No Photos, Please!

How many mistakes can a new beekeeper make and still live to tell the tale? Keep in mind that I don't make the same mistake twice.

The plan for today was to open up the hives, put grease patties on the bottom to prevent tracheal mites, check the pollen patties and generously dust each hive box with sifted powdered sugar to control varroa mites. I also wanted to see if the bees were storing honey again.

Starting in Hive 3, I began to examine the frames. Yes, there is new honey being stored, but it is not yet capped. I was glad to see this as it indicates that the flowers have nectar and the bees are finding it. This is goldenrod season, a boon for the bees and a misery for allergy sufferers. I have given up all thoughts of harvesting any honey this season from these three hives.

Dusting the bees with powdered sugar is an integrated hive management technique. Integrated hive management means the beekeeper uses natural products instead of chemicals and poisons to control and prevent problems in the hives. The pesky varroa mites can't hang on to the slippery sugared bees and all that white powder spurs the girls into grooming behavior. I was told to sift four pounds of sugar into each colony. This is a lot of sugar and the bees were heavily coated. While working on Hive 3, my high tech sweatband slipped off my head and the band was bouncing around the inside of my veil/hood. When I finished my work in Hive 3, I moved away from the hives to unzip the hood so I could remove the sweat band. BIG MISTAKE! I had the right idea to move away from the hives, but I didn't move far enough away. As soon as the hood was unzipped from the jacket, a bee found her way into the hood and slammed into my right temple. I was stung and I knew this was going to be bad. Another bee was flying around inside the hood which was still on my head. I quickly moved across the meadow to shed the jacket and attached hood. I could feel a bee in my hair and as soon as the jacket was off, I bent at the waist to shake out my hair. It was a good idea, but not effective, and I knew if I ran my fingers through my hair I'd be stung on the hand. I hurried into the house and went for the wide-toothed smooth metal comb I used to use on my Himalayan cat's matts. The bee combed right out of my hair and fell to the floor, along with another I didn't even know was there. Those girls went out the back door.

My fingers went to my right temple and I could feel the stinger. It brushed out easily. Because I don't make the same mistake twice, I had taken a preventative Benadryl before I ventured out. The site of the sting was only slightly swollen, a normal reaction, and as beestings go, not particularly painful. After a moment of decision-making (do I go back out there or hang it up for the day?), I donned my jacket and hood and went to finish what I had started.

The sugar-coated bees were bearded off the front of their hive--thousands of them spilling to the ground. I wish I had taken my camera as it was quite a spectacle. I went to work on Hive 2. I figured if Hive 1 was as crazy full of bees as Hive 3, I wouldn't be able to work the middle hive. The girls in Hive 2 were very calm. These the the offspring of my Ohio queen. Most of my original bees and the offspring of my Georgia queen are dead. I can see that the bees in Hive 2 are different. These bees are very dark, almost black, instead of golden. This queen is not an egg-laying machine like the Georgia queens, so the hive is not so heavily populated. Everything appeared fine in there. They got their grease patty and sugar and I closed up the hive. The bees proceeded to make a beard on the front of the hive, but not as extensive as Hive 3.

On to Hive 1. There is much honey production going on in there, too. These bees were also calm and easy to work around which was a good thing as I was running on adrenaline and really just wanting to do what I needed to do and to get safely indoors. Grease patty, sugar dust, close the hive, collect my tools and gather all those empty powdered sugar bags.

The pollen substitute patties I placed in the hives on Labor Day were all gone. When I open the hives next week for another sugar dusting, I'll give each colony another pollen patty.

My tool basket and tools were covered with sugar, so I took the time to clean them up and went inside to assess my face. Only the slightest swelling was there, just at the site of the sting. I had enough time to shower and still take Sam the Dog to the club for the annual Doggy Dunk, a riot of a time held the day before the pool gets drained for the season. I made some lunch and the swelling began. In no time at all, my right eye was puffy and I knew I wasn't going anywhere.

By 3:30pm, the eye was swollen shut. I have been treating it with ice packs, Benedryl and Advil. As stings go, it is not very painful or itchy, but it looks dreadful. If I try hard I can open my eye enough to see with it. I cancelled my dinner plans (who would want to eat looking at this eye?) and pondered this hobby, beekeeping.

