friend and colleague. He is now moving over as manager of our group. It is a great honor to work for him, and the teamwork that will result from this change will be phenomenal. Yet, one of the biggest bonus benefits of this change at work is that he'll be moving here with his family, and I will finally meet his two youngest daughters. For several years now, Charlie has followed with interest my bees, and I periodically would send her some of my bees' honey. I really look forward to meeting Charlie and Katie. I can easily foresee Charlie as the next little beekeeper and bee savior. This is one 9 year old that I can't wait to see don a petite beesuit and veil and stand next to me observing the bees in their daily activities. From what I know of her, it won't "bee" long before she'll want to have her hands (with gloves) in the hives, handling frames, and observing bees up close and personal. If she'll have me, I'd love to mentor her.
My community garden hive is yet another opportunity to share my bees with others and educate during the process of beekeeping there. This year there are 64 plots in the garden, and therefore many opportunities for those gardeners and friends to see the bees and learn a bit about them as the bees and I interact. I have a garden plot there this year. We should see better pollination and better vegetable production with the bees so close by. I hope to not only educate the gardeners but also their families and friends as they come to the garden.
In 2013 I am also invited back to the Farmer's Market in Norwood center to do another bee introduction to the young children. Last year I jumped at the opportunity to help educate a group of children ages 4-10 on how to identify honeybees from wasps (yellow jacket and hornets), describe what they do, and taste some of the fruits of their labor. I am not sure who had more fun last year, them or me. We'll do it again this year, and hopefully we‘ll see another group of children walk away and begin to think more deeply about bees and their role in the world in which we all live.
Yes, 2013 should be a great year!
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
2012
I have a new bee resolution for the coming year, and that is to blog more.
I am thrilled to say that both of my hives have survived through the "winter" months. The unusually warm temperatures here in March have seen the bees out for many of the days bringing in pollen - just look at those colored and full pollen sacs in the picture below.
Although last night dipped into the 20's as will tonight, I don't think it'll have a negative effect on the hives as I have not disturbed them at all to this point by thinking of rotating the deep supers.
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We have the house up for sale and looking to move to another town closer to where my grandson, Colin, will be going to a private high school next year. Needless to say, one of the important criteria we are trying to prioritize high on the list of "wants" for the new place is that the yard must be suitable for the bees. I will obviously learn what it means to pack up the bees and move them, and I hope to blog it in detail.
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I hope it'll be (bee?) a good year for all bees.
- Posted using BlogPress
I am thrilled to say that both of my hives have survived through the "winter" months. The unusually warm temperatures here in March have seen the bees out for many of the days bringing in pollen - just look at those colored and full pollen sacs in the picture below.
Although last night dipped into the 20's as will tonight, I don't think it'll have a negative effect on the hives as I have not disturbed them at all to this point by thinking of rotating the deep supers.
************************************************************************************************
We have the house up for sale and looking to move to another town closer to where my grandson, Colin, will be going to a private high school next year. Needless to say, one of the important criteria we are trying to prioritize high on the list of "wants" for the new place is that the yard must be suitable for the bees. I will obviously learn what it means to pack up the bees and move them, and I hope to blog it in detail.
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I hope it'll be (bee?) a good year for all bees.
- Posted using BlogPress
Location:Barnstable Rd,Norfolk,United States
Sunday, September 25, 2011
MAQS
MAQS?
Mite Away Quick Strips.
I've been too busy to do mite checks, and when I did, I found I had a pretty good infestation. Fortunately MA has approved the use of MAQS this year, and even more fortunately, as late as Sat Sept 17th, I was able to find some of these MAQS at Behavin' Apiary in RI. Everett is always such a good source of info, comradery , and supplies! I put the 2 strips per hive on Wed night Sep 21 ... Bees weren't happy I was there and I got stung twice! Once through the leather gloves, and once when one crawled up under the bee suit pants legs, under my pants, and up on my calf. By the time I was able to get to that sting it was 15 min later and lots of the poison had been pumped into me. It was sore 24 hours later, but, very functional, and no swelling.
I do hope this works. The hive seems to be back to normal activity levels, so I will wait the specified 7-10 days at 50-92 F to see how we did. I'd like to see these bees survive the winter!
- Posted using BlogPress
Mite Away Quick Strips.
I've been too busy to do mite checks, and when I did, I found I had a pretty good infestation. Fortunately MA has approved the use of MAQS this year, and even more fortunately, as late as Sat Sept 17th, I was able to find some of these MAQS at Behavin' Apiary in RI. Everett is always such a good source of info, comradery , and supplies! I put the 2 strips per hive on Wed night Sep 21 ... Bees weren't happy I was there and I got stung twice! Once through the leather gloves, and once when one crawled up under the bee suit pants legs, under my pants, and up on my calf. By the time I was able to get to that sting it was 15 min later and lots of the poison had been pumped into me. It was sore 24 hours later, but, very functional, and no swelling.
I do hope this works. The hive seems to be back to normal activity levels, so I will wait the specified 7-10 days at 50-92 F to see how we did. I'd like to see these bees survive the winter!
