D's Bees

DEAD!!!!

2009-10-05T11:31:00.004-04:00

All my girls are dead! There is not a drop of sugar syrup left in the entire hive! I thought we would lose the hive over the winter because the cluster would be very small. I didn't think we would loose them to robbers. There just wasn't enough of them to fight off the robbers.

ROBBERS!

2009-09-29T21:26:00.001-04:00

Went by the hive to check on the syrup. The syrup is gone and there are bees everywhere. Dead honeybees and wax at the entrance! There are yellow jackets, hornets,wasps and what look like honeybees with black abdomens robbing the hive! This is not good! I decided not to put anymore syrup on. I'll wait till the weekend and see what happens.

Added frames

2009-09-26T11:19:00.002-04:00

Called George and told him the situation. He kindly came by and trade some of our empty frames for some of his drawn out frames. He helped us add the new frames. We added the second brood box on with some empty frames and some with capped syrup. Found the queen. She is still in the hive. Put on 2 jars of sugar syrup. Now we'll continue to feed and hopefully the queen will begin laying again. We'll check on them next weekend if the weather is nice.

Keown orchards and honeybees!

2009-09-19T10:26:00.000-04:00

Honeybees and more honeybees! Oh my!! Keown's orchard has 12 hives. Very strong and active. Maybe next year ours will do better. But after listening to the head bee man Ken (ma inspector) we realize that our brood box is honey bound (sugar syrup in our case). What does that mean, the bees have started to store all the sugar syrup we have been feeding them and now there is no place for the queen to lay more eggs. Our numbers are very low. I worry that the cluster will be too small to survive the winter. Ken is managing these hives and he is going to spin out some of the honey in some of these hives to give the queens more empty frames to lay in. Well what should we do? Because our frames don't have honey but sugar syrup we need to just replace some of the frames with empty drawn out frames. We know just who to call, George.

There is a lot of robbing going on. The goldenrod came early and is just about done. There is little to no pollen or nectar left anywhere for the bees to gather so they begin robbing other hives. Stealing honey from other hives. That's also why you'll notice many of us aren't wearing any protective clothing today. The day turn out beautiful. This was the last outdoor meeting for the season. Glad we were able to make it.

Goldenrod & sedum

2009-09-15T19:12:00.002-04:00

The goldenrod is almost done. But still very few honeybees in this area. The goldenrod and sedum that is still blooming is bumblebee heaven. Well we'll see plenty of honeybees on Sat at the last outdoor meeting.

Look what is living next door...

2009-09-13T21:59:00.000-04:00

Smorgasbord

2009-09-10T21:28:00.006-04:00

This is this weeks smorgasbord for all kinds of nectar and pollen loving insects.

Honeybees, hornets, yellow jackets, flies, other bees and these blue/black guys were there too....

Not much brood...

2009-09-05T21:14:00.000-04:00

Second brood box?

2009-08-30T10:25:00.000-04:00

Nope.... it's been a couple weeks and still they haven't drawn out those empty frames. In fact it looks like all they are doing is storing all the sugar syrup I've been feeding them. We missed the last meeting about closing up the hive for the winter. We hope to make the last outdoor meeting of the season. I'll have to contact the head bee man and let him know where the girls are and see what he has to say about the situation.

New home

2009-08-09T10:13:00.000-04:00

When we arrived, the girls were flying. Seems the move hasn't bothered them too much. It's been awhile since we looked inside. I wanted to check to see how the girls were doing with the last of the empty frames. Still 3 empty frames. But they seem to be doing fine.

Moving day?....Night

2009-08-08T09:47:00.000-04:00

It's been awhile since I posted...that's because we've been very busy moving. Moving is a big event to begin with BUT now we have a bee hive to move! How hard can it be. Wait till its dark and everyone is in and go. Well the morning of the move I use a large piece of screen between the inner cover and the outer cover. It tucked it all under the inner cover, blocking the hole on the top and in the edge of the cover. I then duct taped the inner cover to the hive and replaced the outer cover. After work of course now we have to wait for it to get dark. I kept going out to check what the girls were doing. Slowly the girls made their way into the hive. Finally around 8:30 I checked again. Still a few guards at the door. So I gently blew on them and....they moved in! I did it again and they move further in. Well, I kept doing it, they stay inside the opening and I put a piece of screen over the opening and taped it in place. I taped the sides of the hive to hold everything together. Ok... time to load the hive onto the truck. Thank goodness the hive is only 1 brood box. And were off. We arrived without incident. Unload the hive onto the new stand. At the new location we put the hive up on blocks, there tends to be more wildlife here.

