water

Bees need a lot of water. I was surprised today when I checked the waterer and the water was full when I left, and empty when I returned. It just seemed odd. How could they bee that thirsty? it was 89 degrees, and perhaps hotter in the hive. I don't know, but my bees are thirsty. They aren't the only ones. There is a hive three blocks away near the park. Those bees drink them fly off to the park. I watch them. They are fatter than my bees and stockier. They also do not disturb my hive. I replaced the water and also left the hose on to a drip in case the water ran out again. I am going to need a better water system. Since it was a day full of journalism and AVID, I didn't get to spend much time out there, however, it sure was a nice warm day perfect for bees to gather pollen, nectar, water and grow fat.

Zen with the Queen

Today is the day the queen should be released. I am so excited, yet a bit fearful. If she is dead, it could mean hive collapse for these ambitious bees. Most people check on their hive with a smoker, but I don't have one yet. My friend Keith couldn't come over with his smoker so the choice was to go buy one or suit up and help the bees. At some point one has to suit up and do the right thing because it is the right thing to do, even without the crutch of the smoker. At least I have gloves and a veil. Besides, if I am going to be a bee keeper, I have to start trusting the bees to know how to interact with me. I suited up, went out, opened up the hive so smoothly that the bee on the lid remained. I removed the bars in the middle, the divider board, and could see the queen cage I had hung with green raffia had fallen.

NO!

There were bees on each side of the screen. I picked it up careful and felt a bee squirm under my finger. I moved my finger and she was fine. Before walking out I put my hive tool and some snub nose pliers in my pocket. When I looked closer at the cage I could see they had almost eaten through the candy, but it would be another day at least. Instead of leaving it be (pun intended). I carefully lifted the queen cage with all the bees on it and could see 6 live bees inside with one dead. The dead one was not the queen, this queen was elegant, dark, unmarked, but obviously by her size, the queen. I believe she is Italian while my bees are All American. I gently pried open the screen with my snub nose pliers being careful not to lose my grip, not to disturb the bees, and not to squish any of the ladies. I said hello to the queen then gently shook them all out. The bees immediately started guiding the queen toward the new comb. I had divided the 20 bars of the top bar into ten by placing a divider after number ten. When I removed the divider I could see they were festooning and making comb all the way to bar 7 where the queen had been hung. They incorporated the raffia into their comb.

Martha Stuart has nothing on these girls.

The bottom of the cage was clean, unlike that first time Keith and I checked and it looked like Hiroshima. My scooping out the major part of the dead bees that had fallen out of the package bees cage was the right thing to do. It left the house bees less to do so they could focus on comb. The bees are collecting pollen and nectar, also I have seen them drink water. They are doing everything they should do. My next job is to check the comb to make sure they are making correct comb. I picked up the lid and the same bee was still resting on top. I placed the lid on and snoozed right through it. Today was monumental for me. I realize that it is the last regular day of school for my daughter who is a junior in high school. I will have to trust that she knows how to carry herself, even as she goes from home to college. In the meantime, while some people have empty nest syndrome, I will have a whole different kind of nest.

Leaf Cutter Bees

I watched these weird looking bees and I wasn't actually sure they were bees. They moved so fast, like wasps, but yet went deep into the digitalis plants. One fatter bee, guarded the towers of pink blooms in the pot near my pathway. It darts at other bees, then humps certain bees that go into the flower. Other bees are chased away. He also darts over to the other digitalis and guards those too. He burns a lot of energy going back and forth. He even chases off bumble bees. After a bit of research I found out these are leaf cutter bees. These are Megachile Brevis, and they are probably living nearby. It can't be far. These bees are not social. They don't have a hive or honey. They come out in spring and frolic. The female lays eggs in a little tunnel shaped like a straw. She deposits something like a ball of nutrients, an egg, then puts a little leaf disk to separate the layers of eggs. As evidenced from the roses, they cut small circles. I don't know if they deposit eggs every now and then or all at once, but once those egg babies are laid, nothing more is needed of the ladies and they die. The larvae eat all the sustenance and incubate into bees. It isn't very romantic. The male in my yard latches right onto the girl and does a few seconds of pushing then flies off. He uses the plants as his chick magnet, chasing off all others that might threaten his copulation zone. The honey bees are all over the butterfly bush. I will look into their little habitat tomorrow. I will try to add pictures of the carpenter bees, but for now, all I get is a blur.

