Summer Fun

This is a mixed bag post. I did a little of everything today and just wanted to share. I inspected the bees today. It was my first inspection in two weeks. I had hope that I would be able to harvest some honey, but it was not to be. I'm guessing the bees are short on young wax-producing bees due to the supersedure of the queen. It also looks like they could use another box shortly, but I'm going to wait until there are new bees emerging. The new queen has been laying for a couple weeks, so that should be any day now.

After the hive inspection, I went to the beach with the family. I had a fun time. Both kids were enjoying the water thoroughly which is a special treat. Usually, one is being difficult and the other one wants to walk away and not listen. Occasionally, they mix it up and change roles. Today, however, both kids seemed more interested in just having fun. After a lunch of cold fried food and soggy pizza, we headed home for nap time.

I really needed to get my fall veggies planted. In order to do that, I need to clear out the spring veggie patch of the old plants plus all the giant weeds. Seriously, I almost have a hay crop growing in my raised beds. The nice thing about this is it makes weeding easy. You just grab everything and pull. I managed to get the purple peacock broccoli-kale bed ripped out. I'm thinking I'm going to try a fall crop of carrots with a row cover so that I can pick into December. I need to get some collard greens and broccoli in the ground too, so I have a bunch more work to do but given that I was soaked in sweat in a matter of seconds, I decided to leave that for tomorrow. My fall garden plans include carrots, broccoli, collards, spinach, lettuces, and peas, plus some beets for the chickens. I might throw in some turnips and swiss chard, if I have any seeds left from the spring.

Later, we're going to have a cookout with family friends. Tomorrow, we're going out on the water. After that, I will probably get my gardening tasks done. If I have any spare time, I might try to get my new hive boxes assembled and painted. I have so much stuff going on this weekend and all of it is fun!

Making Jam with the Fam

Today, we made raspberry jam. OK, technically, there were some blackberries and a few blueberries thrown in for filler. The blackberries made a nice addition of tartness. This should replenish our stock of raspberry jam. We still have about two dozen jars of jam, jelly, and preserves from last year, not to mention pickles, pizza sauce and applesauce. This year, we should get a boatload of tomatoes. In fact, we might even have enough to supply our year's worth of tomatoes if they start ripening soon. Now all I need to do is find something to do with cucumbers other than making pickles. Anyway, enjoy the photos.

Today's berries

Kids impatiently waiting to help make jam

Waiting with temptation

Mommy stirring jam; Kid trying to sneak some sugar

"I swear, I didn't eat any"

The end result; 5 jars of jam for about half an hour and a few cents for pectin and li

Bees: Inspection - 16 July 2011

This was a quick inspection. I opened the hive. One problem I continuously have with the simple act of opening the hive is that I have a pitched roof garden hive. I love the look, and I'm sure the copper cladding (which already looks nice) will look fantastic as it weathers to a nice green patina. That said, the standard practice is to flip the lid and put the cover and hive boxes on top, so any bees which fall off, land in the cover(s). With a pitched roof, it is a little challenging to balance things on top. To make matters worse, my hive is sitting on pitched ground. I manage, but it's a little concerning to be leaning over the bottom boxes while 2 boxes of honey and bees are teetering precariously right next to your foot. I'll have to do something about that. I'm thinking I might just make a flat, level platform and put the inner cover on it.We'll see.

Given that I had seen almost no brood and absolutely no eggs or larvae, I figured that I would pop in, see nothing and then get out and order a new queen. there were a good number of bees in the hive, so that's a plus. I haven't reached the tipping point of certain hive death. The top box is almost completely full of nectar/honey. It's probably about half capped. I think, when it is fully capped, I will harvest it. From what I understand, there is a really great fall flow of nectar around here of goldenrod and aster. I should be able to steal a box and they should still be able to build up for winter.

The second box was more of the same. There were some frames of totally new wax which were drawn out but empty because I checker-boarded the frames from the new fourth box into the rest of the boxes. Running out of time, I moved on to the next box. The second frame was all uncapped nectar. The the third frame, however, had a nice sampling of eggs. At the bottom of the cells were single eggs which were just starting to lay down. I had been concerned about the possibility of a laying worker or a failed mating so this was a welcome sign.

