Swarming...hive under new management:)

Now keep in mind..I am not the beekeeper here..just the wife who tries to understand what he is saying half of the time:) Just like he couldn't describe how to roll out fondant and smooth on to a cake, I have a hard time describing what he is passionate about...but the advantage is is that I can explain it simply and a lot easier to understand.

Every week (in good weather) Mr. Beekeeper opens up the lid and looks at the frames:

In each hive box there are 10 of these frames

hive box...see little slit on bottom where bees come and go

He looks for eggs, disease, anything suspicious...he also looks for the Queen every time. She is huge and also has a spot painted on her abdomen. All I see are TONS of bees all over them. This is one that has been in the garage so it is empty and boring. When they are new they are more of a golden brown but the bees will work just as good with it when it is dark like this (I just think it isn't as pretty:)

This is one straight out of the hive

 

Last week he noticed the Queen wasn't laying very many eggs. This is close up of the frame. The queen lays her eggs inside these cells. So when he sees a huge decrease in eggs that means less bees, less work, and less honey for us.

 

 

Then he noticed swarm cells...

The bees build these along the frames..about 6 of them. They build these to house a new queen in prep for leaving the hive or Swarming...so at least they are trying to set up new management before they ditch. It is a natural instinct for them if they get too cramped they will want to start a new hive. In nature that is great but in a hive we want all of our workers and Mr.Beekeeper can add new boxes for more room if necessary. In this case there was still room, but she was determined to take off.

 

So we went to the bee store and bought a new Queen bee. (Going rate for a Queen bee is $30..) Mr.Beekeeper found the old Queen and put her in a special little container...basically for the kids bee collection.

 

He then put the new queen in the hive in a tiny queen cage...the other bees will eat through the candy plug and release her within 3 days. She is in the cage to protect her until her scent takes over and they accept her.

 

Mr. Beekeeper decided instead of killing off the old queen he put her in this container with 2-3 "attendants" to feed her...seriously she has the life:) Then he went out with his special helper,

He took a new white hive box and added 5 frames full of bees from our other hive (this will make 3 hives now) and added the old Queen out of the container...she is in a tiny cage with marshmallow on top until they release her...it's worth a shot, and maybe she will realize she has a 2nd chance and work harder:)

 

What does a beekeeper and his bees do in the winter?

I have had a few people ask me what our bees our doing through the winter. So I took a few pictures of what they are doing: nothing that we can see really.  Mr. Beekeeper puts a cover over the top to keep them insulated and inside they have formed a cluster around the queen to keep at a steady 93 degrees.

They flutter their little wings to achieve this. The poor suckers on the outside of the cluster get cold and can die easier. Being clean freaks that they are, they boot the dead bodies out of the hive. It seems like a lot of dead bees in a pile, hundreds actually, but in a hive of 50,000 bees that isn't a worry.

 


Mr. Beekeeper is getting antsy. Some bees are wiped out entirely in the cold Utah winters, but it has been a mild winter and we know they are alive still. On a really warm day he peeked in for a second. But overall he has to leave them alone so they can maintain their temperature. Before the cold hit we left them with plenty of honey storage to make it through. They may need some more sugar if it is a long winter and Rob has some little biscuit type sugar supplements to give them until they can start gathering for themselves.

Mr. Beekeeper has already assembled 2 other hives for the spring as well. 3 hives in our backyard should be interesting. But the 1 hive has not been a problem at all. They mind their own business and they fly around the neighborhood, not in our yard anyway. They will learn to not go over on the other side of the yard because we will also be getting chickens this year....and they love tasty bee snacks:)

Waiting on the bees...

I guess it seems immature to be annoyed by bees, but I am:)

We were hoping to harvest more honey this month but they aren't ready. Then we planned on at least 1 more time in October, but according to Mr. Beekeeper it won't be as much as last time. The reason? Our first Queen took off on some "vacation" last month and never came back...guess she was stressed:) It was confusing for us as new beekeepers because the bees usually swarm with her, but they were all still there. She was gone but new queen cells were created so a new queen was born.

Unfortunately in those few weeks they lost a lot of time to gather nectar. So our honey production suffered. Of course it is our first year and a lot of beekeepers don't even get anything, so we should be grateful:)

But my honey has sold so well at the Utah CoOp and they are all out, and I would love to have more to give them! I have about 5 honey bears still at my home for sale if anyone local wants to drop by, but I love being able to have the CoOp as that other source. Hopefully the bees will find what they need and we will get a good amount in October. We are already planning on a second hive for next year and having even  more honey to offer:) We will also have fresh eggs next year to offer...apparently chickens love to eat bees so they will not be too close to each other:)

The Utah CoOp

Today I dropped off some of our honey to be sold at the Utah CoOp!

