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.

Recent Reading

An analysis of bee collection data over the past 130 years shows that spring arrives about 10 days earlier than in the 1880s, and bees and flowering plants have kept pace by arriving earlier in lock-step. The study also found that most of this shift has occurred since 1970, when the change in mean annual temperature has increased most rapidly, according to Bryan Danforth, Cornell professor of entomology, who co-authored a study published the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Dec. 5, 2011.)
-- Bee Culture Blog by Kim Flottum (sign up at http://www.beeculture.com/)

"... honey bees must consume between 6.6 and 8.8 pounds of honey to produce one pound of beeswax."
-- Bee Culture magazine, Dec 2011, p.55.
This is an obvious reason why most beekeepers use artificial foundation and comb to increase production. On the other hand, wax is more valuable than honey. I prefer to let the bees do whatever the hell they want to do. I'm clearly not going into producing honey for income any time soon. I've been resistant to opening the hive to inspect which is something most keepers do frequently. Seems like it gives the bees a lot more work to reseal with propolis.

Some other plants that bees like: clover, alfalfa, fruit and nut trees, Linden trees, Black Locust tres, Rasberry brambles. Willow, Alder and Asters are important for pollen rather than nectar.

Queen of the Sun

We went to a bee movie last week at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute:
Queen of the Sun - What are the Bees Telling Us? http://www.queenofthesun.com/
Take a look at the link, you'll get some idea of the content. Most of the information was familiar, but seeing film and closeups of so many things was a real eye opener. Also, some of the people they found were pretty strange. It starts with the woman you see in the pic on the website dancing, covered by bees! The director and the producer came on via Skype after the movie for a Q&A. They said she got about 15 stings dancing - that's why her upper lip is puffy. Pretty good concentration. If you want to see it, it's a crap shoot. They list the viewings on the website and they're all over the map.

Towards the end, I started thinking about the next hive. I've noticed that most keepers have more than one. They can be right next to each other and the bees figure out which one is theirs. I was thinking of doing that in the yard, next to the first one, but I saw an indoor hive a few weeks ago and realized I could put one on the porch. The entry would be 10 feet off the ground so there would be no interference.

I saw an indoor hive at the last Guild meeting a few weeks ago on the 3rd floor of a school. It was all glass/plexiglass. The entrance was a pipe that went through the wall to outside. The hive is sealed inside. It's for educational purposes for the students. A woman on the Guild board manages it. She says when she does maintenance, she puts on the full suit, shuts the door and opens a window. Any escapees just go out the window and back in the hive.

The back porch has screens in the summer and storm windows in the winter. It will be protected from moisture both because the porch has a roof and the hive will be well above ground. The first hive is in the wettest part of the yard. The word is that moisture is more of a problem for the bees than temperature.

I will be thinking about design. It will still be a form of Top Bar, but it will definitely have an observation window - I regret not doing it for the first one. The window needs a cover since the bees prefer darkness in the hive. The cover will be different since there is much less of a moisture issue.

The entrance(s) will be towards one end. Matt recommends that. I think the bees tend to work from one end to the other. In the 1st hive, they started building in the middle because of the entrances, I guess. When they're trying to get through the winter, they work their way through the honey supply. If they don't start at one end, they work their way to an end then are reluctant to skip over to the other end. Apparently, they prefer being warm to eating - not necessarily a good survival skill for the winter.

I'll have my fingers crossed about the 1st hive until late March. The bees have been out briefly when it's been warm enough, but it's getting too cold and they haven't been out for a while.

Next year, let the weeds grow for the bees when you can. Most of the top listings seem to be weeds; no idea why. However, they do like bee balm and lavender. There are lots of others; in case of doubt, plant things with flowers. I'll list more as I find them.

October Snow

The pre-halloween snowstorm covered the hive, but melted off in a day or two. Yesterday, when the sun hit the hive, the bees were out in force, so it seems it was no problem. We've reached the point where we just wait until March to see if they survive the winter.