Today, I added two fresh gallons of sugar syrup to each hive. They had drained it by Tuesday or so, but as I said in my last entry, I'm only going to fill the feeders once a week on Saturday or Sunday. For the record, I also added a large chunk of pollen patty to both hives.
It had been awhile since I had done a full inspection (below the honey supers) on either hive so I decided to take a top to bottom look at Georgia today. I had the intention of removing the honey supers and the top brood chamber so that I could start by checking out the bottom brood chamber first, as is recommended in some of the books. This way, you get the most defensive part of the hive out of the way early and they can start calming down as you check succeeding boxes. The idea being that you'll have fewer guards and foragers to contend with the higher up in the hive you are working.
It sounded reasonable to me except for one little hitch. The Georgia girls have shown themselves to be quite fond of propolizing everything to the maximum and building prodigious amounts of ladder/burr comb. When I tried to pry off the top honey super, it became clear that all of the frames were fastened tightly to the frames below. As I tried to lift, the second super wanted to come too. This meant I had to begin by removing each frame in the top super, one by one, and scrape wax that ran the length of each bottom bar. The girls had also added gobs of propolis to the ends of each top bar as well. Clearly, they had done their level best to ensure BeeKeeper Man could not invade their bustling little abode. Unfortunately for them, they don't know about hive tools and muscles of a size their small minds can't even begin to fathom! But even with these advantages, BeeKeeper Man had his work cut out for him. I scraped and scraped and the ground piled up with wax. Each frame was filled with beautiful capped honey and a couple contained a fair amount of capped brood too. Supers filled with honey are surprisingly heavy, even with the shallows I have on the hives. I'd estimate them to weigh around 30 lbs. or so.
(I'm using shallow supers not out of choice but because they were given to me, along with a whole stack of shallow foundation, by a friend. My preference would've been to use mediums, but why spend the money if you don't have to, right? I have a total of five, ten-frame supers and enough foundation to build five more. The bees have already drawn and filled four of these and I had prepared the fifth to put on Georgia today. But I'll get to that shortly.)
I had been into the honey supers before and so I wasn't surprised to see twenty frames of capped honey in them. The girls were close to achieving that goal the last time I looked. It is tempting to grab some of it now but I'm guessing it was made largely from the sugar syrup I've been feeding them, so it probably wouldn't be anything to write home about. Another reason for not taking it is that I've pretty much decided to leave all the honey for them this year. The better to ensure their survival through the winter. The question I have is how to manage all of these excess stores. The battle plan was to have the bees draw out the comb, fill it with honey and then place an inner cover between the supers and the brood chambers below. This would make the bees retrieve the honey from the supers and move it down into the lower boxes, leaving you with nicely cleaned out frames for the harvest next spring. But I don't know where the bees would put it. Please continue reading to see what I mean...
On checking the first brood box, I found the outside frames heavy with completely capped off honey. As I worked towards the center, I found the queen and lots of capped brood, eggs and larvae. She still appears vigorous and healthy and was easy to spot in the multitudes with her big blue spot. The brood pattern appeared to be a little more spotty than her usual, but there was plenty of it, so I'm not too worried about it. The bottom box had two outside frames full of honey, just like the box above it. Interestingly, as I moved towards the center, I encountered vast fields of cells full of nectar, upper corners full of honey but almost no brood. I was getting a little concerned until I hit the middle of the box. Frames five through nine were packed with capped brood, eggs and larvae. So the queen has been laying prodigiously from the bottom of the hive to the top. Some girl, that queen, but as you can see, I have no idea where they would put all the honey they have hoarded in the honey supers if I were to encourage them to bring it downstairs. Must ask Pat about this...
As I reassembled the hive, I inserted my fifth honey super with the new foundation under the existing supers, giving Georgia three total. When they fill that one, I can almost picture them setting up a little hiveside stand to sell honey to bee passersby. Wouldn't that be great? Little bee entreprenuers. I'm sorry, the smoke probably got to me. I mean, we all know they would kill 10,000 bees and lose 10,000 of their own before they would give up a mouthful of excess honey to a bee outside their hive tribe. Hard wiring doesn't allow for deviation from the script, my friends. And why in the world would we wish on them a human characteristic like that anyway? Before you know it, there would be Bee monopolies, multinationals with watered-down honey, queens having whole supers to themselves while other bees were forced to live on a mere cell or two. Fortunately for them, they have no capacity to listen to anything we might have to say.