- Posted using BlogPress
2011 has come and almost gone
Well, I had the best intentions this year - to blog as much as I did the first year, chronicling my adventures with the bees as a second year beekeeper. What happened? I'd like to say it was my work (employment) that kept me from blogging, and to some extent that is true. I really wish I could say it was the amount of time I spent golfing at Norfolk Golf Club, but, it wasn't. I think it was a combination of a lot of things ... work, family, vacations (count them, 3 - Italy for a week, CapeCod for a week, and California for a week), time spent revamping NorfolkGC.com website (the real reason I didn't write), and some degree of laziness for sure.
Today is Sep 25th, and the season is winding down. We started with 2 nucs this year, and we've been fortunate enough to get a honey harvest - despite all of the rain we had. Of the 2 hives, one seems to be more fond of putting honey on the medium super than the other, and therefore more productive. However, all told between the two hives the total tally is 24 pounds of honey that I have taken. And at this point, I think each hive still has approximately 30-40 lbs for them for the winter. I am not taking any more for me.
For as long as I live, I will cherish the memory of walking into the house with my first medium super of honey. Charlotte asked me what I had, and when I described what it was, she immediately came over with a spoon. Scraping down the comb, breaking it slightly, and scooping up that honey, it couldn't get any fresher that that. The smile on her face is what I live for, and she was smiling from ear to ear as she tasted that honey. She hordes it now :).
Charlotte has bought some 1/2 lb jars and come up with some labels. We have 2 different names on the honey labels: The Literary Bees and The Quotable Bees. Each label is unique and personal with quotes from famous people. We have given some honey away to friends, and we have saved some for Christmas gifts. We have had some (truth be told, more than some) that we've mixed with bourbon at 10 at night. It's been a good year, I've let the bees do their own thing, and they have done it well.
It is an amazing process to watch these bees do their work. Busy as a bee really does describe how they act if you ever are able to sit back and watch a hive. They come and go so quickly from the hive, it's like watching time lapse of planes landing at an airport.
Ever wonder what it takes to make honey?
How many flowers will a bee need to collect nectar from to make one tablespoon of honey?
The answer is 2000 flowers
How many flowers does a bee visit to make a pound of honey?
To make a pound of honey the bees need to visit about two million flowers, and in doing this they will fly something like 55,000 miles -- the equivalent of more than twice around the world.
How many bees does it take to make one pound of honey?
A single bee can collect about 1/12 teaspoon of honey in its lifetime, so it would take the life's work of about 560 workers to make a pound of honey.
The product they make is so very good, so very tasty.
- Posted using BlogPress
Today is Sep 25th, and the season is winding down. We started with 2 nucs this year, and we've been fortunate enough to get a honey harvest - despite all of the rain we had. Of the 2 hives, one seems to be more fond of putting honey on the medium super than the other, and therefore more productive. However, all told between the two hives the total tally is 24 pounds of honey that I have taken. And at this point, I think each hive still has approximately 30-40 lbs for them for the winter. I am not taking any more for me.
For as long as I live, I will cherish the memory of walking into the house with my first medium super of honey. Charlotte asked me what I had, and when I described what it was, she immediately came over with a spoon. Scraping down the comb, breaking it slightly, and scooping up that honey, it couldn't get any fresher that that. The smile on her face is what I live for, and she was smiling from ear to ear as she tasted that honey. She hordes it now :).
Charlotte has bought some 1/2 lb jars and come up with some labels. We have 2 different names on the honey labels: The Literary Bees and The Quotable Bees. Each label is unique and personal with quotes from famous people. We have given some honey away to friends, and we have saved some for Christmas gifts. We have had some (truth be told, more than some) that we've mixed with bourbon at 10 at night. It's been a good year, I've let the bees do their own thing, and they have done it well.
It is an amazing process to watch these bees do their work. Busy as a bee really does describe how they act if you ever are able to sit back and watch a hive. They come and go so quickly from the hive, it's like watching time lapse of planes landing at an airport.
Ever wonder what it takes to make honey?
How many flowers will a bee need to collect nectar from to make one tablespoon of honey?
The answer is 2000 flowers
How many flowers does a bee visit to make a pound of honey?
To make a pound of honey the bees need to visit about two million flowers, and in doing this they will fly something like 55,000 miles -- the equivalent of more than twice around the world.
How many bees does it take to make one pound of honey?
A single bee can collect about 1/12 teaspoon of honey in its lifetime, so it would take the life's work of about 560 workers to make a pound of honey.
The product they make is so very good, so very tasty.
- Posted using BlogPress
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Looking good
Between the poor weather and me being so busy of late, I have not had the opportunities to really get inside the hives to properly check on the bees. I do check the outside activity almost daily and can easily see lots of flights coming and going, can see many pollen laden bees landing, I assume all is OK on the inside.
