Early summer update from Mark's apiary!

The calendar may say early summer, but it has been a long, hot season already. Here in North Carolina, we had a mild winter, a really warm spring, and now summer is guaranteed to be a real scorcher too.

The last three days have been some of the hottest temperatures on record. Even though Friday's official record breaking high was 102 degrees, here at my house the thermometer registered 105 degrees. It was so hot, the city parks were empty and there weren't that many people stirring around outside. Facebook even lit up with people posting pictures of thermometers showing the miserable heat. Then on Friday night, a storm blew through Virginia and into North Carolina which caused all sorts of havoc including trees down and thousands without power. Luckily the only problem at my house was the large limb of a black walnut tree that straddles my property broke off and hit the ground in my neighbor's yard.  

Even my honey bees are a tad testy because of the oppressive heat. Trying to be merciful, I had a Boardman feeder on one of the hives and figured that with that part of the entrance blocked, it had to be really hot inside. So I decided to remove it until the heat cools down in a few days. As always, I suited up and went down to take the feeder off -  when WHAM, I got stung on the back of my left ankle! One of the ladies who didn't want me around the hive hit me before I knew it. She found a spot not covered by my overalls and let me have it full force. It was, without a doubt, the worst sting I've gotten this year. I've been stung three times this year, once on the ankle and the other two under my right arm (30 days apart and in the exact same spot). Oh well, just one of the few hazards of being a beekeeper.

While the sting of a honey bee hurts, it is nothing compared to a yellow jacket. I make no bones about it...I hate yellow jackets! Here was the first (and hopefully, last) nest I've found this year. It was in the back yard and I found it while I was petting my neighbor's dog over the fence. I glanced over a few feet from where I was standing and there they were...a steady stream of nasty, ill tempered devils coming out of the ground. As you can see in the picture, it was easy to find the entrance hole since it was about two inches wide and going straight down. So I waited until it got dark and sprayed it with wasp and hornet killer. While I hate using chemicals, I'm not going to get into another nest of hateful yellow jackets. Been there, done that - but no more. After I found stragglers the next day, I stuck the water hose in the hole and ran it for an hour. That apparently ended that problem since I've seen no more yellow jackets there in a week. Oh, and this was the same location where I killed a nest in 2009. Last year's nest was 6 inches from my front walkway. I don't know what it is about my yard that attracts yellow jackets, but it seems I've had to kill about one nest per year since I've moved here. Needless to say, I've gotten really good at spotting them before they spot me, thank goodness!

Hope your summer is going well! More updates later!

High speed video of life in a top bar bee hive!

Here's a great little video that shows the beginning of life for a bee colony in a top bar hive in Sweden. 

The description on Youtube says it is "A compilation of three summer months from inside the beehive. From colonisation of the empty hive to the days following the swarm (that probably reduced the colony to less than half the number)."

By the way, the person that posted the video (andersHQ) has several other videos there that shows the bee hive in regular speed.

Enjoy!

All hail the queen! My new monarch is in residence!

I've been meaning to update everyone on introducing a new queen to my failing hive, but the last few days have been really hectic. Then when I got a post from my long distance beekeeping friend Mil over at Urban Farm and Beehives, I knew I couldn't keep everyone in suspense any longer and had to relay the good news!

I decided to check my orange hive on Thursday, May 29th. The new caged queen from Triad Bee Supply had been in the hive since Saturday, so most likely had already been released. While I felt confident she would most likely be okay, I was still a little apprehensive. Even though the process of introducing a caged queen is pretty textbook, I don't think you can always be 100% certain that everything will always work out. But when I opened the hive and took the cage out, it was empty. The good news was that she and her attendants were free of the cage. Now it would be the task of finding her to make sure she was okay. The apprehension was up a little once again!

Starting with the wall frame, I checked. No queen. I made my way from left to right, picking up each frame and checked them left to right and up and down. No queen. When I made it to frame #9 which was next to the last frame, I picked it up and there she was. There was no denying it was my new monarch. Between her young, bright yellow abdomen, and the new paint dot on her back, I knew it was my new queen. She casually made her way across the frame and didn't try to dodge the light as many queens do. So I gently put the frame back to make sure she wouldn't get hurt and so she could go back to work. She had apparently already started. I found new eggs on a couple of the frames, so I knew she had already been to work. By the way, that's her on the right. Isn't she a beauty? 

I also found a closed swarm cell on the bottom of one of the frames. Not wanting to risk it hatching and upsetting the new set-up, I cut it off and decided to open it. Inside was a developing pupa, but it appeared to be dehydrated. I am now wondering if the queen-to-be may have been killed by the old queen, a competing virgin queen, or possibly killed by my new queen. Or maybe she died of natural causes. I guess we'll never know.

And the frames of eggs and brood that I moved to the orange hive before I introduced the new queen are doing fine. When I examined things, I could see small, curvy larvae developing in the bottom of the cells. Apparently the bees that were left in the hive have been tending to things pretty well overall. So I added the second deep body and ten new frames and closed everything back up. I also added a feeder so the girls can draw comb. I'll check it again in a week to see how the progress is going.

I am very confident the new queen will save this colony. To be honest, I probably could have moved eggs over and hoped the bees would take the initiative to raise their own queen. But it seemed a little "iffy" since things had changed dramatically in a month's time. With the population low and no brood, I just didn't want to chance it. And with the new queen being raised locally, I'm sure she'll do just fine here.

More updates coming!    

Trouble in the orange hive but a new queen saves the day!

One thing that all beekeepers learn quickly; always expect the unexpected. Things can change quickly, even in a well established hive. Just over a month ago, my orange hive was one bustling colony. With lots of eggs and brood and honey making well underway, things looked just fine. But over a period for several days this past week, I noticed that traffic had slowed down significantly. Compared to the other four hives, this one had slowed down to a crawl. So figuring that something had to be wrong, I got out the overalls and tools and went to work. And sure enough, I was right.

