Fall 2022 update

 I reorganized the bee shed.  It had become very difficult to find and reach desired equipment.  It looks great now.

 

Honey harvest was poor; about 2.5 gallons.  Other beeks also had poor harvests, so the price of honey has gone up.  I realized that the costs and amount of labor is nearly the same for any size harvest.

I'm trying a new way to store the comb.  The combs have to be protected from wax moths.  There are several ways to do so.  Previously I froze the frames for a day or two.  This requires me to tote the boxes to a neighbors house, leave them in their large freezer one at a time and then switch boxes.  With the number of boxes, this takes a couple of weeks.  I wanted to use the B402 strain of Bacillus thuringiensis, but one get it in California.  The same is true of the dichlorobenzene crystals.  I found moth balls of DCB available in California, so I got some.  I am acting on faith that the balls are not contaminated with anything bad.  So, after cleaning the frames of propolis and wax, I put the frames into plastic garbage bags, put 24 moth balls on a small paper plate on top of the frames and sealed the bags with duct tape.  Time will tell.apivar

 

Because the bees had so little stored honey, I started feeding them today.  They may not be taking much yet as there is still some forage.

In July, I did a mite count and it was dangerously high.  I put in oxalic acid sponges.  Now that the honey supers are off, I will treat with Apivar.  Unfortunately, I don't have enough strips for all the hives and it's taking a while for my new order to arrive.  I expect it in the next couple of days.

Happy new year everyone!

Four hives and a nuc

 It's swarm season, for certain!  

Over the winter I lost two colonies.  One, #2, was always weak and just died out.  #1 had been my strongest colony, but it died due to mismanagement.  When I harvested honey in the fall, I assumed there was enough left for the bees.  I neglected to monitor, and when I returned from a trip to Seattle, I found them all dead.  They had starved.

The pile of dead bees inside the hive

So, I was down to two colonies.  

On March 11, I saw a good-sized swarm in the yard.  I believe it had been cast from one of my hives.  It settled on the fence by the Elericks ("What's and Elerick?) and I was able to brush it into a box and hive it in #2.  Then two days ago, our neighbor knocked and told me that there was a swarm in front.  Another good sized swarm was flying between our yard and Paul's.  It may have come from one of my hives, but possibly not.  It finally settled in our yard on the Cecil Brunner.  #1 hive colonized!

Then yesterday, one of my hives cast an after swarm.  I figure it was from my hives because it was in our yard and an after swarm because it was on the smaller side.  It settled in the Eureka lemon tree.  It's now happily ensconced in a nuc box.  

If there's another swarm, I probably will offer it to my neighbor or another beek.  Or maybe a second nuc.

Swarm cells, swarms and oxalic acid dribble

 A couple of weeks ago while inspecting #3 with Eshel, we saw some capped swarm cells. I knew this hive would swarm soon.  I had been hoping to catch a swarm in my swarm trap, but so far there had been no activity there.  I needed a colony to populate my long langstroth hive.

The next day I went out to make a swarm split.  The prerequisite is finding the old queen.  I got everything set up and, with queen catcher in my pocket, went into the hive.  I searched every frame, to no avail.  I also noted that one of the uncapped queen cells was now gone.  Disappointed, I closed up the hive with hopes that I would be able to capture the swarm when it occurred.  

Nothing happened for the next 11 days, but then, while I was preparing the tomato bed, #3 swarmed.  I watched the cloud of bees hoping they would cluster in an easily accessible spot in our yard.  Initially it headed towards the lemon tree, but then veered off to the west into Paul's yard.  I went over there watching it continue west towards the next neighbor's yard.  Then it began to coalesce and formed a cluster on the trunk of an apple tree.

I went back to my apiary, prepared the long lang with two frames of drawn comb (all I had) and three frames with foundation.  I found a box some wine had come in, suited up went to Paul's with a spray bottle of sugar syrup.  I spritzed the cluster, placed the box below it, and since I was unable to shake the trunk, brushed the bees off and into the box.  I place the box on the ground near the tree and went away for about 20 minutes.  When I returned, the bees were still in the box and fanning, so I knew the queen was in there.  I brushed a few hundred more bees into the box and closed it.  On the way to the hive, I stopped in the kitchen to weigh the bees.  The swarm was about 4 1/2 pounds, a good size.

I dumped the bees into the long lang and they have settled in well.

During this time, I also had removed the entrance reducers and started formic acid treatment.  This year I am doing the single strip treatment as Randy Oliver reported better mite control.  Rather than two strips for 2 weeks, one strip for 10 days followed by another single strip for ten days. 

 I wanted to treat the swarm as well.  Since there is no brood or honey, it is the perfect time to treat with oxalic acid.  This can be applied with a vaporizer, which I do not have, or by dribble.  At the most I would need 20 cc, bur the recipe I could find makes much more.  A little arithmetic and I made about 4 oz. (I had to make this volume in order to be able to weigh the oxalic acid with some degree of accuracy.)  Using a 5cc dropper, I easily applied the dribble to the  now ensconced swarm.  It was gratifying to see all five frames with bees.

