Inspection 9-05-09

This past week the weather has been gorgeous - temperatures in the 70's and 80's; lots of sun; and no rain. I've been watching the bees be very busy - the goldenrod is in bloom, and the bees are bringing back lots of orange pollen. As I watch the hives, I see the bees come shooting out of the hive like a gunshot. You can't get in front of the hive without getting in the way, the bees are so industrious. The video above attempts to show this activity, but you can't do it justice on video.

I had a couple of goals in today's inspection: I wanted to make sure the bottom chamber of the brown hive was getting used (I was prepared to move some frames around), and I wanted to do a sugar shake for a mite treatment.

Due to the stings I got last week, I wanted to make sure I had on my boots, and I decided to wear bee gloves. During the inspection I did see a bee try to sting my finger, but all that happened was she lost her stinger on my glove. I had the usual 5 or 6 guard bees hassling me the whole time, flying into my face (protected by my veil, thank goodness) and buzzing around my chest. All I can think of was that they were very protective of the hive since the goldenrod was active. I got no hassles from the green hive. Weird!

For the sugar shake, I built a simple frame (matching the dimensions of the top of the hive) and put a couple of layers of #4 screen on it (I didn't have anything narrower, and the bees can fit through a single layer of #4). Then I shook 2 cups of powdered sugar on the hive, and swept it down between the frames. Here are some pictures of the aftermath. People talk about "ghost bees" because they are coated with powered sugar.



Everything is going well with the green hive - they have plenty of room to expand and store up honey for the winter. I also saw good brood patterns, so the queen is doing her job.

On the brown hive, I decided to start with the bottom brood chamber, to minimize the anger of the bees (by the time I am usually done with the top chamber, the bees are agitated). When I started pulling out frames, I was pleased to find some frames with capped brood! This tells me the queen has been down there laying eggs. I decided not to mess with things, and let the bees do what they need to do. I get mixed answers from BeeSource when I ask what I should do - some say let things be; others say reverse the hive bodies (put the almost empty bottom box on the top, with the understanding that the queen likes to move up when laying); still others will go in frame by frame and switch things around.

The bees on the brown hive still haven't done much with the honey super I put on the top, so I decided to take it off and that allowed me to start feeding the brown hive sugar syrup (I want them to put the sugar in the hive, not in the super). So now I am feeding both hives, and will probably do so until the winter.

A week ago I bought a box of Global Patties from Better Bee. These are patties made of protein as a substitute to pollen. I put one on each of the hives so the bees can have more to store.

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Later in the afternoon I was visiting my next door neighbor. He is adding an addition to his house, and doing all the work himself. So I was chatting with him about inconsequentials, when he said, "Hey, what do we do about bees in a bucket?" Oh no I thought, I hope it wasn't my June swarm that has taken up residency! He then told me that he has a big 18 gallon tote on his back deck that had scrap pieces of wood in it, and it got filled up with water. I took a look, and saw that "my"bees had discovered an el-primo water source for their hive (standing water with good places to land). The sticks provided a place for bees to land and gather the water, and that afternoon there were about 20 bees coming and going all the time. Here are some pictures. You may be able to see the bees:


You can see that it is right on their deck! The bucket had collected rainwater since the cover wasn't on it. So I put on my bee suit (just to keep from being hassled by bees) and dumped over the box of water. Here's the view after I did that, with even more confused bees looking for their water source:


I told them that in a day or so the bees will figure out the water is gone, and stop hanging around. They'll go back to an alternate source (which will probably be that family's koi pond, which is less of a problem then bees on the deck). I checked the next day, and sure enough no bees around. Problem solved!

The family was very nice about it - they could have been very upset and caused me a lot of hassles. But they are very considerate, even given the fact the wife is allergic to bees. They understand the importance of bees to the environment. The wife said they thought about spraying the bees so they could remove the bucket, but she said she didn't want to since she knew they were "my" bees (and besides, spraying would only harm the bees there at the time, and do nothing to the bees coming for a drink later). I told them to not to hesitate to let me know if something like this happens, and I'll take care of it.

