Beltane\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waning Planting Moon<\/p>\n
Hive inspections today.\u00a0 A rhythm to the process has begun to set in, not jelled quite yet, but getting there.\u00a0 In the honey house, the converted machine shed where we parked our various internal combustion contraptions, off come the hat, the gloves, sweatshirt.\u00a0 Pick up the smoker, toss two handfuls of hamster bedding in it and light.![\"05-31-10_beeyard\"](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/05-31-10_beeyard-300x225.jpg\" "\\"05-31-10_beeyard\\"")
Open the package of dense cotton clumps, tear off a piece or two and shove them into the\u00a0 side of the smoker, being careful to keep the flame going.\u00a0 Pick out a square of cut-up cotton cloth and set it on fire next to the dense cotton, hit the bellows a couple of times to make sure the thing gets stoked.<\/p>\n
(bee yard)<\/p>\n
Put on the bee suit, being careful to tighten the velcro around the wrists.\u00a0 At this point it would also make sense to tuck my pants into my socks, but it seems I still require the sight of a bee on the ground.\u00a0 Then I do it.<\/p>\n
Pick up the hive tool and stick it in my back pocket, close and pick up the smoker and head out to the package colony, #3.\u00a0 I do them in the order of orneriness.\u00a0 The package bees are very calm, the divided colony less so and the parent colony, #1, can be downright aggressive.\u00a0 This way I leave fewer excited bees in the air as I get closest to the end.<\/p>\n
After a little smoke under the copper top on #3 and dash at the entrance, I lift the copper top off and put it standing up against a baby oak tree nurtured by Jon.\u00a0 This reveals the empty hive body that protects the syrup bucket positioned upside down over the opening in the hive box cover.\u00a0 Today it was not significantly down so I left it alone after removing it.\u00a0 A little more smoke and the hive box cover comes off, the frames and foundations of this new colony now are visible.\u00a0 Being careful to keep the frames over the hive box (in case the queen is on the frame and should fall off she’ll land back in the hive), I look at it with the sun to my back, then flip it over and do the same with the other side. I find larvae, so we’re still queen right and work has proceeded on several frames, but\u00a0 there’re no where near the 80% needed to add another hive box.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (colony 3)<\/p>\n
![\"05-31-10_colony3\"](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/05-31-10_colony3-300x225.jpg\" "\\"05-31-10_colony3\\"")
<\/p>\n
This colony had eaten through the pollen patty I provided, so I had to interrupt my visit with a trip inside, down in the basement to get a pollen patty from the small refrigerator we have down stairs.\u00a0 Made me think it might be nice to have a small fridge in the honey house.\u00a0 I could keep pollen patties in there along with water and Sharps.<\/p>\n
Looking at the bees at work, once you get over your fear of getting stung, counts as one of the pleasures of bee-keeping at a hobby level, so I indulge myself.\u00a0 Nursery bees go head first into comb to clean it out, or add more height, do something hygienic for a larvae.\u00a0 Worker bees are adding pollen to combs and honey, too, creating a food supply around the colony’s nursery, ensuring food for the long haul. Close it up and move on to<\/p>\n
#2 has a lot more bees.\u00a0 With its copper top off the hive box cover has a solid mass of bees.\u00a0 The new hive box, on top of the divided box with the new, marked queen, has a number of frames with drawn out comb, but several are still empty.\u00a0 This means the colony has plenty of room and I see no swarm cells on the top box.\u00a0 Should I reverse them?\u00a0 I couldn’t remember.\u00a0 I don’t, figuring that the crowded bees are in the divided box and the more roomy box is on top.\u00a0 Since the queen tends to move up, it makes more sense to me to leave this hive in the status quo.\u00a0 Everything gets put back together in the reverse order from which it was removed.<\/p>\n
Colony #3, the package Mark and I hived last April in his surplus equipment he loaned me to get started, is mature.\u00a0 It has a year plus old queen still in her peak fertility years, a full contingent of workers, two hive boxes with drawn out comb, larvae and plenty of food for the colony.\u00a0 From a honey production perspective this is the point of the whole process.\u00a0 As I lift the outside hive cover, metal topped to protect the colony from the elements, there are not as many bees here as there were in #2.\u00a0 That makes sense because the hive cover here is over a honey super, not directly over a hive box.<\/p>\n
Just by looking I can see the honeycomb drawn out on almost all of the 10 frames in the honey super.\u00a0 This is exciting.\u00a0 When I lift this honey super off, it’s heavy.\u00a0 Heavy![\"05-31-10_filledhoneysuper\"](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/05-31-10_filledhoneysuper-300x225.jpg\" "\\"05-31-10_filledhoneysuper\\"")
with honey.\u00a0 More smoke.\u00a0 The second honey super does not have as much honey because they had to draw out comb for it, but there is still a substantial amount, maybe half of the frame sides.\u00a0 It comes off, lighter than the top one.<\/p>\n
Below the honey super is the queen excluder.\u00a0 It has bees all over it and experienced bee keepers assure that many times the queen, just out of contrariness, will be on the underside.\u00a0 So, I’m careful to lift the excluder over the hive.\u00a0 I look for the queen but cannot see her.\u00a0 She could have been right in front of me and I’m not sure I would have known.\u00a0 She’s longer, that’s the most obvious difference.<\/p>\n
(a full frame of honey)<\/p>\n
Today colony 3 seems calmer.\u00a0 Maybe it’s me, getting more acquainted with the work.\u00a0 I can’t tell.\u00a0 These two hive boxes are full of bees.\u00a0 The U says to reverse them every 7-10 days, so I’m reversing them.\u00a0 What do I know at this point?\u00a0 Both the hive boxes are heavy two with stored honey, larvae and bees.\u00a0 Since I’m not turning pink and sweat is not blinding me as I make every move, I’m slower, use my legs.\u00a0 Not a problem.\u00a0 After reversing them and checking for swarm cells (maybe, but there’s not much I can do at this point except put on more honey supers which I have with me.), I put the honey supers back, starting with a new pair just constructed by Kate and beautiful to see.\u00a0 This means I have chosen, not sure why, to put the heaviest box on top.\u00a0 This could get unwieldy pretty fast. (see picture)\u00a0 The hive box cover goes on over the top honey super, the metal covered top and another hive inspection is in the books.<\/p>\n
Hilo, who lay at the edge of the bee yard as I worked, and I go back to the honey house, open up the smoker so it can burn out, put the hive tool away, hang up the bee ![\"05-31-10_colony1\"](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/05-31-10_colony1-225x300.jpg\" "\\"05-31-10_colony1\\"")
suit and head out to the chair sitting on the bricks in front of the honey house.\u00a0 I finish off the Sharps, look at the trees, marveling at these unique living beings and watch a sparrow gathering material for a nest.\u00a0 Until next week.<\/p>\n
(new honey supers on colony 3)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beltane\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waning Planting Moon Hive inspections today.\u00a0 A rhythm to the process has begun to set in, not jelled quite yet, but getting there.\u00a0 In the honey house, the converted machine shed where we parked our various internal combustion contraptions, off come the hat, the gloves, sweatshirt.\u00a0 Pick up the smoker, toss two handfuls of … Continue reading Bee Diary: Memorial Day, 2010<\/span>