Keeping up with the Jones'es

June 17, 2011

As you know, I have given Hippolyta's colony an upstairs apartment to fill with more brood etc.  After I had done that, I sat down with my books and tried to understand what I had seen while in the hives.  Seems that I have enough growth in Queen Elizabeth's colony to give them a super as well.  I came home early from work today to take advantage of the lovely sunny weather to do a quick reno for QEI.

When I lifted the lid, the bees had busily added comb underneath, yet again.  There was no honey in it yet, thank goodness, but I couldn't believe the  amount they got done in just two days.  Having learned from the last experience, I smoked the bees more so they would move downstairs while I cleaned the wax off.  All the while, I was telling the bees how sorry I was that I had to disturb them so soon after the last time.  I then very quickly and gently added a super to their home, put the lid off and left them.  So they now have 10 brand new frames to work on, just like their neighbours.

Two hives, both alike in dignity

June 19, 2011

Today is a gorgeous Father's Day.  Bill and I have been happily sitting in the back garden watching the bees.  They are so busy...back and forth...back and forth.  The sage at the fountain has started to bloom and now the bees have discovered a liking for the nectar of this herb.  It is so much fun watching them going right down into the blossom and then re-emerging, slightly drunk.  Here are some shots of this behaviour...way too much fun!

The approach

Going in

In

Almost in to the treasure

Here is the bench where the time is whiled away with dog, Olive happily in attendance.   I am far too lazy to work like the bees so I will happily sit here for the rest of the day.

Happy Father's Day to all!

Searching for Their Majesties

June 15, 2011

The weather has been crazy for the last few days since I wrote in this blog.  It has ranged from 30 degrees and very humid to a chilly 10 degrees in the day time.  Our heating came on a couple of times and the decision on what to wear every morning was a very calculated one...and usually wrong.  During this odd weather, the bees' activities changed drastically with each change.  When it was very hot they all congregated on their front stoops madly thrumming their wings to keep cool.  When it was cold, they simply stayed indoors which was very wise.

Happily, the weather is finally settling down and today it was sunny, not too windy and a perfect day for me to go into the hives for the very first real hive check.  Why go into the hive at all, you ask?  Well, I went in for a few reasons.  Managing bees in the modern world is no longer just having a bunch of hives and leaving them alone until it's time to rob the honey.  These days there are many pests, viruses and diseases that the bees can get.  So I have to watch out for them.  As well, I need to watch for signs of swarming and try to avoid that happening.  As a neophyte, even though I am looking, I am not sure what I am seeing so I may still end up with one or all of these problems.

So the reasons I went into the hive included:  trying to find the queens to make sure they were doing their jobs laying eggs, seeing how many frames were being worked on (drawn out) and checking the sheet under the screened bottom for mites.

I opened Queen Elizabeth I first.  Under the lid, again, there was comb full of honey that I had to clean up.  I felt extremely clumsy and did in a bunch of bees as I cleaned up.  Drowned them in their own honey...a terrible death...I will definitely have to do something about the space in the lid since they like it so much.  For the readers who know even less then I do about bees...there is something called bee-space.  It cannot be more than 3/8" wide or the bees will fill it with comb and it cannot be less than 1/4" wide or they will fill it with something very sticky called propolis.  I will save the story of how this was discovered in a future, extremely academic posting.  Suffice to say, my lids give the bees more space than that so they are most insistent on filling it up.  Since I want them to do all the work in the frames, I will have to solve this issue.

Opening Queen Elizabeth I

Comb on underside of lid

Once this mess was cleaned up, I started taking out the frames one by one to examine them.  It was amazing to see how they had built comb up in the new frames and multiplied, multiplied, multiplied!  There are so many bees!  Even after the clumsy clean up, the bees still went about their business ignoring the bonehead decimating their ranks.  I think I have very gentle bees...hope they stay that way.  Here are pictures of the beautiful frames in QEI.

New frame covered in worker

Look at that beautiful pattern

I found Their Majesties!!!  Queen Elizabeth I was happily working away on the second last frame I looked at.  A beautiful dark brown/golden queen worthy of her moniker.  She has been working hard.  Here is a picture of the frame where I found her.  She is the very large bee very close to the centre and a little bit down.  Very long with short wings...you can't miss her once you find her.  Imagine laying about 1000-2000 eggs a day.  I will tell you more about the queen in my academic post...I know you all can't wait for that one!

QEI in centre closer to the bottom

When I opened Queen Hippolyta I had the same deal with comb  under the lid.  Less honey so not quite the same issue with clean up.  I have a whole plastic bucket of wax from this mess.  I might melt it down to coat the plastic foundation in the frames so the bees won't have to work so hard.  I was not as good at finding Her Majesty this time so I cheated and found her afterwards in the photos that Bill took.  Thank goodness I can talk Bill into chronicling this adventure since there is no way I would touch my camera with my gooey hands.  The queen was found on the 2nd last frame in the hive.  All the frames were looking pretty awesome with comb, brood, pollen and honey.  In fact this hive is way ahead of Queen E and so I decided to add a super (another box of frames) so they could have more room.  This is one of the methods to avoid them leaving in a swarm...keep them happy with where they are...this works with humans too!  Here is the photo of Her Majesty Queen Hippolyta, look to the left at the bottom and you will find her. Also a picture of the hives put back together with the super added to Queen H.  Looking like a regular bee yard.  I will probably add a super to Queen E in a week since the weather and flowers are cooperating very well.

QH to the left at the bottom

QEI closed up and QH with a super added.

