The bees have been active today. Both hives have been out flying around. We've had temps above mid 60's today. It was breezy today about 15 MPH at times. The bees are not going to be bringing anything in. The hidden water fountain is very active with the bees drinking water.
I have had 4 packets of flower seeds since last spring, but it was too late to plant them when I purchased them. It was at the dollar store I think. I planted Poppies, African Daisies, and a melody mixture. The poppies I know will do well. The African Daisies should do well too. I have no idea if the melody will do anything. I also have Delphiniums. They're rather large flowers that I think the bees will like. I will plant them in January and keep them indoor until the end of February. I also planted a almond verbanium This is a flowering small tree that is very fragrant. It will definitely attract bees. Smells really sweet and fragrant. I planted this off the porch about 8feet, so I could enjoy the smell and not have the bees too close. 4ft cube is about what this says it will grow. I have poor soil conditions, so who knows how it will do. I did put a lot of potting soil in the ground.
Lots planted this year. 3 peach trees, 4 roses I think it was 4, 6 grape vines, Some shrubs and some kinda plant that is suppose to bloom in the spring time. It didn't grow much until this fall. Hard to have anything grow in such conditions . Quite a lot of stuff was planted for the bees, but it's not going to impact them as they forage about 8000 acres.
I attempted to contact Hawaii for a queen, but they didn't have any they'd sell me. Damn it. Contacted some in Florida just on the off chance. NOPE. No luck. Oh well.
I did start making Nuc Boxes. Made 1. Cut material for 2, but miscut one board, so I have to do it at a later time. I only had enough for 2 boxes. These are not whole Nuc boxes. These are for the existing Nuc Boxes I have. Since I have to split that African Mean as hell bee hive, I need to build this winter.
Anyhow that's about it. Everything is browning again. Just too cold and the daylight isn't available, so the plants and grass are going dormant.
Zak
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Friday, November 6, 2015
Africanized Bees and Fall Seasonal Changes
It's been 23 days I believe since I reduced the Africanized bee hive down by 50%. This was killing 50% of the hive and the queen by shaking the bee frames off the frames and into soapy water. This was done to reduce the behavior of aggression problems I was encountering. It's not fun when your being attacked by bees.
I did write of my attack last week that happened in less then 2 minutes. Lesson learned that any thing I do, I must dress in layers, and be fully protected as the bee hive does respond very quickly. What is going on? I would love to pop the top of the Africanized bee hive to pull a test frame I put in 8 weeks ago. I just want to see if they have drawn comb on it. If they do draw comb then great an inexpensive material for foundations. Since I don't have nurse bees I speculate that the comb is not drawn out, so no need to go rifling through an overly sensitive defensive bee temperament. I can wait for Spring time.
I speculate that a new queen is in the bee hive because it's 5 days past the 16 day emergence of a queen. Hopefully the bee hive did requeen. Since the population was full strength numbers and I culled out 50%, plenty of nurse bees to requeen and even if not the nurse bees enough bees were out of the bee hive when I did the shake some how hopefully who ever makes the queen cell with the pheromones was able to do it.
The queen is going to be a virgin as no male drones exist because they were kicked out of the hive when Fall started. I have seen drones in the other hive awhile back. Interesting thing is I had never seen a drone during inspections. It would be interesting to know if she lays drones specifically to mate and then winter. Since were in Texas I wouldn't bet against that happening. Were still having upper 70's and a few 80's. Nights are in the low to mid 60's. Not ideal to lay, but with the events that took place I speculate she's gotta mate.
Prediction
Spring will come in 2016 and in January on some warmer days that we have the queen will start to lay. This will start the bee hive population. February will come and it's coldest during this month.
March will come and flights will take place even though nothing is available until April when Spring Flowers emerge. We have an emergence of wildflower bloom that is spectacular. We've had fall rain that germinates the Spring flowers. Sadly we didn't have any rainfall or early fall rain, so not too much was available for the bees. I did a lot of feeding of the bees this summer due to the drought. I thought some flowers would be coming up with the rainfall, but that isn't the case. Not even the native bufflo grass is putting up seed stocks that we typically have. Great thing is that I don't have to mow. Anyone want to come mow where the bee yard is? Yes, I do suit up as I have gotten attacked on the mower when I last mowed about 2 months previously.
I will build my bee wooden ware. I will be putting on 3 honey boxes on bee hive 1. I hope to have 3 nucs ready to go for a split in the Spring time when I receive my queens from Louisiana or California. I am getting a Varoa Mite Resistant strain of queens that are suppose to be good population growth and honey producers. Varoa Mite is 1 of the many factors of bee decline. Basically it's a flea on a bee is the easiest way to say what it is. It weakens a bee hive. This strain of bees will cart larvae out of the cells and drop them off outside when the mites are present. This reduces the numbers of the bees, but keeps the population of Varoa Mites in check.
Plan is to split the Africanized Bees to 3 Nuc Boxes, leaving the existing bee hive to repopulate. Sell the Nuc boxes after 45 days and recover some of my initial investment. A little bit learned is I should have added another box to the bee hive sooner and that probably would have curbed some of the problems I had with the bee hive. Maybe they were too populated. Just didn't have the resources to build comb though as not much pollen. Very hard to build a hive up when mother nature throws nearly 4 months of no rainfall.
I will have my 2 bee hives. Just am not in the place I thought I would be in. I wanted 2 productive bee hives producing honey. I rather have the money though selling Nucs then the honey production. I might change that though come spring time and just requeen the bee hive to have 2 bee hives producing the amount of honey I really want. At sometime I will need to split bee hive 1 though is my thought. So who knows. Nothing is certain as anything can happen when you have bees.
Zak
I did write of my attack last week that happened in less then 2 minutes. Lesson learned that any thing I do, I must dress in layers, and be fully protected as the bee hive does respond very quickly. What is going on? I would love to pop the top of the Africanized bee hive to pull a test frame I put in 8 weeks ago. I just want to see if they have drawn comb on it. If they do draw comb then great an inexpensive material for foundations. Since I don't have nurse bees I speculate that the comb is not drawn out, so no need to go rifling through an overly sensitive defensive bee temperament. I can wait for Spring time.
I speculate that a new queen is in the bee hive because it's 5 days past the 16 day emergence of a queen. Hopefully the bee hive did requeen. Since the population was full strength numbers and I culled out 50%, plenty of nurse bees to requeen and even if not the nurse bees enough bees were out of the bee hive when I did the shake some how hopefully who ever makes the queen cell with the pheromones was able to do it.
The queen is going to be a virgin as no male drones exist because they were kicked out of the hive when Fall started. I have seen drones in the other hive awhile back. Interesting thing is I had never seen a drone during inspections. It would be interesting to know if she lays drones specifically to mate and then winter. Since were in Texas I wouldn't bet against that happening. Were still having upper 70's and a few 80's. Nights are in the low to mid 60's. Not ideal to lay, but with the events that took place I speculate she's gotta mate.
Prediction
Spring will come in 2016 and in January on some warmer days that we have the queen will start to lay. This will start the bee hive population. February will come and it's coldest during this month.
March will come and flights will take place even though nothing is available until April when Spring Flowers emerge. We have an emergence of wildflower bloom that is spectacular. We've had fall rain that germinates the Spring flowers. Sadly we didn't have any rainfall or early fall rain, so not too much was available for the bees. I did a lot of feeding of the bees this summer due to the drought. I thought some flowers would be coming up with the rainfall, but that isn't the case. Not even the native bufflo grass is putting up seed stocks that we typically have. Great thing is that I don't have to mow. Anyone want to come mow where the bee yard is? Yes, I do suit up as I have gotten attacked on the mower when I last mowed about 2 months previously.
I will build my bee wooden ware. I will be putting on 3 honey boxes on bee hive 1. I hope to have 3 nucs ready to go for a split in the Spring time when I receive my queens from Louisiana or California. I am getting a Varoa Mite Resistant strain of queens that are suppose to be good population growth and honey producers. Varoa Mite is 1 of the many factors of bee decline. Basically it's a flea on a bee is the easiest way to say what it is. It weakens a bee hive. This strain of bees will cart larvae out of the cells and drop them off outside when the mites are present. This reduces the numbers of the bees, but keeps the population of Varoa Mites in check.
Plan is to split the Africanized Bees to 3 Nuc Boxes, leaving the existing bee hive to repopulate. Sell the Nuc boxes after 45 days and recover some of my initial investment. A little bit learned is I should have added another box to the bee hive sooner and that probably would have curbed some of the problems I had with the bee hive. Maybe they were too populated. Just didn't have the resources to build comb though as not much pollen. Very hard to build a hive up when mother nature throws nearly 4 months of no rainfall.
I will have my 2 bee hives. Just am not in the place I thought I would be in. I wanted 2 productive bee hives producing honey. I rather have the money though selling Nucs then the honey production. I might change that though come spring time and just requeen the bee hive to have 2 bee hives producing the amount of honey I really want. At sometime I will need to split bee hive 1 though is my thought. So who knows. Nothing is certain as anything can happen when you have bees.
Zak
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Africanized Bee Hive Attacked and WON!
I wanted to return 2 frames I harvested honey from about 3 weeks ago. I also wanted to know a few things too. I wanted to know if the bees were going to be better with out smoking them or if it was not going to be possible.
I got the frames I wanted to return out of the refrigerator. Took the plastic off it. Suited up. Thought since it was quick that I was going to just pop the top and it was going to be easy to pull a frame and exchange it.
I get to unstrapping the bee hives. Bees just poured out of the bee hive 2 that is the Africanized. Okay in under a minute I got stung about 20 times. Of all the damn places it was my socks. I must have killed a bee with my glove and it fell off onto the ground. I wear black socks unfortunately.
So I hobbled off about 10 feet with my hands swatting the bees killing them that are on my socks. Not good. I run off to my shop and go inside where I don't have visual with the bees and the bees don't either.
The typical protocol is suit up with gloves. Socks are fine with shoes. They've stung my socks, but it's only been twice that has happened. If I am going into the hives messing with them I am fine typically and never been as torn up as I was. I go in with my winter boots and ankles duct taped normally if I know the bees are going to go nuts or if I am doing a prolonged contact with them.
I got most of the bees off my ankles. looked at the screen on the door and not many were massed on the entrance. I take off to under the oak trees. Do some weaving and all the bees were gone. No buzzing. Into the house I go. Ankles and hands on fire. I was wearing gloves too and that's a first.
I get the bath tub going with cold water. Go to the kitchen and pop 2 benadryl. The sad part is that I am going to have to go out tommorow and strap the bee hives back down.
So here I sit. I should have smoked them. I should not have done anything to bee hive 2. Bee hive 2 has been behaving and well. I was only going to look in to see if they had queen cells and straighten up the bee hive box cause it's not sitting level on the bottom board. This of coarse was at night when I got to killing 50% of the bee hive. My guess is they have the bee hive requeened or 1 is about to emerge, but I won't know because they won't let me look inside. No need to force myself upon them.
