tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44257923201479598462024-03-05T00:07:10.215-08:00BeeginningsThe machinations of a beeginning beekeeperMark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-21766433365115382922017-01-12T06:40:00.004-08:002017-01-12T06:42:20.436-08:002017-01-11: What's New?Well I had hoped to make some posts from time to time about any new bee info out there and I've finally read a few things that piqued my interest so I thought I'd share:<br />
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Always some interesting articles this website but quite a bit of the information in this particular post that I had never heard of before! Both of these articles are very timely since we are in the middle of Winter.<br />
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Cool stuff about what a winter bee is and how they are formed<br />
<a href="https://honeybeesuite.com/what-are-winter-bees-and-what-do-they-do/">https://honeybeesuite.com/what-are-winter-bees-and-what-do-they-do/</a><br />
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Perhaps another piece to the puzzle as to why winter losses have skyrocketed since the mid 1980's (besides Varroa Destructor).<br />
<a href="http://www.beeculture.com/catch-buzz-uw-stout-professor-students-identify-bacterium-may-kill-honey-bees/">http://www.beeculture.com/catch-buzz-uw-stout-professor-students-identify-bacterium-may-kill-honey-bees/</a> <br />
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I hope all your bee efforts are going strong out there and I do miss having the bees. On the other hand, I haven't spent all winter worrying about them! =)Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-90298776702781663042016-05-17T12:49:00.002-07:002016-05-18T05:58:07.914-07:002016-05-17: Fond FarewellI have really enjoyed this journey of discovery working with honeybees for the last four years. Sadly, as some readers may know, I became allergic to bee stings at the end of last Summer. I was stung behind the ear and broke out in hives across my waist. Having a severe reaction in the area of the sting is common but having a reaction in a different part of your body is generally considered anaphylaxis. Since I didn't really want to give up beekeeping, I began allergy shots. I did that for a few months and at the end of December "something" happened. Not positive it was a reaction to the shots or not but lets just say I've been to the doctor(s) more times this year than I have my entire life. To top it all off, we decided to move and we are downsizing significantly by moving to a condo. No room for even half of our stuff, let alone any bee hives! So, now I'm moving on to a new phase of life.<br />
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Although I won't directly be keeping bees anymore, I will still be working with them from time to time because my friend Keith has taken the two hives that I had survive the winter. I can still observe and help advise while in my full bee suit, bee gloves, duct taped ankles and armed with my Epi-Pen. We moved the hives to Keith's house this past Sunday and I'm glad to say it went off without a hitch! I have to thank Chris at <a href="http://www.littlehouseonthebighill.com/beekeeping/index.php?detail=317" target="_blank">Show Me The Honey</a> for the idea on how to move the hives. All we did was quickly cut some strips of #8 hardware cloth and staple them over the hive entrance, make a frame out of 2x4s and screw it around the hive, put a few ratchet straps around the hives and we were able to easily move them all the way from the back corner of the property and up to where the trailer was.<br />
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The fact that the temperature was in the mid 40s while we were doing this also helped since the bees weren't even flying by the time we suited up. After we loaded up the hives and the cinder blocks that they were resting on, we strapped them down to the trailer and headed off to Keith's house to deliver the girls to their new home!<br />
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We started at 7 PM and we were unloading them right when it was getting dark. We used a small trailer and a lawn tractor to move them to their new location. Much to my chagrin we learned how light the hives really were as we EASILY picked them up by the ratchet straps as we transferred them onto the small trailer. We probably didn't even need the 2x4 frame at all. Oh well, at least it worked well and we didn't drop a hive! I was glad to get a text the next day saying that the girls had already adjusted to their new home and were flying and bringing in stores.<br />
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I am very thankful that God gave me the opportunity to experience one of His fantastic and marvelous creations in this way. I hope to share that experience with others and continue to go to the State of Michigan Beekeepers Spring conference with Keith. I think we'd go just for the Michigan State University cafeteria food across the street! =) I also hope to make a post to the blog every now and again as I come across interesting new bee topics. Perhaps someday I'll even have the ability to get back into beekeeping. Who knows what tomorrow may bring? Not sure what else to say in a sappy "goodbye" post except for:<br />
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Until next time, thanks for reading!<br />
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MarkMark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-5424269836966830582016-03-14T07:44:00.000-07:002016-03-14T07:45:35.649-07:002016-03-14: Michigan Beekeeprs Association ConferenceIt must really be Spring time with the annual <a href="http://www.michiganbees.org/2016-spring-conference/" target="_blank">Michigan Beekeepers Conference</a> here again. My friend Keith and I went on Saturday as usual. The keynote speaker was Gary Reuter from the University of Minnesota. He had two sessions and talked about what the general public think is wrong with bees (CCD) and what beekeepers think is wrong with bees (Varroa). The general theme I found throughout the conference was "test and know your mite levels" and "varroa are killing your bees".<br />
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<u><b>Breakout sessions:</b></u><br />
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Our first breakout session was on swarm traps done by Matt Tannana. He was a very good speaker and managed the class questions very well. He does Top Bar hives and his swarm traps were all Top Bar style. His information followed the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0046A9M68/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1" target="_blank"><i>Honeybee Democracy</i></a> by Tom Seeley and he referenced the book a few times. I've read it before and I highly recommend it.<br />
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Our last session was Pests and Pathogens by Dr. Megan Milbrath. This is the same person from the Northern Bee Network that I bought queens from this past summer. She is also a very good speaker, natural and funny. She tried to be upbeat about a subject that can really be a downer for sure! My biggest takeaway from her session was a new approach to Varroa control. I have always been against treating the bees with chemicals and instead using Integrated Pest Management tools and looking for a genetic solution to pest problems. Well, she opened my eyes to a bit more of a middle ground that seems acceptable. The approach: If a hive has out of control mite levels, treat and then re-queen. The benefit here is: the hive doesn't die, you cycle through genetic combinations quicker to find the ones that work and you aren't creating a "mite bomb" when your hive crashes. So the remaining question is, if I decide to treat a select hive, what do I use? I think one of the Organic Acids is probably the way to go. I need to do more research.<br />
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<u><b>Vendors:</b></u><br />
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It seems like every year there is some new gadget that shows up for beekeeping. This year it was the package funnel. Basically a piece of corrugated plastic that folds out into a funnel of sorts and instead of roughly dumping a package of bees into a hive, you gently invert the open package on top of this funnel on the outside of the hive and the bees just move down into the hive on their own. I suppose that would work just fine but I guess I've never had an issue installing them with the shake method, so whatever floats your boat!<br />
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<u><b>Upcoming:</b></u><br />
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On another depressing note, since I became allergic to bee stings this past summer and recently had an issue/reaction to my allergy shot AND we may be moving in the near future, I will be getting rid of my bees this Spring. Originally I thought I'd just sell everything and quit but I think I may decide to just move the hives to some friend's houses that have bees and at least I could live vicariously through their beekeeping and see how they progress. Lots of changes coming up but I guess that is what happens in life!<br />
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As always, thanks for reading.Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-86235207219515321862016-02-20T13:20:00.000-08:002016-02-20T13:20:44.749-08:002016-02-20: We're not dead yet!On a balmy 55 degree February day I went out to see how the hives were doing. I'm happy to report that at least three out of the four are alive! The bees were using the top and bottom entrances on Yellow, Green and Split Hives.<br />
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Two items of concern came up and I walked around, both on the Split Hive. First, they were showing signs of possible Nosema or Dysentery, although I suppose it may have been their first cleansing flight of the winter.<br />
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The second odd thing was that the mouse guard that was stapled across the bottom entrance appears to have been torn open. I guess a skunk or something could have been clawing at it trying to get at some dead bees to eat?<br />
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Anyway, it was really good to see that most of the girls had made it this far. Hopefully White hive was just really sleepy and none of the bees wanted to come out to play!<br />
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Hang in there just a while longer girls!!Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-5982607198885293832016-01-07T09:19:00.000-08:002016-01-07T09:19:33.590-08:002016-01-07: Honey Bee PollinationI'm a little late to the party but I came across this animation from National Geographic today about where honey bees are transported to do pollination across the country. Very impressive!<br />
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The overall article is about building a "super bee". Make sure to click the "featured article" link at the top to read more.<br />
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<a href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/05/building-bees/transport-map">http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/05/building-bees/transport-map</a><br />
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On the home front there isn't too much going on. I put a "<a href="http://www.honeybeesonline.com/honey-bee-candy-board/" target="_blank">Winter Bee Kind</a>" candy board that I received for Christmas on my Cutout hive. The cluster was at the top of the hive and they were moving around slightly in the 30 degree temps. I also put a home made, <a href="http://www.honeybeesuite.com/no-cook-candy-board-recipe-for-feeding-winter-bees/" target="_blank">no cook candy board</a> on the Nuc hive but I could not see the cluster in the top box and didn't have a light to shine down into the bottom box to see them. Since I left honey supers on the other two hives I am not adding candy boards to them. I continue to see new dead bees on the landing boards of the hives so that is a good sign. If there were no alive bees inside the hive, then there wouldn't bee any dead bees brought outside the hive!<br />
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My BroodMinder's continue to monitor and collect data from the hives. I had the battery die on two of them so far and I've replaced one of the batteries but haven't put the BroodMinder back out on the hive. The producers continue to work through the issues and make progress on the software so that is a good thing! They are starting work on a similar device that is a hive scale. That would be super useful! If it is anywhere close to the price of the BroodMinder then I'll be all over it!<br />
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Happy New Year readers!<br />
<br />Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-14202858126644814492015-12-08T15:30:00.000-08:002015-12-08T15:30:30.934-08:002015-12-08: BroodMinder Has ArrivedI'm very excited to say that my electronic hive temperature and humidity monitoring devices, aka the <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/broodminder-beehive-health-telemetry#/" target="_blank">BroodMinder</a>, have arrived! If you've been reading this blog you know that I've been playing around with my own electronic hive monitoring electronics using an Arduino. Although it worked, I couldn't really find a good way of deploying it and keeping it powered. Well, some very talented people have done a lot more (and better) thinking about this and have made it a reality. The weather is looking good this weekend and hopefully I will have them installed!<br />
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You can read all about how they work in the link to their Indiegogo page above, but basically you place the device right below your inner cover (above the brood) and using low power blue tooth it transmits the data to an app on your smart phone. Pretty sweet!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BroodMinders ready to go!</td></tr>
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I bought three of them and plan to place them on the cutout hive, the split (combined) hive and either the Green or White hive. They both have the same number of boxes but one has an Italian queen and the other has the queen I bought from the Northern Bee Network. I guess you'll find out which one I decided on after I deploy them.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The App</td></tr>
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Hopefully these little gems will help me to monitor the hives over the winter without opening them. <br />
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Until next time, thanks for reading!Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-42696027251287810202015-11-23T08:03:00.003-08:002015-11-23T08:04:10.037-08:002015-11-21: Winter Is Here<span id="goog_1771540984">I guess there is no avoiding it now.......Winter is here. Our first real snow that stuck started today and hasn't stopped yet. Not sure if the snow will last but there is no denying that we are sliding into the cold. Some of the things I wanted to do to the hives before Winter set in for good was to add mouse guards, windbreaks, candy boards and/or ventilation boards. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cold hives!</td></tr>
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<span id="goog_409234771">After searching around on the interwebs and seeing many different schemes for windbreaks, I decided on using burlap. It was cheap and could be used for other purposes once Winter was over. I picked up two rolls, hammered some posts into the ground and rolled out the burlap using zip ties to attach it to the posts. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wind break added</td></tr>
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<span id="goog_409234771">The idea isn't to surround the hives, but to address the prevailing wind directions. Typically this is wind from the North and West so I built it in those two directions. With my cutout hive and my combined nuc hive being short, the three foot tall roll seemed adequate. But for the two established hives with two deep boxes and one honey super on, it seemed too short. I think I'm going to pick up a few taller stakes and two more rolls of burlap to complete the job.</span><br />
<span id="goog_409234771"><br /></span>
<span id="goog_409234771">My next task was to put on some mouse guards. I took some #4 hardware cloth, bent it into an L shape and stapled them across the entrance to each of the hives.</span><br />
<span id="goog_409234771"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5AbQcchtiHbVzC3LwqlXHpM6IvylPuzKypwEjd2b7MzweGTaZnf_xIWcjkvJ0IWOuhko_tz9_yQu84ixq86Jp4NPxf5QZgNSZVwVmyIpouugE-7Zzft3TbU9k-7t9UUHOI0Y_f6FizWc/s1600/P1040633.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5AbQcchtiHbVzC3LwqlXHpM6IvylPuzKypwEjd2b7MzweGTaZnf_xIWcjkvJ0IWOuhko_tz9_yQu84ixq86Jp4NPxf5QZgNSZVwVmyIpouugE-7Zzft3TbU9k-7t9UUHOI0Y_f6FizWc/s640/P1040633.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cut out hive with mouse guard added</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTqPQoFkEXf6gNA5gwFjVtoztcgxhpTuzjT5sHxOKkiSCefDjZL1CqKTUk-QBYEdqOjefi33WjBxamXOZvuyrKKrquU7xGgpHbHJ2Amue_oJf2z7UCc0WAJ-0lhtoEo0PEU7hkr9kNn5Q/s1600/P1040634.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTqPQoFkEXf6gNA5gwFjVtoztcgxhpTuzjT5sHxOKkiSCefDjZL1CqKTUk-QBYEdqOjefi33WjBxamXOZvuyrKKrquU7xGgpHbHJ2Amue_oJf2z7UCc0WAJ-0lhtoEo0PEU7hkr9kNn5Q/s640/P1040634.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">White and Green hives with mouse guards added</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwyv0QD4AyV-fn2J5H5BmXnYBX6Dl44EemBMHmE6WKMsQEuUdj93tJwPK4yOoMj_SNm2iPjiZOqYSi8rDhteX5jmFOCMwP46Nxnms5S5vwtznLQT-aPB2gCOAGddXgM6UIsfiQFJwfY3s/s1600/P1040635.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwyv0QD4AyV-fn2J5H5BmXnYBX6Dl44EemBMHmE6WKMsQEuUdj93tJwPK4yOoMj_SNm2iPjiZOqYSi8rDhteX5jmFOCMwP46Nxnms5S5vwtznLQT-aPB2gCOAGddXgM6UIsfiQFJwfY3s/s640/P1040635.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Combined nuc hives with mouse guard added</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span id="goog_409234771">All in all I think it turned out well, didn't take too long and was inexpensive. I sure hope it helps the bees get through the next four months of Winter!</span><br />
