Category — Beekeeping

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Friday was suppose to be good.. comfortable.. it was sunny, clear, I could see the crisp skyline of Oakland and The City. The Golden Gate Bridge posed perfectly as the framing to the Pacific. I was computing, seriously computing. Sitting on the deck, legs up, shades on, computing furiously getting THIS site back into working order and Nelly Furtado was playing on my stereo – that’s when you know things are going well, “Hey Man” is going full speed and nothing can stop you. It was Friday and I didn’t even know. Until it all stopped.

I suppose I didn’t expect it to occur as it did, which is why I felt so supprised. Like a pre-teen, who didn’t know any better, took the car for a spin and was waving as they rolled by the house. Here I was, three stories away and my ladies just come rolling by. “Heeey-yaaa Jooohnnnn.” … “Heeeey-yaa. Check us ouuuuttt.” And then around the block again. Except, “NO.”

Basically, my ladies swarmed about a week after a very scientific and methodical split took place, so no, they were not allowed their driving privlidges. But they took them anyway.. .. youth.

So after a few phone calls to requisite beekeeping partners, I posted to the Yahoo group, recieved a generous amount of insight and suggestion and help and did as any reasonable ACBA member would do and ‘took care of it.” But rather than articulate that in more broken sentences with “quotations” and vernacular one-offs – I figure I’d try my hand at the 5-minute swarm capture film. – so, enjoy.

Thanks to those who called me and walked me through the process on my frist swarm catch, Victoria, Kevin, Bob, and Much thanks to Patrick Connally and his partner for driving up and helping us out with this negotiaton, really, couldn’t have done it without you two.

Enjoy the video (YouTube) or (johnmizell.com – coming soon)

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A tribute to a new hobby & recent injury.

Music & Lyrics: 帅巴J

A Letter To Her Majesty, The Queen:

I am amis,
for I am not as
things seem from high aloft

to collectors
of the nectars
and the stamen pollen soft

Not big and bold,
As the Marigold
Nor Delicate, as a Rose

Sloppily,
not even a poppy.
You will have no yellow nose.

I have not
fear, and drink no beer
so not to offend with breath

Yet Anger
bests and deliver thefts
of body parts and single death

garden troves
and the wooded groves
soft fertile bedded soil

do play home
to the many who roam
yet not I, with all my toil

reason tells,
from many hells,
to pacify our argument

for we can
plainly see we must
leave behind this very torment

let this cease
and look to a peace
I no longer wish to be stung

I only ask
when I wear my mask
for some honey on my tongue

—-

Ukulele, Banjo 1, Banjo 2, Percussive Knee Slapping: 帅巴 J

Springtime means lots of activity at the hive, or some I’m told.

As this is our First spring time with our bees, I’m still quite eager to watch what happens with the colony, how things change, and what I might do to make the bees, well, happier. I often consider the answer to the last question is to leave them alone, not mess with their hive or take their honey, but that’s not good enough for me.. I want to Engineer them.. in that wholesome organic natural happy way.. HA!

Today’s hive evaluation was two weeks and two days since I last opened the hive and I expected much to have changed. I had added a second deep two weeks ago and had fiddled with the frames a bit, moving one brood frame up and replacing it with an empty, undrawn frame (all plastic). Today, I found what I imagine ALL beekeepers find when sorting through the boxes. Manic Depression. :)

The Manic:

1. The hive is growING! The size of the hive has increased significantly and according to the amount of brood on the frames will continue to do so.
2. I’ve got a great number of drones walking around and activity within the hive is high, with bees on every frame.
3. They’re making honey, lots of it, even after all those rainy cold days. They’re going to survive!

The Depressive:

1. They’re building comb perpendicular to the foundation. Pulling out a few frames, I’m finding they’re not building comb along the foundation, like they have in the past, but out, off the foundation. Perpendicular to the rest of the hive orientation. As the comb grows in size it covers more of the foundation, but I did not get the impression they wanted it to. with nooks and crannies all over the bulging comb, it’s become quite the maze for the colony and a significant change from the ordered one, two, ten of the parallel frames. But, it seems there is not much I can do aside from buying wax foundation, which I’m reluctant to do. Though I’m considering empty frames – no foundation… hmmm
2. They’re building brood between upper and lower deep. Golf ball sized collections of brood have cropped up along the bottom of the upper deep and, obviously, the top of the lower deep. Each group has four to twelve cells in it and after pulling frames out today, I found that any activity in the hive decimates these cells and their contents, very little of which was honey or pollen. Sadly.
3. They’ve got mites. I’ve seen a couple of mites in the past. One here on the ground, another at the entrance, and once on a bee that I couldn’t track down fast enough to confirm. However, yesterday I snagged one bee with it’s red-headed guest, got a photo of it and confirmed my fears. Now to treat or to leave be?

While these things are a bit daunting, I’m still excited to see how the colony changes throughout the year as I become more aware of the activities of bees.. a strange and fascinating little insect.

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This 10 minute video features ACBA club members cleaning the club’s observation hive on monday morning. The hive is situated inside with an opening through the wall to the outside. Inside the hive there sit 4 vertical frames sandwiched by plexi-glass. It’s quite an interesting set-up. As the video shows, a more regular cleaning is important to keep the bees happy.

*Special Notes on the film: The hive should be carried outside in order to limit bees escaping into the building. Future taping within the building ‘needs to be ‘okayed’ by the city.’

Enjoy the video.

DRAFT VIEWING Version 1.2: Early Viewing of “Cleaning the observation hive,” draft v1.2 (2011-01-25) in HD.

Green as in bad, not socially responsible.

Green - inside and out.

I pulled off an empty deep I had on my hive and evaluated the frames to find a plethora of green fungus on each frame. After looking over each frame I scraped them clean of comb. Since this hive box and it’s parts are second hand, many of my frames were drawn which I thought would be useful, but much of it was old comb, apparently not useful.  However, because they’re plasic frames with plastic foundation removing the comb was easy enough. Following the inspection of all the auxiliary frames I removed the bottom-board under my screened bottom, and added a raised and screened telescoping-top. Hopefully these two changes will help with circulation, ergo less fungus. Shortly after cleaning the auxiliary deep box I examined the main brood box where I found another few frames with the fungus on them. Then I was stung (butt in the air, constant buzzing.. does that mean something in bee? Cause I’m pretty sure the gal acting funny was responsible for the jihad.. oh well.)

Seems like the best I can do is switch out old drawn frames with old scraped frames. I don’t have any new supplies to speak of. Fortunately, my colony isn’t very large, so they’re primarily focused on the three or four middle frames and I had very few bees on these outer ‘contaminated’ frames and removing them is easy.  However, there are signs of fungus on the corners of the inner inhabited frames too. I’m concerned.

I'd like to know more about this unappealing hive-guest.

Q1: Anyone know what fungus this is, so I can merge my mycological interests with my apiary interests?

I've only inspected the empty frames... I fear further infestation.

Q2: How clean do I need to get these frames before I can return the deep to the hive? (scape, rinse, rinse w/ vinegar, rinse w/ bleach, trash)

Half Cleaned - Need I wash each cell pocket too?

Q3: Is this a sign of bees ignoring the excess box/frames, or a hive-wide problem?

We all want a healthy hive.

—-> More Photos <—-