a quick check

2009-07-19T20:27:00.005-04:00

The frame here on the left is #2 from the left of the hive...what little they drew out, they decided to fill with sugar syrup, maybe some nectar too. The frame on the right is from the same position on the right side of the hive. This frame is more drawn out. Alot of syrup, some of it capped. And the queen has been here. There is some capped brood. A few cells with pollen. Everyone is VERY busy. Trusty assistant Jim went out to the hive late morning and just stood at a distance watching the entrance. Workers coming and going and what looked like another flying lesson. But, he said you could hear the buzzing. So for today we just checked these 4 outer frames. If these 2 had been full of syrup and brood we would have put on the second brood box. But they weren't and we didn't. The weather has finally been like summer. I'm still feeding them so hopefully they will continue building. Till next time....

still feeding

2009-07-16T19:46:00.004-04:00

Still feeding. I store the sugar syrup in a 3L jug. I have filled this jug three times and it's almost empty again! Have to make some more tomorrow night! The photo is some of the last of the milkweed in the area.

flying lesson

2009-07-12T19:27:00.004-04:00

When we got home sunday afternoon, the sun was shining on the hive and there were many girls flying. We could see them from our driveway. When I got closer to watch what was going on, I could see that many of them weren't flying away but hoovering then landing on the hive and that these test flyers were young bees. There were even a couple young ones practicing guard duty!

milkweed...

2009-07-11T18:01:00.005-04:00

Lots of milkweed everywhere. One of the honeybee's favorite plants. But butterflies, ants, bumblebees and many more insects also love this sweet smelling flower. But alas it is short lived. Many of the blooms have gone by. The bee balm in Ann's garden ( my mom) is starting to bloom and then it will be the snow on the mountain. The queen is busy at work. Can you find her in the photos below? The baby girl on my hand was very curious and walked on my hand, my arm and back to my hand the entire time we were looking at the frames. The girls have been drawing out comb on the next to the outer frames, but only one side of them. Maybe next weekend we can add the second brood box... maybe. At least it's not raining. The sun is shining and it was 81 today. Fabulous!

looking good....

2009-07-05T20:56:00.008-04:00

Everything is looking good. They are storing syrup and pollen. We have many more bees. Plenty of larvae and capped brood. And a lot more eggs. We've had two bee-u-ti-ful sunny days. Saturday on my morning walk I came across a patch of milkweed teeming with honeybees! Finally! Honeybees somewhere besides the hive in my backyard. Now...are they my girls? Or do they belong down the street in the other direction? I believe both. As I watch them so leave heading towards home and some are heading in the opposite direction. So we got the smoker going and checked on the girls back at the hive. Everything is looking good. They are storing syrup and pollen. We have many more bees. Plenty of larvae and capped brood. And a lot more eggs. They are starting to build out the other frames and we saw our queen which always makes us very happy. But we still need to keep feeding sugar syrup. So we filled both jars and put the cover back on. I'll check the jars Monday night. Hopefully the weather will turn for the better and start staying warm and sunny.

more syrup please...

2009-06-30T22:25:00.000-04:00

The girls are loving the syrup! On Sunday I put on a pint jar of sugar syrup. Monday night I put on a pint and a 26oz jar. Tonight I check and they were both empty. So I filled both of them. Went back in the house and made some more. We'll see what tomorrow holds.

making syrup

2009-06-28T18:39:00.002-04:00

The head bee man Ken ( MA Bee Inspector) stopped by to check our hive. The hive is weak but growing. BUT with all this nasty weather and small number of bees, they have been eating what syrup and nectar they had stored. There is nothing left. No food for babies. No food...no wax...no drawing out empty frames. So we have to start feeding sugar syrup immediately. I had a pint left from earlier this spring. So we put a jar on right away. I made more syrup and will have to keep a check on the jar. Ken said start feeding and they'll start drawing out that comb on those empty frames giving the queen more room to lay her eggs. So glad Ken stopped by,(thank you Ken) we never gave it a thought to start feeding again being inexperienced. Many other beekeepers have already started feeding their hives.

here comes the sun....

2009-06-27T16:47:00.000-04:00

Finally! Some sun! Our girls are doing well. Many more have hatched. The queen is still working. Many more eggs have been layed and larvae in all stages. Lots of brood! YES! Alot more activity at the entrance, coming in with lots of pollen! Now we wait for the new bees to start drawing out the comb on those last few frames. Then we can put on the second brood box. Makes me very happy!
Know what else makes me happy? My new car...the Nissan Cube! Totally awesome. Very luxurious! And trusty assistant bought me new fancy hubcaps for my 'new rig'.

assistant in training

2009-06-16T21:29:00.007-04:00

new bees!

