Honey Harvest

Finally had time to harvest honey.  A bit disappointing.  Milano never did completely fill all 8 medium frames.  I took only 4 fully capped (front and back) frames from that colony.  The 5th was only fully capped on one side.  I decided not to spin it.  I thought once that Milano's activity had drastically dropped off.  I wonder if I lost some productivity to a swarm?

I had added a 2nd hive body to Venice - a deep.  I took one beautiful full frame of capped honey from Venice.  I was going to take a second but they have a begun putting brood in the two next closest full frames.  I was surprised how heavy a deep frame full of honey was.  I was also pleasantly surprised that my little extractor DID accommodate a deep frame - although two would've been nice for the balance.

No more mason jars!  They are too messy.  I bought these 3lbs jugs.  This years harvest - 16 lbs.  It tastes EXACTLY like previous years (unique and completely different from store bought).  We have Persimmon trees, scores of acres of Tulip Populars, a nearby peach orchard, tons of blackberries and, thanks to the dairy down the road,  40 acres of alfalfa (which they tell me they cut 5 times right after it blooms).  It seems thicker than previous years too.  Good stuff!  Should last a while and I'm pretty sure I left them plenty.

I didn't take any from my new split: Sicily.  That colony has completely packed a medium 10 frame.  I have been meaning to add another hive body - now I wonder if that would be a good idea.  I really hope they'll winter.  I am considering adding a lower medium and feeding them all really well before winter.  I'd be bummed if my first split didn't over-winter.  It's come a long way and overcome my mistakes.

More bee blogging

As there seems to be a dearth of nectar at the moment, I decided to feed the colonies.  The 1st year colony I call Venice looks like it slowed down a bit. right after I added the 2nd super.  I admit, I am a bit worried Milano will get into that capped honey in the super I am taking.  Conflict: If they take it -  it means they need it and I probably shouldn't take it....  I figure I'll take it and feed the rest of the season.

My pride and joy - the colony I call Sicily - is doing well despite my many mistakes.  I moved two frames of brood with queen cells into a new hive.  It was VERY, VERY slow going.  With only nurse bees and no foragers as well as un-emerged queens, it took a long time for this to get going - but it's going fine now.  I fed them pollen patties and sugar water.  Being weak as long as it was created my first ever look at hive beetles.  Yuck!  I dispatched a few and cleaned out my top feeder and fed them  They are now 5 full frames plus two other half frames - and, finally, show a defense when I inspect (I used to be able to inspect them without any gear).  If they winter, I am going to try to get them in place to harvest the peach orchard nectar and fill a Ross Rounds super.  Specialty comb honey!  Can't wait.

I need a bee blog

This was a catch-all blog but lately it seems like it's jut s a bee blog.  I'm excited to report my first ever split finally seems to be showing progress.  They are too weak to defend  against Milano or Venice so I haven't been feeding (I don't want Milano storing sugar with the honey since I will harvest from there soon - they are filling out the last 3 top super frames.  The first five are already full and capped).  Good thing I checked on [what did I name this hive?] - they are out of food.  They are drawing comb and the population is way up!  It looks like a new package install after about a week now.  They have brood and at least four full frames of packed workers (I only moved over two!).  Lots of pollen bearing workers are entering and there's good traffic flow.  Wow!  I really didn't expect this to make it.  I will feed them the rest to the summer to see if I can get them to a density to winter.

My new vented, gabled copper roof came for Venice.  So now I have a bottom board and a top.  All I need is a hive body and a top cover and I have a hive ready for the next split.  I think I'll order that, some more medium supers (standardizing on mediums now), two or three hive stands and another slated bottom for [what did I name that new hive?] - they will need all the help they can get.

New Equipment!

Milano is looking so good.  I did an inspection and swapped the brood frames this past weekend.  Milano may be a bit honey bound.  I gave them a Illinois honey super and they are working it pretty good.  I moved the two brood frames out that had queen cells and put them in Sicily.

Venice is doing as well or better than Milano did last year and Milano was a (naturally) spliced hive!  Venice is in my old, original Dadant starter hive with the solid bottom board.  It's in the 90's now and supposed to be 95 this weekend so I have a new screen bottom board and slatted bottom to add to them (I also ordered a copper gable roof that has a vented attic from BetterBee but it didn't come in).  I'm impressed with these guys.  I will add a shallow super to them before July, I'm sure!

I also bought some top feeders for Venice and Sicily as well as some Honey-B-Healthy (for the first time).  It smells like lemon pledge.  I added to the feeders on Sicily and Venice.  I hope Milano doesn't get to it (Sicily's pretty weak) since I've already added the supers there.  I've also been feeding Venice and Sicily pollen patties.  It really seems to be going well in Venice.  I'm not expecting any honey from Sicily - I just want to see them get large enough to winter.

Here's is the medium brood frame I gave Sicily.  I only moved 2 frames.  Next time I will move 4 frames and also swap places with the old hive.  I hope to make 3 top bar hive for next year.

