Beeking Gets Serious

I've been spending too much time on beesource.com's forums lately and it's made me nervous about what my girls are doing. I am going to document every visit so I can report what I see and be able to follow what's happening in the hive.

Disease and Pests:
2 SHB - one in the cover, one in the lower deep

Frame Inspection:
Lower Deep
1 Foundation not built
2 Foundation not built
3 A: Built B: 1/3 built Frame is empty
4 Both sides built but empty
5 Not recorded
6 Brood in all of frame except corners on both sides; empty brood cells filled with nectar
7 Brood and larvae in all of frame except corners on both sides; empty brood cells filled with nectar
8 A: 1/3 brood, 1/3 nectar B: 1/2 brood, 1/2 nectar
9 Not recorded
10 Not recorded

Upper Deep
1 Foundation not built
2 Fully built on both sides; nectar in 1/3 of one side
3 A: 1/2 honey, 1/2 nectar B: 1/3 honey, 1/3 nectar
4 A: 1/3 honey, 2/3 nectar B: 80% capped honey
5 Both sides: Honey in upper corners; brood in left and right sections; nectar fills most of center
6 Both sides: Honey in upper corners; brood in center backfilled with nectar; nectar in side sections
7 Both sides: Honey in upper corners; brood in center backfilled with nectar; nectar in side sections
8 A: Spotty brood; 1/3 honey; 1/3 nectar B: 1/2 honey; 1/2 nectar
9 Both sides fully built; 1/3 nectar
10 A: 1/3 built with nectar B: Foundation not built

Comments:
I am concerned about the replacement of brood in the upper deep ("backfill") but realize that the queen may return to the lower deep to reclaim as a brood nest. The queen was identified in the upper deep this morning but was not identified in the afternoon. The final two frames in the lower deep were not inspected because I ran out of smoke and had caused great disruption in the hive. I was stung through the pants, retreated to the porch, returned with some smoking capability and wearing gloves. Began inspecting lower deep and repeatedly was tagged in the hands and face. Finally packed up the hive and retreated :) I forgot to put in the 10th frame in the upper deep and did not put on the inner cover. I'll fix that next time...

Uh Oh A Seed List

I'm on the Park Seed site making my list....



Italian basil

purple basil

lemon basil

borage (WS)

anise hyssop (PS)

cilantro (PS)

sweet woodruff - (FS) along the wall by the hive

dill

chives

fennel

spearmint

peppermint

chamomile

lemon balm (PS)

stevia?

Checking on the Hive

Last night, I attended a webinar online by Brushy Mountain Bee Farm. The host talked about the equipment choices and procedures for harvesting and extracting honey. Turns out, it's not as totally scary as I thought. I need a bee escape but otherwise I think my kitchen has everything I need.

I learned a tip, though, during the Q&A. The host said that one should not put on the queen excluder until the girls have built out the comb in the super. I have been waiting and waiting all summer for any sign of life in my super and it must be because I have had the queen excluder on for several, several months. I took it off this afternoon so we'll see how that helps.

Two things. I'll do the gross thing first and then talk about feeding.

So, one of the reasons (excuses) that I had made up for why the bees weren't building out my super was because during all of last year, I stored the built and foundationed frames in the super beside the hive but not on it. I had a telescoping cover over it to protect it from the elements. When I went to put the super on at the start of the summer, I took off the cover and there were a few really gigantic, gross roaches in the super. How totally gross, right? I screamed, chased them away, etc. And then I put that super over the queen excluder on top of the hive and the bees never built it out. I am nauseous right now just thinking about them. So I thought the reason the girls weren't building was because of the previous roach presence. I think now that it was the excluder.

I checked on the hive today and, lo and behold, guess what I found in the super ON THE HIVE. A gross giant roach. Seriously, it was the size of my entire thumb. I killed its baby-sized friend but the big juicy one ran off. There was roach poop around the outside of the hive box which I scraped off with my hive tool (I'd rather lick the toilet than my hive tool for all the gross stuff it does for me.) but the inside of the super and the foundation was spotless. The bees were keeping it beautifully clean as they do all of the hive but they were just not building. Nevertheless, the roaches were in there. Surely now that the excluder has been removed, the roach will not dare return. If I find any further sign of them, I'm not sure what I'll do.

As an aside, I saw a slew of hive beetles, maybe a dozen. All but one were in the unoccupied super on the hive which gives me hope. I think there is a big problem with bees not protecting their resources. Other things move in and take over. Let that be a lesson to me :)

The other thing that I need to do is feed. I hate doing that but the honey supply was low and there was virtually no pollen at all. I'm going to mix up some feed tomorrow and get that out there for them. My mentor Libby had told me to feed back when the queen showed off but I didn't do it. Even the Brushy guy said his honey stores were lower than they were at the start of spring and he was going to feed until the next flow. I guess the good thing about feeding is that it will encourage the girls to finish building out the rest of the frames.

