Last night I did check on them as well as early before the sun got up. They were bearding as it's no surprise. After day light from the sun about 6:45AM rising I could take some pictures. I can't stand out in front because the bees are doing an orienting flight. Observing they're doing small circles about 10 to 15 foot diameter. I was hit by a few bees in the hair when I opted to depart. Some of the bees are still bearding, but not many.
Set out the ceramic dog bowl with wire mesh and a brick about 8 feet way and about 6" off the ground. I hope they find it. I also will try and set something on top of my other 2 bee hives if the Owl house bunch opt to go explore around them.
These are located in front of the other 2 bee hives
Set them on the front Shade Cloth post I didn't have time to worry about the plastic trash bags.
Fallen Honey comb. The bees have already eaten the honey out of it.
I put a piece of 8" length of 2x4 wood on my 4x4 Post. Screwed it in with 4 screws. I was going to put a piece with 45 degree cuts and make a platform for more support. I nixed that idea as I wanted it to be simplified. I will use that to provide support for the box to sit on and just strap the owl box to it.
I drove over about 30 minutes away from here. Elisa and I suited up. Got the gear over to the bee hive and yep they're bearding again. It's in the 80's so the only thing I can think of is that this box has no ventilation and the rather large opening doesn't allow for much circulation. What a pitty for the bees.
The concern about this bee hive is the heat that the bees will generate when the entrance is sealed off. Bees generate a lot of heat, so the box that already has no ventilation other then the orange size hole in it will need to be opened in the shortest amount of time to prevent death by heat and CO2. I did drill some holes in the acrylic cover I used to cover the hole.
The smoker was lit and going, I smoked them in hopes that they'd go inside.
Yep they did exactly as I wanted them to. Only about 200 bees estimated didn't make it inside. That's the worse case I can tell. This removal was at about 8:20PM tonight. I tried to drill the wood with a screw to get the cover secure, but the screw wasn't going in, so pre drilling then drilling worked. Kinda hectic when your working for speed.
Got it on and the bees came down after I cut the zip tie.
Got them in 2 large plastic bags with duct tape to seal any that came out. In the trunk they went. Gathered the supplies and drove home. Got the bee suits on again. Went over and strapped it to the post. I then tore off the plastic in a frantic moment cause of the heat. Got the first screw out and the hole was just big enough that the bees started to come out. Quite small bees I am dealing with. They need some fattening up for sure. So I got the cover off and the bees came out bearding. Elisa got about 10 bees on her. We gathered up the tools and left. I brushed the bees off her , but some just flew back onto her. So we went for a walk up the street. 1 bee woudn't leave us. I got it off her and it landed in my hair. I got it out with out a sting. Looking over her 1 more time 1 was on the pant leg. Got that off. Were good.
Part of the honey comb did fall off. Some separation in all this and the heat with comb not being supported. The bees were doing a super cooling fanning as fast as they could. Poor bees were hot in just that hour time that they were closed up. I am having second thoughts about having them in full sun. I think I will get a paddle bit and see if I can get 2 vent holes in the top drilled out. I don't really want to do that, but it's going to be better for the bees. Maybe the sides will be better then the top. I have screen I will cover it with making sure that nothing can get in. We do have assassin bugs.
I will keep you posted and take a few pictures on Monday and the following days going forward.
Today I was thinking about the preperation for the bees. I originally was going to put them into a Nuc Deep. After last night looking at the size of the Owl house and the bearding bees, I don't think a Nuc Deep is going to work. I think the Owl House is about 8 frames deep/brood. They need more room I am thinking.
Many options are possible. I don't want to put them in a Super 10 frame brood box. I rather keep them confined to a 5 frame Nuc. Since they are probably 8 frames I am guessing, I needed a Medium for the Nuc. I made a medium Nuc. Lucky me I already had frames for the Nuc Medium and the Nuc deep. Double Deep is what I will go with for the Owl House Bees
I have had 20 feet of Pine wood for making mediums. I almost made a medium and put it on the original bee hive #2 that is the Ferrell Bees, but I already have a Deep available and that is what I put on. If I built a Medium previously and put that on the bee hive instead I would put the Ferrell Bee hive in a 10 frame Deep and call it a day. Unfortunately it's in use and I am not moving it off even though I could. Any way you slice it I would have to build a Medium Nuc or a Medium 10 frame Langstroth. No need to cause Bee Hive to have to convert to mediums now that they've started drawing comb on the Supers though.