Inspection 8-30-09

Saturday is the day I usually do inspections, but it rained cats and dogs yesterday. It was supposed to rain all day today, but it turned out to be very sunny and warm, so I thought I'd squeeze in a hive inspection mid afternoon. I looked out and saw a lot of activity, mostly orienting flights, probably due to being cooped up yesterday due to the rain.

Green Hive

Had a good inspection on the green hive - no problems with aggressive bees, and was even able to see the queen. Here are some pictures; you can see her in the upper right of the frame (look for the green dot):


Also notice how nice the brood pattern is on this frame - nice even cell capping, and you can see some larvae. I also saw eggs. So this hive looks to be doing well. There were about 4 frames on the top which they haven't touched, so plenty of room.

Brown Hive

Now on to the brown hive. I was excited to really get in there and find the queen, and maybe move around a few frames (to help get things ready for winter). But it was not to be. Things started out not so well after I removed the first frame in the top chamber (to make room), I started hearing the buzzing ratcheting up a notch. As I was going through the frames on top, there were a few bees (probably the guard bees) which were giving me a hard time; they were "dive bombing" me, butting into my veil and jacket, and harassing my hands. The only word I can think of to describe them is: grouchy!

I did manage to see eggs, and saw some good brood patterns, but then the bees had finally had enough. I got a sting on my right index finger (which I don't think was my fault this time - I was careful not to squish anyone); shortly thereafter I got stung on my right ankle (my bee pants hang down with folds, and one got me on my sock). I closed up the hive and went in. So I wasn't in a very good mood afterward (still am not). I have bee boots, but I usually don't wear them. But I will now.

But from what I saw the bees in the brown hive are doing well enough. They haven't done hardly anything in the honey super, but I decided to leave it on. When the end of September comes, if they haven't done anything I'll take it off then.

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I ordered some pollen patties (pollen substitutes) to feed the hives; I don't know if they are hurting for pollen, since I saw lots of bees with pollen baskets full. But more will never hurt. And I continue to feed the green hive sugar syrup (I will eventually feed the brown hive as well).

And next time I'll pick a time to inspect during the late morning, when a lot of bees will be gone. And not right after a rainstorm like this weekend...

Mite Check, and the Bee Inspector

On Saturday I sprayed down the white plastic corrugated boards with cooking spray (to make them sticky) and slid them under the beehives. On Sunday I took them out to see the results (they say you should leave them in for 3 days, but I was anxious). You can see the results in these pictures (click for large versions).

Brown Hive


There was a lot of pollen on the board (sometimes it falls off the bees legs and falls through the screen), but I did see a couple of what I thought could be mite bodies. It wasn't anything too severe, but I'll treat with a sugar shake anyway.

Green Hive


Wow! You can see a line of "junk" on the board - this is mostly garbage relating to the chalkbrood problem I was having. The pieces the bees removed from the comb fell through and made that mess. It looks to be centered on a single frame (which was horizontal with respect to the picture of the board) - that frame was one which came from the nuc. I talked with the beekeeper from whom I got the nuc, and she suggested I move that frame to the outside (nearest the edge of the hive) so the bees will use it for honey storage once the brood is born. I also have the option of removing the frame - I may do that.

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Wednesday afternoon I got a urgent call at work from my wife: "The Bee Inspector is here!!" It turns out that Ken Warchol, the Worcester County Bee Inspector, was making his rounds and made it to my humble bee yard. I didn't need to be there, because there is probably nobody better at working with hives than Ken, so I told her to let him do his thing.

He guessed (correctly) that I had a swarm earlier in the year in the brown hive, since it wasn't as strong as it should be. He told me I should be feeding 2:1 syrup (a more concentrated form) to the green hive. He found some mites (like almost all hives have), but otherwise I passed with flying colors! He said I could call him in October and he'll come out and see if we need to combine both hives for strength (I hope not - it would kind of make the nuc I bought a waste of money). He also moved a couple frames from the brown to the green hive to strengthen the green one.

So this coming Saturday I'm going to do the sugar shake for mites.

Honey Bee Life Cycle Video

Here's a video I found showing some of the Honey Bee life cycle. It is along the lines of a Discovery channel video. I found it very interesting.

