Inspection on 30 May, 1 Month In & First Stings.

After being inspired yesterday, I was all 'organised' for what I needed to do.  My usual hive buddy was doing what teenagers do on a bank holiday so Mr TB offered to help.  He insisted that he did not need a suit and but would wear a veil for a bit, then take it off to take the pictures.  "They won't sting me....", you can see where this is going....

This was the pic of hive just after I removed the follower board.  Oh if only we could turn back the hive to this point! As you can see the first comb is a small one and it was not braced and moved away nicely.  The next comb in was braced to the comb behind, I got out the hive tool and tried to ease them apart, making tiny delicate cuts as I went.  Then disaster..Comb down. Panic set in and family members were despatched to find a hair clip to reattach it. I think I am going to have to keep a supply in my bee box.  

  

One bodge job later! and the comb is returned to the box.  It worked before and here is hoping luck is on my side again.  By this time, I just wanted to close up, but I did want to move the combs nearer to the far holes, and I still have Queen cells and disease to look for.  It was also about this time that Mr TB started regretting his bravado and had run screaming, after being stung on the side of his face.  The first sting down...

After my previous efforts at formalising the comb, training the bees, and knowing that I had just used my last hair clip, I decided to leave the next 3 combs (above) braced together.  Probably my wisest choice of the day. 

Here is the comb I fixed to bar with the first hair clip.  They are gradually taking over my hive. The bees don't seem to have minded and have filled in the gaps nicely. 

Think this is Queen Kylie, I saw her early on, but I was distracted with the broken comb saga.  When it was time to properly inspect the bar I expected her to be on. I couldn't find her again, luckily we had the pics to review at our leisure. Also, by this time, my photographer, Mr TB had been stung and had lost interest, my daughter:-

who was taking notes, and had had a sore head before we started, wilted.  The bees were very agitated, and I had just been stung on the neck, and the smoker had gone out. Enough was enough. I piled all the bars back on, moving the cluster a little further down the box, put the lid back on, and we had coffee watching them calm down.  Which didn't take too long.  Not a text book inspection, but hopefully we will get better. 

Final Count:

• 13 small comb
• 2 medium
• 14,11,17 clumped together brood comb
• 33 1st hair clipped comb
• 16 hatching worker brood
• 18 starter comb

No Queen cells, no sign of any disease. 

Thanks for reading, 

Bee Safari

What a busy day I have had.  Our Bee-keeping Associating had a FERA inspector visit the area and several members kindly allowed us all to pile in their apiary's and  look on, while the inspector explained what diseases he was looking for and gave us newbies some valuable instruction.  We went to 3 different apiaries, with one of our members supplying a scrummy lunch at the halfway point.  It was not an ideal day for opening up around 20 hives, it was a bit blowy and cold, so he had to work quick.

The FERA inspector was looking for European and American Foul brood, predominately, as they are  both notifiable diseases, but we also saw examples of chalk brood, sac brood and wax moth.  During his inspections he tested a couple of larvae, mainly for demonstration purposes.  The test is a bit like a pregnancy test, and luckily they both came out negative.

We also saw a bumble bee who was in the hive dipping her head into cells as if she was an invited guest for dinner. The honey bees were just ignoring her whilst she was quite happily robbing their hive. I guess there is a energy to loss ratio where the colony decides that a little loss of stores is acceptable to evicting the cheeky bumble.   I would love to have taken a pic but I left my SD card in my PC (I hear you on mass-  "Numpty") so the only pics I have are what I could fit on my camera's internal memory.  Another association member took a pic, and I am hoping he will share. 

Update:  And he did, many thanks SP. Apparently its not every day you see a Bumble as at home in a honey bee hive as this one was. 

Drone culling as a Varroa mite control 

Above is a picture of a frame that has foundation only on the top half.  The idea being is that the gap on the bottom half is filled, by the bees, with 'drone cone' to allow a culling with this special fork.  The Varroa mites prefer to lay their eggs in drone cells as they have a longer larvae period. The larvae is inspected on the comb and checked for mites.  If the mites were a real issue, a choice could be made to cull more drones, and the mites along with them.  Collateral damage, the bee world is a cruel world. In this instance, there were none..which is very good.

Besides benefiting from the information given be experienced bee-keepers, it was great to chat again to other new bee-keepers to hear of their experiences. I have been boring my family with my single-mindedness, so it was nice to talk bees without apologising when I see the eye roll!

