Super storm Sandy

I missed the storm as I was on my annual So. Dakota Pheasant hunting trip.  Cut the trip short and got back late Thursday.  Found my Norway Maple down, which was a shame as it was the largest tree on Staten Island and one of the largest in NYS.  It fell all around the nasty hive but the hive came out unscathed, my wife and  daughter had lowered it off its stand to the ground tucking it under my lilac bushes.  The other 2 hives are fine and all three are buzzing on the warm days.  Still need to feed all three through the winter.

We were very lucky as the tree fell away from the house and only caused minor damage to the garage.  All of my various hand built boats had puncture wounds but nothing that can't be fixed.  My sailboat, which I decided not to store for the winter, came out fine, one of the few that did.  My storage marina had 100% damage of various degrees to all the boats in the yard.

Just read that the Grange in the Brooklyn Navy Yard lost 19 hives which drowned from the high tidal surge.  Guess they don't know how to measure 10'.  Later

Fall feeding

As the weather turned cold and rainy for a day, I decided to try feeding the nasty hive again, hoping that the other hives would stay home.  It seemed to work, as I saw no robbing.  The hive is much more active than the other two, as they seem determined to increase their numbers for winter survival.  Pollen gathering seems to be the main ingredient, as most of the bees foraging are bringing back legs sullen with pollen.  Hard to see inside the bees for nectar, but I guess some are full of that too.  The other 2 hives seem set for the winter, although they are lite on the supplies, but I intend to feed fondant throughout the winter.  For the first time all year, I got attacked while trying to mow in front of the hives.  No stings, just angry bees buzzing around my head.  Surprising how fast you can push a mower through tall grass.  I guess its just the fall mood.  I seem to have killed all the beetles in the nasty hive as I haven"t seem any evidence for a couple of days.  I think I killed 7 or 8 altogether, along with the worms which fell on the bottom board.  Haven't seen any of those either for a couple of weeks.

Got another hit on the White Oak Apiary blog, that makes 8 disgruntled buyers.  turns out he may have gotten AFB, but I'm not certain.

Later

Preparing for winter

Preparing for winter is fairly simple for me, I just put in the bottom board.  Because of the beetles I covered the bottom board with Diatomaceous earth when I put it in.  The board is about an inch below the screen.  Yesterday and this morning I found a single beetle on the bottom board trying to move but couldn't without legs.  Its amazing how destructive to the beetles this is.  I have not seen any new dead brood on the bottom board, nor beetle larvae either for that matter.  Bees still bringing in pollen and a little nectar.  Robbing has ceased since the smell of the Honey Bee Healthy sugar syrup (Don't want to do that again) has ceased so I expanded the entry a little.    Later

Beetles in the hive

Yesterday I found 2 hive beetles in my nasty hive.  They moved into the feeder where the bees could not go.  I mushed them with my finger.  I guess that's what those larvae were from, at least I think.  Things to note;  don't use Honey-Bee-Healthy to only feed 'one' hive.  It causes instant robbing.  I had to close off the hive there were so many bees trying to get in.  It took another day after the food was gone for the hive to settle down but even today there were a few stragglers trying to get in.  The bees became very aggressive and for the first time even went after the dogs, didn't take them long to learn where not to go tho.  Had a few bees sticking to my cloths but no stings.  Will wait to feed again after it get colder I guess.

Had the group of SI bee keepers here for a meeting on Sat., which went well I thought.  Handed out some bee plant seeds as party favors.  We tasted some Mead and a new grapefruit drink I learned to make at last weeks festival in Rockoways.  Not much else going on.  Later

More little worms

Yesterday I pulled the bottom board to the nasty hive and found five brood pulled from the comb.  One was still alive and the others were sucked dry.  I also found 4 more little worms.  I went to the Honey fest. in Rockaway, taking some samples with me.  I asked a long time beekeeper about the problem and after looking at the worms, said he had never seen such a thing.  This morning I found no dead brood but did find six or more worms of various sizes, from 1/16 in to 1/4 in, in length.  The look somewhat like a hive beetle larvae but I think they are much to small, and I see no beetles in the hive.

Today I sent the photo and history to the labs at Ithica for identification and what to do about it.  I also did a thorough inspection of the hive, even with a magnifying glass and found nothing unusual, just a strong hive.  Go figure.  Later

Dead brood on the bottom board

This morning early, I looked into the Nasty hive and found many dead brood laying on the screen and a couple of dead bees.  Pulled the removable bottom board and didn't find any hive beetles or mites, just fragments of pollen and hive debris.  I did see a small mite sized insect, but it was grey in color.  I lost sight of it and couldn't save it.  I checked through the upper transparent cover and did not see any sign of mites.  The hive seems to be doing fine.  With the bees doing good house cleaning, it seems I have a strong hive.  Will have to watch closely with early morning visits for awhile.  The other two hives are still doing fine.  Later

Hanging Chains

I have read with interest that the bees form chains inside the hive to help with comb building.  What I have read, in more than one publication, is that the bees, presumably using internal mathematical equations, design the size, location and alignment of each comb and with that information form these chains, positioning thier bodies to accomplish the task.

Here's an alternative theory:
 As a natural bee keeper, my bees have no frames nor foundation to follow and having observed my bees     ( through the viewing windows) for hours and on many occasions,  have found that the bees really just hang in every which way and build the comb not necessarily in the direction of the hanging chains.  If they did, the hive would have comb running in all directions.  So as I watched, I began to remember another social insect who does the same thing, the ant, and guess what?  they don't build comb.  They build bridges and many other intricate forms (using their bodies en mass) including the chains like that of the honey bee.  What for? For ease of transportation.  With this new thought I watched the bees, and behold, they came through the entrance and ran directly to the bottom of the chain and began crawling straight to the top to deposit their load, once having done so, either ran down the chain or just dropped to the bottom board and ran back out.  No grand design here, just a bee ladder and ingenuity enough to know that the shortest distance between 2 points is a straight line, a bee line I guess.  Later