Today I took a thorough inventory of what the bees had built in the hive and decided to take the plunge: I split the hive. There were two brood frames with a queen cell each on them. So I took those frames, another with lots of brood and two frames with honey, nectar and pollen and put them into my TBH. I added two brood bars and a follower board and put both hives back together, putting fresh frames in the empty slots in the old hive. By this time the bees sounded irritated and I was hot & tired so I went away for a break.
My plan was to set up a false swarm: to leave the queen in the Langstroth hive and force the bees on the hives to raise a new queen for themselves. (It is a great plan - as long as the existing queen is where she's supposed to be). And I had almost talked myself into believing that the she was most likely on one of the frames I'd left in the Lang.
But as I was about to drive away I decided, in the spirit of Murphy's law, that the odds of something going horribly wrong with anything are directly proportional to the distance you have to drive to fix it. My hives are an hour's drive from my home. That, and the bees in the Lang had not calmed down during my break. If anything they sounded even angrier. So I got back out of the car and went through the TBH frame-by-frame.
And there she was! I found the queen on the second frame I pulled. So I yanked the outer cover off the Lang hive and gingerly set the bottom edge of the frame down on the inner cover. The queen was a regular Cheshire cat; appearing and disappearing among the masses of nurse bees. After a few very long minutes I managed to get her to walk up my hive tool far enough for me to flick it slightly and drop her near the hole in the inner cover.
I got one last glimpse of her as she bolted into the hive. Right away the noise of the hive fell to a murmur and the peevish cloud of bees outside the hive entrance vanished. Foragers came and went and the hive hummed along quietly as if nothing had happened.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Puderzucker - (K)ein Zuckerschlecken für Bienen?
Usually when I watch youtube movies by beekeepers I think, "yeah, I could do that". Here's the first exception. I'm not scared of my bees, though I do take what I consider reasonable precautions. And while I admire the fact that he can do it this way, one of my precautions will be to not imitate this beekeeper.
Powdered sugar is an increasingly popular means for dealing with varroa mite infestations. There are several common ways of applying it. But this guy does it with a boldness that has to been seen to be believed.
When I treat my bees I plan to use a method I saw demonstrated at a TBA meeting recently. The idea is that you take a framed window screen the size of the inner cover, lay the screen atop an open brood box, pour on a cup or two of powdered sugar and spread the sugar around the screen with a brush so it falls evenly into the hive. (bee brush, clean chip brush, etc) Lift the screen and sweep any sugar off the tops of the frames into the space between.
In other words, open the hive, place the screen, pour the sugar, spread the sugar, pull the screen, sweep the frame tops, replace the hive tops, walk away. Supposedly its that simple.
Powdered sugar is an increasingly popular means for dealing with varroa mite infestations. There are several common ways of applying it. But this guy does it with a boldness that has to been seen to be believed.
When I treat my bees I plan to use a method I saw demonstrated at a TBA meeting recently. The idea is that you take a framed window screen the size of the inner cover, lay the screen atop an open brood box, pour on a cup or two of powdered sugar and spread the sugar around the screen with a brush so it falls evenly into the hive. (bee brush, clean chip brush, etc) Lift the screen and sweep any sugar off the tops of the frames into the space between.
In other words, open the hive, place the screen, pour the sugar, spread the sugar, pull the screen, sweep the frame tops, replace the hive tops, walk away. Supposedly its that simple.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
NYT on Beekeeping in NYC
The New York Times has an interesting article, "For Hives and Honey; Rooftop Beekeepers Defy Law to Get That Sweet Central Park Bouquet."
For Hives and Honey...
It is a story about a New York beekeeper who works with NYC residents to set up and maintain hives in out-of-the-way places like rooftops. The resident gets some training in beekeeping and a cut of the honey. The beekeeper gets to have more hives that are dispersed across a larger area. The bees get to forage with less direct competition between hives. So it is a win-win-win.
On the other hand, it is illegal. NYC health code prohibits "...keeping animals that are 'wild, ferocious, fierce, dangerous or naturally inclined to do harm'...." But in a city with a normal share of bumblebees, wasps, hornets, spiders, rats, cars, trucks (not to mention NYC taxis, busses, subways, gun-slinging cops, falling construction cranes and generally decaying infrastructure), I don't think adding a few honeybee hives to the mix will add any significant amount of danger to anyone's life there.
I think it is an excellent idea. Many people have properties that would provide good sites for bee hives. But few go to the trouble of keeping bees. Maybe the thought has never occured to them. Maybe they are sympathetic to the idea but don't have the resources or time to get started. I used to think of beekeeping as a rural activity; something to do in wide open spaces with plenty of room for the bees to roam. But when I saw the trees and bushes bloom in Virginia Beach this Spring (and it was eye-popping) all I could think was, "hives....here.....now"!
So maybe that will be my Winter project this year: to build a number of hives, contact homeowners in good locations and negotiate a way to keep a hive or two on their property the following Spring.
For Hives and Honey...
It is a story about a New York beekeeper who works with NYC residents to set up and maintain hives in out-of-the-way places like rooftops. The resident gets some training in beekeeping and a cut of the honey. The beekeeper gets to have more hives that are dispersed across a larger area. The bees get to forage with less direct competition between hives. So it is a win-win-win.
On the other hand, it is illegal. NYC health code prohibits "...keeping animals that are 'wild, ferocious, fierce, dangerous or naturally inclined to do harm'...." But in a city with a normal share of bumblebees, wasps, hornets, spiders, rats, cars, trucks (not to mention NYC taxis, busses, subways, gun-slinging cops, falling construction cranes and generally decaying infrastructure), I don't think adding a few honeybee hives to the mix will add any significant amount of danger to anyone's life there.
I think it is an excellent idea. Many people have properties that would provide good sites for bee hives. But few go to the trouble of keeping bees. Maybe the thought has never occured to them. Maybe they are sympathetic to the idea but don't have the resources or time to get started. I used to think of beekeeping as a rural activity; something to do in wide open spaces with plenty of room for the bees to roam. But when I saw the trees and bushes bloom in Virginia Beach this Spring (and it was eye-popping) all I could think was, "hives....here.....now"!
So maybe that will be my Winter project this year: to build a number of hives, contact homeowners in good locations and negotiate a way to keep a hive or two on their property the following Spring.
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