They know what to do

Today was perfect for checking the hives. It was quite a well attended event with all of our NH family (except our white water loving son) here to see the bees. I went out early today and practiced the various steps to try and get it right. Overall, tho' rather nervous opening my first hive as the "beekeeper", it was a fantastic experience!

The bees proved they definitely know what they're doing. Both queens were released and laying eggs. The workers were drawing out comb and packing away pollen. Both hives were extremely relaxed with hardly any smoke needed for the 2nd hive. In the photos above, you can see 1 day old eggs in some of the cells centrally and some pollen and nectar being stored in the bottom right on the black Pierco frame. The 2nd picture is the queen in hive 2. Click on the photos to enlarge.

Hive notes:
The bees in Hive one are drawing significantly more comb and storing more pollen. The central 4 frames have bees drawing comb. Hive 1 has a greater numbers of bees and the pollen patty is approximately 1/2 eaten. I never found the queen but the eggs tell me she is there.

Hive 2 is active, the queen is laying eggs but the bees have drawn less comb and hardly touched the pollen patty. They have drawn a lot of comb on the bottom of the hive top feeder.

I used confectioner's sugar on hive one and forgot to apply it to hive 2. I placed the remains of both pollen patties in the respective hives and closed them up. They immediately went back to normal operation and seem quite relaxed and content. Just like me now that I know we're off and running.

Windy day

I wanted to open the hives today to check the queens and see if they're laying but the wind didn't cooperate. The bees were definitely busy, tho'. Lots of dark orange pollen and yellow pollen is being gathered which makes me think things must be going fairly well inside the hives. The oaks, pines and bleeding hearts are thick with pollen right now and the bees are always darting off for more.

As I mentioned, I am trying to raise these bees as holistically as possible. I cannot say organically for 2 basic reasons; polystyrene hives and plastic frames and foundation. Why did I choose these? Added insulation in winter and mite and hive beetle control. Last winter we had record snows–over 200" (60" is normal) and it stayed white from before Christmas until mid-March. I know of numerous local beeks that lost colonies last winter and I hope the extra insulation provided by the BeeMax polystyrene hive will help keep my bees sufficiently warm. The plastic frames and foundation was really recommended to me by Better Bee (www.betterbee.com). The plastic helps with hive beetles and mice damage versus wood and wax. The question is whether the bees like it. There are numerous posts on beesource.com about plastic, both good and bad. I decided to try it tho' it may be the first thing I decide to change for next year. I did paint all of the foundation with beeswax to help make the ladies want to draw out more comb. If the weather cooperates tomorrow, I'll get my first chance to see how I did.

Other differences between hives:
Hive one is large cell, black Pierco frames/foundation, painted with wax (see image above). I sprayed each frame with a 1:1 syrup mix with 4tsp of Honey-Bee-Healthy per quart to help entice the bees. As I closed each hive I added a Global pollen patty and a 4"x 5" piece of paper towel soaked in vegetable oil to help with Varroa mite control.

Hive two is is the same except the frames are white Mann Lake 100 small cell foundation and I sprinkled powered sugar on the bees when I hived them for mite control. Tho' a good way to knock mites off of the bees, overall, this probably was a bad idea as I had also sprayed the bees just prior to hiving and they were wet. Hive one was considerably more active days 1 - 3 compared to hive 2. On day 8, they appear fairly equal and I attribute the early difference to sugar coated bees don't fly...Pretty stupid on my part. I'm sure it won't be the last dumb thing I do as a bee landlord.

Hungry bees

After being out of town for a couple of days I went out this morning to check on the hive top feeders. I purchased 2 polystyrene feeders with my BeeMax hives and had added 2 gal of 1:1 syrup when I hived them on Saturday. Hardly any syrup had been taken up on Monday but today showed the bees feeding and more than half the syrup consumed in each hive. I'll feed more syrup when I open them on Saturday to check on queen release and see if they're building out any frames.

