Some exciting discoveries!

So, right after I published that last post, I called the bee store to see if I could get a nuc and the answer was pretty much no.  The season for even that is gone by apparently.  The bee lady told me that my best bet was either to find a beekeeper that was willing to do a split with me (basically a nuc), or find a swarm on my own.  So, unless I come across one of those things, it looks like I will be beeless until next spring :(
   But, I did find some fascinating things when I was dismantling my hive!  I was wrong, there WAS some sign of brood, I just couldn't see it without taking the hive apart because the bees had built comb in the wrong direction, effectively gluing two frames together.  I still think the queen failed, because you could see that on one frame, brood had been laid and even some cells were capped off (covered) in a very organized section:

But in other places, the brood were laid in a very scattered, random way....one of the tell tale signs of a failing queen:

There was also a large number of earwigs (EWW....perhaps the only creature on the planet I despise) in the hive.  Not sure if they do any damage, i.e. eat larvae, eat comb etc, but I can't imagine they are a helpful presence.

Then I also noticed that there were lots of little black dots on the bottom board....are these mites of sorts??  That would explain a lot if they are.....although I would have no idea what to do to prevent that in the future.

And remember I mentioned earlier on that a couple of the frames were foundationless, essentially making them into top bar frames.  Well, it turns out that they must have started building comb on that frame and for some reason did not build it straight in line with the top bar.  They built comb about 30 degrees off of parallel to the frame, making it so that they ran into neighboring frames fairly quickly.  Not sure why they went crooked, it looks like something was amiss right from the start.  Anyway, all very interesting.

There were some bees with their butts sticking out of a cell, perhaps in the middle of feeding larvae when they died.

Apparently bees die very suddenly, in the midst of an activity.  Anyway, this will bring this hive to a close.  Lots to think about.  Perhaps no more bees until next spring.  But even still, stay tuned for interesting bee factoids, articles and questions. :)

Crash and burn :(

      Well, I checked on the bees when I said I would (after a couple days of warm sunny weather), and found exactly what I was hoping not to find.  A LOT of dead bees....and no fresh brood.   I inspected the hive to try to figure out what had happened, and there was not even the smallest sign of brood.  So I assume that means that my queen failed, and quickly at that....she didn't even give it a shot that witch.  Sadly, by the time I checked on the bees and realized they were queenless, I had four days of work ahead of me, which meant I wouldn't be able to get to the store to buy a new queen until five days had passed.  I knew that at that point it would likely be too late, taking into account the huge amount of die off that had already happened. At this point, the few bees (maybe a couple hundred), that were still buzzing around, were just doing all they could to survive.  When I would remove their water feeder to add more sugar water I would find about fifty bees clutching to the feeder for dear life (literally).  I can only imagine that they were doing their best to sustain hive activities but there is not much to be done when most of the hive is full of dead bees and there is no queen.  Without a queen, the bees have no direction from their queen, and with no brood to raise, the colony will die off. So I went back the evening after my last night of work and checked on the hive.... It was as if the bees had all died in place, going about their business and then just....dead.  They were all perched on the comb and at first glance I might have even thought they were still alive, but after a second I realized that there was only silence and stillness in the hive and that all my little friends had passed.  I cried.  I wanted so badly to provide these little magnificent beings with a good home and do my little part to help sustain them, and here I am, a mere month later with an entire hive dead.  It was so sad.

