It's Just Natural

No matter how hard you look, this time of year you're bound to miss a queen cell and the hive will swarm :(The hives are busting with 'newbees' and newbees are the new nurse bees. They don't leave the hive to forage for nectar or pollen, their job is to tend the eggs and brood. They do an excellent job of it too! Sometimes they will cover up the queen cells and you just overlook them.....anyway, when that happens and the queen hatches, the older queen, even if she's less than a week old will take half the hive with her to some place new, hence a swarm.Less than five days ago we checked our home hives and culled lots of queen cells... apparently we overlooked a couple :( We were out checking hives in other locations and came home to this.

A swarm.......really, really high in the tree. A wooded area that can't be gotten to easily at all. If we were tree climbers and could shimmy up that tree, I think we would have at least tried, but we're not, so here's one for nature ;)

We had to go back through the hives to see which one swarmed because if (and they did) they have any more queen cells ready to hatch it will decimate the hive.....leaving the last few with nothing.

While going through a song came to me LOL, I hope you enjoy it or at least can appreciate it ;)

sung to the tune of "Up on the rooftop"

Up in the tree tops, Oh, so high

there is a swarm hive saying goodbye;

Oh, no, no, Where will they go?

Oh, no, no, I'd like to know!

Up in the tree tops come back home...

People will hurt you, please don't roam!

Oh, no ,no, Where will You go?

Oh, no, no, Please let me know!

Up in the tree tops saying goodbye,

hanging on a large limb, WAY too high!

I hope they make it okay.......

Until next time!

BEE looking!

Julie

Singing Queens And Pure Comb Honey

When we first started keeping honeybees, I would notice, every once in a while, a sweet high pitched singing sound in our hives. It made me happy and I would tell my husband I would get this over whelming feeling that the Queen was alive and well in that particular hive. At the time I thought it was a worker bee singing to her Queen, but just last week while watching a documentary about bees, I discovered that this sound comes from the queen herself. In the documentary it shows a moth mimicking a queen bee so it can go undetected through the hive to drink honey. We found this to be true ourselves while doing a hive inspection this weekend. We had lost a queen and the hive had produced a new queen. There were no eggs in the hive and we had to look for her. My husband gets antsy with me because I don't work as fast as he does ;) He had given me a frame to look over because I can see eggs in the cells where he can't.

As I was looking I heard her! I was so excited I kept asking him if he can hear her and he said "no, give me the frame and look through this other one!" I started to get angry because I wanted to see if I was right, but I reluctantly gave in. A few minutes later he called me by my full name! And said, "you're NOT going to believe this, but here she is!" I was amazed! And so relieved that I had let him have that frame because he never would've believed me! ;) We didn't have time or the extra hand to take a picture and I would have given anything to get it on video! Now that I know for sure it's the queen I will try to get at least the sound on video to post!
I'm trying to get comb honey this year and they are doing pretty good on this frame. The brown on here is bees.

I don't have the heart to kill our queens when they just happen to hatch out before our eyes during inspections so my husband bought me a queen hive. Naturally, during assembly something went awry ;)
Over the weekend during our inspections as usual we had to cull lots of queen cells. I put them in with the burr comb we collect. Monday when I went to my mom's to inspect the hive at her house, I was getting ready, and pulled out my container and couldn't believe what I was seeing. My mom came over and we watched as this little queen hatched.

I'm not happy with my camera because it doesn't seem to let me take focused pictures or I haven't learned how to use it yet. ;) This clump looks funny and not at all like a queen cell, because it was molded in with another q-cell and burr comb. So tell me, after going through all that.......could you just kill her???
After she hatched I put her into a queen catcher and got a drop of honey from my mom to feed her. When I got back home I put her into a queen cage and put a candy end on it.

Can you see her?
I went into one of my little Nuc's and got a frame of eggs, brood and nurse bees and a frame of honey for them. I took them to my new queen box and put the new queen in with them. I'll let them *bee* for a few days then have a check on them. I hope things go well for them. I'll keep you posted.
This is the nuc I got the frames from.

Until next time!

Bee Bizzy! ;0)

Julie
**************UPDATE!!!!!!

Here's a picture of the inside of the Queen Hive. It's in sections to hold two frames each. There are four sections.

I couldn't stand it any longer.....we had a bad storm come through early Tuesday morning and the outside of the box looked a little messy and I got worried. There were no dead bees outside so that was a good sign.
A look inside, all seems well. There's a lot of space between the frames because I had the queen cage between them.
I pulled it out and she is gone! They ate the candy and released her. ;)

Can you see her? She's so Bee-u-ti-ful!!! I am SO thankful they excepted her.
I have found that a brand new hatched out queen will be excepted way quicker than a purchased queen. I'm not saying you should never purchase a Queen, to each his own. But I know that our bees know what's best for them and I would rather let them take care of things instead of me interfering.....too much ;)

Until next time!
BEE THANKFUL!

Julie ;0)

Look Ma, No Gloves!

