Colony Collapse Disorder

I took a quick look in both hives 2 and 4 with the camera! Here’s what I found…

There was almost nothing in this hive (hive 4). The queen was gone, and I’d guesstimate there were maybe 20 bees in the entire hive, most of them in the cluster in the picture. They quickly scattered when I opened the hive.

According to Wikipedia, Colony Collapse has three main signs:

1. Presence of capped brood that was abandoned
2. Presence of food that is not immediately robbed
3. Presence of the queen

We know in hive 4 that I saw the queen, because she’s marked, and I saw her on Halloween. There was some brood (all dead) and quite a bit of honey.

Here’s what you get for the capped brood. This was pretty similar to hive 2 as well. If you notice in the center of the picture (zoom in), there is a dead bee halfway through hatching from the cell.

The big difference in brood between 2 and 4 is that 2 had tons of eggs and dead larvae. Hive 4 had only this. Not much else. I did not inspect every frame, but the frames that had brood that I did inspect, looked like this. I should note that this queen is particularly hygienic and that hive 2 is her daughter.

I was expecting to see more bodies, but this is all there was on the bottom of the hive. Just a few body parts resting on the screened board.

So I think it’s safe to say CCD for both Hive 2 and Hive 4 at this point, which I find troubling. Both hives definitely had enough honey and pollen on hand. Both had the strength (especially 2) to survive the winter. So why did they die? Where did they go?

And a question for others, but is it safe to harvest the remaining stores and wax in these hives? I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anything on that….

Sigh…

But so that I don’t end this on such a depressing topic, here’s some pictures of our honey harvest this year!

This is a big scoop off the top of a 5-gallon bucket!

Here’s the majority of our haul this year with one last frame that I gave back to the bees instead of harvesting. Missing from this picture is 8 quart jars of honey and 10 of the 10-oz. jars that I took to work. The glass jars are full pint jars mixed in with a few half-pints.

And here’s a shot of the bees cleaning the wax. I had two pans this size filled to the top with wax.

And with this I think we can call it a wrap on beekeeping 2012. At least as far as the actually working with the hives goes. I may harvest 2 and 4 just to start from scratch next year, but… we’ll see.

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And we lost another one…

Hive 4 is dead. Mostly.

I put entrance reducers on the hives last week in preparation for winter, but we’re having a flurry of really nice weather (70s!). Yesterday I got home early enough to take a quick look across the front of the hives, and there was heavy flight patterns in front of 1, 3, and 5. I waited five minutes and I saw a single bee poke her head out of the front of 4. One.

I ran inside, grabbed my bear and did a very quick peek inside of Hive 4. The queen was sitting right on top of the frames looking very slow. There were only a few hundred bees that I could see by looking between the frames. I wasn’t prepared to go deeper, so that’s all I did, but I think it’s safe to say Hive 4 is dead.

Sigh… That makes two in the last month.

This one is obviously different than Hive 2 in that the queen is still here. She’s my one marked queen, so she was very easy to recognize. She’s also my oldest queen. I may try to go into that hive this Saturday just to see what’s going on. I am expecting to find a lot of dead bees because I seriously doubt this is CCD. Depending on what I find, I may harvest the hive as well. I don’t know if I’m ready to get back into harvesting mode….

One thing that does leave me particularly disappointed is that this is the end of what has been my favorite line. Hive 4 was the mom and Hive 2 was the daughter, and they are both dead. I liked the production of these particular queens, although I didn’t much care for the propolis (very heavy).

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Hive Inspection: October 20, 2012

Hive 2 is unlucky….

But first, a report:

Hive 1

Strong. Strong, strong, strong. Hive 1 has always been a fantastic hive with super calm bees. This hive still has a honey super on, which we won’t be harvesting, and that honey super is basically full. A lot is not capped, but it is basically full. I’m hopeful to get a split out of this hive coming in to the new year, but we’ll see.

Hives 3, 4, and 5

Yep, I skipped 2….

I honestly didn’t do much in 3, 4, and 5 except to just get a feel for what is going on. Hive 2 took up so much time and energy that we just weren’t all that in to it anymore. I know, I know… no excuse.

Three and 5 are doing okay. The honey stores seem sufficient, the population large, and so forth. I think they survive the winter. Hive 4 I’m not so sure about. We didn’t go that deep; in fact we barely went in at all. We did look between the frames to try and figure out population and honey stores. While 4 has plenty of honey, they are not nearly as large as I wish they were. Not nearly. This is my oldest queen (2 now), and I will be replacing her come this spring, assuming of course that I can find her. I’ve had such a terrible summer finding queens. I’ve only seen them a handful of times, and I have yet to see the queen in hive 3 outside of the day we installed her.

I won’t be surprised if Hive 4 dies. I just won’t. Call it a gut feeling.

Which brings us to Hive 2….