Let me describe my face. The right eye is swollen shut. If I open my eyes enough, I can see, but my field of vision includes the edges of my puffy lids. My right cheek is slightly swollen, making my face somewhat lopsided. If you have ever seen anyone after a nose job or eyelid surgery, it's a lot like that, except there is no bruising. If I had gone a round with Muhammad Ali, I might look worse. Lucky for Harvey, he has an airtight alibi as he left town Friday and is a thousand miles away. No, I will not post a photo.

Sting count: 12

The Mystery of the Vanishing Honey or Who Stole the Sweets?

Today was supposed to be honey harvest day. The last time I opened the hives (3 weeks ago), the frames were loaded with capped honey. I signed up to borrow the extractor from my bee club (COBA) and begged for help from someone to please be here when I attempted my first harvest. Master beekeeper Dana agreed to help me if I promised to help someone else in the future. That was an easy promise to make.

The plan was for Dana to come this morning at 10AM. Good news: the temperature was cool. Bad news: the sky was very gray and had low ceilings. I didn't think it would rain, but I knew that this is not the kind of weather we want when we open the hives. Bees get downright cranky with we open their hives on days that are cloudy, windy or rainy. They like sunshine.

I secured the extractor to the pole that holds up the house in the garage, prepared the smoker to fire it up, schlepped my tools out to the hives and staged the equipment just so. And Dana declared a delay due to the weather. We postponed and decided to make a decision at 12:30. By then, the ceilings had lifted. The sun was nowhere to be found but we decided to go for it. Dana arrived and I suited up.

Notice that Dana and I do not appear to be dressed for the same party. I was covered from head to toe (boots this time!) and Dana was wearing well-loved pants and a sweatshirt. No veil. No gloves. No jacket. In this picture, we are looking at a frame from Hive 3. We saw bees. We saw larvae. We saw capped larvae. We did not see capped honey.

Dana pulled out more frames. I bent over for a closer look. No capped honey.

We closed up the hive and moved on to Hive 1, my poster child.

About this time, Harvey, who had been playing the role of photographer, got stung on the back of the neck, so he retreated to the safety of the kitchen.

Dana and I looked in Hive 2, just because. I knew I would not be taking honey from this hive as those girls just weren't as far along. Three weeks ago, Hive 1, currently 5 boxes tall, had one super completely filled with capped honey. Today, plenty of bees and larvae, but empty comb where the honey had been.

I fed a pollen substitute patty to each colony to help them maintain their vigor. We removed one super from Hive 1, gathered our stuff and headed back to the garage, sans honey. Being a master beekeeper, Dana was not surprised that we had not found honey. Being a newbie, I was perplexed. I knew those hives were loaded with capped honey. I saw it myself and that's why I added the supers. Dana had asked me more than once how long it had been since I had examined the hives. He knew, based on the variety of bees (Italian), the very hot, dry weather and the fact that there isn't much nectar available in August, that my girls would have been dedicating themselves to raising brood which requires them to use lots of honey to feed themselves. Since there was no nectar to convert to honey, they ate what they had been storing for months.

What I should have done was to harvest honey when I saw that it was plentiful 3 weeks ago. Then I could have been feeding them sugar water like I did when the hives were first established in April and May. The bees would have used that "honey" for nourishment and the last flowers of the summer, Autumn Joy sedum and goldenrod, would have provided nectar for late honey.

This has been a tough year for the bees. Our May was drenched with rain which kept the bees from foraging and knocked the pollen out of the trees and blooming flowers. Our July and August were hot and dry and the plants did not have much nectar.

We have little expectation for honey yields from newly established hives. We hope for a vigorous, vibrant population of bees and if we get a little honey, sweet! I know my hive in Madison County had some honey harvested from it in June. I wonder if there will be a late summer harvest.

Today, I beat the reaper. Sting count remains at 11.

Learning the Hard Way

Experience and a bee suit brings confidence, or so I thought. I thought I was so protected. HA! On Sunday afternoon, two weeks after my last inspection (note that this writing is happening on Tuesday), I donned my suit and stoked the smoker. The day had been overcast with intervals of sunshine. I KNOW the best weather to open the hives is when it's a sunny day, but it didn't seem like rain and with encouragement from Harvey, I went ahead with the inspection.