2009-06-13T18:35:00.013-04:00

We have babies! Here is our lovely Queen... she is on the far left. See how her body is longer than the others. Now in the other photo towards the bottom, the bees that are very light in color are the newly hatched bees. The first video shows the queen, she's the largest walking in the center of the screen. Now the other video is blurry, again. After we check on the girls, the weather turned cool and rainy. Sunday wasn't any better. I will try to get a better video next time. But, if you watch carefully towards the center right you will see a new bee hatching. The one of the bees that keeps stepping on her is also a newly hatched bee. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

brood capped over

2009-06-07T19:16:00.012-04:00

The girls have capped the larvae. There are more eggs and larvae. Now we wait. Maybe Wed night if the weather is good we can check and see if any of the brood are hatching. We'll have new girls soon. The photo above right is the girls making a bridge between frames when we took out another frame. I need more practice with the videos. Might have to get a tri-pod.

in search of honey bees

2009-06-02T23:09:00.003-04:00

These are some of the flowers on my walk route. There are large patches of them. Not a single honey bee to be found. I only saw bumble bees in the rhododendron bush.

larvae, oh yay!

2009-05-31T18:51:00.000-04:00

Finally! We have larvae and more eggs! It looks like all different stages of larvae. The hive is weak. As I was trying to get the photo of the dark orange pollen on an incoming worker we saw two bees come out of the hive and die.
The bee inspector said we had some tracheal mites....
BUT we have had these bees with no replacements
since 4/26, 36 days. Now we have no idea how old they actually are. During honey flow they live 6 weeks.

here's Missy

2009-05-30T22:44:00.001-04:00

eggs!!

2009-05-25T22:07:00.000-04:00

Sorry no photos of the girls today. But we finally have some eggs! We only checked a couple frames. The population is sparse with no new bees hatching yet. Everyone is very busy. Better not disturb them too much. They have a lot of work to do. This I photographed on my daily walk. It's growing on a stump next to a stream in the parking lot where I work.

almost out

2009-05-21T22:02:00.000-04:00

We have still been feeding the sugar syrup. We checked and they are almost through the candy. Jim pushes a nail through just to break it up a little. The pieces are big enough that she still can't get out just yet. We'll close it up and check again on Saturday if the weather is nice.

introducing....the new queen

2009-05-17T21:40:00.000-04:00

This queen cage has no hanger on it. So trusty assistant makes
a frame to set on the brood box just thick enough to put th

e cage on top of the frames. They were on the cage before I let go of it! Wow! That hole on the end is only large enough for one bee at a time to go in and eat a little of the sugar candy that is blocking that end of the cage. At this point they are trying to reach the queen to kill her. By the time they do reach her they more than likely will accept her as their queen. So again we cross our fingers and hope for the best.

checking again

2009-05-16T21:23:00.000-04:00

We have checked each frame at least twice.
It's pretty hard to miss that green dot.
She is just not here. We'll have to put the new queen in tomorrow, can't keep her in the house forever.

where is she

2009-05-15T21:14:00.000-04:00

We have to remove the old queen and wait at least 24 hrs before introducing the new queen. But....where is she?

we have a problem

2009-05-09T21:08:00.000-04:00

There are no eggs! No brood anywhere! The bee inspector checked the hive and it's weak. It appears the queen is lame. She is dragging the right side of her body, and her abdomen is not swollen at all. He has called the man for a new queen.

busy bees

2009-05-08T23:13:00.000-04:00

The girls have been very busy! See the lovely comb. Wow! This frame is very heavy.

This is blurry, but... see the green dot? That's the Queen.

Click on the photo to see the pollen
on in the pollen basket on the bee to the far left. And the guards fanning pheromones to direct the incoming bees.

Where's the Queen

2009-05-02T22:47:00.000-04:00

We let the queen out of her cage on the 30th. Today, Sat 5/2 there is a the first outdoor meeting of the season. WCBA , Worcester County Bee Association. But first we need to check on our girls and see how they are doing. We decide we needed to use the smoker....must be a trick...can't keep it going... We locate the queen quickly, remember she has a green spot on her head. Wanted to take more photos....but trusty assistant had an accident. He dropped one of the frames covered in bees! " DON'T PANIC" I said! We put the frame back in the brood box and close up the hive. See them on the ground. Believe it or not, none of them take flight. They all begin marching toward the front of the hive! Amazing! Off we go to the WCBA meeting. Exciting! Six hives were opened. The day warmed up. The sun was shining and the bees were flying! We got to see close up drone cells and queen cells and what to do to help keep the hive from swarming. Of course still not knowing alot about this camera... two pictures and the battery dies!

the arrival

2009-04-27T22:00:00.000-04:00

We picked up our bees yesterday. My trusty assistant Jim pried the board off so I could get the queen cage out. She has a green dot on her head. I told Jim it's an omen. Green is my obsession. Started a hole in the candy and hung the cage between the frames. Took some frames out to dump the bees in. It was amazing to see that huge mound of bees in the bottom of the box. We slowly put the frames back in, put the inner cover on, added a jar of sugar syrup and put the outer cover back on. Now we cross our fingers. And learn how to use this camera.