Bee Tales

Etsy

2011-10-06T00:18:00.001-07:00

The waggle dance

2009-07-31T07:28:00.000-07:00

news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8176000/8176878.stm

The waggle dance informs bees of danger!!

Honey bee....

2009-06-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

Bees....

2009-05-27T06:45:00.000-07:00

The busy bees....repairing comb from where the box above was removed....and just busy in the hive..... :)

Almost fully grown....

2009-05-27T06:40:00.000-07:00

As you remove frames and boxes, sometimes the propolis and comb has attached to the frames and boxes below and it breaks apart. Sadly this can mean that any larvae and eggs in that comb can be lost. The bees work fast to try and move them or they will just remove them from the hive as quickly as possible - in this case the baby was lost :( you can see it was almost a complete bee- fully formed inside it's coating!!! Amazing! When you see them actually be born out of the comb and they pop out all furry and fluffy as a new bee it's incredible :) we've seen a few being 'born' now :)

Pollen pattern...

2009-05-27T06:37:00.000-07:00

A frame of bees showing how much pollen they have been bringing home already....I would guess this is mainly from dandelions and catkins etc from trees as there really hasn't been much of anything else around....too much cold and snow around until this last weekend.

The drones are back in town....

2009-05-27T06:26:00.000-07:00

We have split the big hive and created a smaller hive from it - given the new hive a new Queen, and several frames of bees and honey and larvae (making sure the old Queen was NOT there).

At the same time we did an inspection of the main hive and saw that there are now drones again. Drones die off in the Fall when they are no longer needed. Drones are male bees and are only needed to fertilize Queens, so they are only kept around during the Summer months. After that they die off as otherwise they would eat up vital colony stores of honey through the winter needlessly. You can spot a couple of Drones in the pictures above - they are much bigger than the female worker bees and have much bigger eyes.

Great video...

2009-05-09T15:50:00.000-07:00

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5lzdKqdvE

Worth watching until the end :)

A man on my beekeepers forum posted this link - it's a video his wife made of when he was putting his package bees into the hive. His wife isn't too keen on bees ;)

Bringing home the pollen....

2009-05-09T15:42:00.000-07:00

While we were down by the pond this afternoon, there were dark skies rolling in.....I'm not sure if the bees knew it was going to rain or not, but all of a sudden they ALL came flying home......many of them had their little legs COVERED in pollen!! I didn't have my macro lens with me, but I snapped a few pictures anyway. They aren't great, but if you click on them you can see them bigger and make out the pollen. I'm still sooooo surprised that the bees are finding pollen so soon - last year the package bees weren't bring ANY pollen back until June or so....yet these bees are bringing all of this wonderful pollen back already!! They are happy bees :) I tried feeding them with syrup and yet they aren't interested in the syrup at all.....

I am hoping for another swarm catch this year! THAT would wonderful - especially if it was somewhere easy like in that bush - like last year :) Probably too much to hope for ;)

On the move....

2009-05-04T07:33:00.000-07:00

We moved the hove down to their permanent Summer home down near the pond last night. We waited until after dark and the bees were all 'back home', and then we attached it to the tractor and moved it down the hill to where it sat last year. I know they do well down there, they are sheltered from the high winds and storms we get in the Summer months, they have access to the water they need, they are further away from neighbours and from the children's play area. (For some reason, while they have been by the vegetable garden they have been flying directly over the workshop towards the sand box and swings etc - maybe because that is the direction the sun is in????).

Anyway, I love to go and sit down by the pond and listen to the frogs, and sit and watch the bees come and go in the Summer, I love that they are sheltered from the high winds and get the sun for much of the day. It's a good place for them to be. I really feel that now they are 'home'.

Full hive inspection

2009-05-02T18:42:00.001-07:00

Today we took the entire hive apart and did a complete hive inspection. we wanted to look to see if there was an active Queen. Look to check the entire hive was healthy and to see how much of the hive had store etc.

Basically the bees have cleared out all of the dead bees. There were a few that were trapped in one corner, so I cleaned those out for them. The bees had taken most of the honey although some of the frames still had plenty of honey stores in them. We took one frame of honey for ourselves (yum - see pictures in other post).

All the bees appear to be busy and very healthy and active. There is pollen, bee bread, and honey in most supers. The bottom super is where they are storing the new pollen that they are bringing in at the moment. we were very surprised to see the bees actively bring in a LOT of fresh pollen in already. The snow has only just thawed and there doesn't appear to be any pollen around yet but they are coming back laden with pollen from somewhere!!! Wonderful!!

In the second super, we were thrilled to check two frames and find eggs and larvae in all stages!!! This is a sure sign of an active Queen!!! We are thrilled! It also means we can do splits and split our hive into two!! this will also stop the bees from swarming!!

I am so glad our Queen is doing well!

We over wintered our bees successfully for our first winter, and our Queen survived too :) This means our entire first year as beekeepers has been a success :)

Honey from the hive....

2009-05-02T17:30:00.000-07:00

Before we closed the hive today we 'stole' a frame of honey....and swapped it with an empty frame...the children sat and ate the small area of honey that was in the frame!! YUM!! It was soooooooo GOOD!!!!! Delicious honey straight from the hive :) Thanks bees!!!

My Bees :)

2009-04-19T09:07:00.001-07:00

It was so great to see them again after so many months of Winter!!

Happy to be out.....

2009-04-19T09:05:00.000-07:00

The bees were so happy to be out again.....they flew around like crazy until they settled down!!! :) So great to see :)

Helping with the housekeeping.....

2009-04-19T08:57:00.000-07:00

Today (day 2) I will take the hive apart, super by super, and clean it all up and check it all frame by frame....but yesterday I just wanted to leave the bees in peace as quickly as possible and let them fly free and cleanse themselves of a winters worth of poop and yuck and being locked up.......

I did need to clear out the entrance for them though, so I used a stick and unblocked the bottom entrance of dead bees - and there were a LOT of dead bees - this is normal of course as bees don't live very long! But wow it's a lot huh???? YUCK!!!! Once they were all out I scooped them up and got rid of them all so they wouldn't atract skunks or other creatures to the hive more than normal. I'm already worried that Charlie (our pot bellied pig) will be over to steal the syrup I'm feeding the bees!!

Once this entrance was cleared and I put on the lid, it didn't take long for the bees to learn to use the bottom entrance to come and go instead of the top!!! Now the syrup feeder is on and they can build up the hive again before the flowers are out and they can make real honey!

After 5 months of being cooped up.......

2009-04-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

..the bees were obviously desperate for a BIG poo!!! Hahahaha this one did a MASSIVE poo on Lloyds leg as SOON as it was out of the hive hahahahahaha!!!

Winter is over.....

2009-04-19T07:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we got the bee hive out of winter storage in the workshop and put it out by the vegetable garden. It will stay there until mid May when we will put it down in it's usual place by the pond. We can't put it down there quite yet in case it snows again, as the pond is quite high this year and if it snows again there is a chance it could flood down there. The temperatures could still drop again of course but we'll monitor them and we can always wrap the hive or take it back in for a few days but we really wanted to let the bees out for a flight and check their stores - and the forecast for the next week is good enough for the bees to get out every day and night time temperatures are good too.

We were thrilled to find the bees had plenty of honey stores left and there were a LOT of bees in there :) I am so glad we chose to put the bees in the workshop! We will do the same next year! It worked well! They survived a very cold winter and have done well - they thrived!!! They are going into this Spring with a head start and I can split the hive and get a couple of nucs going (two smaller hives started).

I am more than happy!!!

The President's beekeeper.....