Hive 2

CCD–Colony Collapse Disorder. No one really knows what causes it, although I, like any other beekeeper, have my suspicions. The most plausible causes in my mind are issues more closely related to commercial keepers (nothing wrong with commercial beekeeping, by the way, but I do think some of what they do can harm more than hurt). First, I think migratory beekeeping is hard on the bees. You’d be stressed if you were locked up in your home, thrown on a flatbed, and hauled around the country every few weeks. Add in the heavy medications to prevent loss (breeds weak stock in my opinion) and the artificial feeding using sugar (bad ph balance in the hives plus unnatural population booms), and I think you have a recipe for disaster. Oh, and add in the monoculture diets and pesticides. I just don’t see how that style of beekeeping can lead to long-term hive health. I just don’t see it.

So CCD has always been a them issue for me. Until yesterday.

Hive 2 is gone. Flat out gone. No bodies, no bees, no nothing.

The hive is still full of honey (though a substantial amount has been robbed out), and there is almost no brood. What is there is mostly eggs, a few early stage larvae (dead of course) and an occasional capped cell.

Our first suspicion was AFB or EFB. The hive passed the AFB test (thank heavens!), and while there is some suspicion of EFB, I consulted with Chris (my supplier), and he suggested that it was CCD. He said he’s seen what we described many times this summer and blamed it on the poor nectar flow. We’ve done okay with our nectar flow where I’m at, so I’m not sure I by the poor nectar flow idea, but I think Chris is spot on with the rest.

So here’s what I’m guessing happened…. I think the hive got EFB. I think the brood died off enough that it started to impact the hive. I think that right after a final round of egg laying the hive gave up and absconded. Nothing else really makes sense to me.

As for a when, I don’t know. Hard to say. This is the first inspection in a while due to weather and other issues, so it could have been anytime in the last three weeks. Judging by how much honey has been robbed out of the hive, I’d guess closer to three weeks than not. We had left a full deep AND a full medium on the hive after harvesting, and we have about half a medium left. That’s quite a ton of honey to have robbed out.

I’m not sure what we do at this point. I’m half-tempted to just leave Hive 2 there and let the bees finish robbing it. I did debate pulling the hive and harvesting everything, wax and all, but I’ll be honest–I don’t want to. I’m done harvesting this year. I also don’t want to deal with the wax. I just don’t. Chris advised not to let it be robbed out because it would trigger robbing through out the hives. Perhaps. I know it is an issue, but let’s be honest… This has been going on for at least a week or two. Another week of robbing isn’t going to kill them off if they’ve made it this far. I will, however, get my reducers on the entrances to help reduce any robbing issues that may come about.

Sigh… This is the hard part about beekeeping. I hate losing a hive. Especially a strong hive like Hive 2. This also makes me wonder if this hive is cursed. I’ve lost Hive 2 both years that I’ve been beekeeping. Maybe I should rename all my hives and just skip Hive 2 the way some hotels and skyscrapers skip over the 13th floor.

But seriously, Mackay and I talked for some time about what we do going forward. Five hives has been a lot of work. It’s been good and fun and neat to tell people five hives, but… There’s always that but. It’s a lot of work.

And money.

I think we’ll go down to four hives for next year. There’s a few reasons for this, but one of the principle is that it gives me more room in my apiary. The five hives fit where I have them, but it would not hurt to have a bit more room to work in. I also wouldn’t mind having room for an emergency. With five hives, I cannot legally take another hive on due to a swarm or even keeping a nuc. With four, I could keep a nuc or have the boxes for an emergency split or swarm. Yes, it would lessen my honey production, but I just don’t know if that matters all that much to me at this point. I have plenty of honey with just two producing this summer. If four go strong, I’d easily clear 15 gallons a year, which is roughly double this year.

Sigh… Where did I/Hive 2 go wrong?

On a different note, Aleisha’s sister (?) was walking down the street, and they saw us in the backyard and came back to chat. I have never met them, but they are apparently first year beekeepers, and it was fun to talk with them. I have to apologize though–and Aleisha, please pass that on–they came by right when we discovered Hive 2′s loss. I was quite distracted and didn’t talk to them as openly as I would have liked.

Sigh… Hive 2. The cursed hive. I’m going to try to go in sometime this week (warm or cold… doesn’t matter) and take some detailed pictures of the brood and larvae in the hopes that some of my more experienced beekeeping buds can offer additional insight. When I do, I’ll post those pictures.

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Pondering the Future of Beekeeping

Well year two isn’t quite in the books, but it seems a good time to sit down and wonder where I think beekeeping fits in to my life.

Aleisha, my mentor in beekeeping, has always been a good example of the be vs do principle for me. I think that matters, especially in a hobby that can be as expensive and intensive as beekeeping. It’s a consuming hobby; one that occupies my mind and time, space in my home/yard, and a portion of the budget. A not so small portion mind you.

I think the first question is yes or no for next year. Yes. That’s pretty easy to say. But I definitely prefer to be out there with Mackay or another friend. I do wonder how him moving on to grad school in a few years will impact my enjoyment of beekeeping, but I also recognize that that’s a great opportunity to work with others as well. I guess we’ll see.

