Bill

Yes, I read Shakespeare in HS and college. Didn't really care for it, and I read a lot then, as I do now. An odd thought occurred to me as a watched a few minutes of some Romeo and Juliet makeover movie starring the Titanic guy. The question is this: would Shakespeare approve of the fact that millions READ his plays? I mean, he did write them as PLAYS. By PLAY, I mean an artistic work meant to be performed on a stage by actors, and WATCHED and HEARD by patrons. So why is it that millions of people have only one exposure to Shakespeare . . . through the written word an not the actual play? So an institution believes that exposure to Shakespeare is necessary for a balanced education . . good. So if you only have a given, limited, amount of time and resources to devote to Shakespeare, why would not give it to them in the form in which the author intended the audience to experience the work? Show them the play!

[aside] Granted, They still would have been bored to tears, but they wouldn't have had to spend $5.00 on Cliff Notes.

2nd Hive bodies

Added the 2nd hive bodies yesterday. All the queens were present and laying, brood looked good in all hives. I also added hive top feeders to all hives. After reading some Beesource posts, I need to go back redo the stacking order. I have the feeders on top of the inner cover. I need to place the feeder directly on top of the hive, then the rim, and then the inner cover. Maybe put some screen over the hole and prop the lid up for ventilation.

I completely removed all the entrance reducers. Maybe a bit early, but the ones I had didn't have the "medium hole" option, and the tiny entrances seemed pretty congested.

I check the SHB traps, and there were a few dead in them, and probably 5-10 dead on the sticky board.

Hive 1 is the strongest by far. Close to nine frames drawn. I added a deep super with wired wax on top. No SHB at all, which is probably because there were enough bees to police the entire hive.

Hive 2 was doing well, with 7-8 frames drawn. I added a medium super with waxed wire foundation. good brood and

Hive 3 was the weakest, with only 6-7 frames drawn, but I added a medium/wired wax super anyway.

I put the mediums on in order to get some drawn medium frames for use in splits and swarms, with I plan to work hard next year, or maybe later this summer.

Day 25 inspection photos

A few (2-3) SHBs seen in all three hives

Brood from the white plastic hive.

More brood, and the "empty" cells are hatched?

Queens are all in place.

Bad picture, (and $5 mis-matched paint). This is the nuc bottom board I made from lumber yard scraps (more later), and a few scraps of 1/2 plywood. I will staple in screen when I get it.

No dados required with the free lumber yard scrap. And there is room to slide in a piece of wood or plastic under the screen. Note the screen is yet to be installed. Couldn't find 1/8" hardware cloth locally.

This is a piece of 4' lumber used by the mills to hold the strapping when binding a load of plywood or other lumber. The steel strapping fits in the channel and keeps it from marring the product. The lumber yard gave me all I wanted after buying a piece of 1/2" plywood. Some pieced were basically dripping resin, others where nice and dry and straight. The piece here has one side ripped down a bit so that when when the plywood scraps are inserted, there is a not such a large gap under the frames (when set on the bottom board). I don't really know if this is necessary, but I was trying to copy dimensions from other bottom boards.


Here are the plans for the 5-frame nucs that I built. I found them on Beesource.com. I now have 12 of these, and basically only bought a sheet of 15/32" CDX. The ends (handles) are from the free strapping guide lumber scraps mentioned above, ripped in half. This makes a nice size hand hold with a notch for the fingers do grab. On three of the boxes I made permanent bottoms by cutting a notch in the bottom for an entrance, using some 1/8" hardboard I had laying around as a shim to get the bee-space right, and nailed a piece of plywood to the bottom. Once sheet of plywood wasn't enough for these three bottoms, but I had some scrap pieces big enough.

I haven't decided on the tops yet, but I'm going to price those sheets of blue building insulation as tops, with a brick above. My nephew used this material to make model airplane wings a few years ago, and I remember he set up a simple wire jig (and a battery) to make a foam cutter. I think I could easily rig up a jig that will shape it like a telescoping lid, insuring that water doesn't run in the hive. This may be too much trouble. I simple migratory lid may be the ticket. Whatever the case, I want to be able to feed through the top (credit to John P. at Georgiabees.com.

With only three hives, I have time for woodworking and such. So I figure that, while I don't really need all these nucs at the moment, its a good time to figure out what works, what doesn't, what to worry about, what not to, what is efficient and what isn't. Hopefully, later when the bees themself are taking a lot of time due to expansion, I won't have to waste time stressing about what can be built easily vs what to spend money on.

Here is yet another supercedure(?) cell. Should I be worried?

I didn't notice this when inspecting, but I noticed it when looking at the pictures. When looking at the picture of the entire frame, I swore I was looking at a swarm cell. Looking more closely, I guess it isn't. I would assure that new colonies are not very prone to swarming. Definitely not because of lack of space.