I'm going to have to have a few bee keepers in the spring time come help me when I requeen the bee hive in springtime. Not looking forward to this at all. I am going to split this bee hive into 4. I will have a total of 5 bee hives. Bee hive 1 I will continue to add boxes to. No need to do anything other then re-queen it with a gentle queen with varroa reistance from California. They will be taking orders for queens in mid January for April - August is what I received from them in an email.
I am going to prepare this winter building bee hives. Should be fun building. I also am going to build bee hives to sell because I believe I can sell them locally to a hardware store and possible tractor supply that is local. Tractor Supply store just opened in my town.
Zak
I got the frames I wanted to return out of the refrigerator. Took the plastic off it. Suited up. Thought since it was quick that I was going to just pop the top and it was going to be easy to pull a frame and exchange it.
I get to unstrapping the bee hives. Bees just poured out of the bee hive 2 that is the Africanized. Okay in under a minute I got stung about 20 times. Of all the damn places it was my socks. I must have killed a bee with my glove and it fell off onto the ground. I wear black socks unfortunately.
So I hobbled off about 10 feet with my hands swatting the bees killing them that are on my socks. Not good. I run off to my shop and go inside where I don't have visual with the bees and the bees don't either.
The typical protocol is suit up with gloves. Socks are fine with shoes. They've stung my socks, but it's only been twice that has happened. If I am going into the hives messing with them I am fine typically and never been as torn up as I was. I go in with my winter boots and ankles duct taped normally if I know the bees are going to go nuts or if I am doing a prolonged contact with them.
I got most of the bees off my ankles. looked at the screen on the door and not many were massed on the entrance. I take off to under the oak trees. Do some weaving and all the bees were gone. No buzzing. Into the house I go. Ankles and hands on fire. I was wearing gloves too and that's a first.
I get the bath tub going with cold water. Go to the kitchen and pop 2 benadryl. The sad part is that I am going to have to go out tommorow and strap the bee hives back down.
So here I sit. I should have smoked them. I should not have done anything to bee hive 2. Bee hive 2 has been behaving and well. I was only going to look in to see if they had queen cells and straighten up the bee hive box cause it's not sitting level on the bottom board. This of coarse was at night when I got to killing 50% of the bee hive. My guess is they have the bee hive requeened or 1 is about to emerge, but I won't know because they won't let me look inside. No need to force myself upon them.
I'm going to have to have a few bee keepers in the spring time come help me when I requeen the bee hive in springtime. Not looking forward to this at all. I am going to split this bee hive into 4. I will have a total of 5 bee hives. Bee hive 1 I will continue to add boxes to. No need to do anything other then re-queen it with a gentle queen with varroa reistance from California. They will be taking orders for queens in mid January for April - August is what I received from them in an email.
I am going to prepare this winter building bee hives. Should be fun building. I also am going to build bee hives to sell because I believe I can sell them locally to a hardware store and possible tractor supply that is local. Tractor Supply store just opened in my town.
Zak
Friday, October 23, 2015
Video: Observation of AGGRESIVE BEE HIVE #2
Although the bees seemed to be calm now, last week was not any fun. The bees were aggressive to the point I wanted to get rid of the bees. Talk was with "E" was she was wanting to burn the bee hive. I attempted to re-locate them to the country on a ranch with another bee keeper contact, but that was clearly not going to happen after the follow up phone call never happened. Did not even receive a "NO" by phone call, so that's a big fat "HELL NO!"
I just do not enjoy mean bees. Combination of installation of a beetle trap, removing a sun shade and an inspection of 1 frame made the bees super aggressive. The bees would be gone if they didn't calm down this week, so thankfully they did.
Here is the bees bringing in Pollen. You can see they dynamics of the bees interaction with each other if you pay close attention to what the bees do by following the ones that are walking around. Guard bees, Fanning Duty and nectar transfer is what I think can be spotted.
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I just do not enjoy mean bees. Combination of installation of a beetle trap, removing a sun shade and an inspection of 1 frame made the bees super aggressive. The bees would be gone if they didn't calm down this week, so thankfully they did.
Here is the bees bringing in Pollen. You can see they dynamics of the bees interaction with each other if you pay close attention to what the bees do by following the ones that are walking around. Guard bees, Fanning Duty and nectar transfer is what I think can be spotted.
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Video Africanized Bees Dead= Normal
It's bee raining here off and on for the past couple days. In the AM you can see the dead bees that die daily and are carted out of the bee hive. Since more time is spent inside it's more common is my theory to see dead bees.
If you took 20,000 bees and you know that bees die in approx 35 to 42 days, then you see that 476 571 bee deaths happen naturally. This of coarse isn't the ones that don't make it back due to being injured, killed, stinger death and other natural ways they die when away from the bee hive.
This doesn't alarm me as the social structure in bee hive 2 (suspected Africanized) is not in order due to the loss of the queen. I had to kill 50% of the bee hive this being the brood chamber. When safety is at the most concern the social structure isn't a concern to me and shouldn't be to anyone else. I shook the brood chamber frames into soapy water a little over a week ago. This was done thinking it would calm the bees down as they don't as many bees nor the pheromone of the queen that dictates the aggression level of the bee hive. Clearly the sensativity the queen had was over what I will tolerate.
I will not open this bee hive up and see what is going on. No need to as I predict a virgin queen will emerge the 30th or the 31st. Most certain that they will be okay as mother nature has a balance. If no queen exists, then the hive is doom to die out. All seems calm and normal now, so I am not worried. I went in to this with the mindset when I culled 50% of the bee hive that either they calm down or don't. If they don't the bee hive is no longer and I will take the rest the death. Either the bees survive or they do not.
Zak
Liberty Hill Texas USA
If you took 20,000 bees and you know that bees die in approx 35 to 42 days, then you see that 476 571 bee deaths happen naturally. This of coarse isn't the ones that don't make it back due to being injured, killed, stinger death and other natural ways they die when away from the bee hive.
This doesn't alarm me as the social structure in bee hive 2 (suspected Africanized) is not in order due to the loss of the queen. I had to kill 50% of the bee hive this being the brood chamber. When safety is at the most concern the social structure isn't a concern to me and shouldn't be to anyone else. I shook the brood chamber frames into soapy water a little over a week ago. This was done thinking it would calm the bees down as they don't as many bees nor the pheromone of the queen that dictates the aggression level of the bee hive. Clearly the sensativity the queen had was over what I will tolerate.
I will not open this bee hive up and see what is going on. No need to as I predict a virgin queen will emerge the 30th or the 31st. Most certain that they will be okay as mother nature has a balance. If no queen exists, then the hive is doom to die out. All seems calm and normal now, so I am not worried. I went in to this with the mindset when I culled 50% of the bee hive that either they calm down or don't. If they don't the bee hive is no longer and I will take the rest the death. Either the bees survive or they do not.
Zak
Liberty Hill Texas USA
Thursday, October 15, 2015
My suspected Africanized Bee Hive How to kill 50% of a bee hive safely.
I got dressed for battle with my problem hive #2 11PM last night 10/14/2015. I pulled the honey Super off the top and
placed it on a screened bottom board that they could not get out. I
took the super down from below that had the brood chamber and shook all
10 frames of bees off into soapy water. I noticed 1 thing! It sure is a lot
easier at night doing work with the bees. I took the empty box and
shook it over the soapy water. Took all the frames and shook them 1
more time before placing them back in the bee hive box. Placed the
honey super on the brood chamber and strapped it down.
My theory going with tid bits taken from Michael Palmer a renowned bee keeper in the East USA is to reduce the numbers and remove the queen will calm the hive down. I suspect that in the brood chamber somewhere some eggs will exist to turn into queens. Temperature has been 95 and 98 the past week, I believe that that a queen cell will take life and winter infertile. I have no idea if this works what I have done. Just a theory in play. Since most of the brood chamber bees are gone, they'll need to focus on re-queening. It's cooling down or at least that's the theory. We had 104 temps on Sunday where I live. Who knew we'd have summer still try to stay? So, the problem bees hopefully they'll not be focused on aggression or no longer alive. I of coarse speculate the queen is not with this bee hive. Cooler temps mean the bees stay inside or less active.
If this bee hive makes it, then great I can re-queen next April. If they do not make it, I have a mess to deal with. If they don't calm down, then another shake in soapy water is what they get and the hive is no longer. Sure this queen-less hive can act a fool, I am well aware of this. I've been dealing with this far too long and it's nothing new. We will see if this calms them down and refocuses the bee hive.
Of coarse I could pull a frame of eggs from bee hive 1 the normal hive, but I rather just let the bees deal with it or if they can't then that's okay too.
I'm not sorry for what transpired. As Michael Palmer says "MEAN BEES SUCK" I shouldn't be chased by guard bees when I am50 yds away from the bee yard. I am not dealing with a mean hive PERIOD!
I sure do envy y'all that have nice calm bees in all the YouTube Video's. I believe I am going to get 4 queens in April from wildflower meadows. I have been reading up on them. I like this selective breeding they do with the queens. I've been told that Bee Weaver(BEE SUPPLIER IN TEXAS) has been getting more aggressive over the years by a local bee keeper. I do know what I am getting with wildflower if that is what I end up with. I will keep y'all informed on my observation.
This AM the bee hive entrance activity of foraging bees is by far fairly low in comparison to previously and the bee hive #1 next to it. I hope I can walk out to the shop this AM and not get attacked as that happened yesterday afternoon about 4PM. Its ridiculous to have bees come and attack you 50yds away and you have not done anything other then open the shop door.
Zak
My theory going with tid bits taken from Michael Palmer a renowned bee keeper in the East USA is to reduce the numbers and remove the queen will calm the hive down. I suspect that in the brood chamber somewhere some eggs will exist to turn into queens. Temperature has been 95 and 98 the past week, I believe that that a queen cell will take life and winter infertile. I have no idea if this works what I have done. Just a theory in play. Since most of the brood chamber bees are gone, they'll need to focus on re-queening. It's cooling down or at least that's the theory. We had 104 temps on Sunday where I live. Who knew we'd have summer still try to stay? So, the problem bees hopefully they'll not be focused on aggression or no longer alive. I of coarse speculate the queen is not with this bee hive. Cooler temps mean the bees stay inside or less active.
If this bee hive makes it, then great I can re-queen next April. If they do not make it, I have a mess to deal with. If they don't calm down, then another shake in soapy water is what they get and the hive is no longer. Sure this queen-less hive can act a fool, I am well aware of this. I've been dealing with this far too long and it's nothing new. We will see if this calms them down and refocuses the bee hive.
Of coarse I could pull a frame of eggs from bee hive 1 the normal hive, but I rather just let the bees deal with it or if they can't then that's okay too.
I'm not sorry for what transpired. As Michael Palmer says "MEAN BEES SUCK" I shouldn't be chased by guard bees when I am50 yds away from the bee yard. I am not dealing with a mean hive PERIOD!
I sure do envy y'all that have nice calm bees in all the YouTube Video's. I believe I am going to get 4 queens in April from wildflower meadows. I have been reading up on them. I like this selective breeding they do with the queens. I've been told that Bee Weaver(BEE SUPPLIER IN TEXAS) has been getting more aggressive over the years by a local bee keeper. I do know what I am getting with wildflower if that is what I end up with. I will keep y'all informed on my observation.