So out came the measuring tape and changed the saw blade.
This is a box joint that I learned is fast and 10 times easier then that of finger jointing. I did finger jointing on my first bee hive Deep I built. I never again will do that. Of coarse I say never, but we will see just how true that is. I found the box joints from Nuc building instructions on the dummy series on line. Once I saw that I was like....... Forget finger-jointing. That is just too time consuming and ridiculous. Why do you need joints that a car can drive over with it's bees is beyond me. I am not selling them, so I refuse to do them again.
I make my own foundation-less frames
as many people do. I will always try and build my own stuff saving me money because I have spent over $1000 in for this bee hobby. Way too much money and had I known this, I would have never gotten started in it. I didn't know that it was going to cost that much. Of coarse I spent a lot more on nicer things in preparations for the future and longevity. I just didn't put my bee hive on the ground and put a brick on it.
This isn't glued and screwed yet.
Super with foundationless and the new medium
Double Deep Nuc
I have 3 foundation frames ready if I need them for the bees. These I coated with more wax then they came with so it helps them out.
Hopefully I can use these
I still have to build a stand for the original owl box to sit on 1 of the 4x4 posts. I will let them get oriented for a week before I tear the owl house apart and transfer the comb to the frames and insert it into the Nuc Box. I have to do that on Sunday.
Plan is on Sunday to get the bees regardless if they're bearding or not. I will sweep them off and put a Nuc box in place with a few frames for them. Monday night I will get the Nuc Box and bring it home then put it on top of the owl house, so they can get back to the bee hive. It took me by surprise that they were bearding and I didn't think to bring a Nuc Box. My thinking was they'd be inside and I would just screw a cover over the entrance sealing them inside, put the box in a plastic bag for transport and bring them home. Bearding caught me by surprise. It's still in the upper 90's and that's why they're bearding. It's a sealed jointed box and the only air flow is the orange size hole in the front of the box. Hot with all the bees inside.
The bees are in full shade currently. I am putting them in full sun, but will put over-sized cardboard on top to shade them most likely. I will be removing my sun sail shade covers once the temps are below 95 degrees. Bees will have to manage the heat for a few weeks. They're in partial sun/shade throughout the day. I just don't want them in full sun as that would melt the honey and we don't want the queen to get a death by honey drowning.
I suspected that this was going to be an easy removal and it will be. I forgot to take some photo's of the bees. I did a scouting of the job. It's the easiest removal I believe that will ever be gifted to me. So at about 10AM Friday 28th 2016 today I arrived at the house. The young man came out and greeted me pleasantly. Shook his hand and proceeded to the back yard. I looked up and saw a larger then expected box. This is almost a langstroth deep with a hole the size of an orange for an opening. I was expecting to see quite a lot of activity, but the opposite. Just the occasional bee flying from the comb and bee into the cavity. The bees have filled it up as much as it's going to I suspect. Looks as though someone placed an orange in the hole and the bees built comb around it from what I could see to explain what it looked like form the ground.
So the bees were huddled on the exterior of the comb solid in the opening. This is because they're sealing off the comb to keep the brood comb warm. Concave circular pattern at the entrance opening the size of an orange on the front. Everything is sealed. The placement of the bee hive is about 7feet off the ground. The man Matt said he'd provide a ladder tonight when I come.
So the plan is to take a rope and see if I can tie it around the top and the sides and loop it up in the tree and have someone on the ground lower it with me. The caution I have is that it's heavy and I do not want to underestimate the weight. I will be on a ladder about 4 to 5 feet off the ground, so just lifting this cutting the plastic zip tie and climbing down the ladder isn't going to be safe.
This afternoon I will cut a piece of acrylic and drill it with air holes. I will drill 4 holes for the screws on the corner of the acrylic piece. This will be the to seal the bees while I transport the bees. I also have to decide on how to attach this to the 4x4
post that I have in my bee yard that have the sun sail shade cloth on it. I will be building a wood support to set the owl house on. I don't want to drill into the box. I could stap it to the post with a 2x4 under it that is bolted into the post, but then I have a hole in the 4x4 post. Guess I could fill the hole in when I take this down in a week with silicone. By the way you can see just how dry the land is out here. The last time I got on the tractor and mowed was early July probably.
I will put them on the post in the original bee hive, so they can get oriented. That's my thinking. I called a beekeeper that sells honey in our town and asked her what her thoughts are about moving a bee hive from shade to direct sun. She only told me she has partial sun and partial shaded hives and she doesn't have problems with mites and such. She recommended sun. I think I will put a piece of cardboard at the top to provide some shade for them.
