Inspection round 2

Doing work.

Sunday, May 6, 2012 today I went to check on the ladies. I brought my friend and future co beekeeper Jack. We discussed the possibilities of this venture on the way there and back. The plan as it exists right now is an increase of two hives, both from nucs purchased from a beekeeper in Granby. We will ride out to the Boston Honey Company next weekend to buy all the wooden ware and frames we need, and then, if they are ready, pick up the nucs the weekend after.

Capped brood, lots of Larva if you look close

This move stops me from having all medium hives, because the nucs come with deep frames. However the possibility of growing without putting out any more money seems pretty awesome, and right now it is worth it. We will split the harvest from the hive, but I am going to be doing most of the "work." If you love doing something is it work? Either way I'm psyched to keep going with this adventure.

The report from the hive is that all is going well at Acorn Hill. I smoked the bees and looked through the frames. I thought I would have to put on another box this afternoon however they haven't drawn out enough frames to put on another box. I think I can attribute this to both the lack of queen for a while, which resulted in a dwindling population. As well as poor weather over the past week or so. It has been cool, mostly in the fifties, and rainy.

I did see a bunch of capped brood and uncapped larva. It was a majestic sight. I couldn't see any eggs, but I didn't want to shake off bees from the frame because Jack was with me and he didn't have a veil. I figured larva and capped cells was evidence enough that the queen was still around. I didn't come across her the way I did last time.

Also I used a new pair thick vinyl like gloves and they worked really well. No squished bees or stings and I could manipulate the frames much easier. I think I'll continue to use these instead of the thick lamb skin ones I have been using.

Syrup stored with some spots of pollen

With brood production in full swing I checked out general activity, which was awesome, lots of bees sticking their heads into cells doing their thing. There are many cells full of syrup, nectar, and pollen. The bees are amazing the way they organize themselves and work. It gives me an interesting perspective about life. If humans weren't around these girls would be doing their thing, maybe even more productively.

Another inspection in the books. No stings and I told my ladies to get ready for some company.

Expanding?

Things continue to develop. I have a friend Jack Miles who I brew beer with and have known since high school. He has become increasingly interested in beekeeping and lately has been asking if he could start a hive with me. I came across a man in Granby on beesource that has nucs available in may. So those two things came together to turn my little one hive apiary to a three hive one.

The attraction of the positive environmental impact and the prospect of honey has led to Jack and one of his coworkers to want to become 'investors' in the Acorn Hill apiary.  I am psyched because it gives me an opportunity to experience more beekeeping without putting out anymore money. Which, there really isn't any more of anyway. So I will keep my blog updated as this idea blossoms into real adventures.

I am hopeful that my next post will be about a trip to the Boston Honey Company to buy hive bodies and all the necessary equipment to triple my current production. Wish me luck.

Foraging around

Sunday, April 29, 2012 a quick visit. So I stopped by Acorn Hill just to check in on the ladies. I looked in the feeder to make sure there was enough syrup. There seemed liked there was plenty and there weren't many more new dead bees, and there is a good pollen flow so the syrup isn't wildly popular. I returned the covers and hung around the hive for a little while just to watch the activity. There was lots of foraging going on. Heaps of bees coming and going. It was incredible to watch how many bees were returning with bright yellow and orange sacs full of pollen on their legs.

If you watch the video you will see in just a very short time there are five or six bees loaded with pollen returning home. I can't wait to see what's going on inside next time I open up the hive. Hope you enjoy a short clip from Acorn Hill.

I see eggs!!!

 

Tuesday April 24, 2012 was my first happy inspection. I went to the hive on Tuesday and I just about jumped for joy about the results.

Tuesday morning before school I packed up all of my beekeeping stuff along with paper work and things for teaching. In every down moment of the day, which honestly there aren't many, my mind wandered to what may be happening in the hive. Maybe the old queen returned and there was regicide going down. Maybe the queen is already laying eggs. Maybe a raccoon knocked over the hive to get to the sugar water. My mind was racing. I did get to indulge a bit in the middle of the day though.

