Rosamund flourishes

When I checked the syrup status last night, Rosamund had about half a quart and Lucretia had 2/3.  I had some syrup left from yesterday's feeding and added it to Rosamund's jar this morning.  Also, I moved the back board back one bar.  It was originally behind bar 10.  The cluster is back to bar 7 so they have plenty of free space to move into. Lucretia's cluster only goes back to 6 and isn't as full or attached, yet.

(Yes, I changed the name of the Left hive.  Starting with L works better for me than saying El.  And it's not like they come when I call.)

The bees know

A friend sent us a link to an article about Bayer CropScience, neonicotinoids and bees.


One of the comments was a great reminder to me that the bees know what they are doing more than I do.  I'm considering having it tattooed on my thigh so I see it every day.


From Tubbercurry:


Are we potentially doing more harm by dusting with sugar than not opening the hive? Something to consider: when a beekeeper opens a hive it is invasive to the super-organism that is the beehive.  Many beekeepers open their hives way too often and all this opening helps to contribute to the demise of their beehive's health. If you're just curious, watch the hive entrance and see what you can find out about the bees by that rather than opening the hive. If the bees are bringing in pollen they're feeding brood and chances are the queen is laying eggs. Even if she's ill or old, the bees know how to replace her. Way too many beekeepers even organic ones over-manage their hives.




Addendum 3/31/12:  This is a great explanatory article: Beekeepers to EPA: We're running out of time

Removing the queen's carriages

Both queens had managed to get out of their boxes in the days since we put the packages in the hives.

However, rubber-banding them to the bars was a bad idea.  The workers had built comb all around the boxes.  If we need to do this again, we'll use a thumbtack to hang the box from the bar and let the bees figure it out.

Rosamund's colony had built more comb, but when we started trying to remove the rubber bands, the weight of the box broke the comb off.  We think she was elsewhere in the hive because that piece of comb seems to only have food in it.

Elinore's box had very little comb around it and we just removed it.

(Get it?  Rrrrrrrosamund on the right and ELLLLLLLLinore on the left.)

We have left the pieces outside the hives to let them retrieve what they can.

Elinore's colony seems to be eating less, too.  Rosamund needed food, but Elinore is only about half down the quart.

But, both colonies seem to be busily building comb, so we are going to leave them alone, except for feeding a little more and moving the back board as comb gets built.

I expect we'll go in and look for brood this weekend.

(The little bugs in a couple of the chambers were taking advantage of the situation after the comb was moved outside, not problems for the hive.)

About the girls

We should name our queens. It would amuse me. What are the names of historic Italian queens? Wikipedia offers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Italian_queens

I think I prefer Rosamund. That will be the hive on the right when looking out from the house. I freed her court from their box.

 Chuck gets to choose for the hive on the left since that was the one he got started last week.

We were gone this weekend, taking my middle nephew to a 5K in Charlotte. Since it was cloudy yesterday morning, we didn't try to open the hives to check the queens and it was raining when we got home today. So, tomorrow we will get in there and let who ever needs it out of her little box. Usually you leave them 3 days, but we are trying not to piss them off any more than necessary.

We suspect it will be (insert name here) because Rosamund's crowd have sucked the sugar syrup down to about an inch from the bottom of the bottle. We figure this means she's out and needing feeding. (Insert name here)'s colony has only dropped their syrup about 3 inches, so we think this means she's still subsisting on the fondant in her cage.

From what I can tell through the window, it looks like both colonies are drawing down good comb, but it may just be that the bees are all happy in their clusters and I can't really tell a damn thing.

 I have made more syrup for Rosamund's bottle, too.

After the installation

I took a few pictures of Chuck  installing one of the packages, but hadn't thought to recharge my camera battery and it crapped out on me.  I was relieved that Randy was taking pictures, too.  In particular I loved that he got a good shot of the queen cage.  (I think of it as her carriage.)  I had expected it to have just the queen in it, but she had 5 or 6 attendants with her.

The white stuff in the top is fondant that all the bees will eat through to free her.  Since she isn't necessarily related to the bees in the package, this gives everyone time to get used to each other.  By the time she is free, the workers will have comb started.  She will begin laying immediately.

The white strip that Marty is holding was meant to be used to dangle the cage between 2 frames.  But since we are using top bars, there is no foundation for her to step out onto.  So, we rubberbanded it to one of the bars.  It may be an adventure getting it removed on Saturday depending on how they have drawn comb around it.

 This is Annalys Goodwin-Landher, one of our beekeeping friends.

 This is the first installation.

