Incredible!

Yes, it's been a long time since I posted. Not long after the last one, the hive in the yard went downhill fast and died off all together. My guess was that it was just too wet down in the back. There was some mold growing on parts of the hive which led to this possibility. That area of the yard is an old creek bed and the lowest point in the immediate area. I disassembled the hive, figuring that if I tried it again it would have to be somewhere else, maybe the front porch roof. 

Meanwhile, the back porch hive chugged along, doing ok, but gradually losing bees. They still had honey in January and I saw some bees on warm days. However, after seeing none on later warm days, I finally opened they hive - they were all dead. I found some honey in the hive, so they didn't starve. This was the first real chance to harvest so I gave it a try. Harvesting a top bar is different from doing a Langstroth - you have to sacrifice the comb. I cut it off. I uncapped it - scraped off the top layer of wax. Comb is strong face on because of it's structure, but from the side it isn't, so I put it in a bowl and crushed it, then drained it through a kitchen sieve. It was the best honey I have ever tasted, even if I'm biased. I left the bowl on the table for soup night and people were dipping things in the honey to eat. It was definitely a hit. I even did a little jar for Lynn and Katy.  

Totally bummed out after losing 3 hives in 2 years, I decided to skip a year (or more) and left the porch hive in place until I decided what to do. Then, Tuesday (May 21), I was gardening. A little before 7 I came through the porch into the kitchen, then out to the neighbor's back yard where I'm growing vegetables. Jeanne came home and at 7:00 called my cell phone, telling me there were bees on the porch! I came back to see that she was correct of course. There weren't a lot, but they were crawling around the hive and getting onto the porch somehow. I had not left the top bars in place, so I fixed those and started catching the bees and putting them outside, but they kept showing up. I finally found the crack where they were escaping and closed it up. Eventually, I got everything sealed and all the bees off the porch. I caught them with a simple trap - a clear plastic container and a piece of cardboard. I'd cover the bees on the window and slide the cardboard in, then carry it outside. 

All this was really uplifting.  Then, on Thursday, I went out back at 2 pm and found a staggering cloud of bees outside the entrance, swarming like crazy. This is when I realized that this was the real swarm and the first bees were the scouts. Obviously, they found the hive to their liking. After 10 minutes, they settled around the entrance as you can see in the picture. 10 minutes later they were nearly all inside as you can see in the 2nd picture. Today, the hive is packed with bees and it's warm, on a cold, wet, windy day (temp is currently 55).  

Having a swarm move in is something I've read about, even to the extent of seeing advice on what to put in the hive to attract them, and deep down I hoped that it would happen, but never expected it.  Feels good. 

 

Where did the summer go?

Heat, humidity, weddings, golf, Phillies, and vegetable gardening seem to have made this summer fly by. Somehow, I just wasn't motivated to add to this blog until now, but that can happen to the best of us.
As I've told a number of people, nothing much has been going on with the bees that seemed worth reporting. They have survived the summer fairly well. There are plenty of bees in both hives. They have small hive beetles, but supposedly a strong hive can manage with them.
The porch hive was producing an enormous number of bees, so many that they were weighing down the screen on the bottom to the point where they were escaping onto the porch where they had no where to go. I would take a screen out occasionally and let them out, but that wasn't enough, so I added a second layer of screen. That didn't work either, so I closed the bottom "lid", which has taken care of the problem.
I thought it would help with ventilation to have it open, but it doesn't seem to matter. The bees handle their temperature - they've had a lot of experience. When it's too hot, you see a lot of them outside around the entrance. I thought that was the case in the June post, and I'm sure of it. Still no idea how they decide who stays outside.
They have stabilized as far as the amount of comb; I haven't had to add any more bars. You can see honey in some of the cells, but it's not full by any means. Current strategy is to keep an eye on them and think about feeding.
The yard hive is also doing well in spite of my concerns because it has been so wet. This is much more of a problem for bees the heat. I wanted to close the bottom lid, but there's a mound of bees on the screen, for some reason. I would have to don the bee suit to brush them off and close it, but it's been too hot to do that. At some point I will.
I was concerned for a while last month so I fed them a few times. They sucked it right up. Since then, they have been on their own.
Honey
I've been asked a lot about when I'll get some honey. My plan has always been to get them through the winter and then see how it goes. After reflecting a while, I realized that honey is not my main purpose is raising them. The whole process of learning about beekeeping and raising them has really been primary. My approach is mostly to let them go and see what happens. I've heard and read a lot about that, but I want to see for myself. This means I will almost certainly not take the general advice about replacing the queen after a year or two to keep the hive productive. If the queen weakens, the bees are supposed to be able to replace her. I will probably leave it to them to work that out.

