Installing the Nucs

 

June 18, 2012

So I have some catching up to do. The last few weeks have been kind of a whirl wind. The end of the school year means a ton of work. Also throw in a trip to Denver, a camping trip, mowing lawns, and starting an awesome pizza delivery job, this adds up to not a lot of extra time to update the bee blog. I love being busy. It makes me feel more like a bee.

Anyway, I think I will start by briefly giving you the story of the nuc pickup and install. Then in another post I will tell the epic story of my first Connecticut Beekeepers Association meeting. To give you a glimpse, that meeting cemented for me that beekeeping people are my kind of people. Also any doubt I had that this was something I would do for a long while is gone. 

Cool sugar sifter

SIDE TRACK STORY: I went to the flea market two weekends ago and came across this gem. I plan on using the sugar shake technique when I have to treat for varroa mite. The sugar shake is simply shaking confectioners sugar into the hive and letting the bees eat the sugar off each other. In the process they groom off a lot of the mites that are attached to their backs. So when I saw this cool sifter for 2 dollars and the company's name was "Bromwell's Bee" I couldn't leave it there. It now lives in my bee bucket.

On May 27 Jack and I drove out to Granby to pick up our nucleus hives. I woke up really early because Gilman, the guy we were buying from, told us we could be there as early as we wanted. I was at Jack's earlier then I would normally be awake on a weekend, and we were on our way. The whole ride we talked about our expectations of Gilman, what we were going to ask him, and all the details of installing the hives that day. We weren't sure what to expect from Gilman, because Jack had spoken with him many times on the bee forum and couldn't seem to get a read on whether he was a cool guy or just a cold guy. Either way we were really excited.

Awesome empty jar for the Honey Money

It took an hour plus to get to Gilman's place. When we pulled up we saw an old tree stump with a few bottles of honey with a little for sale sign. We knew we were in the right place. We pulled up the driveway and Gilman met us out front. He is short in stature with the dark features of a Mediterranean kind of guy. He spoke with a subtle accent and had a very welcoming attitude about himself. I was put right at ease, this was my kind of guy, balanced and happy. Even if we didn't know exactly what we were doing, this guy was an expert.

When I got out of Jack's truck and looked around, I thought, this is a unique guy. Just about his entire lawn is a vineyard. There were probably over a hundred grape plants around his house. After we traded pleasantries he told us to, "pull through the trees towards the chickens and then back up." Jack didn't hear him, or maybe he was just thrown at chickens being a landmark so he asked him to repeat it. Gilman repeated his instructions. It was kind of a silly moment, we all kind of laughed at how ridiculous the directions seemed. Certain that we had his directions down we drove into his backyard and pulled up towards a rather large chicken coop and backed up to a small bee yard with probably 30 or so nucleus boxes surrounded by a white electric fence.

Gilman unhooks the fence and I ask him about the strips of bacon that are tied to the electric fence. He said something to the effect that he wasn't trying to slowly cook the bacon or anything. (I have found that most bee people are pretty good at corny jokes) The bacon acts as bait to get bears to bite down on the fence to shock them enough to keep them from ripping up the hives for honey. Apparently a little shock on the body isn't quite enough to keep a full sized bear from getting to the honey hole.

We talked about different beekeeping practices while he lit up his smoker. I asked him about installing the nucs and he gave me some tips. We talked about breaking up the brood nest to try to promote the bees drawing out all the comb. He didn't object in a huge way so I felt pretty good about doing it. We also saw a small snake under the nuc we picked up. He or she was just trying to find a warm place to sleep. We loaded up the nucs and were on our way.

Do they look infected?

On the way home we stopped at a guys house, not that far from Gilman's place, to pick up some used equipment. Jack knows the guy through one of his fish club buddies. He was moving and didn't want to bring the empty hive bodies with him. He told us that two seasons in a row his hives were destroyed by bears and he didn't want to keep throwing money to make really expensive bear food. I guess he didn't get the bacon baited electric fence lesson from Gilman. So we grabbed the boxes from the guys front lawn and we were out of there. 

I have read lots of bad things about used equipment. Mainly that if there has ever been foulbrood inside one of them that the spores can last something like five years. So using equipment that could be contaminated is a big no no. The guy we got them from I don't know at all, which doesn't help. Also some of the boxes are pretty old. So I'm thinking that I might just end up tossing them. However the frugal part of my soul says make it work. Some guys say you can torch the inside with a propane torch and that will kill any possible spores. I think I'll wait to see if I will ever actually need them.

