2011-05-04: Things are Picking Up

On May Day I was at my parent's for my niece's birthday (she even has red hair, maybe I should get her a copy of Das Kapital for her 16th Birthday). While there I took the opportunity to get some work done with the bees. My father had picked up 6"x12" cement pavers for me so that I could lay them down to make a nice level base for the hives. This was dreamed up after my hive started to tip precariously last month as one leg sunk into the mud. In addition to stability, they should keep the grass from growing directly below and in front of the hives. The pieces of scrap roofing metal did a good job of that last year but were not very esthetic and my mother would like to have a nice bee yard to look at while having her morning coffee in the summer.

I donned the bee suit since I didn't know how they would take excavation being done so close to the hive and I wanted to cover my dark clothing. It was in the 60's but it did not take long to work up a sweat in that suit while I was hoeing the turf away so that the bricks would be flat. But even though it was hot in their, the suit did give me peace of mind while I was bent over with the hoe and presenting what must have been a tempting target to the hive not two feet away.

In the photo I took of the hive that day, you can see the pavers in the corner. I plan on moving the hive the next time I am up there if the pavers appear to be snug in the ground after all the rain we have been having. Also, you can see the bees are very active out of the top entrance. I counted 106 bees/min. I thought it was interesting that they were not using the lower entrance at all. About every third forager had pollen, some a pale yellow, others a strong orange color.

 

Yesterday I drove my mother home after babysitting BabyD. This gave me a chance to pick up the nuc that PY had picked up for me. The plan was that I would swing by at 7PM when he could close the entrance after most of the foragers had returned for the night so they would not be left behind. We need not had worried since it was a rainy day and the foragers were not going anywhere. PY suggested that I either put saranwrap over them or get them under cover since the nuc was really just a wooden box and the rain could enter the top and drip onto the bees. Fortunately, my parent's house has a porch on the back that still has a cover over half of it. I left the nuc under that shelter with a feeder full of syrup and vitamins nearby. Hopefully the rain will keep my hive from investigating the feeder for a while as I don't want the strong hive to then get stimulated into robbing the nuc. We shall see. Certainly it rained most of today and is expected to shower tomorrow. I plan on getting up to the farm on Friday in order to move the nuc into a real brood box, put a few suppers on the main hive to encourage them to start drawing out comb, and to possibly move the main hive onto the pavers.

In a few weeks I pick up the second nuc, bringing me to three hives. But I hope to install one down at a nearby farm, assuming I can get out there and find a good spot. The farmers would like to see more than one hive down there and I am tempted to oblige them with a double nuc I hope to start in July.

2011-04-26: Lessons Learned

Last Sunday being Easter I was at my parents so I quickly checked on the bees. They were flying even though it was cool... not sure what they were gathering.

Yesterday a friend picked up my BetterBee order for me and my foundation and pollen patties for this year are now in my car's trunk. Unfortunately, BB was not able to supply me with deep boxes and frames. I am planning on getting those from Northwoods Apiary instead in a few weeks when I am going there to pick up a nuc.

As part of the grant that encouraged me to try beekeeping, I was asked to submit the "5 Things that I have learned" in my first year as a beekeeper. I have included them here:

1) Always have spares. Several times I had to juggle things since I didn't have a few extra items. Case in point was when I ordered only enough frames and foundations to start my hives and ending up being short since I decided not to use the drone frame right off.

2) Organization saves time. I can easily spend more time running around getting my stuff together than actually with the hive.

3) Patience. Its easy to convince myself that I have a new emergency at each inspection. Most of the time the bees work it out on their own with little or no manipulation.

4) Don't over commit. I have many things I would like to try with my bees, top bar hives for instance, but not enough time to do them all. I have had to put off some projects to the future so that I can focus on the things that must happen this year (keep the first hive healthy so we can get surplus honey in the fall and to replace the 2nd hive) and a few manageable extras (start a third hive, try my hand at overwintering a double queen nuc, and possibly keep a few bees at a second site to make a neighboring farmer happy).

5) Have fun. Its a hobby. If I get too stressed by it its no longer fun and there are many other ways to not make money that don't involve tens of thousands of stinging insects.

2011-04-09: Swapping Boxes

With a window in the weather just warm enough to manipulate the hive, I decided that I would remove the bottom box (out of three) and swap the middle and top boxes in the traditional manner to convince the bees that they have plenty of room and thus don't need to swarm. So I suited up (been a while since I had to do that!) and got to it. Well, before I could do that I actually had to play the old game of finding fuel. I though that there would be coffee bean bags at my parents since I left some there... but they were AWOL. I thought I had a bag in my car.. nope... So I used straw to fuel the smoker. After that diversion I got to work on the hive. I took off the feeder that I had put on top... about one third drained... not as much as I would have hoped for, but oh well. Then I started shifting the boxes around. The bottom box was almost completely empty of bees, though I did fince a few square inches of capped honey that they had missed. I placed it next to the hive on a stand in hopes that the bees could rob it out. The top two boxes had been put to one side and I tried to put them back together. The bees were getting anxious and the boxes were surprisingly heavy, at this time I decided to puff some smoke which I had been avoiding since I didn't want to disturb the hive too much in the cold weather. And, you guessed it, the smoker was out.

I hate straw.

But I managed to get the boxes back together and vacate the yard with only a moderate amount of headbutting bees.

