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.

Approaching 6 weeks

6 weeks is the recommended time to stop feeding - that's Friday. However, they seem to be feeding faster than ever. Either there's nothing out there or they're taking the easy way out. Fed both on the 28th, then yesterday, the 30th, and this morning, the 31st. In every case except the outside hive this morning, they were bone dry. The outside had a little left. They won't get anything until next Wednesday or Thursday, so we'll see. They seem to have some cells with honey in them, so that's something to work with. I can't tell how much, though, because I can only see the edge of the comb. They continue to build a lot of comb even though they have plenty of room on the starter comb. Guess they can't help themselves. The available space is within a few bars of being full.

Day 34

I just fed both hives again! Hard to tell whether they are getting lazy or really need it. That's 4 days for the porch and 7 days for the yard. Both feeders were bone dry. (Where does that expression come from?) I waited til this morning for the yard because they were too active yesterday. The feeder area was empty so it was easy. I did the porch an hour ago and the area was full of bees. They didn't seem to mind. I removed a few dead bees - some of them still think this is an exit. I tossed the feeder out the window again with bees on it. Others just flew out. There was only one in the porch and I got it to crawl onto the brush and flicked it out the window. Colum Ceil (the fat old cat) was on the floor snoozing and wasn't bothered at all.

They continue to chain and build more wax. No luck yet seeing the queen or emerging new bees, but I'll keep looking. There are a lot more bees in both hives, so the numbers must be increasing. Even though they are using the feeders heavily, there is a lot of foraging.

Sugar usage calculates to 15 lbs so far.

Day 30

Ok, so I can't do arithmetic anymore. Day 22 was actually day 24. Fed the porch again yesterday (7th time) and yard on the 17th (6th time). Feeding is getting easy. I put on the protective gear but didn't need it. I took the screen out, took the empty feeder out, with a number of bees on it, shook them out the window and only had one left inside. It crawled on the glove and I moved her outside. Very easy.

Both hives are up to about 10 full bars of wax - much easier given that they started with the old bars. Lots of brood and honey cells. I can just see some from the edge. The queen must be on the window side sometime, so I hope to see her some day.

June 2 is the 6 week mark where they should not need any more feeding.

Day 22

Ok, so the titles aren't very imaginative, but they are easy. 6 weeks is a milestone, which is 42 days. If the hive is growing and prosperous, we're good for the summer. Right now, it's pretty clear that both hives are in good shape with active queens.

In this pic, you can see the new comb - it starts out stark white, probably from the sugar. The porch hive is now building across 11 bars! 8 are nearly complete and the bees are very active filling in the missing bars. I had spaced out the old comb and the bees seem to want to fill in the gaps. They are doing their thing spanning the gaps with a bee chain.

I've been able to see a few brood cells toward the front, where they are expected to be. No luck seeing the queen are taking better pictures as yet; the one above is the only decent one so far. I have tried shining a flashlight up through the bottom screen. It has some interesting effects. I like this shot on an artistic basis, but it doesn't you much about the hive.

I fed the porch hive on the 5th, 9th, and 14th, so that's 6 times so far. The yard hive was fed on the 5th and 11th, 5 times.



Here's a great video on you tube; just takes a few minutes:  The beauty of pollination

Day 10

I replaced both feeders yesterday - 3rd time in 10 days and both were bone dry. Every sign I can see suggests they are doing well. There is a lot of activity, whatever they are doing, and clearly they are eating a lot. They are continuing to forage; I see some with full loads of pollen on their legs. There should be a lot of activity starting Friday when the weather warms up and dries out.

The bees are starting with a number of bars of wax from the old hive, which is a major leg up. I think I read that the effort to make a pound of wax is the same as that for 8 pounds of honey.  They have been cleaning and repairing the old wax and there are no dead bees on the bottom screen any more.

When I opened the feeder area on the porch, a few bees came out. I removed the screen and most went out and into the hive. Later, I saw that one managed to get into the kitchen. She was attracted to the overhead fluorescent light, just as I had read - they must be part moth. This morning, she was there again and I decided to remove her. The ceiling is 9 1/2 ft, so I put a dab of honey on the end of a pole and touched her with it. Her butt stuck to the honey. I carried her out to the porch and she had already sorted herself out and was eating the honey. I removed the screen (the weather is cold and damp so no one else was out) and put her on the window sill with the honey. Problem solved.

