Backyard Apiary

I inspected the caught swarm, the nuc, the split and the top bar hive. I ended the day with two stings; one to my left palm while holding a frame to take a picture and the other in my left thigh after a bee from Hegemone crawled up my pants.

The caught swarm is still very weak, but is alive. I’m viewing this hive as a banked queen more than anything else. It still has many months to get strong enough to try and survive the winter, but unlike the weak hive experiment from last winter I’ll scuttle the hive before wax moths get a chance to destroy the comb.

The nuc hive most likely has a laying worker. Many eggs were laid in the cells and I couldn’t find a queen despite looking very intently. There are a few ways of dealing with a laying worker hive (Bush Bees, Laying Workers). I have plenty of hives for my needs and the nuc hive is weak, so I will most likely just shake out the bees and end the hive.

The split is also weak, but the queen is looking plumper than I remember. I plan on feeding this hive frames of brood from Hegemone and the bought queen hive to keep those hives from swarming.

The top bar hive is doing amazingly well. They’ve drawn out most of the bars I merged in to the brood nest during the last inspection. There were 3-4 frames of solid capped brood and a few more with a mix of eggs, larvae and uncapped brood. I went through each frame and removed a few attachments that the bees made to the sides. The next TBH and top bars I make will have the guide further from the edges. This might help reduce the attachments because they only seem to attach the honey comb toward the top of the hive. There were 1-2 frames with a small attachments at the bottom. After doing a better job of leveling the hive during my last inspection, all of the comb is now perfectly straight. Glad I fixed that when I did because the comb hardens with age and wouldn’t have corrected itself as easily.

Black widow spider wrapping a bee in teh front of a hive at the community garden

I inspected the garden hives this past weekend and there was a giant black widow spider that set up shop under the leftmost hive. I tried cruising it’d with a stick, but it fled under the hive and I wasn’t going to go chasing after it.

The other weak hive that overwintered at the garden is no more. The hive was queenless and the population was only a few hundred bees. The hive was too weak to save and wax moths had started to move in. I shook out all of the bees and have begun the process of cycling frames through the freeze to kill off the moth eggs, larvae and worms. I can only fit 3 frames at a time and have left the others out in the yard for the bees to clean up. The tulip poplar is blooming so the bees are only visiting the free meal on days that it rains.

The long hive at the garden is doing really well. Many frames of capped brood!

There was a carpenter bee burrowing in to the side of a box. The box walls are only 3/4″ thick, but apparently that is more than enough room for a carpenter bee to make a home. After I chased it out, I plugged the hole with sticks. That really won’t do much besides slow it down a little bit, but hopefully that’s a good enough measure until I can permanently plug it.

The backyard hives are doing well. The nuc split had three frames with capped queen cells. I gave one to the mostly drone hive and another to the hive I captured from my neighbor’s tree. Now there is no doubt that every hive in the yard has or will have a queen.

The foul weather on the 29th has the bees in a really unpleasant mood. While standing about 15′ in front of the hives, a bee cited me for loitering and stung me right next to my eye. I’ve been stung a fair number of times as a beekeeper (two in a week) and I must say that this is one of the most unpleasant places to get stung. I took some allergy medicine in an effort to prevent swelling.

My new neighbor stopped by to let me know there was a giant pine cone or swarm of bees up in a pine tree in his front yard. The cluster was about 30′ off the ground on the very end of a tiny branch. I don’t know why they chose that particular spot, but the hive would have come crashing down very soon because the branch was already sagging. He first noticed the bees almost a week ago, which means that despite the extreme winds, heavy rain and peanut m&m sized hail we had this past weekend, they decided to pick a completely exposed location to build.

I set up an A-frame ladder and fully extended the bucket on a telescoping pole. From the second rung from the top, I was close enough to reach the cluster. I positioned it right below with my neighbor spotting from a safe distance and then gave a quick thrust to scoop the bees in to the bucket. Some bees rained down and I was immediately stung on the wrist. Swarms are generally very calm and not defensive. As I lowered the bucket, I could see some fresh, white comb built in to the pine needles. I was no longer catching a swarm, but removing a hive. The cluster remaining in the tree was about half the size and the rest were poured in to a waiting medium box. I switched to the telescoping tree pruner and I propped the telescoped bucket in the ladder directly below (about 15′ below) the hive. At this point many of the bees were already in the box and fanning. Many slices later, it was a flimsy little twig of a branch,  the hive came down and missed the bucket. I didn’t think it would land in the bucket, but the chances were better than if I had not set up the bucket. It was already fairly dark and using a flashlight, I didn’t see the queen on the ground where the comb landed. I’m hopeful that I got her with the first scoop.

I did a quick outside inspection of the beeyard. The split I made to prevent a fall swarm was all but dead. The hive’s top was a piece of plywood, which warped enough to open most of one side. In the entrance to that opening, I saw a wax moth cocoon. To get a better idea, I quickly propped the top open about an inch and saw many more cocoons and dozens of wax moths squirming around. I suited up and started to rip through the hive. It was a complete loss. All of the drawn frames have extensive damage from the moths and there was no sign of a laying queen.

