New Beekeeper Assistant

After a week of getting the garden ready for fall, it was time to open up the hives and see how the new queens were faring.  My nephew expressed interest in beekeeping so we both suited up and I gave him a tour of the bee hives and answered questions.  It's always fun telling new-Bees about life in the hive.  There's plenty of interesting subjects to talk about in the life of a bee.  And my nephew seemed to enjoy helping out and observing the bees and the hives.  And for me, it was nice having an extra set of hands available.

First time in a hive for my assistant

The bees seemed to be doing all right for this time of the year.  At the local beekeeper meeting I heard that many bees in this area were running low on honey as this is a slow time of the year for nectar, but mine seemed to be doing pretty good.   Some of my bees had very little brood but there were queens.  One hive had a ton of brood though.  I still put a couple feeders on hives and only pulled a few frames out of each hive for inspection to be as unobtrusive as possible.  The lack of brood in the hives will work itself out I'm sure.  And I'm pretty sure I saw stick eggs in those hives.

The good news is the ant problem is solved for now.  There were a couple ants on a few lids but most of them were pretty clean.  Zero hive beetles were found but there were wax moths in the diatomaceous earth in the lower trays.  Hopefully the diatomaceous earth will do it's job and eradicate the wax moths.

But all in all the hives all looked well and the bees were much much calmer.  Queenless bees get agitated easily and now all the hives have queens so that's making a big difference.  After opening all hives we walked away and none followed us.  A month ago I would have had 200 bees attacking me still at 100 yards from the hive.  But that was pretty much from one particularly mean hive which is no more.

Settling in

Woke up early and drove out to the Bee Farm to check on the new arrivals.  It was nice to see them all settled down and adapting to their new home.   Worth the effort.  The honeybee garden was loaded with buzzing bees.  A beautiful Florida morning.

New arrivals (right)

Into the Belly of the Beast

I understood that the duct tape and mesh screens were just a temporary measure and bees would eventually break down my security measures.  But what I didn't know was how quickly they would undermine my plans.  They are smarter than I gave them credit.  Within FOUR hours of introducing them to their beautiful new bee hive a couple of crackerjack bees broke back into the Gargoyle !!  And it only took a few minutes before the rest of the gang were back in their cozy Gargoyle.  Word spreads fast among honey bees.

Gargoyle being prepped before surgery

Around this time I figured that the hose going from the Gargoyle into the hive just wasn't going to cut it.  The bees had no intention of leaving their comfortable Gargoyle home.  I used more duct tape and this time some aluminum screening.  That should hold them until morning when I'll figure out a new plan.   There were still several hundred bees out and about and they bearded up on the gargoyle's chin.  Very cute and I only wish I took a picture of that.  By this time I was worn out and decided to wait until morning to come up with another plan.

The next morning ALL the bees were back inside their Gargoyle.  They broke back into it again !!!  In all fairness, it rained last night so the rain probably loosened up the duct tape and made it easy for them to breach my security once again.  At least I had an excuse so I'll stick to that story.  It was obvious that drastic action was needed to get these bees out of that Gargoyle.  And that's when I realized the best course of action was to bravely enter the Belly of the Beast.

But first, I thought I'd try one last time to coax them out using almond extract which the bees hate.  After sprinkling a few drops into the mouth of the gargoyle, the bees dove into the deep recesses of the Gargoyle to escape the almond smell instead of exiting the Gargoyle.  By this time the sun was rising and it was heating up.  I was drenched in sweat under my veil and bee jacket.  The main concern however was this job needed to be finished before the sun came over the house and started heating up our work area on this side of the house.  Because once the sun shines in this area it could cook the bees.

Gargoyle belly button

Full of brood comb !!!

The first thing I did was to drill a hole in the stomach of the Gargoyle to see what the steel was like and to try and view what was waiting inside.  After several minutes a bee emerged from the Gargoyles new belly button and I could see there was brood in the belly.  Oh and during this entire process I had the bee vac running to keep coaxing bees from the mouth.

Gargoyle with a stout gag so he doesn't bite anyone (just in case)

The next step was to cut a hole in the stomach big enough to pull some brood comb.  That turned out to be difficult but eventually I got the hole cut all the while fending off defending bees and keeping them smoked.  Plus alternating between the grinder and the vacuum.  I was dripping sweat and it was a strenuous job.  Now that it looked like there would be brood comb my wife went to the store to buy extra rubber bands to attach the brood to frames.  The next two hours alternated between gently vacuuming bees, cutting brood out and keeping the guard bees distracted (telling them jokes).  Cool thing about this bee vac is you can hold the hose still and when bees come to challenge it, they get sucked in and join their friends in temporary bee jail.

