, Дзе наведвальнікі і адкуль.

These are the old tracking stats for where the readers come from.
United States 242


Canada 16


China 4


Denmark 1


France 1


United Kingdom 1


Japan 1


Sweden 1


Slovenia 1

Вясёлага Раства і шчаслівага новага года.

Вясёлага Раства і шчаслівага новага года. Як вы ведаеце, калі W гарачыя мы размаўляць па-іспанску, і калі холадна мы гаворым беларускай мове.

Which beeblog reader can identify the language that the bees speak when they are cold. We have about four inches of snow, thus the bees are tightly clustered inside the hive and not flying.

Winter is a slow time for the beekeeper nothing to do but wish for mild days - prior to becoming a beekeeper I always wanted harsh winters. I like winter and dislike hot humid days.

The two hints for the language are it is neither Spainish, or Russian. The main reason for posting today is I am trying to add a new visitor tracker to the blog.

The Bees will be Happy in a few months

Assuming I get over this nasty cold that has me suffering, I will plant numerous treats for the bees this weekend. My annual tulip shipment will arrive today. I really like tulips and have ordered 400 bulbs. I order the bulbs from Color Blends in Holland and always have them chilled until early December. Tulip bulbs need about 15 weeks of cool weather to produce a large flower, thus pre chilling the bulb helps in mild climates such as Charlotte.

If your curious this year I am planting Roi du Midi bulbs.

Better Days Ahead for Bees?

Being a beekeeper in November is rather slow, thus the lack of blog posts. My mother sent this article to me. Appears some progress is being made on understanding Colony Collaspe Disorder.

A cold bee

The weather has turned colder at night in Charlotte. Nothing extreme or unseasonable - Monday we had our first frost. Thus the bees are staying in when it is cold. This morning when I returned from the Y, I noticed a lone bee clinging to the side of the hive - similar to the bee in the photo. She she was not moving, I assumed she froze to death. Wanting to take some pictures of the bee, I plucked the bee of the hives exterior and put her on the window ledge in the kitchen. After a cup of coffee and a shower, Karen tells me there is a bee on the ledge - I explain the story etc. Well a few minutes pass and Laura tells me the bee is alive, again I explain the story and Laura and i go take a look at the Bee. Except now the bee is moving! The bee was not dead, she was just cold and not moving- so I place her on a spoon and placed her in the sun outside. When I checked on her at 11am - she had flown away to rejoin the hive.

Moral of the story- do not bring bees in the house.

In addition to that adventure - I did check on the hive at lunch. Weather is mid 60's so the hive was happy. Everything in the hive looked good. The honey stores are looking good, some of the stores have been uncapped. I did place a pollen patty in the hive. Between the pollen patty and the stored honey they should have plenty to eat.

Happy Veterans Day!

Bee's in the fall

Finally had a nice day to check the hive, the past days have been very windy, humid and rainy. Not exactly the best weather for a bee - then tonight the weather is supposed to become cool.

The hive looked good. Although I didnt see the Queen K, I did see larve, so she is around and still laying eggs. I could tell that the external food supply is becoming scarce, as one of the honey supers was much lighter, and I saw plenty of bees with their heads in the comb. Mentor John, told me that when you see a bee with her face in the comb, that you are observing a hungry bee eating. I did refill the feeder with a gallon of sugar water - after starving Hive 1.0 I am a little paranoid about ensuring that the bees have plenty of food.

IPM board looked good. The hive beattle population is in check- saw a few but nothing to have me concerned.

The Beekeper and his readers

After I finished that last post I decided to look at the readership stats and see if anyone reads my silliness...apparrently they do.
These are unique visitors:

221 from the USA
16 from Canada
4 from China
1 from Denmark
1 from France
1 from United Kingdom
1 from Sweden

I thought this info was interesting.

A nice weekend

My buddy Jim (the guy who turned 50 and Karen met the beekeper at his birthday party)and I went to Pinehurst for the Pinehurst triathlon. The race is an international distance race (1 mile swim, 30 mile ride, 6.2 milerun) it is by far the hardest course I have ever competed on. This course makes Ironman LakePlacid look easy. When I returned home, I had a great present waiting on me...Honey from NJEB. Eddie had a very succesful first year and was able to extract and bottle honey from his hive.

Now to the bees. I am glad that I treated the hive for mites. I had a TON of dead mites on the IPM board. So medicating the hive was a great thing to do. The bees must have liked it , as they were very calm when I was working the hive on Sunday. Perhaps they where just angry with all of the mites. I did not see the queen, but I really did not look for her. As I was just removing the mite treatments, and spot checking frames. I examined approx a third of the frames, and was pleased. Honey frames still look good for the winter and brood frames also look good. If the weather is nice on Saturday, I have plans to look for the queen.

Beekeeper Earl

P.S. Doug Bradley is now a beekeeper. Doug and I go to church toghter and he is a real estate developer who purchased a old brick building that has a hive living between the brick walls. Once he gets the building stabalized, we are going to get someone fromthe beekeepers association to remove the hive. He and his partners have nicknamed the building the "Beehive"

The Smoker Strikes Again

Nice day in Charlotte. The morning was cold, wore my "nice yellow jacket riding jacket" and gloves on the morning ride to Waxhaw. Later in the day it warmed up and I was able to start painting the exterior of the house.

On Friday, Libby Mack stopped by and gave me some honey from one of her hives. The honey was a gift for giving her the 10 frame equipment. She has been very helpful, so that was rather nice of her. As far as I know this is the first local honey that I have ever tasted. I was intrigued as to the thickness, as the honey was thinner than typical store honey.

Overall the hive looked good. The honey frames are still heavy and I saw some bees yesterday with full pollen pockets. The brood frames that I pulled looked good. The primary reason for working the bees today was to administer a mite treatment. I chose the Apivar treatment pads. I have not noticed a mite issue, so this is preventative and from what I can tell a common practice amongst beekeepers.

Now to the smoker...as you might recall in the early spring while lighting the smoker I light the recycling bin on fire. Well today, I touched the smoker with my "nice yellow riding jacket" and it was hot enough to melt a hole in my jacket. So add another $100 to the bees tab. Hopefully honey futures jumped on Friday with the price of wheat as their tab is getting big so I am expecting a huge honey crop in the summer.

A Message from the Honey Labs CEO

Beekeeper Earl,

I watched you working with the hive tonight and I must say you are very amuzing. These bee's have more contraptions than a cat. Over the past few months I have watched you feed the bees sugar, fake pollen and tonight I saw you add beattle traps to the hive. I must say I was rather dissapointed when you tried to place the honey super on the lumber supports. Even a simple yellow lab like myself, could have told you that was a bad idea. After seeing you struggle to regain control of the leaning honey super, I laughed as the bees really got mad and where just bouncing off your mask. No telling how swollen you would have been without the mask. I assume you now agree that it was a bad idea to try and place the super on the wood supports. I hope you will rember this lesson and only place the supers on flat surfaces.

