Another Play Day With the Bees

Sofia, my new Russian-Carniolan queen, is doing quite well. In this photo, her attendants are surrounding her in classic style. She is extremely vigorous compared to the older queens. I'm going to order a couple of replacement queens, and keep one of the older girls in a smaller hive for emergencies.

The queen cells that were in the Boudicca/Isolde combined hive were all open. Last week, one of the baby queens was piping from her cell, preparing to emerge and duke it out with any rivals. Today I didn't see any royalty or eggs, so am not sure if any of the new girls are still around. The bees seem contented, though. I added another frame of brood to keep them going. One of the planned new queens may go into this hive.


Because of all the dividing and combining of hives a couple of weeks ago, they have all become little Bee UNs, with Russian-Carniolans living in peace with Italians.


My Wilbur Widangy method for reinforcing some drone comb.


This is the burr comb which I found hanging from a lid a few weeks ago. It doesn't look any different from April 17, except that the brood is growing up (the bees are covering it). The bees had taken it upon themselves to make some drone comb. Today I opened some capped cells, and was pleased to find that the mite infestation has dramatically declined. Mite drop on the sliding board is also down to no more than a few dozen, compared to hundreds. I like to think it is due to my homemade essential oil mix. It's worth continuing and collecting more data.


Have you ever wondered where honey mustard dressing came from?

RIP Isolde

It doesn't look like Isolde and her girls were just kidding around last week. No eggs, and a bunch of unsealed queen cells. Also, it looks like Boudicca is declining. Her brood nest is small, and there are several capped queen cells. With both hives, I am going to see what happens with the home-grown queens. I might reduce them to nuc size and combine the rest of the hives with some of the others.

On the bright side, my experiment of attaching the burr comb to an empty frame worked (below). The cells look like drones, which is what this frame was supposed to be for. Cool!

Bee Melodramas

Ah, me. With spring invigorating my bees, I saw that Isolde, the home-grown queen, wasn't such a dud after all. I thought that perhaps I should cancel my order of a replacement queen. But I figured that an extra queen could be handy, especially if I had to make a divide.

At the end of March, I went away for a week (the Chiricahua Mountains blog may or may not be posted when you read this), thinking that all my girls were doing pretty well. Upon my return, however, I found that two had suffered large losses from the mites. In particular, in Boudicca's hive I found virtually no brood - no eggs, no larvae and just a smattering of pupae that looked dead. I couldn't find the queen, either. I was pushed for time, so couldn't stage a queen-hunt. Oh well, there's a new queen coming, I thought.

Then I went back last Wednesday to bring her hive home and prepare it for a new queen. Who do you think I saw but Queen B herself. The hive still looks devastated, but I did see a few larvae that were eggs before - they had been hiding. So her poor performance could have been due to a lack of nurse bees. I combined her with a box of brood and bees from the strong *knock wood* Ekaterina, and hope to find a happier hive soon.

Yesterday the new queen arrived - another Russian-Carniolan. The weather was awful, so Sofia and her ladies-in-waiting stayed in the house overnight. Today was lovely, thank the gods, so I set her up in a hive with more bees and brood from Ekaterina. Cross fingers, toes and eyes.

And then back to Isolde...

I found a bit of wild comb hanging from the lid when I opened it (sorry, no piccie of that). There were eggs, so I thought I'd try a salvage method I had read about. This would be handy if I ever collect a wild hive. Anyway, this hive is booming - brood nest extends through 3 1/2 medium boxes, six frames at its widest. Happy, happy, my spirits were lifting.

Then I got to the bottom box, and took out a frame.

There on the bottom screen was a ball of bees. The big beeks have told kids like me that there is usually a queen in the middle of a ball, being protected by workers if she should find herself out in the wide world. I thought it was rather strange that they were balled up inside the hive, and I wondered if they were attacking an intruder. I eased the ball out and onto another screen and gently nudged bees away. I saw a queenly abdomen. I also saw what looked like bees trying to sting her. Then I saw that she was dead, and they were trying to sting her even deader. A bee coup? WTF???

You'd think her name was Julia Caesar. But just in case the workers were only roughhousing, and she was only pretending to be dead, I left her inside the hive and finished my work. Next week I'll see what I can see - Eggs? An emergency queen cell?

It seems that Sofia came in the nick of time.

