Today I pulled off the cover and was going to pull out the paper between the two boxes and found just a few bees. The paper was solid, with no apparent chewing to get up or down. When I smoked the bottom hive it went buzzing like crazy. All the bees seem to have abandon the upper hive and moved directly into the main bottom one. Will have to nadir the box back to the bottom when the queen arrives, tomorrow, I hope. Should be getting a call on the nuc I bought also. That will make three hives and the swarm season isn't over yet. Bought a catch basket at The Christmas Tree Store the other day and made a cover for it, can't wait to try it. The wood hoops in my catch sac broke so I ordered some of steel and will have to undo the stitches and sew in the new ones when they arrive. Can't wait to get finished the kitchen retro-fit for our friend, it was no small job and has eaten up way to much of my time. Should be done this week. Later
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
Bees from hell
I'm still trying to catch the bees in the bee tree. Every time I close an entrance, they make a new one. I cemented one up the other night and before I finished, they were coming out above me. Told the owner she should cut down the tree. I checked it the other day and the bees attacked me before I got close. Haven't been there once without getting stung. Must be my smell. One got between my sleeve and glove and pumped me full of venom as I couldn't scrap it off. Yesterday my whole arm was swelled up and red with rash. Anyway, I pulled my new trap and put back my sac-trap. As I was carrying it to the car, I felt it very light so didn't expect much. When I got home I papered between the one box I had put the small swarm in and the set the new catch box in place. I then pried off the temp cover to place the permanent one on and to my surprise the catch box was completely full of bees. Not sure if I got the queen yet or not. Will check in a couple of days for brood. Tomorrow I'll pull the paper. Maybe my new queen will be here and I can put her in, if I find one in the hive, I'll kill her for retribution and for producing such mean bees. Since I've put all the bees in one hive, they seem to be settling down somewhat. I can even stand next to the hive, something I couldn't do last week. Much to my dismay, I,m going to gas the tree, I've taken about as many bees out as I can and the two little kids in the house want their back yard back. Both are allergic to bees. They were nice enough to let me trap for a month.
Today I checked out a call from a guy who said he had bees in his shrubbery and was afraid for his kids. I told him I would check it out as they were not far from my bee tree. My feeling was they were probably bumble bees. To my surprise (again) they were not. Went home and looked them up and found them to be Mining Bees (Family Andrenidae), a form of ground dwelling bee that burrows into the soil and lays its eggs, then forms balls of nectar and pollen and pushes them down the hole for the larvae to feed on. They are harmless so I hope he doesn't kill them.
Seems like it for the day, Later
Today I checked out a call from a guy who said he had bees in his shrubbery and was afraid for his kids. I told him I would check it out as they were not far from my bee tree. My feeling was they were probably bumble bees. To my surprise (again) they were not. Went home and looked them up and found them to be Mining Bees (Family Andrenidae), a form of ground dwelling bee that burrows into the soil and lays its eggs, then forms balls of nectar and pollen and pushes them down the hole for the larvae to feed on. They are harmless so I hope he doesn't kill them.
Seems like it for the day, Later
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Bee trap whoas.
Checked the two swarm hives today, the small one had conciderably less bees and saw no queen nor fresh sign she was there. Could'nt find the queen in the other either but they have been busy building lots of new comb. Some with honey and others looked like the queen had been laying. Will check again in a few days. They are bringing in lots of pollen so lets hope thing are okay.
Went to check on my bee trap the other day and found they had found another way out. To date they refuse to use the funnel into the trap. They must have chewed their way into another tree knot as they were going in an out with ease. I got some plastic bag and tape and closed it off. Tried to check on it the next day but they locked the gate. Today I went back and checked. They had tunneled under the cover I had made so back to square one. I had made a catch sac, so I removed the bag and was going to put the sac over the hole but the bees drove me away. One bad sting right on my bad knuckle. Cold and wet today, so they were nasty. I decided to let them settle for a while, and went flower shopping with Janice. $150 later I went back and placed the bag over the second hole and began removing the old funnel. I had to lower the base to make the new funnel fit, but no big deal. Lots of buzzing but no more stings. They actually were settling down as I worked. Before I even had the apparatus set up fully, the were using it. I watched as several went into the traps inner trap. One found it way through and the others followed. Hopefully I'll get them yet. Tomorrow will know for sure.
Later
Went to check on my bee trap the other day and found they had found another way out. To date they refuse to use the funnel into the trap. They must have chewed their way into another tree knot as they were going in an out with ease. I got some plastic bag and tape and closed it off. Tried to check on it the next day but they locked the gate. Today I went back and checked. They had tunneled under the cover I had made so back to square one. I had made a catch sac, so I removed the bag and was going to put the sac over the hole but the bees drove me away. One bad sting right on my bad knuckle. Cold and wet today, so they were nasty. I decided to let them settle for a while, and went flower shopping with Janice. $150 later I went back and placed the bag over the second hole and began removing the old funnel. I had to lower the base to make the new funnel fit, but no big deal. Lots of buzzing but no more stings. They actually were settling down as I worked. Before I even had the apparatus set up fully, the were using it. I watched as several went into the traps inner trap. One found it way through and the others followed. Hopefully I'll get them yet. Tomorrow will know for sure.