     When a queen fails, if the colony is strong enough, they can make a new queen.  They choose a cell with a worker larva in it and feed it something called "Royal Jelly" (sounds quite gross if you ask me), but its very nutrient rich and helps this little larva develop all the features of a queen.  Usually when a colony is left queenless they will actually develop multiple of these cells, just to ensure they are successful in replacing their queen.  When one of the queen cells hatches they will go around and slice open the other queen cells and kill the other soon-to-be-rival-queens.  Crazy.  If you beat them to the punch, you may purchase a new queen and introduce her into the hive.  As long as the colony accepts her as their new queen, they will not try to produce a queen on their own.  Since the queen that failed never even bothered to lay any brood at all, there was nothing for the bees to work with in order to make their own queen.
    So now I have no bees.  It really stinks.  I think I might purchase a 'nuc' which is basically a portion of an already thriving hive, and they come already settled into a box with frames and such (this is my understanding anyways).  They are a bit more expensive but usually tend to succeed, as they already have a strong foundation.  My impression is that true beekeepers tend to frown on nucs, as they are seen as cheating, or a bit less purist........but clearly I am no true beekeeper, so I have nothing against them and would be happy to have a second chance this season.  Otherwise I have to wait until next spring :(
    If I do this, I'm also going to change the location of my hive so that it is not right next to the pesticide spraying strip mall that I now dislike even more than I did before (who knows if that actually had anything to do with my hive collapse, but I'm certainly going to blame them for it).

Some unanswered questions:

1) What could I have done differently to ensure that my queen was happier?  I suppose a subtopic of that is....can you do anything to make your queen happy or is it in their nature to sometimes fail?

2) I was feeding my colony with pollen patties and they didn't seem to be eating any of it.  I took this as a sign that they were finding pollen out in the world, but should I have seen this as a sign of distress?

3) The bees were not drinking any sugar water for a while and then when I noticed an increase in die off, it seemed that I was refilling their water at least once a day, is there a connection??

Things I learned:

1) Secure your frames properly and make sure your hive is truly ready for bee installation before the bees arrive (I feel that had I not meddled so much in the beginning it may have gotten them off on a better foot?)

2) Trust your gut.  When you assess your hive early on and you notice that comb is being built slowly, or inefficiently, or that there is no brood, don't attribute it to the bees "just getting settled".  Bees don't waste time when they are healthy, so when you note signs of colony sluggishness or inefficiency, then THAT is the time to find your queen.  If you find her, consider the need to kill her off and replace her with a new queen.  I'm actually glad I didn't do this (from a purely visceral standpoint) because I have an abnormally low crying threshold when it comes to suffering or death of any living thing, with the exception of humans (my crying threshold is appropriate with humans).  But back to the point....if you DON'T find your queen, get a replacement queen immediately.

3) Ask for help.  I reached out to the folks at To Bee or Not to Bee, many times and they were AMAZING.  Even though it was too late and there was nothing they could do for me, they were so supportive and helpful.  Anyone in the Denver metro area considering bees, I would point you to them without hesitation.


Final thoughts:  I feel that I failed my bees, but John continues to remind me that it is better to try and fail (and learn), than never to try at all.  And it's true.  I honestly didn't even consider the fact that my colony would fail before the first season haha.  Goes to show how much learning I have to do.  Some people don't even believe in failure (I want so badly to be one of those people), or they don't take it to heart like I do.  So in practicing this perspective, I will clean out the hive, and take my wallet and all the things I've learned, back to the bee store to try again.  

Flop? Seeking advice!