Things did not look like the picture to the right. That's how it looked in late April. When I opened the hive on Saturday, I had to look down between the frames to even find some bees. And there was very little noise either, just a faint, low hum. So I started pulling frames and finding a few bees here and there, and along the hive wall, a more bees. Then when I pulled the hive bodies apart, more bees..but nothing like I would have expected. In all, the remaining bees would have made up a small swarm. It was extremely depressing to see such a once brimming colony down to what some beekeepers wouldn't even deal with on a swarm call. 

Did they swarm? Were they sick? Was there something that caused them to leave? The answers were not readily there on the basic inspection, but the more I dug into the hive, I found some things that could have caused the problems. I did not see any dead bees were in front of the hive, nor were any inside the hive that appeared to be ailing. There were no eggs anywhere on the 20 frames. There was only one frame that held some capped brood, and all of those cells were filled with drones and some of those looked dead. Oh, and multiple supersedure cells in both deep hive bodies. So my best guess is that the queen became a drone layer and maybe she was superseded. But the next question? Where was the queen? I could not find a queen anywhere. Unless there was a slender virgin queen in the hive that I overlooked, there wasn't one there. So before this colony died altogether or one of the workers decided to become a drone layer, I decided to buy a queen and try to quickly save it. It was time to hit the road for a new queen.

So I called John down at Triad Bee Supply in Trinity, North Carolina, and asked if he had any queens available. Guess what? He did. And on a Saturday too! Matter of fact, they had ten Italian queens caged that very morning. I asked him to mark one and I would be on the way. That is her (to the left). See her? She's hanging from the cage, the lady with the large abdomen. This was the best of around six pictures I tried to snap. She would not stay still to have her picture made. But as you can see, she's large and extremely healthy looking, so I'm hoping she'll soon crank up and save this colony from dying out.

The first thing I did was remove the second deep hive body and ten frames. There was no reason to have all that empty space for a small amount of bees, so I cut it down to one deep. Second thing was to find some really full frames of capped brood from a nearby donor hive to beef it up. So I borrowed some frames from the hive next door and replaced those with empty frames from the orange hive. Third thing was introduce the new queen using the time tested method of placing the queen cage in the hive and allow the workers to eat through the candy and release her. As you can see, as soon as I placed the queen cage on top, the bees from the hive started checking her out. I kept watch to see if any kind of fighting or unusual behavior would start, but nothing happened at all. And that is a good thing. I've got my fingers and a few toes crossed that she will be readily accepted as their new queen. 

For new beekeepers reading this (or older beekeepers who need a walk down memory lane), the best method I've found for introducing a new queen is to hang the cage between two frames. First of all, remove the cork that protects the white candy or fondant. And always place the screen where it faces the bottom. That's so the workers can feed the queen and her attendants. Always place the cage where the candy end is slightly downward so the queen can walk out and onto a frame when she's finally released. Then shut the hive up and leave it alone. The worker bees will continue to eat through the candy until the queen is released, then she can go to work and rule the hive. After a few days, you can go back and check to see if she's out and in the hive. The best sign is finding new eggs which mean she's already gone to work.

I can't imagine what happened to this colony to make it change in a short amount of time. Maybe they swarmed and the new virgin queen left to mate and never returned? Did they kill the old queen if she became a drone layer? Who knows. And we probably never will know. But hopefully this new queen will be readily accepted by the existing workers and create a bustling colony of her own. There's always an excitement when introducing a new queen and seeing her become a success, and I can't wait to check and see that she's out and ruling her hive.

Update coming in a few days! Stay tuned.

Mark's tip of the day: Kill those weeds without chemicals!

I once paid a visit to a new beekeeper's hives and noticed that every weed under and around them was "graveyard dead" (as Jerry Clower used to say). I was in awe and wanted to know the secret. When I asked him how he was killing them, he didn't hesitate to say Round Up. While I praised his efforts to keep his yard free of weeds, I gave him some friendly advice and told him to stop using chemicals like that around his bee hives. While Round Up is an herbicide and not a pesticide, it has been shown to be toxic for animals, fish and humans. And it is more than likely toxic to honey bees too. I told him one natural weed killer is to mix one gallon of white vinegar and one large container of salt, then spray it like Round Up. You can also add some dish detergent to the vinegar and salt mix. The good thing, it really works. The bad thing, you have to reapply it frequently.  

Before I got my first colony of bees, I tried everything you could think of to kill a big bed of bamboo behind my house. The previous owners apparently planted it, and what they were thinking, I don't know. The stuff is relentless and you can't kill it. No matter what I've used, nothing has worked. I even read where people have poured concrete over it and the stuff will continue to grow and sprout at the end of the concrete pad. My best bet would be to get a panda but I don't think that is very practical.

Year ago while doing some research on how to eliminate this evil weed, I ran across an article that said of you will apply Morton's water conditioning salt, it will kill tough weeds but not impact the environment like toxic chemicals. So I tried it and sure enough it worked. Let me clarify, it killed the grass and other weeds where it made direct contact, but did little to the bamboo. While that part was a failure, I did learn that the water conditioner salt is a cheap and non toxic method to deal with grass. And it is perfect to put under bee hives since it has no smell and nothing that will hurt the bees if they come in contact with it.

The pellets are about the size of medium gravel. And they are big enough that they won't disappear in one rain event. So as they melt, they leave enough residue kill the grass and will continue to work until they disappear. Once they're gone, simply apply more pellets. I paid a little over $8 for a 40 pound bag, and you can probably get it cheaper if you shop around. But a word of warning - don't put them near flowers or other greenery you want to live. While it doesn't work with bamboo, it does work on other living plants, so be careful where you put it. And if you accidentally get some on plants you do want to live, get it up before it rains or you use a water hose.

Good luck if you try it and let me know how it works for you. Oh by the way, the bamboo is still out of control although I keep it at bay with clippers and the lawnmower. And who knows..one of these days, I may have to get that panda after all!

To bee (cam) or not to bee (cam)? That is the question!

