Busy bees and getting ready for spring!

With the weather 76 degrees on Sunday, I knew it was time to do an in-depth inspection of my two surviving colonies, the first real inspection of 2011. When I opened the orange hive, I noticed what looked like a tower of bees over the frames in the top chamber. The bees, in their quest to go higher, had started building comb up to fill the space where the shallow super sets and where the bee candy was located. That was my cue to reverse the hive boxes to put the brood nest together and move some frames around to give the queen room to lay.

As I got down into the frames, here's what I found. As you can see, the queen is already busy laying. I found capped brood and larvae all through the frames scattered around the hive, so she's been all over the place. I decided to move the brood frames together in the bottom chamber, while moving the honey frames to the top chamber. This should remedy the urge for them to build up and over the top frames. I didn't see eggs this trip, but I'm very confident the queen is in residence.

Take a look at this frame from the orange hive. You can see that the queen is laying all through the frames, even those that have honey at the top. As I mentioned earlier, I took all of the frames that held brood and combined them in the bottom chamber, then moved the honey frames together at the top. While March weather can be fickle, the long term forecast for my area doesn't show any really severe winter weather, so I think they should be okay. By the way, the orange hive is full of bees. With the warm snap, I figured they will get the urge to build swarm cells soon. Now I'll have to keep an eye on this colony and do a split when I can get my hands on a new queen.

Here is a frame from the green hive. I only found two frames with a small brood pattern, so its obvious that this queen is behind her sister queen in the orange hive. This queen, while robust when she first arrived, has been much slower than the other two colonies. But I have to give her credit that she's kep this colony going although the numbers are much lower than the other hives. I am considering replacing her with a Minnesota Hygienic and using this queen for a nuc. I honestly believe that she can't produce enough to keep the colony going full force, and if I don't replace her, the bees will.

Deciding that I need to "beef up" the green colony, I took one of the many frames of brood from the orange hive, and put it in the green one. I thoroughly shook every bee from the frame and then moved it over to the neighboring hive. The bees in the green hive were still in the bottom chamber with the brood, and there was plenty of honey at the top. Unlike the orange hive, I did not alternate the boxes in the green hive. Instead, I moved all the brood frames together in the lower deep -- adding the frame from the orange hive as a supplement. Now this should help the numbers in the green hive, and I can move more frames from the orange hive as needed.

Once I moved the brood frames together in the bottom deep, you can see that the bees congregated there. And I replaced some of the frames that were above them and unfinished with drawn comb from the yellow dead-out hive. And I have drawn frames that I'll use for my package coming from Dadant this April. It will just be less work for them when they get here and make their home in the yellow hive.


After putting both hives back together, I slid the orange hive over to where the yellow one sat. The returning foragers did a fine job of finding their way home. That's because the bees stood at the entrance and fanned their scent outward to their returning sisters. When I checked a little later, not one single bee was on the concrete blocks wondering where their home went. Overall it was a successful inspection, and I'll keep a check over the next month to watch for swarming indicators. Hopefully I'll be able to make a split before the ladies hit the road on their own!

Bee safe!

Sweet! I harvested my very first honey!

I knew the time had come to reap the rewards of my very first honey harvest. The bees in the big, yellow mother hive had filled a shallow super with honey over a month ago, but with my busy life and some laziness thrown in, I decided to just let it set. But after checking during a routine inspection, and seeing that my bees were filling up the frames in the brood box with honey too, I knew it was time to take it off. So with minimal smoke and a hearty shake method, I got the bees off every single frame in the shallow...and I have to admit they didn't give me a hard time like I thought they would. As many of you know, when you mess around with honey frames, you'll discover the real disposition of your bees. But I have to admit that mine were pretty cool during the process even though I was 'robbing' them as the old timers call it!  

Let me assure you now that my next purchase will be an extractor and bottling kit. But to get me through this first time, I decided to use the "crush and strain" method with goods I have around the house. Fun? Yes, but a mess. I was lucky to have a few things on hand like this Pyrex strainer to keep the comb from mixing in with the honey I scraped using a cappings scratcher. As you can tell, the honey poured through the screen and into a brand new and thoroughly cleaned five gallon bucket. After scraping as much honey off the frames as I could, I sat them aside so they could ooze what honey was left on them into the sink. And later on I'll put the frames back in the shallow super and near the hives so the bees can clean off what honey is left.

Check out this beautiful, liquid gold! After the honey leaked through the Pyrex strainer, it still had tiny bits of wax and comb in it. So I filtered it again through extra fine cloth to get all the small bits, and the finished product is what you're looking at now. The only reason it looked somewhat cloudy here is because of all the fine air bubbles in it. But before bottling it, I let it rest for a little bit to get the bubbles out while I washed and sterilized the jars and lids si I could bottle it.

It still had some bubbles in it, but as the night progressed on, it cleared up a lot. These are just a few jars from the one super I harvested. I had two full quart bottles and a bunch of the smaller bottles to give to the neighbors and friends. I plan to give the smaller, flatter, 4-ounce bottles to all the adjoining neighbors since they've been really good and adapted to my mini backyard apiary. I promised them that I would give them some of my very first crop, and I'm a man of my word. I hate to tell them, but I'm keeping the quart bottles though! I deserve a little reward. Right?