This AM the bee hive entrance activity of foraging bees is by far fairly low in comparison to previously and the bee hive #1 next to it. I hope I can walk out to the shop this AM and not get attacked as that happened yesterday afternoon about 4PM. Its ridiculous to have bees come and attack you 50yds away and you have not done anything other then open the shop door.
Zak
Monday, October 12, 2015
Africanized Aggressive Bees=Bee Hive Veroa Mite Control with Apivar
Last few weeks has been very frustrating and depressing. Depressing because my whole entire year dedicated to 2 bee hives might end up being 1 bee hive. I have a severe aggressive bee hive that probably has a high percentage of DNA from Africanized queen. The bees in hive 2 are so aggressive it's downright dangerous. As long as I don't do anything to them they're fine, but try and do something to the bee hive and your going to get the worst reaction from this bee hive. It reminds me of when I got the bees. Agitated Yes. For reasons justified yes it could be cause it had been cloudy, removed the sun sail cloth, hive beetle penetration and beetle trap installation.
I have been trying to get someone that can do a DNA test for my bees. Testing for percentage of Africanized bees. NC University does it apparently I think for $50. This after searching on line, emailing and phone calls for about a week. I have not contacted them. Why? Cause I am on the fence about destroying this bee colony. It's a dangerous situation to the community. I weigh my safety and the safety of the surrounding community daily. They seem to be calm currently and surprisingly the day after installing Apivar strips to both bee hives, the bees were back to normal.
What took place leading up to this? I called my favorite state bee inspector. She and I met and it was in a manner that she would not forget. When I called I went through the scenario of why she would remember me perhaps, she infact did. I being a rather self educated beginner took a Spring Bee class that was put on by the Central Texas Bee Association. The lady our bee inspector was giving a quick class on the health and welfare of bees. Different things that they can get like Tracheal Mites, American Foul Brood etc.... She skimmed over veroa mites and that being the #1 concern these years with bee keepers, I had noted that when she asked for questions on Veroa nobody raised any questions. I took it to open a can of worms by asking about sugar shake and count levels. I had seen video's on it by some other state bee inspector. Anyhow, she wanted to move on as time was clicking by, she was trying her best, but it seemed my couple questions turned into a 10 minute question and answer and I was laughing watching her struggle. She is young 25 or so and watching her reaction it was funny at the time.
So onward....... We had a 30 min conversation and she had recommended to do a mite count. Something I had not done. Since my bee hive #2 is aggressive, no way am I going to open it up to see if I need to treat by catching a cup of bees, putting them in a jar and shaking them in powdered sugar and doing a mite count. I was recommended that if I need to treat to use Apivar it's a 99% kill rate on the hive for Veroa Mites. 42 days you pull the strips out.
I order Apivar from Mann Lake $45 with shipping I think is what it was . 10 strips and what you do is place 2 stips in the brood chamber. Making sure it's placed where the bees will be. They crawl on it and get the chemical on them. Verroa mites drop dead. I have to empty out the West Beetle trap anyhow. So instead of doing that on Monday I waited for the Apivar to arrive in the mail.
Knowing my bee hive #2 is aggressive I get on my Denim long sleeve shirt, bib Overalls (Dickies Brand) and bee suit. Go light my smoker and smoke the bees, undo the straps, Come back over and get all my tools and stuff. Bring it over to the bee hive. Pop the top on Bee Hive 1 the non aggressive bees. Remove the honey super and place the Apivar strips into the Brood chamber. Put the Honey Box medium on and I am done. Strap it down.
Bee Hive #2 I lift the top and get a face full of bees. I take the honey box off (SUPER) and get a face full of angry bees. I at this time can not hear anything other then a loud buzz. Take the brood box off and expose the west beetle trap. Take that off the bottom board and clean it out. Put it back on. Put the Bee Hive back together. I am rushing and after everything was put back I realized that the beetle trap was crooked. Left side was down and right side was up. Not going to mess with it. It is what it is. I walked about a block away and the bees were still after me. Walked back down the street 1/2 block past my house and about 5 bees hanging out. Made a run for the door and got in the house without bees. Took off my bee suit and tossed it outside on the porch. Looked at the gloves and it's got quite a lot of stingers in it.
So, I have called the fire dept to find out what to do if I need to burn the bee hive. Were in a burn ban. They stated that if I have to then do it, but let them know by calling them. I called a guy the next day asking what to do about it and if he had any solutions. Can't requeen this late in the year. No drones available and I have not seen a drone in any of my 2 bee hives. Good thing is that in my researching DNA Testing of Africanized Bees I did find a company out in California that has artificial inseminated queens that prove to be veroa mite resistant strain through DNA breeding. I will be requeening next year with them. Expensive Yes! Worth it? It's about $75 with shipping on 2 queens.
A local bee keeper told me that they could just be aggressive. I wouldn't mind him coming out and taking a look, but unfortunately he's pretty far away.
Anyhow......... My wife suites up and goes in my shop steaming mad about the bees. A gallon of dish soap in 1 hand and screams furiously that she's done! She's had it! Well being mad doesn't help the situation and you can't exactly just go out and do something half caulked cause you'll just end up with a different mess. Anyhow....... The bees days are numbered. Either we get some cooler weather and they calm the FUCK DOWN! or they're going to burn. I refuse to deal with "HOT" bees.
I have been trying to get someone that can do a DNA test for my bees. Testing for percentage of Africanized bees. NC University does it apparently I think for $50. This after searching on line, emailing and phone calls for about a week. I have not contacted them. Why? Cause I am on the fence about destroying this bee colony. It's a dangerous situation to the community. I weigh my safety and the safety of the surrounding community daily. They seem to be calm currently and surprisingly the day after installing Apivar strips to both bee hives, the bees were back to normal.
What took place leading up to this? I called my favorite state bee inspector. She and I met and it was in a manner that she would not forget. When I called I went through the scenario of why she would remember me perhaps, she infact did. I being a rather self educated beginner took a Spring Bee class that was put on by the Central Texas Bee Association. The lady our bee inspector was giving a quick class on the health and welfare of bees. Different things that they can get like Tracheal Mites, American Foul Brood etc.... She skimmed over veroa mites and that being the #1 concern these years with bee keepers, I had noted that when she asked for questions on Veroa nobody raised any questions. I took it to open a can of worms by asking about sugar shake and count levels. I had seen video's on it by some other state bee inspector. Anyhow, she wanted to move on as time was clicking by, she was trying her best, but it seemed my couple questions turned into a 10 minute question and answer and I was laughing watching her struggle. She is young 25 or so and watching her reaction it was funny at the time.
So onward....... We had a 30 min conversation and she had recommended to do a mite count. Something I had not done. Since my bee hive #2 is aggressive, no way am I going to open it up to see if I need to treat by catching a cup of bees, putting them in a jar and shaking them in powdered sugar and doing a mite count. I was recommended that if I need to treat to use Apivar it's a 99% kill rate on the hive for Veroa Mites. 42 days you pull the strips out.
I order Apivar from Mann Lake $45 with shipping I think is what it was . 10 strips and what you do is place 2 stips in the brood chamber. Making sure it's placed where the bees will be. They crawl on it and get the chemical on them. Verroa mites drop dead. I have to empty out the West Beetle trap anyhow. So instead of doing that on Monday I waited for the Apivar to arrive in the mail.
Knowing my bee hive #2 is aggressive I get on my Denim long sleeve shirt, bib Overalls (Dickies Brand) and bee suit. Go light my smoker and smoke the bees, undo the straps, Come back over and get all my tools and stuff. Bring it over to the bee hive. Pop the top on Bee Hive 1 the non aggressive bees. Remove the honey super and place the Apivar strips into the Brood chamber. Put the Honey Box medium on and I am done. Strap it down.
Bee Hive #2 I lift the top and get a face full of bees. I take the honey box off (SUPER) and get a face full of angry bees. I at this time can not hear anything other then a loud buzz. Take the brood box off and expose the west beetle trap. Take that off the bottom board and clean it out. Put it back on. Put the Bee Hive back together. I am rushing and after everything was put back I realized that the beetle trap was crooked. Left side was down and right side was up. Not going to mess with it. It is what it is. I walked about a block away and the bees were still after me. Walked back down the street 1/2 block past my house and about 5 bees hanging out. Made a run for the door and got in the house without bees. Took off my bee suit and tossed it outside on the porch. Looked at the gloves and it's got quite a lot of stingers in it.
So, I have called the fire dept to find out what to do if I need to burn the bee hive. Were in a burn ban. They stated that if I have to then do it, but let them know by calling them. I called a guy the next day asking what to do about it and if he had any solutions. Can't requeen this late in the year. No drones available and I have not seen a drone in any of my 2 bee hives. Good thing is that in my researching DNA Testing of Africanized Bees I did find a company out in California that has artificial inseminated queens that prove to be veroa mite resistant strain through DNA breeding. I will be requeening next year with them. Expensive Yes! Worth it? It's about $75 with shipping on 2 queens.
A local bee keeper told me that they could just be aggressive. I wouldn't mind him coming out and taking a look, but unfortunately he's pretty far away.
Anyhow......... My wife suites up and goes in my shop steaming mad about the bees. A gallon of dish soap in 1 hand and screams furiously that she's done! She's had it! Well being mad doesn't help the situation and you can't exactly just go out and do something half caulked cause you'll just end up with a different mess. Anyhow....... The bees days are numbered. Either we get some cooler weather and they calm the FUCK DOWN! or they're going to burn. I refuse to deal with "HOT" bees.
Photos: Bee Hive = Build a better beetle trap
2 Very common things that are causes that I know of in the bee hive. 1 is Verroa Mites. Basically it's a flea to the bees. The other is Hive Beetles. Hive beetles can eat comb, honey and wax and deficate creating rotting comb that turns to slime.
From reading my other past blogs I lost the owl house bunch to hive beetles. It unfortunately presence was detected in 1 of the other 2 bee hives. I have a screened bottom board on 1 bee hive. Never seen hive beetles in the screened bee hive that I call #1.
I dealt with it the easy way thinking to just buy a beetle trap that goes in the bottom board. So I did and well......... It fell way short of what it needed to be. I had to modify my bottom board to accommodate the beetle trap. I paid something like $47 for both of them with shipping. I was going out of town up to Dallas, so the easiest thing was to order it and have it arrive since I didn't really have the time to make it. Nor did I want to spend most of the day making one. It was a BIG FAIL what I got in the mail. Spend probably 2 hours modifying it to make it work the way it was suppose to. Cutting and measuring and figuring out an angle, glueing and you know pretty damn mad about spending money trying to take the easy way out.
Typically I make my own stuff as I have a pretty nice shop that I built and have pretty great equipment. Lucky for me though I ended up spending my holiday today Monday making a Beetle Trap. Took most of the day working off and on. The thing about making anything from scratch is trial and error. Sitting looking at some lumber the gears have to get turning.
