T-Minus Two Weeks!!!!

It's hard to believe that in exactly 2 weeks, I will have my hands on a package of 10,000 living, breathing, BUZZING bees! A week from next Monday after work I'll drive up to New England Bees and pick up my pre-ordered package. I ordered the package with a marked queen. It was a few dollars more, but as a beginner I figure I'll need all the help I can get identifying the queen!

Tonight I put the final coat of paint on most of the hive woodware (the picture above is some of the pieces I painted). I chose a brown color, to help it blend into the landscape. The bees don't mind the color, and I want to be a little inconspicuous with my hive (not that I expect problems, but why flaunt things with a bright whitewashed looking hive glaring in the backyard). I've got another evening of painting to do to finish the work.

I still have some work to do outside to prepare the hive location. I decided to set the hive right past the edge of my grass into a small area cleared in the wild area of the property. It'll face the east, so that the morning sun will rouse the bees and get them working (no sleeping in at our household!). Due to the location a little shade will be unavoidable, but I am trying to minimize things.

A week or so ago I ordered a bee suit from Dadant, and it arrived on Monday. I put it on, and after my family stopped laughing and commenting that I looked like either a spaceman (my 8 year old) or a fencing student (wife), I showed them how the various flaps, etc. keep out the bees. I think I will probably pick up an extra veil or two to have on-hand in case someone wants to see the hive more up close.

My wife is very supportive of my new endeavor, and even was asking about what plants to plant, etc. But the other night I made the mistake of showing her a picture gallery of a guy who removes swarms in houses for a living. He has some really cool pictures showing a natural comb hive ... occupying the space between studs of a living room wall! She looked at that, and asked, "could that happen TO US?!?!?!" I had to reassure her that the bees will be busy with their own hive, and having a relatively new house, we don't have the nooks and crannies that the bees will like. I hope I was right :-)

My friends at work know that I am starting on this adventure. It comes up as a topic of conversation around the lunch table quite often. Since I have done a lot of reading about beekeeping, my boss commented that I was a veritable wikipedia on the art/science of beekeeping. We'll see how my book learnin' translates into real live events.

So the next time I post should I should have some actual bees!

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T Minus One Month - Time to Paint

I just looked at the calendar, and couldn't believe that it's a little over a month that I will have my hands full with 10,000 worker bees and a queen. I will pick up my package in April from New England Bees.

I previously purchases the woodware from them in December. The hive has been sitting in my basement since then. Since the woodware comes "raw," I chose today to start the painting process. The weather was in the 60's (so they say), which is rare in New England this time of year.

Because the hive sits outside all of the time, I want to make sure my investment lasts. So I decided to put down a coat of primer first before painting the hive. I've seen pictures of hives which aren't well painted, and they don't last long. I guess those hives are from commercial beekeepers where they have too many hives to paint them individually, and can afford to replace wood more often. This is my first and only hive, so I want it to last.

I chose a light brown/tan as the final color, in order to blend in a little where I will be putting the hive (which is right behind the edge of my lawn, slightly into the woods). After the primer dries, I'll paint the final color. I'm not sure if it'll take one or two coats; but I won't begrudge a little painter's elbow in order to make things last.

One of the things which did not come with the hive kit was the "landing board." This is a sloped board which the bees use to land on. I suppose I could do without it (since the bottom board sits out about 3-4 inches from the hive). But I think they look neat! I don't have any plans or schematics for such a board, so I kind of eyeballed the design and cut things out of 1x3 pine I purchased. Let me tell you - when all you have is a cut-rate router and band saw, it's very hard to make precise groves for the boards! The tolerance on the ripping fences and other parts of the saw and router leaves a lot to be desired. But that's what you get for economy parts.

You can see the results of my work here:

(it is still being painted in this picture)

It's not perfect, but I hope the bees don't mind :-)

Its Cooooold!!

Here in New England we've been having a cold spell - many days of teens and lower temperatures. How do bees handle this cold weather?

Well, it turns out that bees have a unique way to survive the cold weather, while maintaining a healthy temperature in their hive.

When the season starts turning toward fall, the beehive will start to prepare for the winter. Drone bees (the males who do nothing but lay around, wait for mating flights, and consume food) are unceremoniously kicked out of the hive (whereupon they die, since nobody is willing to feed them). As the weather gets colder, the bees which are left form a "ball" where they vibrate their wing muscles. This activity generates heat, and the queen in the center is nice and toasty. The bees on the outside circulate towards the center, and the bees in the center move to the outside, in order to give everyone an equal chance to help generate heat.

Since the hive is warm, and the air and outside is cold, condensation forms in the hive. Dripping water is a danger to the beehive - bees can survive the cold just fine, but wet and cold will kill them. Therefore, a hive needs to be slanted slightly so the moisture doesn't drip down on the center of the hive (where the bees are).

Because the bees are all clustered together in the center of the hive, they don't go foraging for food (the temperature needs to be around 50 degrees before the bees will fly out of the hive). They must survive on the honey they have stored up in the hive. But the honey needs to be reachable by the hive cluster - it can't be too far away, or the bees will starve. I've heard of stories of hives dieing with good honey just a few frames away. So sometimes beekeepers need to supplement the honey with sugar syrup (if it is not too cold) or granulated sugar.