This has been an idea that I've been tossing around for a couple of years, and that's setting up my own "bee cam" system. Not a bee cam inside the hives, but one that focuses on the outside of the hives so you can watch the bees come and go. There used to be one that broadcast from somewhere in California, and as long as there was daylight, you could watch the bees flying in and out all day long. But something happened and the cam went offline and eventually disappeared. But it planted the idea that if I was so amused by the bee cam that others surely must have been as well.

So I started doing a little digging to find out how easy (or difficult) it would be to set up my own bee cam. And while the cost of camera equipment and software has dropped significantly over the last few years, it can still get pretty complicated to set up a system that will broadcast over the Internet. It seems that the toughest part of the endeavor would be to connect the system to the 'net. Many of the outdoor cameras are wireless so that would eliminate running cable from my house to the bee hives. And many of them broadcast a signal for hundreds of feet to reach the indoor receiver. But even though they send a wireless signal, they need electricity to operate, and I have no electricity near my hives. One solution would be to set up a solar battery system that would power the camera, but that will drive up the cost by several hundred more dollars. Anyway around it, it is not going to be cheap.

A friend who works with computer systems is doing some research to see what kind of camera and system would be the best for the circumstances. I already have a computer I can dedicate for the web stream, so it would come down to buying a camera and putting together all the connections to make it work. And I have another friend who installs security systems, including cameras, so I want to see what he can offer to make this a reality. Sounds easy, but so far it has been a task to figure it all out.

While this seems like a fun project and could really become popular (someone even suggested I could possibly sell advertisements to help pay for it) it all boils down to how complicated it could become. And of course, the money factor too. While I would love to do it, like many other beekeepers, I operate on a small budget and don't have piles of money lying around. I already know that if it is going to cost a small fortunate, and it just might, I'll just have to scrap it.

So what do you think about such a project? What do you see as the pros and cons of such an endeavor? Would it be worth it? Suggestions to make it work?

Comments please!

Introducing more color into my apiary with a purple hive!

As proud as I was of my temporary hive (which I made from two honey supers and two bottom boards), I knew it was time to put my swarm in a permanent home. They had been in the temporary digs since Saturday, April 7th, so they were due for some real estate they could call their own. So after my weekend trip to Triad Bee Supply, and two healthy coats of paint, it was time to install the new hive.

Check out the new hive set-up! Yep, purple! As you've probably noticed by now, all of my hives have a different color, and while I was at the paint store, I saw this pleasing shade of purple. Okay, maybe it is really more of a shade of lavender. But I really like it. I saw a really hot shade of red I liked, but I didn't choose it because I hear the bees only see it as black. So I'm sticking with lighter colors. And I have another hive that needs painting, and I already have the paint. In honor of the ladies, my next colony will reside in a pink hive. My apiary is definitely becoming a splash of color!

In the time that this colony has been re-hived, you can see that the queen has been one busy lady. She hasn't missed a lot of time in laying eggs as long as she has a place, and this frame came from another colony the same day I caught them (as you know, you always put a frame of brood with swarm catches so they will stay put). This is all new capped brood. And the other side of the frame was just as covered. So for an old queen, she's still got it!

And not only capped brood, but take a look at all the c-shaped larvae! As you can see (as with all my pictures, click for a larger view), all the larvae are pearly white and glistening which is an indicator of a healthy colony. This colony is well on its way to doing extremely well. In addition to the great looking larvae, most of the drawn frames were filled with a mixture of eggs, larvae, capped brood and the essentials to make honey (nectar and pollen). And nine out of the ten frames were fully drawn, so I added a second deep hive body and ten new frames. Of course I spritzed them with sugar syrup to attract the bees. By the time I was closing up shop, they were already working their way up.

By the way, I did a quick check of the blue hive and things looked great there too. I found new eggs and larvae, so I know the colony is queenright. That wasn't the case for the last few weeks. I'm beginning to think that this may have been the hive that swarmed instead of the yellow one. Why? Because the same day the swarm happened, I found eggs and brood in every hive but the blue one. I know that queens will stop laying before a swarm in preparations to leave, so I'm inclined to think that maybe it was the blue one after all. For every week I checked after the swarm, I could not find eggs or a queen. I was even beginning to worry that it may develop a laying worker. Now all of a sudden, I have eggs and brood. So maybe I have a new queen in residence and she's back after her mating flight and already working? Could be. The bees were extremely calm and things were running as usual, so I think things are fine there. My only concern is a few small hive beetles I've seen there so I'm going to start a treatment soon.

Looks like I have one happy (and colorful) apiary!

Attention Triad area beekeepers: We have a new supplier who makes their own equipment!

So I heard that the Triad area of North Carolina has a new beekeeping supplier located in Liberty which is in Randolph County. And yes, it's true! I made the 45 minute trip to Triad Bee Supply on Saturday to buy some new hive equipment and really enjoyed the visit.

My area of North Carolina is really fortunate to be close to two major beekeeping suppliers; Brushy Mountain Bee Farm in Moravian Falls, and Dadant and Sons in Chatham, Virginia. While I've made plenty of quick trips to Dadant's Virginia warehouse, I've never been to Brushy Mountain. But I can't always get to Dadant during the week when they're open. Unfortunately they are closed on Saturday and Sundays when a lot of hobby beekeepers do the most work.

Not Triad Bee Supply. They are open on Saturdays too. Just before I started my trip, I called to make sure they were open. I spoke to John, one of the owners, and he said they were open until 6:00 p.m., and maybe even later. So I piled in my vehicle and headed to the south to pick up supplies.

I met John when I got there and bought two hive set ups, minus the frames. Triad Bee Supply is very small, and the showroom is actually a barn shaped utility building. As a matter of fact, my own utility building behind the house is larger. But you really don't need a lot of room to show people what you have, and everything there had its own neat little place. John showed me his hives and I was impressed. The thing I really like about the hives is that they are made of cypress wood that comes from eastern North Carolina. The cypress (which grows in swamps) will last a lot longer than pine and is less susceptible to the elements year after year.

