Well, I can't say that our bee experience has been a good one.. in fact it seems to keep going downhill. Now, end of August and still no bees. And in fact the guy we ordered from has not gotten them in either and is not expecting them until April....
Also the Bee-club has decided that we killed our bees so they will not give us another swarm (not directly said, but this is the result) We are blacklisted at the bee club. The last meeting was so frustrating we have decided not to return. They were not supportive of Top-Bar hives anyway. In fact the whole of the club seems to be run by this one guy who is a commercial beekeeper and sells all equipment etc. Since we didn't buy equipment from him, we are obviously wrong, and killed our bees.
SO, our adventure continues. If we got bees this late we would be feeding them throughout the winter anyway.. and we don't want to do that. So we will order now, early, and get them in April. And not from the guy that we ordered from this year. He was ordering them elsewhere anyway, so why not cut out the middleman....
SO all you patient friends and wanna bee bee keepers... check back in the spring as I'm sure there will be no developments until then.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Our First Colony
About time for a bee update.
We have been very disappointed because the bees that we ordered to assure that we would get bees this spring, never got delivered. By now that guy is telling us it will be mid July. This is all due to being down on the a long list of customers for the guy selling the bees.
In the meantime we put ourselves on the swarm list to get a free local feral colony. With all the water we have gotten this spring the bees are multiplying like crazy, and it's now swarm season. We got a call Tuesday night, asking if we still wanted a swarm... Yes! The guy said "Great I'm going out to collect it in the morning. I'll call if it turns out to be a viable colony and you can come pick it up." Well in the morning we got call from person B asking if we wanted a swarm.. So of course I told person B that we were already getting one we hoped from caller A. She said "Ok, but a bee in hand is worth two in the bush" (I just made that up..) that is not exactly what she said... but I thought, humm what if the Guy A comes home empty handed or his swarm is not viable.... I'd better accept Caller B's bees. So Mike was off to pick them up.
We brought them home and put them in our waiting hive. Mike actually thought they were rather lethargic.
The next morning there were many dead bees on the door stoop of the hive. On Friday, when I returned from Albuquerque, I peeked in the window to find only few bees moving inside.. Bummer! On Saturday we opened up the hive and found piles of dead bees, about 24 live bees clustered together, but no queen that we can identify. We cleaned them up and tonight (Tuesday) there are still 24 bees hanging around, which I really don't understand since they are Queenless, but they are also not building comb, so need to ask someone about that.
When we called people in the bee club the concensus is that they must have been sprayed with insecticide before they called the swarm control, even though the people said they did not. But it is pretty abnormal for bees to die like that.
So we are back on the swarm list, and now we have cancelled our order for bees... so keep your fingers crossed. (Of course guy A told me too bad that I hadn't stayed with his swarm, because it was a HUGE swarm.... yeah whatever!)
We have been very disappointed because the bees that we ordered to assure that we would get bees this spring, never got delivered. By now that guy is telling us it will be mid July. This is all due to being down on the a long list of customers for the guy selling the bees.
In the meantime we put ourselves on the swarm list to get a free local feral colony. With all the water we have gotten this spring the bees are multiplying like crazy, and it's now swarm season. We got a call Tuesday night, asking if we still wanted a swarm... Yes! The guy said "Great I'm going out to collect it in the morning. I'll call if it turns out to be a viable colony and you can come pick it up." Well in the morning we got call from person B asking if we wanted a swarm.. So of course I told person B that we were already getting one we hoped from caller A. She said "Ok, but a bee in hand is worth two in the bush" (I just made that up..) that is not exactly what she said... but I thought, humm what if the Guy A comes home empty handed or his swarm is not viable.... I'd better accept Caller B's bees. So Mike was off to pick them up.
We brought them home and put them in our waiting hive. Mike actually thought they were rather lethargic.
The next morning there were many dead bees on the door stoop of the hive. On Friday, when I returned from Albuquerque, I peeked in the window to find only few bees moving inside.. Bummer! On Saturday we opened up the hive and found piles of dead bees, about 24 live bees clustered together, but no queen that we can identify. We cleaned them up and tonight (Tuesday) there are still 24 bees hanging around, which I really don't understand since they are Queenless, but they are also not building comb, so need to ask someone about that.
