LINKS - Home  - Hive 1 - Hive 1 Main Flow - Wrangling - Da Bees -

07.07.07 - A auspicious date and I'm hoping good karma/luck for our new adventure (the girls and I). Thinking these are already city bees for a few generations now as I captured them only 3 blocks from home and the fact I always wanted a hive at home, that will be there new spot till further notice. All those exotic blooms sold by the truck load this spring for all those acres of flower beds around all those houses. My mouth is watering already.

Hive 2 is built from 1/4 inch plywood on a 1-1/2 inch square wood frame. Then 1-1/2 inch styrofoam panels were friction fit into the in-sides, top and bottom of MKII. The sides are not sloped as MKI had no problems with attachments to the sides. I made the opening where the TB's sit 1/2 inch longer than the width of the thirty bars as MKI had a small bit of problem with expansion/swelling of the bars which caused a minor buckling till they dried out again. After I had this all thought out and built I got a catalogue from Beesource and they are selling 'new' Langstroth hives made entirely from styrofoam. Henh, maybe we were on the right track all by ourselves. In the catalogue it advertised cool in summer and warm in winter, these were exactly my thoughts when designing MKII. I also put an outer skin of 'Chloroplast' on the top out side of the lid as is a white colored plastic cardboard and couldn't help but think it would help immensely with solar gain. Instead of a series of entrance holes along the long side as in MKI I cut a 5/8 inch by seven inch long slit on the long side towards one end and put a sliding panel on it to be able to restrict the size of the opening if necessary. The (T)op (B)ars are exactly the same dimensions as MKI, thinking as much interchangeability as possible might be wise. The outside is painted in a rust brown acrylic outdoor stain from the mis-tint section.

They installed without any fuss or bother, no protective gear and no aggression. If indeed you can call inverting the capture box over the opened new Hive 2 and sharply whacking it on the lip of the hive a few times as they slid inside with a solid satisfying thunk installing. In fact the one sting I did get was from a straggler from Hive 1. I went out just before I picked up the new girls and pulled a frame of combination brood and honey. On the way home I had one end of the surprisingly heavier and heavier weight on the dash and was holding the other end. One of the stragglers crawled unbeknownst up my long sleeve and then when I partially crushed her she retaliated. The thought process of adding the brood frame is that they may be more apt to stay until I get their new highness today if they have brood to fuss over. This will also give them a few new workers till the new queen's eggs start hatching. Also it's giving her ladyship something to lay in. I also left a feeder with simple syrup in the new hive just in case they needed any. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics in my excitement and anticipation, as I didn't know if I had any bees inside the capture box till got it to their new location and opened it up. To my relief, as well as some small pride the capture hive was chock-a-block full.

07.09.07- Tonight about 9 PM I installed (H)er (R)oyal (H)ighness that I graciously received from Corey Bacon at the Beeranch in Kinistino, SK. There seems to be a shortage of queens as the season hasn't been cooperating till just the last week m.o.l. and so I was grateful for his help and indulgence. 

Here are the new girls on the brood frame I swiped from Hive 1. I took this original Langstroth frame that I got with my nuc this spring as I would like to start removing all the Lang. frames from Hive 1 and it shouldn't take long as another one is being converted to honey storage. 

As an aside ... for the first time I saw the queen-bee at Hive 1. I think she is a 'hider'. Although I have not poured diligently over the frames at Hive 1 I have looked them over looking for HRH. But last evening while sweeping off the girls removing this frame she showed up at the very end where she had bee-n hiding at the bottom of the frame and was one of the last ones off. 

Took the advice of a 'poster' to a bee forum and used a clump of long grass/weeds as a brush and they didn't seem to mind too much. No stings or aggression and I swept them back into the hive when it was open. So I don't think any went astray. One more piece of equipment not necessary to spend money on to my thinking and the temperament of the girls I am working with.

Meet and greet the new HRH. I am curious as to what breed I captured and have asked Corey and OMR for their opinions. If it is even possible to tell as I understand crosses are common. I'm pretty sure this will be a 'Carniolan' hive as soon as the existing girls pass from old age as the queen is already bred, but I will have to ask someone more knowledgeable than myself that one too.

Today I will replace the capture hive for one more day and remove tonight. As well I made a bee-vac out of two styrofoam coolers where one nests inside the other and a 12V car-vacuum. It doesn't suck really strongly, but is noticeable so hope will work. I anticipated they would be on inside of chimney when removed the capture hive the first time and did make a scoop out of a cut down plastic gallon. But the mortar on the bricks on the inside isn't finished smooth and so it worked so and so. Did get one really good scoop (the first one) and dumped them into a box but about half flew away by the time I had finished putzing around trying for the rest. Boy how many times in one lifetime do I have to lose a whack of the bulk while trying to save a few drips....   D'oh.

07.10.07 - Got a couple of cups more of bees from the last attempt at extracting more from chimney. I think that the hole in the excluder funnel was a tad large and they were able to get back in. Didn't get a chance to use new bee-vac as the inside of the chimney was bee free. I am done with the extraction and have to say for a first attempt I am quite happy.

