Adventures in beekeeping.

 I attempted to join my lonely queen bee and her few attendants with my strong healthy queenless hive using the newspaper method. The bees totally ignored the queen and her supply of helper bees dwindled even more. 

Yesterday things were pretty critical for her so I popped her into a queen cage with four of her friends and placed her in the queenless hive. I then went through the other frames to see which ones to keep in the hive and which ones to take out. Then I noticed it. Uh oh. I small very fresh looking empty queen cell. Oh boy. That means I just threw my good expensive queen in a hive with thousands of bees that are going to try and kill her. 

She was still in her cage and therefore ok so I went through some more frames and saw three frames full of day or two old eggs. Holy cow! What an impressive layer! Then I noticed that a few cells had more than one egg. Not good. That could mean a laying worker. Bad news. A laying worker is a huge problem as she only lays drones and she will totally take over a hive and ultimatly kill it becuase as bees die, they are not being replaced. They are very hard to get rid of because they look JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER BEE in that congested hive. There could also be several laying queens.

I retrieved my queen and rearranged my hive to work as a two queen hive with excluders to keep the queens apart (if there really are two queens). I am hoping I have two queens because with the set up I have with them now, the workers will care for both queens and two layers in a hive will build up numbers very quickly! Here's hoping! 

Pictures of our winter killed hive

Queen cell from different angles. This hive swarmed last summer before we bought it from a neighbor.

There were several frames of beautiful capped honey in this hive. They starve to death while attempting to chew through the caps.

Bee butts. This is a pretty good indication that they starved.

I am pretty sure this was caused by an infestation of varroa mites that we din't catch until it was too late in the year to do anything about it. I lost two hives to varroa this year and have one more struggling. They were eating a few days ago when I checked on them, but they don't seem to have the numbers that the Utah hive does. I hope it makes it.

Another one bites the dust.

It was warm enough yesterday to go out and check the hives for the first time in about two months. Our nuc is doing great, and that is the one we were worried about. They still aren't out of the woods, but they are eating the sugar we put in the hive for them. They don't seem too interested in the pollen patties, but as long as they are eating something they should be ok. The Utah hive is still strong and more aggressive than the others. I bet we will have to split that hive this year to keep them from swarming. They were eating the sugar in their hive too, but were also trying to get into the other hives to see what they could rob. Going to have to watch that situation. Nevada hive #1 is strong and doing well. More gentle than the Utah hive, but I don't think I would want to work them without gloves and veil. Nevada hive #2 is dead :( The bees were laying dead on top of the sugar so I know they didn't starve. I think the mites got them. These were the bees we bought last fall and by the time we noticed the mites, it was too late in the season to do much about it. So now we have two big hives and a nuc that are still doing well. Let's hope it stays that way.

Hubby has been busy

We are expanding the apiary! Going for an even 10 hives this year. The nuc is over wintering well and the hives that were struggling in the fall are still alive so I am optimistic. We also got snow this year so hopefully this means we will actually have plants that bloom for them. Last year was so dry and hot that we had NO honey stores and have been feeding the bees all winter. We are also trying out some new equipment this year so I will let everyone know how that works out for us. We are also switching up the breed of bees we are raising. Until July of last year we only had Italian bees. They had some issues with the climate. They also got very tempermental. Then we ordered our Carniolan/Caucasian queen and put her into a nuc with some nurse bees and brood we took from our strongest hive. Those bees can be worked without gloves and they have not stung any of us. They are thriving this winter even though they were robbed late in the fall and went into winter with low numbers and hardly any honey stores. I am really liking these bees. They are almost solid black so it's easy to spot them in the yard. Lots of changes to come, hopefully one of them will actually involve a honey harvest this fall!

Slowing down the robbers

   Hubby built an anti robbing screen for one of the hives last night. I think this is going to work. The bees come out of the entrance of the hive and into the screen at the bottom where the notch is cut out. They travel up and across to the notch at the top to leave the hive. The robber bees have not orientated to this situation because they have never had to use it to leave the hive. The bees that have left the hive, know to use the notch at the top to come and go. the robbers hang out at the bottom corner of the hive and try to get in.

   On the hive last night.

Robbers trying to get into the hive.

It worked so well, I made one for the nuc today.