2009-04-10T12:04:00.000-07:00

politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/09/white-house-hit-by-swarm-of-bees/

A swarm caught at the White house.....and hives in Michelle's garden :)

March update

2009-03-11T13:30:00.001-07:00

The bees are doing well in their winter home. They still have plenty of stores but we plan to order a pollen patty to see them through until May and give them a boost for Spring. As they are still doing so well now in March, I am hopeful that they will make it through and survive. I can't wait to get them out and open them out...and see them take their first flights of Springtime.....

So far so good...

2008-11-28T15:43:00.001-08:00

So far the bees are doing good in the cool darkness of the blacked out garage...ventilation is good and the window has been blacked out in there. We rarely go in there apart from to let the dogs out in the morning and in at night, so they are relatively undisturbed. All signs are good :)

Almost settled.....

2008-11-05T14:43:00.000-08:00

Here is the hive in place - just needing to be straightened up and to have the straps removed and the lids put in place etc etc.....the winter lid has plenty of ventilation because it's condensation and moisture that kills bees in winter....we checked on them after their journey and they were buzzing about but were fine - just wondering what was going on :)

This morning they are doing fine - quiet in the hive - you can hear them deep inside but thats about it :)

Heading to its winter home!

2008-11-05T14:41:00.000-08:00

Occasionally the hive would swing out and I watched in horror imagining it falling and having bees flying everywhere!! But Lloyd would just stop the tractor and wait for it to stop swinging. Really he was going so very slowly that it was barely moving - it was just me stressing for nothing!

Strapping up the hive!!

2008-11-05T14:39:00.001-08:00

Lloyd strapped up the hive nice and tight using boards to keep it all together and then attached it to the teeth of his tractor. He then lifted it up in the air where it hung and carried it that way up the hill towards the house and garage.

Away for Winter.....

2008-11-05T14:27:00.000-08:00

Well its been a long time since I updates but really there hasn't been anything to update about. Fall is really a time of just feeding syrup to the hive and leaving them be. I did notice that the bees are much more aggressive in the Fall - they seem very protective of the hive in the Fall - protecting the honey stores in preparation for Winter. I also noticed all the dead drones when they kicked them out of the hive.

We had a skunk visiting the hive for a while - not often but we noticed the scratch mars and that the syrup feeders had been tossed aside.

We had a nice long Fall this year with good temperatures right up until the start of November and no snow yet which is wonderful, and so we did not move the bees inside until last night. We couldn't decide what to do with them still, but we did finally decide that with just one hive it was best to put them inside. So last night, after dark, we moved them into the garage. There is good ventilation in there, they will be out of the wind, we can keep it dark, maintain a low, steady temperature and keep an eye on them too.

It may not work.....it may be the wrong thing to do - but its what we've chosen to do. The next few posts will show pictures of our adventure in moving the hive last night - my amazing husband Lloyd did a fabulous job!

Where I buy my bee supplies

2008-09-03T16:02:00.000-07:00

www.beemaidbeestore.com/index.php

Corinne from Virginia was asking where my plastic feeders were from, and so I thought I'd post a link to where I get most of my supplies from so far.

The large plastic feeders are from Beemaid, in Spruce Grove, Alberta. They are not on the web page, but I am sure they would be able to help you if you phoned or emailed them. They are VERY light so would not cost much to mail I would think despite their size, however I am sure you could find them at many of the US bee suppliers online.

I have no idea how Beemaid compares price-wise with other bee suppliers across Canada or the US - we use them because they are close to us - less than an hours drive away, so extremely convenient when we need something TODAY!!! ;)

Thanks for dropping by my blog Corinne - I hope that was of help!!!!

Why eat unpasteurized honey?

2008-09-01T09:17:00.000-07:00

blogs.lifestyle.aol.ca/2008/01/09/the-buzz-about-honey-which-kind-you-should-eat/

I thought this article might interest some of my readers ;)

As you can see by reading this and many other articles online, it is actually far more beneficial to eat UNpasteurized honey!! Pasteurized honey has had all the goodness cooked out of it and is literally JUST sugar!

Raw honey is already cooked for you - by the bees - to the perfect temperature - they fan it themselves until it's just right and only when it IS just right do they cap it and seal it!!!!

This is why unpasteurized honey is more expensive and sold in health stores and direct from beekeepers mostly.

I guess it's like most foods - the more natural, the better - and the more you heat them and the more you 'process' them, the more you remove the goodness, nutrients and health benefits from them.

Enjoy honey - naturally!!

;)

.

soap dispenser

2008-08-28T14:05:00.001-07:00

My new soap dispenser for the kitchen :)

Comb honey!

2008-08-27T14:28:00.000-07:00

This is the comb honey that broke off and fell and the children joined in with the bees and ate it up! Yum!!!! :) I had some too and it was delicious :)

Opening up the hives

2008-08-27T14:12:00.000-07:00

Trying to get the smoker to light:

Vals Dad looking extremely bemused by things - he was probably thinking he was at a mad house ;) bees flying around, my three year old eating honey from a plate covered in bees and a mother not really paying any attention ;) Just a normal day at my house (lol) Thank goodness Val is used to us!!! Actually Cliff was probably mumbling 'Crazy British Bee Lady' hahahaha!:

Checking out the pattern of capped brood on a frame - and the capped honey in the top corner. This is from the lower box of Flora/ Fauna:

A frame of honey from Freya on a foundationless wooden frame - makes beautiful comb honey - some of which we got to eat today - but not from this beautiful frame!!!:

Sam using the hive tool to try and get a frame out of the Super (which he didn't manage to do but it was fun watching him try - Val and Cliff enjoyed watching him try anyway and I think they liked seeing that he is confident around the bees and not scared of them at all. At one point he got a bee down his shirt but wasn't too bothered - he just got it out and then carried on doing what he was doing! He sometimes wears the hat and veil but finds he gets more scared as the bees then get trapped inside the veil which scares him more. So far we have found it better to just let him get on with it and just never let him be there alone:

Visitors to the hives!!!!

2008-08-27T13:45:00.000-07:00

This morning we had some special visitors to our hives! Vals Dad is in town from Vancouver Island, and he treated Val and I to breakfast (thank you so much) and so in return I treated him to a taste of honey from each of the hives!

The combined hive of Flora and Fauna continues to not do well, and so I plan to combine it with my Swarm hive Freya for the Winter to enable the bees to make it through winter with Freya's honey stores. They will kill off one of the Queens (hopefully the Flora/ Fauna Queen which is obviously not the stronger Queen at this time but that is something that will be left to the bees to fight out). They really are struggling badly and quite aggressive now and protective over the hive so I think I won't wait and may well combine them tonight while I know the frames are separated easily from the inspection.

Then in the Spring I will split the hive and then hopefully next year they will do well and be quick to get going as they won't have to draw up all that cmb again as the comb will already have been drawn up! (they will have eaten all the honey and emptied the comb over winter and will again start to fill the comb that spent all that time making THIS year).

Anyway.....so we opened up the smaller hive first and tried some honey there and looked at capped brood and saw how dark that is compared to capped honey which is all golden and light here right now (although it can be quite dark depending on the nectar flow). We saw how empty the first hive was and how crazy the bees were. I had problems trying to get the smoker going (normally Lloyds job - if I'm alone I don't often bother but as you get closer to Fall the bess tend to get more protective of their honey so you tend to have to use your smoker a little more - especially on a hive with very little honey!!!!)

Then we opened up Freya and Val and Cliff were able to see the difference ina good health hive compared to a poorly producing hive. Freya is working beautifully! This colony is just doing what it should! They are now filling all the foundationless wooden frames and they just look gorgeous! The honey filled frames are sooo heavy! The honey is such a beautiful colour! The bees aren't aggressive at all now.