Sally
CEO
Honey Labs LLC.

P.S. I saw this cartoon and thought of you.

Saw the Queen today

This morning I doned the Homer suit and paid the hive a visit. After exchanging emails with NJEB over the past 10 days, I decided to start feeding the bees again. Last week I placed the top feeder on the stack, and all of the syrup was gone. Although the bees have eight deep frames of honey, I dont want to under feed the bees. Since I am not bottling the honey, I really dont mind if they taker any of the sugar water and store it on the frames - just want the hive to survive through the winter. In addition to feeding them for the winter, the sugar syrup will help them produce wax for the new brood frames that I added.

I did pull two of the honey frames, as I was curious if the bees had started eating their surplus. I saw no indication that anything had been eaten, looks like they are still storing food. I am certain that whn you check the honey stores, it causes the bees to become aggressive. The hive became very aggressive when I was checking honey stores.

Brood Chambers - The brood chambers look good. I saw indications that the bees had started to repair the comb on the new frames that I added last week. The frames had old comb on them, put in several areas, the comb was either damaged or had been scraped away. While checking the upper brood chamber, I did see the queen. This was the first time that I have seen the queen. I was especially impressed with myself,as I was trying to find the queen and was able to locate her.

Overall everything was good today - saw the queen, saw stored food, and I didnt get stung. As NJEB can attest, getting stung really takes some enjoyment out of being a beekeepr.

Moving Day

Regardless if your an adult, child or honey bee moving day is never easy. I havent made a big move in a very long time but I can recall the anxiety. I think the bees where rather anxious as they really started buzzing during the move. I might as well be a native of Charlotte I have been here so long, but prior to arriving in Charlotte I moved plenty. Being rather canid with the bee blog reader, Karen and I have been putting some thought (nothing to serious) to the topic of moving as we both have a love hate relationship with Charlotte. But onto the bees...

To start the my face has returned to normal size and shape. On Monday afternoon I had a rouge bee sting me on the tip of my nose. My face swelled like I took a punch from Mike Tyson. I wasnt even near the hive, I was working on the house. The Brushy Mountain order arrived this weeks, so I was able to assemble some new equipment and move the bees. I had to order a deep super as all of my orginal equipment was medium. The bees have some more room as I added a second medium super (additional four frames) and installed the new deep super for their honey. Moving frames from one hive to another really got the bees worked up. They really got worked up when I was moving the honey frames. Since the equipment that I bought from Libby was a 10 fram setup but only had 9 frames installed - I had to remove one honey super. I was able to find one that didnt have that much stored on it. I was very happy to be in the full Homer Simpson suit today. The additional space should work well fro the bees as I feel the hive was getting a little crowded. Additionally the new top screen, isnt covered with wax so they should not beard in these warm fall days. When winter arrive, I will use my solid winter top cover.

Weather is good - low humidity weather upper 80's when I checked the hive.

Non Bee items:
1. Its race weekend for Karen, Bee Keeper Kathy and Rebecca they are racing the White Lake triathlon on Saturday then heading to Beekeeper Kathy's beach house for a nice weekend. Hope they all have a good race and enjoy their time at the beach.
2. Good college football weekend. Sooners need to play better than they did last week against Fla. State if they are going to win.
3. I caugtht the last 20 minutes of President Obama's press conference today - hell might be freezing over as I liked what he had to say and wish he and all politician would take the candid approach he took in his press conference toady.

W.C. Fields and the South Carolina Thugs

The past three days, there has been a lone bee buzzing around our grill and backdoor. This afternoon, I am doing a fun holiday weekend chore of replacing some rotten eves on the house and this thugs starts buzzing around. Being a beekeeper I am trying to be calm, and keep telling myself I am not near the hive, the bee doesnt feel threatned so he isnt going to bother me. I am really hoping I am right in this though since I have a nail gun, a piece of wood and I am on a ladder. The bee keeps coming and going as I am working on the house. As I am putting away my tools, this @#$%#* bee decides to sting me on the tip of my nose. So no my nose is as red and swollen as W.C. Fields. The previous stings didnt make me mad, this is so annoying - I am so happy that little thug died after she stung me.

A Ton of Honey and an encounter with Paula

I checked on the hive today. The hive looks good, they have stored a lot of honey. Although it is tempting to harvest a little, I am going to leave all of the honey for the hive. They will eat the honey through the winter.

Everything looked good. The hive became excited when I entered the lower chamber and really started flying around.

I will purchase some new equipment later today, as the the top screen has a lot of wax build up, and there is some cracked wood on the chamber.

I am very pleased with how the hive looked, we did have a little dog vs bee encounter today. As one of the bees, stung Paula (my black lab) on the ear. In fairness to the bee, I must tell you that Paula was trying to eat the bee. The bee had made her way to the screened porch and Paula was intrigued by the flying bee and started chomping at the bee. Hopefully Paula has learned her lesson.

Great weather - low humidty and mid 80's .

A ton of bees

This hive is huge. I checked the hive yesterday. Overall they look great. Tons of eggs, larve etc and stored food. Assuming I keep Hive 2.0 alive through the winter, these guys will produce some honey for the Honey Labs. As the bees have a two edge frames that are full of honey - estimate that the frame weighs 12 pounds.

Working this hive is very different than Hive 1.0. Due to the sheer volume of bees, I believe I will always be in the Homer suit. When I pull frames, I have bees everywhere. Additionally I need to place an equipment order, as the bottom board, top, and supers are in poor condition.

Weather- clear and hot. Humidity was tolerable for a late August day.

Earl

P.S. Some of you are rather funny in your responses to my ramblings.

The first check of Hive 2.0

Since hive 2.0 proved themselves to be a group of thugs from South Carolina by stinging me when I brought them home earlier in the week- I put the full Homer suit on tonight. The thugs probably lived in Summerville and graduated from USC. Hot day for the Homer suit, but my forearm is finally back to regular size and tommrow is the Lake Norman triathlon so I dont need any new stings. Being stung for the first time was a right of passage that I didnt enjoy.

During bee school the instructors stressed the importance of the bee keepers strenght when selecting equipment - eight frame versus 10 frame and deep versus medium. Being the fitness fanthat I am; I thought they where making a mountain out of a mole hill until tonight. The is a huge weight difference between an eight frame medium super and a 10 frame deep super. Hive 2.o is a 10 frame deep super set up and I estimate that each super weighs 70 -80 pounds. Heavy supers are good as that indicates a lot of bees and stored food.