BTW, I have found that when working alone, taking photos is was a pain. I have settled on a way to take pictures when solo. I have my camera set to max-gazillion pixels, so that I can simply crop the good parts and still have good resolution. I set up a lawn chair facing the sun. I then set up my camera on a tripod, facing the chair but not blocking sun, as close as possible and still take a picture that is the width of a frame. I note some mark or line on the chair that is the center of the picture frame. When I want to take a picture of a frame or something, I simply set one end of the frame on the armrest of the chair (and centered in front of my "X" on the chair) and press the shutter. My camera is set on autofocus and autoflash.

Ready for anything

I read a Beesource thread yesterday about a cheap and easy way to construct 5-frame medium nucs, so an afternoon and $26 later I have 12 medium nucs. What I'm going to do with them, I don't know just yet. IF someone tells me about a swarm, I'm ready. Well, not really, due to the fact that I would definitely have to catch the queen with the swarm, as I have no brood to spare, much less a spare queen ready to go. Building the nucs was partly about trying my hand at constructing the equipment anyway. And I'm happy with the price and the quality. I do have a couple of "store-bought" nucs on order, so I'll compare them, and maybe modify my work next time if needed.
Bring on the swarms! Is it too late in the season to try to lure some swarms?

Day 25

I inspected the hives today. All 3 queens are present (I saw them all, and saw new eggs), and the brood seems to be coming along nicely. I'll post some pictures of the frames later. Two small bits of concern: supercedure cells and SHB.
I saw a few small hive beetles in each hive. I really don't know what is the point to be worried. Is a couple of SHB's bad? Or is 20 considered bad? I'll have to ask if I ever get to one of the association meetings. Or maybe post a question on Beesource.com.
I found a few more supercedure cells. I'll post the pictures later. I think the supercedure cells I saw a week ago are gone. Of course, I failed to note WHICH hive it was, but I'm pretty sure the cells I saw today were in a different hive. If so, the original cells were gone (All queens witnessed today were the original marked ones). Again, is this somewhat normal? I think so, but I'll have to study up on it.
OK, so I three hives; one with white plastic, one with black plastic, and one with wire wax. So far, the black plastic seems to be lagging a little behind, but I can't see any difference between the white plastic and the wax. Not really enough data here to make a judgement, but I think I have decided to use wired wax for the hive brood bodies in the future, and maybe use the plastic for honey supers (white). Once I have a number of strong hives, I may start to introduce some plastic via one of the hundreds of BeeSource techniques.
I replaced the baggies of syrup today, but it seems that the bees are beginning to lose interest in it. I heaved the pollen patties into the forest, I don't think they want it with so much real pollen around.
Oh, I did see a bee emerging from a cell today, so I guess the next generation is on the way. Maybe now the colony will start to take off. Might need to add the second hive body next week?

Supercedure cells?
Problem?










Capped Brood

Checked on the girls yesterday, and replaced syrup baggies. There are still a good 3 to 5 untouched frames in each body, so I don't need to add a second just yet. I found the queens, and saw new eggs in each hive. Also saw for the first time that the ladies have capped some honey, and brood as well. There appears to be some supercedure cells in one of the hives. Don't really know whether I should be worried or not.
I also saw a few hive beetles in two of the hives. I did some research and will have to decide whether to go for something like Apistan ($$$) or some other "approved" method, or to take some other route in dealing with the Small Hive Beetle (SHB). Of course, two or three SHB's may be nothing to worry about, although I didn't really expect to see any pests so quickly after starting the hive.
I ordered some medium foundation today. Since came up one deep body short, I'll have to use mediums as hive bodies on the third hive. That will work, I think, as I will use all mediums on future hives.

Queens are busy

Checked the hives on the 7th. All the queens were found, as were new eggs. One Hive showed pretty large pupae. This was the hive that freed the queen on their own, and also the hive that I used the marshmallow to plug the queen cage after pulling the cork out of the wrong side. Note to self: either do this on purpose later, or dig out some of the candy before putting the cage in a hive. The bees were still trying to free the queen after three days from the candy plug.
I also added new baggies of syrup to all the hives. They are going through the bags fairly quick. I've put about 25lbs of sugar on them in the first 10 days.
After the amount of comb built the first 5 days, I thought it would be time to add the second hive body. Nope. Not yet. Maybe next week. I did find that I am short one deep hive body. So I'll throw a medium on the top and figure out if and how to fix the mismatch later.