When we called people in the bee club the concensus is that they must have been sprayed with insecticide before they called the swarm control, even though the people said they did not. But it is pretty abnormal for bees to die like that.
So we are back on the swarm list, and now we have cancelled our order for bees... so keep your fingers crossed. (Of course guy A told me too bad that I hadn't stayed with his swarm, because it was a HUGE swarm.... yeah whatever!)
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Last minute details ... but no bees
Well the bees we ordered were supposed to be picked up in New Mexico last weekend, and assuming the guy wouldn't want them hanging around much, I expected to get them on Monday or so. So Mike and I busily finished the last minute details to get ready for the bees.
We have bought the clothing, hats and gloves. We are going to tape our pantlegs shut and tuck in our shirts and try to get by with that. Seems most experienced beekeepers quickly shed the gloves, and not too long later the hat, but for our own comfort we got the hats and gloves, and we'll start out that way. Besides, I'm sure they will be handy to have around when guests come, etc.
Cute huh?
We also will not be using a smoker. When you smoke bees they react in a panic mode of gorging themselves on honey, to prepare for what might be a forest fire and drive them from their home. This was they will be full enough to get to a new home, since it might be a while before they are able to forage for food again. Bees that are engorged with honey are more lethargic, and not as protective of the hive. This is why people use smoke to "sedate" the bees when they work the hive. Well the smoke is not particularly healthy for the bees, neither is gorging themselves with honey on a regular basis. So we are going to try to go smokeless. We have read that if you move slowly and deliberately, no swatting, you will not get stung. We have also read that after a few stings you build an immunity and they will not effect you anymore. And finally if you tend to your bees in the early morning or evening they are more docile. Well, we will give er a try! Let you know how it goes.
And then finally we agreed on a spot on the property for our hive, and put the base out and level. We painted the top bars with beeswax (this helps them identify the hive as a good home, previously used by bees, and helps them start building comb on the top bars guiding them straight in the middle.) We bought a mason jar to make a feeder out of and made our sugar solution to feed them. We bought a sprayer bottle to fill with sugar solution to spray in the hive when installing the bees. We also bought a hive tool, a small crowbar like tool to help pry off the top bars when harvesting. We are ready to go!
So called the guy at dinnertime to see when he wanted to come out.. but he said he hadn't gone to New Mexico, the bees were not ready, and it would be at least June 1st before he got them :-(. I was bummed, but at least we are ready.
We have bought the clothing, hats and gloves. We are going to tape our pantlegs shut and tuck in our shirts and try to get by with that. Seems most experienced beekeepers quickly shed the gloves, and not too long later the hat, but for our own comfort we got the hats and gloves, and we'll start out that way. Besides, I'm sure they will be handy to have around when guests come, etc.
Cute huh?And then finally we agreed on a spot on the property for our hive, and put the base out and level. We painted the top bars with beeswax (this helps them identify the hive as a good home, previously used by bees, and helps them start building comb on the top bars guiding them straight in the middle.) We bought a mason jar to make a feeder out of and made our sugar solution to feed them. We bought a sprayer bottle to fill with sugar solution to spray in the hive when installing the bees. We also bought a hive tool, a small crowbar like tool to help pry off the top bars when harvesting. We are ready to go!
So called the guy at dinnertime to see when he wanted to come out.. but he said he hadn't gone to New Mexico, the bees were not ready, and it would be at least June 1st before he got them :-(. I was bummed, but at least we are ready.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The Hive is Ready
We have decided to build a top bar hive as mentioned in our previous post. Instead of the frames that the traditional bee hive has, a top bar hive only has a bar at the top with a guiding notch to help the bees decide where to build their comb, then they build the comb from that spot. The hive has sloping sides to minimize attachment of the comb to the hive box, and there is a false backer board that you can put in anywhere, that will help the bees get started in a smaller space then increase the space as they can use it to fill with honey. Unlike traditional hives there are no supers. If the bees fill up the entire hive you simply harvest some honey and they have more room. The hive has windows in the side so you can watch what is happening without disturbing the bees much.