Early Spring Update

As I mentioned in yesterday's Bloom Day blog, we've been getting some wet and cold weather. Being unable to play in the garden, and uninspired to paint, I've finally decided that this would be a prime time to report on the bees.

Back in August, I was fussing about new queens. The one home-grown queen from the original hive had been replaced in a coup by one of the Minnesota Hygenics. Considering that Minnesota has a lot of Scandanavian blood, she wound up being named Freyja. To date, she's doing pretty well.

My swarm queen Isolde appeared to do well, so she remained on her throne. The second Minnesota queen found a home with another beek. Unfortunately, it appears that Isolde didn't mate all that well, and her colony is the weakest. It's not pitiful, but her hive's population is about 60 or 70% of the other three. Unless her numbers improve this spring, I think that another coup is in order when queens are again available.


For three weeks in the fall, I was off in New Zealand, missing some prime varroa mite control time. When I returned and inspected hives, I found that mite populations were building. I dusted with powdered sugar for many weeks, and seemed to get the mites under control. But after giving the bees (and mites) another break of a few weeks, I found that the mites were still going strong. Since mid-January, the weather has not been very good for opening hives, and I am nervous for my girls. There have been many dead brood on the landing boards, probably killed by mites feeding off them.

Even with their mite woes, I see a lot of bees flying about whenever there is a break in the weather. Often they are out when I think that they'd be snuggled up in the hive. There are a lot of plump pollen baskets coming in. On my most recent inspections, I saw a fair bit of new nectar in storage. So there's still hope for my girls.

Settling into Winter

After returning from New Zealand, I found that the Varroa population in the hives had exploded. suddenly there were 80 to 400 mites on each board. I instituted a weekly powdered sugar treatment. After 4 weeks, the population had decreased, but not sufficiently. On the eighth week, I counted mites from one hive, and happily found a decline to "safe" levels. This week I plan to dust again, and count for all the hives. If all is well, I can back off to monthly monitoring.

I had heard that the bees can get rather defensive after the "honey flow" - the time in summer when they are bringing in lots of nectar. They have to watch out for robbers, usually bees from other hives and wasps. I hadn't noticed my bees being very defensive until one day... Fortunately it was only one hive, but I got stung three times during one inspection & dusting. I'm sure I wasn't being clumsy, and this was verified when one landed on my hand and immediately stung me. Fortunately the effect of bee venom is decreasing, so I only had a bit of swelling and fever at one sting site. Since then (knock wood), all the bees have been pretty mellow (like the one in the photo).

After reading more about a new and nasty bacterium, Nosema ceranae, I broke down and bought some antibiotic with which to treat my bees. I want to be chemical-free, but this new type of Nosema may be a major player in colony collapse disorder. Perhaps next year I'll treat some and leave the others, but I didn't want my first year to run such a big risk of heavy loss. A big bother with the treatment is that it is delivered in sugar syrup. That's good for the bees' food storage, but greatly increased the amount of moisture in the hives. Mildew and mold were beginning to grow, despite my efforts at providing ventillation.

The queens are still laying eggs, though in winter the brood size decreases. In colder winter areas, bees will often have no brood at this time. Although the bees are still foraging on flowers that are still blooming, they must not be getting the amount of nectar that they were during the blackberry bloom of summer. I do see a goodly amount of pollen coming in. Three hives have nearly cleared out the bottom box of honey. The antibiotic syrup helped bolster their supplies, though. Perhaps the powdered sugar has helped, too.

I should get an observation hive. I am so fascinated by what the bees are doing, but don't need to inspect them all the time. I just can't think of a good place where I can make a hole for them to access the outside world. Maybe it's time for that painting studio above the garage...

Settling into Autumn

Things have gotten quiet in the beeyard, at least from my point of view. All my queens are doing well, and the workers are happily visiting flowers in the garden. I didn't harvest any honey this year, but between the four hives there's enough to stock them all with the requisite amount to overwinter without needing to feed them sugar syrup. If the Italians hadn't been so eager to expand, I probably would have gotten a good little harvest. The Russians really did well in their quiet, unassuming way. Preparing for a Siberian winter, I suppose.

Honeyless, I still went to the local beekeeper's honey extracting party a couple of weeks ago. I pitched in, and got to sample bits of honey for my troubles. It was good to see the process in action, and learn what sorts of extra things I might want to have for next year's harvest. There was lots of socializing, which was another bonus. There are a lot of good folks I've been getting to know.

