Bumblebee visitor...

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...

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

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 :)

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

Wednesday

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!

Housekeeping!

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 :)

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!!

Putting the bees in the hive :)

Ok everyone I've had enough jokes about 'the man in the yellow hat' from Curious George...and 'Jane in the jungle' etc etc....I know I look dorky in the hat and stupid outfit hahahaha - the hat is the beehat that goes under a veil and I am not a hat wearing kinda gal but the bees were getting stuck in my hair so I tied my hair back and stuck the hat on. And I'm wearing light colours because bees don't mind them and are less likely to sting you...and I am not bothering to buy a beesuit so when I am going into the hive I will wear these light jeans and the light jacket (I don't wear these light colours normally because I don't like wearing light colours lol as you can see they don't do much for me lol hahahahaha) All I can say is I look better in this stupid outfit than I would in a beesuit and hat and veil and gloves all kitted out!

Oh and yep I sound dorky and the commentary is crappy and and I hate the way I sound on camera and I could go on and on about how I hate seeing me on camera lol but I do want you to see the movie so here you go!

Thank you to my movie maker Son Chris who filmed the whole thing yesterday and then spent last night editing all the little clips into one movie for me and adding it to youtube for me this morning :)

Need practice!

It isn't easy to get lids back onto the hive without hurting the bees!!! They move so fast and they are everywhere!!! Hopefully in future they won't be quite so active as they were tonight! But I don't want to hurt them and I was moving slowly and gently but I still managed to hurt a few (as you can see in this picture!) the problem (apart from killing and maiming my poor little bees) with hurting them is that it sets off the pheromones that makes the rest of the colony angry and makes them more likely to attack and sting you.

The gooey stuff is actually a pollen patty and is used to feed the bees until pollen plants are available in the area naturally to the bees. Once the inner hive cover was in place I moved the pollen patty over towards the hole in the centre of the hive cover so the bees could find it and feed on it.

Still, in the picture if you click on it you can enjoy the delights of seeing me surrounded by my wonderful bees as I worked on hive number one.

Getting the Queen out of the tube.....

.....and keeping the rest of the bees IN the tube ;)


(don't forget to click on the pics to see them BIGGER!!!)

One of my Queens in her cage.

This is my Queen from my 'Flora' hive. We installed this hive first tonight. Both Queens were alive and doing well and we uncorked them and popped a marshmallow in to allow them time to get to know the worker bees before they are released into the hive. I will check they are released in a few days.

Installing the packages went really well :)

I videoed it and Chris is sorting out the editing and I

will upload that as soon as I can - I didn't want to just do a minute long video so we are uploading to youtube and then will add that to my blog :)

The bees kept getting in my hair so I had to wear a hat lol! But I am so proud of myself because I didn't wear gloves or veil or anything - just a hat to keep my hair from catching the poor little bees!

First set of bees are in!

Oh my Gawd!!! That was SERIOUSLY COOL!!!!!

Me and my girls :)

Here I am with ALL my girls :)

The human kind AND the bee kind :)

And yes, as you can probably tell, I WAS able to get an extra package. We got half way home from Spruce Grove and got the phone call to say that they had had a cancellation and they had a spare package for us. Needless to say, we quickly turned the car around and raced back to Spruce Grove to pick up our second set of bees :)

So here we I am with my bees in their tubes! Now they are in the cool of the garage waiting until this evening to be housed into the new homes in the hives which are ready for them down by the pond. Everything is ready. I go in every now and then to give them a spray down with sugar water. The weather is perfect. Their syrup is in the feeders ready and I've added some fumagillin to treat them for nosema. I've painted on some extra melted beeswax to the pierco foundation. I've also sprayed sugar water onto the foundation too. I hope they take to it. I hope the queens are ok.

There is still no blossom out over here and no pollen anywhere so as well as the sugar syrup I am feeding them, I bought two pollen patties to feed them. I bought the extra hive too but had plenty of supers and frames so only bought a few extras.

