Amazing different personalities of hives

I finally got out to the Langstroth hives and am so amazed at the differences in the two hives. They say the gentleness of the hive is determined by the queen. I don't know but I have two identical hive in the same area, they came from the same supplier, both were nucs.

The hive on left I have named "Zen Bees". I took off the cover and popped the inner cover exposing the honey super. The bees said "hi" and went back to work. I took the top honey super off to see how they were doing on drawing comb out on the frames and they barely blinked.

The hive on the right from the beginning are "Bees with 'Tude" As I reached for the top cover, a guard bee came out to see what I thought I was doing. They are much further along than the Zen bees in getting ready to store honey for the winter. But they are much more insulted by my appearance, "what do you want" energy. Two decided to back me off by stinging my hand ( I had a really small reaction to them - Yippee- Apis homeopathy is working).

So it makes me lie in bed thinking of how I could force the Zen hive to make queen cells and put that queen into the 'Tude hive to see if it mellows them out. This is advanced bee care taking for me but I think I will start looking for classes on this.

I do know that next spring when hives are focused on swarming (the older bees and queen decide to leave the hive and find a new place to live, knowing that the young bees will make a new queen) which is bees' reproduction, I will force a swarm by splitting the Zen hive making a new hive and let the 'Tude hive swarm.

Other than adding new supers while they are busy creating honey to be stolen by me, there is not much to do with the Langstroth hives until July.

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Sun

The girls have been on their own lately. Sunny today and soon heat so they should be happy.

Betterbee, one of the beekeeping suppliers in my area and they offer a free field day every year. This year it is Sat July 17 9-5 PM. Located in Greenwich NY, they feed us lunch and a honey ice cream made specially for this by a local maker. The speakers are from all different aspects of beekeeping and more speakers are aware of organic caretaking. You have to register to attend, www.betterbee.com or call 1-800-632-3379.

Honey recipe:
Dried Fruit & Nut Health Bars (www.marthastewart.com)
Coat 8 " square baking pan with cooking spray

1 cup pitted dates, bring to simmer in small saucepan while covered om water. Drain and puree in processor

Combine
1 1/2 cupps old-fashioned oats
4 1/2 oz (1 cup) pecans, 1/2 c finely ground, 1/2 c coarsely chopped
2 oz macadamia nuts 1/2 finely, 1/2 coarsely ground
1/3 cup dried papaya, 1/2 inches
1/3 cup dried cherries, chopped
1/3 cup dried blueberries
2 T oat bran
3 T ground flaxseed
2 T wheat germ
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cinnamon

mix date puree and honey together and add to dry ingredients. Press mixture into pan and bake 25 mins (about) Cool and cut into bars.

Break in the rain

It looks like we may have a break in the rain, the girls in my hives were venturing out this morning. I have to go in this afternoon if it is not raining to pull the drone frame. If I do not, there will be too many drones and a substantial increase in the mite count. Drone frames work well when you can get to them. I will need to feed the Top Bar hive if it keeps raining too. They have too much work to do setting up the hive and probably do not have enough honey made to keep going.

Funny how life works - I am now on Apis homeopathy- derived from honeybee- so it looks like my body knew it needed the bees to heal. Wonder if this will make me seem more like a bee to them?

I have been strawberry picking and I thank the bees for pollination the berry plants. Without the pollinators, our diets would be bleak. There would be no peas or beans, apples or peaches, grapes (no wine?), carrots, squashes, COFFEE (oh, no!), citrus fruits, broccoli, cabbage, mustard, etc. Bless the bees!

I would imagine commercial beekeepers have had good honey harvests already. There are 2 honey flows - spring and fall. I get confused still about if I should establish my bees from the winter, then honey super for their winter use or put on a super to take and then give them a super for winter stores? What if there is not a good fall bloom and they struggle making enough? I know I can feed them late winter but it is not the same as them having enough honey. Some commercial beekeepers take all the honey and don't try to keep them alive over the winter. I imagine this will not happen as much with the cost of bees increasing with CCD.

Anyway, it is one of the dilemmas I have that everyone has a different opinion about it so I will have to find my way with experience.

Good day to clean up frames from last year

On and off showers for the last two days. Haven't bothered any of the hives, it is wise to let them bee (ha,ha) on these days. Most are home, few are out foraging and usually a bit agitated - probably like we are during holidays with the family. Hard to be in close quarters and not doing your usual routine. I will scrap the frames from the hive that died. I save the wax and propolis scrapings, melt it down (be careful) and try to separate the two. I will use this wax to coat the outside of new supers. It is what I did to the Top Bar hive.

Nice time to read Bee Culture and American Bee Journal magazines. They are online too if you are interested. A good book for the Top Bar hive is "The Barefoot Beekeeper" by P.J. Chandler.

Sometimes this can make me crazy- every beekeeper has a different way to care for them. Also, a lot of the information is for commercial beekeepers who have lots of hives and they do a lot of things that I would never need to, such as putting in new queens every two years so honey production is not interrupted by the hive making a new queen or slower brood.

Cool, Cloudy - Not much for me to do

Good morning, it is a cool and cloudy morning. There is not much to do for the bees at this point, all hives have extra frames and bars to fill with comb, the queens are laying brood and there are plenty of blooms so downtime for me. I will clean up more honey frames and get two more supers set up in the next 2 weeks. We are headed into a slow bloom time so honey produced now will be collected and I will put a deep (9") super of 10 frames for the bees to store honey for the winter. In the late summer when those plants bloom, there may be another honey surge. What they put up then will be what they have to get thru the winter. They need about 80 lbs (1 full deep super) of honey for the winter.

The bees continue to fascinate me. Did you know...
-bees have been around for 30 million years?
-they beat their wings 11,400 times per minute( who counted that)?
-average honey production per bee in their lifetime is 1/12 teaspoon?
-they can fly 6 miles away from the hive and go 15 miles per hour?
-worker bees are all female?
-it takes 556 workers to gather 1 lb honey from 2 million flowers?

We are blessed to share in their labors.

Holy Moley, it's cool

Well, all the fields have been cut. Some clover is reappearing in the first cut fields so at least the girls have that to visit. It will be a while this morning before they head out. Cool, cloudy and feels like rain. The cows and new calves have been released into the pasture and they are so cute. It is heaven living here.

Now all I really have to do with the hives is visit them next week to remove the drone frames, a plastic frame that encourages comb built a bit larger to lay drones (boys) in. A lot of male bees are not needed, they do not make honey, clean, feed the young and the varroa mite ( thought to be one of the problems with Colony Collapse Disorder) loves to crawl in with the drone larva and lay their own offspring. By prevent the hatching of the drones, I can reduce the levels of mites in the hive. I do this by removing the capped drone cells and freezing the frame for 2 days. I replace it in the hive with another and repeat every 21 days.

Studies have shown this is very effective for mite control. I put the frozen frame back into the hive (warmed up) and the girls will clean it out and reuse it.