Beehive visit 4, 15 June 2015

Well, a late entry on another visit.

Made my way out on Monday at a  nice 22 degrees, at around 6 pm and a brilliant blue sky. Love the alberta weather.

Found a little activity at the hive, and opened it up as one is want to do.

And as you can see the middle four frames are well populated, as is the first one and the sixth one getting built on. Nice! Not quite the seven I'd hoped for but I'd brought the second brood box and the frames to make it a 2 story condo for them regardless.

They had been busy little bees, collecting nectar (until its condensed enough to cap, its nectar, not honey)

These images should blow up really nicely as they were taken with my 'good' camera..which has the same amount of megapixel as my phone. Which says someting about its age. I still prefer it though, I can see the practicality of the phone..I'm less likely to lose the camera though as its bigger.

I found some tiny eggs, proof the Queen is there but HRH is still little Miss Shy.
I did find worker bees and covered brood. Here's a bee cleaning out a cell and some brood, covered with the tan caps.

Can you spot the Queen on this one? I couldn't. But I hunted for her and I hunted....

But to me it looks like one of those thousand pieces puzzles...or it could be.

One of the problems with the hive is that hte bees by nature want to build everywhere, not necessarily in the straight lines we want 'em to. The excess comb is called burr comb.

Here's a picture of some burr comb.

Now that's just the start of it, it gets a whole lot more packed in and dense. The easiest way to deal with it is diligently scrape it off before they build more and start laying brood in it, or storing honey. It just sticks the stuff together anyway so regretfully their hard work has to go.

This is a frame they are just starting to build up from the pre supplied, wax dipped board.

 The little coloured dots are a combination pollen and nectar, which gives them that colour as they fill the cells

If you zoom in on this little girl you can see how fuzzy they actually are. I'm always amazed when people confuse jellow jackets and bees. Bees are fuzzy! or have fuzzy parts.

I just really loved the colour gradients on this picture.


There is something very relaxing about spending an hour in the sun talking to bees. They have been so gentle so far its not even funny, Yes they sometimes walk over your jacket, but while I've been wearing my veil/jacket, I haven't felt the need to. I'm debating just getting a plain veil to wear instead, it'd be lighter. Alberta summers get hot!

And I kind of like being in closer touch almost with them.

There is an almost alien beauty about them, and they work so diligently and industriously. And watching you.

See where they're hanging on to each other? Typically they do that when they are trying to create wax, or working together. They have almost-barbed legs, almost jagged bits on them that help them hold on to each other.

And I'll leave you with this picture, becuase I can

I love the way the sun glints off the bee in the centre's wings if you zoom in! And if you look really close you can see the little barbs around her toes.

Closed up the hive after putting the second story on it, and next visit will tell!

Hive one, Hive Visit 3

So today was a balmy 34 degrees, and I went out to visit the hive again. A little late due to work (30 minutes or so) but nothing too bad. Picked up a new lighter for the kit as i'd taken my old one out for camping.

Go there, found farmer had put up odd looking white rope. With silvery glints in it. Nothing serious but instinct warned me..and I looked up Farmer lady. Smart move, it was electrified, but they nicely turned it off.

I only got caught once in it when I tried to get to the hives. Silly suit!

Gave the bees very little smoke today, as they were so gentle last week. There were a few more buzzing around today, maybe a dozen. Still, very gentle.

There was some activity around the entrance and I figured now might be a good week to remove the entrance excluder, so they could take full advantage. Did that at the end of the visit, last thing. First, a little puff of smoke, and they aall fled inside. Made me feel bad for them really.

This time it was me taking the pictures, with a glaring sun, through a veil and with a phone that seems to encourage glare and turn off the screen so...quality may be lacking. Next week I may take out my good camera.

Oh Hi there!

As you can see they left it cleaner on top which may be due to less sugar syrup. They have however, been building outwards which was good! I'm up to a solid five frames and two partially built. At seven you can put on the second story, so I may think about packing that next week. Or I may give them a week longer. Just because I pack it doesn't mean I have to use it, but too crowded a hive means bees try and do silly stuff like swarm.

some faint tinges of colour on the outside frames...and that's nectar from flowers, especially the darker stuff. No Queen yet.

