Wednesday, December 16, 2009

cozies


This pic was taken 12 days ago - I put some straw bales around the bottom of the hives to provide added protection from the elements. I'm sure it's not absolutely necessary, but it makes me feel better. The tar paper doesn't go down to the bottom of the hives - it kind of reminded me of pants that are too short. Floods, I think they were called by the grownups who used to tease me about my pant legs being too short when I was a kid. "Where's the flood?" Well, nowhere. Is it my fault I was growing so fast? Sheesh.

Anyway, regardless of whether this is a useful endeavour or not, there they are. Like everything else, we'll see what happens.
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Thursday, November 12, 2009

almost ready?


The first thing I saw yesterday as I opened my tar papered hives was this furry little friend, who seems to have found a nice dry place to overwinter. He had some lady friends with him too:



I went to fix a mistake - I had forgotten to make a vent hole at the top, so I had to open the hives and replace the inner covers with vented ones that Ken is kindly letting me borrow. All went well at the first hive, very sleepy/cold bees, no movement. The hole-making went beautifully, as you can see below:


That was the easy hive. I saved my biggest meanest hive for last. These ladies seem to be energized by the cold - I opened them up and they were awake and buzzing and didn't really want me there. The hole-making was not as successful:


It was hard to jam my pocketknife through the tar paper without impaling bees - they were really pissy about a new hole in their house.

While I was there I also remembered to fix my entrance reducers so they're not upside down anymore:


So now we're almost ready! I still want to put some straw bales around them for extra windbreak and insulation, but I thought I'd give it a little while.
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Friday, October 30, 2009

it's a wrap


Sort of ready for winter, here - not sure if I did this right, but November is 2 days away and I thought I better at least provide some cold protection for the bees. I want to add some straw bales for added protection, too. I'm thinking the tar paper should cover the bottom a bit more - but I didn't want to block the entrance....

Definitely still learning. A lot.
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Monday, October 12, 2009

saving heat


I finally was able to put in my entrance reducers today. Life is busy! Hopefully now the bees will be able to heat their homes even more efficiently. I thought for awhile about which way I should put the opening... do they look like they're upside down? I'm not sure what's the best way, or if it matters. This hive didn't really care that I was putting in the entrance reducer - they're my weaker hive for sure.

If you look at this next pic, you can see the difference:


These ladies were mighty ticked with me - one stung my veil (not me), and another just clung to my veil and b*tched at me for awhile. They did not like having this thing stuck in their doorway, not at all. I'll check on Wednesday to see if they've managed to work together and shove the thing out, or if they've decided to live with it and cram the cracks with propolis.
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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

lowering heating costs


On Saturday the 3rd, I went to the beeyard to feed one of my hives sugar syrup. They hadn't filled out the frames as well as they could have, and it's important for winter survival that they are full to maximum capacity. So, despite not wanting refined sugar in my life anymore, back in it came. In the top picture you see the hive with a honey super on top - I had to leave a space for the ziplock bag of sugar syrup between the frames and the lid. After Ken's comment on a previous post, I thought I better follow his recommendations, so I built myself a rim. I went to the beeyard today to feed them again, and switch over to the rim. That's the next pic, showing the rim I made, and the inner cover on top:


It makes more sense to have the least amount of empty space possible, because the bees have to heat up all the space in their hive. More space to heat means more energy expended by the bees, so they'll be eating more honey, and as a result they'll have less honey for the winter. The less honey they have for the winter, the more likely they are to die before the nectar flow in the spring.
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Friday, October 2, 2009

pennies


It's been quite a few years since pennies held any fascination for me, but beekeeping has brought them once again to a significant place in my life. My first sting as an adult was in Ken's beeyard, and right away Steven put a penny on it for me. No swelling or pain. Weird! But wonderful. I started telling everyone who had the potential to be stung by a bee, that they should put a penny on it because it really works. My second bee sting, same story. Penny to the rescue yet again.

Along the way, people questioned what it was about the pennies that gave them these magical bee-sting-soothing powers. Some wondered if it mattered whether it was Canadian or American, or whether older or newer pennies were better. I had no idea, I just knew it worked for me.

Then.... my day of foolishness, tearing apart a beehive with only a veil as any significant sting protection. Well, the pennies didn't work so well that day. I thought because I had so much venom pumping through my system, perhaps the pennies were no match for it.

