Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Honey harvest!

In an earlier post, I whined (a little bit) about the probability of not getting any honey from my hives this first year. Well, this week, I reached that major milestone after all.

With colder weather approaching, it was time to prepare the hives for winter. Last weekend, I inserted an escape screen between the second and third supers in the Apollo hive in order to get the bees out of the top box. I wanted to remove the top box so that the bees would be forced down into just two supers and, therefore, stay warmer in a smaller space during cold weather.



The escape screen, by the way, is a simple but ingenious piece of equipment — bees can leave the honey super through the center hole of the screen, but cannot find their way back. No chemicals or fuming are involved in this method, and the bees stay calm. Normally, bees get very riled up if they think there's even a remote possibility that you're going to rob their honey stores.




While I was putting the escape screen in place, I noticed the bees had been a little more active in recent weeks and had actually stored some honey in the frames of the top super!

This morning, almost all of the bees had exited the honey super. The escape screen had worked like a charm! With Tim's help, I removed the honey super and then put protein patties (made mostly of pollen) into both hives for the bees to have as a winter food source. The hives were humming when I closed them, but it was more of a pleasant buzz than an angry one.

We brought the honey super into the garage, where I assembled a basic honey filtering system. The system consists of two five-gallon pails — the top pail has a fitted nylon mesh bag (similar to cheesecloth) and a sieve-like metal plate through which the honey is strained and then flows into the bottom pail. A spout attached to the bottom pail allows you to easily fill jars with honey.



Using an uncapping knife with a serrated edge, I sliced the cappings and wax off the frame inserts and let everything fall into the top pail of the filtering system. As the honey drips out of the cappings, it's filtered through the mesh bag and drains down into the bottom pail. Maybe tomorrow I'll have enough honey to fill a small jar or two!

The honey is a beautiful light amber color. I thought surely it would taste like clover since there's a lot of that in our neighborhood. However, it has a distinctly tangy, citrusy flavor. It's lovely.

Monday, October 25, 2010

It's pretty quiet out there.

Inspections of the hives the last two weekends have shown things are winding down for the approaching winter. Although the bees are still foraging and bringing in pollen, there's a marked decrease in new bees and honey storage.

This frame from Rocky shows honey storage around the edges with brood in the center. When I pulled out the center frame of the bottom super, I saw the queen for the first time! However, not wanting to take a chance on her fleeing the hive, I didn't pause to take a photo — just slipped the frame right back into place.

Apollo looks healthy, but there is still very little activity in the third super, so I plan on removing it soon. Crowding the bees into two supers will help them stay warmer in cold weather.


This photo shows some bees getting the old brush-off. Brushing is a gentle way to scoot them out of the way when replacing the inner and out covers.

Very few signs of pests — only a few hive beetles in the traps and a couple of wax moth webs on the sticky boards. These bees can take care of themselves!

Sometime in the next few weeks I'll start feeding the bees again since their stores of honey seem pretty small. I'm still on the fence about whether to medicate for mites, so I'll be researching a little more about that before making a decision.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Casualties are inevitable...


Latest inspection: both hives are actively producing new bees and storing honey and pollen for winter reserves. I got some honey on my frame grip as I reloaded frames into the supers — the bees wanted it back! See photo, right, of a few bees clustered on the grip.


Rocky is thriving, but bee-laden Apollo looks really healthy right now. I saw very few beetles and wax moth larvae, so I reckon the bees can, indeed, take care of themselves.


Opening up the hives is dicey process for the bees. Removing and replacing covers and supers inevitably results in some casualties...but I still feel bad about every bee I lose.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Cool breeze

We're experiencing our first taste of fall this weekend in north Georgia. We've got sunny, bright blue skies and a light breeze. The lows have been in the upper 50s/low 60s, with highs in the low-to-mid 80s and no humidity.


Yesterday's cool temps made doing a hive inspection more inviting. The top super of Apollo still shows little activity, except for a few bees drawing out comb and storing pollen. The middle super has brood and honey storage, and the bottom super is heavy with brood (see photo at right). When I say these supers are heavy, I mean it! I'm guessing they weigh at least 40 pounds each when full of bees and/or honey. I'm using medium-sized supers, so I can only imagine how heavy the deep supers must be when they are full.