Isn't it beautiful? Here you can see that the amber color really shows through as the air bubbles settle to the top after bottling. And as you can see, the smaller bottles make it seem lighter colored while the quart jars make it appear darker. Speaking of bottling, maybe by the time I harvest my next batch, I'll have my own personalized labels. A friend of mine that works with me at the television station (he's a graphic artist) is designing a "Mark's Bees" logo for me to use on my website and on my honey too. That should really make it look sharp!

In case you can't tell, I'm pretty darn proud. And I admit it has been a long and winding road. The bees in the mother hive were on the brink of dying when they arrived last year, but with a lot of determination, they made it. Then they survived the harshest winter we've had in years and rebounded this spring. Now they're rewarding me for helping them through it all with the sweet product of their own toils. It really isn't necessary...I'm just having a blast being a beekeeper, but what the heck, I'll accept it with pride. And when I give some away and people thank me, I'll tell them, please don't thank me -- thank the bees! 

Happy harvesting!

Two new queens and one old queen are in residence...

As you can see my own little back yard apiary is expanding. It hasn't been easy, but with baby steps, we've done pretty darn good. And I do have to admit I'm proud.  

It was this time last year I started my beekeeping voyage with one package of bees from Georgia, most of them dead and the rest struggling for life. But with some quick thinking, a new queen, two frames of brood from another apiary and lots of TLC, it became the thriving colony it is today.

As I mentioned awhile back, I found all kinds of swarm cells in the yellow hive, so I moved those over to a new hive (green) with brood and bees to start a new colony. My inspection about a week later indicated that the swarm cells were gone and a lot of supersedure cells had popped up -- a situation that perplexed me and more experienced beekeepers too. But I decided to wait it out because I wanted to see if a virgin queen might be there...and see if she may fly away to mate, come back, then come home to begin her own family.

That never happened it seems. Apparently the queen (if there was one) never returned and so my worst fears came true. When I opened the green hive, I found eggs alright. Two or three eggs per cell. Some had one, but many of them had two and three eggs -- meaning that I now had evidence of a laying worker. Since that means the colony is headed for disaster, I had to act quickly -- so I took the hive to the other side of the yard, almost a couple hundred feet away -- and I shook every single bee off every frame. And when I got back to the hive stand where the green hive rests, a swarm of the bees from the hive had covered the entire inner cover which I propped up. And as I sat the hive back up where it belongs, the bees started marching back into their home. It was a great sight to see. I'm just hoping the young laying worker wasn't able to find her way back to the hive.

I ordered two new queens from an apiary in Winston Salem, North Carolina, called Tate's Apiaries (on Union Cross Road, 336-788-4554). Larry and Janice Tate raise Carniolan and Italian queens, and since my good friend Jared Watkins had such great success with his, I decided to get two Carniolan queens. There they are on the right, and although they're hard to see, if you click the picture to enlarge it you can almost see the blue marks on their backs. 

The colony in the green hive had been queenless for weeks, so I went ahead and introduced one of the new queens that same day. But since I was doing a second split (making it my third hive) -- I decided to move frames of brood and pollen and nectar into the newer orange hive, wait for 24-hours for them to realize they're queenless, then introduce the new caged queen and let them slowly get used to her. As you can see, there are quite a few bees from the mother hive in the new orange hive. And after making a small hole in the candy with a nail, I tightly wedged the cage between the frames so the workers can take care of the new queen and her attendants.

Take a good look at one of the brood frames I moved into the new orange hive. Nice, huh? This is from the mother hive or the yellow hive. As you can see, the queen is a laying machine, so I had enough frames to move into the green hive and the orange hive. And guess what? While I was busy looking to make sure I wouldn't move the queen from the mother hive, through the corner of my eye, I happened to see something green lumbering across the frame. It was the original queen I introduced in 2009! For the first time since last October, there she was moving ever so graciously through her daughters on the frame. Her green dot (indicating she was a 2009 queen) was worn but still there. Am I planning to replace her this year? No way. If she continues to do this well, she's got a home for as long as she wants. I was very careful to make sure she stayed in the yellow hive because I separated the frame she was on from the colony...and was careful to put it back when I was done.  

As soon as I put the cage with the new queen in the orange hive, the bees went to work checking her out. No aggression or anything to indicate they wanted to harm her. They just appeared to be curious and even started working on the candy stopper. I'm hoping that she'll be released in the next few days, and as it stands, I'll give them the standard five days to see if she's out and hopefully laying eggs. I'm hoping I'll find pleasant surprises in both hives in the next few days.

As you can see...this is a happy update and I'm excited. My mother hive is ruled by an Italian queen, and the two new hives will be dominated by Carniolan queens. I am looking forward to working with this race of bee since I've heard good things about them. I hear they're hard workers, gentle, and adapt to local conditions better than Italians. And besides, if it doesn't work out with them, Larry and Janice Tate sell Italian queens too.

So it looks like my apiary is moving right along and now I'm thinking about at least one more hive behind the house. If I decide to expand beyond the four, I think I'll have to find another location. My neighbors seems to be very cool with my backyard apiary so far -- and I just want to keep them that way.

Expect an update soon with the details of how my new colonies are faring.

Two OLD supersedure cells + Eight NEW supersedure cells = TEN CELLS!