We lifted off the top box and one of the wooden frams was attached at the bottom and the bottom of a frame came apart falling to the ground and a lot of comb honey came away! Val ran up to the house to get a plate and the children all stood around with a plate of comb honey covered in bees and ate it - literally sharing this honey with the bees - bees so drunk on honey they couldn't move! Several bees died in the honey where they were stuck in it :( After everyone had had enough we put the plate by the front of the hive and the bees will clean it up for us. I hear they do a good job of cleaning up frames so I will take a picture later and add it so Val and Cliff can see how good they clean it up themselves!

Val did very good by the hives - The hats and veils were there for her to wear but she didn't!!!! She came pretty close a few times and she DID put her finger in the frame to try the honey - and the bees were on the frame at the same time! And at times the bees were flying around all over the place so I was impressed :) Although much of the time Vals hands were tight around her neck ;) But she didn't call me names like my friend Holly that came over last week - Holly called me 'The crazy British Bee Lady'.....

Ok so the next few posts will be pictures from this morning :)

Thanks so much to Val and her Dad Clifford for coming over this morning - I had a great time!

Daisy!!!

2008-08-11T19:02:00.000-07:00

It's lovely to see you here at Bee Tales and I'm happy to hear my bee blog has helped raise an interest in bees with you and your family! And perhaps even helped with your fear of bees in a little way!

If you'd like to come and visit my bees ever then you'd be very welcome - they're down by the pond!! I have hats and veils and gloves so you'd be very safe! And you can stick your finger in a frame if you're feeling up to it and taste honey straight from the hive!!!

Did you see the free poster of bees of Canada that you can send off for? There is a post about it a little lower down if you keep scrolling down. If you are ever near Langley in BC there is also a WONDERFUL Honey Bee Centre that is well worth visiting!!! And in Stony Plain the Beemaid store has great colouring books and childrens books etc as well as just interesting things to see if you are ever in the area as well as all the equipment that is interesting to see. The Magic School Bus book 'Into The Beehive' is worth getting out of the library if you want a good childrens book about honey bees too!

Thanks so much for leaving your comments - I hope you keep reading - I have really enjoyed bee keeping this year and can't wait to have more hives next year! The highlight this year was definitely catching a swarm right outside of my front door!

Freya's foundationless frames....

2008-08-11T18:57:00.001-07:00

We checked on Freya's upper Super to see how the bees had accepted the foundationless frames - they had only had them for 4 days so we didn't expect much progress. They had been used to all plastic frames in the lower boxes, so we weren't sure how they would take to the wooden frames - let alone foundation free frames!

We were really happy to see they had accepted them and already started to draw comb on them!

Woohoo! Way to go Freya!!!

Freya and I

2008-08-06T09:49:00.000-07:00

Last night we added a second Super to Freya, and to celebrate, Susannah took a picture of me next to her!!! I am so proud of how well this hive has done in such a short time :) My first proper hive - my first swarm 'catch' :)

Todays inspection

2008-08-04T14:07:00.000-07:00

Today we did a thorough inspection of both Fauna and Freya. Fauna is doing great since we combined her with Flora - both hives have accepted each other well - we removed the rest of the newspaper and checked both hive boxes - there is a laying Queen as we saw brood in all stages and there is plenty of honey now so the hive is doing well at last. We put the brood fill frame sin the lower brood box and as there were at least 7 - 8 filled frames, we kept the upper super in place and put a couple of honey filled frames in it to entice the bees up...we'll check again in a week or two.

We checked on Freya - the swarm hive as well today - this hive is SUPERB!!! We gave it a super just a few weeks ago before we went on holiday and it is FULL!!!! So today we are adding a second super!!!!!! The super that is on right now is full of frames of brood and honey - the most BEAUTIFUL complete frames of honeycomb I have ever seen :) What clever bees :) and so much brood it's unreal! In a couple of weeks if the other hive is not doing well I plan to give them a frame or two of brood from Freya. This hive has soooooooo many bees it's amazing and they are friendly bees now :) I love this hive now - my favourite I think :) probably because they came to me :)

Again we did a complete inspection of both levels. They have an active Queen still and brood at all stages.

We have no more plastic frames left but we have a box of wooden frames to make up but no foundation so for now the bees will have to go foundationless - this will be interesting! We can actually eat some comb honey :) we will have to be careful at handling it.....not that we are planning on harvesting any anyway - and we will have to be careful when moving the hives. Hhhmmmm not a good idea really - we will have to get over to our supply store soon and get some more frames! Or maybe I should switch some around in my other hive where they are less likely to use their frames....

Anyway our inspection went well and we are very happy :)

Our bees are doing very well as Summer draws to an end!

Quick update!

2008-07-30T09:44:00.000-07:00

Lloyd and I sat down by Flora and Fauna last night and watched the bees come and go. Not one bee used the upper entrance to go back in - not one!!!!! So we figure this is a sure sign that they are ALL using the bottom entrance where the guard bees are and this MUST mean that they are ALL blended. Surely??????? We sneaked a look inside and the bees are busy ding what they do. Just going about their business. And they are going in and out, some with pollen on them.

There are no newspaper bits on the outside of the hive which we expected to see - we thought we would see signs of housekeeping as thye eat their way through the paper while they blend.

The first day bees were using the upper entrance to in and out of Flora. Now they are only using the bottom entrance. We will give it two more days and then we will close up the upper entrance all together and assume the hive has completely blended.

Success? WE figure this is success :)

WE are so enjoying beekeeping :) Lloyd took my hand as we left the hives and said that he can't wait to get more hives next year :)

From someone who wasn't too keen on getting me these hives this year, I count this as a HUGE success :)

Forecasting tornadoes by watching my bees?

2008-07-27T20:04:00.000-07:00

I've been catching up on my bee forums and was reading about how to protect your hives (or whether you actually can!) during a tornado....

...one poster wrote the following and I thought it was very interesting:

I read somewhere that bees actually can sense bad weather and will glue everything together even more to prepare for it. I think it made reference to approaching hurricanes.

I was watching a Nova on PBS about animals sensing natural disasters and this retired geologist in Central California has been predicting earthquakes with near 100% accuracy for years. Would you believe how he does it? He actually tracks missing pets in the newspapers and watches for trends. That big Earthquake in San Francisco in 89 he predicted because the area was averaging a handful of missing dogs and cats and all of a sudden it went up to 75 in one day. He said within 3 days they would have a major earthquake, and voila. His prediction was right there in the paper. "So and so predicts World Series Earthquake." Fascinating!

'tlynn'

So I could use my bees and the amount of their propolis to see whether we are going to get a BIG tornado! And I thought it was fascinating that pets go missing before earthquakes and such natural disasters etc....

Animals are so clever!

Sam the beek :)

2008-07-27T16:59:00.000-07:00

Various bee and frame pictures

2008-07-27T16:52:00.000-07:00

Some pictures from our inspections today - various frames showing various cells from various hives :)

Not such good news for Flora and Fauna..

2008-07-27T16:28:00.000-07:00

After inspecting Flora and Fauna we made a big decision.

Given that it's August this week. Given that Flora is on her third Queen now. Given that the nectar flow is sooooo short here and that Summer is just a few more weeks long here. There are VERY few bees in the hive now and no time for them to build up their number really before winter.

Given that Fauna is doing a little better but still is on hr first brood box, has not built up her numbers and has very little honey stored - is no where near ready for her first super to be added....

