For some time, I have noticed that some bees have a light colored spot on their thorax. Is it a disease? Some sort of phenotypical variation?
Today I saw several such bees, so I caught one on camera (not film anymore- on pixel?). Getting this photo almost made me feel like a National Geographic wildlife photographer. I had to wait nearly 5 minutes and took several shots.
You can see the light streak on the bee's thorax. Note, also, the light-colored pollen on her hind legs.
The answer: the bee's middle legs have a "blind spot" where they cannot reach to groom. I remembered having read about this in The Biology of the Honey Bee by Mark Winston, p.23
I presume that this forager had visited a eucalyptus tree.

Late fall inspection

I hadn't been in the hive for a while and began to get curious about what was going on in there. The bees are still active (they don't leave the hive as early as before because of the temperature) bringing in pollen and presumably nectar. Their orientation flights are smaller in number.
The pollen they are bringing in is orange; no white pollen yet. I spotted some blooms high on the eucalyptus in Capitola. I had to use binoculars to see.
Since today was a sunny, calm and (relatively) warm day, I decided to take a look inside.
Lots of honey, still. 7-8 frames full in each medium super. There was only one bee in the top super. With the top super off, one can look down and see the spheroid area that the bees mainly occupy. In the deep box, two frames with brood and larva (I did see my queen). I see some pollen but not as much as the books illustrate. I figure it's my observation that is poor, not the girls' pollen collecting and storage. No queen cells and no drones or drone cells seen.
I'm reading Tom Seeley's Honeybee ecology that Cynthia so kindly checked out for me from the UCSC Science library. It's quite interesting, but he loses me with his mathematical explanation for the altruistic behavior of the workers. One bit of information I learned was that bees seldom forage withing 500' of their hive. This is one comment for which he does not give a citation. I expect I'll write to him to ask about it. Naturally, this means that my bees won't get anything from our yard, a disappointing thought.
Planning ahead- I want to divide my hive. The books and online sources say that one should move the new hive at least 2 miles away. This is something I would find difficult to do and I wonder how important it is to do so. I will be barraging my mentors with questions regarding dividing hives.

Heavy winds

Strong winds were blowing two days ago. I had read that the tops of hive can be blown off, so I went out and put a stone on top. The girls all stayed home because of the wind, but today they are back out. They are bringing in a bright yellow pollen. Soon the eucalyptus will be in bloom (I think already there is a little). That pollen is white, so I'll keep an eye out for that.
Every morning there are a few dead bees on the porch, but a few days ago, there were over a dozen. I saw that two had pollen on their legs (you can see one in the center). That meant that they had been foraging, and I immediately thought of insecticide exposure. That is one thing that can wipe out the colony, so I was worried. Nothing could be done except wait. As noted above, they are buzzing and apparently healthy today and no unusual increase in bee corpses.
I spotted a robber bee trying to get in, so I replaced the entrance reducer.

Varroa treament done

I went in today and removed the Mite-away quick strips.  They looked pretty dried out.  I examined the sticky board and made a rough count of 150 mites.  Over 7 days, that's only 20+ per day.  So, was treatment necessary?  Was it helpful?  I certainly don't know.
There is a lot of honey, 6 full frames in the top super and 8 in the middle.  I was tempted to take out a frame for a taste treat but refrained.

Now I'm thinking ahead to spring.  I want to start another Langstroth hive as well as Olea's top bar hive.  I plan to split my colony to make the Langstroth and to try to capture a swarm for the top bar.  I've been reading about how to split a hive.  Several sources say to take the divided hive 3-5 miles away from the original.  I don't think I'll be doing that; I intend to ask my mentors about the necessity doing so. I will try to get my name on a couple of swarm notification lists.  I'll be making a trip to the Mountain Feed and Farm Supply for more frames, another medium super and some advice.

Treating for varroa mite

After much debate, I decided to treat the hive with formic acid. I ordered a box of 10 treatments (the smallest available) and it came last week. The formic acid has a strong acid smell that many of you will recall from chemistry lab.
It arrived after Maidi and I left for a brief trip to Las Vegas, where we saw Cirque du Soleil, Love. Then on into Utah to the Red Mountain Resort for a couple of days of hiking, swimming, biking, stretching and massage.
Today was the first opportunity to treat. The instructions say to have 7 days of between 50 and 95 degrees. The weather forecast looks like this will be the case. So into the hive!
All I did was to take off the 2 top supers and place the strips on the hive, then remove the entrance reducer and put the hive back together. I also placed the sticky sheet so that I can gleefully see how many mites die and drop off. The strips stay in for seven days, so next Monday I'll take them out.

365 mites!

The temperature reached at least 60 degrees today, so I went into the hive.
There were many frames with honey, some brood and pollen and I spotted the queen.
I dusted with powdered sugar, and did it a bit differently. I put sugar on each super rather than just on the top one and letting it fall through. I felt this would get more sugar on the brood frames where the mites would be more concentrated. Either my theory was correct or there are just a lot more mites or both. I was dismayed when I took out the sticky board and could just see hundreds of mites- 365 to be precise. Of course, there could be a small counting error, but only small.
I'm afraid I'm going to have to treat. I haven't ordered my Mite-away quick strips yet. I did email Jeremy Rose again asking for his advice. I fully expect him to tell me to treat, but I wanted to know if it is too late in the year for formic acid. I hope he answers soon and will keep you all up to date.

