Tag Archives: Honeybees

Two swarms so far

It’s swarm season and swarm season is my favorite time/part of beekeeping!  Swarming is a natural part of a bee colony but one that is pretty unsettling to folks who see it happening.  In the last 10 days or so, I have gotten two good calls about swarms of bees in Charleston.

An easy swarm on a bush in Kanawha City
An easy swarm on a bush in Kanawha City

The first call was from a postal carrier who was walking in a neighborhood delivering mail.  He came upon a swarm hanging low in a bush.  The homeowner initially wanted to call an exterminator, but the postal worker pulled out his phone and found my contact info.  I was delighted to come and take care of the “problem”.  Most people are terrified and also fascinated/curious about swarms so I try to describe what happened, what I am going to do and why it is so important to save bees rather than kill them.

Shaken, not stirred
Shaken, not stirred
Traffic jam...
Traffic jam…

So this swarm was easy.  I placed my sheet on the ground and my nucleus hive box on top.  With a quick shake and a giggle, most of the bees dropped into the box and my work was done.  It’s unusual, but I actually saw the queen on the top of the pile of bees.  I watched as she marched into the box whereupon I put the lid in place and waited for the rest of the colony to catch up with her!

Large swarm on a concrete wall
Large swarm on a concrete wall

A few days later, Charleston’s 911 dispatch called me about a large swarm in the middle of the city in a fairly public area.  When I arrived, the fire department was in place keeping people away.  They had taped off a large area and were waiting nearby patiently.  I whipped in and saw a very large swarm stuck to a solid concrete retaining wall.  Luckily, I brought along my handy-dandy-bee-swarm-retrieving dustpan.  I am pretty tough but I cannot shake bees off of a concrete wall so I just used the dustpan to gently scoop the bees into my hive box.  Easy-peasy!

I wish I had a banana for reference
I wish I had a banana for reference
Full house!
Full house!

I am pretty vain so I figure that is most of the reason why I love catching swarms so much.  I always get an audience and lots of oohhhs and aahhhs.  It’s usually relatively safe and pretty simple to catch a swarm, but I look brave and tough.  It’s a vain man’s dream!  And on top of that, I get free bees which will (hopefully) make me lots of wonderful sweet honey.  Heck, the world needs more bees as well as more sweet honey so it’s a win all the way around!

More bee stuff

Honeybee eggs

I was helping my friend Larry with his bees the other day.  He’s our neighbor up at the deluxe shed and the husband of Granny Sue.  So he has bees and asked me to come take a look at his bees, offer some advice, and generally act like men.  It was a good time and we had a lot of fun poking around in his bees to make sure things were ship-shape.

Bees hanging on a beehive
Bees hanging on a beehive

We looked over the bees and found some brand new wax that was the most beautiful yellow color!  Fresh wax often ranges in color from white to bright yellow depending on what is blooming when they build it and what they drag in on their little feet as they walk across it .  Eventually, all wax turns black or brown from traffic so it a real joy to see fresh yellow wax I think.

Fresh Yellow beeswax!
Fresh Yellow beeswax!

The best part though, is that the sun was just right and the color was just right and I was able to get some really cool pictures of honeybee eggs.  Each hive has exactly one queen and she lays between 1000 and 2000 eggs per day during peak season.  These eggs are not much bigger than a comma on a page and are very hard for many beekeepers to see.

Honeybee eggs...the small white lines in the bottom of the comb
Honeybee eggs…the small white lines in the bottom of the comb

A good queen will lay only one egg per cell and always in the bottom of the cell…close to the middle and never on the sides.  A few times, I have seen a good queen lay multiple eggs in a single cell, but only when she is brand new and when first introduced to a colony.  I suppose, with her typical laying rate, she gets backed up a little and has to get some eggs moving.  Anyhow, a queen will always settle down and lay one egg per cell and rarely skips cells across an entire frame of honeycomb.