Another peek into the hive-life

You can see how well they build it all together.

 The big white things are adult larva. And if you look carefully you can see coloured cells, the buff covered ones are capped larva, now pupae. the ones with the pretty yellows and oranges and the like are pollen.  Aren't they pretty?
I found four sunken cells, not a good sign, so i tested them to see what was in there. Syrup! Just capped early I guess. False alarms I can deal with .

 To the bees, I must be a menace from above.

So I removed the sugar syrup feeder and added a few extra boards. And as you can see they haven't built up the top again. 

 and i stole a tiny bit of honey laden wax to chew on. Maybe half a teaspoon worth. It was between two frames and damaged already, with a bee embedded in the wax.

Oh Her Highness? I found her.

See if you can spot her. This Queen Bee is fairly well visible. Sadly blogger won't let me upload this video, as its too big. I apologise for the quality but you can see a little bit of the frame too. It's not easy wielding a frame and a hive tool and a camera all at once!

a one minute tour of a frame


At this point I think a few bees were buzzing around, trying to make a point. So I closed up the hive, and let them bee...pun intended. After I removed the entrance excluder.

Now I'm down to naming my Queen bee, as I talked to Farmer Lady, and she said I was welcome to put up to 8 hives there if I want...I assured her there will be more next year if I have a say in it!

So I need a theme, for easy distinguishing.

The best suggestion I've had this week is 'ladies of Trek'. So, I'm down to three contenders for the first hive.

Amanda (Spock's mother), if you want to go alphabetical. And lets face it, she was a gentle and graceful lady.
Nyota, as hey, this is boldly going where I've never gone before. And she was one of the first ladies to do it, and did it well. And in light of the news of her having had a stroke this week.
The third option is Kathryn after the Captain of the same name...

Thoughts?

Hive one, visit 2

So this entry is backdated as I was sick for a few days.

Last week I went out to the hive, and checked it out.

I had trouble getting the lid off..the little buggers had build up some major comb, which is a very very good sign. I've read it takes seven pound of syrup or honey to build a pound of comb. So very good!

I took out the end frame and then slowly moved the frames apart, sadly breaking the odd little bit of comb where it was glued together. Funny enough when you move the frames? some of the bees that are 'holding on to each other' almost can form a few bee long chain. It was cute. They were as docile as can be too, very well behaved but being a little nervous I did apply a little smoke.

You can see how much they build up  before I even started! Excellent! there are three wood frames and one plastic one that came with the nuc, and at the back the thing with the two holes? is a syrup feeder. There was still maybe a third of syrup in there, so I left it, but I didn't top it up. They were still actively using it There should be plenty of honey sources around.

So then on to hunt the Queen! Disclaimer by the way, most of these photos' were taken by most excellent assistant, the daughter of the farmer lady who lets me put the hives on her land. They are about a 30 minute drive out of town.

I admit, looking down I was a little intimidated by the waxwork...and maybe by the amount of bees.

So what to do? Well dig in and start separating and looking for Little Miss Shy, the Queen!

Not there, on the outermost board. Only a little bit of building there even....

Not there either. On either side. At around this point I got the wise idea to look while holding the comb over the hive in case she dropped off or something. I'd hate for the wee mite to get lost in the grass.

Found signs of nectar aka sugar water, capped brood, older larva, and younger larva. Even spotted tiny day old eggs. In the corner you can see the starts of 'honey' aka sugar water, capped. Still no Queen.

Gorgeous lines on this one. Capped brood in the centre with larva around it and syrup around that.

I admit, I love peeking in between the comb and seeing everything buzzing and going on.

Last comb..and still no Queen? Still, as I'd seen day old eggs, I was pretty sure she was in there...somewhere...

Instead of going through the hive again I decided to be responsible and simply scraped the top bars clean of the wax that had built up. It's known as burr wax, and it had a little bit of sugar syrup in it. This little girl bravely came to get some of it back from where I'd stolen it! There's maybe a golf ball worth of wax there, if that.

I figured to check again next week and packed up my stuff, answering questions for Farmers Daughter all the way. She was fascinated. Long may it continue!