Cutting wood I had it pretty much done, but when I cut the channel for the front piece it didn't align up with the sides. The channel is where the tray slides in. It's cut smaller cause I am having a piece of plastic as a landing board. The thickness is 1/4", so I had to notch it. Since the groove is up not down with the side boards you have to move the table saw fence the opposite way. I messed this up twice. Ended up using it anyways and cutting it the other direction and have a FAT groove now instead. Heck it's just a prototype.
My intentions were to build this so I can sell them. Probably not happening. Because it took me way too long. I might build a few and sell them, but it will only be to help anyone else that had the same situation that I am in. Nothing more then ordering something that is suppose to work properly and get it and it's design is crap. I should not have to modify anything to make it fit or work functionally for the purpose intended. I would have ended up with beetles going to the bottom board and not in the beetle trap. 60% coverage when 100% is needed.
Cost of material was $33 for 4ft wide and 10 feet length of 1/8" hardware cloth or metal grid mesh. They didn't have the 3ft available in 1/8". It was only 22 bucks. The lumber was $5 with tax I think. Staples a pack of 5000 1/4" was Oh....... $9 The plastic ABS I could have done it the easy way and just used strips instead of 2 pieces and cutting out the inside. I used ABS and not acrylic as it's just more friendly in bonding. I work with plastic for a living. www.txholeyrocks.com for some of the stuff I do if you want to see.
The main thing is that I wanted a tray to slide into rails, but the rails be snug even if it rains. I have this well thought out and hope that it works.
Currently I am doing a Verroa Mite Treatment with Apivar stips.
Thanks for your watching.
From reading my other past blogs I lost the owl house bunch to hive beetles. It unfortunately presence was detected in 1 of the other 2 bee hives. I have a screened bottom board on 1 bee hive. Never seen hive beetles in the screened bee hive that I call #1.
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| BEETLE TRAP WITH THE OIL TRAY FOR THE INSIDE THAT SLIDES OUT |
I dealt with it the easy way thinking to just buy a beetle trap that goes in the bottom board. So I did and well......... It fell way short of what it needed to be. I had to modify my bottom board to accommodate the beetle trap. I paid something like $47 for both of them with shipping. I was going out of town up to Dallas, so the easiest thing was to order it and have it arrive since I didn't really have the time to make it. Nor did I want to spend most of the day making one. It was a BIG FAIL what I got in the mail. Spend probably 2 hours modifying it to make it work the way it was suppose to. Cutting and measuring and figuring out an angle, glueing and you know pretty damn mad about spending money trying to take the easy way out.
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| OIL TRAY SLIDES OUT EASILY FRONT OR THE BACK |
Typically I make my own stuff as I have a pretty nice shop that I built and have pretty great equipment. Lucky for me though I ended up spending my holiday today Monday making a Beetle Trap. Took most of the day working off and on. The thing about making anything from scratch is trial and error. Sitting looking at some lumber the gears have to get turning.
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| I WILL CUT THIS ACRYLIC PIECE TO FIT I RAN OUT OF SCREWS |
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| Add caption |
Cutting wood I had it pretty much done, but when I cut the channel for the front piece it didn't align up with the sides. The channel is where the tray slides in. It's cut smaller cause I am having a piece of plastic as a landing board. The thickness is 1/4", so I had to notch it. Since the groove is up not down with the side boards you have to move the table saw fence the opposite way. I messed this up twice. Ended up using it anyways and cutting it the other direction and have a FAT groove now instead. Heck it's just a prototype.
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| RAILS ON THE TRAY |
My intentions were to build this so I can sell them. Probably not happening. Because it took me way too long. I might build a few and sell them, but it will only be to help anyone else that had the same situation that I am in. Nothing more then ordering something that is suppose to work properly and get it and it's design is crap. I should not have to modify anything to make it fit or work functionally for the purpose intended. I would have ended up with beetles going to the bottom board and not in the beetle trap. 60% coverage when 100% is needed.
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| ABS PLASTIC TRAY FOR VEGETABLE OIL THAT DROWNS BEETLES |
Cost of material was $33 for 4ft wide and 10 feet length of 1/8" hardware cloth or metal grid mesh. They didn't have the 3ft available in 1/8". It was only 22 bucks. The lumber was $5 with tax I think. Staples a pack of 5000 1/4" was Oh....... $9 The plastic ABS I could have done it the easy way and just used strips instead of 2 pieces and cutting out the inside. I used ABS and not acrylic as it's just more friendly in bonding. I work with plastic for a living. www.txholeyrocks.com for some of the stuff I do if you want to see.
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| INSIDE TRACKS AND SUPPORT |
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| Landing Board using acrylic. |
Currently I am doing a Verroa Mite Treatment with Apivar stips.
Thanks for your watching.
Thursday, October 8, 2015
Re-queening bee hive #2 with bee hive #1
Sept 28th 2015 I suspect I am going into my bee hive #1 and pulling frames for eggs. This is ridiculous that the bees are so defensive in #2. I got stung on the right side of my eye brow when I was mowing with the lawn tractor.
The bees have just been stirred up and won't settle down. This is the same thing that was happening to the lady I got them from. I am going to see if Texas A/M university Bee program has a way to do testing on the low end for Africanized bees. It wouldn't surprise me if they were 50 percent or more.
This really is a complete change in what I was wanting to do. I was wanting to re-queen with bee hive #2 and get rid of bee hive #1 queen. Anyhow...... I will research some on doing this. I don't think I will kill the queen in bee hive #2, but release her with some bees in the treeline in my neighbors back yard. I suspect I can do that if I transfer her to a Nuc Box when I re-queen beehive #2
Mean Bees SUCK!
The bees have just been stirred up and won't settle down. This is the same thing that was happening to the lady I got them from. I am going to see if Texas A/M university Bee program has a way to do testing on the low end for Africanized bees. It wouldn't surprise me if they were 50 percent or more.
This really is a complete change in what I was wanting to do. I was wanting to re-queen with bee hive #2 and get rid of bee hive #1 queen. Anyhow...... I will research some on doing this. I don't think I will kill the queen in bee hive #2, but release her with some bees in the treeline in my neighbors back yard. I suspect I can do that if I transfer her to a Nuc Box when I re-queen beehive #2
Mean Bees SUCK!
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Video: Angry Bees Africanized DNA Testing
The seasons are changing. Weather is cooling, well at least night time. Were forecasted to have low 90's in a few days. Seems as though Fall doesn't break the summer as easily as I would have hoped. We've been in the mid 80's the past week and mid 90's previous weeks.
Last week I had bee hive #2 highly aggressive. I had placed the beetle trap on a bottom board and placed it on the bee stand. I had to move the bee hive boxes on top and remove the old bottom board. The next major thing; now remember weather,was the sun shade cloth that I had overhead that shaded the 2 bee hives partially through out the day. Since cooler temps I need full sun on the bee hive. No worry about the bee hive getting so hot that honey melts and runs out. This is dangerous as the queen could get caught up in the honey and die.
I had upset the bees enough that they were extremely aggressive. They came after me on the riding lawn tractor. I got stung in the eye socket. "YAR" I am a 1 eyed pirate. I had to stop, get suited up and finish mowing. That's never happened. I have always been able to mow my land and the bee yard with out incident. I had about 100 bees attack me from bee hive 2. That whole day Thursday the bees were head butting me if I was outside East of the bee hive.
The next day the bees again were out and chasing me back into either my shop or house. I even went around the other side of my house and still they followed. Saturday I got outside to get in the car and take my 2 dogs down to town. Kennel inside the car, dogs inside and then the bees came. Son's of Bitches! I didn't get stung, but a bee ended up in the car and was smashed dead at the attempt to get the safety inside the car reasonable with a bee in it. Sunday again in front of my house bees chasing me.
So Monday I was thinking perhaps I have Africanized Bees greater then 50% DNA. I sure like the idea of finding out. It took me until Tuesday PM to finally get a call from UC Davis Entomology Dept who said that NC University Entomology will do the test for a $50 fee. So I am going to call and do that before Friday. Mean Bees Suck! Monday I tried not to go outside as much as possible and then Tuesday I noted that all was basically calm, but wasn't going to test the reaction time of the guard bees. This AM early when I took the video I was in the flight path of Bee Hive #1, so that made me react considering what has taken place since last week.
Next UP is treating for mites. I ordered Apivar. I am going to take 1 frame of honey from bee hive 1 and 1 from #2. I figure they can fill it out before the year gets cold. Can't harvest Honey when Apivar is in the bee hive.
Thanks,
Zak
Last week I had bee hive #2 highly aggressive. I had placed the beetle trap on a bottom board and placed it on the bee stand. I had to move the bee hive boxes on top and remove the old bottom board. The next major thing; now remember weather,was the sun shade cloth that I had overhead that shaded the 2 bee hives partially through out the day. Since cooler temps I need full sun on the bee hive. No worry about the bee hive getting so hot that honey melts and runs out. This is dangerous as the queen could get caught up in the honey and die.
I had upset the bees enough that they were extremely aggressive. They came after me on the riding lawn tractor. I got stung in the eye socket. "YAR" I am a 1 eyed pirate. I had to stop, get suited up and finish mowing. That's never happened. I have always been able to mow my land and the bee yard with out incident. I had about 100 bees attack me from bee hive 2. That whole day Thursday the bees were head butting me if I was outside East of the bee hive.
The next day the bees again were out and chasing me back into either my shop or house. I even went around the other side of my house and still they followed. Saturday I got outside to get in the car and take my 2 dogs down to town. Kennel inside the car, dogs inside and then the bees came. Son's of Bitches! I didn't get stung, but a bee ended up in the car and was smashed dead at the attempt to get the safety inside the car reasonable with a bee in it. Sunday again in front of my house bees chasing me.
So Monday I was thinking perhaps I have Africanized Bees greater then 50% DNA. I sure like the idea of finding out. It took me until Tuesday PM to finally get a call from UC Davis Entomology Dept who said that NC University Entomology will do the test for a $50 fee. So I am going to call and do that before Friday. Mean Bees Suck! Monday I tried not to go outside as much as possible and then Tuesday I noted that all was basically calm, but wasn't going to test the reaction time of the guard bees. This AM early when I took the video I was in the flight path of Bee Hive #1, so that made me react considering what has taken place since last week.
Next UP is treating for mites. I ordered Apivar. I am going to take 1 frame of honey from bee hive 1 and 1 from #2. I figure they can fill it out before the year gets cold. Can't harvest Honey when Apivar is in the bee hive.
Thanks,
Zak
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Bee Hive Update Sept 1st
I wanted to open both hives and do a quick check. I have bee hive 1 and 2. Bee Hive2 is the one that I put the beetle trap in. Bee Hive #2 a Ferrell Hive Rescue in May that I did. They're a "HOT" hive. Doesn't matter what you do they come out atcha if you so much as touch the hive and create vibration. I just wanted to see how the frame I put in 2 weeks ago was doing. They started building comb on the outside edge in 2 places, so I removed the comb. It was only about an inch in diameter for both starting points.