     Wellllll, I wouldn't exactly say that the girls are thriving.  They are trying so hard! But its been a rough spring for them.  We just had a fluke snowstorm (for those of you who don't live here in CO), which was sandwiched by four days of cold, hard rain.  This is a sample of some of the strange weather we have had this spring, and I can only assume that the weather has taken its toll on the girls.  After each rain, I've gone out to the hive and seen tens to hundreds of dead bees around the hive.  And then of course there was the frame fiasco that set them back in the beginning.  When I checked the hive a week ago or so I could see that the bees that had started to build some comb in between the frames and not just down the foundation.  As a result, I simply wont be able to remove and manipulate those frames.  So, at the time I had two medium boxes and this was all in the top box; so I removed the bottom box which had no bee establishment in it yet, fixed all the frames that needed reinforcement and placed it on top of the box with the fixed frames.  That way, the top box will hopefully have better frames, the bees will build correctly, and I will be able to manipulate that box a bit more.  So I've been messing with the hive quite a bit and even though I was trying to make it easier on the bees, I feel that I've been meddling a bit too much.
      Lastly, my dad pointed out that the strip mall behind my house may be spraying pesticides.  That didn't occur to me at all!  We placed the hive right against our back fence which abuts the strip mall.  I chose that location because I wanted to give my neighbors some space from the bees and the hive is right next to a lilac hedge, which I thought they would like in early spring.  BUT I did not even think about the fact that the commercial space behind us may spray their grass.
     So, as of yesterday there was very little action in the hive.  I took a quick look inside and saw comb but no brood from what I could see from that angle.  I decided I would give them a couple of sunny days to recover before I poked my nose in for a closer look.
     What I SHOULD be seeing is comb being built, brood being laid in a very organized pattern, both drone brood and worker brood, and I should obviously see the queen (although if you don't see your queen, the presence of those other things will insinuate that she is alive and well).  I'm worried that what I WILL see is a bunch of worker bees doing the best they can to survive their colony, and perhaps no queen, or a failing queen.

Any advice???  How do I save my bees???

Lesson #1

Well dear friends,
It took me a whole two days to make my first giant mistake.  So after my last post, the girls were settled in and getting comfty in their new home.  They had food and water and everything seemed to be going swimmingly.

The next day I removed the little box with the queen in it and swapped out the cork in the box with a marshmallow (yup, a marshmallow), and placed her back in the hive, still in her box.  This allows the worker bees to eat away the marshmallow and release the queen into the hive.  So that all went well.

Two days after that I went to check on the girls to make sure that they had released their queen and check to see how much of the pollen patties they had eaten.  The two days that had passed had both been rainy and cold, so when I walked up to the hive and found about 200 dead bees around the hive I figured (after panicking) that it was the unexpected cold that had done it.  Buuuut, then I opened the hive and saw that all of the foundations of my frames had fallen out and were scattered helter skelter all through the hive, and were actually blocking the bees from getting down to the hive entrance to access their water! So now not only did I have a ton of dead bees, but now I had live bees building comb wherever they wanted....and I had to somehow reach in, grab all the foundations, figure out what I had done wrong, fix the frames, replace them, and work around the already settling in bees.  BUT the good news! They DID get their queen out of her box, AND they were at least doing well enough to start building comb!  They had started building comb, thankfully, on one of the foundationless frames.  So, I just happened to have enough extra synthetic frames to replace them all except the one frame that had comb on it already....I guess that one will just be a top bar haha.

So anyway, what happened is that I somehow missed the memo that if foundations don't come with wire already embedded into them, then you have to do it yourself....how did I miss this?  I thought they were quite flimsy, but never did it occur to me to by a magical electrical box that heats wire and spend an afternoon embedding wire into wax foundations (which apparently is what you are supposed to do).  So I didn't want synthetic frames, but thats what I had on hand and the fix had to be done quickly, so thats what is.  These work better because they are more rigid so they hold the weight of the bees and the comb.  Now I'm just hoping that my frames don't fall apart on me!

Anyway, checked on them again today, gave them a fresh pollen patty and all frames seem to be intact!!

The girls are here!!!

John and I picked up our bees today!  We transferred them into their new home and we made it out without getting stung!  I'm so excited to get to know these gals.  Here's how it went....

We picked up the bees in a little wood frame, screened in box....all 30,000 of them....

We then had the task of taking the can out of the center and getting all the bees into the hive....hmmmm...

The can is filled with sugar water and is in there as a source of food during their travels.  So we got the hive all set and ready to go.  I have medium hive bodies so I started with two of them.  If you are starting with deep hive bodies you can just start with one, but I didn't think one medium would be enough space for these ladies so I started them with two.  I decided to put them into the bottom box and then put the second box on top, but in hindsight I would have stacked the boxes and then shook the bees into both boxes.  So we were ready..

John then looked at me and said...'sooo, what next?', to which my response was...

So after gathering myself, we started pulling the can out of the box.

