The Healthy Honeybee

i've moved!

2010-06-28T22:30:00.002-04:00

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My new web address:

thehealthyhoneybee.com

I hope to see you there!
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bees in a house in kitchener

2010-06-11T09:35:00.003-04:00

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Last night was interesting.... someone had contacted the beekeepers association about a swarm of bees nesting in the siding of a house, so I went with a fellow beekeeper to check it out. The pic above is the hive entrance, but we couldn't actually figure out where in the wall they were. So, they're still in the wall of the house. Until we figure out how to get them out.
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backlit

2010-06-09T09:11:00.002-04:00

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Today I'll be taking my observation hive to my daughter's class! Should be fun. I took a sweet photo last night while checking them out (above). It was late and dark, and the hive was backlit by my back door light.

Why late and dark? Because everybody's home then. I need to lock them all in for safely transporting and showing the kiddies in the class. If I had waited until this afternoon, a lot of the bees would be out foraging (provided it's not pouring down rain like it is right now) and they would be very confused upon returning home to where their house once was.

Grade 2 here we come....
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rub a grub

2010-05-21T13:41:00.003-04:00

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Here's the main reason my bees have been so angry with me and humankind lately: all of the extra comb and brood in the picture above needed to be scraped off, so I could actually inspect the hive. The white grub-looking things are larvae: stage 2 in the life cycle of a bee. Before that, they were eggs laid by the queen. After that, they were going to be pupae, locked in their cells by a wax covering over the entrance. The pupa stage is kind of like the cocoon of a moth or chrysalis of a butterfly; when pupae eat their way out of the cell, they are adults.

Angie reports that the bees were still dive-bombing people 2 days later. It's a bit disconcerting; I feel like my children are misbehaving, badly, and I can't do anything about it. Sigh. Fortunately my human children are much better behaved.
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bees in a glass box

2010-05-20T09:26:00.003-04:00

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Here's what the ob hive looks like so far! It was quite the production getting it populated - I have never been in such an angry cloud of bees. One crawled into my brand new glove and stung my hand!!! I thought I was Fort Knox with all my gear but it turns out I had a weak point.

Many thanks to Andrew, who is an intern at Fertile Ground CSA, who braved the angry buzz to help me out with the glass and wood and screws.
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bad behaviour

2010-05-19T21:29:00.002-04:00

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I'm sorry to report that my bees have not been behaving themselves lately. The girls decided that Janine Grespan and her cameraman Kevin were a little too close to the hive - at more than 50 feet away! Angie was about to be interviewed for a special feature on organic farms when the bees came charging on the scene, sabotaging the shoot. They had to relocate so they could finish the interview.

I thought they were still mad at me for disrupting their hive yesterday, taking some brood and honey for my observation hive. After talking with Ken, though, it seems there might have been a skunk around. I'll have to investigate further.
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up close and stingless

2010-05-17T21:33:00.002-04:00

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I'm hoping to get out and see my bees tomorrow - and also hoping I'll have a full hive that won't mind me taking 2 frames for my observation hive. I cleaned it out a bit tonight, and also figured out how it comes apart and goes back together. I thought it might be good to be prepared *before* I'm in a cloud of pissed bees. I even wrote myself a list of things not to forget - like extra veils for helpers! Here's hoping for a great afternoon.

Look for the observation hive if you're coming to the Seedling Sale at Little City Farm! Saturday, May 22, 9-12. It just might be there. Sealed, of course.
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s is for sarah

2010-05-13T14:06:00.003-04:00

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I took a little trip to Better Bee Supplies today, to pick up some frames for my honey supers and some gloves. Gloves were not something I really wanted to work with; it's great to have the sensation in your fingertips and be able to 'pet the bees' with your bare hands. However, my allergist tells me I have a Colophony allergy, which is basically an allergy to coniferous trees and products made from them.

This is an issue because the propolis - the super sticky gummy glue that the bees make and use to seal and weatherproof their hive - is made using things like pine or spruce sap. Too much touching that stuff, and I'll end up with a major rash like I did last summer.