Well, we decided to join the two hives together. It's something we've considered for a while. It will give them at least a fighting chance of surviving the winter - of having enough numbers to ball up together - to huddle together and keep warm for inter and maybe bring in some more supplies in time before the end of the nectar flow. I can feed them through the winter yes but they can huddle in their ball together too and there won't be such a small number now I have put them together.

Basically you join them together with a sheet of newspaper between them that has slits in it and they slowly make their way through the paper....

Freya

2008-07-27T16:15:00.000-07:00

Freya, my swarm hive, continues to do really, really well! Such a great hive! Lots of hive, soooo many bees - plenty of babies and I think this hive will do really great through the winter!!!!!!

chain links...

2008-07-27T16:12:00.000-07:00

Bees link together as they make comb.....they look like little paperclips linked together!

A baby bee in the making!

2008-07-27T16:07:00.001-07:00

This ia bee larvae in some comb - it comes from Freya and it actually fell from a frame when I took it out. The swarm has been so busy the last two weeks and they build so much burr comb and lay brood in it all that when you take the frames out some of it falls off. IN fact this hive is quite hard to inspect and the only hive I have to use my hive tool on. I have to prise open the hive because the burr comb and the propolis seals everything up tight every time and the comb sticks the frames together and the poor little babies are in all the comb as well as on the frames!

this little larvae fell on the ground so Lloyd wanted to bring it home ad feed it (??????) and see if he could raise it (??????) and I just wanted to get some macro pictures of it!! On the frame above at the very bottom you can see the part it actually fell from and if you click on the picture and see the bigger version you can see all the other pink larvae baby sisters of this larvae!

A long time over due update!

2008-07-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

And an apology to Vals Dad for not updating before!

Not a lot has really been happening that has been worth updating! Summer continues - the bees have been doing their thing! We insect them weekly although it has now been two weeks since our last inspection due to our holiday in the Rockies (we went to Canmore for a few days and then last weekend was busy so we have only just got around to inspecting the bees).

Anyway, when we last inspected the bees we noticed two things. Flora (hive one) had a Queen cell almost ready to be born. This meant that either their Queen had died or they were not happy with their Queen and were planning to kill her off. It was unlikely they were going to swarm as there no signs they needed to swarm. And they have not swarmed so I was right! I didn't get a picture of the Queen cell sadly but it was a beauty - you could see the Queen bee inside in all her glory! It was a big Queen cell. I wish I had my camera with me! Next time!

The other thing we noticed was that Freya, my swarm hive was ready to have a super added (another box) as they had filled 70% of the brood box. So we added another box before we left for holiday. We added two of their filled frames to the upper box to entice them up to the higher level and this worked wonderfully as they are now using both boxes well :) in fact both boxes are now almost full of brood and honey :)

So now I will continue with my updates and lots of lovely bee pictures for you all! And sorry Vals Dad - Val tells me you're not happy that I haven't been updating :)

Freya has a Queen!

2008-07-01T18:18:00.000-07:00

We did an Inspection on Freya, the swarm hive, and she is doing great! Plenty of eggs, larvae and capped brood, so obviously a laying Queen who is doing great! They are drawing comb beautifully and will soon need a new Super added. They are getting through a full jug of syrup every day!! But the comb is also full of pollen so I know they are bringing in plenty of nectar too....I would stop feeding but local beeks advice is to feed feed feed the swarm.....so I think I will take the advice I am given by the local beeks - especially with the shorts season and given that we are soooo behind! It's July and we are still only on the brood box on all our hives! In the Southern States they have endless Supers on and many have extracted honey already.

Anyway - I am very happy with our progress - three happy Queens in three happy hives now - plenty of brood - and we saw baby bees hatching in Flora today which was pretty amazing :) Canada Day babies :)

Freya

2008-06-25T08:21:00.000-07:00

We went down to top up the syrup in the three hives last night, and while we were down there we opened up Freya, the swarm hive. It had been 6 days since we caught the swarm and I was just desperate to open her up and find out what they had been up to - actually it had been 5 days since they had been in the actual hive box...so maybe a bit premature to go in but I was just keen to go in and see.

For five days they had been BUSY! We have no inner cover yet and they had built a bit of burr comb up under the lid so when I lifted the cover one of the centre frames came up with it (oops) but it wasn't too bad. I removed much of the burr comb and brought that back up with me and added it to my collection (I have a plastic tub that I keep it in).

They have drawn comb on both sides of about four frames maybe part of five......filled much with syrup which I am feeding them with (recommended to me) and have filled some with pollen. We couldn't see any eggs but then it was evening and cloudy and cool and we didn't want to have the hive open long so we didn't have a proper look. I just wanted a quick look to check they were building comb. It HAS only been five days anyway so I shouldn't really expect to see anything I guess. It really is very early days.

The bees aren't the friendliest still -not like my package bees and are different in appearance to my other bees. Still not sure what kind they are. My package bees are Italians. The nasty bees are Africanised - I don't think these are those as they don't seem REALLY nasty but they aren't the gentlest and I think I will always have to veil up etc when I inspect them. Or maybe its just because they are a bigger colony compared to the packages I have - maybe bigger colonies react more like that - I have yet to find out.

Lloyd wants me to look for more swarms - he'd like to advertise for swarms. He tells people 'we' caught a swarm...funny how I don't remember him being there....lol! As far as I recall, HE was at work ;) but I love that he's as excited as I am :)

Anyway, the bees have been very busy, four frames drawn in 5 days, no signs of eggs but in five days I'm not surprised I'll leave them and check again next weekend (not this weekend coming but the weekend after. By then we should see eggs as a sign of a laying Queen.

I'm going to inspect my other hives Flora and Fauna on Canada Day.....we may even see baby bees being born! THAT would be amazing!

So far I am very happy with this swarm I captured and hived - free bees and they are settling in well - guzzling syrup, drawing comb nicely and collecting pollen...hopefully next time I check there will be eggs to see :)

The Goddess Freya..

2008-06-22T15:42:00.000-07:00

This is a painting of the Norse Goddess Freya, that my new hive is named after - isn't it beautiful? It is by the artist J Penrose.

More frequent inspections needed!!!

2008-06-22T13:58:00.001-07:00

When we opened up Flora last night we noticed that two of the frames had been joined together by comb - as you can see in the above picture. I guess you'd say burr comb because its comb made in the wrong place.

We were puzzled as to why the bees had done this but didn't think much about it. Then this afternoon I was reading my bee forum while I was waiting for Lloyd to get home and I see another beek has posted asking about the very same thing!

Turns out that it's because we haven't gone into the hve and inspected often enough! And thisd is true! Normally we go in every few days - normally at least once a week but after we requeened I wanted to leave them totally alone to give them time to accept the Queen and get on with egg laying and comb building and just settling down (which worked well....but by not going in and lifting out the frames, they built comb joing the frames together :) Not a big problem but kind of neat to see and funny :)

One thing I've noticed is that I haven't ever had to use my hive tool to remove propolis (waxy substance like glue the bees use to seal up the hive). I was expecting to have to use it a lot to get frames out and lift the lid etc but I've never had to use it. I've stopped wearing gloves much of the time too as they are a pain and now I've been stung I'm not so worried anyway lol.....Like Cindi at Beemasters says, each sting just helps against arthritis anyway :)

Bees of Canada poster!!! - free

2008-06-22T10:36:00.000-07:00

Carla told me about this a while ago - Thank you Carla!!!!

If you Email info@cwf-fcf.org and ask them nicely :) and give them your mailing address, they will send you a beautiful poster (one side English and one side French) of all the bees in Canada. It's a stunning reference poster that will allow you to figure out what bees you have in your yard :)

Flora and Fauna!!!