We set the can aside and the bees began to leave the box and buzz about.  I panicked that they would all just immediately swarm and take off on me, but they stuck around.  We removed the little box that the queen was in and set her aside.  

I shook the box over the hive to get the bees to fall down into the hive bodies and banged it on the side of the hive a few times.  

At this point there was a formidable swarm of bees buzzing around me and I couldn't believe how unintimidating it was.  

They were so gentle, crawling over my hands and arms without caring at all who or what I was, or what I was doing.   After most of the bees were shaken down into the hive body, I brushed them out of the way enough to add the top hive body, but it was nearly impossible to get all the bees out of the way (which is why I would shake the bees into the prestacked bee boxes next time).

Now its time for the queen! We will leave her in her box for now, so the colony can orient themselves to her and have time to settle in and realize that they need a queen. 

I separated two frames in the top box just enough to fit the queen box down in there (careful to keep the screened side open and not against a frame), and then taped the top of the metal hook to the top of the frame.  Once the queen was in, I brushed the stray bees down into the hive and put the inner and outer lid on, stepped back and admired my mornings work! Not one disaster, much to my surprise!

After the girls were settled in, I made them some snacks.

This is a mix of pollen patty paste.  Pollen powder mixed with a 50/50 sugar water syrup.  I'm sure there are ratios for this but I just put a bunch of powder in the pot and then slowly added the syrup until it looked like this...

Then I poked a bunch of holes in wax paper...

Added the paste...

And brought it out to the bees.  

I laid it on top of the frames under the inner lid.  I started them with four patties because I'm really not sure how quickly they would go through it and I wanted to give them a good start. This is their source of protein and will help them thrive until they can gather nectar and pollen in abundance from nature.  I will continue to feed them until it seems they aren't eating it anymore.  I also put their sugar water feeder into the front of the hive.

Now they have food and water and a home! I'm so excited!!!

Just some more lovely bee shots.....

The Hive

There are many different kinds of hives out there and lots of opinions surrounding all of them.  I have no opinions of any of them since I am still working on understanding their differences and functionality.  I have a Langstroph hive, so all hive information provided here will be regarding that hive.

Hive Bodies:
The term 'Hive Bodies' refer to the different boxes that make up the hive.  There are three different sizes of hive bodies, a deep, a medium, and a short.  Generally speaking the mediums and the deeps are used as Brood Boxes (the boxes where the queen lays all of her eggs and brood is cared for).  Subsequently, the mediums and the shorts and usually used as Honey Supers (the boxes from which honey is harvested).

Bottom Board:
The bottom board is exactly that...basically the foundation of the hive.  People play around with making the bottom board more or less ventilated with different designs and materials.  Your bees need ventilation, but they also need protection from the elements.  So, depending on how much ventilation the rest of your hive allows and what sort of climate you live in, you can play around with how much to ventilate your hive through the bottom board.

There is no right-side-up to the bottom board, although each side does allow a larger or narrower entrance to the hive.  No right or wrong here.  Again, it has to do with ventilation and also how you want to feed your bees.  Using a Boardman feeder (the upside down mason jar with feeder attachment) will require that you put the bottom board in such a way that the entrance is wider.  Pictures to come on this.

Inner lid:
This simply provides a boundary for the bees, this is usually used in conjunction with the outer lid.  The inner lid also has a slot in it, if you are in a warm dry climate you may place your feeder over this slot in the spring and fall (and winter if its warm enough).

Outer lid:
Protects from the elements.

Queen excluder:
Some use it, some don't....anyone have thoughts on this??  This is basically a metal grid with slots large enough to allow the worker bees to pass through but too small for the larger queen to pass through.  It is placed between your brood boxes and honey supers to ensure that the queen does not begin laying eggs in the honey super.

