Mama Bee and me
Mama bee & Me
So tonight after dinner with the assistance of my 17 year old son Nicholas we attempted to install the Queens cage. Nicholas was hinging the top super which weighs over 80+ lbs. and got stung on the inside of his palm. I felt so bad!!!
I got Queen Fiona in her hive and had to pull one of the side frame to fit the Queens cage. One side had no comb and the other side had about a 4x6 area of comb and capped honey. Feeling bad about Nicholas, I brought the frame into the house to surprise him and say sorry! The gesture was very very well received! After heating a knife Nicholas cut the caps off to show "Liquid Gold".
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I have been dying to get into the swarm hive and see whats been going on and to see if I could find the Queen. All I can say is WOW, do I have an awesome Queen. Lots of pure white comb, eggs, and tiny larvae! Our beautiful Queen decided to grace us with her present and show herself. Since Ryan assisted me on getting the swarm and getting them into their new home, I told him he could name her. Since we found her in a bird feeder and have two blue Heron's on out Spring Creek we decided to name her "Queen Heron". Plus this is a wonderful tribute to one of the most beautiful inspirational woman I have known, my husbands Mother Heron! Who also had a small card company named "Blue Heron" so it was met to BEE! Okay....We have survived getting the swarm of honey bees home and how have to get them into a new hive as soon as possible before dark! I start to gather (2) hive shallows and 10 frames (this is all I have at the moment), a bottom board, hive cover, lid. I put all this gear in the back of the Avalanche with the box of bees and head down to the location of my two hives which I started in May.
Again my awesome son Ryan is with me and is getting more and more excited. We grab everything and start placing the shallows in the center of the two other hives. (As you can see from the pictures in May, my husband made a hive bench for me). I stand behind the hives and start to cut the tape to open the box. Ryan is now standing in front of the center hive and I ask him to move back and start to video tape. I gently tap the box a couple of time, open the box and literally pour the 20,000 bees in the new hive like a waterfall! Ryan is amazed in the sound that they are making and being in the center of thousands of bees. The shallow is small of all of the girls, but will do for 1-2 days until I can get a super and frames to move them too. Since I do not have a bottom ventilation screen and just a regular bottom board with entrance; I decide to install the entrance reduce to the smallest opening and place pine branches, grass and twigs in front of the entrance to let the girls know they have a new hive. Ryan who is in awe with all of these docile gentle bees asks the biggest question ever! "Mom, what would happen if I touch them" I let him know that this is the time they are most docile and gentle...they have not home...no brood or honey to protect. My brave son decides to gently place his hand on the side of the hive and scoop some of the bees in his unprotected hand! He says it tickles a little as the girls are fanning and lifts his hand out of the hive with about 8-10 honey bees walking on his open hand. This was the most magical thing I have ever seen and this is why I choose to be a "Bee Protector" and not a beekeeper! After is we thanked the girls, welcomed them home and said good-night . OMG....I got a call out for a swarm about 3.5 miles away from my house. After losing a call on a small 3 lb. swarm last night, I was very very surprised to recent this call just a day later! My 14 year old son Ryan and I packed up some gear...a sturdy cardboard box, packing tape, full bee suit, half bee suit, and my gloves and cell phone of course and headed out to a local golf course that was backed up against a woody hill.