On Sunday the 19th, I was finally able to do proper hive inspections. Each hive has 2 deeps and a medium super on them. Both hives show capped brood, young larvae, nectar and pollen stores, and capped honey in both deeps. Neither hive is building comb into the medium super. Lots of activity. Interesting is that the bees this year appear to quickly fly up into me as I pull a frame out for inspection - this is behavior I don't recall seeing in the bees of last year. They weren't angry enough to be pinging off the veil or trying to sting the gloves; but, I was well aware of them flying about me for 15 sec or more as I first pulled a frame ... almost as if each frame had their own set of guard bees.
I did find the queen in each hive, and I saw no indications of moths, beetles or mites. I reassembled the hives, leaving the medium supers on top for expansion. Only one hive has a queen excluder on it as I currently only own one of them.
I'll post pictures as soon as I transfer them from the camera.
- Posted using BlogPress
On Sunday the 19th, I was finally able to do proper hive inspections. Each hive has 2 deeps and a medium super on them. Both hives show capped brood, young larvae, nectar and pollen stores, and capped honey in both deeps. Neither hive is building comb into the medium super. Lots of activity. Interesting is that the bees this year appear to quickly fly up into me as I pull a frame out for inspection - this is behavior I don't recall seeing in the bees of last year. They weren't angry enough to be pinging off the veil or trying to sting the gloves; but, I was well aware of them flying about me for 15 sec or more as I first pulled a frame ... almost as if each frame had their own set of guard bees.
I did find the queen in each hive, and I saw no indications of moths, beetles or mites. I reassembled the hives, leaving the medium supers on top for expansion. Only one hive has a queen excluder on it as I currently only own one of them.
I'll post pictures as soon as I transfer them from the camera.
- Posted using BlogPress
Sunday, May 1, 2011
It's April 30th and I've picked up both nucs. They were here and ready for me on the 16th; but, I was on my way to a week's vacation in Italy. The nucs are interesting - they are essentially 1/2 of a deep super ... They have 5 full frames in them, a fully functioning (already) laying queen, and bees from eggs, through all larval stages, young bees, nurses, foragers, and guards. It's really a functioning mini-hive. Why I didn't start with this last year I do not know. By using a nuc, the bees are fully functional from day one once I install them into the full hive. They do not need the time to free the queen, let her go off and mate, build comb, allow her to lay eggs, and start the whole life cycle. The added cost? Only $5 per nuc.
So I began by setting the nucs on top of the hive bodies to give them a chance to settle down. There is a piece of screen in the nuc opening that keeps them intact while transporting them in the car. After 15 min or so of letting them sit, the noise or hummmmmm level died down a bit so I decided to begin to pull the screen out. Now, I'm doing this without any protection and I am ok with this ... this year so far. As I gently pulled out a corner of the screen, a few bees came spilling out into the air ... no problem. I waited about 10 more minutes before pulling more of the screen, with again more bees coming out. Finally fully pulling out the screen on hive # 1, and then on #2 ... As I did, this one bee darted fast as a jet at me, and stung me on my right thumb in the area where all the fat is. My first sting since I began keeping bees last year! I looked at the stinger in my thumb, and my first thought was to walk in and show Colin the stinger in my hand when I saw the end was pulsing, pumping it's venom into my thumb! I scraped it out with my other thumb nail and went inside. No problem with the sting - no adverse reaction.
About an hour later I returned fully suited up, using gloves and veil and installed them into both hives. It was good to see so many bees again in one spot. I will say that these bees seem so very much more aggressive than those I had last year. There were thousands flying around me, pinging off the veil. They weren't thrilled with being transferred from the nuc body to the hive body; but, they survived and so did I. I had the carryover frames from last fall that had comb and some capped honey on it, I used those to complete the 10 frames in each hive's deep super, put the inner and top cover on and walked away. No stings through the gloves or the suit.
Lots of activity around the hive, yet by dusk, all had settled in to their new homes.
- Posted using BlogPress
So I began by setting the nucs on top of the hive bodies to give them a chance to settle down. There is a piece of screen in the nuc opening that keeps them intact while transporting them in the car. After 15 min or so of letting them sit, the noise or hummmmmm level died down a bit so I decided to begin to pull the screen out. Now, I'm doing this without any protection and I am ok with this ... this year so far. As I gently pulled out a corner of the screen, a few bees came spilling out into the air ... no problem. I waited about 10 more minutes before pulling more of the screen, with again more bees coming out. Finally fully pulling out the screen on hive # 1, and then on #2 ... As I did, this one bee darted fast as a jet at me, and stung me on my right thumb in the area where all the fat is. My first sting since I began keeping bees last year! I looked at the stinger in my thumb, and my first thought was to walk in and show Colin the stinger in my hand when I saw the end was pulsing, pumping it's venom into my thumb! I scraped it out with my other thumb nail and went inside. No problem with the sting - no adverse reaction.
About an hour later I returned fully suited up, using gloves and veil and installed them into both hives. It was good to see so many bees again in one spot. I will say that these bees seem so very much more aggressive than those I had last year. There were thousands flying around me, pinging off the veil. They weren't thrilled with being transferred from the nuc body to the hive body; but, they survived and so did I. I had the carryover frames from last fall that had comb and some capped honey on it, I used those to complete the 10 frames in each hive's deep super, put the inner and top cover on and walked away. No stings through the gloves or the suit.