<span id="goog_409234771"><br /></span>
<span id="goog_409234771">Until next time, Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for reading!</span><br />
<span id="goog_409234771"><br /></span>Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-12540472275524236752015-10-26T08:06:00.000-07:002015-10-26T08:06:00.796-07:002015-10-25: Winter PrepWe've finally hit a few nights of freezing temps so that means it is time to complete any winter prep that needs to be done on the hives. I have empty feeder jars that need to be removed, boxes with no stores in them that need to be taken off (the bees don't need a bunch of extra space that serves no purpose) and mouse guards to be placed on. I also need to decide what to do with my newly established nuc hives.<br />
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<u><b>Old Nucs - Yellow/Green hives:</b></u><br />
<br />
These are the splits I made some time ago that were moved into full sized boxes last month. They've been feed 2 quarts of syrup each in the hopes that they would draw the empty frames with wax and start filling them up. If I found 10 good frames then I was thinking to take two nuc bodies (5 frames each) and stack them. It is suppose to be easier for the bees to move up in the winter and it would be easier for the bees to cover 5 frames at a time instead of 10.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Yellow Nuc:</b></u><br />
<br />
I had suspicions during the last inspection that I had waited too long to transfer this nuc to a full sized hive and they decided to swarm (I saw some torn open queen cells). The bees seemed "flighty" and the only brood I saw were drones. The number of drones walking around the frames was high, especially since they should all be kicked out of the hive by now! I did spot some eggs and developing larva but something was telling me that this was not right. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAxD76OikwDErbobkKv7D62EbZTLkxqx5sBBSg4W5sLxI2Hkk8lajBwwkodSwEynaolb_smMjhnjPf80AdITRkQsIHOKLpzmtjHNsebbc_VYmQC5HQG2u_vh-nSGx_IebGH1HYaoa-7sY/s1600/P1040616.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAxD76OikwDErbobkKv7D62EbZTLkxqx5sBBSg4W5sLxI2Hkk8lajBwwkodSwEynaolb_smMjhnjPf80AdITRkQsIHOKLpzmtjHNsebbc_VYmQC5HQG2u_vh-nSGx_IebGH1HYaoa-7sY/s640/P1040616.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drones, lava and eggs but no queen</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
So, either I have the start of laying workers or I have a queen laying all drones. On top of that, the bees had not touched a single new frame that I had placed into the hive. Stay tuned for more on the Yellow Nuc during my inspection of the Green Nuc....<br />
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<u><b>Green Nuc:</b></u><br />
<br />
I was a bit annoyed after pulling the first few frames since the bees had not touched them at all. Thankfully the original 5 frames that were moved into the hive looked pretty good. Lots of capped honey and worker brood! Two more frames in and I spotted the queen with her pretty green dot. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZoPncmmdPY4LhAtWPs47hF4lYidrW3AjeDyP5oj2H62l-3RAnGSqvPMgaQIUN1RM62z20iz91ba-NKf-6XV8Lud1CWnQJHPBRSjt-Rk0NgHxMWeXo7C7BpLHR1Eeh6_whnTENkOPXpL0/s1600/P1040619.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZoPncmmdPY4LhAtWPs47hF4lYidrW3AjeDyP5oj2H62l-3RAnGSqvPMgaQIUN1RM62z20iz91ba-NKf-6XV8Lud1CWnQJHPBRSjt-Rk0NgHxMWeXo7C7BpLHR1Eeh6_whnTENkOPXpL0/s640/P1040619.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Queen with a pretty green dot</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I was even nicely surprised that after I moved past these 5 frames the bees were actually drawing out one of the new frames! <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi23xV32ot-TtkNMz9C_Oh3O4F8MJjUhiDZxEEwjfVI4-CbKSyiFPyUtA5McEPnguVg3ji6cdAMGGLpHz8-iZ55Li3M2QSETOOz6r6cZsl3fuku8nTVbMUiRnnlYgHP-PN7WuhasFb4Ssc/s1600/P1040622.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi23xV32ot-TtkNMz9C_Oh3O4F8MJjUhiDZxEEwjfVI4-CbKSyiFPyUtA5McEPnguVg3ji6cdAMGGLpHz8-iZ55Li3M2QSETOOz6r6cZsl3fuku8nTVbMUiRnnlYgHP-PN7WuhasFb4Ssc/s640/P1040622.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drawing out a frame with new wax</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Have I mentioned how I love festooning bees before? =) <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhERj4rJPp_GYE0sNJRN3Js9rjoguz7LUGJwbd2UkuVxfB2wNjyNgUrCkfsBBbAh-bS8MJ-LiuwoQQ8qFyyXJA8s91zx4QpyaR9ZjcrmkpoVRuISm3YF7CdjteCXuAhl_wyQ-Pw5nv8Y8/s1600/P1040624.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhERj4rJPp_GYE0sNJRN3Js9rjoguz7LUGJwbd2UkuVxfB2wNjyNgUrCkfsBBbAh-bS8MJ-LiuwoQQ8qFyyXJA8s91zx4QpyaR9ZjcrmkpoVRuISm3YF7CdjteCXuAhl_wyQ-Pw5nv8Y8/s640/P1040624.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Festooning bees</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Based on my findings between both nucs, I decided the one was probably queenless and had the start of laying workers and the other was queen right. I thought it would be a good idea to take two 5 frame nuc boxes and stack them with the best frames from each hive. I unscrewed the bottom from one of the nuc boxes and stacked it on top of another nuc box. Crap! They are not made to stack. There was a large gap between the two that would be open to the air. Ugh. I guess I need to deal with the full sized boxes instead. I decided to do a newspaper combine and thankfully I had one sheet of newspaper left! I placed it across the top of Green nuc, picked up the Yellow nuc off of its bottom board and placed it on top of the Green nuc. The bees will eventually chew through the paper and this slow integration will hopefully prevent any fighting between the bees before they merge together into one happy family. I'm just hoping that there wasn't some drone laying queen that I didn't spot in the Yellow nuc that ends up battling with Green nuc's queen.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQklPBHHJ1A_e5yDpWfLfzWZc2z95G_QZA0bP_mFS9MaOaOUT4c1aqJZwwUdqhd4oCqh6x88dNEABgRJMa-Oh4scapGhisTNAt0vlRsYsMdED5XJX3zVt4qCD_K7Cjm-TcGnKhiiDw0OU/s1600/P1040625.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQklPBHHJ1A_e5yDpWfLfzWZc2z95G_QZA0bP_mFS9MaOaOUT4c1aqJZwwUdqhd4oCqh6x88dNEABgRJMa-Oh4scapGhisTNAt0vlRsYsMdED5XJX3zVt4qCD_K7Cjm-TcGnKhiiDw0OU/s640/P1040625.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Newspaper combine complete</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQvvIDASO_kdvqzKAcNXx-Ckb1E4OFdPuwhmZ10ajENamjYaOpeomdcGhiLjS1iGIwIac13iv3_xbul8l_3seTjjXEl0oiP6C5nYivCp6JWmk7ZDC563miDegJ9eUzze_1ePidbmXcsHE/s1600/P1040626.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQvvIDASO_kdvqzKAcNXx-Ckb1E4OFdPuwhmZ10ajENamjYaOpeomdcGhiLjS1iGIwIac13iv3_xbul8l_3seTjjXEl0oiP6C5nYivCp6JWmk7ZDC563miDegJ9eUzze_1ePidbmXcsHE/s640/P1040626.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Where did that orange pollen come from?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>Yellow Hive:</b></u><br />
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This is my cutout hive that has made some really good progress over the summer. I removed the empty feeder jar and took a look through the top box. The bees were covering about 6 frames and had most of them drawn out. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm2alvJ95GEbz_Krk3DsPFjns7kz-QJQpc-PV2RMA2AzdwLmlqpZCN_ni4_tS0mGVCA-_Yt2OoxAhR_wqZ8PpVCKqsTAL-UovPd01KUmpDsFulMd-V7Sft5AHvD66Bkfz6BqlvCZ43UzQ/s1600/P1040629.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm2alvJ95GEbz_Krk3DsPFjns7kz-QJQpc-PV2RMA2AzdwLmlqpZCN_ni4_tS0mGVCA-_Yt2OoxAhR_wqZ8PpVCKqsTAL-UovPd01KUmpDsFulMd-V7Sft5AHvD66Bkfz6BqlvCZ43UzQ/s640/P1040629.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yellow Hive bees</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Quite a few were filled with capped honey. Looking down into the box below I saw lots of bees and some rubber bands still on the frames from the cutout!! They typically chew through them and dispose of them but I'm guessing they've propolised them right onto the frames now. I'll have to remove them during the first inspection in the Spring.<br />
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<u><b>Green Hive:</b></u><br />
<br />
The top honey super on this hive was filled with drawn combs that were completely empty. I thought for sure that when I added them that the bees would fill them quickly with the Goldenrod flow. No such luck. I pulled this box off after clearing a few stray bees off the frames. I pulled a few frames from the next honey super and at least there was some capped honey there. Looks like that box will stay on for the Winter.<br />
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<u><b>White Hive:</b></u><br />
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Looking at the top honey super on this hive I could see that it was packed. I knew this from my last inspection but I had also seen a large pile of dead bees in front of the hive. I was concerned that this hive had been robbed out by other bees. Well not a single frame of honey appeared to be touched so this hive should have some great stores going into Winter. It also had a nice population of bees and when I looked closely at the pile of dead bees I saw numerous dead yellow jackets in the pile. Maybe they tried to raid the hive and picked the wrong one to screw with!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijySyVQpsOywqPh_oAHjIQ188msltMnZn_ySIthKoVcHXtE35mEBSRTFowzquK2aPcHSr5sdTSbdOrONMNlPDXLVps41VQYDwIUqKMyrxaM1sODQl_OMLfIOfPGhC2JxBCJ2jPMCiyrUE/s1600/P1040628.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijySyVQpsOywqPh_oAHjIQ188msltMnZn_ySIthKoVcHXtE35mEBSRTFowzquK2aPcHSr5sdTSbdOrONMNlPDXLVps41VQYDwIUqKMyrxaM1sODQl_OMLfIOfPGhC2JxBCJ2jPMCiyrUE/s640/P1040628.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Battle aftermath</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
To complete my tasks I needed to put the mite sampling boards back into the hives that had screened bottoms to prevent any wind drafts blowing up from the bottom of the hives. With that done I also wanted to put my mouse guards on but with the entrance reducers on it didn't really look like they would fit properly. Based on <a href="http://www.honeybeesuite.com/what-size-hardware-cloth-is-best-for-beehives/" target="_blank">http://www.honeybeesuite.com/what-size-hardware-cloth-is-best-for-beehives/</a> it looks like #4 hardware cloth is the proper size for a mouse guard. So I think I'll grab some and use that instead.<br />
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I'm also considering getting or building some candy boards that come with a top entrance. This would allow the bees to leave the hive for a cleansing flight during the Winter if the bottom entrance happened to be plugged up with dead bees.<br />
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With four hives going into Winter and some diversified genetics (one Italian, one cutout wild open mated and two "northern" queens), I'm hoping to have some better luck overwintering this year. Wish for a mild Winter and wish the girls luck!<br />
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Until next time, thanks for reading!Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-65642109517435146872015-09-18T09:58:00.000-07:002015-09-18T09:58:50.656-07:002015-09-17: Hive InspectionI had a number of tasks that needed to be accomplished for a while now. My top priority was to get the nuc hives transferred to full sized hive bodies so they can build up enough stores to last the Winter. I'm hoping they can both build up to two full deeps in time. Believe it or not, Winter is coming. Especially in honey bee terms. Second on my list was to make sure the cutout hive is built up to four full medium boxes. Last on my list was to check the status of Green Hive's honey supers and if the top one was full remove it for processing. I have to thank Byron for coming out to help me again. Having an extra set of hands is always appreciated!<br />
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<u><b>Nuc hives:</b></u><br />
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The nucs are each currently resting on a single cinder block. So we had to throw down another cinder block and level it to the existing one to make room for the full sized hive bodies. Byron was able to unstrap each nuc and move it a few feet out of the way while I set the other block in place and checked it for level. With a little adjusting and stomping on the blocks, they were level. The new hives were set in place and frames removed to make room for the five frames from the nucs. All that was left was to remove the frames from the nucs and put them into the new hives.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhADga-HsQND0bL115qGZwo10T37nUk3TAZf-f_yImfGTIMiRKtW0tjEYcJ0pIbr6nmXPt3Lu5FLCtN1YFXcMvqxbzu8xKXXmClZZzc1DOYa56qdIDBuEPy4ppAYCLLBhmGm1gKHiIQGTo/s1600/P1040517.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhADga-HsQND0bL115qGZwo10T37nUk3TAZf-f_yImfGTIMiRKtW0tjEYcJ0pIbr6nmXPt3Lu5FLCtN1YFXcMvqxbzu8xKXXmClZZzc1DOYa56qdIDBuEPy4ppAYCLLBhmGm1gKHiIQGTo/s640/P1040517.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Byron transferring frames</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This went really fast since I wasn't really focused on inspecting every frame. But I did notice a number of queen cups and what looked to be a torn open queen cell on one of the frames.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQr7FmxW7KroFKeT3SxuSkmC1yaeCIJPJcW5290OyBYXsLmd3raVBYzJzfuho66e9_HHol7wKmN3qkD-25IuSSelvKBJtq6_FPw_x4jyxwm4hSfWAH-W5DSJkmTI6ECopjZ_gPFb6jiGc/s1600/P1040534.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQr7FmxW7KroFKeT3SxuSkmC1yaeCIJPJcW5290OyBYXsLmd3raVBYzJzfuho66e9_HHol7wKmN3qkD-25IuSSelvKBJtq6_FPw_x4jyxwm4hSfWAH-W5DSJkmTI6ECopjZ_gPFb6jiGc/s640/P1040534.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Queen cups</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I did not spot the queen during the transfer of these five frames. It is quite possible that they actually swarmed....taking my new purchased queen with them. She should have been easy to spot since she was marked. I'll need to check this one closely next time and see if I can spot the marked queen or if they requeened themselves. If they did swarm there isn't much hope for that swarm to establish and overwinter this late in the year.<br />
<br />
After we finished moving the frames over, the inner cover went on and a jar of sugar syrup went on top of that to feed them. This should give them the sugar they need to draw out the empty frames in the new hive.<br />
<br />
The second nuc went just as quickly. Thankfully this time I was able to spot the queen and there were no queen cups to be found on any of these frames. Can you find her in the picture below?<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOqrWi7k9mVzsKe8bnGTVLppCniRZgoTORrsA4x_18stGm3u5zoBIY4o0h0_RXb-lI_fs8Fmj2aBxBqD4_peiZekDGhIhLhl27GTOCWgXUIStCFAAOJ45VF-osV0jWwQvJL0OjnehbNgw/s1600/P1040527.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOqrWi7k9mVzsKe8bnGTVLppCniRZgoTORrsA4x_18stGm3u5zoBIY4o0h0_RXb-lI_fs8Fmj2aBxBqD4_peiZekDGhIhLhl27GTOCWgXUIStCFAAOJ45VF-osV0jWwQvJL0OjnehbNgw/s640/P1040527.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spot the queen with the green dot on her back!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The were some really nice frames in both nuc hives with plenty of honey and pollen. Hopefully they have the resources to increase their populations and expand like crazy!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx7hnOZ5MxY7yW4gMNV4XJSQg4lXZq7w98mtnRbwRWpQ42NGLbnEWzEzyWf9_ClSx5dxgj2FzcT4gVTkZ2VSannEuZXNZitPoNd2Pj8kWxX8cjyIlTeaAf1lzP-aFtTOaC63h4ZZ5bgnA/s1600/P1040530.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx7hnOZ5MxY7yW4gMNV4XJSQg4lXZq7w98mtnRbwRWpQ42NGLbnEWzEzyWf9_ClSx5dxgj2FzcT4gVTkZ2VSannEuZXNZitPoNd2Pj8kWxX8cjyIlTeaAf1lzP-aFtTOaC63h4ZZ5bgnA/s640/P1040530.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drawn frame with honey and capped brood</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>Cutout Hive:</b></u><br />
<br />
We opened up the cutout hive and checked to see how many of the existing frames had been drawn out. I was a little bummed to see that they only had about 7 of the frames drawn. I thought for sure with all the Goldenrod blooming around my house that they would have tons of nectar to make wax and honey. Maybe these bees don't like the smell of sweaty gym socks because that is what Goldenrod nectar smells like!<br />
<br />
I decided to add the fourth box to the hive and put a sugar syrup feeder on as well. Go bees go!<br />
<br />
<u><b>Green Hive:</b></u><br />
<br />
A quick look into the top honey super on this hive did not give me what I wanted. The entire super had only one frame with any honey in it and a number of the frames were still undrawn. Looks like no honey for harvest this year. The second honey super wasn't much better. That box was given all drawn frames and there were only a few frames with any honey or nectar in them at all. I'll probably have to combine the best frames from the two honey supers into one box and feed this hive too.<br />
<br />
<u><b>White Hive:</b></u><br />
<br />
This hive has one honey super on it and I expected to see the same lack of use. I was so glad to be wrong!! The bees had this super completely filled and capped. Since this hive was the only one that wasn't requeened this year, I wonder if that is why they were able to make a surplus. I know of a beekeeper's saying that may explain this - "You can make honey or bees but not both".<br />
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<u><b>What's Next:</b></u><br />
<br />
I will check the hives in a week to see how much of the feed they consumed and how many of the frames they are building up. <br />
<br />
Until next time, thanks for reading!!Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-18231497317209189932015-08-20T09:55:00.001-07:002015-08-20T09:55:11.666-07:002015-08-20: Allergy ConfirmedFinally had my allergy test done and lucky me I'm allergic to honey bee venom! <br />
<br />
The test involved a series of small (very small really) injections of venom from the insects of the hymenoptera order. I believe 8 different insect venoms were involved in ever increasing potency. I had no reactions to any of them until the doctor hit 1:100 strength of the honey bee venom. He continued on to full strength with all the other venoms and I had no reaction to any of them. Why honey bees why?!?<br />
