The End of My Naked Bee Keeping Lifestyle.

As many of you know from the pictures I keep very close to the bees when I tend them relying on a minimal amount of safety equipment. Unless I am installing a package, I usually only wear my vail and break out the gloves when I am unsure what kind of trouble I may get into moving frames. I have always believed in the gentle nature of the bees and not being covered in bulky equipment allowed me to judge the temperament of the hive as well as be mindful of all the bees present in order to avoid the estimated average 200 accidental kills during a hive check.

In the past three years as a keeper I have about 19 stings to my credit. About 4 of those have been on my head at various times when I wasn't officially doing a hive check, just poking around near the hive, most of the stings happened on my fingers and arms during hive checks.

This is my very first sting in 2009.

I never considered myself allergic to bee stings. Like typical stings there was swelling around the entry point and a little discomfort nothing more. The stories of the old time beekeepers told me that having your body exposed to the bee venom allows you to build up better antibodies against it, a little bit of the theory of immunotherapy, if you are exposed to trace amounts you eventually develop a tolerance to that which may affect you. How many times have you been told about if you have problem with pollen allergies eat a regiment of local honey to help alleviate them? It is the same principal idea.

Smoke as you may know is the beekeepers friend it sends the bees into a panic mode as they go looking for honey stores to gorge on just in case they need to evacuate the hive. It also disrupts the communication pheromones that would send them into defense mode. By the sheer number of bees on the outside of the hive, I knew B2.1 was in a desperate need of another super they were over crowded and hot.


There is a reason why bee keepers work from the back or side of the hive, you stay away from the entrance where the majority of the bees are. Yesterday when the bees were smoked they spread out all over the outside of the hive instead of heading inside. This was not an ideal situation since I no longer had a safe side to work from.


I went forward with my work being more mindful of my surrounding and successfully added that 3rd super, with communication disrupted by the smoke it would would take a little while for all of the bees to find their way back into the hive and into their new addition.


While closing up of the hive I didn't want to crush any of the bees so I was brushing the bees off the top cover and that was when I received a sting near my watch band on my left arm. It hurt like you would expect it to, I got the stinger out and smoked the area of the sting to hide the “attack here” pheromone that I had been tagged with. I finished up my hive duties outside put away my bee keeping supplies and came inside to wash up. It had been about 15 minutes since the sting, and it was then I noticed the rash going up my arm.

The sting location.

The rash up to my armpit.

I was uncomfortable, but still feeling alright, thought a shower and some rest on the bed in the cool room might help. Knowing this wasn't a normal reaction, my wife decided to look up bee sting info while I was in the shower on the Mayo Clinic site and seeing the following:

• Skin reactions in parts of the body other than the sting area, including hives and itching and flushed or pale skin (almost always present with anaphylaxis)
• Difficulty breathing
• Nausea, vomiting
  
• Dizziness or fainting

Although only the 1st one was really present and the other three were minor, she decided I probably should go visit our local non-emergency care facility, which we did. A shot of steroids there and another 12 day prescription for more, I left with a scolding from the doctor for not using our epi pen when the reaction started, and the knowledge I may now have developed an allergy to bee stings.

I am now left with new tasks to undertake- (a) Finding out if I may be a candidate for real doctor prescribed immunotherapy. (b) Finding more needed safety equipment to begin a new journey as a beekeeper who is allergic to bees, which basically leaves me no other choice, but to do as Barney Stinson would say: “Suit Up!”.

Feeling much better than I did a day ago, for now I'll suffer the "Popeye arm" taunts of my wife who very happily decorated it with the obligatory sailor anchor.

Just Swarmy!

Early today my neighbor greeted me with the news that I had a swarm of bees in my tree that I had missed by an hour. I looked over at the tree where she told me they were and sure enough the tell tale signs of crumpled leaves coated with bits of wax.

I pondered for a moment if they were mine since earlier this year I observed a feral colony in a hollow tree in another neighbor’s yard . I returned from running errands just after 5pm and was greeted by a mass of black airborne insects as I was pulling into my driveway. Wiki here has a picture of almost exactly what I saw. I knew they were mine this time.

