Hello? Anybody in There?

Feeding Back Honey Using Entrance Feeders

I left the top feeders on until nearly Thanksgiving as our daytime temperatures can be in the mid-50's and the overnights had not yet dropped lower than the upper 30's. When finally removing the top feeders I did an inspection to check on the stores. The Sasha hive remained the strongest at that time with lots of honey in the top box but I added entrance feeders to the Dmitry and OV hives, feeding them back their own honey so that they could just store it and cap it without having to expend the energy needed to turn it into honey as they would have had I fed them syrup, which would also add moisture to the hive and is a major a no-no in colder temperatures.

It's too cold for bees to be moving when I leave for work in the mornings and it's dark by the time I  return home but I did observe activity at all the hives this weekend. All appeared well...

Until this morning when I pounded on the side of the Sasha hive. All was too quiet.... I lifted the outer cover to peek in the hole of the inner cover and there was not a bee in sight! Removing the inner cover, I could peer between the frames all the way through the three medium boxes down to the screened bottom board. Not a bee to be seen! By this I mean a live bee.

Frame of Capped Honey in the Sasha Hive

I pulled all the boxes apart thinking I would find evidence of anything that would make the bees want to leave or kill them off... but there was (1) plenty of honey and pollen left behind, (2) space (not an issue this time of year) and (3) ventilation (popsicle sticks glued to the corners of the inner cover provide for that) - the three things that make for a happy bee hive.

There were two frames full of honey and another five frames partially full. The bottom box had five frames containing lots of pollen so if the bees had starved to death I would have found frames containing dead bees head-first in the cells, but the hive was completely void of any bees, dead or alive. There were perhaps a dozen dead bees on the bottom screen, certainly not enough to give an indication of a major die-off.

Did they swarm one unseasonably warm day? Highly unlikely as there really wasn't a reason to move on and they'd not have the ability to find food this time of year. I'm sad for the loss of the hive but everything is a learning experience and I'll do some research to see if I can determine what happened.

2012 has been a tough year for me as a beekeeper. It was my third season. I'm no longer a newbie with just enough experience to be comfortably dangerous. I mysteriously killed the Sasha queen early spring, killed my best queen in the OV hive when harvesting honey, experienced a major die off from the Dmitry hive, probably due to pesticides and now lost the Sasha hive. In 2013 I'm going back to thinking like a newbie!

Apiary Ready for Winter

Left to Right: Sasha, Dmitry and OV Hives

I have been worried about the status of all the hives going into fall but especially the Dmitry hive, the newest one in the center. This queen has just not taken up house very well, keeping to just a few preferred frames to lay her eggs. I've been feeding syrup heartily since Labor Day and the Dmitry hive, more than the other two, were gobbling it up which is always a good sign... and reinforced by the many bees taking orientation flights these past few warm days so I was hopeful the queen was finally branching out.

But today's inspection shattered my hopes... Dmitry has zero stores (no pollen or honey anywhere) and so few cells of brood that I'm contemplating combining the hive into another to get them through the winter. Have they only been eating the syrup instead of making honey? When I last inspected this hives late October I noticed this queen is a bit smaller than the others... perhaps that is contributing to her lack of filling this hive? They've never really recovered from the loss of most of the bees to pesticides this summer.

I had super'd up OV hive to six boxes and they did exactly what I wanted them to do by drawing out comb and making enough frames of honey to supplement the Dmitry hive. Even though I lost the OV queen in July and let the hive make another, it certainly stands true that a strong hive makes a strong queen. This OV hive has never let me down! I was able to add four frames of honey to each box in the Dmitry hive as well as replacing the undrawn frames with empty frames of comb. All Dmitry has to do now is fill the cells with honey! They don't have to waste time doing anything else this time of year. The top feeder is on and I've also begun to feed them back some of their honey using an entrance feeder. I'm giving them every opportunity to make it and if our weather stays mild they have a chance...

All the hives are now set for winter, being set up three medium supers on each. Sasha is doing outstanding with six frames of honey in the top box. The OV hive has four but I'm confident they'll make up for the frames I moved. I didn't take apart the Sasha or OV below the top boxes as they have everything all glued tight for winter with propolis and I don't need them to spend the energy doing so again had I opened them all up. I'm confident there's enough honey in each lower box by the weight of them and that they're doing what bees should be doing this time of year.

I'll leave the top feeders on all the hives as long as I can while I explore options for the Dmitry hive should they just not get their little bee-act together. I know I'm taking a chance with the overnight temps this coming week forecasted at temperatures well below that recommended for feeding syrup. Hopefully, they'll store up the syrup I'm feeding them and my worries will pass...

Getting the Feed On

OV Queen

Inspected all three hives this weekend to see how they're doing and where they stand for honey to get them set up for the fall. This was my first time inspecting every box of the OV hive and was very pleased with this new queen. Instead of being a lovely, dark Russian queen, she is a Maryland-bread, gorgeous golden color with a dark head and thorax with a dark tip on her abdomen. She's been going gang-busters. It is true that strong hives make for strong queens.

