Friday, April 10, 2009
Monday, April 06, 2009
What I did Before Going to Work Today: I Collected a Swarm
Today I got an email from someone in Chamblee, a part of Atlanta about 15 minutes from my house. She had a swarm of bees in a shrub in her yard and wanted my help to rescue them. I was excited to go get them because my April 1 swarm from last year is a very strong hive this year.
I found out about the swarm at 10 AM and I had to be at my professional office at noon. I threw on my beesuit over my work clothes. I jumped in my car, Google maps directions in hand. Luckily most of my bee stuff was still in my car from the Blue Heron inspection on Saturday. I called her on the cell phone as I drove to make sure I knew where to look at her house.
When I arrived the bees were easy to find. The swarm was quite small - probably a second swarm thrown by a hive. Often the first swarm from a hive is about half the bees in the hive plus the old queen. Then a hive may throw several smaller swarms with virgin queens. This swarm looked like the latter description would fit.
I was desperate to find something to take with me to collect the swarm. My very neat daughter and her husband are living with me until they move into their new house in May. As a result, I have no cardboard boxes sitting around - when one arrives it is immediately flattened and recycled. It's a great habit, but leaves me with no help for swarm collecting! So I got a nuc box and bungee-corded it to its bottom so I would have a box of sorts.
Because I was short on time, I drove home in my beesuit wearing my gloves. The bees who had no gate on the front of the nuc and a poorly fitted top over the bungee cords were flying around the back of the car. The driver behind me did a double take seeing bees flying in my back window and then nearly doubled over when he passed me and looked at my bee get-up.
When I got home with the swarm my son-in-law Kevin was there and was willing to photograph the bees being dumped into their new home. I feel so thankful that he was OK with doing this for me.
Here's a slide show of the whole event. Click on it to make the slideshow bigger and so that you can control how long each slide remains in view:
I found out about the swarm at 10 AM and I had to be at my professional office at noon. I threw on my beesuit over my work clothes. I jumped in my car, Google maps directions in hand. Luckily most of my bee stuff was still in my car from the Blue Heron inspection on Saturday. I called her on the cell phone as I drove to make sure I knew where to look at her house.
When I arrived the bees were easy to find. The swarm was quite small - probably a second swarm thrown by a hive. Often the first swarm from a hive is about half the bees in the hive plus the old queen. Then a hive may throw several smaller swarms with virgin queens. This swarm looked like the latter description would fit.
I was desperate to find something to take with me to collect the swarm. My very neat daughter and her husband are living with me until they move into their new house in May. As a result, I have no cardboard boxes sitting around - when one arrives it is immediately flattened and recycled. It's a great habit, but leaves me with no help for swarm collecting! So I got a nuc box and bungee-corded it to its bottom so I would have a box of sorts.
Because I was short on time, I drove home in my beesuit wearing my gloves. The bees who had no gate on the front of the nuc and a poorly fitted top over the bungee cords were flying around the back of the car. The driver behind me did a double take seeing bees flying in my back window and then nearly doubled over when he passed me and looked at my bee get-up.
When I got home with the swarm my son-in-law Kevin was there and was willing to photograph the bees being dumped into their new home. I feel so thankful that he was OK with doing this for me.
Here's a slide show of the whole event. Click on it to make the slideshow bigger and so that you can control how long each slide remains in view:
The best laid plans of bee and me....
If you've been reading this blog, you know that I have been using foundationless frames for a while. The idea of the foundationless frame is to let the bee choose what size cell to build. Michael Bush, one of my beekeeping heroes, is a big promoter of this concept of giving the bees the opportunity to build their own cell size. (If you follow the link, be sure to scroll down to read all the quotes about giving the bees the opportunity to build their own comb, from Rev. Langstroth to Richard Taylor)
Often when they are storing honey, they build very large wax cells. When they are raising brood in a frame, they build smaller cells than the commercial foundation. It seems democratic, organic, and caring to allow the bees the freedom to decide.