The next question is one of numbers. I went up to five hives this year from two. Was that too many? With help, no. But again, what happens when my faithful fellow beekeeper moves away? Fortunately, I can push this one aside for now.

Equipment? I upgraded to all solid plastic frames this year. I’m not sure I care for these. I’ve never seen bees build bridge comb vertically in the hive (well not much anyway), but the bridge comb between the plastic frames is thick, regular, and strong enough that we have to cut it away when moving supers. I hate that, and I don’t like that it makes moving supers a two-man job. I’m stuck with the plastic for now because of the investment, but I will move back to wood I think.

I’m also seriously debating foundationless. My dad built two more hives this summer for his own apiary, and one hive is a full frame (sides, top and bottom); the other is an interesting experiment with bottomless frames (top and sides only). Both are foundationless. I could always cut the centers out of my current solid plastic frames if I wanted to get this same effect. Debating it….

Style? I’m debating moving to a Warre hive style of hive management. In Warre beekeeping, you add to the bottom, not the top as in Langstroth. I like the idea because it rotates your comb more consistently, but I wish I had more standardized equipment. I could always move some of my boxes around to get all deeps on some hives and all mediums on others, but just thinking of moving all those bees and combining/splitting all those hives gives me a headache.

Queen excluders? Definitely getting those. I have avoided those for a long time because I don’t care for that kind of artificial exclusion in the hive, but having dealt with FOUR hives laying eggs in the honey supers and seeing the trouble that caused…. I will probably leave the excluders off until the month prior to harvest. That will give any brood still in the honey time to hatch and move on before harvest.

Business? Hmm… I don’t know. The idea of doing our little beekeeping business really ignited something in me this late summer/early fall. Now? I don’t know…. I realized that my goals and desires are very unique in this and that I could get myself trapped in a cycle of spending a lot of money to make nothing. I don’t want money to drive this particular venture in beekeeping. I want beekeeping to drive this particular venture in beekeeping.

I may still attempt to do something with mentoring, and I do want to do the farmers market (if only to talk to people). I have had a lot of fun making and selling lip balms, and I’ve even made about $200 this year (including honey). Which brings up my next question…

Other products? Making the candles is pretty cool, but time consuming and not long-term interesting. They smell divine, though. But doing lip balms? That’s pretty awesome, if unfortunately a little expensive. Sadly. We still have about 100 lip balms to sell, and that’s cool. I don’t know that I’ll make many more until I sell what I have, though Courtney had an interesting idea for an Orange Dream Bar one that sounds tasty.

Expansion? I think this is the last question I’m facing…. I have had several people tell me they’d love to have hives…

… but not manage them.

Their thought is that I would do it. They would take a percentage of the results, and I’d get the rest. I typically see an 80/20 split with the beekeeper taking the 80.

I admit that the idea is attractive, but the more I think about it, the more I recognize the pitfalls. First, hives are not cheap. Second, now I’m adding distance into my inspections. Third, Mackay is leaving someday, and I already think I’ll be maxed out with my own five. Fourth, how do I handle neighbor issues when the neighbors aren’t even mind anymore? Fifth, at what point would it stop? Would I stop?

I just don’t know that I would stop. I don’t know that I’d ever turn anyone down, and that just ends up costing me more and more money without me having a real mechanism for turning around and selling the supply. Let’s be honest… I haven’t sold what I have, and I have a lot. Once all five hives get going full production, I’m looking at 20 to 30 gallons of honey a year or so on a normal to good year. That’s more than I have any clue what to do with. Really. I just don’t see me handling double that well.

If I had a way to sell it all, I’d consider it in a heartbeat, but with expansion comes trouble in the form of controls, taxes, and liability.

Yep, I think I’ll shelf that question for another day.

I think we have one more visit to the hives this year. I’m ready for the long quiet break, which is something I appreciate about this hobby. We’ll see what next year has in store for us!

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The Chairman of Plymouth Township, Pennsylvania

I’ve had an interesting political encounter over the last 24 hours. I thought I’d share it with you….

Yesterday morning, Brushy Mountain Beekeeping sent out in their monthly newsletter a call for support for beekeepers located in Plymouth Township, Pennsylvania. I often participate in these calls even though I’m not local to many of those communities because I find the issue important. I’ve also found that once one town/county bans beekeeping, others often follow suit. Same thing happens if a town legalizes it or supports it.

In the case of Plymouth Township, the council was considering a more restrictive ordinance that, according to the petition, would limit beekeeping to only the largest lots in the county, roughly 8% of the lots or so.

So I decided to write a letter in support of urban beekeeping, and this is what I wrote and sent to the council at large, the planning commission, and the beekeeping group in Plymouth Township:

Dear Supervisors,

I’m writing in support of your local beekeepers.

My wife and I have kept up to five hives in our downtown, backyard neighborhood for many years now and find the experience wonderful. Our garden has never been so strong and healthy, and many of my neighbors have said the same. Plus, the honey we’ve harvested has been a wonderful addition to our diets and our own personal economies!