Compare the size of these deep frames against the medium frames from the start of the blog. Big size difference.

Today I only unscrewed the hive as everything was screwed in place for the move and I also removed the entrance reducer that was installed for the move. I did not give the hive a through inspection today, as I have lost my hive tool. I will go to Home Depot after the race tommrow and buy a small nail puller , as this same thing as a hive tool. Purchased from H.D. it probably cost $5 , purchased from Brushy Mtn Bee Supply probably $20 since it has a bee on it.

Although I didnt give the hive a through inspection, I was very happy with what i saw. As you can see in the pictures, the frames are full of bees, pollen, and a little honey in the corners. I am glad I am a beekeeper again.

Hot humid summer day clear sky.

P.S. Our friend Janey Atkinson (Tom and Gigi's daughter) arrived in Chile today- she is a rotary exchange student for her junior year in Chile. Karen, Earl, Allison and Laura find this very exciting - A & L are very interested in being exchange students through the Rotary Club.

I am not allergic to bee stings

The new hive has moved in and they expressed their displeasure in moving out of Myers Park and getting a begineer beekeeper. As I was stung four times in the process of moving the hive. Sting #1 was when we placed the hive in the Jeep and had a minor sting on a finger, sting #2 was on the neck while paying for the hive, #3was on the forearm and sting #4 was when a bee got in my shirt and stung me on the stomach. I was glad I did not get stung while driving.

Thus if you are going to move a full hive of bees, makes certain that you have some red wine at home. Advil will also take the sting out of the "sting" but Advil does not taste as good a red wine. I had no red wine, so I just have a swollen forearm from the sting. The sting on the forearm is the only one that I notice.

Once I got home, Karen and I placed the hive on the stand, ant then removed the tape from the opening and the bees began to explore their surrondings. Thursday, I will unscrew the supers and inspect the hive.

8:30 on Tuesday

I am back from Libby's house where we looked at the hive I am going to purchase. I was ready to give her the money and put the bees in the Jeep but it didnt work that way. She and Jerry (husband) suggested coming back later in the week as the weather was getting bad, and they wanted to let the foragers return. This is a huge hive, with plenty of capped brood, larve, and food. The frames are plastic. Plastic frames are favored by some beekeepers and disliked by others - Libby and Jerry dislike them thus the reason for selling the complete hive. They acquired this hive by random occurance as an estate executator from SC called them asking if they wanted it. They took the hive on July 4th, and now are looking to find a new beeker fot the hive - thats me. Overall its a great deal for me - $150 and I get a complete hive (2 deep brood supers, and a medium honey super and all of the other items that come with a complete hive). The brood supers are packed with bees. I wish I had stumbled across a deal like this in the spring, my bee packaga alone cost $100.

Libby and Jerry are semi-professional beekeeprs, they had bee gar all over the place and the license plate on their work truck said "Bee Truck". They keep three hives at their house and then have a plot of land where they keep the other hives. They never said how many hives they own but they did say that this year, they harvested 1,000 pounds of honey!

What Happened with Hive 1.0

After a few days of thought, this is what I think occured to Hive 1.0

A few mistakes where made by the rookie beekeeper. The first mistake was my decision to stop feeding the bees. When I stopped feeding the bees, the hive was only 9 weeks into becoming an established hive. Thus they where just getting started in building their food stores. The scond mistakes that I made is when I didstart feeding again, I was using a front feeder. After a few books, I learned that front feeders attract robbers and pest such as Hornets and yellow jackets. I had a fair number of yellow jackets surrounding the hive. Thus I think the yellow jackets invaded the hive and robbed and killed some of Hive 1.0

Since Hive 1.0 perished, I have learned that many of my fellow bee school classmates, have also experienced hive failure, so I dont know if we all bought bad bees or if we just made enough errors that we killed our bees. NJEB feels the bees were somewhat defective, since they were not foraging and others had issues. I would like to blame the bees, but I think I made them weak when I stopped feeding them and then I assisted the yellow jackets by using a front feeder.

Beekeeper Kathy has stated and I agree with her that Obama is to blame for the death of Hive 1.0 - anything and everything that goes bad is Comrade Obama's fault. I am sure I will end up paying a dead bee tax.

I am will likely purchase a new hive on Sunday, as the bee school leader has a complete hive (bees and equipment ) that she is looking to sell. She has told me she has nine full frames of bees and food stores. Hopefully only a few hours until I am Beekeeper Earl again.

The Beekeeper Survey Reveals...

This weekend I am going to go look at purchasing a hive from the woman who ran bee school. This is an established hive, so they should have good food stores on the frames to help them through the winter. Later this weekend- I will post my findings on what went wrong and what went right with Hive 1.0

My buddy NJEB sent me this article, and my wife laughed because it is rather spot on.


Beekeeper Survey Reveals....


It has been several months and you have probably forgotten or given up on ever hearing about that beekeeper survey that we conducted back last winter.

We received over 1300 replies from 5 continents. Africa and Antarctica were the only continents left unrepresented. Results from Africa would have been interesting. We're pretty sure there aren't many beekeepers on Antarctica though.

Compiling the 1300 replies together we find the average beekeeper is a 52-year-old male who has been keeping bees for 9 years and maintains 4 hives. He used no treatments to fight mites last year, but is comfortable using essential oils, powdered sugar, or drone trapping to control Varroa mites. He is also comfortable with not treating for mites at all. Politically, he is a moderate; religiously, he believes in God and practices a religion semi-regularly. He conserves energy and recycles. He likes animals in general. He has a stable personality, is a conscientious introvert, and tends to be agreeable and open to new ideas. The "typical" however often describes no one particular person.

The average is of course an oversimplification of the data. Of our responses, 5% were Commercial beekeepers, 12.7% were Sideliners, and 82% were Hobbyists. The commercial beekeepers have kept bees for a mean of 23.4 years and maintain up to 16,000 hives, although 200 is the most frequently reported number. The sideliners have been keeping bees for 13 years and keep up to 700 hives, although 10 hives is the most frequently reported number for this group. The hobbyists have been keeping bees for an average of 7.3 years and keep 2 or 3 hives, although as many as 152 were reported.

Among the more interesting findings was how well educated beekeepers are. Only 1.2% reported their highest level of education being some high school or less; most of these beekeepers were too young to have graduated from high school. Another 5.8% indicated they had a high school degree, 28.7% had some college or a 2-year degree, and 19.7% had a 4-year college degree. Most impressive, 12.6% have some post-college education and a full 32% have earned a graduate degree. This pattern is fairly consistent across commercial, sideliner, and hobbyist beekeepers. The percentage of beekeepers with graduate degrees is over 3 times that of the general population.