I saw very few beetles in Apollo and found only a few in the beetle trap (pictured right). Forgot to pull out the sticky board to see if there were any moth larvae, but I'll do that next time. Thankfully, I'm not seeing any mites.

Rocky is still gaining strength. The bottom super has plenty of egg-laying activity going on, and the top super has some honey/sugar-water storage. After a discussion with my friend and bee-mentor Drea last week, I moved some empty frames to the center of the top super in hopes of encouraging the queen to move up and lay eggs there, too.

I've been curious about how the bees would react to cooler temperatures. The only real change I've noticed is a decrease in "bearding" on the outside of the hives. Guess it's more comfortable to be indoors these days.

Unfortunately, I've learned that bees really can sting through the protective clothing. I got a stinger through my glove. Sorry little buddy, you gave your life to zing one into the heel of my left hand. This makes only my fourth sting (not counting the rogue yellow yacket) of my beekeeping experience. I'd like to think this means my bees love me...but in reality I've just been lucky.


And now for something truly scary (could be this year's Halloween costume). My friend (and possibly biggest bee fan) Dick Funderburke has been nagging me about posting a photo of myself in my bee gear. So, here you go, Dick, this one's for you.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Up close and personal.

I love standing close enough to the hives to watch forager bees coming in for a landing, their back legs all loaded up with yellow and orange pollen. It's fascinating to watch as other bees rush to start cleaning the pollen off their sisters' legs as they enter the hive.

Yesterday I attempted to get some photos of the pollen-bearers, but failed. My camera just wasn't quite fast enough. I did, however, get a nice close-up of some of the Rocky bees.

And, drumroll, please... we have a winner in the "Please, For Goodness' Sake, Give Hive A a Name" contest. Hive A is now officially known as Apollo (submitted by Todd Gerlach). Thanks to everyone who submitted potential names! Should there be any more hives added to my bee yard, I reckon we'll continue on with the "Rocky" theme.

Yo, Adrian!

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Those pesky pests.

This morning I installed traps in both hives to address the small hive beetle problem. The traps, which fit between two frames, are made of plastic with a chamber to be filled halfway with vegetable oil. The beetles, attracted to the dark color of the trap, fall into the oil and can't escape. Once the trap is full, it's discarded and replaced with a new trap.

I'm not sure how often I'm supposed to check and/or replace the traps, so I'll have to do some research.

In Hive A, I also removed the sheet below the screened bottom board, mainly to check for evidence of mites. But yikes! I found quite a few white larvae there instead, which are wax moths. My friend Drea informed me that wax moths got into some of her honeycomb and spoiled it. (sigh) Now I have to research this particular pest and find out if there's any way to combat them.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Guess it was inevitable.

This morning it was time to do another hive inspection. In my monthly email from Brushy Mountain, a new beekeeper blogs about her first-year experiences. She shared that she'd made the mistake of not inspecting the bottom super of her hive, assuming that if all looked well in the top supers, the bottom would be okay, too. Well, apparently all was not quite well. So I took her warning to heart and inspected my hives, top to bottom, today.

Rocky was first. Taking off the top super and setting it aside, I pulled some frames from the bottom super. What I saw scared me a bit — there was lots of sugar water being stored and capped, but I didn't see any capped brood, larvae or pupae. I put the second super back on top and pulled frames from it. There were the missing brood, larvae and pupae! When the swarm bees were in their temporary hive, I'd used a super with frames on top of the cardboard box. When I assembled the permanent hive, I made a mistake — this super, which obviously contains the queen, should have been on the bottom. I'll reverse the supers sometime over the next few days and hope that it corrects the "laying" problem.