Bees can be @$$h0le$

 We have one hive, our Utah hive that we bought as a nuc early this spring, that is robbing all of our hives blind. This is the hive that we brought back from the ranch because our first hive was robbing THEM. Once we brought them home, they build up nice and strong.
   We brought all the hives home for the winter about three weeks ago and everything seemed fine. Then Hubby decided to get them set up for winter and moved all our big hives in a row up against the fence so they would be protected from the wind. Both of our purchased Nevada hives were broodless and that was worrisome. One was totally broodless and had week old brood but nothing younger.
   I did some research and decided to feed them and see if the queen starts laying or if they might be queenless. We mixed up a five gallon bucket of syrup for them and started feeding them with a gallon ziploc bag on top of the frames.
   One bag for some reason made a big mess. Not sure if the holes were too big or the bees just didn't want the syrup. Either way, syrup leaked out the front of the hive and puddled on the ground. Enter robber bees. They went nuts. We put entrance reducers on all of the hives so they could defend better, but there are still a pile of dead bees in front of the other three hives. Not what we wanted going into winter with already weak hives.
   They even started going after the nuc in the front yard today. I rubbed menthol across the entrance and that seemed to help a lot. Going to do that to the other four hives tomorrow and hope it helps.
   Oh yeah, and we still have to deal with the varroa issue. *sigh*

major score

   Hubby and I went to check our hives this evening. Our medium hive, the one we moved back home is really packed with bees and honey. Doing great. Our Nuc in the front yard is also doing very well and will need a new box very soon. The big hive in the canyon....not so much. While not struggling, it is not growing either. It has enough honey stores to get through the winter, but none for harvest.
   On the way home we were discussing where to go from here. How many hives we wanted for next year, where we wanted to get them, ect. We had only been home about a half hour when a beekeeper neighbor called to say he was getting out of the bee business. He wanted to know if I wanted to buy his two established hives and his extractor for $300. We will be picking them up next week :-)

Hive inspection

   I moved my bees out to a farm/ranch nearby in a small valley that is much cooler and greener than my house. My neighbors were actually upset and several have asked us where the bees are. They missed them.
   The weather has been so dry, I was worried about them starving here. Now I am worried about them starving out there as well. My small hive isn't doing well at all. There seem to be a lot more bees than when we got them, but the brood pattern is very spotty and they have absolutely NO pollen or honey stored in the hive at all. I think it might be time to requeen them and bring them home so I can feed them.
   I know there is food available, they are on the edge of three alfalfa/clover fields that are in bloom. The big hive has honey and pollen stored. Not as much as I had hoped, but they still have some. I might not get any honey again this year. *sigh* So far the bees have only been an expense and I am getting frustrated. I am not about to give up on them, I just wish they would start to give back a little.
 This darn heat is really messing with everything this summer. I have not been able to plant much of a garden and much of what I did plant never came up. We are going to be out of town quite a bit this summer and it just wasn't worth replanting.
   Hope everyone else is having a better summer than we are.

Ouch!

   We gave our new bees a couple of days to settle in and then decided we wanted to add a drone frame and go to a nine frame before they started building everything up. But first we had to work the first hive (I really need to name my queens or something. It would be much easier than saying the first hive or the second hive, or the nuc, or the other hive, ect.). We opened it up and they were MAD. 

    We lifted the medium super off and placed it on the ground. The bees had done something weird and when we removed the medium super, it opened dozens of cells exposing larvae that were almost ready to hatch. They were just laying there on top of the frames. 

   We smoked the bees like crazy because they were getting really aggressive at this point. Hubby got stung on the top of the hand. We took a frame of capped brood to give to the new hive and a frame of honey to make sure they would have plenty to eat. I brushed all of the bees off these two frames and walked them over to the new hive. Hubby got stung, once again on the back of the hand. (You see where this post is going, right?) 

   I went back to the big hive and added the drone frame and started spacing the frames out with my spacing tool. Hubby got stung....on the back of the hand. (In case you lost track, that's three stings in the same hand) I replaced the medium super and took one frame out that had comb, but no honey. Hubby got stung on his finger, opposite hand. While he was doing the bee dance and cursing, I spaced the medium frame and put the inner cover on. Hubby reminded me that we needed to add another medium super onto that hive and came to help. He got stung, again on the back of the hand. I yelled at him and told him to get into the house and take care of himself so I could finish up. He headed in cussing the whole way and shaking his hand. I quickly added the new super, put the inner and outer cover on and wandered over to the new hive.

