New Supers

We (Geetha, Stef, Steve, and David) installed a third super on each of our hives on Tuesday, August 20th.  Once again Arvin loaned us empty supers to use.  Then on Sunday just before the MFA picnic, we opened blue hive (green? the one on the west) to find only empty cells in the new super.  Let's hope the season hasn't ended.

Grandfatherly Prerogative

From Steve:

Okay, this is outside the main business of the blog, but I can't help posting three photos of my grandson Wilder at the hives in late June.

Four Stories and Counting

Update from Steve:

Last Monday morning, I rendezvoused with Arvin in Gilbert to pick up two loaner supers.  He wasn't surprised to hear how well our bees are doing, since "everything's blooming."  He repeated how impressed he is with the health of our hives and said, perhaps jokingly, we might end up with four supers on each hive by the end of the season, although he thinks three more likely.  He said all this blooming might just come to an abrupt halt without more rain.

Late that afternoon, warm, blue skies, Chris, Geetha, Melissa and I added the supers to our hives. The hives looked great, with Blue's first super nearly full, too.  We each held a frame full of honey, amazed as always at the heft of the thing.  The hive itself much weigh over a hundred pounds.  We sampled Green's very light, golden honey.  Delicious--although Geetha said it lacked the "citrus" edge of honey she had sampled from Blue.

Monday night a whopper of a storm hit--at least where I live.  My heavy, full garbage can up at the top of our road blew over, which made me nervous about those new, towering supers that had yet to be glued down.  So I drove out Tuesday morning to make sure all was well with the ladies.  Yup, nothing had budged.

With a fair bit of luck, we might just end up with an extra two for four supers full of honey for ourselves at the end of the season.  Maybe we could sell it to raise some dough for the next hive bodies.

Super Supers

I, Steve, took Clare out to the hives for her first visit.  And what a visit.  The super in Blue had six or seven frames drawn out.  And Green's super was full.  Also, we saw drones flying in and out of Green.  I'm a little nervous Green might be poised to swarm, so I intend to get another super on each hive pronto.

Varroa mites = negative!

This last Friday, Steve drove Chris, David, Geetha, and me (Claire) to the hives to meet Arvin, who led us through our first check for varroa mites. (Given that - spoiler alert, if you didn't read the post title! - we didn't find any, it may also have been our last check before winter).

There are different methods, but Arvin's choice procedure involves rolling bees in powdered sugar, which I like to imagine they maybe enjoy, or at least tolerate. We checked combs for queen activity, evened out aberrant sections of comb-pulling (some with honey, some with larvae - some with both!), then filled a mason jar with bees - about 1/3 full - and a tablespoon of powdered sugar. The lid has a metal grid on it but the bees were small enough to get out, so we worked quickly, rolling the bees around (looked like we were coating them in flour) and then shaking out the jar over a laminated, gridded white sheet of paper.

Supers in Place--and the First Sting

So here's the latest from my two recent trips to the hives:

Thursday, June 20th.

David and I went out to tackle the jungle sprung up around the hives and on the trail.  David cleared a wide opening around the hives and I weed-whacked paths to the portapotty, the shed, and the white, ladies' mansions.  We also removed the bottom-board covers.

I'd say the queens have been managing, since the majority of the bees now seem to be the black of carniolans.  The Italians we installed with the queens are nearly outnumbered!

Friday, June 21st.

I drove out to the hives with David, my son Morgan, and my grandson Wilder.  We were bee sightseeing, but I also took along the supers.  Wilder is three and a half and was fresh from a trip to the Chattanooga Children's Museum, where he dressed in a bee suit and crawled through giant octagonal cells.

So we put on our veils, fired up the smoker, and opened the hives.  All looked great.  The upper deeps each had three frames drawn out, and one had nearly a fourth full.  We shifted one of the full combs in each of the upper deeps to an outer, empty location, and then we added the supers.  Wilder expertly wielded the bee brush to clear girls off the top board.  It was a this point that the major event happened!  David had earlier found a tick on his shorts and removed it.  Now he believed he felt another tick on his leg and swatted.  And was stung!  In his right hand.  The threshold has been crossed.  Note:  None of us wore gloves handling the hive parts and no one else was stung.  The hives, in fact, despite the wind and the gray sky, seemed very placid.

Last thing, we removed the entrance  reducers.

Hive-Tastic

Hey gang!

Last week, as Claire noted, I went out with her and Nick and Chris and Lauren and Lance to put the second brood chambers on the hives.  I've posted some photos Lance took of the adventure.  (Anyone else who was there, feel free to add yours.)  As you can see, there's a lot of action going on in the hives--we even saw some pupae (not pictured)!

Tegan and I were going to go out today, but because of the rainy weather, we have to reschedule for later this week.  I'm sure the girls aren't ready for the supers just yet anyway since they only got the second deeps a week ago.