Neither of us had eaten breakfast and all the time we spent at Gilman's discussing bees, bears, and making wine (the reason he has so many grape vines) it was time for an early lunch break. We stopped at a five guys and feasted on some hot fries and red meat.

New deep hives before paint

When we got home we loaded the used equipment into the garage and picked up all the wooden ware and stand equipment for the new hives. This includes for each hive: a hive stand, screened bottom board, one deep hive body, ten plastic foundation frames, an inner cover, and an outer cover. We also bought a few cinder blocks and some 2x4s as a way to place the hives off the ground so the back of the truck was pretty full with all of our equipment.When we bought the equipment it wasn't treated at all, it was bare wood. So Jack and I spent a few hours covering every part that will be exposed with high quality latex exterior paint.

Jack in the middle of the install

We drove out to Acorn Hill, and the work began. The hardest part of the day was getting all the equipment through the field. We first carried the cinder blocks and then decided to drive across the field to cut our trip in half. In hindsight I wish we hadn't, because I don't think Phil the farm guy really appreciated it. There are still two tire tracks across the field from where we drove, it has been almost 5 weeks.

After the foundation stand was in place we brought the nucs up and cracked them open. At first the thing that struck me most was the difference in the color of the bees. The nucs are Carniolan bees which are a different kind of honeybee then the Italians I have in the package hive. The next thing that struck me was how dark the wooden frames had become from all the seasons of propolis being spewed all over them. They looked cool.

Frame pattern: Jack painted this box

Nuc frame loaded with
bee food

We pulled the frames to put them into their new home. The frames were loaded with brood in all stages as well as some capped honey and pollen. They looked awesome. I was kind of in awe and I hope some day my frames look this way. Installing the nucs was a lot easier then I thought. It was just a matter of taking out frames and putting them in a different box. We did however kind of break up the pattern they had already laid out. We placed the three frames with mostly brood together in the middle, however we took the ones with mostly food in them and put an empty frame between the center three and the outer empty frames. I think the picture does it justice, and also the wild difference between new and seasoned wooden frames.

We closed up the boxes and that was that. If you notice in the picture I added one thing to each hive. I always see guys on the internet and in most of the new bee books they tell you to put something on top of the hive to keep the lid from blowing off. At first I thought it was a bit cray because the outer cover is pretty heavy, however I just read a bee forum post about a guy who had hives for 5 years with no lid and went to his yard to find two of his hives with no top and a devastated colony because of a bad rainy stretch. I figured, hey whats the harm in throwing some old heavy patio bricks on each top. Also they have served as a nice place to lay the smoker. I have been a little neurotic about the smoker on the ground. (maybe it is my safety minded father-in-law's influence)

 

With a little work, some investor money, and time, Acorn Hill Apiaries went from a one hive establishment to three. I was really happy with the strength of the nucs as well as no stings for the day. I will get into some of the things I learned at the Connecticut beekeepers association meeting next time so please stay tuned.

Mothers Day Inspection

Sunday, May 13, 2012 Mother's Day inspection. I thought it fitting to see the queen on mother's day. I decided to run out to Acorn Hill to check on the ladies to see if it was time yet for the second medium. The forecast was calling for rain Monday and Tuesday, so I went for it, kind of on a whim. Melissa and I showed up after eating a nice breakfast with the in-laws and before a visit with my side of the family.

I lit the smoker, which I think would be much easier with a small butane torch. I will be on the look out for an inexpensive one. I smoked the bees and checked them out. I saw the queen right away and lots of really good evidence of successful life. One frame of really good looking capped brood another frame with some eggs and another with some capped and some larvae. All of which were an epic sight.

The end frames however have yet to drawn out. The last frames that are drawn out have been filled with sugar syrup. Now thinking back on it I think I should have done a little checker boarding with the empty frames. That is, move the empty frames in between some that have already been drawn out. There a total of five full frames drawn out and one side of two more frames. So that is only 6 frames. I figured I will wait until next weekend to add the next super.

Also I came across a little bit of burr comb. (honey comb growing where it shouldn't be) One section was clearly coming straight out of the frame almost perpendicular. Also there was what might have been a queen sticking out of another frame. This worries me a little, but my newbee eyes couldn't tell the difference between burr comb and a queen cell. Considering the bees still have room in the hive and the queen is laying just fine, I don't know why they would consider a queen cell. However maybe it is something I don't know about yet. My internet is down right now, so when I post this I will also post a picture of my mystery cell on the forum and see what the experts say.

Wish I had this sweet Ruler/ Sign to give me advice before I burned a hole in my pants :)

All in all another fun inspection. No stings, all smiles! :)

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.