2008-06-21T18:19:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago we re-queened the original two hives, Flora and Fauna. We still have no idea what happened to the two Queens that came with the packages, but for whatever reasons, those Queens failed to lay eggs or be accepted by the colonies. We gave them plenty of time, but three weeks in there weas no sign of eggs, larvae or Queens in either hive.

We ordered two new Queens and placed them in the hives and a few days later they had been released.

Today (over two weeks later) we did an inspection on both hives to see what progress had been made. We REALLY hoped we'd find signs of eggs and larvae as we really need these colonies to build themselves up so there will be large numbers of bees for a big cluster in winter so they can huddle together to keep warm in Winter.

The bees will start dying off soon so new baby bees need to start being born quickly!

Well today we had a look and were so THRILLED to find baby bees developing in ALL stages! There were eggs, and larvae and capped brood - all stages :) In both hives :) This is sooooo wonderful :) Yay!!!We are thrilled :) It won't be long before there are baby bees :) So we have two wonderful Queens working hard for us in our hives :) And long may they last :)

So click on the pictures above to see them bigger and you will be able to see the eggs and larvae too. The eggs look like little grains of white rice in the cells. The larvae look like curled up maggots in the cells and are all different sizes :) When these get quite big the bees cap them and then they start developing into almost ready to be born bees :)

Amazing huh?

The new hive....

2008-06-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

Freya...my new hive, and the bees waiting their turn to go in :) Right now the hive is just inside the doorway of Lloyds workshop to protect it from the rain, but once the roof has a waterproof coating it will then go outside by the vegetable garden. I will give the bees their own little pond or water supply too!

On the wall

2008-06-19T13:05:00.000-07:00

And the bees today - settling in!

2008-06-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

And here they are settling in! Here they are in their new home - Freya!!! Chris, my scrapbooking friend from Scrappers Haven chose the name for my new hive Freya is the Pagan Goddess of Love :) And like Chris says, I love my bees :)

So I now have Flora, Fauna and Freya :)

Sorry Sharon, I just couldn't pick Merryweather because I live in Alberta lol! there is NOTHING Merry about weather in Alberta (lol) ;) lol but forgive me and please throw in a few extra scones for me every time you bake some because they are soooooo yummy :)

This morning I took the bees out of their temporary home in the plastic box by lifting out the two frames and pacing those frames in the centre of a brood box and surrounding it by more frames. A bottom board was underneath and a cover on top. A little entrance at the front and they have a feeder with some syrup and a landing board. They seem quite happy and all the ones not on the frames were all seeming happy to go in in the new hive.....lots of bees were flying around and there were quite a few on the wall of the workshop...they'll settle down later today though and tonight will go on in the hive. Lloyd will add a waterproof roof to the hive and then we can move it out to te vegetable garden and its permanent place.

Their first night!

2008-06-19T12:34:00.000-07:00

This is how the swarm spent their first night! A thunder storm swept through early evening, so we carried them in to Lloyd workshop as the plastic tub would have blown away and we couldn't risk water getting in to them anyway! So we carried them inside and they were all settled in there and were fine....They had all gone into the box before we moved them anyway. I had already placed two frames in there and they had settled onto the frames quickly - I sprayed the frames with syrup so they attached to the frames quickly :)

Lloyd built me a bottom board and lid for one of my brood boxes, so that today I could get them into a hive. So 10pm last night we were out in the workshop cutting wood for that :) We have a Swallow that lives in our workshop and he was not too happy with us for using power tools in the workshop that late in the evening...he would fly in and sit on the light fitting and then fly out and fly around the workshop a few times and then fly in again and then out and do laps again and then repeat.....NOT happy!

Pictures from the Swarm....

2008-06-19T09:33:00.000-07:00

Charlynn kindly sent me these pictures that she took yesterday while I was catching the honeybee swarm. I can't believe how lucky I was that the timing was so great for this swarm. Firstly that I was at home and that the swarm was right outside the front door! And then that I had friends here! That we had JUST inspected my hives so I knew they weren't my bees! Then that Chris was home from school to video the swarm. And then that friends were here to watch it happening - and THEN that Charlynn was here with her camera to take pictures!!!! I mean - how perfect was all of that??????

And I actually kind of look like I know what I'm doing ;)

Isn't a swarm of bees on a branch an amazing thing to see? And to think that this swarm came to rest right outside my house! What are the chances?

Lloyd and I were talking last night and we were wondering if they are attracted by the pheromones of our other bees....we were talking about the beekeepers on Beemasters who have had swarms in their yards or their neighbours yards and it does seem quite common - so perhaps it is the pheromones from our bees that attract them?

Anyone know?

My first swarm...

2008-06-18T19:28:00.000-07:00

Today I caught my first swarm! I had some friends over for a picnic and so I had an audience too! We had just been down to look at my own hives so I know the swarm wasn't from my own hives which looked fine. We walked back up the hill from my hives and I was walking over to admire a Lily that had flowered when I saw something flying around by a flowering bush....as I got closer I realised there was lots of things flying around! Then I realised it was a swarm! A Honeybee swarm! OMG!!!

I couldn't believe it - this swarm was less than 10 metres from my front door! How wonderful! Imagine a honeybee swarm choosing to settle so close to a beekeepers front door! How perfect is that?

I got a few things together - a box, a sheet and some sharp scissors, put my veil and gloves on and then sat beside the swarm and cut the branches off and placed them in the box.

I scooped up the bees on the ground and placed them in the box or on the sheet and then closed the lid leaving a gap just big enough for the bees to get in and out.

I placed a feeder can of syrup in the box and also placed two frames in the box that I sprayed with syrup. (when I checked on them later the frames were covered with very happy looking bees by the way)

A thunderstorm came in this evening and by this time all the bees had entered the box and none were flying around any more. It isn't a stable box at all so we couldn't leave it out for the storm so we carried it to the workshop and its in there is the dry and shelter. The bees can get in and out but they seem quite happy in there so I don't think they're going to leave.....they have syrup and they have frames. What more would bees want??? ;)

I know I didn't do things perfectly.....I wasn't prepared at all lol - it was totally unexpected....I got one sting (which didn't hurt at all lol...maybe it was all the adrenaline running through me lol)! But I was so excited and so thrilled and I did my best and I was happy to do it :)

I'm glad I got to share the experience with friends - I'm glad Chris was here to film it for me. I'm glad I was home to find the swarm. I'm so glad I got to experience yet another part of beekeeping :) It truly was a wonderful thing to find and a wonderful thing to experience and I am thrilled to have three hives - two from packages and one from a swarm.

And yes, as Cori has reminded me, now I need to think of another name!!! Flora, Fauna and.........any ideas????

How to make a bee-friendly backyard habitat!!

2008-06-12T11:03:00.001-07:00

forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,15975.0.html

A great post about creating a backyard habitat for bees!!!

Great pictures

2008-06-11T09:18:00.000-07:00

www.flickr.com/photos/hooked_on_macro/sets/72157605225065608/

The guy that lives in the village where I grew up finally got to spend some time with a local beekeeper and took some macro images of their hives! At the above link you can see some of the pictures he took - aren't they great????

Burr comb...

2008-06-10T17:40:00.000-07:00

Today we finally had a break in the weather and our timetable that allowed us to check on the hives and to check if the Queens had been released from their cages! It had been 5 days since we had put the Queens into the hives!

Thankfully yes, both Queens had been released from the cages. The worker bees had eaten through the marshmallows and the Queens were no longer in the cages, so we removed the cages and let the few bees that were walking about inside the cages, back into the hives....then we quickly closed up the hives again as it was cold and damp. We are still having such horrible weather here.

