Blueberries and bees, bees, bees

Tomato plants are almost all gone now and in a way I'm kind of relieved because I spent a couple hours a day working on them.  It was pleasant working on them but a lot of work.  Now the blueberries are just going crazy and we're getting a lot of berries.  My wife and I were out close to sunset picking blueberries and got several quarts of them.  And boy are they delicious.  We're also getting a lot of various peppers and papayas. 

Papayas, blueberries, tomatoes and peppers for today

delicious blueberries

The Honeybee and pollinator garden is also blooming like crazy and the sunflowers are making their debut.  It's so wonderful sitting out there and watching all the butterflies and bees zipping around among the flowers. 

Sunflowers starting to bloom

I had a phone call yesterday asking if I could remove a hive from a fallen tree in one of our local parks.  For some strange reason I said yes even though I don't have enough hive parts available.  That and the fact I had a dozen other things going on.

The guy from the county said he thought the tree was hollow and would be easy to cut into.  But that was not to be.  It was a massive tree and where the bees lived it was slightly hollow but mostly solid wood.  The guy from the county offered to help but said he couldn't because he didn't have a bee suit.  So I said "I have a spare you can borrow" and suited him up so he could run the chain saw while I vacuumed the bees into the bee vac.  It turned out to be a good amount of work but the good news is I got the queen which is always a concern.

The big dilemma I was facing however was the fact that I didn't have any more bases for my hives.  So I decided to set up the new hive using the bottom of the bee vac contraption I built.  The entrance (temporarily) would be the hose hole for the vac until I could build, source or buy another base.  So problem solved for the moment.

But the big surprise of the day happened when I arrived back at The Florida Bee Farm and was greeted with two new swarms that had taken up residence in two empty Nucs that were sitting on a bench.  Bees everywhere !!  When I woke up this morning I had no desire to get any more bees as the apiary was pretty full.   Now I have three more hives counting the squatter bees in my nucs.  Time to build more bee stuff !!!

Blueberries and Bees

Lately there's plenty of activity at The Florida Bee Farm around the blueberry plants.  And there's many different types of bees buzzing around the blueberry flowers.  Bumble bees, carpenter bees, honey bees from our apiary and a couple bee types I wasn't sure of.  While watching a large Carpenter bee on a bud I noticed a couple smaller bees buzzing the Carpenter bee and even bumping into it a few times.  There was plenty of blueberries to go around so not sure what the bee anger was all about. 

Some of the smaller blueberry plants even have unripe blueberries already.  It looks like we'll have a nice harvest of blueberries this year with over 20 mature plants.

Carpenter bee enjoying the blueberry buds

Blueberries formation

Visitor to the Bee Farm

While working at the Bee Farm the other day we had one of our cool neighbors stop by with her Macaw which was a rescue bird.  This is the lady who rescues animals and owns hedgehogs, flying squirrels (occasionally) and a few other exotic animals as well as the "Magic Cat" who occasionally stops by to inspect the Bee Farm.  The story behind Magic Cat was explained on an earlier blog entry.

I was lucky to hold the Macaw for awhile while visiting with the neighbor.  An interesting bird for sure.

Macaw visits the Bee Farm

A nice diversion from yard work

 

A House for Bernard (our Lion) and Summer Gardening

With all the rain we've been experiencing plus the fact that lions are in the news lately, we decided that our lion Bernard (distant relative of Cecil) should have a covered shelter to get out of the rain if he wants.   Plus where he was previously hanging out got so overgrown with flowers and weeds that he was pretty much hidden.  A watch-lion needs to be seen, not hidden like a cowardly lion in the undergrowth. 

Bee farm watch-lion (Bernard)

Happy with his new home and his proud mama

Now that the sun is shining, it was fun working in the garden again.  We pulled weeds and transplanted a few potted plants and moved several others.  It's amazing how some of our plants grew so much in the last month.  Our Okra is doing well and is quite healthy. 

Okra

My two Moringa and numerous Papaya plants are also doing well.  Unfortunately in the heavy rains, I lost a dozen or so Papaya's that fell over in the water saturated soil.   But most of them are still doing well. 

Moringa and Papaya plants

A few months ago at a rally against Monsanto I was given some seeds that I mistakenly thought were Moringa plants.  When they sprouted, they didn't look at all like Moringa so I went to a gardening facebook page and asked what the plants were.  Turns out I received a handful of Tumeric seeds that are now quite healthy and ready to go into the ground.  Yvonne transplanted them into our new Tumeric garden.  Tumeric root and Moringa plants are loaded with excellent nutrients and are very good for you.

Tumeric garden

It really felt good getting out into the garden and working.  It's such good therapy getting your hands dirty while working with plants and the earth.  Our bees were very good and seem to have really calmed down now that they have good weather.  The Queenless hives are now back to normal with their new queens and gardening around the hives no longer brings out the guard bees.

