It is not over until the fat bee sings

Trying to bottle all the honey, I had my bucket resting on a 2 *4 to tilt the bucket...you guessed it the bucket slipped and covered my lege with a good quart of honey. What an appropriate way to end year one.

Fires, Stings, Sugar, Two labs, and Pollen yeilds a fourty three pounds of bee vomit part II

Failed to include the link to the web photo album:

https://picasaweb.google.com/earlfporter/Beekeeper?authkey=Gv1sRgCInj1-DN_vXvkQE#

There are a few bonus pictures from the Preakness (my friend Ricky Bobby took these) and a picture of the carport. Carport is awaiting final inspection on Thursday.

Finally remember if you are stung by a bee - red wine takes the pain away ; and benedryl takes away the swelling


Goodbye
Beekeeper Earl

Fires, Stings, Sugar, Two labs, and Pollen yeilds a fourty three pounds of bee vomit

After 17 months, it is time to shut down the bee blog. The blog was the established to capture the first year as a beekeeper. Now that the honey has been bottled year one is over. What a fun year it has been - I hope you have enjoyed the year as much as I have. Thanks to my new friend NJEB and John the Bee Mentor - I kept hive 2.0 alive and captured some honey.

I hope you have enjoyed reading erh bee blog - I have enjoyed my first year as a backyard beekeeper. The honey was filtered three times before it was bottled. I will distribute honey this week.

This link is the year in pictures with a heavy emphasis on this weekends harvest.

Enjoy
Beekeeper

Finished!

Extracted thirty-five pounds of honey (approximately 3 1/2 gallons). honey is a dark amber color. Likely left the frames a little wet, but since I am not a commercial beekeeper, I am finew giving the bees the frames that are a little wet. The amazing thing is how fast the bees clean the harvestng equipment and wet frames. The bees should have everything cleaned up in about 9 hours. Depending on what we do later I might start bottling honey tonight.

Pictures of the harvest will be published later.

The Harvest has begun

I have extracted one medium super. A manual extractor is simliar to a hand crank homemade ice cream machine- you just sit and crank. I am extracting honey on my screened porch - it is amazing how many bees are at the screen. They want their honey back!

Everyone is Looking Forward to the Honey Harvest

I picked up the extraction equipment this afternoon. After setting up the equipment and bringing the supers over, I decided to take a break and went inside. When I came back out the supers were surrounded by bears. The bears were devouring honey, enjoying happy hour, laughing at the beekeeper and talking politics and sports. Totally amazing sight to see all these velveteen bears - eating , drinking and yucking it up. The oldest bear (Ted) offered me a seat, a glass of wine and asked me to join in the honey gorging and bear talk.

We had a wonderful time - we talked Tour De France, NFL and NBA lockouts, and Politics. We even had a few bees join us.

It is unanimous the bears, bees and the beekeeper all want to see Andy Schleck win the TDF. We also agree that Fabian Cansellara is going to crush people in the time trials (after all he is the reigning time trial champ). The bears told me I should eat one of those "special" spainish steaks and have the "special" whiskey prior to racing Beach to battleship in October. These are the lame excuses that both both Alberto and Floyd have used after testing positive. We all laughed at how ridiculous the excuses have gotten for failed drug test.

Regarding the NFL and NBA lockouts - a few bears are interested in seeing the NFL get a deal. However the majority didn't care if they get a deal or not. We all had a hearty laugh when someone said that the NFL is a pay cut for some of the players coming from SEC schools , UNC or Ohio State. Universally we agreed that we won't notice the NBA lockout - but for the sake of our friend Bobcat Doug we want the issues resolved and a deal.

Once we were deep into the bottle the topic turned to politics . I made the mistake of using the word circus when I described the brewing fiasco in DC. The bears didn't appreciate me using the "C" word - bad memories of relatives wearing hats while dressed in overalls, bouncing balls and stale popcorn. They also said it was insulting to compare "C" bears to the payso's from both parties on Capital Hill and in the White House.

With that the bee's said they had to go, and wished us well with the extraction efforts. They said they will stop by Saturday as they are curious how many pounds of honey they produced. They also thanked me for leaving the deep supers for them to eat.

Enjoy the 4th of July!

El Oso blanco que viene para la miel

I have been trying to spend at least twenty minutes a day with my Rosetta Stone Spanish dvd's - not that I was anything beyond a C student but two years of HS Spanish and two years of college Spanish have gone by the wayside. Rosetta Stone is a great program.

