pd's bees

I've been lame. I'll be lame again.

2009-06-04T11:15:00.002-04:00

So it's been almost a year since I posted anything. But things did happen.
In order:

Small Hive Beetles (SHB) were getting thicker and I started seeing signs of Deformed Wing Virus (DWV). I was using AJ's Beetle Eaters on both hives and they had been pretty successful. Levels of SHB weren't too high and I wasn't seeing any mites (Varroa destructor), the likely vector for DWV.
Finally got my first inspection. Two weeks before I had opened the hives and the SHB were in both but not quite pervasive. When we opened them for the inspection there must have been two dozen on just the inner cover of one hive. Both were thick with the beetles and we found many mites. He recommended that I immediately treat the hives or I'd lose them. We began treatment with that inspection.
We have honey! At the time of the inspection, one of the hives had a honey super almost full. I pulled the super and froze the frames. They're still in the freezer as I type this, but I hope to Crush & Strain them this weekend.
Pulling treatment off. After the prescribed time, I pulled the treatments out of the hives. In the hive that had the most beetles before treatment I didn't find one beetle or mite. In the other I found one beetle and no mites. Since that time I've found no more than two beetles at a time in either hive.
Stings: Both 5 & 6 were from crushing bees between my fingers while moving frames around. On the last one, the pain was gone before I finished working the bees and I forgot about it. About 3 days later my finger started to itch right where the sting had been. Itched for a couple days.

I've got some photos during my "down time" and I'll post them soon.

Back From Vacation

2008-07-13T11:22:00.000-04:00

Just got back from 2 weeks in Ireland. Some work, some play.

It was cloudy and rainy the first few days home and today was the first day I had to check the bees.

Hive 2008-B has really slowed down. I still can't imagine the 2-4 mites I see each time I open the hive being the problem. I had put a honey super on before I left in anticipation of them needing the room but they haven't drawn any comb out on the new foundation and it looks like what little space was left in the deep box to draw out hasn't bee touched either. Didn't see the queen, but saw lots of larva in many stages. Placed a beetle trap, the kind that hangs between two frames, in this hive.

Hive 2008-A is doing a little better. The second deep body is almost all the way drawn out and there is lots of activity throughout the three bodies. Some of the honey in the honey super is capped, but it's looking more like I won't get a crop this year. Didn't see this queen either, but plenty of other signs she's been there recently.

To the right you can see a couple girls coming into the world. Look carefully, just below the center.

As I was taking off the honey super the queen excluder fell on the ground--sending a bunch of the girls a buzzin'. I had to back away for a couple of minutes after a few of them were hitting my veil pretty hard.

I also took this time to remove the Hood beetle trap from the bottom deep body. Replaced it with a new frame. There were Zero beetles in the trap. Hmm. Still mostly drone comb on that frame so I broke it off and froze it.

Sting Counter: 4
left pinky finger just below the nail.
This one was interesting. I was checking a frame and it felt like a bee was crawling on my finger. I let her go and kept working and after a little while I began to wonder why she was just sitting there. I looked down at my hand and there was just a barb. The only pain came when I scratched it out and even that subsided within seconds. Least painful so far!

Quick Check...Ouch.

2008-06-17T14:50:00.005-04:00

Made a quick check on 2008-B to see if it's time for a new super. Nope. Everything looks good, but I don't know why they've slowed down. Still a little comb to draw out...

Quick check on 2008-A to see if the middle body is being drawn out...it is, but not quite complete. Also, there is a small amount of brood in the honey super that hasn't hatched. LOTS of nectar in the honey super and a fair amount of capped honey. I don't know if I'll get a crop this year...I think it'll be close.

I decided since this was a quick peek I wouldn't use smoke. Bad idea. They are definitely more aggressive without the smoke and just as I was finishing with A I got stung.

Sting Counter: 3
Outside, base of my left thumb.

Worst initial pain and then nothing within a couple of minutes.

A couple hours later I went and helped Mark & Julie lift the tin to the top of their river house. Pretty good work out. By the time I left there the sting site was very itchy. I took an anti-itch pill when I got home. (I'll try to remember to find the name of these over-the-counter pills. My allergist recommended them and they work fabulously.)