Friday, while trying to replenish their water in the Boardman Feeders a bee who couldn't tell my pants leg from a hive entrance managed to crawl, undetected nearly to my crotch before panicking and giving me the ol' honeybee jab. As I grabbed at my inner thigh, she came tumbling out of my shorts onto the porch floor and trust me, she was doing far worse than I at that moment. She did boost the tally though...
Sting total...14.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
Counting Mites!
To begin with, for the record, I added four more gallons of syrup to the hives on Saturday - two for Georgia and two for Arlington. They had both been dry for about four days, but in the interest of fair-sharing the sugar cane harvest in the western hemisphere, I've decided they each get two gallons per week and no more. They've actually kept ahead of my ability to provide fresh, undrawn supers for them anyway and the four supers currently on the hives have been drawn and filled for some time. Adding that to what they have stashed in the brood chambers, they should be in good shape. I'll pick up the feeding pace again in September. I do need to add more pollen patty though, as I'm sure they've finished that off.
Yesterday, July 15th, I slid a grease-covered board under the screened bottom boards of the hives for the purpose of collecting varroa mites that drop from inside. Today, I pulled the boards and counted. On Arlington, I counted a grand total of three after going over the board with an eye-loop three times. Georgia had six. They are pretty small - about the size of a lower case 'o' but after seeing a few, they became readily visible. The difficulty comes in determining that the little critter you see is a mite and not some other hapless insect who got stuck. There were many of these. Of course I had several ants -no surprise there - a couple of moths (wax moths?) and a variety of other things. Add to this the usual debris that rains down out of the hive such as wax flakes, dirt, propolis chunks, bee poop and God knows what else. They decorated the board pretty good in just 24 hours.
By putting the boards under the hives I effectively closed off a major source of ventilation for the bees. This was evident when I checked the hives an hour or so later and found thousands of bees chillin' on the front porch (ie. landing board). Twenty or thirty of them were vigorously fanning the hive entrance to get some air conditioning going. I felt bad for them, but it is for their own good in the long run. When I pulled the boards today, I felt like I was giving them a gift. Now the hives can get back to their normal 95 degrees or so and the girls can sleep at night without sweating all over the comb.
I believe that based on my count, the bees are in pretty good shape for the moment. I will do the count again in a week and see if the mite population has grown. They are supposed to peak in August, so I assume my count will rise. If it does, I'll have to take to the countermeasures that have been suggested. One of these is to sift powdered sugar down through the hives and onto the bees. This causes the mites to fall off the bees and it is hoped that the bees themselves will dislodge more when they groom each other after the sugar bath. The direction nowadays is to avoid using chemical solutions if at all possible. Stay tuned!
The girls and I have enjoyed a peaceful coexistance of late and so...
the sting count remains at 13!
Yesterday, July 15th, I slid a grease-covered board under the screened bottom boards of the hives for the purpose of collecting varroa mites that drop from inside. Today, I pulled the boards and counted. On Arlington, I counted a grand total of three after going over the board with an eye-loop three times. Georgia had six. They are pretty small - about the size of a lower case 'o' but after seeing a few, they became readily visible. The difficulty comes in determining that the little critter you see is a mite and not some other hapless insect who got stuck. There were many of these. Of course I had several ants -no surprise there - a couple of moths (wax moths?) and a variety of other things. Add to this the usual debris that rains down out of the hive such as wax flakes, dirt, propolis chunks, bee poop and God knows what else. They decorated the board pretty good in just 24 hours.
By putting the boards under the hives I effectively closed off a major source of ventilation for the bees. This was evident when I checked the hives an hour or so later and found thousands of bees chillin' on the front porch (ie. landing board). Twenty or thirty of them were vigorously fanning the hive entrance to get some air conditioning going. I felt bad for them, but it is for their own good in the long run. When I pulled the boards today, I felt like I was giving them a gift. Now the hives can get back to their normal 95 degrees or so and the girls can sleep at night without sweating all over the comb.
I believe that based on my count, the bees are in pretty good shape for the moment. I will do the count again in a week and see if the mite population has grown. They are supposed to peak in August, so I assume my count will rise. If it does, I'll have to take to the countermeasures that have been suggested. One of these is to sift powdered sugar down through the hives and onto the bees. This causes the mites to fall off the bees and it is hoped that the bees themselves will dislodge more when they groom each other after the sugar bath. The direction nowadays is to avoid using chemical solutions if at all possible. Stay tuned!
