Day #317 Successful Hive Inspection!

It’s amazing what a little sugar water will do for a starving colony. I’m not talking about how people run in the door and yell, “What’s for dinner? I’m starving!”

I’m talking about 60,000 bees too exhausted and depleted even to buzz when I opened their lid. That was last week, though. After 7 days of sugar water feeding (I went through an entire 10-pound bag of sugar), the queen has started laying again, and the bees are happy and buzzy once more.

Thanks to my beekeeping mentor Tommy Bailey for helping me with my hives. He came over Wednesday afternoon and took both hives apart, teaching me what to look for, and why.

He said the places where the bees had bridged the space between two of the frames was okay for now. We saw eggs, larvae in all different stages, and capped brood where more babies will be hatching. I watched several babies clamber out of the cells they’d matured in – that was so absolutely amazing I could have cried.

Look at the places where the bright yellow comb is showing. The grungy looking brownish junk (shown here on the inside lid) is propolis, the glue-like substnce that I wrote about earlier this year. The bees had used it to stick the lid to the top of the frames. Thank goodness for my yellow hive tool; otherwise we might never have gotten the lid off.

When it was all over, I brought the super back inside. No comb on it at all yet. I'll put it back in next spring.

BEEattitude for Day # 317:

       Blessed are those who keep going in spite of discouragement, for they shall be pleasantly surprised.

Fran's bee.s.: Thank you to those who emailed me asking about the bee sting on my leg. It's still pretty swollen. To get an idea of the size of it, spread your fingers really wide and lay your hand along the side of your leg. I've started taking an antihistamine. Probably should have done that as soon as it happened. I'll see if I can take a picture of it tomorrow

Day #256 Hive Inspection Yesterday

I’m feeling a little bit sad, and I’d like to share the reason with you.

Yesterday I opened both hives to see how much comb the bees had built in the honey supers.

None. Nada. Nuttin. Nope.

I had to accept the fact that I probably won’t get any honey for myself and my friends this season. I know. I know. I’ve been saying all along that if I didn’t get any honey the first year, it wouldn’t matter. After all, beekeepers are supposed to take the excess only. The bees need enough honey and pollen stores to make it through the winter. [Yes, I agree. It’s hard to think of winter when it’s 95 degrees outside.]

Still, there’s always been that glimmer of hope. Why else would I order a honey-filtering kit from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm? Why else would I invest on all those unassembled super frames? Why else would I start an Excel spreadsheet of people to give honey to? Why else would I have TWO SHELVES of glass jars stockpiled in my garage?

Why indeed?

As I saw the dismal result of my experiment with the open, top-bar-style supers, I decided my bees couldn’t figure out how to build comb there, so I replaced the frames with some plastic-foundation supers. That way my girls will have a template to draw out their comb. I’ll feel happy if they can fill it so they’ll be ready for winter.

Yes – I’ll feel happy about that. But I’m feeling sad about the honey I won’t have for me and for you.

BEEattitude for Day # 256:

       Blessed are those who change course when circumstances require it. We bees do that, and we eventually find very good flowers as a result.

_______________________________ 
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Day #248 What a Difference . . .

I apologize for having spent the last week bemoaning the sorry state of my white hive. All my friends have most likely gotten thoroughly tired of hearing about my poor bees who hadn’t done any comb-building as of the last time I checked the hives, one week ago.

To paraphrase an old song, though –

What a difference a week makes, tra-la-la

Thursday morning I called Tommy Bailey, asking if he would stop by sometime soon and help me figure out what was going on in the hives.

He said yes, of course, he’d stop by on Friday, because he’s that kind of guy – unfailingly polite and committed to helping inexperienced beekeepers. But he added, as he always has before, each time I’ve talked with him, “The only way to learn about honey bees is to work the hives yourself. You’ll never know what the books are trying to tell you, or what I’m trying to tell you, until you get in there and moves those frames around. Try something, anything. If it works, that’s great. If it doesn’t, you’ve just learned something.”