<br />
The good news is that next week I will start the allergy shots. Once a week for ten weeks. I believe they increase the venom dosage each time. After ten weeks if I show no signs of a reaction then they send in a blood sample. If it comes back that I have no immune response then I'm "cured". I would still need to keep going back for a shot once a month for the next five years to keep my body in tune with the venom. The main thing I'm focused on now is the ten week goal. I guess that would put me at the end of October. Just in time for me to be doing nothing with the bees! Hahahah =)<br />
<br />
Let the countdown begin!Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-74638784045995941352015-08-13T11:34:00.000-07:002015-08-13T11:34:49.691-07:002015-08-10: Back In The GameAfter my rather dramatic post last time, I just couldn't wait anymore and had to get out to see the bees. I armed myself with some Benadryl, my EpiPen and my friend Keith and headed out to do some inspections! I actually donned the FULL bee suit as well, which I haven't worn since I did the shed cut-out. Dang is that thing hot! My goals were to check and see if the cut-out hive had successfully re-queened themselves and to check the nuc hives to see how they were doing with the new queens in them.<br />
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<u><b>Cut-Out Hive / Yellow Hive:</b></u><br />
<br />
I had Keith do all the work and I just barked orders the entire time. Thankfully Keith is a really good sport and was happy to help me out. He removed the cover, took off the extra boxes that were covering the honey feeder and got into the first box. The bees were pretty sparse here and there were only a few frames with any wax drawn at all. And even those frames only had a few spots on them with any wax. That box came off and we were into the next box. Slightly more wax built out in this box but about half the frames were still untouched. Finally after getting to the last three frames we were able to see some good drawn frames.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlaKm_Cs89rv7PZbbBQPvvPlKhHa2RU4JAp5yl6RtnpgpvAVzOuKv-NgUZ6CA5YOTGzkaqzaSD8pu9iLcGptS0ztD60NX707R6LDAiyXaYq6OAv3RI8e0MohyphenhyphenCgbcrqhNrvBXRV8wlfiw/s1600/P1040484.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlaKm_Cs89rv7PZbbBQPvvPlKhHa2RU4JAp5yl6RtnpgpvAVzOuKv-NgUZ6CA5YOTGzkaqzaSD8pu9iLcGptS0ztD60NX707R6LDAiyXaYq6OAv3RI8e0MohyphenhyphenCgbcrqhNrvBXRV8wlfiw/s640/P1040484.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plastic Frames being filled</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
About 3/4 of the frame was drawn and there was some capped honey and some nice pollen in the cells. The next frame was very similar and I was able to spot some larva scattered here and there. This was the first good sign that a queen was present. We grabbed the last frame and look who we spotted!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA_2AdSK1b_VbpwXREwr5jQ3vnM0LG9xA5ifXav5J5nAtu1aMb5aODLuYbhEmNp8-WhRhO9PVf755mXCntm4pYb7I-PtxXoDjkZH5ZJmK79vI6eMMFRmcQTKfuzNGuksoLSGFZ0TXi6p8/s1600/P1040489.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA_2AdSK1b_VbpwXREwr5jQ3vnM0LG9xA5ifXav5J5nAtu1aMb5aODLuYbhEmNp8-WhRhO9PVf755mXCntm4pYb7I-PtxXoDjkZH5ZJmK79vI6eMMFRmcQTKfuzNGuksoLSGFZ0TXi6p8/s640/P1040489.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cut Out has a new Queen!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
She's a beauty! Look at how dark she is. She definitely has some non-Italian genetics in her. I'm hoping she has "Winter Survivor" written all over her! I followed her around with the camera for a bit and if you zoom in on this photo you can see she has eggs in every cell. Good job!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPCnsI7GVixguYSGDi_OCfGqiys48OdlltVBWT764atMAetdTFDxIgeBtJFOP_DTaL86bw1VBVwCa9nCLfmdw_-1HIAk5_lMCmcI-fWrHWWwqe5Y8jMB9PAaj3-79IivR4tErXtmOPQsE/s1600/P1040491.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPCnsI7GVixguYSGDi_OCfGqiys48OdlltVBWT764atMAetdTFDxIgeBtJFOP_DTaL86bw1VBVwCa9nCLfmdw_-1HIAk5_lMCmcI-fWrHWWwqe5Y8jMB9PAaj3-79IivR4tErXtmOPQsE/s640/P1040491.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New Queen and Eggs</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
At this point I really didn't need to go into the last box since I know they were able to re-queen themselves. I had Keith take a few frames from the top box that had some wax on them and swap them with some of the frames that had no wax on them. Then we removed the top box entirely. They have a lot of wax to draw still and they don't really need that extra space to police. I also decided that since there weren't really a lot of bees in the hive that I would put the entrance reducer on. We are probably due for a nectar dearth and I don't want the strong neighboring hives to bust in and rob this hive out. I'll probably make up some syrup to feed them and this should get them to draw out some more wax. I need them to fill out three medium boxes before Winter sets in.<br />
<br />
Speaking of Winter, I see the Goldenrod starting to bloom in my area. That always signals the approach of Fall. Many of my late blooming flowers are also in full bloom.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGAZqSwcDphyktH6fvOgAPlh41jjtojHiEceIt7cNRrLWVcP3pLAwzPCLgLv9q55Ykxpad6CGTFCEoblNm1MqwFt5B0FHmqKljbTYeriWgTKXfqk5H7R5ZyyR_EzhscNgkE1SLj3pD46w/s1600/P1040493.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGAZqSwcDphyktH6fvOgAPlh41jjtojHiEceIt7cNRrLWVcP3pLAwzPCLgLv9q55Ykxpad6CGTFCEoblNm1MqwFt5B0FHmqKljbTYeriWgTKXfqk5H7R5ZyyR_EzhscNgkE1SLj3pD46w/s640/P1040493.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coneflowers in bloom</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>Green Nuc:</b></u><br />
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Since my Nuc hives only have 5 frames, it makes them really quick and easy to check. Most of the honey frames that I put in are still full. They have eaten a little bit and replaced it with pollen which is a good thing. Two frames in and we hit the first solid brood frame. The new queen looks like she is settling in nicely!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9iKjBO0dBjh5SBjcCeSFvseGYnv46sbxWwdLNGXuqXYikv87adoI8fwDthVbNt1lGxWXWLo2DwgyJSWmXQIdoKTH-fsUeOpEHp3DoPQA6ujG9GzomiCFJAHZy___sIuAjDYBbxnwJnj4/s1600/P1040497.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9iKjBO0dBjh5SBjcCeSFvseGYnv46sbxWwdLNGXuqXYikv87adoI8fwDthVbNt1lGxWXWLo2DwgyJSWmXQIdoKTH-fsUeOpEHp3DoPQA6ujG9GzomiCFJAHZy___sIuAjDYBbxnwJnj4/s640/P1040497.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Solid brood pattern</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The very next frame over I was able to spot her majesty. The green dot on her back makes it a little too easy to spot her.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyxJPdXCLHJezKxUsbxKJtYwWPvIO1xrXsvDzSIuZOGODO441wNGiWGKLTk1FfGuyowsn2ODGhE3Z0XAC396zOnQvvLOvMZZtPymP-bCpLVNhVOe3i7BBPe_yI3ah4tULu2ecaOXrnK3U/s1600/P1040502.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyxJPdXCLHJezKxUsbxKJtYwWPvIO1xrXsvDzSIuZOGODO441wNGiWGKLTk1FfGuyowsn2ODGhE3Z0XAC396zOnQvvLOvMZZtPymP-bCpLVNhVOe3i7BBPe_yI3ah4tULu2ecaOXrnK3U/s640/P1040502.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Queenie</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This hive is doing pretty well with two frames of brood front and back and two frames of honey and pollen. The one empty frame I had given them sadly remained empty. They had a few blobs of comb ridges created but I didn't care too much for them. I had Keith scrape some it off the frame. I'm hoping when all these sealed brood start hatching out that there will be a lot of new bees that will be primed to start drawing wax. I need to get busy building some boxes so I can move these nucs into full sized hives soon.<br />
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<u><b>Yellow Nuc:</b></u><br />
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Very similar to the Green Nuc. Two honey frames that the bees had eaten a little from and replaced with either pollen or more nectar. Two pretty solid frames of capped brood.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk1AV7PLc0OUjXNI01iV0831jrooO5IbIOAgwu2JQNHCmNGcqVKskLe0flNr8QoUwnW0AM2EjD1RrKdH3iFikURRRQz1jwE-JzV_uCAx7RcCX0M6rYZuaaXSQwb2i8mBjQktAw59MP8pw/s1600/P1040507.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk1AV7PLc0OUjXNI01iV0831jrooO5IbIOAgwu2JQNHCmNGcqVKskLe0flNr8QoUwnW0AM2EjD1RrKdH3iFikURRRQz1jwE-JzV_uCAx7RcCX0M6rYZuaaXSQwb2i8mBjQktAw59MP8pw/s640/P1040507.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Capped brood on Honey Super Cell plastic frames</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This hive seemed to be much more interested in drawing some comb on the new plastic frames though.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim28UVLAZMZSkxWY18_1fDW8_5djE1PJESuExDOnZYOPLDRYJMaHxjmendLtSSD04SmRvy8FLiFE0dScO9w5jrp5MkMx01wdealPE4dzTfkC7ggDW9Y4otN-Co7uHMCgKM4y6GDIX42oY/s1600/P1040509.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim28UVLAZMZSkxWY18_1fDW8_5djE1PJESuExDOnZYOPLDRYJMaHxjmendLtSSD04SmRvy8FLiFE0dScO9w5jrp5MkMx01wdealPE4dzTfkC7ggDW9Y4otN-Co7uHMCgKM4y6GDIX42oY/s640/P1040509.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New comb and brood</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Since this was a medium sized frame that I placed into a deep sized box, the bees have drawn comb off the bottom of the frame to fill in the space. Bees are sure efficient!<br />
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On the opposite side of this frame they decided to draw a few of the same ridges I described in the last nuc. At least they've drawn plenty of normal looking comb too.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4nppIv2NUrugKMzTOF2QdTXiBK1fSQsG1CUpzrJv5keig5jY-zb_WbkofYlxd4JiE069-rtKcOY_GBx0SbHvdsYgo38EaJv7HEMiu1e0cZZOPZirsQv7jivMQ8zlPfJagVFH-_ItDrg4/s1600/CombRidges.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="572" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4nppIv2NUrugKMzTOF2QdTXiBK1fSQsG1CUpzrJv5keig5jY-zb_WbkofYlxd4JiE069-rtKcOY_GBx0SbHvdsYgo38EaJv7HEMiu1e0cZZOPZirsQv7jivMQ8zlPfJagVFH-_ItDrg4/s640/CombRidges.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Comb ridges</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I'm wondering if they were just stealing wax from one part of the comb to make this instead of drawing new wax? <br />
<br />
We spotted the queen on the next frame and that was the last thing I needed to see. This was a very successful inspection.<br />
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<u><b>Next Steps:</b></u><br />
<br />
I plan on making some 1:1 sugar syrup to feed to the hives trying to draw new wax. I need to get the full sized boxes ready to move the nucs into. I also need to give Green Hive a check to see how much of the two honey supers they have filled and also to see if the new queen is doing alright in there as well. I'd also like to do some Varroa monitoring with a powdered sugar shake. That sounds like a lot to do and we are already half way through August!<br />
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As always, thanks for reading!Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-91206036468787855872015-08-03T11:31:00.003-07:002015-08-04T14:36:43.384-07:002015-08-01: Sting ReactionI was showing my son-in-law some of my hives this past weekend when a poorly navigating bee landed behind my ear and accidentally stung me. First off, if you watch bees fly for any length of time it can be quite hilarious how badly they seem to fly at times. Secondly, it is obvious that one of my bees would never sting me on purpose, so therefore she must have accidentally got her stinger caught in my epidermis! Believe what you want folks =) Anyway, I scraped out the stinger and walked back up to the house. All the time being "escorted" back by another bee. When I got into the house I felt a bit itchy and soon noticed I had red splotches all over my chest and even some hives around my waistline. Not good. This is where the phrase "severe reaction" enters into the story. Any kind of reaction outside of the sting area and anything more than your typical redness, swelling and/or itching. Matter of fact, if you start looking on WebMD then you are getting into the anaphylaxis symptoms. Trying not to panic at this point I took some Children's Benadryl that I had in the house and then showed my wife what was going on. We decided to wait and see if the Benadryl took care of it since I wasn't having any other anaphylaxis symptoms. Within a few hours the reaction had gone away and I started to relax a bit. I went to the doctor the next day and she immediately called in an EpiPen for me and made me an appointment with the Allergist. At this point I'm kind of freaking out and thinking that I have to give up beekeeping if I'm deathly allergic to them. But I'm going to try and put off judgement until I get some more solid answers from the Allergist. Quite an emotional roller coaster so far. I am a little relieved to read on some beekeeping forums of quite a few other people that experienced the same thing. Many of them were able to undergo desensitization therapy until they had no more reactions to stings. So, I guess there is hope for me yet <sigh>.Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-35982051670195685652015-07-16T13:31:00.001-07:002015-07-16T13:31:08.524-07:002015-07-15: Cut Out Hive and New Queens!I've finally accomplished two of the goals I set for this year: split my hives and get some better genetics with some Michigan raised "survivor" queens! I learned about the <a href="http://northernbeenetwork.org/" target="_blank">Northern Bee Network</a> at the Michigan Beekeepers conference in the Spring, so I went through their list of Queen breeders and found one that followed practices I conform to. I placed an order for three queens and on Wednesday morning I received a phone call at 6 AM from the post office telling me to come get my bees.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSXOGvMmXZhDvZoIntTJBLbYWNXFlQy6buK1zB4GK_3Af-0oRQWGOsZ93BUu4F_z1rdKtjcmUiVTqrRhW7ZULpfkLP2STrnu-ZYI5Fj-oNRYdAfIeT3hTjNp5ev_zlyqyRAsS_Fdy80jM/s1600/P1040466.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSXOGvMmXZhDvZoIntTJBLbYWNXFlQy6buK1zB4GK_3Af-0oRQWGOsZ93BUu4F_z1rdKtjcmUiVTqrRhW7ZULpfkLP2STrnu-ZYI5Fj-oNRYdAfIeT3hTjNp5ev_zlyqyRAsS_Fdy80jM/s640/P1040466.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Three Queens</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<u><b>The Splits:</b></u><br />
<br />
The basic concept of how I was going to do my splits was to select two frames of open/capped brood and two frames of honey/pollen from the donor hive and place them into the 5 frame nuc box. The remaining frame would be an empty frame with plastic foundation with the new queen cage on it. Key number one is making sure you don't accidentally transfer your existing queen into the new hive!<br />
<br />
I began in Green Hive by quickly scanning a few frames in the honey supers just to see how they were doing. Almost every frame of foundation was drawn and filled with nectar. They are doing great! I then removed the two honey supers and started going through the brood boxes. The first few frames on the outside were solid honey. After I made a few adjustments to the bulges in the comb, I transferred them to the nuc box. Two honey frames done. Now to find the brood frames and the queen. Next few frames had some eggs and a lot of honey so I didn't take them. Frame five had some nice capped brood, so I meticulously studied it looking for the queen. Flipped the frame over and looked for her again. Back and forth two more times after that and I was satisfied she wasn't there. I walked over to put it into the nuc and checked it one more time. In it went. Frame number six was another good brood frame. Looking....looking....flip....looking....bam! There she is hiding in the gap between the frame and the comb. Each time I flipped the frame she'd run back to the other side. Sneaky! I took a queen marking cup my wife had bought for me and scooped her up into it and set her off to the side (more on this later).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXYaEQ_EQHkLQBpmdKezytiWeQ-C5n_c7UWPisvqEti1h6uoU29YELAEMpaQdAADGk9dJYsne2ZWreV-sKZHkpCE0S7jIEwl65JOyxjROEvd39ooS7bFAc9UJxJQYywurs4zZh7lo-RJo/s1600/P1040464.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXYaEQ_EQHkLQBpmdKezytiWeQ-C5n_c7UWPisvqEti1h6uoU29YELAEMpaQdAADGk9dJYsne2ZWreV-sKZHkpCE0S7jIEwl65JOyxjROEvd39ooS7bFAc9UJxJQYywurs4zZh7lo-RJo/s640/P1040464.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Queen in the marking cup</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I took this frame and into the nuc it went. I pulled out the first queen cage and the queen looked alive and well inside. I then noticed it had a piece duct tape over the end.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkJ1KnQf03PGxuvmJwgSMEBv7xJzE1pJtnh-BPrNguWt_f0Aduwt35wUdRUy2NWcbXMjFLEFBot6ryY2CZdzc05Az3Gdi8KrMk6ouYLnM1Ql207k5sRZgqfPn9IAU4P0eaRELLRw41a9Q/s1600/P1040468.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkJ1KnQf03PGxuvmJwgSMEBv7xJzE1pJtnh-BPrNguWt_f0Aduwt35wUdRUy2NWcbXMjFLEFBot6ryY2CZdzc05Az3Gdi8KrMk6ouYLnM1Ql207k5sRZgqfPn9IAU4P0eaRELLRw41a9Q/s640/P1040468.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Queen cage</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I assumed the duct tape was to prevent the candy from being eaten by the bees during shipment, but since the end is stuck down into a hole in the shipping cage, I'm not really sure how they would get to it. Anyway, I removed the tape, exposed the candy and wedged the cage in between two of the frames. First nuc complete! I took another one of the queen cages and put her into the donor hive and closed it up.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVWBuKBcS2Hig5YWKz2AMScJMq0H10fFjcHnP_UFjP5HXo_Bdb6-owMt8UZgusf1nIqwEEJnatcP0iBFaY94bJZBMDFO2qJW_jkJFiROK8JKLbGDPGgQypt7mO2MpBAZcI6dbCLoku1xE/s1600/P1040469.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVWBuKBcS2Hig5YWKz2AMScJMq0H10fFjcHnP_UFjP5HXo_Bdb6-owMt8UZgusf1nIqwEEJnatcP0iBFaY94bJZBMDFO2qJW_jkJFiROK8JKLbGDPGgQypt7mO2MpBAZcI6dbCLoku1xE/s640/P1040469.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First nuc complete</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The second nuc was a bit more difficult. After pulling off the honey super I went through the entire first brood box and only found one good frame of honey and one good frame of brood. I did spot the queen and made sure that frame was out of the way. I had to go into the bottom box to look for two more frames. Generally I don't really go into the bottom box unless I really have to. You always end up crushing some bees when moving boxes around and they are also really heavy! Thankfully I pulled the first frame in the bottom box and it was solid honey. Into the nuc with you! The next frame was a fantastic brood frame! Nuc #2 was complete with the added plastic frame and queen cage. I replaced the frames from the donor hive with the same empty plastic frames and put the boxes back together.<br />