Eggs and Brood in Dmitry Hive

The Dmitry hive continues to be smaller than I'd like but since we're heading into the time of year where the population will be decreasing, I don't want to supplement the hive with bees from one of the other hives. The queen is laying good on a few 4 frames but experience has shown that she'll spread out soon. But if she doesn't real soon, I'll have to reconsider adding more bees.

I put the top feeder on all the hives to build them up for the coming winter. Now will just keep the feeders full and monitor their progress.

Bees 5, Beekeeper 0

Peeked into the Dmitry hive to check on their progress and didn't bother with a veil as they've been so gentle, and I was only planning on a quick peek...

The second I picked up the top feeder I could see how feisty the bees have become and, while that's a really good sign, the feeder was full so I couldn't move fast enough to put it down. Those feisty bees got me - three times in my left arm and twice on my left thigh!

They're just about ready for the third box so will get that on this weekend. I had managed to escape from being stung all year until now. Guess I'm making up for lost opportunities.

Dmitry Queen Laying Well Once Again

Dmitry queen in center of frame.

The Dmitry queen returned to laying eggs immediately after putting the feeder on and now, two weeks later you can see she is doing quite well and the population is growing. I still have the entrance reducer on and am hopeful I'll be able to remove it soon. Will keep the feeder on as we're still quite dry with very little in bloom right now.

Good news on the OV hive: Found good brood on the first frame I pulled so didn't disturb them any further. I closed them up and walked away happy that these two hives are once again back on the road to progress.

Checking in on New OV Queen

No eggs yet in the OV hive.

By now the new OV queen should be laying but as you can see here, there is nary an egg in sight! The hive, while still gentle was a tad bit more rowdy and acting queenright by chaining as I pulled out a frame.

When searching for the queen I always start in the middle of the box, often times peering down between the frames as the queen's longer legs will make her walk taller than the worker bees and this makes her easier to spot. But she's quick and shy of light - I caught a glimpse of behind and as fast as I tried to get to that frame, she had moved on deeper into the hive.

I didn't want to risk harming her so I closed up the hive and turned to check on the Dmitry hive to see that she's returned to laying eggs. Will observer her progress for the next week or so.

Too Many Dead Bees!

The dark spots are the dead bees.
(Click to view larger)

Wednesday all three hives were observed bearding in the evening as our temps have been very hot. I don't remember looking at the bees Thursday evening but I usually do and it is entirely possible that, because everything looked normal, nothing registered with me.

But Friday evening it was easy to see that something was very wrong with the Dmitry hive - No bearding as with the other hives, no bees flying, no orientation flights, nothing. And then I looked down...

Thousands of dead bees lay in front of the hive filling a mulched space of three feet or so in length. My mind began a mental checklist as I searched for a possible cause. The bees were not chalky, their wings were not crinkly or 'K' shaped. It was almost as it someone came along and sprayed pesticide on them and they fell from the front of the hive. But if that were the case, why would vandals harm just the center hive of my three?

There were so few bees in the hive, I didn't bother with a veil or gloves as I opened it, expecting to find it empty. Instead, I did find healthy looking bees but zero brood. The queen looked fine but she isn't laying. She had been laying well since she was installed back in April.

So, what the heck is going on with this hive? I believe I have two separate issues:

Issue One:
I had quit feeding the hive as they were growing in population and had built up a good reserve of pollen and nectar. However, we're in a full dearth now and what are the three things a hive needs to thrive?

1. Space
2. Ventilation
3. Food

There was plenty of space and ventilation thanks to modifying the inner cover. But I had neglected to ensure the hive had food! It is common knowledge that a queen will cease laying if food becomes unavailable. So I put the top feeder on and filled it with 1:1 sugar syrup. Will check back in a few days to see if the queen has resumed laying.

Issue Two:
I'm stumped what happened to the dead bees outside the hive but a likely culprit is pesticides. I live in a rather rural area with small farms, pastures, homes and gardens. It is highly likely the foraging bees found a good food source that was tainted and led many other bees to it, who in turn, brought the tainted pollen and nectar back to the hive.

I gave the hive a couple frames of brood and nurse bees from the Sasha hive, leaving the OV hive alone so as to not harm it's new queen as she matures.

OV Hive Busy Making a New Queen

Yup.

You could easily see how the hive was very different from the moment I opened the boxes. The bees were too simply too gentle, this being my rowdy Russian hive.

As I feared, I harmed my queen when harvesting honey. Inspecting the hive just one week later I found a good 10 to 12 queen cells. I'll leave them alone now to let the queen emerge on or about July 17th. The first queen will kill all the other potential queens before they mature and emerge from their cells. She'll then fly out to mate and I'll inspect for eggs about a week later.