That's where I'm at. I'll post again when there's something to say.

Reflection and a few pics

So after I added the bars on Saturday, it was still pretty warm. Also, inside is wall to wall bees, packed tight.   About 5:30, I noticed the porch bees settling in outside:

There was room inside since I added the bars. However, it was hot. I think they cluster outside to keep inside a little cooler. At the same time, the yard hive had hardly anyone outside:

This stimulated some thoughts about their behavior. Somehow, some of the bees decided to stay outside to help with the temperature problem. They were certainly foragers, but how do they decide to do that? Do they feel the heat and decide to stay out? Are the guard bees keeping them from coming in? Collectively they acted for the hive's benefit. This happens in other ways as well. They decide what jobs to do, they decide when the queen is losing her grip and start new ones, they kick out the drones when there are too many or they aren't needed.
There is no leader. The queen is just a single (usually) bee with special skills but the only thing she ever decides is when to swarm (they follow her) if it's actually her who makes the decision. This seeming chaos of tens of thousands of bees performs a variety of tasks and fairly efficiently, although if you watch individual bees, they seem to wander around without a purpose. An individual bee doesn't last long - it soon dies. There is no real existence without the hive, which is why the hive is cosidered the organism, not the bee, and why reproduction is swarming, not the birth of individual bees.
Somehow long ago honeybees evolved to this behavior. Other insects, including bumblebees are solitary, but honey bees decided on a communal effort, like ants and termites. It works for them. The sole purpose for the individual bee is the good of the hive; this even shows in defense when a bee sting is the last thing they do in life.

Breathing Room

Finally, the heat wave broke. I went in this morning to make adjustments to the porch hive which was out of space again. First, an observation. Some of the bees were clustered around the entrance trying to keep warm. I think this happens when there is not enough space inside and also perhaps when it is too warm in the hive. They'll start flying when it warms up.
There were bees on the bottom screen, so they are escaping again. I brushed them off and out the window. They were groggy this morning, so a lot went in a container and I dumped it out the window. Then I closed the hatch on the bottom until I can add another screen. I didn't suit up - they were not aggressive.
Next, I did suit and dealt with the feeder area which has become a morgue. The bottom was littered with dead bees. The live ones flew out and I swept the dead ones into the pan and out the window.
Finally, I was ready to add more bars - I decided on 4. I pried the end bar loose. Not easy, because, in addition to being sealed with propolis, there was a lot of comb. When they build comb for honey, they get sloppy and the comb goes on an angle, crosses bars, and is otherwise not uniform like it is with brood comb. Very few came out. I put in the 4 bars and returned the end bar with almost zero disturbance. What I did find was that they were filling the comb with honey. I don't know what the proporation might be between brood and honey, but my guess is that there could be 15 bars of honey stored! Could be a harvest this year, although at least they shouldn't starve in the winter.
The yard hive may be a little over 1/2 the size of the porch hive. I think it's having trouble with lack of sun and too much moisture. Whatever the reason, the porch location seems far better than the yard.

That's a lotta bees...

Just doing a quick update. The porch hive continues to grow. They are really good at producing more bees. The 3 new bars are getting close to full. Bees are clustering in the feeding and starting to move into the open space at back again. I may have to give them more bars to avoid swarming. Meanwhile, bees are oozing out through the bottom screen. Either they are expanding existing small holes or just pushing through. In any case, the number on the porch was increasing when J came home yesterday, so she took the screen out, put the cat in and shut the back door. Bees were on the bottom screen so I suited up, swept them off and closed the bottom cover temporarily. Since there isn't time to add another piece of screen, I used masking tape to cover the hole(s). The temperature is going close to 100 today and tomorrow, so I wanted the screen open. The tape is working for now.
Meanwhile, the back hive is smaller and fairly peaceful. I felt sorry for them so I fed them several days in a row. They finished a feeder every day. It is damper and shadier down there, so they are not as active. You can see the difference between the two hives.
Stay cool out there. For those of you in California, that's no problem. For us, it sucks. We had Cal. weather for a long while, but now the temp is going through the roof. Is this how it is in Denver?