OK, so I have found the queens and they are working magnificently, I have dealt with giving more room for brood etc in QH.  All I had left to do was check the bottom for mites (will tell you all about these nasty creatures another time).  I pulled out the boards I have placed under the screened bottoms of the hives to see if there were any mites which had dropped down.  The number of mites found tells one if the hive is in trouble or not.  Yay... not one mite!  Will keep checking throughout the entire summer, as well as watching for other nasty problems that bees can get.

Short story about bees and water before I sign off--a colony of bees needs about 1 litre of water per day.  So that's 2 litres per day for these two hives.  You can see a cement rhubarb leaf that I have been putting water in daily for their use.  I added rocks so that they won't drown...pretty much all the amenities you would ever want in a 5 Star Hive.  Did they use it?  Never saw them in it once.  Really don't know where they were getting their water.  Last week I finally set out our fountain in our back yard garden.  Around this fountain are planted herbs like sage, chives and oregano.  Soon after setting it out I noticed a lot of bee activity around the chives.  Then I noticed the bees sitting on the sage leaves sipping the bits of water being sprayed by the fountain and then they got brave and sat on the lip of the fountain.  I can get really close to them with my camera now and take pictures to my heart's content.  All I need  is a macro lens and then National Geographic here I come...OK, maybe a local bee magazine!

Fountain in our garden

Honey bee on the chive blossom

Honey bee sipping on edge of fountain.

End of today's posting.  Look forward to an academic Q & A to answer the many questions you have all been dying to ask.  

First bee check

June 4:  Hail the size of peas and dimes this morning!  But then the sun came out and I decided I'd better check on the sugar syrup consumption of the bees.  I also cannot contain some of my curiosity on how they are doing in general though I am not planning on opening up the frames at all.

So on with the jacket, start the smoker, off with the jacket while starting the smoker since it's so hot, on with the jacket and to the beeyard!

Opened up Queen Elizabeth first after a little smoke in the entrance.  The lid was stuck down with wax comb so had to use the hive tool a bit.  Beautiful comb...scraped it off with hive tool (handy tool) and put it in a bucket.  The feeder had about 1/2" of syrup left in it but I decided to dump it and replace it with a frame so I hope that was a good decision.  It is sunny and we are surrounded by blooming gardens and trees everywhere.  We are hoping that the bees are travelling up and down the railway tracks nearby and taking advantage of the wild flowers there.  I then replaced the lid.

Opened up Queen Hippolyta and found the lid stuck down not just with wax but with HONEY!   Scraped it into the bucket and left the bucket of bees, wax and honey in between the two hives to let the bees sort it out themselves...not before tasting a bit of it...mmmm...sweet1  Hippolyta had used up all the syrup and I took it out and replaced it with frame #10 (there are 10 frames in these hives).  I then replaced the lid and will leave them both alone for a week before I do a full inspection.  I retrieved the bucket and the bees had indeed taken care of all the honey and taken it back to the hives.

Side note:  I spotted my bees in my gardens!  Would love to know where they are all going each day.

Here are pics of today and close ups of the drawings on the hives.

Queen Elizabeth I

Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons

My bee on our clematis!

Wax buildup under lid

New frame to take place of feeder

Bees to new homes

May 29...moving the bees into their new homes day!  I barely slept the night before.  I went over and over the steps I would take the next morning.  I knew that the weather forecast was for rain and overcast and that made me nervous.  It's better to work with the bees when it's sunny since they are out working instead of hanging around with nothing to do but get ornery with a new bee keeper!  I made up some sugar water syrup to give them to give them a head start (1/3 sugar to 2/3 water) and waited until the sun came out.  Thankfully, it came out at 10:30 am and I was off!

I put on the beekeeping jacket with hood.  I started the smoker...with lots of help from Bill...and then we started it again.  Finally, it was smoking and I brought out the hives.  They are painted a lovely blue since I read that bees like blue a lot.  The hives have pictures of their respective queens (see posting #1) drawn on them.  Apparently bees can recognize images (up to four symbols) so this should help them recognize their own hive.  

Side note:  the bee jacket with hood up is bloody hot!  Add gloves, boots and heavy pants...need I say more?

Here is a series of pictures taken by Bill of me, new bee keeper moving the bees from their cardboard box to the hives.  I gave each hive a little smoke to let them know I was coming but they were all so gentle and uninterested in me, I'm not sure they needed it at all.

Pouring syrup into feeder in hive

Using the hive tool to loosen frame

First frame of bees!

Look at those bees!

And add the lid to Queen Hippolyta.  One done!

So they are both installed into their lovely blue hives.  I can start breathing again.  Whew!  Now for breakfast.

I have bees!

May 28: I  jumped into beekeeping!  

I picked up 2 nucs at Dave's Apiaries.  For those of you who don't know what a nuc is, it's a nucleus colony (a small colony consisting of a queen, workers and drones) in a cardboard box with a top and little entrance hole on the front.  The box has four frames in it and is surprisingly heavy. I placed the two nucs in the place where the hives will be, facing in exactly the same direction as the hives will face.  I left them there for a couple of hours before opening the entrance holes.  As soon as I took the tape off the hole, the bees starting coming out and exploring their new digs.

I have named the two hives after famous queens...Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons...will shorten this to Queen E and Queen H over time I imagine.  Queen Hippolyta is already far more active than her neighbour, go figure...but Queen E brought home the first pollen...within the first 2 hours.

Here's a picture of the nucs in place.

Nucs in new home

I will leave them there to their own devices until the following morning.  They are fascinating!  I could not keep away from them.  Finally I gave up trying to do anything and my husband, Bill and I got ourselves a couple of chairs and cups of coffee and sat and whiled away the afternoon watching the bees come and go.  They have no interest in us...at least not yet.  There is a slight buzz coming from the boxes.

So goodnight bees.