New Hive

Got a new hive today, and stung once.

These bees are suspect.  I haven't actually interacted with them because they were too darn mad.  Anyway, I will likely check them out tomorrow.

I hope to give these bees to my brother, but I am not sure how to get them to his house.   The numbers are low and they just don't seem vibrant.  I am worried about this new hive. I guess winter will tell.


Bees want to survive, I get that.  I guess we'll have to see.

Drones

An unknown force rode into the hives on the wind. Maybe it was barometric pressure, maybe a measurable drop in heat, but after many hot nights of bees out much of the night sipping on mint juleps and standing on the porch, the party is over.

Bodies are strewn on the ground.

I coaxed two bees onto a piece of comb I found on the ground.  Each tried to sip the honey, but couldn't. They were drones.  Hungry.  Men. Exiled. Helpless.

Romeo knew what the bees know. Exile is worse.  They starve after being kicked out.  Some girls team up to fly high and drop the wounded drone in a place he can't return.


The bodies pile up. It is carnage.

And yet, the massacre of the drones signales a queenright hive preparing for winter.  She has spoken.

Only the contributors can stay.

The bodies have been piled
the fire, stocked.
Let the ashes be ashes.
Let the dust--
Tomorrow we will suck nectar from the lips
Tomorrow we will gather pollen to our hips
In winter we will come together as sisters
In sisters we will come together for winter
Let the ashes be ashes
Let the dust be.

Combining hives

Either this is going to be brilliant, or an epic fail!

I bought syrup and protein patties, feeder tubs and frames in order to separate a hive.  I took two frames of really stunning, honey filled, brood filled hives, and moved them to the new apiary.

Also, I fed the new bee division and screened the opening.  Boy the bees seem mad and I am not sure if I accidentally got the queen. I don't think so, but we'll see.  In the morning I am going to look at them really closely and see what I have.

I am not sure if I should  lay some paper between the borrowed bars and the top bars, but I plan on blending them as early as tomorrow, and as late as day after tomorrow.

What if I accidentally got the queen?  Could I hang a queen cage of the queen I have in the other hive? I have no idea.  I figure if I see the queen in the morning, I'll cross that bridge. In the meantime, my idea is to get these girls all together for one happy, happy, hive.

New Hive in a box

After being gone a week, I was afraid to check the hive.  I went in and found honey all over the the tops of the comb.  It was beginning to look like a thriving hive. Just on a really small scale.

I called Jose and told him I was interested in getting a hive.  He said he would call me back.  He called at 6:00 a.m. and was here by 6:30.  He had one of those standard white bee boxes in the back of his truck.   He carried it, without any protection except for his hat, across my front yard, through the gate, past the pool and to the far corner of the yard.   I put on my hat, veil, gloves, and brought out the smoker.  He lit the smoker, smoked them good, then opened up the hive.

There was propolis and burr comb on the top.  8 frames were full of bees and two had drawn out comb but nothing stored yet.  It was a really busy hive.
"Where's the queen?" I asked.
"Bee keepers don't spend their time going through all the frames to find the queen.  She's there.  There's eggs and larvae, she is doing her job.  I have hundreds of hives to check.  I can't be looking at each frame trying to find the queen.  If there is brood, there's a queen."

It was odd to me to hear the business point of view as opposed to the organic beekeeper point of view.   The TBH people are always looking for the queen.  The professional keeper wants honey stores and pollination jobs.  He wants to control the mites and make sure things are increasing.  That's about it.

We put the lid back on and left those bees along. Jose got stung in the arm and the nasty bee that stung him landed on my veil.  It gave me an earful.  The high pitched whine sounds like being told off with a helium hum. I was definitely getting the message that those bees were pissed off and disoriented.

We returned to the TBH where Jose found a nice brood pattern.  Maybe they will make it.