This last week I gave all the hives a powdered sugar dusting. This is an organic method to monitor and treat for a mite called Varroa. The sugar gets all over the bees, so they start grooming each other. During the process, they knock off mites that are riding on them. The sugar itself probably also dislodges the mites. The mites fall through the bottom screen, onto a sliding board underneath. After about an hour, I check the boards for mites. Two hives were clean, and the other two only had 10 & 25 mites on the boards. This suggests that there are about 100 and 250 mites developing in capped brood cells. That's not too bad, but I'd prefer to have none. When I get back from New Zealand, I can monitor again, and perhaps start an 8-week treatment.

Autumn weather has come to coastal Humboldt. We're finally getting some sunshiny days that start out crisp and become warm. It's really boosted my spirits after having a relatively overcast summer.

Phew!

A week after Garrett helped inspect my hives, and we saw eggs in my original hive, I looked in again. The queen was nowhere to be seen, but they can be pretty elusive. But then I found no eggs, and only very mature larvae and capped pupae. That means the queen is probably AWOL or dead. To make matters more definite, the vast majority of the capped brood was drones. That means she didn’t mate well, and is thus a dud. Make that a missing dud.

No worries, I thought. I have two brand-new bought queens with which to requeen. Unfortunately neither of them were laying, and I couldn’t see them. How can one miss a marked queen in a nucleus hive with only 8 frames? I wondered. Oh dear, did I release them from their protective cages too soon, and the bees in the nucs assassinate them? I’ll bet my swarm queen is a dud, too Now I’ll have to recombine all these hives back into two, and be out $45 for the queens. I’m kind of getting used to the insomnia.

I got reassurances from some other beeks, and got a little sleep.

After about a week, I reinspected the nucs. After all that fussing and worrying about my new queens, they seem to be fine. I found eggs and larvae in both nucs, and saw the queen in one. On Saturday night I combined one of these with my original hive, the source of all this melodrama. In about a week I’ll look in and see how they’re getting along.

My swarm queen is also laying. In about a week I can check on her too, and see if she’s “right”. I’ll need to see mostly worker brood rather than drone brood. If she is right, then I need to find a home for my other bought queen. …Or just keep her, and wait to see if Karin notices ; )

Yesterday and today I tended the beekeeper’s booth at the county fair. Yesterday was rather busy, with lots of people asking about Colony Collapse Disorder, how to get started in beekeeping, and who can they get to remove a feral hive from a wall or a desk (!). It was really tempting to collect that desk hive, and hope Karin didn’t notice. She’s probably lost count, and would figure that it had always been there - don’t you think?

Maybe I should be looking into Bees Anonymous.

Bee Insomnia

The bees have certainly been keeping me on my toes. After making the “queen cell” split and having a swarm, things got confusing and stressful. Many wee-hour wakings, thinking of what I should have done with this, that and the other thing. I had worries that there were no queens, or at least no well-mated queens in the three new hives. So I did some bee juggling to keep them contented, and eventually recombined two hives into one. I envisioned recombining the potentially queenless or dud queen hives with Boudicca’s and Ekaterina’s, and winding up with bee high rises that would require aviation warning lights.

This last weekend I gave up on the home-grown queens, and ordered a couple of new ones for the two “queenless” hives. On Monday I did an inspection with the fellow from whom I bought the Russians. Sure enough, Garrett found the “swarm queen” all plump & ready to lay eggs. Then we found eggs and larvae in the other hive (Boudicca’s original residence, from which all this fun started). Garrett says that sometimes queens can take longer to mate & lay eggs than the textbooks say. Another example of how bees never read the manual

Garrett recommended hanging onto the new bought queens until I can evaluate how well the home-grown girls will do. If they do well, I have two takers for the spare queens. So I scrambled to finish setting up a couple of “nucleus” hives, which are half the size of a regular deep hive box. They are used for a variety of uses, including temporary housing for new queens. I had to set up the “nucs” with frames of brood, food and bees from other hives. Fortunately Boudicca & Ekaterina’s hives are doing well, and had supplies to spare.

Karin had a small fit when she thought there would be five hives in the garden, and didn’t give me a chance to finish telling about my plans. Just because I’m mean, I haven’t completed the whole story. But she seems to have accepted the possibility that bees are taking over the world, and hasn’t stamped her not-so-little feet any more.