Work area for brood

Finally the sun started poking around to this side of the house so I attached all the brood comb to the frames.  Any honey was probably in the Gargoyle's head and not readily accessible which was fine with me as time was running out.  Several times I lifted and dropped the gargoyle from about 6" and piles of bees fell into a clump that was quickly added to bee jail which was moved to be out of the sun.  The remaining bees in the air were quite testy and so it was time to load up the truck and chauffeur the girls out to the Bee Farm.

ready to go into the hive

On the way to the Bee farm I formulated an exact plan of how to transfer the hive as quickly as possible.  Since I had 5-6 frames of brood I would have to remove several frames from the brood box in the bee vac and then for sure chaos would ensue.  Little did I know that would be an understatement.  Since I figured I could do all of this in under 5 minutes I decided (unwisely) to not fire up the smoker.  That will not happen again is all I'll say.

Home sweet home (finally)

Sure enough a massive amount of agitated bees were released as I worked quickly to set up their new home.  The quantity of bees was amazing.  This was a very large hive.  They immediately covered the sides of their new home and thousands were flying around and getting acquainted with their new surroundings.  The other hive out there didn't seem to mind and just kept going about it's business as usual.

After finishing up (under 5 minutes) I hightailed it out of there to let them settle down.  I don't know if we got the queen but it's a good possibility.  At least we got brood so we'll probably have a queen regardless.   Another intense but fun day.

Taming your inner Gargoyle

Honey Bees using the mouth of a hollow Gargoyle statue to enter their spooky hive

 

I recently found an ad on Craigslist from someone with a Gargoyle lawn statue filled with a strong hive of honey bees inside.  She needed them removed as there was an elementary school across the street and the gargoyle was only about 20 yards from the sidewalk where the kids walk.  She loved the bees but after a year of them growing into a considerable sized hive she decided they needed a new home.

Road trip

As this was quite a distance from home I justified the trip knowing I could stop at my wife's favorite vegetarian restaurant (Dandelion Communi-tea cafe in Orlando) and pick up carry out for dinner so I made sure to bring a cooler.  Of course Orlando traffic was typical, I-4 went to one lane and I was in a virtual parking lot in the land of the mouse.  Not unexpected though.

The lady who owned the house and the bees couldn't have been any nicer.  So I took my time and after closing off the mouth of the gargoyle with mesh screen and duct tape we sat in the shade sipping sweet tea waiting for foragers returning to their gargoyle.  Once a clump of bees accumulated on the mesh on the outside of the gargoyle, the bee vacuum was used to coax them into a waiting brood box with frames.  This went on for several hours as we wanted to leave as few stragglers behind as possible.  Many of the bees were loaded with several beautiful colors in their pollen.  It was a pleasant two hours in the shade talking about bees and enjoying a beautiful day.  I could see the owner getting drawn into the world of bees and wouldn't at all be surprised to see her become a beekeeper someday.

Mesh taped to the entrance

One thing I failed to ask was what material the gargoyle was made of.  I assumed it was concrete and could be gently broken open to remove the brood, the queen, and the honey.  Then it would be easy to patch up up to return to the owner.  However being made of steel really put the kabosh on my plans.  On the two hour ride home I kept trying to think of a way to get the gargoyle open without hurting the bees or contents inside.  After sleeping on it I finally realized it would be impossible to salvage anything inside the gargoyle.  I could only give all remaining bees and the queen the option to exit the gargoyle and into a new hive.  I have metal cutting wheels and even a plasma cutter which could be used to open up the gargoyle.  But that would instantly fry all the bees and honey inside as well as splatter metal everywhere inside the honey and comb.  Using a cutting wheel to cut the gargoyle might work somewhat but still .... metal shavings will cover all the comb and brood and possibly kill the queen if I do it too early.

Weird looking you say ?  Typical for our home

Poor Gargoyle

So a one way exit from the gargoyle was fabricated allowing access to the hive by running a hose from the gargoyle's mouth to above and inside the new hive with a one way mesh valve at the end.  Bees can leave the gargoyle by marching up the tube into the hive but cannot return.  Hopefully the queen will come out soon.  Since all their honey was in the gargoyle, a feeder was placed on the new hive to give them something to eat in the transition.  I'm convinced this is the best option we have to keep this bee colony intact.  They may swarm off but their new home was spiffed up to make it as attractive as possible for them.   Keeping my fingers crossed.

One way valve coming from the gargoyle (box not positioned over hive yet)

Breakfast

Swarm Number Five

This blog is beginning to sound like a broken record with all these swarms.  I either have a magic swarm trap or a magic oak tree that it sits in.  Because I've never heard of anyone catching this many swarms in their front yard all within one month.  It's crazy.  And this swarm seems to be bigger than all the others.

I wasn't going to put the trap back in the tree because I ran out of hive stands and bottom boards.  But I missed sitting in the living room watching bees check out the swarm trap.  It's quite addicting and I'll admit I'm completely addicted.  Watching bees is relaxing.