Susannahs friend dropped her home from a sleepover today and it turned out that her dad worked in a honey farm fixing equipment for a few years and picked up quite a bit of information there so it was really interesting talking with him this morning and he was quite interested to see the pierco plastic frames and see the packaging tubes my bees came in.....quite different to what he experienced!

Well, my bees are here :) Safe and well :) it's exciting to watch them feed through the tube when I spray them. I can't wait to hive them tonight and watch them take their orientation flights. then I have to be patient and leave them be for a few days until I check on the Queen on Tuesday or Wednesday. Can I bee that patient?

I will blog later when I put them in the hive!

In position!

Bees need to be close to water - they need water to make their honey, and if you don't provide them with water they will often find it in your neighbours pool or bird bath - and your neighbours often aren't happy about that ;) - bees often seem to prefer smelly water (chlorine counts but pond water does also) so they should be happy beside our pond. They also like shelter from the wind - so they should be very happy where I have place the hive as down there they will be sheltered from all the strong winds that come through here.

The sun is down there all day long too so they should be busy bees out flying all day long!

The hive is only one box high right now because thats the brood box. Six to 8 weeks after the bees arrive, I will add a second box (called a super). Then it will start to look more like the beehives most people recognise!

Don't forget to click on the pictures to see them bigger!

My Hive!

Click on the pictures to see them bigger!
I have been painting my hives and getting them ready for next week. I am only decorating the brood box which is basically the bottom box - although the bottom two will both basically be brood boxes that the Queen will roam around in laying brood in.....but I am only decorating the bottom ones this much and the rest will only be decorated white with just the bees on - so it will look like flower gardens with lots of bees flying around. But this is hive 1 and hive two will have a different flower garden :)

There is no point decorating the top supers (boxes) because they will be interchanged so much that the design would get messed up but the bottom brood boxes will pretty much stay the same.

It is complete except that I have to varnish on top of the stickers in the morning :)

I'm pleased with how they turned out :)

Once they are varnished and dry I will take them down to their proper place by the pond and that is where they will sit ready for my bees to arrive next week :) OMG this time next week they will be here - woohoo!

I wrote to Ed today!!!

I wrote to Premier today!!! I wrote via his website and I have no idea who reads his emails or who bothers to reply or if they even do.......it's not a very well put together letter - not very well thought out lol as I'm tired and wasn't even thinking about writing one - just that the thought hit me and I went for it hahahahaha but here is what I wrote:




The Provincial Government is constantly being criticised for environmental issues in the news.

There is a simple step that the government could take that could make a big difference to the environment.

The honeybees are dying out globally. This is going to have devastating effects on our foods and crops - on Alberta agriculture - on world agriculture. On food prices. On life.

Alberta has more beekeepers than any other province - we make more honey than any other province.

http://www.albertabeekeepers.org/

One simple way the provincial government could help in a simple yet HUGE scale is to let the road sides and highway central medians return to a more natural habitat - let the grass grow longer - let the dandelions and clover grow longer - stop using insecticides. Encourage Albertans to let their lawns be less than perfect, grow more wild flowers, appreciate dandelions, let bees thrive, encourage urban beekeeping, encourage schools to have hives,

Letting our road sides become more natural would allow them to be more beautiful, would lower costs AND would encourage the bees - AND would show that the government DOES care about something as SMALL as the honey bee but something as BIG as the fact that these tiny creatures could die out as soon as in the next decade and that if that happens ALL our lives are going to be effected on a GRAND scale.

This amazing province of ours is based on Agriculture and farming - even our cattle need to eat the crops - without the bees to pollinate the Alfalfa and hay what will happen to the cattle? Without the bees to pollinate the pumpkins, Halloween just won't be the same without those Jack'o'lanterns. Without those fruits ice cream just won't taste the same now will it?

They say every third bite of food we taste is pollinated by bees.

Perhaps this simple, small change could be the next BIG thing that Alberta could take a stand against.

Thank you for listening.

Here is one of MANY videos you might take time to listen to over at Youtube on this very subject:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIUo3STj6tw

Learn to love your dandelions!!!!!!

