Woodcarving, Beekeeping, and Country Life » Beekeeping

Bee swarm – 05/05/09

John — Wed, 06 May 2009 01:13:19 +0000

Got home today and had to work with the bees. I had not been able to check them for a week. My new hive needed fed and my old hive needed sugar dusted. Mandi decided to pull up a chair so we could chat while I was working. Right after I got started she noticed a very large swarm about 12 feet up in the air. My first ever swarm!

I thought I would have one soon and was preparing a place but it wasn’t ready yet. I quickly pulled out my old Black and Decker Workmate and put one of my old hives from last year on it. I grabbed a frame of wax with some nectar from another hive and put in a feeder. During this time Mandi had called my dad and he came over to lend a hand. He used to have nine hives and had captured several swarms before.

The swarm was on about four different branches. It appeared to be around four pounds of bees. If it had been lower it wouldn’t have been too bad but the spot wasn’t very level and I don’t like ladders. My dad thought I should shake them into a box but I want to try and cut them down. The cutting went ok at first but I found out pretty quickly that what I thought was a slight movement could dislodge a few thousand bees. By the time I was done with the cutting I had half of them in the hive and the other half was forming another ball a little bit further out of reach.

I decided to get a box and then shook the remaining bees into it. I then dumped these bees into the hive with the rest of the bees. I couldn’t guarantee that I had gotten the queen but felt pretty good that I had. I noticed about 1000 bees making a new ball in the tree and that had me worried. About that time I noticed a very small ball of bees forming on the outside of the hive. I gently ran my finger under the ball and the queen walked right out of it onto my hand! I couldn’t believe it. That was a real blessing. I put my hand down into the hive and she walked off of my finger into the bees.

I put the top on the bees and noticed that the small ball in the tree was gone. There were about 50 bees on the front porch of the hive with their abdomens in the air and flapping their wings. I assume they are putting out the chemicals to let the remaining bees know where to come to. About two hours later I went out and several bees were doing orientation flights.

This was not only a lot of fun but was also a great learning experience for me. Here’s a link to the Youtube video.

Inspection – 04/25/09

John — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 23:55:39 +0000

Not really an inspection today as much as a feeding and a quick glance. My strong hive is a survivor from last year. They are doing very well. I didn’t treat them for mites very well last year because of lack of experience and they still came through very well. These are Russians crosses I got from fatbeeman last year as a nucleus hive. Lots of bees started hanging out on front today. Not sure if they are just hot (85 today) or if they are just starting to think about swarming. Guess I’ll know soon.

My other hive is from a two pound package I put in on 4/19/09. The queen was released on 04/21/09. They have already built out almost two frames of wax to go with the two I gave them. My modified feeder is working well. I’ll have to get some pictures up soon.

Inspection – 01/04/09

John — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:25:35 +0000

Learned a hard lesson today. I came across a solid food recipe for wintering bees and decided to use it in my hives. Everything looked like it should go pretty well but it definitely did not. The recipe I was using called for using 1 cup of corn syrup to 7.5 cups of powdered sugar. Mix it together into a thick clay-like substance. No cooking so it was very easy. Fit into some screen, hang from a top bar and I was ready to go.

It was 61 degrees today so I decided to do an inspection. I’m glad I did. You can see from the photo what I found. It was not pretty. Hundreds of dead bees, ants running everywhere. I was afraid the hive had been seriously set back. I worked my way to the front and found the brood chamber was in good shape with lots of bees. That was a huge relief.

I had two hives this year and one died out. I took their hive, scraped it down, and moved this hive to it. While I was at it I put powdered sugar all over them. Once all that was done I put the new hive back in their spot so the foragers would find home. I then took the old hive and scraped out all the sugar goop and sprayed it out with water until it was good and clean. That hive is now drying in the shed.

Was a pretty disappointing day overall because I’ve worked really hard this year on my bees. I’ve made a lot of mistakes as well. Hard work doesn’t always overcome mistakes but so far so good. This hive seems to be really strong. I didn’t treat them well for mites but they’ve held up well. I’m going to have to keep an eye on them for food since this solid food is gone but they didn’t have some honey. I also put in some dry sugar for the time being.

Beekeeping – Melting and Filtering Wax

John — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:09:33 +0000

Made my first attempt today at melting and filtering raw beeswax. This beeswax was a mixture of old and new beeswax. It also contained some larva, bees, pollen, and other ‘junk’. I decided to use a double-boiler method and then filter through cheesecloth.

