.

The second in a series of honey bee pathogens. Today we talk about mites and beetles.

BeetleJail.com – Innovative ideas for SHB control that I saw demo’d at this year’s beekeeping institute

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Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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Burning AFB Infected Hives

Join me on my way down to Baxley to pick up some bees. The first in a series of shows where we focus entirely on bees and beekeeping. We go over some interesting breaking developments in beekeeping amd discuss some of the microbial pathogens that our bees have to deal with.

Gardener’s Apiary
Baxley, Georgia

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Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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Phoenix Rooster

We take some great feedback. Jams, jellies, marmalades, and preserves, oh my! Farmstead updates. Chicken Incest! And we talk some about some of the fundamental answers to the question ‘why?’

Links
Henderson’s Handy Dandy Chicken Chart
Young Harris Beekeeping Institute
Fresh South Market
Nature’s Harmony Farmcast

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Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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Salvaged Comb

A really disjointed podcast this week as I try to cram in some content between trips to the bee yard. We talk about swarms and how to get geared up to be on the local swarm list or even to do a small cutout.

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Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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Garden Harvest

Laura and I take some feedback, pontificate spring preps, talk about gardening, beekeeping, and other springtime activities. Laura would like to apologize for mistakenly referring to the Brandywine Tomato as a “Rutgers”.

Links from the show:

Roy’s Alaskan Homestead Blog
Ison’s Nursery
Murray McMurray Hatchery

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Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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I’ll also be putting honey supers on these hives. It takes a while for the bees to “get” that their hive has changed sizes and move up into the super. We’ve already got a light nectar flow going, which will quickly pick up in the next few weeks, so I want them up in there drawing comb ahead of the game.

My supers have top entrances too. I’m a big fan of top entrances for two reasons. They provide additional ventilation, but the air isn’t pulled up directly through the broodnest, and it gives the foragers a direct route to the honey stores – meaning they don’t have to walk all the way up the inside of the colony to get where they’re going.

http://www.draperbee.com/webcam/beecam.htm

Honey Harvest

This one goes out to our beekeeping friends. A full hour on springtime beekeeping practices and even a small taste of swarm management.

Links
Alaska Urban Farmstead
Increase Essentials by Dr. Larry Connor
Northern Kentucky Beekeeper
Beekeeper Linda’s Excellent Blog
Gardener Apiaries

Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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PTC Hive
This hive is in awesome shape. It had been a month since I last visited this hive and the bees had hardly touched the Megabee patty or the sugar syrup. This is good because it tells me that they have a viable food source. Indeed they were storing honey on both sides of the brood nest. The only thing blooming right now is Red Maple, so I’m assuming that there is ample forage available.
The brood nest was good sized spanning 6 frames with brood in all stages of development. Brood pattern was pretty solid as well. Forager traffic was high considering the temperature (low 50s).
I removed one of the division board feeders and changed the syrup in the other one. I also added another megabee patty.

Woolsey Hive
This hive is also in great shape. Both feeders were empty, and the megabee patty was completely consumed. Broodnest was a good size (spanning 5 frames to the depth of the super) with numerous eggs and larve in solid patterns across both sides of three frames. There were also new honey stores over the brood nest, indicating that this hive had also found early forage.
I removed one of the feeders and added another megabee patty.
Spotted 8 small hive beetles in this one. I’ll be adding a beetle trap on the next visit.

Note: Many beekeepers would question the approach of adding pollen and syrup while the bees have available forage, but it is not unusual (especially during the spring build up) for a hive to completely consume its stores over a few days of bad weather trying to feed the expanding brood nest. We still have nights in the 20s so I look at taking these steps as insurance. If they don’t need it, they’ll just leave it alone in favor of available forage. But if they do need it and it’s not there, the hive could suffer.

PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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Red Maple Flowers

I somehow talk Laura into doing another show where we throw out some updates on the dog, seed starting, and the bees. We take some great feedback, including an actual voicemail! We finally wrap the show up by reading some of the better ads out of the market bulletin.