So - on go the gloves. Monogrammed, even - see the 'S'??
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oh boys

2010-05-07T16:33:00.007-04:00

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My only real issue with this video is the stingers on the boy bees. You can't have a stinger package and a *cough* male package. There's not enough room. The girls get the stingers, the boys get the ability to genetically alter the next generation. Fair is fair I guess. In both scenarios, the bee dies after using it once. Quite the sacrifice.

Thanks Ken for sending me the link.
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cleaning house

2010-04-18T19:16:00.002-04:00

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Here's another reason why I thought the blue hive was dead: no dead bees on the outside. Bees are such tidy insects - they'll haul out their dead so the hive is kept clean. No dead bees on the outside made me think they were all dead on the inside! Not the case, though, as I mentioned in a previous post. They're all happily working away at building their colonies, and in a month or two they should be up to about 50,000 bees or more in each hive.
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bees in a house

2010-04-16T17:21:00.003-04:00

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200 pounds of honey in a house. My guess is, there were probably about 100,000 bees there too. If you have 2 minutes:

Video Link

Yikes.
Thanks to my friend Carolyn who sent me the link.
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pollen packets

2010-04-14T20:50:00.005-04:00

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When I checked the bees on Sunday, many were carrying these 'pollen packets' on their hind legs. They actually stuff the pollen into the pouches on their hind legs and bring it home to feed the larvae. I saw pale yellow, dark yellow, and some shades of orange. They obviously have a few sources of flowers these days!
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playing juliet

2010-04-13T21:33:00.004-04:00

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So here you can see the hive I fretted and worried over, thinking it was dead. Busy as can be! I'm so happy to have two good hives. Next trip out will be for cleaning, this one was just to check on them, take off the tar paper and move the straw bales out of their way.
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don't poop in the hive

2010-03-10T13:08:00.002-05:00

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Bees are such clean insects. They won't relieve themselves inside the hive, not even in winter; they'll wait until it's warm enough to fly out and release their pent-up waste outside. This photo was taken today when I went to check on the bees - the first time all winter - and you can see evidence of their 'cleansing flights' on the snow. You can also see lots of dead bees, which is typical.

I'm a bit worried about one of the hives, though: I think it's dead. I could hear activity in the one hive when I put my ear up to the back of it, but the other was silent. Time will tell. It's still too early to open up the hives and take a real look.
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a plea for bees

2010-01-08T17:03:00.003-05:00

Here's a fantastic bee video:

Thanks to Insectamonarca's Blog for posting this TED talk first.

Happy New Year!
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cozies

2009-12-16T22:36:00.003-05:00

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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almost ready?

2009-11-12T09:04:00.004-05:00

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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it's a wrap

2009-10-30T22:10:00.003-04:00

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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saving heat

2009-10-12T21:04:00.003-04:00

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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lowering heating costs

2009-10-06T09:17:00.005-04:00

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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pennies

2009-10-02T21:55:00.006-04:00

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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ready for battle

2009-09-30T16:12:00.005-04:00

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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taking a break

2009-09-04T05:13:00.002-04:00

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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counting for now

2009-09-03T13:35:00.001-04:00

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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guest pic

2009-09-02T12:59:00.004-04:00

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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thinking

2009-08-23T21:55:00.005-04:00

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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new experience

2009-08-20T15:02:00.002-04:00

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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popeye

2009-08-16T08:00:00.003-04:00

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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still counting

2009-08-13T18:10:00.003-04:00

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.

surprise

2009-08-12T17:09:00.005-04:00

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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onions and honey

2009-08-07T08:44:00.000-04:00

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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grass killer

2009-08-06T11:29:00.005-04:00

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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screening visitors

2009-08-04T10:03:00.000-04:00

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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new supplies

2009-08-03T09:42:00.000-04:00

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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ouchie 2

2009-08-02T09:32:00.001-04:00

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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reno 2

2009-08-01T09:12:00.000-04:00

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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expert help

2009-07-31T08:51:00.004-04:00

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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reno

2009-07-29T11:16:00.000-04:00

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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bees with balls

2009-07-28T12:55:00.000-04:00

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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look out world

2009-07-27T12:45:00.000-04:00

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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elusive