Bee Saga

Bee Natural July and August brought a flurry of bee activity. I was worried about the TBH and air circulation, through a series of unfortunate events, I ended up contributing to a moth infestation. I sought answers from everywhere, anywhere and the result: "The best method to avoid moth infestation is to have a strong hive. A strong hive will keep the best out" I found it totally annoying. DUH, I already knew I had a hive that wasn't thriving... But I didn't know why. It had moths everywhere, but no more. I got advice from UC Davis. This nice man named Eric Mussen said to pick out the larvae, determine if there is a queen in there, freeze combs to rid them of moth larvae, and only return what the bees could cover." I removed combs the bees couldn't cover. I froze combs, keeping some, returning some. One comb broke in the freezer because someone at my house forgot to be careful with the comb and manhandled the freezer. I suspect my husband, but I can't prove it. I got up early every day and perused the hive for wiggling things and flying things. I became adept at smashing the fat moth larvae. They popped like coconut filled packets. The queen was gone. The queen I ordered came within 24 hours. I hung her, requeened the hive, continued on my morning moth patrol, and the hive didn't get any more moths, but still the hive was down to two handfuls of bees. No mites, no AFB, just no bees. I joined every bee site between San Diego and Sacramento. Eric told me to feed the bees and I made a weak syrup which they refused. I made a stronger syrup and they loved it. Within 24 hours of feeding the bees the queen laid eggs everywhere. In about 15 days I will have double the population. Finally, Finally, progress. I also bought pollen, mixed it with Karo and put it in the hive. If they can't find pollen, they can eat that. They actually didn't like it. I called a bee keeper, Jose Heredia. Jose is the only stranger who returned my calls and came over to help me troubleshoot the problems in person. He even got stung. First, he had never seen a top bar hive and suggested I burn it. My serious face conveyed that I didn't think he was funny. Like politics and parenting, people tend to endorse only what they know. I understood. He lit my smoker and unceremoniously stuck the smoke end in the door and began pump the bellows. I HEARD A SCREAM I knew his smoker was too hot and too close to the comb, but how would he know, he had never seen a Top Bar hive. I whacked his hand with the smoker and out flew the queen. She must have been on the other side of the door. "That's the queen" I said and tried to pick her up, but she darted around on the ground. "Let me pick her up," he said, and as he tried to pick her up with his non gloved hands, she avoided him. He got her, then she jumped back to the ground. Her wings were clipped. She couldn't go far. I picked her up and dropped her inside a fat comb. She was sure mad. There were several combs, but none had eggs. Jose said, "This hive is dying. That's a really nice queen, but the hive is too small to forage or take care of her, they will die." "What if I bought a full hive and split it. I could put five combs in each Langstroth box, search for the queen, and requeen with my good queen." "You can do that, but they will probably reject her and kill her. It's late in the season and you might go into winter with two weak hives instead of one strong hive." It's about a 140.00 dollar learning experience. "Look, I'll bring a full hive, a healthy hive, and I'll work with you to keep it healthy. I'll even treat for mites when you get them. Your not gonna get any honey from this hive. They put all their resources into building comb and then starved. You should have been feeding them." "I did feed them" "Let me see the syrup," and he swirled the container. "It should be thick like honey, this is too watery. Too much work for them to thin it down. I'll teach you how to make syrup." With that we closed the hive. I learned to make syrup. I made a bag feeder of honey and placed in in the top bar. Within a day, I had to go out of town and would not be there to see if the bees survived or thrived.

June quick check.

I checked the bees, just for a peek and saw their progress. It's slow going. It looks pretty darn tidy in there. Lots of bees, but not nearly as many as I think there should be.

First look into the hive

The bees had a rough start, instead of 2 day shipping, it took 6 days. It was during a heat wave, many were dead, including the queen. They got a new queen, but had to wait 4 days before she was released. The queen cage had fallen from the raffia and I had to release her, that was May 29, I had no idea what to expect, except that I really wanted to look, but was told to wait a week or two after releasing the queen. It has been 13 days. Tonight was the night. It was also time to change the bottom. I had paper and a piece of styrofoam on top of the bottom screen; it seemed like a temporary fix to the large holes in the screen. Later, I realized it wasn't very efficient. They needed something more solid to work the air flow for hive cooling. It was 107 today, that is very hot for bees. Chuck, the bee top bar maker, made me two bottom boards to slide into place. After taking the lid off, it was easy to take the bars from the far side where the bees had not progressed. The styrofoam was easy to remove. Now it was time to place the boards. It looked empty inside, but then I saw comb, perfect comb. Also, the bees were on the shady side of their top bar hive, obviously staying cool. It was amazing to look into the hive and see what they were doing. They seemed a little mad that I took off the paper at the bottom. It wasn't until I pulled it out that I realized their hive went all the way to the bottom. The paper had a little pollen on it. I left it on top for them when I was done. When I lifted the bar, I was looking down on it, not sideways, so I didn't see the honey that showed up in Katja's picture. Looking down into the hive, the comb was beautiful. It was just as I imagined. Hexagonal comb, perfectly shaped, hanging from the top bar, waiting for the queen to fill. I hope she is in there. I didn't really inspect for her because the 107 degree temp made me think twice about handing bars with comb. We looked at the bars, but they seemed annoyed by us and the heat. We just looked into the hive without pulling too many bars out. They have comb on 5 bars with 15 bars still empty and awaiting the rest of their ambitious season. I put the bars back and had two straggles. I helped them get back in. After putting the lid on, there was one coming home. HOME. I am so proud of these girls and their home! A special thanks to Chuck Schilling for making the top bar, and Katja Edgar for all the photos. And to Brian for supporting my transition from near empty nest as a mother, to full hive woman!