Gargoyle road trip home

Yesterday was the day to return the Gargoyle that was formerly a beehive to it's owner.    Since it was a couple hour drive with tolls and all, I waited until our niece needed some furniture delivered to her new college apartment in Orlando.  The bed of the truck was pretty full so my nephew and I strapped the Gargoyle to the open tailgate and ratchet strapped it securely to the truck.

Gargoyle at a rest area along I-4

Needless to say it was quite a site going down the road.  For some reason nobody wanted to be behind us with this bizarre looking Gargoyle staring at them.  We did get a few thumbs ups and were even followed into a rest area by some guys who wanted to know what that was in the back of our truck.  Maybe they thought it was attached to whatever was wrapped in the blue tarp.  The lady who owned the Gargoyle was glad to get it back as it was a 28th wedding anniversary gift from her sentimental husband.  My kind of guy.  And she was such a nice person but even so, I told her I'm doing no more bee removals from heavy steel Gargoyles.

After getting home, new queen bees arrived.  I spent the next couple hours dodging monsoon rains while in the hives.  I had one of the best and most experienced beekeeper I know help me through the rain and darkness working on the hives to requeen.  I was pretty worn out by the time I got home after 9:00 pm.  Every time we opened the hives, the rains would start and let loose.  Toward the end we rigged up a tarp to somewhat help.  But looking for a queen with a flashlight is not very easy.  Especially with my eyes.

Five Queens a "piping"

Five new Italian Cordovan Queen Bees arrived via UPS yesterday after traveling from Ohio.  Fortunately they all looked healthy and active despite being held an extra day in a warehouse due to a screwup by UPS.

The first thing I did after opening the box was to give them all a few drops of water and honey.  Then I noticed the high pitched noises that new queens make.  Kind of like a trumpeting sound it's called "piping".  When there's several queens in a hive after queen cells hatch, this sound is heard ... a battle cry of sorts you could say.  Turn the volume up in the video and you should be able to hear the piping sounds.  Pretty cool.

Not only did we think it was cool, our cat was fascinated by the piping bees.

Beekeeping tip of the day - Propolis

While inspecting one of the hives recently, I noticed the fine aluminum mesh screen covering the hole of the inner hive cover was almost completely sealed with propolis.  Since a feeder was being added to this hive, the screen needed the propolis removed.  The reason for this fine screen mesh is to keep out sneaky hive beetles that creep in through the top of the hive.  The other part of this anti hive beetle strategy is to seal underneath the screened bottom board with a slide out tray of  diatomaceous earth and fine mesh to allow ventilation.  Since implementing, we've gone from being infested with hive beetles to having zero in all hives during the last 3 inspections.  I didn't expect the results to be this dramatic.   It pays to NOT listen to conventional beekeeper books that are basically ignorant of hive beetles habits and their bag of tricks.     

But back to the inner hive cover with the propolis covering the aluminum screen.   Scraping the propolis is impossible and will tear the screen in no time.  Water doesn't work and using any solvents or chemicals is not an option when trying to achieve a completely organic chemical free hive. 

The natural solution actually turned out to be quite easy.  A heat gun was aimed at the wire mesh and a small container was placed underneath the inner hive cover to collect the dripping propolis.  As the propolis heats up, it drips into the collection container.  Simple and efficient.  And it only took a minute or two.

Hungry Bees

The last couple days we had very wet weather complete with numerous lightning strikes.  Not at all conducive to working with the bees.  The frames that we extracted the honey from were wrapped up nicely and then placed in heavy duty plastic containers waiting to be returned to the hives.  I didn't want to wait too long before giving them back to the bees.  The comb is already on the frames and there's still quite a bit of honey and nectar on all of them. 

Cooling a batch of sugar water in the sink

Yvonne cooked up a big batch of sugar water that will be fed to the bees.  This time of year the nectar flow is very minimal and foraging is difficult for the bees.  The second nectar flow will start in a month or so, but until then it doesn't hurt to give the bees a little help. 

Bee Wagon loaded down

Once I got out to the Bee Farm I began building more frames to fill the honey supers that were to be installed.  The wet frames (ones from the extraction) would be divided equally between the hives so they all have a good base to start building as well as nourishment.

New Bee Workbench quite handy

As soon as I started taking the wet frames out of the bags, quite a few bees materialized to take advantage of the sweetness.  All sorts of uninvited guests also showed up to the party including a few wasps, flies and ants.  After the wagon was loaded up with the supers and feeders I started inspecting the hives and immediately noticed a problem.  The nuc that was dropped the other day had a large crack on one side (the back door I was wondering about).  Fortunately there was an empty spare hive available to transfer those bees into  even though their numbers were on the small side.  They were not at all happy to be transferred again but it had to be done.  For their patience I rewarded them with the biggest feeder we had.