The finished hive with the window open.
We built our hive entirely out of scraps we had laying around, or found at my parents house. The wood was some mohogany trim that my Dad had been saving for just the right project. I hope he thinks this is the right project, at any rate the wood had been sitting in his garage for a number of years and he was ready to part with it. The top bars were from scraps of oak from Dad's wood pile, I think they were originally part of an oak bedroom set.
The bottom has a screen to help ventilate the hive in the summer and helps the mites from infesting the hive. Bees clean off the mites and drop them, if the floor is solid they can crawl back up and get back on the bees, with a screen floor they fall through, either to the ground in the summertime when the bottem is open, or onto a bottom board under the screen to help keep the hive warm in the wintertime. The board ideally has sticky paper attached that the mites stick to. Either was they can't get back to the bees. I also found the srca piece of screen on Dad's woodpile.
While Dan (Mike's son) was visiting a couple weeks ago he did a little welding for us. He was having so much fun that he welded up the stand for the hive from scrap metal that was on the property when we moved here.
I guess I lied.. we did buy the Plexiglas for the window and a couple hinges, and some good waterproof glue. Oh and Mike found the piece of corrugated roofing somewhere on the property. Pretty cool eh? The thing sticking out the front door of the hive is a feeder that we bought at the bee-club auction last week.
A closer look at the top bar, and sitting on the false backer board.
The finished hive
The finished hive with the window open.
We built our hive entirely out of scraps we had laying around, or found at my parents house. The wood was some mohogany trim that my Dad had been saving for just the right project. I hope he thinks this is the right project, at any rate the wood had been sitting in his garage for a number of years and he was ready to part with it. The top bars were from scraps of oak from Dad's wood pile, I think they were originally part of an oak bedroom set.
The bottom has a screen to help ventilate the hive in the summer and helps the mites from infesting the hive. Bees clean off the mites and drop them, if the floor is solid they can crawl back up and get back on the bees, with a screen floor they fall through, either to the ground in the summertime when the bottem is open, or onto a bottom board under the screen to help keep the hive warm in the wintertime. The board ideally has sticky paper attached that the mites stick to. Either was they can't get back to the bees. I also found the srca piece of screen on Dad's woodpile.
While Dan (Mike's son) was visiting a couple weeks ago he did a little welding for us. He was having so much fun that he welded up the stand for the hive from scrap metal that was on the property when we moved here.
I guess I lied.. we did buy the Plexiglas for the window and a couple hinges, and some good waterproof glue. Oh and Mike found the piece of corrugated roofing somewhere on the property. Pretty cool eh? The thing sticking out the front door of the hive is a feeder that we bought at the bee-club auction last week.
The hive with the Lid off, three top bars and the false backer board.
When the hive is full it fits 30 top bars.
When the hive is full it fits 30 top bars.
A closer look at the top bar, and sitting on the false backer board.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
The BEE-ginning
(I hear when you are a bee keeper it is required you make lots of jokes like that! - perhaps this is a warning to the reader)
Someone at bee-club told me that since we are just new-bees (ouch!) we should be sure to keep a journal. That in years to come we would appreciate looking back and seeing our naivety (perhaps he didn't say EXACTLY that). I wanted to tell him that in 2009 journals are called blogs, but much to Mike's surprise I kept my mouth shut.
None the less I thought it was a good idea. So I'm starting a blog and hope to write in it more regularly than in my other blog, but this blog will be dedicated to bee information. I also will not be announcing new posts, but feel free to come back often.
SO WHY BEES?
This is a question I am regularly asked. I went to a conference a couple years ago now where the lecturer talked about how the bees are in trouble and therefore pollination in the country is in trouble and if one private individual every 30 miles would keep one colony in their backyard that the pollination problems in the country would be fixed. (By now I can't imagine how this came up at a software conference.. but this is what stuck). So this is WHY we are doing it, for the environment. The honey and the wax just is a side-benefit.
WHAT WAS NEXT?