Catching Up

Still learning how to manage a blog. Looks like it should be updated every day or two to make a habit of it.  We'll see.
It's been over 2 weeks since the last update (wax entry doesn't count). We spent a week in California, LA area, at the wedding of Lauren and Brian in the San Bernadino mountains. Weather was cool and dry, even near the Pacific at Santa Barbara and Laguna Beach. We came back to the same weather which is continuing, except for last Sunday which got to 94. Of course that's the day I played golf.
Anyway, the bees easily survived the trip with no feeding. The porch hive was packed with bees. Many had squeezed under the end bar because the weight of the others on the screen created a small gap. The feeder was also full of bees. Quite a few were escaping onto the porch and we spent some time trying to find the escape route. Turns out it was because they got past the end bar - that space just had pieces of cardboard covering it and there was a gap. Also, the lid wasn't meant to be really tight. Every time I opened the screen to let the escapees out, more showed up. Not good.
I tried cutting some wood to cover the space, but it was warped, so they still got out. Then I decided they just needed more space so I had to add bars. This meant moving the end bar and flipping the 3 extra bars I had into the main space.
For this, I got fully suited and shut the door to the house, of course. As soon as I pried the bar loose, they came flying and crawling out - very exciting. I managed to get the new bars in, but there were so many bees everywhere that there were a number of casualties. It's not always possible to tinker with the hive without killing some bees. There are always some wandering where you don't want them.
So the hive was re-established with more room. The porch emptied, with a little help from me. Note that if you wait until it's dark and cool, the bees just sit around in a group. I could brush them into a pan and dump them outside.
I also got some more wood and cut a lot of new bars. I replaced the warped wood with those so the there are no escape routes. After a few days, the bees in the space outside the end bar moved back in, as did many of the bees in the feeder. They have been busy ever since building more comb. The observation window makes it easy to see them as they string across an expanse attached leg to leg - weird, but it's one of the things they do.
I finally went in to remove the empty feeder this morning, mostly because dead bees were accumulating. The bees still appear to be confused by this space. It's outside the hive so they think it's an exit so they try to take the trash out that way. Eventually, they drop the dead bees out there.  When I opened it, they just flew right out the window, some carrying the trash. I removed the feeder, which was stuck with sugar water, so I had to jostle it. I also removed the corpses.  I'll watch now to see if they run out of space again. I'm reluctant to add more bars because the existing comb seems to have plenty of open cells. The bees seem to love building comb, maybe more than storing honey.
This is getting long, so I'll make a separate post for the outside hive.

Making Wax

I had some wax left over from last year's hive, even after I added bars of comb to the new hives, so I thought I'd try processing for wax. there are lots of videos on YouTube. so I followed one of those. I had an old Crock Pot I wasn't using, so I pressed it into service. Once you process wax with it, you can't use it for anythinig else - that's what the videos say and it's true.

I addeded as much comb as would fit and as much water as it would take and started heating. After an hour, everything was melted. The videos suggested a kitchen strainer, but I used a piece of window screen as a strainer as you can see below. There is a lot of gunk, some call it "slumgum" that rises to the top and strains out. It's all organic so it went in the compost pile. I don't have pics of that, but it really is gunk - dead bees and other junk. This simple method works because the wax floats above the water.

When everything cooled in the bucket, I pulled out the layer of wax and dumped the dirty water below it. That was the first step.  I put the wax pieces back in the crock pot (pic below) and added some more water, but not a lot for a second screening.


After melting that, I put it through multiple layers of cheese cloth. the result is below. You lose some wax in the process, but get the remaining dirty bits out. This is not cost effective for small amounts of wax, but would work with more.

I used an old skillet instead of bucket since there wasn't that much to process. This is what it looks like as it starts to solidify. It cools fairly quickly.

This is the resulting wax, pretty clean. It came out as a circle because of the skillet shape (duh). It's about 10" across and 1/8" thick - not much, maybe a small candle. Still, it is nearly pure beeswax. 

I didn't expect it to be that yellow - church candles are supposed to be pure beeswax and they are white. Jeanne has old church candles; the pic below shows the difference.  Turns out the manufacturer only guarantees at least 51% beeswax.  I haven't looked for information on what the color should be - so I don't know if it varies or needs more filtering or what.

So that's the beeswax adventure. It will be a while before I try again. It depends on a supply of comb. I'll save whatever I find until I have enough. It will have to be kept cold, though. I left the other too long and wax moths started to eat it. I did enjoy killing the grubs, some of which were in the slum gum.