On a separate note, I was thinking about small hive beetles. I've read that their life cycle requires returning to the ground for a period. If you can interrupt that, it should either get rid of them or reduce the numbers. Since the porch hive is 12 ft off the ground, seems like that should do the trick. It makes me wonder whether hives on the roof of a building, like Weaver's Way in Chestnut Hill, have a SHB problem. Have to follow up on that. 

I've tried to take some photos, but it doesn't work very well through the windows. There's something on the inside that's cloudy. The window picks up reflections so using a flash doesn't help.

So Far, So Good

I replaced both feeders (which were empty) on Wednesday. One of the bees on the porch managed to get under my pants leg and sting me through my sock. Ingrate...  

I replaced the outside feeder Friday and the inside feeder tonight. They are definitely hungry.

I can see the queen cage through the observation window outside - empty. Can't tell inside, but everything seems to be going well. I may not bother pulling the queen cages - the worst they can do is build comb around them, I think.

A few minor observations

The bees seem fine. As it warmed up, both hives starting flying around outside - very active. I have no idea what they're doing, they just seem to be flying around the entrance.  There were lots of them at the feeders. Curiously, there are a number of dead bees in each one. I don't think anything is killing them in there, so I wonder if the workers are treating it as "outside" and using it as a trash can.

I decided to go in at dark and remove the dead ones, but  some were still feeding. I thought they stopped for the night, but it looks like they keep on going - a bunch of little Everready bunnies. The main hive was active as well. I guess it makes sense since the hive is dark all the time - they must not need light to keep working.

The porch feeder is almost empty. I'll try again in the morning to remove the bees and replace the feeder.  It will be colder so maybe they'll be quiet enough.                        

Waiting...

There's always something to worry about when keeping bees,isn't there? They've been here for three days, but I worry that they grew up in warm, sunny Georgia and came here to heavy rain and cold weather. They are huddled together for warmth in both hives, probably too cold to get to the feeders. Should  I close the bottom, which is screened, to keep them warmer but which might reduce circulation and cause dampness problems? I decided to close them this morning because it was 40 degrees but open them later. Should I put the storm window back in the back porch, replacing the screen?

Then there's the queens. Will they be accepted and get out of the container? Because of the observation window I could see the container in the back yard hive and the queen is out. But - the sugar plug is still there. How did she get out and leave it there? Doesn't seem like enough room. The bees did shift; they covered the container before, so they must be adjusting to her presence. I can't see the container on the porch hive. It's still covered by bees.

I worry about the design. Because I have the feeders at the opposite end of the hive from the entrance, the hive space is larger than it probably should be.  Is this too much for them to keep warm? Can they still get to the feeders? There are a number of bars of old comb from the previous hive, but they still leave a lot of space.

The porch hive has a pile of dead bees on the floor. Why haven't they been removed - is it because it's too cold for them to get to work? And, are they the new bees or are the old bees that were still in the old comb and have been removed?

On the plus side, the design seems good. The observation windows are great. They are easy and non-invasive. The back yard queen is out. Lots of bees are alive, though huddled together. They found the feeders, particularly on the porch.

Back to waiting. At least three weeks before the first new bees, if the queens are successful. Looking occasionally (daily?) for signs of comb building, cleanup and foraging. Six weeks to see if the number of bees is growing and ready to live without feeding.

Good luck to those of you with new (or old bees).

Installation (read previous post first)

It took 35 minutes to get home. I figured the back yard install would be easy, since I had done it before, but the porch would be the challenge. I did the back yard first. I had already put a sugar water feeder in its little stall. Sprayed the bees with sugar water - Jim Bobb says you can't overspray them as far as he knows. Got the queen out and she was alive, so far so good. This time, I melted some wax on the back of the queen box, after brushing off her outside entourage. It seemed to stick on the side of the hive ok. I thought this would be better than the duct tape I used last year.

Temperature was in the 70's so the bees were very active. I am reusing comb from the last hive so I moved it out of the way and removed some empty bars and dumped the bees in. I did manage to get the bars arranged properly without squooshing too many of them. Left the package on the ground in front of the hive and moved away - they really were all over the place, including around my head and landing on me occasionally.

Now it was time for the porch hive. First, I had to install the queen. I wasn't sure about the wax method, so I cut a little piece of wood and screwed it into the side of the hive horizontally. Then, I got her out of the package and used the wax. So far, so good (she was also alive).  I did remember to remove the right cork for both queens, and decided not to used Jim Bobb's technique. He leaves both corks in and goes in 4 days later to remove the cork that lets her out right away. He does this because he doesn't trust the bees to eat through the sugar plug and also because he doesn't mind going into the hive.