I have been desperately trying not to over-dabble with my bees and allow them to settle in, with the assumption that my new, weak colony will concentrate on building up before they considered splitting and swarming.  But...one of my fellow new starters who gave a home to a swarm a month ago has just lost half of her bees through them swarming again. I shall be opening my hive tomorrow to check for Queen cells, as much as I want to bee keep in a natural way, for the benefit of bees, I am not ready to lose Queen Kylie just yet. Not sure I want to deliberately kill a Queen either, but it will have to be done, perhaps next year when my colony should be stronger I could consider an artificial swarm, but not this year.

Once again, thanks for reading, and please bear in mind, I am a learner, and I have started this blog as a record of my hive, a read for another new newbies who would like to take up bee-keeping, and primarily so that I can be put right by more experienced bee-keepers who can spot my mistakes. Happy to correct any errors spotted.

Queen Kylie! Top Bar Hive day 23.

Not too sure what the bees have been up to these last few days, it has been very windy. I have been out the door before they got up, and it has been dull and windy when I returned from work.  Saw a few brave ones taking on the gales, but generally, they seem to have been mostly huddling. Although, the weather has been very politely keeping the rain to the evenings.



25 May 2011 from end entrance.

 Above is a pic I took this evening, not sure if its just me, but there seems to be less bees, but I anticipate a slight decline in population until the new brood can make up the numbers.  Loving the look of the comb though.  Not sure if I should leave them another week, or open them up this weekend. I am not convinced at how informative an open inspection would be at this time.

I love this pic taken from underneath, you can clearly see the layers of comb with bees working back to back inbetween them (beespace). The small comb you can see from the pic above is at the top of the image.

On another note, happy as I am with my hive and I am loving my bees, I have been listening to Phil Chandler, the Barefoot Bee-keeper's podcast for the best advice on organically and ethically managing my hive.   I have just listened to his advice on importing bees and I feel very naughty now.  I was so keen on getting started and the availability of British Queens was rare, I have an Australian Queen, (Kylie) and  she has been working ever so hard, but I would be remiss not to pass on his advice about not importing bees into the UK, thus preventing the migration of the diseases that they bring with them. Not an intentional flaunting of the Biobee Guru's advice, and I will be paying more attention in future. Now I have a working hive, the intention is to allow them when the time occurs to create their own replacement, who will be acclimatised to our very special weather in the UK.   Although, to play devils advocate, I was listening to another pod caster who's advice was to avoid 'pedigree' bees as they could become highly strung in a similar vain to pedigree dogs. The Queen bee is mother to all the bees in the hive and the Queen Bee that will ultimately supercede her, when she starts to fail, will be her daughter, and all the drones in the hive will be her sons.  In days when bees were more widespread there was more of a chance of the Queen being mated with drones from differing colonies, to strengthen the genetics.  Although the last thing I would want to do is bring in a disease, I can see the attraction of bringing in some differing genetics to strengthen our weakening colonies. Please feel free to correct me, I would in no way profess to be an expert, just an uneducated, still a keen learners, opinion.

Spy Camera

Had another play with my Bee Spy Cam today, got a better fitting with the camera.  I used a very technological solution with a stick, a nail and some masking tape.  I shall have to patented it, quick...

Here is some video I shot using this modern method.  This view was obtained from the middle bee access hole.  The bees very kindly accommodated me. Warning the volume can be a bit of a nuisance, what with all the buzzing and the wind. 

Please excuse the quality, it was a windy day and I don't think it helped. 

Here is some better viewing from the outside from my other camera. 

This video is from the entrance hole on the end of the hive, it will be interesting to see how long it takes for the comb on the end to grow and be filled and a new comb to start to grow. 

The bees were not too busy outside the hive today, I think the wind put them off a bit.  Although the ones that did make it out returned fully laden with white, yellow, light orange and a deep orange pollen.  I was reading today that foraging bees don't mix the the pollen in their leg baskets, once they start collecting from one pollen source, they stick to it for the duration of that outing. Where do they go? We have had a look when we are out walking the dog, but I haven't seen a honeybee out and about at all.

Talking of the dog, miraculously, he still hasn't been stung, he goes up to the hive and if a bee comes near his nose, he does have a snap, and luckily he hasn't caught one yet.  Lets hope he learns his lesson on a paw rather than a sting on his airway. You can see how near the chair is that I sit on to view the bees, I am kinda hoping that they get used to me, and we will develop  a mutual tolerance.  Although, the bees that are flying at the moment are bees that came in the package and have been a real contented bunch.  In the next few weeks they will be replaced with the offspring of Queen Kylie, and the temperament of her bees are as yet unknown. 

Just thought I would pop this vid in off Mr B in action. The German Shepherd had no chance, he was in a running mood and prepared to shift into Greyhound mode with some Saluki stamina in the tank for sustenance. 

If anyone has any comments, especially advice from experienced Bee Keepers, I would be glad to receive it.  Thanks for viewing. 

