Expectations And Surprises

When I go into a hive there are a few things I expect to see. One is the small hive beetle, usually the girls have them corralled and proplised in somewhere. On top I can expect to see them in a corner but mostly at the end of a frame or two. The picture below shows the ends of the frame proplised and the beetles are corralled in the middle with a few bees standing guard over them. Now something unusual I have recently discovered and other beekeepers have noticed it as well, is the bees will feed the beetles while in this area. It has been said that the beetles have learned the "hunger cry" of the bee and instinctively the bee responds with feeding. It's amazing to watch, the beetle will put up it's front legs, almost like a puppy or dog begging for food, and the bee will feed it. I've seen this a couple of times and wish I could get in to photograph it happening. The thing is once the bees move away from the guard barrier the beetles escape and go ramped through the hive and will destroy it if the bees don't gain back control. Before I move ANYTHING in the hive I take my hive tool and go between the hive box and the frame where the beetles are and squish them, I also catch them with my tweezers and kill them, a frame doesn't go back into the hives if I see a beetle on it! (I can't help it) ;)


Other things I expect to see is queen cells. Here in the south we don't have a long winter and our bees start hive building and swarming sometimes in January right up to the first frost. I try to go into our hives at least every 14 to 16 days....however this past week I let it go by and now I have to pay for it. Regular routine maintenance is very important for "backyard", "Hobby", "Weekend", etc. beekeepers. Or I should say, if you don't want your hives to swarm or to lose them entirely. The picture above is of a queen cell that has been chewed from the side, which can mean two things....1. The old queen found it and chewed it open to kill the queen inside before she could hatch, or....2. A new queen hatched and she chewed it open.....usually if there is one queen cell there is more! This particular hive had five on this frame alone! All chewed out except for one. But, if you will look closely at this particular cell.....see how the bottom is chewed out as well? Hmmm...that means she didn't die before she hatched! She's also in here somewhere. When a queen hatches successfully she chews her way out through the bottom, if it's chewed from the side....something else did it.

This makes things even more difficult for someone like me because I HAVE to know what's going on! Most people could walk away from this hive after finding one queen and not think twice about it's future or what even happened...not me, I have to find out. I looked even harder for the "old" queen, which she really isn't "old", just a few months old. But, thankfully I marked her when she hatched out back then. Well, to make a long story short, I couldn't find her (not at first). But I did find the other two! These are things that are "surprises"...things I do NOT expect to see in a hive. So in the end I found the older queen and two of her daughters! The thing that was strange to me is, remember the cell that was chewed and left for dead? She was the first one I found and bless her heart, her wings were chewed, she's a beautiful queen, but will not be able to fly. I'm curious, if what the books say is true about a queen, that she flies from the hive to mate, if she will still just mate with the drones in the hive? Most people would have just killed these queens or at least her, but I can't bring myself to do it. I mean, gee wiz, she survived an attack before she ever even hatched, who am I to snuff her out???

This is the older queen, I didn't find her until I was putting the hive back. This picture is out of order....
The wingless queen is in here but I couldn't get a picture of her at the time.
This little queen is the suspect chewer...can you tell which one she is?Once I had found these two, I still hadn't found the older queen. I didn't want to kill them and I wasn't prepared with queen stations to put them so I let the wingless queen go into the brood box, put a queen excluder on, then put the "chewer queen" in the top.

I also have a "compulsive" disorder.....I HAVE to go back over things to make sure everything is okay before I put them back in place. That means the frames get checked AT least twice during my inspections ;) (drives my husband crazy when he works with me) BUT, this time that was a "good thing"....I found the older queen! SO now we have THREE queens in this ONE hive! I got another excluder and put together another box and just put them one on top of the other...until I can put together a queen box.

You see, the amazing thing about honeybees.....if they hatch out their own queen or queens they will take care of them, the queens have the same hive pheromone. The only one you have to keep them protected from is another queen inside the hive. SO, for now we have a three queened hive!
I went back into the top yesterday (two days later) and the top queen is still doing good. Not a good picture but can you see her below?

I caught her under this marking cage, so I can mark her.
There she is in the picture below, marked in blue. Newly hatched queens are usually chunky. Their abdomen hasn't grown out long and slender, but she has her big "queen spot" behind her head that makes her easier to identify.

I want to get a picture of the wingless queen because she has a honey colored abdomen and she is larger than this one. I put her in the bottom first because she had more bees tending to her than this one did.

