STOP! THIEF!

The girls have sure been busy. Becuase of this the family hive has grown to quite the little tower. They were quite desperate for more room but I did not want it to topple over becuase it is starting to resemble the leaning tower of pisa so I decided I would "steal" some honey today.


This is a fume board. It has felt on one side and a metal cover on the other side. It fits on top of a standard hive. The idea is that you set it out in the sun for a few minutes and let it heat up. Then you spray some bee quick on it hitting the edges and making sure you do a zig zag pattern and then you place it on the hive.



While you are sweating to death and counting in your head to 5 min or so you try to contain your excitement while the bees remove themselves into a lower super. It actually worked quite well but I don't know if I waited long enough. There were still about 10-15 bees down in the lower end of the super and I believe they may have hitchhiked home with me. I thought that it worked so well that I would do it again and get a second super off the hive. Well, that is when the greed got to me becuase I forgot that I had an upper entrance. That means the bees had an alternate escape route. When I put the fume board back on the next super down instead of moving down the hive to the main entrance they started piling out this upper entrance. And then they started to congregate on the box. It looked something like this:
but a whole box or two higher. They were on the box that I wanted to take home and even after gently brushing them they were not interested in leaving. I decided it was not worth it at this point and decided that I would let them be. I started hearing the LOUDEST HUM EVER. Every single bee was humming in unison. Once I started putting the hive back together they started flapping their wings in an effort to ventilate it. I don't blame them. I think if I had my assistant with me we could have got it.

Here is a small update on the hives.

Tatiana - She has currently filled the newest shallow I gave her but it still needs capping. I probably could have taken 6 frames or so because they were 100% capped. I gave them a new shallow.

Brunhilda - She is doing very well. She has 3 frames in the top shallow that were not combed and 2 frames in the lower shallow that were not combed. She may need a super in a week or so depending on the weather.

Reina - She is also doing quite well. She only has about 3.5 frames that are not combed. She could have had a super today but I will give her another week or so. Her hive seemed quite strong as she had many bees coming and going. She has done excellent for her first year!

Typically if you start with nothing a new hive may or may not produce honey that you can "TAKE" in the first year but I think we will probably take honey from all three hives this year!

To smoke or NOT to smoke, that is the question

Personally I have never smoked. It causes lung cancer and just smells horrid. However I have smoked my girls now and again. I am trying not to smoke them every time I take a peek. Today when I went out I wanted to disrupt them as little as possible. I don't really know how much it disrupts them, does it set them back a week? A few days? Who knows for sure but I know that it causes them to gorge themselves on honey and then they have to put it all back. Surprisingly I was not attacked too much. I only had one headbutting experience and she was not around very long. Some beekeepers have started using liquid smoke. The idea is that it is easier on the bees and your spray bottle never goes out. I might try this just so I have a comparison.

Here is a photo of the bees and something they love to do. This is a picture of the outer cover. They just love working the top. It doesn't ever turn into much. The outer two rectangles are propolis.




Here is a good photo of how they are working the frames. You will notice how the right five frames are still empty. Usually they work the middle and go out but in this hive it looks like they prefer the left.


They all seemed to be working a little slower this week and last week. I don't think I will have to put on any more supers for at least one more week or so. I will probably check them again in a week to see if they need anything.

It is time to start getting ready for the big harvest. I purchased a 400 micron filter that fits in a 5 gallon bucket. It is reusable and should really help a ton.

The Bee Yard

I went out steal a frame of eggs and brood today to give to my friends hive. He was there to help because some of the supers are very heavy and many are sealed together. I have been worried about a honey bound hive because it happened last year and I have been anxious to check the lower deep of the family hive.


The one on the left is Tatiana the family hive. The one in the middle is Reina(my assistant's hive) and the one to the right is Brunhilda.

We pulled two frames of larvae and eggs out of Tatiana and put them in a nuc. We must have upset her pretty good because bees were everywhere! They were not honey bound and I gave them two empty frames so they can comb them and that will give them more room. By taking two frames out hopefully it will slow her down to the point where I don't have to worry about her swarming.



Here is a close up of Tatiana's hive. She is a booming hive with great activity. She was not as busy this week because she was not ready for another super. I think the nectar flow has slowed compared to last week. Maybe we need some rain to get things going again.

I gave a shallow to Brunhilda because she was ready. I will probably go out in a week or so to see how they are coming along.

7/10/2010 Just Plain Busy

I had some time to run out to the bee yard once again to check on their activity. I was prepared this time with 2 more supers. A med and a shallow just in case. This is the VERY first thing I look for. Pollen! If the bees are bringing in pollen it means you probably have a laying queen. Pollen is needed for the larva.

I went to take photos this time but left the card at home so I have nothing cool to show you but the family hive was ready for a shallow. It was a little early I admit but they only had 4 frames to go so I will have to watch them closely.

Brunhilda is about 6 frames away. I could throw one on as early as Wednesday but I may wait till Friday.

Reina (Meg's hive) was ready for her first Honey super. We gave her a Med and hopefully she will really start to take off. I will try to get some good photos of the bee yard and some activity from the field.

How many bees are in a typical hive?

I thought I would use this blog to help educate others and pass on things I have learned. I also hope to generate an interest in bees because they have started to decline over the past few years and we need more bee keepers! This is one of those questions that I frequently get or have gotten in the past. Honestly it is a difficult question to answer. For a typical hive it depends on a few factors such as diseases, if it is Fall, Spring or Summer. They are also impossible to count. I asked them to hold still once and they didn't listen. It goes back to that old adage that bees are not truly domesticated. If they like what we provide they will use it. If not they will find somewhere else to live.



When you purchase a package of bees you typically get 9,000 to 11,000 bees or so for a 3 lbs or 4 lbs package. It is a great way to start because you learn a great deal from starting from a package. A hive during the summer honey flow will have as many as 50,000 to 80,000 bees. Remember that a good laying queen will lay 2000 eggs a day and a hive grows quite quickly.

Why Carniolans?

Well, I will tell you. For many it is a preference. I have a good friend who prefers Italians. If I had it my way it would be British but we are not talking accents we are talking bees. I created a helpful little chart that might help you decide which strain of bee is right for you. I also attended a small bee class and the bee keeper in charge preferred Buckfast. It is all up to you and what you are trying to accomplish. We currently have 2 Carniolan and 1 Italian.



I am not going to say that Carniolans are the best but they seem to work good for me. I also believe that they overwinter very well. I am dying to try a Russian queen out. Maybe she can teach us that famous Russian Cossack Dance!

Honey Already???

7/3/2010 I finally had some time to really dig down deep and check on Regina. I was going to wait but it is a good thing I didn't. The weather has been decent and they have been working quite hard. I noticed that the honey super I just placed was COMPLETELY full! It was even capped. I am now trying to decide if I should harvest it or just leave it on. I gave her another super but it had all new frames so they will have to comb it and get it ready. I put the new super on top and probably should have put it in the middle.

Brunhilda has also been very busy. She is about 3.5 frames away of being full so I added a super for her as well. She has a very strong colony and should do quite well in the next 2 months.

Reina is getting there but probably needs a week or two before she is ready for a honey super. This is my assistant's hive and for some reason it has been slower from the beginning. We will have to keep a close eye on her to see if she catches up. I think the nuc she came from was slightly weaker than Brunhilda.

All three hives were VERY gentle. I had little to no head butting and they were too busy to follow me to the car. I guess they did not want to come home with me for ice cream. Oh Well.