Beekeeping is a safe hobby filled with considerate, careful people. I personally have taken great pains to position my hives in a way so as not to bother my neighbors, going so far as to construct a new fence and a large wall at my own expense. This spring, I will plant bushes and trees to provide additional barriers and privacy. These efforts have provided protection for my neighbors, privacy for me, and a safe place for my bees in addition to beautifying my home. To date, the only people who have been stung are me and other friends while we were inspecting our hives. I’m sure the beekeepers in your area are equally careful and considerate.

Bees are among the most beneficial of insects. They pollinate over 30% of all the food we eat. But they are paying a terrible price with Colony Collapse Disorder and other issues. Their numbers and dwindling and, in large measure, it is only the consistent and regular activity of the commercial and hobbyist beekeeper that is sustaining this essential contributor to our agricultural economy. Your support would go a long way to helping us ensure the survival of this critical species. In fact, many recent studies point to backyard beekeepers as the safety net for the entire species because these hives tend to be much healthier, stronger, and better cared for than the larger commercial operations.

I urge you to put your energy and commitment into supporting your local beekeeper and the critical benefits their bees supply to your community.

My wife and I are not local by any means (we’re in Utah), but I sincerely wish that I could invite you to join me sometime at my hives. You’ll find them to be pleasant, relaxing, and wondrous creatures. In the warmer months, you’ll often find me sitting outside with my back resting against the hives listening to the comings and goings and gentle hums of one of God’s most incredible creations.

Sincerely,
Dave Loveless

Pretty benign, right? At least that’s what I thought.

Last night, I got the first reply from Sheldon Sampson, the Chairman of the Council. Here it is (Note: All of his responses are unedited.):

Know your facts

That’s it. Three words.

So I looked at that and wondered what it meant. First, I thought it might be an auto-correct issue (sent from an iPhone), and the intent was “You know your facts!” That’s be a pretty cool response (and what some would call positive thinking to the point of being naive:-) ). Then again, taken at face value and assuming no errors, it’s pretty rude. Was he claiming that I didn’t know what I was talking about with beekeeping (Sorry, but I’d fight that claim to the end!) OR was he saying there was more to the issue that I didn’t know about?

I really did want to know, so I replied with this:

I’m not sure I understand your reply, but I sincerely hope you will take the well-documented benefits of beekeeping in consideration as you and others work on this legislation.

Sincerely,

Dave Loveless

I was hoping to have a pleasant conversation like I’ve had with most councils that respond to my e-mails, so I was trying to keep it pleasant, factual, and comfortable.

And then this came:

You have no idea what I know about bees or what we are doing you do you

Oh boy…. My first thought was obviously not. I mean, Sheldon has now sent me a grand total of twenty words in reply to my e-mails, none of which offered any details, any explanations, or any opening for a conversation. And since none seemed forthcoming, I replied with this:

Apparently not. I contacted you and others in support of keeping beekeeping legal due to a petition from a local beekeeping organization. If that is somehow wrong, please enlighten me instead of casting veiled insults.

Again, I’m trying to have a conversation with him, not a fight, but at this point I’m thinking small town political power trip (Plymouth Township is fairly small).

And then this came back:

We are not against bee keeping we are trying to have balance not everybody wants it next to them people who are allergic have a true fear and so you know we have sat for hours with many experts being educated on the matter, and just a side not this not a priority to me now as 3 weeks ago one of our police officers were killed on duty so we have much more pressing things besides bees

Uh… Look, I’m really sorry an officer was killed. That is a tragedy of immeasurable proportions. Just a year or so ago, an officer was murdered in my home town of 3,500. I know what it feels like. My town lined the road for several miles with lowered flags to pay tribute to her life. Just yesterday a border patrol officer was killed who has his roots in my current neighborhood. I know what it feels like. It’s an overbearing cloud of tangible grief. It’s awful.

But that is not an excuse for rudeness, and I think it shames the memory of the officer that a public official would use that as a reason to dismiss someone. At this point, I’m pretty sure I know what kind of person I’m dealing with, and I don’t think I’m going to be successful having a conversation, so I sent this:

I’m sorry for the loss. That is a real tragedy for the entire community, and you have my sympathy.

I also understand your other concerns and appreciate the time you and others are taking to be educated. You are doing more than most councils and public groups that I’ve worked with in the past. I guess I’m just confused at the apparent hostility in your previous responses when a simple thank you or even non-response would have been entirely appropriate to my original letter. My only intention was to offer a voice of support for those in your community who favor beekeeping. I see no offense, no attack, and certainly no reason for the way I’ve been treated. Of course I don’t know you or your efforts. I don’t see how that is relevant given the nature of my letter and the democratic process at work here.

Tragedy aside, you have put on a poor display for a public official, especially towards someone who simply said, “I support this.” I sincerely wish our interactions could have been more uplifting and unifying instead of dismissive, but that is past now.

Again, I’m sorry for your loss and wish you and those you work with well.

