The Politics of Bees

We are learning to become less distressed when one of our hives swarms.  We have had two swarms in the last week, one from each hive, and B has caught both and set up new colonies.  Sunday as we were grafting trees, I looked over at the garden and said "Oh no honey, there's a swarm!"  It looked like a tornado of bees.  They were all flying in crazy eight fashion and if you can see the small dark ball in the left side of the photo above, they were all catching the scent of and making their way to the queen that they chose to stay with.

You see, swarms are rarely total and many times as a result of there being a strong competing queen that has hatched.  The hive simply does not have the ability to handle these two strong women, so one vacates, and a portion of the population follows.  Just a little hive politics.

This was our giant Perone colony, and we know there to have been at least one large queen cell in development...it is still intact by the way, so there may be another swarm in the near future.  We were lucky this time, because the branch was not as high up as the previous swarm and she chose a rather flimsy one that B could cut easily, and place directly into a retrofitted bankers box.

As when leaving the hive, where the queen goes, the others follow and they all ended up nicely in the box within about half an hour.

Ironically, B had just installed two bate hives up in trees in our yard to either catch our own swarms or others looking for a home.  This group had not gotten so far as a permanent residence though and we used our last hive boxes to give them new digs.

We have set up housing for our most recent two hives on a different area of the property from the original two, and we hope this little colony takes on the attributes of the master across the yard and grows quickly.

So the positive way to look at your hives swarming, is that in many instances you have given home to robust colonies that are expanding in the ecosystem.  With both the importance of and danger to our honeybees, even if we do not catch a swarm, we have let something good off into our environment.

To Swarm or Not To Swarm..

The long weekend brought about tons of busy farm activities, but most exciting were the bees.  We had two hives survive our frigid winter and though both are strong, one in particular is massive.  B has done a ton of research and as a result our beekeeping friend has been working this winter on a Perone hive for us.  We were concerned about the hive swarming and have been waiting anxiously for the new one to be done so that we could try to transition this particular hive into the new larger system.  Though we were hosting our Tastebuds dinner club on Memorial Day, when B got the call that the hive was done, he raced out to get it (a 3 hour round trip).  Timing is everything as they say and when I moseyed out to the garden to pick some rhubarb for a simple syrup the air was alive with a hummmmm.

When I looked over I panicked.  It appeared that the hive was getting ready to swarm.  Darn it!  The bees went from covering the hive for about 15 minutes to bearding at the bottom.  The humming decreased  and then several minutes later the beard had reduced by 2/3.  I did not hear the airplane like sound of a swarm leaving, but I felt it looked suspect.  While with our friend, they engaged the help of another beekeeper, the gentlemen whom we occasionally purchase queens from.  He settled our fears some as there can be a number of reasons for the sight that I saw.

~  Our day was turning out to be our warmest of the season, and incredibly humid.  It is not unusual for bees, in high humidity, to exit the damp hive and air out, then return in.

~  We know that the brood chamber was overflowing.  This sudden appearance, then disappearance of bees can be a result of a large simultaneous hatch.

~  There could have been two vigorous queens and we had a small swarm with one of them.

When B returned home with the new hive, he immediately suited up and added the new larger hive below our Warre boxes.  Within hours the hive was calm and back to business as usual.

We do not for certain know what happened, but based on visual appearance we lost only a small swarm, if we lost one at all.   What a way to get the adrenaline going just before Tastebuds!

Farm Frenzy

This weekend was all about plants and animals around the homestead.  The garden is thriving in our warm and muggy weather and the bees are pollinating like crazy.  I love walking through the garden and knowing that the bees doing their business are ours (or very likely so).  Even though the mosquitoes seem to be getting thicker by the hour we can not resist spending our time outdoors.

Our new little barn kitten Hickory (Cory for short) is adjusting wonderfully to her large kennel safe haven on the porch.  We named her after grandpa hickory out in the wooded area where we found her.  She is socializing beautifully and full of energy.  She is getting lots of love and play time and slowly exploring while always going back to home base to rest or if she gets spooked.  I am also happy to report she has litter box duties down pat!

We were so glad that we enticed her out when we did because Saturday night mama raccoon ushered all four of her kits out of the tree and scurried them off into the woods.  It seemed a little early for them to be out, but then fifteen or twenty minutes later Sid and I heard a large crash and the porch jumped.   A large branch from the hammock tree (where the raccoons had taken up residence) had just come down out of the blue.  I think maybe mama sensed pending danger and evacuated the household.  We have not seen her or the kits since.

Since both of the hives swarmed at the beginning of the summer, we have given them a little time to make a new queen.  After inspecting the hives on Friday, to our disappointment, neither hive had any new brood, so we knew that we had to get them new queens or give up on them.  We hate to give up on anything so we drove about an hour South yesterday to visit a gentlemen who has been beekeeping since the early 1970's and breeds queens.  After a tour of his hives and some advice, we left with two lovely queens who seemed to be immediately welcomed into their new homes.  Not thirty seconds after introducing the queen box to one of the hives, there were bees feeding her!

This is the time of year to buy herb plants because the season is in full swing and the garden centers are already trying to make room for fall mums.  That means that everything is on clearance and perfect when you are wanting to buy any volume of them.  We planted 18 lavender plants in one of the large raised garden beds.  I wanted a permanent place for a big stand of gorgeous purple and I recently found out that lavender is a great deer repellant.  Though I love that we have mama and fawn living in the back of the property, they have begun to take a bit of a toll on parts of the garden, so we will see if this acts as a gentle deterrent.