The university that was talking had a program where you could go to an intensive weekend long bee-school, and come home with bees. I recall this was Florida, so this year when I was ready (Having learned all I could about Alpacas... Ha!) I called the University of Florida, and they had no idea what I was talking about, except someone suggested it might be University of Georgia. Called them, they thought maybe a couple years ago they had that.. but not now. I didn't want to go to Georgia for a weekend anyway. We started searching around and found a local organization, Pike Peak Beekeepers Association (Whom I affectionately refer to as bee-club now), that has bee school once a year in Colorado Springs and then meets once a quarter for information sharing. Cool! We signed up, although were the last two let in before the class of 50 was full. The school was all day Saturday and half day Sunday and chalk full of information.
TOP BAR HIVES
In the meantime we had been doing lots of reading and research online. We didn't want to do anything that would be expensive and have lots of equipment to buy. We became impressed with the concept of Top Bar Hives, which are hive that do not have frames. The entire hive can be made at home, with scraps of wood. This method of beekeeping is more natural and some say healthier for the bees. It does not produce maximum amounts of honey, but back up two paragraphs if you think we are concerned about that. (Read more about top bar hives, and get plans for the hive we built at http://www.backyardhive.com/). They encourage you to try beekeeping without using smokers, as that is unhealthy for the bees. I go into that in a later blog. And you don't need an extractor to harvest your honey. Minimal expense and healthiest.
Since this first blog is going to be fairly long, I'll post again in a couple days with photos of our hive. Hopefully finished at that time.
CAPTURING A SWARM
A popular means of obtaining bees is to capture a swarm. Swarming is natural for bees in the late spring/early summer. A healthy colony outgrows it's space. When the hive become crowded the workers make a new queen, and just before she hatches the old queen and half of the workers leave the hive to find a new home. They will lite on a branch or something and send some of the bees out scouting for a new home. The rest of the bees cluster around the queen to protect her from harm. (A queen lays 1500 eggs a day, and does nothing else. The workers feed her, clean her, carry her feces out etc. She only leaves the hive to mate (once in her lifetime) or to swarm).
When bees swarm, local human types get nervous and call the exterminator/fire dept./ etc to come take care of the problem. They in turn call the local bee guy who has volunteered to collect swarms and relocate them or give them to a beekeeper looking for a new colony ;-)
The trick is capturing the queen. basically shake the branch over a bucket. If the queen falls in the others follow, if not try again. Ones the others follow you put the top on the bucket and you have captured a swarm.
We liked the idea of capturing a swarm because 1) it was free. and 2) they are survivors of the local area, and therefore potentially healthier. Down side is that you don't know what KIND of bee you are getting (different kinds have different personality traits), and you don't know WHEN you are getting. After bee school we were pretty excited to get bees, and don't like the lack of control in that "when" option. So we decided to buy our first colony and still put our name in for a swarm.. so guess we need to build another hive. We ordered one colony of Russian Bees that will come the second week of May. They are coming from New Mexico, so hopefully the climate will suit them fine. One colony when you get them is 1,500 bees, in 6 weeks when they are up to hive capacity they are 60,000.
BEE-CLUB
The Pikes Peak Beekeepers Association had their quarterly meeting last Thursday evening. This meeting included an auction, that was supposed to be in the parking lot, but it poured down 1/4 inch hail, so it got moved inside.. Not many things being auctioned anyway. We did buy a feeder for $3. Not bad. The auction was followed by a meeting full of information surprisingly appropriate to us new beekeepers. It's going to be a good group to belong to, although no one has any help for top bar hives.. I guess next year we will be the club authorities!
AND NOW?
Finish the beehives and wait for our bees and wait for some honey.... fun stuff.
Someone at bee-club told me that since we are just new-bees (ouch!) we should be sure to keep a journal. That in years to come we would appreciate looking back and seeing our naivety (perhaps he didn't say EXACTLY that). I wanted to tell him that in 2009 journals are called blogs, but much to Mike's surprise I kept my mouth shut.
None the less I thought it was a good idea. So I'm starting a blog and hope to write in it more regularly than in my other blog, but this blog will be dedicated to bee information. I also will not be announcing new posts, but feel free to come back often.
SO WHY BEES?
