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!    

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!

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. 

Here's my brand new three hive stand!

So it was in March that I ordered a new custom built hive stand from a local welding and machine shop. With my backyard apiary expanding (the girls are doing it on their own) - I had to order a durable stand that could hold multiple hives. With the help of Wesley Amos of Amos Welding and Machine Shop in Reidsville, we put our heads together to come up with a large enough stand to hold multiple hives and stand up against time and the elements. Wesley built my first hive stand two years ago, so I knew he was up to the task. This new hive stand will hold three booming colonies.

This past weekend was nice enough that I could get out and get my new stand ready. So with brush and roller in hand, I made sure there were no rust posts anywhere, then applied multiple coats of Rustoleum paint to seal the surface. I used the same paint on my first stand, which holds two hives, and with the exception of a few minor spots thats popped up in two years, the metal paint works like a charm.

Once the paint was fully dry, the task was to dig the eight holes to plant the legs in the ground. Each leg has a "foot" or metal plate on the bottom to keep it from sinking deeper into the soil, but to keep it from sinking at all, I poured Quikrete (concrete) around the legs and let it set for 24 hours to make sure it cured. After the concrete is cured and hardened, you can then put the dirt back to fill in the holes.

Let me add that you need to use a carpenter's level to make sure everything is..level. You want a slight decline in the front so any water from rain or snow or hive moisture will drip out the front and stay out of the hive. Other than the slight decline in the front, the stand is level side-to-side. That took me awhile to get it that way since the stand is so wide, but once I finally got it set, I poured the Quikrete around the legs and then the water and left it alone.

Once the concrete set up and the dirt was filled in, it was time to move my first hive to its new home. Since the yellow hive had a brand new package of bees who were basically building comb and little else, I decided to move them. I picked up the light hive and made the short trip to its new home. When I first hived this colony, I used a solid wood bottom board, but really like using screened bottom board. So I moved the hive, transferred the frames over to the second yellow hive body, and got ready to close eveything back up and leave the girls alone. After all, they already had a busy week of being hived and now moving to a new location. Talk about confusing!

Being that the girls were moved, and thinking that some of the foragers may be confused, I placed a piece of bamboo over the entrance. That's so they would re-orient themselves to their new location. And to catch any that may have gone to the old location, I put a carboard nuc there and sure enough, I caught about a handful of them and took them over to their new abode. The "obstruction over the entrance" trick works. I've used it a couple of times with great success. It forces the foragers to re-orient themselves to the area (after all..there wasn't a tree in the front door before) -- so chances are they will find their way back home. Try it if you have to move a hive.

So here it is, my new three hive stand. You can see that its close enough to my other hives so I can just go back and forth when needed. That should really come in handy when having to transfer frames and supplies between hives. And its very close to my storage building where I keep all my beekeeping supplies. I intentionally set it at an angle to keep the bees from the green and orange hive from slamming into the new bees when crossing flight paths. Will it work? I don't know, but in my head it will. Guess we'll see!

Here's the dimensions of my new hive stand. Remember it will hold three hives (especially heavy hives in winter when packed with honey). Each hive will sit in a 2 foot by 2-1/2 foot square on top of the stand.

Side to side length: 6 feet wide
Depth: 2-1/2 feet deep
Leg length: 24 inches (I bury mine. You could make them shorter.)
Top: Heavy gauge grated steel mesh (Proper ventilation.)
Body: Heavy gauge angled steel
Construction: Welded
Paint: Rustoleum

Feel free to use my plans or tailor them for your own bee yard. And happy beekeeping my friends!

More coming on my adventures with a "piping" queen in my own hive!

Georgia bees find a new home in the Tarheel state!

The first "bee day" arrived on Monday, April 18th, at Dadant & Sons in Chatham, Virginia. Actually the first shipment of bees ended up being a week late, but that wasn't a problem for me since I had some things to get ready anyway. So Monday came, and with receipt in hand, I headed north for 44.5 miles to Dadant to pick up my new bees. Once I arrived, the staff handed me a really healthy looking 3-pound package of golden yellow honeybees. A loud, buzzing box of bees! Mine was just one of around 550 packages that arrived in Chatham from an apiary in Georgia. Knowing that they were stressed from the long ride through four states and they were probably thirsty, I rushed them to my house back across the North Carolina line to get them to their permanent home.

To help them settle down, I kept the package in my garage overnight, and I occasionally misted the package with water from a spray bottle to keep the ladies refreshed. And I have to admit that it was hard to sleep Monday night because I was excited to finally get my new bees in the home. So Tuesday finally came and it was beautiful! It was the perfect day to install my new package at their final destination. And although I have a brand new hive still in the box, I decided to recycle the yellow hive which held my first ever colony of bees.

