Second Aniversary

Today marks our second anniversary of Beekeeping.  2 years ago we woke up to our first full day with bees in the yard.  The previous evening at Sundown my Wife & I drove to a farm 15 miles away, packed Mary & Myrina onto the back of our truck and drove them back to our awaiting yard.

I only had the 'Beekeeping for Dummies' book for reference.  I didn't know any beeks and knew nothing of clubs or online forums.  Saying I was a bee-haver would be generous.  Yet ignorance was bliss and we eventually harvested 75#'s of the best honey ever!

The first winter was mild & spring brought some surprises.  We got to watch the bees swarm a few times & I began to realize Mary was having troubles.  Also 2009 was the worst honey year on record here due to the rain.  Mary continued her downward spiral as I desperately searched for answers.  There would be no honey yield in '09 but in October I found the Piedmont Beekeepers Association & the online forums.  The many great people in the association and on the forums answered my questions and helped me better understand what my role as a beekeeper really is.

The Winter of  2010 was then the hardest winter in decades.  Many colonies in the area died as a result.  Mary's number came up too.  Yet We were able to save her hive by bringing it in the house.  Still though Mary's & Myrina's populations were greatly reduced.

Now into Spring.  I've completed the local Beginners Bee Course.  Plus we've bought a package of bees and I'm trying to hive a wild colony in the woods.  We might end the year with 4 colonies but only Myrina has enough bees to make honey.  We'll see.

Meanwhile there's new contacts to make both at the club & online.  I have so much to learn and do before next winter.  All of it will be posted here as it happens.

Our appreciation goes to many for the support we have received.  The great information, good conversations, or even moral support offered by many of you.

Thank you.

New Colony Coming Soon

Next week I'll order a package of bees through the Piedmont Beekeepers Association who is presenting the Beginners class. They will come from Georgia with a marked queen. Delivery date is currently near the end of April.

This will be the first time I start a hive with a package. When I got my first 2 hives they were already established (unknown how many years old) and filled with wax, brood, pollen, & nectar (and nosema, varroa, & waxmoth in Mary). So I've never seen a colony start from the beginning. The best part is all the new wooden ware. With Mary & Myrina I had to start replacing parts piece-meal from day One. Neither of them has ever had all new parts.

Things I must do first:

1. Build & paint all wooden ware
2. Select hive location & build stand
3. Add Chronolog to Blog
4. Read up on installing packages
   
5. Pray it won't be raining when they show up.

Bee'ginners Bee School

Tonight was the first class of the 'Beekeeping for Beginners' course presented by the Piedmont Beekeepers Association in Lynchburg, Virginia. About time! About time, because I've had bees for Two years and am finally attending a class. About Time, also because the first two classes were postponed due to bad Winter storms. The class was packed with soon to be new beekeepers. Which is a very good sign. People mentioned many different reasons for enrolling:

1. Lack of pollinators
2. Bees need a helping hand
3. I want honey
4. My garden needs bees
5. Parent & child shared activity
6. I have bees and don't know what to do with them
   
7. I saw a demonstration and decided to start
8. My wife saw a demonstration and decided that I was going to start

Or this one,

My relative who kept bees in the States moved to a Caribbean island where he was attacked and almost killed by Africanized bees.

I have no idea how that last one works but I'm glad they came all the same. #'s 6 & 8 apply mostly to me. I can't wait to finish this bee class & bee smart.

A Quick Look

A cool 48 degrees & sunny today. An OK fly day for the bees. I went down to the hives to check activity. I closed off the entrance. Then waited to see what the foragers were bringing in.

Mary's girls were bringing back some wax from that old frame I left out. No pollen. Plus I checked under her SBB and still see signs of CB. I will lay a stone pad beneath the hives this winter to reduce ambient moisture near the hives next year.

Mary's girls coming home almost empty handed

Myrina's bees, of course, were returning from somewhere with some bright orange pollen. I have no idea whats blooming but something is. Even our mums are gone. I'll guess at somebody's potted flowers and leave it at that.

I count 6 with pollen

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Also I took their Fall pictures:

Mary ↓

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And Myrina ↓

Both have double deeps, HTF, Inner cover, Vent box, T-cover, & a tin top sheet. Mary has her SBB while Myrina has a Solid BB. Myrina will get her SBB as soon as I make it. Winter will see even more reduction.

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The November meeting was last night. We hosted a panel of 3 experts to pose questions to. Two local guys and one man from N.C, a Bob Cole. Mr. Cole made the point that we should be raising our own Queens. That plus what else I've read convinces me to do just that. I'll need to read much on the topic this Winter to make a successful try at it.

That and 2 splits will make for a very interesting year in 2010.

aun Aprendo

Screened Bottom Board, Hive-top Feeders

Big day today. I replaced the solid bottom board on Mary with a Screened Bottom Board. Poor ventilation last winter led to condensation in the hive. I installed hive-top ventilators this summer. Now with the SBB there should be a slight chimney effect in the hives. Yet with the Inner cover still in place I expect no trouble with too much heat loss. Myrina will get hers as soon as I make one.

The view from below the SBB

The debris on the solid bottom board was disgusting. Mummified brood, Wax Moth larva, Just a terrible mess. I hope the SBB works as well for me as it seems to for others in the Club.

Debris on solid bottom board
-Train Wreck!-

I was worried the the temps around the brood might be too low in the cooler weather so I flipped the brood boxes (these poor bees got such a stirrin' today!). When all was done everything looked good but soon after I saw some Robing taking place. I quickly popped in the reducer to control it. Eventually the girls sorted themselves out and everybody went home.

Alright! Break it up, break it up!