No bee photos today, so here is the Orr House II rose. I'm still trying to identify it. I was going to go to the Monterey Bay Rose Society meeting last week with a cutting, but we went to Cynthia's instead.
Now to the bees. I dusted with powdered sugar 3 days ago. The mite count was 27, a good number. I intend to email Jeremy Rose again after a couple of more dustings and counts to see what he thinks of the control.

47 mites

Cathy was visiting from Lexington and took a look into the hive with me on the 19th. A sunny day after several foggy days. Calm and in the low 60's. The girls were calm and we saw the queen in the lower brood box.
Honey report: there were 4 frames of capped honey in the top super and 6 in the middle super. (The middle super was heavy enough to make it difficult to lift.) Some of the honey seemed clear, as if made from sugar syrup and the rest of the frames had darker honey of various shades. I wondered if there is enough honey for the winter and if I should stop feeding them. I emailed Ian, and he replied "Sounds like you are on top of the feed situation but might want to cut back on the syrup feeding so the queen can have a rest from egg laying." So I filled the feeder for the last time. Next time I go into the hive I'll remove the feeder and leave the Vivaldi box on as the top cover.
Brood: I took a brief look in the brood box, mainly to find the queen for Cathy. There were two frames with brood and larvae; there may have been 1 or 2 more but I didn't look. The drone frame had some drawn cells, no larvae or capped cells. This is as expected since all my sources say that in the fall and winter no drones are raised. A few cells had a small amount of clear nectar or sugar syrup. I removed it and put back the frame with drawn comb.
Powdered sugar treatment: I had made a new sticky board from a plastic sheet used for fluorescent ceiling lights. We sifted powdered sugar over the hive with the top super off. A little over an hour later, I took out the sticky board and counted the mites. They were alive and kicking their little legs and trying unsuccessfully to crawl through the sugar, vaseline and debris. There were 47!
Varroa report and Jeremy Rose: Jeremy Rose is the author of Beekeeping in Coastal California. This book is written for this climate and has a month by month tutorial. It also includes photos of local plants and tells their relative importance to bees. For example, poison oak is a major nectar source in March-May. He also includes a section on Varroa control, so I emailed him regarding treating my hive. 47 mites seemed like a lot, most sources say to treat if the count is over 50 and two beekeepers in the beekeepers guild had advised to treat if one has only a single hive, but still I'm not thrilled about treating with any chemicals. Formic acid has been recommended and is non-toxic. He wrote back within hours, "47 mites is enough to treat the hive. Keep in mind that if you treat once you will probably always have to treat periodically". Naturally, my curiosity was piqued by the second sentence, so I asked him why. His response, "treating does something to make the mites reproduce more aggressively. Sugar dusting would probably be effective for you. You would need to do it weekly for maybe the next 4 weeks in order to bring the mite levels down". A bit unscientific, but good enough for me to not use formic acid or a different miticide. Back to Costco for sacks of powdered sugar!

Lots of honey and few mites

I went into the hive today. It was warm, clear and calm. My plan today was to 1) check the honey supply; 2) see if there was much/any brood, and if there was, put the drone frame in again for mite control; and 3) treat with powdered sugar.
First some explanation. The bees need honey to get through the winter when the honey flow is over and to raise brood in the spring. On my last check, there was only one frame of capped honey, not nearly enough, so I started feeding again. Today, I hefted the boxes, and they felt heavy. In the top super, there were 4 frames of capped honey and honey being made in two others. In the middle supper were several (6? I don't remember even though I counted them). There was even some in the brood box. So it looks like my girls have enough stores. I'll continue to feed them this month or until they stop taking the syrup.


There was talk of varroa control again at the last beekeepers guild meeting. My beekeeping books also recommend treating if needed at this time of year. I'm still trying to decide what the best approach is. Two experienced keepers said that if a keeper has only one hive, he should treat. Keepers with many hives expect to lose one third each year. So I figured I should treat... or maybe do another sugar roll count and be guided by that... or just go ahead and treat with formic acid (as Ian suggested). So I went online to Scientific Beekeeping. This guy is referred to often at the Beekeepers Guild and seems to know what he's talking about. In one of his articles he tells of the one-two punch of using drone frame and dusting with powdered sugar. This method appeals to me because it's non-toxic and inexpensive. In the brood box, I saw my beautiful queen bee as well as a couple of frames of brood. So I took out one frame of drawn comb and put the drone frame in. I'll take it out in 4 weeks. That's the comb on the right. It's now in the freezer for a couple of days to kill any wax moth eggs or larvae and then will be stored in a sealed bag for future use.
Next came the sugar treatment. In the picture at top is my equipment for this endeavor. First I made a sticky board. At Staples, I found a sheet of white foam board. I thought this might be work as well as Masonite. I cut a piece to fit into the beetle trap tray and made a 1" grid with a sharpie. I smeared it with vaseline to catch the mites. The plan was to sift 2 cups of powdered sugar over the frames, wait an hour and then do a mite count.
Here's what went wrong. The foam board was sitting in the sun and warped, so when I put it in, it scraped against the edge of the hive and the screen bottom. I forgot to put it in until after I sifted the sugar on. When I took it out, it again scraped on the bottom of the hive, taking off a fair amount of vaseline. I used the spatula to clean off the screen the best I could. It also spilled powdered sugar on the stand, which was being avidly eaten by many bees not from my hive. They will probably be back looking for more or to rob for several days. (I have read in Biology of the Honeybee that bees will remember where there was good foraging for many days and will return daily until the nectar (or powdered sugar) is gone. Perhaps a future blog will tell more of the things I have learned about bees.)
When I examined the sticky board, including the blobs of vaseline/sugar/pollen that I scraped off the screen, I found a total of 3 mites. This is very good, I think.