This is a question I am regularly asked. I went to a conference a couple years ago now where the lecturer talked about how the bees are in trouble and therefore pollination in the country is in trouble and if one private individual every 30 miles would keep one colony in their backyard that the pollination problems in the country would be fixed. (By now I can't imagine how this came up at a software conference.. but this is what stuck). So this is WHY we are doing it, for the environment. The honey and the wax just is a side-benefit.
WHAT WAS NEXT?
The university that was talking had a program where you could go to an intensive weekend long bee-school, and come home with bees. I recall this was Florida, so this year when I was ready (Having learned all I could about Alpacas... Ha!) I called the University of Florida, and they had no idea what I was talking about, except someone suggested it might be University of Georgia. Called them, they thought maybe a couple years ago they had that.. but not now. I didn't want to go to Georgia for a weekend anyway. We started searching around and found a local organization, Pike Peak Beekeepers Association (Whom I affectionately refer to as bee-club now), that has bee school once a year in Colorado Springs and then meets once a quarter for information sharing. Cool! We signed up, although were the last two let in before the class of 50 was full. The school was all day Saturday and half day Sunday and chalk full of information.
TOP BAR HIVES
In the meantime we had been doing lots of reading and research online. We didn't want to do anything that would be expensive and have lots of equipment to buy. We became impressed with the concept of Top Bar Hives, which are hive that do not have frames. The entire hive can be made at home, with scraps of wood. This method of beekeeping is more natural and some say healthier for the bees. It does not produce maximum amounts of honey, but back up two paragraphs if you think we are concerned about that. (Read more about top bar hives, and get plans for the hive we built at http://www.backyardhive.com/). They encourage you to try beekeeping without using smokers, as that is unhealthy for the bees. I go into that in a later blog. And you don't need an extractor to harvest your honey. Minimal expense and healthiest.
Since this first blog is going to be fairly long, I'll post again in a couple days with photos of our hive. Hopefully finished at that time.
CAPTURING A SWARM
A popular means of obtaining bees is to capture a swarm. Swarming is natural for bees in the late spring/early summer. A healthy colony outgrows it's space. When the hive become crowded the workers make a new queen, and just before she hatches the old queen and half of the workers leave the hive to find a new home. They will lite on a branch or something and send some of the bees out scouting for a new home. The rest of the bees cluster around the queen to protect her from harm. (A queen lays 1500 eggs a day, and does nothing else. The workers feed her, clean her, carry her feces out etc. She only leaves the hive to mate (once in her lifetime) or to swarm).
When bees swarm, local human types get nervous and call the exterminator/fire dept./ etc to come take care of the problem. They in turn call the local bee guy who has volunteered to collect swarms and relocate them or give them to a beekeeper looking for a new colony ;-)
The trick is capturing the queen. basically shake the branch over a bucket. If the queen falls in the others follow, if not try again. Ones the others follow you put the top on the bucket and you have captured a swarm.
We liked the idea of capturing a swarm because 1) it was free. and 2) they are survivors of the local area, and therefore potentially healthier. Down side is that you don't know what KIND of bee you are getting (different kinds have different personality traits), and you don't know WHEN you are getting. After bee school we were pretty excited to get bees, and don't like the lack of control in that "when" option. So we decided to buy our first colony and still put our name in for a swarm.. so guess we need to build another hive. We ordered one colony of Russian Bees that will come the second week of May. They are coming from New Mexico, so hopefully the climate will suit them fine. One colony when you get them is 1,500 bees, in 6 weeks when they are up to hive capacity they are 60,000.
BEE-CLUB
The Pikes Peak Beekeepers Association had their quarterly meeting last Thursday evening. This meeting included an auction, that was supposed to be in the parking lot, but it poured down 1/4 inch hail, so it got moved inside.. Not many things being auctioned anyway. We did buy a feeder for $3. Not bad. The auction was followed by a meeting full of information surprisingly appropriate to us new beekeepers. It's going to be a good group to belong to, although no one has any help for top bar hives.. I guess next year we will be the club authorities!
AND NOW?
Finish the beehives and wait for our bees and wait for some honey.... fun stuff.
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