Midsummer Bee Diary

August 2, 2014

We went to visit Sophia, another urban beekeeper.  She has two top bar hives.  Top bar hives are used in warmer climates such as Africa but we are experimenting with them here in Canada. Usually they don't have foundation and only a bar on top with no sides.  To harvest the honey, the comb has to be cut from the bar and crushed and strained like I do.  They are a bit more fragile since the comb is only attached on the bar whereas mine can be attached to the sides of the frame as well.  One of Sophia's hives is a hybrid in that the original colony was built on frames with foundation.  She is working on switching them to pure top bars over the summer.

Hybrid top bar hive

Traditional top bar hive with slanted sides and Hybrid

Going into a top bar hive is less stressful for the bees since the whole hive doesn't have to be taken apart like mine.  We are not sure how they over-winter in our cold winters so that will be interesting to see.  Her bees looked very busy and happy and have a beautiful pond to get their water and a garden full of vegetables and flowers to pollinate.

Frog in the pond

August 3, 2014  Sunny, humid, 24 degrees centigrades

Paul joined me in the bees today!  I had a packed agenda for the visit.  I needed to see if the queen in No Name was laying.  I had decided if it wasn't working, I would amalgamate her with Olivia, where she originally came from.  I showed Paul the difference between workers and drones, the different capped brood, capped honey and we also found bees with deformed wings from a virus.

Paul and I looking at the frames in No Name

There was no sign of laying, no eggs and no larva.  We found many empty frames and we decided that we probably would be amalgamating her.  Then on the second last frame that we inspected we found...them!  Two queens on the frame...one on one side and one on the other.  This is clearly the summer of double queen hives!  We decided to take one box away from the hive to make it a smaller hive and make sure that the bees weren't overwhelmed by too much space.  We looked at a comb being newly built by the workers.  The workers hang on to each other to start building.  This is called festooning.

Looking at the bees festooning.

Close up of festooning.

Paul and I then went into Olivia.  We saw lots of new larva, capped brood and some eggs.

Looking at a frame of brood and bees.

Paul wanted to see the whole hive so we went through every single box to the very bottom.  It all looked great though we never found either queen...you might remember that Olivia also is a dual queen hive...or was, who knows?  Down at the bottom on the screen we found a large pile of dead bees.  The box directly above the screen was all empty comb.  It is a mystery to me exactly what happened.  We cleaned it up, took the bottom box out of the hive and hoped that all would be well.  It has been raining a fair bit and perhaps there was too much humidity in the hive.

While we were working in the bees, Paul's son, Kai was busy too!

Kai with Smokey

August 4, 2014

I checked on Mab just to make sure that she didn't have the same problem as Olivia but I didn't find many dead bees at the bottom at all.  I gave  Mab and Olivia each a box with empty frames so they can start storing extra honey.  I have harvested about 8 frames from the three hives but I will leave them alone now to store for the winter.

August 10, 2014

Today was No Name's last chance as far as I was concerned.  I planned to go into her, see if any laying was going on and if not, into Olivia she was going.  I went through this hive this morning.  She was very noisy and the guards were being very aggressive.  I am used to gentle bees so I knew something must be awry.  I found some small capped queen cells so I figured that she was queenless again.  Why they thought they had enough time this summer to start over again, I don't know!  I got ready to amalgamate her with Olivia.  I got some newspaper and opened up Olivia.  I laid the newspaper over top and prepared to put No Name's boxes on top.   I would slice some slits into the newspaper with my hive tool and the bees would slowly eat away at the paper until the two hives become one.

To make sure I didn't add chaos into Olivia, I went through the frames again and proceeded to take out the capped queen cells.  I was checking the frames thoroughly when what did I find?  The two queens! They were on the same frame, one on each side.  Now I had to make a decision.  Do I kill the two queens or do I put the hive back together?  I did not have the heart and I figured we still have about 4 weeks left of the summer so I put her back together and I wished her well.

Now she/they need a name.  How about Queen Gemini for the twin sister queens?  Any other suggestions?

Happy August!