Woke up this morning (6/18) and had a small blister similar to an ant bite blister. Still very itchy, though I haven't taken any medication today.

All's well...we hope

2008-06-14T11:24:00.002-04:00

Weather has been cloudy every opportunity I've had to open the hives. I'm not too worried about 2008-A as we paid close attention to it a couple weeks ago. 2008-B we only touched on then but it wasn't ready for a new body. My only worry is that they are crowded in there. From the outside, everything looks normal!

Adding second deep body to 2008-A

2008-05-31T11:50:00.001-04:00

Last week when we cracked this hive open the honey super was pretty well drawn out and we found plenty of nectar, honey, larvae and capped brood. I knew they would soon outgrow this super so today we put a deep body between the honey super and the existing deep body. We also placed a queen excluder on top of the new hive body. (new hive body is one I built)

"We" this week was Rick F. and me. Rick's first time opening hives. He's thinking about putting a hive at his place in town. He also did the photography for today.

The above was probably the least filled frame of the honey super. But you can see how wonderfully drawn out the comb is!

In this photo we've finished with 2008-A, on left, and I'm smoking 2008-B. B's top body is just cover for a syrup feeder. Today, I filled the feeder with some syrup I had left over from A and just made sure they're not getting too cramped.

Hive-A Queen search continues...

2008-05-24T14:10:00.002-04:00

I'm not fretting too much as I have seen larvae in the last couple of openings, but I'd like to find a queen since I have seen a swarm cell and they were quite crowded for a couple of days.

This time I've enlisted another pair of eyes in my friend Gregg.

He also gets to play photographer so you can see me in my snazzy new beekeeper coveralls. Speaking of which, for under $35 I got them personalized with my name and the farm name. They are zip-up to about mid-chest where there are two buttons that are mostly under my veil. They have great utility pockets for hive tools and a bee brush. I highly recommend getting a pair from www.automotiveworkwear.com (For the first time I had a bee, actually two, get under my veil. I'm not sure how, but I think a bit of Velcro between those buttons might do the trick.)

Hive-A had a shallow super of new foundation placed on it about two weeks ago. All the frames were drawn out and many were full of nectar. The frame pictured was the least drawn out of the ten. Incredible work.
After sifting through those 10 frames with no queen or larvae it's time to open the large body.

I wanted to start with the frame that has the SHB trap as it was looking like mostly drone comb and if I'm going to put any frame on the ground while I sort through the others I want it to be this one. I really think a frame support on the side of the hive is the way to go.

Looking at the frame you can see some of the cells are slightly bigger than the average cell and you can even see capped drone larvae, indicated by the protruding cappings.

This is a great shot, a girl poking out of her capping... just about to emerge. My smoker had already burned itself out and the hive had been open for so long already that we didn't mess with waiting around.

I was more confident about the hive being queen right as I was seeing more and more larvae that looked a ways from being capped, but I still wanted to find out if I had the original queen. We found her on frame 19B. Finally.

All's well with 2008-A. On Wednesday I'll check 2008-B and see if all the activity last week was pre-swarm or them just being pissy about the lawnmower.

(you can see where the Velcro will go!)

Lawn Mower and hives

2008-05-21T19:46:00.002-04:00

Of course I've read all the stories about having to mow around the apiary with full gear since the bees don't much care for the mower....but I mowed without wearing any.

I was probably 20 feet from the hive and thought it wouldn't bother them. First pass I peeked over and all looked fine. Second time around Hive-B had a bunch of bees flying around the outside and crawling out the bottom.

I don't know if it was because of the mower or if they're running out of space or what. Weather isn't good the next couple of days to check them.

Expanding Hive A

2008-05-17T11:01:00.002-04:00

As I expected, they had completely drawn out the 9 frames and most of the Small Hive Beetle trap frame was drawn out with drone size cells.

Unfortunately, I found a swarm cell on one frame. Only one. I can only guess that if they wait for the swarm cells before swarming that with only one built they haven't swarmed. I cut this cell out and continued looking for her---to no avail.

Went ahead and added a shallow body of new foundation hoping this ceases any swarm ideas and trims down the outside population.