Hive A (sorry folks, still haven't made a final decision on the name) presented an unpleasant surprise. When I removed the inner cover, I was dismayed to see a bunch of small hive beetles go running for cover. There are minimally invasive beetle traps available for this. Fill one halfway with vegetable or mineral oil and insert between two frames — the beetles are attracted to the trap and will fall into the oil. Simply clean out the trap periodically and replace it. I'll have to order these traps right away. There is very little activity in the top super other than a small amount of pollen storage so it's doubtful there will be any honey this year. The middle and bottom supers are being used for brood storage and food supply. Not much capped brood, but I did see some, plus some larvae. I'm going to hope for the best.

It's inevitable that every beekeeper will face some kind of infestation problem. Small hive beetles, mites (varroa and tracheal) and wax moths are the everyday evils that my hives will have to battle. There are a few worrisome diseases out there, too, but I'm hoping they're pretty rare for a back yard beekeepeer. I'm debating about whether to medicate my bees for mites or to try to find a more "organic" prevention method. As always, the experts are all over the map in their opinions on how to treat mites, so I'll probably end up flipping a coin.

Heads or tails?

Saturday, August 7, 2010

A taste of honey!

Inspection day for both hives. I opened up Rocky first and found that the queen is, indeed, alive and well and laying eggs in the bottom super. Thank goodness.




The bees are storing pollen and honey in the top super. Those swarm bees are tush hogs!


What, you ask, is a "tush hog"? Well...my high school geometry teacher, Nick Hyder, was also the head football coach. (Quite honestly, I learned way more about football than geometry in that class.) Coach Nick had an endless supply of motivational sayings, like:
• "It's not the size of the dog in the fight; it's the size of the fight in the dog."
• "If if's and but's were candy and nuts, we'd ALL have a Merry Christmas."
• "You are tomorrow what you eat today."
• "I never saw anybody O.D. on roast beef and green beans."
And then there was, "Be a tush hog, not a slop hog." Meaning, be a go-getter not a lollygagger.

The Hive A (still haven't decided on the name, but y'all submitted some great ideas so far) bees are tush hogs, too. They have moved up into the third super, but when I took that off today and looked down into the middle super, I liked what I saw. This super is being used for brood and for HONEY storage. Note the white-capped cells around the top and sides of this frame from Hive A — that's where the honey is stored.

When you're working with a hive tool and prying apart supers and frames, it's just about impossible not to get stuff on the blade. Today I got a small sample of the Hive A honey on the blade. It was a beautiful light amber color and tasted so sweet. I'm guessing it's mostly clover honey.

So, Coach Nick, although you're gone from this world, you are most certainly not forgotten. I'll honor your memory by being the best tush hog beekeeper I can be.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

It's that time of year!


This time last year, I remember laughing at a television commercial for back-to-school supplies at Staples. The theme song in the background was "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year." Parents were rejoicing over their children's imminent return to the classroom, while the kids looked pained. I've always loved wandering the aisles in office supply stores (and hardware stores, too), marveling over all the nifty gadgets and even the school supplies.

Well, last night I was able to recapture the excitement of shopping for supplies. Bee supplies. I got a sale catalog in the mail last week, and several of the gadgets I longed for (not to mention, needed) were on sale! My list included a frame grip, frame perch and tool box, which will all come in handy when I do hive inspections. For possible honey extraction this fall, I ordered a cappings scratcher (takes the cap off the honey cells), a cold knife (for scraping comb and honey into the extractor) and a simple extraction system that will allow me to filter the honey and bottle it. If I get any honey this year, that is. Last but not least, I ordered another jacket for anyone who wants to venture out into the back yard with me and get a closer look at the bees.

The Rocky bees have been extremely hungry, so I gave them the large feeder of sugar-water this morning. This holds about 5 cups of liquid. Not only are they hungry, they are also storing lots of pollen. Can't wait to inspect both hives this weekend to see what progress is being made!

In the meantime, it'll be the hap-happiest season of all when my supplies arrive.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Flying high now...

At last, the swarm bees have a permanent home — the "Rocky" hive is up and running.

I stayed home all day yesterday, anticipating the delivery of the new hive. By late afternoon, the UPS truck still hadn't come and I was very upset — storm clouds had gathered and the skies opened to pour down rain on the poor makeshift hive again. When 7 p.m. had come and gone, I called UPS to make a complaint, but I was told it was possible that my delivery could still come that evening. At 8:45, we heard the rumble of the delivery truck on our street, and it was a beautiful sound. I was glad to get the boxes and unpack them, even though it was too late to move the bees that night.