Honeybee eggs
Honeybee eggs…another view

In a hive where the queen has died, one or more workers will take on the role of a queen, but because they were not raised properly as a queen, they never become fertile.  Still, they will produce and lay eggs but their eggs are usually all over the place…often many to a cell and all over the sides.  Their eggs will develop into male drone bees and signal the end of a hive if a new queen is not introduced.

More bee stuff

Pupae are people too

Well, they aren’t really people but pupae are interesting anyhow.  As I mentioned before, it is bee season so lots of exciting things are going on.  I suppose that you probably know that many critters, bees included, start as eggs.  Eggs hatch into larva or little white wormy/caterpillar-looking things.  After those larva eat and eat, they grow a lot and finally spin a cocoon after being sealed into their own little honeycomb.  Inside that cocoon, they undergo a metamorphosis where they change from ugly, fat worm of a larva into a regular old-fashioned honeybee…been doing it like this for brazillions of years (or maybe 100 million years or so in a form related to current honeybees).

Drone pupae and worker bees
Drone pupae and worker bees

Bees are funny critters.  They have serious OCD issues and cannot handle too much open space within their hive.  “Bee space” is generally regarded as about 3/8 of an inch.  That’s the optimum space for bees to walk around, make more bees, tend to the honey, etc.  Leave a space larger than that and they will build comb to fill the void.  Space much less than that and they will plug it with propolis, a tar-like substance that is super sticky and will stain anything and everything.  Actually, old fashioned violins and furniture were often stained with propolis. Generally, there are gaps larger than the bee space between the tops of bee frames and the lid, between the top and bottom box where the bees live, and other places that just crop up.  So, bees do what they do and build honeycomb.  The comb is usually drone comb…that is, comb that is a little larger in diameter to accommodate the larger developing drones.

Drone pupae and worker bees
Drone pupae and worker bees

When a beekeeper works within a hive, sometimes that drone comb necessarily gets torn apart as one lifts the lid or pulls out frames.  Any drone larvae/pupae/eggs are ruined of course, but it leaves a neat opportunity to see pupae in various stages of development.  Early on, they are all white but look very much like a bee…a zombie bee, but still a bee.  One of the first things to change during pupation is the color of their  eyes.  The entirety of the bee might be stark (Winter is coming) white, but their eyes turn pink and then a 3-day-old-bruise shade of purple.

Purple eyes on developing drone bee pupa
Purple eyes on developing drone bee pupa

Additionally, drones have a longer development cycle so varroa mites, the pesky parasite bugs that basically killed most wild honeybees in the 1980s, have a greater opportunity to hook onto the pupae.  In fact, they even prefer the drones for that reason and, based on smell, selectively choose drone pupae over worker pupae.  In fact, there is a school of thought that one should “plant” larger diameter foundation comb on which bees will build drone comb, to entice varroa to attach to drones in a beekeeper-selected area which can be culled.

Varroa mite on a drone pupa
Varroa mite on a drone pupa
Varroa mite on a drone pupa
Varroa mite on a drone pupa…up close so your skin can crawl

So, as I was checking out my drone pupae, I noted a small but non-zero number of varroa mites.  The level is, in my opinion, still manageable, but I will take measures to cut their number this season after I harvest honey.  So, while pupae are people too, varroa mites are not and must die!

A beautiful queen bee!

I was poking around in the beehives the other day and was able to get a few cool pics.  Mainly, I wanted to check on the new packages of bees I got awhile back.  I just took the opportunity to look in on all of the bees as a beekeeper typically does in Spring.

Some beekeepers rarely see their queens, but I think that is usually due to inexperience and sometimes laziness.  I don’t always find my queen but I always look for evidence she is healthy (that is, I look for freshly laid eggs).  I can find her any time I want though.  All beekeepers should spend the time to figure out how to scan frames of bees to find a queen.  She moves differently than the other bees and the other bees usually give her some room as well.

