Honey Harvest!

Well, it took us about six hours to harvest our first two deep frames of honey. We didn’t even get to all the frames, we left about five in the hive for the girls. After all was said and done, we had about 70-80 pounds of honey. WOW!!! The honey we robbed is a beautiful golden color and tastes like orange blossom. We think they may have made it from the spanish broom and russian olive blooms….a Cuban gold! Hah! Check out the photos and video when you get a chance!

One Queen, Two Queen, Red Queen, Blue Queen

Well, this morning I woke up with one honey bee colony and as I sit here and type this I suddenly have two.

Yesterday I went out to do a hive check and was greeted by an amazing site. Two weeks ago, the frames in top hive body were empty save for a small mushroom-shaped conglomeration of wax. There were many bees working diligently, however, so I knew I’d have to check them again. What I found yesterday I totally did not expect.

All of the frames in the top hive body were almost totally drawn out and at least three of them were filled with eggs and larvae. The mushroom-shaped wax had take over the whole frame. (See photo below.) I guess when I put the frames in there I did not space them correctly so the bees built outward. When I pulled the frame out, the wax ripped and some ripe larvae fell out. {Sniff}

Then I noticed that there were two supersedure cells on one frame. The supersedure cells are usually high up on the frame and are built when the bees are planning on rearing a new queen. The two cells were empty, which is normal. However, when I pulled out another frame to my surprise there was a peanut shaped cell that was closed…a new queen! I totally panicked and had Ryan drive me immediately to Ken Hays’ place in Bosque Farms to get some more supers and figure out what to do with this new queen cell. If she hatched, she might just naturally take over as the old queen dies. However, this is swarm season. If she hatches and the hive is too cramped and croweded, they will swarm.

Ken told me exactly what to do so today was a nerve-wracking two hours of working on my hives. Here’s what I did…

1. I put three hive bodies out and took out all the frames.
2. I took apart my whole hive, separating the brood frames from the honey frames and placing them in their own new hive bodies.
3. Then I took the frame with the queen cell and put it in its own hive body along with one frame of honey and brood.
4. Then I stacked the old hive — honey frames on the bottom and brood frames second — then added two honey supers with only eight empty frames.
5. The new “nuc” hive I set aside and put emtpy frames in there.
6. I put grease patties in the old hive so help with the mite population.

A friend of ours, Chris Koza, was here visiting and wanted to watch the whole endeavor. Thank goodness, because his questions and observations made me more centered as I worked. Otherwise I would have been a nervous wreck. However, when pulled out the last frames a huge chunk of wax and honey fell off sending the bees into a frenzy. That’s when Chris tapped out. The cloud of aggitated bees was too much for him to handle.

I kept diligently working however, and managed to put everything together. Then I immediately called Jerry Anderson and told him what I did. He reassured me that I had accomplished all the appropriate steps and now I just have to wait.

So what will happen next? In about a week to ten days I will peek into the old hive to see how the colony is filling the top honey supers. Jerry said they may be full of honey in a week or two!!! With the “nuc” hive I have to wait about three weeks to see any progress. Right now the bees in there are young nurse bees, who are only concerned with taking care of the brood. The queen will likely hatch in five to seven days and then go on her one mating flight, after which she will start to lay eggs. Jerry said I should be able to peek in after three weeks and see newly laid eggs — that is if the new young queen is doing her job.

The whole affair was absolutely amazing and yet I am so nervous to see what happens next. I was so nervous that I did not do the clean job that I usually do and I’m sitting here thinking of all the things I’d like to do over. But for now I just have to watch them and let nature take it’s course.\

 

Ant Attack!

Today Ryan and I are hanging in the back yard watching the bees and chillin’ and suddenly we notice that the bees seem agitated. So Ryan walks (limps) over there and he notices little black sugar ants are marching up and down the hive. The bees, meanwhile, are scurrying in and out of the hive while shuffling the ants off to some other existence. They would literally pick the ants up and fly off with them.