This morning, I assembled all of my gear, got the smoker going, suited up and headed out to the back yard to move the swarm bees. The bottom box of the makeshift hive had almost completely collapsed from yesterday's rain and was actually crumbling. Here's a photo of the sodden mess of cardboard, newspaper and empty feeder.

The plywood and bricks I'd used for a bottom board were still intact, but the board had bowed up after getting wet in this week's storms.

I sprayed the bees down with a little sugar-water before trying to move them, but they were in a fairly calm state anyway. It was easy to move the three frames I'd put in the cardboard box to a regular super. I was excited to see that the bees had built out a lot of comb on these frames. I added in the remaining five frames to the box and then moved the second super on top. The bees had moved up into this second box on the temporary hive and were storing pollen in its frames. I placed the inner cover on top of the second super, closed it up with the cover and inserted a full feeder.


Here, you can see the Rocky bees at the entrance to their new home. I wish I'd had time to paint this hive, but it's all made of cypress and I'm told that it will endure all kinds of weather for years. The main worries now are whether or not the queen made it into the hive (again, I didn't see her) and robbing by the original hive bees. Speaking of the original hive, I'm looking for a name for it. Any suggestions?

Sunday, July 25, 2010

A (bee) house of horrors


Those poor swarm bees. The thunderstorms and downpours of the last two days have done their damage to the makeshift hive. The plywood base and roof bowed up and the cardboard box is in a state of collapse (giving new meaning to the term, "colony collapse disorder"). I was able to replace the roof with another piece of plywood, but there is not much I can do about the base or the box. I did remove some of the newspaper plugs from a couple of corners of the hive so the poor bees could have some air and a way in and out. I can only imagine how it looks inside.

Still, when I went out to replace the feeder this morning, they were hanging in there. I was thinking of giving each hive a name. The swarm bees, being the underdogs with a fighting spirit, are definitely "Rocky."

I tracked the status of the hive I ordered and it made it to the Atlanta area Friday and was scanned for Monday delivery. It can't come soon enough. Hang in there, little winged friends, help is on the way!

Really, I couldn't blame them if they swarmed again and left for good, considering their current living conditions. I just hope their temporary house of horrors doesn't turn into the (bees)wax museum.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Swarm alert!

Today I had the most amazing experience — I collected my first swarm! It all started when our backyard neighbor, Oscar, came over this morning to tell me that my bees had swarmed in his yard, specifically on his patio table umbrella. I met him at the fence, peered over, and sure enough, there was a large swarm attached to the umbrella.

For a moment, I panicked. I'm a novice beekeeper with only one hive, for pete's sake. I knew what a swarm was, but had no idea how to go about collecting one. There wasn't much time until the swarm would decide to move on, so I pulled myself together and thought about who to call. I remembered that my friend Cookie and I had discussed bees a few months ago and she mentioned that she knew beekeeping guru Cindy Bee. (Yes, that is actually her name and it is certainly appropriate!) Cookie had emailed Cindy Bee's contact information to me. I found the email and quickly dialed Cindy, who took time out of her busy schedule to give me some quick pointers over the phone.

Since I don't have a second hive box yet, I would have to assemble a makeshift hive from whatever we had on hand in the garage. First, Cindy advised me to use plywood and 2x4's to make a bottom board. I had sheets of plywood, but not 2x4s, so I used bricks. Next, I was to take a cardboard box and cut a small horseshoe-shaped hole in the bottom to make a flap that would open for the bees to enter and exit. Then Cindy said I should spray a small amount of lemon-scented Pledge or lemon juice around the opening, which would help attract the bees. I had two extra supers on hand, so I removed some of the frames from one super and put them in the cardboard box, as instructed.

