Rabun County Marauder

I don't know where the fall went.  It's November and I have no idea what happened to autumn.  Today I'm in Rabun County.  I've missed being up here and have entirely missed the fall leaves.  I haven't done a good job of checking on the bees up here, so I wanted both to check on the bees and turn on the heat at my house so that the pipes won't freeze as the winter arrives.

I arrived at the School House Garden and was shocked with what I found.  As you remember, one of the hives had died.  I left one box on the cinder blocks - a slatted rack, a screened bottom board, one hive box, an inner cover and a telescoping cover.  My hope was that in the spring a hive might move in as a swarm.

Today here's what the empty hive looked like:

I don't  know how to think of this - the cover on the hive box could not have been off for long because the wood is not discolored and I haven't been here in two months.  The slatted rack and screened bottom board are discolored and wrecked.  I don't know if an animal did this or since the weeds had been cut back, if a tractor ran over the whole thing.

At the remaining live hive, I saw an occasional bee enter.  The bees all entered on the same side of the entry, but there were very few of them.  

I had brought an empty 10 frame box to act as a surround for a rapid feeder.  So I set up the rapid feeder over the inner cover and filled it with honey.  It was 62 degrees.  Generally when a hive is in need of stores, when you put on the feeder, at least one or two bees immediately show up in the tube to sample the new honey.  

Not a bee appeared.

I lifted the hive from the bottom hand hold.  It seemed relatively heavy as if they had put on a good amount of stores.  

I get really cautious when I've lost a hive, so I didn't go into the box and just left to go to WalMart.  While I perused the aisles at WalMart, I kept thinking about the bees.  Were those hive bees or were they marauding bees from the nearby hive in the wall of the old school building?  Should I have left all of that good honey on a deadout when there are hives that could use it in Atlanta?  

Needless to say, after I checked out of WalMart, I drove back over to the community garden and opened up the hive box.  

The top box held honey but no bees.  But on the second and bottom box there were bees covering four frames in each box (8 frames of bees in all).  I knew they had clustered there the night before when the temperatures were in the 30s, and I felt relieved to see them.

Still cautious, I didn't check any further to see if there were a queen, but instead closed up the hive with a sigh of relief.  I'll check them again in a few weeks.

I rode home wearing my sunglasses this morning because as probably all of you know, during the fall, leaves look more colorful through sunglasses than they actually are so I could have the illusion that I didn't miss the fall leaves in North Georgia!

Yet Another (two) Wax Block(s)

Well, I'm at it again:  The Great Wax Block Saga.

Last night I poured two wax blocks for the Tara Contest and hoped at least one of them would be good this morning.  When I got ready to pour, I pulled out my piece of silk and found that a wax moth or some other creature had feasted on it:

So I resorted to using panty hose - not as good a filter, but hey, it's what I had.

The panty hose is stretched over a measuring cup with a pouring lip that has been heated in a pan of simmering water so the wax won't solidify as it hits the glass.

I cooled one block in the downstairs oven and the other on the counter top.  I heated the oven to its lowest temperature:  170 and then turned it off before putting in the wax.  Inside the oven while it is heating is a roasting pan filled with hot water and the mold for the block:

I poured one round mold and one in a bread pan.   This morning both were good, but the bread pan had striated lines on the edges of the block:

I polished it while I put the round mold in the freezer - it wouldn't come out of the mold and sometimes the freezer for about 30 minutes will do the trick.  As a last resort, I could use this block but I don't want the striations.

Voila!  The round mold came out just lovely:

I can see a couple of specks in it - result of the use of panty hose instead of silk, but it is a gorgeous wax block.  I've packed it up (after polishing and polishing with panty hose) to go to the show tonight as well.

It rides in its own Tupperware container and sits on a linen napkin - throne for a queen, I guess.

Wish me luck and I'll let you know how it goes.

Entries for Tara Honey Show

I belong to a couple of bee clubs.  The Tara Bee Club is having its honey contest tonight.  I have to work until 6:30 and I live 16 miles in going home traffic from the Tara meeting in Forest Park, Georgia.  They are accepting honey entries from 6:45 - 7:15 so I will arrive at best just under the wire.  As a result I had to get everything ready last night so that I only have to take the plastic wrap off of the jars, put on new tops, and hand them to the steward.