Lots of activity around the hive, yet by dusk, all had settled in to their new homes.
- Posted using BlogPress
Monday, March 7, 2011
Another year
It's 2011 and I'm more than ready and anxious to get going again with the bees!
I plan on having 2 active hives this year so I've ordered 2 nucs to start off with. A nuc is a hive nucleus - it is a box that has 5 working frames with the queen already laying eggs on it. So the bees and the queen are already aclimated to each other. Supposedly it means that the bees start up immediately when installed into my hive. When you start with 3 lbs of bees and a new queen, there is a lag period where the new queen and bees aclimate to each other, then a slow die off of bees while the queen begins laying and new bees develop to build the hive population. With the nuc, the hive is supposedly immediately functional. Time will tell.
Bee nucs will come in April.
I plan on having 2 active hives this year so I've ordered 2 nucs to start off with. A nuc is a hive nucleus - it is a box that has 5 working frames with the queen already laying eggs on it. So the bees and the queen are already aclimated to each other. Supposedly it means that the bees start up immediately when installed into my hive. When you start with 3 lbs of bees and a new queen, there is a lag period where the new queen and bees aclimate to each other, then a slow die off of bees while the queen begins laying and new bees develop to build the hive population. With the nuc, the hive is supposedly immediately functional. Time will tell.
Bee nucs will come in April.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
So, What Happened?
I haven't posted to the blog in a long time, over a month now. I just haven't had my heart in it. The new replacement queen I bought didn't make it. She never was freed from her cage - why? I will never know exactly - perhaps it's too late in the season, perhaps the other bees in the hive were distracted, perhaps there is something else that caused it. Whatever the reason, the end result is that she was never freed, and now there is no queen in this hive, and despite trying yet again to purchase another queen within 10 days of this last purchase, now it IS too late. The suppliers are not shipping this late into the season, it is too cold.
So what happens now? Well, without a queen in the hive, there are no new bees being born. As the hive bees die off naturally from old age, and without new bees being born daily to replace them, the hive slowly dies off. It may be a poor analogy; but, it becomes like an old age/nursing home, excepts that it lacks the attendants, and there are no new residents coming in. I suspect that by mid-December it will be a bee-less hive. A home without occupants.
The typical lifecycle of a worker bee is: egg (3 days), larva (6 days) and pupa (12 days) for a total of 21 days from egg (baby) to adult worker.
The average age for a worker bee (excluding the winter months) is 45 to 60 days ... longer during the winter months as they nominally cluster around the queen in the hive to maintain heat.
A week ago I went into the hive to see what was going on. There were still bees in there; but, not many. I'd guess probably 300-400. So if I work a timeline backwards, I would assume that those bees were born perhaps 30 days before, or around the beginning of October, those eggs would have been laid about the end of the first week or so in September. Looking back at my blog posts, I was writing about doing the sugar dustings back then, and I know I had a thriving bee population at that time. Conclusion? My guess is that somehow, perhaps as I was moving supers around, pulling a frame, and doing the sugar dusting, I must have inadvertently crushed and killed my original queen. I reason that had she swarmed off, there would have been a successor left in her place, and there wasn't. So somehow this queen perished, and without a queen, the hive is doomed.
So, lessons learned the hard way, I will start over again in the spring. This time around, I will get that second hive setup and maintain both hives. With a year's experience behind me (older and hopefully wiser), I can then check and compare the status of each hive. I will pay more attention to my dusting technique, and hopefully the outcome next year will be different.
Yes, I am disappointed with this year's outcome.
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So what happens now? Well, without a queen in the hive, there are no new bees being born. As the hive bees die off naturally from old age, and without new bees being born daily to replace them, the hive slowly dies off. It may be a poor analogy; but, it becomes like an old age/nursing home, excepts that it lacks the attendants, and there are no new residents coming in. I suspect that by mid-December it will be a bee-less hive. A home without occupants.
The typical lifecycle of a worker bee is: egg (3 days), larva (6 days) and pupa (12 days) for a total of 21 days from egg (baby) to adult worker.
The average age for a worker bee (excluding the winter months) is 45 to 60 days ... longer during the winter months as they nominally cluster around the queen in the hive to maintain heat.
A week ago I went into the hive to see what was going on. There were still bees in there; but, not many. I'd guess probably 300-400. So if I work a timeline backwards, I would assume that those bees were born perhaps 30 days before, or around the beginning of October, those eggs would have been laid about the end of the first week or so in September. Looking back at my blog posts, I was writing about doing the sugar dustings back then, and I know I had a thriving bee population at that time. Conclusion? My guess is that somehow, perhaps as I was moving supers around, pulling a frame, and doing the sugar dusting, I must have inadvertently crushed and killed my original queen. I reason that had she swarmed off, there would have been a successor left in her place, and there wasn't. So somehow this queen perished, and without a queen, the hive is doomed.
So, lessons learned the hard way, I will start over again in the spring. This time around, I will get that second hive setup and maintain both hives. With a year's experience behind me (older and hopefully wiser), I can then check and compare the status of each hive. I will pay more attention to my dusting technique, and hopefully the outcome next year will be different.