Butterflies in the Garden

August 2, 2014

The garden is constantly full of movement these days.  But it's not only the bees that are buzzing around.  We have seen  beautiful butterflies lately though not in abundance.  Monarchs have been rare this season and I understand that this is as a result of losing habitat, both in the South and here in Canada. I have been aware of some that are not usually this far north.  Butterflies are not as efficient as the honey bees in pollinating but they are probably more important to our ecology since they are native pollinators so we try to have plants in the garden that will attract them. Here is a photo post of the beautiful butterflies we see in our garden.

Field Crescentspot on Zinnias

Question Mark Angelwing closed on Beauty Bush

Question Mark Angelwing half open

Question Mark Angelwing open

Tiger Swallowtail on echinacea

Orange Sulphur Butterfly on echinacea

Eastern Black Swallowtail on echinacea

Old Red Admiral on hydrangea

Young Red Admiral on hydrangea

Monarch Chrysalis raised by neighbours

Monarch butterfly on echinacea

Monarch butterfly on echinacea

Butterflies are fragile and if you look closely at some of these pictures you will see tears in their wings or a missing tail.  It is remarkable that some of them can travel thousands of kilometres from their wintering spots to come back to Canada.   

Enjoy your long weekend and watch out for the butterflies!

Two Queens, one Hive...again!

July 25, 2014

Sunny, windy and 23 degrees Centigrade

Exciting times in Queen Olivia!  I opened her up just to see how things are going since I really didn't know what the queen was up to last time.  Imagine my surprise when I pulled out a beautiful new white comb with two queens on it.  They were almost side by side and apparently living in harmony! Happily Bill was there with the camera so I have proof this time.  I imagine that this is a mother and a daughter team which is not that unusual according to the books.

Long shot of frame with two queens...can you find them?

Zoomed in shot of the two queens...one up left and one down right.

Both queens were moving around a lot and for a mad moment I thought I had three queens on this frame but one of the queens had scooted to the other side when I wasn't looking.  Here is a wonderful shot of one the queens from the side.

One of the Queens Olivia walking to the other side of the frame.

I think that the two queens should work together until  the older queen "retires" and then the younger one will take over.  In theory this will be a very healthy hive if they both are laying.

Then I went into Queen No Name to see if the capped queen cell that I put in last time had hatched.  I did find the virgin queen this time so hopefully she will fly out to get fertilized in the next few days and should be laying by July 31.  If this doesn't work out, I will amalgamate her with one of the other hives and be done with it.  This hive is a bit under attack by the mites so there are a number of bees with deformed wing virus and I could see the mites on their backs.

The queen in No Name...you can find her!

Bees with deformed wings right in the centre.

This hive is trying to keep itself healthy by taking all the diseased bees out of the hive.  I found many bees crawling along in the grass outside of the bee yard.

Diseased bee kicked out of the hive.

I took a peek into Queen Mab as well just to check on the honey stores.  I was pleased to find a lot of larva and capped brood and for the very first time I was able to see the eggs!  I held the frame at exactly the right angle and could see the little white tiny, tiny eggs.  That was totally gratifying for me.  Also, there is a lot of honey!  I took three fully capped frames of honey to harvest and replaced them with empty frames.

I am crushing and straining the honey now instead of using my extractor.  In fact, the extractor has a new home with a couple of urban beekeepers here in London.  Handy Bill helped me make a straining system with two 5 gallon buckets.  One bucket was scavenged from Organics Bakery.  Bill drilled many little holes into the bottom of it.  The other bucket is my beautiful honey bucket with the spigot.

5 gallon pail with holes drilled in bottom.

Honey combs cut up and dripping into bottom pail.

Hole cut in lid of bottom pail so top pail can rest on it as it drips through.

Awesome crush and strain pail system.

Yummy honey being taste tested by Bill!

This honey is amazingly light in flavour and colour...perfect summer sweetness.  These three frames will give me approximately 9 pounds of honey.  On to August and more honey harvesting hopefully.  Hope your summer is as sweet as this!

Two Queens...one Hive etc!

June 28, 2014

It has been awhile since I went into Olivia and I took all those capped queen cells away from her so I thought I'd better see how she was doing.  I expected to find her majesty happily laying away without anymore thought of the great outdoors.  Apparently I have not learned yet that there will always be surprises in the beehive.