This afternoon I placed the bee escape on the stack. A bee escape is a special piece of equipment that beekeepers use to move bees. Once a bee enters the trap they become confused and can not find their way back to the honey. This is good for the beekeeper, because you can then take the super, extract the frames. The frames should have no bees - so you uncap and then place the frame in the extraction tank. Once in the extraction tank- you spin the honey out (it is nothing more than a centrifuge) - should be pleasant spinning honey on Saturday. Expected high 96 and 90 % humidity.

Labels

I have created the labels going to Fedex at lunch to have them printed.

The Bee Blog and the NBA Draft

Apparently it is not good fortune to be a NBA player that is mentioned int he Bee Blog - less than a week after making the bee blog. Stephen Jackson was sent packing. He was traded today to the Milwaukee Bucks. I wish we could all be so fortunate to have our employeer send us to a new city especially if the deal came with the guaranteed 19 million that MJ stuffed in his suitcase.

Karen, myself and Derek Davis (mentioned inthe bee blog in the spring) are riding Blood Sweat and Gears on Saturday. This is a ride through the NC and TN mountains. Beekeeper Karen is nervous about the event - but she is a strong determined rider and will do great. You have to like a ride that has the logo - "Blood Sweat and Gear - just enough pain". In all seriousness this is the hardest event I have ever finished - this ride is tougher than overall Ironman event.

On a bee note it is six days until extraction weekend. The mini bear bottles arrived today - need to create and print labels.

Harvesting the Ross Rounds

After work I met Bobcat Doug - as we are leaving the resturant a guy yells to Bobcat Doug.

. The guy waiving was huge - turns out he was Stephen Jackson of the Bobcats. Thus if you have ever wondered if the players notice the fans - they do notice Bobcat Doug. Thought it was neat that the guy said hello.

Although that was neat it wasnt the highlight of the day - after this interaction I drove to Cloister honey and picked up my botteling and packaging supplies. Once home I decided to harvest the Ross Rounds. The hive produced eight pounds of honey in the round. Once I extract and bottle the remaining honey, I will distribute the hives work.

Pretty jazzed that I kept the bees alive through the winter and they produced honey. I am really looking forward to extraction weekend - I want to know how much honey the hive produced.

Give it Up Bee

In addition to scheduling the extraction equipment the bottling equipment has been ordered. Althouh "we" have enjoyed being beekeepers this year it would cost less money to just give the hive followers $20. The stinking lids are expensive. Weahter has been hot and I will check the hive this weekend . In addition to checking the hive I need to create the "Honey Labs" label.

Extraction Weekend is Scheduled

I have reserved the extraction equipment for July 4th weekend. I have no idea how much of the long weekend this process will take. However I am looking forward to extracting honey. Honey distribution should occur in late July.

Summer Heat has arrived

I did check the hive this weekend - I really dislike that it is already in the upper 90's and its still May. I really dislike heat and humidity. The bee's were still a buzz over Royal Delta's performance in the Black Eyed Susan Stakes race (remember the hive is a female society so they only watched the Friday fillies race).

Honey super #1 is full and weighs approximately 40 pounds. Ross Rounds are looking good - it is difficult to determine how full the rounds are without dissembling the frames. Medium honey super #2 is approximately 60% full. The super that I placed on the stack prior to leaving for the Preakness is empty and has no drawn comb. The deep super is looking good - not sure if I will extract any honey off the deep or if that will remain for the hive.

Brood chambers are alright- I am not seeing the tight brood pattern that I want, but I did see larvae. Did not see the queen.

Another visitor to the hive

Sunday was confirmation day for Allison. Both Karen's mother and my parents came for the event. Sunday afternoon, I paid the hive a visit and Nancy Garfield (Karen's mom) suited up to take a peek. This was a quick visit to the hive- honey supers are heavy, and rounds continue to fill. I am late in ordering my equipment from Brushy Mtn - need to place the order on Tuesday.

Awake

Woke up at 3:45 today and could not go back to sleep, so I just got out of bed. Yesterday, I did check the honey Supers. The hive is packing in the honey - harvest look good. The pictures are of the Ross Rounds (comb honey). This week, I will order an additional honey super, a filteration kit, and some harvesting equipment.

I did not check the brood chambers

.

Non-bee topics carport is framed, and Preakness tickets arrived.

A New Queen

Since the latest Royal Wedding is nearly upon us, it is fitting that the hive has a new queen. Honestly I do not care about the Royal Wedding and I am uncertain if my hive has a new queen. A few weeks ago I saw capped queen cells, and Sunday two of the cells where uncapped. Strong evidence of succession. The brood chambers have plenty of egg, larve and capped brood (worker and drone). With the exception of not seeing the queen the brood frames look great. As long as I see eggs and larve I am not concerned that I am not seeing the queen.