Well - here's a new piece of information from my fellow beekeeper Margaret, who also started beekeeping this spring:

I discovered the copper content of pennies is less than 5%, except the older coins (pre 1982 for the American ones) are 95%. I'm still skeptical about the copper cure.


Perhaps the level of copper makes a difference, or maybe it's all in my head, but I'd rather put a penny on it than a piece of onion. (That was Todd's trick.)

The photo above is of Margaret, scraping off the inner cover of one of her beehives. She rides her motorcycle to check her bees, and finds that the leather makes a good bee jacket!
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Wednesday, September 30, 2009

ready for battle


Yes, I tucked my pant legs into my socks, geek that I am. I was not interested in bees flying up my pants. This was my first visit out to the bees after being stung 9 times at once, so you can understand that I was taking every precaution. Including wearing my husband's winter gloves. Yes, now I have to wash them because they're sticky. It was worth it. I think I would have been stung otherwise, judging by the number of stingers I saw ready to strike, and the bees that were crawling on the gloves.

I opened the lid, and there were about 20 bees there with their stingers in the air, just daring me to come any closer. There were others around too, but they weren't as protective. Most of them were moving very very slowly, due to the cold I imagine. There was no activity at the hive entrances when I got there. But when I left - the one hive had bees around the entrance, so I must have stirred them up enough to take a look around outside for a bit.


Here's the end frame of one of the hives. The other side is mostly filled with capped honey. The other end frame is fuller on both sides, so I was happy about that! I want them to be all filled before winter. When I looked down into the bottom brood box, it looked like one end frame didn't have anything on the outside yet. I couldn't do anything about it, though, because I couldn't lift the top brood chambers off the bottom ones! Even with trying to pry with my hive tool, I couldn't budge them. I'm considering using single brood chambers only next year, for ease of use. And because I'm a weakling....

Anyway, the other hive was chock-full, so I was happy with those girls. They turned out alright after all. I was worried initially because they were populating the colony really well, but didn't seem to be making honey. Now, it looks like it's mostly honey they've got going on, so they're taking care of themselves. Of course this is all judging by what I could see just taking off the covers. I tried and tried and tried to pull out some frames, but only succeeded in breaking a frame. And even that one wouldn't come out.

So... I'm procrastinating. I will leave them be for the winter, and deal with it in the spring, when I want to split the chambers anyway. How's that for an executive decision?
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Friday, September 4, 2009

taking a break


I haven't done much with bees lately. First, I was recovering from my 9 stings. Now, I seem to be having some sort of reaction to something that touched my face. No one really knows, or has any concrete answers for me. I'm slathering (sparingly) the itchy red swollen stinging burning oozing parts of my face with a corticosteroid/antibiotic cream combo, and taking two kinds of antihistamine (sleepy and non), prescribed by my doctor. Needless to say I don't really want to come into contact with potential allergens right now, especially since I'm just over the bee stings. I'm hoping it's just (!!!) poison ivy, and not anything related to bees. But I'm staying away for now, just in case.

I hate using the cream, because it just grates against my anti-antibiotic sensibilities, but really. If you saw me you would realize why I actually want to use it regardless. No, I'm not posting pics.

So - what's with the pot of tomatoes? It's that time of year: tomatoes by the bucketful coming in from the garden, ripening on my dining room table, and being turned into sauce. Mmmmm....

The recipe?

Ingredients: lots of tomatoes

1. Wash tomatoes and remove anything inedible.
2. Cut them in half and throw them in a big pot.
3. Mash them a bit with a spoon to release liquid.
3. Cook them (simmer) until they're soup - uncovered.
4. Cook them some more, to reduce the amount of liquid.
5. Blend them. I use my immersion blender right in the pot.
6. Use a food mill to take out the seeds. Or leave them in.
7. Freeze for cold winter nights. (This step is optional.)
8. Add stuff to make a sauce you like.

Pics:
1. Cooked and blended, still with seeds:


2. Using the food mill:


3. Lots of seeds:


4. Seedless sauce, ready to chill:

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Thursday, September 3, 2009

counting for now


Well, the results of the poll are tied between counting until my age, or counting forever. So I guess I'll keep track for now. If I'm going to keep accurate results, though, I should mention that I actually had 9 stings last time, not 8 as previously posted. Once they all started to swell I noticed I had another one that was overlooked in the original counting.