Inspection 8-22-09

Time for the regular weekly inspection, and boy was it a scorcher! The temperature was in the 80's, and it was very humid (a storm came through later in the afternoon). My hives are not in the sun (thank goodness!) but it was still very hot. I usually wear a headband to keep the sweat from dripping into my eyes, but I put it in the laundry to be washed, and didn't find it. I sure needed it! I ended up taking another shower right after I got done with the inspection!

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Brown Hive

I decided to start on the brown hive first, since I felt it was going to take the most time. I was right. You'll recall last week that I added a honey super. When I popped the top, I didn't see a lot of bees in the super, and was prepared to be disappointed. But then I looked on a couple of frames and saw them drawing out comb! The picture at the top of the post is one of those frames. You can see the honey comb starting to be added bulging out in the center. When I was done and closing up the hive, I added a queen excluder to keep her majesty out of that new comb (perfect for egg-laying). I wanted the bees to start drawing out the comb before I added the excluder (they say the excluder inhibits the bees from starting to drawing out comb, but is OK after they start).

The hive was full of bees (a good thing). Here's a picture of the top of the top brood chamber, followed by a picture of the top chamber lifted up (showing the bottom of the top chamber, and the top of the bottom chamber). One good thing missing in the 2^nd shot are swarm cells - that means they aren't inclined to swarm (but it's late for that anyway).


The top brood chamber (deep) had a lot of honey and pollen it - it was very heavy! So I think these bees are on their way to having enough for the winter. If they keep up the good work, they may make extra for me in the top honey super. But I am not holding my breath.

I had a little bit of a hard time inspecting this hive. It seemed there were so many bees that I had a hard time getting the frames in and out. I'd lift a frame, and a ton of bees would come spilling out. When I went to put in the last frame of the box, bees were "scraped" off of the sides of the frame. It made it real difficult.

I didn't see the queen (didn't look at each frame), and didn't see any eggs. But saw some good brood patterns and lots of honey and pollen. I noticed that the bottom chamber was almost empty of brood - lots of empty comb ready for laying, but no eggs. I'm going to ask the BeeSource forum to see if there is anything I need to do.

Here's one of the top box end frames showing the honey (capped, around the edge) and pollen (looks moist in the middle and has different colors):

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Green Hive

Last week I added the second brood box, and have been feeding feeding feeding to get them strong enough to last the winter. I checked, and they had started drawing out comb in the upper box, maybe 1/2 a frame on each side of the frame I brought up from the bottom box. This is to be expected. I did see eggs in the frame, so I know the queen is doing her job.

I also noticed a lot less chalkbrood on the bottom board -almost none! That it a good thing - it means the are eliminating (have eliminated?) the problem. I'll continue to monitor the situation. Chalkbrood doesn't have any treatment, except to help the bees maintain the correct humidity in the hive. They seem to be doing that.

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In the evenings the bees in the brown hive just kind of sit out on the bottom board chilling out. I took a little video of it - they are doing some cooling fanning as well.

New Hive Tool

I got a new hive tool, and forgot to mention it in my last post.

This is the standard beekeeper's hive tool:



They are used to crack apart frames supers and pry them up. They are also for scraping excess propolis, pounding/pulling nails, etc. I actually have 2 of them (I am told they get lost/misplaced easily). But what it doesn't do well is lift up frames.

So I got this one next:



You use it to grip a frame (especially the first one) to lift it out. It works like a charm.

Then at one of the bee club gatherings, I saw someone using this tool:



That red hook on the end is sized such that you hook it under the edge of a frame, and use the adjacent frame as a pivot point to lift the frame. Since the other end of the tools is a scraper, etc. you only have to hang on to one tool. I used it for the first time today and it worked as advertised. I'll have to get a little more proficient at using the tool to lift one edge, and my fingers to lift the other edge. But that'll come with time.

Also, the scraper edges are a lot sharper than I am used to. I gouged the wood a little when I was scraping, and I'll have to be careful.

Inspection 8-15-09

I wasn't sure I was going to have time to do an inspection today, but I got home earlier than planned from the Boy Scout campout I was attending with my son. All week I've seen a large amount of activity in the hives, so was anxious to see what they looked like inside.