Here you can see the beeswax before it was melted. I crushed some of it to the bottom and left some of it in bigger chunks. I wanted to see how long it would take to melt the beeswax and figured this was a good test. The bowl is hard plastic. I set it in a pot of water. To keep the plastic from touching the pot and possibly melting I put two canning rings in the bottom of the pot and set the plastic bowl on top of these. After the water began to boil the beeswax did not begin melting for a long time. I put a large lid over the top of the beeswax to hold the heat in. This sped up the process a good bit even though it was not as fast as I would have thought.

Once the beeswax began to melt I checked it from time to time and stirred the unmelted beeswax on top into the melted beeswax in the bottom. This really helped the process as the heat just wasn’t enough to melt beeswax that was too far from where the bowl contacted the water.

Once the beeswax was melted it was time to pour. I had a cheap plastic container with doubled cheesecloth across the top. The cheesecloth was fastened with a rubber band. I’ve heard that it’s important to pour all your beeswax at once to keep it from cooling in the cheesecloth and thus clogging it. I did this and it seemed to work well. My only issue was that there was so much trash in with the beeswax that I’m afraid it kept some beeswax from getting through. It would be better to find someway to get the major trash out first.

Once the pouring was done I let the beeswax cool. It solidified pretty quickly but it does take a long time for it to really harden. The beeswax looks good after this one pouring but I can tell there is pollen and some other small solids in it. We are most likely going to make a candle out of it this round so this isn’t a major concern.

Since I use top bar hives I should have a good bit of wax and am really interesting in making beeswax candles, lip balm, and other items. Overall I’m pretty pleased with this first go around.

Beekeeping – Stop laying in certain frames

John — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 03:05:14 +0000

I started my TBHs with 5-frame nucs. I wanted to get off to a strong start and thought this might be the best way. Over time I decided that I did not want the frames in the TBH. They did not work well with the overall philosophy I have. Since the frames were part of the brood chamber I needed to figure out a way to stop the queen from laying in them and start laying in a new area.

The first thing I did was enlist the help of my online beekeeping friends. If you’ve never taken advantage of online forums you are missing out on a great opportunity to get some expert help. The best forum I have found for TBHs is at www.biobees.com. The focus is entirely on top bar hives.

I asked my question and got back a great answer. You can see the thread here – http://www.biobees.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1581&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight= .

The advice that came back was to turn the frames upside down. Bees build their comb with the cells pointing upwards at a slight angle. If I turned the frames upside down the queen would detect the ‘wrongness’ of the situation and wouldn’t lay there. The nurse bees would continue to take care of the other hatching bees but with no eggs being layed it wouldn’t be too long before the bees established a new brood chamber and I could take the frames out.

The pictures show a frame with brood and then me putting the frames in the back upside down. I kept them close enough together so the nurse bees could maintain good coverage. Once the bees abandoned these frames I cut the wax out and tied it to some top bars. Once the bees attached the wax to the top bars I cut the string and removed it.

I was able to get advice to use a method I would have never guessed on my own. If you are interested in TBHs be sure to drop by the biobees site and drop everyone a line.

Beekeeping – See the queen!

John — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 03:13:45 +0000

Was doing an hive inspection and a friend was taking some pictures. Got very lucky and noticed he got a really good shot of the queen. Look in the lower right-hand corner on the wooden frame and you’ll see her!

Beekeeping – Inspection 05/24/08

John — Sat, 24 May 2008 18:17:31 +0000

Had several things on my mind for this inspection. My dad assisted again. It’s nice to have an added pair of hands and thoughts.

How was hive N1 responding to the added brood?

Seems that the N1 bees were doing well. They are flying really well and the frame of brood I put in is 3/4 full of brood. The hive is full of uncapped nectar. I mean really full. They do seem to have a place to lay now.

What was the status of the two queen cells in N1?

The queen cells in N1 were both empty. One had the capping chewed away and the other had a flap like something had chewed around the outside of the capping and opened it up like a door. My assumption is that the one with the flap was the loser and she was cut out by the bees. From seeing this we assume that we were queenless in this hive like we feared but now one on her throne. We looked but did not find her. The bees are working away and seem happy so we take this to mean they are not queenless.

Was N1 taking any sugar syrup?

N1 had eaten all of her syrup this week (just 1.5 pints). I made up more and put 3 pints in this time. Also added 3 pints to A1. I want them building comb and figure this is the best way to keep them going.