If anyone ever says that honey bees are not industrious creatures, they're liars. I know they're a helluva lot smarter than me and they know what they're doing in their own house, but I can't help but wonder why they do what they do. Maybe a part of it is my years in law enforcement and I know much of it has to do with my fascination with these little creatures.

I decided to give the bees in the new lime colored hive (a split from the yellow hive) a week free of any interference from me so they could adjust to their new surroundings. As you recall, when I first moved the frames from the mother hive to the lime green hive, they had four swarm cells on the bottoms of the frames. But a week later, the bees tore two of those down and made two sealed supersedure cells in the middle of the frames instead. That was last week, so I figured I would give them a week and check on them.

Fast forward to Saturday.

So I decided to get inside the green hive and see how things were doing and if anything had hatched from the two supersedure cells. And the answer is no, the two original supersedure cells were still intact. But there was something new that had popped up in the last seven days. Eight, that's right, eight NEW supersedure cells joined the previous two cells -- so now this hive has a whopping ten cells. Apparently the girls thought two may be seriously lacking -- so they made a whole bunch of new ones to fall back on.

I didn't make the picture to the right, and I didn't carry my own camera with me (honestly I didn't think I would need it) but the picture shows you what classic supersedure cells look like. On one of the frames in my hive, it had three cells; another couple had two cells each and one just had a single cell like the others from last week. All of them were very prominent and jutting out from the middle of the frames. While I was a little shocked to find so many new cells, I remembered that Richard Underhill of the Peace Bee Farm told me that it only takes four days for bees to make and cap queen cells. So while this colony is queenless, they have still been busy building new queen cells -- and they have been bringing in some nectar and pollen too. 

I took the one frame that had three queen cells and cut them off. My mother hive is in need of empty comb so the queen can have room to lay, so I removed every queen cell, shook all the bees off, and put it in the yellow mother hive. The bees in the yellow hive are making honey like crazy and they have made it in frames that I prefer the queen would use for laying eggs. So while they make comb in the shallow supers, and they , I added more deep frames for the queen to lay.

While I was at it in the yellow hive, I removed two frames of old honey that the bees made last year but didn't use over the winter. I scraped the dark honey and comb completely off the frames and then put the frames near the hive for the bees to clean off. Once the frames are clean, I'll put them back in use again -- thus rotating them and keeping cleaner, newer comb in the hive. 

Just what will happen with the lime hive, I just don't know, but it should be interesting. While I'm toying with the idea of letting them raise their own queen, I've read that emergency or supersedure queens are pretty much substandard and weak -- so maybe allowing them to raise their own may be a big waste of time. I will have access to a mated queen or two this coming week, so I may cut all the supersedure cells down, leave them queenless overnight, then put a caged queen in for slow release. I have several days to think about it and mull it over and that's what I plan to do.

By the way, I think it may be time for yet another split from the yellow hive. I have a brand new hive from Brushy Mountain that I've painted orange, so that will be the next hive that I fill with inhabitants. And since I will have access to mated queens soon, I may just go ahead and get another and just make the split now.

More later. Until them, bee happy ya'll!  

New hive bodies and a great first full inspection!

Introducing the lemon yellow hive! No, its the same colony of my girls, but they now have a delicious, lemon yellow exterior to their home. I was tired of looking at the plain white hive, so I decided to change it up a little. So I painted my second stand-by hive a bright, lemon yellow. And I have to admit that I really do like it. 

Well, I have to be honest and say that my reasoning was two-fold. One, I just wanted to make the hive boxes more colorful. But two, I wanted the bees to be able to recognize their own hive when I have two of them sitting side by side. I already have one that's bright yellow, and now I'm painting their old hive -- get this -- electric lime! Oh yeah, a bright lime green color. So now I can refer to my hives as lemon and lime. And when I have a new stand-by swarm hive, I plan to paint it orange. How I came about with all these citrus colors, I don't know, but they're the ones I liked best when I went to the paint department at Walmart.

While I was moving the frames into the yellow hive, I did a full inspection. The sun was bright and it was 76 degrees..the perfect day for doing it. While I did not find the queen, she is definitely there. I found an abundance of tiny, newly laid eggs with just about every cell filled. I also found larvae and pupae throughout the frames, so her highness is in residence and already laying. I also found drone cells through several frames too -- and thankfully, no swarm cells anywhere. Since this colony is already active, and it is full of bees -- that's been my biggest fear, that they're going to get the urge to swarm. But so far, so good. I plan to get a new queen so I can split this hive soon. While I could chance it and let them raise their own queen when I do the split, I'm not too hip on that idea. I'd rather buy a queen from a reputable dealer like Busy Bee Apiaries in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and know that chances are, she'll be as good as the one I have now. 

While I didn't see any hive beetles, varroa or wing issues, and this is still one booming colony even though we had a rough winter -- I did see some spotting on the front of the white hive that could be a possible indicator or Nosema. If its there, its slight, but I plan to make the trip to Dadant and pick up some Nozevit (all-natural) and give them a spring treatment. While I'm at the warehouse, I plan to pick another hive set-up just in case I get lucky and catch a swarm sometime this year.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my honey bees and how they've fared. Very pleased! I can't wait to split them soon and have my second colony in the electric lime hive. And as you can see in the picture above, my old hive is still in great shape, but I have a lot of propolis to scrape before I give it a fresh coat of paint. It gives me an excuse to get out and enjoy this wonderful spring weather!