And just a few moments ago, I got this in reply:

I’m sorry but when you get 40-50 emails from the petition while trying to work from people who have no idea nor live no were near here I get frustrated we are trying to do the proper thing and thank you for understanding and hearing me

At least we end on a high note, which I’m grateful for.

Let me be clear, I hold no ill will towards Mr. Sampson. Politics is hard, especially when you feel inundated by less important communications during a tragedy. I realize that I judged him too harshly, and I really do wish him the absolute best.

When we complain about the political state of our nation, we can all hold my experience up as a fine example of what is wrong. On both sides. I make no qualms about the fact that Mr. Sampson was wrong to respond the way he did, but I also recognize that my judgements of his actions didn’t exactly help either. We both would have been much better served had we taken the time to communicate in more productive ways.

Mr Sampson–Should you find this blog some day, I want you to know that I hold no ill will towards you. The grand sum total of my encounter with you is not enough to truly know a person or come to any kind of accurate judgement of you, your character, or your abilities. But I will say this: Thank you. Thank you for the apology, thank you for taking the time to respond, and thank you for your service. Being a public servant is not easy, and those who do so carry a huge responsibility that is often forgotten by those who don’t. We’d all be better served to remember that.

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Hive Inspection: September 29, 2012

I bottled all of the honey on Saturday. Even took pictures, which are at home on the camera while I’m at work. Naturally. I promise to come back in at a later date and add in pictures or post again with those pictures.

In the end, we’ve harvested about eight gallons of honey this year. I’ve already sold three gallons, and the remaining five are up for grabs. We have 52 10-oz. bottles that will go with us to the farmers market eventually, 12 half-pints, and 12 or so full pint jars. I’m quite thrilled with the results!

I ended up with a basketball-sized ball of wax from our last straining, which I put outside in the back. That, along with the wet supers, led to me banning anyone from the backyard. It was quite the sight! Bees everywhere in heavy flight patterns. It was incredible just to sit on the lawn low enough to be beneath the heaviest traffic but still close enough to hear and watch it. What fantastic creatures!

Mackay and I also worked the hives, including the much-dreaded review of 3 and 5. Here’s the report:

Hive 1 and 2

Mackay and I peeked very quickly into these two hives just to see what things were looking like. All seemed well. They have not yet capped the six or seven frames we found and did not harvest last time, and I decided I’m not going to pull them. I will leave those on the hive for the winter. If they don’t use it, we’ll get a jump on next year. If they do, they needed it and I’m glad to have left it.

Both hives are strong enough to defend and manage that extra space/honey without a problem. I’m quite excited to see what they do next year!

Hive 4

Hive 4 was down to just two deeps, and I’ve long been worried about this particular hive. They looked strong enough. They are definitely drawing out all of the frames now, which is nice to see, and they have a good, be weaker population. I do worry that this hive will fail over the winter. No matter what, I intend to requeen this hive in the spring. The queen in there, one of my favorites, is over two-years-old now, and very heavy on the propolis. I would like to see how they do with an Italian queen.

I plan on ordering a package and then combining the hive and the package using the newspaper method. That will leave me with a very strong hive coming into spring–assuming, of course, that the hive survives. If not, I’ll already have the package ready.

Hive 3

For hive 3, Mackay and I managed to combine enough deep frames to pull off a deep box. There were enough medium frames with some measure of honey in them, that we left this hive with 1 deep super and 2 mediums. That’s how they’ll go into the winter. They are big and strong, but I do worry about their honey stores.

We did NOT harvest anything off this hive, although some of the frames we pulled we moved into hive 5. It does mean that 3 lost some honey. I will watch this hive pretty closely, and if by the end of October they aren’t looking more full, I’ll come in with syrup. I’d prefer not to, but obviously we’ll do what we need to do.

Hive 5

No real worries here. We were able to pull a medium frame off this hive to get it down to 2 deeps and a medium for the winter. Good strong population and plenty of honey, especially considering that we put any frames with honey in them that we pulled out of 3 into this hive. The end result for both this hive and hive 3 is that every single frame in the supers has some honey/nectar/pollen stores of some kind and is ready for working.

I’m confident this hive will do just fine this winter.

End Results

There you have it! I’m very confident about 1, 2, and 5 and a little concerned about 3 and 4 going into the winter. I think 3 will be fine, which really leaves me most worried about 4, although they are probably equivalent to what I found in my hives last fall going into winter. I guess we’ll see.

I’m a little disappointed that this has been such a queenless summer. Mackay and I just never really saw the queens in our inspections. Of course, this summer was one where I actively tried not to dig as deep as I did last year. We typically called an inspection after we saw new eggs.

Prepping for next year, I’d like to catch a swarm. I’d also like to train myself to go a bit deeper. Many of the issues we saw in 3 and 5 (queens in the honey) could have been avoided if we had dug deep enough to realize that they hadn’t really drawn out as much as we had assumed they had. If I caught a swarm, I’m not sure what I’d do with it, but I am debating doing a nuc or two. Technically, I’m not allowed to have more than 5 hives, but if I caught the swarm, put it in a nuc, and then sold it off within a week or two I’d be okay I think.