<br />
This all sounds pretty simple but all told it took about 3.5 hours!<br />
<br />
<u><b>Requeening:</b></u><br />
<br />
Remember that queen I had removed and put into the marking cup? Well, the reason I removed her from the hive was because I was noticing many signs from this hive of what I think is <a href="http://www.caes.uga.edu/departments/ent/bees/disorders/viral-diseases.html#chronicbee" target="_blank">Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus</a>. The characteristic symptoms are bees with a greasy black shiny appearance, trembling bees unable to fly, clusters of bees walking on the ground and healthy bees trying to drag the sick bees out of the hive. I was able to spot all of these symptoms.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhCiDkxSLVQk-zrJHjfb1YhlgE6TKMAFLfa8bJentZsLhXBlgd91ECRouyAVshc8EEySMda9P2xCu8gHGZ52b6LMrdIJDbVOYN7sBfEx04rJvYRJ-PYZWev2jjS_9bTMkKyAhl62AvSQI/s1600/P1040422.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhCiDkxSLVQk-zrJHjfb1YhlgE6TKMAFLfa8bJentZsLhXBlgd91ECRouyAVshc8EEySMda9P2xCu8gHGZ52b6LMrdIJDbVOYN7sBfEx04rJvYRJ-PYZWev2jjS_9bTMkKyAhl62AvSQI/s640/P1040422.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sick "greasy" looking bee</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOK8JEmWPRPYRNn5BUTcQH5rSGvp4V4-Zykgu9bmEmy6AVD5XDFyUIRUvsmd9hCts8HtvrT8E3U1gQa4D_XPHT6nq-XApKWBMmwolDK4moOSasrhSLFWwPqMIzocSdVs1gNeQqYoM2cB4/s1600/P1040423.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOK8JEmWPRPYRNn5BUTcQH5rSGvp4V4-Zykgu9bmEmy6AVD5XDFyUIRUvsmd9hCts8HtvrT8E3U1gQa4D_XPHT6nq-XApKWBMmwolDK4moOSasrhSLFWwPqMIzocSdVs1gNeQqYoM2cB4/s640/P1040423.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clusters of bees walking on the ground</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8BKTvzWuy_axgBoUXLbUgCS7Te9bd9hYb0XbJROUq7M3VW8lj4uVf2kqaRK40wPeheLvCo2aCDXPHncfRjWksKZWMRjCe6cHD0CRzdJcEu5RenVnQHp1LAM1SixJqSqnI_V0DMrxL7nw/s1600/SickBees.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8BKTvzWuy_axgBoUXLbUgCS7Te9bd9hYb0XbJROUq7M3VW8lj4uVf2kqaRK40wPeheLvCo2aCDXPHncfRjWksKZWMRjCe6cHD0CRzdJcEu5RenVnQHp1LAM1SixJqSqnI_V0DMrxL7nw/s640/SickBees.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sick bees being dragged out</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This disease is typically vectored in from the dreaded Varroa mite. I haven't done mite counts yet this year but when I do I wouldn't be surprised to see a higher count in this hive. Since they don't have treatments for this disease, the recommendation is to requeen the hive. This will give some new genetics that hopefully won't be as susceptible to the disease, as well as giving a break in the brood cycle while the new queen is being released and eventually begins to lay eggs. The break in the bee's brood cycle also gives a break to the Varroa mite's cycle as well since they only reproduce in capped brood.<br />
<br />
So as far as requeening goes, putting a new queen into the hive is one thing. Removing the old queen is another. And dispatching the old queen yet another. Is it sad that I was getting all worked up over having to kill the old queen? Well, I couldn't get myself to just "pinch" her. Since you can make a swarm lure by soaking dead queens in alcohol, I though about just tossing her into a jar of alcohol. But the thought of drowning freaks me out so I couldn't do that either. I finally decided to put her in the refrigerator. If it is anything like dying from hypothermia, then slowly "going to sleep" from the cold might not be such a bad way to go. I hope it works that way anyway! Green Hive queen is dead. Long live the new queen!<br />
<br />
<u><b>Cut Out Hive:</b></u><br />
<br />
The bees from the cut out seem to be settling into their new home, Yellow Hive. I have fed them two mason jars filled with honey so far to make up for all the honey I stole from them during the cut out. I found the girls have done a really good job of attaching the combs rubber banded into the frames. And they've started to chew through the rubber bands as well.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0-yRjeHo9wuyaCVwZ5Xs-w1k8SO3vDTwYosg3l9CvxiF_qfCgmfTEjY5bXDdKRC6OBoWyeO8dKy-qazARyCMVvUXAII05gbhy-M8N0Iq-JvySi7SZSpzRv3FwCNvSny3Xx6fFOwET6y0/s1600/Frame.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0-yRjeHo9wuyaCVwZ5Xs-w1k8SO3vDTwYosg3l9CvxiF_qfCgmfTEjY5bXDdKRC6OBoWyeO8dKy-qazARyCMVvUXAII05gbhy-M8N0Iq-JvySi7SZSpzRv3FwCNvSny3Xx6fFOwET6y0/s640/Frame.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cut out comb</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There are plenty of larva on the frames as well as nectar and pollen so that is a good sign. The not so great sign is that I did NOT get the queen. Here is the evidence:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaSiT7vR6qcEhH-GP3rKHGzK7Kvus57H4bI3y21aa2AOl_0_yrAYREkgG6lLeSLI86pUnGKfTUIqTHTF_8WgwPvJD5m9JAi1BLvSOM_UcwEkmE0Ax4fRQ4jQYSp85USzAknKVN1NJ3dYA/s1600/CappedQueenCells.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaSiT7vR6qcEhH-GP3rKHGzK7Kvus57H4bI3y21aa2AOl_0_yrAYREkgG6lLeSLI86pUnGKfTUIqTHTF_8WgwPvJD5m9JAi1BLvSOM_UcwEkmE0Ax4fRQ4jQYSp85USzAknKVN1NJ3dYA/s640/CappedQueenCells.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Emergency Queen cells</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I spotted numerous capped and uncapped emergency queen cells across a number of frames. Probably around 8 in total. The good thing is that at least they had some viable larva that they could start turning into queens. I had thought about ordering another queen to place into this hive but since they already have some capped cells, I decided to let them raise their own queen. A capped queen cell should emerge in about 8 days from now. Twelve days after that (assuming she has good weather for her mating flights and doesn't get eaten by a bird) she should be laying eggs. So, sometime in mid August Yellow Hive should be back in action again!<br />
<br />
<br /><u><b>Next Steps:</b></u><br />
<br />
I'll be checking the hives to make sure the new queens have been released in a few days. After that I will do another full inspection to make sure there are new eggs and larva. I'll plan on doing some mite sampling at that time as well.<br />
<br />
Until then.......thanks for reading!Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-37198193466564352322015-07-10T09:02:00.001-07:002015-07-10T09:09:37.401-07:002015-07-08: First Hive Cut OutI received a message from a friend of mine a few weeks ago about a guy who had some honey bees living under his shed. So I called him up and asked him if he was SURE they were honey bees and not yellow jackets or hornets. I asked him how big the shed was and how they were entering underneath the shed. Last night I was finally able to schedule a time to go out to do the extraction.<br />
<br />
Prior to embarking on this adventure, I watched about every JPTheBeeMan video on doing cut outs. Constructed a bee vac. Found a checklist of items to bring to a cut out. And about anything else I could think of looking for. My basic plan was this: Verify they are honey bees. Find where the hive entrance is. Figure out how to expose the nest by removing the floor. Figure out how much space under the floor the entire hive occupied. Identify the honey combs and vacuum up as many bees as possible in that area. Remove the honey and put it into a bucket. Start removing the brood combs while trying to spot the queen. If spotted, cage her and put her in a safe place. Keep removing the brood combs and cut them to fit the empty frames. Use rubber bands to secure the combs in place and put them into a hive body. Rinse and repeat until done. Easy right? We began at approximately 7:15 PM.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh345gMXynrFqcANxudYOoudpxug_x0kDWiGIeyx5CgtWTfWrY6T453QG4XilssCRMcSdEgRYCSO4zcQKjcro7NaHVXQcNUiBnZlj2woRm9KfvruFWabg9r1yWnQWYQvUYVTc6tOaZDuas/s1600/Shed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh345gMXynrFqcANxudYOoudpxug_x0kDWiGIeyx5CgtWTfWrY6T453QG4XilssCRMcSdEgRYCSO4zcQKjcro7NaHVXQcNUiBnZlj2woRm9KfvruFWabg9r1yWnQWYQvUYVTc6tOaZDuas/s640/Shed.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Shed</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzL-48bL_DV4QeU7zcnkWxKtA3Os3jjDGvnHOmeWPKXvrLJejir6GkbFBq9w3RUooeD-rYF3rnP0o4-ipuzhMExgV7zXZvTMUdgywTa5jL7yGS3crSUF_Qfr8FTzbRT3f2nvxSLNf8ZO4/s1600/EntranceHole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzL-48bL_DV4QeU7zcnkWxKtA3Os3jjDGvnHOmeWPKXvrLJejir6GkbFBq9w3RUooeD-rYF3rnP0o4-ipuzhMExgV7zXZvTMUdgywTa5jL7yGS3crSUF_Qfr8FTzbRT3f2nvxSLNf8ZO4/s640/EntranceHole.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hive Entrance</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
First off, the floor of the shed was plywood and it appeared to be glued to the floor joist. So it was not as easy as removing a few nails or screws and lifting the floor off. My friend Keith was helping me and he had brought a circular saw and a Sawzall. He started cutting the floor along the joist and after some smoke and dust the floor was free. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAjjSp8KNAjlMpWu1dPArRCPFA-asUXASp64f71gb2RcCoUVwG038vh2XbPgjdDE6zkRCY7EG_v1uj140jpn1t1QfT7KuxqiMs4YliU9h6wH1vrqGMXa1RUxu6xf_ZQFHV2MqOoXYN6Zg/s1600/FirstCut.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAjjSp8KNAjlMpWu1dPArRCPFA-asUXASp64f71gb2RcCoUVwG038vh2XbPgjdDE6zkRCY7EG_v1uj140jpn1t1QfT7KuxqiMs4YliU9h6wH1vrqGMXa1RUxu6xf_ZQFHV2MqOoXYN6Zg/s640/FirstCut.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First Floor Cut</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Lifting up on it we could see that the combs went a little over half way down the 8 foot long section of the shed.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1dgHEmB9B0K04dmcu-FRuNCdlZKh-DJk9OOo1E1_Q-k8kVX3fQKEHGvUIKoe8UCFfGmY1NjYb38HIM-ya465eIBGQCoD6C_1HckqJY7k0-xkNh9DiSTBQEAxWKYW2-Lu8RJnIlqMmrTo/s1600/BeesFirstPeek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1dgHEmB9B0K04dmcu-FRuNCdlZKh-DJk9OOo1E1_Q-k8kVX3fQKEHGvUIKoe8UCFfGmY1NjYb38HIM-ya465eIBGQCoD6C_1HckqJY7k0-xkNh9DiSTBQEAxWKYW2-Lu8RJnIlqMmrTo/s640/BeesFirstPeek.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">First Peek at the bees</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I tested out the bee vac to make sure it would work as the first few bees found their way into the interior of the shed. So far so good. We gathered our wits and decided to lift the floor section up and lean it against the wall. This was mistake number one.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Vzyy5HQ5jeXOE8qEj3PozV0SPKmDIVS4N4mpwK-rmsGKu8XEpLYjJfUW6F-OWjboUj7d_4-F9FcL9EuMwTdceEFnWOR_bKs-mz25YRw8nFGIJEOlEGFwOGfB5uUQ91lUO63dwUJiQLw/s1600/FloorUp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Vzyy5HQ5jeXOE8qEj3PozV0SPKmDIVS4N4mpwK-rmsGKu8XEpLYjJfUW6F-OWjboUj7d_4-F9FcL9EuMwTdceEFnWOR_bKs-mz25YRw8nFGIJEOlEGFwOGfB5uUQ91lUO63dwUJiQLw/s640/FloorUp.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Floor leaned up against the wall</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We lifted the section and at first all was well. We started vacuuming bees and making a visual of where the honey was and where the brood nest was. The problem started as the weight of the honey (now perpendicular to gravity) started to cause the combs to collapse and drop to the floor. Once one comb fell out, the neighboring combs started to do likewise and I was scrambling to put the combs in the bucket as Keith tried to hold them in place. Meanwhile, honey is now going everywhere and pooling on the floor. I was tentative and careful with the combs for about a minute before I
started scrambling to get them in the bucket as fast as I could. This is when I received my first sting. As I picked up a comb to put in the bucket there was a bee on the other side that got me. The nitrile gloves I wear don't stop stings but I do believe they prevent the sting from going in very far at all. So it wasn't too bad and we continued to vacuum bees and put the honey combs into the bucket as quickly as we could. At this point all of our tools were covered in honey and I hadn't even put water into one of the buckets I had brought to wash off with. We had the owner fill one up and we tried to wash the honey off (yeah right). After we got into to groove of getting the honey into the bucket we came to realize our second problem. I had brought three buckets and it was not going to be enough. We weren't half way into it and one bucket was full already. We mashed down the combs as much as we could and kept going. Finally, we started to approach the brood nest and bucket number two was now almost full. All thoughts of being able to spot and capture the queen quickly went out the window. On top of all this chaos we were now starting to loose daylight.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiRBjZ9h2FUGO3Zou_y8wN_Ts8Nfix6rpn2ZmnVOtBq_khlgW8FNMkqyMsA6Yt9SQIoaNCIhuqU9dcuG4HwL0vZamvQFjrou4ubTYzTrWm8FX4eBfj0LurzUiglKA_ZWM78PPKtUZnxgQ/s1600/HalfWay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiRBjZ9h2FUGO3Zou_y8wN_Ts8Nfix6rpn2ZmnVOtBq_khlgW8FNMkqyMsA6Yt9SQIoaNCIhuqU9dcuG4HwL0vZamvQFjrou4ubTYzTrWm8FX4eBfj0LurzUiglKA_ZWM78PPKtUZnxgQ/s640/HalfWay.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Half way done</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
It was about 8:30 PM when we started cutting out brood combs to fit in the frames. Thankfully Keith had a very sharp and flexible filet knife that worked well but cutting through brood is never pleasant. Keith kept passing me combs and I kept cutting and rubber banding them into the empty frames. I think the bees were fairly tolerant of all this destruction until we got to the brood nest. Keith made some comments that there were bee guts everywhere. At the time I just assumed he meant because of all the bees that were getting stepped on or the brood cut by the knife. What I didn't realize was that as he was cutting off the brood combs, he could see the bees stinging his hands. He was wearing some sort of canvas mechanic's gloves and they must have been really good because none of the stings were penetrating the gloves. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieGtHek1B4qvvZocANTmci7GnBa1Tq2VtBXu98-7evwlE374H3Gj1hZcN9yVwSO092pnKMTe0PezeHwVK_LrDro8rL8n5ycDiR2feH3TyaTtMdNzQa939z2sDPbovjX1liR3qCrdOOfyc/s1600/GloveStings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieGtHek1B4qvvZocANTmci7GnBa1Tq2VtBXu98-7evwlE374H3Gj1hZcN9yVwSO092pnKMTe0PezeHwVK_LrDro8rL8n5ycDiR2feH3TyaTtMdNzQa939z2sDPbovjX1liR3qCrdOOfyc/s640/GloveStings.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of stings in the glove</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This was a good thing because he was able to keep cutting the combs and handing them to me as I was putting them in the frames......until we ran out of frames. Ugh. I had brought two boxes of empty frames....except one of them was in use by the bee vac. Dumb! Luckily I was able to remove from the frames some of the brood combs that were empty or mostly drones and replace them with the remaining worker brood comb. After I did this we were able to get the last of the combs in the frames and were almost finished.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfVRhVLDgVApLdvJcsj7QcezTXXbpWDQEWhweVemu69go3EAkwcllkE9otFLLqCXycy672XNFTEBgCSikw0MEWcrNe5eg9YWiYDB6AC1cs_Ds2USdhE13NcLMs-3F4lHSuCXqxr894eIU/s1600/BandingBroodCombs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfVRhVLDgVApLdvJcsj7QcezTXXbpWDQEWhweVemu69go3EAkwcllkE9otFLLqCXycy672XNFTEBgCSikw0MEWcrNe5eg9YWiYDB6AC1cs_Ds2USdhE13NcLMs-3F4lHSuCXqxr894eIU/s640/BandingBroodCombs.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Banding combs in place</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Here is what it looked like when the last comb was finally removed.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqTENawH_NKd3nl13EIdL7Pe2Ypi0Z-F_NJCRR5Gie6IgjEgqndRGF74vLu0WvVXyt8A5PGch5_WkLK2ckPp3SFH5c5_jFeEcJwrWQcWw9SOhiMJSbAlHuyQCJX0y8C0VNVCROKb5pRUE/s1600/CombAttachments.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqTENawH_NKd3nl13EIdL7Pe2Ypi0Z-F_NJCRR5Gie6IgjEgqndRGF74vLu0WvVXyt8A5PGch5_WkLK2ckPp3SFH5c5_jFeEcJwrWQcWw9SOhiMJSbAlHuyQCJX0y8C0VNVCROKb5pRUE/s640/CombAttachments.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Comb attachements</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I think the combs were about four feet long. That was a big hive!<br />
<br />
9:15 PM and all we had left to do was to vacuum up as many of the remaining bees as possible, pick up and clean off our equipment and close up the shed. This is where the vacuum started to loose suction. We pulled the vacuum hose off, closed up the box and tried to flush out the hose. After spraying water into the hose for a while, a big clump of bees started to wash out. There were so many bees in the box at this point that I thought we couldn't vacuum any more in even after washing out the hose. In hindsight I probably should have tried to vacuum more since there were still a few clumps of bees wandering around here and there and a small cluster on the outside of the shed. I'm sure my exhaustion didn't help my thinking process. <br />
<br />
<br />
