Hive Inspection at Blue Heron

Today we did a hive inspection at Blue Heron that was a combined endeavor - beekeepers from the Metro Atlanta Beekeeping club and anyone who was interested who is a gardener at the community garden at Blue Heron. We were a small group: three beekeepers from Metro and two from the garden, and me. The two people who participated from the community garden were two of the beekeepers who have hives at Blue Heron.

The goal was to acquaint the gardeners with what goes on in the hive, since their gardens benefit from our bees and vice versa. Since the Blue Heron participants this year were already beekeepers, they were not unfamiliar with beehives! Maybe we can get a better response next year.

I opened Julia's hive first which has a new queen from the Purvis Brothers apiary. She was laying beautiful patterns. We didn't see her, but this is the first time this hive has looked so good since we started the Blue Heron hives. There was an empty super on the top of the hive, so I took it off for Julia. But this hive is going to go into winter well.

The other two hives of mine are not doing very well. The first hive seems to have a drone-laying queen. There was very little honey in the hive and lots of drone brood. There's not a good reason for the bees to be making drones so close to when they kick all the drones out unless the queen is "short-bred," as Keith Fielder described it in a talk to our bee club. The other hive is only one deep box. They have two good frames of honey, lots of pollen, very few bees. We saw the queen but her pattern is scanty and not impressive.

One thought I have is to combine the two hives, throw out both queens and put in a purchased replacement. I wrote Don K at Dixie Bee Supply to see if he has any queens and I'll call the Purvis Brothers on Monday. Maybe I can find a queen and drive up to get her. Either beekeeper is within 1 1/2 hours drive from me.

We opened Kevin and Peter's hive (I finally could take pictures - while I worked on the other three, I didn't get a chance). Their hive which is a new start with a new queen this year, was doing beautifully. As I wrote about in a post on how to do a hive inspection, they removed the second frame as the first frame out to lessen the squashing of bees when putting frames back in the box.



There was brood in the honey super (an argument for same-sized frames), but it does mean their queen is really productive. Their queen was laying a lovely football shaped pattern just as one would wish in a good hive.



See how well covered with brood this frame is?



We all conferred and decided that since they had a super on the hive which was mostly filled with honey and another super with what looked like two or three frames of honey, that they should get the honey out and only have one honey super on the hive. The guys pulled the empty frames from the super and replaced the empty slots with the full frames from the almost empty super, leaving the hive with one full super of honey.



We were all surprised to find that in none of these hives did there seem to be a small hive beetle problem. We only saw one or two in each hive. The weakest hive had about six that we saw.

I brought a jar of honey from my hives for the participants to taste. Then since the bee tree is only about 1 mile up Roswell Road from Blue Heron, I offered to show it to them.

The three beekeepers from Metro drove the mile and were amazed at the bee tree with the hive box on the top, as am I every time I see it! The bees in just two days had used up the baggie of sugar syrup, so I replaced it. I can't believe they went through it so fast. I can't return to replace it again until Tuesday. I hope they'll be OK until then.

Bee Gum - an Old South Expression

Bee Gum is a hollow tree log in which a beehive resides. It's a term more common to the Southeast. It originated because often gum trees were hollow, making it a natural place to hive bees.

The bees at Odd Job could be called bees in a bee gum, although the tree is an oak.

Beegum Gap is a part of the trail up to Rabun Bald, the second highest point in Georgia and I have been to Beegum Gap.

There's an interesting write-up in the Old Settlers Gazette about bees and beegums - it's only a couple of pages and worth reading - especially for the picture on the second page.

Here's a section of Bees in America that describes the bee gum.

Michael Bush on a post on Beesource says about moving the bees out of the bee gum into a box:
"If you can get them through to spring, THEN you can put a frame of brood and some empty drawn comb in the super and then drum and smoke them up into that box and then put an excluder in, you might trap the queen up in the super and the brood there may anchor the bees to take care of her. About a month later pull the log and split it open and steal the honey."

So I am going to say a mantra every time I drive over to Odd Job: "Move up, move up, move up." Who knows, maybe it will work!