Honey supers are getting heavy and the ross rounds are becoming packed with honey. I estimate that I have fourty plus pounds of harvestable honey. I did exchange email with John today about the honey harvest- I am going to watch him harvest and will take my frames to his house when he harvests his honey. This saves time as he will already have the club extractor and he can help me extract the frames. I will then bring the honey back to the house for filtering and bottling. Honey harvest should occur in late June/early July.

I also decided to move to a 10 day inspection schedule - the hive is doing great. Since thye are on spring time cruise control, no need for me to bother them.

Finally NJEB received a new hive over the weekend. His orginal hive had grown so aggressive that he could barely enter his back yard. A local beekeeper swapped him hives, hopefully this hive isnt fully of Snookis causing a Sisuation in the NJ mountain side.

Flight

It is a rainy morning, thus this bee blog post has nothing to do with the bees.

This past week, Allison, Laura, and karen went to Houston for Springbreak. During their trip, they had the opportunity to meet with Gene Kranz. Karen has an uncle who works at NASA and also goes to church with Gene Kranz. They had an absolute great time and enjoyed every second of their meeting. For two people who are captivated by NASA, space, and aviation this meeting was the ultimate thrill!

A peek inside before the rain arrives

Been in Denver for the past three days at a managers meeting. Fairly productive meeting - typicaly a managers meeting is a productive as a Presbyterian session meeting. Lots of hot air, bad chair and you cant wait to leave - but we actually got alot done this week. Although I really like the west and moved to Charlotte from Denver, I really have no desire to return to Denver. Our meeting was in the Denver Tech Center (near my parents old home). When we lived there in the mid 80's it was a nice sized city with a unique culture - now it is eastren southern california. That is not a good change from my perspective.

Since the weather is calling for rain tonight and Saturday, I wanted to check the hive today.

Good news first:
1) Top Super is full of honey and very heavy.
2) Ross Rounds continue to get built out and plenty of bees are in the rounds working
3) Hive has cleaned the frames on the new super - the frames where dirty from hive 1.0 . The frames should start receiving new food stores,ad the comb has been cleaned and refurbished byt the hive. Very interesting process.

Interesting News:
1. Queen cells that I saw last weekend remain and appear unchanged.
2. Bee population appeared a little lighter than last week. This could be due to the foragers being gone or if the queen has failed bee population will decline for the next two or three weeks.

Bad News:
1. Did not see queen today - looked through all of the supers (admitely I am not very good at finding her)

Misc.
1. Although I want my hive to be healthy, I am not concerned about losing any honey production due to a new queen or potential swarming. I want enough honey to give away to friends and family but I have no desire to have 100's of pounds of honey. NJEB helped me adopt this "Let it B" philosphy.

Enjoy your weekend.

Supercedure Queen Cells

John the Bee Mentor and NJEB have weighed in on today's visit to the hive, the three of us agree that the cells that I saw are queen cells. John states that they are supercedure queens cells and not swarm cells. A supercedure queen cell is created when the queen is weak or injured. I will check the hive again this weekend and see if any of these cells have produced a new queen. Once again this beekeeper stuff is both interesting and baffling.

These are the pictures we have been reviewing.

Additionally, in case the hive is becoming honey bound, I did add the additional super tonight. Weekend should be interesting.

I have never seen so many bees

One nice thing about working from home, is you can take a 30 minute break and do things for yourself. Since we dont have any workers at the house today- I decided to check the hive. I am amazed at how many bees are in this hive. Two very full deep supers of bees and brood. Although I did not see the queen, she is in the hive and laying egs like mad. Plenty of eggs and larve. The hive is really enjoying the heavy pollen. Pollen and honey are being produced in good quanity. The top honey super is fully drawn and I estimate it weighs 20-25 pounds. The hive is working on drawing the Ross Rounds out. Honey is starting to be stored in the rounds. On Saturday, I will add a fourth honey super.

I was in the hive approximately 20 minutes. Towards the end the hive started getting annoyed, so I buttoned the hive up. If I go back in this weekend, it will be a quick trip to add another super to the top of the stack.

I did send John and NJEB a few extra pictures, as I am curious if I saw a queen cell being built. I will let the readership know what they say.

On a non bee topic- carport is progressing on schedule. Framing should start tommrow, the foundation, brick work, and sewer connection are completed.

