Here’s another attempt at shooting bees with a tiny Lumix camera. I’m getting better!
Bee in action
April 13th, 2010Checking the new split
April 11th, 2010Note to beekeepers: In the raw bee video above, I keep calling what’s happening “swarming,” it’s really “hatching!”
I took a peek into the split and the weak hive next to it yesterday and what I found poses questions about what to do next. The weak hive definitely has a queen and maybe 40 cells of eggs and larvae, but still nothing to get excited about. There are full deeps of honey and a reasonable number of workers, but it is still not strong enough to expect much from them this summer.
The split has TONS of bees, but I couldn’t find a queen or eggs, so I’m worried that the one hatched queen cell I saw did not result in a viable queen and I’m going to end up with laying workers. So, what to do?
Dave Peterson has offered another frame of brood if I don’t see a queen or evidence of one in a week. It’s raining again today (a lot!) and I don’t think we’ll see much sun for a few days. Maybe she’s in there right now laying away … hope so. I could also combine the two hives with the weak queen in charge and hope they supercede her, or I could replace her myself after they adjust to the combo. Decisions to be made next weekend!
Still waiting for Randy Oliver’s nucs in Grass Valley, delayed by the rain. What weird weather to be so wet this late … Charlie and I went SKING Wednesday!
The Easter bunny brought more rain
April 5th, 2010
Who knew it would still be so wet and cold in April! We need some more warm days so my new bees can get out and get some work done … not to mention mate with the new queen, if there is one. And I sure hope there is! Maybe this bee fairy will bring us the sun …
Split arrives from Corte Madera
March 31st, 2010
The new girls pushing out their grass plug
Dave Peterson from the Marin Beekeepers Club put on a terrific class Saturday on how to do a split. He’s a very patient soul who braved opening up several hives for 20 or so of us beekeepers — some very inexperienced and asking a lot of dumb questions ! I was able to take home a split with a couple of queen cells, and 3 frames of some brood and honey. Charlie built another base next to the lower hive (the weak one) where we put a deep box with the 3 frames in it, plus some partially built comb. The picture is the bees trying to push their grass plug out of the entrance the next day. It didn’t take them long!
All went well, I think, although it’s hard to tell whether the queen cells made it, and if they did, whether the queen will get mated. It’s been raining off and on almost ever since! There’s supposed to be a break in the weather tomorrow, so I hope they’ll get out and about then. I put a Boardman feeder on it, but I thought they were drowning in the base with all this rain, so I took it off. I’ll reinstall that tomorrow, too. The plan is to combine the weak hive with this one if they raise a better queen. Fingers crossed!
Bee poetry
March 25th, 2010
The Honey Lover
I eat my peas with honey,
I’ve done it all my life.
It makes my peas taste funny,
But it keeps them on my knife.
A Hopeful Spring
March 16th, 2010
Not a lot of bees!
Charlie and I opened my last (barely) living hive (Hive #2, new last year) yesterday and there were indeed a few eggs and brood cells in there. Didn’t see the queen, but she can’t be very strong. There is plenty of honey … about 5 frames partially full, so I put in some blanks with drawn comb to see if they’ll move there and begin filling out that box. Took the bottom, empty deep box off, leaving only one brood box. We’ll see how they’re doing before we go up to Grass Valley on April 10 to get more bees. If there’s an improvement, I might get her more workers and try to keep that hive going.
The last rainfall might have been last week … predictions are for 70s weather the rest of this week. The plum tree is in full bloom with lots of bees in it. Apples not yet … I hope they hold off until April for the bees!
The Elephant Heart plum tree in action
Happy birthday in Heaven, Mother!
Soggy Spring, my bees have hit the road
February 26th, 2010
My one remaining hive continues to poop along, although I think the bees I see are just the last of the winter bees hanging out for food. I got into the top brood box a few weeks ago and it was full of honey, but very few bees. I couldn’t lift it (too heavy!) to see if there was anything like a nest in the lower box, although I doubt it. At least I’ll get some honey out of it to pay for new bees! SOOO discouraging. I guess they hit the road!
It’s raining buckets again, so I’ll check the next warm day when I have some heavy lifting help. I’ve ordered 3 nucs from Randy Oliver in Grass Valley that I’ll be picking up in April. I wish it was sooner! I miss seeing bees in the air.
Tons of rain, bees hunkered down
January 24th, 2010We’ve had somewhere around 10″ of rain here in the last week and I’ve only seen one bee flying. I don’t blame them, I’ve been inside keeping warm, too! I sure hope Mama is warm in the one live hive I have left.
Holiday time: Mid-winter hive check
January 5th, 2010
Here’s my Santa Bee. She was supposed to be my Christmas card, but I never finished the art. This version ended up looking like a fly! Anyway, the idea still might work … maybe next year!
We’re in a period of rain and cold weather, so its been hard to open the bees and see what’s up. Looks like the hive in the lower yard is still doing well and there’s a lot of activity down at Patti’s remaining hive, but it’s probably robbing. I opened it a couple days ago and the was a cluster of bees on the honey frames, but it was probably robbers. I’ll take a better look when the weather warms up and I have a suit on.
Good news! Randy Oliver … an expert beekeeper I met at the WAS (Western Apiculturists Something) Conference in Napa last summer has agreed to sell me package bees in April from his bee yard in Grass Valley. He’s doing a lot of selective breeding for mite resistance, and I hope genetics will help bees survive better here next summer.
I want my bees to have a Merry Christmas
December 21st, 2009My last live hive was out and buzzing around yesterday. We had a slight break in the weather, and when it got up to 50 degrees, they were flying pretty actively. I’ve got my fingers crossed!