Gargoyle hive with new honey super and feeder

Half way through the work I looked down and noticed I forgot to zip up my head net.  All along my neck was completely exposed and bees could have flown right up into my headnet.  Fortunately I was pretty gentle with the bees up until then and hadn't done anything to alert the hot hive yet.  I quickly zipped the headnet snug.   And then that little voice in your head keeps suggesting that one of the girls snuck in and was walking around on the inside of the headnet admiring the view from the inside.   For a few minutes I was absolutely sure there was a bee in the headnet and would have bet money on it.  It's really not a big deal because worst case scenario is you get stung once but still it's kind of a mental thing that noodles around in your mind while you're working.

Besides the weather cooperating, everything went off fairly smooth and the bees are feasting tonight after several days of being cooped up trying to stay dry in their hives.

Just when you think you got it all figured out

Yes, when you finally think you got it all figured out, the universe steps in to humble you and knock you back down to your knees.  I'm really getting good at this humbling thing and the knees are getting sore : )

Today was moving day for the final group of bees in our backyard.  The Nuc had quite a few bees and they were beginning to become an annoyance due to their cantankerous attitudes.  Unless I wore protective covering, I couldn't work in the backyard or mow the lawn.  Time for another road trip to transport them to the Bee Farm.    I stapled #8 hardware wire over the entrance and placed the Nuc into a large plastic container.  Once they were in the plastic  container, it hid the nuc/hive from those in the air (except one...) so they could be loaded into the truck without flying escorts.

Everything seemed nice and smooth and I was getting a little over confident.  Once I got to the Bee Farm, the container was carried over to the new bench behind the hives.  When I opened the plastic container, the box was full of bees .... apparently there was a back door I missed or they found a way to squeeze around the stapled hardware cloth.  No matter, in a minute they will be sitting on the stand in their new location.

I haven't used these Nucs except when they were installed, so I really didn't think much about what I was doing.  So I gingerly lifted the nuc out of the plastic container and started toward the stand.  The propolis (glue the bees make) stuck the cover to the heavy nuc for a few seconds.  And then the cover separated from the nuc and it crashed to the ground without the cover on as a zillion angry bees came bubbling out !  As I stood there with only the cover in my hands, my brain registered the fact the the lip of the cover IS NOT a handle.  What started off sooooo smooth ended up in complete chaos.  Just add this to the long list of lessons learned the hard way.   As usual, quite humbling once again.

Needless to say I didn't stick around and after getting the Nuc positioned on the stand I quickly retreated to my truck surrounded by a paparazzi of bees that desperately wanted to let me know how very unhappy they were with my clumsy actions.  Not that I blame them ...

Killer Bee Honey - Delicious

Since the rain won't stop, it was time to bottle the honey from last weeks bee removal of Africanized Honey Bees.  It's recommended to leave the honey to settle for several days to remove the air bubbles.  We use quite a bit of honey in our diet and this came at the perfect time as we were running low.  The flavor of this honey is out of this world.  Absolutely delicious. 

Delicious honey

Oh and one thing I forgot to mention about the removal last week.  A few days later at the beekeepers meeting I was talking with the lady (Marti) in the bee removal video, and she told me that when she went to bed that night whenever she closed her eyes she saw bees swarming around her and it took her a long time to get to sleep.  It's funny she mentioned that because I had almost the same thing happen to me.  When I went to bed that night I told my wife I kept seeing bees relentlessly swarming around me when I closed my eyes.   It was so strange but unlike Marti I was (thankfully) able to conk out in no time.

Down with the Queen (s)

Yesterday I brought home a bunch of scrap lumber from a job site that donates their scraps.    I brought home enough wood for several projects and spent the day building a Bee bench for out by the hives.  It's always nice to have clean flat surfaces to place your hive tools, smoker and whatever while you work on the bees.

This morning I drove out early to drop the bench off.  As soon as I got out of the truck I saw several bees attacking my truck in a frenzy.  As I'm watching, the thought goes through my head that when they get tired of trying to sting the truck I'm going to get some attention.  And then I hear it .... faintly at first ... then louder and louder until I heard (or at least imagined)  A high pitched "GET HIM" !!!!! and then the fun began. 

They just wouldn't leave me alone.  And it was fairly aggressive behavior that basically chased me from the yard.   Aggressive enough to promote thoughts of re queening the hives.  Re queening will replace your bloodlines with gentler bees even though that takes a few months before you're back to a calmer group.

Viva la revolution ... death to the queens !!!!

More bees and better prepared

The last couple weeks the equipment around here has been getting modified and ready for some new arrivals.  The new trays under the screened bottom board are working out great and are a big weapon in the war on hive beetles. 