I found the queen in the second box but she looked small and a little confused.  I saw no sign of eggs or larva...uh oh.  Then I found another queen in the third box!  She was equally small and not showing any signs of laying.  Then I found a queen cell with larva being taken care of by workers...oh my!  I imagine that the two queens were both virgins and that something had happened to their mother, Queen Olivia.  I wrote my friend John, the beekeeper and he surmised the same thing and told me to leave her alone for a couple of weeks and then check for laying.

I swear that I moved every queen cell I found when I made the other hive but the proof is right in front of me that I didn't.  I have no pictures of this adventure so you will have to take my word for it.

June 29, 2014

I went through the brilliant Mab.  She is solid!  Not much capped honey so no harvesting until August.

Queen Mab...beautiful1

Then I went into the No Name hive to see whether the virgin queen got fertilized.  I didn't find her but I did find a queen cell with a queen chewing her way out!

Queen emerging from queen cell

She must have been missed when the virgin queen was on her murderous spree.  Not sure what will happen next but I am sure that it will be epic.  I won't go in for a couple of weeks as we are heading East to beautiful PEI.

Wild lupines

View of rolling hills in PEI

Confederation Bridge

July 11, 2014

We are back in Ontario and all the hives need to be looked at.  It's a sunny, hot, beautiful day.

No Name Hive:  The emerging queen was dead...must have been murdered either by the virgin queen or the workers.  There is no sign of larva or eggs and no sign of the queen.  Sometimes the workers don't accept the new queen so they may have killed this one as well.  I will give her a frame of brood to see if she starts a new queen.

Queen Olivia II:  Found her on brand new comb.. There is evidence of laying and larva. I hoped that I would find the second queen but I guess they had their big fight while we were away.  I did find a capped queen cell on a frame of brood so that is what I gave Ms No Name.

Queen Mab II:  Lots of capped honey.  Lots of brood.  I did some rearranging of frames and closed her up.  

This is a short entry but I was in the bees from 1:30 to 4:00 pm.  By the time I was done, the sweat was dripping down my face and I was shaky from moving boxes.  What a workout!

Here are some garden pictures for you to look at.  Until next time.

Day lilies

Russian Sage

The Virgin Queen

June 19, 2014

I stayed home from work on this glorious day to go into Mab.  I needed to make sure she wasn't starting to dream of heading out too.  She is doing so well.  I went through to the bottom and not one queen cell to be found.  I did find an empty queen cup on one frame but no worries there.  I added many open frames and added 2 boxes on top so Mab is 6 boxes high now.  I didn't find her majesty but everything looks ship shape.

Going into Queen Mab

I then went over to the new hive to see what was happening.  In the top box I found an empty queen cell that clearly had hatched a queen.  I didn't find her so I kept on going.  In the bottom box I found another empty queen cell that had been gnawed open.  Right beside this open cell was a capped cell.

Open queen cell, vacated by queen and capped cell on right

Further along the same frame I found a murdered queen.  You can see the hole where the queen opened it up and then stung the young queen in her cell.  Better than Shakespeare!

Capped queen cell bitten open and killed by queen

Now that there was evidence that a queen had hatched I started looking for her.  A virgin queen is very small so she is hard to distinguish from the workers.  As well she can move really fast.  I found her wandering through the frame.  She was moving quite quickly over and under all the bees on the frame as she oriented herself to her hive.

Virgin queen on right at the top of frame

This queen will orient herself to the hive for about a week and then head out into the wilds for fertilization.  She will fly to areas where drones hang out waiting for virgins which is called a Drone Congregation Area (DCA).  There the queen will be fertilized by 14-18 drones.  She will fly very fast and very high and the drones that can catch up with her will be the "lucky" ones to fertilize her.  You may remember from some of my educational posts that the "lucky" drones actually have their genitals torn out in the action and then fall to the earth...dead.  The queen then will come back to the hive and within a few days will start laying.  So, by my reckoning, she will be heading out June 26 and then will be ready to start laying around July 1.  What I am really curious about is whether there is another virgin queen wandering around this hive and whether the rest of the capped queen cells have been murdered.  I will probably go in again in a couple of days just to see.

What is happening in the garden during all the excitement, you ask?

Strawberries thanks to the pollinators

Campanula

Daisies

White clover

Clematis

Chives 

And more to come as we head into the beautiful, lush summer.  Happy Summer Solstice!

Catching up on Waxen City Part II

 June 1 - June 15--Queen Olivia is getting frisky!

