It's Spring!

OK, so today's high is forecast to be 38 degrees Fahrenheit, with snow, and the current precipitation consists of ice pellets.  And yes, it's February.

But for the bees, and therefore beekeepers, it's early spring!  The girls are starting now to build their populations up, the queen is ramping up her laying of brood, and they're preparing for the inevitable arrival of dandelions, their first food of the year aside from what we feed them.

As an aside, we don't touch our dandelions until they've bloomed and gone to seed.  And then we make sure to kick and blow the seeds around the yard so there'll be even more later in the summer and next year!  Yes, that's the exact opposite of what my mom told me as a kid, when she classified dandelions as "weeds" and freaked out that there'd be too many when we blew the seeds.  But that's because now that I'm an adult, with my own yard, I know their value and I want them!

At any rate, it's definitely time for us as beekeepers to start thinking spring, and this time we're expanding from 10 hives to nearly 30 (yes, you read that right!), so on Saturday we went to the bee supply store and picked up a bunch of woodenware for some of our new hives.

Photo:  Carol Peterson

Part of the fun was also bringing two friends who've just ordered their first two nucs, and getting them set up with everything they'll need as well!  Eric and I are both so excited to be mentoring new beekeepers, you have no idea.

And then on Sunday when it was nice and warm, I visited the hives to see how they're doing, give them some more food of protein filled "winter patties" to keep them going until the nectar and pollen arrive, and treat them with a bit of Apivar.  Now's the time for "spring" mite treatments, since varroa mites attack the larvae, and the queen is ramping up her brood production, the mites'll be ramping up too.  Yuck.  There's no sadder sight to me than seeing honey bees with varroa mites clinging onto them, sucking them dry like a plate-sized tick on a human.  (shudder)

Spring feels so, so close now.

In the meantime, we console ourselves with our tapped maple trees, which are producing nicely.  I have to say, I understand why maple syrup is so expensive now!  Boiling it down is a long, long, long process, and when 10 gallons of sap yields just 1.5 pints of syrup... well, you get the picture.  But it's such a pretty picture!

And what to do with your maple syrup?  Well, I personally highly recommend this recipe for maple-buttermilk pudding cake that I tried Sunday night.

Whoa!

The Queens Have Been Released!

Eric checked on the new girls this week, and was able to release the new queen into the Swarm hive on Tuesday and the Fish hive yesterday.  Now it's up to them to get to work and build the populations back up.  Looking forward to next weekend, when we should be seeing larvae!

She Got Me

Yesterday afternoon, although it was still grey and cloudy, it finally stopped raining, so we decided to take a look into the honey supers on the Wonderland and Pooh hives to see if they needed any more space.  Turns out they didn't, but they're doing well with the space they've got.

But I got my first sting in 35 years, my first sting since becoming a beekeeper.  Totally my fault, too.

I was dressed in a dark, short-sleeved shirt and nice pants, and I wasn't in the mood to take part in going into the hives, as I'd just gotten back from a 3-hour face painting gig, so I was across the yard while Eric donned his gear to take a look.

Well, me being me, I got curious and wanted to see too, so I got closer and closer.  Eric took the top super off the Pooh hive, put it on the ground, and was looking at honey frames in the second super, as I got closer to have a look at the top super, which was now uncovered, wide open, on the ground.  I stood right next to it, leaning over to look in from the top, for all intents and purposes, looking to the bees like a big ol' looming bear about to attack (to a bee, dark clothes a human looks like a potential bear, and therefore a huge threat) their indefensible hive.

Whoops.

I felt her land in the crook of my elbow, realized I'd scared them, and immediately walked away from the hives, not freaking out (kudos to me!) not swatting at her, trying to shake my arm to shake her off, but it was already too late.  I felt the pinch as she stung me, and immediately scraped out the stinger, which is what you want to do if you're ever stung, FYI.  It was weird, then.  I felt a gradual, but quick heat start to build, and I knew it was going to hurt.  Not deathly, not intolerably, but it definitely hurt.  I got an ice pack from the freezer, which immediately numbed the pain, and kept it on until the pain subsided on its own.

Later last night, while I was knitting, I was fine.  Every time I straightened my elbow all the way, it felt sore, but not bad.  That's mostly gone now.  What I'm left with is a crazy amount of itching, that's driving me a tad insane, but I'll live.  And for the record, that Benadryl topical anti-itch stuff?  It's useless.  Just so you know.

I'm actually glad it happened.  I'm sorry I scared them, and I'm sorry one of the girls felt the need to go kamikaze, but I'm glad I got stung.  It's good to know that it hurts no more than I remember it hurting 35 years ago, and I've proven to myself that I can handle it fine.  So I'm good!

Ups and Downs

So... rather than "good news first" or "bad news first," I'll do this in chronological order, since the ups and downs are too intertwined and affect each other.

On Saturday, after I face painted and did glitter tattoos from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., we headed over to the swarm hive to see how the girls were doing.

Queenless.  Damnit.

