A Visit from the Reyers

When we first got started beekeeping in 2010, Jody Reyer welded our first bee stands.

These bee stands -- the prototypes of the current Back Saver Hive Stands made from aluminum -- will be on Bee Hill until the end of time. They are beyond solid.

When we went to visit them & discuss the design, Brittany was pregnant with their first child. We finally got to meet their sweet daughter on Memorial Day.

Brittany used to be an Extension Agent, but is now home raising her baby girl.

And about 2,500 tomato plants. Plus squash, zucchini, blackberries . . . you get the idea. The Reyers have started what Mississippians call "truck cropping" -- growing produce to sell from a truck or farm stand, or at the local farmers' market.

While in our neck of the woods, Mark called our neighbors, the Ellises of the Mayhew Tomato Farm. While AP and I stayed in the air-conditioned cool and played, Mark, Robert, and the Reyers went to the farm to pick Mel's brain about how to make a go of it in the tomato business. Mark said, "I think they could have stayed a couple more hours and Mel would have stuck with them -- he answered all their questions because you can tell they're smart, hard-working young people who want to do it right."

Thanks Mel, and thanks to Jody & Brittany for coming to visit!

Photo highlights:

Honey Assessments: How Much Will There Be to Harvest?

On Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon, we checked our bee yards.  Here is the temperature on Saturday:

Mr. Barham came over and gave us 8 cantaloupes to take home.  We'd finished 10 Mark had picked up Tuesday. They're that delicious.

Everything thrives at the Barhams' house, including the bees.  We counted at least 6 honey supers ready to harvest.  Mark moved them up and moved less full supers down so that the full ones would be easier to harvest and the bees would work more in the open supers. You can see how the bees reacted to the heat: bearding on the front of the hives.

At Harley's, we have 3 colonies and they're doing okay, but there won't be any surplus honey to harvest. The nearby fields were planted in corn, which is not a plant loaded with nectar for bees.

At Mayhew, we sweated through our clothes it was so hot (TMI, right? No shade like we had in Steens) and have six supers to harvest, we think. We shifted some supers around, added some queen excluders in hopes of trying to get some comb honey developed, and found more brace comb than we'd like, which is wasted effort for the bees. Those Back Saver Hive Stands sure came in handy since there was sticky honey comb on the bottoms of the supers and frames and we were moving three around at once.

Mark is hoping for a break in the weather. He talked to a bunch of cotton farmers this afternoon at a wedding reception and they say the humidity should be down Tuesday or Wednesday.

He's anxious to harvest . . . but look at the honey streaming out of the bottom of the broken brace comb. With this heat, it's really going to flow! 

Third Time is the Charm!

Tonight as we finished supper, Mark got a phone call.  Birney Imes again. This time the bees were in Columbus, at a local coffee shop.  He said the bees were hanging off a sign, two feet from the ground.

Good-bye, quiet Friday night at home. Hello, bees! Because it was getting darker by the minute, we threw our gear into the truck and sped toward town.  At a stoplight, we saw our friends Jay & Gay, who seemed highly amused by our excitement about our "date."

We arrived at Kudos (which was closed) and couldn't find the bees anywhere.  Mark asked an employee at the gym next door, and he hadn't seen any bees.  I began walking toward a far corner of the parking area to investigate a small metal sign by the driveway.  Mark was in his truck, prepared to drive around the neighborhood looking for the swarm.

Then I saw them, covering the corner of the sign, facing away from the building and the parking lot.  Right next to the road!

Mark set up the bee box in record time.  He sprayed them with sugar water, and I held his atlas underneath them to serve as a slide.  With one strong WHAP on the back of the sign, he knocked the bees into the box. The put the extra frames in, put on a moving screen and top, and loaded the hive in the back of the truck.  It took less than 10 minutes.

We drove out to Barhams' Bee yard, and called Frances en route so they knew to expect a truck driving around in the dark.

This is BB1 (white) and BB2 (yellow), the latter of which arrived just yesterday. The lack of numerical order is going to bug  me.

BB1 had to give up their feeder when the new hive arrived yesterday, but we think there's plenty of nectar and pollen to be found, and they were going like gangbusters on Sunday. They should be fine!

The newest hive, BB3, is in the center.  We had to take this jar feeder from the hive at our house because we don't have any feeder boards available, and our order won't be ready until Friday (we'd hoped for tomorrow since we'll be in Alabama for a wedding anyway).

Tomorrow we plan to work our yard on Bee Hill, remove the feeders from 2, 3, & 4, add supers to those three, check to see if we need to add supers to the rest, and then take the feeder boards and feeders to Barhams' Bees on Sunday.  We'll likely take a few Back Saver 1000 hive stands too, to expand that yard.

We have just 2 more hive covers at this point, so if we get more than 2 swarm calls next week, we'll have to get creative!

We were alerted to another swarm earlier today, but it was on campus at the chapel, and the bees were about 35 feet up on the carillon tower.  Since it's Super Bulldog Weekend and the location was nearly impossible to access, we had to let them go.  I hope they found a better home on their own!

Back Saver 1000 Bee Hive Stands Installed at Barhams' Bees

As I mentioned in an earlier post, our friends Eldon and Frances Barham allowed us to put three Back Saver 1000 bee hive stands near their lake.  Before we set them up, and I use the term "we" liberally, Mark cleared the spot with his weed eater.