Frames:
Frames are sized to fit the box size they are in.  There are ten frames per box and they come with a foundation for bees to build their honeycomb off of.  This is where it gets fuzzy for me.....Top bar hives have no foundation, the bees build it all from the ground up.  But it takes a lot of time/energy/supplies to build honeycomb, so wouldn't you get a higher honey yield if you provided a frame that already had a foundation in it?? Help please :)

April 25th! That's the big arrival day!!

The colony...

So 14 million bees were spilled out on the highway in Washington state yesterday when the tractor trailer truck that was transporting them rolled over.  So many good hives down!  Everyone was fine, aside from multiple stings from the millions of seriously peeved bees.  Poor little things.

My own bees should be enroute as well; hopefully with more success than the bees above.  I'm trying to figure out when exactly my girls will arrive because I haven't heard anything yet, which is weird.  I will get about 3 lbs of worker bees (about 30,000) and 1 mated queen (meaning she has already mated and will be ready to lay eggs).  A few basics about the colony:

The queen's purpose in life is basically to reproduce; she lays brood day in day out.  This is actually really helpful when trying to figure out if you have a failing queen, or a dead queen.  If you check your frames and notice that either the queen is laying all over the frame in a random, willy nilly way, or if you notice that you only have brood in the late stages of growth and no fresh brood, you know something is amiss.  The queen, when healthy, will lay in a very organized, methodical pattern, and she will lay every day which means that you should always have brood of every stage of development.  She will also usually separate her worker larvae from her drone larvae, so if they become intermingled this is cause for concern.  Drone brood are easy to spot because they are encapsulated in cells that are not flush with the comb (like that of a worker) but they stick out torpedo like from the comb.

Your worker bees will do exactly that: work.  They generally do not lay any eggs although they have the capacity to do so.  They each have a specific job and they spend their life doing it.  These gals literally make it all happen.  They find sources of food and water, they inform the rest of the hive where it is and how to get there, they collect pollen and nectar, they build honeycomb, make honey, help to regulate the temperature in the hive, and they protect the queen.  Pretty cool little things.  Worker bees will be a big focus of many postings as they are the complicated, highly specialized and incredibly impressive backbone of any successful colony.

Drones? They are just dudes, looking out for their own evolutionary survival.  Their goal in life is to mate with a queen. Period.  I have very little understanding of their contribution above and beyond this. Anyone?

Here goes...

So I decided about three years ago that I really wanted to keep bees; a decision that was purely visceral and not based even the slightest bit in practicality or knowledge.  In that three years, I kept busy romanticizing the idea of keeping bees but not actually doing anything to further my knowledge or preparation for this to actually become a reality.  I kept the idea at bay, knowing that I didn't have plans to be in the same house or physical location for more than six months at a time.  So when the future hubby and I bought our house in October, my bee nectars started flowing and I've spent the better part of the winter reading, planning and stocking up on supplies!

My goal is to write a weekly entry, talking about my trials and tribulations (and hopefully successes) of this crazy process!  I couldn't be more excited to get started and I really want to make this a fun and possibly even informative forum for people of all levels of bee involvement!

Before we dive in, I want to give a shout out to the man that continually sparks my curiosity and inspires my creativity, my hubby-to-be, John Watson.  I'm so lucky to be marrying this brilliant, quirky, concoction of a man.  This guy has literally no fear of trying things and is convinced he can figure out basically anything (which so far remains to be disproved).  Anyway, I say all of this, not to gloat about how cool my man is, but to say that this very concept has been an important part of me getting on my own beekeeping bandwagon.  I've been really into the concept of beekeeping, but when the time came to actually get started I got really intimidated and unsure of myself.  The more I read the more confidence I lost.  Then I went to a workshop and realized that not only is this process mostly trial and error (and luck), but I had in fact learned a decent amount from my reading.  With that knowledge came a new level of comfort with the amount of knowledge that I lacked.  Now I am sitting pretty, ready for my bees to arrive, getting my hive together, and getting ready to own this thing that I completely don't understand. Woop!

So here's to being bold; trying things that we don't understand, and being reminded of the humor, and humanity of trial and error!