It was time to suit up and head over to Oscar's yard to collect the swarm. Using my bee brush, I brushed the bees (thousands of them) downward from the umbrella into the box. They seemed happy to land in the lemon-scented box and quickly crawled onto the frames. I set the open box on the patio table for a while and the remaining bees that were flying around eventually headed into the box. I'd say I collected about 99% of the swarm before I put a lid on the box and took the bees back to my yard.

Then came the hard part. I set the box on the makeshift landing board and pulled the flap open from underneath to give the bees an entrance and exit. Next, I put a super with frames on top of the cardboard box. Per Cindy's instructions, the bees needed to be fed with the 1:1 sugar/water solution, so that required some ingenuity on my part. I had a mason jar on hand, but no ice pick with which to poke small holes in the top — I ended up using a seam-ripper from my sewing kit to make the perfect little bee-sized drinking holes in the top of the jar. I took the jar, filled with sugar-water, and my last unused super (empty, no frames) out to the makeshift hive. This top super would protect the feeding jar, which I turned upside down on top of the frames in the super below. I covered the whole thing with another piece of plywood.

To sum up the configuration from the bottom up: plywood bottom board, bricks, cardboard box with bees, super with frames, feeder jar inside empty super, plywood cover. It's a little sad-looking, but I hope it will do the job temporarily.


A quick peek under the plywood cover showed that the swarm bees had already found the sugar-water. Cindy warned that my original hive would be very interested in this new, weaker hive and its sugar-water supply and might try to "rob" it. She cautioned me to find and seal all of the openings, leaving only one space of about an inch or so for the swarm bees to enter and exit their hive. This would give them a better chance of protecting their hive and sugar-water supply from intruders. Since the cardboard box was sagging in places and there were odd-shaped openings all around, I decided to use newspaper to stuff the holes. It remains to be seen if this method is successful — every time I checked the hive this afternoon I saw the crafty little winged creatures entering and exiting new places, so I had to plug those with paper. May have to pull out the duct tape soon.


I also needed to check the original hive and see what was going on, Cindy advised. I took off the cover and saw that the boxes were full of bees. No beetles in sight. That's a good sign, she said. I hope this means that the bees swarmed because the original hive was too congested — they split to form a new colony.

I called Brushy Mountain Bee Company and ordered a hive right away. The cost to ship it to me overnight was prohibitive. Wendy reassured me they would ship my order out today, so I opted for regular shipping. I'll probably get my order on Monday, but if I'm lucky, it could come sooner. Then I'll set up the new hive in a permanent location and move the swarm bees from their makeshift home. That's assuming they survive the weekend, the other hive doesn't decide to "rob" them, and they don't decide to swarm again and go somewhere else.

I'm grateful for the generosity of neighbors, friends and an expert who doesn't know me from Adam's house cat. What an exciting and rewarding experience.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

My hive grew a beard.

For the past few weeks, my bees have been hanging out on the exterior of the hive and the landing board. I was afraid this meant they were preparing to swarm, but actually, they are doing something called "bearding."

Bearding is a phenomenon that happens during warm, humid weather — usually in the mid-to-late summer (swarming is most likely to occur in the spring). The bees are just plain hot and some of them go outside the hive in order to give added ventilation to the house bees and brood nest inside. When they cluster on the exterior this way, it gives the hive the appearance of having a beard.

Honey bees are so smart.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

A third super



Now that I'm finished dealing with the sticky sugar-water, I decided to bring my camera out to make some photos of the hive this morning. The bees have made their way up into the third super. After using the smoker, I removed the cover and saw a few bees on top of the inner cover. Then I removed the inner cover and found quite a few bees scurrying around inside.



I could hear the humming in the two brood supers below — it's a distinctly "busy" hum, pleasant to hear. Pulling out a couple of frames in the third box, I can see that the bees are starting to build out comb and store some pollen.

I replaced the frames and inner cover and closed the hive. Here's a shot of the bees gathered at the hive entrance — some going, some coming, some guarding.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Hopin' for honey.

After seeing how active the bees are and how full the two brood boxes have gotten, I decided it was time to stop feeding the bees. No more sugar water for you, girls! Note to self: stopped feeding on June 15.) I've spotted lots of young bees, so the colony is obviously growing.