Aside from the seriously advanced stuff (queen rearing and the like), catching a swarm is the last major activity that I have yet to experience.

Oh, and I think I’d like to get Mackay stung a couple dozen more times!

 

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Honey Harvest: September 22, 2012

Let there be honey!

Yesterday was our second honey harvest of the year. It was also my first solo experience of the year. While I missed having Mackay’s help, I’ll admit that it was a good experience to do it alone again. I remember how much work is involved and how much I actually do know.

I enjoyed myself immensely.

Here’s my report….

Hive 1

I pulled the first honey super off of hive one. I ended up with about 8 frames more or less full and about 60% capped. That’s much less than I prefer to see capped, but we are so dry here that we can typically survive that much uncapped honey without it going bad.

The second honey super had another six frames or so that was pretty much uncapped, so I’ll leave that another week or two and see what they do with it. I’m hopeful that’ll all end up capped toward mid-October and yield another round of harvesting (round 3!!!). If not, I’ll set up an artificial robbing situation and let the bees go crazy on it.

Hive 2

Very similar to Hive 1 but man were they angry. I popped the outer cover and was immediately set upon by a dozen bees. It was bad enough that I put my gloves on immediately, which is the first time this year. Everything I did with this hive lead to angry bees no matter how slow or gentle.

Like Hive 1, this hive had another six frames or so that look like they may end up capped in a few weeks, so I’ll come back and check.

Hive 3 and 5

I did not go into these two hives yesterday. If you remember, these are the hives with the fairly heavy brood populations in the honey supers. We tried in July to reorganize the hives just to see what would happen, and we ended up with brood throughout. Sigh….

I will save these two hives for next Saturday when Mackay can help. I think we’ll end up going through the hive boxes frame by frame by frame. My goal would be to consolidate down to at least a solid deep and a solid medium with brood and honey for the winter.

Still debating using a queen excluder. I don’t like the idea, but I may have to.

Hive 4

I pulled a single frame of honey out of 4, and it was a whopper! I’d guess the comb extended a good half inch beyond the wooden frame on both sides of the frame, and it was completely sealed! Sadly, there wasn’t a single drop of honey beyond that in the honey supers, so I finally did what I should have done a few weeks back and pulled both of the supers off.

Hive 4 is now back down to a good winter-sized hive of 2 deep supers. I’m still worried about this hive surviving the winter, but I’m feeling more confident. I think the hive is strong enough to round out its stores before the cold sets in, and hopefully that is enough. If this hive survives, I fully intend to requeen.

Honey

And now on to the honey!

I ended up with this sitting on my kitchen table:

Two of those are the mediums off of Hive 4 and the other two are from 1 and 2 and full of honey.

At this point, we left for a family picnic and came back  about four hours later to find, to our utter surprise, frames full of bees!

Turns out that I hadn’t done too close of an inspection on those honey supers, and we had pulled two frames of this:

Yes, those would be brood cells in the process of hatching!

I’d guess we had close to fifty bees wandering around those frames of honey and various other places in our kitchen. They were, as to be expected, utterly calm and gentle, although that didn’t stop the panic from Courtney.

Sadly, at this stage there was nothing for it, so we pulled the honey around the bees and then put the frames back in the boxes bees and all.

When we finished, I moved the four boxes outside to be cleaned by the bees, and Courtney caught a great tongue shot!

I did a crush and strain method like normal, but this time I set up a double bucket system. The top bucket has a solid lid but the floor has been cut out. The bottom bucket is a solid bucket with a hole cut through the lid. I hung a paint strainer (the best way to filter in my opinion!) in the top bucket, dumped the honey into the paint strainer, which then drained into the bottom bucket. After you put the lid on the top bucket, you end up with a solid, sealed strainer that you can walk away from without too much of a problem.

Right now the bottom bucket has about three gallons of honey, which brings our total harvest this year right up around 7 – 8 gallons. It’s kind of hard to say because I can only guess at the quantity at this point. I do think we’ll get another gallon or so off of Hives 3 and 5 and maybe another gallon out our third harvest from 1 and 2. Maybe ten gallons on the year with quite a bit of wax!

Last bit… I think we set a new standard for stickiness in our kitchen. You currently can’t walk through the kitchen without having that telltale squelch of your shoes releasing from the floor. I so long for a canning kitchen!

Oh, and I discovered a new definition of pain. No, I didn’t get stung, but I did drop my honey bucket. I managed to catch it with my big toe, just above the nail. The top of my toe is a brilliant swollen black and deep deep blue. I’ll be surprised if I don’t lose that nail.

To my everlasting credit, I did not swear. Though I am tempted to believe that swearing in that circumstance might actually be encouraged.

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MACKAY GOT STUNG!!!!

YES YES YES YES!!!!

Happy sigh…. Very happy sigh….

Mackay and his family visited us Saturday night, and as we normally do, Mackay and I ended up sitting out by the hives while the wives stayed inside. While we were sitting there enjoying the late evening gentle buzz of bees, we noticed a few wasps wrestling on the ground in front of the hives. Mackay and I both leaned over for a look, and Mackay was apparently a little too close to the door because a bee launched at his chest and ZAP!

