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!!
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Saturday, April 25, 2015
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....
Just some more lovely bee shots.....
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 :)
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 :)
Saturday, April 18, 2015
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?
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?
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