Autumn Leaves

The Ohio leaves are slowly turning their wonderful autumn colors. Cool air has visited the Columbus area, and is cueing the honeybees to begin final preparations for winter. For the first time this season, the hive is nearly full of comb (only 3 frames without). The outer combs are heavy with capped honey, and the Queen  is still producing eggs! I have begun placing corks in the entrance holes, to help the warmth of the hive during some of our cold nights. 

The hive will be brought into the garage during the winter, as we help this new hive survive the cold. My dad and I drilled a hole through the garage wall and fastened one of the wood panels with a hinge, to allow for an entrance/exit hole. We will connect the exterior hole to one of the top-bar hive entrances, with a piece of tubing. While the garage will still be cold, the hive will not have to endure any harsh winds - and can even be lightly blanketed. 

Images to come soon! 

Extreme Hive Makeover (Photos)

Brood in burr comb removed and placed above top-bars so bees can tend to larvae.

White pupa they are trying to move into a cell. 

Helping the cause. There is brood on both sides of this comb, so I propped it up with a rock to allow better access. 

Combs attached via hair clamps and string. 

Extreme Hive Makeover (Text)

This morning top-bar beekeeper, Chris L., *befriended via Facebook*, visited from southern Ohio with his family to help remove burr and straighten caddywompus combs. It was great to have him up and share insight with me in person, since most of our chats have been online. It was so interesting, I forgot to take photographs!

The hive looks healthy and docile, with a strong productive queen (which was marked today). My only sting for the day was on the foot, when a bee got between my sandal. Chris, who usually gets about 15-30 "casualties" with his hives, received just 2 or 3 stings only wearing a hood. Braver man than I! He said these were the nicest bees he's seen - good to know :) ...but he also informed me they would probably become more aggressive as the years progress.

We used hair clamps to secure some of the combs to the top-bars (photo to come later) and now have a nice set-up to help the bees builder straighter. For the first time, the hive has all the top-bars in place! Chris told me a technique to encourage the hive to build smaller comb, resulting in smaller and even healthier bees - more on that later when I learn more about it.

Lots of Cool Photos

Summer courses at OSU have kept me busy, but today I cracked the hive open to take these photos!

Big Comb! (Middle-rear)

Center of the hive.

Hive panorama. 17 Combs!

So Sad...

This week, I have noticed the combs starting to be attached to the side-walls. In an effort to slow this process down, one of the center-most combs fell... Smashed some larvae in the process. So sad to lose some babies! After ticking them off enough for one day, I closed up the hive, with plans to re-enter later this week - with the ultimate goal of getting the final top-bar in, that has been sitting outside the hive since the queen cage was originally installed.

I checked out most all the combs in the back portion of the hive. Still have not seen the queen but there is evidence of her with the large number of larvae. The hive is definitely growing at a fantastic pace. Now hopefully after I killed some of their babies and destroyed a comb they will still be in there tomorrow :)

Drones and Propolis Combs

In the center of this photograph is one of the hive's drone bees. They are easy to spot because of their massive eyes and body size...also, because they rarely move! They sit, drink their choice beverage and watch T.V.  - basically. A few times I have been around the hive when a drone returns from taking his '67 Mustang for a joy-ride and it sounds like a bulldozer coming at you. The drone population (the only males in the hive) are very low in comparison to the worker bees - as evident by the quantity of surrounding this drone.

This is another great photo that captures the viscosity of the propolis. Boy is that strong stuff! This is right before I pulled out some of the top-bars to check the brood pattern. It has been exciting to see all the capped brood through the windows, but I wanted to see what was  happening on the interior of the combs

The Swiss Cheese Rose

My floribunda (Jackson & Perkins "Heaven of Earth) rose has been quite the snack for some bug! I really don't want to use chemical insecticides in the garden so I found a simple home-made one using Cheyenne powder, a garlic bulb, an onion and dish soap in a water base. Hopefully this helps!!!