Help Bee the Solution

According to Whole Foods, honey bees and other pollinators are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat, yet US honey bee colonies are declining at an annual rate of 30% or more. Any way you look at it, that’s an unsustainable equation for a reliable food supply.

As an industry leader in natural and organic foods, Whole Foods Market® is passionate about raising honey bee awareness, taking action and helping our communities “bee the solution.” Visit their webpage at http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/sharethebuzz/ to learn more.

Honey Harvest 2012

Seems that once a year I do something really stupid with the bees and this year's honey harvest was it! I placed the queen excluders on the hives on June 10th in anticipation of a target harvest date of the 4th of July weekend. But our schedules have changed necessitating the need to harvest July 1st - exactly 21 days from the day I placed the excluders on the hive. Ideally, any brood in the honey supers should be hatched by harvest day and 21 days is long enough for the brood to hatch out.

We suited up and pulled the honey supers off the hives - two from OV hive and one from Sasha hive - and placed them on their ends. I've read that an easy way to remove the bees is to use a leaf blower. In reality, using a leaf blower removes some bees but some bees manage to hold on and other crawl/fly right back onto the frames.

So we decided to just brush off the frames, one-by-one and place them in a plastic tub with a lid to keep the bees out until we're ready to extract the honey. It was then I found the frames of brood fro the OV hive. Major crap! Shouldn't it all by hatched on day 21? It's day 21 and there's brood on my frames! Does that mean the queen was in the box? The box that I set on the ground and blew all the bees out of? I don't know because I didn't look! Double crap!!

So we left the box sitting on the grass while we finished harvesting the other frames in the hopes that, if the queen was there she'd either find her way back to the hive or back into that box. About 3 hours later I placed the box back on the hive. I'll inspect in 4 days to see if I can find her, find eggs or find a queen cell.

We harvested 24 frames (10 from Sasha and 14 from OV) and have a 5-gallon bucket full of honey which amounts to about 60 lbs. of honey!

Fingers crossed that hatching in 21 days means the brood hatched the next day and that I did't harm my queen. The OV hive has been my consistent and strong hive so I hope my stupidity doesn't cost me a good queen.

Next year when it's harvest time, I will remove one frame at a time, gently brush off the bees and then place the frame into the plastic tub.

Visit from the State Apiary Inspector

Gregg Gochnour stopped by this evening to give the hives a check. It was quite exciting to learn from him while he was going over the hives. We talked about harvesting (can occur anytime honey is capped), when to begin feeding for the fall (start about Labor Day if needed), rotating boxes (wait till spring as they queen will move down and the bees will fill the top with honey from the fall nectar flow), and our great drone experiment with the education program at work (drones are fed by attendants). He complimented the OV hive for the beauty of the honey frames and suggested I consider entering one in the fair. We did find one varroa mite on a drone pupa in the OV hive but overall the bees are doing outstanding! It was a great experience to learn from Gregg.

A Beekeeper's Year

The following guidelines are for the Washington, DC area. This timeline is approximate based on local weather and the condition of the hive.

January
If bees are flying on a warm day, open hive and check for reserves.
Cluster should be near top of box. Do not remove frames or disturb the cluster!
Emergency feed as necessary.

February
If temps are 50 degrees or higher for a few days and the overnights do not drop below 45 degrees, inspect a few frames and assess the condition of the hive.
Continue feeding as necessary.

March
The hive population will have increased and nectar flow begun.
Reverse brood chambers to give the queen room to lay.
Remove entrance reducers/mice screens.
Monitor and discontinue feeding as necessary.
When bees no longer take feed, add honey super.
Good time to equalize hives - combine weak hives with strong hives.

April
Hives should be in full swing and full of bees.
Get honey supers on! (Add queen excluders if comb is drawn.)
April and May is the critical time frame for swarming. Have a swarm strategy. Make splits.

May
Keep an eye out for swarms.
Inspect hives every other week to ensure a good laying queen.

June
Continue to inspect hives every other week to ensure a good laying queen.
Add queen excluders if not already on.

July
Harvest honey.
Check ventilation.

August
This is a hot time with dearth of nectar and pollen. Bees will be cranky. Let them be!

September
Feed as necessary.
Medicate for AFB, EFB, and Nosema.
Treat for Varroa.

October
Population of the hive begins to decrease.
Continue feeding as necessary.

November 
Prepare hive for winter.
Place mouse guards at entrance.
Bees will be clustered on coldest days.
Continue feeding as necessary as long as overnight temps remain above freeing.

December
Bees will be clustered.
Plan for the coming bee year.

Queen Excluders On

Around here, beekeeping pretty much follows the holidays which means that the 4th of July is time for honey harvesting. Last year I learned that the bees don't like to pass through into a honey super to draw out comb if the excluder in place so I left the hive unrestricted and the bees have done a fine job drawing comb on those frames and filling it with honey.