However, sometimes they run rampant with their creativity. It doesn't happen a lot, but when it does, the beekeeper has a problem, just as a beekeeper has a problem when the bees build strange comb on foundation, as they sometimes do. I try to always have at least one sheet of full foundation in each super or a fully drawn out comb in each super. I believe it's Don at Dixie Bee Supply who says that crazy comb building is a sign of a bad queen. I can't find that quote on Beemaster, though, so don't hold me to it.
When I was in my hives over the weekend, I discovered this interesting comb. The bees had only the small line of cells at the top of the frame as a starter. They apparently couldn't make up their minds about how to fill this frame with comb. The comb at the left was attached to the frame next to it (I clearly ripped it when I removed the frame).
Toward the right you'll see a two layer comb arrangement. The larger piece has capped honey in it.
In order to clear this up, I substituted a new frame in this space in the hive and brought this one inside to eat the honey, cut the wax off for melting or showing to children when I give talks, and to make the frame ready to reuse. If a hive has a lot of crazy comb, rather than just one frame, the solution is to cut out the crazy comb and to rubber band it into the frame as it should be. Then return the frame to the hive and they'll make it right.
Often when they are storing honey, they build very large wax cells. When they are raising brood in a frame, they build smaller cells than the commercial foundation. It seems democratic, organic, and caring to allow the bees the freedom to decide.
However, sometimes they run rampant with their creativity. It doesn't happen a lot, but when it does, the beekeeper has a problem, just as a beekeeper has a problem when the bees build strange comb on foundation, as they sometimes do. I try to always have at least one sheet of full foundation in each super or a fully drawn out comb in each super. I believe it's Don at Dixie Bee Supply who says that crazy comb building is a sign of a bad queen. I can't find that quote on Beemaster, though, so don't hold me to it.
When I was in my hives over the weekend, I discovered this interesting comb. The bees had only the small line of cells at the top of the frame as a starter. They apparently couldn't make up their minds about how to fill this frame with comb. The comb at the left was attached to the frame next to it (I clearly ripped it when I removed the frame).
Toward the right you'll see a two layer comb arrangement. The larger piece has capped honey in it.
In order to clear this up, I substituted a new frame in this space in the hive and brought this one inside to eat the honey, cut the wax off for melting or showing to children when I give talks, and to make the frame ready to reuse. If a hive has a lot of crazy comb, rather than just one frame, the solution is to cut out the crazy comb and to rubber band it into the frame as it should be. Then return the frame to the hive and they'll make it right.
Saturday, April 04, 2009
Freeman Beetle Trap
Today I opened up my hive named Bermuda. This is the hive with the Freeman beetle trap on it. I fully expected to find SHBs under the inner cover as I usually do. I did not see a single beetle in this hive today. Instead I found many dead beetles in the oil tray, along with a lot of other hive debris. Hooray!
A closer view of the oil and debris in the tray:
A closer view of the oil and debris in the tray:
Blue Heron Actual Inspection - Finally!
Today it was warm - the weather cooperated and we didn't have anything unusual like snow, hail or Oobleck, so we could continue with our inspection. We had a great time and ended it with a taste of honey. Click on the slideshow below to get a larger view with captions:
Friday, April 03, 2009
Holly and Honey
When we were lucky enough at our bee club to have a visit with the palynologist, Dr. Paul Arnold, I had the opportunity to have him analyze my honey. He examined a sample of my honey and according to his analysis, one of the key ingredients in my honey was pollen from holly. I had never even noticed that holly had a bloom. I've fully appreciated the lovely red berries in the fall, but I had not paid attention to the blooms.
Well, today I noticed that my holly is blooming and smells luscious. If I were a bee, I'd bury my head in a bloom and never leave, the smell is so sweet. I took a regular picture and a close up of the bloom. Looking at the close-up, you can see the nectar sources for the bee.
The male flower has four stamens, each of which produces pollen for the bee to pick up. The female flower has a large green ovary. You can see both the stamens and the ovary in the pictures below. If you'd like to learn more about the holly and bees, you can read it here.
I tried to get a picture of the honeybee who was visiting the plant at the time, but it didn't come out in good focus. Maybe I'll be luckier tomorrow.
Well, today I noticed that my holly is blooming and smells luscious. If I were a bee, I'd bury my head in a bloom and never leave, the smell is so sweet. I took a regular picture and a close up of the bloom. Looking at the close-up, you can see the nectar sources for the bee.