I should have taken a photo, but forgot to when I did the assessment. Sorry
It's really neat to have been offered to come and remove an owl house in Austin that has lots of bees in the box. Saturday night I will go and look at what I am dealing with. I suspect it is full of honey and full of bees as it's been since spring when the bees moved in. This was Wednesday
I got a call from my neighbor across the street today Thursday. He asked if I was interested in some free wood. He's trying to clean up some of his construction pile. Sure, I will take it because I have some projects I have in mind. I go out and start moving the wood to my property with him helping too. I get to talking about bees and how they're doing. I mentioned I got a call from a guy in town that has an owl house full of bees. "I have an owl house". I wanted to look at it and so he showed me. He hadn't looked at it in 5 yrs probably.
Surprise I saw a bee come out. I saw another and then saw them at the entrance. It's hardly any traffic, none the less it's an old bee hive that was built up and swarmed. Some bees found it and now are making a home out of it.
From what I can tell it's probably 500 maybe a 1000 bees. Were in the backside of summer and the bees are weak. I was looking at the comb and nothing was in it. The abdomens of the bees are thin. With so few bees I hope I can get them started on sugar water to get them going.
My plan is to leave them until the spring time when they get strong again. I think the queen isn't laying because the bees are so few and not anything to eat. The bee hive is in the trees shaded with about 7 feet off the ground. When the bees get healthy I will do a removal and gift them to my neighbor if he wants them in a bee hive. Currently they're so far away from anything nothing is going to be bothered even if they get big. It's at the back end of the property. A ranch is on the other side, so it's great. Fall is coming, so hopefully we'll have a nectar flow for this small hive to gain some strength and numbers.
The other bee hive, I probably will put it in a Nuc box and winter them in it.
I'm pretty excited to get another bee hive going. Weather here for the winter we don't get snow that sticks to the ground more then 1 to 3 days. We only get snow about every 3rd year.
Learning about bees is never endless. The knowledge I have learned I want to pass it down to anyone that is new or that wants to learn about bee keeping.
Where to begin is the question. 1st thing I want to point out is that obtaining bees can be done by knowing any bee keeper that is willing to let you purchase some bee frames and a queen. You don't necessarily have to have a queen, but that is a long story explained later on. You can purchase a Nuc from a bee keeper from $125 to $275 Nucs are 5 frames of bees that typically have 5 frames of bees. The 5 frames contain 2 frames of honey stores, pollen and the other frames brood or young bees that are still in the cells. The great thing about Nuc's are that the bees are already established and the queen can lay eggs. The 3rd is you can buy a package of bees. Typically a package of bees is 3 pounds of bees in a wooden box with screen mesh. The package has a queen in it that is in a protected box that the bees will release her in a few days. The package of bees typically cost $150 and you need to go pick them up. If you have them shipped it will cost about $75 to have them shipped to you. Last is you can trap a swarm of bees. This is setting up a bee hive with a q-tip dipped in lemon grass oil in a baggie. Put that baggy in a nuc box with some bee comb if you can with some bee frames. Swarms are from bees that got too large and the queen leaves with half the bee hive to start a new colony. It is hit or miss if you catch one. Setting about a dozen of these out in a few miles will better your chance.
I didn't know about all these ways to buy bees necessarily and nor did I understand it fully. If your going to start bee keeping and your 100% positive, then get on line and buy a package of bees, a nuc or make some contacts with another bee keeper. Ordering bees is typically in the spring as that's when the flowers are in bloom. Summer time everything in Texas is pretty much dead. So starting bees off in a good way with lots of flowers in bloom makes them healthy happy and very active.
Ordering bees is a waiting list. Get on the list as soon as you can if your ordering bees. Only order bees from a reputable company that's been in business for 20 yrs or so because they won't steal your money, rip you off, short you or give you something that is weak knowingly.