Tim suited up and went with me this morning to put on another super. He manned the smoker while I opened the hive. I lifted one frame on the edge of the second box to inspect and it was so heavy! Most of the weight appeared to come from stores of sugar water, but the middle frames are heavy with capped brood. After replacing the frame, I added a queen excluder and another super for honey, and then closed the hive.

It's amazing how much conflicting information is out there about how to manage a hive. So many beekeepers and bee experts advise against using a queen excluder, but there seem to be an equal number who advocate it. Although there is a possibility that I won't harvest any honey this first year (again, some experts say no, some say yes and some say maybe), my reasoning is that if I DO harvest some, I'd like the frames to be brood-free and filled with honey only. The only way to ensure that is to keep the queen out of the honey supers.

My friend and fellow beekeeper Drea phoned this week to say that her hives (now in their second year) are already producing honey in mid-June. The hive with the "aggressive" personality is particularly productive. She'll be harvesting in the next week or two. That's exciting!

Many people have cautioned me that having only one hive could be a mistake. Yet my one hive seems to be thriving. So, maybe there is no right or wrong, or at least more than one way to "bee" successful. Or maybe I'm just lucky with this colony. Time will tell.

ADDENDUM: This evening the bees were clustered in droves on the front of the hive and I was worried they might swarm. After consulting my beginner's beekeeping book, I removed the queen excluder to allow the bees the space of a third super for brood. This was not a fun task in the 92-degree heat, but I'm glad I did it. The bees are already headed back inside to do what they do best.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

I hate yellow jackets.



I hate yellow jackets. Of course I do. I grew up in a Georgia family, immersed in all things UGA. My mother's family is actually full of Georgia Tech grads and one of my best friends is a Tech grad, and I must say they are all wonderful folks...but they instill no love in me for the yellow jacket.

Now I have a reason to hate the varmints even more. Thursday morning, I went out to the hive to feed the bees. Smoker in hand, all went well until I pulled out the empty feeder and...noticed a rogue yellow jacket in the midst of my sweet honey bees. (Aren't the bees supposed to get rid of nasty intruders? Guess they hadn't had a chance yet.) Smoke works well on honey bees, but not on yellow jackets. Smoke makes yellow jackets mad... not that they need much encouragement.

The yellow jacket made a beeline (ha ha) for my leg and stung me. Repeatedly. By the time I disengaged him from my pants leg and hobbled into the house, I could tell this was no ordinary sting. I applied some anti-sting stuff and hoped for the best. I barely slept that night.

By Friday morning the side of my thigh, from hip to knee, was red, swollen and firm to the touch. It looked similar to the bad reaction I had a few years ago when a jellyfish wrapped its tentacles around both my arms in the ocean at St. Simons. I called my doctor's office and she was able to work me in that afternoon. "Ohhhhh, that doesn't look so good," were the first words out of her mouth. I got a shot of prednisone and left with three prescriptions for other medicines to cure me of the evil jellow jacket venom.

So, just a reminder. Honey bees are defensive creatures — they only attack when they perceive their hive is under siege from an outsider. They respond well to smoke. Other winged insects not so much. Yellow jackets, along with hornets and wasps, are aggressive and will sting with very little provocation.

Oh, and Mom? Glad you turned away from the dark side. You chose well. Dawgs are good; jackets are BAD.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Bee movie

Today, I made a little film of the bees in action. If you'd like to hear my silly narrative, turn your sound on. Otherwise, just enjoy the bees at work.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Bees as icebreaker

Over the years I've learned there are several topics that make for great conversation starters in just about any given situation. For example, if you like sports, you will likely find a group of similar-minded folks at almost every social gathering and the talk comes easy. (College football is a popular topic as evidenced by the number of people who crowd around an available TV or Blackberry in the fall, looking for score updates while they attend wedding receptions, parties, business conventions and their kids' soccer games.)


If you're an instigator (like me) of "spirited" conversation, grits is a particularly polarizing subject that gets people going. Most Southerners love grits and most Yankees hate grits, and neither side will give an inch. Well, except for the occasional northern aggressor who admits to eating grits...with sugar on top. Ew! Bless their hearts, they just don't know any better. Besides, their relatives and friends will pull their Yankee card when they go back north to visit and admit they eat grits.