I started in the middle with Hive 2, still only stacked three high. The uppermost box revealed half the frames full of honey and I thought the girls were finally ready for another super, but when further inspection revealed they hadn't filled most of the frames, I decided to wait for the room addition. I patiently worked my way to the bottom of the colony, finding no queen and less larvae than I expected. I'm sure the queen was in the very bottom somewhere, but it's hard to find one among the thousands. The bees were calm and I gave them plenty of smoke. Before it was all buttoned up, I felt sharp pain at the top of the base of my left thumb. One of the workers had stung me right through my goatskin glove. I can't imagine why I was stung there, and could not rationalize nor justify. I knew the stinger was not in my skin so I moved on to Hive 1.

The girls in Hive 1 were very active, flying everywhere. This is still the most populated, strongest hive. As I worked my way down through the frames I could see that this hive was ready for a 5th story as the upper frames were filled with honey. I didn't see anything wrong. I didn't see the queen. Again, it seemed like there were fewer larvae, but there was plenty of capped brood and I did find young larvae way down in the bottom. While I was restacking the hive boxes, the bees were zooming everywhere. What, me worry? I was still smarting from the sting on my hand, but I was unconcerned with the bees that landed on my bee suit. Then I felt the sting.

If you have never been stung by a bee, let me describe for you the exquisite initial pain. This time, it was on my left foot between the outside knob of my ankle and my achilles tendon. It feels like someone is pinching you with pointy splinter tweezers, and that someone is not letting go, but just keeps the pinch going. Really, that doesn't quite do it justice, but it will give you the idea. The sharpness of that pain lasts for several minutes and for most people, that's the worst of it. For most people, getting on with whatever needs to be done provides enough distraction to move the focus from the site of the sting.

I moved away from the hive and tried to get a look at my ankle. The unfortunate worker bee was curled up below the elastic of my bee suit and she was caught up in my sock. A bee sting causes some misery for the person stung, but it's a death sentence for the bee. I brushed the bee away and finished closing up Hive 1. Oh, did I mention the really bad word I yelled when it happened?

Doggedly, (stupidly?) I moved to Hive 3. I'll admit that the last hive got a very brief inspection. I got into the 2nd box from the top and decided to quit for the day. I had not taken Benadryl before I went to the hives (see how confidant I was?) and I wanted to get some in my system, the sooner the better.

I stumbled my way back to the garage, doffed my bee suit, picked the stinger out of my sock, swallowed a double hit of antihistamine and looked at my poor ankle and foot, already swelling. Here it is, two days later, and I'm finally able to write about it. Since Sunday, while treating myself with expensive topical prescription medicines and ice packs, through the haze of Advil and Benadryl, I have asked myself over and over why I subject myself to this. I was deeply discouraged.

I thought about why this happened, two stings in spite of all the protective clothing. I thought about what I did wrong. I thought about how to be a better beekeeper, which in this case means one who gets stung less often. I should not have opened the hives on a cloudy day. I can't come up with any other reason for the sting on my hand. The sting on my ankle would not have happened if I hadn't pushed on when the bees seemed agitated. I should have abandoned the inspection, but the bee suit gave me a false sense of security. Next time I'll pay closer attention to the weather, pay closer attention to the mood of the bees, take Benadryl before I suit up and I'll wear boots. I always knew that a bee suit is not foolproof; the heavy fabric is sting resistant, not sting proof.

In the morning, before things got ugly, I had visited the hives and saw that the bees were laden with pollen as they returned to the hive. That's a good thing as they need the pollen as their source of protein.

Sting count: 11

Urban Beekeeping

This morning, there was an e-mail in my inbox about trends in restaurant concepts. While the e-mail had nothing to do with beekeeping, at the very bottom of it was a link to a video about urban beekeeping. I just watched it and think it is worth sharing on my blog.

http://vimeo.com/26744158

In six short minutes I learned what it is like to be a rooftop beekeeper in Brooklyn. Take notice of the hive artwork.

It's good to know if I ever want to give up the suburbs of Columbus for urban New York, I can still keep bees.

What's Going On In There?

What parent has not uttered the question, "What's going on in there?" I opened up my hives today and in two out of three cases, I know the answer.