Yes, I am disappointed with this year's outcome.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Friday, October 15, 2010
She's Arrived ... Are we all ready?
It's Friday the 15th, and the queen has arrived via 2nd day UPS. There were 5 attendants with her - only 4 survived the trip/treatment to get here.
The weather here today is a nor'easter storm of wind and rain, with the temperature at a warmish 54. There have been a few breaks in the rain and sun rays would show up off and on for periods of time. I decided that the quicker I got the queen into the hive, the better the chances of survival for both she and the entire hive. I am following Bob's advice and removing all but one attendant and her queen in the cage. I poked a good sized hole in the candy plug, created a wire hanger for the cage so I can suspend it between some frames and plodded out to the hive.
I didn't waste any time in getting down to the bottom deep. It was good to see a fair amount of bees sitting on top of some frames. I didn't bother with a smoker today as I wanted to be in and out quickly. I noticed that as soon as I started to pull a frame, a few bees had other ideas about me being there and immediately began to buzz my face , arms, and hands. I pulled the end frame out, slid four others over a bit and made room for the queen cage. The coat hanger wire piece I fashion for the top worked perfectly as I suspend the cage in the center between frames. As soon as I moved the queen into place, it was obvious that quite a few of the bees in the area could smell the new bee (newbie?) and began to focus on her and not me. I closed up the hive, took that 10th frame with me to store inside for 3 or 4 days till the queen is hopefully freed, then after pulling the empty cage, there will be room again for it in the hive.
It's late in the year to be doing this (I believe) yet, it's about my only shot at trying to keep this hive going through the winter into spring - fingers crossed that it will work.
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Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Confirmation
On Monday 11 Oct, I went into the hive again, this time with Bob looking at each frame with me. We did not see the queen. Bob then uncapped one of the lone capped brood cells that were there on a frame, and it was dead. It would appear that there hasn't been a laying queen there in quite a while, and certainly not enough nurse bees to keep up. Without new bee eggs being laid daily, and without new bees being born daily, it's easy to see how the hive population can quickly dwindle down in size ... as the older bees naturally end their life cycle, there are no new ones to replace them, and the hive population shrinks.
I did have a number of full frames that had wax capped honey and liquid syrup on them (and a couple of wax moths we squished in place). We proceeded to condense the hive down to a single deep - picking the best and most developed frames that have honey on them and placed them in this one deep ... added a mite treatment (Apiguard) that Bob had some excess of for me (thanks), and reassembled in this order: bottom board, condensed deep, medication on top, 1" spacer frame, top feeder, inner cover, the other deep (giving the bees a chance to clean out cells that have honey or syrup in them), and finally the top cover.
I went online and researched several sites to see if I could acquire another queen this late in the year. I found Rossman Apiaries in GA (1-800-333-7677) who will 2nd day a queen to me. I want to try it even if there is little chance of success in getting the queen fully mated this late in the season. So delivery is slated for Friday afternoon. Of course as timings go, we are due for heavy rain on Friday; so, I will install the queen on Saturday and sit back and hope for the best.
... and I thought it was going so well. ( It all adds to the education of this newbee beekeeper.)
I did have a number of full frames that had wax capped honey and liquid syrup on them (and a couple of wax moths we squished in place). We proceeded to condense the hive down to a single deep - picking the best and most developed frames that have honey on them and placed them in this one deep ... added a mite treatment (Apiguard) that Bob had some excess of for me (thanks), and reassembled in this order: bottom board, condensed deep, medication on top, 1" spacer frame, top feeder, inner cover, the other deep (giving the bees a chance to clean out cells that have honey or syrup in them), and finally the top cover.
I went online and researched several sites to see if I could acquire another queen this late in the year. I found Rossman Apiaries in GA (1-800-333-7677) who will 2nd day a queen to me. I want to try it even if there is little chance of success in getting the queen fully mated this late in the season. So delivery is slated for Friday afternoon. Of course as timings go, we are due for heavy rain on Friday; so, I will install the queen on Saturday and sit back and hope for the best.
... and I thought it was going so well. ( It all adds to the education of this newbee beekeeper.)
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
What happened????
I went into the hive on Saturday Oct 9 to do a status check. I have been seeing far fewer bees flying in and out of the hive and I was beginning to get worried.