Later
Sunday, April 29, 2012
New swarm
Today I was called out to Charleston for a swarm capture. It turned out to a large one but no pictures due to dead battery in the camera. I clip away the dead branches then shook them into my bag. They weighed around 4 lbs so when they hit the bottom, I almost dropped them. I was precariously standing atop my 6 foot ladder at the time. They began to cluster in the tree again so I shook those into the bag also. After a little while they began to settle down and enter the catch bag so I closed it up and put it in the back of the PU. Many hundreds of bees hanging to the outside of the bag. When I got home I prepared the TBH ( Top Bar Hive) and shook them into it. That I have on film, watch. http://youtu.be/Dyvow2HrYgU
Monday, April 23, 2012
New Hive completed
Got called out for my first bee problem of the year, unfortunately they had made commitments with a pest control person and the nieghbor wasn't to happy about competition. Second callout for a bee colony living in a tree. Set up trap on the 22nd of April. Bad Nor-Easter came through and those foraging bees that didn't get into the trap died from the storm, but most were in the trap. Fed them today as the trap only had a small comb with little honey. Removed the dead bees from the funnel. Hope to lure the queen out in a couple of weeks, if not I'll buy a new one and seal the opening shut in the tree.
Finished another octagon hive (photo attached) based on the Stewarton hive from Scotland, with a few adaptations. Has pitched roof, insulation blanket, 2 brood boxes and an additional super (not shown yet), and screened bottom board. Looks quiet smart in the back yard. That gives me three octagon and one top bar hive ready for the swarm season. Plan to sell hive, including a colony of bees as soon as I collect a swarm, (in the NYC area only). Hives alone could be shipped anywhere, I guess. My new bee's will be picked up on May 10 from upstate, can"t wait.
Finished another octagon hive (photo attached) based on the Stewarton hive from Scotland, with a few adaptations. Has pitched roof, insulation blanket, 2 brood boxes and an additional super (not shown yet), and screened bottom board. Looks quiet smart in the back yard. That gives me three octagon and one top bar hive ready for the swarm season. Plan to sell hive, including a colony of bees as soon as I collect a swarm, (in the NYC area only). Hives alone could be shipped anywhere, I guess. My new bee's will be picked up on May 10 from upstate, can"t wait. Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Deadout
Oh well, I've done it again. As of Jan 28th I'm officially bee-less. Only 2 living bees and one isn't a queen. Taking them to the basement only prolonged the inevitable I guess. I'm thinking that they died of thirst, but who knows. They had been dwindling since the fall but I could not pinpoint the reason, but now I think the queen was a failure from the beginning as the buildup of the hive never really happened. Afternoons would only see 50-60 new bees out for their test flights. Oh well, ordered new stock from upstate, will be here in May. Going to try a very hygenic cross this time. I'm also going to set out a bee trap this spring, if that works I'll have a couple of hives going. They say that with two hives you might save one good one, lets hope. I have 2 extra empty hives just waiting, one being a traditional top bar.
From the hive I gathered about 25 Lbs of honey, very rich and dark. Plan on making some strawberry mead with it. have made wine in the past, but mead will be the first. I tasted some from a friend in Minnesota last fall and it was supperb.
Heading up to Olive for a bee seminar on the 11th of Feb, should be fun to see how everyone else is making out.
Last blog now till the spring. Later
From the hive I gathered about 25 Lbs of honey, very rich and dark. Plan on making some strawberry mead with it. have made wine in the past, but mead will be the first. I tasted some from a friend in Minnesota last fall and it was supperb.
Heading up to Olive for a bee seminar on the 11th of Feb, should be fun to see how everyone else is making out.
Last blog now till the spring. Later
Monday, January 2, 2012
New year starts
Yesterday it rose to ever 60 degrees so I decided to let the bee's do an evacuation flight (poop). I moved them from the basement to the back patio and opened the entrance. Out they came. (Watch video) Problem is they all flew back to the shed. When I went back there the window was full of bee's as was the landing board. What to do? I had made a bee vac so it was time to put it to the test. I vacuumed up the bees from the shed window and landing board, then the ones I could catch on the outside of the hive, then closed up the hive and moved it back to the shed and opened it back up. I then dumped out the bees from the vac onto the landing board so they could reenter the hive. That wasn't so bad as I thought. I lost a few bees in the process, but it seems they are stronger than I thought. Cold spell coming this week so today I moved them back to the basement for the duration of the winter, if we get one. The lessons we learn!!!!
Later,
Later,
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