Show me the Honey!

Que Pasa Amigos?

We passed a big milestone this weekend; we added the honey supers. The honey supers are the third tier of the hive, and with the help of the queen excluder only the worker bees can enter them. Without the queen in there, there can be no eggs laid so the only thing that the bees can produce in there is honey. The will first draw out the comb foundation into proper honey comb, then start filling with honey. They will then fan the comb with their wings to evaporate the water level in the honey down to 14 -18% before capping it for long term storage. I hope my bees get it right!

Pete made his first appearance to the hives since the first week of May, and was astonished at how the bees have multiplied. At this point in the summer the hive is probably at it's peak as far as bee population. When we opened the first hive and began the inspection, I removed an end frame to make room to work in the hive, that frame was filled with capped honey, and it was shocking how heavy it was. All seemed well in the hive, and Pete was stung twice on the hand! The first stings really do hurt a ton, and you can see Pete's reaction below in the pic where he's running for the woods (as well as Ben's reaction to this). It seems that running for the woods is everyones reaction to the first sting; I did it and so did Nicole.

His reactions to the bees were very much how I reacted at the beginning of the season: approach the hives with a sense of excitement... open the hives and realize there are tens of thousands of bees in there... wonder aloud if this is worth it... get stung and decide it's not worth it... continue on anyway... get stung again and step back and seriously contemplate saying F••K it all... realize that even if you do decide that, the bees are still there... come to the realization that you're screwed either way so it's best to finish the inspection as planned... finish inspection, close up hives, and walk away realizing that it is all actually worth it. Pete was a great help though as the hives are getting very heavy. Oh - and he got stung a third time while inspecting the second hive!

So there's not much to do at this point except wait... wait and put up some barbed wire. On our way home we noticed a house with a huge bee yard in it, so we stopped. The owner's name was Burt, and he had 43 hives! He warned me that the electric fence I have will not stop a hungry bear, so it's best to make three rows of barbed wire around the hives asap. I can pretty much guarantee you this will not be accomplished without incident, so stay tuned!

The latest pics:

Inspecting hive A

We took too long and the smoker crapped out on us!

That's capped honey!

Pete running for the woods.

Bee stings are always a crowd pleaser.

A frame of nectar being turned into honey and capped.

Hive B entrance activity.

Hive A entrance congestion.

Both hives with honey supers.

NO MORE FREE RIDES!

Hola, amigos. How's by you?

I know its been a while since I rapped at ya', so here’s what’s up:

I went upstate on Tuesday to check on the hives, and see how the bees are doing on building out the second deeps. The quick answer is they’re doing great! There are a ton of flowers in bloom up there right now, and the girls seem to be taking full advantage, so I decided to halt the sugar syrup gravy train! It’s actually difficult to walk through the yard without stepping on bees as they are all over the clover flower that is covering a lot of the property. Also – the garden is really coming along and I think we have the bees to thanks for at least some of that.

Both hives are busting at the seams with bees, and both Queen Latifah and Bee-atrice are still laying eggs at a great rate. They have quickly drawn out the comb in the second deeps and are ready for the first honey supers to go on. When I put on the honey supers, I will also add on the Queen Excluder. This is a metal grate of sorts with a grid spacing which allows the worker bees through to make the honey, but is too narrow to let the larger queen through. Exciting stuff!

No stings this week, even though one of the bees got under my veil. I’m not sure how I dodged that bullet. On the last inspection, which I didn’t post an update for I got stung under the armpit, and Nicole got one on the foot while working in the garden that weekend, so they will be reflected in the sting counter this week.

Anyway, check out some of the pictures that I took on this last inspection. It’s not getting any easier to take photos while doing the solo inspection. I think I need an assistant!

Double deckers!

Because of the horrible weather upstate on Sunday (30 MPH winds, heavy rain and fog) I couldn't open the hives, so I did a quick trip up there yesterday to check on the bees, and everything seems to be going very well.

Beeatrice is still in the overall lead as her bees have already drawn out 3 frames of comb in the second deep, which is pretty good for the first week of June. This makes me feel like we have a good chance at some honey this season, but who knows. While inspecting the frames, I noticed that some of the worker bees seemed to be attached at the hind legs, which concerned me a bit. After a quick google search I learned that that is called "festooning" and it's the practice of interlocking their legs in a chain fashion to help them keep their place while drawing out comb so the comb is drawn out correctly. So crazy.

Queen Latifa is also producing very well. When I opened her hive, it was teeming with worker bees and her egg laying patterns look very solid. I added the second deep to her hive, so we'll check in again in a few weeks.

I also learned how difficult it is to take pictures of the bees with a veil and huge gloves on. Needless to say my camera got covered in sticky nectar.

Sorry I have no tales of massive beestings or bears tearing the hives to pieces this week, but stay tuned I'm sure all of that is just around the corner.

STUNG IN THE FACE!!!!

It's been an interesting few days... we had my mom up last weekend. After taking care of the usual weekend chores, which included a tumultuous relationship between Nicole and the weed wacker (think "I love you... you're perfect, now stop shooting all those pebbles in my eyes and on my shins"), we hit the road checking out the Hull-O Farm and a local flea market, where we bought a pretty rad see-saw top for $40, complete with scary 1950's clown faces painted on the seats.

We decided to save the hive opening for Sunday afternoon, and after making a few batches of sugar syrup we headed up to the hives. I was covered head to toe, nicole wore yoga pants and a t shirt, while my mom settled on a sundress, flip-flops, and beekeepers veil. Awesome!