The male flower has four stamens, each of which produces pollen for the bee to pick up. The female flower has a large green ovary. You can see both the stamens and the ovary in the pictures below. If you'd like to learn more about the holly and bees, you can read it here.
I tried to get a picture of the honeybee who was visiting the plant at the time, but it didn't come out in good focus. Maybe I'll be luckier tomorrow.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Visiting a Preschool
Here is my grandson Dylan in his bee veil. He showed his friends at preschool today how he is protected from the bees when Grandma works in the beeyard.
Today I was lucky enough to get to go talk about bees at my grandson's preschool. The class members were betwee 2 and 3 years old!
They got to feel honeycomb.
They tried on Dylan's bee veil.
They tasted honey on popsicle sticks.
And they did the waggle dance - I didn't get a picture of that because I was dancing with them!
Today I was lucky enough to get to go talk about bees at my grandson's preschool. The class members were betwee 2 and 3 years old!
They got to feel honeycomb.
They tried on Dylan's bee veil.
They tasted honey on popsicle sticks.
And they did the waggle dance - I didn't get a picture of that because I was dancing with them!
Monday, March 30, 2009
First Semi-Inspection at Blue Heron
We're having a strange March in Atlanta - or really a typical March. March is always both lion and lamb in Georgia. We had thunderstorms and fierce rain for three days running at the end of the week.
I woke up on Saturday, the date of our scheduled inspection for the Metro club, expecting sunny weather in the high 50s. But no, that was not to be. Instead the skies remained overcast all day long and the temperature was only 46 by 11 AM. The inspection was scheduled for 1:30. We had four people eagerly signed up and we were as prepared as we could be.
We decided to meet our participants at Blue Heron and see if the bees were flying at 1:30 when the temperature was supposed to be up. When Julia and I arrived, it was 48 and very cloudy....grim weather and not conducive to inspecting bee hives. Julia brought her two sons: Sam and Noah, both of whom had helped install the hives at Blue Heron.
We decided to do a truncated "inspection." I had brought a new super for the nuc we installed last weekend and we knew it would be needed by that hive and we had a handout for the participants on how to do an inspection, derived from this blog post. We also thought we could demonstrate lighting a smoker, how to use the hive tool, and how to slide a hive box onto a hive.
Here's a slideshow of our "inspection" visit to Blue Heron. Click on the slideshow to see the captions and choose the length for each picture to remain visible to you.
We talked about Housel positioning and each participant was able to see the "Y" in the back of the honey cells - that's why we are looking so carefully at the old comb.
Because of the bad weather, we are rescheduling the inspection to happen at 10:30 AM on Saturday, April 4 at Blue Heron. In Atlanta's inimitable way, let's hope it doesn't snow!
I woke up on Saturday, the date of our scheduled inspection for the Metro club, expecting sunny weather in the high 50s. But no, that was not to be. Instead the skies remained overcast all day long and the temperature was only 46 by 11 AM. The inspection was scheduled for 1:30. We had four people eagerly signed up and we were as prepared as we could be.
We decided to meet our participants at Blue Heron and see if the bees were flying at 1:30 when the temperature was supposed to be up. When Julia and I arrived, it was 48 and very cloudy....grim weather and not conducive to inspecting bee hives. Julia brought her two sons: Sam and Noah, both of whom had helped install the hives at Blue Heron.
We decided to do a truncated "inspection." I had brought a new super for the nuc we installed last weekend and we knew it would be needed by that hive and we had a handout for the participants on how to do an inspection, derived from this blog post. We also thought we could demonstrate lighting a smoker, how to use the hive tool, and how to slide a hive box onto a hive.
Here's a slideshow of our "inspection" visit to Blue Heron. Click on the slideshow to see the captions and choose the length for each picture to remain visible to you.
We talked about Housel positioning and each participant was able to see the "Y" in the back of the honey cells - that's why we are looking so carefully at the old comb.
Because of the bad weather, we are rescheduling the inspection to happen at 10:30 AM on Saturday, April 4 at Blue Heron. In Atlanta's inimitable way, let's hope it doesn't snow!
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