Busy as a bee

Boy is it hot out there, especially in full garb. But my new goatskin gardening gloves worked really well. I could feel things (no squished bees) and yet protected me well. What a difference in hives - they continue to amaze me. The "Zen " girls are into sealing everything WELL. It took a bit of effort to pop the top cover off even, usually that is a breeze. I gave them a new deep super with 10 frames to fill with honey they will keep for the winter. Surprisingly, their shallow honey super was quite heavy which means filled with honey. I returned it above the deep super and will go and take it after they decide to focus on the super below. They say this not kosher but the girls are very adaptable.

Switch the deep super and the shallow honey super on the "Attitude" hive also. Their hive was hardly sealed at all so it was easy in and out. Their shallow super is loaded down with honey too, ready for a harvest. It was too hot and I did not have time. Since I do not have a "honey house" I need to close off the kitchen from the dog and cats, clean the surfaces and floor, set up the trays to cut off the wax caps off the comb and set up the frames to drain. It is a mess.

Also, you need to brush off all the bees the frames before taking it inside (obvious) and if you the wagon with the honey frames, the bees recover them trying to take the honey back. That was a hard lesson to learn my first year. So you need to be ready to harvest.

The honey is fine on the hive until you are ready. I am limited in equipment so I need the super to reuse. This means about 80 lbs of honey- 40 lbs from each shallow super. I cut all the comb off since I use shallows who do not spin well in the extractor. It means the fall harvest will happen only if the girls are ambitious making new comb. I don't use a deep super because they are around 80 lbs to lift when full of honey.

Teeming hives

Hot, hazy and humid- the girls are loving it. I visited all the hives over the 4th before the heatwave. The hive with 'Tude makes me put the full gear on- veil, gloves, jacket- and it is too hot for long. That hive has almost a full super of honey ready to go so I add a deep super. This gives them more room, more to do so they won't swarm and will be their super of honey for the winter. One deep super full of honey is about 70-80 lbs of honey so they should be fine. In the spring I will pull the lower super out and this super will become part of their hive body.

Top Bar hive is fascinating. They are building honeyed comb onto the feeder board at one end which means the queen is laying enough that they can start storing honey. I add 7 bars for them to build comb and fill. That took me to the end on one side so just 7 more bars and they will be at capacity. Once that happens, I have to take honey, bar at a time, to keep them busy. We should be headed into the lull in nectar and pollen. If you garden you know not many flowers bloom in July. It all starts back up in August.

So mid summer my job is to keep them busy with empty supers or bars, check the hive for strength and mites. I will dust them with powdered sugar so they groom each other and knock the mites off, dropping them onto the ground. Kind of funky going out with a sifter and sugar. They had being disturbed until the sugar hits and then it becomes treats.

Stay cool.

Cost of 1 lb of honey

A bee makes a total of 1/12 tsp of honey in her lifetime. That means it takes 556 bees to make one lb of honey. For the bees, one pound of honey would provide enough fuel for 16 bees to fly around the world.

Think about it. Amazing!

Deer at Hives

I went out walking the dog and there was a doe eating by the hives. She watched us cautiously but not enough to stop eating.

The hives are booming - getting a deep super ready for the 'Tude hive since they are at least a week ahead of the Zen hive. I will go covered this time to avoid stings. It seems that in the world of beekeeping, the competition is whether you go uncovered to your bees. This is a silly competition. Other than the outfit is hot, I use my hands and do not need swollen hands.

I need to make more Top Bars. How many new tools do you think it will take?

Check out this alternative hive- dodecahedron hive using sacred geometry- www.microecofarming.com - More for the bees than collecting honey. I think I will wait for it to be improved- saw a visitor center in Alaska that was very similar.

There is a beekeeper here who is interested in the Top Bar hive. Maybe this will start a trend- they are good for backyard bees. I hope to harvest some honey this 4th weekend from it.

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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