Bee Whisperer

I watched a movie about a horse whisperer. It was called, "Buck". I don't know if Buck knew he was a horse whisperer. I wish I was more of a bee whisperer, but I am clumsy and in being clumsy, the bees can get squished. Also, I am not that smooth and slow in my movements, and I need to improve. The bees had a few days on the sugar water. Last night I brought it in so that they venture out and get used to their digs. In the front today, I observed some honey bees and what might be leaf cutter bees. They are hairy and move differently than honey bees. Only a few bumble bees were out today, and many flowers are in bloom. I want more flowers. More tastes. My bees are all over the basil flowers. They might love the taste of basil, but they might also use something in the pollen or nectar in a medicinal way. They are smart girls. They know where their waterer is and they use it. In and out they fly without really causing any disharmony. The dogs bark and chase the cats. The cats chase lizards and occasionally get birds. The chickens cluck and go after my plants, but overall, nothing the bee does makes any negative impact on the peace of the day. They are busy and peaceful. I feel better that they are alive and part of my family.

Good comb leads to good comb

My friend Katja and I decided to get into bees. We went to a Suburban Self Sufficiency workshop and thought getting into beekeeping would be great. We saw our friend Spring at the workshop and she mentioned the Top Bar Hive. Many folks call it the Kenyon Top Bar Hive (KTBH), but it's actually not from Kenya, it's as old as the Greeks. Anyway, Katja's husband is a wood worker and he decided to make two TBHs. I wanted to order bees, wasn't sure when the hive would be done, so missed all the local dates. Note to self, when in doubt, poop or get off the pot. I could have ordered the local bees in January. I could have picked up a Langstroth hive if I was committed. I could have whined to my friend's husband to make sure sure sure I had the hive. I could have danced in the moonlight praying to Melissa. Whatever I would have done, I didn't. Then I felt awful when Chuck brought over a beautiful top bar hive with a viewing window and a perfect little entrance on one side, but it was too late for a swarm and too late for locally purchased bees. Maybe I should have found a way to let go of guilt, but I didn't. Katja and I attended a Pollinator Workshop at UC Davis and learned about hive collapse and what to do locally to support bees. I bought plants, hundreds of dollars worth of pollinator supporting plants, and planted them on my property. My mornings were spent observing bees, honey bees, sweat bees, carpenter bees, giant black bumble bees, and a few butterflies. I ordered books, borrowed books, and read online articles about bees. I looked in a 10 mile radius, then moved to larger circles scouring for bees. Everyone was out. I ended up feeling like an idiot for not ordering in January, especially after Chuck came through with a beautiful hive. I ordered from Draper's out in Pennsylvania. They still had bees. Draper's changed the dates on me to go further and further out into May. Eventually, I cancelled my order, but the same day I cancelled it, they sent me an email that the bees were already sent priority mail. It was a Friday. The following Thursday, after staying home for four days to greet the bees, thy arrived late Thursday. I called my friend Katja over to help me.

I set up the syrup, but forgot to put the ant trap stuff around the legs of the hive. I had ants everywhere. I opened the bees, shook them into the hive that I divided with the divider board, and was sad to see so many dead bees. I couldn't figure how to separate them, so I dumped them all in. The bottom was filled an inch or two thick with dead bees. It was carnage; a virtual killing field. About half way into dumping the bees, I realized that I had not taken out the queen cage. DOH. I didn't worry about it because I was going to direct release her. I plucked out the queen cage, shook off the bees and didn't see a thing inside. Empty? Upon closer inspection, the clipped, marked queen was curled like the question mark. The Queen is Dead. After all the reading, all the books, all the videos, I had no idea what to do. I dumped the bees in, saw the inches of dead in there and did nothing about it, then dumped the dead queen and put the cage in and tried to put on the lid. The bees seemed mad. I realized they were hungry. The can of sugar water was full, and after 6 days they were dehydrated and stressed. I made water available. I made sugar water and a patty of pollen substitute available. I put the lid on and came in the house to call Draper's. The best they could do was send me a new queen, not the queen type I ordered, and I would have to pay the darn overnight shipping. I did. Can I tell you I felt like the 6 days of high heat for those bees must have been hell. All I felt was discouragement and lot of regrets. At 5:30 the next day the new bees came. It was a small package with an unmarked queen and her attendants. I called my friend Keith and he came over with his gear, hive tool, and smoker. We got right to business. I removed the cork from the candy side. I inserted an earring through the top of the cage, made a loop, and threaded the loop through the hive bar and got her in the middle of the bar. When we opened the hive, it was full of a big, big, almost soccer size ball festooned on the bars by the door. There were more bees festooned in smaller arrangements on the bars moving away from the large clump. I hung her there. I probably should have hung her between the clumps. I didn't think of that then. It wasn't obvious if they were making comb, there were just too many clumped together to see what they were clumped on. However, I do know that good comb leads to more good comb in the same way that bad comb leads to more bad comb. For me, in this situation, I can see that my hasty decision to order bees late in the season through a far away distributer who extended the dates was my initial bad comb decision. The postal delays, the dead queen, the ant infestation, these were all iterations of bad comb decision. The bees are doing their best out there with what I have given them. I just hope I can learn a lot more before making more bad comb type decisions.