Update 2012

This year was definitely a different year as a beekeeper. The warm winter caused some problems for many of the beekeepers. Some beekeepers lost hives due to the hives running out of food stores and starving to death and other beekeepers had hives that went gangbusters and swarmed. This was my first year that I got called for swarms. I have been on the list for years, but those calls have always turned out to yellow jackets and not honey bees. This year I received three calls for swarms that were not mine. I was able to catch two of the three swarms. 

Small swarm from a fellow beekeep, was queenless.

One swarm was small and turned out queenless, so I combined this with another hive. The other was a nice size swarm caught at a soccer field, but they decided that they didn't like their new home and swarmed again.  One swarm call was about 50 feet up in an oak tree and was too high for me to even try. The other two (2) swarms were my own. The first was on April 13th. That's right Friday the 13th. This one swarmed across a neighbors back yard and up into another neighbors pine tree. This tree was about 50 feet tall and the swarm was up about 35 feet. I was able catch this swarm by climbing up the middle of the tree and knocking them into a 30 gallon Rubber Made container with lid. This was a huge swarm, i think around 40,000 bees. A month later I checked on this swarm and it turned out being queenless too. There were worker bees laying eggs and lots of brood. I have not combined this hive yet and just might wait for them to die off. It is almost two months and honey bees only live 4 to 6 weeks in the summer. The bees were drawing out the comb and filling it with honey and pollen, so i can just use these frames in another hive. The last swarm that I caught was also mine. Funny story. When the first hive swarmed on April 13th, a few days later I split this hive. I found a bunch of frames with queen cells. In fact two (2) frames had 4 to 5 queen cells on them. I left one of the queen cells in the swarm hive. The other two (2) frames with multiple queen cells i put into an observation hive with some nurse bees. We watched the bees for days and then eventually saw a queen that hatched. We watched the queen for days. She was not laying any eggs. I know that they wait for days until leaving the hive and mating. It seemed like over a week and on a sunny day I went to check on the hive. I could not believe the timing !  The queen was climbing out the tube. I saw her leave the tube, orient herself and fly out into the sky. Later that evening, the queen was back. About three (3) days later, still no eggs. On the third day I checked the hive before lunch and the queen was still not laying. The hive was full of bees. At 3pm I checked again, and the observation hive was empty !  I looked out the window and attached to the entrance tube and landing platform was a swarm. I quickly went out onto the roof and put the swarm into a NUC box. A week later the bees built out the new foundation and the queen was laying eggs.  This NUC is doing well.  

What a great little swarm !  I think I need to paint !!

Extractor !

I got lucky the other day and purchased this used stainless steel extractor. I was going to purchase a plastic one from Mann Lake for $160, but they were sold out. I then went to Betterbee for $115 plus $22 shipping. They were sold out. I decided to MacGyver it. I researched on the web on how to build an extractor and I went to home depot, spent $20 on threaded rod, drilled metal, washers, nuts etc. I was set on making the extractor that evening and then someone posted this extractor for sale. $150 !! I immediately respond telling her that I want to pick it up that night ! I was lucky enough to be the first responder. I am the proud owner of this awesome 2 frame extractor. I spent an hour taking it apart, cleaning it and putting it back together. i plan on extracting two medium supers tomorrow !!!

Combining weak hives

I have been extremely busy since my last blog. Work, home bees etc. I have a lot to say, but I'll start off in small updates. Back in early August I caught three (3) swarms. One of them I kept at my house and two of them I kept at Celeste's house. On Sept 10th, I decided to take the two (2) swarm hives from Celeste's and move them to my parents. A couple days earlier, I had checked the bees and one seemed to have a queen even though I could not find her.  The other seemed to be queenless, since I found a bunch of cells with multiple eggs. Three (3) per cell. I found no queen in this one either. I decided to combine them. So Sept 10th, I loaded them up in the MPV from Celeste's. Pete and Celeste were having a dinner party and a big bon fire. The kids and Val had a good time chilling at the fire, while I packed up the hives.  6am on Sat morning, I drove to my parents. One swarm (red) was only a deep with about 3 frames of bees/capped brood etc. Here it is. I put it on the bottom. 

I believe this one (red) has the queen. 

The second swarm was comprised of a deep and a super. The bottom deep was empty. I had used this when capturing the swarm.  I put the whole branch in the bottom deep and then on top of the deep I added a super with frames of foundation. Some of the foundation had been built out and this is where I saw cells with multiple eggs and larvae. Nothing was capped yet. 

Here is a picture in the minivan before moving into the bee yard.

I used the newspaper method. On top of the red deep I put one (1) sheet of newspaper. I slashed the newspaper with a knife and made a bunch of slits. Then on top of this I put the super. Now I had both swarms separated. I was not sure if there was only one queen or two queens, but I figured to let nature take is course if there were two queens and let them fight to the death. Below is the picture of the combined hives.