Happy SPRING everyone (now that its official by the calendar)...

Another peek under the cover - or - come and get it!

This is a continuation of the earlier post from Friday, January 15th, where I checked under my hive-top for the first time since the somewhat blast of unusual weather our region has experienced.  

We had yet another nice day here on Saturday. It was a little overcast, but the high temperature got up to a nice 57 degrees. Needless to say, it was another good day for my busy bees to be out of the hive too. And they were all over the place. 

As you recall, I checked under the telescoping cover on Friday. I saw my girls under the inner cover (above) but didn't remove it because I really didn't want to disturb them much. But as the day turned into night, I had this gnawing feeling that I really should have checked under the inner cover to see just how their honey store is doing. And I figured that if the weather was nice enough on Saturday, I would check again to put my mind at ease.

So Saturday rolled around and I went out again with just my veil. No smoker this time either. Curious, yes, but none of the bees were overtly concerned when I opened the hive. They rather ignored me to be honest. I took my hive tool and tried to pry an end frame out but that wasn't going to work. As most of you know, when propolis gets hard, its like glue, so those frames would not budge. But armed with my magnifying glass, I was able to peer down between the frames.

As you can see here, the end frame #1 had some open caps. In October, this frame was full of honey, but it appears that maybe they started eating from the outside and they're working their way in. As I was examining the frames from above, I took my hive tool and gently raked it across some of the open caps and they crumbled. So I knew they were empty and had been cleaned by my hygienic bees. No ooze or anything, just flaky white wax.

While the girls had a meeting to decide just what the heck was going on and why I was back for a second visit in two days, I moved over to frame #10. And as you can see on the inside of the frame, they still have some honey that hasn't bee touched. A few caps at the top had been opened, but for the most part, it was still full. When I took my hive took and touched a couple of caps, golden honey oozed out. So it looks like their food store is still okay, but I know that I'm going to have to keep an eye on it pretty soon to make sure they're okay and do an emergency feeding if necessary.

Speaking of feeding in winter, I've been reading a lot about winter feed and what some people do. I can already tell you that my bees won't get corn syrup because I've just heard way too much negative feedback about it and the problems it causes. And I know first-hand that sugar syrup will easily freeze in hive-top or Boardman feeders. So if it becomes necessary to feed my bees in cold weather, I think I'm going to try the dry sugar method that Michael Bush has discussed on his website. But instead of doing it like some people and sprinkling the cane sugar across the tops of the frames or on top of a newspaper, I think I'm going to make something sturdy to hold the sugar on the bars. And can you guess what I'm going to use? Corrugated plastic! As you may remember, I still have a few of those signs (simular to campaign signs) that didn't pass inspection, so now I've found a new use for them. When I make my newest project, I'll take pictures and show you how I did it.

Before I close, I noticed that even more pollen was making its way into the hive on Saturday. The foragers who returned to the hive while I was inspecting had varying amounts of pollen, some with nothing, some with just a small bit, and some were loaded down. Obviously my girls have been gossiping about the pollen gold mine out there and they decided to check it out. It was really good to see them working.

And one more note, I didn't see any small hive beetles in the hive, and as I examined my honeybees with the magnifying glass (one that would make Sherlock Holmes proud) - I didn't see any varroa hitching a ride either. Not very scientific, I know, but it made me feel better that none were under the watchful eye of my spy glass.   

Bee good, everybody!   

House cleaning in the sun...and my honey supers are on the way!

So I decided to trek out to see how my bees are faring after Friday night's snow storm that blanketed my area with 8-inches of snow. Even though we're slowly but surely thawing out...it looks like this snow isn't going anywhere anytime soon. And the weather forecasters are calling for the possibility of more snow on Thursday night (Christmas Eve) -- so one way or another, old snow or new snow, we'll have a white Christmas...the first here since 1999.

The closer I got to the hive today, I noticed little dark dots on top of the hard, crunchy snow. They were little dead bee bodies. And the bee bodies were not the ones I scraped out of the hive entrance on Saturday. No, they were some that the housekeepers had brought out of the hive themselves. Some were about six feet from the hive entrance, others a little closer. Obviously the full sun against the hive had warmed the girls enough to where they wanted to do something, to stretch their wings, so house cleaning was the order of the day. I snapped this picture as the bees would come out, check what was going on, then fly off. Obviously they had been working some on Sunday too, removing the dead bees from the hive, because the dead bee bodies were scattered about the yard. I can't wait for the temperature to warm up into the 50s and they can get out and take a break from being stuck inside the hive. 

Great News from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm! My shallow supers and frames are on the way. They're coming by UPS, and the representative told me that she thought they would get here by Wednesday. Brushy Mountain Bee Farm is just on the western side of Winston Salem in Moravian Falls, North Carolina, but I don't have the time to drive there like I can with Dadant and Sons in Chatham, Virginia.

As I've admitted here before, my carpentry skills are horrible. I know it costs more, but I'd rather order some things made and ready to go. So when my package arrives, I'll have six assembled and painted shallow supers. All I'll have to do is put them on the hive and let the girls go to work.

  
What good are the shallows without frames? So I have 60 already assembled frames coming too. These are what they call the "Super White" frames. The frames are wooden, the foundation is plastic and beeswax coated. Many beekeepers (old school beekeepers) say that plastic foundation frames are worthless and that bees don't like them. I beg to differ. My colony took to plastic foundation frames just fine and drew comb on them in days. So I know they'll do fine with the shallow plastic frames too.

