Zinged – Update 8.1.2015

I had a chance to spend some time in Iowa for a family reunion/vacation, and kept my eyes open for what the bees up there were doing.  Since they had plenty of rain, they seemed to be experiencing a fairly strong nectar flow and I did get a chance to see someone’s bees working all of the white and red clover as well as the birdsfoot trefoil that was blooming in abundance.  The northeast part of the state is a good place for bees.  While there is still plenty of intensive agriculture going on in the way of corn and soybeans, there are also plenty of wild areas that aren’t as amenable to the plow as the rest of the state.  So while Georgia was entering a dearth, the upper midwest was in the thickest part of their flow.  I might be taking some nucs up next year to see what they can do.

Once I returned, I was anxious to see what the girls had been up to, especially in the nuc that I had started.  When I opened it up, sure enough the queen cells were open and there was a few cells of open brood.  I looked for the queen but never did see her, which irritates me since she really only has 3 frames with built comb to roam around on, and one of those has honey.  I opened up the hive again today, and there was some capped brood as well as some open.  There was also a new queen cell.  I left it there, thinking that maybe the bees are hoping to make a better queen than the emergency one they turned out a few weeks ago.  I added a medium 5 frame box on top of the deep, mostly to accommodate the medium honey comb frame and then a third medium box enabled me to feed them in the same manner as my main hive.

The main hive continues to be as strong as ever, although their building has slowed greatly.  They still haven’t built any comb on the top shallow box, but they have several frames in the lower levels that they can draw out to replace those I took out for the nuc.  I did manage to spot their queen a week ago.  She’s still marked and still laying, although I think she might be slowing down.  I’m still feeding both hives, hoping they can use the extra energy to draw out more comb.

The main hive is much more defensive lately.  While I was on vacation, my wife decided to give a try at feeding them and she got stung on the ankle before she could even lift the lid!  She was wearing a bee jacket, but went back to the full bee suit after that to finish the feeding.  When I got back, I encountered the same as she did.  I used to be able to lift the lid, feed and spend some time watching them go in and out, trying to identify what they were bringing in.  Yesterday, I didn’t even lift the lid but was just watching them.  This was okay for a few minutes, and then one decided she’d had enough and came up and zinged me.  Fortunately I wear glasses, because she was gunning for my eye.  Instead, she got undcer the bill of my hat and got me right on the eyebrow, and stayed hooked there for a few seconds until I plucked her off.  But her sisters were already buzzing and spooling up to join the fray and I had to high-tail it out of there and around the house.  My best defense seems to be the fan on the AC unit.  I stick my face in that and it seems to blow them off the trail.

But now my eye is about swollen shut.

I’m working on getting some water for them, and will see how that works.  It’s similar to my feeding system, only I lay the tub on a piece of cardboard to let the water wick out and the bees can get it without drowning.  I set it out this afternoon and had one decide I was too close again and went after me.  This formerly very docile colony is getting mighty defensive lately.  They have the same queen they’ve always had, so it isn’t a genetic thing.  Sometimes aggression can be bred out by introducing a new queen but she’s been doing a good job up until this point.

So some research reveals that during the late summer when there is a dearth of nectar and when the weather is excessively hot can lead to bees becoming more defensive.  This blog entry does a fairly good job of breaking down several reasons for being aggressive.  Basically, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going.  When resources get short, the bees crank up their defenses as they are likely being bothered by predators like wasps and hornets and a variety of other small critters.  So I just need to be careful around the big hive and hope things simmer down eventually.  Feeding and watering might improve their disposition and then not fiddling with them on a weekly basis like I have been.

The nuc remains very docile, despite trying to supersede their existing queen.  If attempts are being made to rob them from the larger hive, they seem to be defending quite well.