I lead a class at my school which is like an advisory type course. We do team building activities and discuss our academic character, lots of fun stuff. During my crew I shared all of the pictures Melissa took while we were doing the install on Saturday. My crew mates were amazed. They had a million questions about why I was doing this at all and a variety of questions about bees I hadn't ever even thought about. It wasn't just a show and tell I did have an awesome opportunity to talk about courage and sacrifice with my kids in connection to the bees. I asked them as a closure question, "What about the behavior of the bees expresses one of our 5 vital character traits, Courage, Humility, Integrity, Leadership, or Support?" There weren't a whole lot of responses but one quality answer gets at a point that I think is so cool about bees.

For one of my students, the idea that a bee dies once it stings, just didn't sit right with him. He went on to think through his point of view out loud, when I asked my question. He said, "Man, I guess those bees are really courageous because they stung you even though they were going to die. They didn't do it to make you mad or something, they did to because they thought they were protecting the hive. That is a real sacrifice, I think I would sting someone if my family was in danger."

This idea is what really intrigues me about bees. The difference between individual and collective choices. Bees make lots of individual choices, like which flower to go to, or whether they want to go to the feeder for some sugar water. However they make these choices with the collective in mind. They sting, not because they want to protect themselves, stinging is actually suicide. They sting to protect the hive they are a part of. Pretty awesome.

Fire hazard?

After my indulgence during crew I had a regular day at school and got to Acorn Hill a little before five. I pulled into the field and lit up my smoker. When I was veiled and headed over to the hive Rick the neighbor came out to meet me. I thought he was going to mention our late night excursion and how he was laughing at us through his window or something. Fortunately he was just really curious and wanted to check out the hive with me. We walked over together and I told him my whole queen fiasco and about our late night adventure. Lucky for me he didn't hear me running through the woods away from that devil deer.

Rick is an interesting and curious guy. He told me about how him and a friend used to get calls to catch swarms around town. He was really intrigued by my hive top feeder and the frame holder I have. He had never seen them before. He has been out of the game for some time now. It was cool sharing information with him, and at least trying to answer some of his questions. I think that is the coolest part of beekeeping so far, talking with other people about it. Both those people who don't know anything and others who are wise old beekeepers. Bees are a social insect and they seem to have invaded my social life in an interesting way.

While I was talking with Rick I smoked the hive and pulled out the couple of frames with bees on them. I noticed right away that the comb was more than half way drawn out on three hives, and there are pollen and nectar stored in a number of cells. I was looking for two things on this inspection, if I had a queen in the hive and if she had laid any eggs.

Eggs on the right pupae on the left (not my hive)

When I first opened up the hive I saw the queen cage was empty and had a small amount of comb drawn on the bottom. Which is pretty incredible considering It had been less than 24 hours since I placed it in the hive. I am really happy to report that I found the queen crawling around the second frame I pulled, and I saw A TON of eggs. It is incredible to see, they look like tiny grains of rice in the very bottom of the comb cell. When I saw the eggs I almost screamed out in joy. I think Rick might think I'm a little crazy. I was pumped. I tried to show him but he wasn't wearing a veil and he is a cautious guy.

After my initial excite over the eggs, my more rational brain kicked in and I packed the hive up without disturbing it any more. I placed the frames back in and closed her up. Before I put the lid on though I noticed there were a lot of dead bees floating in the feeder. Also there were almost no live bees in the feeder. I thought maybe all the dead girls are holding back everyone else from drinking. Or they are out drinking nectar instead, which is really likely. One way or the other I thought cleaning out the feeder would be a good idea. I started by swiping out dead bees with my hive tool. I upgraded my technique by using the floating board to skim off the dead bees and shake them onto the ground. I am just hoping that all the extra sugar water on the ground won't start robbing or attract unwanted evening guests.

So there it is for now. My bees are queen right and doing there thing. In three weeks those eggs will be brand new worker bees. I plan on returning a few times just to watch them fly, but I think I won't open the hive again for two weeks. Then only to see if I need to put on another medium hive body to accommodate new growth. I am going to wait until at least 7 frames are drawn out with comb. Until I add another box. 

I hope that however reads this finds it interesting and useful on some level. Drop a comment if you have a question or want me to add anything to my posts.