2009-07-26T12:34:00.001-04:00

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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marked

2009-07-25T13:27:00.001-04:00

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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what the heck

2009-07-24T15:38:00.003-04:00

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

2009-07-24T10:15:00.004-04:00

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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a new home

2009-07-23T10:15:00.002-04:00

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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beautiful bees

2009-07-22T10:15:00.001-04:00

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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swarm capture

2009-07-21T13:12:00.006-04:00

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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ouchie

2009-07-16T14:41:00.000-04:00

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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hanging out

2009-07-15T14:25:00.001-04:00

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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bees and kids

2009-07-14T14:12:00.000-04:00

It was nice to have friends along on our trip out to the beeyard yesterday! My girls have been very interested in the bees, and I think this has rubbed off on their friends. We all went out for the inspection, and they were able to see the queen, workers, honey, pollen, brood, and eggs. We also saw some workers with pollen in the pollen sacs on their hind legs. We didn't notice any drones, though, which was a bit disappointing because my girls have been asking me if they can hold one ever since I came back from the beekeeping course in Guelph and told them about my drone-holding experience.

All the kids had no qualms about being up close and personal with the bees, asking lots of questions and making sure they saw everything there was to see!
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all is well

2009-07-13T18:01:00.004-04:00

The populations of the hives seem to be expanding - I think I've got bees now that were eggs when I bought the frames. The time it takes for the worker bees to develop, from egg to worker, is about 21 days, so that makes sense.

The visit today went well. The mistake I corrected last time seems to have been taken in stride by all the lovely ladies in the hives. I noticed that the honeycomb I uncapped and scraped off a bit has now been re-capped, and everything fits better.

In the hives I saw eggs, larvae, capped brood, and one queen. The other queen was hiding from me, I guess. I saw eggs, though, so I'm not too worried about it. If she is gone, the workers will raise a new queen with the eggs they have available.
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oops

2009-07-09T21:54:00.002-04:00

Some people have to learn the hard way. I didn't think I was one of those people, but apparently this time I am. In the beekeeping course I took, the concept of 'bee space' was drilled into us. It's important to keep a certain small distance between the frames in the hive in order to keep them easy to work with. If you leave too much space, the bees will build crazy bulging comb and make the frames harder to work with.

Guess what.

Somehow I managed to completely forget that lesson. Oops. So, when I went to check on my hives, I had crazy bulging comb and frames that were hard to work with.

So...

I had to scrape off the crazy bulging comb. At least it wasn't brood comb I was destroying. I think if it had been brood comb I might have tried to think of another way, but honeycomb? Yummy! They'll fix it.
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how sweet it is

2009-07-08T21:00:00.002-04:00

A sunny afternoon finally came on a day when I could go to the beeyard. It's been about two weeks since I installed the bees, and I've been itching to go inspect them for about a week.

Nothing tastes better than honey and comb, warm and drippy, straight from the hive. My girls thought so too.
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sisters

2009-06-26T06:27:00.006-04:00

I'm not sure if this is sisterly affection, or sanitation crew. When I went to check on my bees Tuesday, this drama was playing out in front of one of the hives. The bee on her back is not really moving much, but still alive. Her sister was hanging around, and to me it looked like she was trying to help the bee get back up on her feet. However, I know bees are tidy creatures, so perhaps the intention of the healthy one was not so noble.
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i think they've settled in

2009-06-23T22:25:00.002-04:00

I forgot to put bricks on top of the hives this afternoon when I was there, and I also wanted to check and make sure nothing weird was going on, so I drove out to the beeyard for the 3rd time today to check the hives (no opening, just watching the entrance) and put the bricks on top. I saw bees coming and going, some with pollen, most without. Seems like they've accepted the homes we made for them, so I will be able to sleep tonight.
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they're here!

2009-06-23T16:30:00.005-04:00

Here I am with one of my nucs. Tibor Szabo's beeyard is behind me - this is where my bees came from. A big thank you to Tibor for all of the helpful advice that came with the bees!

