Murphy's Law of Beekeeping and Making a Decision

Mark got home after 6:30 p.m. tonight, hollered up the stairs, "Do you want to go check the bees?" and we were off to Bee Hill in spite of the late hour. He asked me what he needed, we loaded up the 4-wheeler, and took off.

When we arrived, Bee Hill was surrounded by millet* in bloom with small yellow flowers spread like confetti over the dark green foliage. Lovely! I think it made the bees happy, and from the pips and whirring of hummingbirds, they were happy too. *9-02-10 this is not millet, it's a weed!

What was missing: Mark's new veil. I'd brought his shirt out of the house, but didn't know where his veil was. We each assumed the other had it. So, instead of being my first time in my full outfit, I wore my jacket and he made do with the old veil and a shirt it couldn't attach to. Surprisingly, even though there were a lot of bees in the air, he had only one near miss. He realized one was about to climb into the veil, he had a frame loaded with bees in his hands, and he quickly handed it off to me. I sure was thankful I had those new gloves! So, Murphy's Law of Beekeeping is that no matter how much stuff you pile on the 4-wheeler or in the truck, you won't have what you need.

We were losing daylight fast, so he started in Hive 1. He checked the lower medium super and is pleased with the amount of drawn comb. He sprinkled the bees with powdered sugar to treat for pests, closed it up, and moved to Hive 2. He dusted them with powdered sugar, and moved to Hive 4.

We wanted to do a more thorough inspection of Hive 4 to make a decision about re-queening. What we discovered was odd. In the frames that Mark had used rubber bands to attach their old comb from the gas grill, they had drawn comb to attach it to the frames and filled that with honey. On the frames with plastic foundation, they'd drawn comb unevenly, not just in disorderly shapes across the plastic, but in varying depths. We didn't see the queen, but the brood appeared patchy. What we saw confirmed that we need to requeen, so the next step is to talk to an experienced beekeeper and find out if we can get some help finding the old queen and replacing her with a new one. They got dusted, and appear to be eating the protein patty with enthusiasm.

We ran out of time, so Hives 3 & 5 didn't get treated with powdered sugar.

Glossary of Beekeeping Terms & A Photo

I'm always afraid of calling things by their wrong names. So here is a handy list of words and their proper definitions, courtesy of the folks at Betterbee.

I have so much to learn! Part of what I'm learning to do is train my eyes. I have to say I was particularly pleased with this photograph, but also chuffed that I could see the little baby bees during the inspection. I used to be so afraid of bees and being stung that I wouldn't have taken the time to really examine what was happening on this frame of brood. Of course, it's a lot easier to get a close look by zooming in on a photo! What I saw in the moment was capped brood, and bees in the larval stage (curled like little white "C" shapes in the cells). What I saw when I zoomed in on the photo is a pretty solid pattern of eggs laid in the cells -- those little white dots centered in the cells, most visible in the lower left section). You can also see honey glistening in the top right section. Maybe someday I'll write a nonfiction article and be able to publish this photo with it! :-)

Gear for me and a guest apprentice

This past weekend, blog follower Heather (Mark's eldest child) and her husband Ben came to visit. On Sunday afternoon, she bravely ventured to Bee Hill to check out her dad's latest passion. In exchange for taking notes and photos, I let her borrow my new gear.

Yes, we decided to invest in a beekeeper's jacket and gloves for me. Mark already had the bee veil/hat combo that would zip onto the jacket to hand down to me, and bought himself the model that can be used with regular clothing instead of a bee suit.

It was a good thing she had it, because apparently Mark made the bees mad. It's interesting how sometimes they're docile and he can do whatever he wants without smoking them, and other days they're out for blood.

His main priority was checking on Hives 4 & 5, as they're the weakest of the bunch. We'd decided together to supply them both with a protein patty (photo above) and see if that would give them a boost. Hive 5's sugar water feeder was empty, and given the amount of bees and activity, he felt it was safe to remove it. He added a shim to leave space for a protein patty, and added a moving screen for ventilation. She noted that Hive 5 is about ready for a medium super, which is good news. He left the feeder in Hive 4, and added a patty, and a screen. He may re-queen both of these hives as he's unsure of the age and stamina of the queens at this point, and we'd like to build up both colonies before the weather turns cooler.

Which can't happen soon enough!

He also checked the lower medium super on Hive 1, ostensibly to see if the bees were filling it and would need an additional super, but I think he was eager to show Heather the fruits of his labor. Hive 1 didn't disappoint.