And don't be fooled by the small showroom. John has plenty of supplies because they make most of their own stuff! They keep the hive equipment in storage behind the building. John told a local television station that since they had problems getting supplies from other companies, they started making their own product. And in my opinion, the quality would match anything that comes from the major beekeeping suppliers. In case you can't tell, I really like it. Oh, and they sell lots of other beekeeping supplies including woodenware, clothing, even package bees!

I've included a recent television news story about Triad Bee Supply that was done by local station, WGHP Fox-8. If you would like to visit the Triad Bee Supply website, you can see it here. And if you pay them a visit or order something, please tell them you saw it on my blog!

Artiste Apis Mellifera = Crazy Comb Patterns!

One thing that new beekeepers should learn is to expect the unexpected. And while I'm not a new beekeeper anymore, there are still things that I discover inside the hive that baffles me from time to time. One is the crazy comb patterns that bees will create on frames. Like this frame for example. As you can tell by the color, this is a drone frame that I use for varroa mite control. But the ladies decided to use it for another purpose. It has become their artiste's palette.

This frame is in a one year old colony. I believe in being proactive to eliminate pest problems, so weeks ago, I placed the drone frame in the hive so the bees could draw it out. Then after the frame is drawn and the eggs are capped, you take it out and freeze it, then put it back into the hive. The hygienic bees remove the dead brood and the varroa mites too by throwing them outside the hive. But when I checked to make sure they were doing what they are supposed to be doing, this is what I found. I also found a similar pattern on the end of another frame. As you can see, the ladies even started making honey in the comb. And when I pulled the frame out and broke the wax bridge going to the next frame, the ladies took advantage of the situation and had a tasty lunch.

While I really don't want to quash their artistic side, I really wish they would use the frame for its intended purpose. Oh well. I'll just add the wax to my waste wax collection and use it later.

Two weeks later: Eggs in my swarm hive!

Saturday (April 21st) was the fourteenth day that my swarm colony has been in their new hive. If you remember, this swarm was from one of my own hives, and they landed 20 feet from their former home. Saturday was the second time I had checked this colony since I caught them. I also checked them at the one week mark, and while they were drawing comb, I could not find any new eggs on the three frames I moved from the other well established hive.  

Here is a frame where I found the new eggs. As you can see, there is some capped brood from this frame that I moved, but I also found brand new eggs scattered around it too. The frame was so full of bees, I had to gently blow on them to move them around. But at just the right angle with the sun behind me, I finally saw the tiny white eggs at the bottom of the cells. And with the worker bees building new comb on the other frames, the queen will soon be able to lay more eggs to keep this colony thriving.

As you can see, I seriously need to get some deep hive bodies. I'm still using two honey supers stacked on top of one another to act as a hive. My trip to Dadant in Chatham, Virginia, was sidetracked this past week because of work. But I'll have to make time soon because the bees in my swarm hive are building a lot of comb to fill in the extra space. I was tempted to go ahead and scrape all the excess comb off, but decided to just leave it so the bees will stop working to replace it and concentrate on finishing the task of drawing out the empty frames. The excess comb won't go to waste. I'll melt it down and use the wax on the frames in the hives. I'm getting ready to experiment with foundationless frames in my honey supers, so the wax will come in handy.

So overall, I believe this colony is doing well and I'll continue to check them in weekly increments. I'll have to in order to fight the burr comb until I can get them moved into a proper hive.

On a side note, I received a local swarm call on Saturday afternoon. A woman contacted my father and said she had a swarm of bees at her house. When I called her, she told me that the bees were in her fireplace chimney and somehow getting inside the house. A deputy Sheriff was at her home (they called the Sheriff's Office and asked for help) and he's the one that told her to call me, a local beekeeper. Based on her description, the bees were located deep in the chimney, so I knew there was little I could do for her. She said bees were flying in her house and crawling on the carpet, so I told her that the first priority was to plug the hole where they were coming through so no one would get stung. Then I told her that she would probably have to get an exterminator to kill them. It broke my heart to tell her that. If the bees had been in an outer wall or more accessible, maybe I could have done more. But with them being deep in a chimney and getting inside the house, there isn't much I or anyone else could do. But above all, the family's safety comes first. I thanked her for calling a beekeeper and I also appreciate the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office for thinking of me when it comes to saving the bees. 

Partially Africanized bees found in eastern Tennessee!

VONORE, Tennessee – Tennessee’s first case of partially Africanized bees was confirmed through genetic testing last week in a colony belonging to a beekeeper in Monroe County. The colony has been depopulated and the Tennessee Department of Agriculture is working with beekeepers in the area to determine if other bees could have been affected.

State Apiarist, Mike Studer, says it is no surprise that partially Africanized bees have made their way to Tennessee considering they have already been found in other states such as Texas, Georgia, Mississippi and Florida. “I’m actually surprised it’s just now happening. We have been expecting this for some time,” Studer said. “Citizens need to be vigilant, but there’s no need to overreact. This is a situation that can be effectively managed through good beekeeping practices.

“We will be working with beekeepers to monitor their hives and to look for any signs of other aggressive bees in the area.”

Test results show that genetically, the bees were less than 17 percent Africanized, far less than the 50 percent considered by USDA to be truly Africanized. The bee colony was purchased by the beekeeper last year from an out-of-state dealer.

The most important difference between an Africanized honey bee and our domestic European honeybee is their behavior. Africanized bees are much more aggressive, defend their nests more fiercely and in greater numbers and are more likely to defend the nest when threatened by predators or adverse environmental conditions. But, the sting from a single Africanized bee is no more venomous than a European honey bee.

Africanized bees tend to colonize in smaller spaces than the docile European honeybee. Therefore, if you see honeybees in the ground, or in small openings such as flower pots or bluebird houses leave them alone and call the state apiarist immediately to assess the situation. Bees do not try to hurt people, they simply defend their territory.

If you do disturb an Africanized honeybee colony, follow these steps to protect yourself.

1. Run.

2. Cover your head with your shirt or jacket while running because Africanized bees tend to sting the face and head.

3. Never stand still or get boxed into a place outdoors where you cannot escape the attack.

4. Seek immediate shelter in an enclosed building or vehicle. Isolate yourself from the bees.

5. Do not attempt to rescue a victim without the proper protective gear and training. Doing so could make you the second victim.