Generally to a honey show, I take a leg of panty hose or a piece of silk for polishing, gloves to pick up the jars, a flashlight to look for fingerprints, a squirt jar of water in case something needs cleaning, toothpicks for last minute bubble removal, silver demitasse spoons for equalizing jar fills, and lint free cloths for polishing jars.  I'll probably have all of that with me, but in reality, I won't have time tonight.  So last night I spent hours getting my entries ready for the show.

I poured two wax blocks and crossed my fingers until this morning.

I polished, equalized, and de-bubbled jars (actually only one jar had bubbles).  I put new tops for each jar in plastic Ziplocs.  I put all the finished products in a sectioned box:

So I'm entering (from top of photo to bottom) black jar, creamed honey, light honey, chunk honey (and a wax block - see next post).  You can see the flashlight peeking out of one of the jar lid filled sections and the new tops for the jars in their baggies.  

I only have light honey to enter this year since Jeff and I only really harvested from Five Alive and Stonehurst.  Like last year, the Stonehurst honey has crystallized early - it was kind of medium - so all we have is the light honey from Five Alive.

We'll see if anything places - I've not done great in honey shows this year, but if I say so myself, the creamed honey we are entering into Tara is really fabulous.

Pests in the Hive - Ants and SHB

One of my hives at Stonehurst is the subject of a UGA study (along with a number of other beekeepers' hives).  The researcher came last week and emailed me that he thought the hives were so infested with SHB that they would not survive the winter.

I went over today with the only small hive beetle trap I could quickly find that didn't need an Imrie shim.  It was an AJ's trap.  I recently won two beetle traps like AJ's from Buster's Bees at a Tara Beekeepers meeting, but I couldn't find them today.

I opened the smallest hive and there were SHB EVERYWHERE on the top cover and in the corners.  I didn't see the SHB in the actual hive, which was comforting.  First I used a funny suction instrument that John Jones gave me.  I tried....I really did, but I only sucked one SHB all the way into the bottle.  The rest were in the suction tube and I had no idea how to manage them.  So I gave up on the method and installed the AJ's.

The good news is that the larger hive (fartherest away in the picture) felt heavy and when I opened it, there was not a single SHB.  In the smaller hive beside the smoker, were the tons of SHB - probably at least 150 on the top cover.

I left the hive with an oil filled AJs and we'll see if it catches any of them.  I also put a surround box with a rapid feeder filled with last year's honey on the small hive.


After that I went to Sebastian's to see if that hive needed food.  I opened it to find that ants had taken up residence:

I wish you would LOOK at all the ants.  Funny thing, they weren't in the rapid feeder and there was still some crystallized honey in it.  I had two jars of last year's honey so I refilled the rapid feeder.

I think I'll go back and sprinkle cinnamon all over the inner cover.

At the bee club meeting this week, the president asked who wasn't feeding their bees.  I didn't know whether to raise my hand or not.  I'm not feeding mine in the way she meant - with sugar syrup.  I am feeding the ones that are light on stores with last year's honey.

After the bee meeting in Massachusetts, I want to raise bees that aren't dependent on my interference and don't need sugar syrup to make it through.  I also was scanty in my harvest this year to make sure that the bees are OK for the winter.

It's a Long Way to Tipperary....

I just got back from a vacation trip to Ireland.  I was lucky enough to get a seat on the trip done by the Embry Hills Methodist Church (many members of my book club belong to this church).  Their choir was taking a tour to Ireland and they had some empty seats that they needed to fill.  Since I knew a number of people on the trip because we are all in book club together, I was more than glad to fill a seat on the plane.

One of the places we stopped was Clonmel, a town in Tipperary.  According to Wikipedia, Clonmel is derived from the Gaelic:  Cluain Meala, meaning "honey meadow" .  In Ireland, rewards are given for "Tidy Towns" and we never saw any trash anywhere - every little town was tidy, and Clonmel was no exception.

Despite the fact that Clonmel (Meadow of Honey) refers, according to history, to the fertile soil, I was nonetheless determined to find some Clonmel honey to bring home to Gina, Julia, Jeff (and for me).  My roommate and I took a taxi into the tiny town and walked the streets to find local honey.  We were told we had just missed a "honey show" the weekend before.

We found two places where I bought local honey and the honey is lovely:

I watched for honey every time we stopped to shop, but I found the most in Clonmel.

Snake in the ..... Bee Boxes

I've been a little overwhelmed going into fall - too much going on in my life; too many responsibilities.  So I have some bee boxes that need the drawn comb frozen to kill the wax moth, but haven't had time to think about focusing on it.  Meanwhile I left the bee boxes on my driveway so that the sun and light would discourage any eager wax moth.