Yesterday the new denizen's were making familiarization flights and even saw a few bringing pollen back to home base. I will let the new additions et al familiarize themselves and bond with HRH and if she isn't freed by tomorrow AM will let her loose. I kind of hope they do it themselves, although I'm not sure why I have that gut reaction. It is perfect bee weather and are forecasting more of the same for the next week.

My brother and sister in law along with their six year old twinsies stopped by on their way home from a week vacation up north and I couldn't resist opening up the hive and showing the kids the girls and new queen as well as demonstrate that bees are friendly and perhaps pass on a small amount of interest. I think they were all interested somewhat and even got my brother to hold one end of the frame as I brushed off some of the bees to show the kids the capped brood as small children seem to be universally interested in babies. 

Both Corey and 'Old Man Riggs' think they look like Carniolan's or perhaps Carnie X Italian. Indeed it is moot as they both advised as I thought that the hive will be in fairly short time a Carniolan hive courtesy of HRH's bloodlines. Good, although I have not experienced any other breed, the research I have done and the small amount of experience I've had with carnie's, as well as perhaps a little of 'first love' I am happy with that outcome. I've done all I can think of to get them started, now it's up to the collective. Good luck girls, I'm rooting for ya.

07.12.07 - Opened the hive up just long enough to see if HRH was free yet and there was progress from both ends of the candy plug in the queen cage with only the last quarter inch or so to go and I opened it up with a long screw so as soon as they clean it up a little she will be free later this afternoon. Everything else looked fine, they were bearding making comb on the partially built comb I swiped from Hive 1 for the capture box and it was being filled with honey. As well I observed foragers returning with pollen which I take for a reassuring sign. I am having a hard time not spending too much time sitting and staring at them all coming and going. Funny how now I am taking a different route home every trip looking at where the good yards with lots of flowers are. Although with a 3.2 Km (2 mile) radius for gathering that pretty much covers the most of the city. What fun.  

Wow, a 3.2 Km (2 mile) radius does pretty much cover the entire city.

07.17.07 - This morning went to Hive 1 and swiped another brood frame. I was lucky and got one of the Langstroth frames with quite a bit of capped brood. The bottom addition was pretty much all drone brood, though not many. So when I installed in Hive 2 I cut it all off and it came easily.

 New addition, before drone cells were cut off bottom. 

Saw HRH going about her business and she is not a shy lady like the one in Hive 1. Maybe a lot less places to hide.   lol   This new brood comb should give them a decent fill-gap as well as young hive workers to build more comb. I was thinking about the time gap between HRH starting to lay five days ago and their first emergence and figured this would help them out as far as continuity of new workers and also gives HRH more laying space to crank it up to body weight in eggs a day. The partially finished comb is nearer to completion and is all filled with honey, some already capped. The first inserted Lang. T.B. was built out wider than I wanted just at the top where it was butting up against the next T.B. that had just a few nodes of started comb. I noticed Hive 1 is like that now too where a drawn comb is next to a blank or nearly blank T.B. So to try and remedy I ran the knife along the edge of the T.B. sloped in towards the comb and cut off the protruding top two or so inches along the whole bar and let it drop inside the hive for them to clean up. I replaced the newest construction Bar inboard to it so now the two Lang. frames that are brood are side by each with the newest construction honey comb nearest the entrance (inboard) and on the other outboard side the partially built honey comb now half completed from the capture hive. They had cleaned up the syrup in the feeder so I mixed up some more 2:1 sugar:water syrup and partially refilled. What the heck, if they can use it I'll supply it. I want them strong enough to make it through the winter so I don't at all mind helping out any way I can.

Hmm, noticed in the first picture above how the cells seem to drift into very large cells on the bottom and the lower R.H.

So 15.25 cells per 10mm equals 65-66mm cells. I hope that is because they are dedicated drone cells as if not they are not regressing to (S)mall (C)ell but progressing to giant cell. Yikes. 

07.23.07 - There is new capped brood so everything is proceeding well after queening. The trimming of the wide comb that is built on the outboard sides of the last constructions and then placing between built combs seems to fix that problem, however in both hives the outboard combs are always too wide. Today did some more radical surgery trimming the upper four inches of the combs narrower and the collective will get a break from flying as I just let the trimmings drop and as it mostly sliced through honeycomb there was quite a flood on the bottom of the hive with a small amount dripping out the entrance, so it was all-hands to the pumps so to speak as I left quite a thick knot of them gathering it back up.

