Beekeeping Part 5 {Hive Check}

 It's been a while since we posted about the bees, because, well, there wasn't much to tell. The great thing about the bees is they just do their own thing and the beekeeper needs to just leave them alone. In the last few weeks we took my nephew Jacob to check out the hives and my family. It's always good to see the hives progressing and doing well.

 

 

In this close up you can see the honey in progress on the bottom left, and the white area is honey that has been completed and capped with wax

 

The other hive went rogue and built out their own wax and honey in the small area Brian left open for their sugar water feeder. (That's supplemental sugar water that we give them at the beginning of the season to help them get started on their honey production until the flowers bloom.) See, bees just do their own thing!

Beekeeping {part 4} Hive Check

My brother and his friend came over for dinner the other night, so we took them out to the hives! We saw the queens of both hives, and all the different stages of new bees development. (Egg, larvae, capped, and then empty comb where new bees have hatched. Don't worry, this all takes place is the bottom most box of the hive. The honey we'll harvest is made and stored in a separate area.) Oh, and in one hive we saw some queen cells which means the worker bees are unhappy with the queen and want to replace her! Either she'll rip the cells open, kill the larvae and keep being the queen or when the new queen hatches she'll kill the current queen and take over! Cool huh!?

 They have hatched many new bees which means they are growing in numbers and will soon be able to start making honey that they will store for winter. Once that its done they'll start making the honey that we'll harvest.

 Larvae

 Capped off brood and the dark area is where new bees have already hatched.

Mother's Day

Biscuits and gravy for breakfast, thoughtful gifts made by the kids, amazing dinner and Amelia's first time out to see the bees. Great mother's day!

Beekeeping {part 3} First Inspection

Last night we decided to visit our hives for a quick inspection. We had to make sure that each queen had been released from her cage and that the hives were progressing the way they should.

We could see bees heading inside with legs full of pollen and were buzzed by a few guard bees!

Brian opened each hive and pulled out the frames.

We found the queen in each hive cruising around the frames, saw that the worker bees had started to draw out the honey comb, found pollen and nectar in the newly-drawn comb, and discovered that the queen had started laying eggs!

The queen in this picture is the Carniolan queen - she's mostly black compared to the Italian queen which is a golden yellow color.


Now we leave them alone for a few weeks so they can continue to draw out the comb, lay eggs, care for the developing brood, and collect nectar and pollen. Again, we made it through our visit without any stings, even though Brian didn't wear gloves!

Beekeeping {part 2} Installation

After picking up the bees, we drove to the site we previously selected. It's just north of us on the edge of a farm, surrounded by other farms. Between the alfalfa and other crops, we hope the bees will have plenty to eat. The only thing left is for them to start working their magic and making us honey! Here is a basic overview of the process with photos:

Carrying everything to the pallet. The bale of hay should block some of the prevailing wind.

Positioning the hives just right.

I look like a weirdo in the full beekeeper get-up, but I wasn't taking any chances on being stung!

Spraying the bees with sugar water to limit their ability to fly and distract them.

Pulling out the can of sugar syrup that fed them during transit.

Holding the queen in her protective cage.

Dumping the bees into the hive! This part was amazing!!!

Securing the queen's cage between two frames. One side of the cage ships with a small cork. Before putting the cage in the hive, we replaced the cork with a plastic plug filled with soft candy. Over the course of 1-3 days, the worker bees will eat their way in while the queen eats her way our. Once out, she will immediately start laying eggs. She can lay up to 3000 eggs per day! Dang!

Making sure the frames are spaced properly before closing the hive.

We put a bucket of sugar syrup over the hole in the inner cover. This gives them something to eat while they wait for the natural nectar flow to start. Being a new hive, they need extra help to get going, especially since they have to draw out comb on all of the frames.

With everything put together and the outer cover in place, we're just about done. Despite our best effort to get all of the bees out of the packages, a few stragglers are left behind. By propping the boxes up next to the hives, the remaining bees will find their way home within the next day or so.

The bottom box (where we dumped the bees) is where they raise the "brood". The box on top of that, which currently has a bucket of sugar syrup, will eventually be filled with frames that the bees will use to store pollen and honey for themselves. When full, this box can weigh 100 pounds and is needed for the bees to survive the winter. Any boxes you add on top of the second box are called supers and can be kept by the beekeeper at the end of the season. Since these are new hives, the bees will spend a lot of time this year drawing out the comb. As a result, we may not get any honey for ourselves. We're keeping our expectations low but hoping for the best!

Installation was a really cool and fairly simple process. I was really worried about us all getting stung, but nobody did! Now that I know how nice the bees are, I feel a little bad for making Amelia watch from the car instead of letting her participate. This is supposed to be Brian and Coleson's hobby, but I can't wait to go back and see the progress they've made. Bees are so fascinating!

Beekeeping {part 1}

Brian has spent the last year reading about and researching beekeeping (I'll let him tell you the long version of how he got into this unique hobby another time). This past week, he and Coleson spent all of their free time in the garage, building hives, and getting ready for the bees to arrive.

Snapping waxed foundation into a frame.

Painting the exterior surface of a hive body.

Putting frames into a hive body.

Saturday morning arrived, and we went to get our packages of bees! Brian ordered one package of Hygenic Italian Hybrids and one package of Carniolans. I started getting nervous at this point but was assured they wouldn't escape their cages in the car.

We took them home for a couple of hours to give them a chance to rest while we got everything loaded in the car and ready to head to the farm.

Yep. I live in a small (but rapidly growing) farming town, my kids wear real cowboy boots, my husband keeps bees and I love it!

Beekeeping Preview

Today was the day we've been waiting for...well, one of the days we've been waiting for... Our bees arrived! They came in by truck from California. We picked them up and took them to their new home in our beehives...well, Brian and Coleson's beehives on a neighbor's farm. A huge long post with a plethora of photos is coming, but for now enjoy this awesome picture of the bees exploring their new home!