The biggest problem I could see was how to get the bees out of the porch after dumping them. I took out one storm window to give them an exit.  After the sugar water spray and thumping the box, I dumpted them. The package is the same size as the top bars so I just put the package in place upside down. However, they didn't seem in a rush to exit, so I had to find a place to put the package near the entrance and let them find their way. I meant to have a solution, but didn't. What I finally did was pretty hokey, but it worked.  A 20 ft extension ladder comes to just under the window sill. Since the package wasn't the right size to just sit on the top rungs, I wedged it under the sill - see photo. This worked.

Meanwhile, some of the bees were having trouble finding their way out of the porch. They persisted in trying to get out of the other storm windows. I guess that individually they're not that bright. I left this arrangement alone so the bees could get organized.

Here are some answers to questions I had:

• They found the feeders pretty quickly; I didn't know if they would. I'll watch to see if they try to seal the sliding plastic doors I have. They may if they think this is part of the hive.
• The packages were empty in an hour or so.
• The porch bees figured out the entrance pretty quickly although you could see that they examined them very closely - 5 in. tubes of PVC.
• The bees settled down in the hive towards night time. That left the dummies on the porch hanging around the storm windows. I finally put a screen in so the window wasn't totally open.
• When night came, the dummies settled quietly. I realized that I could brush them into a container and dump them in the hive. They're almost all gone from the porch. The cold damp weather today also helped because I could get most of the rest in day time. There were still bees at the feeder, though, so it looks like that idea will work.
• I did get stung twice - very minor.
• The observation window is a wonderful thing. I could see that today the bees were huddled together on the old comb keeping warm. I need to use a flashlight to see anything.
• Now the wait begins. Will the queens get out of the boxes, be accepted and start laying?  Bees will be dying and have to be replaced. It will be at least 3 weeks before any new ones appear. 6 weeks is the waiting period to see if the hives are functioning.           

I don't have any other photos for now.  There wasn't anything else to see that was really different from previous photos.                           

The Bees Are Here!

•  April 21 finally arrived. I went to Worcester Honey Farms in Montgomery County to pick up two packages. It's just off route 73 near the Peter Wentz Farmstead. More than 100 packages were being picked up.
• These are various shots of the property, mostly of Jim Bobb (yes, his real name, but Bobb is his surname) demonstrating how to install a package.
• This is where I got my package last year.  
• There are a lot of beehives on the property.
• The bees, including the queens, are from Georgia. Jim Bobb picked them up on Thursday. Apparently, he helps making the packages. They had so many bees that the packages have more bees than usual - they were dumping them just to keep the hives from swarming.
• Most of the customers are in their first or second year of beekeeping.
• The demo was mostly familiar info and dealt more with Langstroth hives, so I didn't get much out of it, except that Jim kept pointing out problems that could occur that I didn't know about.
• Helene was there picking up her first package.  

The new bees arrive on the 21st - less than two weeks. They will have missed the enormous amount of pollen that's been around for weeks, but that can't be helped. I finished the cover for the insider hive and painted it what was meant to be a honey color. It is, kind of.

Meanwhile, recent bee news reports a Harvard study on CCD. This mystery appeared in 2005/6, right after use began of neonicotinoids on corn. This is an insecticide that is absorbed by the seed and permeates the plant for its lifetime. The study exposed bee colonies to a small dose of imadacloprid (one of the neonicotinoids) and also had control colonies which were not exposed. After 23 weeks, 15 of the 16 exposed colonies had CCD. All 5 of the control colonies were healthy. Here's a link to the article: http://news.mongabay.com/2012/0405-hance_colonycollapse_pesticides.html?utm_campaign=General+news&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_source=SNS.analytics

The really inisidious suggestion is that imadacloprid gets in the bees from high fructose corn syrup, that cheap sweetener of choice for the food industry. What does it do to us?

In colonies with CCD, the bees just disappear, as apposed to most problems where you have piles of dead bees in or around the hive. Apparently, this poison affects the bees' homing instincts so that they can't find their way back to the hive. Most testing mechanisms look for short term effects resulting in dead bees, so they wouldn't discover these results.

The results are convincing, but not conclusive. Scientists always try to reproduce results to confirm or deny the original findings. Personally, I think it is one more instance of big agriculture damaging us while thinking that they are on a noble mission to feed the world.  Grow your own and think organic. 



I installed the improved old hive last week. All the openings are sealed, waiting for the new package on 4/23.                         

I leveled it this time using the blocks, which I hope will interrupt the life cycle of the small hive beetles, although I'm not sure the blocks cover enough ground.