My worst fears were true ... No sign of the queen, only a few capped brood (for all intents and purposes, there were no brood), no eggs, no larvae, looks like plenty of pollen being packed, lots of honey waiting to be set, lots of wax capped honey, but very few bees - at least to what I had been experiencing all year to date. I don't believe they swarmed on me, otherwise I would expect to be seeing some sort of replacement queen, eggs, larvae, and plenty of worker bees. My guess is that somehow, the queen has died (could it have been my heavy hand when doing the sugar dusting?, particularly the first time when I separated the deeps and sugar dusted each one? I don't know, doubt I ever will. The immediate problem is that I see this hive dwindling down in resources, and no queen to keep laying to build up the hive. What to do? I'll try to reach Bob, my mentor and see what he thinks ... In the meantime, I will add the top feeder back in place, and put some sugar syrup on there along with some Honey Be Healthy medication.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
My worst fears were true ... No sign of the queen, only a few capped brood (for all intents and purposes, there were no brood), no eggs, no larvae, looks like plenty of pollen being packed, lots of honey waiting to be set, lots of wax capped honey, but very few bees - at least to what I had been experiencing all year to date. I don't believe they swarmed on me, otherwise I would expect to be seeing some sort of replacement queen, eggs, larvae, and plenty of worker bees. My guess is that somehow, the queen has died (could it have been my heavy hand when doing the sugar dusting?, particularly the first time when I separated the deeps and sugar dusted each one? I don't know, doubt I ever will. The immediate problem is that I see this hive dwindling down in resources, and no queen to keep laying to build up the hive. What to do? I'll try to reach Bob, my mentor and see what he thinks ... In the meantime, I will add the top feeder back in place, and put some sugar syrup on there along with some Honey Be Healthy medication.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Another sugar dusting
Exactly one week later, here I am back again for another sugar dusting. I have removed the medium honey super till spring,am gently brushing those bees on the frames back into the deep and proceeded to give another sugar dusting, this time only the top deep. After 10 - 15 minutes, I looked at the bottom board and again saw quite a few mites! So glad I'm doing this treatment.
I have somehow misplaced my entrance reducer from earlier this year, so I made one up and reduced the entrance to 2 small openings.
All seems fine, and I'll return in a week or so for another treatment, probably preceded by a complete hive inspection.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
I have somehow misplaced my entrance reducer from earlier this year, so I made one up and reduced the entrance to 2 small openings.
All seems fine, and I'll return in a week or so for another treatment, probably preceded by a complete hive inspection.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Ghosted Bees and the Varroa Mites - 9/4
I had been a bit concerned about the hive's susceptibility to varroa mites and wax moths ever since I saw a couple on the bottom board a while back. Here's what has recently happened ...
I had participated in a bee club hive dive last Sunday and we went into 3 hives over at Akin Back Farm in Franklin ... finding varroa mites on drone larvae in each of those hives, I knew I had better take a serious look at my own hive. My first opportunity to look came on Saturday, the day after the hurricane/tropical storm Earl came breezing through. Thankfully Earl had fizzled out before it arrived here and all we had was some rain and a bit of wind. Saturday had some left over wind but otherwise was bright, sunny, and about 80 degrees. Pulling the bottom board out from the hive, I could see that there were several varroa mites on the board (no moths) and decided then and there to treat the bees. Although bees may be able to manage the mite infestation a bit by themselves, if the mites get too much control, it apparently can result in wing deformation of new bees, slowly and ultimately ending in the demise of the hive as it loses it's bee force of foragers to bring in the pollen and nectar food sources to sustain the hive. I had been reading about a sugar dusting treatment and decided to give that a go - it uses confectioner's or powdered sugar as a method. Apparently by coating or dusting the bees with the confectionery sugar, it causes some of the mites to fall off the bees as the sugar gets in their suction cup feet, can no longer hold onto the bee, fall off and go through the screen bottom out of the hive, it also causes the bees to groom themselves and each other, also making the mites fall off. It obviously doesn't get at the mites that are attached to the larvae, so it requires several treatments over about a month's time to be effective and catch a lot of the mite life cycle. I built a small frame the same size as the hive L x W and stapled some screening across it. With confectionery sugar, screen, bee brush, hive tool, and smoker in hand, I suited up and approached the hive.
Removing the top cover, I also removed the honey super that I had on top - although there were bees crawling over all 10 of the frames in there, it's been on there for a good 8 weeks now and it's clear that this late in the year, the bees are not building any comb ... no honey for me this year, oh well; but, now is time to try to help the bees get ready to survive the winter. I pulled the queen excluder off and looked at the topmost deep, seeing that I had bees heavily loaded between each of the frames - a good sign. Lots of propolis made it difficult to just lift and pull a frame - fortunately that is where the hive tool helps. Looking at several of the frames, I can see capped brood, some pollen, some uncapped and some capped honey, and new larvae ... Didn't spot the queen; but also, didn't spend lots of time searching for her either. I aligned the screened fame that I built on top, and poured about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of confectionery sugar on top of the screen, using the bee brush, I evenly spread it across the screen to get sugar onto and into the 10 frames ... This stirred up lots of activity from below and from the entrance board area and because it was a bit breezy, some of the sugar got in the air, all of a sudden there were hundreds of bees all around me, confused I am sure by what was happening to them.
I had difficulty separating the 2 deeps even using the hive tool; but, with effort I lifted the topmost deep and set it aside so I could treat the bottom deep. Surprisingly, although each frame was covered in bees, the frames in the bottom deep were mostly pollen stores, I don't recall seeing young larvae down there ... I'll have to look up what this means, I would have thought the bottom would mirror what I saw in the top. I then proceeded to sugar dust the bottom deep in the same manor as I did the top. Now there were bees flying everywhere!
