Honey Beekeeper part 3

First there was Honey Beekeeper part 1, which should have sparked your interest.  Then there was Honey Beekeeper part 2, which for sure had you hooked.  Now - for part 3.

In all my planning as the Mini Preparedness grandma, I am still not sure that I am ready to take on the honey bee project.  Now, if I were about 20 years younger, I would be all over this.  I would love to know, that no matter how difficult the world gets, I would have a great supply of honey for quite some time.  And what a great negotiating item!  For now I will stick to sugar, flour and coffee for trade and hope that someone close to me is building their honey supply.

Check out this article - part 3 - by Petticoat Prepper

Your bees have been coming and going now for a week and if you’re like me you’re dying to take a look inside. Before you do however, I want to explain what’s going on inside so you’ll know what to look for and what to expect. I’m listing the bee’s jobs in the order assigned as the bee gets older.

Housekeeping – is the first job a new bee has from the moment it crawls from the cell. They clean the cell they emerge from as well as any others that need tidying up for more babies, pollen or honey.

Undertaking – the hive is a very clean environment and the most sterile in nature. During the first couple of weeks of life one of the tasks is to remove as far as possible from the hive any bee that’s died. If you sit and watch the comings and goings you’ll see a dead bee being dragged off. Sometimes the best the little bee can do is move to the entrance and push off to the ground.

Nurse bee – the young worker bee tends to her baby sisters by feeding and caring for the developing larva. On average up to 1,300 times a day for each developing bee.

Royal duty bees – because the queen isn’t able to tend to her most basic needs, she has attendants. They not only groom, feed and ‘pooper scooper’ for her; they also coax her to keep laying eggs. While she maybe queen she is a slave to her job.

Stock pile bees – these are bees inside the hive that greet the forager bees and take the nectar and pollen from them. They deposit the nectar or pollen in the designated comb cell. If nectar they add an enzyme and fan to evaporate moisture to turn it into honey. Both honey and pollen are food for the colony.

Fanner bees – workers take turns cooling the hive and reducing the humidity. You may see during honey flow or high heat days a line of bees at the entrance facing the hive. They will be fanning their wings drawing cooler air into the hive and others inside will fan to move it through the hive. They also have a gland that releases a pleasant sweet odor into the air. You may be able to smell it as you approach. This signals the bees an orientation scent to help them find their home.

Builder bees – these are the bees that make the wax and draw comb.

Guard bees – these are the bees at the entrance to the hive. You’ll know who they are if you sit and watch for a bit. Every returning bee will check in with the guards before entering. If a bee from another hive were to try to gain entrance the guard would fight and kill them.

Forager bee – these are middle aged bees. You’ll see them hovering up and down and side to side in front of the hive to orient before taking off to find food. This is the most dangerous job in the colony. Aside from maybe being eaten by a bird, they must visit about 5 million flowers to produce one pint of honey. And they will forage a two to three mile radius from the hive in search of provisions. They literally work themselves to death, you see them returning with torn wings and battered bodies but they keep at it until the very end of life.

The Drone – the only males in the colony! There are only about 100 in the entire colony of probably 60,000 bees. His only purpose is to mate with the queen. Now before you guys cheer him on, come fall when the weather cools and mating season is over…the girls toss them out to die :-( .

The Queen – She controls the hive. She lays eggs to keep the colony alive and if needed signals half the colony to swarm away with her.

So now you know who’s who on the playing field. Let’s go over what you’ll be looking for on each inspection.

Repeating the prep on shower, outfit, smoker and tools grab your one frame you took out when you hived your bees and head to the girls. Let them know you’ve arrived by giving a few puffs of smoke at the entrance. Then after a minute, pry the telescoping lid up and give a couple of puffs of smoke there and close the lid. Wait a minute before removing the lid. Carefully, lay it on the ground inside up. Now a puff or two of smoke through the hole of the inside cover. Gently pry the cover up and lay it across the up turned lid.