A bunch of comb they'd built, some nectar and/or sugar water in the cells, no brood... no eggs, no larvae, no pupae.  And one empty queen cup.  Queenless.  And without a queen, a colony just can't survive.  Bees only live a month and a half on the outside, so without a queen replenishing the population to the tune of 1,000 - 1,500 eggs daily, the colony just dies out.

Crud.

Eric spent some of Saturday evening trying to reach anyone from whom we could purchase a mated queen, but had no luck.  So we discussed taking a frame of brood from one of our three backyard hives, which would hopefully have eggs on it (I really wish I could see eggs, but damn these 44-year-old eyes, I can't), giving the swarm the opportunity to move an egg into the queen cup they'd built and raise a new queen.  When bees are queenless, they'll do this, but they need to have eggs under 3 days old available to do this.  Since there were no eggs in the swarm hive, they had nothing to work with.  Giving them another hive's eggs would give them a chance, though this takes a while.  It takes about a month for an egg to become larva, then pupa, then queen, then mate, then start laying.  And it was a small population to start.  So you see the problem.

Well, Sunday we inspected our backyard hives.  The Pooh hive is doing so well that the first honey super is full and nearly capped, the second is getting filled, and we added a third!  Yay for a buncha honey!

And look!  I got a photo of eggs!  See those white lines in the cells toward the top left quadrant of the photo?  Eggs!

The Wonderland hive is also doing very well, and we added a second honey super.

The Fish hive, though... ah, the Fish hive.

Queenless.  Yikes!  Two of four.  Sigh.

But... the good news in this (yes, really, there's good news) is that the Fish hive population is good, and they're hard workers.  They'd already built several queen cups to replace their missing queen, and they were all capped.  That is the real good news, because capped queen cells mean queen pupae, the very next stage before adult bees!  That cuts down the time until they can mate and start laying tremendously!

So... we raced one of the frames with a capped queen cell over to the swarm hive, removed an undrawn frame, and dropped in the one with the potential queen.  Our hope - fingers crossed! - is that the swarm takes care of her and the other brood on that frame, buying themselves some time, and she emerges, mates well, and gets to work.

The bad part is we have to leave them alone for 2 weeks while this all happens!  So fingers are also crossed for good weather on the weekend of June 27-28 so we can take a look and see how they're doing.

Meanwhile, we're trust the Fish hive to right itself.  We gave them the undrawn foundation from the swarm to work on, and there are a few capped queen cells in that hive, or were on Sunday, and with the other two hives neighboring it, lots of drones are available for mating.

Again, we're supposed to leave those girls alone for a couple weeks too, which you know drives me absolutely batty, but we may be going in on Friday.  The NJ State Apiarist, Tim Schuler, will be coming to inspect our three backyard hives and give us feedback (We're so excited!), so it's his call on what whether we can go in and see how the Fish girls are doing.

Making Themselves Comfortable

We checked on the swarm yesterday to see how they're faring... and make sure they didn't just move on out for new digs, as swarms sometimes do when caught and hived.  Nope, they were still there, and the girls were working their little abdomens off!

Sorry some of the photos are so blurry - that's what happens when I had Eric the camera.  But if you look, you can see that on about 4 of the frames, both sides, the girls are building out comb, and if you look closely, you can see that there's a shiny liquid in several of the cells - royal jelly!  That means the queen's laying and there're eggs in those cells.  Soon... more bees!

Since they're doing so well, you can see in the last photo we switched the entrance reducer to the larger opening.  It's a little more space for them to defend, but it gives them more freedom to come and go and do their work.

On another happy note, we checked the three hives in our backyard, and look at this beautiful, beautiful honey!

Eric's an Amazing Ambassador for the Bees

... and a heck of an excellent beekeeper too!

On Wednesday, someone posted in one of our Facebook beekeeping groups about a swarm in Warwick, NY.  It was actually kind of funny; the beekeeper was posting from Oklahoma.  Turns out this New York family was from Oklahoma, back when the wife's (Gayle) mom was the beekeeper's babysitter.  And while Oklahoma's across the country, Warwick's only about 45 minutes from us.  Pure luck!

At any rate, he put Eric in touch with Gayle, who'd first posted a photo of the beautiful swarm on her own Timeline.  She didn't want an exterminator, because she understands about honeybees, but she also didn't want them hanging over her mailbox indefinitely, or directly over the spot where her kids get dropped off by the school bus, which is exactly where they were.

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

For those who aren't up on these things, a swarm is what happens when bees get too crowded in their hive.  They raise some new queens that stay in the hive, duke it out, and become the new hive royalty, and take the old queen & half the population leaves with her.  They form a cluster like this - a swarm - huddling up against an object like a tree branch, a mailbox, a picnic table, even a car fender, and send out scout bees in all different directions.  The scouts look for a suitable new home and then come back and waggle dance for the swarming colony; the bee with the best dance wins, and the colony follows her to the new home.

This swarm likely came from one of the nearby orchards; there are a plethora in that part of New York State.  I'd know, I've gone apple picking in Warwick!

