Officially a beekeeper
First Two Hives in the Apiary
The nucs I ordered from The Carolina Bee Company are now happily in their new home. There was a little bit of confusion with my order, but in the end it was handled very well and I would definitely do business with them in the future.
My bees are Minnesota Hygienic and very strong. One of the queens is marked (green) and the other one must be a ninja because she couldn’t be found to mark. Even with the foragers out collecting pollen, the medium frames were full There were clear signs that she was there and laying. Since Monica couldn’t get the queen marked, I was given six frames, instead of five. I modified two hive bodies with standard window screen stapled to the bottoms. This ensured good ventilation without giving any of the bees the opportunity of riding up front with me.
I spilled a little bit of sugar water on the concrete block.
Bees walking across the wax bridge to their new home
I transferred the hives from the traveling boxes in to their permanent homes. These bees are extremely friendly. I had my jacket, but didn’t even light the smoker. Without any fuss, they climbed their way in to the hive. I also repeatedly adjusted the entrance reducers without any protection. The ladies didn’t seem to mind.
I’m still in the process of building them better entrance reducers. I currently have scraps of wood left over from building the hive bodies. They are not all tall enough to block the entrance and the bees will nudge them just enough to make a new entrance.
The ladies of Hegemone are finding a lot of pollen. Hopefully it's from the blooming Tulip Poplar trees. Tulip Poplar honey is delicious.
The Anteia Ladies are working hard this Saturday morning.
The following day, both hives were already hard at work bringing in the pollen and nectar. The left hive seems to be a bit stronger and had a constant flow of traffic. The right hive was not as active, but still had a steady stream of foragers. We still have not picked names for the hives, but at least we’ve settled on a naming theme. All of our hives will be named after Greek gods/goddesses.
While typing this entry, I’ve made the executive decision that the left hive will be named “Hegemone” and the right hive will be named “Antheia”.
[b]Hegemone[/b] – A Goddess of Plants and she was in charge of making sure they bloomed and bore fruit as they were meant to. Her name means “mastery”.
[b]Antheia[/b] – The Goddess of Vegetation, Lowlands, Marshlands, Gardens, Blossoms, the Budding Earth, and Human Love.
There was a lot of activity at the entrance of Antheia with lots of bees flying around in front. The hive was also buzzing a lot louder than earlier in the day. It was the weaker of the two hives and I feared it was getting robbed. To be on the safe side, I suited up and lit the smoker. I gave a puff to the entrance and then proceeded to reduce it to the point where only 1-2 bees could pass through at a time. I took off the top for a few moments to have a look inside. Probably not the brightest move since I thought they were being robbed, but it turns out it might have been a good thing to do. A local beekeeper, Bob, later told me that taking the top off the hive will get the bees to return to the hive to help defend it.
A few minutes after the entrance was drastically reduced and the top was put back on, the hive settled down. I did notice something a bit odd though. It looked as if the queen was flying around outside the hive. I don’t know if she left when I opened the top or prior to that, but I watched her circle a few times and then go back in to the hive. She was about the size of the other queen (maybe a little bigger), except with a much darker abdomen.
The most likely explanation for all of the activity would be many of the worker bees switching roles to becoming foragers. That would make sense due to the hive losing many foragers that were left behind when I picked up the frames in the middle of the day. During the whole “robbing” experience, foragers were still bringing back pollen.
Some other tricks mentioned by Bob.
- Turn on a sprinkler so the robbing bees think it is raining and leave.
- Put a brick in front of the entrance so the bees have to climb over and down in to the hive entrance.
It’s very enjoyable to watch the hives. The new foragers orientating themselves and dancing to tell their sisters about all of the Tulip Poplar trees in the area. I purchased a tripod to make it easier for me to take many pictures of my ladies.
A lone bee on the tree gator