State law requires all beekeepers register their colonies with the TDA and to update their registration every three years. Once registered, the state apiarist is able to contact beekeepers in the event of a disease outbreak or aerial pesticide spraying in their area. Registration also gives the beekeepers the opportunity for free inspections to make sure their colonies are healthy. Registration can be done online.

For more information on TDA’s Apiary Section or to register a bee colony, visitwww.TN.gov/agriculture/regulatory/apiary.html

*Photo by the USDA shows an Africanized honey bee on the left and a European honey bee on the right.

Local county prison farm produces "Jailhouse Honey" and "Jailhouse Jelly"

I can tell you that jail is a boring place. That's because I worked in one for two years. In case you didn't know it, I was a deputy Sheriff for 18 years, and my first two years of full-time service was working in the county jail. It was one of the best experiences in my career because you learn a lot about human nature. And one of the most important lessons I learned while working there is that not everyone who goes to jail is a bad person. Yes, they did something bad to get there. Many of the people behind bars have some good characteristics too, but they made bad decisions for whatever reason and landed in jail. But as I said, jail is a boring place and much of the time, there is absolutely nothing to do. Some watch TV, some play cards, some sleep when they can - and the others may try to figure out some mischief to break the monotony. The mischief is what all jails want to avoid. It is better to keep the inmates occupied with something good than something bad.

One local Sheriff's Office is doing something to break the monotony of serving jail time and teaches some post-release skills too. The Guilford County Sheriff's Office, which is headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, runs a prison farm. Not just a prison farm but the only remaining county operated prison farm in the state of North Carolina. The prison farm has a capacity of 134 inmates and consists of 806 acres of land located in eastern Guilford County near Gibsonville. The prison farm is just that, a working farm. It includes cattle, greenhouses (the prison farm sells plants to the public), hay, corn, and lots more. And inmates maintain the farm under the supervision of ever-watchful detention officers.

In 2010, the prison farm added a muscadine grape vineyard. No, the inmates aren't making wine with the sweet grapes, but they are making what is called "Jailhouse Jelly". And to help the grapes and other plants to thrive on the farm? Yep, bee hives! Three prison farm staff members attended a basic beekeeping course held by the Guilford County Beekeepers and brought back their newly learned skills to form a 10 hive apiary on the premises. Between the acres of other crops, and the vineyard and the apiary, the detention officers share their skills with the inmates, and the inmates can use those skills when they go back into society. It is a win-win for everyone, plus it helps the honey bees too. I think it is a fantastic idea to teach these skills to others, and I hope more jails and prisons that operate farms will pick up on it.

Here is a clip with details about the prison farm apiary and vineyard. It comes from a weekly television show called "Guilford Sheriff 911" which is hosted by Sheriff B.J. Barnes and airs on Guilford cable and WGSR 47.1 in Reidsville. In the clip, Steve Carney, one of the detention officers and beekeepers, details how it all came about. I was graciously given permission to post the segment by Arch Embler, the public services liaison and producer of the show. Thanks, Arch!

And hats off to the Guilford County Sheriff's Office for not only helping the inmates learn something they can take with them when they leave, but for helping the honey bees thrive too!

My first swarm catch of 2012? MY VERY OWN BEES!

Saturday started out really great. I already had my day planned; Mow the yard, reverse the hive chambers on all four honey bee colonies, get a haircut and follow up on my taxes. Well I made it through the yard mowing without a hitch, then went inside to make some sugar syrup for my hand sprayer. As soon as I finished, I went back outside and as I approached the building that houses my beekeeping supplies, I hear this really intense high-pitched buzzing. And when I looked up, the air was full of bees. You guessed it, one of my hives was in full swarm mode! It was the yellow hive which holds an Italian colony I bought in 2011.

Afraid to take my eyes off of them for fear I would lose their flight path, I just stood there and was prepared to say goodbye forever. I stood behind the yellow hive amongst the cloud of bees in a tee-shirt and track pants and carefully watched. And while bees were flying virtually everywhere, I noticed a lot of them flying towards the fence at my neighbors house. Continuing to watch them, I noticed that once they hovered in, they would fly to the middle of a wild crabapple bush at the corner of the fence. So I walked over to investigate, and sure enough, there they were.

20 feet from their former home, my traveling swarm landed on a couple of limbs in my next door neighbor's wild crabapple bush. How much luckier could I get? The only issue for me would be to make sure I could retrieve them since wild crabapple bushes are full of nasty thorns. So while it was a fine respite for them, it might be a pain for me. But thankful they were so close, I started gathering up my tools to get them back including the bottle of syrup, a cardboard nuc, a small step ladder and my bee brush.

While I was gathering my tools, the swarm settled down significantly into the customary ball. I then told my neighbor what was going on (her first words.."poor Mark"). Getting back to the swarm, it was easily three pounds of bees and they were on a prominent limb in the bush. The only real issue was trimming the smaller limbs away so I could get the box under the swarm ball and not get stuck by the thorns. After about 10 minutes of trimming, I could easily get the cardboard nuc under the swarm.

After giving them a healthy spraying of sugar syrup, and holding a tight grip on the box, I grabbed the limb and gave it a hefty downward jolt. Plop! The bees fell right into the box as planned. While quite a few went airborne, the majority were inside the box, so I felt like it was a success. But as I looked on the ground below the bush, there were quite a few there too. My fear was that the queen may be among the ones on the ground, so I immediately placed the nuc on the ground and placed the lid back on top. 

As soon as I placed the nuc near the bees on the ground, the parade began. I've always been in awe of watching swarms as they crawl their way into a hive, and I wasn't disappointed this time. Slowly and surely, the bees made their way to the small hole in the cardboard box. I was also hoping that if the queen did happen to miss the box, she would crawl with her daughters into the temporary mobile home. And after about an hour, most of the bees were inside the box with the exception of the ones fanning their wings outside to tell the rest of the crew, "Hey girls..we're over here!"