First Harvest

I’ve heard it said that the first year of beekeeping is very political, especially for those starting in their backyard with lots of neighbors.  Generally the recommendation from urban beekeepers is the less fuss made and the less neighbors know the better.  However, at some point, neighbors are going to find out or figure it out.  My hive is in a very isolated spot, well away from anyone’s house, screened by trees and our storage shed.  But once the smoker is fired up, it generates a fair amount of attention from those close by.  Fortunately I’m being found out at a decent time when I can deal with potential issues, even if I have to resort to bribery.

I got my bees very late in the season and most of the nectar flow was spent by the bees making comb and getting their numbers up.  I added one medium box about a week after I installed my nuc and then about 2 weeks after that, added and third box once they had drawn comb in box #2.  I could tell the queen preferred laying in the new wax but she eventually moved back down to the deep box.  Box #3 is all honey, and so yesterday I decided it was time to take one of the capped frames and make our first harvest.  There are several other capped frames in box #3 and I have added a 4th box a week ago, that they haven’t touched.  But I’ll keep feeding, hoping they draw out some more comb.

Since I don’t have an extractor, I went to my go-to blog, where Linda describes how to harvest honey without an extractor.  I decided to opt for the jar-to-jar method as it looked the simplest and I could get the boys involved in the process.  After cutting the comb from the frame, I broke it up into a pitcher and then we all took turns smashing it into a sort of mash.

I used the rings to fasten fiberglass screen and then used duct tape to tape 2 jars together.  Then it was just a matter of flipping them over, like a sort of hour glass, and let the honey drain.  However, since I did this at night, indoors, the straining process went really slow.  So this morning, I decided to get a little help moving things along.  I took my truck out of the garage and parked in the sun, and then set the double jars on the dash and walked away.  90 minutes later, we had some full-ish jars of honey!

That’s about 1 quart (4 half pints) of honey from a single frame.

One of these is earmarked for my next door neighbor.  The one who rarely ever mows his yard, has never sprayed it and has let it become overgrown with weeds.    I’ve been looking at that yard for years, a bit annoyed that he wasn’t taking care of the place.  But now my tune has changed greatly and I’m never going to complain about his neglect of his yard again!  My bees seem pretty fond of it, and I’m pretty sure there is some dandelion nectar in there from his back yard.

I’ll probably take one more frame and then see how they build out the other box.

I also, on the spur of the moment, decided to try a walk-away split, putting some brood frames and bees into a nuc box.  One problem is my honey frames are all mediums while my nuc box is a deep!  I did stick on frame of uncapped honey in with the brood frames that had both capped and uncapped brood plus a blank frame and have a feeder already set up for them.  It will be really interesting to see how this little experiment works.

There is one other thing I need to note on this last inspection.  I decided to go for the split after already having taken the honey frame,  late in the afternoon.  The bees were really good, but as I got into the brood box, the weather was starting to change and things got much more intense.  It was hot, the humidity was high and even though I wear a fairly light bee jacket, I was sweating buckets.  I was just about finished when I saw spots and ended up on the ground!  Fortunately well away from the hive but that was my first brush with heat exhaustion.  I’m just not as young as I used to be, and I’m probably in the worst shape of my life, thanks to a job that involves almost zero physical exercise.  SO, I just have to take it a bit easier and make hydration a bigger priority.  And get outside more, which the bees do motivate me to do.

 

Post script: In my addled state, I didn’t get the boxes perfectly straight, especially next to the brood box– the bottom one (of course).  So I went out today thinking I could just pry it over with the hive tool, re-aligning and closing the gap.  I at least had enough sense to put on my jacket and veil but didn’t think this would be a drawn-out difficult job so didn’t bother with the smoker.  Big mistake!  I pried up and began to move the box, and the girls came boiling out of every gap and of course several were smash as I set the box down.  They were MAD and were not going to give up the chase!  I ended up firing the smoker up while they charged my veil and got the gaps sufficiently closed and walked away.  I ended up sitting in the yard (far from the hive) for awhile until the ones buzzing around me  finally buzzed off.  Holding my head in front of the AC pump fan seemed to discourage them enough I could get into the garage without pursuers.