Okay, back to the original point — getting a good conversation going. I've found that bees are a great icebreaker. Recently, I've mentioned my bees at a wedding reception, at the gym, in a business meeting and to the nice lady who cuts my hair, among others. Reactions range from "I've read about the honey bees disappearing," and "Cool! When can I have some honey?" to "Isn't that illegal?" and (courtesy of Greg) "HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!"

In any case, people are mostly fascinated by bees, even if some are repulsed. They pepper me with questions, information they've heard on the news, memories of relatives who kept bees and tales of bad childhood encounters with bees. No one seems disinterested or even neutral.

Bees are a topic that really creates a buzz!

Saturday, May 29, 2010

What could go wrong?

Thursday night I tuned in to a webinar offered by Brushy Mountain Bee Farm, from which I've bought most of my beekeeping supplies. If anyone out there is interested in becoming a backyard beekeeper or just wants to learn more about beekeeping in general, Brushy Mountain is a great resource: www.brushymountainbeefarm.com.

The guest speaker for the webinar was Jennifer Berry, Apicultural Research Coordinator and Lab Manager at the University of Georgia. UGA has an excellent honey bee program in its Entomology department. (GO DAWGS 'n BEES!) Jennifer has done extensive research on almost everything that can go wrong (or right) with honeybees — from pests to genetics. I learned a lot — particularly that I should have started with two hives rather than one. Two hives would afford me some means of comparison. And if one hive seemed weak, I could equalize the two hives by adding brood or bees from the stronger to the weaker. There was also some scary info about pests, diseases and unfertilized queens who only lay drone eggs.

I logged off the webinar when I felt I'd absorbed as much bad news as I could take. And after thinking it over, I'm feeling philosophical today. If my bees don't make it this year, I'll certainly be better informed and prepared for what to do next year. In the meantime, I'll think positive. My bees seem pretty darned scrappy right now.

My mother and brother came over today to visit, meet Katie Scarlett, and see the bees. I wish I'd remembered to take along my camera so I could make some shots of the two of them tricked out in bee gear! We smoked and fed the bees, then opened the hive to observe them. Looks like the bees are working on all eight frames of the bottom box and are on all but two in the second box. They are drawing out comb and we could see lots of pollen in the cells. All appears well, at least to my inexperienced eyes.

As if all this weren't enough, Mom took us to Dreamland for a lunch of barbecue and iced tea. "Ain't nothing like 'em, nowhere!" as their slogan says.

An excellent day, all in all. So why worry about what could go wrong? Since I'm still in Scarlett O'Hara mode, I'll think about it tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Of bees and bunnies



I'm going to digress from the bees for a moment to talk about the most recent addition to our family. Several months ago, we noticed a black bunny in a neighbor's front yard and realized that it had belonged to a family who'd rented a house around the corner. They'd moved out about a year ago, leaving the bunny behind to fend for herself. This courageous little rabbit survived for almost a year on her own, living under some decking in the back yard of another house that was in foreclosure.

I couldn't bear to let her keep living that way — we had to try to rescue her. Our next door neighbor reported that he had seen the rabbit in his front yard and she had taken a carrot from his hand. So, we began visiting the bunny almost every evening when she would be out foraging. I bought some bunny treats and soon she would hop over and gently take them from me. It took several weeks and a lot of patience, but I was able to coax the bunny into a pet carrier and bring her home a week ago.

We named the bunny Katie Scarlett after Scarlett O'Hara, the ultimate survivor. KS is settling into a routine. She has a nice hutch, plenty of fresh veggies and herbs and clean water, and she gets to roam around a rabbit-fenced area on our screen porch a couple of times a day and play with rabbit-y toys. The vet treated her ears for mites and infection, and she is otherwise in good health. We are allowed to scratch her ears and stroke her cheeks and back, and today, she actually let me pick her up and hold her in my arms. This is real progress for a domesticated bunny that had been living "in the wild" for a year. She is brave, spunky, smart, sweet and funny, and we love her.