After installing one of the newly designed bottom boards with tray of diatomaceous earth in the hive behind our house I spent several hours watching the activity around the hive.  Sure enough, the hive was besieged by hive beetles trying to break back into the hive.  When I tore the hive down, many of them flew off and were trying their old tricks to re-enter the hive but to no avail.  Not only did I secure the bottoms of the hives but the tops were also secured with fine mesh screen to keep any sneaky beetles from coming in from the hive covers and through the inner hive cover.  Now when they try that they are stuck in the upper chamber with nowhere to go ... until I open up the hive and squash them. 

But back to the hive beetles trying to breech the entrance.  They kept landing on the front surface of the hive and tried to make a bee line to the entrance which was now only a few inches in width and surrounded by guard bees.  The bees keep a close guard on the hive beetles and do what they can to keep them out of the hive.  Before they could fly under the hive and crawl in through the screened bottom board as the mesh on that is big enough for a hive beetle to squeeze through. No longer an option for them.

After several days the trays of diatomaceous earth under the bottom boards were loaded with dead hive beetles.  They may have been pushed through the bottom board screen by bees.  It's working as intended.  The surprising result came from the gargoyle hive which in the first day dropped a whole lot of maggotty little hive beetle larvae AND wax moth larvae into the tray.  Quite a bit.   They were pretty infested with those pests.

Two new hives (left, on the stand)

Today I picked up several new Nucs from a friend and installed them at the Bee Farm.  As it felt like a thousand degrees out there the install happened as quick as possible.  It looks like the next project will be some shade cloth over the hives.  I'm now thinking that all the beekeepers who recommended full sun for the colonies were not of sound mind.  Why subject bees to these temperatures and have them expend so much more energy to keep the hive temperature right.  Shade cloth will also help the dripping beekeeper that's working on the hives as well. 

Now up to 5 hives total.

Honey Bee Sunday Garden Brunch

Today the bees were enjoying a nice Sunday brunch at the honey bee garden cafe behind their hive.  Plenty of sunflowers to pick from as well as gladiolas and other delicacies.  It looks pretty and there's something highly therapeutic about watching plants you grew from seeds transform into beautiful plants.

Beans !

New palm trees are doing well and the vegetable garden has it's share of wins as well as a few losses which are to be expected.  Beans are growing like a bean as they say.

The other advantage of the bee garden is it benefits butterflies and native bees as well as honey bees.  We can't forget about these important pollinators which are also very important to our environment.

Honey bee garden

bees on sunflowers

Honey bees enjoying sunflowers

honey bee garden

Moving a giant palm tree

In my typical attention deficit disorder (ADD) fashion, instead of doing all the things on my todo list I instead started thinking about how to dig up a large palm tree in our backyard that was growing into our giant oak tree.  Even though I knew it was too large for me, I kept thinking about how to engineer a method to dig it up.   After that I would consider options for moving it.

The one challenge involved with this task is the tree is about 8 feet in front of the bee hive in our backyard.  I had to use a pic axe and saws as well as construct a large wooden structure around the tree.  Fortunately these beautiful laid back bees paid me no attention and let me do whatever I wanted to without any guard bees chasing me off.  They are the best bees one could ask for.

So eventually I got the tree down and it was massive and even more intimidating after it was down.  I couldn't budge it at all it was so heavy.  Couldn't even pull on the top of it.  So now what ?????  After realizing this was way more than I could handle, I called someone to move it for us.  But it was $200.00 which in retrospect seems like a bargain.   After talking it over with the wife we decided to save our money and I would have to cut it up.  Not something I wanted to do.

That's about the time my brain became preoccupied with how I could move this tree.  After all, the ancient Egyptians moved giant stones with human power and built pyramids so why couldn't I employ some engineering techniques to move this 40 foot 1000 - 1500 pound palm tree?   Our son had a crazy plan that involved taking our rear fence down and dragging the tree out into the middle of a busy road and then chain hoisting it to a tree.  It would have involved shutting down a busy road and causing a traffic jam of people watching us wrestle with this massive tree on the side of the road.  He had to go out of town and told me to wait for him ....  I had to do something quick before he returned from his trip.

My plan kept formulating but I never thought I could complete the task.  My plan of attack was to move the tree a a few feet at a time and if it got too impossible I would get the chainsaw out and cut the tree up for trash day.

The first task was to get the palm tree out of the hole it was in.  A structure of 4x4 wood and 2x4's and a heavy duty metal crossbar held the chain hoist as the palm tree was hoisted up.  Several times the assembly snapped due to incorrectly sized screws and the structure collapsed.  The third try worked and the tree was hoisted out of the hole suspended by the chain hoist.  But now what ?

root ball dangling over the hole.... now what?