Visual Inspection

2008-05-15T18:45:00.002-04:00

During my daily afternoon check on the hives, I noticed a lot of bees around 2008-A. Flying in, flying out, hanging on the front...everywhere. I can only guess they've pretty much filled the 10 frames and are looking for some more space.

Routine Check

2008-05-11T16:45:00.003-04:00

Opened Hive A and all looks well even though I didn't find the queen. Did find larvae, both capped and not, so if she's gone it hasn't been long. They had finished the last syrup I gave them and had most of their frames drawn out so I pulled the syrup.

Opened Hive B and all still looks great! Probably a full 5 frames drawn out. They had also finished their syrup but I wanted to replace the top feeder with an inverted pail feeder inside a large hive body. I'm thinking this will cut down on my ants and other insects (roaches, unknown beetle) trying to rob from the top feeder. I made the large body that went around the new feeder. My second piece of carpentry on the hives! (first was the shallow body surrounding the top feeder I'm removing.) Hive B has capped brood and is well on its way.

Looking for 2008-B Queen

2008-05-05T10:11:00.011-04:00

Didn't get a chance to open the hive over the weekend so made an adventure of it after work.

First things first, I noticed the queen had gotten out of her cage. After removing her cage I had to remove all the wonderful comb they had built in the wide space between the frames where the cage was hanging.

Not knowing what else to do with it I put it on a table directly in front of their hive hoping they could steal some of the nectar and/or pollen back. (Every time I looked at it over the next week there were bees on it. After the comb starting melting onto the table I pulled it all and froze it.)

Having no other personal comparison than Hive A, it seems this hive has been very productive. The aforementioned comb would constitute an entire frame and there were four other frames that were almost half full of comb---most of it being filled with pollen.

I did find B-Queen and she's already laying!

Everything got sticky after handling all that comb. Hopefully this will be the last time I forgot my rubbing alcohol sprayer as I was too messy to take pictures of the rest of the work.

I opened 2008-A to put a Small Hive Beetle trap frame in place of one of the frames not drawn out yet.

Sugar Syrup

2008-05-02T13:39:00.003-04:00

Noticed on Wednesday that both hives were almost out of sugar syrup. Made a double batch and let it cool until yesterday afternoon, Thursday. 2008-B definitely got most of it as they're still drawing out comb on the foundation, and I dabbled a little into 2008-A. I'll pull theirs when I add the next box--probably a week from tomorrow.

Didn't notice any Small Hive Beetles, but did see a number of ants in both feeders. I've decided that as long as I don't see anymore than a dozen I won't take extreme measures. I guess they've been known to feed on SHB larvae and that's a good thing!

Woodworking

2008-04-30T08:55:00.005-04:00

Being the cheapskate who can't manage to save money...I bought a table saw and router so I can make my own hiveware and save money over buying pre-fab. Now if I make 2,357 hives I will break even compared to buying the hives outright.
My skill level is somewhere between knowing how to plug in the tool and losing a finger. As Z pointed out-- the material is cheap so it's a great way to learn.
I've already made a couple of frame jigs that enable me to glue and staple 10 frames in about 5 minutes. I made a nuc size box that I'm using as a swarm trap outside the apiary. (It even has dovetail joints! ) I also made a super-body for a top feeder.
Last night I started cutting boards to make two full-size deeps for the two hives. 2008-A seems to be on track that I'll need to add a deep in the next couple of weeks. Even though their foundation wasn't drawn out initially, 2008-B may not be far behind since they have the larger colony.

Opening 2008-A, second time

2008-04-26T13:32:00.008-04:00

Ants remain a problem. I need to rethink the top feeders as it seems to give them very easy access.

Opened 2008-A this morning. Saw lots and lots of larvae--in all stages. Couldn't see any eggs and never saw the queen. Most of the capped larvae that was on the frames when I got them was still capped, thus they should be emerging over this week.

They're still building burr comb up between the top feeder. Maybe another reason why I should not use these feeders.

They've also drawn out more comb on the new frames that had comb last inspection but still nothing on the four frames that were untouched. Swapped one of those for a Hood Small Hive Beetle (SHB) trap with apple cider vinegar in the middle and mineral oil on the outsides.