Sticky-board varroa count

I put in a sticky-board three days ago and took it out today. That's it on the left. When I took out the tray 3 days ago, there were about 10 bees in the space below the screen bottom of the hive. I looked carefully with a flashlight to see if there was a hole in the screen (there wasn't). I don't know how the bees got in there. There had been some before when I had taken out the tray for inspection. Maybe they get in around the tray's edges; after all, it doesn't fit perfectly. Anyway, I think the bees get their nourishment through the screen from their sisters in the hive. Naturally, I wanted to get them out before putting in the sticky-board. First, I left the tray out for some time, but no one flew out. I used my bee brush, duct-taped on a stick to reach, to try to brush them out, but only got a couple. I put honey on the tray and put it back in place hoping to attract them off the screen and then I could pull them out with the tray, but they didn't fall for it, so, tante pis for them. You can see them on the sticky-board. You can also see the pollen and other debris that fell through the sceen in 3 days.
Here is a close up of one of the squares on the sticky-board. The dark oval shapes are varroa mites. There are 4 in this square. I counted a total of 56 mites. Over 3 days, that equals 18.66 mites/day. According to all the online sources, this is within safe parameters at this time of year, so I won't treat. As has been mentioned before, some beekeepers never treat, believing in survival of the fittest and trying to select for survivor strains.
My girls are still going through the syrup quickly. They are also busy foraging, bringing back white, orange and red pollens.

Whats happening to all that sugar syrup?

I made a quick inspection today. I wanted to see 1) how much honey was being made, 2) what the bees were doing with all the syrup they've been eating, and 3) if they have drawn comb on the new frame that was placed 10 days ago.
In the top super, there was liquid, probably sugar water in the frames just below the feeder. These are the frames I moved from the middle super a few weeks ago. They had brood then; now just nectar.
The middle super felt pretty heavy. (Remember, the bees need 30-40 pounds of honey over the winter.) I pulled out one frame that was full of capped honey. I didn't look at any more, but by the weight, I think they're doing well.
I pulled out the new frame from the brood box- no comb drawn.
The girls were calm and happy.
I'm learning a lot from The Biology of the Honeybee. More of that will come later.

My new feeder

I put the new circular feeder and Vivaldi top on the hive this morning. The picture on the left shows the bees going after the 2:1 sugar syrup. It was taken about 4 hours after the feeder was placed. On the right is a close-up of the bees inside the cup drinking the syrup. I can take the top off the hive to get at the feeder without disturbing the colony. There is a lid that goes on the feeder.

Hive inspected by an expert.

Yesterday, Ian Coulson came out to inspect my hive. Ian is an experienced beekeeper and founded the Santa Cruz Beekeepers Guild. As you may recall, I had spoken with him about my hive and concerns regarding honey stores. He offered to stop by the next time he was out this way. He called yesterday while I was at work and Maidi told him to stop by and look without me. He did so, inspected my hive and had a sandwich that Maidi prepared for him.
I spoke, at length, with him today. He had good news. Firstly, he said I have a very nice hive that is well located. The bees are pretty, happy and calm. The queen is beautiful. My colony looks good and the amount of honey being stored is probably going to be enough. He agrees that I should be feeding them now and should continue probably through October, although I should make the syrup 2:1 rather than 1:1. My new circular feeder and Vivaldi top arrived. I put the first coat of paint on this morning and soon will apply the second. I won't be able to put it on until Friday because of work.
We talked about treating for diseases. He doesn't treat his many hives, believing in survival of the fittest in order to breed tougher stock. He is willing to lose 1/3 of his hives, though. Nosema is not common here, but I can look out for signs and treat if need be. Foul brood is around, and I should treat if any trace of it appears, like a bad smell (like dirty gym socks). I may follow other beekeepers advice and treat prophylacticaly. I should check for mites now although Russian bees are supposed to be able to deal with them themselves.
We also talked about disturbing the colony by inspecting. He thinks this should be kept to a minimum although he understands my newbie interest and desire to look in often. He recommended being careful not to disrupt the cluster, where all the bees are concentrated around the brood, especially when the weather is cool. He suggested making an observation hive, something I've been considering. He suggest an Ulster type and gave some other practical advice.
I asked about swarming and when the swarm season is; around Easter and lasting about 2 months. If I want to get a swarm for my second hive (I do), I can put my name on a list at different places that people call for swarm removal. I might try a bait hive, too.
Ian knows quite a bit about bees and is the first to say that his approach is not mainstream, maybe even a little eccentric. If you ask 5 beekeepers for advice, you'll get 10 opinions.

Nighttime bee care

I went to the Santa Cruz Beekeepers Guild meeting tonight after marimba. The meeting was supposed to be about fall maintenance, and it was, in part. One of the off-agenda topics was robbing. I had noted some robbers hanging around my hive and had even tried to get a video of them to post. The robbers hang around in front of the hive, crawl over cracks between boxes and even go under the edge of the telescoping top. They also try to get in the door, and I was enjoying watching the guard bees chase them off. Other indications of robbing, besides seeing the robbers, include generally more aggressive bees and that heavy honey-laden robbers leaving the hive that fall a bit before going up on take-off. In my case, I also know that any Italian is a thief. But tonight I found out that honey robbing isn't all that innocent. Apparently, this has been a bad year for honey production. I only have one frame full of honey, and that isn't nearly enough. At least 30 pounds of honey is what is recommended to get the bees through winter and early spring until the honey flow. 30 pounds is 9 medium or 6deep frames full. Ian advised me to place the entrance reducer tonight (to help keep out robbers) and to start feeding them, also. At the meeting they also demonstrated a circular feeder and a Vivaldi board. Since I will need to feed the bees for the next couple of months, and the outside feeder I have been using attracts robbers, I decided I should get the circular feeder. So, when I got home, I went out and put in the entrance reducer. I also put the Boardman feeder on top of the inner cover, put a deep super on top and the telescoping lid over all. When the Vivaldi top and feeder arrive, they will be installed instead.
Varroa mite treatment was also discussed. Various treatments were discussed. It was pointed out that the mites quickly develop resistance, so it might be best to use more natural controls, like the drone brood frame, formic acid and powdered sugar.
There were other problems and techniques bandied about. Beekeeping is for more involved than I had imagined it would be.