The new queens arrived last night, and I installed them in their little cottages. For a few days they’ll remain in their “queen cages” so the workers can get used to each queen and accept her as their fearless leader. On Saturday I’ll probably release them. Hopefully I’ll remember to get a photo of them in the queen cage before then. It’s so hard to remember to take photos when one is elbow-deep in bees.

I’ve been getting stung a bit lately – always some dumb little thing that puts the squeeze on a poor little bee. I suppose it depends on where I get stung, because legs and arms puff up something awful, and hands do so just a bit. I’m waiting for the immunity to kick in. …Any day now… In the meantime, I’ve been researching bee sting cures, and plan to try some with the next stings. Karin stepped on one last night, and I ran for the toothpaste (cure No. 1). This morning she said it was a bit sore, but not too bad. Hmmm. Next will be clay and lavender oil. After that, tobacco paste. So far my luck with plantain has been mixed.

During all this bee juggling, I removed a frame which had one side filled with honey. I figured we could have a sample, so cut off the cappings and turned the frame on one side over a baking dish. Honey doesn’t easily drip out of the opened comb. After a few days and getting only a small puddle, I dug out comb and honey together. After about five minutes in the microwave on the defrost setting, the wax had melted and separated from the honey. From one side of a frame, I got a half-pint jar of honey. Yummy stuff.

During the inspection with Garrett, we found some frames loaded with “bee bread”. This is pollen mixed with honey. The bees store it for food later on. Garrett dug out a couple of chunks, and we had a snack. It tasted rather like dried apricots and raspberries – more yumminess. Much better than pollen balls off the bottom board.

Swarm!

The fun never stops around here. At least I didn’t get stung today (yet).

I was a bit drowsy from antihistamines this morning, so didn’t feel up to an excursion with Karin & Kate. Perking up a little later, I figured I needed to work on wooden ware for the bees. It took a little while for the loud humming to attract my attention, but finally I looked out to see what the bees were up to. A cloud of swarming bees is impressive. I guess none of the neighbors noticed, because I heard no panicked shrieks.

After running in several directions at once, I pulled together my brain cells and developed a plan of action. I had heard that vanilla has chemicals that are the same as some that bees use in their homing pheromones, so I drenched some cotton pads with vanilla extract and waved them upwind. I have no idea if that got their attention, but they soon settled on a branch of our apple tree. I quickly made some sugar syrup and got my gear together.

Not knowing that the bees were likely to hang on the tree for a while, I was in haste, and didn't take any photos until after the action was over. Too bad. The big cloud of bees was impressive, and the hanging cluster was pretty nifty.

I climbed the ladder, sprayed the bees with syrup (it distracts them) and cut off the branches from which they were hanging. I shook them into a hive box (my last one!), sprayed them with more syrup, put a vanilla pad on the landing board, and watched them call their sisters to their new home. Almost immediately they had their butts in the air, fanning homing pheromones. They’re so cute. Bees remaining on the branches that I cut off marched into the hive, and the few still in the tree soon came down. Within a half hour they were pretty much settled.










Tonight after they tuck themselves into bed, I’ll move the hive to a more permanent spot. Right now they’re under the apple tree. I’ll probably take a box of honey from the hive they left, so they have more food. I don’t have any more hive boxes with which to house a feeder jar.








Next day: new location

This is probably “Elizabeth” and her courtiers who swarmed. I’m not sure yet if they swarmed because they decided to before I removed the other queen cells, or if I missed some. I’m waiting for an answer from my local beek group. I’ll probably be combining hives soon, because it’s doubtful that all three involved in this affair have viable queens. Gotta start coming up with some more queenly names. Maybe I’ll branch out into mother goddess names, too. Inanna, Durga & Isis have possibilities. But I hate to name my queens before they lay.

