Honeybee Inspection Day

I have been keeping an eye on my bees this Spring after the fiasco I faced last Spring. There's nothing like having a houseful of company in from out of state and looking out at your beehive that's decided to swarm. Yes, May 2010 was eventful. So much busy work getting ready for the big event of my son's graduation that I had neglected to watch for the signs of a potential swarming to come. I should have known. Spring blooming was strong and everything was nice and lush around here. That kind of activity tells the bee colony that they need more workers to collect nectar and pollen. But, I was just too busy to see it, until it was close to being too late. Thanks to the help of my dad and some quick thinking we were able to set up the second hive to attract the swarm. It was touch and go for awhile but in the end we succeeded!

In case you are wondering, I have two Kenyan Top Bar Hives. I have a lot of reasons for choosing it because of the more natural environment. I have previous posts that explain it in further detail here about beekeeping.

Being May again I am monitoring those hives like a hawk. I'm ready with the third hive if needed. 

This is a brood comb where bees are raised
The  brood comb will be darker and the wax harder. The raised cells are drones. The flat will be workers. No queen cells here.  

This is an actual honey comb that is just starting to be filled.
In a Top Bar Hive it is behind the brood combs. The wax is light and they will  add more combs as the season progresses

This is the new hive we added last year. By moving several bars of brood combs from the older hive about to swarm, they stopped and relocated to this hive which is next to the older one. See the different color bars?

Every bee has a job and these are a couple of undertaker bees removing one that has died.

The bees are doing well and the hive looks healthy. I am concerned though about another round of cross-combing in the older hive. I battled this last year and cleaned them out, checked that the hive was level and it still happened. How do you tell a bee they are building honeycombs the wrong way? I just hate it because inspecting the honey area always causes damage to the combs they are forming. The new hive is fine thankfully. I will just keep checking and see what I can do.

Honey harvesting here starts at the end of June through July. And last year's honey was delicious! 

Busy As A Bee

It has been over two weeks since I've last posted anything on here. Shame on me! I wish it were because I was off on some tropical vacation or something as a reason why, but NO I've been here "busy as a bee." With school work, yard work, the animals and my volunteer obligations I've been a bit overwhelmed. Finally though, I'm able to blog a bit about what's going on around here.

First the bees....



Taking a peek inside was such a treat! The bees were busy, busy, busy building their combs and filling them.



These pictures were taken a little over a week ago. I checked on them again Sunday and the combs are even larger now and more are capped. All of these photos were taken from the back of the hive.



I am just amazed at their ability to construct their hives. The natural shape of the doesn't change the perfect hexagon cells.

My Bees Have Arrived!

After months of eager anticipation (and nervousness) the bees are here! A lively phone call came at 6:30am on Monday. I didn't answer my phone the first time because I really thought it was a wrong number or something. As soon as it quit ringing another call came in. It was then I passed the phone to my dear hubby hoping he could deal with whoever was on the other end. Well, lo and behold it was the Post Office. Evidently, they were scared. Two of the bees were clinging onto the outside of the crate. The Post Master was afraid they were escaping and requested an immediate pick-up at their back door...no waiting until it opens. That's service I tell you!

I've been waiting on their shipment since January. Whew, what I relief to have them set up and seemingly content. I would have pictures of the whole process, but it seems my family was too scared to be out there with me. They watched me with binoculars through the kitchen window. Too bad we don't have one of those fancy-shmancy cameras with the ultra zoom lenses. Of course the pictures may have been more of something you'd see on the show AFV than me actually looking like I know what I was doing.

After fumbling with all of the packaging, getting the queen's cage prepped and hung inside the hive I was making it. There's just something about shaking 3 lbs of honeybees into a hive that doesn't seem safe or sane to most people...but I must admit it was pretty cool. My gloves were pretty big on my hands and my veil needed strapped on better making it difficult to see. In the process I sadly squished a bee... That just did it for me. I was sad to see I'd ended it's little life with my clumsiness.

It rained most of that day. With either an umbrella or a raincoat I bet I made 10 trips out there to check on the progress. Some of the bees had to be left in the shipping crate because they refused to be released (normal by the way). I just sat the crate near the entrance and prayed. Flashes would go through my head of them drowning right in the crate. Torture I tell you!

When the sun finally peaked from behind the clouds, the busy bees began to come out of the hive massing at the entrance. What worry does that bring up then? That somehow I had failed to make a better homecoming for them. Maybe I should have done this or that to make them want to stay. But time marched on. As evening approached, life around the hive seemed a bit more normal. The crate was now emptied and the masses of bees clinging around the hive entrance had reduced to just a few plus the hive guard. I finally could rest peacefully through the night.

Here's my hive:

I've posted previously about Top Bar Hives if you want to look at them. It is quite a bit different than the traditional Langstroth hive used by most beekeepers. This one doesn't have pre-made frames but only a top bar, thus the name. It encourages a naturally shaped comb like you would find if bees built them in nature.

Living in fire ant territory, I have been more than concerned about them invading and destroying the hive. They LOVE to get into my potted plants and such, so I knew this would be a problem. Elevating the hive to waist level not only will help with the fire ant problems, but it is suppose to be an all around calmer way to deal with the bees.

You see the cinder block on the top? Well, add our common 50-60 mph winds in the mix of everything. It will also help if we have some nightly visitors wanting a taste of honey (no bears thankfully)

My kids have already questioned my worrying about the bees. "Wow Mom you worry more about the bees than us!" ...If they only knew the stress of when I brought them home fresh from the hospital. There were more sleepless nights than I care to count, but it was because of that they are alive today.

I've joined the local beekeepers association so I can have plenty of help and friendly advice. I'm also already getting requests for honey. We'll see! Until I'm comfortable with the whole process, I'm not promising honey to anyone. Of course I said the same thing about raising chickens for eggs. With almost a dozen a day coming in, I think I am able to sell a few and share with friends.

I'm really looking forward to taking care of the bees. I just need to let them do what they do best and enjoy it.