Thanks, Heather, for taking notes and photos!

Sunday's Hive Visit Notes

I hesitate to call it a full inspection. Mark didn't try to find the queen in each hive, nor inspect each frame. Mostly he was checking for any obvious problems and seeing if the bees were doing what they were supposed to with little interference or supervision from him. The short story is: yes, mostly. Please note that Mark had left his gloves in Kemper County, so this entire process was completed with his bare hands. A lot of very experienced beekeepers do so, at least from what I've read, but it was pretty amazing to watch Mark handling all of the frames without protection!

Hives 1, 2, & 3 were bearding in the late afternoon heat. The picture above shows you why it's called bearding!

Hive 4, the BBQ bees, had very little activity in or out of the hive, and the feeder was not empty. Mark opted to take a frame of brood with a few nurse bees from Hive 3 and put in Hive 4 in hopes of boosting their numbers.

Hive 3, rather than spending their time building on the empty frames on the other end of the super, decided to maintain their building project between the tops of the frames and the moving screen. This time, the "burr comb" had honey in it. I was dispatched to the truck to find something to put it in. [Note to self: always make sure small containers and a bucket go with the beekeeper.] Mark wielded his handy dandy hive tool and removed the comb into . . . the bottom of a water bottle. Ah, very glamorous, the life of a beekeeper's assistant.

The most exciting news is that the top deep super on Hive 1 is FULL of honey. I mean, look at this gorgeous capped honey comb. Mark said it was so heavy he couldn't move it to check in the bottom super for proper queen activity.


We removed the feeders from Hive 4 and Hive 5 as they weren't in use. When we returned home we had notes to buy more moving screens and more frames, as Mark had originally ordered enough frames for four growing hives. We also ordered something else, but I'm going to save that for another post!

Nix on Six and Fermented Honey??

Mark went to check the Kemper County bees he was trying to relocate. This is the same colony that 1) had evidence of trying to make a queen and 2) generated the 3 quart jars+ of honey during my Friday night slog. When Mark checked his hive box, nary a bee was in sight. So, he's now 3 for4 on moving bees from their established location.

He called me at work to tell me he thinks the honey might be fermented. From the start, the wax and honey had a different smell, but he figured it might be what they had access to. I'm not sure how to tell if it's fermented or not (a sour taste is what I've read) but I'm not going to taste it to find out! If it is fermented it can still be fed back to the bees, which is what we'd intended to do with it anyway.

If we'd had to pitch it after my long labors in the kitchen, I would have been Highly Displeased.

Crush and Strain Method

To get an idea of how I've spent my Friday night, visit Linda's blog and watch her video on the crush and strain method of harvesting honey.

Then remove anything that makes the process convenient, and you'll have a better idea of what I went through.

The Story: Mark is migrating another group of bees. This time they're in Kemper County, and they'd set up housekeeping in a huge metal barn with a camp house built inside, but a "one story" camp house. So in that big inviting space between the plywood ceiling of the camp house and the rest of the barn, the bees built a hive.

From the evidence of queen cells in some of the old, dark brood, this hive may have been growing a new queen. Mark will inspect the hive within a week to see if he needs to buy a new queen quickly to keep the colony together, or if a new queen had hatched out and was busy doing her job.

What he brought home was a cooler full of comb most of which looked old, dark, and brittle, at least what I could see on top. He also brought home a bucket of lighter comb filled with honey (and bees!) and an old Tupperware container, also full of honey comb (but not as many bees). I picked through the best looking comb and trimmed up some chunks to save for eating (photo above).

However, because of the condition of everything else in the containers, we'll use this honey to feed the existing bees, rather than feeding them with sugar water. I'm glad we'll be able to feed this honey to the bees that worked so hard to make it when Mark moves the hive to Bee Hill. They'll be healthier if they're eating honey.

Thankfully, Mark has ordered some equipment that will help with this process, namely a bucket with screen and a honey gate. I ended up with three full quart jars of honey, and when I got up Saturday morning the container holding the remnants of crushed comb had about half an inch of honey in the bottom that had drained out overnight!

Hive 4: The Barbecue Bees

Rather than rehash the process in words, here is a short slide show of highlights from our time spent removing "The Barbecue Bees" from the gas grill and relocating them first to the deep super, then eventually to Bee Hill. It was an interesting process and by far the fastest and easiest of his attempts. They went right in on Friday even before we left and we picked them up Sunday night. The honey was dark even though it was the spring batch, but these bees were near the piney woods without a lot of diversity in their nectar sources.