Paranoia and emergncy inspection

While watching the bees this afternoon, one suddenly flew right at my face, landing on my mustache! I frantically brushed it off and made a rapid retreat. My girls had never been so fiesty... except once, when they were queenless! Oh-no! What if I had lost the queen in the last inspection? Would it be too late in the year to replace her? Would I even be able to get a new queen? Who would I consult? Would Tom at Honey Bee Genetics be able to help? These thoughts and more went through my mind as I was tending to the roses. Would the 3 more days until Friday to inspect make a difference? I decided to bite the bullet and take a look today. I would go right to the deep box, remove the drone brood frame and look for the queen. If she wasn't in the deep box, I'd put the middle super on and look for her there, then the top super if need be. A short inspection.
But first, a little about why I wanted to remove the drone brood frame and what I had been watching at the hive entrance.
When I looked at the hive yesterday evening, I saw many dead bees on the porch. Was there a problem? Then I saw that they were dead drone larvae and there were actually trails leading to them where they had been dragged. There were even more bodies on the ground in front of the hive. I had read that the bees would eat the dead larva and recapture the protein. Perhaps they were unpalatable because they had been sitting unfrozen in the garage for so long. I figured I'd take a drive to Mountain Feed & Farm Supply this week to get some new frames, and on Friday, next planned inspection, replace the drone frame with a regular frame.
When looking at the hive entrance today, I saw two bees struggling with each other. One was a Russian and the other an Italian, an interloper! The Russian was all over the trespasser and dragged her off the porch and they fell to the ground. The wrestling carried them over to the dry creek, where finally the Italian escaped and flew off. It didn't look like either was trying to sting, but the Russian seemed to be biting the other one. I suppose I'll learn more about this sort of thing further along in my text book. So, later on, I saw two more bees struggling, but they were both Russians. They fought around on the porch, then suddenly stopped and began grooming themselves. It was then that I was attacked.
Back to the inspection: After smoking the hive, I inverted the top on the ground and placed the top super on it. Then the middle super went on top of it, making sure that the clumps of bees were over the lid and the other super. I also looked on the ground to be sure the queen hadn't fallen off in the transfer. I took out the drone brood frame, which still had plenty of dead larvae in it. The workers had started repairing the cells also. I set this frame aside, with a few hundred bees on it, and started looking for the queen, one frame at a time. The first two frames didn't have much going on. Then I started seeing capped brood. I looked and looked for larvae, but didn't see any. Oh-oh, no new eggs would mean no queen. Frame after frame, capped brood, no larvae, no queen. Then, much to all our relief, there she was on the 3rd to last frame. Whew!

Biology of the Honey Bee

It's been nearly two weeks since I'd been into the hive. It was partly overcast and warm today. The bees were calm throughout the entire inspection, which was a bit long. I hope my girls didn't get too cold. I've read that if the inspection takes long, the beekeeper should put on the inner cover, but I didn't, being unsure of how I could then look into the hive.
The two frames I had put into the top super still had brood in them, or maybe new brood; no honey. I took two more frames with some brood from the middle super and switched them with two frames from the top super. According to Franklin Carrier, this is done to prevent swarming and to make more honey.
I spotted the queen in the middle super. When I moved the super, I, again, placed it very carefully on the top super which was on the inverted lid. (Moving these is a bit like the Towers of Hanoi.) I noted which frame she was on (4th) and when I put the super back on, looked to see if she was still there- she wasn't. I looked at the two frames to either side- she wasn't there either. I then put the top super back on and looked there for her- no luck. I looked all around the ground and didn't see her or any other bees. I can only assume/hope that she just moved to another frame or into the lower brood box.
Before going into the hive, I prepared the drone brood frame. I uncapped the cells with a fork. Many of the dead larvae had liquified. So, naturally, I wondered if this was because of foul brood disease. Larva that die from this do liquify. But, I figured that it is unlikely that my hive is infected. There should be evidence of disease if it were there and these larvae had been in the freezer for 2 days.
On a more interesting note- I started reading The Biology of the Honey Bee by Mark L. Winston, one of the textbooks that was recommended by Thomas Seeley. I've learned some fascinating stuff. Bees have sensory hairs between facets of their compound eyes that sense wind direction. This allows them to adjust for wind-drift when trying to fly in a certain direction. They can sense which direction odors come from via their antennae, there are special notches in their forelegs they use to clean their antennae and there is an intricate arrangement of hairs and bristles on their hind legs that is used to pack and carry pollen.