The Davis Family visits the Hive

Yesterday, our friends paid a visit to the hive. Overall the hive looked great. We saw a ton of brood, I still find it amazing that the queen can lay a worker or a drone. In addition to the eggs, we saw plenty of uncapped honey. The hive is starting to build the Ross Rounds.

Now that the move to the vinca is complete, sometime this week I will build a hive stand. If your a bee blog reader and want to look inside the hive just give me a call.

Does a bee have ears?

This question was asked by Laura. A search on google answered the question...


Google answer (several sites had the same information)
They don't have ears but they do have tympanic organs, which are holes with a thin, drum-like membrane stretched across. This is how they hear, although they don't distinguish different sounds the same way that we do, they just sense different vibrations in the air. Their feet and antennae can also feel some vibrations, but the tympanum is the main "ear" for a bee. It's located in the abdomen, which is why you might sometimes see a bee moving its backside up and down as though it's trying to sting, but nothing happens, that's because it's actually trying to "listen."

Pollen, Pollen and More Pollen

The hive is happy as the yard is in full bloom. Before I left town, I added the Ross Rounds. The Ross Rounds are the frames that are used to harvest comb honey. Assuming everything goes according to the plan, later this summer I will harvest thirty two combs of honey. In addition to the honey combs, I hope to have twenty - fifty pounds of honey to bottle.

Since I had inspected the hive earlier in the week, I just added the Ross Rounds, and did not inspect the hive. The hive has also completed its journey across the yard. Until I need the garden truck, I am planning to leave the hive as it sits. Construction on the carport starts this week, as the building permit was issued yesterday, utilities marking is set to occur today or tommrow, with the sewer line and foundation work occuring Thursday and Friday.

NJEB visits the hive

My buddy NJEB was in town visiting his son NCEB and stoppped by today. It was really nice to actually meet NJEB. We had time to be bee geeks and grab some lunch. Very nice visit. I hope he, his son, his son in law and buddy have a great time in California playing golf.

What Exit?

Weather this weekend was great, the bees where out buzzing around collecting pollen. On Saturday, I did have teh opportunity to open the hive up and take a good look. The supers that we rotated to the top of the stack, are being replensihed with honey and pollen. The new frames ont he outside of the supers are still undrawn. Although the frames are not drawn out, I suspect that it will not take long. The Tulip Poplars in the yard are starting to pop leaves, and the Tulips in the yard will soon flower, thus the pollen season is nearly here. Typicallt I hate pollen season, but this year I am really looking forward to the yellow dust. Pollen makes the bees, happy bees and honey will make the beekeeper happy, and Zythromax will make the beekeeper feel better.

I did see the queen on Saturday. She was in the super that John the Bee Mentor had suspected. Overall the hive looked good. I told the queen, the workers, and the drones that NJEB was coming over this week. He will be in town visiting NCEB. After I told the hive he was coming from NJ, in unision the queen, the drones, and the workers all asked "What Exit?"

A day full of anxiety

As they say in the NFL "upon further review" the hive appears alright. A few items were noticed on the pictures last night that had me worried. In the picture there were lots of drone brood and what apperaed to be a swarm cell. When you see lots of drone brood there is a problem with the hive as your queen is either dead or she has run out of stored sperm. So at best you have lost your queen and at worst you have a laying worker. A laying worker is one of the worst problems for a beekeeper as the hive believes they have a queen, but th eworker only lays drones. This problem is made worse, since the hive will not accept a queen due to the laying worker.

After a early call to John the Bee mentor, he was able to stop by the house after work. John and I gave the hive a good look. He said the hive looks great and we saw plenty of regular brood. I learned that drone brood is normal and plentyful at this time of year since all the drones have been kicked out of the hive during the cold winter months. Based on how the frames looked, John said I should expect 20,000 new bees within the next three weeks.

When it is time to requeen in the summer , I am going to purchase a queen from Weaver Honey in Navasota TX. Karen's grandmother was very good friends with the founders of Weaver Honey and she also lived in Navasota.

I am very relieved to learn that the hive looks good. This experience does have me thinking about a second hive. The second hive would give me something to check against. Depending on how much money Comrade Obama takes ont the 15th will determine if I purchase a second hive and a new bike.