Queen Excluder

A queen excluder is a frame with narrow openings which allow the worker bees to pass though but are too small for the queen, thus keeping her out of a part of the hive. Without an excluder in place, the queen could potentially lay in the honey supers, if she were so inclined, and no one likes to harvest honey with brood! So, at least 3 weeks before you intend to harvest, an excluder is installed so that an entire 21 day brood cycle can pass and any brood that may be in the honey supers will be out by harvest time.

One downfall to this is that, what I intended as 3 supers full of honey from the OV hive, the queen decided to utilize one of them as a brood box. That means less honey for us but I don't mind as I'd rather have a strong and viable hive than a huge honey harvest and the OV hive has been such a strong hive and good donor for my splits.

Sasha Brood

I haven't been into the Sasha hive since the queen was released so was happy to struggle with a heavy honey super when adding the excluder to this hive. This is going to be a really good hive now that the new Russian queen is here.

Homing Drone

Craig and I capturing a drone.

This year we began a pollinator program as part of the education curriculum at work. Craig, one of the naturalists that teach the program, wanted to get to know more about honey bees by visiting the apiary.

We had a great time checking on the progress of the Dmitry Hive and then captured a drone for an experiment. We marked him with a small dot of light green nail polish (somehow red didn't quite seem his color) before putting him in an old queen cage. The intent was to allow the school kids an up close education on drones before releasing it and we'd see if he'd return back to the apiary. The last time I sent a drone home with Sara and her nieces and nephew, he was dead by the next morning so we weren't quite sure how this drone would get along by himself outside of the hive.

After Craig left for his sleep-over with the drone, I did a bit of internet research and learned drones don't do well without attendants. There were no details beyond that and left me wondering why was that so... do the attendants feed him, as they do the queen? This had me thinking that this drone, too, would not see the light of the new day.

The drone back at home. 

So, I was surprised and when Craig arrived at work the next morning with the queen cage containing a very alive 'Andrei' (Craig's name for the drone) who lived to be a part of the program before they set him free. The kids were excited to get to see a drone up close and a few even had the courage to hold him before he took flight, circling higher and higher until he was out of view.

The farm is about a little over a mile away as the crow flies from the apiary and Andrei easily returned home like a pigeon to his coop. I'd call that a very successful experiment, both in that he lived to participate and that he returned from a place from which he didn't fly to!

Bees navigate by the sun so this experiment has brought up all kinds of questions. Stay tuned for further posts on been navigation.

Time for a Quick Check-in on the New Queens

Every time a hive is opened it sets them back a few days so I've left the new queens to do their thing for a couple weeks.

Dmitry Hive

Dmitry Queen

I expected to see progress in the Dmitry hive today and she's laying in a good brood patter, but remains in the center 4 frames. Last year it took the Sasha split most of the summer to spread out in the first box so I'm not concerned at the lack of progress with Dmitry.

Dmitry Brood

Sasha Hive

Sasha Brood

Starting out with a hive full of bees has certainly given the Sasha hive and their new queen an advantage. The top box is heavy full of honey! And the bottom two boxes are full of brood so I added the third brood box (I use three mediums instead of two deeps).

OV Hive

The OV hive had two honey supers on top of the three hive bodies and, as of a few weeks ago, they had not yet drawn out the frames. But today I saw capped honey in the top box when I peered down between the frames so I added a third honey super!

New Queens are Laying!

Dmitry Queen and Eggs

Did a quick inspection after work today to see how the queens were doing. The brood I gave the Dmitry hive has nearly all hatched and the queen has begun to lay.  You can see her in the upper right corner of the photo and you can just make out the eggs in the cells.

Brood in the Sasha Hive

 I didn't take the time to look for the new Sasha queen but she's just that much ahead of Dmitry with her brood but that's because she was released from her cage a few days sooner than the Dmitry queen.

I'll check them again in a week, but I'm confident both hives are on their way to becoming good hives!

The Day I (Almost) Lost a Queen

New Sasha Queen

My special friends Leah, Alex and Macallan along with their Aunt Sara visited the hives to help me check to see if the new queens had made it out of their cages. We first looked in on the Sasha hive and found the queen out and about. She has not yet begun to lay yet, but everything looks good so far. Before closing up the hive, we all had a taste of honey fresh off the frame as the Sasha hive has lots of honey going on!

The Dmitry hive queen was still in her cage so I removed it to show the kids. Aunt Sara held it while I peeked at the brood. No one noticed that the candy in the cage was eaten away on the back side which allowed the queen to make her exit. All of a sudden I heard Sara say, "Oh, here's the queen!" as the queen crawled up and out the opening of the cage. I turned to look just as the queen took flight and circled round and round, up over our heads until I lost sight of her...

Dmitry queen safely back home.