A little about swarms: Swarms happen when the hive feels as if they have no more room for growth. The lead up signs to the swarm include “swarm cells” which are peanut like cells hanging on the bottom of the frame. I did witness something that could have been interpreted as swarm cells in my last hive check, but I ignored them because they were in the top super and not in the lowest one like the textbook says they should be. Then again my saga since the last hive check is something else.

The swarm in relation to my hives. (B 2.1 on the left and Club Fergie on the right.)

Short story long, we were about to head out for the evening, a swarm project was not something I could get started with. By mid morning the next day I expected them to be gone.

I had a moment where I felt sad they had swarmed and there was nothing I could do about it, but then I relized that I got into beekeeping not for the honey, but to help the bees and it brought me some solace knowing that my bees were helping to repopulate the local area.

What the Bee?

Yesterday we did a hive check on B2.1 and removed the Queen cage, I added my Ross Round Super to Club Fergie and pulled a frame of honey. Just a quick check and run. Noticed what appeared to be swarm cells on the bottom bar of a couple of frames in the top super. Could they be swarm cells? The cell placement on the frame is correct, but the location in the hive is incorrect being in the top super rather than near the entrance.

One odd thing I noticed was that foragers were returning to the rear of the hive in the space for my screened bottom board. It was odd to see that but then I thought maybe the dance floor at the front was crowded so they had began using the screen under the hive to transfer nectar to the house bees. I changed the entrance space to a larger opening to give them more room to return hoping that would help with traffic.

Today I looked in on them and there appears to be just as many foragers returning to the rear of the hive as to the front. I wanted to know what it looked like under the hive so I took this picture.

Not what I expected to see. I was expecting maybe a a few hundred bees but mostly the screen bottom. Instead my pictures revealed a large mass of bees that may be a swam that didn't get too far. If they are all foragers they will either return home or age will catch up to them.

Bees at Night

Every so often I get asked, “So, what do bees do at night?”

The answer is simple they go home. Being that it has been much warmer the last few days, I have been finding a large number of bees hanging out at the front of the hive. I talked about the reasons for this in another post over here. One can really see the strength of a hive at this time of day because all the foragers are back from the field.

First up “B2”, it has been almost 4 weeks since the package was installed. That means that this hive could possibly be seeing the first of its new bees hatching. This could account for the small mass at the front entrance. The entrance reducer is still set for the small opening because you can see I am still feeding them. They aren't taking it very quickly, which suggests that there is plenty of better option around the neighborhood for them to feed on.
Next is “Club Fergie” in the link from above it shows what the entrance looked like a month ago at the start up of the Spring hatching season. Now a month later you see what a population explosion there has been. I was planning on moving the entrance reducer up to the next size, but the 10 day forecast shows it is going to be back in the 40sºF at night starting this weekend so I will probably wait another week for that. I am not worried about opening the entrance up because all they have in their feeder right now is plain water to help them with cooling the hive when it gets too hot. Plain Water, is not really the thing that encourages robbing.
This picture demonstrates that the perfect time to do a hive check is not at night. For one, bees don't fly at night very well because there is no sun to orientate them however, they are excellent crawlers which added to the complete hive population being home makes this an equation for a sting disaster to happen.

B2: Bad Bee News

I have been putting off checking B2 the last few days because it has been cooler and breezy. Today was calm so even-though my excellent photographer wasn't here to document it all I still had to do it.

So far so good some activity at the entrance, pollen being gathered.

Under the hive cover not much activity around the inner cover.

Looking better, I see some new drawn comb. Bees working.

Oh No! Where is the rubber band? Did the cage fall? Sinking feeling

Cage is still in place. Queen has been released, but where is she?

Bad news on the bee front, the big waxy cell on the side of the frame is called a “Supersede Cell.” Looks like supersede procedures have begun and Queen Bingo was nowhere to be found. Looks like she is either gone for good or not the Queen the hive needs her to be.