A personality test was imbedded in the survey that measured Extroversion, Agreeableness, Emotional Stability, and Conscientiousness. Beekeepers differed from the general population on all but one of these traits – conscientiousness. Both beekeepers and the general population tend to score high on conscientiousness. On the other traits, beekeepers tend to be less extroverted, more open to new ideas, more emotionally stable, and more agreeable than the general population.

Probably the last post until spring

We returned fromt eh Curlin tournment last night and I made a quick check of the top feeder. feeder still had syrup in the holds so I thought things where good until tonight. Just got back from really checking the hive and things are fatal. The pollen patties had maggotts in them, the feeder had a ton of dead bees, the combs had spider webs on them and there where only about a 100 bees left. I left the 100 remainding where all trying to scrap what little syrup there was in the feeder out. I left the top off the stack, hoping that the remainding bees can quickly find a new hive otherwise they will likely be field bees by tommrow afternoon.

This is dissapointing to say the least. Perhaps if John and I go harvest the swarm from Doug Bradleys building on Saturday, I can get a nuc hive. In the meantime, I need to review the past four months, find my critical errors and determine what I was doing right so I will either be ready in the spring or will do better with a nuc colony.

I am dissapointed and sorry to post such discouraging news. I really enjoyed my short experiences as a beekeeper and hope to be back soon. Thanks for reading.
Earl

Bee Curlin

Bobcat Doug and Bocat Claire stopped by the house this evening. The are the other pair in the big curlin tournment this weekend. Our team has shirts, so even if we dont have any clue how to curl we will look good.


The latest order from Brushy Mountain arrived today. I purchased some beattle traps, a larger front feeder and some pollen patties. Simliar to my first trip to Home Depot as a homeowner when I laughed at buying cow dirt, I found it rather funny that I purchased pollen. Hopefully I wont need a Zpack.

The bee continue to eat the sugar water like crazy.

The Life of a Bee

An interesting graphic on the life of a worker bee. I found this in a old book.

Who Doesn't Love the Honey Bee

During a break from the report that I am writing, I went out and cleaned the top feeder and refilled it with a gallon of Sugar syrup. I have been reading a few books on beekeeping and have determined like many hobbies you can read a book on the topic but until you do it and make some mistakes that things really dont sink in. Planbee by Susan Brackney is a decent book.

Overall the bees look good and appear to be recovering from my attempt to starve them.

A few trivial bee facts to close out the post.
1. Some historical records suggest Alexanfer the Great was buried in a honey filled coffin.
2. A worker bee will dance a figure eight pattern to tell other bees about the location of a good nectar source.
3. Honey at a basic middle school boy level is basically bee vomit - actually the bee has a special stomach that nectar is stored in for transit.
4.Honeycombs are not level, rather they point up by 13 degrees. This upward tilt keeps the honey from flowing out of the comb.
5. On averge it takes about 10 minutes for a foraging bee to amass a full load of pollen and three times as long to acquire a full load of nectar.
6. The average Americans consume 1.31 pounds of honey a year.
7. A tablespoon of honey has 64 calories.
8. Bee hives (and hornets) were used as weapons in both the American Revolution, Civil War, and in Vietnam.

Weather - hot and humid. Huge Thunderstorm on Tuesday.

What a Difference a Week Makes

I opened the hive during a break in the TDF coverage (through the 1st time check in the TT, Schleck has closed the gap and the times are even, the next twenty miles should be great). I have also changed my views on attacking during a mechanical issue. - reading and watching comments from several TDF riders gave me a new perspective.

Now to the bees. The bees look good, the frames are wet and the bee are very docile. So docile that I didnt have to use any smoke on them. The seem to prefer the front feeder to the top feeder. The front feeder will need a refill on Sunday. If I had not placed them under such stress, I would let the front feeder go empty and force them to the top feeder, but due to the stress I am going to make their lives easy.

Estamos todavía tienen hambre; Senor Earl!

You know when its hot and humid the bees go crazy and buzz in spainish. The heat makes them crazy. For those that dont habla espanole they said "We are still hungry Mr. Earl!"

The hive is looking better- good activity. I did not pull frames as I feel I have placed enough stress on the hive. I did add a gallon of sugar water to the top feeder tonight and refilled the front quart feeder.

Ten Pounds of Sugar in less than 48 hours!

Thanks for all of the emails asking about the bees!
The past three weeks have been an adventure. The bee's are doing much better, they are eating everything that I have given them. The large top feeder has approximately 25% of the contents remaining, and I just returned from refilling the front quart sized feeder. The hive has totally consumed the ten pounds of sugar that I purchased on Saturday. I will make another sugar run tonight after work.

On a non bee topic - Alberto Contador showed very poor form and a total lack of sportsmanship and respect for the TDF today. He took the overall lead today, but only took it due to a mechanical failure on Andy Schlecks bike. This is bad form, Lance and Urlich used to race hard, but would wait if the other had bike issues. I was glad to her the crowd boo when Alberto pulled on the yellow jersey. I hope Andy gets the jersey back in the final mountain stages and then has the time trial of his life to win.

The Bee are Eating!

The bees are eating! The bees ate the entire front feeder in a90 minutes! I snuck up on them and pulled it out of the hive and refilled it. I will check the two gallon feeder Monday and will keep an eye on the front feeder on Sunday.

John the Bee Mentor Pays the Hive a Visit and Saves the Hive

I am so happy that I have a bee mentor and he lives near by. John came over this afternoon , as we were suiting up, he got a good laugh as he recalled his first visit. As you recall during John's first visit I burnt the recycling bin while lighting the smoker. ( I had the smoker prelight and sitting on the BBQ grill as I didnt want to repeat that fiasco). Johno asked me what I thought was wrong and I told him that I noticed some dead bees, the population of bees seemed light, saw some beetles, a few roaches, and a moth. As we talked, he said he was most concerned about the moth and stated that hive beatles just show up and unless there are a ton not to worry and that cock roaches are not an issues. Once we where suited up we went to the hive and took a look.

He noticed how light and dry the frames where and told me that I did a good job by noticing something wasnt right and calling him. We pulled about half the frames and they where all dry and light . Although this is bad, we did spot the Queen and she appeared healthy as her attendants were with her. My bees had died due to lack of food. He noticed that they had eaten all of the stored pollen, what little honey they had and where probably within two or three days of the entire hive dying due to starvation.