The next dilemma was..what was I going to put them in? All I had left was new shallow honey supers and no complete deep hive set ups. So knowing that two shallow supers was about the same size as a deep, I put two of them together. I did have two solid bottom boards, so after putting one on the bottom, I realized I didn't have a top. So I improvised by putting an inner cover over the two supers, then I made a temporary top with another bottom board turned upside down. To block up the top entrance, I put an entrance reducer there.

As you can see, it all fit together perfectly. With three frames of brood that I took from my other hives (to hopefully keep the swarm from absconding), and filling up the hive with plastic frames, I closed it all together and put three landscaping bricks on top to keep the lid from blowing off. I am especially curious about how this situation is going to work out. The swarm is only a few feet from where they left just hours before, so I was curious if the bees would travel back to the old hive to visit. I guess we'll see for sure, but I can tell you that 24-hours later, all is fine and the bees have been busy all day flying in and out just like normal. So I take that as a good sign that things will be okay.

I've been waiting to see if I would get a swarm call this year. And I really think it's funny that my first swarm for the year was for my very own bees. So now it looks like I'll be making the trip to nearby Dadant & Sons in Chatham, Virginia, to pick up some new hive set ups. After all, swarm season is very much underway, and I've learned an important lesson; Its better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. 

Why you should always call a friendly beekeeper FIRST!

In my quest to help save the honey bees, with every question I get I always try to use it was a learning experience. I always tell people that the bees are our friends and here to help us in countless ways, so we should always do whatever we can to help them in return. That includes saving them when they swarm or move where they're not wanted.

Last year I had a couple of calls from people who had bees in their homes and wanted to get rid of them. They didn't want to kill them, only move them. And when I told them that I knew a few cut out beekeepers who would come and remove the bees for a small charge or no charge, but they (the homeowners) would be responsible for any repairs, the next question was always, "But what if I just stop up the hole so they can't get in or out? Can't I just kill them and be rid of them that way?"

That's when I seize the moment to tell people that's not the way to handle it, that if the bees die, they are going to have a huge mess from the aftermath. I always tell them that as long as the bees are alive, the nest is air conditioned. But when they die, all that oozing honey, the melted wax and smell has to go somewhere...not to mention the ants, roaches and mice who will come around to dine on the free eats. Most elect to allow a cut out beekeeper to save them the hassle and take care of the issue.

Here's a video of someone who decided to take it upon themselves to kill a colony in an old apartment building. The video, from beekeeper JPtheBeeMan on Youtube, shows several cans of wasp and hornet killer, a can of spray foam, and thousands of dead bees in the apartment. Did they get rid of the bees? No. The owner ended up calling a beekeeper anyway, but by that time it was too late. The bees were contaminated from all those pesticides and I understand the colony ended up dying. If the owner had just called the beekeeper to begin with, she could have saved herself a lot of time and the bees would have lived and found a new home.

I've already posted this on my Facebook and will use it in the future when people ask if they could just try to get rid of the bees themselves. This should be a training video for beekeepers to use when trying to educate the public about why they should not try to "do it yourself" when it comes to removing squatter honey bees!  

Yes, fellow beekeepers: I'm baaaack!

It has been seven months since my last post on this blog.  So needless to say, I am a little behind.  Nay, I'm way behind.  Even thought I had the best intentions of jumping online and update my blog, something would come along and my ambition would be set aside.  But I do appreciate the messages or emails from several of you who just wanted to make sure that I'm still alive and kicking. The good news is, yes, I'm very much alive and kicking.  The bad news is that the realities of life got in the way of me keeping everyone updated on what was going on.  So let me catch everyone up from then until now.

The last part of 2011 was somewhat of a mess for me.  I'm fond of telling people that I was wide awake on New Year's Eve, not so much to celebrate the grand entrance of 2012, but to make sure 2011 was gone for good (and good riddance too).  

My mom was sick quite a bit in 2011 which included several hospitalizations, so my brother and I had to make sure my dad was taken care of while she was away.  Plus there were countless trips to and from the hospital too.  Luckily she got well and was able to finally come home.  Once she was stable and settled at home again, we got to go on vacation in September and spent a great week at the beach.  But it seemed as if once I got back home, life got hectic with work and other things that took up a lot of my time so many things fell by the wayside.  From Labor Day to the New Year, especially during the holidays, it is a really busy time in the broadcasting business anyway. 

I started feeling really bad in mid October, physically ill, and thought I may have developed an ulcer.  But as the days passed, the pain I felt became more localized, so I finally went to see a doctor (after changing my self-diagnosis to a hernia).  Thank goodness I'm not a doctor.  It wasn't an ulcer or a hernia; it was my appendix which was at the point of rupture.  After having a CT scan, the doctor would not let me leave the hospital and they started pumping me full of antibiotics for an early surgery the next morning.  Thank goodness it all came out just fine and I only had to spend two and a half days in the hospital.  My only real pain afterward was the bills that started rolling in.  I think I received a bill from every doctor within 10 miles of the hospital.

But then November rolled around and more problems came along.  As I started feeling better, our beloved Fritz, a Dachshund we adopted from the local pound, started feeling poorly.  We took him for several visits to the veterinarian to find out what was wrong, but an ultrasound revealed the worst fears we had.  He had cancer of the liver.  In the thirteen years he was with us, he had been through so much.  He had survived several surgeries to remove stones in his bladder and various cysts here and there too.  In the last three years he became totally blind, but he did really well with it because he had learned his way around the house and was always with us.  But this cancerous tumor was something he couldn't fight and we knew time was running out and running out fast.  Two weeks after the diagnosis, old and weak, he lost his fight.  With us surrounding him with all the love we could muster, he drew his last breath and left us for good.  Truthfully, it was one of the toughest moments in my entire adult life. And four months later, it is still hard and not a day goes by when I don't think of him.  I plan to post more on him later.