Reassembling everything, I could see why the sugar dusting was also referred to as ghosting the bees, because with a coating of confectionery sugar on them, they looked like they had donned white ghost costumes.
The treatment approach I read was that you return to the hive some 10 minutes or more after you complete the dusting, remove the bottom board and do an inspection to see how many mites have fallen ... this count gives you an indication of the infestation level. So I pulled the bottom board out, and sure enough, sprinkled on top of the sugar that had fallen through the hive were I would guess hundreds of varroa mites - these little red/orange colored parasites that suck the bee blood. So the treatment seemed to work nicely. I scraped off the board into the compost heap, and proceeded to try another item I had read about - that of using a cooking spray (e.g. - Pam) as an adhesive coating on the bottom board. I sprayed up the bottom board, reinstalled it. The mites will continue to fall and be trapped for my count in the "adhesive" spray.
Looking now at the front of the hive, the ghosted bees were all over the front. Fortunately as the day went on, they had completed their grooming and returned to their normal tasks. By the end of the day, the hive appeared as normal again.
I should do another sugar dusting in about 10 days time.
I had participated in a bee club hive dive last Sunday and we went into 3 hives over at Akin Back Farm in Franklin ... finding varroa mites on drone larvae in each of those hives, I knew I had better take a serious look at my own hive. My first opportunity to look came on Saturday, the day after the hurricane/tropical storm Earl came breezing through. Thankfully Earl had fizzled out before it arrived here and all we had was some rain and a bit of wind. Saturday had some left over wind but otherwise was bright, sunny, and about 80 degrees. Pulling the bottom board out from the hive, I could see that there were several varroa mites on the board (no moths) and decided then and there to treat the bees. Although bees may be able to manage the mite infestation a bit by themselves, if the mites get too much control, it apparently can result in wing deformation of new bees, slowly and ultimately ending in the demise of the hive as it loses it's bee force of foragers to bring in the pollen and nectar food sources to sustain the hive. I had been reading about a sugar dusting treatment and decided to give that a go - it uses confectioner's or powdered sugar as a method. Apparently by coating or dusting the bees with the confectionery sugar, it causes some of the mites to fall off the bees as the sugar gets in their suction cup feet, can no longer hold onto the bee, fall off and go through the screen bottom out of the hive, it also causes the bees to groom themselves and each other, also making the mites fall off. It obviously doesn't get at the mites that are attached to the larvae, so it requires several treatments over about a month's time to be effective and catch a lot of the mite life cycle. I built a small frame the same size as the hive L x W and stapled some screening across it. With confectionery sugar, screen, bee brush, hive tool, and smoker in hand, I suited up and approached the hive.
Removing the top cover, I also removed the honey super that I had on top - although there were bees crawling over all 10 of the frames in there, it's been on there for a good 8 weeks now and it's clear that this late in the year, the bees are not building any comb ... no honey for me this year, oh well; but, now is time to try to help the bees get ready to survive the winter. I pulled the queen excluder off and looked at the topmost deep, seeing that I had bees heavily loaded between each of the frames - a good sign. Lots of propolis made it difficult to just lift and pull a frame - fortunately that is where the hive tool helps. Looking at several of the frames, I can see capped brood, some pollen, some uncapped and some capped honey, and new larvae ... Didn't spot the queen; but also, didn't spend lots of time searching for her either. I aligned the screened fame that I built on top, and poured about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of confectionery sugar on top of the screen, using the bee brush, I evenly spread it across the screen to get sugar onto and into the 10 frames ... This stirred up lots of activity from below and from the entrance board area and because it was a bit breezy, some of the sugar got in the air, all of a sudden there were hundreds of bees all around me, confused I am sure by what was happening to them.
I had difficulty separating the 2 deeps even using the hive tool; but, with effort I lifted the topmost deep and set it aside so I could treat the bottom deep. Surprisingly, although each frame was covered in bees, the frames in the bottom deep were mostly pollen stores, I don't recall seeing young larvae down there ... I'll have to look up what this means, I would have thought the bottom would mirror what I saw in the top. I then proceeded to sugar dust the bottom deep in the same manor as I did the top. Now there were bees flying everywhere!
Reassembling everything, I could see why the sugar dusting was also referred to as ghosting the bees, because with a coating of confectionery sugar on them, they looked like they had donned white ghost costumes.
The treatment approach I read was that you return to the hive some 10 minutes or more after you complete the dusting, remove the bottom board and do an inspection to see how many mites have fallen ... this count gives you an indication of the infestation level. So I pulled the bottom board out, and sure enough, sprinkled on top of the sugar that had fallen through the hive were I would guess hundreds of varroa mites - these little red/orange colored parasites that suck the bee blood. So the treatment seemed to work nicely. I scraped off the board into the compost heap, and proceeded to try another item I had read about - that of using a cooking spray (e.g. - Pam) as an adhesive coating on the bottom board. I sprayed up the bottom board, reinstalled it. The mites will continue to fall and be trapped for my count in the "adhesive" spray.
Looking now at the front of the hive, the ghosted bees were all over the front. Fortunately as the day went on, they had completed their grooming and returned to their normal tasks. By the end of the day, the hive appeared as normal again.