Right on the right side of his chest.

We immediately stood up and left because we had no protection, and a second bee zoomed in for the kill and stung him in a truly awkward place right below his belt. Fortunately, he was wearing thick enough denim that the stinger did not pierce the cloth, although I would have died laughing if it had.

I spent the rest of the evening sincerely hoping that Mackay would swell marvelous on that right side of his chest and go to church the next day with everyone just staring. It would have been incredible.

And before any chastises me for not being a supportive friend in Mackay’s time of need, let me remind you that he mocked me mercilessly during the Great Ankle Sting-a-thon of April 2012. Mercilessly.

Ahhh…. Welcome to the club, Mackay. You are now officially a beekeeper!

Oh, and just for the record, Mackay had only slight swelling and itchiness, something I credit both to the speed at which the stinger was removed and just a general lack of reaction. I’m actually truly glad he was finally stung. It was something I’ve been pretty worried about since we just didn’t know how he’d respond, and that’s not something to find out when you’ve got open hives.

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Hive Inspection: September 8, 2012

I finally downloaded some pictures from our August 6th visit. That’s the first good news. The second goods news is that Hive 4 is looking okay. I’m going to scatter the old photos throughout this post. It’s been so long that I no longer know what is what, but we’ll have fun anyway.

And a great time for a photo.

What? That’s not a bee picture? Well, no… but it is cute. We finally cut his hair, and Courtney really wanted to capture the curls.

How about this one?

Okay, fine… I’ll do bee pictures now.

I’m remembering now…. This was our visit where we debated how to “fix” hive 3 and 5. If you remember, those two hives had brood throughout the hive, and we tried to consolidate it down. Our first idea was to pull all the frames and then put brood frames back into the bottom boxes and honey frames higher. This is where we were after working through the first box.

This is pretty typical of what we were finding in that lowest box. Empty, empty, empty. Our guess is that we supered way too fast and the bees did what the bees do. Move up.

In the end, we decided it was not a good use of our time or the bees time to reorganize the frames, so we put everything back and focused instead on ordering the boxes.

On to the regular report…

Hive 1

Oh how I love this hive. So quiet, so gentle. They were so calm today that we couldn’t hear a thing coming out of this hive. Just a pile o’ bees. They are doing really well and quite full. They are drawing out the top honey super right now and should have most of it capped by harvest date (possibly in two weeks). I think it is safe to say that we’ll get a good 15 frames of capped honey off this hive!

One thing that was surprising was a HUGE wasp attack on hive 1 while we were there. We killed at least two dozen wasps that were aggressively attacking bees in hive 1. At one point there was quite a big pile of bees and wasps fighting on the ground. Mackay and I took the time to dig through the pile, find the wasp in the center, and crush it. We could stay out there all day long and day that again and again and again.

Hive 2

Hive 2 was awesome last time and awesome again this time. I feel so good about the size of hive 2 that I honestly think I could split them now and have both survive the winter. I won’t, but I think I could.

Hive 2 is basically full again with honey. There’s a good chance that we’ll add another 15 frames of honey on top of the 10 we got off this hive earlier this year! That would make roughly 5 gallons off this hive alone!

Hive 3

Doing well, but still messy. I’m still debating what to do about getting this brood nest moved down. I’ve debated getting a queen excluder, but I just don’t know…. The frames were cleaning up a bit with the very top box being pretty much straight honey (five frames worth or so), so maybe I do nothing at this point.

Hive 5

Yep, I skipped Hive 4 again.

Hive 5 was much the same as Hive 3, though not nearly as organized. Hive 3 actually looks like it is getting more organized, but hive 5 is still pretty much everywhere.

We’ll figure this hive out at harvest. My goal right now is to get these hives through harvest time and then look at consolidating and fixing these hives. We don’t get truly into winter until October-ish, so we’ve got a month or so still to go.

Hive 4

And now back to 4….

We found eggs.

I’ve been so worried about this hive because of the lack of brood and drawn comb. This is definitely the smallest of my five hives. I could, and probably should take off the top honey super without affecting the production of this hive. I could probably pull the second box as well. There are 3.5 frames of honey in that box, which we will harvest and possibly give right back to this hive.

We went pretty deep into this hive, and we saw enough to have hope for survival. It’s still a pretty small hive, and I’ve debated pulling a frame of eggs out of Hive 2 or Hive 1 (my two strongest hives) to give them a jolt of bees going into winter, but I’m inclined to let them survive or not.

I think some of the problems with CCD are caused in small part by the continuation of bad genetics. If the hive cannot survive on its own, I think it is fair to consider letting the hive die. Strong hives make for strong bees. Weak hives make for weak bees.

All in all, this was a great visit. Fast, coolish day, with really calm bees.

Next up: HARVEST!!!