I'm a little concerned that they don't have enough space for eggs. When the old queen died, the workers back-filled most of the bottom two boxes with nectar. I may have to find an extractor to borrow so I can spin out some frames, leaving the comb intact. And speaking of an extractor, I have been considering my options. It is way too expensive to buy one. They start around $300, although you can get really cheap plastic 2-frame models for $200 if you want to throw your money away. You can rent them for $20 or $30 per day, but I don't know if I want to go that route. Although I really can't think why I wouldn't want to go that route. I had actually decided that I would either build my own extractor or just crush and strain, but my foundation is a mix of wired wax and coated plastic. The next box I put on will be foundationless so a lot of these concerns will go away. For now, though, I will have to consider my options.

Because of the rushed inspection, I didn't get any inside photos again. I really need to have a beekeeper's assistant to take photos. Until then, here are some bee's eye view shots.

Bees: Inspection - 10 July 2011

I opened the hive today. I wanted to see if the emergency queen cells had been opened. I was amazed and impressed how much honey/nectar the bees had put up in the last week. I don't know where they are getting it. I was under the impression that, in my area, there is a Spring flow and a Fall flow with a dearth in the middle. I think being across from a field and fairly close to a brook and pond causes a better situation for the bees. One week ago, they had some nectar filled frames in the second box, but hadn't touched the third box much at all. I had rearranged the frames in the lower boxes. My intent was to move the emergency queen cells down to the bottom and move the nectar up. Ideally, I want the upper two boxes to be mostly full of honey and the lower two boxes mostly open for brood with some pollen and honey. This would (in my opinion) be the best situation for the bees as they get ready to cluster for the winter. Of course, I am not a bee.

Today, the first frame I pulled was mostly empty and still waiting to be drawn out. The second frame, however, was drawn and filled to the brim with nectar. The third frame was draw, filled and beginning to be capped. In fact, every frame all the way to the last frame in the box was full and beginning to be capped. It's simply amazing what bees can do in a week.

Moving on to the next box, I saw more of the same. This box had been previously used for brood so there were many dark cells with honey/nectar and a bunch of pollen. There were almost no open cells. When pulling a frame about half way though this box, I was rewarded with my first sting. I was uncertain how I would react to this. I got stung right on the pad of my index finger. It felt a bit like getting shocked by household wall current (aka, 110 A.C.).* I quite literally brushed it off and continued.

The bottom box was much the same as the top two boxes. There was actually a very small patch of capped brood. I'm guessing this was the very last brood laid by the queen. Based on my best guesstimate, I figure I will have no brood left by next weekend. I plan to inspect and if I don't have a laying queen, I will order one post haste.

Speaking of the queen, during the last inspection I noted a few emergency queen cells. I had moved these to the bottom box. One of them was being cleaned out by a worker and had been totally broken down, except for the larger base. The other one was empty, but looked shredded. I'm not exactly sure what happened. From what I read, the first queen to emerge will seek out all other queen cells, rip through the side and sting the potential competition to death. I guess this may be what happened here, except that the cell was fully shredded.

I didn't get many photos because I wanted to make things quick and, other than nectar and honey, there was nothing much to see. Also, as I was trying to finish up the inspection, the bees started getting really testy. This is an unwelcome development for my previously docile-to-a-fault bees. As I was adding a fourth box and moving in some of the outer frames, I was granted my second sting. This one was on the outside of my pinkie and it hurt like hell. Instinctively, I yanked my hand and shook it which is a bad thing to do when standing in a swirl of hundreds of irritated bees. I quickly finished putting things back together and closed up the hive. Maybe next time, I will have to actually use a bit more smoke if they haven't requeened successfully.

A full frame of nectar.

Closeup shot of the same frame. I expect this to be capped in a week or two.

An Asiatic lily because I was taking photos of flowers since I had few of the bees.

* - I can't count the number of times I have been shocked by wall current. Something to do with changing outlets while they're still powered, I guess. That or the fact that I used to deliberately shock myself on the nightlight as a kid.

Bees: A new queen?