I've heard from a lot of beekeepers that when you set up your honey supers, don't forget the frame spacers -- otherwise you'll end up with a total mess. So I bought a box of 10 spacers. For the life of me, I don't know why I had it in my head that you just space the frames with one spacer. But Brushy Mountain tells me that you put these spacers in the supers after the bees draw out all 10 frames - then you remove one frame - leaving nine - and these spacers will make the distance exact. I learn something new all the time. Anyway, once I figure it all out, I'll get more if needed.

One thing that I plan to do is get another hive body set up (two deeps and a bottom board) in the next few months. I have one in the garage now, but I plan to split my one hive this coming spring, so I want another on stand-by in case I find a swarm somewhere -- or mine decides to it the road. Maybe I'll get the extra hive in February or March.

Just as I said recently, I was hoping that Santa would bring me some beekeeping supplies. And sure enough its going to happen! It has put me in a jolly mood for sure! Ho, ho, ho!

Eviction order lifted! The queen stays in my hive!

What a day this has been! I started out early this morning because I had so much to do. First of all, I wanted to catch the queen from my hive and take her with me to Busy Bee Apiaries in Carrboro. As you know from my previous posts, she's been a little fickle lately in laying eggs...and she stumped quite a few people who really know bees well including the state aviary inspector -- and Betsy, one of the bee experts at Busy Bee. So the plan was to catch her and take her back, but if I couldn't find her before I left, I would still get a new queen from Busy Bee and then give my present queen the big pinch. If anything, I wanted to save her so Betsy could hive her and watch her behavior. Honestly I just didn't feel right about pinching her...so my task was to find her before I made the hour trip to the east.

I went into the hive with the optimistic attitude that I would easily find her this morning. After all, the last two trips in the hive I found her, and I figured today would be just as easy. What a joke! I get into the hive and started with the frames in the top chamber -- she was nowhere to be found. I get down into the bottom chamber -- she's nowhere to be found there either. So her majesty was hiding from me this time...of all times that I wanted to find her (and save her from the horrors of the hive tool)..but she was in hiding. Talk about becoming frustrated. I think I said a few curse words in my head.

But them the most amazing thing happened. While I was in the bottom chamber, I shook bees from some of the center frames to see what they were doing in the cells -- and there they were! White, glistening, and healthy looking larvae! Not one larvae just here and there...but they were everywhere. The honey at the top of the frame was cresent shaped, but all of the cells under that had larvae! Then I found another frame in the top chamber with larvae too -- the pattern wasn't as tight, but they were alive and growing.

I ran for the house to call Betsy at Busy Bee. After all, she was out in the bee yard and catching my new queen and I didn't want her to go to the trouble of getting one since I had good news. Well, I was too late, she had already caught a queen for me. But being the super nice person she is, Betsy laughed and told me that she was glad things are working out on my end and that maybe my queen just went on a holiday. I apologized for putting her to the trouble of catching another queen and she said it wasn't a problem, she would find her a good home. I really like Betsy and everyone at Busy Bee. They're truly a class act in the beekeeping business. Honestly, if you need a queen or supplies -- they're the ones to call. You can find the link to them on the right side of my blog...and please tell them that Mark highly recommends them!

So that's the story. The eviction order has been lifted...and her majesty gets to stay. I have no clue why she stopped laying, and have no clue why now, all of a sudden, she's back to normal. I blame some of it on my eyes...I've had to start wearing reading glasses in the last year. But even the aviary inspector didn't find eggs or larvae either -- so who the heck knows what was going on with her? I find it hard to believe she can fool more than one person.

My neighbor watched me work the hive this morning and she offered this explanation as to the on-and-off laying queen: "Mark...she's a woman! What do you expect?" -- and she laughed. She's a woman...and a really great neighbor...so she can get away with saying that.

So here we go again. It looks like things are back to normal. I added a gallon of sugar syrup and closed up shop for another week. We'll see what she does now. Hopefully she is going to keep chugging along and doing what she does best. And if she doesn't, I'm calling in a bee psychologist! Does Dr. Phil make house calls?

BREAKING NEWS: MY QUEEN GOES ON STRIKE!

So it looks like my queen is on strike. Yes, that's right, on strike. While the rest of her children are working like...well, bees...it looks like she has shut down production.

On Friday, I decided to swap out hive-top feeders. I have two feeders, and I wanted to put a clean one on top of the hive since I had dead fire ants in the old one and they were glued by the sugar syrup to the bottom. And while I was in there, I decided to see how things are going in the hive, an inspection since installing the second deep brood box a week ago. So I fired up the smoker and went to work.

The girls were already drawing comb in the second brood box, and what they had made so far was filled with clear nectar. So after picking out a few frames, I took the top box off and got down into the lower brood box and started from the end. The end frame, or the wall frame, was new -- I swapped that one and another from the new top deep hive which had no drawn comb. I did that so the girls would have something already drawn to work with in the top box and maybe work a little faster upstairs.