Splitting Hive Experiment

It was supposed to be 78 and partly cloudy.  Instead, it was 67 and was drizzling off and on.  Now it was supposed to get up to 74 but the next few days would be colder SO I just went ahead and went for it!  I removed the top cover, nice calm bees - I removed the inside lid - still calm.

So, I removed the sugar water feeder and the  medium honey super I had added a few weeks ago.  I wasn't real impressed with the progress they had made.  The next hive body was pretty tough.  It felt like it would bend my hive tools.  I used two and kept working all the way around.  Then it cracked (at the seam like it was supposed to) and the girls came boiling out.  These girls were not calm and now neither was I.  Quite an onslaught!  I had a few hundred covering me and 30 or so ping my veil.  I would've NEVER stood my ground with either of my old veils.  I just about threw in the towel and then changed my mind and went for it - back into the breach.  No smoke!  Terrible weather - the worst possible combination.  I pull a middle brood frame - saw mostly honey.  Am I honey bound?  I pulled the next frame - YES!  Four queen cells!

I moved these two frames into a medium 10 frame Langstrom (Sicily) and covered it up.  There was some drawn comb in there from when I had a package in there earlier this month.  I hope this will establish a new colony and keep Milano from swarming.

I checked on Venice - it was doing great and I really should've added another hive body while I was there.  They hadn't touched the bee patty I placed in the top cover.  I will move that when I feed and add another hove body tomorrow.

I broke a personal record for stings - 8, I think.  Very minor.  They got me through the denim and so were not able to embed the stingers or inject much venom.  These almost all happened when I crouched down and drew then denim tight against my thighs.  It felt like I bumped into blackberries - pretty minor stings.  I almost wasn't sure I had even gotten stung until I looked and counted the red whelps.  It is the bare skin stings when they are able to embed the stinger and inject a lot of venom that really get to you.  These were nothing - really.  LOVE the new bee jacket with zip on hood.  I had about a half dozen of them desperately crawling around the junction of the three zippers looking for a way in.  How do they know this stuff!!

Can't wait to see if Sicily II takes off.

Honey Harvest

It wasn't as much as I wanted - 5 full capped frames (although one of them was about double - so nearly 6 frames).  But it was MUCH, much more than last year.  It's over 30 pounds! That will last us a while!  I also added the NEW top feeder for winter feeding.  It hold a lot of sugar syrup.  I used the Bee-Gone to drive the bees off.  Even thought it didn't work as well as I thought it would (it wouldn't clear a full frame - had to use brush) it did seem to repulse the hangers-on so that after a while, it was clear and I took it in the house.  They have been pretty mild up until I started brushing droves of them off of 5 frames.  I had two get in my veil.  I dealt with them pretty quick - I'm not getting stung in the face again!  So - no stings and a lot of honey.  That's a good harvest for me.

Robbers?

Every time I feed now I get a TON of bees on the hive.  This is not normal.

How To Get Started In Beekeeping

Someone asked me about starting beekeeping the other day.  I was excited to tell them "how I would do it if I were starting again".  First off - I'm no expert.  Although I've been interested and read about it for 30 years (even helped splice a hive about 30 years ago), I just started beekeeping myself 4 years ago.  Even so, it's probably a bit premature to endorse a method I haven't tried yet, but if I were going to get started in beekeeping right now I would use the Kenyan Top Bar hives (great site, btw).  I base this on an article I read in Bee Culture a few months back.  You can build them yourself.  The design promotes health by allowing the bees to make smaller cells which seems to inhibit mite populations somewhat.  Also, the act of harvesting removes comb so that you do not have old tracked up comb that can result in sickness.

Because you don't have reusable frames and foundation, you don't need an expensive extractor.  Just two common plastic 5 gallon buckets are used (Home Depot has them for less than $3!).  There is no expensive equipment to buy - just a veil, gloves, smoker, hive tool and a 4x8 sheet of plywood!  From this sheet of plywood you can make 3 hives and have enough material left over to make 2 nucs.

If you're looking to save even more money - build these hives and nucs and give your phone number to the fire department to call for swarm removal = Free Bees!  Be sure to purchase the above equipment before doing that.  In fact, if you're going to go after feral bee swarms, you'd better invest in the entire bee suit! [Disclaimer: If you live in the southwest (or even if you don't), you might want to just BUY some nice Italian bees from a reputable dealer to start off.]


This book is suppose to cover top bar hives pretty well.  It's on my list to buy. Here's a neat video I found on building a top bar hive.

This is why I wear my veil

I hate it when this happens!  Ha! Saw this on Linda's Bee Journal and couldn't resist re-posting it.

Milano gets yet another super

I ran home and added a honey super to Milano at lunch.  Wow!  This was a newly installed package - mid April - and they are doing terrific!  They were packed in there.  Harvested a bit of honey comb too and we all sampled it.  I can't understand why it is so much better than the stuff from the grocery - but it is!  I love these bees!  They are so nice!  I popped the top and pulled a frame and scraped out some comb and no one got angry.  None of them tried to sting me or follow me.  Wow!  It'll be a long time before I ever buy any non-Italian packages again!

