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.

Swarm !

Well today was one of those crazy days !  All of last week we were on vacation in Cape May. Life was good. Weather was beautiful. This morning we started our trip back home around lunch time. We had to make a couple of pit stops to pick up two hermit cabs and a back up Squirmy from Five Below. On the way home we hit traffic from exit 63 until around 81 from"construction". Slow moving. Just after the construction, Val got a call on her cell phone. It was my dad telling me that my hive swarmed ! Luckily I had just purchased a bunch of equipment from a beekeeper, so I told my dad to put a deep box under the swarm and sweep it into the box. He asked if they would sting and I said that they shouldn't. Usually honey bees, when swarming, are very docile.  They are full of honey and being homeless, have nothing to defend.  I had a spare veil at my parents for my dad to use and he agreed to give it a try. When I got home I gave him a call and he said that he got 65% into the box. He ran outside to check the status and reported that all the bees in the box flew back to the tree, so he did not get the queen. He also got a few stings in the process. I quickly unpacked the car and then hopped in my car and drove out there. I had just spent about 3 hrs driving and it takes about 1 hr to get to my parents. On the way there, I was thinking about how to catch this swarm. I decided to put a sugar and water mixture in a spray bottle and spray them. Then I would sweep them into the deep box. When I got there, they were still on the plum tree about 6 feet up on a 4 inch diameter limb.   This tree could not be cut. My dad had a step ladder set up. He had propped up on it a hive stand and a deep box just under the swarm.  No bees were in the deep. I had brought an old frame of comb with me. It had some nectar in it. I had seen a Utube video where a guy captured a swarm buy putting a deep over the swarm and the bees marched into it. I had some luck when the bees started moving into the deep from the branch, but they were slow moving. I decided to spray the swarm with sugar water and sweep them into the deep with a bee brush. My dad was inside when I decided to do this. I sprayed the swarm with the sugar water and then slowly swept the bees into the deep. All was going well. I kept spraying and sweeping until only a hand full of honey bees clung to the tree. I decided to spray and sweep one last time to get the last handful. On my last sweep, I accidentally hit the deep which was balancing on the step ladder and it went crashing to the ground. There were bees all over the place. Bees on the ground, in the tree and in the deep box. I had no idea of I had the queen or not !  I put up some saw horses and decided to put the deep onto this set up to make it more secure. Then I tried to scoop the bees on the ground onto a cardboard top. Most flew away. So now there were some bees in the deep and many on the tree. I sprayed the ones on the tree and swept them into a cardboard box then dumped them into the deep a few times. Again, I had not idea where the queen was. Finally may dad came out and I was at my wits end. I said maybe the queen is in the deep or on the tree, but I had to get back home because the kids were having a swim team party. If I caught the swarm cool, if not they could go find a new home. My dad and I hung out for a few minutes.  I noticed dead worker bees all over the place. I must have crushed a bunch during the sweeping. I felt pretty bad and I thought all was lost. Then on the ground near the saw horses I noticed a big bee. At first I thought it was a drone, but then to my amazement it was a QUEEN !!!  I was freaking out trying to grab it. My dad kept an eye on it and then put a broom in front of it to climb on. It climbed onto the broom and then I guided it into the deep !!!!!  Wow - what luck to have found the queen !!!!  After that I had to head home for the party. I'll check in with my dad in the morning to see what happened. Hopefully I got the right queen.  On a side note. I checked my hive near where the swarm came from (I think) and it looked packed. You couldn't tell that a swarm had just come from there, Maybe it didn't?????

I'll check in with my dad tomorrow.