To my surprise it was a HUGE swarm!!! Approximately a 5.5 pounded! Here's the math (3,666 of bees per pound x 5.5 lb swarm = about 20,163 of bees give or take). I suit up and Ryan is videoing the whole capture! The swarm is on a bird feeder which has a pretty heavy base. After moving it very slowing and hearing my son say "Oh my gosh Mom, their like Jell-O", I stop and make sure the girls are okay. I slowly tilt the bird feeder over the open box and they start pouring in...give a little shake and more pour in the box. They have just clustered on the outside of the feeder, but inside as well. I repeat this process twice giving about 5 mins in between as some are in flight and gather back to the bird feeder. Afterwards, I tape up the box and pray that I have the Queen. I thank the wonderful lady Lynn for calling to have the bees relocated instead of harmed! I tell her that I will call her later this evening and have her check the bird feeder to see if they are gathering again. NOW THE FUN REALLY BEGINS! Driving home with 20,000 bees in the back of my Avalanche! Well just a quick check before I leave for Nebraska for 10 days. Queen Vanessa's hive looks amazing., when while checking the 2nd Hive of Queen Latifah I start to panic and alarm bells go off in my head. Where is Queen Latifah? I don't see any new eggs or larva. All I see is a ton of honey stores where there should be brood!
So I just wanted to take a peek to see what the girls have been up to this week. And boy oh boy was the hives buzzing! Golden honey could see seen on the top of the first super after removing a few of the second supers frames. And just look at the beautiful white bees wax they are drawing down on the comb. Looking good!
Wow, what an exciting day today's hive checks were. I installed by bees over 26 days ago and the hives are buzzing! Hive #1 - Queen Vanessa's hive seems to be a little loud and active. I did use the smoker on the hive. I had to remove a little burl comb attached to the inner cover but not much. Queen Vanessa has been very busy and eggs and larva was seen was well as a Drone cell. Hive #2 - Queen Latifah hive was very quite and very busy! The first thing I notice that they are drawing comb very very well and I may have to add a second super this coming week. the second thing I noticed was the hive seemed to have more bees...which we have baby bees!!! The center frames had many new hatched bees and after watching the frame for a while I could tell which were new baby bees. They were fuzzy and their wings were more tightly wrapped. Queen Latifah was seen as new eggs and cells with larva. I pulled out one frame that had over a third plus of capped honey! I noticed a couple of Drone cells and removed little burl comb. I can't wait for this weekend check!!! Due to my daughter Trinity College graduation, I was not able to conduct my 2nd week hive check on the this past Saturday. I did how every as soon I got got home from a 20 hour drive from Minnesota with 8 people in out van; run out to the hives and make sure that they we okay. Which meant I peeked into the hives and everyone was all ready to go to sleep in the hives.
The next day, I made sure to suit up and check both hives properly. Needless to say that I was really excited to see what progress they had made in a week and a half. Both hives had mostly gone through the sugar syrup I had in the upper shallow, they had draw the comb down really good in both hives, but hive #1 is about a week behind due to the comb I had to remove. Both Queen were seen in the hives. The pattern of brood was nice tight and both eggs and larva were visible. As you can see by the picture below that the top of the frame is capped honey, followed by a band of orange-yellow pollen and below that capped yellow brood or baby bees! We saw several bees doing their "Bee Dance" to share what they had found outside the hive with their sisters. Watching their patterned dances in circles and figure eight was pretty cool. We also notice many "Pollen Jocks" (bees bring in pollen and yes, it from the Bee Movie) which are ALL girl bees bringing in bright orange-yellow pollen. As everything looked super and the hives are on schedule with not visual problems we closed them up and will check them again next weekend. Today, I finally got to open the hives for their first check to see what they have been doing in a week. Also we have named the hives as well. Cameron's hive (Hive #1) is Queen Vanessa. He came up with the name after watching "The Bee Movie" as the main human characters name is...Vanessa! My hive or Hive #2 is named Queen Latifah...no explanation is needed!
After suiting up my daughter Brittany and I opened Hive #1 only to find that I had forgotten to put the center frames back and that the girls had make beautiful burl comb patties which hung from the inner cover. Yes, though it was beautiful to see the comb had to be sadly removed. Queen Vanessa was located and after a long time searching I finally noticed eggs in the bottom of the cells! With this we closed up Hive #1 and continued to Hive #2. Hive #2 - Queen Latifah was found in great health and the presence eggs and pollen were seen. We did not take any pictures as everything looked great and hive was closed. |
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August 2015
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