Both hives look to be doing really well...bees look to be well, busy building comb wile the weather is bad. One feeder is empty so I will refill that tomorrow - one has a little syrup left in it but I will top that up tomorrow too. The bees can't get out at the moment as the weather is just so bad.

We will leave the hives alone now for a week or two and then do an inspection and see for eggs and larvae. Hopefully then there will be signs that t he Queens are doing well and have been accepted by the hives and both hives will be doing good!

When we took out one of the cages - from Flora, we found it was covered in burr comb! Burr comb is comb the bees have built anywhere OTHER than on the frames - ie comb built in the WRONG place ;) Isn't it beautiful? Howe clever of them to build this amazing comb so fast!!!! :) On the Queens cage since Thursday night :) Like a gift for their new Queen :)

Susannah is taking it to school tomorrow to show her teacher and her class :)

Hotels rooftop hive!

2008-06-09T18:59:00.000-07:00

www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/437506

Requeening

2008-06-08T11:30:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we did another inspection. It was then three weeks since we had installed the hives. By then we had given both hives plenty of time to settle in and they should have had plenty of time to draw comb, and have brood at all stages from eggs to larvae and maybe baby bees almost ready to be born...

Unfortunately there were no signs at ALL of any stage of brood. We had not seen either Queen and could see no eggs at all. Having taken advice from other beekeepers we had given them plenty of time and not rushed into requeening as many people do. The hives were not showing signs of being Queenless apart from not having brood which is why we had not rushed into anything

However, with our short Summer season it was now time to order Queens. So we ordered new Queens on Monday and on Thursday evening Lloyd picked up two Californian Queens from Beemaid. We unplugged the corks and plugged them with marshmallow and hung them in the hives so the hive bees would eat the marshmallow over the next day or so - this again gives the hive time to get used to the Queen and accept her before she is released into the hve from the cage.

Today (three days later) we will open the hive just to check she has been released. If not then we will carefully release her. Then we will close the hive and leave them alone for a couple of weeks and then next time we open them up HOPEFULLY we will find eggs-aplenty!!!!!

Oh please let us find eggs! these hives really need to build up their colonies now so they have a nice big number to huddle together with in winter!

The nails in the top of the cages are ones Lloyd carefully added so that we could hang the Queens cage over the top of the frames in between two frames in the hive and the other bees could climb all over the cage and get to know the Queen :)

The Queen is in the cage with several worker bees who care for her - feed her and act like her maids!

Learn to love your Dandelions!

2008-06-04T16:36:00.000-07:00

Bees and other pollinators LOVE them!!! Relax a bit and leave them in the lawn a few extra days - don't stress about the odd one or two - remember you are helping the environment - DON'T reach for weed killer! Find an environmentally friendly way to remove weeds - remember that many weed killers are HARMING our pollinators!!!!

Learn to love your dandelions the way our honey bees and other pollinators do :)

Buddleia Beauty

2008-06-04T15:58:00.000-07:00

The scent from my Buddleia Trees is incredible, so I can quite see why my honey bees are drawn to it - these trees are filled with buzzing honey bees and bumble bees today...as well as tiny little pollinators of all kinds! All with their heads buried in the perfect lilac coloured flowers!

My other tree is a slightly different shade of purple and isn't flowering quite as much yet because it doesn't get as much sunshine it also needs to be moved before TOMORROW!!!!!! YIKES!!!

Hanging out at the hives....

2008-05-28T16:03:00.000-07:00

A few pictures snapped down at the hives this afternoon...it's lovely relaxing down there with a cup of tea, watching the bees coming back with their pollen stores :) click on the piccies to see the pollen their are bringing back and the bees coming in to land...the foragers readying for take off.......guard bees fanning their alarm scent, the wasp on the feeder stealing syrup from the outside of the feeder etc etc....lots happens at the entrance. Notice the dead bee and bits of wax on the porch - the bees have been doing their housekeeping again!

Bee quick ;)

2008-05-26T16:11:00.000-07:00

www.currclick.com/product_info.php?products_id=2229&it=1&affiliate_id=436

Free lapbook project pack on bees to print off!!! But only until tomorrow!!!

Great video for you and your kids!!!

2008-05-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

tv.hww.ca/video/watch/1

Interesting and informative video for your kids AND you - all about bees and how you can help them!!! :)

Frame from Fauna

2008-05-25T16:31:00.001-07:00

Frame from Fauna (hive 2) yesterday. Click on the picture to see the image larger.

I added this image simply to ask people on Beemasters forum to tell me what the various
cells were filled with. I am told that the cells are filled with honey and pollen...some of which are capped. I was actually surprised that only two weeks in there is already honey!! I thought it would take them longer to make honey than that! I guess not!

All I can say is thank goodness for the forums - especially Beemasters!!! I don't know what I would do without them all there to ask for advice - thanks everyone!!!!

Bees

2008-05-24T19:10:00.000-07:00

My bees working hard :)

2008-05-24T15:36:00.000-07:00

Pollen patterns

2008-05-24T15:34:00.000-07:00

On patrol at the entrance...

2008-05-24T15:32:00.000-07:00

Guard bees and bees on the porch....

Bee kisses

2008-05-24T15:31:00.000-07:00

Crowds....

2008-05-24T15:28:00.000-07:00

Up close in the hive!

2008-05-24T15:23:00.000-07:00

Drones

2008-05-24T15:21:00.001-07:00

Can you spot a drone in these pictures? He's bigger than the worker bees...his eyes are different....drones are the male bees that are born at certain times of the year and are born simply to fertilise the virgin Queens.

2nd Hive Inspection

2008-05-24T15:14:00.000-07:00

Today we did our second hive inspection. I took the camera down with us and thought I'd add a few pictures for you all to enjoy! Don't forget you can click on them to see them bigger :)

Well maybe not!

2008-05-23T13:26:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe not....maybe thats just the way bees are after two days of being cooped up in the hive! I've just been back down and Flora is now calm and the bees are coming and going as normal....but Fauna is going crazy with the bees flying about all over the places and bees pouring in and out all over each other!

How strange!

Fascinating to watch! They never do it at the same time though! Interesting!

Somethings wrong with Flora!

2008-05-23T12:40:00.000-07:00

The bees in Flora seem a little disturbed by something today. They were calm earlier when I was out there. I sat out there for quite a while watching the bees calmly come and go with their pollen. then the UPS truck came by and I was busy with the children. When I went back out, I found Flora like this. The bees were going crazy outside of the hive. I'm not sure what happened to upset them.

Fauna, as you can see is still as calm as ever...a few bees on the feeder and a few foragers coming and going with pollen - it has its busy moments but nothing like this very often.

I wish the frogs would be quiet so you could actually hear the bees!

Excited

2008-05-22T19:31:00.000-07:00

I'm thrilled that it's going to be lovely and sunny tomorrow. I'm glad we've had the rain for two days - we needed it, but I'm so excited about the sunshine and warm temperatures again tomorrow - I've missed the bees and I can't wait to open up the hive and see what they've been up to! I'm due to get in there and do an inspection! I hope Lloyd gets home in time so he can join me and we can video it and take pictures!

The bees can get out and about and do some flying tomorrow too :)

Letter from the Premiers office!!

2008-05-22T16:54:00.001-07:00

Remember my email to the Premier? I got a letter from his office today! My Email was forwarded to the Agriculture and Rural Development Office. I hope you can read the letter clearly. I know they only reply out of politeness half the time, but it's still nice to get a response and even if just one person in their office learns something about honey bees then at least thats progress :)

Bee pictures from my old home town!!!!