A disruptive inspection

Laura and I went into the hive today. It was clear, calm and warm. There were two tasks I wanted to accomplish. I wanted to check the drone brood frame and take it out if it had capped cells. I also wanted to trade two brood frames from the middle super with two in the top super. This is advised by Carrier to control swarming. I wanted to do it even though it is past swarm season. I decided not to use the queen excluder as in most discussions I read, beekeepers don't like them.
I thought I would use the old transplant frame to replace the drone frame if I took it out. However, this is what I saw when I took it out of its plastic bag.
There was also a moth on the comb. This is the trail of a wax moth larva. You can see the webbing and the frass. On the other side, there was some webbing. I was surprised to see this. I decided not to put this frame into the hive. Now I know why you store the frames with paradichlorenzene (PDB) crystals. I find it interesting that I have found two of the common pests in my hive, varroa mites and wax moths. I suppose I'll find small hive beetle, too.
So, into the hive we went. Some bees and very little comb in the top super. I took out two frames and set them aside. Took off the top super and set it onto the inverted lid. In the middle super, which actually is the top brood chamber, we found the queen and two frames with lots of brood. I wanted to take two of these, but the queen was on the one I wanted, and I don't feel confident enough to "shake the bees off over the brood chamber to be sure the queen is not moved..." as Franklin Carrier instructs (Keeping Bees, p. 137). So I took one frame with a fair amount of brood and one with some brood. We hung these on the frame holder and then took the middle super off and placed in carefully on the top super (remember it is on the lid on the ground) making sure that the frame with the queen on it is centered.

With a bit of difficulty, I was able to remove the drone brood frame. There were lots of capped cells and some larva, as well. It was also covered with nurse bees. I shook the frame and some came off. I then used the bee brush. They sort of peel off and about 2/3 just fall, but the rest take angrily to the air. So I set the frame down to deal with later. Now there are lots of bees flying about and the smoker had gone out. (One needs to give it a puff every couple of minutes, but we had neglected to do so.) Maidi, who was taking pictures, volunteered to relight the smoker, but she was already retreating from the bees. I got the smoker to her and a few minutes later she brought it back burning.
Then I spaced the remaining 9 frames together with gaps at both ends. I hope that's the correct spacing. I replaced the middle super. I put the two frames from the honey super in, made sure the queen was still there (she was, on the same brood frame) and then put the honey super back on. Laura had been holding the frame holder and two frames during all this. She now hung the holder on the side. When Laura picked up one of the frames with brood and nurse bees many bees fell off and onto the ground at her feet. As I was putting the frame in, she felt something crawling on her leg. And then she got stung on the thigh. We hadn't even thought about rubber bands around the ankles, as is recommended. She left and I put the second frame in. Then I brushed the bees off the drone brood frame, making even more fly around. The bees, who had been so calm at the start, were now in an uproar. I had bees buzzing at me,on my suit and face screen and there were still a bunch on the ground. Before I closed up the hive I tried using the brush to pick up bees from the ground and the back porch of the hive and put them into the hive. After I closed the hive, I did use a leaf to pick up individual bees from the ground and put them on the porch. I don't know how many girls were lost.
The drone frame was put in a plastic bag and into the freezer. Next inspection I'll uncap the cells (I can use a fork) and put the frame back in the hive. Apparently, the bees eat the dead larva and dispose to the dead mites.

Orientation Flights

I didn't do any inspections last week because we were away. We went to the Canadian Rockies for a few days. We stayed at Cathedral Mountain Lodge. The country is strikingly beautiful. We did see one young grizzly bear. I got some fishing in and actually caught some fish, but no hogs.
Above are two videos, taken one hour apart; they show the activity when bees are doing their orientation flights and the normal activity.
Bees that are between 7 and 20 days old make daily orientation flights. They do this to defecate (which healthy bees only do while flying), to get flying practice and to learn where their hive is and what it and its landmarks look like. This has to be done before they start foraging at 21 days of age. The flights occur in the warm afternoon, usually between 2 and 5 and last for 30-45 minutes. They fly only a few feet from the hive and then hover in front of the hive. They will flit to the side and back of the hive and will even rest on nearby plants. They fly in and out of the hive and when time's up, they all go back in.
I'll be going into the hive this weekend. I plan on putting in the queen excluder and doing some frame manipulation.

Drone frame progess and new smoker fuel

It was a short inspection today. It was mostly overcast and calm. No comb in the top super. The queen was spotted in the middle super. I only looked at half of the frames, 3 1/2 that I inspected had brood in an excellent pattern. This time the queen stayed in the middle super. I noted where she was and made sure that that spot was centered on the lid. When I put the super back, I pulled the frame she had been on and she was still there, although she crawled off and onto the adjacent frame. She's doing a great job. All the bees in the hive are her daughters.
I used pine needles for smoker fuel today. This is what Kathy uses. It worked great. The smoke seems thicker, too. That's the smoker on the right, some old fuel below it and some pine needles (duh). The old fuel came with the smoker from Dadant and looks like shredded cloth and small bits of wood. The white paper weight is the frame holder. I collected the pine needles from below the tree at the former Hospice at the bottom of Vienna Drive.
I pulled only the drone frame from the brood box. The bees were starting to draw comb in the center.