I am not exactly sure, but I think I may have seen a new queen's orientation flight. Generally, mid to late afternoon is orientation flying. There is always a ton of activity around the hive as new foragers are flying loops to identify their surroundings, allowing them to find their home. Even though the queen will only leave the hive for mating, swarming or death, she still needs to return from her mating flight. Hence, she must possess the same mental map of landmarks that the foragers have.

When I went to collect the eggs, I noticed the flurry of activity around the hive. I squatted down to watch for a minute or two. During that time, I saw numerous drones flying in and out of the hive. I also swear that I saw a queen fly in. Of course, they move quick and there was a lot of activity and there has been a LOT of activity in the last few days triggered by (I assume) a new nectar source. I plan to inspect the hive later today, but I don't know if I will get a chance.

In other semi-bee news, I have a noxious weed in my yard and garden. It is a neat little flower which looks almost orchid-like. It is called jewel weed. If you've never seen or heard of it, it has orange flowers which are apparently great sources of nectar. Every year, the hummingbirds hit my yard from July to early September for these flowers. From what I read, the bees like them too. The jewel weed in my yard has just started blooming, so I expect my bees will enjoy that.

Update: Here is a photo of Jewel Weed. It's not great, but it is surprisingly hard to take a picture in poor light, in a breeze, while holding a 22 month old.

Bees: The queen is dead

...probably. I got out of work early and did a hive inspection today (6/30). I was concerned right off the bat because the bees hadn't done anything much with the third box. I'm hoping they fill at least 4 boxes before winter. Ideally, they will fill 5 so I can get some honey, but that may be wishful thinking at this point. I don't know if my hive swarmed. If they did, they certainly left behind a good number of bees. More likely, the queen died of unnatural causes. I hadn't seen her in the last inspection, but I saw eggs. This inspection showed that there were a bunch of sealed brood, some sealed supersedure cells and a minimal amount of unsealed older brood.

Given that brood is sealed around day 9, I'm guessing that the bees felt the queen was failing a couple weeks ago. They let her live long enough to give them the resources (an egg) to make a new queen and then dispatched her. With any luck, my new queen will hatch in the next couple days, eliminate her sister competition and then go on her mating flight. I find it strange though. The queen was laying a really nice, dense pattern of eggs. She used almost every cell on every drawn frame. I've read that first year packages like this routinely re-queen themselves 2-3 times in their first season. Given how well she was laying, I had hoped my bees were the exception.

I suppose this is the exact reason why beekeepers insist that you should start with a minimum of 2 hives. If something goes wrong and my queen doesn't start laying eggs, I will have no queen. No queen, means no bees. If I had a second hive, I could put a frame of eggs in this hive for insurance. I'm definitely going to have to do something about that next year.

As an overambitious move on my part, I had brought the fourth hive box up, fully expecting that I would need it. As it turns out, not only did I not need it, but during the inspection I realized that I really didn't even need the third box for much right now. I added the second box when the first box was 80% full. I added the third box when the second box was about 75% full. The bees did draw out a bit of comb in the third box, but really weren't maximizing their space. The first box still had 1.5 frames mostly undrawn. The second box was the same way. Right or wrong, I decided to do something about that.

I am generally inclined to let the bees do whatever they feel is correct. That said, I don't want them to have empty, undrawn frames in their home when they winter over. While I had the whole hive open, I made a command decision. I moved frames around and generally screwed with the bee's world. Hopefully, I did OK. The bottom box now has half of one frame left to finish drawing out. Mostly, the box was full of capped brood and backfilled honey. The second box was a bit tougher to rearrange. I wanted to keep the brood in the center, more or less, but I didn't want to make the new queen honey bound right when she starts laying. When I moved drawn frames down, that left undrawn frames and nectar frames to take their places. I have a bit more nectar in the second box then I would prefer. Assuming the queen starts laying, I'll probably do another rearrangement later to keep the broodnest open and move the honey up. If they had drawn out (without filling) more of the upper box, I would have had more options.

Close-up shot of bees.

Full frame of capped brood.

Looking down into the hive

I watched the bee in the middle chew her way out of her cell. Awesome!