Bee working this Saturday, May 26...... 3pm

Well folks, we might be doing something completely different this Saturday, weather permitting of course Let's plan for 3 pm..... Will only take about 30 minutes or so....... Some of you may remember how we tried to fix the problem hive by Adding a frame of bees to the hive to help them create their own Queen, this has not worked unfortunately, so to the next method...... Laying workers can get so ingrained in the own hive that they think they don't need a queen, so won't help create a new one like we tried. So the best advice is to just shake the bees out, and let them take up with any hive they find, or we can motivate them to fill a hive in the same place as their own hive was. So if all goes to plan tomorrow night I will bring back a small nuc hive I have made by trapping out a swarm from an old building, but it is very small, about 3 frames of bees. I will put this on top of the problem hive ready for Saturday. So on saturday if the weather is nice, we will first remove all 10 frames from the bad hive, we will put the 5 frames from the trap out nuc into the box, then we will take the 10 frames about 20 feet away and shake all the bees off the frames. We will then put back the 5 best frames that have honey and pollen, that is to say we will avoid putting back as much brood or eggs as we can. The other frames will then be frozen for two days and put back into another hive later where the bees will clean them up. We will also check if the other hive needs a new honey super, as two to two and half weeks has been typical to fill a super recently on a strong hive. Pls let me know

Well we did work the bees last weekend......

But no Scouts showed up , except Dylan. We at least had two leaders who both have hives, and Rob one of our mentors, so we made it a teaching moment anyway, and worked the bees , we looked at the problem hive and they are still an issue, workers laying is the opinion of Rob. They were also rather testy and gave us a hard time, had to put a veil on. I made a rather basic mistake when I last checked the hive after putting a brood frame into the hive 3 weeks ago, when I checked after 2 weeks I saw good laying pattern, but of course that was the same frame that they had just capped. 2 weeks is Not enough time for a queen to be made and to start laying, so my bad. So I will need to make a plan this weekend before camping. We then put a honey super on the pkg hive which was so much gentler, and no issues at all, very nice brood patterns, eggs, larvae and capped cells across many frames, the bees have been working hard and all 8 frames were drawn out, other than one half gallon of feed they have been free ranging. Looking good for a few frames of honey for the scouts. We also gave The Burns hive an inspection, and added a honey super on it too. One thing we found is that the hive has spacers and only had 9 frames in the deep, so they had drawn some funky wide comb, we will fix later in the season. We did not notice this previously as we were focussed on the queen issue. So I ask you all to please let me know when it is a bee day if you are not coming, this is about you scouts learning about bees, not me. The book goes to the Publisher tomorrow , so we will have a Beekeeping manual by the time we next meet. Anyone wanting bee experience any time , let me know, and if I am home and the weather cooperates , we can work bees, I am enjoying the education part of this program.

ThIs Saturday - Bee work day

Need to prepare some honey super frames with foundation .... Pls meet at the workshop at 2:30pm. 3 pm we will head across to work the hives , we will open both hives, check health and if possible mark the queen on the swarm hive. Remember long sleeves, light colored clothes please Boys will be doing the work this time, just guidance from me and mentors. We will find the queen , look for larvae and eggs, maybe add a honey super on 8 frame hive.

We did work the hives despite the cold day

Well the max temp was only 58deg, and a cold wind, not ideal, BUT we had an issue which we had to fix.

The Swarm hive only had drone brood in the hive, meaning we had a bad queen... she was infertile.

Drone Brood is layed when the queen lays an egg that is NOT fertilized.

Drone brood is identified by the Bullet like tops.

Thus we had to fix this issue or the hive would have died out. 
Two options at this time - buy a Queen for $25
or
The option we chose - adding a frame of brood from the other hive which was working well,
To be successful you must choose a frame that has eggs as well as new larvae, his way the bees will create a new queen from an egg that is less that 3 days old.

Will check this frame in 4 days time, they should have a queen cell capped by then.

Ask questions via comments or email if you are not sure about what we did or how it will work.

Our manuals should go to printers within the next week.....yahooo!!!

Installing our Package of bees

Bee..n a little buzzzy with bees and Scuba and family, and not got to update the blog until today.

WORK: Check on bees Saturday 28th April  3pm  (Weather permitting)  should take no more than 20-30 minutes of actual time, plus questions and answers if you have any.

Our installation of the pkg of bees Sponsored by Tates Apiaries from Winston Salem  went very well. Larry Tate was a Boy Scout many years ago, and was happy to help us. The Queen we have is from Wayne's bees, a local Hygienic bee race. Wayne Rich kept bees in our area and had two hives that he never treated and these survived all the issues of the recent years. Wayne passed away a few years back and Wally Swaims and Larry Tate are keeping these genetics going. These bees will fight the Verroa Mites and Small Hive Beatles inside the hive, keeping the hive strong.

In the end most of the scouts in the Project were able to come last Saturday, which is pretty awesome. A number of people also invited friends and family and we had about 14 people in all. I had forgotten it was the Guilford County Bee club's open day , so none of our mentors were able to come, but it all went down without a hitch.

Allen with 15,000 bees

Jack opening the hive

Dylan helping move a frame

Sugar can feeder and the Queen cage

Queen cage with cork removed

hanging the queen cage

Bunch of bees

Harrison helping me close up the hive with a little smoke

Sugar feeder on top of hive top

We went through some theory with the boys, passed the pkg around for people to feel 3lbs of bees, some 15,000 of them, and then without much ado and a little sugar spray, opened the pkg, showed everyone the Queen in her cage and shook out the bees into the 8 frame hive.

Installing our package of bees

This coming Saturday 14 April we will install our new package of bees, lets keep the same time of 2pm

UNLESS the weather is bad, in which case we will do what we have to (if bad weather call me) ..... Am picking up the bees most likely early that Saturday.

I would like the Scouts (and leaders) to read the section on installing a pkg of bees, will attach it on tabs in next few days , as it is one section of our book still not complete ??? :-)           so will be take  a day or so
You all will have to do the work this time, so please read the section....

If you cannot be there, please email me your  preferences to work bees, all boys need some hands on, AND, we need to decide on some teams......will have a THIRD hive soon too, another Local beekeeper, who is a former boy scout  has offered more bees.

We have the hive woodenware, so will go ahead. We will just need to get some more frames and foundation .

...but in the mean time we need an hour in the Barn to wire and put foundation into more of our frames for our own hives we already have committed to.

Lets have some feedback from our Scouts and Parents on how you think this project is working??

Beekeepers in the Piedmont announced this week the Tulip Poplars have started to flower, this is HUGE news in our region, it is 3 weeks early, and a massively important nectar flow for our bees. we will see big growth in all hives in next 6 weeks.

Pics from the Bee Day

So I forgot I never posted the few pics I have for you all to see them....

Tonight I received a bunch more , so perfect time to post a bunch of pics

A short show and tell at my hives

See bees are calm away from the hive

WOW, this is so cool

Brood frame with nurse bees

Explaining about foundation and frames

Little smoke, so we can work the hive safely