Varroa mite sugar shake test

Today was the day I did a sugar shake test in order to get a good idea of the hive's mite infestation. I had examined the beetle trap earlier this week (with Karly and Sophie) 3 days after I cleaned and replaced the tray and found 8 mites. That is an okay number.
Three days ago I paid a visit to Mountain Farm and Feed Supply in Ben Lomond. I spoke with Lauren, a beekeeper and bee keeping teacher, about mites and mite control. I bought a frame holder (mine's white) and a drone brood frame.
The weather today was partially overcast, no wind. My girls were happy and calm. No wax in the top super, just a few bees wandering about. In the middle super, there were 3-1/2 frames of brood, in a lovely pattern, and one frame full of capped honey.
Saw the queen in the brood chamber and the usual good amount of brood. I didn't see any drone cells and not a single Italian. Because of my irregular spacing with only nine frames, there was a bit of brace comb. Upon removing the middle super, a cell was broken open revealing a pupating bee. I left her for the others to take care of.
Then for the test. I had a 1 pint mason jar with a 1/8" mesh screen instead of a regular lid. (I'd had to buy a 20' roll in order to just have a few inches.) I had used 1/2 cup of dried beans to measure and mark the level. I selected two brood frames, double-checked that the queen was on neither and observed her elsewhere. Then I brushed the bees from both sides of the frame into a bucket. Most of them stayed in the bucket. Then, using the jar as a scoop, I collected 1/2 cup of bees, about 300 I read. I then put the hive back together with the green drone brood frame near the center.
Then I put in two tablespoons of powdered sugar. I had to rub the screen to get it to go through, making sure that I was rubbing where there were no bees.
I shook and rolled the jar for a couple of minutes and then waited a couple of more. Then I shook out the sugar into a bowl. Those two dark spots on the right are varroa mites.
According to one source I should double the number when the bees come from a brood frame, therefore 4 mites/ 300 bees equals only 1.3 mites/100 bees. Hurray! One needs to treat with 10/100.
The bees in the jar were buzzing angrily. I put the jar outside in the shade and gave them about 15 minutes to calm down. Then I covered up again and took them to the hive. When I opened the jar, some flew out. I then shook the jar, but not vigorously because there was a bunch of sugar stuck on the bottom. More bees came out. I blew in the jar, a few more flew out. Finally I resorted to using the handle of my bee brush to get them all out. Phew!

Tom Seeley and Honeybee Democracy

Tom Seeley is a Professor of biology at Cornell University. He is also a beekeeper. I just finished his book, Honeybee Democracy. Over many years, since high school, he has been examining the swarm behavior of bees. He learned what made an ideal hive, which bees scouted for a new home,how they communicated its location to the other scouts, how they reached a consensus and then informed the rest of the swarm that it was time to go and then led them to their new home. He had to come up with many ingenious experiments and I'm sure there was a lot of tedium. In one experiment, about 3,000 bees were individually and uniquely marked.
At the end, he relates all this to human interaction and group decision making. Here are the five effective habits he learned from the bees: 1. Compose the decision-making group of individuals with shared interests and mutual respect. 2. Minimize the leader's influence on the group's thinking. 3. Seek diverse solutions to the problem. 4. Aggregate the group's knowledge through debate. 5. Use quorum responses for cohesion, accuracy and speed.
This book was full of fascinating bee facts and history of apiology. I liked it.
I have lots of questions about bees that I think are pretty basic. I figured that a basic apiology text book would answer many of them. I tried to find one by looking at bee classes at Davis and Cornell as well as an online textbook site; no luck. So I emailed Professor Seeley. He responded the next morning with two recommendations. What a nice guy.

Traveling queen, pollen balls and varroa mites

Went into the hive with Maidi, who took the photos.
There were some bees in the top super, but no comb had been drawn. We saw the queen in the middle super on a frame with comb but nothing in any of the cells. When I took the middle super off, I had to be very careful that the queen did not drop off the frame. So, after I had inspected all the frames, I checked that she was still there (she was), replaced the frame, lifted the super and placed it carefully on the inverted lid with the frame she was on over the lid. Then I went into the brood box. There I saw a queen! I can't have two queens- she must have dropped into the brood box in those few seconds between replacing the frame and lifting the super.
There was lots of brood, in both the brood box and the middle super. I saw eggs with the use of the hand lens. There were two queen cells, but now I know that Russians have a tendency to build queen cells without signifying supersedure or swarming. I only saw one Italian in the hive. There were a small number of drone cells. I rearranged the 9 frames in the brood box, pushing them close together and leaving gaps at the edges.
I saw a small insect run quickly across a frame. Could this be a small hive beetle? I had set up the hive with a screened bottom and a beetle trap. I thought this would be a good time to clean it up and look carefully for beetles and mites.
I had pulled out the trap a few times before. It had lots of debris on and in it.The yellow stuff is pollen. You can see the balls that have been knocked off the bees legs and then fell through the screen. The white stuff is wax, either flakes from their wax glands that looks like fish scales or crumbly debris. There are also a lot of bee parts, legs, antennae, bits of exoskeleton . There is vegetable oil inside the trap, so the pollen gets mushy. We tasted some of the pollen balls; after all, people pay a lot for bee pollen at health food stores. It tasted a bit sweet.
I then carefully searched the tray with my loupes and the hand lens. I did find one small beetle, but it clearly wasn't a small hive beetle. I did however find a lot of varroa mites! A new worry!

I need to do a mite count. First, I cleaned the tray and replaced it. I'll check it in a few days and count mites. There are many ways to evaluate infestation. Maybe I'll use the sticky paper. For sure I'll try the powdered sugar. I already have some drone brood from the old transplanted frame. I opened each cell, pulled out the larva and examined for mites. 7 of 40 had mites, 17.5%. This is too high, I think. Next week I'll do a sugar shake count and probably treat the hive. I'll use the powdered sugar and drone frame technique to avoid any miticides. Perhaps, and I hope so, the count really isn't as high as it looks.

