Pictures of Queens!

Here's today's obligatory apiary picture.

Here's a picture of the queen from one hive.

Here's a picture from another hive.

Here's one.

And finally this one.

One wasn't available for comment.
Actually, the problem is that one is pretty large and I couldn't find the queen.  The other four are smaller in comparison and the queen is a bit easier to find.  They are small primarily due to the skunk predation I've been experiencing lately, but I've taken steps to prevent that in the future.  Now I need to get them caught up.  With warm weather for the foreseeable future, this will be easier.  I can Robin Hood frames of brood from the best hive and get the others to critical mass.  I haven't been able to do that lately because the smaller hives couldn't keep the brood warm and it just died.

A Very Windy Day, And Small Cell Comb

Today was very windy.  I was taking stuff out to the yard so I could make some space in the shop, and perhaps add the benefit of possible swarm traps.  So, add five hives to the empty stands, and you'll start to see an idea of how I want the yard to look toward the end of the summer. 

You'll notice the double wide hive to the far right.  I'm trying a new configuration on that one with less ventilation and the bottom permanently attached.  I'm also trying to do upper entrances almost exclusively due to skunk problems.


Now the small cell.

Dee Lusby and her husband Ed were the primary apologists for small cell foundation in the modern age.  Bees left to their own devices tend to make comb of widely varying cell sizes and about the average for brood comb is 4.9mm in diameter.  However, most commercially available foundation is available in the 5.2mm to 5.5mm range or so.  So the Lusby's made their own foundation mill.  Similar mills as well as a variety of small cell foundation are now available from many beekeeping supply companies.

The argument is that in combination with a few other factors, housing the bees on 'small cell' comb gives them the upper hand in disease control.  I apologize in advance for the sideways pictures.  They were taken with the same iPhone as the one at the top, but just won't align right.

 

 The above photo shows 4.9mm comb drawn from small cell foundation.  This is the brood comb I use.

And here is comb drawn from larger crimp wired foundation.  I don't know its actual origin, this comb came from a hive that was given to me six or seven years ago.  It is old and dark and is good and strong for extracting honey.

There have been some actual scientific studies showing that small cell alone will not save bees from varroa mites.  However, Dee said that small cell was only about a third of the puzzle, another third being genetics, and the last third was the beekeeping method.  I have been successfully [depending on your point of view] keeping bees with her methods for eight years.  I have never lost all my bees at any one time.  Most especially, I have never used chemicals to treat the bees.  I can't really use the term 'organic' anymore because now that it's codified into law, the term is pretty much worthless.  But, the facts are, my bees are completely treatment free, and my honey is raw and unfiltered.

A Hive on the Brink.

Above is another recent view of the yard.  I'm taking a lot of pictures, because I would like to show a progression from winter to summer.

To the left is my most active hive, and I have been using nurse bees from it to fortify the hive to the right.  The hive to the was doing as well as the others, with a good brood pattern, but suffered extremely heavy losses to skunk predation.  It was to the point that they were so cold, they couldn't break cluster even on flying days.  I have them a frame of brood, but they couldn't keep it warm.  So I gave that up and started giving them nurse bees instead.  Since then, they relocated the broodnest, established a cluster, and the queen has started laying again.  The first eggs should have hatched yesterday or the day before.  I predict they will need more nurse bees to maintain their population before they reach a sustainable minimum.  But it's really fun as a beekeeper to pull a hive back from the brink without any chemicals whatsoever.  But of course, they were not on the brink because of disease, it was a skunk.

The hive to the right is also more typical of my new standard format.  There will be little to no bottom entrance.  Instead, I have constructed what I'm referring to as 10 frame nucs with a bottom permanently attached and a hole with a disc entry on it.  I would have pictures, but the discs are out of stock at Kelley and I haven't gotten them yet.  Rule of Thumb: Don't expect to get anything in any sort of good time this time of year from a bee supply house.  Everybody has stuff out of stock, even my favorite, Mann Lake Ltd.  Anyway, the bottoms of my hives will be a 10 frame nuc, bottom permanently attached, disc entry, with the main entrance at the top as you see on the right.  I have a number of those upper entrances, and I can use them normal side up like is shown for times when I need an entrance reducer, or the other side up for use as a shade, awning, or fool-proof snow blocker in winter.

The Grass is Greener

The grass is greener.

Here's a picture from last evening I think.  I have since changed the configuration of the 3x hive to the right, it now has a top entrance to help prevent the skunk from getting it again.  It very nearly died.  I added some nurse bees from the foremost hive and the queen is laying again.  Good signs.

Plans for increase.

 This is what the yard looks like (a week ago).

 Last year, the increase went well.  I went from two hives that survived the winter to 8 hives by mid-summer.  That's a fourfold increase.

I will attempt to do the same this year.

 Here's an idea for an open feeder that can't kill bees.  It's a hivetop feeder with a lid and a bottom board.

I'm counting on four hives surviving, one is kind of weak, I'm not sure how they'll do, so in engineering fashion, I won't count on them.  I have made up three swarm bait hives, and hope to catch a swarm or two, or more, who knows, it could be a good year, there could be nothing.