I sometimes get my queens marked.  The beekeeper who sells queens can mark an ink dot on the thorax of the queen to make her easier to see.  The color of the dot coincides with the year she was born.  In my experience, the mark tends to wear off pretty quickly but it only costs a buck or two.  I think this marking is cool since it is heart shaped!

A queen bee
The queen and her attendants

So, here are some pics I got of one of my beautiful queens, new last Fall.   You can see her abdomen is significantly larger than the female worker bees around her.  Notice how the workers sort of make a circle around her, all facing her ready to serve at her beck and call…or something like that.

A queen bee and her attendants...with varroa mite
Notice the rust colored spot on the worker at 11 o’clock above the queen…that’s a varroa mite that will eventually kill that worker bee…and the hive if allowed to multiply

There is a lot of other stuff to see in the hive too (click the pics to enlarge if you want to see better). The bright yellow stuff is fresh pollen. There is a lot this year and the hive is full of different colors. The brown coverings on some of the honeycomb are covering brood…baby bees pupating into worker bees. Towards the top, you can see white horseshoe shaped larva.  There are several sizes representing various stages of development.  Female worker bees are in the larval stage for around 5 days.  After that, they pupate and turn into normal looking bees over the course of 13 or so days.  All told, a bee starts as an egg and 21 days later hatches into a worker bee, ready to begin duties in the hive.

I took some more pics that turned out pretty great so I’ll share some more in the next few days…it’s bee season after all!

Picking up new bees

So I drove to NC a few weeks ago.  When I lived in PA, that would have sounded like an impossible trip.  Heck, from Charleston, it is only 4 hours or so.  I know you are wondering why I drove to NC…I mean, it is a lovely place, but so is WV.

Beautiful scenery on the way to NC
Beautiful scenery on the way to NC
Welcome to Brushy Mountain
Welcome to Brushy Mountain

I ordered a few packages of bees from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm and it was delivery day!  So, I drove down in the morning in full anticipation of getting bees.  This is not my first time to get bees and not even my first time to Brushy Mountain, but it is just so darn exciting contemplating a few boxes of buzzing honeybees awaiting my arrival to take them home to their new hives.  I drove through some pretty wild snow which made me ponder whether this was the proper time to be getting bees.  Of course, like spring across the country, wait a day and the weather will change.

At the Brushy Mountain living room...I mean store
At the Brushy Mountain living room…I mean store

The bee farm has a small retail outlet not much bigger than my living room.  I wandered about it for 15 minutes or so.  I bought a few supplies and stuff , but I felt like I ought to stay longer.  I know once you walk to the bee pick-up location, they grab your bees and send you on your way.  It’s sort of anti-climactic, you know?  I mean, I drove all that way, full of excitement, to spend 20 minutes actually getting the bees…20 minutes if I stretch it out.

My package of bees
My package of bees

I could linger no longer so I got my bees, which looked very healthy this year.  Sometimes bees have a hard trip from wherever in Georgia they originate.  This year they were great.  I made sure they were braced into my back seat well and I headed back home.  I tend not to stop much when I drive by myself.  It’s funny but I can drive all day by myself, but put another person in the car and I sometimes get groggy.  Weird.

Under the mountain and then onward to home
Under the mountain and then onward to home

Anyhow, we made it back home in one piece after another exciting trip to the bee farm!  The buzz of my new bees kept me entertained and seeing the occasional escapee always makes me laugh.  I especially wonder what would ever happen if an officer of the law pulled me over and saw that…I think I will try to avoid that situation…but it makes me sort of laugh!  Yeah bees!

Pollen!

It’s finally Spring as far as the bees are concerned!  Typically, maples are among the first things to bloom…usually in March sometime.  When the maple blooms pop, I usually sigh a sigh of relief.  There are no guarantees with honeybees, but once the maples bloom, bees generally can find sufficient pollen and nectar to start their spring build up and ultimately, survive.