I decided to go through Olivia from top to bottom to see how she was doing.  She is a booming hive and that makes me nervous.  You all know by now that a healthy hive wants to split (swarm) to reproduce and she is soooo healthy.  My goal this season is to learn how to keep the hives from swarming.  It's my responsibility as an urban beekeeper to avoid swarms since it is so epic when they swarm. I also want to learn to avoid them since a pile of honey and 1/2 the bees go with the swarm and that is a great loss.  Also, the hive has to make a new queen which takes time and sets the colony back.

Olivia has tons of capped brood and tons of open brood.  I added open frames between all the frames of brood again.  I added a box of empty frames for honey storage.  I didn't find the queen but all seemed well until I spotted one queen cell with a larva in it.  There were nurse bees feeding it!  Yikes!    The cell is in the centre of the frame which usually means supersedure (something wrong with the queen so the bees have to make a new queen) so now it is even more important to find the queen.  I will have to go in again as soon as possible to see what is up. I'm nervous!

Queen cell with larva being fed

I then went into Mab who is looking really good.  I am continuing to add frames to keep the brood open and hope that this will do the trick.  I found her majesty...though she seems slow, she is a great layer and I think that I have underestimated her.

Her Majesty Queen Mab and her retinue

She is a gorgeous fat queen with lovely stripes...a combination of Ontario genes mixed with Buckfast.  I have been worried about her since she comes from a queen who swarmed very early in the season last year.

June 15  Fathers Day            

Queen Olivia sets her sights on the horizon!  With trepidation I went into Olivia to see why I had found a queen cup with larva.  Worse and worse, I found about 8 capped queen cups throughout the hive!  Some of the capped queen cells were on the bottom and some in the centre of the frames.  The hive was very agitated.  I had Kelly visiting today and found that I had difficulty making a decision about what to do.  Was Olivia planning to swarm or had something bad happened to the queen and was the hive  trying to replace her?  As we went through the hive we finally found Queen Olivia in the last box we checked.  She was a lot skinnier than the last time we saw her which should have told me what was up immediately.  When a queen decides that it is time to swarm she will lay eggs in queen cups for the workers to take care of.  She will also start losing weight to get ready to fly again.  Remember that she has not flown since she was fertilized so she needs to do some yoga and exercise to get fit.

Capped queen cell

Queen Olivia...see if you can find her

Queen Olivia laying eggs...her butt is in a cell

I took off my gear and sat with a glass of ice water to think about my next steps.  I decided that the only thing I could do would be to build a whole new hive with all the queen cells.  I waited an hour to let Olivia stop being so angry about being taken apart since I knew I would be doing exactly the same thing again.

I found every single frame with queen cells and put them into a new box.  I added honey frames and a lot of frames with capped and open brood so there would be lots of workers in the hive.  I made sure to find the queen again so that I didn't accidentally put her in the new hive.  This new hive ended up being three boxes high with the top box being full of nectar frames.  I also added empty frames to give them work.  Here is the math of what happened in Olivia and what should happen in this hive:

June 4    Olivia laid the eggs in the queen cups.

June 7    The eggs hatch into larva which I spotted on June 9

June 12   The queen cups get capped and the larva goes through changes

June 15    I moved the queen cups into the new hive.               

June 20   The queen emerges and if she is first she kills all other queens in their cells

June 24   The queen has oriented herself and is ready to fly out to be fertilized by drones

July 3      The queen starts to lay 2000 eggs per day and never leaves the hive again...unless...sigh...

Building the new hive

So now I am the proud owner of three hives!  

Three hive bee yard!

I put a branch in front of the new hives opening so that the bees become aware of the change.  Most of the foragers were out so they will go back to their original hive.  As the brood emerges the new hive will build its own foragers.  The queen won't be laying until the beginning of July so this hive will have a gap in its timing and hopefully I have given it enough bees and honey to keep it going.

New hive with branch crossing opening

Olivia is already more relaxed and is buzzing away like nothing happened.    This is all very exciting and if it works I will still have succeeded in avoiding a swarm...the split that I just did is also known as an artificial swarm since Olivia will think that she has in fact swarmed (kind of).  Mab didn't even notice all the commotion next door.

My next job will be to check Mab to make sure she isn't having similar urges.  I will also check the new hive to see if a queen has emerged.  Next post!