Large Marge’s hive (if she is still in there) has tons of hive beetles.
Luckily, I don’t see them in the actual hive. I think the girls must drive them up into the outer cover and keep them up there where they are easy to squish. I still have a bunch of Beetle Blasters so I may put a few into the top super this weekend to see what happens.
Filed under beekeeping, pests
I was totally expecting to find a new queen in Ramona’s hive today after the discovery of the supersedure cell a few weeks ago. Not only was the supersedure cell completely gone, but Ramona was spotted and is alive and well.
Does anyone else think that Ramona’s marking looks like a Rorschach ink blot? How does that make you feel?
I guess it is still possible there is another queen that I just missed, but I looked pretty carefully. Someone is at least laying well.
I’ll check again next week but there were no more supersedure cells in the making so it looks like the hive decided they were happy with Ramona after all.
Filed under beekeeping, queens
Today I went out to Round Rock Honey to help teach an Intro to Beekeeping Class. I took the full class back in 2009 which really gave me the hands on experience I wanted to make sure beekeeping was for me. For folks interested in keeping bees, this one day class will run down the essentials of beekeeping as well as suiting up and visiting a hive. Round Rock Honey often runs a $39 special via Groupon so I recommend keeping an eye out for this deal.
Filed under beekeeping, education
I got the results back from my latest pollen analysis, and it was much different from the first batch of honey I sent last year.
The honey you submitted contains a large variety of pollen types many of which occur in very small amounts, suggesting that those floral sources were important but minor nectar contributors to the honey. The pollen concentration value of 99,250 pollen grains/10 grams of honey is high but is within the honey placed in Category II, which is the category generally attributed to most unifloral and mixed floral honey produced throughout the world.
The relative pollen count of this sample is dominated by various members of the rose family (ROSACEAE), and elm (Ulmus). Other significant nectar sources include blackberries (Rubus), and members of the buttercup family (RANUNCULACEAE) that include a number of different genera including Clematis. Some of the other minor pollen types, and by inference some of the nectar sources, include Texas persimmon, honeysuckle, crepe-myrtle, wild plum, and sunflowers. Overall, your honey is classified as a Multifloral Wildflower Honey.
| Pollen Taxa |
% |
| ASTERACEAE (ragweed-type) |
0.40% |
| ASTERACEAE (sunflower-type) |
1.30% |
| BRASSICACEAE (mustard family) |
0.40% |
| Clematis (clematis) |
9.40% |
| Diospyros texana (Texas persimmon) |
1.70% |
| Fraxinus (ash) |
3.00% |
| Lagerstroemia (crepe-myrtle) |
4.30% |
| LILIACEAE (lily family) |
0.40% |
| Liquidambar (sweetgum) |
1.30% |
| Lonicera (honeysuckle) |
0.40% |
| Melilotus (clover) |
0.40% |
| Prunus (plum, peach, cherry) |
0.90% |
| Quercus (oak) |
1.30% |
| RANUNCULACEAE (buttercups) |
8.90% |
| ROSACEAE (rose family) |
19.10% |
| Rubus (blackberry, dewberry) |
8.90% |
| Salix (willow) |
7.20% |
| Sambucus (elderberry) |
2.10% |
| Ulmus (elm) |
28.10% |
| Vitis (grape) |
0.40% |
| Unknown pollen |
0.40% |
Filed under beekeeping, pollination
I opted not to check Ramona’s hive today. I figured if there was a newly emerged queen, disturbing the hive at this point was probably not a good idea. I just topped off the feeder and decided to take a quick peek in Large Marge’s hive.
I found a disturbingly high number of hive beetles on the underside of the telescoping top cover which was initially concerning. After going medieval on their tiny asses, I took off the screened inner cover to start my inspection. The 6th super is still only partially drawn out but still full of bees. With this current drought, it will probably remain like this for the rest of the summer, but I don’t want to remove it to avoid crowding in the hive.
The 5th super is now all honey. It looks like the girls decided to move all the honey to this super which just reinforces my decision that queen excluders are a waste of time and just disrupt the natural order of things. No sign of any beetles in this super which makes me think the girls drove them up to the top cover.
The big shock came inspecting the 4th super. It isn’t the greatest picture because we weren’t expecting to see a new queen and had to hastily get this picture.
I last saw Large Marge on March 3rd during the first inspection of this spring. At the time she was laying well and the hive was full of bees. I’m not sure what happened. I guess it is possible that Large Marge is still in the hive and in either the 1st or 2nd super, but I’m not about to tear the hive apart looking for her. I also don’t think the hive swarmed because I think I would have noticed if half the bees in the hive absconded.
I didn’t inspect the hive any further after seeing the new queen. I’ll wait a week and do a more thorough inspection next week when I open up both hives.
Filed under beekeeping, queens
I met Lorie through the Austin Urban Beekeeper Meetup Group, and she just started several hives this season. I think she has a great video of installing packages under the watchful eye of another fellow local beek, Jim Hogg.
She will be blogging about her experiences, and you can follow along here.
Filed under beekeeping
It just hit me last night that queens take 16 not 21 days to develop. I was initially thinking that this Saturday or Sunday would be the day for the new queen to emerge but it is most likely today if not yesterday. This weekend’s inspection is going to be an adventure.
Filed under beekeeping
After last week’s speculation on whether or not Ramona’s hive was building a supersedure cell, there is no doubt whatsoever what the picture below is.
Interestingly enough, I found Ramona on the next frame over on a good section of capped brood.
I did observe while Ramona was walking around on the frame that her front right leg appears damaged so she only has 5 functioning legs. I’m not sure if she came like this or had an accident during the installation. In either case, I’m just going to let things play out. She is still able to lay as I saw plenty of eggs on frames so we’ll see what happens.
Filed under beekeeping
The cacti are blooming in Austin right now, and the bees are loving it.
The flowers are full of pollen, and the honey bees are taking advantage of it.
The native bees really seem to enjoy these blooms the most. They really get down into the flower and get covered with pollen.
Filed under beekeeping
I also checked Large Marge’s hive this weekend, and I think it is going to be the last inspection for a few weeks. Her hive has been so big and vigorous, I just figured it was going to swarm, but I don’t see any evidence of queen cells that would indicate that.
She still has a great brood pattern and, even with this drought, they are managing to still stock away honey.
Filed under beekeeping
Urban Beekeeping in Austin, Texas 