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Hive Inspection: August 25, 2012

I haven’t been doing all that well with my hive inspection reports, have I? And don’t even get me started on the lack of photos. I admit part of it is that I’m hesitant to bring Courtney’s nice camera out where I’m bound to get it all propolized, but a lot of it is really just the lack of desire to record the photos.

Anyway… on to the report!

Hive 1

Looking good. As always. Also as always, we didn’t spot a single queen. I admit to being frustrated by that, but I also recognize that most of the reason I don’t is because I don’t dig deep enough. As soon as I spot eggs, I’m happy. I don’t really like to dig into the hives unless I need to.

If I remember right, we should get about five to ten frames of honey of this hive, which is great.

Hive 2

Oh how I love this hive. Not only did this hive already provide ten frames of honey, but she is just shy of completely full. Again. Already. We harvested that honey super about six weeks ago I think, and it is already full again, which means the honey super below it is also full. August is normally a slow month it seems, which means the bees may eat some of that honey still, but I would not be surprised to see us pull a full ten frames of honey easily. I do like this queen!

Hive 3

My grand experiment was an outright failure! As you might remember, last time, I moved the hive boxes in both 3 and 5 around to try to get the brood lower and the honey high. Well, we’ve got brood in the top box again. Sigh… I have long resisted going this route, but I may just have to get queen excluders. If nothing else, I might just keep them on hand so that if I see this again, I can throw one on and put a quick stop to the brood. I doubt we get anything out of this hive. I also wonder how this hive will handle going into winter with the brood spread out like that.

Hive 4

Sigh… The misery continues.

We harvested 2 and 4 at the same time early this summer, and both were just about equal then. When we opened up 4, I was shocked to see that not only were they not as strong as 2 was, but they have nothing… NOTHING… in either honey super. Nothing. As in empty. Not even wax.

We decided we needed to dig quite deep into this hive, and the bees quickly became quite agitated and defensive. Both Mackay and I just assumed that we’d get multiple stings (none for either us!). I did see some brood, but I’d guess the youngest I saw close to 6 or 7 days old. All bad signs. We tried to examine the entire bottom brood box, but by this time the bees were so defensive that we got exactly a single frame out before we called it.

I’m of the opinion that we lost the queen. This queen was my oldest (coming on to her third year), but she had been doing quite well. If she did go (swarm? dead?), I am very hopeful that they’ll be able to repopulate with a new queen soon. I have LOVED this genetic line, with my only complaint being that they are heavy on the propolis. If this hive can get a new queen soon (I’d guess she’d hatch in the next two days given the age of the brood I did see), I think she might have enough time still to get her feet under her and save this hive going into winter. I hope, I hope, I hope.

Hive 5

See Hive 3. Really.

I wish I could get my hands on the queens in 3 and 5. I’d like to knock their heads together.

Assuming both hives survive the winter, I will likely requeen these two just because I don’t care for the queens. Both of them build heavy on the bridge comb, which using our new plastic frames creates tons of problems. They aren’t has heavy on the propolis, but the propolis holds the frames from the lower boxes in those lower boxes when I lift the top boxes. There’s nothing quite like holding a super with extra frames hanging off the bottom of it held on with nothing but bridge comb!

And there you go.

Beekeeping in general has been heavily on my mind these last few weeks. With the business starting up and going well (all things considered), I’ve really started to sit back and look at my motivations. I’m realizing that the real passion is sharing the passion, not the sales, not the honey, not the lip balms. What I like to see is someone’s eyes sparkle when they catch the bug. I think my favorite experiences by far still are those first times I take someone to the hives, find a bee, get it on my hand, and then transfer the bee to their hand. They always have that look of panic at first followed by that, “wow… I’m not dead” moment. That’s just special. And amazing.

I’ll be interested to see the business as it goes forward, but I hope it turns into mentoring more than anything else.

I’ve also been thinking of hives. I like what I have, but I am growing increasingly interested in the Top Bars. They just seem better to me now. For me. I don’t like the weight of the Langstroths. I don’t like the heavy propolis that is hard to work through and having to dig to get frames out. I don’t like that the entire top of the hive is exposed, and I especially don’t like the invasive nature of the inspections. It just doesn’t seem productive to the bees to pull supers off and set them to the side while I work. It’d be like someone taking the top floor off your house to vacuum. Okay, that’s a silly analogy, but I like it!

The Top Bars largely eliminate all of that. A lot of that anyway. The weight is so much less, the exposure is so much less, and the interruption into the hive is so much less. I can even do an inspection by popping open the window. It just seems… better.

I recognize that Top Bars aren’t for everyone, but I’ve worked both now (Langstroths much more extensively than Top Bars, but still…). I think I know which one I like more. I’ve already spoken with several people about selling my hives (boxes, bees, everything) and then using the funds to start over on Top Bars. Yes, it means a lost year of production next year, but I didn’t come in to beekeeping to produce honey. At least that isn’t what I want out of it now.

In the end, I imagine I’ll always hold on to one or two Langstroths just because. But I do see myself transitioning over to Top Bars for the majority of my hives. Oh, and I’d like to get a Warre hive as well.

 

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