The SWARM

I got the call while I was at the mall…"Your bees are swarming!” My neighbor heard the buzzing and looked out just in time to watch my bees leave their hive in a massive swirling cloud of bees, take to the air and settle about 45 feet up in a tree on the far side of her property. They exited with such force that they knocked their feeder clean off the hive!!! The only good part of a swarm and we missed it!  I’m going to confess that I seriously thought I was going to cry. I made my son drive home, FAST! Not there was any point to hurrying, there was absolutely nothing I could do.

I wish my son had taken a wider shot so you could see how very high up they are!

this smaller group joined up with the rest of the swarm shortly after we took this pic

That’s a big blob of bees clustered around their queen!!!

They were right, bees don’t go far but they did go out of reach. No way to retrieve them or put them into another box. With the drastic change in weather predicted for tomorrow (57 and rain), we know they won’t stay in the tree for long. Soon they will move on and look for a new home…

Friends came to my rescue and brought an extra honey super with some old comb frames from last year, poured some honey in various places and set it under the swarm. Now we just pray that in their frantic search for a new place to settle in, they’ll choose this nice box right there. Word on the street is that the chances of them doing that are about a million to one!

Why wouldn’t they want to make their home in such a nice place???

The real problem is that just this morning I cleared out a couple more queen cells and likely killed my remaining colony’s replacement! AHHHHH!!!!!

After seeing how many bees were in the tree I lost all hope that there were any at all left in my hive. Much to my surprise there are quite a few more than I expected! I needed some good news today!

The other good news? Bee club was tonight! I was told I didn’t do anything wrong. In fact my favorite bee expert, Roy, told me I did everything right. He believes the problem is with the shipment of bees I got. Probably a problem with the queen supplier. In fact, a couple of people who also got bees from the same guy at the same time also had swarming problems or worse! A couple of people actually had most of their colony (including their queen) die at the end of May!

Now on to the next part of my ongoing saga… I really hope it ends soon but I am beginning to think that beekeeping is a never-ending one! ;o)

Queen Cells

I gave them a 48 hour break after shuffling frames before I tackled getting rid of the remaining queen cells…

Foolishly (I guess) I thought now that I had freed up all kinds of space in the top box, that it would be buzzing with activity. Imagine my surprise when I lifted the lid and found it almost empty of bees. Instead they are all crammed in as tight as can be in the bottom box! Arrrrrr!!!!!

That made the job of search and destroy much more difficult than I had hoped. But I think I found them all (and a few maybes) and hacked off a whole lotta bees! They don’t take kindly to baby killers. Especially baby queen killers! LOL

Now I’m trying to decide what to do next??? Do I give them a week and see if they move up to work soon? If they stay in crowded box in the bottom, they’ll want to swarm.  Do I check them in a couple of days and move up two of the full frames to reduce crowding and give them the idea that they can work up now. They’ve done it once so they should know what to do.

My son’s friends have hives and one of theirs swarmed the day before yesterday. :o(  

This is proving to be way more complicated than I thought…

Please Don’t Swarm!

For some reason my bees are crowded and it looks like they are beginning to think about swarming! They never built up the last three frames in the bottom box and only want to work in the center of the top box. So today, I opened them up and did a bit of shuffling of frames in the hopes that they will spread out a bit and work on filling up the remaining empty frames.

opening up the box

that’s a LOT of bees!

swapping empty frames for full frames

My queen is quite prolific! Look at all the brood she’s making…

   Are these bunnies or bees? LOL

You can even see the little white larvae in this one. Unfortunately, I think you can also see a queen cell in this one… :o(

I also scraped off a bit of burr comb before shutting it all back up…

Upon further examination, I am pretty sure that there was a queen cell on the burr comb.

   I did a bit of research and sure enough, that looks like a queen cell. Why do they make queen cells? Because they are getting ready to swarm and take the queen and 60% of the colony with her and leave. The queen cells are her baby replacements.

I need to do whatever I can to keep that from happening! So on Wednesday, I’m going back in to hopefully find all the queen cells and get rid of them.

It still may not guarantee they won’t swarm, but here’s hoping and praying that they will stay put!

Hungry Hungry Honeybees

My honeybees are ravenous! I also think they have done some serious reproducing since they came to live here! The hive seems to be WAY more full than before! They are also working very hard at pulling out wax in their new box. If you’re wondering how they do it, you can read about it HERE.

I feel so sorry for the poor things! The weather has gone down the toilet the past couple of weeks and they pour out of the hive every time the sun makes even a brief appearance…

I didn’t get close enough to show the whole cloud of bees buzzing around in the air!

Right now they are eating a quart jar of syrup EVERY day! That’s 2 1/2 cups of sugar a day, almost 9 pounds a week!

I filled this jar to the very top at 9am. This is what it looked like at 1pm. By 4:30, it was completely dry! 

I’ve been told that first year colonies eat a whole lot more than more established colonies do. I don’t know how people with multiple hives do it???