Picture of the eggs from www.honeybeesuite.com/

Road trip

Road trips rock

Tuesday April 24, 2012 was road trip day. I got on the road a little after four o'clock. I put the coordinates into the GPS and it said 2 hours and 15 minute drive time. I did the math and it was looking like a long night. I couldn't have predicted what that really even meant.

I tuned the radio to NPR and hit the road. About an hour and half into the ride I started getting really drowsy. My vision was super blurry and I just couldn't seem to keep my eyes open. I couldn't decide if it was the late night lesson planning or the taco bell meal to blame. I decided either way it would be a good idea to pull over and at least stretch a bit. I pulled off into one of the rest stops on I-84 and ended up sleeping for 30 minutes in the back seat. Kind of a weird experience. By the time I got back on the road I was feeling like a million bucks. I guess a roadside nap was exactly what I needed.

I pulled through the little town of Milford, Mass looking for a little dead end road where Nick lives. The place was exactly what one pictures a small Massachusetts town to be. I pulled up to a small two family house and Nick met me in the small yard with a queen cage in hand and sipping from a glass of barley wine. He looked like a hardworking guy. We stood in the yard talking about my clueless queen mishap and beekeeping in general. I got a little support for my current 'go it alone and learn from experience' attitude. We talked about how some many things in beekeeping lay in a gray area. What one person lives by, another thinks is hogwash.

He told me I could direct release the queen if I wanted to, but with my queen release record I thought doing a candy release would be best.

We walked to his backyard and he showed me his personal hive he had set up next to a little vegetable garden. It was really cool. I left thinking only about how I would go about installing queen number two. I had a few options; I could go directly to the hive and install her in the dark, I could wake up really early and do it the morning before work, or I could wait until the next afternoon. Considering how long the hive has been without a queen I went with my first choice with doing a night time excursion out to the farm. This may be the most important lesson I've learned yet.

I picked up Melissa, threw the dog in the backseat, and went on an evening drive out to Acorn Hill. We got there and it was kind of spooky. A bunch of wilderness at night, a box full of bees, and only one small led flashlight equals a weird kind of experience. I opened up the hive and went to work. I removed the cork from the candy side of the queen cage and squeezed it in the middle of the frames. Just as I was going to close things up I hear Melissa yelling and the flashlight is moving all over the place. I hear Melissa yell, "MY FACE!" and then many kinds of ouches and screams with a little crying in between.

It turns out bees are attracted to white light and they targeted Melissa as a threat. She got stung in the lower lip once and flailed around enough to avoid being stung a second time. This was a really freaky thing mainly because you can't see the bees that may or may not bee readying themselves for an attack.

I threw the hive together and we huffed it out of there as soon as possible. Some bees followed us but it was hard to wipe them off because it was so dark. The chaos of the walk back and getting in the car made us both really edgy. I was stung in the stomach as I was taking off my veil. We got in the car closed the doors and took a breath. Melissa was in pain from her lip sting and we were both STRESSED.

Before I pulled away though Melissa realized her cell phone was not in her pocket and must have fallen out somewhere between the hive and the car. "GREAT!" I take my phone out and call hers as I walk back with the flashlight. Luckily I wasn't stung on my retrieval mission but I felt like I was in a scene right out of a cheesy horror movie. On the way back to the car with her phone, which was right on the path, I heard some loud noises. I thought my mind was messing with me because of the horror movie mindset. I turned around and I saw two reflective eyes of a big deer staring at me through the trees.

You would have run too.

I ran back to the car.

We drove home, both of us were edgy and we argued a bit about what we could of and should of done to avoid all of this suffering. This is not where the stories ends however.

I pull into the Walgreens in Woodbridge thinking that we should get Melissa some benadryl soon to avoid her face swelling up like a balloon. Getting back into the car I noticed a bee on my sweatshirt. She hitchhiked a long way. I thought I would be nice and shoo her off in the parking lot to give a chance at life. Sitting back down in the car she did not return the favor, she stung me right in the hand.

New lesson, hand stings are the WORST.

We drove home both still heated. I suppose every night can't be awesome and perfect. These are the kinds of moments that make those perfect nights even more special. I have learned my lessons so far in my beekeeping adventure and they keep on coming. I hope I have gotten all the painful ones out of the way.