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Also today I added the Hive-Top Feeders to both hives. I already like these things for numerous reasons.

1. No more refilling jars every day
2. No more storing syrup in the fridge. All of it goes into the hive.
3. I can refill the feeder without exposure to the bees.
4. The syrup in HTF's will be warmer than in entrance feeders.
   
5. The syrup is closer to the bees.

There will be more reasons I'm sure. However there was an initial issue. HTF's must be put in a super. I first tried a medium honey super. It left too much room above the feeder. This extra dead space would (I think) draw heat away from the bees. I do not have smaller supers so I made some. I used 1 x 4's to make 2 of them. The box leaves only 1.5 inches of space above the feeder. I hope this is enough but not to much.

Hive-Top Feeder in it's new super

Mary's girls found the HTF before I closed the lid. Myrina's, however, had some difficulty in finding it. I had to drip some syrup down through the feeding slots onto the brood box. A few girls followed the trail upwards and found the feeder. Good to go.

I am also mixing a tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar for each gallon of solution. This prevents mold from growing in the sugar. It has been recommended to me to also add some essential oils: lemon grass & spearmint. I've seen this mentioned positively in the forums and have ordered them.

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The club meetings are great. I'm learning more all the time plus getting my questions answered. I plan to take a beginners Beekeeping class in February. I'm going to get my neighbor to take the classes with me. She loves the bees and sits them for me when I'm not home. I'm planning to put hives in her yard anyway.

It looks like I'll be able to split both hives next spring if they're in good condition. That will give me 4 hives total. Since they are both down in numbers from such a rotten year (or my crappy handling) I'm thinking about insulating the hives for winter. It should decrease the cold stress plus give them an earlier start to spring. We will see.

Picky bee wants her bottle back!

The Meeting

After 3 months I made it to a meeting. It happened to be the Honey tasting meeting. Oh darn! I met with some life long keepers. I asked some questions & got some good answers.

• Two brood boxes is a little much down here.
• Mary is Queen-less or weak Queened.
• I will combine Mary & Myrina for the Winter.
• I will separate each brood box into it's own hive next year.

Much work ahead of me. I will do an inspection this weekend plus the combination. Wish me luck.

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UPDATE, 11/23/09

I did not do the combination. The populations in each hive were better than advertised. Reserves were also adequate. I will begin feeding them pollen in January the increase brood up. After which I will split them in Spring.

The Bee Club

I forgot to mention this. I missed the meeting for July because of a previous engagement. I tried to alter my schedule but it was not meant to be. The meeting in august will be the 20th. Guess what? I'll be out of town on a family vacation. Rats...

Hopefully I'll be around for the September meeting. But if I was holding my breath I'd be dead by now. Oh well.

Venting Top Box - for Summer

I finished building a venting top box for both hives. It is 2.5 inches deep with 3 holes on each side but the back. Each hole is 1.25 inches in width. I used the same gauge screen used on screened bottom boards. I'm not worried about rain since the telescoping cover covers most of the vent holes (still there's enough of a gap for passive air circulation). It's my hope that this will cool the hives and prevent moisture build up.

My next step will be to build a screened bottom board for each hive. I'm still considering what features it will have. Boards with the tray for checking Varroa mites don't seem to vent as well as the boards without the extra tray. Maybe a taller board with side vents below the screen will do. I'll figure it out.

Also new is the use of sugar spray for inspections. I tried it tonight when looking at each hive. It did not work very well by itself. When sprayed the girls stayed where they were and began to lick up the sugar. What I wanted them to do was move further into the hive & relax. Even Mary had several bees get angry and come looking for me. She's always a calm hive but it's late in the year. SO, I added smoke to the sugar spray; a sort of double whammy. The combo worked very well as expected. The bees moved away from the work area then stayed there to clean off the sugar. This rates well with me and I will continue the practice.

Did I say I was in the hives? I checked to see if the bees were drawing out any of the honey frames now that the excluder was gone. Answer is NO. Linda, the lady from the last post, seemed convinced that the Plasticell was the problem. She also stressed that once the girls refuse a frame it's over and they'll never take it. She highly recommended that I scrap the plasticell and revert to wax & wire. So this is my last trick. I put the honey suppers between the brood boxes. I hope this will compel the girls to draw out the comb. All the deep frames I've put into the brood boxes with Plasticell have been drawn out successfully. So I hope they will get confused and draw out these too. I'll let you know.

Oddly they were making bur comb sideways on top of the brood boxes. Go figure.


I'm still excited about the up coming club meeting. I'll meet so many keepers at once plus all the questions I have. I'll likely chatter like an idiot until they just plain run from me. I should make up a list of questions and rank them. The meeting lasts an hour & a half so if I can get 10 answered I'll be doing good. Can't wait...

They've thrown me a life preserver.

Saturday we went to the Farmers Market to find some Free Ranging Chickens & eggs (found them, Awesome). While there we came across a booth for an local apiary selling their honey and wax. Once the conversation got going it lasted a good 45 minutes. One of my bigger problems is that I've never spent any time with another keeper. Everything I know is from some book. No one has ever shown me what I'm supposed to be doing. Well that seems to be finally changing.

The very kind ladies at the booth encouraged me to join the local chapter bee club. I was so happy to finally be talking to someone I forgot to ask the name of the club. They gave me directions and times for the monthly meetings. July 16th is the next one. I was also informed about the Mentoring program offered at the club. Someone will come visit and go over all the important stuff & look at my hives. WOW, no more guessing. I absolutely cannot imagine how much of a difference this will make. I wish the meeting was tonight. I'm so jazzed about this. Boy are things looking up.