We quickly mixed up some sugar water in a spray bottle and gave the bees a quick spray with sugar syrup. This got the hive a really quick feeding as they will lick the sugar off of each other. Then like a father with a new born that was lacking diapers and formula; I made a quick trip to Harris Teeter and bought ten pounds of sugar. I put the large top feeder back on the stack and filled it with a gallon of sugar syrup and also refilled my small front feeder. The bees immediately took to the feeders- I will check the feeders tommrow as I suspect they are going to eat like they did when they arrived in April.

The good news is the queen is alive and I believe we caught the problem in time to save the hive, the bad news is the hive is going to shrink in size some over the next 21 days. As we saw no eggs or larve. Since the queen knew the food stores had been depleted, she had stopped laying eggs.

A little concerned

I checked the hive tonight and saw a few things that I really didnt like. I think its time to call John and ask him to stop by. The first unsettling thing I saw were about a dozen dead bees on my top screen. Not sure why they died. In addition to the dead bees, I saw a moth, two coach roaches and a few small bugs in the hive. If all these extra insects were not enough to unsettle the new beekeeper, the sheer number of bees appeared to be low. I will call John tommrow and ask if he can stop by in the next few days.

The next day

Before I left for the YMCA , I paid a quick visit to the hive. All of the bees where inside except a few guard bees. The hive has settled down and everything appeared normal. I did ask the guard bees to convey my appology to the hive for dropping the chamber and getting them so angry. The guard bees accepted the appology, but stated if I drop them again they will be forced to sting me.

The guard bees and I also chatted about the Whitehouse bees. They stated the Whitehouse hive is non partsian and would like to sting both Limbaugh, Olberman, Beck and Madow with equal passion. The guard bees also told me that the Whitehouse bees actually belong to a whitehouse worker and one of the cooks asked him to bring a hive to the whitehouse. To learn more about the hive at the Whitehouse just google "Whitehouse bees"

The lucky beekeper and his angry bees

I had quick visions of Bobcat Doug's story being stung over a hundred times.

The hive does not enjoy getting the sugar dusting that I occasionally give them to eliminate the risk of mites. I was half way through the sugar treatment, when the second brood box slipped from my hands. Luckily it was the top brood chamber, and not as many bees live in that chamber. The chamber landed on the bottom side down (imagine dropping a box from 18 inches and having it land upright - that's what I did today). That really got the hive stirred up. Needless to say the second sugar treatment was administered very quickly and I put the hive back and got out of their area. Much to my amazement I wasn't stung (still haven't been stung). You can see from the picture how stirred up they became and how quickly I wanted to leave the area. Tonight when its dark and they have calmed down- I will sneak up on them and put the top on correctly.

Earlier in the week, I saw a television segment on how honey bees fight off their mortal enemies the wasp and hornet. A group of wasps or hornets can easily kill 30,000 bees and rob the hive of its honey. The wasp/hornet is bigger and stronger than the bee and has a strong protective shell. Due to the hornet/wasp protective shell the honey bee can not use the stinger to kill these robbers. When a honey bee notices a wasp/hornet has come to the hive as a scout- a group of bees will get on top of the wasp/hornet and start flapping their wings to generate additional body heat. The bee can have a max internal body temp of 48 degrees Celsius (118 ) versus a wasp/hornet can only have max internal body temp of 44 degrees Celsius (111). Thus the group of bees jump on the scout and raise the internal body temp to a level that kills the invading wasp or hornet.

Finally, my mother told me that the Whitehouse has a bee hive. I doubt that Barack or Michelle has ever dropped a brood chamber while dusting.

A through examination of the hive

After my ride this morning, I put on my Homer Simpson suit and paid a visit to the hive. Overall the hive looks good. I did take the Ross Rounds out the the frame and really look for activity and signe of honey. No such luck - no activity to really mention, but there were alot more bees in the Ross Rounds today versus previous weeks. The upper brood chamber is really looking good with strong activity on six of the eight frames. The middle frame have the most activity. The lower brood chamber looks very good, tons of activity on all frames. Today I saw plenty of larve on several frames- did not see the queen though.

I did notice a few things that I didn't like. There were a ton of drowned ants int he top feeder that I had filled with water and numerous (17) bees that had drowned. Due to the number of dead bees and dead ants; I have completely removed the feeder and will only water the bees via the external water container, near by bird bath, and the dogs swimming pool. The other item that I don't like, but I don't think it is abnormal is the amount of propolis that they are building. Propolis is a normal for bees; it just takes time to scrape it away and makes everything sticky.

The bees need to be dusted for mites this week; need to purchase powered sugar to dust them or I would have done it today. Weather nice mid 80's low humidity- bees like the weather.

I hope everyone has a great 4th of July. Below is an article that a former manager of mine used to send every July and Bobcat Doug also sent it to me this week. A simple reminder that tomorrow is more than a BBQ and a three day holiday.

The 4th of July:

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the
Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured
before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving
in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the
Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their
sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were
farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but
they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the
penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his Ships
swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties
to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move
his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and
his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and
poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer,
Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British
General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters.

He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was
destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed
his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their
13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid
to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning
home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. Some of us take
these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't.

So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and
silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they
paid.

Ironman CDA and the bee blog

I am a little behind on the bee blog; I will check the hive on Saturday. This post has nothing to do with the bee's and is really about ironman and the husband of the bee inspiration.

Shane Turley ( the husband of the orginal beekeeper that inspired Karen to send me to bee school) had a good race going until mile 14 on the run. At mile 14 he developed stomach issues and DNF at Ironman CDA last Sunday. He was having a great race until he got sick- he rocked the bike at 19+ mph. I am still in for the pinky promise 2012 IM CDA trip with NJEB's daughter in law "Beekeeper Kathy" .

A Kenyan, A General, A Reporter and a Beekeeper walk into a Irish Pub

Interesting news week. Although I agree with the general, he proved that it is never a good idea to have several drinks with a reporter and start talking about your moronic boss. The President did what he had to do to preserver the chain of command, and a four star general should have know better- especially since he already got away with a public disagreement once. Overall the article is a good article , it was probably the title of the article that really got the Kenyan mad "...the wimps in the Whitehouse" feel free to read it it http://rollingstone.com/poltics/news/17390/119236 - some extreme differences between the Kenyan and the Snake Eater.

Thanks for tolerating my ramblings. Now onto the reason you follow the beeblog...the bees.

After several emails with NJEB about the merits of feeding bees in the summer. I decided to follow NJEB's lead and stop feeding the bees. Why did I stop the sugar syrup feedings you ask. 1. Ants - ants where attracted to the hive 2. I didnt want the bees to start storing sugar water in the hive - if they dont have any real honey in the hive for the winter, I will just resume feeding 3. NJEB stated that there is plenty for the bees to eat and when I ran Wed night, I hit a bush and had several large yellow spots on my shirt. The yellow spots where large pollen deposits from a crape myrtle . Once that happened I knew NJEB was right.