They have honey comb in all the other frames from what I could see or they're starting. Too many bees to really know what is deeper then the top and I am not about to tear into this bee hive as they're temperament is "HOT". Something about this is probably due to small hive beetles. Previously to this the bees were not "HOT"
Thinking back on the way I rescued them they are certainly displaying the same behavior response. I am pretty sure they have a queen that I like. Great numbers of bees and they're healthy from what I can see. Very active hive. They're bringing in Pollen that is a dark orange. I suspect its those really small flowers or possible the shrub scrub brush that is in bloom. What's really amazing is in our area we've only gotten about a 1/4" of rainfall since the end of June. Some of the Buffalo Grass (Native) is going to seed stock and wild flowers are in bloom like these purple flowers.
They have honey comb in all the other frames from what I could see or they're starting. Too many bees to really know what is deeper then the top and I am not about to tear into this bee hive as they're temperament is "HOT". Something about this is probably due to small hive beetles. Previously to this the bees were not "HOT"
Thinking back on the way I rescued them they are certainly displaying the same behavior response. I am pretty sure they have a queen that I like. Great numbers of bees and they're healthy from what I can see. Very active hive. They're bringing in Pollen that is a dark orange. I suspect its those really small flowers or possible the shrub scrub brush that is in bloom. What's really amazing is in our area we've only gotten about a 1/4" of rainfall since the end of June. Some of the Buffalo Grass (Native) is going to seed stock and wild flowers are in bloom like these purple flowers.
With no rainfall and the ground that appears to be bone dry logic would have it that nothing would grow. We do have dew in the AM, so I suspect that these plants germinate with any rainfall then use the dew as water to survive. Mother nature is amazing when you think about this kind of stuff.
BEE HIVE 1
I opened up the bee hive and took the honey box off. Still they refuse to build brood comb. Just an odd thing. The queen in the spring will likely go into a Nuc Box for a 3rd bee hive. I don't like her as she's a bit in my opinion lazy. Why not draw comb in the brood chamber is beyond me. I know it's been summer time, but come on they did draw honey comb on all 9 frames this summer. I was feeding them sugar water and flour in the dearth when everything was baked, so no excuse. Yes, it's drought I know, but previously you'd think that she'd have them draw comb for brood. It took them about 6 weeks just to draw 4 frames of honey in the honey box. This one has medium frames. Bee Hive 2 has Super for honey box. So I put a 10th frame in the honey box as they were bridged from the wall gap to the next frame getting ready to build comb from the wall down. Great timing ehe? I just wished I had better climate then we do.
Closing this bee hive up was easy, the temprament is half that of the other bee hive. Since I don't really take the honey box off and did this time it's a lucky thing I did that cause the queen still is not that good in my thoughts.
In comparison I don't know what to really do. Previously I was dead set on requeening next year with bee hive 2. I probably ought to not requeen with bee hive 2 as they're more "HOT". I don't want neighbors complaining. Oh just a quick note: Being sarcastic: "I sure do look forward to cleaning that hive beetle trap next week". The one that is "HOT"
I'll start treating with sugar dusting when the temps are in the mid 80's. We've been running about 91 to 96 for the past 3 weeks. A few days we did get mid 80's to upper 80s. I thought I could take the sun sail shade off, but it's not cooled down in to the 80's permanently. This week the forcast is mid 80's in a few days and should remain, so if it stays then I can take it off. The sun shade cloth
The way I have it does provide partial shade. Enough that the bees do fan, but they honey doesn't melt. Oh I did open up the entrance reducer on bee hive 1 today. I noted the other PM that they were fanning. They were not bearding though. I put an entrance reducer on because the wind out here is too much in my thoughts. I have a screened bottom board with the plastic sheet in place on the bottom. You might want to understand why I have the bee stand the way it is. It's because I want 4 bee hives eventually. Anyhow........ That's it for now.
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
PHOTO'S BEE HIVE ATTACK! Beetle trap bottom board replacement
This is the second time I have opened up this hive and been attacked by the bees. It's certainly a hot hive. I am okay walking around the hive, but as soon as I go in to it all hell breaks loose. I smoked the bees and walked away. Something about taking the honey box off they didn't like that. I think it's justified with the response I got.
It's been since early August since I have really opened up this bee hive. I have not done anything to this hive other then put a new frame in it a couple weeks ago. Since I don't have anything to really do no reason to go into the bee hive. I found out by looking inside that the bees have made honey comb on the top side of the frames in the brood chamber (Super) and connected it to the Super frames above. I have 2 supers. 1 brood and 1 honey. I suspect it's pretty much honey in the bottom super. They've attached honey comb to the wall and the 1st frame next to it. I don't really care how they keep the house at this point in time. Next Spring I will do a complete frame swap in the bottom to get things organized and on the right path with proper order. The disorganization is only in the brood chamber. The honey super is new frames since I put it on. If your not familiar with the read on the bee hive, this was the hive in May that I rescued. I ended up cleaning up some of the original comb, but it's a mess, Oh well all is okay for now.
This is what happened. I got a bunch of bees in my face when I lifted the first box off the bee hive and onto the stand. This as I said before was because the separation of the burr comb that was on top of the frames. Probably some lifting and dropping of the frames or rattling when this happened and the bees came out at me. The bees temperament previously was fine back in August and now it's a "HOT" hive meaning anything you do with them, they come out at me. This I suspect is because the hive beetles that have gone into the bee hive. Grumpy bees are justified and I understand.
After I got the top box off the bottom box separating the 2, I placed the bottom brood chamber onto the new bottom board
with the beetle trap. I then had to walk a block away because the amount of bees swarming me. Unfortunately I had a delivery truck arrive. He got the pallet off the truck and promptly got inside his truck and drove off. He didn't like the bees flying around me or him. I then went back with the smoker and smoked them. I lifted the brood chamber off the existing bottom board and placed it on the beetle trap bottom board. Placed the honey box on the brood chamber and walked away. I managed to grab the bottom board and place it on the firewood shed roof where the bees can clean up the honey that dripped down on it. About 10 minutes later I returned and strapped the bee hive down securing it. I then proceeded to walk to my shop where I was safe and could get the bees to stay outside while I was inside. About 5 minutes later I was able to go inside to my house. No bee stings.
Wooden shim I had to make for the beetle trap.
I had to modify the bottom board to fit the West beetle trap. I had to cut a 1" piece of wood that was 3/4" wide. I had to notch that piece so the tray would slide into the wood shim. Under that grate is vegetable oil. Just enough to coat the bottom about 3/16" probably or 1/8" Enough for the beetles to drown in and die. On that grate I cut a 45 degree angle on the front of it cause it had a lip on it. This is what I was talking about in the blog I wrote yesterday. Poorly made. I shouldn't have to cut and sand the front grate to make a smooth transition. I have watched video's where the hive beetles like to follow tracks or grooves. Why would they not recess this as they did the 3 sides is dumb.If you have to clean it out you have to pull the whole tray out, so what's with the tray not being recessed is just laziness. On the shim piece of wood on the left I wanted to round that piece so they wouldn't hang out on that gap. I want them to go into the grated part. I cut a small piece of wood and sanded it with an electric sander so it's got a curve.
Hope for the best is what I am doing. I suspect they'll make it through this beetle problem. Bee Hive#1 I will see how they are doing and if I need a beetle trap for them. They have a screened bottom board with out an oil tray.
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| Bee Hive on the Right is that one that I worked on |
It's been since early August since I have really opened up this bee hive. I have not done anything to this hive other then put a new frame in it a couple weeks ago. Since I don't have anything to really do no reason to go into the bee hive. I found out by looking inside that the bees have made honey comb on the top side of the frames in the brood chamber (Super) and connected it to the Super frames above. I have 2 supers. 1 brood and 1 honey. I suspect it's pretty much honey in the bottom super. They've attached honey comb to the wall and the 1st frame next to it. I don't really care how they keep the house at this point in time. Next Spring I will do a complete frame swap in the bottom to get things organized and on the right path with proper order. The disorganization is only in the brood chamber. The honey super is new frames since I put it on. If your not familiar with the read on the bee hive, this was the hive in May that I rescued. I ended up cleaning up some of the original comb, but it's a mess, Oh well all is okay for now.
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| This is some burr or trash comb I removed. |
This is what happened. I got a bunch of bees in my face when I lifted the first box off the bee hive and onto the stand. This as I said before was because the separation of the burr comb that was on top of the frames. Probably some lifting and dropping of the frames or rattling when this happened and the bees came out at me. The bees temperament previously was fine back in August and now it's a "HOT" hive meaning anything you do with them, they come out at me. This I suspect is because the hive beetles that have gone into the bee hive. Grumpy bees are justified and I understand.
After I got the top box off the bottom box separating the 2, I placed the bottom brood chamber onto the new bottom board
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| West Beetle Trap with modifications |
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| Hive Tool used to scrape the burr comb and loosen the bee super(Boxes) apart from each other for removal and transfer |
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| Beetle trap grate modification Before (Upper photo) |
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| 45 degree angle cut on the lip of the grate (AFTER MODIFICATION) |
I had to modify the bottom board to fit the West beetle trap. I had to cut a 1" piece of wood that was 3/4" wide. I had to notch that piece so the tray would slide into the wood shim. Under that grate is vegetable oil. Just enough to coat the bottom about 3/16" probably or 1/8" Enough for the beetles to drown in and die. On that grate I cut a 45 degree angle on the front of it cause it had a lip on it. This is what I was talking about in the blog I wrote yesterday. Poorly made. I shouldn't have to cut and sand the front grate to make a smooth transition. I have watched video's where the hive beetles like to follow tracks or grooves. Why would they not recess this as they did the 3 sides is dumb.If you have to clean it out you have to pull the whole tray out, so what's with the tray not being recessed is just laziness. On the shim piece of wood on the left I wanted to round that piece so they wouldn't hang out on that gap. I want them to go into the grated part. I cut a small piece of wood and sanded it with an electric sander so it's got a curve.
Hope for the best is what I am doing. I suspect they'll make it through this beetle problem. Bee Hive#1 I will see how they are doing and if I need a beetle trap for them. They have a screened bottom board with out an oil tray.
Monday, September 28, 2015
Video: Beetle Trap for Bee Hive Arrived and Review
Ordered this I believe Monday last week. Arrived Monday today. Shipping was $15.45 for 2 of these I think. I was going out of town, so building this wasn't really in the cards. Company I used was Dadant. I do not recommend buying these. These are apparently called "West Beetle Traps" The plastic design I don't have a problem with. Great quality injected molded ABS Plastic or Polyethlyne. This came with NO instuctions and No Screws. Did not say this when I purchased it.
I had to call Dadant twice to get them to email me instructions. Yes, simple logical and I could figure it out, but I have never done an installation of these and because of poor fit I wasn't sure. This certainly has room for truck loads of improvements. Will I buy another one. UH NO. not only no but, "HELL NO".