Bees are amazing creatures.  They do so many things they shouldn't be able to physically do.  Like fly!  With their non-aerodynamic shape and their weight, their wings shouldn't be able to carry them, but they do.  They also can hold up some pretty heavy weight, like Gayle's swarm was doing.  Ever put a paper clip on a magnet and then touch other magnets to the magnetized paper clip, and keep going to see how long a chain the magnetic force will allow?  That's sort of what these bees were doing, but with their own strength.  The top bees hang onto the branch, while the lower bees just hang onto other bees, in a cluster, keeping the queen inside to protect and warm her.  Crazy, right?

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

Well, before he left for Warwick, Eric already knew that the swarm was about 15' off the ground, so he brought a ladder, but we only have a shorter one.  Gayle and her husband, Mike, have a tall ladder, but it's the kind you need to prop against something, so Eric drove on up, hoping it'd work.  In addition to our ladder, he brought his long-sleeved shirt, veil and gloves, bee brush, a saw, and a hive body (a deep, if you check out last week's post), bottom board, cover, entrance reducer, and ratchet strap to tie it all together once he had the bees inside... if he got the bees.

Turned out that the tree was on a slope, too steep for the ladder Gayle and Mike had, and the swarm was of course too high for our ladder.  Fortuitously, Gayle and Mike have a pole saw, so Eric borrowed that.

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

As Eric tells it, the bees chose to fall to a lower branch rather than immediately into the box, so he had to cut that branch down too.  Good thing he was dealing with a wonderful family who cared more about helping the bees and getting this experience than losing a couple branches off their pretty evergreen!

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

Once they were there, he was able to shake the bees off the branch into the hive body.  Bees, when they're swarming like this, are actually at their most docile, even though they look really intimidating.  They have no hive to protect, so their priority is just to keep the queen safe and wait around for the scouts to tell them where to go.

 (Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young) 

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young) 

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

They were so docile, that the sea of bees buzzing all around Eric weren't the slightest bit concerned with him being there.  They weren't even annoyed.

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young) 

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young) 

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

Gayle and Mike's sons were happily watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, unbothered by bees.

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

Eric knew he had the queen in the hive once the rest of the bees started going into the deep of their own volition.  Bees will follow their queen anywhere, so once you've got her, you've got the swarm.

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

After that, all there is to do is to wait for all the bees to head on in.  Eric said it took about 20 minutes.

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

In the meantime, there were some very interested young men who got to try Eric's veil and gloves so they could see the bees close up too!

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young) 

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young) 

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

And this is how new beekeepers happen!  The boys were so excited that Eric is sure they'll be working to convince their parents that they need hives too.  Hope they're successful!

Eventually, he had a complete box of bees.

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

 (Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

(Photo:  Gayle Beck Young)

I love that last photo.  Once they were all in, he left with a promise from the family that they'll come to New Jersey and visit our hives!

The bees stayed sealed in the hive box all night until Thursday morning, when Eric and I brought them to the house of a friend who wants bees for her garden (and the environment in general), but doesn't want to be a beekeeper.  So they're still our bees, just living with her and her husband.

We got the hive placed in its spot behind the peonies.  You can see the entrance reducer still on, with a receipt wrapped around the hole in it to keep the bees in safely.  It's that pale wood bar right above the front porch there.

Once we got the ratchet strap open, Eric lifted the lid, at which point I found that the girls were all clinging to the top corner of the hive, of course the least convenient place for them to be, at least for our purposes.

I'll admit, it was disconcerting.  I've seen photos like this, but it was the first time I was up close and personal with a dense cluster of bees.  Eric held the lid over the hive body while I used a bee brush to brush them all in.  A bee brush is just what it sounds like, a brush with ultra soft bristles so the bees don't get injured when you direct them where you want them to go.

They didn't get injured, but they definitely got agitated.  I was happy to be wearing my jacket, veil, and gloves.  By this time, they'd been knocked out of a tree, driven an hour to New Jersey, and then driven again to another house.  Plus, now that they had a home, they wanted to get to work building it, not be bothered by us.  We were quick, though.

Eventually, we had them where we needed them, added 10 frames of foundation, put on the inner cover, a feeding bucket filled with sugar water (and Honey B Healthy - an essential oil mix that keeps the sugar water from going bad & gives them some added nutrients) in a second deep, and then the outer cover on top.  (FYI, frames are literally wooden rectangular frames that we put together, each holding one thin sheet of beeswax foundation for the girls to get a head start working on to build out their honeycomb.)

Our friend had designated a spot for them with welcome signs, since she wouldn't be home when we got there.

n

We did leave the entrance reducer in (that pale bar right above the front porch/landing board) so that, as a very small colony, they don't have too much space to defend.

The cutest thing... before Eric left the Warwick home on Wednesday, one of the boys gave him a dandelion for the bees (too sweet!), so I was sure to put it on their landing board where they could have it.

I already want to go back to see how they're doing!