I think I'll be wearing more protection next time I do some radical shifting - so the numbers should stay low for awhile.

Speaking of which - Ken checked the hive that I was worried about, and he thinks I'll get away with leaving them as is, and not re-organizing their home. Yay!
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Wednesday, September 2, 2009

guest pic


This picture comes to you courtesy of Todd, a fellow newbie to the world of beekeeping. He and I, along with a few others, met at Little City Farm when we attended a small workshop on beekeeping. Those few of us that went on to take a more in-depth course at the Townsend House, University of Guelph, keep in touch on a semi-regular basis. We thought it might reduce the collective number of painful mistakes, if we could share our newbie experiences with the group of us. Still, we've all had our own 'learning moments', and it's been good to grow together in this endeavor.

Anyway, back to the pic - this was Todd's experiment: he tried using some top bars, rather than frames with foundation, to allow bees to build their own comb. This method is used by beekeepers who want to go even more natural with the bees. Unfortunately it seems these bees were a bit confused, and started to build from the bottom frames up, instead of heading up to the top and building from the top down like they would normally do in nature. I asked Todd if I could use the pic, because I think the comb is pretty. Functional? No. I would tear it up too, as Todd did, but I like this pic because it represents the more wild and natural side of the bees. It's a good reminder that the bees are still wild creatures, after all our attempts at "domestication", and they do have minds of their own, however small.
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Sunday, August 23, 2009

thinking


Not much happening with the bees - other than me trying to figure out what I'm going to do with them. I've been talking to Ken about how I should deal with the hives - well, the one hive in particular. My two hives have very different personalities, which I think can be attributed to genetics in a large way. The first hive does a really good job of reproducing - the queen lays eggs like no tomorrow, and the workers take care of them. Not so much honey, though. The second hive, full of honey! But not very many workers, when I compare it to the first hive.

So - the second brood chamber that I put on top of the second hive may not have been the best idea. They're so slow to fill it. AND - they haven't even filled the bottom chamber yet. So, I think I may have to rip apart the hive, yet again, to rearrange the insides and squish them into one box for the winter. It's better for them to be crammed than have empty space that can be invaded and has to be kept warm. This was the same hive that went kamikaze on me, so I'm not really looking forward to this event, scheduled for tomorrow morning.

I'm hoping for rain.
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Thursday, August 20, 2009

new experience


One of my favourite things so far about the bees - showing them off! Bees are so important to our food supply, it's essential that as many people as possible learn why. I really enjoy taking people to see them, and explaining how they live together and stay alive, while keeping us alive as well.

There's much talk of the declining bee population, but I'm not sure how many people realize how this will affect our lives if allowed to get much worse. Bees (and other insects) pollinate a very large portion of our food supply. Yes, fruit, but also 'vegetables' that are technically fruit, like squash, cucumber, peppers, eggplant, etc. With no pollinators we would be in serious trouble. And that's just the vegetables that are technically fruits. Others may need pollinators to make seeds, even though the vegetable is a true vegetable.

This is part of why I'm getting into beekeeping - the more people with bees, the better chance they have and the more other people will hear about why bees are important.
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Sunday, August 16, 2009

popeye


The above photo doesn't much relate to the exact topic of this post, other than to show how wonderfully peaceful the bees were before they turned into suicide bombers.

The results of the penny experiment: well, I reacted more than I usually do, and I think it's because I got so many stings at once. My forearms were swollen between my wrist and elbow joints, and my upper left arm (stung quite close to my armpit). Two of the three of those stings had pennies on them, but that didn't seem to help as much as it normally does. Other places, like my leg and back, didn't swell up that much, but still more than usual. Again, I think because I got such a high dose of venom. I'm taking some allergy meds to keep the swelling down - I don't want the swelling to move past my joints.

That's why there's no pic of my popeye arms - it wouldn't show up very well due to the medication keeping things under control. You'll all just have to imagine my pumped-up, muscular-looking forearms.

Take my poll, if you haven't yet!! .... to the right in the sidebar:
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Thursday, August 13, 2009

still counting


So... had an eventful time in the beeyard today. Apparently bees don't like it when you take apart their home. 8 stings today brings my running total to 10. When do I stop counting?

Take my poll!!! ....in the sidebar to the right.