We have a "cut out" to do next weekend so this is also a good thing, we may need one of these queens. We have a hive that has been without a queen, that I have to check on today to see if she has hatched. If she didn't make it I have one now ;)

The summers here are very hard on honeybees, we lose a lot of queens but thankfully they know how to prepare ;) The thing is the beekeeper also needs to prepare;)

Well, I need to get Bizzy!

Until next time....

BEE PREPARED ;)

Julie

Life Is Amazingly Sweet!

The hive that we cut from the doublewide a few weeks ago still hadn't hatched a queen and the summer is moving quick, so when I went into one of our strong hives I noticed they had pulled a queen cell down and it was capped......wonderful, just what I needed! I took this frame, minus the bees and placed it into the queenless hive. I wanted to give it a few days before going back in to check.
This is what I found this morning! I love beekeeping! She hatched out....you can see where she chewed her way out on the bottom tip of the cell.
In this pic above you can see two queen cells, the smaller one they had started pulling down then abandoned it.
And there she is! Can you pick her out? She's new and still a little chunky, over the next few days her abdomen will grow longer and you'll be able to distinguish her better from the rest of the girls. She's over on the right side of the picture, she's more solid in color with just the tip of her tail black.....can you see her now?

I love seeing the queen, actually it's very important to always see the queen when you go in for an inspection. The colony can go down rapidly without a queen.

One of the main things I carry to the hives is a queen catcher, I always catch her when I find her, for several reasons.....one.... is to make sure I saw her (after a few hives I start to wonder) ;0)

Two....I always know where she is, with a strong hive you can lose track of your queen and when putting things back together she can get squished or harmed, they are extremely fragile. So whether strong or weak, a large or small hive, I catch the queen. It's just easier for me and once I find her I can move quicker through the hive. I just place the queen on top of the frames and the bees crawl around her, feeding her, keeping her cool/warm. The catcher is small enough to keep her inside but just big enough to let the girls move in and out of it providing her with protection.
I also always carry my hive tool, tweezers, a small paring knife and a plastic container.

The knife is for cutting queen cells out that I don't want to hatch, it's also helpful cutting off burr comb. Tweezers for killing small hive beetles that I find hiding inside cells. And the container for putting burr comb and queen cells in, you want to save this because you can melt it down into wax.
Look at this girl! I have never seen bright red on their pollen legs before! She had both legs packed! Honeybees also carry propolis back to the hive on their pollen legs. I have watched them on many occasions packing propolis onto their legs from empty bee boxes....this amazes me how they do that, they chew it, then it goes from leg to leg and the leg in front of the pollen leg packs it on. If you ever get the chance to watch one do this you've got to watch it! It is awesome! I'd love to video it, but my camcorder is out of commission....maybe one day....in the meantime, seeing it up close and personal....there's nothing better!
Last but not least.....the fruit of our girls labor! Isn't it beautiful? It tastes heavenly! Never in a million years would I have thought that I'd love honey so much! It is definitely different when it comes from your own place! I have so much more respect for our food, nature and life now that I've become a beekeeper!

Life is wonderful

And I am Blessed!

Until next time......

BEE THANKFUL!

Julie

I Must Bee A Honey Bear

I have a confession.....I was a super thief today. I robbed a hive of their luscious golden honey. I also have to admit it wasn't the first time, but this time I acted totally alone. I'm not ashamed...I payed a price for the crime but nothing that was due to me..... Actually I have to set the true record straight, the price I paid did NOT occur doing the robbery...(it seldom does ;0)) It happened after the fact and the cause was due to total stupidity on my part! I KNOW NOT to cut grass around the hives AFTER working in them....while some honeybees don't mind, some of them do. I always cut grass, weedeat, pull weeds, etc. around our hives with NO worry BEFORE working in them! Experience has taught me though NOT to do this AFTER working them. They are hot, aggravated, agitated, and the list can go on....think about it....how would you feel if you (which they do 24/7) cleaned, scrubbed and kept intruders at bay...ex. wax moths/larvae and hive beetles..varroa mites, wasps, and the list goes on and on and on, then to have some human come in to take everything you have worked your little wings off for, not to mention the destruction this human left behind!