Like all packages, the queen came in her own cage complete with attendants. Unlike my other queens, ths one wasn't marked, but she was easy to spot among all her daughters. After popping off the cork that protects the fluffy, white candy, I took a small nail and punctured the candy to make it easier for the bees to access. And while I was getting everything ready, a passing bee dropped by to meet her new neighbors. There you see her as she pays a visit.

Since there was no wax to embed the cage in, I snugly wedged it between the tops of two frames. The screened side of the cage is facing down (which allows the bees to feed the queen and her attendants too) and it is slightly pointed downward. That's so the queen can simply walk out when she's released. I've also been told to never point the candy end completely down (vertically) because if the attendants should die in the cage, they may jam the hole and the queen will not be able to get out. I have used this same method before on two other occasions and it works just fine.

After the queen was put into place, I gave the bees a good spritzing with sugar syrup, then poured them over the queen and into the empty hive. The bees began making a higher pitched humming, and what bees didn't end up in the hive, soon became a cloud over the hive. Although I've seen it before, it was amazing to watch the bees as they started a slow, steady march in between the frames in the hive. It didn't take long before all the bees you see in the picture started covering the frames.

Although I planned to use my Boardman feeder anyway, I also decided to use the can of sugar syrup that came with the bee package. After all, it seemed almost full so why waste it? So I grabbed up a shallow super to hold the can and I placed it to the side of the hive. That's so the bees could easily access it and not pile up around or near the queen who is closer to the middle of the hive. Plus I don't want to disturb the bees who are eating their way to free their queen. The Boardman feeder is on the opposite side and on the front of the hive.

Take a look at the girls as the aclimate themselves in their new home. It didn't take long before I noticed the girls fanning their scent to the outside to guide any strays to their location. And not long after that, I noticed a few as they flew from the hive, made their lazy back and forth motions in front of it, then up and round and round to orient themselves to the area. Then a few hours later, I noticed bubbles as they occasionally rose to the top of the quart jar full of sugar syrup. It seemed that the bees had already started working to get their new abode ready.

Two days later, it seems the bees are doing fine. I went down and stood nearby and watched them fly to and from their home during the afternoon sun. While its nowhere as busy as the other two hives (which have swarm cells in them as of now..more on that later) - I know that its just a matter of time before the old yellow hive, which fell silent this past winter, will soon resonate with the sounds of a lively box of bustling bees, the sweet sound that eminates from a happy hive. Needless to say, there's nothing quite like it.

Note to my fellow beekeepers: Just a reminder to ALWAYS make sure that you're dealing with a reputable apiary when you buy package bees from out of state. Without a doubt, I knew when I ordered a package through Dadant and Sons that I would end up with a top quality package. That's why I didn't hesitate in the least to order one through them and I'm very satisfied. But that wasn't the case with my first ever package of bees which I ordered from a beekeeper in Georgia several years ago. Without going into a lot of details, the website for this so-called apiary looked very professional and this beekeeper's previous online ratings were very good. But after I got "stung" by the guy when most of my bees arrived dead, then he refused to answer my phone calls and emails, I found out he was wasn't anywhere close to being a professional businessman. In addition to my hard earned money, he took a lot of other people's hard earned money. I wasn't the only person he refused to respond to. He also refused to respond to all the others that bought bees from him which ended up dead on their doorsteps. When he did respond, he said he would "make it right" -- but he never did. Digging further, I found out that the Sheriff's Office in his home county knew him well and a ranking officer told me that he's a regular in their civil process service division. Needless to say, all of his "customers" got screwed. So please, take my advice. Make sure that you check the reputation of an out-of-state apiary or beekeeper before you do business with them. There are a lot of great people who are dedicated to customer satisfaction, and then there are those out to make a fast buck. Always know what you're buying and who you're buying from. Whatever you do, do your research and don't become a victim.

Happy beekeeping!

New equipment for an expanding apiary!

Tis the season for beekeeping equipment. In the next couple of weeks, I plan to pick up a couple more complete hives to add to my backyard apiary. And to hold my new colonies, I just received my custom-built, all steel, three hive stand. It was built by a local welding shop, Amos Welding, and built to my specifications. Its 6 feet wide, 2 1/2 feet deep, and sits 24 inches off the ground. Click on the picture and you can see the heavy duty screen that covers the top (which combined with screened bottom board will aid in ventilation), and the legs have "feet" on the bottoms to keep them from sinking into the ground. The steel is heavy grade so it will safely hold the hives..even at their heaviest when full of honey honey in the fall.