If the girls are still topside drift a bit more smoke over the frames and into the hive. This will make them think there’s a fire and they will busy themselves by gobbling provisions in case they need to bug out. Position the frame holder on one side of the hive and place the frame you brought back there. Take hold of the queen’s cage and gently slide the frames so you can remove the queen cage. Have they eaten the marshmallows and is she out? If she’s out ….yippee! If not go ahead and release her. If you have to release the queen then slide all the frames to one side and add the frame you brought back. Position the frames together and evenly space from the super on the end frames. Replace the two lids and wait a week to check for the information below. Your queen needs time to work.

If your queen was released you want to slide the frames to one side and start checking each frame; both sides of foundation. You’re looking for drawn comb and eggs and larva. The eggs will look rather like a very small piece of rice in the middle of each honeycomb cell. You only want to find one per cell. If you’ve two then the queen may have left/died and you’ve a laying worker and will need to re-queen right away. It’s the same procedure as installing the first queen; other than the bees are already in the hive.

While you work your inspection listen to the girls. There should be a gentle hum from them, happy busy bees. If you hear them start to rev up, stop and look at them. Are they lining up and looking at you? If they are then they’re becoming upset with you. Give them a bit more smoke to calm them down. I always carry my lighter and additional smoker fuel just in case. Sometimes it seems I can’t keep the smoker going and have to relight it or I take too long and need to refuel.

They will start working on drawing comb and laying eggs in the middle frames and work their way out. You want to check the egg pattern of your queen. There should be few cells she’s missed and there should be pollen and honey/nectar around the perimeter although not so much the first week.

Remove each frame, shift the lower edge slightly towards you so you can see the surface of the foundation but not so much that the nectar drips out. Then to view the other side, raise your left arm straight up so the top of the frame is straight up and down, then turn the frame to show the other side (rather like turning a book page)and lower your arm again. You have to keep the foundations fairly straight or any nectar will fall out. The dummies book has a good picture in it. When you pull the frame out of the hive the wood top will be on top of the foundation and when you flip it to view the other side it will be on the bottom. Reverse the procedure to right the frame and replace in the super. Each frame goes back in the same spot you took from. Work over the hive in case the queen is on the frame you pulled to check, she may jump off to hide and you don’t want to drop her in the grass as she may not be able to find her way home.

Later in the season you can move the far outside frames one or two spaces towards the middle to encourage them to draw comb but never move to the center of the hive.

Try to find the queen as you work through the hive. If you can’t find her but see eggs then you know she was there at least two days ago. She’s hard to find especially if you’re looking through a full colony of 60,000 bees. If you have a queen that has a bad laying pattern, lots of skipped cells then you might want to dispose of her after acquiring a new queen.

Once you’ve checked all the frames gently slide them as a single unit back across the super and re-add the one frame you removed last week. Every week check your bees for eggs, larva and brood. Here’s a photo I found on one website http://www.arkive.org/honey-bee/apis-mellifera/image-A22601.html of eggs, larva, and capped brood. As the season progresses you also want to check for pollen and honey stores. Smoke them once more and replace the inner and telescoping cover. Check the food jar and top up as needed.

Part four will cover adding supers for the colony, propolis and how to off-set swarming.

Honey Beekeeper Part 2

Thanks to The Petticoat Prepper we have part two of Honey Beekeeper.  Enjoy

The big day has arrived; your bees are ready for pickup! I was both nervous and excited when mine came. Something I wish I’d had and will for this next group of bees is a sprayer bottle of water. You know those plastic plant misters? It was hot the day mine came and I picked up in my car. The girls rode in the trunk. I was worried about them over heating and stopped often to cool them down. I was afraid some police officer would see me on the side of the freeway fanning my open trunk frantically and think something was amiss…. I think lightly spraying them may have helped. They use their wings as fans and boy were they trying to cool down.

When you pick up your bees be sure to get a container of Terramycin. American and/or European Foulbrood isn’t something you want. Make sure you’re getting bees from a seller with a good reputation. If they get American Foulbrood your bees and hives will most likely need to be destroyed. I gave the girls two tablespoons shaken over them when I first hived them. After that you treat spring and fall, follow the package directions. Also pick up some pollen patties to feed them as this will give them a good start.

Your hive should be set up already. You’ll only need one deep super for now. The bees will build up and you want to make them almost fill each super before adding another. Store your second deep and the honey supers until later in the season.