In the bottom deep body, as I went frame by frame, I found honey near the tops of the frames, some nectar in other cells, pollen, and something that perplexed me. I found clean cells, lots of open and clean cells, but no eggs. I looked and looked, went through the frames carefully, but still saw no eggs. I had no clue what was going on, but I looked carefully and was even wearing my reading glasses, but still no little white eggs. And no queen either, she was nowhere to be found. I was interested in finding her, but the more I manipulated the frames, the testier the girls got, so I closed up and said I would try to figure something out.

I had a hard time sleeping on Friday night. I just knew something was amiss, and that the queen was possibly dead -- but just what was wrong, I didn't know. So I decided to go back into the hive and see if I could check for eggs again and look for the queen to see if she was there. I must have missed some things.

So Saturday afternoon, I fired up the smoker again and took the top deep completely off because I had decided to just concentrate on the lower box. So I started with the wall frame, no eggs. Second frame, comb with nectar and some honey, no eggs. Third, fourth and fifth frames, I found comb, some honey and nectar -- but no eggs at all.

But as I pulled the sixth frame out and was looking at all of the clean cells, BINGO, I saw her, the queen! The little green dot on her majesty's back was showing as she scurried across the frame, then under it, and then on the back side of it. I watched her carefully. She looked fine. Wings were fine, she was moving fast so her legs must be okay too. She had no visible signs of injury, at least from the outside. So I figured that it must be something internal. Did she become infertile for some reason? Did the foragers bring something like a poison into the hive to cause her to shut down? Or is it...dare I say it...something going on in her head? I guess the possibilities are endless and I'm no bee expert.

After posting the delimma on the Bee Source forums, I got all sorts of theories from beekeepers as to the situation. No one really had a definitive answer, but several said that I need a new queen as soon as possible. And I agreed, if she's shutting down in mid-August, the colony will die out before winter, and I'll have to restart the whole process in the spring. After babying this colony along since June, that's the last thing I want to happen. I just hope that they won't swarm anytime soon. I know that the queen shuts down before they swarm, but for the life of me, I don't know why they would swarm now. But what I hope and what they do are two different things.

I called Jack Tapp, the owner of Busy Bee Apiaries in Carrboro (and a super nice guy) and I asked him if I needed a new queen. After describing what was happening, he told me to hold off on requeening -- and to call the state's apiary inspection service to have an inspector drop by. Jack told me the inspector would do a thorough inspection, possibly diagnose any problems, and check for varroa mites too while he was there.

So then I made the call and spoke to Donald Hopkins, the inspection supervisor for North Carolina Apiary Services -- a division of the state's agriculture and consumer division -- and he's coming up on Wednesday to inspect my hive. He was really nice on the phone and said he will be glad to check it all out. That will be a huge help to me since I don't have the luxury of a "mentor" in my beekeeping, its just me and my books and what I learn from the Internet and advice from others. I'm thankful he can make the trip here to see what is going on in this hive.

Other than her majesty going on strike, everything else looked great. Unfortunately, a few girls got in the way of me putting frames back in place and...I guess you could say...flew off to that great hive in the sky. As careful as I try to be, sometimes there are casualties where the girls got in the way. Before I closed up the hive, mortician bees were already taking the bodies and throwing them out of the front of the hive. They do like to keep a clean and tidy house.

I'll keep you posted on what happens with the inspection. Wish us all luck! And thanks to everyone that's emailed me or posted on my blog. You ROCK!

BEE good everybody!

Added a second deep super and made an inspection!

Here's an update since my last hive inspection and upgrade this past Saturday. As you remember from earlier, it was this past Saturday that I added a screened bottom board to create more of an air flow and help with ventilation. My bees were bearding something awful, and afraid that they may abscond, I decided to get some air going in there with a screened bottom board.

Well today, after giving them three days to calm down after tearing the hive down and putting it together again (and agitating them something fierce), I decided to make more room for my girls by adding a second deep super to give them some room. And let me add, as I look up to the heavens, today's addition and inspection went off without a hitch.

Here's my observations and my actions. Check this out.

OBSERVATIONS:

Bees were relatively docile and easy to work unlike Saturday. Did become a little testy when moving frames for inspection, but a little more smoke calmed them down. No stings.

8 1/2 frames in the brood box are full of capped brood and honey. Capped brood is thick in pattern. Most of the honey was at the tops of the frames.

Queen is alive and well. Didn't see her, but I found fresh eggs in most of the empty cells. Also found larvae in various stages of development.

All of the powdered sugar that was at the top of the frames from Saturday's sugar shake was gone, completely cleaned off.

Screened bottom board looks as if it is working. Since Saturday, less "hanging out" or bearding -- even though the heat and humidity is worse than last week.

ACTIONS:

Added a second deep super for the brood chamber.

Took two full frames from the lower deep and put it in the top deep. One was full of honey on one side, then capped brood and larvae on the other side. The other had more capped brood on one side and a mix of brood and honey on the other. Nurse bees and workers moved with frames.

Manipulated the frames in the lower deep, added two empty frames from the top deep. Placed them as the second frame in the lower deep (outer frames had more honey and no brood). Left all brood frames as they were in the lower deep.

Replaced sugar syrup. Colony has used two gallons in three days. Refilled hive-top feeder to give them something to draw comb with.

Then I closed up shop for the day. Now I will wait until Friday to mow around the hive, and I'll probably add some more syrup if they're out.

Okay ladies and gents, there you go! That's how it went today. Things are looking good and now I can take a breath and relax some. It looks like they're doing just what they're supposed to be doing, and now they have ten more frames to build up and keep them busy for awhile instead of hanging out with nothing to do.

