A call and MORE bees!

Last night my neighbor called and said that the sheriff had called to tell her that a swarm of bees had landed on a chair in town and could she come get them. She called me to see if I had a place for them. Now I have room for probably 50 hives, so I said sure. She went off to catch the bees and I took 4 concrete blocks down the hill into the meadow near the other two hives. I had no plastic to set down first so they are sitting in the middle of weeds.

As soon as I got the blocks placed, here came my neighbor with a cardboard box (full of bees) and a nuc box to put them in. We suited up and proceeded with the "install". We got the nuc placed on the blocks annd proceeded to open the box of bees. There were probably 2-3 pounds of bees in the box. I held the box and she scooped the bees out. Lots of them went down into the nuc, but LOTS of them were buzzing all around us. I ran back to the house to get my bee brush so we could push them out of the box.

We got as many as we cound into the nuc and then put the lid on it. After about 10 minutes the ones still on the box had congregated in clumps so we made a second pass at getting them in. We left the box next to the hive. This morning there were two clumps of bees on the box, but I didn't have time to fool with them before work. I will check when I get home to see if we still have more bees or not!

The secret will be if we have the queen. Is so I think they may stay - if not, well we will cross that bridge then!

Not sure what to do

Over the weekend I managed to get 10 of the new frames that I bought built and filled with foundatiion. I put them in a super and proceeded to get them on one of the hives. I opened up the hive that was started from a nuc last year - this is the one that seems to be doing the best. I noticed that there were ALOT of ants crawling up the hive and when I toook off the outer cover I discovered a good size ant nest on the underneath side of the cover. YUK. Now there is a certain amount of irony in the fact that I am nurturing on group of insects and find the others repulsive. I brushed all of the ants off of the cover.

I gave the hive a little smoke and went on in. I am so scared of accidentally hurting the queen it makes me very hesitant to fool with them too much. I pulled out several frames and there is what appears to be capped brood. There doesn't seem to be much honey. The dilemma is whether I should be feeding them or not. There is alot blooming and alot of activity so that may be what they need, but if they need the extra boost of food I want to give it to them. I think I need to contact someone for good advice.

I opened the second hive - looks like the same situation except there are a couple of frames that haven't even been pulled. I put the super on the first hive and covered them back up. I think I should be taking the whole thing apart and look down into the bottom hive bodies, but there is the issue of not being able to identify the queen and being afraid of hurting her. I think this is more than I should do by all myself. Yikes!

Well....I think I need some help!

Beautiful morning!

I have just returned from being out of town for a few days and it is SO much greener than when I left! Amazing how much difference a few days make. The buckeye trees are blooming and are just beautiful. Our lower meadow is also in bloom with white flowers. Yay for spring.

I have to go pick up some frames for my hives so I can add a super to each. Don't want my girls to get too crowded and look for a new home. I will FINALLY get some honey (I hope!)

There is a new Dadant supply store in Frankfort so no really long trip or mailorder is needed to get the frames. I hope the size of the frames is compatible with the parts I already have.

Almost Easter

Tomorrow is Easter. The family is coming over and we will have a casual "picnic like" meal. Sandwiches, potato salad, etc. Just don't have the energy to do a big dinner. It is supposed to rain today, but it is beautiful this morning. We saw a goldfinch outside the bedrooom window this morning. We have a little grove of paw paw trees and he was siitting in those trees. The birds are singing their little hearts out this morning.

I found the cutest little baskets for the children - with REAL grass. What a cute idea. I hope they like them.... I am sure the toys and candy will make more of an impression than the grass.

Spring has sprung!

Well this blog has been mighty quiet up to now. Well, there was Christmas, then New Year's, birthday, etc. and i have been involved in trying to lose weight. I looked at myself and saiid enough is enough. I started at the end of January with Weight Watchers online and have lost 17+ pounds so far. Yay for me.

I cracked open the bees yesterday - I didn't take all of the frames out - and they seem to be going to town. I met my first goal of NOT KILLING THEM (big goal, huh?!) so now let's see if we can actually get some honey. I have to order more frames and put another super on one of the hives. The other seems to have some room left, but I think I will get a super ready for it, too, while I am at it.

We went for a little walk today and saw the early spring wild flowers - trillium, violets (purple and white), etc. The redbud is blooming and it is glorious. I love spring. The hillsides are that lovely spring green.

50% on Derby Day

Saturday was the day that we had scheduled to take a look inside our two hives to see how things were progressing. Saturday morning I had taken a walk in the woods and came back through the meadow where the hives are. One hive was in the sun and there was obviously activity - bees going in and out - the other is in a shadier location, so I thought perhaps the bees are sleeping? That hive was the more docile of the two when we installed the bees, so maybe they are quieter???

Saturday afternoon John and Reg came over and we all suited up to take a peek inside. We started with the quieter hive.... a little smoke, then we took off the outer cover and the inner cover and low and behold - NO BEES AT ALL! They had absconded! What a huge disappointment. John and Reg said there is no explaining it - sometimes that just happens.

We looked inside the other hive and things are very busy in there - comb being pulled, a little honey, no capped brood yet. We will check on them again later this week. We saw the queen, so things are cool there.

As for the other hive...there are a few alternatives. We can look for the bees in the woods - we might find them, although that is unlikely since it has been cold and they are probably inside a hollow tree. Talk about a needle in a haystack! John knows someone that might have a nuc that we can get. Tomorrow night is the beekeeper's meeting so we might find someone there who can sell us some bees.

Sheesh!

The bees are here!

The bees arrived! We had the bees delivered to a friend who used to be a postman and who is home during the day. I had expected a call from the Post Office that said, "we have a package for you. Come get it NOW!!!" Sure enough Bill received a call from the P.O at 7:30 so he picked up the package. He fed them during the day and we met to install thhem at about 6:00 pm. Our neighbors. John and Reg, who are beekeepers came down to assist with the installation. I also found lots of info on the internet on how to get the bees into the hive - there seems to be a million opinions on everything to do with bees. The site "Beemaster" had a lot of good pictures.

When I got home I quickly whipped up a batch of sugar syrup only to discover that we won't need it until we go in the hives on Saturday to chack on how things are going.

We took all of the gear down to the meadoow where the hives will be located. The hive bodies were all ready for the bees. We stuffed the hive entrance with grass to keep the bees confined once they were installed. We all suited up and then carefully pried the top off of the box. The queen and her attendants were in a small cage in the bigger box of bees. There was a cork on one end of the queen cage - when that was pried off it revealed a piece of candy that stops up the hole. Reg took a tool and made an indentation in the candy. The bees will eat it out to release the queen.

The queen cage was suspended in the hive and then the bees dumped (literally) into the hive. The sugar syrup that came with the bees was set on top of the frames inside the empty super on top of the hive body. The inner cover was put on and then the lid.

We ordered a Russian queen and an Italian queen. The hive with what we thibnk is the Russian queen was fairly calm and peaceful (although you could hear LOTS of buzzing!) but the other hive with the Italian queen was really active and was buzzing all around the hive.

We were so excited we forgot to take pictures. We FINALLY have bees!!!!