Next, he used his compass to find east/southeast so the hive entrances could face the rising sun. The warmth helps them rise and shine!

Next, he measured so the stands would be spaced equal distances apart.  (Can you say OCD?)

Andrew waited at the truck until he was needed to perform a special task.

The Great Balancing Act: Andrew stood on a board while Mark whacked the stand into the ground. It took great trust, considering Mark forgot a mallet and was using an axe. After I shot these pictures I stood by Andrew so he had something besides Mark's head to hold onto. They were both happier with that arrangement.

When the bubble hit level on both at the front and back and lengthwise, we were done.

It's a good thing we put in three . . . as you can read in a future post!

Back Saver Bee Hive Stands

Hive stands on the trailer.

Mark picked up 25 aluminum bee hive stands, his "Back Saver 1000" model. 

Features include:

• all welded aluminum construction -- won't rust
• extended platform holds hive cover and supers as you work (and keeps equipment off the ground)
• rain cups to deter ants 
• height raises equipment to comfortable working height
• fits standard hive bodies and bottom boards

Mark designed these with the help of our friend Jody Reyer, a welder.  The initial prototypes were welded steel that was then galvanized.  The weight and cost made them impractical, and the rain cups were too low. Click here to see one of the prototypes. The first aluminum model was improved in weight, but still had the rain cups improperly placed.  Finally, the new version appears to have all of the elements Mark initially desired. 

Side view.

Top view.

He uses treated lumber to brace the ends.  He wants me to do a pictorial guide to assembling, as he figures most beekeepers will prefer to do the braces themselves rather than pay extra shipping for lumber and screws. But, knowing Mark, he'll do whatever the customer wants!

Hive stand in use during inspection.

If you're interested in purchasing a hive stand ($189 plus shipping), contact Mark at 662-418-4422.

Near Dark on the Bee Hill

Mark wanted to set out two more hive stands (the last two of the original six) tonight, so I went along with him to the bee hill. Some day we'll have start calling it Bee Hill and the other hills Bee Bumps 1 & 2, because they don't seem nearly as big. For now, Bee Hill will do, 'cause it's the only with bees on it.

First problem: my camera kept fogging up because the temperature difference between inside and outside is so great. Blech. I deleted the photos, because they made it look like I was in Ye Old England, with fog and atmosphere, and a knife-wielding psycho lurking in the bushes, cue scary music.

For the record, the only things lurking the bushes were a rather stupid deer and many, MANY bugs, not of the bee variety. Which was the second problem: I kept ducking as things buzzed past my head and swatting at my legs, thinking bugs were crawling into my pants.

Most of the bees were already in the hive boxes or crowding around the entrance, trying to get in before nightfall. Here is a photo of Hive 1.

Mark recently added a medium super to the two "deeps" with the idea that the bees will build brood in the two lower boxes, and honey comb in the top, which will see them through the winter. Technically he could harvest the honey, but then might have to feed them through the winter. And let's be honest: he'll be in the woods hunting all winter, so it's just better to let the bees sustain themselves on their preferred food.

Strangely, Hive 4, the newest addition, had zero bees at the entrance. Then I realized they had a feeder inside, so why leave? Apparently bees don't follow that rule about stretching your comfort zone and getting to know your neighbors when you move into a new neighborhood.

After Mark got his stands set, he took the lids off each of the hives to show me the activity inside. Thankfully, each one had a screen for ventilation, so there was no risk of getting stung. That would have been the third problem.

Interestingly, in Hive 3, which hasn't had a super added to it yet, the bees were building comb from the screen down. Mark said he'd checked the hive yesterday, and on one side the frames were full, but the frames on the other side of the hive weren't. Rather than go fill the empty frames, the bees were building on the screen. I think Mark said something about moving the frames around, but frankly I was too busy taking pictures and wondering if ticks were crawling into my socks to pay too much attention.

Now I'm going to follow the bees example and settle in for the night.

How It All Started

In May of this year, my husband Mark attended a 2-day bee-keeping course offered by Mississippi State University. On May 27th I wrote in my journal that he was "trying to beat the rain" -- he was attempting to clear, sow, and fertilize what became the first bee hill on our property. By that date, he'd also contacted his welder, and construction of the custom hive stands was underway.

So much has changed in just over two months! We now have 3 bee hills lush with bright green millet, and four hives thriving -- two colonies relocated from places they weren't wanted (Hives 1 & 4), and two started from "nucs" purchased from Mr. Thompson in Philadelphia, MS (2 & 3). Mark has gained knowledgeboth through experience and generous mentoring by local beekeepers. I've learned a lot because it's fascinating and Mark is *so excited* about it all he can't help share what he's learning.

The photo shows Mark checking on the bees that eventually became Hive 1. I'll write about our first experience migrating bees in a separate post, as the process may interest other newbies. The kids jokingly call his hodge-podge bee suit his "Sanford Suit" after the old "Sanford and Sons" television show. He wrapped bungee cords around the cuffs of his pants, a nylon strap around his waist, and put his hunting-season mosquito netting over his hat. Yes, that is duct tape around his shirt cuffs.

We've since invested in real gear. Plus hive boxes, hive tools, feeders, feeder patties, enough sugar to amp up an entire elementary school, eco-friendly hive bases, moving screens, entrance closers, paint, and more that I probably don't know about.

Getting started in bee-keeping isn't cheap, but it's a lot of fun. And as far as husband-wife hobbies go, it beats golf and bowling by a long shot.