Bee Tree Gets a New Second Story

First I put the hive box on so that it slanted side to side. This seemed like a problem. I called Wally (Iddee on Beemaster and Beesource) and asked him what to do.

He responded that the hive box in your own bee yard would normally be slanted back to front, but side to side was a problem. You can imagine - the bees would draw comb up and down as per gravity, but up and down would not be in the frames - a big future mess, assuming they move up.

Then I realized (DUH) that all I had to do was turn the box and then it would slant front to back, making the back lower than the front by about 3/4 inch. Easy to do that so I immediately turned the box, problem solved!



I laid the bag of 2:1 syrup that I had brought with me on top of the frames and slit it with my knife.



Then I put an empty hive box around the baggie, put the bottom board on for a top and left it with lots of hope that the bees will move up.



Here it is in its final resting place. I'll check back on Saturday to see if the bees are eating the syrup. I wonder if I should prop the top to allow them to continue to use the top "entrance." Seems like that would encourage them to move up into the box as well.

I'll ask about that on Beemaster and then let you all know what I will do about that.

Looking at this picture, I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't bring a newly painted box for the surround for the sugar syrup. Maybe I'll replace it so it can look pretty in this public location.

Setting the Hive Box on the Bee Tree

Here are the bees peeking up from the top of the exposed comb in the tree. The bees had already started using the opening as a top entrance. I am a little worried about putting the hive box over the hole because they are using it as a top entrance.


Here's the silicone caulk beaded around the hole to keep out ants and other critters.



I nailed the board to the tree top. Tony, a New Zealander working of Odd Job, took this picture.



So here's the plywood board all caulked and nailed to the tree top, just waiting for the box.

Bee Tree Hive Preparation for a Hive Box

I can't get over how much beekeeping adds to my construction challenges! I went to Home Depot and bought a 24" X 24" piece of plywood to put on the top of the tree. I don't own and didn't want to purchase a sawsall ($199) and I don't have a mandrill (?) or whatever adaptor you have to have to attach a large hole saw to a drill and a 4" hole saw was about $15 without whatever adaptor I would need to attach it to the drill.

The guy in Home Depot suggested that instead of buying something I didn't really need, that I take my drill with a large bit and make a connect the dots circle since it doesn't have to be pretty for the bees. So that's what I did (see below)



Then I had to get the piece out and this required using this thin saw that I have (I had to change the saw blade - first time in the 15 years I've owned the saw) to put the small ended saw blade on - I'm sure it has its own special name. Anyway it worked perfectly to cut the little bits of wood between the dots.

Note: Research tonight yields that this is a "compass saw" and here's how it is described:
"A handsaw with a narrow triangular blade for cutting circles and curves in wood. Compass saws have longer, coarser blades than keyhole saws. They are designed for slightly heavier work such as cutting holes in subflooring for plumbing or electrical wiring."

So even though I didn't know what it was, I actually used it for the purpose for which it is designed: cutting circles!


Only one piece of wood still joined the circle to the larger block.



It's done. Tomorrow I'll nail this board to the tree section top. Iddee on Beemaster also suggested that I run a bead of caulk around the hole to keep the bees from making an entrance below the plywood and to keep out intruders like ants and such. I do have caulk and a way to do that (a caulking gun) so I'm all equipped for my morning event.

I have the car loaded with an extra super, a baggie of 2:1 sugar syrup, the board with the center cut out, my hammer and nails, my caulking gun, my bee jacket and veil, my gloves. A box with frames is already over there. Oh, and I loaded the ladder I'll need to have any height to work on this.



More to come on the bee tree adventure.
Preview of coming attractions:

• Pictures of the installed hive box from tomorrow's installation;
• Information about bee gums;
• An inspection at Blue Heron on Saturday morning.....
  

Boy, there's a lot to beekeeping.

The Bee Tree - Huge Success

Beekeeping is the best adventure I have ever had - every day there is a new wrinkle, something new and exciting to figure out or to learn. I never knew I would be dealing with bees in trees.

Yesterday Eddie, a tree man, cut down a tree near Emory and found that it was full of bees. Being a good person, he preserved the 12 foot part of the tree with the bees and brought it back to his office. He called his friend Roy, who called his friend Wade, who is a Blue Heron Beekeeper. Wade suggested that he call me and that is where this story begins. (It's all in who you know ultimately, isn't it!)