Washboarding

When I came home from work this evening, I went to look at the bees. There was a cluster on the hive porch acting in a way I had never seen. I ran into the house, got the camera and took this video. As you can see, the bees are rubbing the surface with their forelegs as well as licking or biting with their mandibles. I watched them for some time, wondering what they were doing.
I had read about a scent gland, the Nasonov gland. At first I thought they might be spreading there pheromones. So I got close and smelled, but only smelled the usual hive smell. I also noted that they weren't fanning their wings, which I would have expected if they were spreading an odor. I observed bees returning to the hive; they weren't attracted to the cluster (which was in the area where the feeder had been), and as a matter of fact, they completely ignored them, either barreling through or walking on their backs into the hive.
I peered through the opening and saw that the oddly acting cluster extended into the hive, on the screen bottom as well as the upper edge of the opening. Franklin Carrier had mentioned in his book the need to occasionally provide the bees with salt. Maybe they were getting minerals. I got a small amount of salt and put it in the middle of the cluster. They steered clear of the grains (which were all gone the next day).
At a loss to figure out what was going on, I turned to the internet. First search was for bees cleaning, since that is what it looked like they were doing. That led to washboarding. Aha!

A ramp for my bees

I had read about making a ramp for the bees so that when they land clumsily (which they often do), they can walk up into the hive. One can buy a bottom board with a built-in ramp. So I made one with only a bit of trouble. (The first time I cut the corners parallel to each other.) The bees do use it some, but it probably doesn't really make a difference.

Many bees squished. Transplant frame removed.

Went into the hive with Maidi. Unfortunately, several bees got squished between the telescoping lid and the inner cover. When smoking the hive before going in, I lift up the lid and puff a little inside and wait a minute or two. When I lifted the lid, there were at least 100 bees on the outside of the inner cover and many got squished. What were they all doing up there? There usually are a bunch on the inside of the inner cover,and today there were even more.
6-7 of the combs in the super have either brood or honey.
We didn't see the queen, but I won't worry (much). It is not unusual to not see the queen, so I am told. We did see plenty of brood and larvae in the brood box.
I took out the transplanted frame. All the cells were empty except for about a dozen drone cells.

I opened up one of the drone cells and looked at the larva. You can see the opened cell above the larva. There were also some capped honey cells that you can see on the top edges of the left-hand photo.
I saw only 1 Italian. I expect 100% Russians next week or two.
Because 6-7 of the frames in the super were drawn,I added a second medium super.

Bee buddy and Russians

Kathy had told me about Aram, a new bee keeper who has hives not far from me on Mesa Grande Road. He had earlier offered to let me have a brood frame from his hive, but we weren't able to coordinate schedules. I did get out to see his hives today. (His face is blurred because the lens was smudged.) Aram works with furniture and he built his hives himself. They are beautifully joined with rounded corners. Note the paint work. the hand-holds are also painted to match the entrance ramps. The hives are at his parents' house where he grew up. They're in an former goat pen. I helped him rearrange the order of the hive boxes. You can see the green hive has two deeps on the bottom and a shallow on top while the red hive has the shallow super in the middle. Aram wanted to rearrange the green hive, but we couldn't because there was too much brood in the middle box. He is planning to get honey this year. His colony population is much larger than mine, perhaps because he started with nucs and/or because of my lost queen. I was able to finally see some eggs in Aram's hive.

In my hive today, I saw that nearly all my bees were Russians. I had ordered a package of Russians, but there a lot of Italians mixed in with them. But now, the new bees hatching are from my queen and the original bees have died. Pictured above are an Italian on the left and a Russian on the right. I suppose that most of the bees on the flowers in my yard are from some other hive since they are mostly Italians.
My colony is growing. There were three frames of brood in the super. Saw the queen and some waggle dancing. I moved the transplanted frame all the way to the edge. I'll email Kathy to see if she wants to trade back; I hope so.

Some bee-attractive flowers in my yard

These are some of the flowers in my yard to which bees are attracted. I took some of the photos and Maidi took the rest. We don't know the identity of those other than blackberry, lavender, peas and sunflower. The bees probably don't either, but the nectar and pollen are good. I understand that the bees also like cucumber flowers and I also see them on the hedge by the deck and a few on the roses. Behind our house is a pyracantha bush that has lots of bees.

Pollen

Pollen is the bees source of protein. The bees collect the pollen and carry it back to the hive on their hind legs. I spend many minutes a day watching the bees fly in and out of the hive and watching in which direction they go. I noticed that the pollen they come back with is a variety of colors, as in the picture. I wondered where each pollen was coming from.
I watched the bees carefully on the blackberries- the pollen was a light gray. Sure enough, bees were coming back to the hive with light gray pollen.
I also noted that a lot of bees were heading out of my yard in a certain direction. So I went out the back gate and onto the road and looked to see where they were going. I found two flowering trees with lots of bees, but couldn't get close enough to see the color of the pollen. The bees on the lavender didn't seem to be gathering any pollen.
The colors my bees were bringing back beside the gray blackberry were yellows, from pale yellow to deep orange, red and white.
I know the brood is doing well because they use the pollen to feed the larvae.

Bee hatching

Mickey joined me on going into the hive. Bees were very calm. Saw the queen and lots of capped brood cells (in a good pattern) and larvae. A few drone cells. What I had thought was brood in the super isn't, unless all have hatched. There was only honey in the super, and it is beginning to feel heavier. We saw 6 bees hatching. Their heads were poking up from the cells and they were chewing away to make the opening larger. We didn't wait long enough to see one actually emerge.
We definitely saw a couple of bees doing the waggle dance. No bees squished!
I was able to get some used hive boxes from a friend who had unsuccessfully kept bees a few years ago. According to published advice, I scraped them and scorched the insides with a propane torch. I'll probably use them in my planned new hive next year which will have the two-deep configuration.
My current hive has one deep and a medium super
.