Old hive, new hive

My large healthy Russian hybrid hive that wintered well then went queenless did not make it - sort of.  Let me explain.  After the "shaking" and new queen didn't take, I tried one more queen.  It still didn't make it.  However, the Italian hive completely filled the first brood chamber shortly there after WITHOUT HAVING RAISED ANY BROOD.  Obviously, the left over workers moved into the new hive instead.  I'm already on my 3rd hive body, getting ready to add a 4th!  They even went back and robbed ALL of the food stores from the old hive, cleaning it out completely. (I didn't really know what else to do with it, it was mostly tracked up brood chambers and I didn't want the honey myself).  So, next year, I guess I'll be buying another package or two.  I'd like to get 3 hives going so some day I could repair my own problems by robbing a brood frame from one and giving to another.  Anyway, I'm hoping for a good honey season.  Looks like we're off to a good start.

Kiev gets another new queen

Kiev, my Russian hybrid hive gets another new queen.  They survived the winter, but they were queenless when I checked on them this Spring.  I bought another queen, Italian this time (the Russian bees seemed a bit mean so trying Italian again) and after 4 days, she had not been released from her cage.  I released her and the next week I couldn't find her.  It also looked like a lot of the drones had found their way back from half a kilometer - not as many as before, but too many I fear.  I put the new marked Russian hybrid queen in - this time with clipped wings. They really seems interested in her.  I think they've been queenless long enough that they will take to her quickly.  I hope so. 

Do you like my pastel colored hive bodies?  :-)

New medium hive body for Milano

Milano, my new Italian colony is doing really well.  They were ready for the new medium hive body I added.  This hive is the 8 frame type and I am using plastic frames for the brood frames.  I have a lot of trouble with the wood ones pulling apart or sticking to the bottom of the next section.

Beautiful Weekend Brings Out Bees

It got up over 70 today and was sunny and windy. That brought the girls out in force with not much to do (November being a low nectar time). So I refilled the sugar water - TWICE! And, I'm fairly certain it's empty again. I'll do the same tomorrow. I really should make that winter top cover they demo'd in Bee Culture last month. Could make feeding a lot less trouble (although I got away with feeding without the gear this morning).

Finally! The Harvest!

We finally got our first harvest of HONEY! It's not much - less than 8 pounds. It's also a bit too high in moisture but I figured we'd give it away and eat it ourselves quick enough that it wouldn't have a chance to granulate. Wow! There's a lot to learn about beekeeping. I'm pretty sure I know what went wrong. I was WAY too late adding the second hive body. They are packed into the two hove bodies pretty well and I have reduced the entrance to keep out mice (and drafts). I'm going to make a modified top entrance with a pivoting top to allow feeding during winter. If all goes well with the wintering, I am hoping for 40-60 pounds next year!

Enjoy it while you can!

Wow! These guys are really hungry! They even pester me in the yard. It really unnerves the family. The hummingbird has given up. This must be why the feeder only cost $2. Defective design - no doubt.

The pic wasn't worth it (Got stung adding sugar water last night)

There were a lot of bees on the feeder when I pulled it. I thought it'd be a good picture so I was trying to hold the bee covered feeder in one hand and take a picture with the other. No gear, of course. Before I could get it framed up, I had made a mistake - I crushed one in the feeder. My fault! That triggered their attack response! That would be sting #4 of the year. Funny - didn't hurt - but it DID open up my lungs! The venom is an anti-inflammatory and causes a steroid to be produced by the body. Still, I prefer the inhaler for asthma.

This is the wrong way to do this - eh?

The bees were pretty crowded. I added a super and they started working on that but they were still crowded and they looked like they were honey bound. (I had a queen excluder on the super). After sampling the honey in the super and realizing they had pollinated the peach orchard a half mile away, I was determined NOT to give them that honey back! (It was unbelievably yummy!) So I decided to insert another hive body in between the 1st hive and the super. If this were not disruptive enough, I had a couple of frames stick to the honey super. They were ticked! The next morning, I looked very early and there were NO bees in the entrance. I hadn't seen it like that lately. I popped the case and saw them. Again - they were irritated and started emerging. It had dropped to 58 degrees and I guess they were cold AND they now had lots of room. That was Sunday. They're still there so I guess I made it. I was afraid they were going to swarm on me (like last year). they are sucking down the sugar water. I ran out yesterday and forgot to add more. They went exploring and found my wife's hummingbird feeder. They're all over it! Ha! I told her they'll keep her busy now. They drink a liter a day!

I need a bee blog

Since the Russian hybrid hive didn't make it, and the Italian hive was doing so well, I decided to add another hive body. Linda (of Linda's Bees) told me to burn out the hive to ensure there was no American or European Foulbrood. I was pretty sure there wasn't - the cells were clean (the hive went queenless and dronified) but thought I'd better do it anyway. I scorched it good, inside and out. I then applied lin seed oil but decided to paint it since it turned out so dark I was afraid it would absorb too much heat.

See what I mean?

This feeder works well - but it is fairly intrusive compared to the other style.