Today I went over to visit the bee tree (see earlier post) and in a panic came home to talk to Wally (Iddee on Beesource and Beemaster) and Cindy Bee, my Atlanta mentor. They both said that the best plan would be to upright the tree and keep the bees in it. It's illegal to keep bees in a tree, but the plan includes putting a hive box on top of the tree section and lure the bees up into it with food and frames and a box that hasn't been through an earthquake!

OK, I went to Eddie's Odd Job Tree removal company and conferred with Annette, who is in charge when the guys are out on jobs. I told her the options:

1. Cut the tree open and remove the hive and hope that the queen survives and that there isn't too much damage to the brood, etc.
2. Save the section and either:

• Leave it at Odd Job as their own hive (which I would manage for them) - they are very near to my house,
  
• Take it to my house or to Julia's house,
  
• Take it to Blue Heron.
  

Annette thought Eddie might like to keep it at Odd Job. So I told her I would return at a break I had in my schedule this afternoon and bring bee veils for the men to wear when they cut the tree into the 3 - 5 foot part that was the hive.

When I brought the bee veils, the men were there and wanted to get started right away. This was an AMAZING process - the slide show speaks for itself. The pictures are a combination of photos taken by me, Julia, and her son Sam.



BTW, I stopped by this evening on my way home from work and the bees were orientation flying around the entrance to their hive!

I'll put a hive box on top of the tree on Thursday morning so the process of moving out of the tree and into a hive box can take place over the fall and winter months.

Let me also put in a plug for Eddie at Odd Job - what a process he went through to save these bees. He's a good person to know - the number for his company is in the first picture on the slide show.

Here's the Bee Tree Challenge

OMG, I don't know if I can accomplish this. The bees are in a huge piece of tree on the back of a truck. You can see the open knothole that they are using for their entrance to the hive.



I wish there were a way to move this tree to my yard but it is way too big


There are thousands of bees in the tree.

I talked to Wally ("Iddee" on Beemaster and Beesource) and he said that they probably occupy anywhere from three to five feet of the tree. He was so helpful to talk me through how to determine where the hive is.

He said to cut about a firewood's length piece from the bottom of the tree and if there's solid wood there, to do the same thing again. When you reach the rotten wood, then you cut about 6" until you reach the comb. Once you reach the comb, you start at the other end of the tree and do the same thing. If Ed's guys are going to do this, I've promised to let them wear bee veils that I have!

My Blue Heron partner, Julia, borrowed a stethoscope and is going over the listen to the tree to see if she can locate the hive that way. I told her to take something to mark it with if she could determine where it is! located.

Here's a close-up of the bee's entry way.



And here I am optimistically putting a lure box beside the opening in hopes that the bees would just move in (fat chance!). And notice that this is in no way a pick-up truck but a big flat bed! They put a ladder by it so I could get into the back.

Preview of Coming Attractions

Today I got a call from a man whose friend is in the tree cutting business. Ed, the tree cutter, had cut a tree that had a beehive in it. He kept the section with the hive in it because he didn't want to condemn the bees to the shredder. It's in the back of his pickup.

He called to see if I wanted to come to get the bees. I am without a clue.

I posted on Beemaster and the people there who are always helpful, led me to a slideshow of how to remove bees from a tree, but to do it, I'll need to get the tree cut open. My friend Derrick said he could do it this weekend, but I may have to get this accomplished before then.

I also called my mentor, Cindy Bee. She called me back from EAS (I am so envious - I'd love to be there) and she suggested that I ask the guy if he would bring the cut tree trunk to my backyard. She then gave me great directions as to what to do once the trunk is in my yard. It involves a plywood base to set the trunk on, more plywood at the top to serve to hold a hive box and then an enticing hive box for the bees to move up into over the winter.

This sounds like fun. I hope I can talk him into driving it over to my house *(about 2 blocks from where the truck with the bees is parked). I have an extra veil, gloves and a bee suit, so we'll see and I'll report back with pictures tomorrow.