The have wasn’t very strong during my previous inspections and that is the main reason it couldn’t handle wax the moths. The hive only had about 10 frames of drawn comb, but was in two medium boxes with the intention of letting them expand from feeding. They were also in the process of replacing a queen. The missed brood cycles, the extra large opening in the top and a pollen patty to feed the wax moths are to blame. It’s also possible that the hive was robbed out because it had a frame feeder and a population that cannot defend from the stronger hives.

I disassembled the hive and shook out all of the bees. I stomped as many cocoons and larvae as I could before standing up all of the equipment away from the hives. The local birds should get a nice snack in the morning. Over the weekend I’ll need to scrape all the equipment clean and then put them in the freezer to make sure any eggs I missed are killed.

The nuc on the top bar hive was the other hive I gave a pollen patty, so I did a quick check to make sure they were not suffering the same fate. I opened the top of the hive and it was overflowing with bees. I looked down the top bar  opening and there were no signs of wax moth. The hive has very small entrances and a good sized population. Unfortunately, it looks as if they have not drawn out any of the top bars. I think I’ll need to move them in to 10 frame equipment or quickly build a long hive.

The bees got a flavorful treat this evening. Alissa was canning blueberries and some of them leaked. The water turned dark blue. Instead of dumping the water down the drain, I used it to make a batch of syrup for the bees. They seemed to like it better than regular syrup and more of the ladies turned out for the feeding. I also refilled the quart jar on the NUC on a Top Bar Hive with some of this blue water. I’m hoping they draw out some blue-ish comb. If they draw out any blue tinted wax, then I’m going to start experimenting more with different natural colorings. I think the ladies of that hive either don’t like blue or were not too pleased with my attempts to put the jar on the screen that they were obstructing. They send a representative bee to state their objections above my left knee. No noticeable swelling yet.

A close up shot of eggs. They are the tiny white things in the cell that looks like a grain of rice.

I went through the hives to make sure the bees have plenty of food stockpiled. To my surprise, Hegemone had lots of swarm cells. All of the queen cells were uncapped and looked to be empty. They are just preparing to swarm. I think I caught it in time to do a preventative split. I removed 11 frames of brood, pollen and honey to start the new hive. Eggs are very difficult to see in ideal conditions. Many of the brood frames from Hegemone that were not completely capped had very dark comb, which is not ideal. I was able to see eggs (possibly larvae) when I looked at the frame in direct sunlight.

The extended period of 90+ degree days has kept me from being outside and building more equipment. I have everything I need to start a 5 frame NUC, but I don’t think pulling only 5 frames would have done much to prevent Hegemone from swarming. I am lacking 10 frame hive tops and bottoms, but luckily I had scraps of plywood to make due. I used the queen castle bottom, which has a small inch wide entrance on three sides, instead of a full width entrance on one. The three entrances are designed to give each of the 3-frame mating hives their own separate entrance. The top box of the split has one frame of capped brood and my last nine assembled frames. It’s time to endure the heat and get to work assembling frames. I also need to finish building the long hive and get that moved over to the Garner Grows Community Garden.

Hive count is at eight and I need to be more attentive to Hegemone in the next couple of weeks to make sure she doesn’t swarm. If the hive caps those queen cells, then I will probably make a few more splits that will be sold. The hive has sent out 3-4 swarms this year, so it’s not really surprising that they want to send out another.

I added a second hive body to the swarm hive by the raspberries and to the split with the purchased queen. The new queen’s hive was especially unfriendly today and netted me a sting on a finger. The bees were attacking the hive tool, headbutting my veil and encouraged me to put on gloves. Such are the joys of inspecting a hive in a dearth. I also think I kept the hives open too long and triggered a little bit of a robbing frenzy. All of the hives are strong, so I’m not worried but there will be a few more dead bees than usual in front of the hives.

I was curious to see if a dead bee could still sting and also wanted to boost my resistance to stings, so I stung myself on the hand. The answer is, yes a newly dead bee will still sting and pump venom.

Did a quick inspection of five of the hives to make sure they are doing okay. The giant swarm hive that I relocated off of the shed roof has been doing lots of orientation flights this past week. I gave the hive a second box and moved three frames up. I saw the queen. She is huge with a golden redish brown abdomen. I expect this hive to start to expand quickly.

The next hive I checked was the split with the queen purchased from the Carolina Bee Company. Monica was not exaggerating when she said the queen is one of the best layers she’s ever seen. There was a full frame  of eggs, both sides and I didn’t notice any empty cells. Each had an egg placed squarely in the middle of the cell. The hive is doing awesome and will need a second box in maybe a week.

I didn’t inspect Antheia because the hive is strong and I can tell from looking at the entrance. There are always several hundred bees wash boarding on the front of the hive and lots of activity at the entrance all day.