Today I only saw a handful of eggs and less than 10 larva. Hopefully the queen was here as recently as 3 days ago. Will do thorough hive check on the weekend to see the status of the queen, even if I missed her, the fact that the hive started with making the cell tells me she was either rejected by them or in poor health. It is good that they had some eggs in order to go into emergency mode, I just hope the eggs I saw are actually fertile eggs and not the byproduct of a laying worker. An egg produced by a worker is infertile and can only become a drone.

Now putting these photos together I have this sinking feeling that when the bees chewed through the rubber band, when it snapped could it be possible that it killed the queen or injured her? I may never find out, but I do know next time around I am going to play it safe and move to twine or florist wire just in case that is what caused this current situation.

The Tomten Visit

There is a book that my wife really enjoys called “The Tomten” by Astrid Lindgren. She likes to have me read it to her as she falls asleep. In the last few months I have been adding an additional visit by the Tomten to the farm’s beehives.

The Tomten stopped by the beehive to refill the entrance feeder. The Tomten talks to them in tomten language, a silent little language the bees can understand.

“Springs come and springs go,
Nectar come and nectar go,
Soon you won't be needing this feeder.”

Sharing my Knowledge

Melissa, as I have previously mentioned, made the trip with me down to Brushy Mountain Bee Farm to pick up bees. This year is her first year in beekeeping. Although I had read 3 books on the subject attended meetings with the Richmond Beekeepers, watch a video of an installation, as well as witnessed a live installation demonstration, I still remember my feelings of doubt as I first touched a package of bees. What made it easier for me when I arrived home was that I had the support of my wife to assist me in the new venture. Melissa’s husband fully supports her new venture, he however has a very real fear of bees. Knowing this I decided to be available for her during her installation just in case those feelings of doubt surfaced. I only offered a couple of words, but she didn't need my help at all. Her confidence during installation shows she will be a successful beekeeper. Here are a few pictures of Melissa with her new hive on Day 1.

Misting down the package with sugar water, this not only makes the bees sticky and temporarily makes them unable to fly. Having 10-12,000 bees this isn't perfect odds to get every one, but it allows you to be able to deal with a couple hundred instead of a couple thousand.

Removing the shipping lid, under this is where the travel feeder is as well as the cage containing the queen. Both are removed before the introduction happens.

“The Dump” The moment when the majority of the bees with quickly learn where their new home is. Imagine if almost all of those bees weren't sticky with sugar water. The queen cage had been transferred to the frame in the very middle right below where the mass of bees are being dumped.

Last, here is her new hive ready to go. The package was placed in front of the hive to allow any ones that were left behind the ability to quickly find their way to the hive entrance as soon as the hive sets up some scenter who will use their pheromones to send out a signal to any lost bee in the area the way back yo the hive. As you see, right now the hive only has one level so that it controls the growth of the hive to fill the brood box before adding a second. Having one level also makes it easier for it to defend itself against pests as well as maintain the correct temperature. In this area of Virginia our average last frost date is still a couple of weeks away so being able to cluster on those colder nights is very important to the well being of this new hive.

To read what Melissa had to say about the installation go visit her here.

Brushy Mountain Package Pick-Up

B2-day had arrived. My package of bees for the new hive was ordered back on February 3 and now was time to go an pick them up. Mady had decided that she wasn't up for the trip this year so it was Melissa, a new beekeeper, and myself making the trip. We left my house around 6:15AM and arrived at Brushy Mountain Bee Farm a little after 10AM a distance of about 250 miles.

The entrance and a customary photo op.

Here is a line of beehives that Brushy Mountain Bee Farm keeps. One of the nice things that Brushy Mountain does is that they do a package installation demo. This is a wonderful opportunity to finally see first hand what so many new beekeepers read about as they are starting out. I know last year what a great confidence builder it was for me to experience so I made sure that Melissa had a chance to see it also.

Melissa enjoying the package installation demo.

After taking the time to look around the scratch and dent store, and the main retail store it was time to get our packages. Here is a picture of the stacks of bees awaiting their new hive homes with different beekeepers.