This is the new hive on the porch. I haven't finished the top but everything else is done. The new bees arrive April 23.  It's a shame that they are missing all the pollen that's out there now.

The feeder is in the middle because the entrance is on the right. Observation windows on either side.  



Here are the entrance holes. I rebuilt the storm window. The entrances are " (inside diameter) PVC pipes 5 inches long. They are about 12 feet off the ground so I think it will cause the hive beetles serious problems.

Closeup of the entrance.

Entrance from the inside. I put the pipes flush with the inside.  Lining up the hive and the storm window was a serious challenge but it was successful.

Hive Improvements



The door to the observation window is closed; the feeder is on the right.

Feeder is at end away from center entrance; plexiglass window on left to see who's eating; hole in hive provides access from inside (honey area); sliding plexiglass door allows easy access to feeder.

Observation window open; you can see a lot of propolis on the inside. The door is actually the wood that was cut out to make the window.

this is from inside; caulk used to seal the window; no other attachment needed.

Bottom board hanging open; you can sort of see the screen.

I was able to do this because I have done a lot of carpentry and have a full shop in the basement. Most of the materials were already there.  

Links and Observations

So, the previous sequence of photos verifies that the bees in a top bar hive build brood comb near the entrance and honey away from the entrance.

I did find some cells that are 4.9 mm, although most are 5.4 mm. Matt suggests that bees that start at 5.4 and do not have foundation will gradually move to small cell (4.9). Finding some 4.9 does suggest that.

At a beekeeping conference on Sunday, I heard that the cells are not horizontal, but angled upward at 4-5 degrees. Sure enough, they are. Makes sense to help keep things in. One implication is that, when brushing bees off comb, brush towards the bar so that any bees partly in a cell are not caught.

 I'm saving the bars for the next hives so the new bees will have a head start. There are a lot of bees in cells head first. I don't know whether the new bees will clean out the bodies or avoid them because they are dead. I started removing the dead ones, but it's a slow process; we'll see how much patience I have.

No sign of the queen. She may have been in the first batch I gave to Rachel.


Various Beekeeping Web Links:
Resistant Bees
The Barefoot Beekeeper
Dave's Bees
Warre Beekeeping
The Melissa Garden
Eastern Apicultural Society  - list of Beekeeping organizations under Links
Honey Bees - Letters from the Hive  - book
Honey Bee Suite
The Practical Beekeeper - this is Michael Bush, major expert
Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association
Philadelphia Beekeepers

Post Mortem - part 2

Seems like the blog software gets erratic when the blog gets long. This is a continuation of the previous entry, so you should read it first; it has comb 1 - 6.  Here's 7 - 10:

7. Similar to 6; some drone cells on left; even more honey cells; also broke when I moved it. It's hard to see but honey comb does not follow bar well. \Brood comb shows much more discipline.

8. Same as 7, but more honey cells.

9. Weird; odd shape; lots of drone cells; that's my finger at upper left.

10. Only honey; smaller than the rest.

Note: there was NO honey anywhere in the hive; when I took this comb out and brought the hive inside, there were still some bees moving around aimlessly. They ignored any food and soon died. There were also plenty of hive beetles. Any of those moving have been squooshed.

Post Mortem

It took me a while, but here are the pix of the last 10 bars in the hive. They begin from the center, at the entrance, and go to the end of the hive.

1. Most of the comb is dark because it's brood. Since it's reused, it keeps getting darker. The bees are dead, but they stick to the comb. It's like a freeze frame - very strange.

2. Very similar to first; orange at center left is probably brood that didn't hatch.

3. Ditto; near the top you can see the bees head first in cells.

4. Ditto; but then things start changing...

5. Less brood; more honey cells (light color)

6. This broke when I moved it; it was stuck to the side. The brood cells on the left are for drones. 6.7 mm vs. 5.4 mm, which most of the cells are. 