Although I didnt refill it with sugar water the top feeder was completely empty. I suspect the bees wher partially using the sugar water to cool the hive. Once I was done checking the frames, I did put the top feeder back on the stack, but I refilled it with fresh water. As hot as it has been the bees need alot of water.

As the hive heats, bees either go outside to reduce the body het in the hive or they will fan water across the frames- thus misting themselves to reduce the tempature. Today's picture shows how many bees were outside the hive.

If you have been watching the World Cup, the sound of the soccer horns sounds very simliar to the hive when you "smoke" them. I noticed this while watching the the Brazil vs. Ivory Coast game.

Although I might have riled a few bee blog followers up about my Kenyan comments; regardless of your voting record, keep the armed forces and their families in your prayers. Being in the miltary is hard job, that doesnt have the hours or financial rewards of cushy corporate life. Thanks dad !

muy caliente y húmedo hoy. No mas humedo!

It is so hot and humid today that the bees where speaking in spainish when I check the hive this evening.
The hive looked good. Lots of new larve in the second brood super- no activity that I could see in the Ross Rounds. I was glad to see larve in the upper chamber, as that tells me the queen is working both brood supers. The bees are starting produce propolis. Propolis is a glue like substance that they produce, it has a simliar appearance and texture to pine tar.

Since I am still feeding the bees sugar water, I did notice alot of drowned ants in the feeder. I need to ask NJEB (New Jersey Eddie Balough) if he is having problems with ants in the feeder. Overall everything looked good.

The Bee's of the Bellagio Hotel

We are back from our trip to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. Great time- the Grand Canyon is incredible. I love being out west! On our trip we went to Las Vegas, Sedona Arizona, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon and a few places in between. The hotels we stayed in ranged from rather dumpy (Excaliber in Vegas but why we were even at the Excaliber is a story in itself) to as they say in Vegas ...the "Winner Winner Chicken Dinner" suite at the Flamingo Hilton. We received an upgrade to our stay at the Flamingo since they didnt have two adjoining rooms as we requested. The suite we received was on the 27th floor overlooking the stip and was as big as the first house Karen and I owned.

Enough about our trip and on the the bees. Beekeeping is alive and well in the dessert. After many miles of highway signs (simliar to South of the Border signs) promising cold drinks, fresh jerky and local honey we stopped at the honey shack near the Arizona Nevada border. They had a variety of honey which was neat to see. Buckwheat honey i svery dark, desert wildflower was very light, clover honey was medium. In addition to this shack, we saw several places selling local honey.

The pictures are from the atrium at the Bellagio Hotel.

I will check the bees on Friday and give everyone an update on the Porter bees.

How much sugar does it take to produce honey?

I am going to start tracking how much sugar I purchase. I can recall purchasing four bottles of Karyo syrup, two five pound bags of sugar, and one bag of powdered sugar for the bees. They like to eat sugar water, since they are a new hive they dont have any stored honey thus on rainy days and days when the flower nectar isnt flowing the bees would go hungry if they didnt have sugar water. Once the hive is established they will have stored honey and should need less sugar water.

Hive looked good today. The second brood box is getting built out. The build out is occuring on the center frames. The lower brood frame looks very good. I saw alot of eggs and larve in both brood boxes.

I did dust for mites this afternoon. The bees appear to really dislike being dusted for mites. The dusting process consists of applying powdered confection sugar over the frames with a flour sifter. They bees really got worked up when I was dusting. Today's picture is the post sugar dusting - they eat the sugar off of themselves and others.

To answer a common question - I have not been stung by the bees yet.

Weather hot and humid. Lows 90's.

Beekeeper

Earl

P.S. Is anyone besides me tired of Sarah Palin? I cant even watch the Belmont without hearing about Sarah Palin and seeing her at the race.

The Decline of the Honey Bee

This article was in the newpaper earlier in the week. Last year 33% of the honey bee population died, thus farmers are very concerned. I am suprised the Obama hasnt held a press conference declaring his outrage at the honey bees decline and promising to hold hearings until the guilty party is found and fairness is returned to the honeybee. I just finished reading the news and have had my fill of the Obama , Senators, Congressmen and County Commissioners for the day. The fools cant stop spending money they dont have.

Enjoy the article. When I check the hive later this weekend - I will dust for mites. To dust for mites you take powdered sugar and sprinkle it across the frames. The bees become coated with the sugar, mites fall off and the bees lick the sugar and get an additional feeding.

Honey Labs

Once the honey flow start, we will be bottling and distributing to our friend s and family under the "Honey Labs" label. Top management of honeyy labs, can been seen supervising the hive.

After exchanging email with John the Bee Mentor, I did reinstall the top feeder. We had taken the top feeder off a few weeks ago and were only feeding via the front feeder. As you know from previous posts, they have been eating alot lately. John mentioned due to the rain, that alot of pollen ahd been washed away and his foragers where not coming back with as much pollen. Appears to be a catch 22- bee need and want a heavy pollen season, and those who suffer from seasonal allergies want the rain to wash it away.

We had additional visitors to the hive today, our friends Tom and Gig came to take a look this afternoon. Tom suited up, while Gigi watched from a close distance.

Karen and I have been watching the guard bees with great interest. For the past 2 or 3 years a few bumble bees have lived in our yard. Bumble bees are very large and just bumble around. In recent days, "Bumble" has been making attempts to enter the hive. Every time he is met by the guard bees and bounced from the area. Howver yesterday afternoon, he must have made it in the door for a few minutes, because Karen saw an enourmous spike in noise, and activity from the hive. Then hundreds of bees started flying around the hive; it took close to an hour for the hive to calm down and activity to return to normal. What ever occured, "Bumble" wasnt harmed, and has been trying all day to enter the hive. I guess the yellow box, looks more appealing than his hole in the ground near the herb garden.

Overall the bees are looking good. They are still building out the brood frames. No activity in the Ross Rounds. Warm day (low 80's) and clear in the late morning and afternoon.

Beekeeper Kathy

Our first non family visitor to the hive. After their ride, we had Kathy wear the Homer Simpson suit and gave her a quick intro to beekeeping. A natural, if only her husband wasnt allergic to bees and wasps. But with three children, two dogs, and IM in her future she is plenty busy.

May 27th

Could not think of a clever title for today's post....Very hot day in Charlotte today. Returned home tonight from my busy week, left Charlotte at 5am on Monday and went to Raleigh and then Cinn. Ohio. While in Ohio, had the chance to have dinner with Stew Atkinson (Tom's Older brother). Nice to see him - he and Tom are amuzed at the beekeeping hobby.