Two heavy duty ramps were placed over the hole and a large wagon was placed under the root ball and then the chain hoist lowered it onto the wagon.  The wagon's tires compressed completely due to the weight of the root ball and the wagon looked like it was going to roll over on it's side due to the hill it was on.  At this point I thought that this project was near impossible but we'll try to get it at least away from the hive so I can use a chainsaw to cut it up.  To lift the top part of the tree needed a floor jack to get it off the ground.   Then a large rolling home made floor cart was placed underneath so the top of the tree wouldn't drag in the dirt.  Chain hoist was used to advance the tree forward.  Fortunately there were always just enough places to attach the chain hoist.

Supported by wagon and cart

Supervised by Curious George from his perch on the giraffe

One step at a time.  If the wagon doesn't tip over on this hill we might be able to get it away from the hive.  And then we realize we made it to the first 90 degree turn.  Now this will be challenging.  Especially since you can't really turn the wagon as the axles and wheels are almost non functional.  And the front cart's wheels keep digging into the dirt.  But slowly and methodically we keep pulling this large tree forward and slowly use a chain hoist to turn the corner.  When we turned the corner I was in disbelief.  It seemed impossible, especially considering the length of the tree.  Now I was becoming more optimistic.  If we could squeeze down the narrow path and make it to the pavers we might even be able to get it to the next turn.

So on and on this went all day and we were drenched in sweat.  Eventually we made it to the front of the house but the biggest challenge remained.  How to get this monster to the bee farm.  A 40' tree in the back of a pickup is more redneck than I want to be.  A friend said that it was impossible to use a truck to move it and offered his trailer.  I have a massively cool crane that attaches to my hitch so if I used a trailer I would lose access to my hitch and crane.  Oh and the weight limit of the crane was around 700-800 pounds ... less than half of what I really needed.

Keeping Yvonne busy operating the hoist ....

A big advantage at this point was the wagon was no longer on the verge of tipping over on the uneven ground.  Now the wagon was level.   Fortunately we kept finding places to attach the chain hoist and dragging this monster to the front of the house actually worked.  The one big turn in front of the garage was challenging and I made sure I had plenty of chocks ready to deploy in case the weight and the wagon on the driveway's hill decided to make a run for it and roll out into the road.  The front of the palm was actually quite ready to start rolling and it took a lot to keep it from following the natural path of gravity.  The last step before nightfall was to see if we even could get this monster into the back of my truck and if so how ridiculous would this look.

Almost to the driveway ...

In the driveway - look at those poor tires

As I never thought we would make it this far, the newest challenge of loading a 40' palm tree into the bed of a pickup was overwhelming.  But I just kept telling myself that worst case scenario is we cut the palm up and chalk it up to an interesting day : )  Once I hooked up the crane and attached it to the root ball, I realize how heavy this thing was.  The crane was very very taxed and I worried about something snapping.  There was easily over a thousand pounds being lifted.  Possibly up to 1500 pounds I estimated by considering other things I've easily lifted with the crane. 

Up but not enough room to swing the palm straight

Once the palm was in the air I realized there was not enough room to swing the palm around straight.  This meant I had to pull the truck up about 2 feet.  The only problem was the crane's stabilizer was firmly on the pavement.  So I chanced dragging it several feet on the driveway and it worked with no problems.  Whew .... that was stressful while the heaviest part of the palm dangled over my tailgate which I unwisely forgot to remove before this complicated operation.   The final step was to swing the palm around and gently lay the root ball in the back of the truck bed.  No problem.  I also used a heavy steel piece I had to hold the palm up so it didn't touch the tailgate at all.

Safely in the bed of the truck. "Crazy" I think

And the obvious sets in.  This is way too long for a pickup truck.  But then again, this IS Florida where things like this are more common than you would think.   The plan was to wake up early on Sunday morning before any traffic was on the road.

Keeping it off the tailgate

Sunday morning was beautiful and we got going around 5:30am.  The end of the palm tree had green leaves which could be cut and save about 10 feet from our payload length.  But having green leaves will help the plant survive the shock of the move and that's not something I want to do.  Yvonne had a great idea to wrap the palm fronds in a plastic wrap I had and that would make the end more manageable and keep the leaves safe from hitting the road.  As long as the plastic is only on for a short period it will work.   So we wrapped it up and pulled the leaves toward the truck to shorten the load somewhat.  Securely strapping the palm down so it's not going anywhere took some time and then we were ready to roll.  Yvonne followed in her car and had her cell phone ready if the load shifted.  I'm sure if the palm wasn't securely fastened a bump in the road could have the palm standing straight up in the bed of my truck.  Or even worse, hitting the brakes it would stand straight up and then going over smashing the cab !  But the trip was uneventful since it was tied down secure.