We decided to use Dick Johnson's advice of using a sugar syrup spray to calm the bees instead of the smoker... this would prove disasterous. Nicole was my wing man, so to speak, and her duty was to spray the bees with sugar syrup to calm them so that I could inspect the frames. Well, the bees weren't calmed by the spray... worse yet, when Nicole saw that there was a fair amount of drowned bees in the top feeder she got upset. That (and the fact that my mom was snapping pictures) made me stressed and even though I told Nicole it's part of beekeeping, the tears were already flowing. Chaos was brewing!

On the first frame I noticed what appeared to be a supercedure cell- a cell in which the worker bees are grooming a new queen because they are unhappy with her egg production, which would inevitably end with some sort of queen on queen showdown. Now I'm freaking out! Nicole's crying, my mom (in her sundress and veil) is snapping pics, and I'm witnessing a bee revolt in the making. It felt like it was a hundred degrees out, and as the first drops of sweat drip from my face NICOLE GETS STUNG! Screaming, she goes running into the woods, my mom is following behind her and I am left alone to finish the inspection. It was all kind of a blur.

As we made our way home I felt kind of bad about the bees that had drowned in the syrup and wondered if this whole beekeeping thing was a really bad idea. Quickly I realized that I was in too deep, and there was no turning back now. I had to regroup.

After doing some research and an informative talk with DIck Johnson, I headed up again today to check on the bees (and water the garden in 95 degree heat). As I approached the hives I noticed dozens of bees standing at the hive entrance, feverously flapping there wings in order to circulate air through the hive to cool it down from the heat. It was pretty impressive. I started by re-reading how to use the smoker to calm the bees during the inspection, and it worked like a charm. The bees were calm and the inspection went very well. I was able to clean out the top feeders of all the drowned bees, and replenish them with fresh syrup. I determined that Hive A is ready for a second deep to be put on, as our Queen Bee-atrice has been hard at work filling frames with eggs. It turns out that what I believed to be a supercedure cell is likely just a drone cell (a new male bee), which is totally normal. As I finished up at the hives and was preparing to exit, I saw in the corner of my eye a bee that had made it's way under my veil. I shook my head and tried to open the bottom of the veil, but that just enraged her, so she stung me on the cheek. I ran into the house and pulled out the stinger in the bathroom mirror leaving it on the sink for Nicole to see this Friday.

By the way, the garden is doing great and a new couple has moved into one of our bird houses.

Hive alive!

Well folks, it's been a couple weeks since I hollered at ya, so here's the latest from the farmhouse:

It's been roughly three and a half weeks since the bees were released into the hives and now that the weather's warming and the blooms are becoming plentiful, the hives are thriving. The activity at the hives in the afternoon is intense with hundreds of bees flying in and out constantly. It's pretty bad-ass when the bees return to the hive with their hind legs weighed down with pollen and nectar. After a stupid move of opening the hive sans veil and gloves (during a beer break while installing the garden fence on Saturday) to check the sugar syrup level I was stung twice, once on the arm and once on the head... awesome!

On Sunday, Dick Johnson stopped by to watch over the hive inspection; which went very well. The bees are doing great! Both queens (still unnamed - any suggestions?) are laying a ton of eggs, and the first of the baby bees should be hatching from their cells this week. With that, the hive population is set to soar, and we should be adding the second deeps by memorial day. DJ also brought over some metal poles for me to use on the electric fence as he thinks the plastic ones won't really stop a bear.

In non-bee news, with a helping hand from a visiting Brendan Murphy, the garden is now fenced in and planted with carrots, radishes, kale, broccoli, garlic, peas, sunflowers, various lettuces and a rogue chili pepper plant. We should have everything in by early June. Also, Joe the Tiller made an always welcome guest appearance (this time with a truckload of firewood!), as did a new snake friend.

The bees have arrived!

Due to a delay in the delivery of the bees from Georgia, they arrived on the first day of my Bahamas vacation. Luckily, my good friend and fellow aspiring beekeeper Pete volunteered to pick up the bees and drive them upstate to install them into their new homes. All of this went down under the watchful eye of our new friend Dick Johnson. At 82 years old Dick (who drove about 4 miles to the house on his riding lawnmower), is the head of the Catskill Mountain Beekeepers Club http://www.catskillbees.org/. Pete and I met him by chance when we spotted some hives in a driveway upstate and decided to knock on the door. I think he has unofficially taken me under his wing. I also think that he thinks Pete and I are a couple, as he sent out an update to all of the area beekeepers declaring "...new beekeepers Peter Zessos and Bryan Wetzel have set up a bee yard with two hives at rental property at 5282 Rt 20 in West Durham. Peter and Bryan are weekenders from the city." Oh boy.

Anywho... The bees made it succesfully into their hives, and after a week and a half seem to be doing fine. I will be heading up tonight to meet my bees for the first time and do a full hive inspection with Dick. Lots of new photos will be posted next week, so stay tuned, but in the meantime here's a few that Pete was able to snap with his iPhone:

The Hive stands are in place!

Well it's mid April, just 9 days till the bees arrive and things are coming together nicely. The hive stands have been built and installed into the ground. The hives are being assembled tonight, and the electric fence parts have arrived. By this weekend everything should be in place upstate for the much anticipated arrival of our bees on April 24th.