A New Bee Place

The Internet has a wonderful way of connecting people.  I recently got an email from a professor at Georgia State.  He found me on my blog.

 He had friends in the northeast who arranged with beekeepers to have beehives in their yards in exchange for some honey.  He wanted to know if I would be interested in having hives in his yard.

Jeff and I jumped at the chance to expand our apiary capacity.  Sebastian, the GSU professor, lives near Jeff and Valerie's old house in East Atlanta, about 20 minutes from my house.  His partner, Christina, comes from Canada where she says everyone has bees and honey is sold in huge gallon jars.  They are both so enthusiastic about this.

Jeff, Valerie and I arrived to find that Sebastian and Christina have the perfect yard.  The bees can have an eastern exposure and should do well and be happy.  We'll install nucs that I am getting from Jerry Wallace in April.  Jeff and I brought cinder blocks and equipment to use for these bees - we thought it would be good to get it all set up and that Sebastian and Christina could think about the idea more concretely if the hive items were there.



Before the final photo above, we talked about hive location.



They had all kinds of questions about what to expect from the bees.



We set up one 10 frame hive (we're running out of equipment!) and one eight frame hive on a 10 frame slatted rack and SBB (we're running out of equipment - did I say that already?)



We only brought three frames for the 8 frame because there will be 5 frames in the nuc and we brought five frames for the 10 frame box.



We're so excited to share bees with this enthusiastic couple.  And I remember the kudzu in this neighborhood - this is where we had Topsy and Topsy was filled with dark honey, probably from the kudzu.

So here's to a good partnership with Sebastian and Christina and lots and lots of honey!

And on the good news side of things:

• Today many bees were still voting on my swarm trap - in and out, in and out, measuring and determining their vote about location, location, location.  
• The Decatur swarm is still in Topsy and apparently settling in, and 
• The SOS1 into which I put two frames of eggs - one from New Lenox, and one from Five Alive had bees flying in frantically with pollen on their legs today.

Installation Updates

Checked on the 8 frame Jennifer Berry hive and it was also doing well. The bees were located to one side of the box. It looked as if they had slid my three empty frames to the side and installed the five frames of bees on the other side.



I could see eggs and was relieved that the queen was laying although there was very little larvae, so I remain a little cautious.



On this hive I moved the five frames from Jennifer and the one of mine that they were using to the center of the box and put an empty frame on each side. Following the rule that when the bees have drawn out 80% of their box, it's time to add a new box, I then added a new medium super, filled with foundationless frames before I closed up the hive.

Then I drove to Stonehurst Place to see how those hives were doing. I lit my smoker but never really used it. I didn't need it and regretted lighting it because I then smelled like a Girl Scout campfire at work for the rest of the day.



In those two hives, I didn't see the queen but saw good evidence of her presence. You can see the uncapped brood in these frames. I also saw eggs, so I feel good about these Jerry Wallace hives which seemed to be off to a good start.

We had given them baggies of sugar syrup, but they had not touched them, due to the current nectar flow. I removed them from the hives and left them to their own devices for obtaining nurture.



The yard and garden at Stonehurst Place is very oriented to the bees. The hives are underneath a tulip poplar and the gardens themselves are planted with salvia, coreopsis, zinnias, cosmos. These bees should be happy as am I in their off-to-the-races start.

I put a new medium super with frames on each of these hives.

It's funny at the beginning of bee season all the hives are at about the same place but as time goes on, the differences in the bees of the two hives and the growth rates, honey production, etc. become more apparent.

News of the L Hive

I've decided to name this hive the L Hive since L is the first initial of the woman's name from whom Julia and I got these bees. Over the weekend I opened the L hive to see what's what. In the bottom deep, I found frames that were coming apart and rotting on the ends. But all the frames in the deep bottom were filled with brood.

This is a vigorous and hard-working queen.



The brood extended almost to the edges on each frame. They didn't have much honey storage on the brood frames. Maybe since they have lived in a deep and a shallow for four years, they have learned to maximize the frame for brood production.




I decided that these girls needed a new area to build in and to lay brood in so I added an empty box this weekend. I filled it with mostly empty frames with a tiny ridge of comb on the top. There were a couple of frames with old comb on them to help guide the bees.

The L hive needs some attention. The bottom box has rotten corners, the box has no slatted rack and the bottom board needs replacing, I'm going to get boxes ready and move these bees into an 8 frame deep and two medium deeps on Thursday if all goes well. I will again adapt a 10 frame bottom board for an 8 frame hive and transfer these beautiful brood frames to a new box. The frames that are broken, I may try to glue, but I may leave until they actually fall apart and then replace them.

See the beard? We've had a hot weekend and the bees look like summer bearding. I will also put a slatted rack on this hive on Thursday to help with ventilation.

Procrastination in Winter Never Pays Off

This April begins my fifth year keeping bees. Every winter I know most beekeepers paint and clean their old equipment - not me. Every year I promise myself that this year will be different. This year I'll paint equipment over the winter. Then bread baking, knitting for the grandchildren, watching movies all get in the way of my actually picking up a paintbrush.

This year as a favor and a surprise, one of my friends arranged to get the nuc I was purchasing from Jennifer Berry for the Blue Heron delivered to her house last night. I was supposed to drive to Good Hope on Saturday morning to get it. Instead it came last night and I was frantically painting equipment into the night.



You'll remember our Blue Heron hives were flooded out last September. I lost my eight frame bottom boards, inner covers, slatted racks in the flood. I have a lot of 10 frame bottom boards and slatted racks. Since I plan to move altogether to 8 frame medium boxes, I added a small feature to my slatted rack to adapt it to the 8 frame hive.

