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.