On Oct 9th, almost a month later, I removed the top super. In it I found a bunch of dead drones and some wax moth larvae. My assumption was correct. This swarm had no queen and the capped brood had been drones which were laid by a worker bee. The top super was empty of bees. They were all in the bottom deep. I removed the super. In the bottom deep it was full of bees. Only about 6 frames. I added a frame feeder and filled it with 8 cups of syrup.  On Oct 26th, I went to my parents to check the hives.  In the swarm hive, I checked the feeder and it was empty. It was full of bees !!nOn the bottom of the deep in the empty space, I also found a mouse nest. I'll need to clean this out and add mouse guards to this hive and all my hives. I filled up the frame feeder with 16 cups of sugar syrup. I'll need to check that soon. My plan is to move it back to Chatham and put it on top of one of my big hives. This way the heat of the big hive will keep the small swarm hive warm.  

Honey !

Tonight I finally put all of my honey into jars. The honey has been safely stored in a 5 gallon bucket since Aug 3rd. My wife (Valerie) and I spent about half and hour to jar sixteen (16) one lb jars and ten (10) half lb jars. So it came out to a total of 21 pounds of honey !! I may be selling my honey this Friday Sept 17th at the Hightstown Farmers Market.

Observation Hive - Update. Brood is hatching !

Last night I noticed some new born bees ! The frames that I pulled from my parents hive are Italians. Some of the new bees are Carniolan, so I assume that the new queen mated with the drones from my back yard. The bottom frame is covered in capped brood. I see larva and eggs. Today Quinn and I saw a lot more hatched bees. There is a mix of Italian and Carnie. Things are looking good for the observation hive.

Observation Hive - Update. There is a queen !

On August 1st I noticed that the queen cells were being torn down by the worker bees. I searched the observation hive and found a queen. She must have recently hatched from her cell. I didn't see much action from her until last week. I noticed that she was starting to lay eggs. So I watched her for about 20 minutes. I could see her abdomen squeezing out an egg, but not in a cell. It fell and not sure where it went. At first I thought she had a problem, but then thought she was just a beginner at laying eggs. As I watched her, she was getting it. She would put her abdomen fully into the cell for a few seconds and then come out. With a flash light I was able to see the tiny eggs that she left in the cell. I also noticed some cells with some white jelly and upon closer inspection I could see tiny larva. All was good !!

Last night Aug 16th, I noticed the first cell being capped ! I also noticed lots and lots of larva in the cells. I could even see the larva moving.

Today there was more capped brood and I could see more larger larva. The queen is laying eggs and the hive is beginning to be built up again. It is very exciting to see a hive raise a queen from an egg and now watch the queen as she is laying the eggs. Success !

I also got a big delivery from Mann Lake today. I was waiting on some 8oz and 1 lb jars so that I could fill them with honey. I also ordered a couple cardboard NUC boxes and some "swarm lure". Next time my bees swarm I'll be using the NUC boxes and swarm lure to make catching them a little easier. Actually, it'll make it easier for my dad who always finds my swarming bees !

A Crazy Train Day

Well, this week I was supposed to relax after my vacation and "regroup". I had a bunch of things to do at home, inspect the minivan, extract my honey, etc..., but the "bees" had a different plan. On my last blog (Swarm) I told you about my day on Saturday. The hive at my parents house swarmed. On Sunday I checked in with my dad and there was still a small swarm on the plum tree and there were also bees in the deep box. So I'm not sure what happened. I think the queen that I found on the ground may have been a second queen. Later in the day my dad said that the swarm on the tree was gone, but still some bees in the box. The plan was to go back to my parents the next day for dinner, pack up the swarm and bring them back to my house. Well, at about 10:30 am on Mon, my dad called.  Here is his message, "Hey Al, your not going to believe this, but you have another swarm." I was shocked. I gave my dad a call and he said the bees were up on a small tree branch, about 15 to 18 ft. This would be a somewhat easy swarm to catch. I packed my gear, hopped in my car and drove out the hour to my parents. When I got there, my dad already had the tractor with front end loader in position.  I grabbed an extra deep box & platform and put this by the tree. I suited up, hopped into the bucket and my dad lifted me up into the tree. After trimming some branches, I was ready to cut the branch on which the bees were hanging. Last time my dad climbed up on the tractor and into the bucket to cut the branch while I held it, but this time it was too high. I had to grab the branch with one hand and put the cutter underneath my arm pit trying to cut it with that one. It was difficult, but the branch finally cut. It slipped a little and a clump of bees landed on my foot. My dad lowered the bucket and we put the branch with the swarm into the deep. I was hoping that the clump of bees on my foot would go into the deep following the queen, but they decided to stay on my sneaker. PLease note that I was not wearing any socks, so the bees were tickling my ankle. My dad helped me remove the sneaker and I put it near the deep. Eventually the bees went into the box. I threw super with new foundation frames on top of the deep only containing the swarm on a branch and threw a cover and lid on top. The bees entered the box. Mission accomplished, or so I thought.


It gets crazier.  Only minutes after my dad and I caught the swarm, there was a big commotion over at the old hive where the swarm came from. Bees were flying all over the place. The sky was filled with bees. I was not sure what was happening, but I kept saying to myself there was going to be another swarm. And right in front of my eyes (and on film ) I saw the bees swarm onto one of my dad's plum trees. So my dad and I caught that swarm too !  Now I have 3 new hives.  I'll need to build them up before the winter so they can survive it.

Swarm number 3

This time I put the deep box in the tractor bucket. It was safer then propping it up on the step ladder.