The Demise

Rachel picked up a load of bees on Sunday - about 2/3 of a shoebox full. Tuesday, with the warm weather, I opened again and went through the last 10 bars. Nearly all were dead - a few were moving very slowly. I brought the hive indoors and began dissecting the hive, taking photos of each bar as I went to see what I could learn. I kept them in sequence from what was the middle to one end.
I'll post those in sequence next time.
I collected and sorted through everything. I have 12 bars full of comb. Some have bees in the cells; I'm not sure whether I need to take them out or not, but I can reuse the comb in the next hive. There are also 8 bars with partial comb.
The cells are consistently 5.4 mm across. Even though they had no foundation to work from (foundation gives them a preset cell size), they still used this size. Bees naturally build to 4.9 mm, but most have been trained to the larger size. This has been done to increase the honey yield. However, I just read that this attracts varroa mites, which is one of the current major problems. Apparently, varroa is from Asia and there they like to invade drone cells, which just happen to be 5.4 mm. Going to 5.4 mm for all cells attracts them to the wrong place. Don't mess with Mother Nature...
So why did these bees build to that size? I think it's because the original group of bees from Georgia were trained that way so the first comb was built to that size. Also, they may have a genetic predisposition to do it from selective breeding. Have to check on that. As new bees came into being, I guess they just kept doing the same thing. Other beekeepers solve that problem either by retraining their bees are by purchasing bees that have been retrained.
Whatever the size, somehow the bees build nearly perfect hexagons to exactly that size. I measured 10 cells and got exactly 5.4 mm. There are patches of larger cells, probably drones, that are 6.7 mm. Drones are bigger, so the cells are bigger.
I collected about as many bees as the first time and Rachel can take them as well. I separated the hive beetles to see how many there were - a fair amount but not overwhelming.
I've also taken the hive apart and cleaned it up. I plan to add an observation window and a way to feed them.

The cells at the top and right are larger than the other cells. The smaller cells were probably not used.

Opening the hive

I was advised to open the hive, so I did. There were piles of dead bees. I started removing bars (about a dozen) until I found one with a few bees still vibrating. I scooped out the dead bees on the bottom, so I have a sizable amount for Rachel. After this result, I was further advised to feed them immediately. I haven't had enough time to do that, but I'm getting some sugar and making fondant. Tomorrow afternoon I'll put it in the hive and hope there are still some bees left.

This is how most of the comb looked in the bars I pulled out. The bees are hung on the comb and can be brushed off.


In many sections, towards the top, you see bees in the cells head first. I guess they were getting the last scrap of food.

I carried the bars inside in a larger box. Plenty of bees fell off, but I also noticed some hive beetles. I have to separate the two to see how many hive beetles there are.

I'm going to make some fondant and feed them tomorrow. I just haven't had time yet.

What to do about the dead bees?

Phila Beekeepers Guild has 2 Facebook groups. I posted the following question today:

Now that the snow is gone, I checked the hive, from outside only. I have a TBH with entry on the side (1 inch holes). Bees were piled at the entries. I collected bees on the ground and used a screwdriver to pull bees out of the holes into a box, thinking of Rachel's art work. I got a few hundred all together. Today, I used a flashlight and saw that bodies were piled against the entries. I can think of 3 possibilities: 1) the bees are dying and piling up, 2) the housekeepers are piling the bees the bees against the cold, 3) the housekeepers are not strong enough to push them out. If 1, I open and explore, if 2, I leave it alone, if 3, I pull them out but don't open. This is my first year and first hive so I don't have anything to go on. Any thoughts?

Waiting for answers. The reference to "Rachel" is to a Temple art student who joined the group and asked for a lot of dead bees. She heard about CCD and wants to do an art work illustrating it. Of necessity, it requires a lot of dead bees.

Winter Activity

Temperature 45 degrees. Sun is on the hive. Some of the bees are active, going in and out. They're not finding anything, of course, but apparently this is all it takes to get them moving.

Happy New Year

Here's looking forward to a great 2012, especially for the bees.

The temperature was in the 50's today so I visited the bees briefly. I have seen a few bodies on the little porch. There were three today. I looked closely on the ground and did see some more, maybe 20 altogether. I think that's normal since bees are always dying and the ones still around are fastidious about the hive, so they drag them outside. Some posts in the Beekeepers Guild have mentioned some hives that have died off completely - they will see piles of bees outside the hive; nothing like that here.

I am surprised that some of the keepers will open their hives to have a look when they get a warm day. I have adopted the very cautious philosophy to leave the be until late March. I can live with the suspense and do not want to disturb their carefully constructed defense against the cold. They have everything sealed except the 3 entry holes and going in would break some of those seals.

I'm still thinking about the next hive to put on the back porch and intend to build it over the winter. I mentioned it in the December 11 post. It will be similar to the current hive but the roof will be flat and simpler since it doesn't have to protect against rain. Also, the entry has to be at one end since the hive will jut out from the porch wall; there will be a pipe(s) through the wall for access. I don't know how that works yet. I have to have the hive outside when the bees are installed since it takes a day or so for them to find their way. Then the entrances have to be plugged and the hive carried up to the porch and the pipes set for the entries.