I realized that the ants were after the sugar water I had in the hive-top feeder. So I immediately geared up and set to taking the feeder off and dumping it out.

I didn’t do a full hive inspection, but rather just looked at the frames in the top box. These frames have been empty all winter, but now the bees have begun to draw them out with beautiful white comb. Out of the twelve empty frames I’d say that about five are being drawn out; one has a beautiful mushroom shaped comb blooming out of it.

After we removed the sugar water, Ryan disrupted the few ant piles in the vicinity and within about 15 minutes the number of ants dwindled to just a few. Whew!

March Inspection

Well it was finally warm enough to do a complete hive inspection. I ended up having to sort of rush through, however, because the girls were very alarmed and somewhat perturbed at being exposed after so many months of seclusion.

The hive is very healthy, I’m happy to say! I did not see the queen but she’s been laying pretty heavily as there are about three frames with larvae. I found a queen cell, but it’s up pretty high so I don’t think I need to be worried.

They ate quite a bit of their honey this winter, but didn’t touch the bee candy that I gave them. They still had been eating on remnants of the grease patties I put in last fall. I found lots of dead mites at the bottom of the hive (throught the mite screen) and so I will continue feeding them the grease patties with essential oils. At first glance, I did not see any mites on bees so keep your fingers crossed!

We moved homes — up to the NE Heights — and so we had to move the hive last week. As we were loading the boxes onto the truck I noticed a few bees had slipped past the screen, but I wasn’t really concerned. When we arrived at our location I decided to leave the hive in the truck while I ate dinner (and drank a glass of wine — BIG mistake!) While we were unloading, the loose bee took one whiff of my breath and ZAPP! She stung me right in the cheek. YEOUCH! I fortunately managed to quickly put the hive down (much to Ryan’s alarm) and get the stinger out. I was so worried that my cheek would be red and swollen for our wedding, so I OD’d on Benadryl and was pleased with the results. Perhaps I’m also building up an immunity!

Anyway, here are some photos.

Winter Update 2008

For the past several weeks I have been worried sick about my bees. But today, after checking them, I feel much, much better!

Over Christmas while I was away in Oregon there was a severe cold snap with temperatures dropping to the single digits at night. I knew from my reading that unless it was 10 degrees or below for several days in a row, the bees would most likely be alright as they can maintain a temperature of about 95 degrees inside the hive. And during the winter most bees die of starvation, not freezing.

Ryan’s dad, Jim, stopped by and — worrying about the bees — covered them with thermal blankets to block the wind. I’m sure it helped in the long run, but when we got home in early January there were about 200 dead bees outside the hive. I was very alarmed and upset and it took me a few days to realize that this was: 1.) just part of the business of maintaining a hive through winter, and 2.) a relatively small loss considering there are about 40,000 bees in my hive.

Up until today it has been far too cold to check the inside of the hive. As recommended, I made four packets of fondant (a.k.a. bee candy) to put in when I checked them. The recipe I used was a simple one — 6 cups of organic powdered sugar, 2 tbsp. of light corn syrup, and 1/2 a cup of water. I cooked this mixture in a sauce pan (stirring constantly) for about 10 minutes (until it reached about 95 degrees) and then poured it onto wax paper/cookie sheet to dry. Then I broke it into quarters and placed the quarters in plastic bags and froze them until I was ready to work with the hive.

It was about 50 degrees this afternoon and I noticed the bees were flying so I decided to check them. They were very calm and eager for the food. When I opened the hive I noticed that the grease patties we put in back in November were still there, albeit dried out a bit and frozen. The bees were eating them, however, which was a good sign. I pulled out several empty frames from the top box to make room for the fondant packs. The bees looked healthy and full of vigor and I could see (without taking any of the laden frames out of the box) that there was still lots of capped honey.

I sliced the fondant bags open on top (a big X) and put in three packs. The bees immediately became interested. I also removed the sticky pad that’s been in there since Thanksgiving. There was TONS of pollen and many mites, however considering it’s been in there since late November it didn’t seem too alarming.