Palm ready for a road trip

Once we got to the bee farm a large hole was dug after determining where to transplant it.  Now the trick was to get the root ball perfectly lined up in the hole.  Not at all an easy challenge.  But we got it pretty close and used the crane and truck to shift it just right.

After stabilizing the tree I realized I need to build a supporting structure or it would fall over in the first good wind.  Unfortunately my tools were at home so Yvonne went home to get what was needed.  I had the required lumber at the bee farm for this task.  Once we finished up the structure and the tree was planted I just sat back and couldn't believe we actually moved this from our back yard.  It's amazing what you can accomplish when you put your mind to it.  A fun challenge and some interesting exercise was had by all.  Plus I proudly received my official "Redneck" membership badge today.

clap clap clap clap clap clap clap !!!!

Finally some answers to the dying bees dilemma

It's been several weeks since I last posted because the dying bees dilemma has been quite time consuming and mentally draining.  The Bees kept dying and the initial diagnosis by the state inspector was only partially correct.  After the inspector came by the second strong hive ended up with a massive pile of dead bees in front of it.  And still .. bees walking around in circles on the ground very disoriented.

I called the state inspector and told him the problem was getting worse despite taking his advice to place feeders on the weaker hives and constrict all hive openings to make it easier for the bees to defend their hives from robbers and to make it harder for wax moths and hive beetles to gain access.

Despite these steps, the dying was actually intensifying. So a little more than a week after the initial inspection he came back out with another inspector to give it another look.  This time the inspection found the culprit. And it was grim. The hives were infested with varroa mites very bad and it caused a virus which they deduced caused the walking in circles on the ground.   In one weeks time, the hives were starting to look critical.  One of my weaker hives that looked very healthy last week was completely dead.  As we opened up that hive, two frames were covered in hive beetle larvae (looks like long magots).  Last week this hive had a lot of brood and honey.  Now nothing but hive beetle larvae and quite depressing.

My other two strong hives were border line.  One may make it and the other probably won't.  And finally my last feral hive I caught (swarm) was quite healthy still. 

The way they explained it to me was once the varroa mites weakened the bees and gave them the virus, the hive beetles and wax moths were able to get the upper hand and take over.  The hives were weakened which means a perfect target for robbers.  So it was a chain reaction.

What to do?  The next day I treated all my hives with powdered sugar.  I used an old 1940's flour sifter and filled it with powdered sugar.  Open up the hives and sprinkle several cups onto all the bees !  The net result is thousands of white ghost looking bees (not very happy I may add) all over the place.  The sugar gets on the bees and dislodges the mites which fall through the screened bottom of the hive.  The bees groom each other and in no time they're all clean as well as had a little snack of sugar.

I placed monitoring boards under the screened bottom to inspect after the sugar treatment.  And sure enough, the boards were filled with little red spec's of varroa mites as well as a good many hive beetles.  Until I figure out a more permanent solution for the mites the sugar treatments will be applied on a weekly basis for the next month. And the weaker hives will get feeders.

And after the inspectors checked out the bee farm hives I returned home to find my house hive fighting off honey robbers !  What a day.  The house hive also got a feeder and an entrance reducer.

It's been a heck of month so far.  Just part of the learning process.  So much to learn still.  Looks like I'll need to get the magic swarm trap out again.

Daredevil butterfly and a doghouse without a dog

The milkweed in the bee garden has been blooming and bringing in the Monarch butterflies.  I was watching one in particular today while I was sitting and taking a break.  They fly erratically zipping up down and sideways.  But this particular butterfly kept buzzing by the entrances of the bee colonies.  I even noticed when it went through the traffic pattern of the very large hive it got banged into several times.  It seemed like an accident but it was almost inevitable with the heavy bee traffic.  What made me wonder was why this butterfly made a few passes past the hives.  Was it showing off?  Because it seemed to have no real destination other than the buzzing of the hives.

When it got real interesting is when the butterfly came around and was about 20 feet away from the hive.  I then saw a bee whack the butterfly twice. Once might have been accidental but twice made for a definite challenge.  Kind of how the bees have been keeping me away from their hives lately ... whacking me in the head a few times will convince me to find something better to look at.  

Swarm #6 is now a reality and has moved into their new temporary home.  If the bees are just scouts checking out the swarm trap then they'll be out of there before dark.  But if you look into the swarm trap at night or early morning and it's full of bees then you know they're moved in.  This morning just as it was getting light I went out and stuck my head by the entrance to the box.  And sure enough I had a bunch of little eyes looking back at me.  Doing what bees do in the early morning hours, probably having a coffee or sip of honey I imagine.  When I saw all those little faces looking back at me I knew that I'm going to have to do some more carpentry tonight to get a new permanent home ready for them.

I had a little extra paint so the doghouse got a fresh coat to match the house.  Now we just need to get a dog.   