Education

Beekeeping is an interesting hobby. Because bees are living, breathing, thinking creatures, they don't always do what you want. Their environment is somewhat delicate, especially if you want to keep bees in the cold climate (like Massachusetts). Therefore, one of the first things you need to do is to educate yourself on bees and beekeeping (you should do this even before you decide to be a beekeeper, because what you learn may affect your decision).

For me, the education process started with scouring the web for websites, articles, blogs, etc. relating to beekeeping. I checked out a lot of books on beekeeping from the library, and ended up buying a couple for myself (see below).

What I've learned is that there is not a lot of 'hard science' about beekeeping; sure, there are certain facts on the bee that are known and understood. But there is a lot which is unknown, like exactly what causes a beehive to decide it needs to swarm. Additionally, there is a lot of misinformation - one of the first pieces of advice Rick at New England Bees gave me is to not take as gospel what you read and hear from other beekeepers. Every keeper has his/her ways of doing things, which may or may not work for you.

So what did I do to learn about beekeeping?

First I found a lot of web pages on beekeeping. Most (if not all) of the major beekeeping clubs have web sites. There are some Q&A forums available (Beesource Beekeeping Forums is one of my favorites). Many people keep blogs (like this one!) with their experiences. I especially like Linda's Bees and Long Lane Honeybee Farms (Long Lane has a set of beekeeper intro articles which are very good). Also, searching for "beekeeping" on YouTube will find you a lot of videos - beekeepers like to film their activities (as I will probably do too!). Finally, you can talk to actual beekeepers! Go to a local beekeeper club meeting, and you'll find many people willing to educate you.

I own the following books and found them to be very helpful in learning about beekeeping:

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My favorite is probably Beekeeping for Dummies. Like most Dummies books, they have a good mix of novice and advanced information, with some humor thrown in. They don't presume you know much.

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The Backyard Beekeeper is also a good one. The author, Kim Flottum, also publishes a beekeeping magazine called Bee Culture. I don't subscribe to the magazine, but I probably will eventually.

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Kim Flottum also wrote New Starting Right With Bees. It's a smaller book, but also full of good information.

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So if you are interested in learning more about the hobby (even if you don't want to be a beekeeper), scour the library and web and you'll have plenty to keep you occupied!

Why Bees?

Someone asked me what got me interested in becoming a beekeeper. After thinking about it, I really can't point to some event where I said, "I want to keep bees!!"

I've always been aware of bees, and what they do to help us. When I was a kid, we had a lot of clover in our yard. One of the things I used to do is go "bee catching" - I'd take a tupperware bowl and lid, and sneak up on a bee on a clover (I thought I was so clever to do that!). Then I'd drop the bowl over the bee. The bee would suddenly be aware of her predicament, and fly up, which would be to the bottom of the bowl. Then I'd slide the lid under the bowl to capture the bee! On a good day I could get 3 or 4 bees that way (any more, and one would usually escape during another's capture). Then when I was bored with them (maybe 5 minutes later), I'd toss the bowl and lid into the yard and run like heck away!! I've also had my share of bee stings, usually due to walking barefoot on said clover in the summer (when there happens to be a bee between my foot and the ground).

As an adult, I learned about Colony Collapse Disorder (which I'll discuss in a future post), and a little about what it means to the food supply. I also started noticing a few beehives scattered around the places I'd drive. I checked out some books, did a lot of web reading, and the interest just grew!

I found out there is a local club, the Worcester County Beekeepers Association. I went to their November meeting, which happened to include a big meal with an auction (incidentally, I won a nice pair of rubberized elbow-length bee gloves there, so it must be karma!). I spoke to a few people, and it just slowly materialized that I was going to actually do it.

I'll talk later about what it took to convince my wife of the wisdom of keeping bees...

The Adventure Begins...

Well, I guess it's official - I've entered the world of Beekeeping!

This Christmas Santa brought be a new beehive:

(Son #1 put his Webkin on the top - he thought it needed a little class!)

The hive is from New England Beekeeping Supplies. But having an empty hive isn't what made it official; I also put in my order for a "package" of bees, so it's no going back!! A package consists of a wooden and screened box, with a queen bee and about 4 pounds of 15,000 workers bees! Here's a picture of a package:

Beekeeping really starts up in the spring, and the bees will arrive in April. Since the place I ordered the bees from is local, I'll go and pick the bees up. But believe it or not, bee packages can be sent through the US postal service (how'd you like to be the postman who receives 15,000 bees in the mail!).

I'm also trying out my hand at blogging - I figure this'd be a good experience to discuss. Even though the blog is called "Steven's Bees" I don't promise to keep things focused on beekeeping; I may stray into politics, current events, religion, family, or some other topic. Tough - my choice!

Even though the bees don't arrive until spring, it doesn't mean I don't have a lot ot do before then. Winter is time to prepare the hive (I need to paint it, and build a stand for it, etc.). Plus there is a lot of education and training which occurs over the winter. I'll discuss these aspects and other beekeeping issues in future blog posts.

In the meantime, if you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave them on this blog.

The adventure begins!!