As many times as he’s said it before, I think this was the first time I heard him.

I put down the phone, grabbed my smoker, bee jacket, and hive tool, and headed for the deck.

What I found astonished me. I opened the brown hive first, knowing ahead of time that it was a dismal failure. And guess what I found? Three and a half full frames on the top hive body, with lots of capped brood, lots of larvae, and lots of worker bees.

Sure, some of the frames were stuck to the ones underneath them. I wiggled them loose, scraped off the offending protuberances, and put it all back together. Then I added a super, because it looked like they’d soon need more room.

All this activity going on at a time when beekeepers (including Tommy) are saying, “It’s been too dry and too hot, and not much is in bloom now, so don’t be surprised if your bees aren’t doing much. June is the down-time.”

 
Not for my girls!

They’re as busy as . . . okay I’ll say it . . . as bees.

p.s. I called Tommy right back and told him not to bother stopping by. Everything was just fine and dandy at Bees Knees Beekeeping!

BEEattitude for Day # 248:

       Blessed are those who provide clean water for us bees, especially on hot days, for they shall be buzzed about in the hive.

_______________________________ 

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Day #233 A Happy Hive Inspection on the Hottest Day

Here’s a question for you:

How hot is a beekeeper’s suit when it’s 97 degrees outside?

Next question:

Will Frannie remember to wear a sweat band of some sort the next time she dons her suit?

Thank goodness for the trees behind my deck. If it hadn’t been for that shade, I think I would have fried myself on Wednesday afternoon. After my trip to the top bar hive on Tuesday, I decided I’d better go in and check my hives just to be sure the bees weren’t cementing the frames together with excess comb.

NOTE: Any comb that's built where the beekeeper doesn't want it is called burr comb. The same way any successful, thriving plant that a gardener doesn't want is called a weed...

There was burr comb aplenty – but I’m pretty sure I caught the problems before they got too bad. I scraped off a couple of chunks of comb that joined one frame in the yellow hive to the one beside it. So far, so good.

I checked 3 of the 5 frames, lifting each one carefully. Didn’t see the queen, but there were lots of larvae and capped brood. So I’m pretty sure she’s in there somewhere. For some reason I couldn’t pick up those two middle frames. Turns out they were joined by a massive chunk of comb right to the tops of the frames beneath them.

I had to pry up the top story and slip my hive tool in to cut the comb. Then and only then could I look at the bottom floor.

Then I went to the white hive. Another story altogether. I’ll tell you about it in tomorrow’s post.

BEEattitude for Day # 233:

       Blessed are those who scrape gently so we bees are protected, for they shall keep us calm.

_______________________________ 

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Day #210 High-Rise Apartments for Apis Mellifera

Yippee! My yellow hive now is two stories tall.

Late Monday morning I started the smoker, opened the hive, and saw the most beautiful array of brown-capped brood and white-capped honey. The frames were full enough that I could move the center one up into a second hive body.

I took the time to check each of the frames, and they were all simply beautiful. I didn't spot the queen, but there were loads of eggs and baby bee larvae.

Life doesn’t get much better than this. I hope you’re cheering along with me.

FRANattitude for Day # 210:

       Blessed are all the library staff members who treated us Georgia authors like royalty last weekend as we talked with library patrons at the “Barefoot in the Park” Art Festival.

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Day #197 Forced Entry

When I suited up Tuesday to try to correct the problem in my white hive, I felt so much fear, my hands were trembling. The fear wasn’t OF the bees. It was FOR the bees. What if I had somehow or other compromised the health of the hive? What if I had inadvertently squashed the queen? What if my nightmare from the night before had come true? What if the pine straw was so wet from Monday’s rain that I wouldn’t be able to get the smoker to stay lit?

“Get a grip, Frannie!”

Thank you, to whoever said that.