This is suppose to slide in with an active bee hive entrance. This means that bees get pushed to the back and can get killed. I am suppose to clean this out every 1 to 2 weeks. So you do the math on this and can see that continually killing bees for 40 weeks is going to be rather stupid.
For now I will use it as I don't want to go spend more money at this time. $46.00 is enough. If you want something done right build it yourself and this rings so true. I feel as though someone knew this didn't work fully, but it's functional and said "Ah the hell with it I am sick of dealing with it lets just put it on the mkt and be done with it and don't worry about it" So the customer gets screwed.
What am I complaining about? I didn't get instructions, no screws and a gap on the sides meaning that I have to build a shim for this, so the bees and beetles don't get below the beetle trap. I have a spare bottom board I am using. I will unscrew the bee hive Super and the bottom board on the existing and move the bee hive on to the "West Beetle Trap" with the bottom board modified.
Hindsite: Go buy $25 of #8 hardware cloth (Metal mesh) build a 4 sided box. 1 side that slides out, so the tray can be removed and be done with it. My business is a plastics company, so making stuff like this isn't hard, but it's time. My laziness has now come back to bite me in the butt.
I will post a video later.
This is suppose to slide in with an active bee hive entrance. This means that bees get pushed to the back and can get killed. I am suppose to clean this out every 1 to 2 weeks. So you do the math on this and can see that continually killing bees for 40 weeks is going to be rather stupid.
For now I will use it as I don't want to go spend more money at this time. $46.00 is enough. If you want something done right build it yourself and this rings so true. I feel as though someone knew this didn't work fully, but it's functional and said "Ah the hell with it I am sick of dealing with it lets just put it on the mkt and be done with it and don't worry about it" So the customer gets screwed.
What am I complaining about? I didn't get instructions, no screws and a gap on the sides meaning that I have to build a shim for this, so the bees and beetles don't get below the beetle trap. I have a spare bottom board I am using. I will unscrew the bee hive Super and the bottom board on the existing and move the bee hive on to the "West Beetle Trap" with the bottom board modified.
Hindsite: Go buy $25 of #8 hardware cloth (Metal mesh) build a 4 sided box. 1 side that slides out, so the tray can be removed and be done with it. My business is a plastics company, so making stuff like this isn't hard, but it's time. My laziness has now come back to bite me in the butt.
I will post a video later.
Monday, September 21, 2015
OUCH! I got attacked by my bee hive today
The title says just what happened. I was putting in a trial frame with something I am attempting to do with the bees. I just thought I would unstrap the bee hive, pull a frame out that didn't have comb on it and put in the test frame and close up the bee hive.
I get suited up in the cheap bee suit. I mean why am I needing to spend the time getting ready to do battle with my bees. Shouldn't have to cause all I am doing is something as quick as 10 seconds. I was wearing shorts too. The problem with putting on the full suit is that it takes about 3 minutes to put it on and 3 minutes to take it off. Thats the beauty of the cheap Chinese bee suit is it's a shirt more or less that you put on and it's got the vail with the wide brim on it that isn't removable. So I just put it on like a shirt, walked out to the bee yard and put my gloves on. I took the ratchet strap off. I popped the lid off, full of bees on the top board. Bees start flying. Well I startled them is what I am thinking. I pull the inner cover off and immediately about 50 bees take flight and they're letting me know they are not happy.
2 things I can do, is to run away or just deal with it. I was like it's quick. I forgot my hive tool dang it. SO I get my fat fingers with leather gloves on the frame trying to pull it up out of the hive body and it's not coming. More bees are coming out. Zap on the leg! Stung dang it. Okay this isn't going as planned. I don't know what in the world is going on today with them, but clearly they're not happy.
I go trucking off to the oak trees and I got bees all over me. in an out weaving in amongst the trees and I am panicked a bit. I still hear them buzzing. In and out and unfortunately I didn't see that 3 inch oak tree branch and I mean I smacked my foreghead. Blood is dripping. Okay forget the bees I am now worse then being stung more. I just go in the house close the door. 1 bee is at the inside screen. Open it up and it flys off. I get a paper towel and hold it. Call for Elisa. I am in the bathroom all worked up. I tell her my story and she just says "well that's why you have the bee suit you paid for" I explain that this isn't a normal situation that it calls for. They came out at me. It should be 10 second job. open it up, pull a frame and replace it close it up and I am done. Washed off the forhead. Put some ointment on it and a large bandage.
I go get suited up, get the smoker out. Light the smoker and I mean I got that smoker just puffing. I have had situations where you think it's lit and it's not. Sometimes it's weak smoke. SO I SMOKED Them and the other bee hive cause I didn't want anything more then I was dealing with. Got it done and when I pulled the frame a hive beetle was on it. Damn it! Damn beetles is why the hive is so quick to come at me. I put the new frame in and close it up and I am done.
Tonight I just bought 2 bottom boards that are for beetle traps. I weighted the cost and I really don't want to fool with it. About the time I get this thing built and spend the money it's just not worth my time. SO for about $47 bucks 2 bottom boards are bought with shipping cost.
Done and Done.
I get suited up in the cheap bee suit. I mean why am I needing to spend the time getting ready to do battle with my bees. Shouldn't have to cause all I am doing is something as quick as 10 seconds. I was wearing shorts too. The problem with putting on the full suit is that it takes about 3 minutes to put it on and 3 minutes to take it off. Thats the beauty of the cheap Chinese bee suit is it's a shirt more or less that you put on and it's got the vail with the wide brim on it that isn't removable. So I just put it on like a shirt, walked out to the bee yard and put my gloves on. I took the ratchet strap off. I popped the lid off, full of bees on the top board. Bees start flying. Well I startled them is what I am thinking. I pull the inner cover off and immediately about 50 bees take flight and they're letting me know they are not happy.
2 things I can do, is to run away or just deal with it. I was like it's quick. I forgot my hive tool dang it. SO I get my fat fingers with leather gloves on the frame trying to pull it up out of the hive body and it's not coming. More bees are coming out. Zap on the leg! Stung dang it. Okay this isn't going as planned. I don't know what in the world is going on today with them, but clearly they're not happy.
I go trucking off to the oak trees and I got bees all over me. in an out weaving in amongst the trees and I am panicked a bit. I still hear them buzzing. In and out and unfortunately I didn't see that 3 inch oak tree branch and I mean I smacked my foreghead. Blood is dripping. Okay forget the bees I am now worse then being stung more. I just go in the house close the door. 1 bee is at the inside screen. Open it up and it flys off. I get a paper towel and hold it. Call for Elisa. I am in the bathroom all worked up. I tell her my story and she just says "well that's why you have the bee suit you paid for" I explain that this isn't a normal situation that it calls for. They came out at me. It should be 10 second job. open it up, pull a frame and replace it close it up and I am done. Washed off the forhead. Put some ointment on it and a large bandage.
I go get suited up, get the smoker out. Light the smoker and I mean I got that smoker just puffing. I have had situations where you think it's lit and it's not. Sometimes it's weak smoke. SO I SMOKED Them and the other bee hive cause I didn't want anything more then I was dealing with. Got it done and when I pulled the frame a hive beetle was on it. Damn it! Damn beetles is why the hive is so quick to come at me. I put the new frame in and close it up and I am done.
Tonight I just bought 2 bottom boards that are for beetle traps. I weighted the cost and I really don't want to fool with it. About the time I get this thing built and spend the money it's just not worth my time. SO for about $47 bucks 2 bottom boards are bought with shipping cost.
Done and Done.
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Bee Frame photos - Not what you want to see in a bee hive
I did a Ferrell Bee removal last week to discover that the conditions were unfortunately too gone to save. 1 of the things bee hives can get is small hive beetles. These beetles originally are from Aftica and ended up in Florida I think in the 80's. The beetles have spread to the southern states of the US.
It's a bee keepers nightmare. My nightmare was seeing the fly's on the outside of the Nuc Box bee hive I had the bees in. Only to discover that the frames of bee comb I had transfered over had 50 to 75 percent small hive beetle larvae. The larvae eats comb, nectar, honey and pollen and craps as it goes ruining everything and making it a huge slime goo mess. This leaves a putrid odor too. The bees won't go on the comb that is infested. My Ferrell Bees were on the inside walls of the Nuc Box
I ended up removing the frames to a temporary box. Got my torch out and got as many bees as I could to fly away. I torched the inside of the box. This killed any larvae of the beetles and the adult beetles. I then took the frames and walked quite a ways distance from the bee yard. Not many bees were on the frames. The bees flew off and I wrapped the bee frames and placed them in the freezer. I froze them up until trash day today Thursday. I don't even want to clean these frames up. I can build more easily and have lots of wood to do this. 4 frames is about $.50 if I had to guess. Commercially bought frames are about $4.50 Ea with shipping to your door. You can see why most bee keepers just make frames. Your only talking glue and nails if you have free wood.
So I doubt I will ever bring back a Ferrell colony to the bee yard again with out quarantine procedure of 3 months. It's a pain to have something happen to me like this. Hopefully the other 2 bee hives don't get Hive beetles, but it's inevitable I think.
It's a bee keepers nightmare. My nightmare was seeing the fly's on the outside of the Nuc Box bee hive I had the bees in. Only to discover that the frames of bee comb I had transfered over had 50 to 75 percent small hive beetle larvae. The larvae eats comb, nectar, honey and pollen and craps as it goes ruining everything and making it a huge slime goo mess. This leaves a putrid odor too. The bees won't go on the comb that is infested. My Ferrell Bees were on the inside walls of the Nuc Box
I ended up removing the frames to a temporary box. Got my torch out and got as many bees as I could to fly away. I torched the inside of the box. This killed any larvae of the beetles and the adult beetles. I then took the frames and walked quite a ways distance from the bee yard. Not many bees were on the frames. The bees flew off and I wrapped the bee frames and placed them in the freezer. I froze them up until trash day today Thursday. I don't even want to clean these frames up. I can build more easily and have lots of wood to do this. 4 frames is about $.50 if I had to guess. Commercially bought frames are about $4.50 Ea with shipping to your door. You can see why most bee keepers just make frames. Your only talking glue and nails if you have free wood.
So I doubt I will ever bring back a Ferrell colony to the bee yard again with out quarantine procedure of 3 months. It's a pain to have something happen to me like this. Hopefully the other 2 bee hives don't get Hive beetles, but it's inevitable I think.
Monday, September 14, 2015
Gone- Bees- Owl House Bunch
I'm happy about what happened. I no longer have the bees. I believe that I had a queen and she left with the remaining bees. Pretty much when they were disrupted at the level they were subjected to I would think that is a fair assessment.
It is possible that the bees didn't have a queen and they went in to the other 2 bee hives. This AM the bees in hive #1 and 2 are calm, so I doubt this is the case. They were stirred up when the bees attempted to go to join the colonies.
What is next. I have to get the torch the bee hive inside killing any remaining hive beetles. Yes beetles are still in the bee hive unfortunately. Remember I didn't remove any of the upper frames and burn the box.