The girls and I have enjoyed a peaceful coexistance of late and so...
the sting count remains at 13!
Saturday, July 7, 2007
More Sugar Syrup
Nothing much to report, but I wanted to log the fact that I put the feeders back on the hives and added 4 gallons of sugar syrup. As I mentioned in the last post, I cleaned the feeders up and by putting them on fresh and clean - minus bees and ants - I was able to pour in the syrup without drowning anybody. They were still working on the pollen patties, though they had consumed probably two thirds of them. I didn't smoke them, wore only my veil and I was pleased to see that they pretty much ignored me. Of course, the conditions were perfect with beautiful weather, cooler temps and half the hive out and about.
Couple of observations I'd like to share about other bee-types checking out the hive. For awhile, I had a couple of Carpenter bees who would probe the hive for entree. They were very cautious and kept a respectable distance for the most part. They are always fun to watch because they are incredible fliers. Honeybees fly by darting here and there. They hover only for a short time, if at all, and then zip to where they are going. They will crash into you or each other fairly often which tells me they haven't completely perfected their flying skills. Flying, for them, seems to be merely a means to an end. That is, getting to flowers and back to the hive as quickly as possible. I have sat in my car in the driveway after work and, against the dark backdrop of trees, I've watched bees from my hives shoot past like bullets, heading off to some distant source of nectar. They are bees on a mission. They have many mouths to feed. A different sort altogther are Carpenter Bees, those big black and yellow galoots, often mistaken for Bumblebees (they look similar, but Carpenter Bees, as the name would imply live in drilled out tunnels in wood. Bumblebees live in the ground.) Their flying ability is quite remarkable. I don't know if they can fly faster than honeybees because I have never seen one fly fast. They are slow, methodical fliers that seem to spend as much time hovering, swiveling around and flying from point to point in the air for the purpose of getting a better look at you as they do flying in straight lines anywhere. For them, flying is a highly evolved art. Of course, their slow, plodding ways are not a drawback for them as they are not required to help feed a large colony.
Flying in this way, the Carpenter Bees reconnoitered the hives, dancing back and forth, in and out, as if carefully choreographed. If they got too close, guard bees would fly up to them to give warning and they would back away. But tirelessly, they would continue to probe.
Yesterday, a different sort of bee or wasp tried to make entry into the hives. I don't know what it was. It was of the same general build as a honey bee but much larger and stockier with a distinct, bright yellow abdomen. Its probes at the hive entrance were much more aggressive and several times guards sallied forth and actually came in contact with it to drive it away. Whereas the Carpenter Bees never got closer than a foot or 18 inches from the hive entrance, this fellow came so close that I thought he might actually land. Several times he was within a couple of inches of the entrance before being driven away. After five minutes or so, he tried his luck with the other hive and then gave up and disappeared. I'm going to do some research on that guy - I'd love to know what he was.
Other critters that have shown an interest in the hive have included the aforementioned ants, who show no abatement!, and little bottle-green flies that will walk around on the landing board like they own the place. They are about a third their size and the bees seem to ignore them unless they try to actually enter the hive. When that happens they are run off. I have to give credit to these little guys for guts. No doubt their "noses" lead them there but I'm sure if they had any idea of the number of bees inside those boxes, they wouldn't be quite so bold.
Well, until next time...
Couple of observations I'd like to share about other bee-types checking out the hive. For awhile, I had a couple of Carpenter bees who would probe the hive for entree. They were very cautious and kept a respectable distance for the most part. They are always fun to watch because they are incredible fliers. Honeybees fly by darting here and there. They hover only for a short time, if at all, and then zip to where they are going. They will crash into you or each other fairly often which tells me they haven't completely perfected their flying skills. Flying, for them, seems to be merely a means to an end. That is, getting to flowers and back to the hive as quickly as possible. I have sat in my car in the driveway after work and, against the dark backdrop of trees, I've watched bees from my hives shoot past like bullets, heading off to some distant source of nectar. They are bees on a mission. They have many mouths to feed. A different sort altogther are Carpenter Bees, those big black and yellow galoots, often mistaken for Bumblebees (they look similar, but Carpenter Bees, as the name would imply live in drilled out tunnels in wood. Bumblebees live in the ground.) Their flying ability is quite remarkable. I don't know if they can fly faster than honeybees because I have never seen one fly fast. They are slow, methodical fliers that seem to spend as much time hovering, swiveling around and flying from point to point in the air for the purpose of getting a better look at you as they do flying in straight lines anywhere. For them, flying is a highly evolved art. Of course, their slow, plodding ways are not a drawback for them as they are not required to help feed a large colony.