How were both A1 and N1 doing with comb building?

A1 has built out two complete bars in 17 days. N1 has built out 1 complete bar. N1 still has nuc frames to build out as well. Overall these bees seem to be poor comb builders. Is that typical of Russians?

How can I stop bees from coming out the side of the frames and out a crack under the top?

Purchased some black fiberglass screen from Wal-mart, layed it over the top of the bars and frames. When the top is put on this makes a barrier so the bees cannot get out under the top from inbetween the frames. Was the easiest solution I could come up with.

Dad saw something that looked like a little roach and knocked it onto the ground. I never saw it. Was hoping it wasn’t a small hive beetle. Looked for others/damage. Saw none.

Beekeeping – Inspection 05/17/08

John — Sat, 17 May 2008 23:45:58 +0000

Had a pretty interesting inspection this morning. Bees were great except for one angry one. It buzzed my head, circled the girls, chased the wife, and then stung my father-in-law on the lip. Can it get better?

Hive N1 (Naomi) is still pretty far behind Hive A1 (Abi). Found a wax moth larva on a top bar but not in the hive. Inspected the hive for damage but found no other larva or damage. The following pictures should give you an idea of where they are. Also, notice my coverings for the bee frames from the nuc. This keeps the bees in and keeps the feel of a TBH.

I would like to see more activity inside this hive but think they will be ok. There are lots of bees flying. They aren’t bringing back as much pollen per bee, hardly any pollen. But they are doing something. They won’t take sugar syrup so they must be hitting the poplars. Also, some brown streaks on the front of the hive so I suspect Nosema.

Hive A1 is doing great. They have built out a whole bar and have two to three times as many bees flying as N1. They are bringing in tons of pollen today. Some bright yellow-orange but most of it was gray. Never seen gray pollen before. Also, they’ve started on a pure honey frame so that’s nice. Here’s a couple of pics:

All in all the bees are doing ok. I’m hopeful that N1 will pull through and start expanding.

Beekeeping – Quick Inspection 05/13/08

John — Tue, 13 May 2008 21:16:12 +0000

Got 5 frame nucs. Bees first full day was Wednesday. Put in feeders on Saturday and added 4 tops bars. Added 2 in the brood area on the ends and 2 in the honey area. Inspected today. Several bees were concentrating on the popsicle sticks in the honey area. I assume they are ready to build wax. Pulled a bar in the brood area and it was close to built out! I removed the feeders as they had been totally ignored.

I can’t believe how fast they can build. They had some building left to do in the original frames and they got this done as well. Tulip Poplars are almost full bloom and blackberries are full bloom. Mountain laurel almost open and sourwood coming next month! Already saw about 1/4 frame of honey. Dark like tulip poplar. If you can’t tell I’m very excited.

My dad thinks these TBHs are great. He was amazed at how they are doing. Even my weaker hive is flying like gangbusters. What a difference 3 days makes.

Beekeeping – First Inspection

John — Sun, 11 May 2008 00:58:47 +0000

Did my first inspection today. Dad came over and helped out. He had nine hives years ago and is used to being around bees so that was nice. This was my first time ever opening a hive and I really enjoyed it. Decided to go without gloves as we fully expected the bees to be occupied with a nice flow and I want to get used to going without gloves. The bees were super gentle (thanks fatbeeman!) and there must be a good flow on as we had no stings and very little interest. I just got these bees on Wednesday, May 7th, so I decided not to pull all the frames and do a full inspection. My goal was to add some top bars and just get an overall feel for how the bees are doing.

The first hive we opened was doing well. When we smoked the entrance the bees started making a huge noise. No bees came out but they just got really loud. There were nurse bees covering the middle frames and some had their heads buried feeding larva. I didn’t pull the frames out to see larva but I strongly suspect this was what they were doing. They also had some honey capped in the outer frames. Not much, but there was a lot of nectar. Overall they looked good.

The second hive was doing great. When we smoked the entrance there was no noise. They made the first hive look bad. I would say hive 1 had 1/2 to 2/3 the bees of hive 2. There were plenty of bees covering the brood and they were capping honey as well.

I added four top bars to each hive and a frame feeder. Wanted the frame feeder to help the bees if they needed it. I spaced the bars between frames, the feeder, and the follower board so they would have some type of guide to go by. Hopefully anyway.