Should I explain myself? I was on a mission to get rid of some burr comb between the frames of the upper and lower brood chambers. They had sealed together and it was hard to put them back into the hive once I took them out to inspect them. I took the upper brood chamber off, smoked the lower chamber, started doing a bit of gentle scraping, and ended up with a bunch of stings - right through my jeans, even!!!

I didn't have enough pennies to cover all the carnage, so we'll see how the stings compare.

The worst part? Putting the hive back together, dodging the indignant sisters.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009

surprise


Are there beekeeper fairies? Or elves? We came back from vacation today, and I found 3 beekeeping catalogues in a bag on my front door! They look interesting, I'm looking forward to giving them a proper look once the camping clutter has disappeared from my dining room. And by 'disappeared' I'm referring to the process whereby I am the one who cleans said clutter. Hopefully it won't take too long.

We should have camped out for a few more days, I think. I find it takes about a day on either end of camping to transition in and out, so the longer we go the more worthwhile it feels. Although, I'm glad to be done with the Pinery. There is Poison Ivy everywhere you look. I was getting tired of hearing myself tell the kids not to play in the bush for fear of coming into contact with it. Next year: somewhere else. Suggestions welcome! Beaches and bike trails are mandatory.

I should also mention - I didn't see a single honeybee. A few bumblebees, though. Can't wait to see my bees tomorrow!
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Friday, August 7, 2009

onions and honey


While I'm on the topic of this family, I have to thank Michelle for the winter onions (sometimes called egyptian onions) she gave me the last time we were there. I cooked some up with brown rice and finely diced veg, and a smidge of honey thrown in for good measure - since I was just back from the beeyard and thinking about it. Very tasty. The rest of the onions are planted in my garden - hopefully they'll get a good start on growing before winter!

Anybody want the recipe? No? Too bad, I'm posting it anyway. There's the small version and the big version, go with whatever suits.

Confetti Rice

1 cup dry brown rice

Step 1: Cook the rice. I put it in a casserole dish with 2 c water and put a lid on, then put the whole thing in the oven at 375 for an hour. Done. No fussing. Of course a rice cooker would probably work too, but I have too many appliances already, with more on the way. Generally I like to do this step in the morning when I have lots of energy, and put the rice in the fridge. Then at suppertime it goes faster, putting it all together.

1/2 -1 medium zucchinis
1-2 medium carrots
1/2 -1 red pepper
a bit of onion, to your taste
about a tsp-tbsp of honey or so - again, to your taste
salt and pepper

1/2 or all of the rice

Step 2: Get out a pan and put it on a burner on med-high. Watch it during the next step, and add some olive oil when it gets warm.
Step 3: Dice the veggies very finely. If you have or know kids, you know what I'm talking about here.
Step 4: When the olive oil is warm in the pan, thrown in the veg with about a tsp of honey. Give them a few shakes and stirs. Add salt and pepper if you like them.
Step 5: If the rice is in the fridge, throw it in now. If it's still warm from cooking, you can wait until the veg are cooked a bit more, then add it.
Step 6: Stir often, eat it when it's done.

We ate ours with meatballs that I made awhile back, defrosted and reheated in the microwave. Yum!

Thanks again Michelle!
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Thursday, August 6, 2009

grass killer


Thanks to my wonderful sister for carpet!

It's a good way to keep the thigh-high grass from crowding the hives. Yet another trick I learned from Ken. There's so much value in learning from someone who has many years of experience! I'm very grateful to have accidentally stumbled upon this family during my research days. I've learned something from each member. Even Jill, who gives good (usually) directions.
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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

screening visitors


Here is a pic of my screen bottom board. Normally it's under the brood chamber and I only see the front entrance part of it, but it's on display here because we were cleaning the bottom board. (And by 'we' I mean Ken.) The screen bottom board is there to enhance the health of the hive. Mainly as protection against varroa mite, which can be incredibly damaging to a colony of bees. The screen mesh is wide enough to allow the varroa mite to fall through, but narrow enough to keep the bees away from them. Varroa mites will wait there on the bottom board for a bee to come along and grab onto it, but it won't try to climb back up the sides through the holes.