The Queen Pipes

Since splitting Boudicca’s hive a couple of weeks ago, I have been waiting for the queen cells in the original hive to hatch. On Thursday, I inspected the hive. As expected, there are only a few remaining capped worker and drone cells from Boudicca’s egg laying. I saw one drone emerging from his cell, which is a first for me, and so a bit special. Down in one box I heard a queen piping, so I knew that at least one had hatched out. The piping sounds like a tiny kazoo. She does this to locate rival queens and challenge them to a showdown. The rival will respond with a slightly different sound (more like a quack), even from within her cell. Here’s a link to a video with some queen piping, and the response: http://www.zunibee.com/community/viewVideo.php?fileID=49

I should have removed the frame holding the remaining queen cells, and started another hive, but I didn’t think about that until yesterday. That would have helped my chances of getting a mated queen from this batch. Live and learn. It’s probably too late by today, because they all should have hatched out by Friday or Saturday. But who knows? Perhaps I might find two young queens wandering about, and I can separate them. Unfortunately, my queen-spotting skills are poor. Even though I heard the one piping, I couldn’t find her when I inspected the frames. They’re quick little blighters.

As usual, the workers had built a bit of burr comb between frames. Now that the nectar flow is going strong, these bits of errant comb were full of near-honey. What a treat to have a taste of fresh honey still warm from the hive! When I inspected Boudicca’s summer home at Holly & Harvey’s, her hosts got to join me in this treat. Having honey on one’s hands does make it a bit difficult to work, because the bees crowd in to suck it all up. At left: burr comb with a queen cup.

I found that I prefer working in the hive without gloves. The gloves are a bit clumsy, and I can’t feel the bees. With bare hands, I can feel them buzz in mild irritation if I start to squash them, so I can let up. They don’t mind when I nudge them out of the way, and it tickles pleasantly to have them crawl on my hands.

On Saturday morning there was a small informal gathering of beeks who keep bees in the Bayside area. Although I am five or six miles away in Myrtletown, they let me join them. It is so nice to meet more beeks, and to build relationships. After gathering and talking bees for a while at Hank’s wonderful coffee house in Bayside, we wandered over to Garrett’s bee yard to see what was going on with a couple of his hives. Garrett had sold me Ekaterina, my Russian czarina, and is quite knowledgeable about things apian.

Although Garrett was thorough with smoking the bees, some were upset with a jostling, and I got stung on the hand. This joined a sting from Thursday, when a bee crawled under my shorts leg. Having become rather cavalier about the danger from stings, I had not strapped down sleeves or legs. Fortunately I had taken an antihistamine against this swollen & painful Thursday sting, and so far my hand is only a bit sore. Hopefully any future stings will be less severe.

Later…
Well what do you know? There were still sealed queen cells in Boudicca’s old hive. One looked like it had just opened, and there seemed to be someone inside. I took the two frames with queen cells, along with some that had food and workers on it, and put them in a new box. I also added another box nearly full of honey. The first virgin queen (“Elizabeth I” for now, though I hesitate to have the virginal reputation stick) was still piping, though once again I couldn’t find her. But by her piping I could tell she wasn’t on the frames I was transferring. No eggs yet. We’ll see if I can get at least one successfully mated queen out of this.

This time I didn’t move the hive with the queen cells across town, as I did with Boudicca. I’m trying another method, and moved them about 20 feet away. I placed some twigs in front of the entrance, and some potted plants in front of the hive. In theory, these things should cause the bees coming out to pause and reorient to their new home. This way, I hope they won’t return to their old home with Queen Bess.

I learned why one should not place a hive box directly on the lawn rather than on the lid. A number of bees had been clinging to their sisters on the comb and to the grass. As I lifted the box, they got riled, and once again I got stung. This time it was well deserved. Karin’s sister Kate is visiting this weekend, and she was out with me, observing and helping out. Fortunately she avoided injury, and was quite calm through this, while I was cussing a blue streak. I’m sorry there was no honey-laden bit of burr comb for her as a reward. We’ll have to send Kate a jar of honey after the harvest. Even Karin had come out earlier, as we snooped in Bess’ hive. Very brave of her, especially without a veil. She’ll become a Bee Girl yet.

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.

Bees Week 3

Today’s inspection had a rather festive air. My friends Holly, Harvey & Kristin came over to see the bees while I moved the Russians into their permanent home. They’ve all been very interested in the bees, and are trying to figure out how they can fit a hive in their gardens. Kristin enthusiastically suited up, and helped pull out frames & inspect. Harvey took notes on what we found, and Holly played paparraza.