Day 2

I couldn't resist driving out to the farm yesterday and checking on the the hives. There was a lot of activity, with bees coming and going. The area within a few yards of the hives was very busy. The girls seemed calm though, so I pulled up a chair and watched that activity. It's difficult to tell, but I think that most of the bees were flying only within the close vicinity of the hive. I did spot a very few that landed on the stoop with pollen on their legs.
The weather is cool in the evenings, with a high of somewhere in the upper 60's or low 70's. Clear, and a little breezy. Lillies are in bloom everywhere, and there are a few tree starting to show color.
I did open the hives just long enough to peek into the area with the baggies, and add a 1/2 slab of bee patty (I'd forgotten to add this earlier). The bee patties are probably wasted overkill, as the girls showed little interest in a small chunk I had earlier placed near the hive entrance. I was able to peek in an see that the bees were all over the baggies, so I guess they are doing their job. Originally, I was worried that the baggies would leak all over the frames. So I pulled the white board from under the bottom screen, and only one had any sign of syrup on it. I believe that happened when installed the baggies. The amount of syrup on the board was by no means of concern.

My Hive Setup

I chose to set up the hives with 2 deep supers as hive bodies (only 1 deep as of now). As a sort of experiment, I set one with wired wax foundation, one with black plastic, and one with white plastic. I re-coated the plastic frames with more beeswax, and sprayed them with some sugar syrup. On top of the hives, I added a queen excluder. I had read in a blog that this would make it easy to inspect the hive later without slopping syrup all over the place. I set a thin (about 2") mountain rim on top of that to have room for the baggie. Inner cover and outer cover after that, completing the hives.

Feeding

I fed, as described above, with 1 gallon plastic baggies filled 2/3 - 3/4 full of sugar syrup. I mixed the sugar/water at a volume measure 1:1. I'll have to check if this was "correct", as I know many people mix different ratios for spring and fall feeding. It's done now, so this may be something to check later in the fall.

If this beekeeping thing works out, and I expand after this year, I foresee going to all plastic (frames and foundations). If there isn't really any major difference in the bees accepting the plastic I'm using now, going all plastic would be a big labor reducer. I like the idea and nostalgia of the wood frames, but only if they actually work better. I guess I'm more lazy than nostalgic.

I will have to admit that the first couple of minutes after taking the top off of the shipping boxes, I was a little apprehensive. I did have my veil on, and had gloves at the ready. But, as I had read, the bees were very docile. I had sprayed them lightly with sugar syrup, and even smoked one box VERY lightly before hiving them, which may have helped. I am certainly glad I didn't wear gloves. This was a point that I thought carefully about. I'm now convinced that "gloveless" was the way to go. Much better dexterity. Having the bees buzz so close to you face took only a few minutes to get used to, and after the bees were in the hive, I took the veil off and was none the worse for it. Bottom line, no stings, and no bees that I thought wanted to sting me. Now, I will probably fully suit up for stuff like harvesting, ect, but hiving the bees was MUCH less stressful (and painful!) than I had imagined.

Looking back on hiving my first packages, I found the following oddly humorous: Emma and I wore veils, with me doing the actual work with the bees, and Emma a few feet away snapping pictures and taking video. Elke, Mom, and Dad were watching the historic event, standing only a few yards behind Emma. They had no protection at all. After the first package of bees were poured in the hive, and bees were buzzing everywhere, it must have become quickly obvious that the bees meant no harm, because no one ran or swatted, and Elke fetched tools for me with no protection whatsoever. Over the last few months, I had been the one going out of the way to mention how docile the bees were, with others going out of their way to make jokes about getting stung, and running for the house. Yet here they were, within ten yards of the action. Me with a veil, long sleeves and pant legs stuffed into my socks, and them dressed for just another warm spring afternoon.

I'll leave them alone today. Tomorrow I'll go out and do my first little check to remove the queen's cage and make sure she is doing her job.

Day 1 - Hiving the bees

Hives are ready . .

Bees arrived via USPS

Emma's ready

Pouring them in.






All three Hives are finished









Not impressed.













Impressed.
















She that giveth the bees, and
he that is happy to receiveth.

I am officially a bee keeper . . . Although I've actually had bees for only a few hours, and my bees are still in wooden boxes in the basement, I am technically keeping bees. This afternoon, I'll go out to the farm and actually install the bees in their new home. I have to admit that I'm feeling a little like a kid at Christmas! But before I go into the details. . .

WARNING **** DISCLAIMER**** WARNING

Family and friends may be forced to view this blog on occasion, and will be most likely bored to tears, looking at it only long enough to be able to later say things like; "how nice," and "that blog is SO interesting . . .good idea!" The rest of you may quickly realize that there is not enough power in the universe to make you feel guilty enough to revisit this site. For the family members, I apologize in advance for the punishment that awaits you.

END OF DISCLAIMER.

Although it is theoretically possible that I could, and may, use this blog as a means to rant on non-bee related topics, I plan to use this a a sort of journal of my experiences in Bee Keeping. By "experiences," I mean what I did, when I did it, what I saw, etc. If I have any bees alive next spring, I'll have a record of what worked, what didn't, what I did do, what I didn't do, and what not to do next time. It'll all be RIVETING, you can be sure. For the family and friends coerced into viewing the blog: I'll do my best to include some pretty pictures. Make sure that you read the caption underneath, which qualifies as having "read" the blog.