Ison’s Nursery
Georgia Framers and Consumers Market Bulletin

Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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Proposed changes to the city ordinance dealing with the keeping of agricultural animals on city properties has agitated bee and chicken keepers.

Burgh Bees, a 375-member nonprofit, has put out a “call to action” via e-mail for attendance at a public hearing before the city planning commission at 2 p.m. Feb. 16 “to show how many beekeepers and beekeeper supporters there are” in the city. The hearing is at 200 Ross St., Downtown.

Legal wording currently is confusing and leaves room for abuse of privilege, city officials have said. But bee and chicken raisers say the proposed changes could create unintended ill-effects.

The hearing is the public’s chance to offer input, said Joanna Doven, spokeswoman for Mayor Luke Ravenstahl.

“We support urban farms and groups like Burgh Bees,” she said, “but we have to make sure we are balancing their interests with the safety needs and concerns of other residents.

“There has been a disconnect between what is and isn’t allowed, so we need an ordinance that clearly outlines how we should proceed.”

Under current law, residents must get a variance to raise chickens on properties of less than 5 acres or if their lots don’t allow 200 feet between the coop and a property line, but it’s vague as to whether a five-animal limit means pets are included. In addition, enforcement is driven by complaints.

A proposed 15-foot setback from any property line and 2,500-square-foot minimum per hive would in effect ban beekeeping in many of the city’s dense neighborhoods, “where our members have been safely keeping bees for years,” said Meredith Grelli, founder and director of Burgh Bees.

Full Article – http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10039/1034293-53.stm

Brooks 1 – Bit the dust. The pollin patty was about 90% intact, and there was still syrup in the feeder. The (now dead) cluster was down to the size of a fist so I can only imagine that they never warmed up enough to break cluster and get some grub. Pisser.

Brooks 2 – Looks really good. Patty was completely consumed and feeders were empty. Cluster spanned 5 frames and was the depth of the super (bees were active all the way to the bottom of the frame). Brood pattern was very good, with larve in all stages of development. Added 2nd deep using drawn comb from the now deceased Brooks 1. Put 2 patties between hive bodies and topped off feeders with 2:1 syrup.

Brooks 3 – In good shape. Patty was completely consumed. Both feeders were empty. Cluster was large – spanning 6 frames. Brood pattern looked good with brood in all stages of development.
Maintenence Needed: The top deep super is rotting out on the left side and needs to be replaced.

Brooks 4 – Still Dead.

Brooks 5 – Similar to Brooks 3. Patty was consumed and both feeders were empty. Topped off both feeders with 2:1 syrup. Cluster was large and busy spanning 6 frames. Lots of brood. Added another patty on top bars.
Maintenence Needed:Screened bottom board and bottom deep need to be replaced.

I’ve read over on Linda’s Beekeeping blog that the Red Maple is already blooming. We have some red maples and I can’t report that, but they look darn close. Time to get the honey supers ready – fingers crossed.

Anyone who has ever popped the top off a pissy hive during a dearth can tell you that those bees know exactly where your face is.

Bees can learn to recognize human faces, or at least face-like patterns, a new study suggests.
Rather than specifically recognizing people, these nectar-feeding creatures view us as “strange flowers,” the researchers say. And while they might not be able to identify individual humans, they can learn to distinguish features that are arranged to look like faces.

The results suggest that, even with their tiny brains, insects can handle image analysis. The researchers say that if humans want to design automatic facial recognition systems, we could learn a lot by using the bees’ approach to face recognition.

Link to Article

May I help you?

Our first 100% listener feedback show. Wow!

Links:

Megabee
Radiologists Making Soaps
The amazing Dervaes Family
Jack Spirco’s The Last True Form of Revolution podcast episode from The Survival Podcast

Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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All in all the hives looked pretty healthy. The cluster was a pretty good size and they seemed pretty defensive when I opened the top ( I guess I would be too!). But that’s a good sign. I didn’t want to linger with it being so cold out, but it looked like all the hives still had what looked like plenty of capped stores. It’s too early to say of course, but I’m hoping that I can come out in the spring without any losses. (fingers, toes, and elbows crossed!)