08.02.07 - Well the experiment with trimming the combs went alright although I don't think it was really necessay. When blank bars were placed between drawn comb, they build nicely until the main flow starts and then they seem to just build anywhere. My theory is that the honey comes in faster than the combs can be built. There isn't as much brood as I would have liked to see, but once again I think they just are gathering so much nectar that they are putting it everywhere. I was thinking of swiping another brood frame from Hive 1 but they seem to be in the same shape even though they have 14 Bars with construction. Hive 2 has I think 6 built TB's. I did write it down and then promptly forgot where I put it.   lol. They are still taking the 2:1 syrup at the rate of one liter (qt) per visit and as I read that this encourages comb building I keep refilling it. Although it has been hot (for here) in the 30°C (86°F) range there is no fanning or side attachments of comb unlike Hive 1 which is only insulated top and bottom instead of like this hive which has all six sides done in 1-1/2 inch styrofoam. I really like the design (so far   lol). It is a real pleasure having the girls in the back yard where I can sit in the lawn chair and watch their comings and goings as well as the periods where the new-bees are making their first orientation/practice flights. I have had neighbors etc. come talk to me while sitting six feet away from the hive but because it is a horizontal hive unlike in appearance to the Langstroth design which everyone associates with bee hives, not one person has noticed.

08.09.07 - The Hive 1 collective has lost HRH. As is too late to introduce a new queen there as it didn't sink in what was happening till there were no eggs, larva or capped brood left. To introduce a new queen and her first offspring to emerge would be into our possible frost period so ..... Hive1 and Hive 2 will be combined into .....

Well good in theory, but not in practice   lol. Opened and sprayed down bees and frames in Hive 2. Started spraying and transferring bars of comb and workers from what I thought was the queenless Hive 1 and did about five or six Bars with comb and then was struck dumb as there in front of my eyes was a nice pattern of capped worker cells. Yikes .... what to do now? After one minute of careful consideration decided to leave what I had transferred .. transferred and reassembled both hives leaving grass over both their entrances so as to orient the workers who had been transferred as well as to orient Hive 2 to their new surroundings. What a day!

So my first gut instinct was correct, the Hive 1 stopped or mostly stopped laying for a short time when flow was at height and me seeing the numbers of capped brood dwindle to a mere handful of drone cells made the wrong decision. Maybe I asked for too much advice, for sure inexperience, but regardless had myself talked in to them being queenless and during last check when there was almost no capped brood in hindsight I should have brushed the girls off the brood frames to look for larva, but didn't.

But I am looking at it as positive outcome for the wrong reasons   lol. Hive 2 is now stronger with the added comb and workers and Hive 1 is still queenright losing a little but not enough to make a real difference. Also the added bonus that now both hives are at home.

08.16.07 - After two days of little dead bodies coming out the entrance everything went back to normal. I figure I lost maybe two hundred workers, but it was a fraction of what went in there. Maybe next time try newspaper introduction method. Today cracked it open and took it apart. Everything was humming right along. Good brood patterns. They were getting close to the entrance side with drawn comb and there were eight empty bars on the outboard side. So I evened them out so the drawn combs are in the middle again. Between this hive and Hive 1 trimming comb and some that fell off a bar trying to straighten it I managed to harvest my very first ever jar of honey.

One thing about having hives in the city is that the flow starts the same time as the country with lilac, caragana's and dandelions but it stays on as is no gap between the early flowers and crops blooming like the country does. When the early flowers are finishing the bedding plants are in and they bloom non-stop till hard frost as many people cover them for quite a few lighter frosts. 

Nice and light honey eh? Is a tiny bit cloudy from the air still in it from straining. I feel like a dad, well, maybe a new pet owner, let's keep this on earth.   lol

 09.01.07 - Took the hive completely apart today and everything looks great. Capped brood, work progressing on comb building, and more honey capped. Nothing much to say other than business as it should be. Weather is forecast as nice for the foreseeable future and as we have had a light rain every couple of days I'd imagine the nectar is flowing full guns. I was at the farmers market and did quite well. As the hive is only four or five blocks away I was even visited by one of my girls. Looking at the flower patches in the field the market is on saw tons of bumble bees. I'd imagine mine can stay closer to home as there are tons of very nice yards with bedding plants in my immediate vicinity.

09.10.07 - Hive 1 has been ejecting the drones but this hive hasn't yet. I think is due to the fact that it is insulated and so still maintains a more steady temperature. Holidays for two weeks and if possible with a day of nice weather on my return then install follower board and make sure cluster starts at one end of the combs so they can travel the length of the hive during winter. All in all a successful year in my estimation. I think they have the critical mass and stores to see them through the winter and hopefully some honey for me come the start of the next season.

10.25.07 - Today the temperature was a balmy 20°C (70°F) and although there have been a few days around 10°C (50°F) which seems to be their minimum temperature to leave home, there has been few of those days. So yesterday the ladies piled out like mid summer and were actually returning with lots of pollen. Boy, having the hive in the city is sure nice for them as there hasn't been a sniff of a flower in the country for two months now. I have managed to get a couple of fills of their in-hive feeders and installed the one follower board made of 1-1/2 inch styrofoam. I am at a loss how to make sure they start at one end of the hive as they break cluster every time it warms a little and I don't think opening it up when it is too cold for them to leave home just to arrange them would be prudent. Trust in the ladies, not like they've been through winter as a species for the past few million years.......... going to be a long winter wait for me.

LINKS - Home - Hive 1 - Hive 1 Main Flow - Wrangling - Da Bees -