New Toys

We got a new extractor yesterday since our old one had a broken handle and often felt like it was going to shake apart on us. The new one from Maxant made right here in Massachusetts is a real thing of beauty. Nicely constructed and comes in a nice big box.

So for those of you who are interested in honey, we plan to extract honey in August when we return from vacation and kids are home from camps.

And in case you were wondering, on a rainy summer day, a box is still the perfect toy.

All hail the new queen

Now that isn't much to see, but that is the new queen. I've never used this kind of queen cage before but it works in a similar way to the wooden ones. I am holding the sugar plug that the bees will eat out to release her. 

I put her on top of bees I stole from Serendipity. More on that in a minute. I put in three frames of brood and the nurse bees. Since we were down a hive, I had a few frames of honey and pollen already so she is starting with quite a nice stash of resources.

We've been debating on what to call her. My daughter says Blue. My son says name her after an Amazon queen. What do you say?

Serendipity has been a busy girl. There is a LOT of brood in her hive and she's laying in both the top and bottom supers in good quantity. I am concerned that there is a bit of patchiness to her pattern and that could mean that the bees are going to supercede her. I did find a supercedure cell but it was dry. I also found a ton of queen cups or "we are thinking we might swarm but we aren't sure" cells along the bottom. These bees are really going strong and they are not sure where to go.

Taking the frames of bees and brood should give them more room for babies and over the next few weeks they can make a decision about their queen.

Sunshine is doing nicely. She is laying in her usual upside down pattern typical of her and her mother. If this pattern plays out as in the past, we only have a few more weeks of this craziness.

Go bees!

It's that time of year...

If you are a beekeeper, it is time to record bee losses at beeinformed.org. This is a quick survey about the number, location, and state of the hives you had in the fall and still have now. This survey is not a true scientific survey but gives a us a good picture of the state of the health of our bee populations in the US. At their website, you can see the results of previous year's surveys.

Record Losses

This year is shaping up to be a record year of bee loss in this region. Many beekeepers have lost significant numbers of hives this winter and large numbers just in the last month. It may not be just here in New England either. Every spring, beekeepers in the US participate in a survey of hive loss and I am set to add my numbers April 1.

I am happy to report that our bees are doing fine. Both hives looked excellent yesterday. I am a bit concerned about the amount of poop on the outside of one of the hives. That this the brown splotches you see in the picture above. I am going to seek advice on some essential oils to feed them to help them deal with some gut parasites that might be bothering them.

They were also bringing in pollen. In the picture above you can see yellow pollen and that is probably from some early willows and skunk cabbage. The honey comb is what I supplemented them with - honey that was stored in the hive we combined. The white in the lower left is a sugar patty. Getting nervous after hearing about starving bees, I panicked and added sugar just in case. This is like going to the drive thru - it will keep you going for a short time, but lacks nutrients. So as soon as night time temps get a bit warmer, I will start feeding them some honey.

One thing that really made me happy was the temperament of both hives. They were calm and didn't bother much with me. I did veil because bees in the chill air can be unpredictable, but they were both really calm and focus. That is a good sign that the queens are in good condition and brood rearing is going well.

Go bees!

Sign of spring

I found this girl on my deck yesterday. It was a gorgeous day here in Massachusetts with temps in our yard just over 50' and lots of sunshine. If you look carefully, on her hind leg what can we see ... POLLEN!

So what are the early spring flowers that are in bloom?  Skunk cabbage, pussy willow and maybe an early crocus could all be a source of pollen. Given the very light color, I would normally say pussy willow but I haven't seen any out in our immediate area. Skunk cabbage is usually kind of a day-glo green-yellow and often the bees have pollen down their backs.  Crocus is a bit yellow-orange.

One other thought occurred to me last week while walking in the woods. Witch hazel still has some sad looking flowers on their branches. There is always the possibility of a few stray grains of pollen left on these flowers that bloomed late, late last fall.

Regardless of the source, I am so pleased to see pollen. Pollen means babies.

There have been dead bees in front of both hives over the last few days. While that is sad, it does mean that there had to be some live bees in the hive. At the moment, both hives are doing well but March isn't over and it is one of the most difficult months to survive as a bee. The temperatures fluctuate a lot and there really isn't much to eat out there for the bees. Early spring flowers don't have much in the way of nectar or even pollen.

So let's hope for some mild temperatures and hug a red maple tree. Red maples are a key source of nectar and pollen for bees.

Just one more picture - she's so cute. Oh, and she's a new baby - from an egg laid in 2013.

Snow Day

Notice there are no dead bees at the entrance to this hive. If you look back two days on this blog you can see just how many bees there are inside those snazzy blue boxes. After any snow, you expect a few dead bees at the entrance of a hive. But where are they??

I was looking out a few moments ago and saw a bird fly down in front of the hive, hover for a moment and then fly off. Looking at the snow at the entrance, I think that bird was having bees for breakfast!

Today is the day!!

Bees don't pee or poop inside their hives so when we have a long stretch of weather that keeps them inside, well, you can imagine the number of crossed legs!  Today it was over 50' at 7 am so the girls were out and doing what beekeepers call a cleansing flight.

A cleansing flight on a warm day like today gets everyone out of the hive and is a great opportunity to assess the health of a hive. I am so pleased with the number of bees in both hives.

They were also looking pretty healthy. Both hives tossed out some dead bees and were crowding around their entrances.

There was no poop on the outside of the hive, so they were strong enough to head out and don't seem to have dysentery.

And they were calm. Bee behavior will often give you a good indication of the health of a hive. Testy bees generally have some stress and calm bees are happy bees. That is my arm and a couple of bees landed on me and then left after a moment.

Go bee!