When you arrive home with them place the box near the hive unless it’s raining then put them out of the wind and rain. Give them a spray of water and let them sit. They can stay in the box for a day or two just be sure to spray with water off and on. The can hanging inside is their food. This day or two of rest will give them time to become acquainted with their queen. Each queen has her own pheromone scent and there maybe some confusion during shipping as many boxes of bees will have been shipped together thus mixing the pheromone scents.

You will need to feed them at first until they have their house set up. 2 parts sugar to 1 part water. Bring your water to a boil turn off heat and add sugar, stir until dissolved, cool completely. This will be the food for them. Pour into canning jars or old mayo jars and screw into the plastic feeder.

Now let’s get ready to hive your bees hopefully on a sunny day with no wind. First, take a shower. Don’t use scented soaps, perfume, cologne or deodorants. Take off any rings just in case you get stung, don’t want to have your favorite ring cut off a swollen finger. If you do get stung, scrape off the stinger never pull it out as there are venom sacks and you’ll only add to the amount in the bite. Stay calm and smoke around yourself quickly. There is a pheromone released by the bee when it stings that signals others to follow and defend the hive; smoke and step away for a minute.

Ok, the smoker is working nicely with cool puffs of smoke and you’re showered and ready to don your official outfit. Sprinkle some baby powder on your hands, according to the dummies book the bees like it. I figure it helps for sweaty palms. Dress in your beekeeper suit making sure to close any openings at ankles, neck and wrists. Take your hive tool, sugar water sprayer and smoker with you; spray the girls with the sugar/water mix. Don’t saturate them but give them enough to get them busy cleaning each other. Pick up the box and give it a sharp rap or two on the ground to force the bees to drop to the bottom. See the little wooden cage inside the box of bees? This is your queen bee and her attendants. You want to remove this box first. Locate the metal tab that hold this cage in place next to the can.

Carefully pry the can of food up while holding onto the metal tab

keeping the queen cage in place. Do Not Drop The Queen! Once the can is out, quickly remove the queen cage and replace the can in the box, don’t worry about the bees that escape they’ll stay near the queen. Remove one frame from your deep super and store until next week. Hopefully, the place you got your bees from gave you some mini marshmallows to plug the queen cage with. If not, I guess you’d better have bought some. The queen cage will have a candy plug in the end. You want to remove this plug, use a screw to get a hold on and then gently pull out and replace with 2 mini marshmallows. Don’t let the queen or her attendants escape.

Take a really good look at your queen; you’ll need to be able to locate her next week. If you managed to buy one that’s marked it’s a lot easier to find her. .Once you replace the candy plug fit the queen cage between the two middle frames. There is generally a metal tab on her cage that you can bend over the top of one frame to help secure it in place; if not then wedge between the two frames in the middle. Make sure to angle the plug end up in case one of the attendants dies so its body doesn’t block the queen’s escape route. Also, be sure the screened side is facing down so the bees can bring her food. The bees will eat through the marshmallows to free the queen. Once you’re sure you’ve got the queen secured, it’s time to let the bees out and into their new home.

If they are very active inside the box, spray them again and rap box to drop them to the bottom. Pry out the feed can and set aside. Then shake and pour the bees over the queen’s cage. Some will stay in the hive around the queen and others will fly around. Stay calm and work slowly; it’s scary to be surrounded by this many bees but remember, they are looking for the queen right now and have no honey to defend. You can give puffs of smoke around to help calm them if needed. Once you have most of the bees out of the box sit it at the entrance to the hive, opening facing up. The remaining bees will smell the queen and move into the hive.

If they are very active you can smoke them to calm them down just don’t over kill with the smoke. Shake two tablespoons of the Terramycin over the bees and frame tops in the hive. Place half a pollen patty on top of the frames; you don’t need to remove the paper. Take the inner cover and starting at the back of the hive, slide it carefully into place. This will allow the bees to move out of the way and you won’t squish any. Place the telescoping cover on top of that.