I cut a piece of the leftover board from the top bar hive to fit the length of the slatted rack. I painted it, nailed it to the edge of the slatted rack and adapted my hive bottom for 8 frame boxes. This wouldn't work as well with the screened bottom board because it is lower from the side edge to allow for a bee entrance at the front of the hive. In contrast, the slatted racks are only bee space below the edge, so the box sits perfectly in the space.



Here's the finished result. I also only have top covers for 10 frame but that will go over the 8 frame just as well. I bought ventilated hive covers to use this year as an inner cover at Blue Heron, so my hive is all equipped.....and I am breathless due to my procrastination!

GBA Talk - the History of 8 Frame Equipment

At GBA (Georgia Beekeepers' Association) in Rabun County this past weekend, I heard an entertaining talk by Steve Forest of Brushy Mountain Beekeeping. Steve pointed out that 8-frame equipment has been used and written about as long ago as 1894. He owns the entire year of Gleanings in Bee Culture from 1894 and there are, I believe he said, 24 articles on the advantages of using 8 frame equipment in that year!

He quoted a number of beekeepers who use 8 frame equipment, noting that bees tend to move up and not out. Often the frames on the outer edges of 10 frame equipment are not really used by the bees.

In 1915 Root moved to 10 frame equipment and began advertising it as advantageous. It's all about advertising, and beekeepers began moving to 10 frame equipment. By 1919 everyone believed that "bigger is better" and 10 frame equipment was all the rage.

I love using 8 frame equipment - it's so much lighter to move boxes during inspections. I didn't get to ask Steve what changes in measurements between 8 frame and 10 frame equipment.

My frames in my 10 frame equipment are snug in the box and fit tightly together. In my 8 frame equipment from Brushy Mountain, there is about 1/2 inch of wiggle room making the frames sit loosely in the box. So far that doesn't seem to be a problem, and maybe it works out the same as if I put 9 frames in a 10 frame box, which many beekeepers to do encourage really thick comb.

Adding Boxes to the Hives

I'm leaving for a week and it's the peak of the tulip poplar flow in Atlanta, so I posted on Beemaster to find out if I could leave empty supers on the hives even if the boxes below were not built out enough. The answer was to leave each hive with room to store honey in an extra box.

I checked the hives as I added boxes. In the small office parking lot swarm, the queen is laying. Here is her new brood. I was thrilled since I wasn't totally sure I had a good queen in this hive.


In one of the yard hives (I HAVE to name these hives - otherwise I'll have to resort to 1, 2, 3, etc. and that's no fun) the bees were building comb on top of the frames. I scraped off the burr comb and added a box. I turned to put the top back on the hive and there was Her Majesty, wandering around on the top! Horrors! I put her back as quickly as I could.


I added an 8 frame medium to this 10 frame hive and put a painted 2X4 to cover the exposed frames in the bottom box.

When I left town each hive had a yellow newly painted box on top. I didn't check the hive where the queen was released because I didn't want to disturb her.

Determining Equipment Needs for 2008 BeeSeason

Tonight while watching the eclipse, I took some pictures of the boxes I have stored in my carport to determine what I need to order. I have three nucs coming in late March, early April. I have the equipment to set up two more hives with medium 8-frame boxes. I have screened bottom boards, slatted racks, inner covers and telescoping covers for those as well as about six 8 frame boxes.

I have lots of shallows like these and a number unbuilt in my basement. My next trip downstairs should be one to determine what built and unbuilt equipment I have down there. I know I have a deep, a couple of solid bottom boards, and some unbuilt shallows, but there are other things there as well. Oh, yes, and I have the deep cypress unbuilt hive box from Rossman's that I won at the Georgia Beekeepers meeting a few weeks ago!

Here are the 8 frame items - slatted racks, etc.

So it looks to me as if I have the possibility of setting up three hives easily - two in 8 frame equipment and one in 10 frame equipment. I will try to have the 10 frame hive in medium boxes.

I don't plan to use foundation except for starter strips - and I have enough thin surplus and other wax foundation to give the bees a start.

I think if I order more equipment, it will all be 8 frame mediums. I might order another SBB and slatted rack as well as an inner and telescoping cover in hopes of a split or a swarm.

Next week I will bait the empty deep 10 frame box on my deck and give it a squirt of lemongrass oil weekly to see if a swarm will find it attractive.

Wishin', and hopin'....

I'm wishing and hoping that the little swarm hive will really develop into a colony. I ordered 8-frame equipment and put it together in that wishin' and hopin'! Here's the hive all put together. I even have an 8-frame screened bottom board and a slatted rack (see second picture).

I'm sure you are wondering why I have the new hive up on the hearth - it's to keep the dogs from getting too interested in it or to have a need to claim it for themselves.

All it needs is for me to paint the hive and for the swarm nuc to grow up enough to need it. That includes developing a healthy queen and having her succeed in her mating flight and returning to the hive. She should have emerged today or maybe tomorrow or the next day.

In case the queen cells I saw didn't result in a good queen, I'm adding another frame of brood to the nuc when I inspect tomorrow. I'll only open the nuc to take out a frame and add the brood/egg frame. I'm staying away from the frame where the queen cells were.

I also plan to put the Sonny-Mel small hive beetle trap on my three thriving hives tomorrow and I plan to move Proteus about a foot backwards more into the sun. I will also probably take a super off of Mellona to harvest cut comb honey. Should be a busy inspection day!