Festooning: Acrobatic Bees

Well today I learned something new! After reading some other blogs, I noticed a post that was similar to a photograph I took last week when I noticed some bees doing a cool little Circus trick. It is called festooning and is when bees expose their wax glands for other bees to use to build comb. Additionally, it is used to bridge open spaces.

The first time I noticed this behavior was when I picked up my bees and they were all "festooning" creating a bee curtain.

This is a photo of a swarm (where bees are festooning) found at Arlington Heights (IL) Public Library - close to where I used to live. Talk about irony - their childrens' summer reading program was bee themed!

Drone Cells

From BEES

Most of my images have been from the eastern side of the hive. When I opened the other window, I was pleasantly surprised to see the middle comb on this side had larger cells! These larger cells are for drone brood.

The smaller photo shows the same comb, but on the opposite side with the worker bee cell size.

From BEES

"Pre-Honey"

This photo was taken late last week when I attempted to lift a frame. The amount of propolis is increasing greatly between the top-bars - the consistancy of cooled caramel sauce, and just about as sticky. 

From BEES

From BEES

Mr. Brough visits the hive!

As the school year comes to an end what shall we do with the student teacher during a lunch break?...TAKE HIM TO THE HIVE! Alex Brough - trombonist extraordinare, and devoted follower of this blog (still in its infantcy and who will help me diligently acrue new followers :)) was adorned in full bee regalia for his up-close experience. He looks so happy with the bees.

Capped Brood!

Today was an eventful hive-observation day. It was interesting to watch one of the worker bees who had just come back from the "field" with massive pollen sacks (orange pollen) finding just the right cell in which to unload. The worker, much like the queen, lowers her thorax into a particular cell and begins to rub her legs to remove the pollen. This was about the same time one certain girl didn't appreciate my face on the glass and came right after me! Pretty nasty sting; it swelled up a little and is still tender to the touch almost 10 hours later - worst sting so far.

Later this evening, my friends Micah and James had their maiden bee voyage. I thought that I would go in and make some close up observations of the comb (with my smoker - wow, does that thing work well!) I am leaving the center most combs alone, but chose to lift one in the back - and there they were - LARVAE! HOW COOL!!! Lots of larvae at different stages of development- including capped. The brood pattern seems to be VERY healthy, as the queen didn't miss one single cell on this particular hand-sized comb. What was most surprising was to find brood on this one...I thought they would be more centralized in the hive. Through the observation windows I have seen a few capped brood cells on the center combs; however, since everything is so interconnected in the middle, I am leaving it well enough alone.

Thanks to the smoker, I was able to move enough bees out of the way to remove my "vent board" which made the entire lid an unwanted sheltered entrance. Now the only way into the hive is the correct way through the front. My only concern now is that the bees will attach the lid ... or they will continue the comb onto the lid - since that one bar still can't be inserted due to my delay in queen cage removal.

This is a before-and-after shot of the comb closest to the entrance. The top photo (taken today) and the lower (taken a week ago)...although they are not at the same angle, you can also see the next comb has filled out.

Pollen Sacks A Plenty

 When I swung by the hive during my lunch break, there tons of bees coming back with huge quantities of pollen - very cool to see. You can't miss the "saddle-bags" of pollen on the rear-legs! This pollen is on the yellow side; however, there was also a bright orange variety - the kind shown in last evenings photograph. Any ideas as to what that might be?

Oops...

Well my romanticized view of opening the hive presented me with many difficulties. As you can see from the image, the queen cage was left in the hive too long and the bees have built comb in the gap. This means that (unless I move all the combs around) I will not be able to place the last top-bar in the hive without destroying the principle combs. Also, I wanted to be careful not to harm the queen and when I noticed that many of the bars were "glued" together and possibly running at a slight diagonal across the hive; I decided to let sleeping dogs lie; the bees are building up the hive incredibly well and I DO NOT WANT TO MESS IT UP. When the hive doubles in size, I plan on going back in do determine exactly how the combs have attached. This will allow the queen have more places to seek refuge.

