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!

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.

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?

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.

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.