Insert the plastic feeder with filled food jar into the front of the hive at the entrance. I find with the slope of my hive I have to shim the feeder to make it more level. If I don’t then the food seems to flood out instead of dripping out slowly. The entrance reducer will most likely not fit with the feeder in place. Stuff the entry with grass or leaves to reduce the area leaving only about 2 inches of opening. This will give the girls a smaller spot to defend from invaders. They will remove this on their own as they feel more confident in their ability to defend their new home. Once you see they’ve done this you can clean the remaining grass and leaves out with your hive tool. You’ll use the entrance reducer later to help combat stealing. In the morning you’ll be able to remove the box and return it for the deposit.

Congratulation! You’ve hived your first bees. Now leave them alone for the next week, no peeking. Just be sure to keep the food jar filled and enjoy their gentle hum. Part three will go over the types of bees in a hive, their jobs and your first inspection.

If you missed Part One - Go there Now! and catch up.  

Honey Beekeeping part one

One of my favorite sites is TheSurvivalistBlog.net.  This guy has a great number of followers who share a wealth of information that is amazingly useful.  Some is far beyond what I will ever use.  Some is perfect for people like me - the Granny prepper who is just doing the best I can for my age and expectations.  M.D. Creekmore had been gracious enough to allow me to share some of post from his site and this is one that I believe is just super.  It is actually a series and I will post them just as they were posted before.

I wonder at times why adults are so fearful of bees.  I understand why a child who has been stung or watched another child's reaction to the sting may over react in the presence of these little flying creatures.  I also understand why an adult who has a serious allergy to the bee sting would want to avoid contact.  But, a majority of adults should be glad that bees are around our homes and doing what they do best.  Pollinate our plants and then make that wonderful substance called honey.  Honey is by far, to me, the most amazing naturally made product that exist.

So, let me share the first of this series, by guest blogger Petticoat Prepper.

 

“Honey Beekeeping (Oh Lord, part one)” plus 2 more

 