Since I fill the jar every morning, I have making enough syrup to fill the jar down to a science.

First measure out 2 1/2 cups of sugar into a heat-proof mixing bowl.

Stir in 1 cup boiling water and stir until sugar is mostly dissolved.

Add 1 1/2 cups cold water and continue to stir until sugar is completely dissolved.

That’s all there is to it! Now it’s just a matter of keeping up…

How Bees Make Wax

I have the piece of beeswax we scraped from the lid of the hive sitting on my desk next to my computer. I see it every day. And every day I marvel at the sheer perfection of it. Every little cell is a perfect little hexagon shape. Every one is exactly the same. Every one is the ideal shape to hold honey or raise new baby bees. 

I know that this does not happen by chance. God created each of those little bees to know precisely how to do this. But how do they do it?

Here’s how it works.

Worker bees only live about 30 days. When a worker is about 10 days old, the glands on their abdomens begin to produce wax. They secrete the wax through same pores as tiny white flakes which they then chew up and make into wax honeycomb.

Bees need to eat about 7 pounds of honey to make 1 pound of wax! They are most efficient from 10-16 days old.  After that, they decline in production until their death. Bees keep their hive about 90 degrees, just the right temperature for the wax: not too cold to make the wax brittle and not too hot  and melty!

Just one more reason to be in awe of our marvelous Creator!

New Hive Additions

This past week I made some new additions to our hive.

First, I got a screened bottom to replace the solid bottom. There are several advantages to a screened bottom. They provide better moisture control, better ventilation, aids in the colony’s temperature regulation, and provides a cleaner environment in the hive as debris can fall through the screen. There is also some research that it helps decrease mite growth and increase brood growth. (That means fewer pests and more baby bees.)

rear access

front access still allows space for the entrance feeder

I picked up this gem of a screened bottom at the bee store last Saturday. It has access to the pull out tray (to check for mites) from both the front and the back, has a very nice finish and sturdy construction!

Here’s how it looks on the hive…

On Thursday, Will and I did a hive inspection all on our own. Upon further inspection, we discovered that they had once again started to build comb on top of the inner lid. Arrrr! We pulled out a few frames and figured that they only had about 3 left to draw out wax on. Since that follows the “Rule of 7” (7 of the 10 frames have wax drawn out), I was really glad I had already bought a second hive body!

A hive body is the bottom one or two boxes in your hive. This is where the colony rears brood (baby bees) and stores their winter supply of honey. In cooler climates, two hive bodies are recommended to get your colony through the winter.

My new body has wax frames rather than the embossed plastic frames in my original box. The wax frames were recommended and I figured I’d give them both a try and see what I think.

I was also glad I had painted my new hive body already. You can’t paint them once they’re on the hive. *Only paint the outside of your woodenware (parts of your beehive). They need to be sealed from the weather but not painted where they come in contact with the bees inside.

I didn’t have any of the bright yellow paint that was used for my first box, but I did have a cheery blue and I love the way it looks with the yellow!

Now inspections will take a little longer with two boxes to look at…

Calming Syrup

Today, I mixed up a batch of sugar syrup to spray on the bees while we were poking around in the hive.

I always assumed you should have a smoker, but sugar, water and a squirt gun are much more popular.

If you spray the bees with the mixture, they are a bit too sticky to fly well and are quite distracted by cleaning themselves of the delicious nectar!

As an added bonus, it was suggested to me that I add one drop of lemongrass essential oil and one of peppermint (or wintergreen or spearmint). I’m not clear on exactly what that does, but I did it. Better safe than sorry.

Here’s the recipe I used:

5 cups sugar

5 cups water (hot enough to easily dissolve the sugar)

1 drop peppermint (or wintergreen or spearmint essential oil)

1 drop lemongrass essential oil

First dissolve the sugar in hot water. Stir well! Then add the oils and stir REALLY well. Let the mixture cool to room temperature before pouring into your spray bottle.

Gently mist the bees while you are working in your hive.

Touring the Hive

This morning I got a personal tour of my hive. Roy, from the bee club, stopped by and helped me get into the hive and see what was up with the burr comb on the inner lid…

Here are the things I learned today:

#1. I’m a chicken: Roy shows up, grabs his hive tool and gets right into it. No veil, no gloves nothing. I felt ridiculous putting on my veil and gloves but I don’t like getting stung. He doesn’t seem to even notice. (He got stung while we were poking around)

#2. If you have too much room under the inner lid in the spring, the bees will make comb in the extra space. We had the lid on upside down. It’s right now, though.

#3. Work slowly and carefully. You don’t want to aggravate the bees, or squash any of them to death.

#4. Plastic frames stink! My next brood box is going to have wax frames.

#5. I need a screened bottom. Better air flow. Less trouble with moisture. Easier to keep clean.

#6. The pollen patty should be in the middle of the frames, not on the corner. We fixed that, too.