Honeybee laden with pollen
Honeybee laden with pollen

This weekend I peeked in on the colonies and saw lots of activity!  Maple pollen is a sort of greenish, grayish color and it was what I expected to see.  Instead, I saw tons of bright yellow pollen!  I have no idea what pollen source the bees had found but I suppose we might as well call it daffodil pollen…it was the right color and daffodils are my favorite flowers ever.  Does anything smell better than a daffodil bloom in spring?  No, I think not.

Honeybee laden with pollen
Check out the wings of the bee with pollen

As I often do, I sat in front of the hives and watched the bees come and go.  Spring is a wonderful time for bees…they are so focused on chasing blooms and nectar and pollen that they hardly even notice my presence.  I love the opportunity to just sit and listen to their buzz and watch as they weave and bumble into the hive entrance, loaded with pollen.  In addition to the pollen baskets on their legs, the honeybees seemed to be completely covered in pollen, head to stinger.  I love spring in the apiary (and everywhere else too) and I can’t wait to taste this year’s honey crop!  Yeah yellow pollen!

More bee stuff…

Early bee check

Like many folks across the country, this has been a weird winter.  Honestly, it may not be so weird compared to when I was a kid, but lately, winters have been so mild.  Anyhow, we had a this-year-rare nice weekend so I tromped out to my bee yard to see how my girls had fared.

Bees in winter

Did I ever mention that there are only female bees in the hive at this time of year?  You see, the males are only useful for breeding in the spring and summer when the colony may need a new queen.  Queens only breed during a week or so period when they first hatch and never again.  So, males (aka drones) are only good for breeding during that period when a new queen is hatched.  Otherwise they just eat up resources which are precious through the winter.  The females kick out all the males in the mid-Fall and make new in the spring.  Males are made when the queen lays unfertilized eggs, a process she controls since all breeding happened during that one week of glory when she was first hatched.

Bees in winter

Anyhow, I like to check on the bees on warm days to make sure they are still alive, haven’t starved and don’t have nosema (like bee dysentery).  Bees “hold it” to keep the hives clean, so on a warmish day, they all need to get out and poop.  Normal poop is fine but “the runs” is a bad thing so I check to make sure they are not abnormal.

So, for the most part, the colonies looked good.  I may have lost one colony but that isn’t unexpected or unusual.  I don’t like it, but some winter loss just happens, even in a well-managed apiary.  I made some feed available in the form of sugar-water so any colony that is a little light on stores can grab a quick bit of food to get through the remaining weeks until the maples bloom and the pollen and nectar flow again.  That is often at the end of February through the beginning on March but with our cold and snow, it may be a bit later.  Well shall see, but for now, it looks like the bees are doing well!

Varroa mites suck!

We pulled honey off of the hives the other day and a typical part of that process is taking a general gander (technical term) at the health of the colony.  I usually look for the queen although I don’t spend a lot of time on that during the harvest.  I do definitely look for eggs though.  Eggs mean a queen was nearby in the last few days.   I like to see a good number of worker bees and a typical brood/pollen/honey pattern in the nest.  I usually get a good feel pretty quickly whether the hive is “hot” or overly defensive.  In no way do I tolerate a hot hive.  It’s dangerous for me, for other people and animals nearby and it is generally just not any fun whatsoever to work in a hot hive.  I’ll tell you how to correct that in another post soon.

Varroa mite on honeybee larva
Varroa mite on honeybee larva

Anyhow, the other thing I do is a varroa mite check.  Varroa mites (or just plain mites) are what began decimating wild honeybee colonies in the late 1980s around the United States.  The mites are parasitic little pieces of evil that literally drink the bees dry.  They are vectors for disease and just plain suck.  I look for obvious signs of varroa mites… the mites actually hanging on the bodies of adult bees as well as  for misshapen wings (they look chewed upon) that often indicate varroa.  I also pop open a few capped drone cells (drones are the male bees that serve no purpose this time of year for me…queens are already mated and healthy.  They will be thrown out of the hive in a few weeks anyhow.)  You see, varroa like to attach to the bodies of the larva where they simultaneously mature with the bees.