The smoker did light and stayed lit. The funniest thing was that, when I blew the smoke into the front door of the hive, I had the strongest impression of calm, and it felt like it was coming from the hive itself.

I'd noticed on Monday that they didn’t seem to be drinking anything from their supplemental feeder jar (the one I’d given them when I couldn’t get the lid off the first time), so I pulled it off and blew a bit more smoke down into that hole. Then I righted the jar, so nothing would drip out of the little holes – and I saw that there weren’t any holes in the lid. I’d put the wrong lid on the jar when I was so discombobulated on Sunday.

It took me a longer time to pry up the lid far enough so that I could try to ease the hive tool under the overhang. I worked both ends loose first, being sure to stand at the SIDE of the hive, and not in front of it. As I’ve mentioned before, bees get nervous when someone stands in front of their door.

I went to the back of the hive again and lifted the top as far as I could, slipped the hive tool under it, gave the tiniest little push, and BANG! Whatever had been stuck let go and crashed back into the hive. Fortunately, it had only about an inch to fall, but that one inch almost scared the you-know-what right out of me.

I couldn’t believe my good luck that the whole thing hadn’t been cemented with propolis. Still, I tried hard to still the fear that somehow that dreadful crash might have damaged the queen.

With great trepidation I lifted the lid and saw . . .

a wonderful working thriving hive

Can you imagine the relief I felt? Of course, I still had to be sure the queen was in there somewhere, so I lifted out one of the frames. I had a few bees on it, but no comb to speak of. That meant there was still room for the hive to expand before I’d need to put a second layer on top.



Brushy Mountain Bee Farm catalog



The second frame was harder to lift, mainly because it was covered with bees, although it didn’t have more than half the area covered in drawn-out comb yet, and I didn’t spot a queen in there. Thank goodness for the frame perch I bought. As you can see from this picture from the Brushy Mountain website, it’s a sturdy metal thing-a-ma-bob with two brackets that slip over the side of the hive body. The two long pieces that stick out to the side are perfect

for setting the frames on after inspection. The perch made it easy for me to keep the frames in order.

Next I pulled up the middle frame – and there was a queen with a long, fat abdomen. She scurried a bit, probably looking for some dark recess, so I set that frame back in place.

I checked the two remaining frames, replaced the ones I’d taken out, and closed up the hive.

I didn't look for any larvae or eggs. I didn't register the ration of capped brood to capped honey. I didn't notice whether there were any drone cells. Oh well, at least I know I have a queen in there, and the other bees are happy.

Life is good, indeed, and all is well.

BEEattitude for Day # 197:

       Blessed are those who hear our messages, for they shall be comforted.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       Those of you who read my blog

   

http://www.franstewart.com

Day #195 I'm in Trouble

I tried Sunday afternoon to open the white hive, just to check and be sure it wasn’t time to put another layer on top so they could expand.

I lit the smoker without a hitch.

I used my hive tool to loosen the lid.

I lifted the lid about half an inch.

Whoops! It was way too heavy. I could see through the feeder hole on top that the frames were coming up along with the lid. Those busy little worker bees have glued the frames to the lid! I’d need about six hands in order to fix this problem.

You see, I’ll HAVE to get the lid off eventually, because that will be the only way to make room for another hive body on top of this one. If I can’t get the lid off, those bees are going to swarm when they begin to get too crowded, and that could be fairly soon.

“What did you do, Fran?”

 I’m glad you asked. I settled the lid back down, hoping I wasn’t squashing anybody. Then I sent out a panicked email to bee club members asking for help. Of course, it was Easter Sunday, so I figured I wouldn’t hear from anyone that day. But I sure hope I hear soon.

I don’t want to deal with a swarm this early in the season.  In the meantime, I went and played for a while in the garden.

BEEattitude for Day # 195:

       Blessed are those who answer questions or lend a hand, for they shall keep our beekeeper calm.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       The lovely dinner I had at my daughter’s house. I so enjoy being with them.  

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