Honey Run Apiaries has some good reading on how to make pollen patties in case you’re curious.

till next time…

Making hot while it's cold.

We take some feedback, talk about the bee-koozies, giggle a little about mustache wax, and discuss the perils, pitfalls, problems and preparations to do with shopping for your hobby farm.

Some Links to get You Started

Rural Property
Farm Seller
Land and Farm
United Real Estate
Farm and Ranch

Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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Bee Koozies!

Man, it’s cold! We take some feedback, I find a long time listener, talk about Fall Fling, install some gutters, make some Bee Koozies (see pic), and explore the many splendid aspects of mulch!

Links:
Permaculture Institute
Intro to Permaculture
Permaculture Principles

Music: James Larson, Gaia Consort
PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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Vending at Inman Farm Heritage Days

Pressed for time this week. We get a great shoutout from Sean and Cim, talk about horses, curse the carpenter ants, and badmouth hicks that cannot tell the difference between a honeybee and a hornet.

NewsReal – Enjoy the soap, Cim! And yes it is actually made from lard.

Music: James Larson
New PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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Our Former Rooster, Drumstick

Uno, Dos, Tres, Catorce! For nearly an hour, show 14 finds me taking our inaugural voice mail, almost making it through the feedback without botching someone’s name, bidding farewell to our rooster, looking forward to Inman Farm Heritage Days, skirting the law.. maybe, and pontificating on the idea of setting up an outyard. Thanks for listening!

Cool Link:
Inman Farm

Music: James Larson
New PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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Laura Playing on the Tractor

Join me again on my morning commute where I discuss some feedback, give you the wrong number for the call in line, pontificate on homesteading vs hobby farming, touch on gardening, and talk about sharpening a chainsaw.
Sorry about the road noise. This is the first recording using the portable recorder so I’m still tweaking the audio.

Music: James Larson
New PodCast Call in Line: 740-5-MYFARM

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A snake that was squatting in our hen house

I go mobile for this podcast and drag you along for my morning commute. We play catch up on some farm updates to do with bees and snakes, stumble through a few verbal blunders, rant about my experience trying to become a certified egg candler, decry the outrage otherwise known as HR 875, and even manage to spit on Monsanto somewhere in the mix.

Cool Link:

Hobby Farms
The Survival Podcast
The Chicken Whisperer

Music: James Larson

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JERUSALEM, July 21 (UPI) — An Israeli company says it has developed a vaccine that protects honey bees from a virus associated with the widespread collapse of bee colonies worldwide.
Beelogics says its Remembee drug has proven effective in helping bees overcome Israel acute paralysis virus, Haaretz reported Tuesday. The virus is named for the country where it was first identified.

The drug has completed successful clinical trials on millions of bees in North America, the company said. The drug also helps the bees live longer and produce more honey, the company said.

“It’s really a tug of war between the virus and the host,” said Nitzan Paldi of Beeologics. “We are helping the bee tug the rope more strongly and beat the virus. We take advantage of an immune system that the bees elicit for viral disease. But we are really using naturally occurring phenomenon. It’s not a pesticide and it’s not toxic.”

Beeologics is pursing U.S. government approval for the drug, Haaretz said.

Peaches and Cream Soap

Boy howdy have we been busy around here. On the way back up from Jekyll we stopped at Dickies Farm and picked up a few bushels of peaches. Needless to say that on top of everything else we’ve spent our spare moments canning and soaping. And what do we have to show for our efforts? Well there’s the peaches n’ cream soap pictured above. There’s also peach jam, peach butter, peach salsa, and ginger peach jam (amazing!!). My dining room table is covered in mason jars.

Canning stuff is hot work. I can only imagine what it would be like in the dead of a south Georgia summer without air conditioning as it was back the day. I also managed to bang out some more lard soap which turned out really nice thanks to a tweak I made to the recipe.

