Moving Day

While it was still dark this morning, plans were being made to move our new honey bees to a new permanent home at the Bee Farm.  The plan was to quickly plug the entrance hole with paper towels and then use duct tape to seal it.  However when the flashlight illuminated the swarm box up in the tree I saw a big clump of bees gathered in the entrance.  The group of bees was densely packed together about the size of a golf or tennis ball and they protruded slightly outside of the entrance hole.  Those bees need to be inside before I can plug the entrance. 

This means the smoker is needed.  The smoker was lit and after a few puffs of smoke the bees went inside.  Fortunately my wife delayed going to work a few minutes to hold the flashlight as the ladder was not too stable.  A few more puffs of smoke and then I sealed all the openings (they opened up a few of their back doors chewed in the Styrofoam).

When I arrived at the bee farm it was still dark.  Plenty of time to fire up the smoker again and move the girls into their new home.  I wanted to be as gentle as possible and transfer the frames quickly.  Because the least amount of disruption will provide a smooth transition to their new hive.  As twilight arrived the frames were transferred into the new hive and I was surprised how much new comb they had already created.  And there were a lot of new honey bees in the box.   I didn't do a full inspection  and look for the queen because it wasn't light enough out and they need to get acclimated to this new location first.  An entrance reducer was also installed to help them defend their new home against any potential robbers looking to take advantage of the newbees.

Best looking (new) hive in Pinellas county

The transfer went as smooth as could be and I spent a lot of time watching the new bees get settled in.  I have a chair in front of the hives and it's so relaxing to sit and watch them all.  They were very curious about their new home buzzing all around and especially checking out the screened bottom board.  The other two hives did the same thing when they arrived.  After an hour or so I noticed a few fights on the landing board but not too bad.  Probably just curious residents from the other hives getting too close.   And of course the big ole Carpenter Bee paid a visit zooming around all the hives a few times .... probably showing off.

And then there were three !

It didn't take long for the new arrivals to start foraging.  Several bees were noticed returning loaded up with pollen already.   I thought that might take a day or so but they didn't waste any time. It was a very relaxing morning observing the bees, working in the garden, and listening to all the song birds.  What a beautiful way to start your day.

And then there were none?

Just before dusk we were both sitting in our living room looking at the swarm bearded upon the swarm trap.  They seemed pretty content and were enjoying the sugar water in the feeder.  Bees were coming and going looking like they may be foraging.  I just couldn't figure out why a big group was still bearded up on the outside of the box.  While watching them this afternoon they finally gave us the answer as they all took flight and flew off before our eyes.  It was something to observe.

Honey comb left behind

At least they left a little present before leaving.  In the center of the beard they made comb and left a nice piece behind.  Even though many bees were inside the box it appears the majority were outside.  I was able to observe the bees pouring out of the box on the outgoing swarm.  The euphoria of them arriving matched the disappointment of them leaving.

MAYBE the lemon grass scent was too strong inside so the queen stayed outside because it masked her pheromone scent???
MAYBE a frame should be removed from the trap to give them more room ???
MAYBE they should have been scooped up right away and deposited into a full hive.  Next time I won't hesitate.

AND JUST MAYBE ... there's still a hive inside the box.   They say swarms can double and even triple split.  Tomorrow will tell.

New hive (center) ready for new arrivals.  Top box will house feeder

Black Carpenter Bee

Out at the bee farm some of the flowers are attracting bumble bees. There were many honey bees on these flowers before the bumble bees took over this turf.  One all black bumble bee that looked pretty smooth was very interesting.  While sitting and observing the honey bee hives, this black carpenter bee kept zooming around the honey bee hives, possibly looking to an opportunity to get into the hive and help herself to some honey I guess.  But the honey bees were quite numerous and where the Carpenter Bee dominated in size, the honey bees could overwhelm in numbers.  The Carpenter bee never did much more than zoom around the hives and a few passes by the entrances.

One night stand?

I was quite happy when my new honey bee friends moved into our cozy little swarm trap.  It was fascinating watching them yesterday and I thought everything was going great !

That was until the next morning.  I woke up in a good mood thinking about all our new friends.  It was a little foggy out as I peered into the new morning light to check on activity around the swarm trap.  Hmmmm nothing .... well maybe they're sleeping in this morning.  After all it's a cool foggy morning and they're smart bees probably sleeping in.  About an hour later I peered out expecting to see the early risers out stretching their wings.  By now my euphoria and ego were deflating as my mind contemplated the possibilities.  Did they leave me?  No, there was a connection ... I felt it.   But then again .... still no sign of the girls.  Now my attention kept coming back to the entrance of the box hoping, anxiously waiting.   But as each minute ticked by the doubts kept creeping into my mind.  Was I the victim of a one night stand?  How humiliating.  No this can't be ... used ... another new inexperienced beekeeper falls prey to a bunch of pretty honey bee faces.   And I thought they were the ones ... my first (swarm).  Feeling foolish I left to go to work for the day slightly dejected, comforting myself with empty reassurances that there will be others.

When my wife got home from work she called me on my cell phone and said the swarm trap still had bees all over going in and out of the box.  What ???  It looks like I have a lot to learn. 

 Girls !!!

Rain barrels working well with low pressure soaker hoses

The rain barrels are filled and the plants are thirsty.  So the next step is to get the water to the raised beds and come up with an efficient irrigation system.  One local gardener I bumped into at Home Depot was showing me pictures of his garden and recommended using soaker hoses instead of drip irrigation.  He told me that it's more of a long term solution that works regardless of how you space your plants.  He didn't have a rain barrel system and used city water so soaker hoses hooked up to a pressurized system are much different than low pressure soaker hoses and a rain barrel system.