I don't think I have any problem with varroa yet. I didn't see any on the bottom board. Keep your fingers crossed....
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Monday, August 3, 2009

new supplies


Here's my little beekeeper smoking the bees, in her new hat and veil! I finally went and got the kids hats and veils of their own, and they enjoyed having them the last time we visited the beeyard. Especially this one. She wanted to do everything and see everything. So, she used the smoker until someone mentioned that she should stop, and she was right in there underneath me so she could see all the action. The smoker had to go, though - smoke rises, right? Yep. And she was right under me... I couldn't see or breathe for a few minutes, until someone set it somewhere else.

I love watching my kids with the bees. I thought they wouldn't want anything to do with them, but they've been right in there with me, enjoying themselves and learning along with me.
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Sunday, August 2, 2009

ouchie 2


The penny comes in handy again. Kid #2 ended up with a bee sting this time.

This eases my mind, having both of them stung now. I've heard that beekeepers' children and spouses tend to develop allergies to bee stings, due to being in contact with low levels of venom that would come off clothing worn by beekeepers. Being stung is the best way to ensure that they're getting higher levels of venom and allowing their bodies to develop resistance without developing an allergy.

So: two down, one to go. Hubby still needs to come see the bees and get himself stung.
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Saturday, August 1, 2009

reno 2


The bees were ready for a second brood chamber when we checked on Thursday, so here they are! Should make my next inspection more interesting, since I haven't done an inspection on a double yet. I originally thought I would use only one brood chamber, because it sounded like it would be easier for me. However, after talking with Ken and other beekeepers, I've come to realize that double is probably better for the bees. If they have more room to raise brood, they'll be a stronger colony. If they have more room to store honey for themselves, they'll last the winter without me having to feed them (hopefully). It's my intention to keep the bees as naturally as possible. No harsh chemicals or antibiotics or sugar feeding. However, if it looks like they won't have enough honey to last the winter, even without me harvesting any, I may have to feed them. If it's between feeding them sugar and them dying.... well, it's not a hard decision.
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Friday, July 31, 2009

expert help



A big thanks to Ken and Steve for coming out to my beeyard yesterday! Here you see Ken scraping the junk off a bottom board - something I hadn't thought to do since getting my bees.

Here's what came off them:



You can see different kinds of pollen - the different colour pollen comes from different flowers - and other random junk that fell to the bottom of the hive. This kind of thing attracts Wax Moth and other nuisances, so it's a good idea to scrape it off every once in awhile. When you remember. Or when someone else remembers for you.
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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

reno


I'm pretty sure one or both of my hives will need a second brood box soon, which means I need to get them ready! This is the first coat of paint for these boxes. The reddish colour is my old hallway colour, and the blue is even older - it's from our newlywed apartment. 9 years today (happy anniversary dear!), so it's been around for awhile.

Anyway, back to bees: this time I'm going to paint two coats of paint without primer underneath. My first boxes were done with primer and paint, but I've recently read that it works better if you don't use primer. Who knows? I say why not give it a try, so here we are. I'll have to remember to report back in a few years about how well the paint is holding up compared with the other boxes.
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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

bees with balls


It looks like my queens have decided to grow some drones. See the capped cells that bulge out? Those will be male bees. The queen makes the decision to lay a male or female, usually based on the diameter of the cell. Once she's made her decision, she makes it happen by either fertilizing the egg for a female bee, or leaving the egg unfertilized for a male bee. She can do this because she has a special sac inside her for storing the sperm. For each egg laid, she first measures the cell with her antennae, then turns around and backs up into the cell to lay the egg at the very bottom. Drone larvae are bigger than worker larvae, so the workers extend the comb around them to cap them in at the appropriate time.

When a drone is ready to come out, he will make a sort of buzzing noise inside the cell, and one of his sisters will come and rescue him. The males are unable to chew their way out, so the female workers come and chew the cap off. Then the drones are free to run and play while the females clean up the mess.

Yes, the females do all the work. Drones don't really do much other than mate with a virgin queen. But come fall, when the female workers are getting ready to shut everything down for the winter, they will kick their brothers out of the home and let them die out in the freezing cold.
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Monday, July 27, 2009

look out world


Here she comes! Can you see the worker bee chewing her way out of the cell that she pupated in? Right near the middle of the picture. This is her first job as a fully developed bee. She is 21 days old, and full grown. She started as an egg, fertilized and laid by the queen in the cell. She developed for about 3 days in the egg before she hatched and other workers started feeding her. She is now a larva - looks like a little white grub - and very hungry. She eats until she's fully grown, about 6 days, then the workers seal the cell with wax. She continues to grow and turns into a pupa around 12 days old. From then on, she's turning into an adult bee. At 21 days, she's ready to chew her way out.
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Sunday, July 26, 2009

elusive


Every time I open my hives, I am on the lookout for my queens. It's a good idea to know where they are, so they are not accidentally misplaced or incapacitated. However, for some reason the queen in my second hive seems to see me coming and vanish. I haven't seen her since I installed the bees - that's about a month. I know she's there, I see the proof: there are always wee eggs in the comb, so I know she's been there within 2 or 3 days.