Refilled the door feeder tonight and filled the bird bath and dog pool with water. On a hot day like today, the hive will consume approximately a liter of water. In addition to drinking the water, they fan water over the hive to cool themselves inside the hive (to learn more, read the post about the gift from Doug).

When I went to pull the feeder, I was amazed at all of the beesoutside the hive door (today's picture).

A light dusting of powdered sugar

Allison and I paid the hive a visit on Sunday afternoon. Since we were both in shorts, we wore the Homer Simpson suits. I will post Allison's picture later this week.

Overall the hive looks good. The lower brood super is built out nicely, only one empty frame. Frame 8, was covered in honey and the others were covered in egg and larve. At first I thought it was odd and that something was wrong, since they were storing honey in a brood frame, but Karen told me she had read this was normal and that they honey in that brood frame will be eaten by the bees in the winter. the upper brood super has decent activity in the middle frames. They are building out the comb. There is plenty of work to be done in the upper brood frame before it is ready for the queen.

We did give the hive a mite treatment, and will continue to do so on a regular basis. The mite treatment is a dusting with powdered sugar. I have read in the "Backyard Beekeeper" that dusting for mites in this manner, will eliminate 10% of the mite population - thus you do it often. Although the books say this is good for the bees; they did not like it. When we were dusting the bees you could tell they didnt like it, as the hive was a noisy as i have ever heard it. I dont claim to understand how placing powdered sugar on the bees gets ride of mites - maybe they eat the sugar and in turn eat the mites.

Since the weather has been rainy and overcast in recent days the bee's have eaten alot from the feeders. Refilled the front feeder (top feeder is put away for the summer). Weather when we opened the hive sunny and warm 80's.

This weekend we also purchased some comb honey and some whipped honey spread. I did not care for the whipped honey - had the taste and consistency of honey that had been placed in the icebox. The Comb honey is vusually interesting since the comb is in the jar.

On a none bee note - we watched a good program on Dateline NBC on the topic of Credit Card Fraud and Identity Theft. The portions on credit card fraud and IT security where interesting - this is what we do as a company- verify the security of payment networks.

A great gift from Bobcat Doug II

So excited over these that I posted one twice...

A great gift from Bobcat Doug

I came home from Ohio yesterday and went to pickup the mail...it was a rare day when someone besides me had already grabbed the mail. However I reached inside and saw this great gift- some rare envelopes dedicated to the honey bee. This was a great gift to receive - my buddy Bobcat Doug is a great guy very thoughtful of him.

The King and Queen visit the hive

We had a good weekend- horse shows, gun shows and a visit from my parents. My parents came to town last week for my daughters horse show and my dad ansd I went to the NRA convention that was in Charlotte. Everyone rode well at the show. After the horse show and gun show, I had my parent suit up and I showed them the inner workings of a bee hive. We all had a good laugh at how silly you look in a full bee suit. I am comfortable enough that I dont wear the Tyvek suit anymore, just a veil and gloves.

Good bees, Good Friends and a Allergic Reaction

Thursday night I checked on the hive. Hive is doing well. I did remove the feeder as the Bee Mentor reccomended. The brood supers are doing well. Lots of larve and new bees. Very pleased with the development of the hive. The second super has good activity on the frames and should the queen should start laying eggs in the top super soon. Although the brood supers are doing well, there is still no activity on the honey super (Ross Rounds) but that is expected. The bees are really consuming a large amount of water,as the weather has been hot.

Today at happy hour, I learned that my buddy "Bobcat Doug" is an experienced bee keeper. He kept bees during his tenure as the cucumber king of east NC, also learned that he droped a hive and was stung over a 100 times, and was bit by a shark. In all seriousness he really knows about the honey bee, and I will draw on his knowledge. Also learned that his co-worker Joy is allergic to gardenias.

Installed the Ross Rounds

Once Laura came home from school, she and I suited up and installed the Ross Rounds. Karen and Allison are headed to Savannah to pay hommege to the founder of girl scouts.
We are at the hive, looking at frames and Laura says "Look there is the queen" and she was right. I look for weeks and she spots the queen within 20 seconds.

We saw plenty of larve and the queen was at work on frame #7. Very little activity in the second brood super. Althogh John said we should not have a feeder above the honey super; I left it one. I didnt want to pour the sugar water out and attract ants. If they have not eaten the majority of the syrup by the end of next week- I will dump it as instructed.

The Ross Round supers are on, and we are encouraging the bees to make honey comb. I still do not fully understand why you utilize a smoker. The smoke really gets the bees stirred up and they start making alot of noise (wing flappings).

Weather - sunny and hot. 90 degrees.

Ross Rounds

The Ross Rounds arrived while I was in Montreal. I will paint them and get them on the hive later today. A few people have asked why "Comb Honey"? Karen and I had not thought of comb honey until we watched the Brushy Mtn video- we dont have a good answer on why - we just thought it looked neat. A few pictures of the roos rounds are attached- very different than a regular frame.

On a non bee topic- I read the book "House of Cards" this week- a book about the collaspe of Bear Sterns. Interesting book, gets a little long at the end. Very different that Paulsons book. When I worked at Microsoft we had a Us against the world mentality, but compared to the Bear Sterns culture that was portraid in the book - MSFT was hugs and kisses with all of Silicon Valley.

Finally received a shipment notice

I finally received a notice of shipment from Brushy Mountain Bee Supply. I really dont understand why it takes forever and a day to receive a shipment from this company. Since I will pay shipping regardless of who I purchase supplies from, I am going to find a new supply firm. Two weeks to receive a shipment notice is not good.

Refilled the top feeder tonight. Didnt do anything other than fill feeders- didnt even suit up. I am either getting brave or I am just lazy and not that bright tonight. There is increased level of activity outside the hive, now that the entrance reducer has been removed.

The bee mentor told me once I place the honey supers on the stack not to have a sugar water feeder above the honey supers. He said if you have a feeder above the bees will store sugar water in the frames and not nectar.

Tommrow night should be fun. I have a short trip to Montreal- Montreal is a neat city. Very pretty architecture and since everyone speaks french you dont feel like your 120 miles north of the border. Additionally the Canidians are in the playoffs, anytime the Stanley Cup playoffs are in action Canada is excited. If you have never seen Canada in hockey season- just imagine Superbowl Sunday. Every television in the nation is tuned to a hockey game. A co-worker told me to go eat at Schwartz - apparently Montreal is know for its smoked meats. That wasnt in the tourist info when I visited Montreal last spring.