Green Hive

This is the Nuc I installed the beginning of August. I found they had drawn out 7 or 8 of the frames, so it was time to add a second brood chamber. I learned a trick to help the bees start using the box: bring up one of the frames with brood on it to the top box. I did that, and put one of the new frames on the bottom toward the edge on the bottom box. Here are a couple of pictures of that hive (the 2^nd picture shows the frame I set aside to put on the top). I also removed the entrance reducer since the number of bees has grown enough that they can defend their hive better.


I've been noticing some small white chalky bodies at the entrance, just a few here and there. During this inspection, I removed the bottom brood chamber and looked at the screened bottom board. This is what I saw:


Except for the few bees in the middle of the picture, the rest of this stuff are those chalky bodies. I flipped this over to dump out the bodies.

There is a fungal disease of bees called chalkbrood which I believe this is. Chalkbrood is caused by too much moisture in the hive. I believe the hive or Nuc these bees came from had chalkbrood, but with my screened bottom boards, I expect it to go away. I'll keep monitoring the situation. It's worrisome, but not excessively so.

I didn't see the queen in this hive, but I saw some eggs, and I wasn't really looking, so all is well.

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Brown Hive

This hive has had a lot of activity recently. When I inspected it, I saw that the bees had filled up the corners of the top frames with honey, so I decided to add a honey super (again... I had added it before and removed it based on swarming, etc.).

A couple of weeks ago I added some foundationless frames, and I was pleased to find this:


You can see along the left side (which is the top of the frame) the popsicle sticks that provided the guides for the comb; the bees had built it up perfectly. It was very pretty to see. I have to be careful handling this frame, as it doesn't have the inherent strength of the plastic (or wired wax) foundation. I also saw eggs in the comb, which is even better!

So I added the honey super, and buttoned things up for another week. The picture at the top of this post is the new taller hives (the green hive has the extra box simply covering the feeding jar - I'm still feeding that hive).

Weather Bees

Seasoned beekeepers learn to pay attention to the activity of the bees as it relates directly to the weather.

Most evenings around 5:00PM the bees are still quite active, mostly coming in from a long day of foraging (or finishing up orienting flights). Last evening I checked the bees, and there were very few bees still out. Most had gone in already. And this morning, the bees weren't really coming out and starting their collecting activities like they had in days past.

Sure enough, the weather forecast is for some rain later today, and even I can tell it in the air. You also don't want to work the bees when the weather is bad - they get cranky!

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Last night I filled up the jar with sugar syrup - the bees had consumed the syrup that was there. I just gave them a little smoke to do it - I didn't suit up or anything. The jar is just under the outer cover, so I don't have to disturb too many bees (just the dozen or so who were on the feeder and who came out to investigate what I was doing). I'll be feeding them right up until winter, in order to get them built up strong enough to survive the winter (that hive was started late in the season).

Speaking of eating, the bees also need water. I think my bees get theirs from my next door neighbor's Koi pond. I had put out a bucket for them early on, and they ignored it (bees prefer running water to standing water).

One of the 50 or so bee blogs I follow posted this picture of his bees drinking. I thought it was so cute!!

(picture is from this blog post)

Celebrate: 50 Posts!!

I just noticed that my last post was the 50^th post for this blog. Yippee!

Certainly not the traffic of some of the large political blogs, but to think I had enough things to say for 50 posts, that's something.

Busy as a Bee!

I looked out at the hives this morning, and was very pleased to see some good bee activity. They are bringing in pollen from somewhere, bright orange (my wife said she saw lots of bees on her cone flowers). I was very glad to see this activity - the hives have struggled over the past few weeks / months. I hope things continue to improve.

Here's a short video of the same:


The green hive was started from a Nuc a little over a week ago, and is doing well. I've still got the entrance reducer on it a little. When I add the 2^nd brood box I'll take off the reducer (they need to build up their numbers a little bit more). Eventually I'd like to see something like this much activity.

Note to self: I think I need to trim a tree branch which hangs out into the yard, and shades the green hive a little. I want the hive to get a good dose of sun early in the mornings...