bee diary: 7/17/2010 · 17 July 2010, 13:07
This is a fairly unedited, long and rambling post because I’m still too keyed up to settle down and edit. You don’t need to read the whole thing. The short version: the bees swarmed and I don’t know where it went; in checking the status of the remaining bees in the hive, I wrecked some of their honey comb and was forced to harvest it.
Yesterday around noon, I glanced out the window and felt a sinking dread as I saw a large cloud of bees circling around the front of the hive. This was no orientation flight. It was a swarm! Swarming is how hives multiply. About half the hive takes off with the old queen and finds a new home. They gathered in a nearby tree, probably about 50 feet up. They stay there until their scouts find a new home for them. I set out the second hive I was working on, and used every trick I knew in order to coax them to decide that this was an agreeable new home. No luck. They took off sometime between 8:30 and 10:00 this morning while I was at the local beekeepers meeting, and we don’t know where.
As I told my beekeeping friends at the meeting today, I had been planning on splitting the hive (I knew it was getting overcrowded) today, but they beat me to it.
After I got back from the meeting, I opened up the hive. I will start out by saying that neither of us got stung. I did, however, collapse a couple combs. We might have even damaged the new queen, I don’t know. Clint thankfully noticed a strangely large bee that didn’t look like a drone stuck in part of the collapsed comb that I had removed. I helped her out and dropped her in the hive. I hope she makes it, or this hive will be done for.
I’m glad I didn’t do this yesterday, when there was double the hive population. The bees that were there, buzzing around, were quite unnerving enough.
I knocked on the top bars till I found one that sounded hollow, and took it out. The reason for its sounding hollow is that the comb on either side had been built up so thickly, there wasn’t room for a comb on that bar. Bees are pretty reliable about how thick they build their comb for rearing brood, but honey comb can be much thicker. Unfortunately, they had built it so thick that they had built across two top bars, and when I tried to move one of the bars, the comb got partially detached, and the honey in it was so heavy, the comb collapsed. Fabulous. I called Clint on the phone and asked him to bring some stuff I would need, such as a glove and a brush with which to brush the bees off the comb. The bees were not as perturbed as one might imagine, though there was a bee that resented Clint’s brushing her off the comb. I saw her sting his shirt, though thankfully it was hanging loosely enough that she didn’t actually get him. The funny thing about bees is that, once they’ve stung, they continue to act in a threatening manner, even though they can’t actually do more damage. It can be quite convincing.
So, we got the comb out and had our first nectar harvest. Unfortunately, because of the high humidity here lately, very little of it was capped, which means that it hasn’t been dried out enough to be considered honey. It still tastes very good, but we’ll have to consume or freeze it quickly so it doesn’t ferment. Maybe I’ll feed it back to the bees during the dearth.
I’m concerned about the hive, though — I saw a whole lot more drones running around than usual (the nice thing is, they can’t sting) and tons of capped drone brood. The capped drone brood I saw must have had their eggs laid at least 11 days ago (my last inspection was two weeks ago), but the live drones I saw running around had their eggs laid at least 24 days ago. Hmm. What does this mean? A laying worker? I hope the new queen survives and mates successfully soon. Meanwhile, I hope the remaining workers can make the most of the remaining nectar flow. In a few days, I plan on opening up the hive and investigating the hive more thoroughly. With the bees as edgy as they were (and me all nervous), I didn’t want to disturb the rest of the hive.
I took the two combs that were nearly all drone brood; I’m going to uncap some and see if they have many mites on them (varroa mites prefer drone brood). This late in the season, there’s no good reason to keep all those drones around — they’re going to get kicked out by the workers in the fall anyway, since all they do is take up space and eat food.
The new queen had better get the house in order soon.
— Jennifer
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What a special experience.
I am learning from you and enjoying it.
8/7 OK with Clint’s Schedule?
Talk to you later.
Love you, Mom
— Kay Pak · Sat Jul 17, 08:37 PM · #