Beekeeping Demo July 22, 2010

At 7PM July 22, 2010, the rescheduled Beekeeping Demo was on! I loaded up the mini van with all my gear. Deeps, frames, foundation, NUC box, books, certificates, telescopic lid, insect display, paper wasp nest and the "observation hive" and took the family over to the Reeves-Reed Arboretum in Summit, NJ. I was greeted by Jackie upon entering. She was surprised at my age. She imagined some old timer. My beekeeping demo stated at 7:30pm. Most people blew past the tables set up with the deeps and books and went directly to the observation hive. This was a good opportunity for me to describe what was in the hive. Workers, drones, capped brood and the queen cells. My observation hive has five queen cells in it. I answered a lot of questions with some help from Quinn and Evelyn. 

Right here is one of the queen cells.

This was a great experience and I will definitely be volunteering for more of these in the future. One of my main objectives is to educate people about honey bees as well as to teach the differences between honeybees, wasps and yellow jackets. People often think they are one in the same.

Setting up the frame display.

Evelyn explaining the "queen cage".

Queen cells in the observation hive !

This morning I went over to Celeste’s to check on her re-queen. Last week we checked her hive and there was still no queen. So we put a new one into the hive on July 14th. The new Carniolan queen had not been released from the cage. The bees release her by eating a candy plug in the cage, so we removed the screen and released her into the hive. All but one of the nurse bees that came in the cage was dead.

At my house, I checked and found a queen cell in the observation hive! Upon closer inspection I was able to find three queen cells !! A lot of the larvae died Saturday and Sunday, plus it looks like some of the capped brood didn’t make it either because the worker bees have been uncapping and pulling out pupa. But now with the queen cells it looks like the eggs survived. I’m only able to check the side facing the bedroom, so not sure if there are queen cells on the other side. The bees have almost completed cleaning out the capped honey that I put in the top. I have a mason jar full of sugar water to feed them. I put it on on Saturday and it is half full. I think I also found some new born bees, so things are shaping up in the observation hive.

The observation hive is such a great thing. I'm able to watch the bees during the day. Today I saw them seal up one of the queen cells.  Here is a picture of the entrance tube:

I took a quick picture of the cut up comb. I had to sacrifice half of one of my super frames full of honey to support this observation hive, but it was well worth it. I found a bunch of healthy larvae inside the combs while looking at the hive today.  Here is a picture of the cut up comp which I put into the top of the observation hive.

Beekeeping Demo

Well today I was supposed do a beekeeping presentation at a local arboretum followed by a movie. It was "The Bee Movie". I spent all of last week on vacation building and painting two deep boxes, building a NUC box and the hightlight of my presentation, building an observation hive with live bees !

I finished the observation hive on Thurs morning July 15th and then headed out to my parents to pull a few frames. Everything went well on pulling the frames. I was sure to get some eggs, larva, and nurse bees. Hopefully these workers will make a new queen.

I was very excited for the presentation today, it was hot and sunny all day today. 98 degrees, but I got a call around 4pm saying that it had been cancelled because of 100% chance of thunderstorms. I was bumming.

I unpacked the mini van. Then I had to deal with the observation hive. The bees had been locked up since about 2pm on Thurs. I had a jar of sugar water feeding the bees, but knew that they really needed to fly. So I had figure out where to put them. It was decided to put them in my son's room, so I began cutting some wood for the window, drilling holes for the tubes and cutting plastic tubing for an entrance.

While my wife and daughter went shopping, I worked. My son was hanging out with his friend, but was very excited about having an observation hive in his room, so he kept popping in and out. Finally his friend went to dinner and we were all set to assemble the entrance and tubes. I installed a piece of wood with a 1 inch diameter hole in it for the inner window, then slide a clear tube from the hive to a tube with a piece of wood for a platform landing . Then I put down the storm window over the tube and duct taped the storm window crack. My son and I then proceeded to attach the entrance tube. Luckily only one bee escaped into my son's room.

Then we noticed that some honey bees were slipping in through the storm window and duct tape. I decided to remove the duct tape to free the bees, but then noticed that the bees were now entering under the storm window and trapped between the inside window and storm windows. Uggg ! I decided to wait until morning until they settled down to fix the storm window issue. I'll post an update tomorrow.