NATURE PREVAILS!

I love my bees.

I have been worried about them since Easter when I saw their swarm fly away. The population had been severely reduced and the ratio of drone to workers was way up. I thought I heard the death knell when I checked on them a couple of weeks ago to find only capped drone in the second deep while the first deep was completely abandoned.

I ordered a new queen from Brushy Mountain right before vacation and then yesterday, after worrying about my population, called my bee mentor who offered to sell me 9 frames and a deep's worth of workers (for the low, low price of $125...) She advised me to remove the lower now-abandoned deep and gave me tips on preparing for my new girls. I went out this afternoon to remove my first deep and discovered....

TWO FULL FRAMES OF CAPPED BROOD AND LARVAE ....

... plus some more in adjoining frames. I have a QUEEN!!!

I'm going to send out birth announcements, I'm so proud.

I wish my camera was working. I'll have to work on that tomorrow.

By the Hive

I'm working on thoughts for what to plant along the stone wall leading up to the hive. I would like something bee friendly but the shade choices are limited and I probably shouldn't encourage the bees to hang out near the stairs.

small species catmint (nepeta 'Walker's Low')
corsican mint

I think I'll put the bee flowers in the front bed.
Mondara 'Raspberry Wine' - bee balm
Echinacea Purpurea 'Prarie Splendor' - cone flower
Agastache 'Purple Haze' - anise hyssop
Eupatorium coelestinum 'Wayside' - hardy ageratum
Melissa officinalis - lemon balm
Solidago - goldenrod


I also need to identify water issues with creating a bed against the porch where I want to place the monarda (bee balm). Do I want that as only bee balm or also as an herb location? They can do part shade areas and I need to try them there if that's the case.

Lavender at the woodline NOPE I think lavender won't work in the clay. Keep thinking.

I picked up a great book at the library that I'm using for reference to think about my backyard design. "Designing the New Kitchen Garden An American Potager Handbook" by Jennifer R. Bartley It's been inspiring.

Work Schedule

Summer 2009 - Build IBM beds in rest of back yard; build strawberry pyramid
September 2009 - Plant strawberries; divide and distribute daylilies
November 2009 - Start winter sowing
February 2010 - Severely prune abelia and pull out more honeysuckle
March 2010 - Figure out swarm control measures
September 2010 - Build grape trellis
April 2011 - Plant grape vines
September 2011 - Plant espalier apples/pears


I am adjusting the schedule to push the grapes until 2011. They are causing me too much consternation and I can't get up the nerve to actually commit to building the trellis.

I will allow myself to think about espaliered fruit when my needlepoint hollies are giving me some protection from the neighbors. Not until they are getting bigger....

Backyard Plot Diagram

Click on the picture to get a better look. This is a rough scale drawing of my backyard showing existing structures and plants. I'm trying to fit a grapevine or two into the landscape. Please leave a comment if you have an idea for me.

Option 1:

There's only one place to do a straight 20' run that gets sun. It would cut my lawn in half and I'd want the wire low - 2' off the ground or 3' at the most since it would block the view of the woods from my screened porch if it were taller. It wouldn't interfere with walkways and would provide a demarcation for the bee balm that I wanted to plant against the porch anyway.

Option 2:

Another option is to make the trellis in the shape of an L with 10' arms. I could do this one at the 4'-5' height but I'm afraid it would shade out a rectangle of ground that I thought I might want to use for a second raised bed to do flowers or more veggies. Could I incorporate the trellis into the raised bed and just have the trellis running along the east and north sides of the bed?? The west side wouldn't get enough sun because of the shade from the woods. Maybe the vine wouldn't shade the bed too badly?

Option 3:

A third option is to grow it up one of the two trees that define an entryway into the woods (leading to the fort!) I could mount a support spanning the two trees and train the vines up and across, making a kind of overhead door frame to go into the woods.

I'm running out of full sun locations since the porch shades a big chunk in the morning (the bee balm location) and then the woods shade some in the afternoon too. I think I could fit one or two raised beds along the treeline between the hive and the entrance to the fort. :) It goes back to the fact that I don't want to block the view from the porch into the woods since that's so, so pretty. Maybe I wouldn't do a raised bed in that location and just do mounded ground with flowers so they wouldn't interrupt the view so much. Hmmm.