 This is Chuck holding up a jar of bee syrup so he can see that it is dripping out slowly.

He picked up a 10 lb bag of organic cane sugar from CostCo last week and I made a 1:1 syrup with it Tuesday night when we knew they were on their way.  Because the sugar hadn't been bleached, it smelled faintly of molasses and the syrup looked like weak tea.

The jars came with the hives.  They are quart sized canning jars with a pair of tops with nail holes in them.  Because there are 2 lids, the syrup comes out more slowly.  We figured that out as we put them in the hives.

 This is Chuck using our hive tool to open the lid on the shipping box.

And this is the removal of the can of syrup that is in the package for them to snack on as they travel.

Marty put the top over the hole while we got the queen's cage unstapled from the box.  Those staple were VERY secure, which makes sense if the bees are travelling by mail.

And at this point, my camera no longer participated in the festivities.  But, I did get it charged overnight.

 I was fascinated in the morning to see that the bees that hadn't made it out of the boxes, yet, made their own little clusters to stay warm.

Chuck managed to get more of his bees out than I did.

 And here is the larger cluster, up against the back board, before getting started on their day.  The board is to encourage them to start with a smaller space initially.  We'll remove it tomorrow when we open the hives to be sure the queens are out of their cages.

Move In Day, Part 2

Our friend Randy was one of the beekeepers who came to the "package party" to get the bees installed in their new homes.  He got some GREAT pictures and posted on his own blog, Randy and Meg's Garden Paradise.

Randy is a member of the Orange County Beekeepers' Association and the Natural Bees in NC group.

Move in day

Our girls moved in yesterday evening.

Orientation flights are happening this morning.

We got a satsuma tree!

Southern States is a very dangerous place for me.

It's even already got fruit forming.

Advice from the NC CES

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/ag-06.html

Plan for a garden that can produce most of the vegetables needed by two people for one year

Also:

Vegetable	Optimum Temperature *		Growing Time (weeks)
	Day (F)	Night (F)
Asparagus	70-80	65-70	8-10
Broccoli	60-70	50-60	5-7
Brussels Sprouts	60-70	50-60	5-7
Cabbage	60-70	50-60	5-7
Cauliflower	60-70	50-60	5-7
Sweet corn	70-75	60-65	3-4
Cucumbers	70-75	60-65	3-4
Eggplant	70-80	65-70	6-8
Lettuce	55-65	50-55	5-7
Muskmelons	70-75	60-65	3-4
Onions	60-65	55-60	10-12
Peppers	65-75	60-65	6-8
Summer squash	70-75	60-65	3-4
Tomatoes	65-75	60-65	5-7
Watermelons	70-80	65-70	3-4

Field day report

We had a great time with our first hands-on experience in a bee yard today. It felt very natural and we were very calm.

Getting the smoker going to use to calm the bees.

Getting to examine up close for the things we learned about in bee school.

They did sugar shake tests to check for mites. They gather some bees in a jar, pour in powdered sugar, let them settle for a few minutes and then turn the jar upside down and shake the mites out through the screen onto a white surface and count. The sugar makes the mites fall off. Depending on the number of mites, you may have to do a mite treatment of your choice.

Here are the sugared bees returning to the hive. One of the powdered ones stung me on my finger while I was taking this photo. I scraped the stinger off. It only hurt for about five minutes or so, swelled for a little while and then returned to normal. No big deal. Glad it happened.

As usual, the kids were pretty much fearless.

The girls with their "butts" in the air are on cleaning duty, getting the cells ready for the queen to lay new eggs.

And then there is the queen of queens, totally immersed.

Field day in the bee yard

Last Tuesday was the final class of bee school.  Those of us that chose to took the written part of the NCSBA beekeepers certification exam.  The practical part will happen in the summer when we have actually had bees for a while.

Today we have field day in a bee yard and get to mess with some hives.

I'm a little concerned that this is a cloudy days and it was sprinkly yesterday.  Bees don't care for rainy days and they tend to get testy.  This may be a brief field day.

kiwi

I was curious to hear Randy speaking of a farm close to him that had kiwi fruit vines. I investigated and discovered arctic kiwi, which is more the size of a grape when it fruits and is eaten skin and all. They are extremely cold hardy (grown as far north as Canada) and appear to do well in sun or partial shade. They are supposed to taste like the big variety and draw butterflies and hummingbirds. Not sure about bees.

They came today by FedEx and are in the ground. They need to be supported like a grape vine and I decided to let them vine the fence.

I was "forced" to order two more blueberry bushes to meet the minimum order amount from the nursery. What a shame.