Spring is here!!!

At least the plants and bees/pollinators think so ;) I'm still cold....but thankful that I live in the South ;) I love springtime!!! Everything blooming and buzzing....

I have reached a goal!!! Well....kind of, I mean, I was so excited that this is the second "Nuc" that I've been into without gloves!!! YAY!! I was so happy! ;)

Some times happiness doesn't last too long! LOL
Look Ma, No gloves!!! ;)

After I finished up with the Nuc... I went into the larger hive, still gloveless and confident....

Then out of no where, one of the girls got angry and flew right onto my thumb and stung the fire out of me!!! Needless to say, when the throbbing stopped, I put my gloves back on! I don't know what made her mad, I hadn't squished any of them....oh, well, gloves it is, on the large hives!

I totally admire anyone that can get into a full hive of bees without hand protection! The small hives I have no problem with, I've even gone into them without head veil and gloves and they are awesome....but I just can't make it through the large hives.....
"Welcome home honey".....one of my nucs. This one houses the sweet girls I had my pic with....no gloves. I love small hives!!

Until next time!!!

BEE HAPPY!!!

Julie

Bee Fundamentals at Oatland Island

Keepers of the gate ;)Preparing for lunch! Low Country boil and fresh fried catfish! yum!
Bee friends sharing stories ;)


Just a few of the many animals out at Oatland Island.
A newly donated calf, his mom refused to feed him and the owners (members of our bee club) donated him to Oatland Island. He's being taken very good care of by the sweet caregivers that work there!
A message and blessing, from our "Newbee" bee club president, Faith Jaudon and Oatland Islands best, Annie Quinting!
Time to eat!!!!
How adorable!!! I couldn't resist!
We had an awesome turn out for our third year running!! Thanks to everyone that came out!!! We look forward to seeing everyone plus more next year!!!
One of the last classes that started after lunch...the bee yard.

There were classes going on all morning long but we (my husband and I) were floating as were other beekeepers helping out where needed, but this was our main post.

We had an awesome day and we're looking forward to an even bigger turnout next year!!!

Until next time!

BEE INVOLVED!! ;0)

Julie

Cleansing Flights/Fly Overs, Moles and Minerals

Cleansing flights.....

When we first got our bees a few years ago we were told about cleansing flights and how the bees would "drop" on our cars. Yes, they did back then and still do it now. I have always meant to take pictures of it but never had my camera with me when I passed by my car, so this year I made it a point to take a picture or two. Mind you it had rained earlier so it's not as bad in the pics as it is most days.;) I always say if I went out and buffed my car I'd have a really good wax shine ;) I also call these "fly overs"



I didn't notice these scratches until I uploaded this photo...neighbors cats again...grrrr, but oh, well nothing a little bit of wax poo won't wipe out, huh? ;)
We have moles... aggravating, tunneling moles....they tear up the yard something awful. Here one tunneled under my Nuc stand and I actually straightened it up before I took this picture! The poor girls were nearly entrance down in the ground!
These last pitures are of our honeybees gathering minerals out of a tray that I have on our patio that I started seeds in last year. I couldn't get close ups of them but I could see them licking the soil, it was so neat to watch them. Butterflies gather nutrients from the soil like this too.






My camera died the other day and I am SO lost without it :( I'm on the look for another one so wish me luck! I needed it desperately this weekend when we got into some of our hives. We ran into some very unusual things that we've never seen or even read about in any of our magazines or books. I told my husband no one would ever believe me if I just wrote about it with no pics to back it up.......That's what I love about bees, they are part of nature, something that's part of our lives and something we will never "bee" able to figure out. They are amazing creatures and I know most people that know me (even the ones that don't) ;) think I'm the absolute weirdest person in the world but I have such a passion for them! I wish everyone could feel what I feel about them sometimes...geez let me stop, the men in the "other" white suits might "bee" at my door in a bit ;) LOL

Joking aside though......I do Love my honeybees!

Until next time!

BEE COMPASSIONATE!!

Julie

Honeybee projects

Winter for beekeepers is a time to prepare for the spring...for the start of a very "bizzy" and sweet season. I volunteered to help out with a project that will help young students learn about honeybees. My part was to help out with the making of the bees. Knee high panty hose were used by being stuffed with batting (pillow) stuffing then painted a honey yellow.

Drying in the warmth of the wood stove.
Next the stripes, eyes and back have to bee painted on.
Then comes the wings and pipe cleaner legs and antennae.Isn't she cute! She will hang on a comb made from a large white sheet made to look like a honey comb along with all the others that I made. When you walk into the building (that's shaped like a giant bee skep by the way) you will feel like a tiny ant that wondered into a giant bee hive. I am looking forward to seeing it when it's finished. I'll post pics when we get there!

Not sure when we'll "bee" finished but I'll get the chance to check up on it next month! So, stay tuned! I'll keep ya posted!

Until next time,

BEE Bee-u-ti-fully Sweet!!!

Julie