A Good Looking Hive

After a an email exchange with NJEB today, I really got the urge to really inspect the hive. The weather was perfect - mid 60's so I suited up and fired up the

smoker. I had not pulled frames in several months, so the dissambly of the hive took some time. The hive really had everything locked down, with proplis (think adhesive caulk). The honey frames stuck to the bottom of the feeder- this took some effort to free. Once I got into the hive it was worth the trouble. The honey frames look good, plenty of honey on the frames. I might have provided the hive with to much sugar syrup over the winter, but I was very concerned about Hive 2.0 suffering the same fate as the beta hive. The one item that did concern me in the honey super was the amount of eggs and larve that I saw in two frames. Thus it might be time to put the queen excluder back on. The honey from this super will not be harvested and will remain for winter feedings (unless the bee mentor tells me to do something else). The brood chambers looked ok, I wanted to see more eggs and larve on them, but during the cold I assume the bees clustered in the middle of the stack. Since I had everything unstacked, I did reverse the order of the brood chambers.

I did not see the queen, but since I saw eggs and larve I know she is still around. Since I will be looking into the hive on a frequent basis, I hope to see her in the future.

Dandelions, Redbuds, and Warm Weather

The common dandelion is a horrible weed that has many a homeowner crazy. Until becoming a beekeeper las spring, the dandelion was just another reminder that the weeds were winning and I would spend more money at HomeDepot. Now the dandelion, tells me that spring is here and pollen is becoming available. I still hate dendelions and other weeds in my yard, but have enjoyed seeing the dandelions popping up around town. The Redbuds are alos popping so soon the bees will have a feeding frenzy, my car will be covered in yellow pollen and I will have a sinus infection due to the pollen.

The bee "truck" continues across they yard at a furious pace of two feet a day.

On a non bee topic - Curlin and Racheal Alexander have "met" hopefully they will have a son and he will wint the Triple Crown in 2014. I tell you all this because it is Derby trail time and we are headed to the Preakness in May. Our Preakness group includes Bobcat Doug and his family, Ricky Bobby and his wife, Our friends the Reids ( I havent given them a nickname yet), and the Girl Scout Cookie Queen of Charlotte. We are going to have a great time.

Spring warmth in Feb

This weekend the weather wa very spring like - temps hit 70. With the warm weather the bees were flying around and active. Although this sounds great, as my friend NJEB pointed out, the flying consumes much energy and food. The bees leave the hive on both cleansing and foraging flights, but return to the hive with no food since the flowers and plants realize its just a warm winter day. I had plan to take advantage of the warm weather and perform a through inspection of the hive, but due to my house painting tasks, I ran out of weekend. I did restock the feeder. The move to the new location in the yard is progressing along- I removed a section of fence and the bees have covered about 12 feet.

A New Mobile Home

Instead of sending the hive to john Byer's bee yard, we have decided to take the slow route and move the bees very slowly to their new home. From previous posts you know that a hive can only be moved a few feet each week or the bees get lost. Since our builder said he cant start on the carport until late March - I decided to take the slow route. In order to move the complete hive, I purchased a garden cart. the hive can now start the gradual

move to their new spot in the yard. The next move will be the hardest, as a section of fence must be dissambled.

Moving the hive

Thanks to NJEB I have learned much about moving the hive. We will be adding a carport with a room above it later this spring. As we just recived the intial plans back from the builder last week. NJEB informed me that moving a hive is one of the tricker task that a beekeepr can attempt. John Byers confirmed this and confirmed NJEB knowledge that you can only move the hive a foot a day or your bees will get lost. So they bees are going to live with John Byers bees for a few weeks- apparently they bees are fine with a major relo(over 2 miles) but move the hive more than a foot a day and they get lost. The things you learn.

Bad day to be a drone

מיר זענען קאַלט!

First Translation into the new cold weather tounge (above) and

native cold weather tounge (below):

Мы холадна!

and finally for those of you who dont speak Yiddish or Bellarusian.
The hive said "We are cold!"

We received about three inches of snow on Monday and a quarter inch of ice yesterday. I removed the snow from the small opening in the entrance reducer. Saw a few dead bees at the bottom and around the opening - they where all drones.

January Beekeeping and an Angry Hive

Since the weather is in the 50's today, I paid a visit to the hive. Since no bees where out, I decided to take a peek without putting on the Homer suit. The hive had eaten every last drop of syrup from the top feeder. With an empty feeder, I then proceeded to mix two gallons of heavy syrup. The feeding was a very heavy syrup - 12 pounds of sugar was dissolved into the water. As you can see from today's picture the bees let me open the hive, pour the syrup without bothering me. Although they did not bother me, they where in a foul mood and expressed their hostility towards CNN. They are angry that CNN reports on a BS story that has cost Capt. Honors his command and likely his career. The bees stated that General Mcrystal was stupid and that Capt. Honors is getting the shaft.