So, I popped open a few cells and did indeed find varroa on some of the drones.  There are several mostly effective methods to treat against the varroa and I am due for another treatment anyhow so I will add that in the next week or so.  Most treatments take a few “doses” so that’s what I will do.

I also use integrated pest management (IPM) techniques including screened bottom boards and small cell honeycomb to help.  Working around varroa is a necessary part of keeping bees nowadays so I just keep up on research and assume varroa exist in every hive.  Following the routine has kept my bees alive and healthy for years now!  I still hate those nasty little bugs though!

Honey Harvest 2013

Weather this year has been quite unusual.  Typically we harvest honey on the absolute hottest day of the year.  I don’t know that we usually plan it exactly like that, but it certainly seems to work out that way.  It’s always been a bit of the tradition that the honey harvest is miserable because of the heat.  You see, honey is extremely heavy on the hive and the heavy bee suits trap heat like crazy.  It is significantly hotter in a bee suit than not.  So, couple the hot bee suit with heavy honey and tens of thousands of bees that aren’t always thrilled that I am in harvesting their hard work and you end up with a tough day.

Honey harvest day!
Honey harvest day!

This year, the weather was pleasant on harvest day.  We might have gotten into the 80s but it was the low 80s at best.  I was in a better mood…the bees were in a better mood.  All in all, it was a delightful experience!

A frame with pollen, bees and honey
A frame with pollen, bees and honey. The orange semi-circle is pollen. The bees are on honey. In the middle are baby bees  and eggs

I burned aspen shavings from the pet bedding department which made a great smoke.  The bees were active as one would expect but not bad.  Carrying honey was heavy but not terrible.  We pulled every frame I own off of the hives and they were nicely filled out.  The bees looked as healthy as they ever have and every hive had nice looking brood, pollen and honey patterns in the nest (the center part where the bee raising happens…not in the honey area up above where I harvest the honey).  We didn’t extract the honey (spin it out of the combs) yet so I don’t know exactly how much honey we have this year but we should finish that up this week sometime.  I think we may try to avoid the hottest day of the year when we harvest next year.  I may be a slow learner but I think this message made itself apparent, loud and clear!

First swarm of 2013

I am registered on all sorts of lists to catch bee swarms around Charleston.  The folks at the 911 call center know me.  Several exterminators know me.  The Department of Agriculture folks have my number.  I get lots of swarm calls.  I LOVE SWARMS!  Catching swarms of bees has to be my all-time favorite part of beekeeping.

Swarm of honeybees!

A gentleman called me the other day reporting a large swarm of bees in a tree at his house.  He lives within a mile or so of me so it was the perfect situation.  I ran to the house, grabbed up a bunch of equipment and headed to his place where I met his family and the neighbors too.  The cool thing is that I know the neighbor family.  Abigail plays soccer for the neighbor and their son plays for me.

Swarm of honeybees!

Anyhow, Abigail and I walked up to the swarm and it was a good one.  It was about shoulder high on a smaller tree from which I could easily cut a branch to remove the swarm.  I typically lay a sheet out, place my destination hive on top and shake the bees from the branch into the swarm box.  Bees in a swarm are usually not terribly defensive.  I typically  approach a swarm pretty boldly to see how they roll and rarely have any issues with them.  That being said, never touch a swarm of bees because there are still 10,000 or so stinging insects who don’t care much about manners.  Call a beekeeper every time.

Swarm of honeybees!

So, I sent everyone inside where they could watch from behind screened windows and started my tree trimming.  Within a few minutes I had the bees in the hive and we were all done but for the crying.  Wait…no crying.  Just loading the bees into the car.

Catching a swarm of bees! Catching a swarm of bees!

edit:  one of the ladies took these pictures…

I think I like catching swarms for the “show-off” factor as much as anything.  The two families that watched the swarm catching were curious and interested and called me crazy!  It doesn’t get any better than that!

When I got home, I had three more calls from people with bee swarms…it might be a busy few weeks!

More of my beekeeping escapades