I shut the vacuum off and started to clean things up when I realized another mistake. How was I going to put the box of brood combs onto the box of vacuumed bees without releasing all the bees I had just vacuumed? Sadly, I had made a shim with a wire mesh insert for this very purpose.........and I left it at home! You are suppose to place this shim on top of the vacuum box. The wire mesh prevents the bees from exiting the vacuum box. Then you place the brood comb box on top of the shim and then you pull the mesh out which allows the bees in the vacuum box to move up into the brood box. So much for that idea. Good thing for me that Keith's truck has a midgate and were able to put the brood box in the back and not have bees flying up into the cab of the truck with us. 9:30 PM and we finally had everything cleaned up and loaded into the truck.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYptENXYWLhAthhJYJaqsnbPiDsoxSwtbggE2mApo3Uql1Gyv1rl7eoAsykLx-gZsabeXTX0prB9ZlPD3Fdehk9c13LqIM_pmzTpbNaNqkOR53wKbmDafWlVFA-SH-2Iq0oCSF3kYwanU/s1600/GoingHome.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYptENXYWLhAthhJYJaqsnbPiDsoxSwtbggE2mApo3Uql1Gyv1rl7eoAsykLx-gZsabeXTX0prB9ZlPD3Fdehk9c13LqIM_pmzTpbNaNqkOR53wKbmDafWlVFA-SH-2Iq0oCSF3kYwanU/s640/GoingHome.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Loading up</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The ride back to Keith's house was full of thoughts of what we did right and what we could have done better. More buckets, more frames, more hive boxes, more light, more time and don't hang the combs perpendicular to gravity were just a few of the changes we need to make if there is every a next time. Once at Keith's we were able to weigh the buckets. The honey came in at 51.96 pounds. Subtract out the weight of the bucket and the weight of the wax and I'd guess around 45 pounds of honey.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiZ2I0Wc9VCEQfQy-gjIrZYTDsNnBds6q7DeFlJvx0jdvnPv3dX1dn8nWTwsv4ShHwMrQ-IDenSf0OpzYSn-ompA85CPDUFIn-JFtgaLdGZLvezpI_fTQ__n4ADo0tM-AHz2enMgO8aYs/s1600/HoneyWeight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiZ2I0Wc9VCEQfQy-gjIrZYTDsNnBds6q7DeFlJvx0jdvnPv3dX1dn8nWTwsv4ShHwMrQ-IDenSf0OpzYSn-ompA85CPDUFIn-JFtgaLdGZLvezpI_fTQ__n4ADo0tM-AHz2enMgO8aYs/s640/HoneyWeight.jpg" width="358" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Honey!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Done. Except for the fact that I now had to get the boxes home. Get them set them up in the dark. And open the box of vacuumed bees and put the brood box on top of them. I was really worried that when I opened the bees in the dark after their recent trauma, that they were going to be pissed! They did boil out of the box a bit but thankfully I was able to slide the brood box on top without too much trouble and the bees weren't flying much in the dark. No additional stings there!<br />
<br />
The following day I was able to pick up some new cement blocks and set
everything up for the new hive. I leveled the blocks and set up the bottom board. I undid the ratchet straps on the vacuum box and transferred the brood box over first and then the box full of vacuumed bees. They hadn't built any comb on the empty frames so I just shook them off the frames and into the box. I then added two boxes of plastic frames on top and then the inner cover. Since I had all their honey in a bucket, I figured they would need to be fed. I took some honey from some crushed combs I had and put it in an inverted mason jar feeder and placed it on top of the inner cover. I then stacked two empty boxes around the feeder and placed the outer cover on. Without further adieu.....introducing
Yellow Hive!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwMFDazpXUB9Lri308q1HZ0j0AH9EpXp66sxeHT9NU_0k2AfQgXBDbOx9f-hw_lonraUh8yXyztTTGsMCjWrq9eQqczDtWBxQDXRc3XBD6iedlYBmIKRv5TCOp6ceHNLKvUTU4vOzvK0k/s1600/Hives.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwMFDazpXUB9Lri308q1HZ0j0AH9EpXp66sxeHT9NU_0k2AfQgXBDbOx9f-hw_lonraUh8yXyztTTGsMCjWrq9eQqczDtWBxQDXRc3XBD6iedlYBmIKRv5TCOp6ceHNLKvUTU4vOzvK0k/s640/Hives.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bees in their new home</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
At this point I have no idea if I have the queen or not. I have a feeling by the way the bees seem to be wandering all over the place, that the queen is not there. I'm hoping I'm wrong but I'm going to check on them in a few days. If I see queen cells or young larva in the brood box then I will know one way or the other.<br />
<br />
Until next time, thanks for reading!Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-40135469936991640342015-06-16T06:43:00.002-07:002015-06-16T07:42:27.119-07:002015-06-14: First Week of Arduino DataI walked out to Green Hive on Sunday in between rain storms. I popped the lid, pulled the SD card walked it into the house and downloaded the data. A quick return trip to the hive and I placed the card back into the Arduino and hit the reset button.<br />
<br />
My main purpose in making the Arduino solar powered is to see if it will be able to run continuously. So, I'm looking for gaps in the data or any other unusual behaviors.<br />
<br />
Here is a link to the Excel spreadsheet with the data<br />
<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwe1ciSmfhhsYVpZNmlxME53UTQ/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bwe1ciSmfhhsYVpZNmlxME53UTQ/view?usp=sharing</a><br />
<br />
First thing to highlight is that I set up the Arduino on June 6 and it ran until June 12. I pulled the memory card on June 14. It was cloudy and rainy during the week. So, once the battery dropped below a certain voltage, it could no longer power the Arduino. I'm curious if the solar panel will be able to charge the battery back up while the Arduino is still drawing power from the battery. And if so, how many full sun days would that require?<br />
<br />
According to the specs on the panel, it outputs 330 mAh @ 6v. <br />
<a href="http://www.adafruit.com/products/200?gclid=CLjRseunlMYCFZYXHwodbbsAcQ">http://www.adafruit.com/products/200?gclid=CLjRseunlMYCFZYXHwodbbsAcQ</a><br />
<br />
The battery has a 2000 mAh capacity so by my horrible math skills, it would take right around 6 hours to fully charge the battery. Of course, that is in full sun and without a power hungry Arduino stealing energy from it!<br />
<br />
The second thing to highlight is that I think one of the sensors is not measuring very well. The external sensor seems to measure outside of the norm. I pulled some historic data from weather underground and plotted their recorded high and low for temp and humidity as a base line. The data often has some wild swings above and below those values. The sensors I'm using are not meant for outdoor use, so I protected the external sensor with a plastic cup with a few small vent holes drilled in the side. I also knew it might be sitting the sun so I painted it white to hopefully mitigate that temperature swing. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9xWJRF3nlbGPeGFOJQPFwGxMLCFeX4P4_rzO9a6qju56szL1p95tqQvzUkJWtp-dINmx0CwfGa3ddOctqoF7fMy-tv6fHFE5Wc6DKW3mJo9BIExTuSCc266s9ZLHY7DsKjr6Ltzbgpqk/s1600/ExternalSensor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9xWJRF3nlbGPeGFOJQPFwGxMLCFeX4P4_rzO9a6qju56szL1p95tqQvzUkJWtp-dINmx0CwfGa3ddOctqoF7fMy-tv6fHFE5Wc6DKW3mJo9BIExTuSCc266s9ZLHY7DsKjr6Ltzbgpqk/s640/ExternalSensor.jpg" width="524" /></a></div>
<br />
So either my protective housing is backfiring on me and trapping humidity or the sensor is not working well. At this point I'm guessing it is the former. If you look at the chart you can see the humidity spike to 100% almost every single day. Maybe there is even condensation forming on the sensor. I may have to look at something like this <a href="https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11050">https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11050</a> to get some better readings.<br />
<br />
It has been a fun project that has made me learn a lot. I'd really love to be able to measure the hive weight and maybe even noise frequency! Maybe some day.<br />
<br />
As always, thanks for reading!Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-58257440382237947362015-06-09T06:26:00.001-07:002015-06-09T06:26:35.324-07:002015-06-06: Movin' on up!...not to the East side, but to another box on the hives! =) If you're old like me then you probably get the quote. Otherwise you'll just have to Google it.<br />
<br />
The big accomplishment during this inspection was putting the second box on each hive and deploying my solar powered Arduino. As you can see in the picture below, my deployment consists of a mesh lined ventilation board that I built. The Arduino Uno sits nicely bridged to a small breadboard that all three DHT-22 temp/humidity sensors are attached to. One sensor sits next to the Arduino, another runs outside the hive to measure ambient temperature and the last one runs down under the Arduino into the brood nest. The other components here are a 2000 mAh LiPo battery, a Sunny Buddy solar charger controller from SparkFun and a 5v boost up converter that takes the 3.7v from the battery and pumps it up to 5.2v that feeds the USB connection to the Arduino. Sitting on top of the Arduino is a data collection shield that has a Real Time Clock and an SD card reader. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU2taEaLmlFJKKcxb1ZvNDMC1vBs1R97vGaBU4FKlym0HOKgklR0wbc7eCAMQicmc-aCFLpA25KaFBydKURokgurmR5h17H73ppBbA6DTLMhwwBe12VCoshEBzgwhpT997xAy8P9tJa1E/s1600/Arduino.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU2taEaLmlFJKKcxb1ZvNDMC1vBs1R97vGaBU4FKlym0HOKgklR0wbc7eCAMQicmc-aCFLpA25KaFBydKURokgurmR5h17H73ppBbA6DTLMhwwBe12VCoshEBzgwhpT997xAy8P9tJa1E/s640/Arduino.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arduino Deployment</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I'm really hopeful that the battery/solar combo will actually last more
than a few days (unlike the 6 AA battery pack that I tried before). I plan to walk out the the hive this weekend with my laptop and pull the SD card and download the data.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Green and White Hives: </b></u><br />
<br />
Since both hives seem to have good queens and have used about 80% of the frames, it is time to add the second box. You can really see the evidence of the increase in hive population. Bees are covering most of the frames with very solid frames of brood.<br />
<br />
I chose to deal with two issues at once when I added the second boxes. Many of the frames of honey from the hive that died last year were very "wonky". There were large lobes of honey that stuck out so far from the side of the frame that another frame couldn't fit next to it in the proper bee space. So as I added these frames to the new box, I took my uncapping knife and shaved them down flat. I fed a few empty frames in between so it should give the bees a good guide to build straight combs. Plus all that open honey should give plenty of fuel for the bees to build new wax.<br />
<br />
The added box was especially helpful to White Hive since that is the hive that has the Honey Super Cell plastic frames in it. Since the bees cannot make drone cells on the fully drawn plastic, they build drone cells on the bottom of the frames. These cells tend to tear open when you do an inspection so you loose some drone larva in the process. The good thing about this is that I did not notice any varroa mites on the open drone larva! That is typically where the mites would be so maybe the mite numbers are really low so far.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzN0exSa8G8MyvzStpo5k3utAfPIcxQEd0Buh8uJmqYVcDpSESLv6GW1dKD5WeapOcVlBX2jxVza-qHB7OhPiLA7fVI7pWMsbbsy7vHfCFndIOPuuTkiQdWkvlZmXB-NeQxeTHrFRAfgI/s1600/FirstBoxSetup.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzN0exSa8G8MyvzStpo5k3utAfPIcxQEd0Buh8uJmqYVcDpSESLv6GW1dKD5WeapOcVlBX2jxVza-qHB7OhPiLA7fVI7pWMsbbsy7vHfCFndIOPuuTkiQdWkvlZmXB-NeQxeTHrFRAfgI/s640/FirstBoxSetup.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New boxes going on</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
After I added the boxes, I put the Arduino board on top and plugged it into the solar panel. All systems Go!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvnP0VmCN79I4OQnEuU3B9zRRojFjSk4g2_lQ7IfYB9_b1qgMB-CZTMCIyvWUnZErkEUSiZTwAh8PEg62TYOyFfkbED06i6tQN76165298d_1U9z-dlBARAixJXnNVurxgUvXcUpCDo9s/s1600/Connected.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvnP0VmCN79I4OQnEuU3B9zRRojFjSk4g2_lQ7IfYB9_b1qgMB-CZTMCIyvWUnZErkEUSiZTwAh8PEg62TYOyFfkbED06i6tQN76165298d_1U9z-dlBARAixJXnNVurxgUvXcUpCDo9s/s640/Connected.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Deployment complete</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<u><b>Next steps:</b></u><br />
<br />
As I mentioned, I will be pulling the first week of Arduino data this weekend. After the bees have established themselves in the second box I will be gearing up to do two splits. I really want to increase my genetic diversity this year. I may sacrifice any honey production this year by doing these splits but I'm hoping to actually have a few hives survive the winter this time!<br />
<br />
Until next time, thanks for reading!Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-31366634706972376672015-05-15T12:44:00.001-07:002015-05-15T12:44:56.184-07:00First Full Inspection: 2015-05-13The 2015 Beekeeping season is now officially in full swing! I've done my first complete inspection of both hives and things are looking good so far.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJoun3cPEmH06-sBsYBfsy9Xy5LZhN6CJBBRFMoxKX5SyAfvledq_EXbUXjksD4jjaHIQzikTs1i4QgAQcgoWz1lXQG9oxpgaj9gtMPlhQbmR8zLEyPyqvY2PTe1YpT_lSoWjKC51wTKQ/s1600/Hives.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJoun3cPEmH06-sBsYBfsy9Xy5LZhN6CJBBRFMoxKX5SyAfvledq_EXbUXjksD4jjaHIQzikTs1i4QgAQcgoWz1lXQG9oxpgaj9gtMPlhQbmR8zLEyPyqvY2PTe1YpT_lSoWjKC51wTKQ/s640/Hives.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">White and Green Hives. Life long buddies.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<u><b>White Hive:</b></u><br />
<br />
Upon opening the hive up, the first thing I found was that instead of hanging out in the middle of the hive, they've chosen one side over the other. It must smell better over there or maybe there was more honey and pollen left on those frames from last year?<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPzkkV9iIEu9qk0TMInTfzvLnnKs4en8ayf0N6iV4I8pwBaGCzEDa0nDJI6Xx8LyiyM1G7bpt4gAz6XCK405cBGdX8qImFGMqZySLhAOzjFFOQD6Md_pcRrsC-t2Jt_dnqF4Klpbz5I-E/s1600/WhiteHiveFrames.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPzkkV9iIEu9qk0TMInTfzvLnnKs4en8ayf0N6iV4I8pwBaGCzEDa0nDJI6Xx8LyiyM1G7bpt4gAz6XCK405cBGdX8qImFGMqZySLhAOzjFFOQD6Md_pcRrsC-t2Jt_dnqF4Klpbz5I-E/s640/WhiteHiveFrames.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Left side is where the cool kids hang out</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Anyway, it made it easy to figure out which side to start my inspection on. So I pulled out the frames on the empty side and quickly worked my way toward the middle. On frame 6 I found a nice frame of fresh, colorful pollen.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmcbJpYnZPrBs5xLXX1DD_mhkF8FibxilsVu6pfpd224DMh53QqtC5eWuM454dEc0ad3pxtLVaLB5RQK3u33SVaJYnw3KMvVMw8l6OeFvHm1erWRZENa2ftJS2NyI2tUJqrB4vyy25zQw/s1600/WhiteHivePollen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmcbJpYnZPrBs5xLXX1DD_mhkF8FibxilsVu6pfpd224DMh53QqtC5eWuM454dEc0ad3pxtLVaLB5RQK3u33SVaJYnw3KMvVMw8l6OeFvHm1erWRZENa2ftJS2NyI2tUJqrB4vyy25zQw/s640/WhiteHivePollen.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pollen</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Some pretty typical orange and yellow colors for this time of year. I was hoping that the bees would have a chance of gathering some steel blue colored pollen from the Siberian Squill I planted but the blooms were already spent by the time the bees arrived. Maybe next year.<br />
<br />
Moving on to frame 7 I spotted the first frame of capped brood.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnbiNPpOjTShAk_reZAga7IYD9Iy8nFHQZXnZYjoe33hOyvRcRLxmK0xTT6thCTb2emwf-0ElD6bLVshpcZLjOtHYFqw8IuDYGOZlh-E23ZxpJ2rQC1wFiPPftOkykXt0hRBS9SeplvHs/s1600/WhiteHiveBrood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnbiNPpOjTShAk_reZAga7IYD9Iy8nFHQZXnZYjoe33hOyvRcRLxmK0xTT6thCTb2emwf-0ElD6bLVshpcZLjOtHYFqw8IuDYGOZlh-E23ZxpJ2rQC1wFiPPftOkykXt0hRBS9SeplvHs/s640/WhiteHiveBrood.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Future baby bees</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
It has only been about 14 days since the bees were installed and usually it takes a few days for the queen to be released from her cage, and then maybe a few more days before she even starts laying eggs. The eggs hatch into larvae and then the cell is sealed on day 9. So, I'm guessing these cells have only been capped for a few days at most. If that means the eggs were laid 12 days ago, then in 9 more days they will start hatching. Then we'll get to see what this queen's genetics are going to look like. This hive has been a bit more "touchy" than the Green Hive so far. Hopefully when the new bees take over they will have a little calmer disposition.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<u><b>Green Hive:</b></u><br />
<br />
I love the look of new comb on foundationless frames! Green Hive did not disappoint me either.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6dB_3uSrlgMbmeZUzLEQwl2OylzCGvIVOUgo_WXiB5BpU7zqTADmW38aevGkv65dUEajUGzHqJMWoezCoUomk30phyphenhyphenQCaEejga9CN3Ja2THzNVPSabEdK64Nh59b652eCLKXjKr16HtI/s1600/GreenHiveComb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6dB_3uSrlgMbmeZUzLEQwl2OylzCGvIVOUgo_WXiB5BpU7zqTADmW38aevGkv65dUEajUGzHqJMWoezCoUomk30phyphenhyphenQCaEejga9CN3Ja2THzNVPSabEdK64Nh59b652eCLKXjKr16HtI/s640/GreenHiveComb.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New comb being formed</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It is fascinating to watch as the bees drawn down a sheet of hexagons on the frame. The new wax is a nice pale yellow color and it is just waiting to store something!<br />
<br />
Well, this queen has been filling the frames with brood.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUopw8u8CLWewzoZgjL1KRiv67HTRHXNx1VQlKbwZmaVxPZnLPrTnengr7hNS2j20RHdRa1vj2jmfiTDotbq1DkWS5ypE429VT9PDsu0yGgMclYxVdfBYyvWk3LIiw2p4pvKZkLQ-6OeE/s1600/GreenHiveBrood.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUopw8u8CLWewzoZgjL1KRiv67HTRHXNx1VQlKbwZmaVxPZnLPrTnengr7hNS2j20RHdRa1vj2jmfiTDotbq1DkWS5ypE429VT9PDsu0yGgMclYxVdfBYyvWk3LIiw2p4pvKZkLQ-6OeE/s640/GreenHiveBrood.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pretty solid brood</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Sometimes new queen have a very spotty brood pattern when they first start. This frame looks pretty good to me. You can also see that there is a cluster of drone brood along the bottom of this frame. Right before I took this picture the bees were doing there job, covering the frame and keeping the brood warm. If you blow on them, they don't like it and they move out of the way rather quickly. I think it has something to do with the CO2 that we exhale.<br />
<br />