When I closed up the hive the girls really started flying. It was good to see them out and about and enjoying the warm sunshine. I will make more fondant and check them in a couple of weeks.

Here are some pics!

“Bee Candy” (Fondant) ready to be placed in the hive.

Bee coming in with lots of pollen. It’s amazing that they find blooms somewhere!

Grease patties (bottom) and fondant (top). See the bees munching away on the grease patties. The fondant will be easier for them to eat because it’s made of powdered sugar while the grease patties are made of granulated sugar.

Sticky pad with dead bees and lots of pollen.

The tiny little brown dots are mites.

Brief Update

Well, the bees are in their winter cluster and have been for about a month and a half. However, yesterday was a warm day and I decided to reset the hive so that they’d have some ventillation. Of course, I thought since they were inside and clustered up that I wouldn’t have to worry about them getting annoyed. Boy was I wrong — a whole army of little ladies came out and stung me four times! Yeeouch! Oh well…you live and learn. At least I didn’t have major reaction…just some nice itchy baseball-sized welts in some very inconvenient spots. So for now it’s leave-the-ladies-alone time.

Two of the students who were working with me on the bee research have been voted on to the next level of Science Fair! Brittney and Sam will be going on to compete at the city level. Yay girls!

Challenge No. 1

For those of you who know anything about bees, there are a handful of diseases and parasites that can obliterate a colony. On Saturday (10/6) as I was performing my weekly inspection and feeding the bees I noticed that one had a red dot on her back that looked like a small blood blister. I knew immediately what this was…a varroa mite (varroa destructor). I’ve attached some photos I found on the internet, as well as photos of my own bees below.

Originally discovered in Singapore in the 1950s, varroa destructor was first discovered in the United States in 1987. How it was introduced to the U.S. is unknown, but it’s suspected that it came over as a result of people buying bee colonies from other countries. The mite is like a small tick and the female burrows into the brood cells where the be larvae is and lays her eggs. So when the baby bees come out of the cell, they already have the mite attached to them.

Varroa mite (varroa destructor)

The bees can live with the mite attached, however as the mite feeds off of their haemolymph (circulatory fluid, a.k.a. blood) it can proliferate genetic conditions, such as bees being born with no wings or missing legs. This, in the long run, weakens the colony and eventually causes it to die off.

Baby bee emerging from cell with mite attached — see small brown dot on her back.

When I first discovered the mite I immediately called the person who sold them to me. He suggested I use Checkmite+, a product made by the Bayer Corp. The second he opened the package I knew I didn’t want to put that shit on my bees. It smelled like a mix of propane and petroleum. The miticide comes in strips and you hang them in the hive for 42 days. The bees walk over the strips and the mites die and fall off. The strips contain 0,0-Diethyl 0-(3-chloro-4-methyl-2-oxo-2H-1-benzopyran-7-yl)phosphorothioate (coumaphos). Yikes! No deal.

That evening I started doing some research on organic, non-chemical treatments for varroa infestations. I found the work of James Amrine and Bob Noel of West Virginia University who are responsible for the creation of Honey-B-Healthy, an organic nutritive that helps bees stay healthy following a mite infestation (among other things). Jim and Bob had a recipe for grease patties made from essential oils and other natural ingredients (wintergreen oil, vegetable shortening, sugar, salt, etc.) that they put in the hives. The bees eat it and the mites react negatively to the wintergreen oil and can’t stick to the bees because they’re so oily so they fall off. Then I ordered a sticky bottom board that hold on to the mites when the fall to the bottom of the hive. Jim said he’s got a 90 percent kill rate using the HBH, the grease patties and paper strips soaked in formic acid, another non-chemical, organic solution. So that’s what I’m going to do.

I’ve already made the grease patties and put them in the hive. The bees were NOT happy at first and were hanging outside the hive. But within a 1/2 hour they were back to normal. Here are some photos. All I can do is use these products and pray!

The varroa mite on one of my bees — see bee at center with red dot in the middle of her back.

Making grease patties.