#%!?*# was running through my head but with little guests at the apiary, I think I said something more along the lines of, "This is not good..." Yet as soon as she took flight, she came back down and landed on the edge of the articulating cover leaning up against the next hive. I had honey on one end of the hive tool from getting the honey for the kids to taste, so I simply put the sticky end under the queen and transported her back to her new home. 

I know how lucky we were that the queen returned and I promise that I will never do that again! Whew!

Thinking of Nurse Bees in the Middle of the Night

Woke in the middle of the night and was thinking of the bees. (Don't you think about your bees when you're awake at night?) I was worried that perhaps I didn't give the Dmitry hive (the new split) enough nurse bees to keep the brood warm while that hive gets established. When I made the Sasha split last year, that is exactly what happened and a lot of the brood died.

Last night our temps were around 40 degrees so as soon as I got home from work I transferred a bunch of nurse bees from the OV hive to Dmitry - using a spritz of Honey-B-Healthy to mask the scent. The queen is still in her cage with the candy in place. If I happened to loose some of that brood, I can easily give them some more. How lucky I was that first year with only one hive! So many things could have gone wrong with no other hives to draw from!

New Queens Arrived and Installed

I began the morning with another inspection of the Sasha hive to look for the queen. Even with the excluders in place to keep her confined, I could not find her. You know me... I'd rather know where she is instead of where she is not, so with the help of the husband we moved the entire hive around the corner out of sight and, leaving an empty box back at the hive, we brushed off every frame. The theory being that the bees would return to the hive and the queen, if she was in the hive to begin with would be brushed off and left behind as she cannot fly. Nearly every bee made its way back to the hive and no queen was spotted among those left on the ground.

The queens arrived in small cages with 4-5 attendants in each and a candy plug for food. If you look closely in the left-hand cage, you can spot the new queen with a white mark on her back. It will take about 3 days for the attendants to eat though the candy which will then allow access to a hole in the top of the cage. The queen will simply crawl out and hopefully, begin to lay eggs. The time it takes to eat through the candy is important because it allows the other bees in the hive to accept her as their new queen. If the queen were released directly into the hive the bees would think her an intruder, ball her and kill her.

New queen cage placed in hive. 

Once all the frames were cleared of bees and back in box, we placed the queen cage between two frames with the hole facing up. If the hole were facing down and any of the queens attendants died, their bodies could potentially block the hole and prevent the queen from emerging.

It took only moments for the bees to cover the cage, thinking she's an intruder. Fingers crossed that she is accepted. I'll wait a week and then check to see that she's emerged and has begun laying eggs.

Rookie Dmitry Orlov

The other queen was used to make a split from the OV hive, adding a third hive in the apiary. This hive will be known as the Dmitry hive, named after another Russian hockey player for the Washington Capitals.

I pulled out three frames of mostly covered brood and house bees and placed them in a box with drawn comb. There was a big difference in how this hive basically ignored the queen cage. I put the top feeder on and will check again in a week to see if the queen has emerged and has begun laying.

While I was selecting the frames I wanted from the OV hive, I easily found the queen. This hive has been my strong hive, doing all the right things at the right time. I'm hoping that by requeening the Sasha hive and creating the Dmitry hive with a good queen, these hive will bring the apiary into full honey production next year. :-)

A Hive Divided

Sasha hive with queen
excluders separating each box.

A hive that has been queenless for at least 24 hours has a better chance of accepting a new queen so, with the new Russian queens arriving tomorrow I planned on removing the current Sasha queen today. Finding the queen, even one that is unmarked, has never been a problem for me... until today, that is.

After the wonderful experience with the newly emerged queen two weeks ago, she should have mated and been laying by now. But not only did I not find her, but there is no brood in the hive either, and I checked it over carefully - two times - even checking the inside walls of the boxes. The bees were loosing their patience with me by then so I put a queen excluder between each box and closed it up. I figured this will make it easier to finder her in the morning in case those new legs of hers helped her to scoot between boxes.

This got me wondering what are the other methods commonly used to find the queen when you want to replace her. The following are the most common methods I found:

Go to the Center of the Hive

1. Space the frames apart in the middle of the brood box.
2. Carefully lift one frame out of the middle. 
3. Briefly scan over each side of this frame (like reading, taking about a minute).  
4. Place this frame in a spare box and continue with the next frame, working your way towards the outside of the box. 

The queen may be seen on the wall of the hive body or on the bottom board.  The center
of the brood nest on a frame with eggs is the most likely place to find her.  Speed is an
advantage because the queen can hide well.  Once you have found her, shake
bees off combs, manipulate combs, lift honey out to top and replace with empty brood combs and introduce queen cage.

Go to the Outside of the Hive

1. Place an empty box next to the hive. 
2. Remove the outside frame furthest from you, check for the queen, and place in the empty box. 
3. Remove the frame closest to you, again checking for the queen before placing in the spare box.  While it is not usual to find the queen on the outside frames, it can happen.  By removing these frames first from the hive it will create a light barrier between the next frame and the hive wall.  This will confine the queen to the remaining frames. 
4. Before checking both sides of the frame closest to you, glance down the face of the frame.  Often, the queen stands out taller than the other bees and can be more easily spotted on the face of the frame before it is removed.  Repeat for remaining frames until the queen is found. 