Tuesday was a really long night.

Inspection time

Monday April 23, 2012: the day of my first inspection. I went back to work for the first time since spring break. My day was mild and kind of nice. I enjoy routine and I missed all of my students. (I don't think many of them missed me)

Just as an aside to beekeeping, I teach at an inner city magnet school. I teach 3 freshmen world history classes and 2 senior psychology classes. I love my students and really enjoy my job. There are days when the long hours, disrespectful students, and difficult working environment becomes really taxing but all in all I love my job. I have been sharing some things about my bees with my students and they love hearing about it. Maybe they are only pretending because I'm not talking about history. :)

After school I get in the truck and drove out to Acorn hill. When I got there I fired up the smoker and headed out to the hive. So far this has been my most positive bee experience. I slowly and meaningfully open up the hive and pull out all of the frames that have bees on them. I really take my time and try to hunt down my missing queen. There is no sign of her. Although she may have just been hiding. A big sign to me that she hadn't returned was a whole bunch of bees fanning on the front porch. The bees do this by lifting the rear ends in the air and flap their wings. It is a cool sight. They do this to spread their smell in the air to attract the bees that are out foraging. Although because it was another gloomy drizzly day I think they were fanning for the queen to return.

Bees eating left over queen candy and doing some fanning

These signs led me to call Nick the guy from Boston. He was really nice and after I explained what was going on he assured me this kind of thing was not crazy uncommon. We agreed that I would come up on Tuesday and pick up another marked queen for 23 bucks. I was really happy they even had a queen because I had looked around and couldn't find another source on the internet.

I'll have to tell you my first experience holding frames full of bees up in the air and looking at them, was awesome! I mean hundreds of bees are cool looking and again no stings. I am going to have to get a second veil so I can have someone take pictures of my next inspection.

The queen has flown the coup

I should have stopped, dropped, and rolled!

Sunday April 22, 2012: the lessons just keep coming. When we got to Acorn Hill I lit the smoker in the truck because it was raining and I grabbed some extra fuel just in case and put it in my back pocket. We walked to the hive pushing the wheel barrow. I was lucky that Melissa came with me because this next lesson could have really hurt. She said, "Hey Bob that smoke isn't coming from the smoker... YOUR PANTS ARE ON FIRE!" I reached in my pocket and pulled out a smoldering wad of cotton smoker fuel. It burned a hole right through my jeans pocket. Man what a wild thing to have happen. This was just the start. I thought later, "Should I even be smoking a young package hive?"

The next lesson was another one of both carelessness and inexperience. Actually not really carelessness but mindlessness, because I care, I just go head first into things without really thinking it through. Melissa and I returned to Acorn Hill to "release" the queen. I left the cork in the cage on Saturday because I have read in multiple places it's good to let the bees really get used to the pheromone of the queen before you release her. So I pull the covers and the feeder off. By the way I am wearing a long sleeve shirt, gloves, a veil, and jeans. I pull the queen cage out and sweep off the bees who are clinging on. I look for a cork and go to town removing it. As soon as the cork is out, before I have a chance to cover the hole with my finger, the queen exits like a bullet from a gun. Straight into the gloomy mist. It was drizzling and rainy so I saw the blue dot on the queen's back for only a short time before she was too far to see.

I guess she didn't like her new home

That was a disheartening moment. As she flew away I was in a complete state of despair. I hadn't read anything about this happening. I didn't know what to do. Should I run after her with a net I'm supposed to have? Should I call after her? Do I send out a rescue team? I don't know what to do.

I did the only thing I could do, I waited... I stood there for a few minutes and she did not return. Things were looking dim. I closed up the hive and I placed the queen cage on the front porch of the hive in hopes that she might return to her own scent. We drove home with not much conversation. I really felt like I lost a friend. Even though the bees have stung me a few times, I have this feeling of responsibility for them, and I feel like I let them down.

Again I looked towards the wisdom of the internet. I explained my situation on the bee forum. Some wiser, more experienced beekeepers gave me varying advice. The plan I devised reading their posts and looking back at some material was simple. I thought I will check tomorrow to see if she has returned, if there is still no sign of her I will call the Boston Honey Company and see if I can get another queen.