The bees are doing ok. I’ve lost 3 hives this year, but the remaining colonies seem to be thriving. Go figure. I’ve got several hive updates to post as well, but will get around to those as I am able.

More later…

Goats Milk, Lavender, & Oatmeal Soap

The Ocho!

On this BubbaCast we go over some tech-geeky stuff that you can do to help the political freedom fighters in Iran.  We take some emails, talk about what’s been going on, celebrate the launch of the new store front, and talk about basic cold-process soapmaking.

Music: James Larson

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Vegetable Garden

Here’s a pic of the vetable garden starting to grow in.  The Brooks beehives can be seen in the far background.

One of the perks of keeping bees is that your plants get heavily pollinated.  Here’s a blackberry bush that sits about 100 feet from 7 hives in my back yard.  It never had a chance.  We’ve already picked pounds of berries off this plant, and it looks like it’s not giving up anytime soon.

I’m thinking blackberry jam!  Yummy!

I continue to have numerous problems with hives going queenless causing me to have to pull brood frames from other healthy hives to allow them to raise a new one.  This practice is not sustainable.  I don’t know why all these queens are failing – hives look completely healthy otherwise.  I’ve setup 2 Nucs at the Brooks yard – split from two of the better hives to suplement the queen rearing needs.  PTC and Woolsey yards seem to be most affected by this phenominon – which is funny because they are in very rural locations and have abudant forage.

I’ll be running a bucket of sugar syrup & mega-bee out to PTC and Woolsey tomorrow to supplement the forage and hopefully encourage the queenless hives to do a better job replacing their queen.

PTC 1

Looks good.   4 Frames of bees – lots of brood.  No SHB.  Treated with powdered sugar.

PTC 2

Not so good.  2 Frames of bees.  No Brood or eggs.  More queen problems.  Pulled a frame of brood from PTC 1.

PTC 3

Again – no brood.  Pulled brood frame from #4 Not Cool.

PTC 4

Looks ok.  Not going gangbusters, but there were brood and eggs.

PTC 5

Looks ok.  Brood and eggs, but spotty pattern.

Fayetteville 1

Doing great.  Lots of brood and eggs.  Treated with powdered sugar.  No SHB.

Fayetteville 2

Good eggs and brood.  3 frames of bees.  No SHB.  Treated with powdered sugar.

Fayetteville 3

Good eggs and brood.

Brooks 1

Most of the brood that was in the honey super has since hatched out.  Looks like I lucked out and the queen was in the bottom deep when I put the excluder on last week.  The bees are moving into the honey super and reusing the old brood cells for honey storage.  So far 4 frames are drawn out, but none capped over yet.

Brooks 2

Ready for 2nd deep.  Pulled 2 frames brood and honey and split off Nuc.  Replaced frames with foundation.

Brooks 3

Looks good.  Bees have moved up into the 2nd deep and have begun to draw out comb.

Brooks 4

No real change.  Some activity in honey super, but no comb drawn out.  Bottom deep is full of bees.

Brooks 5

This is probably the most enthusiastic queen I’ve ever seen.  Pulled 2 frames and started Nuc.  Replaced frames with foundation.

Brooks 6

New nuc colony for purposes of queen raising.  Split from Brooks 2

Brooks 7

New nuc colony for purposes of queen raising.  Split from Brooks 5.

Chicken Tree House

Important Note: Seems that I made a goof up and uploaded the wrong file yesterday (thanks to Net for pointing out the error of my ways.) The feed has since been corrected, but iTunes subscribers may need to unsubscribe and resubscribe.

My sincere apologies for any inconvenience.

I prattle on seemingly without end about the latest energy pyramid scheme, bee-talk, fencing, your emails, and finally about buiding a solar generator.