 

 

 

Afterwards I walked around and took pictures of the crocuses that were in bloom. Several of them had busy bees in them, this might explain the orange pollen I saw some of the bees returning with. I had also spotted dark brown material being brought back and I think I found the answer for that after spotting several bees busy on the coffee grounds on my parent's compost pile. *Insert Bees Getting a Buzz joke here*

 

2011-03-28: Big Feed

After having so much trouble with the feeder spilling syrup, I decided to try to make my own out of a pickle jar and some wood. I simply drilled some holes in the lid, and made a stand to hold it upside down with some bee space underneath. I filled it with syrup (with a little HbH) and brought it to the hive. When I opened the hive I could actually make out where the bees had been eating away at the fondant directly above the inner cover hole.. it looked a little like the effect of a squirt of spray paint on Styrofoam. I placed in the feeder and shuffled the various supers to make enough room to put the cover back on. I then tied it all down while hoping that it was not too top heavy.

 

 

2011-03-17: Green Honey

On Saint Patrick's Day I took time off from work to drive to my parent's with BabyD in tow in order to take advantage of the projected warm temperatures to try to get feed the bees some syrup. I arrived and found that the temperature had actually managed to get into the 60's and my bees were having a good fly. I had thought I could just open the top without the suit like I have been doing this Spring so far, but the sight of the gals zipping about made me decide to get the suit on. Approaching the hive I noticed that there appeared to be various brown splats from bee voiding. They looked rather dark, making me concerned about the dreaded nosema. But, there is not much I can do about that at this point. I opened the top and moved the slab of fondant (still there, the bees did not actively consume it in the past week) to be directly over the inner cover hole. I then placed a feeder of 2:1 syrup off to one side. The feeder in question is a cheep thing I picked up at BetterBee clearance and it promptly spilled about half of its contents which then dribbled down the side of the hive. I placed the cover back on, spilling more syrup as I snugged it down.

 

 

 

All in all, not the most successful of visits. And BabyD screamed at my mother the whole time I was out with the bees. I think she might be jealous of my other 'daughters'.

2011-03-12: Bee Fudge

I had previously tried using dry table sugar (spiked with a little Honey-Bee-Healthy) to feed my bees. However, I was not convinced they would take it up. So I decided to make a fondant to feed to them. Fondant has the benefits of being solid and easy to handle as well as having some moisture so that the bees can lick it up easier. I followed a recipe I found online more or less. I dithered a bit over as to if I should acidify it with creme of tartar or vinegar (I went with the vinegar) in order to invert the sugar. I also decided to add some, but not a lot, of corn syrup to help keep it from crystallizing too strongly... I was hesitant about adding much since corn syrup has impurities than can give the bees the runs and the only corn syrup I could find had vanilla and salt in it. After boiling to the soft ball stage (around 236 if memory serves) then cooling before beating it to add air and to encourage small crystals, I poured it and let set over night. The resulting slabs were probably harder than ideal, but would still crumble when pinched. Next time I think I wont go as high as 236.

 

 

 

I visited the bees the next day. Taking the top off I found that they did not seem to have made use of much of the sugar in the pie pans.I dumped the sugar to one side of the inner cover to make room for the slab. I broke off several chunks and placed them above the inner cover hole. The bees were interested and I did see several of them starting to work them with their proboscises.

 

 

 

I closed up the top and left my parents. But while I was in the area I swung by one of my parent's neighbors to see if they had any maple cream. They were boiling, but no cream had been made yet. I will check again next time, assuming the roads are not impassable with the advent of mud season.

 

2011-03-05: Hungy Mandibles to Feed

On Saturday I visited my parents and paid a visit to the hive to see if they might benefit from some food. I could not hear anything when I knocked on the side, though I often have trouble hearing the bees over the sounds of my parents retriever bounding through the snow looking for a stick. Being concerned about them, I undid the ropes and took off the top. I moved aside the wool that I had placed on top of the inner cover to provide insulation and to stop condensation from dripping back into the hive. I found the hole in the inner cover and could see some live bees looking back. While seeing live bees was definitely a good thing, I have read that when the bees are right at the top they are probably nearly at the end of their food.

I closed the hive again and went inside to get some food ready. This consisted of a pie pan filled with sugar that I had spritzed a slightly diluted solution of Honey-Bee-Healthy to both get the sugar wet so the bees will perceive it as food rather than dirt to be removed and to also act as a lure to them I cut out a section on the side of the pie plate to act as a ramp and then placed another plate over the top to act as a roof. A rubber band held the contraption together. I then worried about feeding the bees that much Honey-Bee-Healthy since it is normally much more diluted. But I decided ot go ahead and give it to them. I went out and opened the top of the hive again. I placed the plate next to the inner cover's hole and sprinkled some sugar into the hole. The bees started to poke their heads out to investigate as I was putting things back into place so I am pretty sure they will enter to get the sugar.

I put a super over the top to make enough space for the feeder and placed the wool back in around it. The extra super raised the outer cover 6 inches higher so that it no longer provided any cover for the entrance in the inner cover's edge. I stuffed some wool into it to reduce the entrance to try to keep the weather out. After I did so some bees came out of it to see what was going on.

Days later the region was hit with heavy snow and wind. My parents got around 30 inches and I do worry that too much snow might have gotten into the exposed entrance. The wind was from the North so I hope the hive will be okay until I check on them this Saturday.