Lesson learned is that I won't transport any ferrell bees to my bee yard. The removal risk is greater then the reward. I now have to prepare my 2 bee hives for beetles this winter. I will install what ever I come up with and make hopefully when it's still warm out. I am pretty handy at doing this sort of thing designed and built. I will look at what is available on the market and make my own bee hive mite protection is what I suspect. I can fabricate plastic and make something work similar to the beetle jail. Mites seem to like grooves and 90 degree corners, so I am thinking something like 1/8 or 3/16" groove in hive body exterior going down to the landing board where I can have hardware cloth that they fall into an oil tray will work. Just a pain cause I will have to make the entrance different.
My goal: These hive beetles hopefully will not be successful to the point they're unable to reproduce and I won't have a problem. I need to do everything I can to prevent hive beetles completing the life cycle in the bee hives
Prevention and eradication of known beetles is the step I am going to take.
Sometimes doing the right thing is the wrong thing. This has definitely been the case and it's not been worth it at the expense of my other 2 bee hives.
It is possible that the bees didn't have a queen and they went in to the other 2 bee hives. This AM the bees in hive #1 and 2 are calm, so I doubt this is the case. They were stirred up when the bees attempted to go to join the colonies.
What is next. I have to get the torch the bee hive inside killing any remaining hive beetles. Yes beetles are still in the bee hive unfortunately. Remember I didn't remove any of the upper frames and burn the box.
Lesson learned is that I won't transport any ferrell bees to my bee yard. The removal risk is greater then the reward. I now have to prepare my 2 bee hives for beetles this winter. I will install what ever I come up with and make hopefully when it's still warm out. I am pretty handy at doing this sort of thing designed and built. I will look at what is available on the market and make my own bee hive mite protection is what I suspect. I can fabricate plastic and make something work similar to the beetle jail. Mites seem to like grooves and 90 degree corners, so I am thinking something like 1/8 or 3/16" groove in hive body exterior going down to the landing board where I can have hardware cloth that they fall into an oil tray will work. Just a pain cause I will have to make the entrance different.
My goal: These hive beetles hopefully will not be successful to the point they're unable to reproduce and I won't have a problem. I need to do everything I can to prevent hive beetles completing the life cycle in the bee hives
Prevention and eradication of known beetles is the step I am going to take.
Sometimes doing the right thing is the wrong thing. This has definitely been the case and it's not been worth it at the expense of my other 2 bee hives.
Saturday, September 12, 2015
CRAP! Bees infested with SHB larvae in the Owl House Bunch Nuc Box
Just when I thought things were settled down...... I noted fly's around the outside side and that's not normal. I immediately suited up and removed the top box off the bottom. I pulled a frame and it was covered in Small Hive Beatle larvae. Damn! Damn Damn. Going to town they had made a pile of mush in about 1/3rd of the frame. I pulled the others. Same thing! Just coated with goo and crawling magets.
I opted to get the frames transferred over to another Nuc box while I emptied out the box with the bees the best I could. Grabbed handfuls of goo and tossed it in a pile. Moved the bees off the frame best I could. Walked them under the oak tree where my propane torch is. I took the Nuc Box and pounded on it to get the bees to fly away. Some did and some didn't. Torched the inside of the box, bees that remained and all the larvae and beetles. No more problem in the box. I took the frames to the porch and got the bees off best I could. Took the 4 frames and put them in plastic bag and put them in the freezer. They will remain in the freezer for 48 hours. I will pull them and put them back in the box with the Owl Bunch Gang.
Long story short this probably is going to be the start of serious problems for me with the introduction of Small hive beetles. Damn! DAMN DAMN. Try and do something wonderful and it has now backfired. I didn't take any photo's as this is just a quick discovery and I handled it immediately.
I probably didn't have much option other then to do what I did. That's all I know how to do. I don't know if the bees will make it. I can't combine them in the other hives, that's for sure. The only way I could do that is if they just didn't have small hive beetles. Sigh! double down sigh! Please Bee hive #1 and 2 let them co-exist in your colony.
Zak
I opted to get the frames transferred over to another Nuc box while I emptied out the box with the bees the best I could. Grabbed handfuls of goo and tossed it in a pile. Moved the bees off the frame best I could. Walked them under the oak tree where my propane torch is. I took the Nuc Box and pounded on it to get the bees to fly away. Some did and some didn't. Torched the inside of the box, bees that remained and all the larvae and beetles. No more problem in the box. I took the frames to the porch and got the bees off best I could. Took the 4 frames and put them in plastic bag and put them in the freezer. They will remain in the freezer for 48 hours. I will pull them and put them back in the box with the Owl Bunch Gang.
Long story short this probably is going to be the start of serious problems for me with the introduction of Small hive beetles. Damn! DAMN DAMN. Try and do something wonderful and it has now backfired. I didn't take any photo's as this is just a quick discovery and I handled it immediately.
I probably didn't have much option other then to do what I did. That's all I know how to do. I don't know if the bees will make it. I can't combine them in the other hives, that's for sure. The only way I could do that is if they just didn't have small hive beetles. Sigh! double down sigh! Please Bee hive #1 and 2 let them co-exist in your colony.
Zak
Bee Photo's of Owl House Bunch new 2 story home
I acquired a Ferrell Colony of bees the end of August. I brought them home and put the box on a 4x4 post so that they'd acclimate and settle. My plan was to remove them from the wooden box and put them in a 5 frame Nuc Box double deep. Basically it's half a bee hive and another box on top for those that don't know about bee boxes. So 10 frames in total.
I had to tear the box rear wall off to expose the hive. Put the comb in frames and then put it in the Nuc box. Remove the bees by hand scooping them out of the box and placing them in the Nuc box. Placing the 2nd box on top was needed because I had too many bees. I had about 75 percent nurse bees, so the queen definitely is a great layer.
I only put comb in 5 frames on the bottom. The rest of the comb was honey and I didn't fool with it trying to put it in frames for the bees. They have enough bees and nurse bees to fix the colony and get going immediately. I stacked the honey comb on a piece of plywood for the bees to clean up any of the honey, nectar and pollen that they could in a few days. I put the plywood touching the Nuc Box, so any nurse bees that wanted to come out and get the free goodness they could. The nurse bees did do that from what I observed. Good thinking on my part.
Why didn't I process the honey and keep it for myself. One might wonder, right? When I work with my helper and myself you have to think of the safety and what is going on and only be concerned about the bees. Flying bees that have just had the home they lived in torn apart, they just are not appreciative of this sort of thing happening. The concern is to get the bees moved in and the Nuc Box closed up. Hope for the best too. So trying to get honey comb is pretty much last on my list. Since so much honey was in the colony I opted to just let the 3 bee hives have a free for all. Processing honey would have been okay, but I was sticky enough and working for the 90 or so minutes dripping sweat was enough labor for me.
Sure I could have saved it and bagged it and done it the next day. I would have had about 2 hours though of processing it and cleaning up the mess. I also would have had to heat the honey above 130 degrees to kill any yeast in the honey to prevent fermentation. It's just not that exciting to do such little and weighing the benefits I think the bees probably can use it much more then I can.
What transpired since I did the re-homing of the Owl House Bunch? Bee hive #1 and 2 were not so happy. They were the victims of confused bees that were trying to get in the bee hives they didn't belong to. They were pretty much able to defend the bee hive from the Owl House Bunch. Lots of activity at the entrances of both hives. I imagine some did penetrate and made it inside. For a few days both bee hives were agitated because of this. The ground lay littered with the aftermath of dead bees that stung, squished, stressed and stepped on.
The photo is what I removed this afternoon that a few bees were still picking over. It's not healthy to leave comb out in the open. It invites wax moths and can attract 4 legged critters that I don't want hanging around. I put the large comb in the refrigerator. I might put some in a frame and put it in the Nuc box for the Owl Bunch to fix and use. This will be in the box that I made in the earlier blog. That box is for the honey stores for the bees. Bee brood is the lower box and the bee honey food storage is on the top. The bees do not have any comb on the 5 top frames. Too much going on at the time to be concerned with putting honey comb in a bee hive. It would have made a mess anyhow as honey drips down. My thoughts are that this quantity of bees can draw comb out easily for the size of box and frames they have available to them. Were going into Spring and have had 1/4" of rain. Some pollen is available, so I think the bees will be just fine.
I still have to remove that piece of wood that the owl house was strapped to. . You can see the bees hanging out on the acrylic entrance. That's right! I have a piece of clear acrylic for a bottom. Also, note the "YELLOW ROSE" in the back ground to the left. Yellow rose of TEXAS! Just had to point that out. I planted 3 rose dwarf bushes in the rear of the bee hives. I had to put wire around them because our wildlife deers and rabbits took a liking to eating them.
I believe in the queen of this hive to be a great queen that will direct the OWL HOUSE Bunch to a successful colony. Long live the queen.... At least until next year. Bee hive #1 will be re-queened in 2016 with a queen from beehive #2. I really like#2 bee hive queen. Great laying queen she is. #1 is rather an okay queen, but not a great queen. This is perhaps why it's good for bee keepers to have multiple hives so they have a comparison. I wouldn't know that#1 queen is pretty much a average queen otherwise. #1 queen has been a disappointment.
Until next time......... Don't swat at a buzzing bee. They're most likely just curious. Bees don't seek out to sting people. Walk away.
"Zak" from Z's bees
I had to tear the box rear wall off to expose the hive. Put the comb in frames and then put it in the Nuc box. Remove the bees by hand scooping them out of the box and placing them in the Nuc box. Placing the 2nd box on top was needed because I had too many bees. I had about 75 percent nurse bees, so the queen definitely is a great layer.
I only put comb in 5 frames on the bottom. The rest of the comb was honey and I didn't fool with it trying to put it in frames for the bees. They have enough bees and nurse bees to fix the colony and get going immediately. I stacked the honey comb on a piece of plywood for the bees to clean up any of the honey, nectar and pollen that they could in a few days. I put the plywood touching the Nuc Box, so any nurse bees that wanted to come out and get the free goodness they could. The nurse bees did do that from what I observed. Good thinking on my part.
Why didn't I process the honey and keep it for myself. One might wonder, right? When I work with my helper and myself you have to think of the safety and what is going on and only be concerned about the bees. Flying bees that have just had the home they lived in torn apart, they just are not appreciative of this sort of thing happening. The concern is to get the bees moved in and the Nuc Box closed up. Hope for the best too. So trying to get honey comb is pretty much last on my list. Since so much honey was in the colony I opted to just let the 3 bee hives have a free for all. Processing honey would have been okay, but I was sticky enough and working for the 90 or so minutes dripping sweat was enough labor for me.
Sure I could have saved it and bagged it and done it the next day. I would have had about 2 hours though of processing it and cleaning up the mess. I also would have had to heat the honey above 130 degrees to kill any yeast in the honey to prevent fermentation. It's just not that exciting to do such little and weighing the benefits I think the bees probably can use it much more then I can.