2008-05-22T10:43:00.000-07:00

www.biobees.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=836

Saw the name of my old home town pop up on a beekeepers forum and had to check it out - especially when macro photography was involved!!! Check out the amazing pictures! See Mom - you need to get a hive in your back yard - it would scare off Geoff next door and this guy could come take some pictures for you!!!

Rain

2008-05-21T15:12:00.000-07:00

This morning I headed down to the hives to see what was happening. It was raining quite heavily so I knew the bees wouldn't be flying. All was quiet down there. The bees in 'Flora' were busy housekeeping while there was bad weather and were cleaning out bits of wax and a dead bee. Hive 2 (still to be named...hmmmm what to name it????) was just quiet....I didn't lift the lid or anything as I didn't want to chill it. I just left them be. Maybe I'll give them some more syrup tonight if the rain keeps up. 'Flora' isn't taking much syrup now that there is pollen around but if it rains for several days they won't be able to get out anyway....but then maybe they will focus on comb building and getting the Queen laying...

I finished reading the novel 'The Secret Life of Bees' today. Wonderful novel! One part puzzled me though - and that was near the end, when August ordered a new Queen from a Queen supplier. The thing is, August is a beekeeper with HUNDREDS of hives and in her position, would have easily been able to requeen one single hive from one of the other hives sooooo easily! There would have been no need to buy a Queen from a supplier! Or the hive itself would have requeened itself....it puzzled me.

I caught a robber!

2008-05-20T19:37:00.000-07:00

Val - I caught that Huge black and white bugger that was flying around my hives yesterday! Remember that massive waspy hornetty thing??? I was sat down by my hives for a while this evening watching them all come back for the night and that nasty thing was trying to rob syrup (not that they have any left) but I got it with my slipper! Ha!!!! I felt so good :) I saved my girls from that robber :)

The bees aren't going to get much flying in the next couple of days if its going to rain as much as they say it will....but we really need the rain and the benefits to the pollen and plants around here will be worth it so thats good.

I really love sitting down by the hives and watching them in the evenings - they are so calm and quiet at night......you just hear them flying passed you as they come home - like aeroplanes landing and then they just walk on in....

Lloyd told me tonight that he loves havng the bees here and that he's so glad we got them - that he thinks it was a really good idea of mine :)

See - I do have good ideas some times ;)

Why is not more being done?

2008-05-20T17:55:00.000-07:00

www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219092

Interesting discussion on why not more isn't being done about the decline in honey bees.

What are YOUR thoughts?

A message to Vals Dad

2008-05-20T14:17:00.000-07:00

Last night I got to introduce my bees to some friends to the first time. Val and her family came over for a while and we showed them the hives. I have a few witnesses to prove that Val practically agreed there and than that she will come over and dress up in all the gear - veil, hat, gloves etc etc and join in with me while I do a hive inspection.

Yesterday I lifted up the lid and showed them inside the hive and Val hopefully was able to see that the bees are actually quite gentle and aren't swarming around all over the place. In fact I don't think we were bothered once by a bee the whole time Val was here last night. So hopefully Val likes bees a little bit more than she did before.

So Val is coming to do an inspection with me and I will take pictures or video it and blog it and so Vals Dad can see it on the blog :) Hello Vals Dad - I have no idea of your name so you are 'Vals Dad' :)

Val - you can't let your Dad down now - so you HAVE to do it :) If Friday night is postponed we could do it then and a little alcohol could be provided beforehand hahahahaha :)

Hive inspections :)

2008-05-20T14:14:00.000-07:00

Sam and Abby doing their hive inspection this afternoon :)

A gift for the bees......

2008-05-20T14:04:00.000-07:00

This afternoon we went out for a walk and the children picked some dandelions. They know the bees love them, so they decided to go and give some of them to the bees. We were heading down to the bees to check on them anyway, so they put a couple of dandelions on the landing platforms for the bees. I'm not sure this is actually a good idea lol but I'm not going to stop the children being actively involved with the bees and I can brush them off later when I go down there and just tell them that the bees did it (if the bees themselves don't do it anyway lol) or the wind!

The children were so happy to be giving them to the bees that I didn't want to spoil their fun!

We sat and watched the bees come and go for a while and it was only a couple of seconds before the guard bees came out to investigate the dandelions. There were two dead bees on the 'porch' already and some bits of wax so the bees had been doing some housekeeping this morning anyway. And now there were these flowers in their way lol! But it wasn't long before some bees were on the flowers enjoying the pollen before them :)

Queen cups

2008-05-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

I noticed a few odd shaped cells on some of my frames so I asked on my forum about them and posted a picture. I was told that they are Queen cups. You can see one in the picture above...the larger white cell - almost bubble shaped with another slightly to the right and lower but not quite as well formed.

Play cells, also known as queen cups, are the little cells that look like acorn cups, that appear as though the bees started building a queen cell, then changed their mind and curved in the entrance to be, what appears to be, the diameter of a worker cell. These cups are always around and become part of the furniture so it is easy to forget to look inside them but you do so at your peril because they are the real thing.
"

I was a bit concerned about them to begin with but have been reassured that they can be quite common and that they aren't a sign that I need to requeen - in fact they can be a sign that, pm plastic frames, that th bees are a little unsure of themselves and are taking their time to get used to the frames. I'm going to give them another week alone in the hives and do another inspection next Saturday, weather permitting. Another week will allow them time to get some capped brood and give me time to see some imrovements and notce some eggs, larvae and brood in all its stages hopefully and then we will see that the Queens are there even if we can't see the Queens themselves.

Here are just some of the responses I got that were so helpful:

Queen cups are something the bees do all the time and it mostly does not go any further. Queen cells are something different. They are the peanut looking things that already have a larvae inside and are sealed up.

After only 6 days of having this package, it is too soon to see anything. There are probably eggs already in the cells, but you cannot see them yet until you are trained to find them.

Do not worry about anything now. I think you need to give them time.

and

Some beekeepers were taught (incorrectly, IMO) to solve every problem by getting a new queen. That's matracide not beekeeping. I see you are using plastic foundation--that tells me alot about how your bees will progress. Bees reared on wood can refuse to work plastic to the point of swarming rather than building comb. Queens often hesitate to lay in plastic. Plastic foundation creates some very unique experiences where comb building is concerned. Some bees just like to have a queen cup available at all times. They make them, tear them out, and rebuild in a different place on the same comb or a different frame entirely. Usually you don't see queen cups being drawn before the comb is fully drawn on a frame but the plastic foundation maybe throwing the bees off and they're blaming the queen.

At this point wait and see is the best option--if they cap it, then decide what to do.

and

Well I am still a new bee, but after I installed my packages, I did not disturb the hive for 10 days. When I opened things up I found the marked queens but "thought" I saw eggs. White mini eggs on a white backround was tricky. I just took some deep breaths and 2 weeks after installation, I checkd and there was capped brood...Now they are going full tilt boogie...

Just give them some alone time Wink

Intruder alert!

2008-05-17T17:58:00.000-07:00

When an intruder or disturbance is detected, the guard bees point their stingers in the direction of the intruder and open the plates that overlap to cover the abdomen, all the time furiously fanning their wings. Under the last segment of the abdomen lies the scent gland which produces the alarm phermone, a chemical scent that communicates danger to the hive. As the alarm scent is spread throughout the hive, more bees release alarm scent and begin to fan until the characteristic "buzzing" sound of an upset hive become audible.

Pollen

2008-05-16T20:48:00.000-07:00

Can you spot the bees with pollen on their legs? And in the pictures you can clearly see the pollen in the comb the bees have drawn in the last week. The different colours come from the different plants. I assume some is from the pollen patties too.

Close up of a frame....

