I remember being told by a few beekeepers that no matter how friendly a hive may seem during a honey flow, when the winter is looming they will be quite grouchy. Both of my hives were very friendly during the summer, but recently I have to suit up to refill the entrance feeders, or I get stung. Nothing like having tens of thousands of miniature food critics that are not happy with the free service. I’m on crutches, so I am not as quick or graceful with the changing of the food as I was a few months ago.
To avoid alerting the hives to my presence when I remove the bottle, I tried leaving them a plastic bin filled with 2:1 sugar water. I placed it on a concrete block next to the hives because I didn’t want them to have to fly to far to get to it. I even put a bunch of small sticks in it so they would have a nice place to land without the risk of drowning. They never noticed it. Instead, it turned in to the most popular club for ants. It was packed with the little red bastards with a hundreds more waiting for their turn to climb up the block and in to the bowl of sugary goodness.
I made a second attempt to feed the bees and was not going to give another free meal to one of the many ant hills squatting on my property. This time, I placed a small bowl of moist sugar on the water fountain that the bees frequent. There was no way that they would not notice this and the bees would have to ford two bodies of water to reach the sugar.
My other concern was yellow jackets. They like sugar as much as bees and one vs. one wasps are tougher than bees. A strong colony of yellow jackets can invade a bee hive, kill lots of bees and rob them of their honey. When I went back out to check on the bowl of sugar a short while later, the bees found it and there was a lone yellow jacket. The honey bees politely informed the yellow jacket that the sugar had already been claimed.
I took this opportunity to try and get a few good shots of the bees in flight. It took many tries, but I did manage to get some in focus shorts of bees flying.
I think Hegemone is in need of another box. The bees have been bearding a lot from both the top and bottom entrances. The bearding could be caused by the heat and humidity. I’ll find out when I inspect the hives this weekend.
Hegemone bearding
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.
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Beeyard
After an extensive landscaping weekend, my beeyard is ready for some bees. Every book i’ve read states that location of a beehive is very important. The bees want early morning sun to warm them up and get them moving. In the afternoon, they want shade so they do not have to work so hard cooling the hive. The local beekeepers say that too, but always add on “bees don’t really care”. Apis mellifera is very adaptable. They will start a new hive in full sun, full shade, a langstroth box, a wall, inside a tree, on a tree limb, etc. They don’t really seem to care.
The beehive pictured faces West and the early morning sun is fully shaded until around 11am. Then it receives full sun until the early evening. Not exactly the “ideal”, but they should survive. I’ve been to a few beeyards in the area that were more shaded. The location is good for being out of the way. Positioned about 50 feet from my porch and over 100 feet to the nearest neighboring house. The bees flight path should not go anywhere near people and the only problem could be if they choose the water fountain as their water source over a bucket I intend on placing near the hives.
Me sporting my UltraBreeze Jacket and holding a frame with an unmarked queen (on the back)
For the first time in my life, I opened a hive to do an inspection. A local beekeeper, Bob, was kind enough to let me join him for hive inspections. We opened a total of 5 hives. The first two were strong and doing well. Each was a single 10-frame deep.
Beekeeping Tip: Label all of your frames in a consistent fashion so that you can replace them in the same orientation. E.g. mark one end of each frame and make sure all of them in a hive box are along the same side.
The first had a queen marked with a red dot. The second hive’s queen was not marked. We found her on the 3rd frame and gave her a red dot. Each year Bob uses a different colored, water soluble marker. Tagging all of his queens to a specific year lets him know the age of the queen and if a queen has been superseded. He lets the colonies decide when the queen needs to be replaced. Some beekeepers and books will state that you should replace your queen every year. From what I’ve read, queens will remain productive for several years. The only time I plan on purchasing a queen is if my hives face an emergency.
The third hive we opened was devoid of live. The bees had most likely froze to death. It was really sad to see a few workers who survived trying their best to remove the bodies of their dead sisters. We cleared out the hive of all bees (live and dead) before closing up the entrance. This was done to keep wax moths out of the hive while it is unoccupied. Hopefully the survivors join another colony.
The fourth hive consisted of a medium super on top of two deeps. This hive had a little bit of bee traffic at the entrance, but it turned out to be bees from other colonies. They were robbing out the honey and pollen. It seems that these bees froze to death also. The bees were covering the brood trying to keep it warm, instead of clustering to keep themselves warm.
The fifth and last hive was the same as the fourth. All of the bees died covering brood. After having the hive open for a few minutes, the stronger hives start to rob it. This hive had the most capped honey of the other hives we opened. Bob decided to leave it open to help feed the other colonies.
First Lessons In Beekeeping
My spouse and I signed up for a beekeeping workshop targeted at beginners. The registration fee included a copy of “First Lessons in Beekeeping” by Keith S. Delaplane. The book was a very quick read and covered all of the topics continually mentioned, on beekeeping forums as important for beginners. The real benefit of this book is the numerous color photographs that increased my excitement about getting my own bees in a few weeks.
I really liked how the book discussed dealing with pests and diseases. It takes the stance of using chemicals and antibiotics as a last resort. I have read many magazines, websites and books, but many of them too easily recommend the use of chemicals to resolve all sorts of problems. Beekeeping has been around for a very long time and the bees have done fine without the extra toxins. It annoys me that these products are approved and pushed despite not fully understanding their impact on the colony.
I highly recommend that you read this book if you are at all interested in honey bees or beekeeping. Check your library or contact the local beekeeping group before going to amazon (link above). For some reason, people are trying to sell the book for over $50, when it has to be worth less than $30 (workshop registration fee). I included that link so you can find the ISBN.
The next book on my plate is “The Backyard Beekeeper: An Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden” by Kim Flottum. I picked it up at the local home brewing store because it covers a lot more with regards to recipes, candles, wax and has lots of cool pictures.
I received confirmation that this spring I will be the proud recipient of two Nucs on medium frames. My hives will consist entirely of 8 frame mediums. There are many benefits (lighter, interchangable parts) to this approach and only one drawback (cost). To get the same amount of comb area as a standard hive, an all medium hive costs about 30% more. To quote some one from Beemaster Forum, “the money spent on mediums should be cheaper than back surgery [from lifting deeps]“.
I am still not entirely sure if I will purchase mediums or build my own. There are many free plans for hives and my only limiting factors are lack of time and lack of power tools.
