Bee Keeping

[short cut sally]

Last week was busy and just getting to update presently.
I went to my first local honey bee association meeting. I am a new member, at a whole $5.00 a year fee. The elderly gentlemen were so funny. The forum was open as I was told, usually there is a quest speaker but that night it was just a night for socializing. I borrowed a new book to read. Met a man (Chuck) that removes bees from unwanted places and gives them to anyone that wants them. Gave him my name along with my Dad's name for when he gets any extra bees. Meetings are once a month, the wives bake snacks for the men and they also make coffee. Am so looking forward to next month.
My bees were scheduled to come in this past Thursday. SO, DH readied the selected area of occupancy for the hives. He put filter fabric down to help with weed control, put in metal rods for the fence posts and got the wire run for the fence. Bears and skunks need to be reminded they are not welcome here. He just needs to get some stone to lay on the fabric to make it look even better. He made a nice pedestal for me to place the hive on with room for an extra one just in case. We went and picked up our bees, and decided that it's getting late so we would put the bees in their hive in the morning. We also picked up the hive kit for my dad, along with another hive kit for myself just in case Chuck called and said he had a swarm for us. We came home rather late, as we stayed and visited at the bee place for quite awhile. There was a message on our answering machine from Chuck, he had a swarm and could he bring them up that night. So, we readied everything and got my first free swarm all safe and sound in the hive that was ready for the packaged bees..Friday morning, before going to work, DH, Dad and I are assembling all the hives and painting to get ready for the packed bees that need their new home soon. Sat. morning, we put the packaged bees in their newly assembled hive.
Yesterday (SUnday) morning we fed both hives pollen patties, which are these thin flexible sticky things (that resemble the size of frozen cheesesteak patties) that go inside the hive and offer them nutrients and sugars until they can obtain their own. It has been really chilly and windy here lately so they won't venture out to explore so we are supplementing with sugar water and the patties.
When we lifted the lid to the swarm bees, they are in a huge clump stuck to the inside of the lid. I'm not sure if this is normal or not, I have to get more information. The packaged bees, are running all over all the frames inside. THe packaged bees, their queen bee comes in her own little cage, which is capped with a sugar cube and they will chew her out and once she is released, they will be acclimated to her and will accept her as her queen. So, with her still being in her little cage, they were active around her. And she is at the bottom of the box. I am not sure where or even if there is a queen in the swarm clump. Without a queen, bees become confused, will either fly away or die. With them just in this big ball, I'm not sure and I gather you shouldn't play with them until its a little warmer out and no wind.
I sent off my paper work to Albany to register my bees. Apparently they will send me my "numbers" for the hives which I have to post either inside or on the outside of the hives. The inspector may or may not come this year as they are new. Was told, next year for sure. OH, they don't knock, they just show up...so one has to be on their best behavior at all times.
Apparently, in addition to numbers on the hives, it's recommended to put your name on the hive bodies and frames. According the older men at the meeting, if there is good quality honey, after an inspection, hives in the past have come up missing and it never gets solved as to where they go. Not very often but they each had a story or knew someone that has theft of their hives. Gosh, I only thought that happened with bikes, electronics, vehicles, and money.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Amazing! What a completely fascinating update....thank you!!

I would think if the 'free' bees are clustered in a ball perhaps they are surrounding/protecting their queen until they get oriented?

[Zen]

I'm still stuck on the Bee Inspector concept though I doubt it would make for good TV.

[short cut sally]

Zen, all I can say is I hope the "girls" are properly attired when he "peeks in" on them I'll be thinking of you when I meet him....

[Zen]

I just realized something.
This thread is useless without pictures

[GLC1968]

Shelly - that is SOOO cool that you got a free swarm! I can't wait to hear how that pans out over time. Make sure to keep us updated (and yeah, pictures!).

Zen - This was from the inspection two weeks ago. We don't have traveling bee inspectors (as far as I know, anyway) but my H does open our hive and take notes on how things are going once a week. He often takes photos:


I thought he had a photo of the queen, but I can't find it online. He may not have uploaded it yet.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Ooooh, wonderful photo!

Shelly, GLC,.....have you guys been stung yet?

My daughter who worked with honeybees at Cornell used to get stung almost daily and told me after a while it was no big deal.

GLC- how old is your hive? Do you have more than one? Any honey yet?