Flying in this way, the Carpenter Bees reconnoitered the hives, dancing back and forth, in and out, as if carefully choreographed. If they got too close, guard bees would fly up to them to give warning and they would back away. But tirelessly, they would continue to probe.
Yesterday, a different sort of bee or wasp tried to make entry into the hives. I don't know what it was. It was of the same general build as a honey bee but much larger and stockier with a distinct, bright yellow abdomen. Its probes at the hive entrance were much more aggressive and several times guards sallied forth and actually came in contact with it to drive it away. Whereas the Carpenter Bees never got closer than a foot or 18 inches from the hive entrance, this fellow came so close that I thought he might actually land. Several times he was within a couple of inches of the entrance before being driven away. After five minutes or so, he tried his luck with the other hive and then gave up and disappeared. I'm going to do some research on that guy - I'd love to know what he was.
Other critters that have shown an interest in the hive have included the aforementioned ants, who show no abatement!, and little bottle-green flies that will walk around on the landing board like they own the place. They are about a third their size and the bees seem to ignore them unless they try to actually enter the hive. When that happens they are run off. I have to give credit to these little guys for guts. No doubt their "noses" lead them there but I'm sure if they had any idea of the number of bees inside those boxes, they wouldn't be quite so bold.
Well, until next time...
Monday, July 2, 2007
The Latest with Dem Bees
Yesterday, the first of July, I pulled the hive top feeders off of both hives for the purpose of cleaning them. The bees had drained the syrup a couple of days before and the feeders had become pretty funky in the weeks since I had put them back on. The "ant" feeder on Georgia was particularly nasty with lots of crusted ants who apparently just didn't have the capacity to know when to stop drinking. Once they are presentable again, I'll open the buffet with more syrup for the little beasts.
After removing the feeders - and yes, I smoked them - I noticed they had also finished off any trace of the pollen patties I'd placed on the top of the frames. As an aside, I was treated to the sight of a bee hauling out a piece of wax paper from the previous patty and tossing it in the grass a few days back. The piece of paper was at least four or five times bigger than she was. It must have been fun for her to drag that down through two brood boxes full of bees!
I then went through all four supers to see how comb production was going, starting with the Georgians. In their case, all twenty frames were completely drawn out and full of nectar. I'd say about 20% contained capped honey and I was surprised to see little knots of capped drone brood in the lower super, closest to the top brood box. There were perhaps 20-30 capped cells in all - all drone, no worker cells. Have no idea if this is normal. Another feature that I could have done without was the enormous amount of propolizing they had done to seal those frames in. The top super, which was the first they had drawn out, was really glued up. I spent some extra time scraping propolis and ladder comb just to help make things a little easier next time (I hope!) Their report card for this session is an 'A' though. In fact, I need to get hot putting together another super for them to work on.
The Arlington girls, too, had made great strides. In fact, I'd say they had about 30% of their honey capped in their first super. Unfortunately, the second super still had two frames that needed work and one that had barely been touched. I moved all of these to the middle of the box so they could focus their attention on them better. There was no brood in their supers at all and considerably less propolizing...Yay! When finished inspecting, I gave a large chunk of pollen patty to each hive and they went right to it, forgetting all about me. Maybe instead of smoke you could just toss a pollen patty into the hive like a grenade before entering. I'll have to look into a volunteer for that experiment.
There is one thing that I have been remiss to do up to this point. I need to begin focusing on what kind of mite situation I have going in the hives. The Varroa and tracheal mites can surely kill off both hives if left to nature and so I have to ascertain what level of infestation the bees might be dealing with and then work on a treatment program. And so, my next activity will be to do the "sticky board" check, which is to say I'll place a board under the screen at the bottom of the hive that has been sprayed with PAM or vegetable oil and leave it for 24 hours. Mites will fall off the bees onto the board and I can then count them to get some idea of their numbers in the hive. The whole mite control thing represents, for me, the next level in beekeeping and my success at it will determine the survival of the hives. More on that next time.