I have four queens coming from Zia Queenbee.  Barring unforeseen difficulties, they will be the next four.  I'll start them with several frames of brood each from the other hives which should be going full speed or better by then.  I also have about 40 frames of good drawn small cell comb to give them a good start.

 A new box/bottom design.  Will include a disc entrance.  Bottom permanently attached.  Skunk proof.

After that, or before that, depending on how it goes, I will induce a swarm in the best hive, then harvest the queen cells from that hive and start perhaps 8 new hives with those using again a couple of frames of brood for each.  I just said 8 because 8+8=16.  16 is the goal.  I might not get 8 good queens from that hive. 

If you have any ideas, comments are open.
Sol

What is "Natural" as far as Beekeeping is Concerned?

I recently posted at Beesource (where I go by the handle "WiredForStereo") about what is natural.  The discussion was about using foundation-less frames instead of foundation, small or large cell.  You'll find that post weaved into this post.

 

For the uninitiated, many years ago, beekeepers decided to start having bees grow on larger cells with the expectation that larger bees would equal more honey.  Many years later, this led to problems with mites, both varroa and tracheal, or so is the view by some.  While the cell size itself has been proven in university studies to have no direct affect on mites, some including myself view small cell (4.9mm cell diameter) to be part of a holistic approach to beekeeping.  While some of the small cell fervor has waned, it still has its proponents.

Now, more and more, there seem to be beekeepers raising bees without foundation like in the olden days.  Essentially, they put in an empty frame into the hive and let (hope) the bees draw out something useful.  Often it works wonderfully, with the bees drawing out beautiful worker brood comb at a high rate of speed.  Likewise, often it goes horribly wrong with bees drawing out terribly messy, crossed, or crooked comb, or full frames of drone comb.

I'm starting to see foundation-less as a fad-ish kickback to the small cell crowd. There's been large cell popularity, then there was small cell, and people thought this one thing was the panacea, but it isn't, and university studies prove that. Then people get all philosophical and decide "what do I know, I'm only human, certainly the bees know better than I do." Then we get this crosshatched mishmash of natural and unnatural methods where you get a couple great combs of worker, and then a bunch full of drone.

Trying to do something "natural" inside a sawed and planed nailed together painted fully dismantle-able and often mobile "hive" with movable frames is like pretending jumping out of a plane and flapping your wings is "flying." You're lying to yourself. Whether there is foundation in there or not, you're lying to yourself. It's unnatural. It's unnatural. It's unnatural. Deal with it. Keeping bees is unnatural. Hacking down a tree and stealing the honey out of it is natural. So if you want to do it "natural" go, be my guest. But if you think owning a hive is natural, you're simply lying to yourself.

Bees are animals. When we use them for our ends, they are livestock. Should we next decide that cows should not be fenced in because it's "unnatural"? Surely the cow knows better than I do about in which field she belongs. Right?

That's the whole point. I want that cow in my field. I want those bees to build comb in my hive on my frames so I can get in there and make sure these wild "tamed" (get it, because they're gentle) are doing what I want so I can get honey and wax out of the deal.

On top of all that, I want them to do it without me having to dope them up to keep them alive. And I don't want that dope in my honey either.  How do I pull this off? Then I hear about people using "natural" treatments. What is that supposed to mean? Are you telling me that FGMO naturally occurs in hives as a miticide so we should use it too? Nonsense. Hogwash. Hose-water. Load of hooey.

My great uncle did foundation-less, and all his bees are dead, he's dead too. What does that have to do with anything? Nothing, but I've seen more better believed in correlations around here.

So here's what I'm going to do. I'm gonna keep using small cell because it's like being foundation-less, ONLY WITH FOUNDATION!!!! Those of us on small cell know for a fact that bees on small cell build whatever they want because we spend a good portion of our time making sure we give them foundation at the right time of year so they will draw it out well. Then we take the poorly drawn and excess drone stuff and use it for honey.


Another aspect of my beekeeping is survivorship.  I do my best to let bees die that can't hack it in the real world.  Bees have been the property of beekeepers for so long, that they have been weakened genetically, or so is my thesis.  I know it hurts to watch a hive die.  I have seen so so so many do it.  But that's how it works in the wild.  Bees that can't live within their means in the winter die.  Bees that can't move around in the cold die.  Bees that can't fend off disease die.  Bees that don't raise good queens die.  This is how the world works.

[It's a discipline, it's hard to do.  Now that's not to say I won't help them at all.  This last year for instance, we had a bad year.  There was no rain for 7 weeks and the bees were not able to bring in much honey.  That wasn't their fault, they would have had enough had I not robbed them in June.  I can't force them to die for something I did.  And I wouldn't have robbed them had I known they were going to be short.  So I fed them some.  As it turns out, they were able to survive without my help thus far, but they may need a bit of a jump start to raise spring brood.  I'm not heartless.]

The survivors go on to the next year to swarm and reproduce.  Their genetics go on.  This is the process of natural selection.  While I freely admit and promulgate the idea that beekeeping is not natural per se, the best solution for keeping them as livestock lies in keeping their genetics as close to natural as possible.