Hegemone was in a foul mood today. I used a lot more smoke than I normally would and they were still acting aggressive toward me. I didn’t get stung, but they clearly wanted to let me know they were not pleased with my presence. During the last inspection, I was worried about the hive being queenless and gave it a frame of eggs from Antheia. That was  12 days ago, so all of those eggs would have been capped ~3 days ago, and they were. They didn’t use any of the eggs to raise a new queen and I saw uncapped brood, so there is a queen in there somewhere. The best tip I read somewhere was that unless you absolutely need to find the queen, don’t look for her. Instead, look for signs of her being there. It would take a very long time to find the queen in Hegemone. She could be anywhere on the 40 frames of bees and she constantly moves around. It doesn’t help that the hive has lots of drones, so every frame has many larger than worker sized bees roaming about to distract me.

If the hive is pissy during the next inspection, then I might split it down in size and use the opportunity to raise a few more queens from the purchased one. Hegemone’s queen isn’t showing herself to be worthy of her crown.

The split that is in the double NUC is doing well. Nothing special, but they’ve recovered their numbers from when losing lots of their foragers during the hive swap. The other swarm hive over by the blackberries and raspberries is doing okay. Not building up that quickly, but the hive is stronger than I thought it would be after seeing the low activity at the entrance.

I inspected five hives today, gave each of the ~100-150k bees a reason to sting me, but they did not. While mowing the lawn, I discovered a yellow jacket nest…when they started stinging the crap out of my ankles and legs. I ended up with 4 stings, but it would have been more if the 2 yellow jackets stinging my shoelaces were a bit smarter. I counted over a dozen of them flying around the lawn mower when I returned with the can of wasp spray. I couldn’t see the entrance to the nest, so I decided to “nuke’em from orbit” and just sprayed anywhere they were hovering. I don’t mind yellow jackets. They are a beneficial bug, but they are not beneficial enough to give them a pass after stinging me. Wasps have been known to raid honey bee hives and kills lots of the bees, so I can never let a wasp nest get too strong.

I left work early after Alissa called to let me know that “Hegemone is doing something wierd.” The hive was sending out a second swarm. If you ever have doubts about whether it is orientation flights or a swarm, look up. This swarm was nice to us and landed on a branch of the dogwood tree to the right of the main 3 hives and about 6′ off the ground. Alissa went to work with duct tape to modify a cardboard box so it could hold the 15″ top bars. Catching the swarm went well, but I did brush a bee stinger first in to my hand.

I drove the swarm over to the top bar hive I set up this past weekend at the Garner Grows Community Garden. I wasn’t sure when I would get bees in to that hive after having to effectively cancel my order of 2 packages from Busy Bee. They were delayed a week and didn’t inform me until I called this past Friday. This swarm spared me from having to cut and tie a hive in to the KTBH. I still need to make another ~10 top bars for the hive.

The weather cooperated and I was able to swap the outer covers and give the bees the candy I made for them. Antheia had eaten almost all of the dry sugar and Hegemone barely touched hers. I’m guessing that Hegemone had more stores going in to winter. I didn’t smoke either hive because I was trying to cause the least amount of disruption to the hive. It also doesn’t seem like a smart move to trigger them to gorge on their dwindling stores. Antheia was very tame, but Hegemone netted me a string. It didn’t help that Hegemone managed to glue the inner cover to the outer cover so I completely opened the hive and exposed hundreds of bees that were feeding on the dry sugar.

The sugar definitely absorbed some moisture from the hive. The newspaper that was put under the dry sugar was soaked. The bees were less than thrilled when I tried to remove as much of it as possible. Antheia now has an entrance shim above the inner cover. Hegemone required a shim below the inner cover (in addition to the one above) because of the remaining dry sugar.

It’s been a about a week since I found the dead queen on the landing board of Antheia. After the inspection of the hive, I think that the old queen may have been superceded. Just like what we saw in Hegemone a short while ago, there was lots of capped brood, but no signs of a laying queen. We took off the masks to check for eggs this time. There were a few more queen cells with the sides ripped out and it looked like a few that emerged. Hopefully the hive has a virgin queen off on mating flights.

The girls were not too happy with my rearranging of the hive, I pulled a few frames up to the second brood box. One of the girls climbed on to my left middle finger and gave me the kiss of fire. I pulled the stinger out after about 5 seconds, but she definitely got a little bit of venom in to me. My hand didn’t swell at all and I was left with only a small red mark. The red mark was gone in less than an hour. This confirms that I am not allergic to bee stings. With many years of this apitherapy ahead of me, I should be less likely to suffer from arthritis as I age.

I took off the cover of Hegemone and there were a lot of bees in the upper box. The frames contained lots of capped and uncapped brood, meaning the queen is using both boxes for brood. There were clear signs of a laying queen, so we didn’t progress in to the lower box. There was no point moving down further and potentially injuring or disturbing the queen. I put frames that were still being drawn out between the frames with brood. This should encourage the queen to expand the brood nest in to these frames and increase the number of bees in the hive.

Beekeeping Tip: Finding signs of a laying queen is just as good as finding the queen.