Bee Cam Experiments

After I posted yesterday, my head was planning the weekend of how I was going to position the camera for the best view, how I could get the power to it and then stream to the net.  When at 22.00 ish a flash, bang and it all went dark.  No, the second bottle of wine hadn't kicked in, the transformer on the router of my 'spy' camera had blown, taking everything in the house with it. After work today I phoned the camera supplier he was very apologetic and offered to send a new one.  All very well, but what about my fun for the weekend! Desperate times, I nearly considered hoovering to pass the hours!   After a good old root through my box of leads and a brief Facebook lesson from my friend Jon on Volts and Ampage, resulting in a 'just use that one and it will be ok' followed by a 'broken' Facebook connection - I was up and running again.   

Next problem was how to keep the Beecam place, I tried cello-tape, and masking tape, but ultimately the ideal solution was the combination of screwed up ball of masking tape stuck onto a handy plank of wood jammed into position with brute force.  Rolling. Above is the same view as yesterday, but the right way around. I really must look at a more permanent solution to housing the camera. 

Pic above is taken from a middle hive hole and you can clearly see the tiny end comb being worked on. Hopefully the gap between this comb and the comb next to it is the correct bee space, defined as the width for 2 bees to work back to back.      

 Another pic of the huddle, I have a ton of video, most of it out of focus, and I need to edit it into something upload-able, but still working on that (its a learning curve). Seeing the pics is reassuring for me, and I will not be opening the hive this weekend.  There is obviously not an excessive amount of dead bees on the mesh floor, the bees are creating new nice and straight comb, and keeping the brood warm in the huddle, so I am assuming all is well, and any interference from me would be really unappreciated by the bees. They are still really amiable, all the faffing with the camera today, my unveiled head was in the way of the entrance many times today and the affable bees kindly chose the scenic route.

I have been wondering of how I can get the camera in the hive, without losing quality or having the bees propolis it to death. I was considering putting it in a jar with a hole drilled into the lid to allow the power cable through.  I would like to position it so I could catch the occasional sight of Queen Kylie and perhaps some babies hatching. Any advice would be most welcome.  Although don't try and explain ampage to me, I still don't understand so I chose the Chinese transformer as the router is also Chinese and I thought they may talk the same language, the method has worked, and nothing has blown up, thanks for trying Jon, it is also the one you recommended, why is beyond me.

BeeCam Tryout

A wireless pinhole camera designed for bird boxes arrived today. Had a bit of an experiment at whether or not it was worth fitting or not. Here is a still I snapped from the short video I took using a 9v battery to power it.  Next mission is to hook it up to the mains and fit it more securely.  You are not standing on your head, the text is upside down, as was the camera while I was holding it to an entrance to check out the view.  Lesson learned!  

I will have a few more experiments over the weekend to suss out the best position for best viewing. The aim being is that I can watch the bees as much as I want without the curiosity killing the brood by opening the hive up too often.  I do love to watch them and they are very good tempered bees, I am concerned that the more I open them, they will grow to get testy when we are around, as opposed to the pleasant ignoring we are currently getting used to.

I am hoping to have live webcam feed running, probably not 24/7 but I will post the link on here when I have rigged it up.  The power source is the main thing to overcome, without leaving a door or window open, I can't get a lead to the hive from the house.

May Hive Inspection at Training Apiary.

Today as part of my beekeeping class we had a visit to local apiary.  Our instructor showed us how to do an artificial swarm and we moved 2 nucs into standard hives as well as normal May inspections.  For the artificial swarm we moved the old Queen into a new box and put it in the old position.  The idea being the flying bees will return the same position and rejoin the old Queen in the new hive and they will think they have swarmed as there is no brood and a new nest. The initial hive is moved to a new position with the brood and nurse bees and any queen cells that have been started.  The nurse bees will recognise that they no longer have a Queen and will begin feeding a couple of newly hatched eggs with royal jelly to create new Queens. A couple of new Queens may hatch but the first Queen out will kill the others...there can only be one Queen Bee per hive.  

 

The above is a nuc of bees ready for a bigger a home. The nuc is a result of previous artificial swarm, on inspection of the nuc there was a new Queen and fresh brood so the artificial swarm had been successful so a brand new colony of bees had been created and needed room for expansion. 

So the frames were moved across, lock stock and barrel, and the brood box was finished off by adding empty frames of foundation. 

On next inspection, if the busy bees have worked on these empty frames, and filled them with honey and brood, a super can be added on top. 

The bees had been very busy and there were 5 supers of honey from the 7 hives loaded into the back of his our instructors van.  There is a rape field nearby so there has been lots available for them.  The problem with rural bees is that they are only as productive as the local crop will supply, so these bees have had the bee equivalent of Macdonalds for the last month in the form of a fast food field of Rape.  Once this is harvested, they may run short of supplies.