Doing all that allows me to market "organic" or "natural" honey.  That honey fetches a premium price because it is free of chemicals, local, and unprocessed.  It also allows me to keep bees for much less money and headache, though as I mentioned before, watching hives die can be quite stressful.

Next time, my plans for increase this year.  I'm attempting to go from 5 to 16.

Are these signs of skunks?

What you are looking at appears to be poo made of bees.  The bees in the hives on the bricks had hauled out a bunch of dead bees, now they're gone and replaced by these bee pellets.  Tell me what you think.

RIP GGA011

Many of you had a big snow storm in the last few days. 

I had one hive that had a very small cluster and I knew they were in trouble going into the storm.  They had literally two dozen bees or less.  With a small cluster, a hive cannot keep warm and simply freezes solid. 

The dead hive was purchased as a five frame nuc from Don Kuchenmeister the "FatBeeMan" in Georgia.  I've come to the conclusion that while his bees are pretty good, they just aren't as able to handle the winters here.  That's why I'm attempting to add some colder weather stock to my collection this spring.

Healthy sized clusters, probably that of a softball or larger, are able to survive by huddling tightly together and keep warm by vibrating their wing muscles.  If they are making enough heat, they can move about the hive as a cluster to find stored honey and keep fed.

Also, if the cluster is not large enough, they cannot keep warm enough to move and may starve.

On the other hand, large clusters need a lot of honey to maintain operations.  So it is imperative that they have enough honey to survive the winter. 

Thus far, I have forgone a late season harvest so that the hives have enough honey to last the winter.  It's part of the more biological/natural/organic method of beekeeping.  Because I still have not been able to produce enough honey to keep an emergency store for bee feeding, I still need to feed sugar syrup from time to time, but I always put food coloring in it so that I know not to harvest it as honey.  However, as I only feed when necessary, the sugar syrup is concentrated around the brood nest and never in the supers, I have never actually seen dyed honey when harvesting.

Queens ordered.

I have ordered four queens for delivery in the second half of May from Zia Queenbee in New Mexico.

They have two types, Rocky Mountain Reinas and Great Lakes Sooper Yoopers.  Both are survivor genetics, exactly what I'm looking for.  I'm attempting to add not only survivor genetics to my collection, but also better wintering ability and I figure adding queens from the Rockies and Northern Michigan could do the trick. 

The question is, will their progeny be able to handle our humid summers?

I doubt I'll get any honey from them this year as most of the nectar flows in this area seem to happen before June.  What I need is bees that get going quickly and get the job done early.  Perhaps colder weather bees will be able to do that.

What I will also need to do is get my current colonies into shape so as to donate brood and nurse bees to the splits into which I will be installing the queens.  It will also be important that I find the queen in the donor hive to make sure she does not end up in the new hive leaving me kind of hosed as far as getting this thing to turn out right.  I've never been particularly good at finding the queen, time to get some practice.  And I keep quite big hives with unlimited broodnest management so it's that much more difficult.

New Wax!

I still have wax for sale.  The cupcakes were nice, but now I'm selling it in 1 lb blocks.

Pretty good stuff as you can see.  I'm selling it for $5 a pound, compare that to $15 at Hobby Lobby.  It's kinda green too, part of my processing includes melting with a solar oven.

Pictures of the new apiary.

Here it is.  You can see how I've been clearing trees in the background.  The hives used to reside back in those trees and were not visible in the summer, but I got tired of the chigger bites.

I'm also more closely keeping track of the vertical component of hive placement.  I only cared before if they were about to fall over.  Now that they are in the open, they need to be a bit more pretty.

If you're wondering, I do regret the pink.  But it was cheap.  I don't regret the color so much as that it was interior paint and therefore doesn't prevent rust and it wears off easily.  I'm going to try to take the wire brush to them and then repaint them when it gets warm enough to do so.

News!

The hives are now out of the woods, so to speak.

They were back in the trees for several years, mostly to hide them, but I am very tired of the chigger bites, so I moved them out into the open.  It should make for great photos now as they are in a group, spaced about 8 feet apart in a grid.

Went into the winter with eight hives, still have six of them.  One I lost was a split from last year, one was a purchased nuc from last year.  Both caught swarms from last year are alive, as are the two bought nucs and the four year old bought nuc.

This year I'm planning on buying some queens from Zia Queenbees.  I am going to purchase two each from their two locations, one in the Rockies and one in Michigan.  I'm hoping to bring in the ability to survive the winter better as these Georgia bees aren't quite so good at it.  Also hoping to catch swarms, I'll make up my bait boxes again and spread them further around.

Honey prices shouldn't change, and true to the trend, I should have more honey this year than last year.  Last year was over 13 gallons.

Call me if you see swarms!
Sol

Honey Harvest Tomorrow!

If you can, come buy and hang out.  I'm expecting to get ten or more gallons of honey tomorrow, so it should be a lot of fun.

Likely prices this year are the following:

1 lb. Plastic Squeeze Bottle $6
Pint Mason Jar  $7
Quart Mason Jar  $12
Buy a gallon (4 quarts) get a Squeeze for free!