Links:

- A much better tutorial on building the solar generator

- An excellent tutorial on using a micro grid-tie inverter (even though the unit has it’s own internal kill switch – you still need to install one)

- Kencove and Electrobraid Fencing Products

- Info and more info about worms and chickens

Music: James Larson

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This hive was the strongest in this yard, but now has no brood.  Could not find the queen.  This has really not been my year for queens – although I’ve heard that package queens are frequently superceded.  I’m hoping things will settle down and the girls can get to work.  Pulled a frame of eggs and brood from Woolsey Hive 3 in the hopes that they will raise another queen.  Oi.

Woolsey Hive 2

Not many bees – only 3 or 4 frames, but it seems that they’ve raised a new queen since the last inspection and she is laying like crazy.  With a little luck this one will recover quickly.

Woolsey Hive 3

This hive is doing as well as can be expected considering I pull brood frames out nearly every time I open it.  The queen looks good and what brood frames were left housed copious amounts of brood and eggs. 

Synopsys

These three hives have been pretty high maintenance, leaving me to almost wonder if there is some other factor at play – pesticides, etc.  No way to really know for sure.  The new homebrew hive beetle traps seem to be working extremely well.  Each one had a few beetles, but none were spotted in the hives.

Queen has gone nuts in the honey super.  There was brood on two frames all the way to the top of the frames.  Dammit.  I tried to find her, but couldn’t.  Put on a queen excluder and will see if there’s more eggs in the honey super in a few days (indicating that she’s still up there).

Brooks Hive 2

Looks good.  5 frames of bees with brood.  SHB trap looks clean.

Brooks Hive 3

Packed with bees.  Added deep and moved two brood frames up into the 2nd deep to get some activity going up there.

Brooks Hive 4

Finally some comb being drawn out in the honey super.  Added queen excluder.

Brooks Hive 5

Full of Bees and already needs a 2nd deep.  This queen is a tramp.  SHB trap looks clean.

Notes:

I would have dusted with powdered sugar, but was fresh out.  I’ll swing by the store before headng to the other yards tomorrow.

These girls made the ultimate sacrifice

I snapped this picture while inspecting one of the Woolsey hives.

Whenever someone brings up the out-dated argument that women should not be in the military, I think of the bees.  These girls gave their lives fiercely defending their home from this invading carpenter bee.   The dedication and sacrifice of a soldier transcends gender.  We truely have much yet to learn from these amazing insects.

Looks good.  No need for changes.  Population is building rapidly so I didn’t bother looking for brood.  This one will also need a 2nd deep soon.

Woolsey Hive 2

The one is the worst of the bunch.  Population had dwindled to only a few frames of bees.  No queen and no brood.  I pulled a frame of bees and brood from Woolsey 3 and crossed my fingers.

Woolsey Hive 3

Looks good.  No changes needed.  Found brood on first frame I pulled so no need to look further.  Pulled one frame of eggs & brood to supplement Woolsey Hive 2 in the hopes that they will raise another queen.

PTC Hive 1

Strong hive – even a little defensive, requiring more smoke than the others.  Will keep an eye on the temperment.  This hive was started with a package from south GA, so its possible that there may be some African genes in the mix.  Not likely, but somethig to keep an eye on.  Good honey stores being put away.  Pulled feeder.

PTC Hive 2

No queen but still some covered brood.  Population was smaller than it should have been but not to the degree that it was alarming.  I did find a few queen cells so I’m going to take a wait and see approach with this one.  I’m thinking that they might have rejected the queen that came in the package.

PTC Hive 3, 4, 5

Good growth.  Typical  for what one would expect with a new package.  All the queens were laying.  However, PTC 4 had a spotty brood pattern.  I hate gimpy queens.  If she doesn’t start laying better within a few weeks, I’m going to requeen it.  PTC 5 had heavy propolis on the lid.  Nothing to worry about necessarily, but annoying.

Fayetteville Hive 1

Looks Good.  Feeder down to 1/2.  Saw queen a decent brood pattern.  Saw one queen cell.

Fayetteville Hive 2

Egg city.  Feeder down to 1/4.  Didn’t bother looking for queen.  She was obviously busy.

Fayetteville Hive 3

Huge Brood nest.  Didn’t bother looking for Queen.