Pesticides, herbicides and fun honeybee facts

While at our beekeepers meeting last week, the lady in charge of our group told us that when she recently went to inspect her hives she found several hives full of dead bees.  Inside the hives were full of dead bees and there was a pile of them dead on the ground under each hive.  Quite distressing for a beekeeper.  Another hive was trying to swarm and get away but they too were dying.

Why did this happen?  It's unknown at this time so she froze many many of the dead bees to give to a state inspector to help determine the cause.  Not sure it will ever be known but the probable cause is pesticides.  The actual pesticide may be hard to determine but another possible culprit may be the chemical used to kill lawns / crops named roundup.  Some are even saying it may be the cause of colony collapse syndrome.  Roundup is a cancer causing chemical that is sprayed on most of the corn people eat.   Here's an article on the subject if you're interested http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/roundup-bees-zm0z10zarc.aspx?PageId=7

So to counteract the downer of reading about dead bees here's a couple "Fun Facts" that was on a beekeeping brochure from St. Pete College in addition to a few other online sources:

Honeybees are the only insects that produce food for humans.  Honey is the oldest food in existence and it never spoils;  it contains all the substances necessary to sustain life including enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and water; and it's the only food that contains "pinocembrin", an antioxidant associated with improved brain functioning.

Honeybees will usually travel approximately 5 miles from their hive for pollen and nectar.

A single honeybee will produce approximately 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime

It would take about 1 ounce of honey to fuel a honeybee's flight around the world.

A honeybee has to travel over 55,000 miles and visits approximately 2 million flowers to make 1 pound of honey.


88% of pollination of fruit, vegetables and seed crops in the U.S. is accomplished by honeybees.

Honey bees have 170 odorant receptors, compared with only 62 in fruit flies and 79 in mosquitoes. Their exceptional olfactory abilities include kin recognition signals, social communication within the hive, and odor recognition for finding food. Their sense of smell is so precise that it could differentiate hundreds of different floral varieties and tell whether a flower carried pollen or nectar from metres away.

A colony of bees consists of 20,000-60,000 honeybees and one queen. Worker honey bees are female, live for about 6 weeks and do all the work.

 Larger than the worker bees, the male honey bees (also called drones), have no stinger and do no work at all. All they do is mating. In fact, before winter or when food becomes scarce, female honeybees usually force surviving males out of the nest.

Each honey bee colony has a unique odour for members' identification.

Honey bees make about 200 beats per second with their wings, creating their infamous buzzing sound. A worker bee in the summer lasts six to eight weeks. Wearing their wings out is the most common cause of their death.

Into the hives and guess what?

Today was inspection day for the bee farm hives.  All four hives were opened up and examined.  In particular I was anxious to look at the smallest colony that was from the swarm that split.  Not as many bees as all the others so I had to determine if there was a queen.  Sure enough when the hive was opened, the numbers were not great but ok.  Two to three strong frames being worked on.  And as hard as I looked, there was no queen to be found.  The good news was I found active brood and what appeared to be queen cells midway up one of the frames.  We have many dragonflies in this area and dragonflies love to eat bees.  Maybe the queen went out to find a boyfriend and got eaten by a dragonfly. 

The two original hives (from the Nuc's I purchased) were going strong and the honey supers on top were already half filled.  What this means is I better get to work building more supers and frames.  Because these will soon be filled and need more supers stacked on top.  The last swarm colony looked quite healthy.  Only hive Beatles were found in one of the original hives from the Nucs.  I placed beetle traps in them.

After examining 60 frames it was time for a rest.  I still struggled with keeping the smoker lit but will get it right eventually.   All in all it was a good inspection and took a good portion of the morning.   The colony in our front yard won't be opened for a couple more weeks.

Last night frames and bases were built.  This seems to be a never ending fun project.  Deeps, mediums, more frames and inner and outer covers need to be constructed this week.  I can't imagine doing this and having to buy everything instead of building it yourself. 

Here's the guess what from the title ... I was on the side of our house and noticed a lot of bees around where the swarm traps were stacked on top of each other (with no bait scent).  A lot of activity was around the one in the middle so I removed the cover and couldn't believe how many bees were inside.  A bunch flew out at me buzzing around.  Quite amusing so I put a couple frames in the box for them to start building comb.  Why not?  What's so funny is they're only a few feet away from the noisy air conditioner.  Is this swarm 6?  Not sure yet.  I'll check back in a couple days. 

New House bees settling in and why it's good to have a fast riding lawnmower in the Bee Yard

The new bees that were moved from the tree to the stand in our front yard are settling in nicely.  Yesterday there was a lot of zipping around in bee confusion as they tried to figure out why their queen moved to this new box.  And many bees were zipping around in the area of the tree where their old home was.  Today is much calmer with a few bees still zipping around the tree but it's pretty much normal bee foraging going on with a much calmer atmosphere than yesterday.