Into the hive with Maidi

Maidi went into the hive with me today. She thought it was amazing. The weather was sunny, cool and calm. The main job today was switching the medium super. The kit I had bought did not have the metal strips for the ledge on which the frames rest. I had bought strips from Carrier's and put them onto my empty super. So today, I switched all the frames from the old super into the new one. Carrier told me the metal strips are important to keep the frames from adhering too firmly with propolis.
The above photo shows brood on a small area on one frame in the super. I guess the queen had taken a stroll.
The transplanted frame has new capped cells and larva. I moved it over one more space.
We saw the queen, 2 frames with a beautiful pattern of capped brood cells and larva. Still can't see eggs.
Sadly, I squished 4 bees.

A visit to Franklin Carrier

When I took my one day beekeeping class, several books were recommended. One is pictured here. Franklin Carrier started keeping bees while in college in South Dakota. After duty in the navy, he moved to the San Jose, California area to work in the aerospace industry. Throughout all that time he continued keeping learning about bees. In 1973, he quit his other work and opened a bee keeping store in San Jose.
This book looked good because it is written for beginners, is written mainly for this area and has a check list format for each operation. Unfortunately, it is out of print. I did find some used copies for sale, and the one I got is in excellent condition. It not only gives step-by-step instructions, it also has a lot of information about bee biology and behavior.
Two days ago I went by his shop on my way to work. It's in a house in the middle of San Jose. I had a pleasant visit with Mr. Carrier. He answered my plethora of questions and showed me his apiary. I must admit it was a little scary. He has 6-7 hives, each stacked up at least 6 feet in a small side yard. There were thousands of bees flying around, a veritable cloud. The ground was covered with a carpet of dead bees.
I bought a bee brush and a copy of his second book, "Keeping Bees". The brush I had been using was made of animal hair and the bees would latch onto it. The new one is made of plastic bristles.
Following his advice, today I removed the entrance reducer and made a new water source. I had made a small basin near the hive, but Mr. Carrier said it needs to be out of sight of the hive. His is over the house from the side yard. I had to find a spot not too far from the hive and out of sight of both the hive and the yard. The water source is now a bucket with a towel hanging over the edge behind a plant about 20 feet from the hive.
I'll be going into the hive again in 2 days.

Queen laying

No picture today.
It was overcast and a bit cool today. My girls didn't seem to mind; they were calm. The only time they weren't calm was when they were queenless. It makes all the difference. My daughter Laura went into the hive with me. She found it fascinating.
There was comb being drawn in some of the frames in the super.
Most of the cells in the transplanted brood frame had hatched. I moved it over one more space.
The queen was seen on a frame with lots of capped cells. I also saw a lot of larvae. I haven't yet spotted any eggs. Kathy told me she has never seen an egg. I intend to bring a magnifying glass with me on an inspection.
The brood frame was just as described in the books. In the center are the capped cells, then, moving outwards, the larvae, empty cells (probably some with eggs), then pollen, then honey.
No wax drawn on the two outermost frames.

Things are looking good

There she is, my new queen. (The one with the white spot, in case you weren't sure.) The bees seemed happy and calm. I was more calm, too, in my new bee suit.
The transplanted brood frame is still mostly capped. I moved it over one space closer to the edge. Ultimately I hope to get it to the very edge and then replace it with a new frame.
My nephew, Noah, was visiting and went into the hive with me. I wore the heavy leather gloves that I got from Dadant. I found them clumsy, and now I wear the rubber gloves that Noah has on.
I removed the entrance feeder. The bees aren't even going through a quart in 3 days and they are making lots of honey. Those are capped honey cells in the picture.
In my yard the bees are all over the blackberry blossoms and the lavender.

New worries!

I woke up in the middle of the night a couple of days ago with a new realization.
I put my bees in the hive 4 weeks ago; my queen was not laying eggs; the new queen's eggs wouldn't hatch for 3 weeks; bees live for only about 6 1/2 weeks; simple arithmetic- my hive (and queen) would be without any worker bees for a few days and my colony would die. I contacted Kathy, my bee mentor, and discussed the dilemma. We decided that putting a brood frame from one of her hives might supply enough workers to get through the crises. We visited one of her hives and placed a frame full of brood and covered with nurse bees into a nuc box. At my hive, we misted the bees on the frame and in the hive with 1:1 sugar water and bee essence. This covers up the bee's smell and promotes grooming so the implanted bees will be accepted. Now I hope for the best.
I also added a medium super.

Queen Replaced

I spoke with Tom at Bee Genetics on Monday. When I described the problem of no queen seen and no apparent brood cells, he wasn't too concerned. When I mentioned the two queen cells, he immediately said he would send a replacement queen.
The queen arrived Wednesday in her cage with about a half dozen workers. Because of work schedules, I wouldn't be able to inspect the hive with an experienced keeper until two days later. I wanted to be sure that my hive was queenless before putting in a new queen, of course. Here Kathy and I are looking vainly for the old queen. No queen, no brood and unhappy workers. We put the caged queen in the hive between two frames. We wanted to look in three days to make sure she was out; if not, she would need to be hand released. Once again my work schedule interfered with my bee schedule. Kathy offered to look for me, which she did today. The queen was out. Whew!