Bee cool!

Lesson learned: How to 'tick off' a hive of bees!

Those of you who follow my adventures will know that I've been keeping a more watchful eye over my bees lately. That's because they've been "bearding" quite a bit. On Thursday night it was the most I've seen yet, the entire front of the brood box was completely covered, and the entrance was clogged up with bees. Although I know it is natural for them to beard, I've also read that after awhile, if it continues to stay hot and humid in the hive, they could very likely abscond to escape the heat, and maybe I should work on more ventilation.

I decided that to help in ventilation, and to aid in varroa mite control, my best bet was to get a screened bottom board. So with the Chatham, Virginia, branch of Dadant & Sons being just 45 minutes away, I made the trip on Friday morning and picked up two of the heavy duty plastic bottom boards, one for my hive now and another for next spring when I do a split. When I got home, I attached some one inch plank risers on the new bottom board (so more air will circulate under it) and decided to install it on Saturday afternoon.

So the time comes for me to install the new screened bottom board, and while I was at it, do a powdered sugar dusting for the mites. While I haven't seen any yet, I figured now would be a good time to do it since I have the new bottom, and knock out two things at once. So this afternoon, when I figured most would be out in the field, I go about smoking them and planning my course of action.

You've heard that saying that if something can go wrong...it will? Let me attest, my friends, I am the prime example of that saying today. It wasn't pretty, and pardon me for saying it, pretty damn scary.

First of all, things were fine when I opened the hive. But when I tried to lift the brood box off the wooden bottom board, and believe me, it was heavy -- it wouldn't come apart, not even with my hive tool. It was like it was glued tight. So here I stand, holding a brood box full of bees, who are a little irritated by now, wondering what to do next. So I sat the whole thing on the ground and quickly put the new screened bottom board on the pedestal that holds my hive. I decided that I would have to transfer all of the frames to another deep box, the one I usually put over the hive-top feeder, so I put it together quickly, and decided that I would add the frames to the new set-up. Plus it would allow me to do an inspection while I was at it.

Here's where it gets a little scary. I took each frame out, one by one, and transferred it directly to the new deep super. Things looked good, some of the frames were totally heavy with capped honey, one side of a frame was totally white, while others had capped brood. I didn't see larvae, to be honest, I didn't look -- I was trying to get it all over with as quickly as I could because it was obvious I was irritating them...the buzzing was getting into a somewhat loud frenzied sound by this time.

I finally finished the transfer of all ten frames, taking care not to squish anyone if I could help it, but the inside walls of the deep (the one attached to the wooden bottom board) was covered with bees. Making sure I didn't see the queen, I decided the best course would be to shake them out.

BIG MISTAKE! While shaking them, I misjudged and hit the top of the hive -- and all hell broke loose. It was like something you would see out of a bad horror movie. The buzzing was at a frenzied pace and loud, bees were flying everywhere, and they were head butting me so hard, they were bouncing off the top of my hat and veil.

Truthfully, I panicked. Finally gathering my wits, I told myself to just walk away and let them settle down, plus it would give me time to calm down too. So after a few minutes of everybody calming down, I went back to work, and they were still irritated, but nothing like moments before.

Figuring that they were totally ticked with me, I decided to go ahead and do the powdered sugar dusting anyway to get it over with...and not wait for a couple of weeks and irritate them again. So I did it, using a flour sifter, and coated the top of the frames, then brushed the excess sugar down into the hive and off the frames. And after doing that, I decided to put the hive-top feeder back on, added syrup, closed it all up and got my tools.

I wish I'd had my camera. The funniest part of the whole operation was seeing this flurry of white honey bees flying all in front of the hive. They looked like little ghosts. and I thought, maybe they'll busy themselves grooming each other and forget about that man in the white overalls with the smoker. Least I hope so.

Today was a learning experience. I am totally amazed that I didn't get stung. And I have to admit, it was the most scared I've been since working my bees. Usually I am really calm and enjoy myself, but today was a day that I really hope to never repeat as long as I keep bees. I do hear old time beekeeps say "you'll make mistakes..everyone does" and all of that. But even though I know we all make mistakes, I somehow feel in my head that I screwed up today, I rushed though working my girls, and I'm afraid that more events like today will make them unmanageable. That's the last thing I want...for them to become unruly and for me to be afraid of them and avoid them.

I won't go back in the hive for another couple of weeks except to feed them, and even then, I just have to open the top of the hive. Maybe they'll have forgotten this day by them. Least I hope anyway. I want to.

Pictures while inspecting my hive. And lookin' good (the hive, not me)..

So the sun was out today, and I was tired of looking for the elusive yellow jacket's nest. Being that my colony has been hived for almost a month now, I make it a habit to check them on Saturdays to see how they're doing. And as you can see, they're "busy as bees" on the frames. By the way, the powder you see on the top of the frames is pollen substitute. Since I got started so late, I am feeding them pollen, and they're using it too.




For a colony that was mostly dead after being shipped from Georgia in early June (and since I added a queen and some capped brood from Busy Bee Apiaries, you can see that my girls are doing fine. They're good natured and stay busy all day going to and fro the hive. Since I have a creek just below the hive, they get plenty of water, plus I feed them syrup and pollen substitute. A lot of the capped brood has hatched, but look to the right of the frame and you can see that there's more babies waiting to emerge.