You need equipment. Buy it or make it yourself. Do it yourself links by Dummy series is a great tutorial of how to do it. I built 2 complete wooden Langstroth bee hives in a weekend with my own version of bee frames. The thing about bee hives is if it's a box bees don't care what it looks like. You don't have to do the finger joints or make it fancy. The importance is the dimensions. I am in my mid 40's and have back problems from my younger athletic racing days. I built a bee stand that was 30" off the ground so I didn't have to bend over. Shade or sun placement. Pick an area that gets full sun is probably more ideal. Here in Texas where it gets 100 degrees or more the bees get hot and honey can melt, so you don't want that, so provide partial shade artificially or naturally, but bees that do full sun do better. I pointed my bee hive entrance to the south east. We get a North and South strong wind blowing most the year constantly, so it can have a negative effect on the bee hive. Bees try and keep the brood at 92 to 94 degrees. When you have wind it makes it more difficult to maintain these temps.
A bee hive can be built for about $50 in material. A purchased bee hive can be bought with out the frames for about $100 to $125 Assembled or not a slight difference in price. Frames can be bought for about $45 per 10 of them that are foundation. Foundations are the plastic cells that bees build off of. As you can see this is why I make my own frames. I do foundationless because of the expense in purchasing frames. I rather make my own frames then buy them. Lumber is $10 and I can make probably 50 frames out of a piece of lumber/wood. Of coarse this is only good if you have the skills, time and the equipment to do it. It took me awhile to build the frames. I was attempting to do it as it was done with knotching and fitting, but that got too complicated and I simplified it. Again, bees are not picky. Bees will make a home out of nearly anything and then some. As long as you provide something for them, more then likely they don't know anything other then what they are suppose to do and that's be a bee and do what they're tasked to do. Bees are not picky by any standard.
So you ordered your bees or going to obtain them from a bee keeper. You have chosen to build or buy your bee hives. What is next? Location and stand need to be picked out. Do you have an ant problem? You can build an ant proof stand. You can build something fancy. Wind is a factor, so if you need to secure it hows it going to be done. You can pretty much do lots of things as the bees don't care. What you do will likely be permanent, so take some time and think about it.
Equipment - You will always have more bees then you know what because bees multiply. As they multiply you need to supply them with another box and frames to grown into. Or like in my case you might have a Ferrell Bee removal offered up to you. Always great to have equipment on hand for those spare of the moment unforeseen days. Who knew I was going to do a removal my first year?
Bee keeping is pretty simple as the bees do know what they're doing. Bees know best is the thing to keep in mind. We try and steer them one way, but mostly that's all we can do, is steer them. We can't make them produce more comb, more brood or more honey. Provide a home for them and they will either be happy or not. Bees do leave if they're not happy. It's an indication something is wrong. Many reasons for bees to leave.
Protective Gear- Inspections of a bee hive you'll need a hive tool, bee broom, a smoker and a bee suit. Hive tool is used to pry boxes off and getting frames up out of the boxes. Broom is used to sweep bees off frames if you need to or out of the edge of the box so you can replace a box that you've removed. Bee suit, many available and it's your choice. Here is what I have learned. The Chinese $10 or $20 bee suit depending on where you buy it on Ebay / Amazon or whatever on the internet. It's great cause it's a quick easy on and off fit no fuss. You want to go replace a feeder, then this is what you want. You don't want to get suited up for battle that takes you 3 minutes to get into and 3 minutes to get out of do you? Nah, you want to throw this Chinese bee suit on and go do something real quick and your done. Your not really disturbing the bees, so the guard bee that comes atcha your not bothered by them that you get from getting too close. I have found that if bees are following you, walking a good distance away and weaving under a tree like oak trees is helpful in getting the bees stopped harassing you.
If your going to be pulling frames looking at what is going on then you need to get suited up. Pulling frames your looking for brood, the bee population, comb building and possible the queen. Do the bees have pollen stores and honey? Do they look plump and numbers good as in population? Anything that doesn't look good needs to be addressed. Mite levels, wax moths and other things that can be a problem. Overall health and progress is what you want to look at when going into a bee hive and popping the top off.
Bee stings- Wow it hurts like dickn's the first sting. The first sting I got was on the ankle doing the Ferrell bee hive removal. I was inspecting the bee hive to see what was needed, so I didn't tape up my ankle. The only exposed area. I got stung in the ear and forearm picking my nuc bee hive up. Stepped on a bee got stung on the foot. Thigh, hand and chest too. Those are the only bee stings I got in 2015 that I know of. So getting stung all those times wasn't really expected, but I could have been prepared by wearing my bee suit properly. A bee suit will protect you somewhat. You can still get stung though. Wearing layers of clothing prevents the stinger from getting to your skin, so if your doing something that's ultimately a 10 dangerous, like a removal wear baggy clothing under your bee suit. Yes, it's hot, but better to not be stung is my saying.