Stack of packages. One thing to remember is that although there is 10-12,000 bees included in these packages, they are only temporary, the most important thing you are getting here is the queen. Unfortunately, with the life span of a worker bee, these bees will be dead in 3-6 weeks replaced by the new bees of the queen will produce once she begins laying when she is released in a few days.

Me with my new package ready for “B2” when I get home.

The making of “Bee Tea”

B2-day is upon us. I get my new package tomorrow. However, before I am off to bed I needed to get ready by making up a batch of “Bee Tea.” This is an alternative to the “Bee Juice” mentioned in most beekeeping material which is just a 1:1 sugar water.

In the early stages of a new hive, one needs to provide the hive with nourishment. I made up some “Bee Tea” tonight which is 1 cup pure cane sugar : 1 cup weak chamomile tea and adding a couple of generous pinches of sea salt (helps digestion) and a couple of pinches of ground thyme (added nutrients). "Bee Tea" is a way to help build the bees immune system naturally.*

*I have Ross Conrad from Dancing Bee Gardens to thank for this tip.

The gallon jug holds 10 cups each of tea and sugar, which is about 15 cups mixed. I use the mortar and pestlel to grind the course sea salt with the thyme together. I reuse the same tea bag for all 10 cups of tea which makes weak tea.

The bees will be fed this for the next 4-6 weeks. The solution helps in the drawing out of comb. When the comb is drawn out it will be used to store food and rear young.

Cluster of Bees

For the last two days it has been around 90ºF with a low the mid 60sºF at night. I was up early this morning and I looked out the back window to see this large mass of bees on “Club Fergie.” I didn't think that it was particularly warm, so I went out to investigate.

Sure enough there was some fanning going on. Fanning occurs when the hive temperature is above 95ºF. Most likely these forager went outside to help alleviate some of the heat. However with the outside temperature being much lower, these bees probably began to cluster together for warmth. Clustering occurs when the temperature begins to drop close to 57ºF.

Recently I had changed the entrance reducer to make the entrance larger, it is still in the mid 40sºF at night and cooler so I didn't want to remove it completely. We are still 3 weeks away here from our average last frost date.

B2: is ready to go

On Saturday, my second trip to Brushy Mountain Bee Farm in Moravian Falls, NC will commence to pick up this year's package bees. Besides my every loving co-conspirator we are also traveling along with our friend Melissa who will also begin keeping bees this year.

This is the location of the new hive in relation to “Club Fergie”. Bees need less than a foot of space between hives, so there is plenty of room in my bee yard for them to peacefully coexist. One thing about location, You want your bees to have a good mix of sun and shade. Morning Sun is crucial in getting the hive woken up and the foragers out working the day. By mid-day you ideally want the hive sitting in a shady location to help alleviate some of the heat in the hive. A bee hive will maintain a constant temperature of about 90ºF and anything the keeper can do to assist with this is beneficial for all parties.

Here it is “B2” ready to go. On Saturday we are picking up a 3lb package which includes about 10,000 bees and a queen. This will become their new home in a short time.

Just a little about this set up. Beekeeping requires certain equipment, but it doesn't have to cost a fortune to buy everything.

The hive components were purchased at Brushy Mountain last year in their “scratch and dent” shop. Since the hive it sitting outside and subject to everything nature has tho throw at it, it was not important for me that it start out perfect. I saved about 50% doing this. Another angle to take is to build your own components. The internet is full of great DIY plans.

The hive stand was built with scrap wood from “The Big Orange Depot”. Once again less than perfect wood in odd sizes can easily be acquired for $1.00 or less a board. The design for the stand was my creation influenced by simple engineering principals.

The hive pad was built using found materials. The landscaping timbers were found in the trash, the bricks came out of a dumpster, and the rocks were shoveled out of the street gutter. It was put together over a thick layer of newspapers that came out of recycling. The newspapers prevents growth of plant material from poking through the rocks. It took me a few months to acquire everything, but once I knew that I was going to need a new hive location last year the planning began.