Divide and Conquer 

1. Put an empty box next to the hive. 
2. Take out half the frames and place them in the empty box.  
3. Place in each of the two boxes empty combs to make up the space where frames are missing. 
4. This gives you 4 frames of bees and brood and 4 frames of pollen/honey/empty combs in each box. 
5. The next day one of the hives will have fanning bees at the entrance.  She will now be easier to find because you know which box she is in and only have half the number of bees to search. 

Drift Method 
Suitable for apiaries with pairs or rows of hives.

1. Move hive to a new position behind a landmark and turn entrance 180 degrees. This will cause all the field bees to return to the hive next door.  Usually this is OK under good conditions. 
2. The next day, or even a few hours later, you only have nurse bees and the queen bee left in the hive on the brood frames. This will give you the edge in finding the queen. 

Divide and Divide Again 

1. Place an empty hive box next to the hive. 
2. Use the Go to the Outside of the Hive method first. 
3. Place 4 frames in each box with bees adhering then pair up frames by pushing them together.  This should make the bees and the queen go between either two frames where it is darker. 
4. After 10 minutes, look for the queen and remember to look on the walls and floor as well.

The Last Resort 

This one is a last resort and will absolutely remove the queen.  It is a good method to use on a drone layer or an overly aggressive hive. 

1. Move the whole hive 10-20 yards or more, behind landmarks preferably. This will cause the bees to drift back to their original position. 
2. Shake all of the bees off the comb onto the ground and place all frames into a new hive body which is elevated on a table.  This ensures that the queen cannot re-enter the hive. 
3. Return the brood box to the original spot to collect all returning field bees. The queen will not be able to fly back. 
4. Check 7 days later for queen cells, knock them off and introduce caged queen. 

A New Queen and Her Legs

Found the newly emerged Sasha queen right on schedule. I didn't search the entire hive to find her queen cell, but since we know it takes 16 days for a queen to emerge, I am certain she was underway by the time I did my first inspection of the year, two weeks ago.  

This queen was brand new, just emerged and trying to get the hang of her long legs. I must have stood there a good half hour taking photos and watching her move around. I'm grateful for the  opportunity to witness such a rare sight and so pleased to share a short video of this occasion!

 

For now, all is right in the Sasha hive but this queen is to be replaced with a new Russian queen next week. That means the death of this little beauty, but she will live on as a teacher. I've been sharing dead bees with the education program at the Hard Bargain Farm Environmental Center for their pollinator program and plan on preserving this queen for them. What a rare opportunity it will be for students to explore a queen bee up close!

Did you know that a queen makes a sound? It is referred to as piping or tooting. Tooting starts soon after a queen has emerged from her cell but I didn't detect it today. Once this queen gets used to her legs and hardens a bit, she will seek out and kill any other potential queens by ripping open their cells and stinging them to death.

I recently read that worker bees will sometimes not allow a queen to dispose of all her potential rivals right away; they bar her from some of the cells. She will then begin to toot and may continue to do so day and night, perhaps for a week or more. Her tooting rises in intensity and volume which may heard more than 10 feet from the hive.

Meanwhile the maturing queen bees still in cells try to get out in their turn. The worker bees hold them back. As fast as one of them opens the cap of her cell the workers push it back in place and glue it shut. These imprisoned queens also start to pipe, but in a different pattern and at a lower tone than the free queen. The workers let out some of these queens, but only one at a time. The reigning queen and the newly released rival then battle until one is killed. A series of fights between the survivor and the new rivals goes on until only one queen is left. This survivor, still a virgin, then flies away from the hive to mate with several drones before she returns to begin laying eggs.

When to Add Honey Supers?

That's a simple rule... when the dandelions are in bloom. With our non-winter this year our dandelions are just coming into bloom. And our trees are about to pop. Allergy sufferers are really going to suffer this season but I'm predicting a booming nectar flow!

Waiting on Pair of Queens

Inspected the Sasha hive today to see if they happened to be making a queen yet. Pictured here is a frame of brood that I had moved in that was mostly eggs last week. There are a number of empty queen cups, both supercedure as well as swarm, on 3 or 4 frames. The hive is full of bees and they're capping honey in the top box! I added a honey super for good measure and to give them a bit more space. I'll split from these bees once the queens arrive in a couple of weeks.

First Full Inspection of 2012 also known as Laurel and Hardy Inspect the Bees

Red Daffodil Pollen

Our projected overnight temps are to remain above 45 degrees for the next 10 days so I planned my inspection for today with the intent of splitting the OV hive to make the third hive of the apiary. It felt great being in the bees after a long winter. I started with the OV hive, cleaning off the bottom screen, scraping away propolis, etc. Lots of red daffodil pollen on the bees.