  #7. The queen is BIG. I was so proud that I found her! Roy was proud, too! Oh, and he says she is doing her job well! Lots of brood in the middle frames!

#8. Keep feeding sugar syrup (1:1) until they won’t take anymore.

#9. I only need to check the hives once a week, to see if they are filling up the frames. When the outer ones are getting built up with comb, then it’s time for the next box.

#10. I need to buy a second veil and glove set. It’s much easier to do with a partner. Someone to spray them with syrup while you are slowly and ever so carefully lifting out the frames.

I wonder who the lucky one will be??? :o)   

And lastly: I am going to love having my own beeswax!

Isn’t it pretty???

I’m a Beekeeper

Today my hive of Carniolans arrived. Less than a week ago I didn’t even know what those were. Heck, two days ago I didn’t know what they were. In fact, I think it was the only thing I actually understood when I read the book… These honeybees from the northern part of southeastern Europe are the “gentlest of all the honey bees”. That was the only good news I got.

After reading only a chapter and a half from “The Backyard Beekeeper” I was becoming more and more sure that this was quite possibly a very bad idea. I was more confused than ever. The whole thing sounded so complicated. They were using terms that I had never heard before. What is propolis or a brooder or a super??? Should I somehow just know?

The closer I got to the delivery date, the more nervous I became…

Then it was the day! Bee day…

Thankfully, I had everything I needed to get started:

Including a second no-frills book called, “Honey Bees and Beekeeping: A Year in the Life of an Apiary” by Keith Delaplane.  I picked it up and started to read and learned more in 10 minutes than I had in 3 days! I highly recommend this book if you are just getting started! I like the way he explains things and everything is introduced in a nice chronological order for beginners.

The hive arrived. My friends helped me pick a spot (actually, I picked the spot), set up the hive stand, and grabbed the wheelbarrow. Then I got suited up in my new snazzy white Goodwill bee clothes.

Don’t I look ready???

We put the hive in place, making sure the back was higher than the front and the entrance was facing south east.

The hive was sealed up to prevent any escapees. It worked, for the most part…

Then I got a tour of the hive. I stood by with my spray bottle of sugar water (1:1 ratio of sugar and water).

Most bee keepers in my club don’t use a smoker. Instead they spray the bees with sugar water while working with them. A light mist makes their wings a bit too sticky to fly and they are distracted by cleaning the yummy sweet syrup off themselves to worry about us. You can also add a drop of lemongrass and one drop of peppermint essential oil to the syrup to help calm them even more.

After a light spray, the top was opened for a peek inside my brooder. This is where the colony stores food for the winter, the queen lays eggs and baby bees are born. As this brood nest is filled, we add a second and the the honey super, where surplus honey (our honey) is stored. Bees always brood down and store honey up.

We also placed a pollen patty on top of the frames to supplement the colony because of the lack of flowers in this cool wet spring. Using a pollen patty also means you need to supplement feeding with sugar syrup.

I also got to look at how they are drawing out the wax on the plastic frames.

I even got to see honey and larvae! Sorry you can’t see them very well in the pictures, but I wasn’t willing to let my un-veiled, barefoot teenager any closer than he already was… :o)

          

The holes in the honeycomb that appear to be filled are cap brood. Larvae that are growing into pupae.

The bees were surprisingly unbothered by all the fiddling with them and only a few seemed to want to buzz around us. But it was time to put them all back in and let them get settled into their new home.

Bees need to be feed and medicated in the spring. So an entrance feeder is put on with a quart jar of 1:1 sugar syrup mixed with medicine for diseases.

Bees also need water. If you don’t have a source nearby, bees will go wherever they can to get it: your pool, hose bib, pet bowl. Or worse yet, they’ll go to your neighbor’s…

A chick waterer with rocks in the bottom, to keep them from drowning or getting inside the waterer, works great in the spring. When the weather gets hotter, a larger source may be needed.

After getting acquainted, and not getting stung, I was feeling much better about the whole thing. Like many things in life, I find they sound worse in print than they really are!

I found myself popping out on the deck every so often just to see what they were doing…

When the sun came out, so did the bees… I now know why we have the saying, “busy as a bee”. I could hear them buzzing when I opened the screen door. And there were bees EVERYWHERE!

That’s when I realized I had been insane! My perfect place for the bees was in reality an awful place for bees. They were right in our path to the garage, our firewood, the deck, the chickens… Bees need to be out of the way. They don’t take well to being constantly invaded. Happy bees are a good thing! The hive would have to move… :o(

Thank goodness, our friends returned this evening to help with the transfer and give them another  dose of meds. We moved them to a new spot in the back of the yard where they can be left more to themselves.

Since they had already gotten settled into their old place by the chicken coop, we had to put a board over their entrance so they would be confused when they wake up in the morning and will need to relearn where home is.

I like the new place because now I can watch them from the kitchen window or from the deck! :o)

Tonight I will dream about honey…