Once it receives two coats of metal paint, I'll locate it at the back of my property and in close proximity to my current hives. I'll use post-hole diggers to plant the legs in the ground, then once its leveled, I'll use some Quikrete to secure the stand. Once it sets, I'll be able to locate my new colonies at their new home.

I have to have everything ready by April 11th when my new 3-pound package of bees arrives at Dadant and Sons. That will take one space. Then I'll use another space when I split the orange hive. Then the third will be ready to go for any swarms I may catch this spring. And if I get more swarms, I'm already thinking about alternate locations. After all, I have to keep the neighbors happy too!        

You can see my hives from high in the sky thanks to Google!

Well what do you know?  Google has changed their newest satellite maps in my area and now you can actually see the bee hives behind my house!

The older images that Google used before were seriously outdated.  They were really fuzzy and it was tough to make out the details about my area.  But they obviously decided to do an update sometime since mid-March of this year because my outbuilding, which is located at the lower end of my property, was finished when the image was made.

If you click on the photo above, you can see my house as it looks high in the sky.  You can see my house, then my outbuilding -- and just to the upper right of the building -- you see my hives.  And of you look really close, albeit a little fuzzy, you can even make out three bee hives.  I believe the glow from the hives is the sun's reflection from the sheet metal of the hive covers.  And if you look just beyond my hives, you can see the creek that my bees use for their honey and to cool the hives in the hot, humid summer months in North Carolina.

Looking at the image, I have to wonder if that's the view my girls see when they make their orientation flights to learn where home is?  Is that the sight they see when they come home after a long day of foraging?

Google is getting really good with the technology they use these days.  Before you know it, they'll get so good, you'll be able to make out the bees as they come and go from their hives!

If you want to see if you can find your house and even your hives, click on the link above and play around with it.  Its pretty simple to use and fun too.

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!

One new queen is well on her way. The other could be in trouble!

Saturday was inspection day for my three hives. While I had been inside the yellow, mother hive already this week to pull the green drone frame and replace it, all of the hives needed a really decent look-see. And while the temperature was at 94 degrees and the relative humidity was 48% -- I braved the elements to get it done (and hopefully I lost a few pounds too). It was like being in a sauna. 

Here's the work of the new Carniolan queen in the orange hive. I have to admit that is one fine looking frame of brood. This was the hive I was most worried about because the workers were so slow to leave the hive. The queen was introduced on June 2nd and she was out by June 8th. She was readily accepted, but I couldn't figure out why the workers were dragging their feet on foraging. I still don't know. But no worries now, they're out of the hive daily and now I can see that the queen is doing her job. I also found eggs and larvae so I have some of all stages of the bee birthing process going on here. The orange hive is well on its way to success.

While the orange hive seems to be fine, the lime green hive (a frame from it pictured right) still has troubles it seems. This is the hive that went from swarm cells to supersedure cells -- then those disappeared and it developed a laying worker. So after shaking all the bees way away from the hive, I introduced a new Carniolan queen at the same time I put one in the  orange hive. They both came from the same apiary. This queen was accepted as well...but look at this pattern. Spotty at best and there were lots of raised drone caps all throughout this hive. If there were new eggs, I didn't see them, but I did find larvae, so she has been laying. And I found the queen too, she was on the last frame (like all of them always are) so she's most definitely alive.

Here is the other side of the frame from the green hive. As you can see, while there are drone caps here, she has laid a decent pattern of flat, worker brood here too. And in the ones not capped, you can see glistening white larvae nestled in the cells. This capped brood is new. The only capped brood in the hive on June 2nd was from the mother hive (the big yellow hive). The capped brood in the hive on that date has already hatched. So it is my assumption that the workers have capped all of the cells you see here since June 2nd...just like the bees did in the orange hive that's thriving.

If I'm doing the math correctly, it is distinctly possible that a lot of the drone cells in this hive were from the laying worker I hopefully shook away earlier this month. Here's my thoughts: It takes 21 days for a bee to go from an egg to an adult. I shook this hive on June 2nd and the frames held typical laying worker eggs -- two and three per cell. So even though I introduced a new queen to this hive that day, I believe it is possible that the worker bees went about their daily routine and fed and capped the eggs and brood as they should. And my calculations say that brood should emerge sometime this coming week. After all, from June 2nd until June 19th -- that's only seventeen days, so its possible this mess isn't related to the new queen at all, but a hold-over from the dreaded laying worker. Least that's my thinking. Of course I'm open for theories here so throw them out at will.

While I plan to talk to the beekeeper at the apiary where I bought her and I've left some messages for some experiences beeks, I am now thinking that I should give her a few more days and watch for new eggs before I replace her. After all, she walked into a mess from the laying worker, so she hasn't had it easy. 

Of course I'll keep everybody updated on what is going on, but if you have some ideas, I am more than willing to know what they are.

