Bee Keeping

[GLC1968]

Really? I only know what I've read, but I'd understood that honey is a break-even proposition at best, and commercial apiarists make their money by renting the hives to farmers who need them for pollination? That one of the many stresses on bees that they're thinking contributes to CCD, is the hives getting moved all over the place all the time?

Yes, that's true...I've read that as well (about moving the hives).

Maybe it's not that they actually make more money on the honey, but that it's just more cost efficient to risk letting the bees die each winter. If a beekeeper doesn't get greedy for honey, a bee hive will make enough to last them all winter. The problem is that many commercial keepers take too much, putting too much stress on the hive, figuring that they can just replace the bees when the time comes. Honey is definitely more expensive than bees (but it seems really stupid to me considering how much work goes into establishing a hive). Of course, if you are in it for commercial gains, then you have to figure in costs for distribution, disease control, overpopulation, etc....things a small producer doesn't really need to worry about.

I honestly haven't studied all the economics of it since we didn't get our bees as a money-making venture.

[short cut sally]

LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!!!
Or something like that!
I opened my pkged. bees hive yesterday to see if the queen was released from her little cage, and she was. The frame that I removed to get the queen's cage, they were starting to make comb on. They are all over the pollen patties and drinking the syrup water with no problems.
My swarm bees, were still stuck up on the inner lid. I had DH help me and we shook them back into the brood box, and put in the frames that I took out to accomodate their balling issue. COme to find out, they were building comb on the inner lid. We scraped that off and set the lid back on. Hopefully we didn't upset them too much -per GLC's story I'm nervous now. They're using the pollen patty but I don't think they are impressed with it, but they are using just as much syrup water as the pkged. bees are. We got to see the queen. I'm not opening that box again for awhile. What they decide to do in there is gonna have to be. I'm not "remodeling" their hive anymore.
GLC, they are the same bee coloring. The only difference I can see in the 2 hives is the size is the swarm bees all seem to be on the larger size, where the pkgd. bees have differnent sizes of bees, small to average. The pkged. bees do a lot swirling and buzzing around their hive, the swarm has very little activity compared to the other. They I think are on a mission, know what to do and just do it. They are in and out of that hive in a flash. They don't hang out, nothing. That 's why I thought something was wrong with them because they didn't seem that active. They were just darn effecient at what they do.
I'll update after the weekend. I work every Fri, sat, and Sun. With Mon. being the holiday, we have picnics to go to, so it may not be until then. I'll let you know if I still have tenants in the swarm hive.

[short cut sally]

Well, I've had an interesting week with my bees. I observed the swarm box a few days after I shook them off the cover and into the hive. The entrance had a decrease in activity, but still had activity. So, curiosity got the best of me, as the sugar water just wasn't being consumed. Sure enough, the swarm left, but didnt' take all of the crowd with them. They left enough behind to fill a family sized mayo jar. They were building comb, even though they were very small in number. Tried to find a queen, couldn't. My bee mentor, Don, said I could marry the weak hive to the pkg. hive as they won't do anything in that hive without a queen. They will die. So, I went to gather the newspaper as the books and Don said, to put the hives on top of each other, and when the bees chewed thru, they would be accustomed to each smell and no fighting would occur. I was prepared to do this, until the paper I had, wasn't large enough for the hive...so now I am left to figure out where to find larger newspaper to put in place.
I had to go the bee store to get a few more things, so I inquired there about what to do. He said just let them be, make a learning experience out of the handful of bees that are in there. They may be waiting for a queen to come back if they are continuing to build comb.
Both Don and the bee place said that swarms are so funny. Usually swarms are formed when a new queen emerges in the colony, and the old queen will leave and take half the colony with her. They also will swarm when there are several "virgin" queens and they take flight, or fresh young mated queens will also take colony with them. Both agree that swarms are not stable things.
So, I opted to wait another week, see what goes on in that swarm hive. As of this weekend, maybe 100 bees might have been mingling around. There was no hopes of a queen coming back.
At work, a friend asked me what a swarm of bees looks like as they believed they had a swarm in their tree. Sure enough, they did. They agreed not to kill it until I got their this morning, but it had to be gone bright and early. I got up, took a giant pillow case, and came home with a new swarm of bees.
I decided, seeing as how there was nothing going on in the swarm hive, they were about to get some new company. Per the honey bee place, I sprayed some floral room deodorizer in the air to mask any smells, sprayed in the walls of the hive and around the pillowcase. I then took out a few frames, removed the branch and proceded to shake the branch off while DH shook out the pillowcase which is covered with klinging bees. The air became filled with bees. I bet there was a good 3#s of bees, in this swarm, if not more. They swirled and swirled. IT was really amazing, it would've been terrifying if we weren't in our protective gear though. Immediately some took to the pollen patties and I filled the sugar water feeder half full-as that's all I had pre-made. Covered up the hive and left.
I went back up tonight as I wanted to get the aerosol can I forgot to pick up, and the sugar water was gone. So I came back, made up some and went back to fill it up. There was maybe 25-40 dead bees on the ground at the entrance area. Not sure if they were dead ones from the swarm that got injured or if they were what didn't make it during the "merger".
I have to check my pkg. bees and see what they are doing. It's time this week to pull a few frames and see the progress. They have had constant entrance activity, all coming and going. I probably should've done that before putting the swarm in the hive, but I didn't want to keep the swarm in the case too long. I had to travel almost an hour to get them, and Don wasn't home to help walk me thru, his wife promised he would be right back to call me. I waited 2 hours then opted to do it before the bees became too overheated in the case.
I will give updates on both hives next week or so. I go to my 2nd honey bee association meeting next week. I might make PB cookies..or rhubarb custard pie to take. OR I might just make and forget to take..
Oh, I had to send in my papers to register my bees as mentioned previously, and I received my "yard" numbers. I have to make a sign to hang the hive (house) numbers on. I asked our tax assessors DH that if they are assigned a house number, does that mean I have to pay taxes on their establishment too? He looked very dumbfounded..then took a minute to realize I was joking with him.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Shelly, what a fabulous tale!!
I am so impressed that you went and nabbed a whole swarm of bees in a pillowcase and drove them home in your car! Stunning move.

[Zen]

This is an exciting story.

And i want that pie recipe. I don't even cook but loooove rhubarb, pie and custard. All three together...I swoon at the thought.

[GLC1968]

Holy amazing story, batman!

I hope your new hive makes themselves right at home.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I hope your new hive makes themselves right at home.

And there's always the possibility that the 'new swarm' is really the 'old swarm that left her hive a day or two before those poeple told her there was a wild swarm in their tree. Could be you went and kidnapped your same bees back!