Now I feel like a beekeeper - I actually have bees to call my own. I hope they like their new homes.
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ready..... i think

2009-06-23T08:18:00.005-04:00

I took the girls out on a 'breakfast picnic' this morning at Fertile Ground CSA, which is where my beeyard is located. Today is the first day of the CSA pickup season for Angie and Mark, so they were very busy setting up their washing station and harvesting their organic veggies. I was busy too, setting up the hives in preparation for the bees. My girls had their breakfast on a picnic blanket, and were slightly annoyed with the early morning mosquitoes.

Only 2 more hours until I pick up my bees!
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last minute jobs

2009-06-22T11:22:00.003-04:00

I had a little helper today as I added some finishing touches to my brood chambers. He helped me hammer the frame rests into place. Hopefully that will be the last job, other than heading out to Fertile Ground CSA to set up the boxes tomorrow morning before I pick up my nucs! Yes, tomorrow is the day - I will become the proud owner of 2 nucs of bees. Wish me luck!
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pretty pics

2009-06-20T19:33:00.005-04:00

These bees are not mine - they belong to Ken. In this picture they are working on capping some honey. The white part at the top is freshly capped, while the bottom combs are full of honey and not yet capped. Isn't it beautiful? I can hardly wait to get my own.
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many hands

2009-06-06T21:19:00.004-04:00

I now have painted hives, thanks to my two helpers!
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many thanks

2009-06-05T22:15:00.010-04:00

I have to say a big thank you to Ken and Steven for letting me tag along as they inspect their bees, and for all the sage advice I've received so far.

Here are Ken and I, looking for a queen in this colony today. It took awhile, but Ken found her. She hadn't mated yet, so she looked more like a big worker than a queen. I never would have spotted her!

One thing I'm learning as I watch Ken and Steven is that it's important to keep good records. They use a voice recorder to take notes on the temperature and weather conditions, what they see in each hive, and plans for the next trip out. I may not be so technologically advanced - pen and paper will probably be my recording tool of choice - but I can see the value in keeping track of how the hives are progressing through the season, and anything I might learn along the way.

Here's one for the files:

Question: How do you get rid of ants that are crawling all over the inner cover of your beehive?

Answer: You get out your propane torch and blast them into the afterlife.
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power tools

2009-06-04T22:04:00.002-04:00

I spent some time tonight putting together my two brood chambers - it's getting there! The gaps are for the frames that will come with the nucs. There will be a queen, 3 frames of brood, and lots of worker bees in each nuc package.

some assembly required

2009-06-03T19:59:00.003-04:00

It's time to start putting the hives together - the bees could come anytime after this weekend!

watch and learn

2009-06-02T22:46:00.008-04:00

I was able to hitch a ride with an experienced beekeeper today, as he went to check on his bees. Here's what I learned, in order of importance:

1. If a bee stings you, scrape off the stinger and put a penny on the spot with duct tape. I swear it works. Normally I would have swelling but there's absolutely none from the sting I got today. Before the penny was put on, I could feel it starting to swell into my thumb and wrist (sting was top of my hand/base of thumb). After the penny went on, the swelling went down and you can't even see it now.

2. Use old carpet to keep down the grass around your beehives - put the carpet down first then the hives.

3. Put each hive on a large patio stone, it's easier to shim than 4x4s.

4. Double brood chambers are probably better for the bees. Better winter survival, more space to prevent swarming, more room for bees to store honey for themselves (related to winter survival). So I'll probably rethink my single brood box plan.

5. Spring is actually the trickiest time for bees - they could be alive in March but dead in April.

So much to think about, but I'm enjoying the learning curve.

future bee yard

2009-05-25T06:50:00.007-04:00

Last Wednesday I visited Fertile Ground CSA to check out possible bee hive locations, and the trip was a success! We found a great spot to put the 2 hives that should keep them happy. Many thanks to Angie and Mark for allowing me to borrow some real estate for the bees.

big plans

2009-05-17T10:15:00.005-04:00

After researching honeybees for approximately a year, and taking a course from the University of Guelph to see if I could handle working with them, I've decided to buy my first two nucs, or sets of bees. They'll be ready for me sometime after June 7, so in the meantime I'm getting my supplies and bee yard ready. No turning back now....