Some beekeepers use smoke, some use that smelly stuff to make the bees go below to rob them of their honey....I RARELY use smoke at all, it irritates me and seems to bother the bees as well it's a pain for me to light and by the time I get ready to use the smoker it's out! So, my NEW best thing to use when robbing is wild fennel weed, it's super soft and a wild herb. The bees love herbs and soft gentleness. I gently, slowly sweep the girls off of the capped honey frame and put the frames one by one into a screened empty super box. It worked like a charm with only a sting or two (my fault again) they got caught in between my suit.Sweet fuzzy girls...


Sweet golden honey....

These pictures are not from today, but the honey I got today is from the same hive.

What happened is I cut grass around them this afternoon after I stole their honey, it was extremely hot. I went past them three times before they came after me....I KNEW I was pushing my luck....but I went ahead and they got me. I left the riding lawnmower there and came inside to nurse my wounds. LOL My right hand is swollen really bad and the right side of my face is itchy....but I think I learned my lesson......until next time!

I must be a honey bear!

BEE WISE!

Julie

For The Love Of Honeybees

My husband got another call this afternoon. It's a phone call that not many like to get and I'm sure one that nobody wants to make. A man had started to renovate his doublewide mobile home that had been vacant for years. Not only did he find water damage but he found honeybees. He and his repairman had tried to spray them last week but wasn't successful in getting rid of them. That's something everyone should be aware of, is when you find a hive please call a beekeeper. If they can't come out they will find a beekeeper that can or will, as in our case this evening. It takes a long time to rescue bees that are established inside of something. Hours and hours of hot tedious work. I had forgotten just how sticky and messy honey can bee! By the time we finally gave up I was covered in honey and my "Honey" had been stung several times :O( Honeybees don't give up their home easily, meaning that spraying them probably won't get rid of them and if it does the home owner will regret it because bugs will come in and ruin the honey and it will be an awful mess.


These two pictures are of the outside

This was after I cut the insulation down.

That's me, I could fit under there better than my husband so he stayed out and vacuumed the comb as I took it down. It was full of brood, pollen and a little bit of honey on the left side, but when I got to the right side it got terribly messy, honey was dripping everywhere.
Capped brood

Look how thick that comb of honey is!
We had two vac boxes that was full of bees.

I need to say that the vacuum is a special vac just for honeybees. It has an extremely low suction that sucks them into a screened in box so they can breathe.

If you ever want directions on how to make one let me know and I'll post them for you or e-mail me.

The honey and comb that can he used will all go back to the bees to help them get back up on their feet in their new home. They are extremely stressed and it will take them a while to recover.

I have to go back first thing in the morning to clean things up and see how many we left behind and try to get them. We worked til we couldn't see and we still had to get them back home and into a bee box for the night.

Until next time....

BEE RESOURCEFUL

Julie

You Can't Stop Nature!

Last year I was ridiculed by many, for being in our bee hives so much. We had several hives and about seven to ten days I would be into them, rotating days, therefore it seemed that I was into them everyday, to some. Well, this year I gave into the ridicule and look what has happened! We have had hives swarm on us at least three times that we know of. SO, to those that think I'm into the bees too much.....

Our bees did exceptionally well with my intrusions, they overwintered wonderfully and we did not lose any. I caught a lot of pests that would have other wise taken over a few hives last year and this year they are busting at the seams with vigor!

We have one hive we call the mega hive.....they had a mega swarm yesterday! Up in our little oak tree. It has been thirteen days since we were in them last and we were a day or two to late! This hive had so many queen cells it was unbelievable. They started hatching out of their cells as we were looking at them. The tree hive that we rescued from my moms hollow tree had lost their queen so I took a frame with two queen cells to their hive and as I was putting it into the hive a queen hatched out and went on into the hive like she had been there all along! It was awesome to watch! I went back later to see if they excepted her and they did! Acceptance must be better at hatching because they don't have the smell of the other bees? Not sure on that one but it happened!

Queens, by the book don't hatch out until the sixteenth day, but as I've said over and over we don't have textbook bees! There has been a few things we can totally rely on the books for but mostly it's hands on experience and knowing what our own bees do. I urge you if you have honeybees to get to know them and their behavior. They in turn will get to know you and yours, you'll bee glad you did. :o) I know I am. I am speaking of course to those that are doing this for enjoyment, weekend beekeeping, backyard beekeeping, hobby beekeeping, etc. Those that do this for a business, well, that's another story. Although if you are any of the mentioned above it can turn into a business very quickly!
Our "mega" swarm, These girls weighed at least six pounds easy!
My hubby to the rescue!
Is that a monkey in our tree?
He handed me the branch
Bump!
They all went in, well the most important part anyway, the queen, the rest followed.