Before I left for vacation, I lifted up a bee box to see how the comb was faring and I found a garter snake curled on top of the box!

I'm not used to thinking of my phone as a camera, so I ran inside to get my camera.  By the time I returned, Mr. Garter Snake was no longer curled on the box but had made it to the driveway.

Here's a more up close and personal shot of him:

So this year I've seen ear wigs, roaches, ants, lizards, and small hive beetles in my hives.  This is my first snake in the bee hive in seven years!

I'm about to leave for a week of vacation and I'm worried about the bees with no honey.  The bees at Jeff and Valerie's all have plentiful supplies.  My bees are OK at my house, but the bees at Sebastian's and at Chastain are without stores.

Today I ran by Sebastian's and fed those bees by refilling the rapid feeder with honey.  Jennifer Berry says she's never seen a feeder in which bees didn't die.  So far I've never found a dead bee in these rapid feeders, but there's always a first time.

I had given the bees old honey from last year that had crystallized.  Today I had more of the same.  When I opened the top of the hive, the feeder was pretty much down to the crystals.  I poured in more crystallized honey from two jars:

Because it was crystallized, I left the jars for a while upside down to drain.  Also because it was sort of crystallized, the honey didn't climb up on the inside of the cone to the level where it was on the outside of the cone.

I took my spoon and scraped around a little at the base of the cone to move any blocking crystals.













The bees were thrilled and eagerly began transporting their new supplies.

One great advantage of the rapid feeder is that because it is closed and the only entry is from within the hive through the hole in the inner cover, the smell of open honey is not permeating the area inviting robbers.  I hope these bees live well and prosper.

I'll let you know when I'm back home from vacation!

Bad News, Good News, Bee News

This is a funny year - spring was too early; I started out with only five hives that made it through the winter.  I ended up with 20 something.  I've lost a lot to robbing or absconding.  It's been a roller coaster of a year.

I went to Stonehurst last week to check on the bees (I had been three weeks earlier).  I had left the strongest hive there (the only one that made it through the winter) with five boxes full of honey still to be harvested.  Jeff and I had taken one box from the hive, but left the rest.  The only reason I had left the honey was that he had not gone with me again and I couldn't lift the top box off of the hive.

When I arrived, the front of the hive was covered with wax shards and there was a pile of dead bees in front of the hive.

The entire huge hive had been totally robbed out.  Not a drop of honey remained, nor a bee.  There were still robber bees or foragers who missed the event milling around on the empty comb.  Pitiful and so sad.  I felt ill.  I brought the ragged but beautifully drawn comb home to freeze and use next year.

So now, at Stonehurst we have lost one hive.  At Sebastian's and Christina's house one of the two hives was robbed out and died.  I'm feeding the remaining hive there with honey from last year.

The bees at Chastain have NO (read that absolutely none) honey in the hive.  I am also feeding them honey from last year.

I put a feeder over the inner cover and put a stick at the front entrance to reduce it since I didn't bring an entrance reducer with me.

The bees at Morningside seem to be doing OK.  I'm giving them water but they are bringing in nectar from whatever fall flow we may be having.

At my house, I lost the one big hive to robbing and another to queenlessness that I didn't notice in time.  The top bar absconded.  I only have three hives there, but all are doing well.  I put entrance reducers on all of them after the large hive was robbed out and all of those bees are bringing in fall nectar.

And at Jeff's house where the four hives are that lived through the winter, we have tons of unharvested honey.  All the hives have plenty of honey and appear to be bringing in fall nectar.  We will probably harvest a little more from them when I get back from vacation at the end of September.  We put entrance reducers on all of those hives.

So the good news is that the survivors appear to have honey except for Chastain.  I have enough honey left from last year to keep feeding them honey instead of sugar water.  The bad news is that I've lost a lot of bees this year - three or four at my own house (depends on how you count them), one at Stonehurst, one at Sebastian's, one at Blue Heron.  I still have four hives at Jeff and Valerie's house, three at my house, two at Stonehurst, one at Sebastian's, two at Morningside Garden, one in Rabun County and one at Chastain.  Maybe I can keep all of them alive until next spring.  Then, if the nectar flow is good, Linda T's Bees should have a banner year in 2013.

I am a little worried about Chastain.  None of the three hives there have honey.  They are located next to a golf course and I'm wondering if the golf club maintenance contributes to the lack of available nectar.  It's strange that they have nothing, but Sebastian's bees in East Atlanta have nothing either and they are not next to a golf course.