I should do another sugar dusting in about 10 days time.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
I found her
July 11
Still not much happening with the honey super, although there were more bees up there than last Monday when I last checked. I looked at most of the frames on the upper deep and this time I definitely saw lots of standing eggs, and I found
the queen! I am relieved. I buttoned things up and will let them do their own thing for probably at least 10-14 days before I go in again. Nice job ladies. Can you spot the queen? [ hint; she is only in 1 of the 3 pictures on this post]
Still not much happening with the honey super, although there were more bees up there than last Monday when I last checked. I looked at most of the frames on the upper deep and this time I definitely saw lots of standing eggs, and I found
the queen! I am relieved. I buttoned things up and will let them do their own thing for probably at least 10-14 days before I go in again. Nice job ladies. Can you spot the queen? [ hint; she is only in 1 of the 3 pictures on this post]Monday, July 5, 2010
1st Inspection of the honey super
July 5.
On June 22, 13 days ago, I shifted a couple of outside frames around inside the uppermost deep in the hope of getting some additional comb development. Also knowing that I'd be on vacation and not be around for the week of June 28, I added the queen excluder and a honey (medium) super to the hive, hoping to see them begin to move into the honey super for me while I was gone. I 've been anxious to check to see if much was happening with those changes. The weather had turned to become very hot 95 degrees on a couple of days, and we'd not had rain in well over 10 days. Today was also one of those days - 94 degrees, and the girls certainly were active ... buzzing in and out of the hive entrance, with many sitting on the entrance board fanning the hive. I was glad that I had incorporated Bob's tip of raising the top cover with small stones. I hope that helped them more easily regulate the hive temperature in the heat. I'd also occasionally drizzle some water over the top of the hive allowing it to drip down to the entrance board ... combination of cooling and drinking.
So I removed the top cover and the inside cover to look at the honey super. Several hundred bees were on probably half of the frames; but, I couldn't easily see any comb development. I had inadvertently made the task of looking at the comb development easier on the deep frames because I had purchased the dark black Pierco frames and the white/yellowish comb was easy to pick up on. The frames I have for the honey super were the yellowish Pierco frames - there may have been some comb development but I couldn't see much there. Regardless, it was good to see the bees on the frames, I assume that means they are paying attention to them and in good time they will beging honey storage.
I removed the honey super, the queen excluder and began looking only at a few of the frames in the top deep. I think they have nicely developed the comb now in all of those frames. Several of them seemed really full of capped honey. I could see lots of capped brood, several "C" shaped larvae, and I think I could see some eggs, it was hard to see by then because of the sweat pouring off my face into my eyes/glasses under the veil. I will do a more thorough inspection hopefully on this next weekend coming up. I didn't spot the queen; but, in fairness, I only looked at 3 or 4 of the 20 frames in the deeps.
After the dogs (Baker and Chuisle) got stung by playing with a ball too close to the hive entrance, I decided to add some chicken wire fencing as a bit of a barrier to the hive.
On June 22, 13 days ago, I shifted a couple of outside frames around inside the uppermost deep in the hope of getting some additional comb development. Also knowing that I'd be on vacation and not be around for the week of June 28, I added the queen excluder and a honey (medium) super to the hive, hoping to see them begin to move into the honey super for me while I was gone. I 've been anxious to check to see if much was happening with those changes. The weather had turned to become very hot 95 degrees on a couple of days, and we'd not had rain in well over 10 days. Today was also one of those days - 94 degrees, and the girls certainly were active ... buzzing in and out of the hive entrance, with many sitting on the entrance board fanning the hive. I was glad that I had incorporated Bob's tip of raising the top cover with small stones. I hope that helped them more easily regulate the hive temperature in the heat. I'd also occasionally drizzle some water over the top of the hive allowing it to drip down to the entrance board ... combination of cooling and drinking.
So I removed the top cover and the inside cover to look at the honey super. Several hundred bees were on probably half of the frames; but, I couldn't easily see any comb development. I had inadvertently made the task of looking at the comb development easier on the deep frames because I had purchased the dark black Pierco frames and the white/yellowish comb was easy to pick up on. The frames I have for the honey super were the yellowish Pierco frames - there may have been some comb development but I couldn't see much there. Regardless, it was good to see the bees on the frames, I assume that means they are paying attention to them and in good time they will beging honey storage.
I removed the honey super, the queen excluder and began looking only at a few of the frames in the top deep. I think they have nicely developed the comb now in all of those frames. Several of them seemed really full of capped honey. I could see lots of capped brood, several "C" shaped larvae, and I think I could see some eggs, it was hard to see by then because of the sweat pouring off my face into my eyes/glasses under the veil. I will do a more thorough inspection hopefully on this next weekend coming up. I didn't spot the queen; but, in fairness, I only looked at 3 or 4 of the 20 frames in the deeps.
After the dogs (Baker and Chuisle) got stung by playing with a ball too close to the hive entrance, I decided to add some chicken wire fencing as a bit of a barrier to the hive.
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