Today was lawn mowing day at the Bee Farm.  A little breezy and the first time mowing since the hive count made it to 4 out there.  The breeze made for some dust being thrown up by the riding mower  ... a little too much dust for the bees apparently.  Because on my first pass behind the hives I felt something hit my head.  And then another and another ... bam bam bam bam.  Major warnings being thrown at me by the guard bees.    So I shift into high gear full speed to get away before things get too interesting.  And they followed me for quite a ways until I jumped off the tractor and took off running, losing my sunglasses in the process.  Finally they let me go and I sheepishly returned to find my sunglasses.  Good thing I have to mow on the other side of the property and let things cool off by the hives.  But eventually I have to face up to the fact that the bee area still needs mowing.  Time to develop a plan.

The accelerator is increased quite high and the race course is formulated in my brain.  I'll zip under (actually into) the loquat tree and buzz the back of the hives with the pedal to the medal as they say.  Then do a little on the other size of the property setting up for another screeching run at the hives.  All they see is a red blur of the mower shooting past them before they even know what's happened.  The plan works !!!

Unfortunately one bee remembered me and away from the hives by the shed she would not leave me alone.  Quite the bee bully.  So time for another plan.  I grab a spray bottle of Murphy's oil soap and hold it up against my forehead as I quickly pump the sprayer turning in circles.  It works too.  Finally (before I got too dizzy) I see her start to fly away and she gets nailed with some dead on squirts of Murphy oil soap.  And that solves that problem.  Murphy's oil soap was what I had and it worked pretty good.  Shooting bees with warm soapy water will kill them.  So Murphy's was a good alternative. 

New Hive outside our living room window

With this last swarm, there came a bit of work.  There needed to build some more hive equipment to accommodate these new arrivals.  They were going to be put on the existing platform at the Bee Farm but instead I decided to keep them at home because they're so much fun to watch.  To do it right the same type of ant proof hive stand needed to be constructed and cement into the ground.  It was built to accommodate  two hives eventually.  All this took longer than I expected but it was done right and looks nice in our courtyard.  The stand and hive base/deep were painted turquoise and the top is lavender.  While I was in cutting, sanding and painting mode the bee vacuum was finished correctly.  The bee vacuum was slapped together in 3 hours and looked a little rough.  Now it looks professional and ready to gather swarms.

New screened bottom board

One of the rules of beekeeping (well not a rule but more of a guideline) is to move your hives less than 2 feet or 2 miles or more.  Anything in between may confuse the bees and it's said you risk them leaving.  Since this swarm was moving about 15 feet we'll have to just cross our fingers and hope they love their new digs (and nobody told them about those guidelines).

While the sun was coming up the anti-ant grease traps and grease covers were installed on the hive stand.  Then it was time to light the smoker and suit up.  The new hive and stand were readied with all the new frames needed.  As I was climbing the ladder with the smoker, it looked like the hive was starting to wake up (actually they never sleep and are just not as active at night).  After a couple puffs with the smoker, I cradled the swarm trap under my arm and descended.  The bees were placed on the hive stand next to their new hive.  The hive tool was needed since the top of the swarm trap was stuck pretty tight (probably with propolis from the bees).  When the top was finally pried opened the sight of a zillion bees was marvelous.  That little swarm trap was absolutely packed with bees.  First thing I did was transfer the completely packed frames.  Then two large pieces of comb were removed from the lid and then the remaining bees on the top were dropped into the new hive. Finally the swarm trap box was shaken upside down and bees were poured into their new home.  Bees everywhere so the top to the hive was installed on right away.

Honeycomb that was on the lid

Next the swarm trap was bagged up so they didn't get tempted to return to their old home (bees are sentimental like that).  The tricky part is not bagging it until all bees are off it so none get suffocated in the bag.  There was plenty of activity and many bees zipping around everywhere.   Complete Bee Chaos.

After removing the bee suit and extinguishing the smoker I noticed the piece of wood in the tree that held the swarm trap had quite a few bees bearding up on it.  A pretty good size clump.  So the bee suit was put on again and the piece of  support piece of wood was removed from the tree (complete with a large clump of bees) and it was gently placed under the new hive.

New home for the bees just outside of our living room window

About an hour later the bees that were bearding on the tree (around where their old home was) seemed to be finding their way to the new hive.  There is still a good amount of bees flying around that area but the good news is there's more bees zipping in and out of their new home so the move looks pretty positive so far.  Hopefully they'll soon stop buzzing around and start foraging.

The size of this swarm is amazing.  The amount of bees around our home is strong.  Providing a home for this swarm in our yard will be beneficial for the bees as well as for us.