Brooks Hive 1

3 frames with some unfinished honey.  High hopes for this one.  Some brood in the honey super, but only a few cells.

Brooks Hive 2

Ready for 2nd deep.  Treated with powdered sugar.  SHB trap was clean.

Brooks Hive 3

This one needs the 2nd deep now.  No question.  Treated with powdered sugar.

Brooks Hive 4

Very little activity in honey super.  Treated with powdered sugar.

Brooks Hive 5

Moved from Nuc to a single deep.  This one was packed with bees.  Pulled swarm cells and mixed up brood nest a little when I moved it.  Hoping that will kill the swarm instinct.

Looks good.  Moderate activity in honey super.  This one will be ready for 2nd deep soon.  I want to at least get a frame or two of honey out of it this year if possible.  If we do it before the fall honey flow that should be doable without affecting their ability to put away winter stores.  SHB trap was clean.  Dusted with powdered sugar.  5 frames of bees.

Brooks Hive 2

Feeder empty so I pulled it.    Saw queen and brood on 2nd frame I pulled so no need to check further.  Good honey and pollin stores building.  SHB trap was clean.  6 frames of bees.  Dusted with powdered sugar.

Brooks Hive 3

Looks good.  7 frames of bees.   This one will be ready for a 2nd deep soon.  Pulled one frame and found brood so no need to go any further.  SHB trap was clean.  Dusted with powdered Sugar.

Brooks Hive 4

No brood in this one and no queen.  Damn.  Pulled brood and a frame of bees from Brooks Hive 5. Hopefully they’ll raise another queen.  Fingers crosed.

Brooks Hive 5

Population building rapidly.  This one will be ready for another deep soon as well.  SHB trap was clean.  Dusted with powdered sugar.

10 Packages of bees

The bees finally showed up today.  Each package contains a mated queen and 2lbs of bees.  They were shipped on the 6th.  What a mess.   Thanks alot USPS.   Considering that the apiary is only a 5 hour drive from here, I may just take a road trip the next time I need to buy some packages.  

These girls are going to their new homes today after work.

-Brian

A huge thank you goes out to the members of the Fayette County Master Gardeners Association for allowing me the use of their property.

Hives Located in Downtown Fayetteville.

Only pulled one frame and it looks good.  Solid brood nest and the population is increasing rapidly.  Changing inspection schedule as noted below

Hive 2

The queen has finally started laying in this one and the brood nest is packed with eggs and yound larve.   Pulled feeder.  Changing inspection schedule as noted below.

Hive 3

Same as 2 – looks like the queen has come into her own and has started laying.  Changing inspection schedule as noted below. 

Hive 4

This one was split last week to prevent a swarm.  Surprisingly, I didn’t find any eggs or brood.  Investigating further – I couldn’t find the queen and queen cells have been built along the bottom of the frames (supercedure / replacement cells).  Crap.  I was very careful not to get the queen in the nuc that I split off last week, but it’s possible that I managed to anyway – or worse kill or damage her while I was manipulating the frames.  This is not good.  This hive was by far the most active and had the best chance for a good spring harvest.  This is bad timing of high calibur.

The lid is badly warped on ths colony and needs to be replaced.  Add it to the list.  I may replace it with a passive solar ventilator hood I’ve been designing  to see how it works.

Nuc 1

Doing well.  Pulled the feeder and replaced with a frame of foundation.  This one will be ready for a full deep soon.

Nuc 2 – Woolsey Outyard

Noticed this one bearding up on the front, but it wasn’t hot enough at the time (about 74 degrees).  Suspected overcrowding and popped the top to find the box packed with bees.  Good giggly.  On Monday, I moved this one into a full size deep, but didn’t mess with it otherwise.   It seemed very active and given the disruption of moving the colony to new hive body, I didn’t want to disturb it any more than I had to. 

Overview

Changing inspection schedule on hives 1, 2, and 3 to weekly observation and opening the tops for a check every three to four weeks (except honey supers which will be visually checked every week.)