So now another dilemma ... I need to come up with a bottom board and base to the hive as I have a deep brood box and inner and outer top cover and frames.  The hive stand out at the bee farm was technically built for 5 hives so a few minor adjustments could be made to the existing hives to squeeze one more in.  But hey .... why not.

 

Be careful what you wish for

It was a particularly rough day getting a couple yards of topsoil to cover the new flower garden that's by the bee hives.  They warned me that two yards of soil might be too taxing for my truck but since it's a GMC 2500 HD diesel, it didn't seem like much of an issue.   It's just a good thing I didn't have far to go because that truck was loaded to the max.  Pulling a heavy fifth wheel was nothing compared to the weight of the top soil.  And it was a comedy of errors on my part at the soil place.  After he dumped the first load of dirt from the top loader I noticed the tailgate was still down !!!  Lucky I brought a shovel.  The tailgate gave me a lot of trouble though and it took awhile before I could get the second load.  And then I noticed the sign that said no credit cards.  Geez.....  at least there was a bank within walking distance.

Unloading the soil was a big chore and took a long time.  Then the truck needed to be cleaned.  Needless to say when I got home later in the afternoon I was quite tired.  I sat down in the living room to relax and out of the corner of my eye noticed that the swarm trap that was just re-deployed was now covered in another massive swarm of honey bees.  Less than 24 hours and I caught another even bigger swarm.  Third one in 2 weeks.   And like the last one they bearded up on the outside of the swarm trap.  So much for relaxing tonight ...

ANOTHER new swarm only hours after deploying trap

This time I'll act quickly to prevent the beard from flying off like last time.  I've been designing a very cool bee vacuum for a few weeks now.  The idea is still conceptual and a mixture of all the ideas that are floating around on youtube and the internet.  If it works, it will be the best bee vacuum out there.  Because my idea covers all bases.  It will allow gently pulling the bees into a hive that's ready to deploy with frames and all.  The bee vacuum will be a 3 piece unit.  Top has a vacuum built in, middle is the actual deep with frames (hive), and the bottom is a smooth landing pad where the hose connects to pull the bees in.  And the best part is once you're done vacuuming them in, the vacuum disconnects on the top leaving a nice big ventilation screen to keep the girls cool.  That's really important.  The plans are in my mind and I'm confident of the feasibility.    Plus I have extra wood and most of what I need to fabricate it in the morning.  Should be interesting.

Planting seeds, monarch butterfly plants and a new plan for catching bees

I'm kind of skipping over a lot of projects lately so there's a few things missing in the blog.   It's been quite busy.

2nd attempt at a successful swarm trap

First thing is I'm reading a fascinating book called "Honeybee Democracy by Thomas Seeley.  It is based on research by some of the top bee scientists / animal behaviorists that describe how the honey bees make collective decisions and how they communicate.  It completely leaves you in awe.  One chapter talked about all the experiments that were done to determine how bees choose their homes when they swarm.  After reading this chapter I made several modifications to the swarm trap in front of our home and moved it up into a tree as well as changed the direction it was facing and made it more desirable to honey bees.  Now we'll see how this works out.  Only down side is if I catch a swarm I'll have to retrieve it with a ladder which will be a bit tricky.

Today we planted seeds in our miniature greenhouses we made from items bought at the dollar store.  My earlier attempts at planting seeds were not thought out and researched as carefully as I should have.  This time the seedlings will have a better chance.  However it looks like we're running a takeout restaurant with these containers lined up on top of the rain barrels.  The seeds will be more protected and controlled in that humidity and water delivery will be accurate.  Not quite sure if I want to put them in direct sun as it may cook the seeds.  Still working out a few details.

milkweed

milkweed (on the right)

Not long ago I was at a friends home who had raised beds with flowers that attracted monarch butterflies.  There were butterflies everywhere so I inquired what type of plants they were.  They were milkweed and the more I researched milkweed the more intrigued I became with this plant which is not easily obtained.  But thanks to the internet, a dozen plants were located not far from where we live.  Milkweed is also loved by honey bees and supposedly makes top grade honey which will be another benefit.

The raised beds are as healthy as can be and the plants are growing like mad.  I cooked up a 55 gallon barrel of delicious compost tea for the plants and spent the other day going all around the yard feeding plants.  A giant tea bag was made from a paint strainer bag and it was loaded up with compost and some rock dust.  After dipping and hanging in the barrel, an aerator was added to keep the tea oxygenated.  I used an electric pump to fill the barrel with rainwater from the rain barrel setup.  The resulting bacteria in the compost tea needs a couple ounces of molasses a day for food.  In the near future the plan is to hook the compost barrel up to a garden hose with a pump so it can be easily applied anywhere using a garden hose.

Tomorrow it's time to inspect the hives and see what's going on in there.  Should be an interesting (and beautiful) day.