July to August Bee Diary

Aug 18, 2013
 It's been a month since I have written. I have been into the bees many times since that last post so I thought I'd better catch you up with a few notes and some visuals.

July 7 Looking for the New Queens

I knew it was a little early to be looking for hatched and/or fertilized queens but since I was heading out of town for a while, I thought I would check. I had a couple of hope-to-be beekeepers coming to visit so I knew it would be interesting for them as well. I opened the experimental hive first. The queens had not hatched yet but the worker bees that I had grabbed from Queen Olivia to populate the hive had decided to build another queen in response to this queenless hive. I removed this queen cell fdue to my human need to meddle! Here is the frame with the queen cells still capped and my visitors looking at a frame.

Capped Queen cells on bottom of frame

Melodie and Gerhard

July 11  First Honey Harvest of Summer 2013

I took 3 frames of capped honey from Queen Olivia and Queen Mab II to harvest since they had a bit of surplus.  I am using the crush and strain method now instead of using my beautiful extractor.  I cut the whole comb out of the frame and let the honey drip through a nylon cloth.  In some ways it is faster as I only do a few frames at a time and I don't have to clean out the extractor every time.

Cutting the honey comb out of the frame.

Bill made me a beautiful shelf for the beeyard for setting the boxes on.  Its cross pieces have a point cut into them so there is as little contact as possible with the boxes.  This way the squishing of bees is minimized.  An awesome addition to the beeyard--good for the bees and my back!

Perfect shelf to hold the boxes

July 17  Hot Bees

It may be hard to believe that we went through a heat wave that had everyone and everything drooping.  It went as high as 35 degrees but was feeling like 42 degrees with the humidity.  It felt like it lasted forever though it was in reality only about a week and half. We had all our fans going non-stop to deal with it.  The bees were madly fanning as well and hanging on their front porches day and night.

Queen Mab II and Queen Olivia cooling off

July 23  Introducing Queen Sangria

I finally got a chance to go into the hives to see if the queens had hatched and been fertilized.  It was a cool and sunny day.  I went into my experimental hive first and there she was!  A big, striped queen laying eggs.  There was new brood and new wax being drawn.  (My great nieces Madison and Megan named her Queen Sangria as that is the drink of choice this summer.)  I gave this hive a box of frames on top to give them some room.  I then went to Queen Mab II.  Though I did not find her Majesty, it was very clear that she was doing great since there was evidence of laying.

Queen Sangria--you can find her!

August 4  Fixing "wonky honey comb"

I figured I'd better look into Queen Olivia, my star hive to see if there was any surplus honey to be harvested.  What I found was "wonky honey comb".  Since I don't use plastic foundation, the bees are left to their own devices to build straight combs.  Mostly they do, but in this hive they had built on angle so each comb started in one frame and then half way through continued to the next frame.  This makes taking the frames out singly impossible without making a very sticky mess.  I took out 5 capped frames to harvest and then tried to fix the rest with wire.  Honey was dripping everywhere and the bees were in a frenzy trying to clean it up before strange bees or wasps happened upon the mess.  Once I had the broken comb fixed I gave it to Queen Sangria to eat/clean up.

Wiring the combs back into the frames

August 17  Bee Check

It has been unseasonably cool these last two weeks with temperatures going as low as 12 degrees some nights.  I imagine the nectar production is limited though I have seen a lot of pollen going into the hives.

It was time to see if the hives needed more room and if all was well.  I checked Queen Sangria and found her Majesty happily laying.  They still hadn't done much work in their extra box but I saw that they had cleaned out the two fixed frames completely which supports the theory that there hasn't been much nectar.  I hope that she can build up the population to a large enough cluster to make it through the winter.  If she doesn't I will have to amalgamate her with another hive.

I opened up Queen Olivia and also found her Majesty working in the bottom box.  There hasn't been a lot of honey production in her either so I left all frames in.  To tell the truth, I wasn't that interested in harvesting honey this weekend anyway.  

Busy doorway at Queen Olivia

I then went into Queen Mab II.  For the first time ever, I found her Majesty!  She was working in the second box from the bottom  She is striped just like Queen Sangria, as they are related, if not full sisters.  The hive looks busy and healthy but I did spot a varroa mite on one of the workers.  Of course, I knew that all the hives must have mites but it is still disappointing to see one.  We will see how the hives do.

Queen Mab II--right in the middle of her retinue

So there's your little update on the bees of Waxen City.  I have harvested about 23 lbs of honey.  The first harvest has an extremely floral taste...perhaps linden tree?  The second harvest is just plain sweet!  It is still a wonderful hobby.  I feel that I learn something new each time I go into the hives and I have become more calm and relaxed as I work with them.  

I know that there has been a lot of media around honey bees and other pollinators and their precarious position in our world.  I will write again about that and the ominous possibility of a world without bees but for now, enjoy the sunshine and the incredible Ontario harvest of fruits and vegetables available at our markets.   I leave you with an image of a Red Admiral butterfly on an echinacea blossom.

Red Admiral butterfly on echinacea