Only saw one beetle and it was around the feeder.

Bees seemed to not react to the smoke as much as before, but were never what I would call aggressive.

About 30 feet in front of the hives are blooming holly trees. The trees are filled with wasps, bees and other pollinators. You can hear them buzzing well before you see them.

Also hung the nuc box/swarm trap today. Used a mixture of beeswax and lemongrass oil smeared on the lid. We'll see...

Another Tragedy?

2008-04-25T13:45:00.004-04:00

This morning I found very large fire ants and very many of them going after the sugar syrup in 2008-A. I've noticed smaller ants since I started, but never this many and never this big. I think the new style feeder seals better, but we'll see.

In what may be the tragedy, I decided to spray some ant killer on the legs of the hive stand. I've never seen bees on the stand and never on the ground without good reason. Plus, I've seen where people recommend dripping Gardstar in front of hives and I know that's not good for the bees too.

We'll see when I get home...

Here we come to save the day

2008-04-24T18:02:00.001-04:00

I got Z all suited up and we fixed the top feeder problem with 2008-B. As expected, the screen was not firmly attached and they were crawling straight in to the sugar water.

We replaced it with the new type feeder I bought yesterday.

I had thought about just leaving the broke feeder in the yard to allow the bees to return to the hive on their own, but since it was covered in sticky goodness and I didn't want a war between the hives I hosed it down and will fix and replace. Probably after I paint the wood that goes around it.

Between the drowning and hosing we lost less than 50 bees.

Z was a champ and I think it all went well.

First tragedy!

2008-04-23T22:21:00.003-04:00

Just peeked in 2008-B's top feeder and there are bees all in the feeder. Drowned, drowning or holding on to the cover...and likely angry.

I don't want to remedy this now and I won't have time before work tomorrow.

Yikes.

2008-B Hiving My First Package

2008-04-23T12:11:00.003-04:00

Road trip to Rossman's in Moultrie, Georgia with Jerry S. and Doug F. We picked up 5 packages, of which Nancy P. and I each got one.

We stopped at Nancy's and helped her hive hers and then Nancy met me at the house to photograph me hiving mine. (I often refer to the bees as "mine", but let it be known that Sweetie is just as much an owner but not as much of an enthusiast...yet.)

We called the in-laws and invited the crew over as Brother-In-Law was in town with family.

All went very well and I think Casely really enjoyed it...and, as you can see, even Abby the pup was interested.

(pictures by Nancy P. and Courtney K.)

Sting Counter: 2
Left forearm. While shaking the bees out of the package one lit on me and didn't care for the shaking. I didn't get the stinger out as fast as the first one and this one hurt and swelled a little more. My own little UCR Study in the making!

2008-A Opening for the first time

2008-04-20T11:59:00.004-04:00

This was the first of what I hope are many hive inspections.

When I hived this nuc, there were 3 drawn frames. Today found that most of one side of 3 others was done. Didn't notice any larvae or eggs so I'm wondering if she's a laying queen yet. There was larvae on at least one of the three frames when I hived them, but I don't know if that necessarily came from her.

Unfortunately, I found 4 hive beetles all the way in the bottom of the hive. Killed 3 and dropped the fourth onto the ground and couldn't find it. I'll probably put out some Gardstar next weekend.

Borrowed Randy B.'s remote for the Nikon and it worked like a champ. I thought the pictures came out great!

Check it out!

2008-04-17T15:15:00.007-04:00

This is the second day they've been bringing in pollen. Very cool to see. Makes me feel like I've accomplished something! (OK, they did all the work)

Day One!

2008-04-12T17:24:00.006-04:00

Picked up a nuc, (short for nucleus, essentially half of a hive that has been split) from Elmore Herman at the Leon County Extension Office. Put it into one of my hives with no problem. A couple of them hit my veil, probably because it was so cloudy. 2 of the 5 frames were fresh foundation. Exciting!

More pictures here.

Sting Counter: 1
Right rear lower neck. While picking up the bees at the Extension office. There were lots of them flying around and one decided to crawl down my collar. Not very painful at all!