This little video talks about how important it is to NOT use insecticides - and to learn to relax about having a few dandelions and clover in your lawn....a few insect bits in your roses...and how councils should grow flowers at the side of our roads.....and relax in our roadside habitats....

The more I learn about the plight of the bees the more I am so glad that we are returning much of our land back to its natural habitat...and that our gardening is organic.......that we aren't treating our lawn or vegetable garden with any insecticides or any unnatural products to help the plants grow.

I can't say what my bees will come into contact with anywhere else they fly to, but I can be sure of what they will come into contact with on MY land.

In early Summer my lawns are COVERED in dandelions and then clover....I am also growing bee friendly flowers from that will flower annually from early Summer until late Fall.....they will also have sugar syrup and then pollen patties in Fall and early Spring. And hopefully their own supply of honey to feed on through Winter.

But please.....don't worry over manicured lawns - let the honeybees thrive instead :)

Update

Another update!! We decided that we really would prefer two hives instead of just one - it really does make more sense in case there is a problem with one hive - in case we need to requeen or anything - or just to compare hives as we go along in our beekeeping adventure!

So today we put our name down on the list at Beemaid for a second package of bees. So on May 10th if they have a spare package, we will be bringing home a second hive and two packages of bees :)

Less than two weeks!

Less than two weeks now until my bees arrive! The countdown is on!!!

I swing between so much excitement that they will soon be here and this panic that I have NO CLUE what I am doing and I should cancel them all and take my hive back to the store ;)

What amI doing?

Am I mad?

Why am I doing this??????

Hhmmmmm.

But really I am just very excited. I keep second guessing myself but really I DO know what I'm doing. I DO know what I have to do the day we get them. I DO know how to install them. I DO know how to do the first check and what to look for - and really thats what matters - and I know who to turn to if things look wrong. So all is well and I have some great help if and when I need it.

So I'm sure it will be ok.....WON'T it?????????? ;)

two weeks!!!! TWO WEEKS!!!!!

MY BEES ARRIVE IN LESS THAN TWO WEEKS!

Reading all about everyones packages arriving on the Beemasters forums and watching people install their new packages on youtube is getting me so excited to get my own :)

Soon it will be my turn :)

Watch this space :)

New commercial

helpthehoneybees.com/



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less than three weeks....

I just hope this cold and snow has gone by the time my bees arrive. Will I be ready to cope if they arrive in THIS??????

Back from Beemaid!

Well, we just got home from the store and I am now the owner of my very own hive :)

I bought the hive with the brood box and three supers. Two to go on top, and an extra one to put full frames of honey in when I swap them over. I bought the pierco frames as well as 10 empty wooden foundation frames that I plan to use as they are - perhaps with a tiny little bit of bomb to start the bees off so that I can cut the comb to eat as it is......I would really prefer to cut comb and eat it like that than process honey really so the pierco frames are for the brood box and first super.

I also bought the veils for the children, the smoker, the brush, hive tool etc etc....the bits and pieces that I need.

I was a bit nervous before I went in but I asked a couple of questions that I was pretty sure I knew the answer to anyway and the lady had to go and ask and when she came back it turned out that I was right all along!!!! So that gave me a lot of confidence that I do know what I'm doing!

They confirmed that my bees probably will have varoa mite but will have had one treatment already and I can give them one more treatment BEFORE the first honey box goes on but NONE once that box goes on...but the treatment I buy can be stored and used next year (I had to buy a pack of ten). All in all they were so helpful there but I'm glad Lloyd came with me because we bought the pre-assembled hive and there was a LOT to pack into the truck!

Now I get to set it all up and paint it and figure it all out :)

I got home to find a parcel from the Alberta Beekeepers Association with about 8 months worth of their magazines in it :) So I have plenty of bedtime reading for the weekend :)

The store at Beemaid is wonderful :) We have to head back there for my bees in a couple of weeks - we have to ride in the truck with several thousand bees lol - that will be noisy ;)

Off to get my hive!!

Today is the day we go and get my hive, smoker, hive tool, veil and all the other equipment we need! I think we're going to get some empty frames as well as the comb filled ones so we can have some for the bees to build their own comb in up in the honey supers.....