What transpired since I did the re-homing of the Owl House Bunch? Bee hive #1 and 2 were not so happy. They were the victims of confused bees that were trying to get in the bee hives they didn't belong to. They were pretty much able to defend the bee hive from the Owl House Bunch. Lots of activity at the entrances of both hives. I imagine some did penetrate and made it inside. For a few days both bee hives were agitated because of this. The ground lay littered with the aftermath of dead bees that stung, squished, stressed and stepped on.
The bees made quick work of the honey comb that was piled up. The ants too loved it. Honey drips and that too has a clean up crew. The forager bees came back to the 4x4 post, I thought I could move them from the Owl Box to the bee stand if I could just get them on the box. No luck after I screwed the owl house to the 4x4 post. Oh well........ They'll figure it out hopefully. They did. Some bearding did occur, was not sure if they were going to stay or take off. They stayed. Looking at the acrylic bottom I peared in and I saw to my "HORROR" a bunch of brood that was white and dead. Oh that's because I used wooden skewers and killed the innocent unborn bees. I still will do skewers to hold comb VS that of use of rubber banding to hold the comb.
What next....... I am hoping I don't have to go into the hive and discard the larvae sitting at the bottom. Other then that I do believe I have the queen. The bees are not agitated, not making any overly defensive behavior of the area. I removed some of the comb today prior to sunrise.
I believe in the queen of this hive to be a great queen that will direct the OWL HOUSE Bunch to a successful colony. Long live the queen.... At least until next year. Bee hive #1 will be re-queened in 2016 with a queen from beehive #2. I really like#2 bee hive queen. Great laying queen she is. #1 is rather an okay queen, but not a great queen. This is perhaps why it's good for bee keepers to have multiple hives so they have a comparison. I wouldn't know that#1 queen is pretty much a average queen otherwise. #1 queen has been a disappointment.
Until next time......... Don't swat at a buzzing bee. They're most likely just curious. Bees don't seek out to sting people. Walk away.
"Zak" from Z's bees
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Successful move of Ferrell Bees to Nuc Box
To start the transfer of the bees into a Nuc box double deep, I needed to be well hydrated and fueled. What better way then to eat a breakfast and some coffee.
The day got a late start because I have work to do in the AM and this job with the bees is secondary. I wanted to start at 9AM and be done at 11AM. I started I think at 10:15 and finished at noon. I don't have photo's of the removal, but I do have video's. They're not uploaded at this time. It will take a few days to do that I imagine. Uploading is slow to YouTube.
Preparations no matter what you do and think of something or a few things always are not thought of. Nothing like having to stop in the middle of tearing comb out and trying to put in it a frame, only to realize you don't have a knife to cut the comb. Run to the house and with sticky gloves you open the handle of the door and get a knife. You now have honey coated door knobs and honey dripped from the gloves. I forgot the bee broom too. Smoker went out so Elisa had to light it again.
Show you some photo's of preparation prior to moving the bee hive to the bee stand. Remember they were on the 4x4 wood post for the duration of acclimatization. I should have put them on the bee stand where they are now as that's the permanent place they'll be. I didn't know that until today why that is important.
I think I only put 1 frame of honey comb inside the Nuc Box double deep. I had 4 frames of brood and honey. Not much brood comb in the bee hive. About 75 percent was honey comb. Some capped and some not capped. I didn't keep any of it. I didn't want to fool with it. I instead put it all on a piece of plywood and let the bees have at it at will. They will clean it up and use it. I then will throw it away as it will attract things I don't want near the bee hives.
I didn't get stung and nor did "E". She helped me out with this. Lots of bees landed on both of us. Dressing to not get stung is pretty much a smart thing to do. These bees were very calm and gentle in comparison to my previous experience. On a scale of 1 easy and nice and 10 being severerly dangerous this removal was a 2.5
We spent about 25 minutes cleaning up and getting the bees off of us. I returned about an hour later to see that the foraging bees had landed on the cardboard and massed. I went to go get suited up again and dump them in the Nuc Box. The foraging bees were clinging to the 4x4 pose in mass, so I scraped them with my hands onto an old cookie sheet. I then attempted to dump them in the entrance of the bee hive. It only was about 10 percent successful if that doing it.
Tonight I walked around and looked at the bee yard. I had my red lens light on my phone. Looked at the bees and it pretty much has some sort of order. I don't know if it's because eventually bee hive #1 let them in or if the Nuc Box entrance was found. Only a small cluster of about 300 bees were on the 4x4 post. Scattered clusters are around the Nuc Box, cardboard and the original Owl House. Hopefully Thursday some sort of order will start to play out. Dead bees need to be cleaned out by the bees in the Nuc Box double deep and the rest of the bees that have not found the entrance need to have some sort of direction given to them by the foragers. The bees know the land, but the nurse bees need the scent and activity to be guided I suspect to the entrance for those that remain.
Preparations no matter what you do and think of something or a few things always are not thought of. Nothing like having to stop in the middle of tearing comb out and trying to put in it a frame, only to realize you don't have a knife to cut the comb. Run to the house and with sticky gloves you open the handle of the door and get a knife. You now have honey coated door knobs and honey dripped from the gloves. I forgot the bee broom too. Smoker went out so Elisa had to light it again.
Show you some photo's of preparation prior to moving the bee hive to the bee stand. Remember they were on the 4x4 wood post for the duration of acclimatization. I should have put them on the bee stand where they are now as that's the permanent place they'll be. I didn't know that until today why that is important.
I think I only put 1 frame of honey comb inside the Nuc Box double deep. I had 4 frames of brood and honey. Not much brood comb in the bee hive. About 75 percent was honey comb. Some capped and some not capped. I didn't keep any of it. I didn't want to fool with it. I instead put it all on a piece of plywood and let the bees have at it at will. They will clean it up and use it. I then will throw it away as it will attract things I don't want near the bee hives.
I didn't get stung and nor did "E". She helped me out with this. Lots of bees landed on both of us. Dressing to not get stung is pretty much a smart thing to do. These bees were very calm and gentle in comparison to my previous experience. On a scale of 1 easy and nice and 10 being severerly dangerous this removal was a 2.5
We spent about 25 minutes cleaning up and getting the bees off of us. I returned about an hour later to see that the foraging bees had landed on the cardboard and massed. I went to go get suited up again and dump them in the Nuc Box. The foraging bees were clinging to the 4x4 pose in mass, so I scraped them with my hands onto an old cookie sheet. I then attempted to dump them in the entrance of the bee hive. It only was about 10 percent successful if that doing it.
Tonight I walked around and looked at the bee yard. I had my red lens light on my phone. Looked at the bees and it pretty much has some sort of order. I don't know if it's because eventually bee hive #1 let them in or if the Nuc Box entrance was found. Only a small cluster of about 300 bees were on the 4x4 post. Scattered clusters are around the Nuc Box, cardboard and the original Owl House. Hopefully Thursday some sort of order will start to play out. Dead bees need to be cleaned out by the bees in the Nuc Box double deep and the rest of the bees that have not found the entrance need to have some sort of direction given to them by the foragers. The bees know the land, but the nurse bees need the scent and activity to be guided I suspect to the entrance for those that remain.
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| to close the bee entrance |
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| to catch the nurse bees that don't fly Makes it easier to sweep them up to put them in the NUC Box |
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| Pry Bar used to remove the Owl Box Back to expose the bee hive. |
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| Remember this is the box that I built. This makes the 2nd box for the Nuc double deep. |
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| I tried hard to have everything and think about it before I did the removal |
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Monday, September 7, 2015
Preperation for Owl House Bees to be moved to Nuc Box
Final preparation began today. When you remove comb from a Ferrell bee hive, you need to put it in a foundationless frame. Since comb is 2 sided, the use of a foundation frame can't be done.
The frames need .152" holes drilled in them.
3 holes will be sufficient for the comb to be secured.
This allows the skewer
to go through the top of the frame through the comb and into a 1/8" depth hole drilled to the bottom of the frame. This is just a divot the end ot the skewer will sit. It doesn't need to be drilled all the way through. I have read about this method of securing comb into a frame. Another method is using rubber bands stretched over the frames. I will not ever use rubber band method for a removal to secure comb to the frame. I was told by nearly all bee removal companies that using rubber bands to secure cut comb is what to do.
Why I don't use the rubber band method this time or any other time? Rubber bands are basically great for straitening out comb on foundationless frames when bees are drawing out comb. My experience is that the bees tend to chew the rubber bands off prior to adhering it to the frame making it secure. This causes the comb to fall over onto the next frame and of coarse bees then connect it together. You can then see how much a Ferrell bee hive transfer of frames ends up being a huge mess. Go grab a frame and you have 3 that are stuck together unfortunately. I eventually ended up with a bigger mess then I started with. In a 10 frame langstroth bee hive. It took me nearly 6 weeks to get rid of the comb and straighten out or organize the comb. Most of it eventually got trashed. When your dealing with bees that are queenless and Ferrell this can be a rather unpleasant situation. The bees being at a heightened temperament and no ability to make comb. Wax comes from nurse bees or young bees under 14 to 16 days old.
Using the skewer method you can see why it is I won't use the rubber band method. Luckily I have a queen in this Owl House Bunch. Hopefully she will live. I will be extra careful when removing the bees over. I will try to find her when doing the removal to be extra careful on that comb when doing the skewers.
The plan is on Tuesday PM or AM I have not decided, Use my bee hive tool and pry the wood apart. It is held together with finishing nails. An air gun was used to shoot finishing nails into the plywood, so unfortunately this is going to be more trama on the bees. You typically don't want to be pounding on a bee hive. If you do think it's okay to pound on a bee hive, you must not have all all your nuts and bolts in your head. The advantage of the AM time frame is that I have light to work with and it's cool temps. Drawback is you have upset bees all day long. In the PM the bees are more settled and won't fly as much. Just a theory. After I get them transferred the bees at night will have a tendency to just go in and not fly around and stay put. Again just a theory.
I will close the front of the bee hive heart shaped hole off to prevent free flight of the bees immediately. Start wedging the hive tool in the front piece of plywood and hopefully get it pryed open enough I can pry the front off. I then will be able assess the situation.
Some branches are in the bottom of the box that are part of the comb will need to be trimmed away. Comb will have Larvae, honey and probably trash comb. Trash comb is comb that isn't really used by the bees. This being such a small hive I hope to save as much as possible. Being the back side of summer and near fall I will give them as much honey comb as I can. Normally when working a removal honey comb isn't saved and put in with the bees because it's a mess. Your typically wanting just the brood comb.
I will probably not have the opportunity to take much video or photo's during all the removal and introduction to the Nuc box.
I will dress for battle. I suspect the other 2 bee hives will not get worked up, but will plan for the worst. 2 layers of socks, winter boots, Sweat pants, short sleeve and long sleeve shirts, Dickies overalls, bee suit and of coarse gloves.
On a scale of 1 being easy and 10 being the most dangerous I would peg this as a level 4 because it's not got many bees and the bee temperament has been very calm. They're more gentle then the 2 bee hives I have currently. My first Ferrell bee hive removal I did was a 10. I was on my back with 24" to work with above me to remove comb and I had probably 50,000 bees that were not happy. I had a safe zone on that removal that was about 1/3rd of a mile away.
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