With the spring nectar flow going strong, all the hives now have feeders removed.  I’m concerned that the now presumably queenless hives will become honey bound with a strong nectar flow and empty cells in the broodnest.  I’ve got some drawn comb standing by in case.  

I’m almost ready for the packages that are scheduled to arrive on the 5th.  All that remains is to put the second coat on the rest of the tops and one more hive body.   Then I’ll seal around the edges of the roof flashing with silicone.  The woodenware I got from Orr Bee Supply was good quality and and I’ll post a follow up review in the coming days.

It’s originally published at http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/guest-column-lets-hear-it-for-the-bees/?emc=eta1. 

I’m posting it here in case it goes offline because I thought it was very well done.  I would by all means encourage you to visit the link above to patronize the author’s work directly as well.

-Brian

_________________________________________________

Lets Hear it for the Bees

Olivia Judson

Saw a few small hive beetles and took great joy in crunching their little bodies.  Beetle traps looked relatively clean.

Hive 1

Finally saw queen and brood in this one.   Once I saw brood, I didn’t need to find the queen she just happened to be on the first frame I pulled.  I was beginning to get concerned, but all seems well.  There were a solid 8 or so frames of bees with plenty of pollin and honey (mostly syrup) stores.  I pulled the feeder to make ready for the honey flow.  There was moderate activity in the honey super.  Some workers were drawing out comb, but not much yet.  

Hive 2

Feeder was still half full of syrup.  This one is not looking as good as it could – especially going into the honey flow.  The queen is present, but no brood.  Only 5 or so frames of bees.  I pulled a brood frame from Nuc 1 to bolster the population.  Gimpy queen maybe?  They don’t seem to be rejecting her, she just doesn’t seem to be motivated.  I pulled some of the old comb in the brood nest (since it wasn’t being used yet anyway and replaced it with foundation – thinking perhaps that she doesn’t find the comb suitable for laying.  I would have liked to just replace it with newer drawn comb, but didn’t have any on hand.  This is one to keep an eye on.  If I don’t see any brood soon, I’m going to re-queen it.

Hive 3

This one is looking crappy too.  No brood.  No queen.  I did find a single queen cell.  Only 4 frames of bees.  Pulled a frame of brood from #4 to bolster population and give them an opportunity to raise another queen.  

Hive #4

The one caught me off guard.  I popped the top and it was bubbling over with bees.  The honey super was getting some traffic too.  10 full frames of bees – and this was on a nice afternoon so that doesn’t account for the forragers out in the field.  This hive was in full swarm preparation gear.  Numerous swarm cells around the brood nest.   Yikes.  I split this one into another Nuc.  Which will be Nuc 2 going forward.

Nuc #1

This one looks good and will probably need to be moved to a full sized hive body in the next couple weeks.  Chuck full of bees.  I pulled a frame of brood for hive 2 and replaced it with foundation.  Brood pattern is solid.  Looks good.

Nuc #2

This is a swarm-prevention split from hive # 4.  Moved to Woolsey outyard this evening.

As it happens, this gentleman is also a beekeeper.  So while it was great to find out about another beekeeper nearby – it was also a strikeout for me.  

However, he was kind enough to suggest that I contact the local Master Gardeners Association through the county extension service.  I was stunned.  It’s the kind of thing that strikes you as being so bleedingly obvious that you find yourself grappling and  trying to come up with a response that doesn’t make you come off like a complete moron.    After all,  I know a number of master gardeners.  I’ve given presentations to groups of them.   I’ve conducted water catchment and vermicomposting workshops.  I’ve …. well, lets just say that I should have thought of this idea on my own and leave it at that.      

At any rate, that is exactly what I did.

The response has been stellar.  Not only are these folks willing to put some hives on their property, many of them were very knowledgable about bees.  They have all been very acomodating and courteous.  My hive placement woes seem to be at an end for the forseeable future, and I’ve met some really neat people.  I’m looking forward to this year.