More planting

More seeds sown to transplant into the beds later when the cool weather crops have run their course. Planted long purple eggplant, zucchini, yellow summer squash, okra, sweet red peppers, pablano peppers and basil.

84 degrees today...yippee!!

next

We did stuff in the garden and the yard yesterday and today. The veggie beds are still putting out cool weather yum and I am gradually planting new in the vacant areas. Planted two varieties of beets, snap peas (I know Randy, probably too late, but what the heck) and fava beans, which also may be a little late. Now to put in some "good Chianti" for when they mature.

The peach tree seems to be bouncing back after the freeze.

The plum trees are blooming out, one a good bit ahead of the other. We also have a damson plum, but it just went in the ground in late Summer, so we don't expect much this year.

Put some teak oil on the roof and legs of the hives yesterday and got them placed and leveled today. Bring on our girls!

I also put down another seeding of Dutch White Clover in the front and back yards today. Hoping it will take over the yard eventually and require less mowing as well as provide food for the bees.

March 7, 2012

Refurbished the soil in the holes around one of the beds with dirt mixed with compost and cow manure. I then planted more spinach, red romaine and swiss chard. Now to see how long it takes to mature and whether we get to eat any before it gets too hot. Crossed fingers.

Evolutionary bees

This pair of videos amaze me.  Well, the second one does.  This first one is just sad.  I wish I could find a video of the entire BBC show they have been taken from.

This one shows European honey bees attacked and killed by Japanese hornets:



This one shows Japanese honeybees DEALING with Japanese hornets:



The bee inspector at bee school last night kept stressing that varroa mites, which have become an epidemic in the US, are a parasite that Indian bees have adapted to.  The mites don't bother Indian bees, but they have been devastation the US populations of European bees.  (Honey bees are not native to the New World.  They were all introduced along with the crops they pollinate.)  And because of the mingling of bees that has become commonplace in commercial beekeeping, bees are introduced to pests and diseases that they aren't prepared to combat with greater frequency now than could happen 300 years ago.

He was slamming "natural beekeeping" as they all seem to.  Since living in boxes is not natural to bees, apparently anything else you do to them is acceptable, including putting pesticides in the hives.

I prefer to treat mites with powdered sugar and risk losing a colony of weak bees, promoting the evolutionary development of varroa resistant honeybees, than to use those poisons.  The mites have begun to become resistant to them so, in my not so humble opinion, using miticides is counterproductive.

There are queens that are called "Hygienic" because they produce bees that have anti-mite behaviors.  Why does anyone think it is stupid (and they do act like we are stupid) to want to keep bees that are mite resistant rather than breeding mites that are pesticide resistant on bees that can't survive with out human interventions?

freeze

Covered the peach tree, which was fully blooming out, and one of the plum trees, which was just starting to bud. Plum looks fine this morning, the peach a little rough. Probably will cover again tonight to be safe.

Peach tree lollipop.

Bees in Brooklyn

Made by Hand / No 3 The Beekeeper from Made by Hand on Vimeo.

Hive placement

The hives aren't in their permanent spot, yet. We will be using pavers I hated in the front yard as a base for them and we're putting them just inside the treeline where we don't mow anyway.


And the general rule of thumb is that you move hives 2 inches or 2 miles. Bees go back to the place they last left. If you move a hive across the yard, they will keep trying to go to the old location. Move it 2 miles away and they learn everything new.


When beekeepers want to move a hive a little bit, they get permission to move the hive somewhere for 6-8 weeks, then bring it back to the place they want to keep it.

It's good to be the Queen

She travels in her own carriage and has attendants who wait on her antennae and foot.

When they arrive in a wire mesh box about the size of a shoe box, she will be in her own little box about the size of a deck of cards. There will be a plug in her box made of candy that is something like a hard marshmallow.

Since the bees in the package aren't related to her, they will have the 3 days it takes for her and them to eat the plug to let her out to get used to each other and for the colony to become accustomed to her pheromones.

Queen pheromones are what keep everyone happy and wanting to come home when they forage.  Bees are the prime example of "When Mama's happy, everybody's happy."

When you look for the queen in the hive, she has a longer abdomen to hold all those egg laying organs, which are present but dormant in the workers.

She spends all her time laying @1,500 eggs a day and workers bring her food and make sure she is comfortable. Comfortable being 93-95ºF all year long.

Water is used to cool the hive in the summer. In the winter, they all crowd together in a ball, dislocate their wings and move their wing muscles as though they were flying to create heat by friction. The queen is in the center of the cluster. The workers circulate in to the center and out to the edge, similar to penguins.