Bee stings can cause a mild reaction. Something to keep an eye on. It's recommended to take benedryl. Take it immediately and you won't have as bad of reaction from it. Itching and swelling is what happens. Some ice might do good. Scrape the bee stinger off if you see it. I rub wet meat tenderizer on my stings as it naturalizes the poison. It does provide some relief.
In the spring time normally your local bee chapter/club will have a bee class you can attend. The bee class will be an all day event with many courses you can take and learn from. Because I read so much from the Fall start of the previous year I knew pretty much everything. Just reassurance that I was knowledgeable The cost was $95 for 2 people to attend. It was out in Brenham.
Feeding- Get a Mason Jar or any glass jar with a metal lid. With a nail and hammer, make small holes in the metal lid. About 10 holes give or take. 2 blocks of wood will work for your feeder to sit on. Water to Sugar equal weight 1:1 ratio. I buy it sugar at costco in the 50LB Bags. Cost is about $22 Cheaper then the $16 at the local grocery store for 25LBS.
I was told it's better to feed inside meaning put the inner cover on top of the super and add a box and put the lid on. What you do is put the jar over the hole of the inner cover. The bees didn't really go through too much, but if I did entrance feeding where you put it at the entrance, I went through a quart a day.
Dearth- What is that? It's where summer time comes along and the sun bakes the land and no plants are really available for the bees to bring back food/nectar. The temperament of the bees will be more defensive because it's hot. When it's 100 degrees or more the bees mainly don't go out as much, less activity in the entrance is what I have observed. When you have a bee hive that is new you want to feed them some during the week sugar water is water I recommend. Also, you can feed them ordinary baking flour. $5.99 at Costco for 25LBS. Not so nutritional, but the carbohydrates provide plenty of calories for the bees. put out about 5 to10 cups or a bowl of it on your bee hive and your bees will love you for it. It will be a free for all and a sight to see.
Water- Provide them a source of water. Bees drink lots of water. They use it to provide cooling like a swamp cooler. Also all the bees that don't fly need water too. So carting water back to the bee hive is always needed. I have a ceramic dog bowl that I use. I put in a wire mesh, so the bees that get in the water can get out. You can also use wine corks as the water level drops so do the corks. I ditched the water bowl on top of the bee hive because bees were dead from drowning even with the wire mesh. Also, it got dirty and needed cleaning frequently. Egg cartons upside down in a bowl of water I have read works well too. Cardboard egg cartons not the Styrofoam type is what I am talking about.
Observation- Knowing what the bees are doing is welcoming because you can understand what is going on. Bringing in Pollen you can see it on the bees pollen sacks. Handing off nectar, guarding the bee hive, those that are hanging out moving around slowly and other things. I witnessed the bees having a fit clustering by the strap. I didn't know what was going on. Clearly not happy, so I took a closer look and it was an Assassin bug. I get them daily about up to 10 of them daily. I kill them with a piece of wood or my finger. Smash! Your dead. Some wasps will be flying around and or the yellow jackets. Sometimes during the heat peak of Summer I have seen some bees only a handful fanning in front of the hive. A little hot for the day and bees cooling bringing in a little bit of air.
Summer evenings I have seen them fly around in mass in front of the hive just before they go in the hive. I have seen them hanging out on the entrance landing board chill'n with a glass of wine telling stories to others. Amazes me that sometimes all the sudden they just go in for the night as if the queen says night night go to bed. All flight stops and they go inside. Now what they're doing is keeping the brood warm, probably cleaning and sleeping. You can see the guard bees with a flashlight if you shine it on the entrance and also look inside. Pretty neat to see.
What types of bees? Russian, Italian and Carolinian are the main bees. I don't know the different types of bees, I can't distinguish them. Italian is what I bought, so I now what they look like and that's about all I can say to the types of bees. Queen bee ruler of them all. She is taken care of by everyone. Her only task is mainly to just lay eggs. She puts out a pheromone and the bees recognize her. The interesting thing is that bees are super super super sensitive to her smell and know if she's gone. Pull a frame with her on it and in about 2 minutes you'll here the bee hive roar loudly. I have seen it on YouTube. I have not witnessed it. Nor do I care to do that. I have seen my Italian Queen the one I bought (NUC). Oh...... Nuc stands for nucleolus. The Ferrell bee hive queen I have never really searched for her. If you see brood and the bees are calm and not noisy then she's in the bee hive.