[short cut sally]

GLC that was a really cool pic...
I am gonna have to get out of the stone ages and buy a digital camera and download pics...Along with that will have to come an education as it's something I've never been exposed to. I've been meaning to since I joined here, but haven't felt the need to.
I am going to check the hives tomorrow. It will be warmer and not so windy. Tomorrow is also the day to see if the packaged bees have released their queen yet..
I refilled the sugar waters last evening. Lifted the lid ever so slightly on the swarm bees and they are still in a ball. Granted it was later afternoon and you're not supposed to "work" them then, but I just peeked. I'm gonna have to call my 2 mentors and see what I should do. I do agree with Lisa they are trying to stay warm, I just wish they would take to the frames (What GLC's pic. is of) that I put in so they can start making their combs for laying. tomorrow when it's warmer they may spread their wings and explore the world then I can fill the rest of the box with the frames that belong in there.
Lisa, I bought a bee suit and heavy wear leather gloves. Was told I will be stung several times. The gentleman that I spent a day with, handled his hives with no gloves, and was constantly going "ouch" but he just flicked his fingers and kept on working. He said he rarely wears gloves unless they are really agressive. He said "you'll get used to the stinging".
I'll let you know tomorrow about the "queen release"..or the possibility of...

[GLC1968]

I've not been stung, but I keep my distance when the hive is open. I grew up in a 120 year old house that had two massive bee hives encased within the walls on the front of the house. I got stung almost daily in the summer back then, so I'm not too concerned.

My husband is the beekeeper right now and no, he has not been stung yet either. He rarely wears his suit anymore. Usually it's just a long sleeve white tee, khakis and his bee hat. He doesn't even bother with gloves! He's very gentle with our bees and they reward him with similiar behavior.

We've only had our bees for about 6 weeks now. They've filled about 3/4ths of the bottom box and are just starting to fill the frames in the middle box. They definitely seem quite happy there (thank goodness!). We give them sugar water free choice and my H has to fill it every couple of days. We've been questioning the sustainablity of this, but I guess it's pretty necessary as they get established. Once they've filled the hive, they won't need supplemental food because they'll just eat the honey. Right now, they can store all the honey they make and eat the sugar water. We have not harvested any honey and we don't plan to for the first year. Right now, it's all about getting them established. We also have no intention of ever selling any honey, so we can be very careful about how much we remove so that the bees always have plenty left for them.

Apparently, commercial honey growers make more money off the honey than it costs to replace the bees.


Shelly - definitely be careful not to disturb them too much in the beginning. As much as we like to look, we are being very careful to only open the hive once a week and only when it is reasonably warm out. My H knows a guy who lost all his bees in the first two weeks because he kept checking on their progress and it annoyed the bees. If they don't feel safe, they'll leave!

[Zen]

If my landlord kept peeking in on me I'd move too.

[short cut sally]

GLC, I think they recommend not to look for something like 10 days I read, but I have to open the pkged. brood box tomorrow to make sure the queen is out..per the bee seller. And I agree, we were told we should supplement their feedings all summer and winter too. As they are new and need all the help they can get in the first year. They make these big flat sugar blocks you can give over the winter, I might consider those. Like you, I too, don't plan on any honey this year. I am ready with the smaller honey supers and frames just in case, but not really expecting it. I don't plan on selling it unless I get a surpluss of honey, then it will be given away..maybe something like that x-mas fruit cake...
When we got the swarm, Chuck, said to leave the 2nd box on top and he set the almost full swarm container on top of the frames in the bottom brood box. They didn't want to leave that little box for nothing. DH the next day had no idea he was to remove the top box and put the lid on the bottom box. So that is where I've run into my mess. I was at work when he did this. (He's like a kid, can't leave anything alone). I ended up taking a few frames out of the bottom brood and setting the lid full of bees into the bottom brood where they belong. Hopefully they will figure out what to do. And I can put back the frames. Time will tell.
We just took a load of stone out to put down on the filter fabric. The pkged. bees were busy all over the hive. The swarm was so-so. After they settle in a little bit we are going to spread the stone. We wanted the stone before the bees arrived but it didn't work out that way.

[GLC1968]

That swarm thing sounds so cool. Do they look like the same type of bees as the ones you purchased?

We've noticed that our bees are kind of like our chickens in that when the sun goes low in the sky, they go inside. Maybe you could watch for a pattern like that in order to lay the rock? It's been unseasonably warm here for the past few days, so ours have been really active. The first time it was warm, we saw huge swarms around the front entrance. My H called our local bee guy to ask if that was ok and he said yes. That it was the bees' idea of 'hanging out on the front porch" on a hot day! I guess it gets warm in that hive, so they have to come out to cool off.

We put our hive in the center of our tiny orchard. It is surrounded by apple and pear trees that will give it shade from the midday summer sun, but it does sit on cinder blocks in the grass (that we leveled). So far, we've just been mowing around the hive with the lawn mower and the bees don't seem to mind at all. I think your idea of rock on weed cloth is a good one, though. I wish we'd thought ahead and done something like that. As it is, we spent weeks arguing about where the hive should go! I'm amazed we settled on a place in time for their arrival!

[OakLeaf]

Apparently, commercial honey growers make more money off the honey than it costs to replace the bees.

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?

[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.