Making a Split

Yesterday I had three bee lovin’ friends (Julia, Joy & Harvey) come to help me split Boudicca’s hive. We confirmed that there was at least one capped queen cell (a swarm cell), so a split was needed. It was so hard for me not to stick my hand in to help. We located Boudicca, and put her in a fresh hive box with frames of brood, food and workers. Then we whisked her off to my friends Holly & Harvey’s garden for a “vacation”. The old hive remained with the queen cell(s). Hopefully I’ll get a new queen who successfully mates. It’s all so exciting!

The split simulates a swarm, and hopefully eliminates the urge to do it again. In the wild, the old queen takes off with a portion of the workers and supplies, and resettles elsewhere. This is why Boudicca was removed rather than the queen cells.

The theory behind moving the new split far away is that otherwise the workers may drift back to the old hive, leaving the queen and brood to die of neglect. The minimum distance recommended is two miles, because it is outside the bee’s typical range, so they won’t find their way back to the old hive. The bees reorient to the new location and forget their own home. After about three weeks, they can be moved back to the old bee yard, where they’ll (mostly) stay where they’re supposed to. Hopefully Boudicca’s crew won’t have filled too many more bee boxes by then, because carrying them all together could be a bother!

I have heard of effective ways to move them a shorter distance, but H & H seemed eager to bee-sit. Maybe next time I’ll try it the close-by method, and compare the results.

It is inconvenient to split a hive or have one swarm at this time of year. The big nectar flow is beginning, and a split hive has fewer workers to forage for nectar. This means less honey in August. From what I’ve read, the way I split the hive could salvage the honey crop. The old hive has most of the work force, which is now less interested in swarming, so they can get on with the business of making honey. The nurse bees will also have little to do in the hive after Boudicca’s brood matures and before a new queen begins laying. That means they can also get out and bring in the nectar. However, there will later be that little gap in the workforce because of the egg laying hiatus.

If a new queen fails in the old hive, I can recombine Boudicca & Co. and all should be happy. Strange how easily they can lose the urge to swarm. The nectar flow certainly helps. I suppose everyone is too busy to pack their bags & leave again.

I am fighting a small case of Boudicca separation anxiety. I have grown very attached to my first queen. I hope she’s happy in her holiday villa, and comes home refreshed.

Although I’ve not been laboring during my “medical leave”, I certainly haven’t had a chance to be completely indolent. I spent most of Tuesday on line, reading up on splitting hives and moving on to other subjects again. Yesterday was hive-split day, which included a visit to Julia’s bee yard to help her locate a queen she feared she didn’t have (she did have). Then another friend, Ian, came over with scans of his gorgeous artwork for me to print out. The files were huge, and took ages to resize and print. But I had fun with it, and even printed a few refrigerator magnets for him (and me!). If I can ever stop typing here, I can plug in a movie and be lazy.

Bees at Solstice

Things had been going along rather smoothly in the hives for a while, so I restrained myself from gushing to you all about how fuzzy and buzzy the bees were. The Russians are still lagging a bit in the comb and brood building department, but it sounds like they are still normal. I’d been comparing them to my overachieving Italians, who have four boxes to the Russians’ two.

But now the Italian vigor may present me with a snag. Upon my most recent inspection, I found several “swarm cells”, two of which had queen larvae in them. The bees will prepare to swarm when they think they are getting crowded, or are building fast enough to soon become crowded. So they build some special queen cells, and start breeding a few queens.

According to a beekeeping friend, I may need to split the hive to keep them from swarming. Oh boy, three hives! At this point I have two or three weeks’ grace, because I destroyed the occupied swarm cells. They have probably started some more, and the new queens will emerge 21 days later. I’ll have to split the hive before that, so that I don’t lose Boudicca in a swarm. At least I have some friends who will take her and her entourage for a few weeks. A split hive needs to be separated for a while so that the splitees don’t return to the old hive.

I might also be able to avoid a swarm by letting Boudicca continue laying eggs in the topmost box. Right now I have a screen, called a queen excluder, between boxes 3 and 4. Box 4 was supposed to be for honey (for me), but I might have to wait until box 5. I’m waiting for an answer from my friend on that question.

With all the reports in my local bee group of swarming, I suppose it’s natural that I would also have one. I suppose it’s a sign of a hive’s success. The sign of a beekeeper’s success might be to recognize the swarm plans and take preemptive action. Wish me luck!

Bees Week 5 (and 4)

The bees are plugging along just fine. Boudicca & Co. (the Italian originals) are outpacing Ekaterina’s Slavic team in terms of population & built-up frames. The Russians are still working on 1 ½ boxes, and the Italians are filling 2 ½ boxes. Today after inspecting both, I transferred a frame of Italian brood into the Russian hive, to boost the population a bit.

Boudicca is marked with a red dot, which helps a newbie like me find her. I’m getting used to what she looks like, when compared to the workers. Ekaterina is not marked, and I haven’t seen her for a couple of weeks. But there are lots of eggs, so she must be in there doing her job.

I also added a honey super to the Italian hive. After I know the bees are working in the super, I’ll install a Queen Excluder to keep the queen down in the brood boxes (aka hive body). The queen excluder is a grill that’s too small for the queen to get through, but big enough for the workers. Thus, after a few weeks, there will be no brood, and the space will be used for honey storage. The honey in the supers will be for harvest, and anything below will be for the bees’ use through the winter. It’s too soon to be counting my honey jars, though. There are a few months yet for that.

They’re only about 80% built up and filled, but the lower brood boxes are getting heavy! I’m glad I didn’t go with the large, traditional size for brood boxes. The medium boxes like I have can weigh 60 to 70 pounds when full, and the large boxes 90 pounds.

The bees have been coming to Karin’s container bog gardens for water. These are near the back door, so we get to say hello to the bees just about every time we walk by. They really like two cobalt blue bowls, which show off their golden color quite effectively.

Last week our friend Lex came to visit. She donned veil and gloves (no suit for either of us), and helped me inspect. She spotted a bee dance, which is pretty nifty to watch. Unfortunately the movie we took of it didn’t come out. We saw some blood red pollen coming in, and are curious as to what plant that came from (eucalyptus?). After we were done, Lex said that she had started out being nervous about the bees, but was inspired by my relaxed attitude. I feel like such a role model : )

I’m reading The Secret Life of Bees, a novel by Sue Monk Kidd. I’m no good at writing capsule reviews, but I’ll say it’s a good book about self-discovery and becoming one with the honeybees. I’m not done yet, and I already want to reread it.