Andrea's Bees: The daughters of Queen Elizabeth I & Queen Hippolyta

June 13, 2012

This posting should have been written awhile ago but as faithful followers know, Queen Elizabeth I took my energy as I dealt with issues...OK... perceived issues. So on this beautiful Canada Day, I can finally tell you the story of the daughters of the two first hives...the swarms I caught in May.

They are named Nefertiti, daughter of Hippolyta and Queen Latifah, daughter of Elizabeth I. One day they will get art on their hives, too. With these two hives, I have the opportunity to try out what I have learned from The Natural Beekeeper. There are three things I am trying with these hives.

I have given these two hives a top entrance rather than both a top and bottom entrance. The theory here is that the hives are safer from predators, particularly skunks since skunks scrabble at the entrance until the bees come down to investigate and then eat them like popcorn. They will keep doing this until the whole hive is emptied if they get a chance. And we all know how many skunks roam the streets of London! There is also evidence that the hive is kept cleaner because of the top entrance but I have no proof of that yet.

I am also working with medium or shallow boxes only. This allows for more manipulation of the frames between the boxes. I might be able to avoid the swarming of this season by moving brood around as I wish...between the boxes and between the other hives. I also will avoid ruining my back as I move the heavy boxes around.

The third and most exciting change is that I am trying to switch the bees to open frames from plastic foundation. I am still at 50% foundation and 50% open frames. There is a growing group of beekeepers who believe that we should not be dictating to the bees what size their cells should be. In the 1800's research showed that if the cells were bigger then the bees would be bigger and therefore would collect more honey. The problem with this theory is that the bigger bees can't fly as far so they can't find the best foraging if there are problems closer to the hive. Also, mites seem to like the larger cells better. Perhaps letting the bees have smaller cells will fight that which is what I am hoping for. It all makes sense to me so I will try to let the bees choose their own way. I am doing it slowly and hope that by the end of the season I will have switched them over to 100% open frames. The issue for me will be how to extract the honey. I will have to be extra careful since the combs will not be as robust without the plastic. Bill has added a wire across some of the frames I have put in and perhaps that will give some strength to the combs.

I cannot describe to you how beautiful a comb that has been built on an open frame is. It is white and jewel like. I could see the shadows of the bees working on the other side of it when I held the comb up to the sun. It is much more fragile so I need to keep it straight so as not to break its tenuous grip on the wooden strip at the top of the frame.

You can see in the following pictures how the bees start working from the wooden strip at the top down and then fill in the sides and bottom.

Queen Latifah beginning to build comb in an open frame

Nefertiti starting to cap honey on open frame

Queen Latifah with capped brood on open frame

While I was in Queen Latifah we witnessed an extraordinary thing. When the larva has changed into an adult bee, it comes out of the cell by eating the wax cap covering it. This a picture of the emergence though it does not do justice to this amazing happening. You can see the emerging bees in the two dark spots just on the edge of the white unused comb.

Emerging bees...witnessing a birth!

Here is a picture of larva and capped brood close up.

Capped brood and larva

I have added shallows on all the hives and will leave them alone to the middle of July. I have checked for mites on the large hive and will check again this weekend. This is mostly to monitor and make sure that they are still thriving in spite of the mites. Here are the FOUR hives with their new shallow boxes installed.