ADDENDUM: On Sunday, I decided to swap some frames from the yellow hive over to the green hive. The yellow hive has plenty of full frames of worker brood, and since the green hive has mixed frames of worker and drone brood, I decided to swap some frames. After shaking every bee off the frames, I swapped them -- thus giving the green hive more workers that will hatch soon -- and the big yellow mother hive can handle a few more drones. Hopefully this will work out and keep the green hive on even keel until I can figure out what is going on. Wish us luck! 

Attention ladies: There really is life outside the hive!

I have to admit that I've been a little concerned about the new orange hive. Why? Because its seems that its been extremely slow to respond after last week's split. Every day I've watched this hive to see what the bees were doing. And other than the occasional bee flying in or out, not much has really been going on.  

Honestly I couldn't understand it. When I made the first split weeks ago, the green hive was busy with bees out and exploring within three or four days. But not the orange hive. Six and a half days later, and there wasn't much of anything going on. I was so concerned that I opened the hive on Tuesday evening just to see what was happening, and I found a deep chamber with lots of bees just sitting there. Some of the bees were newly hatched, all bright yellow and fuzzy, and there was lots of capped brood yet to hatch, but the house bees just seemed to be lifeless and bored.


But that all changed. On the seventh day, Wednesday afternoon, the lethargic hive came alive! While looking out the kitchen window, I noticed a flurry of activity in front of the hives, and when I took a closer look, I realized that much of it was in front of the orange hive. I grabbed up my camera and headed for the yard, and what I found was a whole volley of bees doing orientation flights from the orange hive. Like all bees do, they would crawl out on the entrance or the face of the hive, then they would start the slow back and forth flight in the front of their home. Once they got a few feet off the ground, they would start making smaller circles -- and the higher they got -- the wider the circles -- then they would fly off in all directions.


Seeing that made me feel a lot better about this colony. It is my hope that since they now know where their home is, they'll start doing what bees are supposed to do and that's to forage and fend for themselves. And while I do feel better, I'm sure that I'll still have some concerns about them until I see the constant traffic coming and going like I do at the other two hives.

But you know, just in case, I'll be here to nurse them right along.

UPDATE: The new queens are out and things look good so far...

"And...they're off!" That's what comes to mind after inspecting my two new colonies on Saturday and finding what you see to the left...empty queen cages. I admit that I was prepared for them to be out of the cages and inside the hives. But would they be accepted by the bees in those colonies? That seemed to be the issue for me.

Why? As I discussed in my previous posts, the green hive had gone from swarm cells to supersedure cells -- then those disappeared and suddenly I had a laying worker on my hands. So while technically queenless, my concern was that acceptance would be a huge issue since one of the worker bees was now laying eggs and trying to save the hive. But after doing a "shake" and removing every bee from every frame and then introducing a new mated queen, I think I took care of that issue. She's out and doing fine.

The orange hive, the newest, wasn't much of a real concern since they were queenless for 24-hours before I put the queen cage in. I moved bees and brood over from the mother hive, then waited till the next day to put her and her attendants in. So I wasn't all that concerned that acceptance would be much of an issue for this hive.

As you can see, that's one of the newest monarchs introduced to my apiary. She's Carniolan, so she's darker than her adopted daughters from the other hive which are Italian. And she was born this year and this is a blue year for queen markings. This is the queen in the orange hive and believe it or not, she's already laying. I found new eggs in the cells and she has a consistent pattern so I think she will do fine. The queen in the green hive isn't laying yet, least I don't think do. A few of the frames in that hive had been used by the laying worker, so she doen't have a lot of empty space there now. But she was out and crawling across the frame and looked great.


Since the frames in the lower deeps are already drawn out, I decided now is the time to give these girls some room to expand. So to match the yellow hive, I added a second deep with nine frames and one drone frame, and on top of those I added feeders with 1:1 syrup to help them draw comb. Considering that both of the new hives have plenty of workers, that should give them something to do and keep them occupied.

I admit I am a little concerned about the orange hive though. It doesn't seem to have the coming and going traffic like the other two hives, and I've noticed ants crawling up the sides and occasionally in the entrance. But its only been a week for them now. The good thing I did notice was that one of the guards chased some of the ants out, so maybe they're settling in to make this their home. I also noticed an nasty earwig (which I smushed) in the corner of one of the frames, and I believe that's became the hive is sitting on cinderblocks. I'll eventually move it over to a steel stand like the others sit on, but I have to wait for the city to finish some clean-up work on the creek behind the house. Then I plan to relocate the hives to a more level location just a few feet away.

So that's my update. Things seem to be okay so far, and I'll check them again this coming weekend to see if they're on track.

Bee cool!

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.