I took the pic above because of a drone that was milling among the working girls, one of my fellow classmates referred to him as a dumper truck which seemed a very appropriate description of a drone.  Cant spot him now though! 

Above is a close up of some brood comb.  The working girl cells are covered by a small mound, the cover on the drones cells are more pronounced and the Queen babies have a hanging cup.  When you inspect the brood you are looking for eggs or larvae to show that your current Queen is being productive.  If there are a lot of drone cells, it may mean that she is failing and has run out of sperm and can no longer fertilize the eggs that produce worker bees.  Also you are looking for Queen cells which could either imply that she is failing, and the workers are looking to superceed her, or that the colony is large enough to consider swarming and is creating a new Queen to take over once the old Queen has left the building. 

I had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon, I love being among the bees, and it was very informative.  Our instructor is very good, he has a wealth of knowledge and is willing to share.  And as you can see from above and below the neighbours were completely un-phased by the buzzy, buzzy bees. 

Bees Installation

Hi, this is my first beehive, and my first bees.  I have attended an excellent evening class and I am hoping that I can provide a good home for the bees whilst they save the human race from extinction, and perhaps, if I am lucky, they may have some honey to share with us. Please feel free to help with any advice, as I am by no means an expert and this is a blog about my experiences, good or bad, (although I may not boast about the bad) and I would welcome any mentoring given. 

Collected bees in a package and JP and I installed them on  2 May 2011.  Basically shook the worker girls  into the top bar and hooked the queen cage onto one of the bars.  The idea being that the bees got used to their new Australian Queen.  If she was released too early, they may kill her. We then moved onto the important task of naming her.  Regina, Edna and Elizabeth were all considered, but we didn't feel the appropriate love.

Next day I reopened the hive and undid the plastic cap on the Queen cage and hoped that the bees would eat through the candy and rescue her.  There was some cone around the cage which I cut off and attached a hair clip to and attached it to a top bar. A troubled sleep that night, I dropped her at one point, and the bees were really unhappy. My neighbours on either side both popped out, and then in again very swiftly.  They have been very supportive, I had anticipated them knocking at my door carrying pitch forks, and screaming swollen stung children, but they have been brilliant. And, touch wood, nobody has been stung so far. 

Before I got the bees I meticulously numbered all my bars with the intention of keeping them in order, but with all the excitement of the angry bees, while I fuffed around with their Queen, the bars were returned back in any order to minimize the disruptions. Can bees count, will the bee postman be confused?  I don't think they cared, they just wanted their lid back on. 

Day 3, I peeked into the observation window in the morning and the queen cage seemed to be on it own, and the bees were huddled elsewhere. I was worried that she had froze to death on her own, or had died when I dropped her, but by the time I returned in the evening the huddle had moved nearer the cage and the girls were bringing in pollen.  I felt a bit of relief, perhaps all was well.  After that, I  left them alone, apart from a quick peek in the observation window, and they have been mostly ignoring, us, including the dog, who insists that they do look tasty. They have been working very hard bringing in a mostly yellow pollen. 

JP and I got all togged up and inspected on 14 May 2011 and all is looking well.  First Top Bar out No18 and Queen Kylie was obvious from the outset.  What a beauty! We thought the Queen of Pop...ulation was an apt name. Unfortunately there were some casualties, the bees had clumped the brood onto 3 bars and I had to cut into the comb to lift them out.  On reflection, perhaps I should have just left it be, but I guess it would have only got worse.  Hopefully they will get into the swing of straight comb now.  Really surprised at how productive they have been.

Above is a brood comb I had to cut into to separate the combs, still not sure if I did right or not.  Hopefully, not too much damage.

Another bar, they have been busy filling, 

Quick summary so I can use this as my record a list of the worked top bars:

18 - Queen Kylie seen and on bar 18, with lots of cone, if I had my bee brush and had been more confident I could have checked out the egg and larvae situation!  

19 - small cone

16 - lots of cone

33 - lots of cone, and nectar, this was also the cone that I attached with the hair clip.  

17 - is definitely brood because I had to cut into it, (aww), to remove it and there were some beautiful C shaped larvae left on my hive tool. 

14 - lots of cone, and had the Queen cage dangling from it, which I think is what messed up their bee space and set them on their wiggly cone path causing my destruction of some brood comb. 

13- small amount of cone. 

As you can see from the pics, we had the full gear on, although, we regularly sit in the garden right outside the hive and watch them coming and going.  We have been very lucky, and we are all co-existing quite nicely. Bees, very politely, leave their hive and head up high away from neighbours.  Lets hope it remains that way.