Early summer update from Mark's apiary!

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

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

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

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

Hope your summer is going well! More updates later!

A hot, North Carolina summer night!

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

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

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

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

HONEY!

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

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

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

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

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

Bon appetit!       

How do bees keep cool? By blowing a breeze, baby!

It has been hot here for the last few weeks. And only getting sporatic rain doesn't help either. But then when you throw in a heaping dose of North Carolina humidity, you have the recipe for totally miserable weather. That's what we've had lately and a lot of it too. So I decided to go out and take some pictures of my girls keeping their cool...even if the rest of us couldn't. And I have to admit they were doing a pretty darn good job of it too.

As you can see, the orange hive had girls stationed across the front and fanning away. As their sisters brought in orange pollen, a row of fanners on the bottom and a few on top (you can see their bee butts) kept things cool. Same thing for the lemon yellow hive. The yellow hive is the mother hive which has two deeps full of bees, so there's lots more space to ventilate. But they fan to keep it cool in the day, and at night, many tend to cover the hive front and enjoy the night air. 

No exception to the rule, the girls in the lime green hive keep their cool too, but they tend to be a little more acrobatic than the other hives. This is the hive that's closest to the creek, so they fly out, make a sharp right and about 15 feet they can get all the cool water they want. And while all of the hives are in the full sun most of the day, in late afternoon, the ladies all get a reprieve and can take it easy since the hives fall in the shade of a row of trees. They deserve the rest after all that intense fanning all day!

So as you can see, and up close too, the bees know exactly what they're doing when it comes to keeping their cool in the harsh summer days. Nature provided honey bees with their very own air conditioning -- and believe me -- after opening my power bill this month -- theirs is much cheaper!

Stay cool my friends!      

Chillin' on the front porch on a hot summer night!

I have to admit that it has been hot and dry here for the last few weeks. The days are especially humid and it only takes seconds to break a sweat once you leave the comfort of your air conditioned house or car.

Thing is, the nights are much better. They're a lot less humid and much cooler with the temperatures in the upper 60s, the kind of weather made for sitting on the front porch and reflecting on life.

I can easily see my bee hive from the kitchen window, and the amber colored mercury vapor security light I have in my yard really lights the entire area at night. So tonight, about 11 o'clock, I go to get a drink of water at the sink and noticed something while peering out of the window. I could see some sort of dark blob on the front of the hive, to the right side of the entrance, but couldn't make out what it was. We've had several bears spotted in the Triad area recently, but I knew it wasn't that unless it was mighty small. And I went outside a few nights ago and could smell a skunk that must have been hit by a car or startled in some way...it was really smelling up the entire area. Based on what I've read, I know skunks are fond of honey and brood, so I sprank into action with my flashlight to see what was going on.

I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised. When I got there with the flashlight, I would see that there was absolutely nothing going on...well...except my girls were relaxing in the cool night air. I've read in several books and online that on some hot nights, you'll see the honeybees "beard" or cover the entrance to get cool air, and that's what was apparently happening in this case. They were not excited or moving...they were just motionless and obviously enjoying the late July evening air. I guess after a hard day of foraging and tending to the house and looking after those bee babies, these ladies needed a night off. And that's just what they were doing...taking the night off. Who could blame them?

I have a two-week inspection set up for this weekend so maybe they'll be as docile then as they were tonight. I can hope anyway.