In another week or so, I will check out the long lang and add frames if needed.

Apiary update, and a bit about pickleball

 It feels and looks like spring here. The bee colonies are starting to expand.  I've but second deep boxes on hives 2&3.  #1 has a deep and a medium and I put a queen excluder and a medium onto it.  I tried excluders last year without a problem, so I'll be using them on all hives, except for the long lang.  I took a look in the hives a couple of days ago and they all look good.  There are a lot of drones, suggesting swarm season is upon us.  I put up the swarm trap, but no visitors as yet.  I lowered the stand for #1&2 and restructured it.  There hives are now on a board which is held up by six ant traps.

As for pickleball:   It is the fastest growing sport in the country.  It is played on a badminton size court with paddles and a perforated plastic ball.  The net is 34" high in the center and 36" high at the posts.  The game is: hit the ball over the net, either volley or after a single bounce.  There are a couple of quirky rules.  The ball has to bounce after the serve and on the return of serve.  There is a 7' deep area on each side of the net which is the non-volley zone, also known as the kitchen.  One cannot hit a volley if in that zone.  Serves are underhand and contact of the serve must be below the waist.  Most people play doubles, although one can play singles.  It is easier on the knees than tennis in that the court is smaller.  It is a very social game.  I suggest you take a look at any of the innumerable videos available online, then go to a local court.  It is likely that you'll be invited to play, at least pre-covid.  

 

2020 Fall honey harvest

 

 

Here is the fall honey harvest sitting in our pantry.  87 pounds, over 7 1/4 gallons.  Our largest harvest yet.  Keep in mind that commercial beekeepers get 100 pounds or more per hive.  But still... . 

More than sticky honey extraction has been going on in the apiary since the last post.  A quick summary:

Mite count was high in July.  I wanted to treat with oxalic acid on shop towels.  I wrote to Randy Oliver to find out his latest formula.  He told me that he is using Swedish sponge cloths now instead of shop towels and that he has changed the formula a bit.  I couldn't find that particular brand, but found some by Scotch-Brite that seemed the same.  I put the OA into the hive using Randy's latest formula.  I did not do a repeat mite count.  After removing the honey supers and the remains of the sponge cloths, I put in Apivar strips as I have done yearly.

The long lang colony never had honey or pollen stores and did not thrive.  I always spotted the queen, but no brood.  As the population diminished, I fed it in hopes it could recover.  This led to robbing of the syrup!  I removed the feeder and vacuumed out the corpses.  Next year, either a split from #1 or another swarm.

I plan to reconstruct the hive stand for #1 & 2.  I will make it lower and change the position of the ant moats to the more secure position of the other stands.

Other winter bee care involves rejuvenating frames and foundations.

I hope you're all doing well in these troubled times.  

#3 rebuilt and relocated

#3 new site in front of new fence

While building the new fence in the back, I foolishly tried to move #3 hive over a few inches on its hive stand.  This resulted in sliding the stand legs off of the ant blocker.  Fortunately all it did was jolt the hive, not knocking it over.  There was a brief flurry of angry bees and then all was well.

It was time to move the hive further from the fig tree and to get rid of the agapanthus that were in the way of working the hive.

I moved the hive onto a temporary stand, dug up the offending plants and brought in and leveled new dirt.

I needed a stable way to put the hive on the ant blockers.  I realized that the hive could sit on a board and the ant blockers could be under the board.  I screwed the blockers onto the stand and the board onto the blockers.  Voila!

The hive stand for #1 and 2 is still in the previous precarious situation:

Unfortunately, moving the hives off the stand at this time would be too difficult.  I will wait until after the honey harvest to make the desired alteration.  Let us hope that the stand does not slip before then!

Trying something new, part I

Hive #3 has continued not to thrive.  On inspection a couple of days ago, it looked the population had actually decreased.  The bees were only on the lateral 4 combs in both brood boxes and there was not much honey in the super.  There was capped brood and I did spot the queen.  There were a couple of frames with dead drone brood and no nurse bees.  I decided that I would combine this hive with #2. 
But, as expected, there are a problem that must be solved.  #2 consists of 2 deep boxes and 2 mediums.  #3 has one deep and 2 mediums.  Simply stacking the boxes would create a ridiculously high and unworkable tower.  So the number of boxes has to be reduced.  A project I started today.
The super in #3 had 3 frames with honey.  I switched these 3 frames into #2's super; one box down.  I then looked for the queen in #2, but could not find her.  I put the queen excluder between the deep and medium.  There is capped brood in the super which will emerge in the next 10 or so days.  At that point, I can shake the bees out of the super and combine the remaining deep with #2.  If it turns out that the queen is in the medium box, the process will be the same.  I would, in the latter case, probably put the medium frames into a deep box so there will be room for all the bees.
It kind of sounds like I know what I'm doing.  Don't be fooled!