Without even trying, Kristin found Ekaterina, the Russian tsarina. She just came waltzing across one of the frames. I was disappointed that I wasn’t seeing many eggs or larvae, and was relieved when Garrett showed up to pick up his nuc hive. He showed me the error of my ways. I was looking at the cells facing into the sun, and not even seeing the fat little larvae in the cells. By turning the other way, a whole other world opened up. He also showed us up by jumping right in with no more protection than street clothes. Someday soon I’ll relax enough to forgo the Sta Puft Marshmallow man suit, though I think I’ll keep the veil. Garrett soon dashed off to enjoy his day elsewhere, and we returned to fumbling with the hives.



Kristin tried her hand at removing & inspecting frames, and only made me feel a tiny bit more experienced at it than her. Holly got some great bee close-ups. Harvey’s note taking sped up the process tremendously (thanks!!). At this point I really want notes on what’s happening with each frame, though I’m sure I’ll back off soon enough.




For the second week I didn’t see Boudicca, the Italian queen. Fortunately there are eggs, so she’s (hopefully) just hiding from me. We did see a drone in the Italian hive, which must have drifted in from the Russian enclave. Drones take much longer to mature than workers, so he couldn’t be one of Boudicca’s offspring. It’s supposed to be good for a hive to have drones around, even when they’re not breeding. Hopefully he won’t leave his socks on the floor ;-) The earliest worker brood should be emerging in a couple of days, so the population should soon begin to recover.



After closing up the hives and putting away our toys, we retired to the house, where Karin had made a wonderful brunch. We stuffed ourselves on quiche, fruit salad and lemon-poppy seed pancakes, and washed it all down with mimosas and Holly’s berry smoothies. The proper way to spend a Sunday morning!

The bees have made it a bit chancier for me to run around barefoot in the garden. I find quite a few on the ground, either tired or dying – I’m not sure which. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before I find one with my foot.

The Russians are a bit problematic, too. Instead of quietly sipping espressos on a cool morning, like the Italians, they stay up late into the night drinking vodka and singing raucously. Occasionally there are fisticuffs. Oh well, as long as they get their work done during the day. (Actually, they are quite mellow. The above image popped into my head when a friend asked what the Russians sipped while the Italians had their espresso.)

The Russians are Here!

Last Sunday evening, we were watching the bees working the garden. Out of the blue, Karin said “Why don’t you go ahead and get another hive?” I was blown away; Karin was so nervous about having just one hive in the garden. I guess she’s more comfortable now, and might even get a bigger kick out of watching them than I do. She also has visions of golden honey flowing from the spigots : )

On Monday morning, I wasn’t sure I really had heard her, or that it might have been a dream. I asked, and she said “Yes, go ahead”. With only a little delay, I got onto the local beekeeper’s Yahoo group, and asked about extra split hives or unwanted swarms. That evening, I got a call from a fellow, Garrett, who sells “nucleus hives” in spring. He has Russian bees, which have intrigued me. So I broke down and bought them. I had hoped to get some free bees, but figured that a well cared for colony would be better for a newb like me.

Garrett brought the bees this morning. The nuc hive came with about 6 (maybe 8?!) frames of brood & food, along with Empress Ekaterina and her Cossacks. I don’t think they’ll be too far behind Boudicca and her Iceni in production, thanks to the filled frames. They’ll stay in the nuc hive for a few days, so they know where home is, and can get used to the new neighborhood. On Sunday, we’ll transfer the frames to my own hive box. I so want to peek in there now, but must be patient.

It will be interesting to see the differences between the Italians (Boudicca) and the Russians, in terms of activity and honey production. The Russians are said to be at least as gentle as the Italians, which is comforting to Karin. They might also be more willing to go foraging on foggy days, like we often have here. The Italians tend to stay inside and sip their espressos until the sun comes out. It is also thought that the Russians (aka Russian Survivors) are better able to resist the ravages of the varroa mite, which can cause big problems in a hive.

Now I wonder where I could put a third hive…?

Bees Week 2

Once again our intrepid beek has ventured into the bees’ domain. There were two frames well filled with capped brood (pupae). These were last week’s fat larvae. I was able to identify several capped drone pupae – they’re larger than workers, so their cell caps stick up like warts. The eggs have become larvae, and more eggs have been laid. I didn’t see Queen Boudica, but she’s been around recently. I’ll not fret unless she & eggs are missing next week. I don’t want to pester the hive too much, so I will be patient.