The first hive I examined today was the middle one, Hive 2. When I looked last week, things in Hives 1 and 2 seemed to be pretty much the same, except there were many bees in Hive 2 that had drowned in the feeder. Hive 2 has been noticeably less active than the other two all week. There were many drowned bees again this week; some were left over from last week. I dumped out the remaining syrup and the hundreds of dead bees and continued my inspection. I found the queen, I found lots of drawn out comb and very little capped brood. I found a few queen cells.

Queen cells are brood chambers where larvae are being fed royal jelly, the special food that turns an ordinary larva into a queen instead of a worker. They look like peanuts in the shell. Workers create new queens when they sense something is wrong with their queen or if the queen is dead/missing/gone, or if they are crowded and want to split the colony by swarming. These bees are not crowded and should not be wanting to swarm. Her majesty is there; I saw her. She is laying fertile eggs or they wouldn't be able to make a queen cell. I could see larvae. I have more questions than answers for now.

In the middle of the inspection it started raining. All the literature says not to open hives when it is windy or raining. And bright sunshine helps make it easier to see the tiny eggs, at least that's what I hear as I have yet to see an egg. When I finished inspecting Hive 2 I was soaked and ready to quit for the day. The rain stopped.

On to Hive 3, the newbees. This has been the most active hive this week. The workers are drawing out the comb, storing pollen and doing everything they are supposed to do. They are not very far behind Hive 2. I found the queen which is all the more to cheer about as she is unmarked.

Hive 1 was a real treat to inspect. There is frame after frame of capped brood, wall to wall. I did not see the queen but she is certainly in there. I saw larvae. The frames in this hive are mostly drawn out into comb and these girls are getting crowded. They had built some beautiful burr comb in the lid. Harvey, dressed in his hooded NAPA coveralls, started scraping off the burr comb. We noticed there were larvae in the burr comb. The bees were NOT happy with him and a couple took off after him resulting in two stings on his hand and a bee in his hood. When I peeled off the hood, the bee was sitting on his cheek right in front of his ear. She did not sting him and I brushed her off.

Harvey was not feeling the love towards the bees and noticed that they were all lined up at the tops of the frames. I remember reading about this in Beekeeping for Dummies (for real) and when they do that they are sentries guarding the hive. This would be the time to use the smoker, except that it had gone out. I just kept working, hoping that the ladies would humor me and not sting me. I hastily admired all the capped brood, did not find the queen, gave the hive a second story (I gave all the hives second stories), poured the syrup, finished scraping the burr comb and buttoned it up until next week.

Sting count remains at six.

One last story. The burr comb, like all the other comb in the hive, is full of "honey." Actually, for now it is the syrup from the feeder which they are storing for food for later. Scraping the fragile comb makes it ooze and it is very sticky. I left the scraped burr comb near the front doors of the respective hives knowing the bees would take the syrup out of the comb and put it back in the hive. A couple hours after the inspections, the sun was shining as if it had been a pretty day all along so I went back out to see if all the workers had left the burr comb, in which case I would collect it. They had, but at the back of Hive 3 there was one worker on the ground that was drenched in syrup to the extent that her wings were stuck to her body and she couldn't move. I picked her up and put her on top of the hive but I could see that she didn't have much of a future. I moved her to the landing pad at the front door of Hive 3, as I knew that bees will clean syrup off of each other, and immediately, she was surrounded by several sisters who got right to work. Within 10 minutes, she was cleaned up, her wings were functional and I was no longer able to tell which bee was the one that was surely doomed.

How nice to see that they care for each other as much as I care for them.

Easy Peasy, Got More Beesies

A while back Harvey sent me a YouTube clip of a beekeeper installing a package of bees. His demonstration looked nothing like what Susan and I encountered when we installed her bees but today's installation of a package into my third hive was a lot more like it. In the video, the beekeeper wore no gloves, no veil, no protective clothing of any kind while today I was wearing my hat and veil, gloves and velcro pants cuff cinchers, but the actual installation was by the book.

The day was rainy (do we have ANY other kind of weather?) but the rain stopped long enough to shake the bees into their new home. Later, Harvey and I went back out to coax the lingerers out of the package box. Mission accomplished. I'll check on the queen Saturday or Sunday, whenever it stops raining.

Hives one and two showed no signs of activity these last two rainy days. No doubt the girls made popcorn and gathered in their media room to watch The Swarm.