I put a “grease roll” near the hive entrance so the bees feed on it as the enter and exit the hive. The patties will site on top of the brood chamber where nurse bees will feed on it.

The bees were very annoyed today. We moved the hive into a more sunny spot for the winter, so they’ve been adjusting to their new location. They were very assertive while I was putting the patties in and our dog, Mocha, made the mistake of walking too near the hive — the result was a nice sting in the ear.

Checking to make sure the bees can enter and exit over the grease roll.

One month later…

While I’ve done at least four hive checks in the past month, I apologize for not posting any photos. The colony has grown at an alarming rate. I’m not certain, but I think the last time I posted photos, four of the 10 frames had yet to be drawn out. I started feeding the bees last month, placing four jars (about the size of a tall peanut butter jar) of simple syrup (1 part purified water, 1 part organic sugar) into the top hive box. A week after putting the jars in, they were empty…the little ladies just lapped in up!

I had read in the Dadant & Sons book that between the 3rd and fifth week I would see an enormous change in the number of bees, and boy they weren’t kidding. All 10 frames are drawn out, nine on both sides and the 10th on only one side. At least five of the frames are filled with brood. The queen is laying like crazy, and I’m glad to say she’s laying in a very healthy pattern — brood in the middle and honey on the outer quadrants.

I had my teacher friend Beverly and Ben over this time and Ben was our documentarian. Beverly is a science teacher at my school, and she really wanted to see the whole process because her students are reading about the disappearning colony problem. Ben teaches English, but while he was living in Virginia he helped a friend out with his hives and now he wants to get his own!

I did see a couple of queen cells at the bottom of two of the frames. I’ll have to ask Ken about them because they’re dark black in color. I’m not sure what that is. However, there are tons of little rice grains (eggs at early stage) in one frame, and on another frame there are uncapped larva at a more advanced stage. Then there’s tons of capped cells. So she’s been busy! There’s also one whole frame of pollen-packed cells, so I have a feeling there’s a new autumn bloom cycle starting. Every day I see the girls coming back with their sacks packed with bright yello pollen.

I replenished their syrup supply and will peek in next week to see how they’re doing. Here are some pictures that Ben took.

I placed these three jars in the hive seven days ago. One is already completely empty.

HONEY!

Checking In

I went and saw Ken Hays this morning. I asked him about the cluster of bees at the hive entrance (see photo at right taken last night) and it was just as we suspected — the girls are HOT!

He said to totally remove the entrance blocker (duct tape), so I took care of that this afternoon. They are still a little corn-fused and not ready to use this new available space, but I think they’ll slowly get used to it (and they’ll certainly enjoy the fresh air!)

I also took the frames that they had not touched and interspersed them with ones they had already drawn out. When we closed up the hive we offset the lid so that there was a tiny crack to ensure air circulation throughout the hive.

I also made some simple syrup and put three jars of it in the top hive box. I’ll peek in there tomorrow to see how much they’ve consumed and I will start feeding them regularly. They will need lots of their own honey for the winter and I want to make sure they are totally prepared. We went to Wild Oats and ordered a 25-pound back of organic sugar…we’ll see how long that lasts.

Until later!

Long Live the Queen!

Ryan and I got back from Denver on Wednesday night and I was very anxious to check the bees. When I walked out with the flashlight, I was stunned to find a fist-sized cluster of bees hanging around outside the hive opening. As I continued to shine the light, they dispersed and went inside.

Over the past few nights, we have witnessed the same phenomenon. Ryan and I think it may be because the colony is growing and it has been really hot at night so they cluster outside to cool off. I’m going to go see Ken tomorrow at the Farmer’s Market and ask him.

The bees have begun to draw out one of the empty frames, but have barely touched the others. I’ve decided to feed them so I’m going to put three jars of simple syrup in the hive tonight to see how they take to it.

The are definitely increasing in numbers, however. And the queen is healthy and laying brood.

ALL HAIL THE QUEEN!

Ryan and I found the queen today! She’s so beautiful and easy to spot, I wondered how we missed her before. Here she is in all her glory. Look for the red dot.