OV Queen and Brood

I found exactly what I expected to find in the OV hive; nectar and pollen up top, brood in various stages and the queen in the middle with empty comb in the bottom.

I was hoping to find a queen cell to split, but decided that I'd try another walk away split as there was lots of bees and brood in the hive. Wouldn't you know that the frame I selected for the most eggs, also had the queen on it! I carefully nudged her off into the open space made from two removed frames and as I leaned in over the hive to check on her, the hat of my veil tipped forward, covering my eyes. As quick as I tipped it back the queen was nowhere in sight. She was no longer on the frame I had in my hands but what about the other frames I want to remove? I'd feel safer knowing where she was instead of hoping where she wasn't... so I inspected the box, again. No queen. Hmmm... Did she drop into the bottom box? Did I harm her? Yikes! Now I really want to get a visual on her. So I inspected the bottom box, again. No queen. Back to the middle box, again and there she was! Yea!

New Split

Now that I was certain the OV queen was okay, I moved over a couple more frames of brood along with a couple frames of pollen and nectar and rounded it out with empty drawn frames. Last year's split taught me that drift really depletes the population so start out with more bees than you think you'll need. I closed up both hives, put the top feeder on the OV hive and turned my attention to inspecting the Sasha hive.

My smoker had died by now but I wasn't concerned as the Sasha hive had been so docile. Boy, they sure had me fooled! The moment I removed the top box I was surrounded by unhappy bees. You can bet I re-lit the smoker but not before getting stung just above the knee!

The Sasha hive still had honey in the top box but the middle box had a single queen cup on a number of frames. They were all empty and I was having trouble finding any eggs. Anywhere. I couldn't find the queen either. And I was really taking my time, inspecting each box a couple of times before it occurred to me that I had not noticed any brood. Anywhere. None at all! Funny how a hive full of bees can echo as empty as a ghost town when no brood is present. No wonder I couldn't find the queen! (and being able to read the hive to easily find her is something I'm proud to have learned.)

I'm not yet certain how this hive become queenless but she was probably near the top bars when I was feeding fondant and squished when I closed up the hive. So, after everything I did with the OV hive to make the split, I undid all that work by brushing the bees back into the OV hive and placing three frames of brood in the Sasha hive. They'll start feeding one of the eggs royal jelly and a new queen will be selected but I've learned my lesson on these silly Sasha bees. They still are making weird comb formations and are not about the business that good bees should be, so I ordered two new Russian queens from Free State Bees. I'll requeen the Sasha hive with one and make a third hive with the other.

Split hive in the middle before
being sacrificed to Sasha

So, how long did my inspection take today? About an hour and a half, I'd say. Way longer than it should have. But some days Laurel and Hardy come to visit and well, you know days like that just can't be rushed!

Don't Spring Too Early

As I've been saying, it has not yet actually been winter in my part of Southern Maryland and it's already March. With our daytime temps in the 45 -70 degree range, it's tempting to want to begin feeding sugar syrup. But no matter where you live and how lovely your daytime temperature may be, remember that your night time temps must be consistently above 45 degrees to feed syrup. We're still just above freezing some nights.

Be patient, my beekeeping friends! Spring will be here any time now!

The Beekeeper

Local farmer Megan Paska has witnessed beekeeping as it morphed from an illegal (and possibly crazy) habit to a sustainable, community-supported skill. Mirroring beekeeping’s own ascendance, she found more than just a living: “This is the first time in my life when I’ve just felt absolutely on the right path.”

Water Wherever You Find It

Today was a beautiful, sunny spring-like day with temps in the low 50's. We were standing by the corner of the front porch enjoying watching the orientation flights around the OV hive when we noticed a bee on the paving stones at our feet. Those resourceful bees were taking water that had dripped down from porch gutter. We placed a shallow birdbath nearby and filled it with water. I attempted to relocate one of the drinking bees to the rim but it was airborne as soon as I let go, zooming around me before heading back to the hive. I could have sat and watched these bees all afternoon, but I had hive bodies to put together so back to work for me.

Winter, I hardly knew ye

Our winter in Southern Maryland has been so mild that you can't really call it winter at all. Mostly, our daytime temps have been from the 40's to the 60's and overnights didn't drop below freezing until mid-January. Yesterday was near 70! The OV hive never clustered but the Sasha hive had honey until just a few weeks ago. Been feeding both hives, splitting a batch of fondant every 3-4 days and the bees have been bringing in pollen for a few weeks now.

There has been much discussion on the BUMBA list-serve on whether to feed sugar syrup with our mild temps. Some have but I was worried about the cold nights and the added moisture that would add to the hive. I know it is time for the queen to ramp up her laying but it is still just February, after all.

So I'll be patient another few weeks and then will do a full inspection, swap the boxes, super up, check for swarm cells, etc. In the meantime, I put together my 3rd hive and get it painted. Another season of beekeeping begins.