I didn't have my summer plans set when we first discussed the beekeeping schedule and since we're going to have to make a new schedule for the upcoming months, I just wanted to let you all know that for all practical purposes, I will not be in Ames from June 15-July 24.  Once I get back, I'll be happy to join anyone on future outings to the Casey Land.

I hope you all get a chance to get out to Casey in the next few weeks.  All the activity is very exciting!

Stef

The supers are on!

Hello apiary enthusiasts!

Our visit to the Carniolans this week was delayed by seemingly constant rain - this May is the wettest on record for the state of Iowa, its 17.48" of rain beating out 1892's longheld record of 15.36".

Nevertheless, during a brief window of non-precipitation, we (Chris, Lauren, Stef, Lance, Nick, and I) managed to get the supers on both hives. Lance served as smoking expert, which - as Barbara wrote - is much more difficult than it seems, and Nick ran into some wild parsnip on the way. Watch out for it when you visit - (it + sun) can cause phytophotodermatitis:
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialplants/herbaceous/wildparsnip.html

Chris, Lauren, Stef, and Lance also have some lovely photos of the combs which are now on Facebook, and perhaps could be posted here later (?). The bees are definitely active - but there was still some honeycomb left to pull, so the extra levels seem well-timed for expansion.

Wishing you a summer as productive as the Carniolans'!  
- Claire


Source for weather data: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/viewart/20130531/NEWS/305310043/Storms-put-Iowans-saturated-state

They're feeding themselves now!

 Following Arvin's instructions (via Steve), today I removed the feeders and added (and rearranged)  frames.  I saw so much comb!  The bees stayed gentle. The hives made a beautiful sound and still show a golden haze when you open them. Barbara Haas came along and helped a lot. I am so glad she was there because it wouldn't have been nearly as wondrous on my own, and practically speaking, keeping that smoker going turned out to be more difficult than I imagined--even though our bee book mentioned that many beginners find this task to be the hardest part.

I also saw twice what I think

 is an indigo bunting flying near the hives.

Phlox was blooming, and a few columbines.  Best of all, we found morels, in the woods just southeast of the hives.  Not a lot, but what we found were good sized.  We also looked pretty carefully on the other side of the alfalfa field but found nothing there.

Check for ticks.  There are a lot of them.

For the time being, the cleaned out feeders are in my garage.  I will take them to the shed on my next visit.

P.S. If anyone finds a pair of brown sunglasses around the hives or in the shed , it is probably mine.

Italians to Carniolans

I just talked to Arvin and he said all of you might have an easy time telling which bees are new because they'll be darker.  All our original bees were Italian, but our queens were carniolan.  Our new bees will be different than the pioneers that first settled our hive.

Blue Queen Is Laying

Yesterday, May 10, we--Chris, Geetha, Lindsay D., Lindsay T, Stefanie, and Steve--opened the hive, eleven days after our queens were installed.  Each hive looked good, although in both, blue in particular, the bees had built extra sections of comb between frames.  One glob of extra comb fell off a frame when we were moving frames in blue. We took it out of the hive and brought it home.  On the way back Geetha noticed eggs in the cells.  So Blue Queen is laying.  Geetha took some pictures.  Maybe she'll post them.

The Bee Schedule

Principle 1- Always wear a veil and use a smoker to calm the bees.  You only need to use a few puffs of smoke to quiet the hive.

Queens released Monday, April 29^th.

May 9th, Friday, 1:00 – Steve driving out with a group for smoker, hive-opening instruction.  We will check for comb building and look for eggs or larvae.  We do not have to see the queen, just evidence of the queen’s activity.

May 16th - Steve leaves for Ireland and is pretty much gone the rest of the summer.

May 18th or 19th(weekend) – Barbara.  Observe some capped brood and comb building.  You may exchange drawn comb that do not have eggs, larvae or capped brood, moving them from outside in.  We want to get the outside foundation drawn.

May 25th or 26th(weekend) - Claire & Nick.  If there are at least six combs drawn, you may want to add the second brood chamber.  You should see about three to four frames of brood by this time.

REMEMBER, EACH COLONY WILL DEVELOP AT ITS OWN PACE.      

June 1st or 2nd(weekend) – Chris and Lauren.  If you would  like to observe the queen and the brood, remove top hive body and take a look. Remember to put back the frames in the order they were.

June 8th or 9th(weekend) – Lindsay T.   Check to see how much honey is in the second hive body by lifting it.  This is your first time to observe the Queen and brood, go ahead.  If the top hive is fairly heavy, add a super to that colony.

AFTER THIS THE GROUP WILL NEED TO MAKE A SCHEDULE FOR VISITS THE REST OF THE SUMMER.  GEETHA SHOULD BE BACK THE WEEK OF JUNE 10^TH AND WILL BE ABLE TO HELP WITH THIS.

The rest of the summer you will be switching foundation with drawn comb.  Always put foundation in the center of the super.  This should keep the queen from laying in the supers.

Sometime in July Arvin will  conduct a powered sugar varroa test to see our level of mites.