A few frames over I was able to grab a nice close up of the developing larva.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_jCUNZSnRW0woL4K0HtK9D-Da5hkEIGXipMIhAMyTozDSt6GnoQivgqtEAsWirBV2OQ1fbecpntLMt3IAUnSmXz5Pu5g7Xl35MYOEwYYLjcnvE8Bhf2-Y0uLy76vOh3u6dmWCvOFC22A/s1600/GreeHiveLarva.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_jCUNZSnRW0woL4K0HtK9D-Da5hkEIGXipMIhAMyTozDSt6GnoQivgqtEAsWirBV2OQ1fbecpntLMt3IAUnSmXz5Pu5g7Xl35MYOEwYYLjcnvE8Bhf2-Y0uLy76vOh3u6dmWCvOFC22A/s640/GreeHiveLarva.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"C" shaped larva</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Notice the different sizes of the larva. The queen usually lays her eggs in a circular spiral pattern. So the larva in the center of the frame are bigger (older) and the ones toward the outside edge are smaller. If you zoom in really close on this photo you can even see the eggs to the right of the smallest larva.<br />
<br />
I'm really glad to see both hives getting off to a really good start so far in 2015! <br />
<br />
<u><b>Next Steps:</b></u><br />
<br />
I have completed my solar Arduino setup and I plan on deploying that again soon. I also plan on taking some of the remaining honey frames from the hive that died this past winter and feeding it back to the bees.<br />
<br />
Until next time, thanks for reading!Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-28176907947480355952015-04-30T13:58:00.002-07:002015-04-30T13:59:55.248-07:00New Beeginnings: 2015-04-30B-Day has finally arrived!! <br />
<br />
Over the last week I had been cleaning out the hive that had died over
the winter so that it would be ready for the new bees. The lucky new
arrivals would be taking advantage of the hard work of the bees from the
previous year. I'm sure the new bees would be happy to see the frames
of honey, pollen and bee bread waiting for them instead of a bunch of
empty frames.<br />
<br />
My friend Keith was getting a package of bees this year so we made the quick run to pick up the new packages of bees. The packages looked really nice and had very few dead bees on the bottom. The package seller even slammed the packages on the ground to knock the bees down so we could make sure the queen was alive in her cage. I went over to Keith's house and helped him install his package into his Top Bar hive. It went very quickly and I was soon home and ready to install my two packages.<br />
<br />
<u><b>White Hive:</b></u><br />
<br />
This hive has the Honey Supercell frames in it. These are the fully formed, small-cell, plastic frames. So after removing some frames to make room, I popped open the package, pulled the queen cage, put it between the frames, slammed the package on the ground and dumped the bees in. I've stopped worrying about spraying them with sugar water or putting the lid back on the package after I've pulled the can of sugar syrup out or which end of the queen cage should be up or down. A lot of wasted effort I think.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Green Hive:</b></u><br />
<br />
This hive has mostly foundationless frames. A majority of them have drawn comb with lots of honey. The problem with these frames is that the honey was put into large bulges of comb that extended well past the width of the frame. So after I removed the frames and dumped the bees in, I used my uncapping knife to saw the comb even with the frame. Of course this made honey ooze out all over the place but I figured the bees would be eager to clean it up.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbTmVliWWMrYRt1-PJ87ge0eaqR0CAO2QRJzqucWxcHm9872_Sj8csnmfabweeX_dbOnG5rEY4QK46ypiyXbk84Ca2z3JwkqTpxDlP_H5cymSPCPbIAW65zMTtcgs9e_gS6GXsJaYnxFo/s1600/P1040365.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbTmVliWWMrYRt1-PJ87ge0eaqR0CAO2QRJzqucWxcHm9872_Sj8csnmfabweeX_dbOnG5rEY4QK46ypiyXbk84Ca2z3JwkqTpxDlP_H5cymSPCPbIAW65zMTtcgs9e_gS6GXsJaYnxFo/s1600/P1040365.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beware of Attack Bee</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<u><b>Queen Release:</b></u><br />
<br />
After three days I went out to make sure the queens had been released from their cages. When I pulled the cages the sugar plugs were almost completely eaten away! After I removed the queen cages I also had to remove all the comb that the bees had built in the extra space that the queen cage was occupying.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSBNO1sQCz7cTkI4j2ExG07yfkM-Xaw5yA6amVaJy7l8cAF0I1khjJFjMRJjhlHXgWmXVi2XVaPAbq6Z2a0mnPkZ80I6jHQNW4BMT3RIBM6KuJfC1ktZVXjkgoES2LS9w8wxhRf3hz2W4/s1600/P1040367.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSBNO1sQCz7cTkI4j2ExG07yfkM-Xaw5yA6amVaJy7l8cAF0I1khjJFjMRJjhlHXgWmXVi2XVaPAbq6Z2a0mnPkZ80I6jHQNW4BMT3RIBM6KuJfC1ktZVXjkgoES2LS9w8wxhRf3hz2W4/s1600/P1040367.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
A few swipes with the hive tool and the excess comb was removed. Before adding the frames back in, I took a look for the queen and spotted her quickly.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd87o0UtlN3r9rqEEo1MGC7dcAs02l1uuKxRFvDT19-dGNkeVz9Jvsh-FAJVrFyfiHOANboGQnOSBmY-az6Y1pKbx-NWNZTSBmXuX7xLSGbuhjd-PJ45_JIlMGqKjclUEVEuA6sGjGRgY/s1600/P1040368.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd87o0UtlN3r9rqEEo1MGC7dcAs02l1uuKxRFvDT19-dGNkeVz9Jvsh-FAJVrFyfiHOANboGQnOSBmY-az6Y1pKbx-NWNZTSBmXuX7xLSGbuhjd-PJ45_JIlMGqKjclUEVEuA6sGjGRgY/s1600/P1040368.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can you see the queen in the middle of this picture?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Everything looked great and I closed up White Hive.<br />
<br />
Green Hive went very smoothly as well. Move the frames apart, pull the queen cage, check some frames for the queen (no luck spotting her this time) and push the frames back together. Done.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVCkaO4LcUqRmsvgilfMp2D-vwzYEo3fhdJEhaSHvOA3uvuF-TgC6ZrvijIb7ApRMdtowYjCCd_bR0tToO353X71bvgWa308OWyGpa7V9As_vrHf_0QLj9Uk3GczFGTaxaaeKBhuz4r9A/s1600/P1040370.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVCkaO4LcUqRmsvgilfMp2D-vwzYEo3fhdJEhaSHvOA3uvuF-TgC6ZrvijIb7ApRMdtowYjCCd_bR0tToO353X71bvgWa308OWyGpa7V9As_vrHf_0QLj9Uk3GczFGTaxaaeKBhuz4r9A/s1600/P1040370.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plastic tab attached to the queen cage</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Everything is now good to go for the 2015 bee season!<br />
<br />
Next inspection in about a week so that I can make sure the queens are laying eggs. Until then, thanks for reading! Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-26069272971995526392015-04-15T12:38:00.000-07:002015-04-15T12:38:26.739-07:00Hive Autopsy : 2015-04-12When the weather finally started turning to above freezing temps back in mid-March, I started to get really excited thinking my bees had made it through the winter. Sadly, about the same time I stopped noticing any audible response from the hive when I would knock on it. The day the temp hit 60 degrees I couldn't wait any longer and I popped open the lid to take a look. A few dead stray bees were in the top box but none of the honey had been touched. This was not too surprising since the hive was four deep boxes tall. The next box was also full of honey and no bees. In the next box down I found the dead cluster on about 5 frames. Dang. This past weekend I finally had a chance to bring the hive into the pole barn and take it apart to do an autopsy.<br />
<br />
This was a very depressing task but if I am making mistakes I want to learn from them! Usually a hive dies because either they starved to death, they froze to death (these two are often connected), or they had some sort of disease or queenless problem. Here is what I found:<br />
<br />
First off, I noticed that the dead bees on the bottom board were mostly on the left hand side.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNkBECMXtF3J6RVwtWXFnNYIVLBhHyZCji88t1fMYiS4rCQs8sXkprJcQEWGJ-pulVHBsqkBSdx8MnWx2qFPN5DCHUaaEN4B0Qm6_lSiAS_y1zf_kNY3-9_k2t_ClSVsA2Q5RJCF9VWzM/s1600/BottomBoard1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNkBECMXtF3J6RVwtWXFnNYIVLBhHyZCji88t1fMYiS4rCQs8sXkprJcQEWGJ-pulVHBsqkBSdx8MnWx2qFPN5DCHUaaEN4B0Qm6_lSiAS_y1zf_kNY3-9_k2t_ClSVsA2Q5RJCF9VWzM/s1600/BottomBoard1.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dead bees on the bottom board</td></tr>
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Usually they cluster in the middle of the box but for whatever reason they favored the left hand side. The top of the picture shown here is facing the North, so bees started on the West (left) side of the box (frame 1). I'm not really sure if that evidence is of any note. The lack of dead bees on the bottom of this picture is because that is where the hive entrance was located and I had been cleaning the dead bees out of the entrance every week.<br />
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After looking over a few of the frames I could see they were mostly devoid of honey.<br />
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There was a tiny bit of honey on the top of the first frame, but the rest were empty.<br />
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The size of the cluster looked pretty large to me so I think they had plenty of bees to generate enough heat to stay alive.<br />
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On the fourth frame I noticed a small patch of brood.<br />
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You can see about eight capped brood cells amongst the dead and moldy bees with their heads down in the cells. <br />
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The other side of of this frame had even more capped brood cells.<br />
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Not a drop of honey on these frames until frame 8, 9 and 10.<br />
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These frames were solid honey.<br />
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With no honey left on the frames that the cluster was on and also that there were brood on those frames, I would say that the cluster was unable to move to the honey next to them. Essentially they starved/froze to death. In a sad twist, I'm wondering if there weren't TOO MANY bees in the hive! <br />
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<sigh><br />
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Well, on a more positive note, I had ordered two more packages of bees that are scheduled to arrive on April 26. Also, the Siberian Squill that I planted in the Fall for the bees is up!<br />
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I have also been working on my solar powered Arduino hive monitor and I have it working. I need to build a stand of some sort for the solar panel and set it up out in the bee yard. <br />
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Another one of my goals this year is to introduce some Michigan survivor stock genetics into my apiary. I've been in contact with <a href="http://northernbeenetwork.org/" target="_blank">Northern Bee Network</a> and I plan to order some queens once my new bees are established.<br />
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Thank goodness for the renewal of Spring!! As always, thanks for reading.Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-61323390516680780672014-12-10T08:32:00.000-08:002014-12-10T08:32:59.365-08:00Winer Prep: 2014-11-28I'm trying a few new things to prepare the hive for Winter this year. Ideally I would have two hives of similar strength and try something new on one hive and not the other. Then I could compare the results in the Spring and see if it made any difference. Not exactly a complete scientific study, but it would be a start. Alas, I only have the combined Green/White hive to overwinter this year, so it is all or nothing. <br />
<br />The first thing I am trying is adding wood shavings to the ventilation board on top of the hive. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj44Gk5Y2V7jv80vdLOwW6H6ZAaodt7sSHCGtWPD179x_iv8Cyly5BdpIxnDH4z4VJS3mEQADIbwxvUU0jFsgAdGiYCq0EEtS9BinbnaljQYSRBVY6JYcJ8LOndKDy9nsvUp7OM4gESYlo/s1600/P1040315.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj44Gk5Y2V7jv80vdLOwW6H6ZAaodt7sSHCGtWPD179x_iv8Cyly5BdpIxnDH4z4VJS3mEQADIbwxvUU0jFsgAdGiYCq0EEtS9BinbnaljQYSRBVY6JYcJ8LOndKDy9nsvUp7OM4gESYlo/s1600/P1040315.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vent board. Notice the propolis on the edges and center of the screen</td></tr>
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During the Winter, the bees generate heat to keep the cluster warm. That warm, moist air rises in the hive and when it hits the inner cover can possible condense. This water can eventually build up and drip back down on the bees. Not good. Bees don't have too much trouble handling the cold. But if they are cold AND wet, it is a death sentence. So, the idea is that the warm moist air rises up through the hole in the inner cover and then through the wood shavings in the ventilation board. If it does condense at all, the wood shavings absorb the moisture and it cannot drip back down on the bees. I think the loose wood shavings also allow for some air circulation from the bottom of the hive without creating some sort of wind tunnel.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjNZeRBhDVauP3PUyNgNvMJVKkuyzc20T0ZLbHrbmD-zP4sRdQdhtVk56MI3uVu-uoBy8bMGrWUB8R9GQuJ1Bbc3e4uYyJiStZTuRq-3hdJeZMfebTPCCX0e-6DP9kaBURjDbegxGfFxY/s1600/P1040319.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjNZeRBhDVauP3PUyNgNvMJVKkuyzc20T0ZLbHrbmD-zP4sRdQdhtVk56MI3uVu-uoBy8bMGrWUB8R9GQuJ1Bbc3e4uYyJiStZTuRq-3hdJeZMfebTPCCX0e-6DP9kaBURjDbegxGfFxY/s1600/P1040319.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wood shavings added</td></tr>
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The second thing I am trying is using a Winter wrap on the hive. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLdlwYAHp6Nuxs_ORhXNfe78tC6sILNXV876awXf07iBUAKfuiSS3qjnd8sNma1XrfkNVKpfHI14KiPBiROYVjJ6sMA3QUcDjabx9XXWzn-BABDZshIuN92gcuAoLWZvwL_1h6jrwZH2s/s1600/P1040335.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLdlwYAHp6Nuxs_ORhXNfe78tC6sILNXV876awXf07iBUAKfuiSS3qjnd8sNma1XrfkNVKpfHI14KiPBiROYVjJ6sMA3QUcDjabx9XXWzn-BABDZshIuN92gcuAoLWZvwL_1h6jrwZH2s/s1600/P1040335.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I put velcro on the wraps to attach them</td></tr>
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In the past I used a wind break to keep most of the wind chill off the hives. They were big, bulky and heavy sheets of plywood that I would stake into the ground. I would then have to put braces on them so they wouldn't blow over. Way too much of a pain. My thought on the Winter wrap is that it would serve the same purpose as a wind break and be much easier to use and store. From all that I have read, the opinions really go back and forth on the benefit of using them. They do help to block the wind for sure but they also may block the solar radiation on a nice sunny day from warming the hive. Even though they are made of black plastic that would absorb some sun, there is a very thin layer of foam on the back side of the plastic. I think that would prevent the warmth from actually reaching the hive. Any heat transfer experts out there that can weigh in on this? I know of others who staple black tar paper directly to their hives. That may actually allow the heat to transfer into the hive enough for the bees to move around and get to other sources of honey. I really wish I had my Arduino hive monitor running so I could see the temp difference from outside and inside the hive on a sunny day! Maybe next year.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheYo3E04uRqvkKWPevUy_LlwaGrOQmIGE3Y_fMiq2UoNjvPbJVK2-C4ElHkTcyOgiwgyGEjke4kx7DO9H_5CZP0fggELmQQex7DJ8kbdsh_MOK8Kz0IV4J93_06Q3kEjmXYzrRIYTBhYs/s1600/P1040336.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheYo3E04uRqvkKWPevUy_LlwaGrOQmIGE3Y_fMiq2UoNjvPbJVK2-C4ElHkTcyOgiwgyGEjke4kx7DO9H_5CZP0fggELmQQex7DJ8kbdsh_MOK8Kz0IV4J93_06Q3kEjmXYzrRIYTBhYs/s1600/P1040336.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All tucked in for Winter</td></tr>
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The last thing I did (which is no different than previous years) is to take the entrance reducer off and put the mouse guard on.<br />
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I have also gone out to the hive about once a week and used my J-Hook style hive tool to scoop out the dead bees from the bottom of the hive. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_eNgSu-ebv1Hnm6UqBvId9VQoHEDOydiluuv2bN6SBlQmCAij4HvFIEjJjbOQt-WuAN6hg_95TwKk3DD2u66eJQLfxsVazhXaQdMJ0hCF-VDC-lbuGYDNAya34PoGlAILnV-yOzIUqW0/s1600/P1040325.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_eNgSu-ebv1Hnm6UqBvId9VQoHEDOydiluuv2bN6SBlQmCAij4HvFIEjJjbOQt-WuAN6hg_95TwKk3DD2u66eJQLfxsVazhXaQdMJ0hCF-VDC-lbuGYDNAya34PoGlAILnV-yOzIUqW0/s1600/P1040325.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bring out yer dead! (And look out for the 1 attack bee)</td></tr>
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You don't want so many dead bees to build up on the bottom that they can no longer get out of the hive. What has really amazed me is that I am still seeing drones!! I really thought that every last drone would have been expelled from the hive two months ago!<br />
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So far, December has been mild. Cold, but not horrible. The end of this week is suppose to reach 40 degrees F. I'll take it! All I can really hope for is that this Winter isn't as bad as last Winter. Waiting is the hardest part =)<br />
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Until next time, thanks for reading!Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-4229260659066000842014-10-30T08:25:00.001-07:002014-10-30T08:25:59.615-07:00Honey Harvest 2014: 2014-09-30Fall sure is flying by fast headlong into Winter. I can't believe it was a month ago that I actually harvested my honey for the year. The only good thing about not getting much honey is that it doesn't take too long to process! I will say that I did get a bit more honey this year than I did last year. I believe the total ended up being about 1.5 gallons.<br />
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My friend Keith was helping me out and it always makes things easier with an extra set of hands! We start by using a long serrated knife to uncap the frames.<br />