One Hive Clustered, One Hive... (well, you know how it is!)

Today is the 6th day since their last feeding so it was time for another feeding for the OV hive. Our temps have been in the low 40's with some days this past week being quite windy and brisk. My mild-mannered Sasha hive has perfectly clustered like the good little bees they are. But was I expecting the same for the OV hive? Oh no... Not the OV hive.

This picture has nothing to do with this
post but will certainly make you smile!

Those Russian bees were just hanging out and moving around, loving life while waiting for dinner to arrive. Since they replaced their queen this spring, they've not been the same as they were for the first year. They once were the textbook hive: rearing brood, making honey and clustering when they should be. Now they're the fun loving, full of life Russians that you expect any vodka-drinking Russian to be. So very different from the Sasha hive!

Life Cycle of a Honey Bee

The life stages of a honeybee are egg, larva, pupa and adult. Development from egg to adult takes 21 days.  

The length of these stages is set out in the table below.

Days	Task
1 - 3	Egg
4 - 9	Larvae (5 days)
10 - 21	Pupae (10 days) Cell is capped.
Adult	Once emerged, a bee performs various house duties. Read more about that at my post on The Life of a Honey Bee.

The Beauty of Pollinators

This beautiful video is by filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg who shows us the intricate world of pollen and pollinators with gorgeous high-speed images from his film "Wings of Life," inspired by the vanishing of one of nature's primary pollinators, the honeybee.

Record Keeping

Keeping track of your hives is an important aspect of successful beekeeping so after utilizing a pad of paper for the past year and a half, I finally elected to go high-tech with Beetight.com online record keeping.  I found it to be less clunky and more intuitive than the popular Hive Tracks.

The basic version is free for up to 6 hives. The Pro version is $15 per year and comes with an iPhone/iPad or Android app. The big plus for me is that you can export your data into excel so that you can keep a local backup.

So far, I'm impressed with its ease of use, allowing you to

• Easily record details of inspections and manipulations
• Record treatments and feeding
• Track colony temperament
• Record honey harvests, including records of nectar sources and batch codes.

Fondant Recipe

Making fondant for winter survival feeding is one of the most important skills you could have as a beekeeper. The bees cannot use fresh, uncured sugar syrup from a feeder or in the honeycomb during periods of cold to generate heat, but they can with fondant. I've followed this recipe supplied from Scott Seccomb of BUMBA with much success thanks to his excellent notes included as red text.  

Aluminum foil with a bit of
Mega Bee ready to go.

Have ready a sheet of unwrinkled aluminum foil with the shinny side up. I place mine on a cookie sheet that has been spread with a bit of Mega Bee that then gets incorporated into the fondant.

To feed a medium strength colony for 5 to 10 days:

Add 2 Cups sugar, 1.5 Cups water and 1/8 teaspoon Cream of Tartar to a small pot Stir only to dissolve the sugar. Use a small pot that allows for the thermometer to be submerged into the mixture for an accurate temperature reading and also makes it easier to scrape out the mixture.

Boil to 238 degrees (soft ball stage.) (This takes about 30 minutes for my stove.) Do not stir during the boil. Eventually you will tell by the could of the boil when its getting close to the desired temperature. Use a good candy-making thermometer. Boiling to 238 degrees is critical for the proper final consistency and sugar absorption.

Remove the pot from the heat and let cool to around 140 degrees. (This also takes about 30 minutes for me.) You can hasten this by a short period of refrigeration but it can cause the mixture to gum up around the edges of the cooling pot, requiring heavier mixing/scraping when stirring.

Stir until you can no longer
 see the bottom of the pot.

Once the mixture has cooled to 140 degrees, stir in 2 tablespoons of light corn syrup (Never use dark colored corn syrup) or up to 1/4 Cup of honey (bees will really devour the honey fondant) and stir until the mixture begins to turn white and you can no longer see the bottom of the pan.

Pour onto aluminum foil and cool.  If you dump too early, as soon as the mixture turns opaque, it may never firm up. If you stir too long, it will look like cake frosting and will harden like a rock. I stirred this batch just a bit too long from trying to take a picture of it with one hand while stirring with the other and ended up with it thickening way too fast! I flattened it before it cooled but it still turned out thicker than I prefer.

Once the fondant is cool you can break it up into pieces about 3-4" in diameter. Place it on the top bars of the frames, leaving room for air flow between them.

As you can see by the photo, the bees don't mind that this wasn't a perfect batch. :-)

Important to note: 

• Doubling the recipe doesn't always work. You could end up with goo or rock hard cement.
• Store extra fondant in a sealed container. Place a piece of aluminum foil on top and a wet piece of paper towel on top of that to keep it moist.
• If you use honey in your fondant do not use store bought honey which has been heated and possibly altered with who knows what, and may have Foul Brood spores in it.