More seeds

In addition to some Cardinal Climber vine (Ipomoea x multifida), cleome and French lavender seeds for the flower beds, we have added more Sow True vegetables:

Beet (Detroit Dark Red)
Beet (Early Wonder)
Parsnip (All American)
Pepper, Chile (Ancho/Poblano)

Hive choice

The white box hives you usually see are Langstroth hives, devised by Rev. L. L. Langstroth in the 1850s. He figured out the exact size of bees space (1/4-3/8 inch) which is the distance needed between combs for bees to be comfortable. Basically, it's the space need for 2 bees to pass each other conveniently. So, Rev. L created a box with removable frames for the combs that allowed for bee space, virtually inventing commercial beekeeping on the spot.

This is VERY convenient for humans. Beekeepers start with a brood box for the queen to begin her family and as the colony expands, beekeepers ad supers above the brood chamber for honey stores. Big supers are called "deeps" because they are. There are also medium and small supers. And some beekeepers use queen excluders to keep her from laying eggs in the comb where the honey is collecting.

Langstroth hives also use a foundation that the bees draw their comb out from. I have read that this tends to make larger cells than bees do on their own, which is great for honey production.

I know of 3 other types of hives that have removable frames.

Warré are stacked but with the empty boxes added to the bottom and they use frames without foundation. There are also Kenyan Top Bar Hives and Tanzanian Long Hives, which don't add to the top and use top bars that the bees draw the comb down from on their own, with the only support that which they create as the build out to the side of the hive.

Skeps, the straw hives that make you think of Winnie-the-Pooh, don't have removable frames so when a beekeeper takes honey, s/he does a lot more damage to the hive than the other ones I just mentioned.

We are using KTBH because we think that it looks the most bee- friendly. There is one person in our area, that we know of, who is using a long hive. I look forward to an opportunity to see hers at some point.

They have flaps on the side with plastic windows, so we can look in without disturbing the girls as much as removing the top would.

And they really are cute. The fact that they have flowers on the ends just cracks me up. We're hoping that the fact that they don't look like Langstroth hives makes them kinda stealth so it won't freak out the neighbors so much.

Here's a thing I learned that amazed me. Blueberries are pollinated by bees, but the openings of the flowers are too small so bumbles make holes in them and honeybees use those holes to get to the nectar and pollen, too.

AND it takes many visits by bees to pollinate cucumbers. Like around a dozen. And no bees, no cukes.

The hive is a big empty box with the bars across the top. The angle of that pointy  bit is cut to be right for the bee space.

Langstroth hives use 4 sided frames that usually have a foundation put on by the beekeeper. They are more supportive of the comb allowing th beekeepers greater ease when checking the hive and they make it easier to harvest the honey.

Seed packets for 2012

We picked up Sow True seed packets, today from Weaver Street Market.  I'm writing them here so I can keep up with the varieties.

Brussels Sprouts (Long Island Improved)
Eggplant (Long Purple)
Okra (Clemson Spineless)
Pea, Snap (Mammoth Melting Sugar)
Pepper, Sweet (Marconi Red)
Squash, Summer (Cocozelle Zucchini)
Squash, Winter (Spaghetti)

We already had some from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange:

Bean, Fava (Broad Windsor)
Broccoli (De Cicco)
Broccoli (Umpqua)
Cauliflower, Fall (Snowball, Self - Blanching)
Greens (Arugula)
Greens (Even' Star Winter Arugula)
Kale (Lacinato/Dinosaur)
Lettuce, Romaine (Rouge d'Hiver / Winter Red)
Spinach (Bloomsdale)
Tomato (Cherokee Purple)
Tomato (German Johnson)

And  Burpee Organic:
Basil (Sweet)
Broccoli (DiCiccio)
Cantaloupe (Honey Rock)
Cilantro
Pea (Little Marvel)
Swiss Chard (Ruby Red)

And we have some Roma tomato seeds Chuck saved and fermented to give a try this year.

I expect the Sweet 100 grape tomatoes to volunteer in the side bed again, too.

March 2nd

Pretty much this is about what is growing in the beds right now...slow as usual.

Yes, Virginia, those are brussel sprouts. We have about four to five plants that finally started to sprout, thanks to Kitty encouraging my patience.

If the bees were here, they might be digging on the arugala flowers. Looks like our bee packages will be here before the end of this month.

Broccoli is doing fine, a little spindly but sweet and tasty.

Spinach is coming along slow but sure.

And of course the three types of kale have been very productive.