One option was to hook a pump up to the rain barrels and make my own pressurized system but a simple system was more what I wanted to build.  After extensive browsing the internet, there was one video about a soaker hose system hooked up to rain barrels.  The guy seemed pretty happy with the system but it bothered me that there wasn't more youtube videos or websites talking about the rain barrel soaker hoses from Mr. Drip / Mr. Soakerhose.  And there wasn't much else out there that worked on low pressure and rain barrels.  So I wasn't sure what to expect when the two 50' hoses and fittings arrived in our mail.

The first thing was 3/4" PVC pipe from the rainbarrels were ran underground to the garden area (about 25-30' away).  Then a 50' section was installed in each raised bed.  One bed was installed and tested it and it really worked well.  After doing the second section, I was surprised to find out that both of them hooked together worked just as efficient as running one. Plenty of pressure and moisture delivered to the plants. This system is just right for my setup as you cannot attach a standard soaker hose from a hardware store to a low pressure rainbarrel system.  And you cannot use the rain barrel soaker hoses with pressurized city water or it will blow them out.  Here's a video of the system in action.  (sorry about the smudge on the lens)

In the future the plans are for adding 2 more raised beds and a dual outlet irrigation timer if I can find one.  Otherwise it will be 2 separate timers.  Timers I also discovered are picky about water pressure and this system will need a low pressure timer.

I have been so busy there wasn't any time devoted to blogging about the plants I put in this week.  It's a work in process and the cold weather earlier in the week messed me up.   Tomatoes, kale, chard, onions, califlower, peppers, mustard greens, and a few others were planted.  It's all starting to come together.

Horse Puckey

I couldn't pass up a good opportunity to get a truckload of free horse manure.  Better yet, they even load it for you with their tractor.  What a deal.  And to top it off, the manure was already partially composted with almost no smell.  I had my truck bed loaded to add to the bee farm's compost piles to build some excellent soil.

They had 30 horses, cows and baby calves.  It was quite convenient as they were only about 10 miles away from here.  I didn't use the trailer this time which worked out well as there was some tight areas to maneuver around.  I had a friend with me who helped unload the truck when we got back to the bee farm. 

A few more Bee Lessons and Rain Barrels

I've been kind of concerned that I put the upper deep boxes on the hives much too early.  In researching on the internet it was unanimous that I shouldn't have put them on.  So today I went in to inspect the hives and it was quite interesting.  My smoker kept going out and was a pain to keep going.  Since then I found some good youtube videos explaining that's one of the biggest frustrations for new beekeepers and found some good tips how to keep it burning all day if need be(e).

The first hive I went into was not happy about the intrusion into their home.  The first thing I noticed was the upper super of empty frames had quite a few bees on the frames.  They weren't making comb or anything productive from what I could see.  What I deduced was they were eating the wax off those frames.  I recalled reading something about this happening when there's too many empty frames and space.  After deciding to remove the upper box my dilemma was evicting the bees that were happily munching the wax.  It took awhile but I finally succeeded.   Then I inspected the frames from the nucs as well as the new frames on the lower hive.  I saw the queen which was good and everything looked ok.

Back to single deep super

The second hive was pretty much the same.  I wasn't sure about the queen though.  I think I saw a couple drones which at first had me thinking they were the queen.  Removing the upper box had the same challenges but this hive of bees seemed much calmer than the first group.  Also they drew some comb on the new frames which was encouraging.

All week I've been tinkering with the rain barrel system and it's looking and working pretty good.  I also added a 5th barrel to be a compost tea brewer.  It won't be connected to the rain barrel system but will probably be able to interface with the hydration delivery systems which are still in early design phase.  What I would love to do is automate most of the watering.

The rain diverter was one of the biggest frustrations in building this.  Initially I purchased the (expensive) fiskars diverter (a diverter filters debris like leaves and twigs and has an overflow mechanism).

Redneck Diverter

While it worked, it was just marginal.  I bought a very simple diverter at ACE hardware and it works much better.  Only downside is the overflow is a bit messier and overflow will just flow off the initial barrel onto the ground.  No big deal.  The day before I finished we had intense rain but I wasn't able to capture any of it.   If you're thinking about a rain barrel system my advice is to not use metal barrels.  Only metal one I have is for the composter.  The problem with metal is cutting a hole in the barrel for the spicot.  Cutting strong steel is more than a lot of people want to deal with.  Fortunately I have a good array of metal working tools.

Volunteering Florida State Beekeepers association booth during the State Fair

Monday Yvonne and I volunteered to help the Florida State Beekeepers association in manning their booth at the State Fair.  Even though we're pretty new at this, it was a good opportunity to meet some experienced beekeepers and some nice people.  We met several beekeepers who at one time had over 1000 hives.  They all said it's not what it used to be with all the beatles, mites, foul brood disease and the disappearing bees (colony collapse disorder)

In addition to giving out samples of honey and selling honey, there were plenty of people to talk with throughout the day.  Especially since it turned into one of those days where it rained all day which made the exhibits in the buildings even more enticing to fair goers.

Our booth had a display of live bees in a glass case.  But what was real funny was the lone bee on the outside who wanted to get in with all the other bees.  This bee must have flown into the building and found the hive because she stayed under the hive in a little space most of the day.  A couple times she came out and scared some people tasting honey and I'll admit it was amusing to see people jump when a real bee came out from under the hive.

We worked for 7 hours and then planned on walking the fair and seeing other exhibits.  It was a good thing we had our umbrellas because it was really coming down.  Not many people walking in the rain and a lot of unhappy vendors outside trying to sell their crazy food which seems to dominate the State Fair.  More junk food than anything else.  But that must be why everyone goes to the fair.  For some of that delicious pig butt on a stick.  Make mine the soy version thank you.