Snow Day!

In New England we have a lot of snow right now. I mean a LOT of snow - over three feet on the ground and where to put the snow is becoming a critical issue. The snow is quite the issue for the bees too - their hives are quite covered with snow. It acts as a good insulator as long as the entrance is open.

You can see where I've had to go in and shovel out the bees. I like to keep the lower entrances open even though they also have an upper entrance. This keeps the flow of air going in the hive and keeps the bees from freezing if they happen to get damp.

I just had abdominal surgery at the beginning of the year and this was the first spot I shoveled. While my incisions are healed, my stomach muscles assured me they had not fully knitted back together. Nice to know that there is still plenty of snow coming this week so I can continue to build back strength in my belly!

And while it breaks my heart to find dead bees at the entrance to each hive, I am content to know that this is an indication of live bees on the inside. So for the moment, all three hives are alive. I can only hope that the next few storms - because it is still January - will go gently on the bees.

Think warm thoughts!

Crystalized Honey

Does that little bit of honey at the bottom of the jar have crystals in it? Did your jar turn solid in your cupboard?

No worries! Your honey has not gone bad. In fact honey doesn't spoil. Honey was found in jars in Egyptian tombs and was still delicious.

You can do one of two things:
1. Nothing - crystallized honey can be used in any way liquid honey is used.
2. Re-liquefy it - just put the jar or plastic bottle in warm water from the tap. Let it sit until the honey is liquid or the water cools. Repeat until liquid.

Microwave? I don't recommend microwaving the honey more than 5-10 seconds TOTAL. The pollen and delicate flavors can be destroyed by very high temperatures.

Go honey!

Happy New Year

It is a happy New Year in the bee yard. All three hives had girls flying yesterday.

Ruby's hive looked amazing! There were crowds of bees at the entrance and the were really stretching their wings.

Sun's hive also looked great. These bees prefer to use every entrance other than their front door - they are such New Englanders! They were coming and going with great purpose.

Joy's hive looked quite sad in comparison. There were bees coming and going but the traffic was significantly less. There is nothing I can do about it right now other than cross my fingers and hope they make it thru the next few months.

I am going to give the bees some "bee candy" which is a sugar patty they can eat if they cannot get honey. Each of the hives should have plenty of honey, but the sugar patty is just insurance. It is like having a fridge full of good food and the take out menu under a magnet - just in case!

Here are my bee-related goals for the year:

1. Keep three hives going all year (and overwintered)

2. Continue to build up the local peer-network of beekeepers (so if you know a beekeeper in Millbury MA -send them my way)

3. Finish my book on aggressive bees

Go Bees!

Winter preparation

Just as we are putting on our hats and mittens more frequently, the bees are getting ready for the winter as well. I have been feeding them honey for a while and it has been just too cold to continue with that for a while. I tried to feed a bit of 2:1 sugar water, but they have officially stopped taking that now.

2:1 sugar water is 2 parts sugar to 1 part water. This means the bees have to less work to store it. Is it as good as honey, no, but it can get them through in a pinch. Think of it as ramen noodles - not your staple food, but will keep you alive.

Today I took apart the hives for the last time this year. The weather is warm but rain is threatening. I took out all the feeding bottles and only one hive even took the sugar water. All three hives looked amazing. There were plenty of bees, they were flying in small numbers, and they were gorgeous.

I love being a beekeeper. Days like today are precious - I worked the hives while everyone else is going about their lives at school and work, and the bees and I had our secret moments of gratitude and worship.

Awards

The girls are doing great - enjoying the warmish weather. I have completed their winter preparations with some extra insulation. I am trying to get them to take a ton of honey and nectar that I extracted this fall.

On a beekeeping note, I attended the Worcester County Beekeepers Association Thanksgiving Banquet. It was there that I got to pick up my spiffy silver cup award for having the Best In Show Honey from the Spencer fall this fall.

This cup I get to keep for a year. You can see my name right below Peter Niemi's name. I asked Peter last winter for his secrets to winning Spencer and he generously gave them to me. I followed them to the letter and ta da! the cup is mine for a year (and Peter didn't enter the fair this year!). If you ask me what he said, I will share.

This pretty glass trophy I get to keep forever. It is really beautiful.

But the evening wasn't over.

A few weeks ago, I got a call from Ken Warchol, the Bee Inspector. I got a management award for beeing a good beekeeper.

I got a beautiful plaque - sorry about the glare - it is such an honor to be thought of as a good beekeeper and be recognized by my fellow beekeepers. This is still a pretty new award and I am still blown away that Ken thinks I am doing a good job.

I am still gobsmacked.

Fall Feeding

I made the hives really tall - it is funny to see them tall again. I took down the fall medications I use for mites. Varroa mites attach to bees when the are little larvae and then when the adult emerges from the cell, the mite is already attached. They suck the life out of bees - not all the life, but just a little at a time. The makes the whole hive just a little bit less able to fight infection. The more mites, the less able the hive is able to fight infection.

And did I mention that the more mites a hive has, the meaner they get!? Oh, yeah the bees in my first hive -the meanest bees in Worcester County- had high mite levels. Not wanting to go there again, I treat my bees with a miticide that is gentle to the bees and to me.

I added a hive box and gave the girls lots of honey to help them keep warm in our chilly mornings. They seem like they are doing well. Unlike last fall, Sun's hive is the weakest of the three. The other two hives have more bees, but all three seem to be quite happy and doing well.

I did discover we need a new cover for Ruby's hive. The cover is old and rotting underneath. It is letting in moisture and that can be fatal for the bees in the winter - if they get wet in the winter they can freeze and die.

Over the next month or so we will be tucking the girls away for the winter. They will be getting a partial wrap around the hives to help keep in the heat and protect them from snow covering the entrance way. I also put a few bales of hay outside of the bee-deck to help with the wind. I don't know if it really really helps, but it makes me feel better.

I miss the bees already!

Bee porn, slutty queens and vegetarianism...

We had three speakers at the fall Massachusetts Bee Meeting - a queen breeder, a researcher who studies queen quality among other things, and Harvard profession who studies public health.

What a great day! One of the speakers was late so we heard both talks by the Joe Latshaw (http://www.latshawapiaries.com/). While he produces queens for commercial beekeepers and works on a scale that is way beyond my wildest dreams, he explained to us - hobbyist beekeepers - how to use what he's learned and some of his techniques to become our own queen breeders on a small scale. What I took away from Joe's talks is that I need to think about the sustainability of my own apiary and I now have the tools (ok at least the directions) to select and rear my own queens to make that happen. Joe also stressed keeping records. This resonated with the scientist in me!

Our second speaker was Alex Lu from Harvard. He titled his talk "Putting your health in your hands" and was a great talk. I can see how much of what he spoke about being applicable to my hives - preventative care is way less expensive and more sustainable than treatment. I love the reminder to eat vegetarian before 6pm - save the world and your body by consuming less meat which contains high levels of chemicals and antibiotics.

The final speaker was David Tarpy from North Carolina State University. He explained why we need genetic diversity in our bee yards and that slutty queens are better. On average, honey bee queens mate with a dozen drones - but some will mate with that many in one day and still go out the next day for more! He showed us a great video of a queen on her nuptial or mating flight. Wow - bee sex is brutal and a one shot deal for the drone! Aside the idea that more is better for the queen, I learned a great deal about the reproductive health of honeybee queens. They are pretty amazing girls!

Bee meetings are great for socializing with other beekeepers too. I got to sit with two of the other beekeepers in Millbury - always a good time!