A lot of people ask if they are so calm why do we suit up, well, I have long hair, when the bees are flying they don't distinguish things that they can get caught in, such as spider webs, hair, etc. and like us when they get tangled (have you ever ran into a spiders web)? they panic and when we get something tangled in our hair we panic...get the picture? I admire the beekeepers that go into their hives ungloved and unsuited. That is a goal for me....one day ;o) I have been into swarms unsuited and no gloves several times, yesterday though, we were already suited up into the mega hive when my husband kept saying he thought they must have swarmed already, as we were discussing this I told him the only possibility would have been if they swarmed that morning or the evening before......he then stepped away from the hive and said "well, we haven't looked up in the trees"....then he called my name......"oh"...I said ..."say it ain't so!"

Well, I'm off to look up into the trees LOL

Have a wonderful day!

TTFN!

BEE HAPPY!

Julie

Beekeepers On Call

My husband got another swarm call yesterday afternoon. If I haven't learned a lot from keeping honeybees, the one thing I have is, spring time is a "bizzy" time! And a beekeeper is always on call.

In the early beginnings of spring the queen starts laying eggs to reproduce her colony. The worker bees (all female) start foraging for food (nectar and pollen) to feed the new baby bees, which we call c-cells. C-cells- because when you look inside of the cell after about a week from being laid the egg looks like a very tiny c, a bee larvae.

The foragers bring the nectar(which they make into honey) and pollen back to the hive and place it around and in the four corners of the comb around the larvae. They use this to feed the growing babies.

When they start "feeling" cramped for space they start pulling down a queen cell...actually several queen cells. This is a time for the beekeeper to "bee" on time and check each frame carefully. Honeybees can hatch a queen and swarm before you realize it. The days go by so fast! lol

A lot of people have been asking me certain questions about our bees. Here are some pictures that I've taken over the time we've had them.

Capped honey, Once spring has sprung and before the nectar flow we put what is called a super onto the top of the hive. It has smaller frames, the bees will pull these frames out into cells and store honey in them. After it is capped this can be taken and harvested. Provided the beekeeper hasn't used any medication during the flow. We are all natural with our bees. No medication at all, I feel it brings them down worse than letting nature take care of things. If you keep your hives as strong and healthy as you can, they'll pull through a lot better and stronger without medications.
Un-capped honey, can you see the taste tester? LOL
Honey starting to be capped.


C-cells, can you see them? On the ninth day the worker and queen larvae is capped. You can see the capping in the lower part of this picture. The mixture and texture of the capping is different from the capping of honey which is pure bees wax. The capping of brood (baby bees) has a papery texture very easy for them to chew through.
Here you can see the papery capping's of brood. The honey is above and on the sides and corners of the brood frame.
Here is the begging of a queen cell. She has to have a much larger cell.....after all she's going to Bee a Queen!
Another picture of capped brood, c-cells and uncapped honey and the queen. Can you pick her out?
The swarm of bees ball up around the queen to protect her. This swarm was from a wild hive. It was on land where beekeepers don't have hives for many, many, many miles. They more than likely came from a hollow tree deep in the woods. During this time of year "controlled" burning takes place and that's probably what spurred the swarm into action. I'm so glad we were called.
Lucky for us this swarm was at a good height and I was able to put the truck underneath the ball of bees. I also brought the six foot ladder and my husband climbed up to cut the branch. The trouble is he only has two arms! LOL

As you can see he needed them both to cut the limb, so I climbed up to hold the branch. No one is around willing to take pictures of this feat. I might add that I was not suited up at all for this swarm rescue either! Boy, I'm getting braver the younger I get! LOL Braver???? More like nuttier!! But here again, no stings! They can sense fear and my goal as a beekeeper is to be able to go into our hives gloveless. I was around the bees yesterday with them flying all around me and I even caught the queen with a queen catcher. How cool is that!
This is before we found the queen, when my husband tried to shake them into the nuc box the queen flew off onto the back of the truck. Right there around the back light next to the box. After I caught her I put her into the box and a while later we were on our way home.
All tucked away safely in their new home.So, spring is swarm season....I do hope that more and more people will come to realize that we need our pollinators. They are NOT out to do us harm...please let them live and in turn they will provide us with a bounty of food and enjoyment beyond measure! Parents please teach your children...young and old! You'll "bee" glad you did!

Until next time.......

BEE SWEET!

Julie