   The new hive is smaller and at this point much gentler. I took out four untouched frames and replaced them with one frame with brood, one frame with honey and a drone frame. I then spaced them for a nine frame and found my queen. I added a medium super, because with all that I had given them, there were only two empty frames. I put on the covers and headed in to take a look at Hubby's hand. Oh dear heavens! He was already swelling.

I put everything I could think of on his hand and nothing stopped the swelling or the pain. By the next day, he looked like this:

We went to the Dr and he was given steroids and benadryl to take the swelling down. By the next day his hand looked like a hand instead of a rubber glove that had been blown up to entertain a child at the Dr's office!

The death of the drones.

It has been getting very cold lately and the workers threw all of the drones out to die. It's kind of sad seeing them all over the ground outside the hive. I haven't seen drones in a long time so I thought maybe they were all gone. I have also had a lot of problems with yellow jackets and have no idea how to solve that one. I could spray them, but then I run the risk of killing the bees. The yellow jackets are EATING my bees. So, it is kind of a lose/lose situation. Here's hoping I can get it all figured out. I have started feeding the bees again as the snow killed off pretty much everything that was blooming.

Bee update

I opened the hive today, and boy those bees were PISSED. I was smoking the bees, I was smoking myself to keep the bees off, I was smoking the air around me hoping to clear them enough that I could see what I was doing. They were quickly running out of room so I stopped smoking long enough to run to the garage and grab another super to add to the hive. I got it all in place and left the girls to explore. (Just realized I have not seen any drones in a long while, weird). Now that the smoke has cleared (pun intended, lol) the hive seems more calm than it has been in weeks. I think the girls are all busy inside making sure everything is ok and checking out the new digs. Hopefully that will settle them down a little and give them something to do besides harass us and the neighbors.

flowers bees like

I was soooo concerned about planting flowers that bees liked this spring. I only got a few reported favorites and figured I could add more next year. I might as well not bother. The bees like the microscopic flowers on trees that I never knew had flowers. They like the tiny blossoms on my Virginia creeper. They like the blossoms on the weeds. They are not interested in my poppies. They are not interested in my columbine. They are not interested in my irises, my lilies, my lupine, my lavender, or anything else that I purposely planted for them. They DO however love the lambs ear that plagues my yard. This invasive flower has taken over every flower bed along with certain parts of my lawn. My bees are ALL OVER IT. They love it and it blossoms forever. Who knew?

Crazy bees.

It is HOT. I am not complaining, we had too long of a winter to complain about the heat once we finally get it. But it is so hot that my bees just hang out on the hive in the evenings enjoying the cool evening temps. My queen comes out onto the porch and her secret service guard bees freak out and get VERY aggressive. The crawl all over her and sting everyone (me) that gets close. She is really causing them some serious stress. I would hate to have their job.

The first time I saw this, I completely freaked out and called my big brother (once again big bro comes to the rescue) to ask if my bees were running away. We finally decided it was simply too hot to stay in the hive once the outside temps cool.

Makes for a cool pic, but the bees are certainly more on edge when Queen Anne is taking risks.

Oh, by the way, Orajel works very well on bee stings : )

Hive progress

My bees are getting feisty! I no more than opened the hive than one of them stung my little picture taker. So no pics of the frames or capped brood this time. I left the inner cover off and took care of the sting. I decided that maybe it was time to fire up the smoker. I got it put together and read the instructions. I got it let and went back outside. I didn't have time to let it really get smoking but it was enough to get done what I needed to do.

There was one frame that had just hatched and been cleaned ready for more brood or honey. There was one frame that was PERFECT! Capped honey at the top, pollen in the middle and capped brood in the bottom. Way to go girls! now if they would just quit messing around with that burr comb and draw out the rest of the frames. I am almost certain I won't have enough honey to harvest this year, I may even have to feed my bees through the winter.

I cut off all of the burr comb and put it in a container so I could take it in the house. I had a friend over who was thinking about getting a hive next year. I took her some of the honey filled comb to try. The first thing out of her mouth (once she had gotten around the sticky honey) was "It's WARM!" I gave her the first taste, I had not ever tried it.

I actually got a look at my queen today too, she was busy going from cell to cell laying eggs. I was pretty excited to see her, I knew she was there because I was finding brood, but I had not ever actually seen her after putting her in the hive for the first time.