Take a look at that frame! Both sides hold larvae, some nectar and pollen. And on the back side, even more capped brood. And her majesty, the queen, is on this side of the frame. Can you see her? Take a really good look and try not to cheat. Still can't see her? HINT: Look almost halfway down and to the far right. See her now? She's encircled by her attendants.




Okay, did you see her without the help of this picture? Take a good look to the left. There she is. You can see some of her green dot, but an even better indicator would be the attendants that have circled her. She is doing a great job!




Inspection is over. Time to put more syrup for the girls. This is a two quart feeder that I made myself. It once held caramel popcorn from Target. I took a picture nail, made tiny holes in the lid, put the syrup in, and put in in the hive. It rests on two pieces of wood for easy access, and then I put the empty hive body back on, then the inner cover and the top..weight it down with a landscaping paver, and all is done. And I have to admit, the girls were in a great mood today, all expect when I brushed the excess pollen off the frames, but other than that, they were fine and barely noticed me.




I am so keeping my fingers crossed that this colony is going to make it though this winter. So far, so good. Every time I inspect the hive, I get a better feeling about it. I think this buch may make it after all!




Until next time, my friends, bee cool!

Good News: I found my queen and added some brood!

Well friends, I have some really great news in light of the total disaster I've experienced with my three pound package of bees from Georgia. This had been a really rocky week, but what I found in my hive today made me feel much better.

As I've mentioned before, my colony started out rather small. They had been through a lot before they arrived here, stressed from heat and poor packaging, coated in sugar syrup in transit, a dead queen, bounced around, etc. It was really nasty and heartbreaking. It was so bad that I was told by an experienced beekeeper here that I should just let them go. But not one to accept failure so easily, I decided to hang on to them and see if I could keep them going and bring them back.

If I had waited for a new queen from Georgia, from the same guy who promised to "make it right" several times after that bee package disaster, every single bee I have would be dead or gone by now. After getting bad vibes about this operation, I decided to try to find something locally..and fast...so I began my search on the Internet for local dealers.

Busy Bee Apiaries to the rescue! Busy Bee is located in Carrboro, North Carolina, and when I called, Shelley told me they had Minnesota Hygienic queens for sale, and if I wanted to drive down, I could pick one up that morning. I then spoke with Betsy who told me that she would go out to the bee yard and get one and it would be waiting for me when I got there.

Carrboro is only an hour away, so I headed east for the apiary (with plans to stop and pick up some pork barbecue at Smithfield's Chicken and Barbecue on the way home...its GREAT eastern style North Carolina barbecue). When I got there, sure enough, my marked queen was there and she was healthy and buzzing up a storm with her attendants. I had the chance to meet Betsy and Shelley who are super nice, and it was great getting to meet them.

I got back home, put my queen cage in the hive (and yes, had some barbecue later) and left my hive alone for five days. Now mind you, this colony had been without a queen for almost a week (I hung the dead queen cage in the hive to keep them there since they could still smell her). But within two minutes, they were working on the candy stopper on the new queen's cage to release her.

Time passed and on the fifth day, I opened the hive again, and as much as I looked, I could not find my new queen. I looked and looked but could not find her long body and green dot. My heart sank, I figured she may have packed her attendants and hit the road -- but then I noticed something. In the comb that the colony had already drawn, I saw these tiny white specks, sitting upright, so I knew she was laying -- and she was laying in a consistent pattern. I knew from what I read and had been told by other beekeepers that I had a good queen.

It had been two weeks and I started thinking about something that Betsy at Busy Bee told me, that if I could find some, I should add some brood to beef up my hive since the colony is so small. It was a great idea, so I made the call and spoke to Jack, the owner, who told me he would sell some frames if I wanted them and that I could pick them up on Friday.

So Friday came and I made the trip to Carrboro. Betsy and Shelley brought me two great looking frames of capped brood which I put in an empty hive body in the back of my Xterra and started for home. They didn't charge me for the 20 or so persistent bees that just couldn't leave the frames! Needless to say, it was an interesting ride with them buzzing inside my Xterra while I'm driving on Interstate 40/85 and heading for home. Heck, they even stayed inside the truck while I stopped by Smithfield's Chicken and Barbecue for barbecue to go!

I made it home and and got into the hive -- and when I pulled the third frame from the super, there she was -- my proud queen! And on top of that, I was really excited when I found larvae and new eggs in the comb, so my queen is working away and keeping the hive going. I added the two frames of brood to my hive, added more syrup, removed the entrance reducer altogether (it is supposed to be 98 degrees and humid for the next few days) -- then I closed things out. And when I got cleaned up and put my tools away, I looked over my hive and the girls were flying in and out like crazy. So this was a great day for sure!

After the tragic experience I've had with my first colony of bees, it has been tough to keep positive about my new hobby. But I have to admit, finding good people like Betsy and Shelley and Jack at Busy Bee Apiaries, who really do care about beekeepers, and believe in helping people, I feel excited about the prospects for this hive. I know they're in business, but I really appreciate them being so nice and willing to go the extra mile to help if they can.

Thanks, Busy Bee! Have no fear, I'll be back. You have a repeat customer. Plus it gives me the chance to get some of that eastern style barbecue when I come down your way!