When it comes to observing the bees, my habit has been to stand beside the hive, rest my arm on the top cover and peer down on the landing board from above. They generally ignore me and go about their business as if I wasn't there. Even when they are engaged in "playtime" and the air in front of the hive is full of bees, I can stand as I've described and not be bothered by them. As always though, once a comfort level is achieved, something changes the equation and it is never to the beekeepers benefit, it seems. The hive top feeders I have are made of plastic and have a bottom flange that overhangs the hive box on all four sides. The feeder on the Arlington hive had become splayed out along the long edge enough that it had created an opening for the bees to enter the top of the hive. I was unaware of this fact one day as I assumed my normal position beside their hive. While happily watching the activity at the front entrance, a bee from the new upper entrance took an interest in my armpit that was so enticingly close. Naturally, I was made aware of this only when I tired of watching the bees and lowered my arm onto her. She responded in the only way she knew how and so, our tally grew by one and my left armpit endured a zap for probably the 5th or 6th time. Maybe it's time I changed brands of deodorant.
Sting count...an unlucky 13.
After removing the feeders - and yes, I smoked them - I noticed they had also finished off any trace of the pollen patties I'd placed on the top of the frames. As an aside, I was treated to the sight of a bee hauling out a piece of wax paper from the previous patty and tossing it in the grass a few days back. The piece of paper was at least four or five times bigger than she was. It must have been fun for her to drag that down through two brood boxes full of bees!
I then went through all four supers to see how comb production was going, starting with the Georgians. In their case, all twenty frames were completely drawn out and full of nectar. I'd say about 20% contained capped honey and I was surprised to see little knots of capped drone brood in the lower super, closest to the top brood box. There were perhaps 20-30 capped cells in all - all drone, no worker cells. Have no idea if this is normal. Another feature that I could have done without was the enormous amount of propolizing they had done to seal those frames in. The top super, which was the first they had drawn out, was really glued up. I spent some extra time scraping propolis and ladder comb just to help make things a little easier next time (I hope!) Their report card for this session is an 'A' though. In fact, I need to get hot putting together another super for them to work on.
The Arlington girls, too, had made great strides. In fact, I'd say they had about 30% of their honey capped in their first super. Unfortunately, the second super still had two frames that needed work and one that had barely been touched. I moved all of these to the middle of the box so they could focus their attention on them better. There was no brood in their supers at all and considerably less propolizing...Yay! When finished inspecting, I gave a large chunk of pollen patty to each hive and they went right to it, forgetting all about me. Maybe instead of smoke you could just toss a pollen patty into the hive like a grenade before entering. I'll have to look into a volunteer for that experiment.
There is one thing that I have been remiss to do up to this point. I need to begin focusing on what kind of mite situation I have going in the hives. The Varroa and tracheal mites can surely kill off both hives if left to nature and so I have to ascertain what level of infestation the bees might be dealing with and then work on a treatment program. And so, my next activity will be to do the "sticky board" check, which is to say I'll place a board under the screen at the bottom of the hive that has been sprayed with PAM or vegetable oil and leave it for 24 hours. Mites will fall off the bees onto the board and I can then count them to get some idea of their numbers in the hive. The whole mite control thing represents, for me, the next level in beekeeping and my success at it will determine the survival of the hives. More on that next time.
When it comes to observing the bees, my habit has been to stand beside the hive, rest my arm on the top cover and peer down on the landing board from above. They generally ignore me and go about their business as if I wasn't there. Even when they are engaged in "playtime" and the air in front of the hive is full of bees, I can stand as I've described and not be bothered by them. As always though, once a comfort level is achieved, something changes the equation and it is never to the beekeepers benefit, it seems. The hive top feeders I have are made of plastic and have a bottom flange that overhangs the hive box on all four sides. The feeder on the Arlington hive had become splayed out along the long edge enough that it had created an opening for the bees to enter the top of the hive. I was unaware of this fact one day as I assumed my normal position beside their hive. While happily watching the activity at the front entrance, a bee from the new upper entrance took an interest in my armpit that was so enticingly close. Naturally, I was made aware of this only when I tired of watching the bees and lowered my arm onto her. She responded in the only way she knew how and so, our tally grew by one and my left armpit endured a zap for probably the 5th or 6th time. Maybe it's time I changed brands of deodorant.
Sting count...an unlucky 13.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