2008-05-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

Hive after lifting off the lid

2008-05-16T20:46:00.000-07:00

This is what it looks like when you lift off the inner lid....the bees quietly going about their business around the central frames - they are working mainly on the inner four or five frames so far.

First hive inspection

2008-05-16T20:40:00.000-07:00

Tonight we did our first hive inspection. We wiated until the winds finally died down - it has been so windy for days! Tonight it is finally calm and it was ideal as this evening was warm and sunny and lovely. The bees were calm and didn't seem to mind us at all!

The inspections went well. We didn't find the Queens at all - kind of like looking for a needle in a haystack! We know its quite common not to find the Queens the first time - so next week we will look for signs of the Queens presence which will be easier to look for the second week.

We also didn't find any burr comb. But the bees have been busy inside and have drawn lots of comb on the frame and have been busy collecting pollen and filling the comb with the pollen. As I checked the frames and looked for the Queens, Lloyd took pictures for me. It was fascinating looking through the hives and watching the bees at their work! We didn't see any signs of mites at all and the bees seemed happy and healthy - we saw several with plenty of pollen on their legs! Thats a great sign!!!

I'm so glad they ahve accepted the plastic frames :) painting the extra wax onto them and spraying the syrup obviously paid off! And the Queens were released with no problems :)

Bumblebee visitor...

2008-05-16T15:24:00.001-07:00

This little guy was visiting was my flowerbed this afternoon. Bumblebees are quite different to honeybees. They make the hives under the ground in old holes left by mice or other creatures. They only stay together for one season.

The feeder...

2008-05-15T15:43:00.000-07:00

Yummy this sugar syrup tastes GOOD!!!!!

This is the feeder that the bees empty every day!

I think it holds something like 1.4 litres!!! As you can see, they LOVE it and are constantly drinking at it :)

All tucked in

2008-05-14T19:42:00.000-07:00

Lloyd and I walk down to say goodnight to the bees each night. It's interesting because they are all in by about 8:30pm. Only a couple of bees are flying around outside. Almost all are inside the hive with maybe one or two on the porch and one or two on the feeders. Hive two (as usual) is the first to 'go to bed'.

We always creep around the back and lift up the back of the top lid to sneak a peak inside. Inside the top cover you can see the pollen patties and the hole in the centre of the inner cover that leads down into the hive and the frames. there is usually a few bees eating the patties and a few bees crawling around the hole...sometimes a LOT of bees crawling around the hole. Amazing to see inside the hive - makes me excited to get in there and have a real look inside at what they have been working on in there - to see what they have done to the frames - see if they have drawn comb on the pierco plastic frames despite what I have heard. I hope my hard work at painting on the plastic and spraying them all has helped the bees accept them.

I wonder if I will get burr comb and I wonder how the Queens are doing and if they will have laid anything....(burr comb is comb that the bees create anywhere they shouldn't - ie anywhere except on the frames - so it can be between frames or on lids or between frames and hive box etc etc....you have to remove it so the bees learn to draw only on the frames and stay within the frames, but the burr comb is useful because you can bring it home and study it and look at it for eggs etc to see if your Queen is laying so it isn't useless. I'm kind of hoping to get some - I can photograph it :)

I wonder.

The bees are so clean and tidy. Last night there was a dead bee on the inner cover. Tonight it is gone. The bees have cleaned it away.

We have refilled the feeders and I wonder how long this syrup will last. As we were refilling the feeders, there were several bees sat on the side of the feeder and we stood and watched them for a while - their little red tongues sliding across the rim of the feeder drinking the syrup up - it was so amazing - I wished I had my camera and macro lens to catch that!

I look forward to saying goodnight to the bees - they seem much calmer at night to me - almost gentler and nicer to be around.

In the mornings they always seem so busy lol - but in the evenings they seem more laid back lol. Ok maybe I'm going nuts lol. I think its time for me to go to bed now - goodnight!

Good article :)

2008-05-14T18:57:00.000-07:00

www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2008/04/28/buzz_grows_over_beekeeping/

Wednesday

2008-05-14T14:57:00.001-07:00

Today onwards, I could open up the hive and check that the Queens have been released from their boxes. This is done by the worker bees eating through the little bits of marshmallow that we placed in the hole where the cork was. (you can see the cork in some of the pictures posted earlier in the blog)

However, today although its lovely and sunny and warm, its REALLY breezy, and far too windy to open up the hives. Bees don't like the wind and don't fly much in it. I've just been down to the hives to check on the bees. 'Flor' has several bees out on the porch and around the feeder and a few flying about, but hive two is quieter with just a few around the feeder.

I wonder if hive two will always be quieter.

I was telling Val about how hive 2 had me worried on Monday. On Monday morning I was getting very concerned as hive two was so very quiet. I was starting to wonder if there was a reason it was so different to hive 1. Right from the beginning it was different. The bees were quieter and easier to install. Hive one were flying about and hive two just went straight in and were quiet. Just getting on with settling in.

Hive 1 has been active - lots of flying about, lots of being out on the porch and out on the feeder, and lots of flying about. Hive two has only ever had a few bees out at one time....just a little housekeeping here and there. Yet the sugar syrup has been going down at the same rate, so I knew the bees were ok inside and they were drinking and getting their fumagillin that they needed.

Anyway, by Monday I decided to ask other beekeepers about it. The first beek mentioned that it could be a problem with the Queen in hive 2 - perhaps she had died and I need to reQueen as soon as possible for the hive to survive! This of course worried me!!! I decided that as soon as I got back from taking Abigail to drama class, I would open up the hive (two days earlier than planned) and check the Queen.

Other beekeepers though said that they had had two hives that had acted in a similar way - one very active and one very quiet. They found that when they opened the hives up, the quiet hive was just doing more inside the hive and the active hive was doing less inside the hive. Both Queens were fine...just hives acting differently and this is why its so important to have a minimum of two hives as a beginner so that you can compare the two and it's less worrying when something like this happens!

Anyway, we took Abigail to drama and got home around 2pm to find BOTH hives VERY active!!!! Worry over!!! Hive 2 was just as active as Flora!!! Bees flying about all over the place being busy buzzy bees :) So I decided not to disturb the bees and left them alone.

I will open the hive and do my first inspection probably on Friday. Depending on the weather....

Oh and the bees drink sooo much of the sugar syrup! The feeders we have are huge and yet we filled them up yesterday morning almost full and they were mety by last night! Abigail couldn't believe it! Considering the size of a bee it's amazing how much they get through! I know they are in sunlight but surely evaporation can't explain much!! And no they aren't leaking because the angle of the hive would show proof of leaking....so the bees are drinking it!!! Incredible!!!! But now the medicine is no longer in the feeders, we don't have to have the boxes on the front any more.

What with the 5 hummingbird feeders and the 2 bee feeders, we are getting through a LOT of sugar each week in this house!!!!

I think she'd live down there if she could!

2008-05-12T16:27:00.000-07:00

Housekeeping!

2008-05-12T10:01:00.001-07:00

These pictures show the bees in Flora (hive 1) doing their housekeeping. They have been sweeping their all the bits onto their 'porch' from inside the hive - including dead bees and dying bees....that they then slowly push off the porch onto the grass the in front of the hive.

It's fascinating (and kind of gross and funny at the same time) to watch!

Abby and the bees :)

2008-05-12T09:52:00.000-07:00

Abigail LOVES the bees :) This morning she spent some times down by the hives with me watching them doing their housekeeping :) She is desperate to feed them syrup from her hands so we may try that later today :) She is quite happy to sit right up up close touching the hive. If you click to make the top picture bigger you can see a bee flying in front of her :) Abby thinks it's hilarious that the bees carry the sick and dying bees out of the hive even before they are actually quite dead!!