This week I’ve been seeing the bees work in the garden, mostly on some kale and bok choi, which I let flower for the benefit of bees & other helpful insects. The pollen from these plants is dull yellow-green, which is mostly what I saw in the hive. The bees’ “saddlebags” have certainly been loaded lately. I am well pleased that the bees are making use of my garden. I expected them to find something more attractive further away. They haven’t been consuming much of the sugar water I give them. I suppose they’re getting plenty of nectar while foraging. We’ll see if there’s an increase in consumption after the first of the brood emerge next week.

There was a fair bit of pollen on the hive’s bottom board, so I collected it and ate it. I guess the pollen is mixed with a bit of nectar, because it was sweet. It also had a bit of a zingy, peppery bite. It’s supposed to be good for a person, with Amazing! properties. If I develop super bee powers or something, I’ll let you know.

Bees Day 7

The bees are great. I inspected the hive yesterday, and found that everyone is very busy, including Boudicca (the queen). Lots of comb, eggs, nectar & pollen. I probably would have seen larvae, if I had looked at some of the "older" frames. I was so careful to not bother them too much that I really didn't inspect very well. I think I'll go back in today or tomorrow. I'm wishing I'd gotten two hives, and might get onto the swarm list, so I can collect a free one. I just need to get some more hive parts. Soon I might have to get more boxes & frames anyway, considering how fast my bees are building comb.

Karin took a couple of movies while I was inspecting yesterday. She wasn't too happy about that job, being a bit bee phobic. At one point she flinched when a bee bumped into her. I'm getting so blasé about that, even when I'm not suited up, that I had to remind myself that she isn't. But she does show an interest, and asks how they're doing. She even comes out to look at them as they work.

Bees!

I finally got my bees yesterday, and I am so excited!

On Saturday I fussed around for an hour or two setting up the hive and making sure everything was placed just right. The hive is set over a drainage ditch, so I was concerned that the boards wouldn’t hold the weight. Karin helped decide that a double layer of “cross ply” 2”x8” boards was probably fine. Then she promptly took off for the rest of the weekend, no doubt worried that I would ask her to help install the bees : )

Sunday was the Big Day. The bee class and other Humboldt beekeepers met at one student’s home to collect our packages of bees. There was also a talk by a professor from UC Davis on new bee research and status of some bee woes. He was in town for a Bee Awareness event in Arcata on Saturday, and was kind enough to stick around for another day to talk to us. We then had a potluck lunch. It was nice to visit with other beekeepers, but I was eager to get my bees.

Our hostess then demonstrated how to install the bees into the hive, coached by our instructor. It was good to see the process in action, so I didn’t have to hold instructions in one hand and install bees with the other.

Afterwards, I grabbed my bees and hied homeward. The cats came out, and did a double-take when they saw the strange humming, moving mass in the package. Artemis was very interested, and watched them for a few minutes. Isabel was more nervous, and tentatively sniffed the package from the side. I made up some sugar water, collected all my gear and the bees, and headed out to the hive. I also remembered my camera, so I could document the grand occasion. Having Karin as camerawoman would have been handy, but she was long gone.





I was feeling brave, so I eschewed the Tyvek suit, and just wore the veil and gloves. After popping out the feeder can and queen cage, and having a few energetic bees come buzzing out, I was a bit nervous, but kept on. Sadly, I squished one bee at the very start, but it happens. The bees went into the hive without a hitch. They didn’t all get knocked out of the package, so I placed it at the hive entrance. The queen, still in her cage, went on top of the frames. Her exit is plugged with a bit of marshmallow, which the bees will eat away and release her. The plug keeps her from escaping too soon, and possibly flying away. I put on an empty upper box and the sugar water feeder, and for a moment watched the bees immediately go for the “nectar”. Then on went the lid.



After putting away my gear, I grabbed a beer and sat by my new pets. I took loads of pictures and even some videos. I had a few bees land on me, and I fully expected one to take some offense and sting me, but none did. I was getting quite close, and holding the camera right up to the hive.



It was fascinating to watch the bees signaling their sisters toward their new home. They stick up their rear ends and emit a homing pheromone. Bees would come marching out of the package, over the stick bridge, and into the hive. Others were already taking their first cleansing and orientation flights in front of the hive.

That’s the year’s big excitement for me, so forgive me if I gushed overlong. If you have questions, feel free to quiz me – it’s good practice.