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I have a plastic tub underneath to catch the cappings and all the dripping honey.<br />
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Once the frames are uncapped, we put them in a home made two frame extractor that is powered by a hand drill. We spin the frames for a minute and then flip them over and spin them again. It works pretty well and sure beats paying 300-400 dollars for a motorized stainless steel extractor! Maybe I would change my mind if I was extracting 20 boxes of honey each with 10 frames. But extracting one partially filled box of honey isn't so bad.<br />
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The raw honey and bits of wax collect in the bottom of the sanitized food grade plastic garbage can I use for this purpose.<br />
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We then pour it into a coarse filter that sits on top of the bottling bucket.<br />
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At this point I leave it sit for a few days and the honey slowly drips through the filter leaving behind the wax. I usually rinse the remaining wax with water and then melt it down for later use.<br />
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Once the honey has settled and most of the air bubbles are out of it, it is time to bottle.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUhZl2M5DYgwm8hejKfLZSS0lGKW89dqmUl4DUG4t14fu4duGhGyJsrzkWTmesiNOtWR3VdynY8WXtQpJQvJawaQvXv64A7i7Av2MjEBAor0iGperOh2bTV6JMWea1TBVdxsxbM16h_js/s1600/P1040305.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUhZl2M5DYgwm8hejKfLZSS0lGKW89dqmUl4DUG4t14fu4duGhGyJsrzkWTmesiNOtWR3VdynY8WXtQpJQvJawaQvXv64A7i7Av2MjEBAor0iGperOh2bTV6JMWea1TBVdxsxbM16h_js/s1600/P1040305.JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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I really love the 12 oz. (by honey weight) hex jars. They look really classy!<br />
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I also decided to redesign the label this year. What do you think?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZJoyTsFwT21qiviBSD4fC-Q7cNb_L6M8xGUDTUcqGY3P5wxyG9QOHqHd_XdOmnKARCEQYz_nutwWRTPUHNjHkv-WMSqo35Bf4Sl5b49RiprcVb_5juXwy8CnOY3Ly60nc33hLmOs4kk4/s1600/SampleText.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZJoyTsFwT21qiviBSD4fC-Q7cNb_L6M8xGUDTUcqGY3P5wxyG9QOHqHd_XdOmnKARCEQYz_nutwWRTPUHNjHkv-WMSqo35Bf4Sl5b49RiprcVb_5juXwy8CnOY3Ly60nc33hLmOs4kk4/s1600/SampleText.jpg" height="200" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />Not much left to do for the hive this year. Here is a list of my remaining tasks to complete before Winter:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Put pine shavings in the ventilation board</li>
<li>Put on the mouse guard</li>
<li>Put on the winter wrap</li>
</ul>
Hopefully I'll get one more post on the blog before Winter sets in. Until then, thanks for reading!Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-14159990056083756612014-09-29T07:35:00.001-07:002014-09-29T07:54:34.440-07:00Fall Prep: 2014-09-24During this latest visit to the bee hives, I set out to accomplish the stated goals at the end of the previous bee blog:<br />
<ul>
<li>Remove the honey from White Hive</li>
<li>Perform a powdered sugar roll mite sampling</li>
<li>Combine the two hives into one</li>
</ul>
With the help of my friend Keith, I was able to make it all happen in one evening. You wouldn't think that you would open the hives up at 7 PM and a short time later you are loosing all the light because the sun is setting! You sure don't worry about that during the summer when the sun doesn't set until well after 9:30 PM.<br />
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Step 1 - Remove the honey: Since I have only ever had one hive that I need to remove honey from, I use a simple method of doing so. Get an empty hive box and cover it with a damp cloth. Remove a frame with honey on it. Shake the frame with a sharp jerking motion until most of the bees are removed and brush the rest off. Put the bee-free frame into the empty box and drape the damp cloth back over the box so bees don't get back onto the frames. Someday if I have 5 hives all with multiple boxes of honey on them, then I may have to change my methodology. Until then, this works just fine.<br />
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Step 2 - Perform mite sampling: We live in a time when our European honey bees are plagued by an aptly named mite called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varroa_destructor" target="_blank">Varroa Destructor</a>. This mite is a parasite of the Asian honey bee but was introduced here in the 1980's. Our honey bees had no real resistance to them and they have been a huge problem ever since. I won't treat my colonies with chemicals but it is a good idea to know if you have a really bad infestation of mites or not. One of the methods of determining your mite level is called a powdered sugar roll. First you take a jar with a mesh screened lid and get a 1/2 cup of bees in it (approximately 300 bees) from a brood frame.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAr6Ij4kbbohvZQAE2m9cJep5sRUSDyJN7TavrECCmqS6zXe1o7-vDuL95PewAhaiyf___-EacGHiz_IYdJNLrVkavSzyW-fDgwma53GLWBBGx0NaRDF3hSY6SLsLoa422aZ3diUIzZH0/s1600/P1040260.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAr6Ij4kbbohvZQAE2m9cJep5sRUSDyJN7TavrECCmqS6zXe1o7-vDuL95PewAhaiyf___-EacGHiz_IYdJNLrVkavSzyW-fDgwma53GLWBBGx0NaRDF3hSY6SLsLoa422aZ3diUIzZH0/s1600/P1040260.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Selecting a brood frame for mite sampling</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Then you put the lid on and put some powdered sugar in the jar and then roll the sugar and bees around and around for a minute or two.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwM8ls_ij6Mb4lj9RWrg4NOFyp7xmt91LyLZhIBvZhQxE1UcmmmX0EuraIKcH8D3Z3-oCWbCUGRh8sDD4474B5mqv5lO-47mQ_BG54xl_QPAh2ykcnpGs7xKBwyRgBv4gA4GNEwnCSfag/s1600/P1040267.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwM8ls_ij6Mb4lj9RWrg4NOFyp7xmt91LyLZhIBvZhQxE1UcmmmX0EuraIKcH8D3Z3-oCWbCUGRh8sDD4474B5mqv5lO-47mQ_BG54xl_QPAh2ykcnpGs7xKBwyRgBv4gA4GNEwnCSfag/s1600/P1040267.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Where did this sugar blizzard come from?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The sugar causes the mites to loose their grip on the bees and they fall off. You then shake the sugar out of the jar and the mites come with it. Once you have shaken the sugar out, rolled the bees around some more and shaken it out again, you dump the disoriented bees back into the hive. Their sisters are more than happy to groom the sugar off of them! Since the sugar is white and the mites are red, it is very easy to spot them. You spray a little water on the sugar and it quickly dissolves leaving you the mites and perhaps a few small pieces of debris. Count the mites and you use the formula (mites / 3) * 2 = % infestation level. You multiply the "mites per bee" number by 2 because you are assuming many more mites are in brood cells (<a href="http://www.beelab.umn.edu/prod/groups/cfans/@pub/@cfans/@bees/documents/asset/cfans_asset_381124.pdf" target="_blank">University of Minnesota mite sampling method</a>). <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1z9fJvDmNOEfk0yfVQdzyY3S-u4XGbve_AC62vN9kgjg4W0NQ1KOKBNuOe_p5zv9UcHPRf1BcFUnYSPsPw5ZspO6URFpXrGNHy5FX-zemR7Ve46tsrrMDXH9QSVS3NcXLJjlHfvfPaJU/s1600/P1040271.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1z9fJvDmNOEfk0yfVQdzyY3S-u4XGbve_AC62vN9kgjg4W0NQ1KOKBNuOe_p5zv9UcHPRf1BcFUnYSPsPw5ZspO6URFpXrGNHy5FX-zemR7Ve46tsrrMDXH9QSVS3NcXLJjlHfvfPaJU/s1600/P1040271.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stunned "ghost" bees poured back into the hive</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
For this exercise, I sampled one frame and had 4 mites. So that gives me (4 / 3) * 2 = 2.67 % infestation level. If you were really serious then you would do this to multiple brood frames in multiple boxes. Or you would do this across multiple hives. If your infestation level was high enough you would then decide to treat your hives or not. A typical treatment threshold is somewhere around 10%. For me, I just wanted to go through the exercise to really see how it was done. I was also inspired by Bill over at the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU06KJTxHR8&list=PLa0qFzZHZVjntRKHcNsm6-h-X-IyYP42t" target="_blank">TheBeeVlog</a> to get a digital microscope and take a closer look at the mites causing all these problems. If you watch the video in that link, you will see some interesting detail on how they do the sampling. Especially the little trick they use to get the bees in the jar. It works!<br />
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Here are a few of the microscope photos of these nasty little buggers.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidoiKtf1Mwdc_Zp3LPlxg5NyewJ_GZKWtrBTRm8eto8qCwS_Rmu9E9b5iwOzlfEx3lyJjjajU0VXvqx2dWELcThze27Q3TE2h2NXjWMXYtj7FYdyMY8oKkIryhc0dAUKtJJ4lcyK5FLzk/s1600/140924-201532.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidoiKtf1Mwdc_Zp3LPlxg5NyewJ_GZKWtrBTRm8eto8qCwS_Rmu9E9b5iwOzlfEx3lyJjjajU0VXvqx2dWELcThze27Q3TE2h2NXjWMXYtj7FYdyMY8oKkIryhc0dAUKtJJ4lcyK5FLzk/s1600/140924-201532.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Varroa mite (top)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbBo15NP8I1bYXBNDg5Y_R5E1jEgFTEdAhi1eQ7uluG9WkNzFm9LENrklWkK_-TPFZIedM7XEl3qjTYhed0-M2l1gDwGgy0GlYfUqRgYRVRHVDVFObxoxWy2U4HVf_6T6uh9JKmpLnkXc/s1600/140924-201906.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbBo15NP8I1bYXBNDg5Y_R5E1jEgFTEdAhi1eQ7uluG9WkNzFm9LENrklWkK_-TPFZIedM7XEl3qjTYhed0-M2l1gDwGgy0GlYfUqRgYRVRHVDVFObxoxWy2U4HVf_6T6uh9JKmpLnkXc/s1600/140924-201906.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Varroa mite (bottom)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhltjOaEHzrZK8nMOubUY7JCrHQJl2jnKYT9A3cqN05MQ4pdVZ270elZbgMK7j_ppIx4ToYjUJ9gnmM5z2K7uFjl3uAd6bppm65II8JaLtfZZjo2e7x0S1RGXrlee7LaDeYDaZPpbsMUM8/s1600/140924-201950.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhltjOaEHzrZK8nMOubUY7JCrHQJl2jnKYT9A3cqN05MQ4pdVZ270elZbgMK7j_ppIx4ToYjUJ9gnmM5z2K7uFjl3uAd6bppm65II8JaLtfZZjo2e7x0S1RGXrlee7LaDeYDaZPpbsMUM8/s1600/140924-201950.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mite with extended forelegs</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So how would you like to carry one of these blood suckers around all day? And you thought a Monday without coffee was rough?? =)<br />
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Step 3 - Combine the hives: With Green Hive queenless and no hope of replacing her this late in the season, I did a "newspaper combine" of the two hives into one. You just lay a sheet of newspaper over the top of one hive and stack the boxes from the other hive on top of the newspaper. This allows the scents of one hive to mingle with the other before the bees are blended together. This reduces or eliminates any fighting between the two colonies.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXSPh4_eXwmpoZvMcpP7vB3HlJGdxXS9a8xkqYbE1Ga7aqNgF9b5sFw1YUop1NLl6a0L4VXKKsX5VWBsO6Mdp3rZDeW0qFsVp5gINAafqXAw5ONZzVAp63uO7nVNoiEkK9IMlazZH-6w8/s1600/P1040277.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXSPh4_eXwmpoZvMcpP7vB3HlJGdxXS9a8xkqYbE1Ga7aqNgF9b5sFw1YUop1NLl6a0L4VXKKsX5VWBsO6Mdp3rZDeW0qFsVp5gINAafqXAw5ONZzVAp63uO7nVNoiEkK9IMlazZH-6w8/s1600/P1040277.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Newspaper combine of White and Green hives</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Over the next few days the bees will chew through the sheet of newspaper and will be one big happy family ready to tough it out through the Winter.<br />
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This will be my last major beekeeping task for the year. I did decide to buy some winter wraps and I will be putting them on the hive before the first "Polar Vortex" gets here. I will also be placing a mouse guard on the entrance to prevent any unwanted residents during the Winter months.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiagw7hNl6JMkmW1deHbXJWRMj1jR-HA_AMYztY2bWwelAqVWOjfrXqLINkh4TIf_70i5dWj9Ij11ZZBGE2C1Icr7uctJpPpjPUiQgW0ep_UgeqD_4z6PWpIdxkyKXU4z0pEnbZhKtTHZ4/s1600/P1040289.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiagw7hNl6JMkmW1deHbXJWRMj1jR-HA_AMYztY2bWwelAqVWOjfrXqLINkh4TIf_70i5dWj9Ij11ZZBGE2C1Icr7uctJpPpjPUiQgW0ep_UgeqD_4z6PWpIdxkyKXU4z0pEnbZhKtTHZ4/s1600/P1040289.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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As twilight descends on this inspection, it also descends on this beekeeping season. I did not achieve most of my goals this year but I am hopeful that the bees will come through this Winter will flying colors. I'm sure they will be eagerly awaiting Spring as much as I will be!<br />
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Until next time, thank you always for reading!Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-29848203593462114432014-09-24T08:47:00.001-07:002014-09-25T06:28:08.309-07:00Bee Blog Slacker: 2014-09-20Well a lot has happened in the bee world since my last post in June. I guess things get crazy here in Michigan during the summer time when it seems so short but that is no excuse! Thank you to my lovely daughter for reminding me that people are worried about the bees and they are left in suspense if I don't write these posts.....heheheheh =)<br />
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Here is a quick summary of what has happened since:<br />
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<u><b>Green Hive: </b></u><br />
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Doing OK but not strong. Had some queen drama where I found no brood in the hive during an inspection on 7/24 and found capped queen cells in White Hive. I transferred the capped queen cells to the Green Hive and after looking through the photos I took during the inspection I spotted that there was a queen in Green Hive after all!!! So either the queen in Green Hive was a virgin or not laying eggs for some other reason.<br />
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<u><b>White Hive: </b></u><br />
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Strong compared to Green Hive for sure. This hive may have swarmed since I spotted all the capped and uncapped queen cells. Usually they build swarm cells along the bottom of the comb so this does follow that pattern. If they did swarm then about half of this colony is hopefully living in a cozy tree somewhere!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjldCJkXsXRGr3-XaQNplzlPKGGkZ9TQRM1Ya0qXYO-_9bkajxvTK1_LozA2V64DlxHDOe6HVOb6p_EIe9D-ln7dsvebAfq_s17qt0omnidNPLPGMOSZTHxGF5VyGjKFLCW8V8K_iYGOm4/s1600/P1040209.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjldCJkXsXRGr3-XaQNplzlPKGGkZ9TQRM1Ya0qXYO-_9bkajxvTK1_LozA2V64DlxHDOe6HVOb6p_EIe9D-ln7dsvebAfq_s17qt0omnidNPLPGMOSZTHxGF5VyGjKFLCW8V8K_iYGOm4/s1600/P1040209.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of capped Drone brood and a few queen cells</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So now fast forward from then end of July and into the end of September (that sounds really depressing actually). I just did a full top to bottom inspection of Green Hive and I checked the honey super on White Hive to see if it was ready to come off.<br />
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<u><b>Green Hive: </b></u><br />
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The top box had about 4 totally empty frames. It is too late in the year now for the bees to have enough incoming nectar to make wax. So they will stay empty for the rest of this year. There was one frame of solid honey and the rest of the frames had a mixture of honey, nectar and bee bread.<br />
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What the heck is bee bread you ask? When bees bring the pollen back to the hive, another worker bee packs the pollen into a cell and adds some honey or nectar and enzymes to it. This causes some fermentation to occur and breaks the pollen down into a more consumable form for the bees.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcBo3EXXbyyJa9Bniy9TH4a478WRqwppoyMJku6tcE89L9m2Rxkgms2LrrrIKz0GFwRmgZMbhQFhKuJ7-9lpbR4nCuBTOa0kxbqjUsgAwgGCmD_dR3qlMuOKpOaFSMekJH4Oz_juyOGDk/s1600/P1040245.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcBo3EXXbyyJa9Bniy9TH4a478WRqwppoyMJku6tcE89L9m2Rxkgms2LrrrIKz0GFwRmgZMbhQFhKuJ7-9lpbR4nCuBTOa0kxbqjUsgAwgGCmD_dR3qlMuOKpOaFSMekJH4Oz_juyOGDk/s1600/P1040245.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of maroon colored bee bread on this frame</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Compare the color of the bee bread to the color of the fresh yellow pollen on the back of this bees leg in this photo:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV8Ozn5qnlrZaClEPui7pfK5hpD12ecRBDsRnBjBnpQae_KRsS-ONY-icJ_yjiop-zWqy51gQy1-RIAKSvUsIhBA9vAmgFEiIm7WfLn_eW9IBbFbZ3cOm8gdmeKfmvSR6AuosgM3AKSCI/s1600/PollenHighlight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV8Ozn5qnlrZaClEPui7pfK5hpD12ecRBDsRnBjBnpQae_KRsS-ONY-icJ_yjiop-zWqy51gQy1-RIAKSvUsIhBA9vAmgFEiIm7WfLn_eW9IBbFbZ3cOm8gdmeKfmvSR6AuosgM3AKSCI/s1600/PollenHighlight.jpg" height="520" width="640" /></a></div>
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This bee bread is the primary source of food for developing brood. Since this hive doesn't have any brood, they have a lot of bee bread stored.<br />
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The bottom box has only two empty frames and most of the remaining frames are packed full of bee bread or honey with very few empty cells.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmrjAqZmpWiz6xaHQ1DsRACdJ3ndhtCRwo7oO87V3dCftYE9hUii2m-nu6pksVeBOB-yEoySTd0hUajX6uOrn6uxDs0vd1CmhsGlxZ-lrmKzJu9Y64RFryoetsuTUZd_FHDYi4c3IwaHg/s1600/P1040230.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmrjAqZmpWiz6xaHQ1DsRACdJ3ndhtCRwo7oO87V3dCftYE9hUii2m-nu6pksVeBOB-yEoySTd0hUajX6uOrn6uxDs0vd1CmhsGlxZ-lrmKzJu9Y64RFryoetsuTUZd_FHDYi4c3IwaHg/s1600/P1040230.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Solid frame of honey</td></tr>