The homestead is just alive with plants and animals (us included) and they all have a symbiotic relationship; ebbing and flowing with one another in a controlled sort of farm frenzy.

If you want to see all of the homestead happenings over the weekend check this out.

Silent Sunday ~ Buzz

Liquid Sunlight

What better way to prepare for the Autumnal Equinox tomorrow, than to bottle little bits of liquid sunlight. 

So far 21 pounds (~ 10 liters), and we may get one more pound.  Not too bad for a first season and harvesting only a box and a half!

Silent Sunday~ Busy

Swarm Follow-up ~ Re-Hiving

Yesterday evening, once B returned with the hive, he transferred the bees from the box to their new home.  It all begins with removing a few bars (the guides for them to build their comb) and dumping, yes, I said dumping,  the bees into the hive.



This process takes only a couple of minutes and they immediately start to acclimate.   Amazingly, once the box was empty we noticed that the lid had the starts of comb being made on it!  They had only been in there for a couple of hours!



Once the box is emptied, B replaced the bars that he had removed.



Then carefully slid on the quilt.



At this point we all gathered around the front to watch the ones that were flying around line up to march in the front door.  It was so cool to see.  The bees that have their butts in the air facing outward are wildly flapping their wings.  This is called fanning.  They do this to alert (fan) the other bees from their swarm to their queens scent.  Home Sweet Home.

Operation Swarm Containment

This morning as we were getting ready to head out the door, B called me out to the orchard.  There was a giant mass of bees swarming.  My first thought was panic.  Oh no is one of our hives vacating??  I checked them on my way there and they were both fine, humming along as normal.  Then, when I got to B's location it was amazing.  A funnel cloud shape of thousands, I think tens of thousands of bees all swarming up to a branch 30 feet above us.  What an amazing sight!  And the sound was hypnotic. ( you can take a listen by playing the video at the end of the post.)

So since it's a day and a half until we leave town and we've been racing around with laundry, currant harvest and cordial making, farm bag distribution, dress picking up, and soccer, of course we now must also attempt to capture a wild swarm to add to our homestead.  It's just how we roll.

We called our friendly beekeeper (the one who made our hives) and he gave us some directions on capturing it.  We did a little bit more research via the Google, then as soon as we got home set about operation swarm containment.



Since the swarm decided to settle very high up, B figured out which branch, and decided that with the combination of a partial cut and a pulley system we should be able to (hopefully) gently bring the branch down then shake the swarm into a box.



The key when trying to capture the swarm is to make sure that you get the queen.  Wherever the queen goes, the rest will follow.  The initial attempt jarred the branch a little more than we would have liked, but with a portion of the bees down and the branch lower we were able to watch and see where the bees congregated (i.e. queen).



B then rigged the branch so that the pulley had it bowed low enough that he could approach it with a box and a large stick,  give the branch a couple of good knocks, and the bees would fall into the box.  Spraying them with a little sugar water calms them and so he did that just prior to the transfer.



This went quite well though he felt that the queen was still with a small cluster on the tree branch.  At this point he could cut this small branch and add it directly into the box.



Within 15 minutes all of the bees were in the box!  So operation swarm containment was quite successful.  Now B is driving about an hour from here to pick up another hive, then at dusk, we'll transfer the lot into it.



Bees are amazing creatures.  Through all of this, even with thousands of bees flying around B, they didn't attack him.  He did get one sting, but not during the capture, only because when he lidded the box, one bee got squished and stung him on his gloved finger then.   During the whole process I was anywhere from 10 feet to right up close (depending on what stage) and never had any concern.  I am also thankful that our bee keeper resource is so generous as to have B go to his house while he's not home and retrieve what we need to get these guys situated.  He had even offered to come out and help us late tonight after he gets back from his family activities.  Such generosity warms the heart.

I can say we have checked one off of the bucket list.  Hmmm, now since bees swarm only a short distance from their previous hive, we may next have to search our hollow trees for some honey!!

Check out the video to get a feel for the amazing swarm symphony!

The Bees Have Been Hived!

Today was the day!  B drove to Waukesha to pick up two sets of bees totaling around 30,000!

 They arrive in boxes that have a queen who is housed in a separate little box in the center so they can all get accustomed to her scent.

These are some bees attending to the queen.  That little cork in the bottom gets pulled out and replaced with a mini marshmallow.  Once the marshmallow is eaten through the queen is released into the hive.  This process usually takes 4-5 days.

First, the queen is placed in the hive, and then you can introduce the bees one of two ways.  Either do a dump straight through the top where you placed the queen, or set a platform for them to walk up.  Due to the time of day and the coolness of the weather,  we opted for the dump method.

It takes just a couple of minutes for the majority of the bees to tumble out.

Several hundred still remain in the box, but we gently set it next to the hives and the remaining bees will make their way into the hive when they pick up the queen's scent.

We then add a bag with a 50/50 sugar water solution to the area just below the quilt so they have some food to kick start their move in process.

Then place the top on the hive,

and repeat on the other one.

That leaves us with two complete Warre hives!  We have had the closer one for a week or so and B put an aluminum roof on it.  He will be duplicating that on the other hive next.