Have a good week.


very warm- 80 and sunny

A Mentor, A Queen and a small fire

John Byers (bee mentor) stopped by this afternoon. He was able to find the queen- I thought we paid to have the queen marked, but the queen is not marked. Since the queen is not marked it took a few minutes to find her. John was very helpful as he suggested we change the direction of the hive and remove the entrance reducer. We moved the hive 45 degrees and will move another 45 degrees later in the week. In addition to removing the entrance reducer, we moved some frames around. John also suggested two brood supers. When I asked about the queen excluder- he stated a queen excluder is really a matter of preference as some beekeeprs use them and some dont.





John did reign in my expectations of having honey this fall. After talking with him, I am not sure if we will have any honey this year. I hope we get at least enough for us. Although honey expectations where reigned in; he dis say everything looked good.



We did joke about how slow Brushy Mountain is to deliver orders- apparently I am not the only person who considers them slow to deliver.

The difference between the teacher and the student today was evident in our clothing. John - jeans, long sleeve shirt, and veil (no gloves) Earl- gloves, veil, full bee suit. We were both hot, but when I took my bee suit off I looked liked I had just finished a 10k - just drenched.

Now to the fire...it is windy today so I was having trouble lighting the smoker. I used the house and some schrubs as a wind break and somehow light my recycling bin on fire. I am glad that the city of Charlotte gave us a new recycle bin as one of our bins is gone.




Overall a good day. Warm and windy.

The 21st Day

Day 21 is a big day for a new beekeeper and a new hive. Day 21 is when the transformation from egg to larve to bee is complete. I did have a chance to check the hive and we do have new bees. This is a great sign. Still have not seen the queen (or at least recognized the queen), but hopefully our bee mentor can point the queen out and give us some pointers on how to find her. We hope to have our mentor stop by the house this weekend. The bees appear to prefer the front jar feeder to the top feeder - this is just my observation based upon how often the front feeder is empty.

Frame 8 does not have any activity, frame 7 has a small amount of activity. The honey frames have very little activity. I hope now that the hive is increasing in size the honey supers will have more activity.

Karen and I are looking forward to meeting our mentor as we have numerous questions to ask. I am suprised that I am enjoying beekeeping as much as I am, because when Karen first proposed keeping bees - I thought she was crazy.

Brushy Mountain is very slow in shipping the supplies that I ordered. The Ross Round Comb supers have not arrived; when I called them last week the guy stated they where 8 days behind in shipping. Not sure how you get behind on shipping when your a mail order business.


Weather clear and sunny low 80's

We have a mentor

A Queenright Hive

We had a chance to check on the hive this afternoon. THe hive looks good. Although we did not see the queen (not certain Karen and I know what we are looking for) we saw plenty of eggs, larve and brood. Everything looks very good. On Friday, the hive should start to increase in number as the new bees will start to emerge. Twenty-one days is the lenght of time that it takes for a egg to transform to larve to bee. Six of the eight brood frames, have strong activity - frames 7 and 8 are still inactive. From what I have read this is normal, as the queen works from the inside frame to the outside frames.

No activity on the frames in the honey supers, but this is normal for this stage of the hives development. I expect the comb honey kit to arrive this week. We scraped a small amount of wax from the sides of brood super.

We did clean the top feeder, as some mold had developed in the sugar water. We cleaned the feeder by spraying water on the inside and then refilled it with sugar water. The refill was water and sugar compared to the intial feeding of water and Karyo syrup. Last week I read that sugar is better than Karyo syrup (corn syrup).

The Mailman, Kathy B and two Rebecca's

I failed to mention in an earlier post, that when my sister was in town that her daughter Rebecca suited up and looked in the hive. After a series of email exchangesthis morning with Mr. B , I had decided that I wanted to go looking for the queen and see if the queen excluder was also excluding the other bees. However before I could go check- Mr. B's daughter inlaw (Karen's good friend Kathy) and Rebecca S. stopped by to view the bees. I was in the middle of a conference call and we couldnt get suited up, and they both had places to go so they could not wait for the call to end. When I did get a chance to check the bees, the mailman was at the house and he did come up and look at the bees. he thought they were great!

I did take the queen excluder off as there were only a handful of bees on the otherside of the excluder. The top frames were empty, and no bees where in the top feeder. I did notice that the bees have done some capping work. Still have not seen the queen. Since I have checked them twice in four days, I am going to wait until the new equipment from brushy mtn arrives before I suit up again. I am also going to contact Jim's neighbor (lady at the party) and ask her to stop by this weekend- it will be good to have an experienced beekeeper take a look at the hive. Hopefully she can help Karen and I find the queen.

weather 73 and overcast

Blue Angles and Bee

We went to the Charleston airshow over the weekend and saw the Blue Angles. Awsome airshow- we were on my parents sailboat anchored in the harbour. We anchored at show central and had the best seat in the house. Watching the "Hornets" fly, really made me wish once again that I had passed my physical and wasnt color blind- no need to waste anymore time on that, already spent 20 plus years on that. This was the first time Allison and Laura has seen either the BlueAngles or the Thunderbirds- they loved it. They love aviation and space- Allison wants to be a NASA flight engineer and Laura wants to be a Naval Avaitor so it was right up their alley. So waht does this have to do with bees? They bees are also skilled avaitors in their own right. Also a friend pointed out that I can auto notify people when I update a post so I wanted to create a post and give it a try.

Week One

After a week, the bees are looking good. The brood frames are getting built out in a nice manner. The edge frames (8,7, and 6) are still light - this is the side where the bees where inserted and the other side is where the queen was placed last Friday. If I dont see frames 6-8 get built soon, I will rotate the frames in an attempt to get brood on all frames. Although I looked, I could not find the queen. Laura also suited up, and helped karen and I. The bees are feeding well- pace of food consumption slowed after the intial days. I assume the bees where hungry from the trip , but between the feeders and the pollen they are eating well. There was a small amount of wax that we had to scrape from the side of the chamber. I was glad to see the wax build up- as it gave us the opportunity to scrape it and see the texture of beeswax. The wax was very sweet - as silly as it sounds tasted like honey.



We placed one honey super on, and also installed the queen excluder. We have a second honey super to install, but the intial wax comb had fallen off many frames. Since working in bee gloves is difficult, we will repair the frames and add the second super the next time we open the hive. Overall we are pleased with week one.



Weather - sunny and mid 70's. Overall good weather week.

Checking the Queen

We put the full moon suit on and checked the hive. It is amazing how much the ate in three days. The queen is no longer in the queen cage, she was succesfully released by the others. The frames that were directly above her cage, have a great wax foundation being built. I am still amazed at how loud the hive is. I did crush a bee, when I was replacing the top feeder.

Weekend One Continued

A few additional pictures of inserting the bees.