We have to ant proof it and paint it, set it up and have it ready for the bees to arrive May 10th :) Then we pick them up between 9am and 1pm that day :)

Great Email from Lloyd today:

You bees will be in May 10th babes!!! it's confirmed!!!!

your hive is reserved as well for Friday......

Great post on hive inspections....

beekeeperlinda.blogspot.com/2008/04/whats-involved-in-hive-inspection.html

I thought this was a really useful blog ppost on hive inspections and why they are necessary!

Great news!

I'm signing up for a weekend long workshop on beekeeping at the end of May...and the guy I'm chatting with about this...well, he tells me that even if I can't get my bees from Beemaid this year, well local beekeepers sell packages of bees through May and June every year via Alberta Bee News magazine (the newsletter of the Alberta Beekeepers).

So this means that even if I can't get my package on May 10th, I can get bees this year :)

So no worries about my bees :) No rush - I can go get my bee hive and equipment on Friday afternoon with Lloyd....set it up and paint it (weather permitting) this weekend and just get some bees when some are available and the weather is ideal!

All is good in my little bee world :)

Friday is hive day :)

Lloyd has Friday afternoon off :) So we are heading out to Spruce Grove to pick up my hive and get all my bee keeping supplies :) then I can get everything set up, painted and ready just in case I get my bees this year! Oh I do hope they get their third pallet!!!

There is a girl on the forum I visit who installed her bees this weekend and sounds as excited as me :) I just can't wait!

Update....

The latest update on my bees. IF Beemaid get a third pallet of bees then it will arrive on May 10th. And IF they get a third pallet then I WILL get a package of bees, IF!!!! They aren't sure yet.

So I still don't know if I will have bees this year.

We will go and get my hive just in case. I will build it and paint it and have it ready. If we don't get bees this year then I will be ready and have my order in early for next year and will be more than ready for the little bees to arrive next Spring.

Lloyd is still confident I will get them this year. Either way is fine I guess. I'm spending time with a local beekeeper this Summer anyway.

We'll see...........

A poem for you.....

TELLING THE BEES

by: John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)

ERE is the place; right over the hill
Runs the path I took;
You can see the gap in the old wall still,
And the stepping-stones in the shallow brook.

There is the house, with the gate red-barred,
And the poplars tall;
And the barn's brown length, and the cattle-yard,
And the white horns tossing above the wall.

There are the beehives ranged in the sun;
And down by the brink
Of the brook are her poor flowers, weed-o'errun,
Pansy and daffodil, rose and pink.

A year has gone, as the tortoise goes,
Heavy and slow;
And the same rose blows, and the same sun glows,
And the same brook sings of a year ago.

There 's the same sweet clover-smell in the breeze;
And the June sun warm
Tangles his wings of fire in the trees,
Setting, as then, over Fernside farm.

I mind me how with a lover's care
From my Sunday coat
I brushed off the burrs, and smoothed my hair,
And cooled at the brookside my brow and throat.

Since we parted, a month had passed,--
To love, a year;
Down through the beeches I looked at last
On the little red gate and the well-sweep near.

I can see it all now,--the slantwise rain
Of light through the leaves,
The sundown's blaze on her window-pane,
The bloom of her roses under the eaves.

Just the same as a month before,--
The house and the trees,
The barn's brown gable, the vine by the door,--
Nothing changed but the hives of bees.

Before them, under the garden wall,
Forward and back,
Went drearily singing the chore-girl small,
Draping each hive with a shred of black.

Trembling, I listened: the summer sun
Had the chill of snow;
For I knew she was telling the bees of one
Gone on the journey we all must go!

Then I said to myself, "My Mary weeps
For the dead to-day:
Haply her blind old grandsire sleeps
The fret and the pain of his age away."

But her dog whined low; on the doorway sill,
With his cane to his chin,
The old man sat; and the chore-girl still
Sung to the bees stealing out and in.

And the song she was singing ever since
In my ear sounds on:--
"Stay at home, pretty bees, fly not hence!
Mistress Mary is dead and gone!"


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