Only problem was a fair amount of drowned bees. I had used some sandpaper to rough up the plastic bee guard to give the ladies better traction but still have more than 40 drowned bees in each feeder.

Overall, my wife and fellow beek, Gayla, says the hives have been active while I've been gone and the bleeding hearts have seen lots of activity. Hive 1 still seems more active than hive 2. I'll explain the differences in my next post.

The Ladies are in Residence!

I have been looking forward to this day as if it is Christmas! We drove 2 hours this morning to Better Bee and picked up 7 packages (2 are ours) of Italian bees with new queens. After dropping off 5 packages to other members of the Monadnock Beekeepers Association it was time to hit the books for a quick review.

After watching videos and reading about installing packages for 3 months, it's now time. Amazing how book knowledge is rarely as beneficial as practical experience. After assembling almost (an important word...) all of the tools, sprays and food, I practiced all of the steps I was going to do before donning a pullover jacket and veil. I sprayed the bees with a 1:1 syrup solution with 4tsp/qt of Honey-B-Good mixed in. It immediately calmed the bees (really made it so they weren't fanning) and I smacked the bottom of the first package on the hive frame to move the bees to the bottom. After prying the cover off the top, the queen cage and sugar can came right out of the package. Knowing I was supposed to pull the cork out of the cage, I proceeded to push the cork at the bottom of the cage in towards the queen. Okay, so I was nervous. No harm, no foul and luckily no injured queen! I think...

So now, I take off the metal disk covering the sugar plug (no book EVER mentioned a metal disk) and it dawns on me that the only thing I forgot was a way to hang the cage between the frames (see almost...). After a quick panic in the basement looking for nails (every size but the one I needed) I cut some wire from a spool I use to support the raspberries and placed it through the staples on the cage. Hopefully, I did a good job supporting it.

After, again, spraying the bees and knocking them to the bottom of the package, I poured 1/2 of the bees over the queen's cage and the rest into the empty space where I previously took out 5 frames to make room for the ladies. Though I had previously wondered what would make a relatively sane man do this, it was easier than I thought and the bees stayed calm through the entire adventure. After replacing 4 frames (the 5th goes in next week after the queen leaves her cage) I placed a 5" square paper towel soaked in vegetable oil (makes it harder for Varroa mites to stick to the bees) placed a pollen patty on the top of the frames, put on a top feeder and filled it with 2 gal of 1:1 sugar syrup with 1 tsp of HBH/qt mixed in. I positioned the telescoping outer cover and repeated everything again for the 2nd package (except I was prepared for placing the 2nd queen cage). I'm not sure about the bees but I was exhausted!

The bees in the 2nd package were VERY active during the entire process, much more so than the 1st package. Now that they are hived, the bees in hive 1 are out and active–fanning and starting orientation flights. Hive 2 seems much quieter. I did put entrance reducers on both hives, turned on the electric fence and was eaten by black flies while I sat back and enjoyed the show my bees put on as they get used to their new home. I'm actually now a beekeeper.

The Calm Before the Storm

Thirty years ago, I wanted to raise honey bees. Three months ago, I finally did something about it. This is very unlike me. Normally, if I want to do something I rush in and start it. Maybe it was because we were still moving around the country, establishing my career, starting a business, raising kids or any number of other excuses. Whatever the reason for the delay, the fun starts tomorrow. Actually, the fun started last February when my wife, Gayla, and I decided we wanted to add honey bees to our yard. Since then, it's been reading everything we can about bees –including countless hours on beesource.com– painting one polystyrene hive then deciding to add another, taking bee classes (an absolute must if you want to do this), deciding to try one hive small cell on Mann Lake PF100s and another on Pierco waxed deeps, building a platform to help the ladies defend themselves against critters, choosing a site that will work for the bees AND our yard, adding a solar electric fence to keep out our local 400lb bear and today, making 6 gallons of 1:1 syrup. I must admit, I have not enjoyed getting ready for anything as much as I have preparing for tomorrow. I just hope I don't let down the 25,000 bees we pick up in the morning. Tomorrow the fun really begins!