The Christmas holidays rolled around on time, and while I had finished everything I needed to do (including shopping and cooking)..I started feeling really worn down on Christmas Eve.  Thinking that I was just physically and mentally tired from the holiday rush, I finished what I needed to do and had dinner that night with my family at my parent's home.  After dinner, I went back to my own home and was so tired that I just couldn't hold my head up so I went to bed.  You guessed it!  Just a few hours later, I was really, really sick.  I'll spare you the gory details, but it turned out to be a really nasty case of the flu.  I finally got to see my family doctor on the day after Christmas (being a cheapskate, I wasn't going to fork out $500+ for an emergency room visit) and one shot and two bottles of medicine later, I finally started to feel better. So much better that I stayed up on New Year's Eve to watch 2011 leave for good.  It was a really bad year and I'm glad it is gone forever.

I'll spare you January and February of this year other than to say they were pretty good months overall.  And March has been pretty darn good too.  My area of North Carolina was in spring weather way before it arrived officially on the calendar.  Luckily all four of my bee colonies survived the winter although I probably wasn't as attentive to them last fall as I should have been.  Over the last month, hardly a day goes by that I don't see a flurry of bees in front of each hive although one of them appears to be weaker than the rest.  I plan to spend some time over the next few days with them and see what is going on internally.  But as you can see from the picture, my girls are definitely taking advantage of the nice warm days of spring.  

So yes friends, I'm back.  I plan to try to post regularly and let you know what is happening with me and the bees at our humble apiary in the Triad area of North Carolina.  And once again, thanks to everyone who sent a message to check and see if I'm still around.  It means so much to know that even though I haven't met many of you personally, you still care.  Beekeepers are like that!   We're a special lot!

Bee good!

-Mark

Did the bees know an earthquake was coming? I think yes!

Earthquakes may be something that people in the western part of the country might be used to, but its not something that we're used to in my neck of the woods here in North Carolina.  Make that the east coast. That was pretty apparent when Tuesday afternoon rolled around and everything came to a screeching halt after a 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit Mineral, Virginia, at 1:51 on Tuesday afternoon.

I'd never even heard of Mineral, Virginia, but I did find out that it is 3 1/2 hours from my home in North Carolina.  And while the map shows that kind of distance in mileage, it felt like I was in the same city when my house shook from the tremor.

But the really odd thing...just moments before it happened, I noticed the oddest thing going on with my honey bees.  

About 1:45, I went to the kitchen to make my afternoon pick-me-up coffee.  As I was filling up the carafe with water, I happened to look out the window and down to my bee hives, and that's when I noticed a frenzy of bees everywhere.  They were all in the sky and flying around the yard.  It almost looked like a swarm.  The bees were flying all around and around in wide circles.  It was almost like they were conducting orientation flights, but they seemed to be making extremely wide circles and not going anywhere.  

And I noticed that one of the hives, the yellow hive which holds my package bees from Dadant, were all flying in and out of the far right side of the entrance.  They were just hovering.  Instead of flying in and out of the entire entrance as they usually do, they were all hovering on the one side of the hive, almost as if they could only come and go from that side.  I'd never seen them do that before.

Six minutes later, all of a sudden I hear a low roar.  That's when the house started shaking, the dishes rattled in the cabinet, and I could hear the house creaking near the top.  Klaus, one of my dogs, jumped up and started running all over the house and barking like crazy.  After about 10-15 seconds of this rumbling and shaking, it suddenly stopped.  I went outside to ask my neighbor what was happening and she had no clue anything was going on and never felt a thing.  Coming back in the house, I flipped on the television and saw breaking news that the earthquake had just hit central Virginia, and Facebook went crazy with people talking about it too.  Truthfully, I admit it scared the devil out of me.  I had never experienced anything like that in my life.  Once I got my wits, I called my parents to make sure they were okay and then got ready for a busy day of earthquake coverage at my own job with the local television station.

But the really eerie thing?  I went to the back yard and there were no bees flying, no hovering to the side of the hives, no anything out of the ordinary.  They were all back to normal, all four hives, and the girls were flying in and out as they normally do.  It was like I was looking at four different hives than the ones I saw just minutes before.

A little later I posted the question on my Facebook page and wanted to know if its true that animals and insects know when something like an earthquake is about to happen.  The overwhelming response from my friends was YES!  Many of them said their dogs and cats and other animals acted really odd just before the earthquake hit, and the observation of my honey bees went along with what they were saying.  I know that bees will come back to the hive and stay put until bad storms and rains pass...sometimes knowing before we humans know.  So maybe, just maybe, they know when something like the earthquake is about to happen too.  It just seems to make sense.

The good news is that very few places around here reported damage from the earthquake.  Most people were just "shaken up" from the event.  

Now that we've made it though an earthquake, Hurricane Irene is now heading up the coast and it looks like North Carolina is in her sights.  While we really need the rain here, I'm hoping that it will stay far enough away to not bring high winds.  I was working for the Sheriff's Office when Hurricane Fran hit our area. Even though we're over 200 miles from the beaches, Fran came inland and tore through the mid-part of the state.  Trees and power lines were down everywhere and people didn't have electricity for days.  If Irene becomes a category 4 storm as predicted, we could be in for a mess.

I think Mother Nature should take a vacation...

ADDENDUM: Hey gang! Today (Wednesday) I received the following email from Gloria Radcliff who lives in Indiana.  I was tickled to get it because I thought people may think I'm nuts because of my observation of the bees just before the earthquake hit.  Here's what Gloria had to say, "Mark, I'm glad that I just read your blog about your bees and the earthquake. I was in my garden about 2pm today (yesterday now), and one of my 4 hives started to act like they were going to swarm, which this hive did 2x last year. The bees were in front of the hive, buzzing loudly and flying way above the trees, but remained in front of the hive. I couldn't believe it and didn't associate this activity with the quake because I didn't feel any tremors or other earthquake related things and in past years I have felt quake activity, usually the ground rolls! I just thought they were nuts since this has been my wild hive. I live in southern Indiana 30 miles northwest of Louisville, Ky. I had no idea what the bees were up to, it was really intense activity. It sure appears that these bees knew about the quake. P.S. Enjoy your blog."