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The bottom line for Green Hive is that they appear hopelessly queenless. This late in the year there is really no possibility of buying a replacement queen. I did check around online and every place I looked is sold out (and probably were sold out months ago). Also, there is no hope of the bees having enough time to raise their own queen if I donated some eggs from White Hive. It would take at least 16 days for a new queen to hatch. By then it would be the middle of October and there would be no drones for her to mate with. Matter of fact, during my inspection, I witnessed numerous drones being dragged out of the hive by their loving sisters. I think the only option I have now is to combine this hive with White Hive (<a href="http://www.honeybeesuite.com/how-to-combine-colonies-with-newspaper/" target="_blank">Newspaper Combine</a>). After I do that my remaining hive will go into Winter with FOUR deeps of food and bees. No matter how bad the upcoming Winter is, that should be plenty to get them through it.<br />
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<u><b>White Hive:</b></u><br />
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Even with the possibility that this hive swarmed earlier, it is still a strong hive. They have managed to fill about half of a honey super. Not great but better than nothing. I plan to take this honey off when I combine Green Hive with this one. I might be able to get 1 gallon of honey from this box.<br />
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<u><b>What's Next:</b></u><br />
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I'm planning on doing the combine, removing the honey and doing a mite sampling tonight. If I have enough time I'll extract the honey this weekend. The next blog post will be up shortly!<br />
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As always, thanks for reading!Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-72811475331626511792014-06-27T09:44:00.001-07:002014-06-27T09:44:51.771-07:00Guest Beekeeper : 2014-06-25<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
One of the fun things about beekeeping for me is teaching others about bees. I have found many seemingly willing students. Or at least ones that feign interest while I blab on and on about the bees. I have also tried to get as many of these people as possible into the beehives. For this inspection, I was fortunate enough to have Byron be my guest beekeeper. It sure doesn't hurt to have an extra set of hands either!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDPBSYHwwbSCk8ibumg3RR0ZcwMCEAqTE_EQAY6FmrrzSP24CKNPLUYV4Oh7CIaXIJrC69VvtwUkPBrA5Qz0kAxzCvzreByN2peUeKu9waByM5dNS2MLRsrjsG_TK2v7XfwVxeAm4TPGY/s1600/Beeks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDPBSYHwwbSCk8ibumg3RR0ZcwMCEAqTE_EQAY6FmrrzSP24CKNPLUYV4Oh7CIaXIJrC69VvtwUkPBrA5Qz0kAxzCvzreByN2peUeKu9waByM5dNS2MLRsrjsG_TK2v7XfwVxeAm4TPGY/s1600/Beeks.jpg" height="320" width="400" /></a></div>
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My main concern for this inspection was to make sure the bees hadn't run out of room, since each hive consisted of only one box. At this point they should be covering most of the frames and be ready for a second box to be added. I was also hoping I hadn't waited too long and they weren't preparing to swarm!</div>
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<u><b>Green Hive:</b></u></div>
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I took my time going through this hive since I wanted to be able to show Byron all the facets of beekeeping. How to separate and manipulate the frames. How to use the smoker and hive tool. And what to look for in the hive: nectar, pollen, honey, eggs, larvae, capped cells, workers, drones and the queen. The bees had just started to draw wax on the first two frames in the hive so I was able to show him how they create the wax in an empty frame. He was also able to see the <a href="http://www.honeybeesuite.com/festooning-bees-lacework-between-the-frames/" target="_blank">festooning</a> behavior of the bees as they constructed the new wax comb. The queen in this hive remained elusive and we did not spot her. Although we did see some eggs and very young lava so she was there somewhere. A second deep box of empty frames is now on this hive. I have a feeling I should have used a technique called <a href="http://www.honeybeesuite.com/pyramiding-getting-bees-to-move-up/" target="_blank">pyramiding</a> to encourage them to move into the new box. If they haven't done so by the next inspection I will make it so.</div>
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<u><b>White Hive:</b></u></div>
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This hive had a second box added with some frames from the hive that died this past winter. Some were empty brood frames and some were filled with honey. Since this hive appears stronger, the bees were already working these frames. After going through these I let Byron take over the inspection. I'm sure it was his observation of my fantastic abilities that allowed him to jump right in like a pro!! LOL</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Byron inspecting the hive</td></tr>
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The queen in this hive seems incredible to me. She has solid brood patters across almost every single frame. This hive will sure need the room in that second box!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcZkiBzo6t4_hk_t6sBHfDywC6eDfUWLCJ8SPciEeF4fy60plOyj9Dgz_WM68B61Y79BZD9zroTYc1fTVqkyyUTxBZHNdJgPuVdfNjv0a_LmeGN3_ZZeYl3jh6eV6DEDOwkGve8LHZfTY/s1600/P1040124.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcZkiBzo6t4_hk_t6sBHfDywC6eDfUWLCJ8SPciEeF4fy60plOyj9Dgz_WM68B61Y79BZD9zroTYc1fTVqkyyUTxBZHNdJgPuVdfNjv0a_LmeGN3_ZZeYl3jh6eV6DEDOwkGve8LHZfTY/s1600/P1040124.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of brood</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicZ_DAdh-KIYg092MwNpVd5CWgFO6SySRPgb8ks19nULpdEyV6Mf3g58XSFmxOjwFakM49BVkPl17w2UZAHgRlOG5ksg3reX4ckGR_8IzlYgxi4Dnmb0DHZBvULd2iSFf-S_cLKXM_2-k/s1600/P1040128.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicZ_DAdh-KIYg092MwNpVd5CWgFO6SySRPgb8ks19nULpdEyV6Mf3g58XSFmxOjwFakM49BVkPl17w2UZAHgRlOG5ksg3reX4ckGR_8IzlYgxi4Dnmb0DHZBvULd2iSFf-S_cLKXM_2-k/s1600/P1040128.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even more brood</td></tr>
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I never get tired of seeing new bees being born and emerging from their cells. This inspection was no disappointment when we spotted 3 drones being born at the same time!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4dTsSHP3NB2cOcrSA_5DyCOIUxDf2GevXAuVlOkcIgy9zBr26TbxekBZ4ltCitf9SgVtscbT-ARrRY3_plLDjBLwuwbAmbuXI3z3YbrnrSlK_m9IquV6tGhOKsaiWyOcNdkG8LmT4DXw/s1600/P1040125.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4dTsSHP3NB2cOcrSA_5DyCOIUxDf2GevXAuVlOkcIgy9zBr26TbxekBZ4ltCitf9SgVtscbT-ARrRY3_plLDjBLwuwbAmbuXI3z3YbrnrSlK_m9IquV6tGhOKsaiWyOcNdkG8LmT4DXw/s1600/P1040125.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Welcome to the hive boys</td></tr>
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After Byron had pulled 8 frames I thought for sure I was going to strikeout in showing him the queen. But when we pulled frame 9 there she was!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw1Ff7ef8yH7o5GOC4080ryyr0oTHkkfbiT4TI3gFRvfly72rpwMdSMy3MEm5KABYkNq-D-BHqsVtKWHmoW8mG6eUHfwI6jPPrGGF2q2T0_gpComloP7Oylggq_J8jSkv6UrsIBiNqFYo/s1600/P1040132.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw1Ff7ef8yH7o5GOC4080ryyr0oTHkkfbiT4TI3gFRvfly72rpwMdSMy3MEm5KABYkNq-D-BHqsVtKWHmoW8mG6eUHfwI6jPPrGGF2q2T0_gpComloP7Oylggq_J8jSkv6UrsIBiNqFYo/s1600/P1040132.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Smile Queeny!</td></tr>
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After watching her run around for a bit, we completed the inspection and closed up the box.</div>
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All in all, both hives are doing well and it was a great evening for an inspection. Next inspection I will hopefully see that the queens have moved up into the second box and started laying eggs there. I'm also planning on creating one or two nucleus hives and buying a "northern" queens to put in them. At worst, this will allow me to have some backup hives in case one of the hives fails. At best they will become fully established hives with better genetics for surviving these horrible Michigan winters!</div>
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Until next time, thanks for reading!</div>
Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4425792320147959846.post-41929177224355364002014-06-11T13:14:00.000-07:002014-06-11T13:16:35.457-07:00Second Inspection: 2014-06-10I was very eager to complete this second inspection for a few reasons. First, I was very eager to retrieve my fist set of Arduino Smart Hive data! Second, the hives are currently at Installation +30 days (<a href="http://www.bushfarms.com/beesmath.htm" target="_blank">Bee Math</a>) and there should be many more young bees in the hive. Not only will these bees be nurses for the next generation, but they will also be wax comb builders (<a href="http://beespotter.mste.illinois.edu/topics/social/images/Age%20polyethism.jpg" target="_blank">Honey Bee Worker Jobs</a>). So, they should be expanding the nest area and allowing more bees to forage for nectar and pollen. The increasing number of bees also means they will be running out of space soon. Normally in nature, the size of the cavity the bees live in does not increase and when they run out of room they swarm. Part of being a beekeeper is controlling the bee's swarming nature by adding more space (boxes) and I needed to see if it was time to add another box or not. If your hive does swarm you've lost probably half of your bees and your old queen. Not a good thing if you actually want any honey. Plus most of your neighbors probably wouldn't appreciate a swarm of bees landing in their yard! Well, onto the inspections...<br />
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<u><b>Green Hive:</b></u><br />
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I opened the lid and found that my ventilation board with my electronics in it was nicely stuck to the top of the lid. There must have been some propolis left on the underside of the lid and it works really nicely as glue. I spent a few minutes trying to remove the ventilation form and when I finally removed it, I notice a LARGE, furry black spider resting comfortably on the underside of the lid. Thankfully I was armed with a steel hive tool and dispatched the menace quickly. I really dislike spiders but I also know they do eat "bad" insects, so I try to leave them alone when I spot them in the garden. But when they are around my bees I show now mercy! I'm sure beekeepers in Arizona, Florida or Australia can get some really nasty surprises around their hives. Yikes. <br />
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Anyway, after all that drama, I pulled the SD memory card from the Arduino and downloaded the data. My first disappointment was that it appeared that it only logged about 3 days worth of data. It appears my 6 AA battery pack didn't last very long at all. I'll be looking into an alternate power source for sure now.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ZFDycnT42uJhBSRpQFmrIevKgprXfX_-4BFhK8XOR6Rdq69c8HfuIDvj-OrhgnACQAV4Uqn4yQQBYJ7f-pj6lkROAoQwopZVx_7H-xVBxNhb_glx4_KfQCTU77-3IsqB_EWj_KNc8Ec/s1600/2014-06-11+15_13_06-Microsoft+Excel+-+ArduinoDataCharted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ZFDycnT42uJhBSRpQFmrIevKgprXfX_-4BFhK8XOR6Rdq69c8HfuIDvj-OrhgnACQAV4Uqn4yQQBYJ7f-pj6lkROAoQwopZVx_7H-xVBxNhb_glx4_KfQCTU77-3IsqB_EWj_KNc8Ec/s1600/2014-06-11+15_13_06-Microsoft+Excel+-+ArduinoDataCharted.jpg" height="352" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arduino Smart Hive data</td></tr>
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With that said, it was cool to see that the general data collection does work! From the data it looks like the external sensor might be a little flaky since the humidity spiked at 100% a number of times and the temperature measured at 103.82 F on June 2, 3:22 PM. According to the weather report on that day, the highest it hit was 82 F. Other than that oddity, the data looks consistent. What I really like seeing are the readings from the brood area. The temperature reading is a very flat, steady line, right around 95 F. Despite what the outside temperature is, they do a fantastic job of maintaining the same temperature and humidity levels where the baby bees are being raised.<br />
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Pulling the first two frames from the hive, I saw they were still empty. The third frame in was built much wider because of the empty space next to it. With the top down view in the photo below, you can see how the wax sticks out past the top bar of frame 3.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_XV8qPjo0LNgETa0z2DQ3oF9JtHkx2GAqqSdkzEJ9ZxTUihrLKVQzMsmkqvgwLZ5-GqpLKEfMRm7ivVNl8BpkqAKXFc0alqVban8R57zOUPW3pDXXQXxTDHcdfrvS4DEFJfwc2EroOs8/s1600/GreenHiveTop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_XV8qPjo0LNgETa0z2DQ3oF9JtHkx2GAqqSdkzEJ9ZxTUihrLKVQzMsmkqvgwLZ5-GqpLKEfMRm7ivVNl8BpkqAKXFc0alqVban8R57zOUPW3pDXXQXxTDHcdfrvS4DEFJfwc2EroOs8/s1600/GreenHiveTop.jpg" height="376" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Green Hive</td></tr>
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Frame 3 was heavy with honey and frame 4 was the first to have brood on it. Typically the brood nest is toward the middle of the hive so it was no surprise to see frame 5 had a lot of brood on it. The other side of this frame had a large empty area where all the baby bees had already hatched out of their cells.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsHCV_bgFKWxQP3d9Ke5uOWSS6EIWquVG_aBp4-5uQp8GuB7PP8ILBVSH7i7yTVET-YWC3e7p9LSDhQI2fkc0T7xLm8t6TsK_Zn5hdjPRkQov_-IZKZ7Av2u784IRKLoYhEO4Ik8L6X54/s1600/Frame5.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsHCV_bgFKWxQP3d9Ke5uOWSS6EIWquVG_aBp4-5uQp8GuB7PP8ILBVSH7i7yTVET-YWC3e7p9LSDhQI2fkc0T7xLm8t6TsK_Zn5hdjPRkQov_-IZKZ7Av2u784IRKLoYhEO4Ik8L6X54/s1600/Frame5.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hatched Brood</td></tr>
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Frame 6 looked very similar to 5. Frame 7 was about 50% covered with capped brood and had a large section of new wax drawn out. Looking closely I could see there were eggs in almost every cell in the new section of wax.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1nwefqGdUN0BOKnZGzE5poxIMG2EP9paDeheeF5qF5sgnAweeKEjDOLK5ZU8k1IabdxAv2MM8UhUDDBjsEJvQSR5L8mne9TOZFRaGzxkOFF7n42FPp5n0Tj13cXN5DqrcwwDmmbl_ZXs/s1600/Frame7.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1nwefqGdUN0BOKnZGzE5poxIMG2EP9paDeheeF5qF5sgnAweeKEjDOLK5ZU8k1IabdxAv2MM8UhUDDBjsEJvQSR5L8mne9TOZFRaGzxkOFF7n42FPp5n0Tj13cXN5DqrcwwDmmbl_ZXs/s1600/Frame7.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frame 7</td></tr>
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Frame 8 and 9 actually had some large patches of brood on them with an empty queen cup as well.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMwv8c13BlQbcwG-5li0xr5k4Rnz9azqvSUQg6PNWRj3sMDsoyNSdt5P85O9t29hIAYqy1wK5SmZ35PHzJcvo6Saq_NxXsVXwmTgHlVZG9AbXZQKNpEOB42SSrCTFwzkNtUwZwpzshhdc/s1600/Frame+9+Queen+Cup.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMwv8c13BlQbcwG-5li0xr5k4Rnz9azqvSUQg6PNWRj3sMDsoyNSdt5P85O9t29hIAYqy1wK5SmZ35PHzJcvo6Saq_NxXsVXwmTgHlVZG9AbXZQKNpEOB42SSrCTFwzkNtUwZwpzshhdc/s1600/Frame+9+Queen+Cup.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Queen Cup</td></tr>
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Thankfully there wasn't anything in the cup so it doesn't look like they are preparing to swarm or replace the queen. The last frame hadn't really been touched by the bees since the last inspection. So in total there are still 3 empty frames in Green Hive. Looks like I'll be ready to add another box during my next inspection. They are coming along nicely!<br />
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White Hive:<br />
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The first thing I noticed after removing the inner cover of White Hive was that I could see bees looking up from between almost every frame! This hive in increasing in numbers more quickly than Green Hive for sure.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgredH2Dt0s2DraNsja7wUFmIsQ1rKFOjfntItZ8P4JmtpgYKBZfIDRvtzHol6s_0_Ujm1KECoYqI2taW5vkSfc8sWK0yfsZ6T8OUykHioKjwGeK59PLKEBpKYB2y6i-DMIZvctevIU9zg/s1600/P1040117.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgredH2Dt0s2DraNsja7wUFmIsQ1rKFOjfntItZ8P4JmtpgYKBZfIDRvtzHol6s_0_Ujm1KECoYqI2taW5vkSfc8sWK0yfsZ6T8OUykHioKjwGeK59PLKEBpKYB2y6i-DMIZvctevIU9zg/s1600/P1040117.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking into White Hive</td></tr>
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The bees had stored quite a bit of nectar and pollen and the brood nest started a few frames in. The queen in this hive knows how to lay some eggs! Look at the photo below. This frame is wall to wall brood with very few empty cells. They will be bursting at the seems very soon. I will need to add a second box for sure next week!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2DIHXOJgaCGqdgDJ6pEAgrt7zcYbRWjztgwuCOUrdh2bCGvupdcSbxXdlJvIL8AqRdXIH-6Q7ob4AqiVpC0hI_eoC2BW489lu1fy1MB9UEPFwNoijrsZcD-gJeBe_wYe776LCL-6mybk/s1600/P1040118.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2DIHXOJgaCGqdgDJ6pEAgrt7zcYbRWjztgwuCOUrdh2bCGvupdcSbxXdlJvIL8AqRdXIH-6Q7ob4AqiVpC0hI_eoC2BW489lu1fy1MB9UEPFwNoijrsZcD-gJeBe_wYe776LCL-6mybk/s1600/P1040118.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of future bees</td></tr>
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You can also see the patch of drone brood that was built along the bottom of this frame. And speaking of drones, I was able to witness one being born. Very cool! You can watch the 30 second video here: <a href="http://youtu.be/X1rwGvIbuck" target="_blank">http://youtu.be/X1rwGvIbuck</a><br />
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The last thing I did before concluding the inspection, was to change the entrance reducers on both hives from the small opening to the medium sized opening. The population should be steadily increasing now on both hives so they should have no trouble defending a larger entrance. This will also help alleviate any congestion as the foragers come and go all day long.<br />
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Looks like I have a lot to prepare for the next inspection. New boxes to add and hopefully another way to power my Arduino. So, until then thanks for reading!Mark Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17761362453988783369noreply@blogger.com2