Now, for the bees. I opened the hive last Saturday for a quick peek and saw that they have moved up into the second super and are drawing out comb. The frames in the bottom super appeared to be well on their way to being full of comb and brood (the queen is laying eggs and soon the size of the colony will increase). The bees continue to consume a lot of sugar-water, and I am down to my last bag of Aldi sugar. Time for another sugar run.

That's all for now, but I'll leave you with this memorable quote from Gone With the Wind:
"Do you mean to tell me, Katie Scarlett O'Hara, that Tara, that land doesn't mean anything to you? Why, land is the only thing in the world worth workin' for, worth fightin' for, worth dyin' for, because it's the only thing that lasts."
— Gerald O'Hara

Thursday, May 20, 2010

I am smokin'.

The bees have been a tad angry lately when I try to swap out their empty feeder for a full one. So today, I really smoked them (smoke confuses them and calms them, sending them back into the hive). And I mean SMOKED them.

To be perfectly honest, I had managed to get the smoker going really well and didn't want that good stuff to go to waste. I puffed those bellows for all I was worth. The bees went scrambling back inside as fast as they could. I know they were thinking: "That crazy woman's started a forest fire out there and we're going up in flames!"

The feeder swap was a breeze. And as I turned to go back to the house, I swear I heard the fluttering of wings...and tiny little coughs and wheezes.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Sugar rush

Feeding the bees for several weeks is important. They like a 1:1 ratio solution of sugar to water. And at the rate they eat, I'm replenishing their feeder every day. This takes a LOT of sugar. Thankfully, I only have one hive to feed right now.

So, I made a trip to Aldi yesterday to stock up on sugar, where I found enormous savings over the regular grocery store. (Of course, I didn't stick to buying JUST sugar, so I'm not sure if that ultimately qualifies as "enormous savings.") Maybe I'll try Sam's for my next sugar shopping expedition. If you have suggestions for other places to save on sugar, send 'em. Before the bees bankrupt me, please.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Checked the hive for the first time today





I woke up excited this morning — it was time to open the hive for the first time and see if my bees are healthy and making progress. And they are!

When I removed the cover, there were bees all around the opening of the inner cover, a good sign. Taking off the inner cover, I looked down into the super and saw that the bees had made some comb in an area where it really shouldn't be, so I removed it. Note in the photo, there are a few yellow cells, showing that the bees are already collecting pollen. You can also see the empty queen's cage in the second photo. I didn't see her among the crowd, but I can tell she's in there and everyone seems busy and happy.

The next time I open the hive (in a few more days), I hope to see signs of brood comb on every frame, which means it's time to add another super.

I've finally figured out how to tie down my veil properly (Drea, you'd laugh at my struggles) and I need to wear a sweat band. Enough said.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

The beekeeping adventure begins



Monday, May 10, 2010 was the culmination of two years' worth of curiosity, research and deliberate intent to become a backyard beekeeper. I picked up my packaged bees — ordered from Rossman Apiaries in Moultrie, Ga. — at the post office, where a postal worker said, "Oh, thank GOD" when I told her why I was there. She brought out a plastic mail crate with the box of bees inside and handed it over. And thus, the real adventure began.

The "how-to" video that was included with the hive and bee supplies I'd ordered last year came in handy as I followed the instructions from memory on how to load a package of bees into the hive. I wore my veil, but found that gloves just got in the way. I didn't mind the soft feel of the little honeybees on my hands. They were confused and trying to figure out where their new home would be. I pulled out the cork in the queen's cage and placed her in the box, unceremoniously dumping the rest of the bees after her. They buzzed, but not in a bad way. I closed the hive, put in a feeder of sugar-water, and that was that.

For the past two days, the little winged creatures have been buzzing in and out of the hive just like they're supposed to. Thankfully, there weren't too many casualties along the way and they seem to be thriving. In fact, they are HUNGRY. Looks like I'll have to refill the feeder every day for the next several weeks.

No stings so far, and the dogs seem to have no interest in the bees. A very good thing.