Since there is the gap, there are numerous bees that hang out on top of the bars! Crud... and as a result I have to rest the lid on a small slab of wood - to harm as few bees as possible. Sadly, when I placed the lid on I heard the sad little crunch of bees... I will need to re-design the hive top on my next version of the hive.

Propolis on top-bar.

POLLEN & NECTAR! Oh my!!!

This afternoon I invited my teaching co-hort Dawn F. to see the hive, I craned my neck to look at the front most comb and saw golden-orange pollen. Although my original shot was taken on a blackberry, I was convinced I could take a better shot - sorry bees for the flash.

The inner-most comb from what I can see are clear and most likely the brood comb.

I also saw the QUEEN laying eggs today! Top-bar hives (with windows) are so much better for the bees and the beekeeper. It was amazing to peer through the glass and watch the nurse bees turn to the queen as she made her way across the comb, dipping her thorax into various cells.

After returning from Cleveland this afternoon, I swung by the hive before picking up Carmen. The comb is getting significantly bigger - especially the four center most combs seen in the photo. Tomorrow is the expected delivery date for my bee-hood and gloves. I need to get inside to take out the pollen substitute patty (that the bees are not eating) and the queen cage. I just hope they haven't attached their comb to this...but they probably have :).

The substitute patty has disappointed me; I am not sure if there is enough pollen outside the hive that they are not interested or the recipe I found was not a winner. Additionally, the sugar syrup I had outside the hive has not attracted anything but ants... I'm assuming they just didn't need it; however, more experimentation is needed. It currently contains soy flour and brewer's yeast - two high-protein supplements, and is held together with sugar syrup.

Waggle Dance Sighting

On the left most comb (near the front of the hive) I witnessed the Waggle Dance of a honeybee! For those not familiar, it is the honeybee's method for communicating the location of nectar/pollen outside the hive to the members inside. Vertical (on the comb) is the placement of the sun, and the angle at which they do their vibrating figue-eight pattern shares the location of the nourishment. Please visit this YouTube link for a 55 second video explaination - very cool.

http://biodidac.bio.uottawa.ca/Thumbnails/showimage.cfm?File_name=Hyme009b&File_type=gif

Wahoo!

Today the temperature is supposed to reach the upper 70's, and the bees are looking for pollen and nectar outside the hive in full force. With so many bees searching for nourishment for the hive, I am able to see MORE COMB! The photos aren't great; however, there are three well developed pure white comb (not yet with brood - that I can see), and about 2 more in the process. The natural comb is quite wide even with our 1 3/8 inch top-bars.

More Comb is a comin'

Although this video was taken yesterday, the rain and cool weather has continued and kept the bees in the hive - feverishly building comb. I opened the viewing window to see glimpses of 3 or 4 more sheets of comb being constructed. Remember these are ALL NATURAL - no Langstroth frames 'round these parts!

This is what a bee looks like, after the sting. As you can see the honeybee's venom sack and intestines get ripped out after the stinger has been inserted into skin. Who got stung you ask... this guy! This bee was telling me to not take the video below :)

Day 4

On Wednesday, May 12th, I picked my 3 pound package of Italian Honeybees from Waldo, OH. Installing them in the top-bar hive my dad and I designed and built was a breeze, not one sting! Our design has two panels on the side which expose two windows into the hive; this is a fantastic way to observe the natural hive. This design uses no frames, allowing the honeybees to design the size and shape of the comb to the hive's specifications. It is incredible to see this process taking place; however, the fact of the matter is just this afternoon did we notice the pure white comb! We just thought they were surrounding the queen (who, yesterday, was still in her cage). Stupid me forgot to unplug the cork stopper at the end of the queen cage...so I had to correct that yesterday evening.
Around four o-clock each day the hive is in a flurry of activity - I assume from the heat of the day. The majority of bees are in the hive surrounding the one panel of comb (we can see).