bee diary: 8/15/2010 · 15 August 2010, 14:06
I opened up the hive today to check for eggs. Actually I saw a number of larvae — both very tiny and some larger ones — and a tiny handful of capped workers. The bees were extremely docile, so although I didn’t see the queen herself, they are certainly acting queenright. Oddly, the larvae and capped workers were scattered over several different combs. (A good queen lays eggs in a tight pattern, filling up the cells in an oval pattern without skipping very many.) A new queen takes a little time to get warmed up and in full production. I wonder if I’ll be able to tell if the character of the hive changes as the old ones die off and the new queen’s progeny replace them — who knows who she mated with when she went out on her mating flights. I know of three beekeepers within a couple miles of here, so she could have mated with the drones from this hive, or drones from one of their hives.
I saw a good amount of capped honey, as well as uncapped honey toward the back of the hive, which was great.
The small hive beetles continue to be uninterested in their trap; I made a different sort — a container covered with a screen that beetles but not bees can get through. It has oil in it, so that beetles that try to hide in there will drown. We’ll see if it works any better.
I went to the local beekeepers’ association meeting yesterday. It was great — this one was only two miles from my house, so I rolled out of bed around 8:30 and got up and left. Unfortunately, because I was still waking up, I didn’t think about proper footwear and put on my sandals. Naturally, my big toe just happened to overstep the bounds of the sandal right where a bee was, giving me my fourth sting this season. It was a great meeting, though. I was getting pretty discouraged about my hive — I still feel dumb about the swarm that took off the day before I was going to split the hive. Being among other bee enthusiasts was very heartening. Opening up the hive and finding a decent amount of new capped honey and newly gathered nectar was even more encouraging. Maybe they’ll make it through the winter yet!
If the hive remains queenright, and she can lay a decent population of bees by mid-September or so, those will be the bees that the hive will go into the winter with. I’m pleased with the amount of nectar that’s been brought in lately — since there hasn’t been a laying queen for a little while, the workers aren’t being replaced yet, so the population is slowly dwindling. The good thing about living closer to the city is that the dearth doesn’t hit the bees quite as hard, since people tend to keep gardens with a variety of flowers, and water them when it gets dry. Out in the country, bees do great when the particular crops nearby are blooming, but once those crops are done, there isn’t nearly as much of a variety or amount of flowers to find.
— Jennifer
bee diary: 7/12/2010 · 12 July 2010, 20:48
I opened up the hive over 4th of July weekend, and saw more eggs and stuff. Maybe some honey. I’m a little concerned that even the combs in the back look like typical brood comb: a line of honey, some pollen, and then mostly brood. I was expecting more surplus honey in the back. I am pleased with the amount of new comb they’re drawing, though it would be nice if it filled up with honey. I was reading in the latest local beekeeper’s association newsletter that many beekeepers take measures to limit the space that the queen can lay brood in so that once there are enough bees, the they focus on storing honey rather than raising too many bees who could very well eat the surplus honey before winter even arrives.
It’s been hot and humid lately, so the bees have been “bearding” during the day — hanging out on the front of the hive, and under the cover. They need to stay out of the hive so that it doesn’t overheat.
I’m pleased that I don’t live in the kind of neighborhood where people seem to take a lot of active measures against clover in their yards — I see lots of clover in people’s not-perfectly-manicured yards, smile, and hope that my bees have been able to get in on that and harvest some nectar. I’ve never understood those who consider cover to be a weed — especially white clover. Yellow clover does get sort of annoyingly tall, but white clover is low-growing and unobtrusive. Not only that, it’s a nitrogen fixer — bacteria on the root nodules fortify the ground with nitrogen from the air.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the bees are foraging for water in my neighbor’s pool, since it’s the largest body of water nearby, and they don’t appear to be using the bucket of water I’ve left out for them. Unfortunately, I’ve read that it can be difficult to change their mind once they get it in their heads to gather water from a particular source.
We’re working on a larger hive for the bees; they may run out of room in their current hive before the end of the season, so I might try to transfer them this week. Clint did a great job constructing the hive body.
— Jennifer
beeline · 16 June 2010, 10:19
I didn’t realize that bees are like fish — so much fun to watch!
It’s neat watching the bees come in and out of the hive. Yesterday, there must have been a good source of nectar and/or pollen west of the hive. The hive is situated just east of our workshop, so I got to watch the bees come out of the hive, fly straight up, then over the roof of the workshop. Returning was the same way — over the workshop roof, then straight down and back into the hive.
I also am getting used to the fact that the newer bees take their orientation flights in mid-afternoon. I used to panic on sunny afternoons when I’d glance outside and see what looked like a small swarm hovering in front of the hive. Were they swarming? Were foreign bees robbing the hive? Oh no! I’d go out and see no fighting going on; just a bunch of bees in a holding pattern in front of the hive.
When worker bees emerge, their first three weeks are spent in the hive — feeding larvae, taking care of the queen, guarding the hive, ventilating the hive, accepting nectar and pollen from foragers, making wax, etc. Then, they start taking orientation flights so that they can find their way back to the hive. They fly around in front of the hive, memorizing what it looks like, and then start taking longer flights to establish a set of landmarks to find their way by. Then they become foragers for nectar, pollen, and water until their wings become too tattered to fly, or they wear out their wing muscles.
— Jennifer
housekeeping · 2 June 2010, 22:36
So, what happens to dead bees when they die in the hive? I got to see the other day.
I was looking on the ground for dead bees, knowing that the housekeeping bees take them out of the hive (visiting relatives brought their 20x microscope so that we could take a look at the bees). I went out there and crouched on the ground, looking for dead bees in the grass, when I saw two bees that looked like they were tussling in the grass. Oh no! I was hoping they weren’t fighting off robbing bees, though that seemed unlikely. One got herself free, and left the other one dead on the ground. I picked the dead bee up, and shortly thereafter saw another pair of bees fall on the ground. The housekeeper got herself free of the dead bee, and returned to the hive. She apparently launches herself and the dead bee out of the entrance, but can’t just drop the dead bee mid-flight. They fall together, and then she has to struggle a bit to extricate herself from the legs of the dead bee, and then goes back to other housekeeping duties.
— Jennifer
Bee Pictures · 24 May 2010, 12:54
I cropped a couple of pictures from Saturday’s hive inspection:
A section of comb that shows the three stages of bee development:
egg, larvae, and pupae.
The egg is the long, narrow, slightly curved thing in the bottom of some of the cells. (The outlines of the comb on the other side are also visible in these cells)
The larvae are the curled-up wormy-looking things lying in the cells.
The pupae are capped over with wax by the workers, while it spins a cocoon around itself. The worker brood have fairly flat caps, and the drone brood is raised, like a pencil eraser, because the drones are bigger and need more room.
This mature pupa eats her way through the wax cap, and emerges, ready to start her career as a nurse bee. The dark cells to its right are cells whose brood have already emerged.
— Jennifer
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