Took a peep in there.  Couldn’t find the queen, but did see young larve so I’m assuming all is well.  Added syrup as needed.

Hive 2

All is well – lots of bees in this one – about 8 frames worth.  They had eaten the feeder dry.  Added more syrup and a beetle eater.  Saw one small hive beetle.

Hive 3

No sign of queen yet, queen cells are still intact so it should be any day now.  Topped off syrup and added a beetle eater.

Hive 4

This is by far the strongest hive of the 5.  No changes needed.

Nuc 1

Queen cells were open, although I didn’t see her and no sign of eggs yet.  Topped off with syrup and megabee.

Hive #1
A few days ago I added another frame of brood and eggs from hive #2 to give the bees another chance to raise a queen. To my surprise, the girls took the chance and there were 4 queen cells hanging off various points of the brood frame I put in. Good news.

Hive # 3 – Nuc #1 Split
Hive 3 still has a ton of bees in it. Much more than I would have expected at this point since they’re quenless. Checking for cells I found 7 well-formed cells on two different frames. I decided to split off a nuc. I pulled one of the frames with the queen cells, a frame of honey, frame of pollin, and another empty frame of drawn comb from last year. All went into a 5 frame nuc with a frame feeder, 2:1 syrup, and Megabee. (This will be Nuc # 1 going forward.) I placed the nuc on top of the parent hive and faced it the opposite direction.
I would have been able to split another nuc off one of #1′s queen cells, but I’m out of nuc boxes right now. I have one more, but it’s being painted.

Hive 1 is a single deep with a frame feeder. Crappy weather kept all the foragers indoors so the box was packed with bees. No shortage of pollen or stored syrup. Too early for that much honey to be in there. Unable to find queen or any sign of queen activity. No brood left and no queen cells either. Come on, girls – get with it! Moved frame of brood from Hive 2 which was a mix of eggs, young larvae and sealed brood.

Hive 2 is a single deep with Frame feeder and is the other half of the Hive 1 split. Found the queen and copious amounts of pollen, stored honey, and brood. The queen is very young – about 2 thirds the size of a normal queen but obviously not intimidated by her diminutive stature. The brood pattern looked pretty solid.

Hive 3 is a single deep with a medium super on top. This hive has generous amounts of stored honey and pollen – so there is no feeder on it at present. There is no queen in this hive (she was discovered in Hive 4), but the bees have built and sealed a few queen cells, so things are coming along according to plan.

Hive 4 is the other half of the split that created Hive 3. I was able to find the queen easily in this one. She is a mature queen, large and solid orange – almost like a hornet. She really stands out amongst her smaller and much browner daughters. The brood nest is filled with eggs and brood in various stages. Pollen and honey stores look good. No cause to worry with this one right now.

I’m going to keep an eye on the queen cells. The opportunity may present itself to do a 2 or 3 frame split with a nuc or two if I can salvage some viable queen cells. We’ll see.

The third and very late BubbaCast. My apologies, folks.

I’ve got a horse for sale, give a shoutout to Darcy at nkybeeker.com and talk about making splits.

Music: James Larson

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The way it works is that bees swarm in the spring and summer as their natural method of reproduction. Basically they grow a new queen. Then the old queen leaves with half the bees to find a new home. The first thing the swarm does is to settle on something.

So while you have a big clump of bees sitting there, scout bees leave the cluster and go look for a new home. If a scout bee finds a suitable place, she flies back and tries to convince the swarm to follow her to move in.

The time spent waiting varies from hours to days, and this is the time to recover the swarm and give them a nice place to live. Once the bees pick a new home, it becomes a little more difficult to move them.

When someone notices the swarm hanging on or near their property, the initial reaction is usually fear and panic. They snatch up their kids, run inside, lock all the doors and windows, and make a flustered call to 911 or the national guard. Eventually they are put through to the county extension service. The extension agent has a list of beekeepers and passes along the name and contact info of someone to come and remove the swarm – and the whole point of this exercise is that I’m hoping this person will be me as often as possible. .

-Brian