We will also be selling it at our home, but I have a limited amount to sell so if you want it contact me. (info on the side) We gave most of our honey away to family and close friends for free to get the word out initially. We are selling 8 oz honey bears right now for $3 and hopefully next month we will have 1 lb honey bears for $5....this is all determined by the bees of course. We took out 40 lbs in August and they aren't working as fast as we planned on, but hope for Oct harvest.

Take a minute to look through all of the fun facts, pictures and info I put together. We really want people to see how fascinating these bees are not as scary as everyone thinks:)

How can you help the Bees?

When you think about planting some new flowers, bushes or trees, consider some bee friendly plants!


Alyssum
Ornamental Strawberry
Marigold
Zinnia
Bottlebrush
Lavenders
Valerian
Buckwheat
Salvias
Eucalyptus Ficifolia "Red Flowering Eucalyptus"
Native Eucalyptus
Wild Mustard
Flowering Plum
Flowering Pear
Sage
Toyon 
Escallonia
Cotoneaster 
Lantana
Ceanothus
Hibiscus
Black-eyed susans
Lantana (camara)
Butterfly Bush
Honeysuckle
Joe-Pye weed
Liatris
Corgopsis
Pentas
Aster
Butterfly Weed
Purple Coneflower

At our house we see a lot on our rose of Sharon and they love the Lavendar...even before we had a hive we had every neighborhood bee on our lavendar. They also love the Russian sage that is in our neighborhood.  If it blossoms than the bees will probably love it:)

Why choose local "raw" honey?

- You support local small businesses!

-Can be used as a sweetener in place of unhealthy refined sugars, corn syrups,etc

-Other companies heat their honey which can destroy the nutrients in honey.

-Some add water to their honey to stretch the honey they can sell.

-Other add corn syrup to it so it stays in that form. A "raw" honey will crystallize and people think it has gone bad, so they add the syrup to it to look nice.

 Tip:
To bring honey back to it's liquified state, bring a pan of water to boiling.  Remove from heat and be sure the water's temperature is 120 degrees before placing the jar of honey inside.    Cover the pan with the jar of honey with foil to keep the heat longer.   Usually, by the next day, the honey should be liquified.  If not, repeat the pan full of hot water.

     It is extremely important that honey not be liquefied in a microwave oven!!    It's a sure-fire way of totally destroying the honey's great benefits and taste!

-Tiny amounts of pollen found in locally-grown raw honey work over time to desensitize the body to a particular allergen

Fun facts about bees and honey

Honey Bee

There are three types of bees in the hive – Queen, Worker and Drone.

The queen may lay 600-800 or even 1,500 eggs each day during her 3 or 4 year lifetime. This daily egg production may equal her own weight. She is constantly fed and groomed by attendant worker bees.

Honey bees fly at 15 miles per hour.

Honeybees are the only insect that produce food for humans.

Honeybees will usually travel approximately 3 miles from their hive.

Honeybees are the only bees that die after they sting.

Honeybees never sleep!

Honey

Honey is 80% sugars and 20% water.

Tiny amounts of pollen found in locally-grown raw honey work over time to desensitize the body to a particular allergen--not unlike the way traditional allergy shots work.

To make one pound of honey, the bees in the colony must visit 2 million flowers, fly over 55,000 miles and will be the lifetime work of approximately 768 bees.

A single honeybee will only produce approximately 1/12 teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.

A single honey bee will visit 50-100 flowers on a single trip out of the hive.

Honey is the ONLY food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life, including water.

A typical beehive can make up to 400 pounds of honey per year.

Honey never spoils.

Flowers and other blossoming plants have nectarines that produce sugary nectar. Worker bees suck up the nectar and water and store it in a special honey stomach. When the stomach is full the bee returns to the hive and puts the nectar in an empty honeycomb. Natural chemicals from the bee's head glands and the evaporation of the water from the nectar change the nectar into honey.

Out of 20,000 species of bees, only 4 make honey.

A populous colony may contain 40,000 to 60,000 bees during the late spring or early summer.

Bees maintain a temperature of 92-93 degrees Fahrenheit in their central brood nest regardless of whether the outside temperature is 110 or -40 degrees.

Fun fact source