Finally going into the Bees

Monday April 30

First time into the bees in 2012

I am a bad beekeeper I am ashamed to say.  As you know, I was afraid that Hippolyta was ready to swarm on April 13 but the weather  changed and I was given a reprieve.  A beekeeper colleague told me I had 2 weeks to work on them before they would indeed take off.  I fully intended to go in but the weather turned very cold and I got very busy at work...excuses...excuses!

I looked ahead at the weather forecast and spotted April 25 as the next warm day...and sadly it was a day full of events that I could not bow out of.  It was the perfect day.  At about 1 pm Bill texted me with the information that the bees were very busy.  At about 1:30 pm Bill called to say the air over Queen Elizabeth I was black with bees swirling.  He could see them from the house!  A half hour later, he called to let me know that the air was clear.  I feared the worst.  At 3:15 pm I got an e-mail from the President of the Beekeeper Association!  That's a bit like being called to the principal's office.  The note said that he had been called by a property owner about 6 blocks away from our house...a swarm of bees had landed there.  He surmised that they were my bees and did I want them back?

So, today, Sunday is a SUNNY day about 13 degrees already and heading up.  The beeyard faces south and is protected so it's a perfect day to go into the bees.  I have not been in since last October so this is exciting and a little bit scary.  I would be able to tell if the swarm I was told about was mine by going into the hive to see if a: there were not very many bees b: there were queen cells.

What I am going to do in the hives:

1.  Check for queen cells.  And also look for the queen if she is still there.
2.  Add the bottom screen for the summer.
3.  Move the bottom box up one.
4.  Take lots of pictures.
5.  Work very slowly.

It was great to start taking the hive apart.  It felt so good to slowly open it up and see the bees boiling up out of the hive.  They weren't agitated but there were a lot of them.  If half of this hive took off, I would not have wanted to see the whole hive!  I saw a bit of capped brood but no sign of uncapped brood or eggs.  In the bottom box I found the queen cells...about 12 of them.  My reading has told me that if a colony is ready to swarm the worker bees will make queen cells on the bottom of the frames but if there is an emergency and the queen has been hurt or isn't good enough the worker bees will make queen cells in the middle of the frames.  Strangely, all the queen cells in Queen Elizabeth I were in the middle of the frames so I don't really know what is going on with her.  Perhaps my bees did not read the rule books.  Here are some pictures of the queen cells.

Capped queen cell

Capped queen cell and brood

  My bee math tells me that these capped queen cells will have queens emerging in about 8 or 9 days.  The first queen to emerge will go to all of the other queen cells and kill her rivals.  After she emerges it will be about 20 days before she is a laying queen.  She will need to fly out of the hive and be fertilized by a bunch of drones and return to the hive.  Anything could happen to her while she is out there...blown away by wind, eaten by a bird or caught in bad weather.  This is the risk that many beekeepers avoid by getting a new queen from a queen breeder but I am going to take the risk.  I am going to let my queen go out and meet up with some London Romeos and see what comes of it.  Wish her luck and hopefully the end of May will see her laying eggs like crazy.

The fact that I found queen cells and no queen tells me that the swarm found was probably mine but to tell the truth, I would like to stick with the two hives I have.

The cool thing that I discovered while in the hives was that most of the honey I had left for the winter had been consumed by the bees and they all looked very healthy.  I also found out that I still suck at keeping the smoker going.  I was in Queen E for over an hour and in Hippolyta for about 45 mins and my smoker went out a bunch of times and Bill got it going twice for me.  I didn't really need it too much since the bees stayed very calm throughout.  This may be because I am becoming a calmer beekeeper.

I went into Hippolyta after Queen E and though I never found her majesty, it was pretty clear that all was well there.  There was brood in all phases and though I am not good at finding eggs, I am pretty sure that the queen is laying fine.

Queen Hippolyta brood...looking good

I put screens on both hives and I switched the bottom deep boxes to the middle position.  I looked at every frame and I put in some completely empty frames in the top boxes.  Once I put the hives back together I could see that they were much calmer.  I will keep an eye on them and probably check on them again in a couple of weeks.

The dandelions are blooming and that's the beginning of spring, I would say so Happy Spring finally!

Yay!  Dandelions!

Drama in the Beeyard!

Sunday, April 15

It was Friday the 13th and Opening Night of Hair.  Many of you may know that I am the Production Manager of a professional theatre.  On the day in question, I was very busy and wasn't checking my messages, either in my office or on my I-phone.  When I finally checked I found numerous missed calls and texts...all from my husband Bill.  The texts had photos attached...very scary photos!

Hippolyta on Friday the 13th

As you can see, there were thousands of bees boiling out of the hive and buzzing all over each other.  I immediately called home and spoke with an extremely agitated Bill.  I was to come home at once since it looked like Hippolyta was about to swarm.  Did I mention that it was Opening Night at the theatre?  My plan that night was to have a lovely, leisurely meal at a local restaurant and then go to the theatre for some great entertainment.  Best laid plans...I went home and we ordered in pizza.

When I got home I couldn't believe what was going on.  I know that I blithely explain to friends that there can be 60,000-100,000 bees in a mature hive but nothing had prepared me for the reality.  What to do?  It looked like it was too late for intervention so I had to figure out how to catch the swarm.  From my reading I knew that what I was seeing was the first step before all the bees would leave the hive with the queen.  Their next step would be to fly to a low branch of a tree.  The bees would then make a ball of bees  on the branch or where ever else they chose.  The queen would be in the middle  of this ball.  The scout bees would be looking for a likely new home and when enough of the scouts were interested in the same place, the whole swarm of bees would head to its new digs.  I wanted those new digs to be one of my hives and not the mirror on the car down the street (I am sure you have seen the pictures).  I went to my many bee books and the internet to figure out what to do.  We decided to build a bait hive to hold the Hippolyta swarm.  I rubbed the inside and the entrances with lemon peel which supposedly would attract the bees so that they might choose the bait hive over a hole in a tree.

Bait hive

While we waited for the bees to flock to the new hive, we also waited for the pizza to arrive.  By this time it was around 6 pm and the sun was going down.  It was getting cooler and we noticed that the bees were starting to go back into the hive.  Reprieve! 

I sent a picture of the hive at its height to the beekeeper I bought my gear from asking for advice and got ready for the evening at the theatre.  If you are wondering what Queen Elizabeth I was doing in all this turmoil, look at this.

Queen Elizabeth I

And this is what Hippolyta looked like when we left...still pretty scary but going the right direction...inside!

Hippolyta later that evening

When we got back from the theatre it was past midnight but we had to go to the beeyard before going in.  There were still some bees hanging outside(drinking, smoking and discussing the great show they had just seen in the theatre!:))   Happily, it has been grey and rainy for the rest of this weekend so I have gotten a bit of time to reflect on my next steps.  I received a response to my panicked e-mail from the beekeeper as well.  He said that they were warm and bored because there was no work to do.  He suggested that I split them to get a new hive and stated that if I didn't do anything they would likely swarm in a couple of weeks.  So as soon as I get a chance...sunny and a chance to leave work...I will split the hive.  I will probably do Queen Elizabeth soon as well.  You know what this means...four hives!

I will write another blog about how I could have avoided this panic and why bees swarm.  In the meantime, I will leave you with an image of spring in the back yard.  This is one of our pear trees in bloom.  I have noticed that bees have been busy pollinating these trees as well as our service berry trees.  The birds and squirrels will be happy this summer!

Young pear tree in bloom