A while back MD said he needed posts from all of us to help keep things moving along. My thought of offering to write about honeybees was encouraged and so get out your salt shaker and bear with me. Beekeeping is an inexhaustible subject. I haven’t a clue how many parts there will be to this but I know it can get very overwhelming and I’ll try to keep the parts shorter rather than longer. First let me say, I am no expert. I have been keeping bees for the past year. It’s been fun, frustrating, interesting and challenging. I’ll share what I’ve done and hopefully those interested will find a bit of help. Just keep in mind; it’s rather like herding cats. I am setting up to add 3 more hives to my backyard this year. I just placed my order for two more starter kits as I have one empty which I got for a swarm that left before I got back with it and then I’ve the original one (bees are still there). Once I have all of them set up I will have 4. The maximum number allowed by my city is 5. By law, if I have 5 or more I am required to register them with the State Agriculture Department. I don’t care to have the government in my back yard so I’m stopping at 4. The fee is very small and they check for diseases to help keep all the honeybees healthy. I am prohibited from selling any of the bees, honey, etc. as that would make them ‘live stock’ and I’m not zoned for live stock…gotta love ‘em! I would strongly suggest you look for a local beekeeping club to join. I would also suggest getting a decent book. My club suggests Beekeeping for Dummies. There are lots of YouTube videos that are very helpful and tons of web sites too. The first thing you need to understand is that it’s December 30, 2012 as I write this and that means you’re almost behind if you want to get going this coming year. Even if you don’t have a hive set up and clothes; get your bees ordered. You have no idea how hard it is to get them if you wait. My bees will come in April but I have to order them now. Bees come in 3 pound boxes. Yes, that’s 3 pounds of bees and one mated queen shipped with a can of food. 3 pounds of bees will be about 11,000 bees. Yes, 11,000 that’s a lot of bees and you’re going to let them out of that box! My bees are Italian; they are yellow brown in color with dark bands. They are gentle, produce a good amount of comb and large brood which results in quick colony growth. They winter over a large amount of bees so they need a good amount of food storage. Italian bees are the most popular followed by Carniolan. Ok, you’ve ordered your bees and now you need to start looking at a home for the ‘girls’ and a place to put them. There are a several options for homes but I’m only talking about mine. I use the Langstroth method named after the ‘Father of Modern Beekeeping’. I order my supplies from Ruhl bee supply as they are about 45 minutes from me. You can see their products at Ruhl Bee Supply depending on where you live you may want to order closer to home. I order their PNW starter kit assembled. I have no desire right now to put this stuff together and I pay them the extra $50 figuring it’s worth the loss of frustration. Plus I don’t have to make a second ‘oh crap!’ trip to get something I broke. This gives me everything I need to get the girls going. I also get a second medium super (terms are coming up hang in there), a queen excluder, mouse guard, and plastic feeder. Terminology on hive parts: ‘Super’ this is the box sections. ‘Deep Super’ this is where the girls live or stock pile food. ‘Medium Super or Shallow Super’ is where they make YOUR honey. ‘Frames’ this is the wood or plastic part that hangs from the super and to which foundations are attached. ‘Foundations’ this is a flat plastic or beeswax form that is held in place on the frames. They are stamped with a honey comb pattern and the girls will draw comb on this. ‘Draw Comb’ this is where the girls make wax honeycomb. ‘Queen Excluder’ a plastic grate that keeps the queen from reaching the medium supers so you don’t get brood in the honey. ‘Brood’ baby bees. ‘Entrance reducer’ a small board with notched section. This gives a new hive a smaller area to defend. ‘Plastic Feeder’ this is a small flat dish if you will that a canning jar of syrup fits into to feed the girls. Ok, the kit will/should have: 1 screened bottom board with sloped front (don’t get the solid flat ones) 1 entrance reducer 2 deep supers 20 frames (10 each super) 20 foundations 1 medium super 10 frames 10 foundations 1 inner cover 1 telescoping or English garden cover I also get cinder blocks from the lumber yard for the hive to sit on. I want them off the ground to help keep them dry. I want them up so any invading animals will have to stand on its back legs thus exposing their tender tummy’s to painful stings. When you site the hive you want dappled shade. The sun will wake them so you want them to get some but you also want to protect from the heat of the day. A wind break is important too as is a water source. I’m on a creek so the girls have plenty of water and the shade from my fruit trees helps keep them cool when we get hot. A 5 gallon food grade bucket with a line of holes drilled a couple inches from the top and filled with water and a couple inches of packing peanuts will work fine if you don’t have water within half a mile. Peanuts give the girls something to stand on so they don’t drown and the holes let rain water drain out so you don’t lose the peanuts. Wet bees are sick and unhappy bees. Take care to adjust the blocks or pallets so the hives lean forward a bit to help drain out any moisture. In the valley here we get lots of rain so I worry about drainage a bunch. The last I’m covering for this part is clothing and hand tools. Look through the style and types of beekeeping clothing and pick out what appeals to you. I bought a one piece pull over jacket with hat and veil. I like it as there is no zipper opening for a bee to find. The ‘hat’ part slides around a bit and I’m sewing a ribbon inside to tie under my chin to see if it will be still on my head. I find a bandana helps to keep my long hair contained and sweat out of my eyes while working the bees. I added painter’s coveralls for my pants. It’s a disposable one and I found it hot to work in during the heat of summer. I like it because the pant cuffs have elastic and I wear them outside my boots. I may look for just pants. I bought bee gloves with mesh at the wrist to help cool me off. The thing to think about when trying on the official outfit is being able to bend and stretch. AND how many openings are there?  Bees will search you while you work and I for one do not want one inside with me! Tools: Get a good hive tool. Don’t scrimp here you use this for just about everything. A smoker and fuel is a must. Learn to keep the smoker going. You want cool smoke for the girls never hot. A bee brush is nice. I used a small fresh branch with leaves before I got my brush and it worked fine, but I like the brush. A frame holder is great to have. This hangs on the side of the super and you remove the first frame and place it there while you work your hive. This gives you a bit of space to move the remaining frames forward. A frame grip is one of those things you think is stupid to have until later in the season when you’re trying to pull up a frame filled with pounds of honey and bees. Trust me you never want to drop a frame of bees. This stupid little tool is a must! In part two, I’ll explain how to get bees from box A into box B. Hopefully, this part wasn’t too long!