This hive is also my stronger hive, with more bees and more frames filled with brood and honey. They're also the hive that built the honeycomb on top of the frames rather than in the frames. Definitely have their own style, these ones. They're the messy sisters. And they like to keep busy.
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Saturday, July 25, 2009

marked


Can you find the queen? She's a bit hidden, but you can tell which one she is.

Here's a better picture:

She's marked for easy identification purposes. It's always a good thing to make sure you know that your queen is in the hive and well, not lost or squished. I'm not sure what this one was doing way over here on a pile of capped honey - maybe trying to hide from me, who knows. Usually she can be found on empty comb laying eggs, with workers bringing her food to eat, grooming her, and carrying away her poo.
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Friday, July 24, 2009

what the heck



To my Dear Bees: Why would you build comb and fill it with honey in the squishy little space between the top of the frames and the inner cover, when you have more than two empty frames yet to fill in your hive?

friends


Some of the ladies came to visit me as I was watching the swarm settle into their new home. They hung around for a bit, let me take some pictures, then flew off to see what was going on with everybody else. Very docile. We thought the bees might be on edge, given the cloudy conditions and pending thundershowers, but they were fine. It was a busy buzz, not an angry buzz. Yes, there's a difference. If I have a pressure headache, I will not go anywhere near my hives. Bees feel it too, and get a bit cranky. Just like me.
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Thursday, July 23, 2009

a new home


Continuing the saga of the swarm: it didn't take long - about a few minutes - for the bees to head down into the hive box between the frames. They're exploring the possibility of this new place, probably walking all around the box to measure it and figure out if it will work for them to live in.

Meanwhile, back at the branch, some bees are still trying to cluster, not quite sure what just happened:


They'll eventually figure it out by following the pheromone that the queen releases - they'll find her by smell and join their sisters in setting up house.
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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

beautiful bees


I'm so glad I was able to go see the swarm yesterday. There's something wildly different about seeing bees up close without the familiar constraints of the hive box. Wow are they gorgeous. A solid mass of bees, hanging from a branch. They didn't mind me poking around with my camera, inches away from their cluster. They were too focussed on taking care of the queen and trying to find a new home.
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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

swarm capture


Today turned out to be pretty exciting after all. Around 10:30 I received a phone call from Michelle, Ken's wife, asking if I wanted to come help capture a swarm. I would say I didn't do much 'helping' - but it was amazing to be there. Here you see Steven sizing up the situation. He's considering his options for capture. He's placed a hive box under the swarm on the ground, and now the options for getting them into the box are being pondered.

It didn't take long - I had the camera ready to show the process, but by the time I took the picture it was over:


He bent down the branch, then gave it a good whack to shake the bees into the box. Most of them landed right on the box. Some were in the grass, and others still clung to the branches of the bush. Steven thinks the queen landed in the box, though, and that's the important part. If she's there, the workers will find her and make the box home.
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Thursday, July 16, 2009

ouchie


Somebody got stung on Monday when we were out inspecting the bees. The bee had crawled up her sleeve and found it a bit too claustrophobic and threatening, so she ended up with a sting. No big deal, that's what the pennies in my pocket are for.
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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

hanging out


This pic is a bit blurry, but it captures the moment. These bees are connected to each other by their legs, forming a chain that bridges the gap between the two frames. This was after I had completed the inspection and was putting the frames back into their proper places, I noticed the gap at the end had a pile of bees forming chains. I'm not exactly sure why they did this, but I suspect it has a lot to do with the large gap that was left with the frame missing.

If you squint a bit you can also see the bit of wax that are leftovers from the scraping I did last week. The bees have completely cleaned it of any residual honey.

Beekeeping definitely not a monotonous hobby - there's something new to see every time I open the hive.
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