I got the hive all cleaned up and put back together and took all of my gear off. I immediatly dug into the comb I had cut off and bit into the richest honey I have ever tasted! It was incredibly sweet. At lease twice as sweet as store bought honey.

There was more than that in the jar, but by the time I got around to taking a picture, I had eaten about half of it! My allergies had been kicking my butt all day, but now my head is clear and I feel pretty good! Local honey rocks!

(You can't tell I am excited, can you?)

Opened my hive yesterday

So I decided to open my hive for the first time yesterday. Here goes nothing.

Taking off the inner cover.

The bees are all hanging out in the middle two frames.

Checking for brood and looking for the queen.

The bees had build comb on top of comb. (After a panicked phone call to my brother I found out this is called bridging and is common and normal.) When I was looking at the frame, this extra chunk of comb crashed to the ground at my feet covered with thousands of bees. I was a bit freaked out.

I picked up the chunks of comb and placed them on top of the hive to allow the bees to wander back into the frames. Of course they didn't and I had to brush them all off the comb before I removed it.

I never did see the queen and couldn't see any brood either. I put everything back together and brought the excess comb into the house. A few hours later, I DID notice some eggs in a few cells of comb. So I DO have a queen and she IS laying. All is well in the hive!
Kind of cool, isn't it?

Whew

Ok so hiving the bees was a LOT easier than I thought it was going to be. They finally showed up this afternoon and I went into a panic. 30,000 bees being talked about in emails and phone calls, is a lot different than 30,000 bees in a box on the kitchen counter. I called my brother who has been a beekeeper for a few years now and he had a few recommendations for me. I got all of my equipment together, called the neighbors who wanted to watch and handed the camcorder to my oldest son. (That video will not be posted, lol) I sprayed my bees with the syrup I made the day before, jarred them down to the bottom of the cage, struggled with the can of syrup that had been shipped with them, finally pulled it out and retrieved the queen cage. The queen was not impressed with me AT ALL. She tried to escape the whole time I was trying to pry the cork out of the top of her little box. I ended up pushing it all the way through and into her cage. Luckily that occupied her while I plugged the hole with half a mini marshmallow. I got the queen cage hung and then jarred the package of bees again to force them all to the bottom of the box. I removed the lid and placed the package in the empty hive body that I had placed on the top of the full hive body. This is not the traditional method but it is the way I was told to do it due to the storm rolling in. I wanted to keep as many bees in the hive as possible, they weren't going to have much time to find their way back in before the storm hit. I put the outer cover on top of it all and viola! I was done. It took less than 10 minutes and no one got stung.

Am I ready for this?

Beehive, painted and assembled....................check

Bee book(s) read and studied.........................check

Equipment purchased and ready to don.......check

Syrup made and ready for use.......................check

Neighbors on standby to watch......................check

Bees....................................................................so far a no show.

So we wait.

Getting geared up for the summer!

Ok so I know I have been pretty absent (ok, totally absent for quite some time, but who's getting technical here?), but there has simply been nothing to blog about for a very long time. But now I have spring fever and I am ready to get ready. What am I doing to get ready, you may ask?
Well, for starters, I have got my garden planned out. Now I just have to wait untill the wnow melts to put that plan into action.
My chickens are getting ready too so I have to get the coop ready for them. This morning I braved the wind and cold in order to clean out the nesting boxes. Much to the annoyance of the hen who was waiting to lay in said boxes. I left all of the hay on the floor because it serves as an insulator and it is still just too cold to take it out yet. So I have one hen laying already and hopefully now that the boxes are cleaned out, the rest will follow suit.
Back to the garden. This year we are planing a new venture that will make my garden produce a thousand times more! Ok, maybe not a THOUSAND times but it will certainly make this year much better. We are going to be beekeepers! Yup, for real. I ordered my bees yesterday and with the next paycheck I am ordering my starter kit which includes my hive. I know this sounds like I am putting the cart before the horse, buying bees before I have a home for them but there is a reason. The bees will not arrive untill May but the hive will be here shortly. I have a neighbor with 20+ fruit trees and tons of flowers. I have a list of flowers that are favorites of bees that I plan on planting this year as well.
I am also working on getting back into the food storage game. Working on toiletries at the moment. A local grocery store has toothpaste and tooth brushes on sale for 98 cents so we got a few to put in the bucket.
I will keep everyone updates on my progress and hopefully this year will be a much more productive year than last year.