Thanks, Gloria!  I appreciate the email!  And thanks to everyone for sharing your experiences and thoughts too!  Let me add that I was speaking to a newspaper columnist friend on Wednesday, the day after the earthquake, and she told me that someone told her they also observed bees acting crazy before it hit.  She was amazed at what I was telling her about my own bees.  You know, I think we may be on to something here about the bees and their keen senses!  

          

A hot, North Carolina summer night!

Yet another hot, humid and hazy North Carolina summer is here.  Today was the hottest day of the year so far.  Unofficially, here at my house, the daytime temperature was 101 degrees.  And tonight its not much better.  As of this moment, the temperature is 86 degrees and the relative humidity if 65%.  All you have to do is step outside and you're soaking wet.  A lot of air conditioners, fans and front porches are getting workouts in this miserable weather.

Not to be outdone, bees in the Old North State also look for means to keep cool.  That includes covering the outside of the hive to get some sort of air.  It was such a hot day that the bees covered the front of the hives both day and night, the ones on the landing furiously fanning their wings to circulate air inside the hive.  As you can see in the photos, the bees in the green and orange hives have larger populations, while their sisters in the blue and yellow hive are newly established hives with lower populations.  

Mother Nature is giving us a reprieve though.  The daytime temperature in the next few days will be in the upper 80s and lower 90s with a chance of showers.  But remember, we're just in mid-July.  August is usually worse temperature-wise.

Wonder if they make mini air-conditioners for bee hives?       

HONEY!

Oh those silly bees!  As much as you think you've figured them out, they will pull a fast one and surprise you.  Case in point, I put honey supers on two of the hives a good while back.  One hive went right to work drawing comb on the frames, and the other took its sweet time.  I sort of figured that the slow response may have been because of swarm season and a changing of monarchs, and I figured they would get around to it.  And they did.  Just not in the way I thought they would.

While checking the hives on Saturday, I did as I always do and looked for brood.  And while I found quite a bit of brood, I noticed something else too.  In the upper deep chamber, I found that the ladies were packing the nest with honey.  I found four frames in one hive jammed packed with honey, and another frame was mixed with brood and honey.  Deciding that I needed to lighten the load and avoid a honey-bound hive, I pulled the frames that held nothing but honey and decided to extract it.  While I got a brand new extractor for Christmas, I decided that it wouldn't be worth it for a few frames, so I decided to do the "crush and strain" method. After scraping all of the honey and wax off the frames into a strainer, gravity made all the golden honey drip into the five-gallon bucket below.

After all the honey dripped out of the wax, I strained it through mesh and then bottled it.  The four frames yielded almost two gallons, and between all my neigbors and family, it went rather fast.  I still have quite a bit left over and I have even more honey waiting in the hives.  And with the honey that I'll be getting from the supers on the two hives, that means I'll have to make the trip to Walmart to buy even more jars.  And I wondered whether I would be getting much honey this year!

As you can see, the honey is a beautiful dark amber color.  It has a heavier taste compared to last year's harvest, but a delicious taste.  I'm wondering if it came from crimson clover. 

But the ultimate compliment came from my neighbor.  She told me that her grandsons have already dived into the honey and loved it with hot, fresh biscuits and butter.  And while that truly made my day, I can't take the credit.  The bees did all the hard work.  I just provide the house they live in.

Bon appetit!       

Paying a visit to a new beekeeper's hives...

On Saturday, I paid a visit to a friend's bee hives.  Keith Mabe started beekeeping this year with his own two colonies.  After taking the basic beekeeper course that was offered through the Rockingham County Beekeeper's Association, he bought his hive set ups and his bee packages and got started right away.  Here you see Keith as he stands next to one of his hives. This one is booming by the way.

Keith was a little concerned because one of his two hives seemed to be running a little slow.  He told me that he didn't see a lot of eggs and spotty capped brood, and thought something may be wrong.  So he asked me if I would come out and take a look and give him my opinion.  Always glad to see another beekeeper's hives, I accepted and met him on Saturday morning.  The hive he was concerned about is on the left.

Based on what he told me, I though he may have a failing queen.  But once we got into the hive, I found a lot of eggs in a tight pattern.  And we also found the queen as she made her way across the frame with all the eggs.  There was also larvae present that was hidden under bees on the frames.  I told Keith that it appears that all is okay with this hive, and that some colonies are faster in building up than others.  My advice was to close the hive up and not disturb them for a week, and to continue to feed them sugar syrup so they can finish drawing the frames.  Even without smoke, the colony was gentle and easy to work with.  

The hive on the right is doing great!  Keith told me that this colony took off as soon as he hived them, and that's apparent by the numbers of bees and the eggs and honey all throughout the hive.  They had so much honey there that I advised Keith to put a shallow super on top and let them fill it with honey, then he could have some for himself and leave some for the bees.  This colony was a tad testy at times, but they had a lot of honey to protect and we didn't smoke them either.  Overall I say that this is a very prolific colony that should do well through the rest of the year and hopefully overwinter well.

Keith has a great location for his bees.  They are near several area gardens and he provides water for them near the hives.  They are in a rural area of the county, not far from the county seat, and the area isn't accessible unless you drive through a parked gate.  So they should be protected from vandals or theft.

My only advice was to keep an eye on them to make sure that he sees eggs and brood, and that we would check them again in a few weeks.  I also advised him to switch to a non-toxic weed killer to spray around and under his hives, and to not use something like Round-Up which the bees can get into take back to the hives.  I use a gallon of vinegar to one full container of table salt.  Once I mix it in a sprayer, I use it liberally around and under my hives.  While you have to apply it more often, it doesn't carry the risks of poisonous chemicals.  You can also use rock salt under your hives to kill weeds and grass.

I think Keith is going to make an excellent beekeeper.  He's very excited about his bee colonies and doing all he can to help them.  Plus he wants to learn all he can from more experienced beekeepers.  And as we all know, that's what it takes to survive the ups and downs of helping the bees.

Happy summer!