I thought my nuclear hive was pretty good, but some of these hives are practically works of art.
Week 13 Activities
After an extremely wet week in Austin due to Hurricane Alex, I ended up checking the hive today as the weekend was touch and go with a lot of cloud cover and chances of thunderstorms.
The empty super I added last week in the 3rd position didn’t have as much comb drawn out as I would have hoped, but we did have a solid 3-4 days of rainy weather last week which prevented the girls from foraging. It looks like Alex has sputtered out, and the week ahead should be sunny.
I’m most concerned with the 8-9 queen cells I found in the 2nd super which I removed. I’m really trying to prevent a swarm in my first year. If I had the equipment on-hand, I could have attempted a split into another hive, but at this point, I’d rather keep Large Marge and her crew in one hive because the Texas summer is just going to get hotter, and there will be less flowering plants for a new hive to survive on. I’m hoping good weather will allow the empty 3rd super to be drawn out giving them them much needed space and eliminating the swarm instinct.
Here is a frame with a queen cell.
Close-up of the queen cell just under the hive tool.
On the plus side, all queen cells for swarming are on the bottom of frames. Supercedure cells are usually built in the middle to upper part of the frame. These types of cells are created when the existing queen is either dead or not performing well. I can at least take comfort that Large Marge is still going strong which was confirmed by my inspection today where I saw plenty of eggs and larvae in various stages of development.
The girls were a little more aggressive today which I’m chalking up to them being cooped up all week due to the rain. I had a few bees that continued to follow me around even after the hive was closed back up, and I ended up giving myself a few puffs of smoke to encourage them to go back to the hive.
Filed under beekeeping
Honey Recipes: Toasted Sesame Honey Ice Cream (via mistress beek)
I got my wife an ice cream maker for Christmas last year, but we haven’t had an opportunity to use it yet. We decided that July 4th weekend was a great time to try it out, and what better flavor to inaugurate the machine than ice cream flavored with the first honey harvest from Large Marge’s hive.
Luckily, Mistress Beek had this recipe on her blog for honey ice cream that really turned out well. We opted to leave out the sesame seeds since my honey is very light, but I agree the pinch of salt makes all the difference. We have a bunch of Texas peaches that we are going to grill tomorrow evening to pair with the ice cream. Toasted hazelnuts or peanuts would also make a fantastic topping as well.
via mistress beek
Filed under beekeeping, honey recipes
I need to get one of these…
I’m lucky to live in close proximity to the Lady Bird Wildflower Center. It is a great place to visit to learn about native plants, and they recently installed some hives on their property. Below is a video of Dasylirion whelleri or Common Sotol in full bloom. From the video, it looks like the bloom stalk is covered in bees. This plant is a good addition to any garden in the southwest.
Filed under Uncategorized
Bees on Herbs
Even before I started beekeeping, I noticed that anytime I had herbs flowering in the garden, the bees would always be all over them. Herbs like mint, rosemary, thyme, and oregano have tiny little flowers but the bees really seem to like them.
Right now, oregano is in bloom where the hive is located, and the girls are taking advantage of a close nectar source.
Filed under beekeeping
Honey Harvest Take 2
It turns out I was only able to take off 4 frames of honey this week instead of a full eight because I accidentally put the wrong super in the top position yesterday which was extremely frustrating. All in all, I think the mistakes I have made so far have been relatively minor and has not hurt the hive in the long run.
This time I extracted the honey at the site of the hive so I could put the frames right back in to be cleaned up by the girls. Also, the honey is extracted a lot easier when wearing a baby blue headband that gives +2 against spills. Last week I tried cleaning the frames and that didn’t work at all. Anybody know what the best thing to do with frames after extraction if you can’t get back to your hive right away?
I also got another batch of wax cappings and comb that I will process in the next week or so after I build a solar wax melter. I’m going to try the low cost version from Linda’s Bees blog. I figure it gets above 95 most days here in Austin in the summer time so this version will work well here in the south. There was a bit more pollen in these frames which is the darker stuff in the middle of the photo.
All in all, I got about another 20 pounds of honey this week. My expectations for the first year were little to no honey so kudos to Large Marge and crew for doing so well. If I can just keep them from swarming this first year, everything will be going great.
Filed under beekeeping
Week 12 Activities
Almost every book I’ve read on starting your first hive basically says that more often that not, you generally don’t have to worry about swarming in your first year of beekeeping when starting from scratch. There are exceptions to everything, and I think Large Marge’s hive is getting close to swarm potential.
I found more than 6 queen cells in the hive with one frame having 4 in the 2nd super. I think part of the problem is the girls have decided that supers 1 and 2 are for brood and 3 and 4 are for honey. So to try and prevent a swarm, I added a super with all new frames into the 3rd position effectively making the 4th and 5th super the honey supers. I’m hopeful this wide open space in the 3rd slot will give them the room they need and discourage a swarm.
I also added the bee escape between the 4th and 5th super to pull some more honey off tomorrow to also open up some space in the hive. I actually moved what was the 3rd super to the top position because it was all capped honey. Here is a shot of the bee escape.
Large Marge still is performing well and I’m seeing good brood patterns in the 1st and 2nd supers.
The also have been quickly building out new comb on the new frames that were put in last week when I removed a few frames of honey.
Here is the hive put back together which now consists of 5 supers. I’ll be back tomorrow to remove probably at least 4 frames of honey and take off the bee escape.
Filed under beekeeping
The Dark Side of Beekeeping
The one thing all the books I read and even the class I took didn’t prepare me for was squishing bees. No matter how careful you are, some girls are just going to get squashed in the process of inspecting your hive. You can certainly minimize the damage by moving slowly and carefully, but as bees are in constant motion, causalities are always an occurrence. It makes me sad every time it happens though.
Filed under beekeeping
I think I need a bigger boat…
Sunday afternoon I checked on the hive to see how the bee escape was working. After 36 hours, almost all the bees were out of the 4th super which let me easily harvest 3 full frames of honey. For some reason, I thought there were at least 5 frames ready in the 4th super, but I was mistaken. That will teach me to take better notes next time I inspect my hive.
I replaced the frames I removed and then took off the bee escape. The girls looked super crowded being forced back into just 3 supers so I’m sure they were happy to get back in the 4th again.
I setup my harvesting station in the kitchen. I have a two 5 gallon bucket system that I purchased from Brushy Mountain that strains your honey as well as having a honey gate to allow you to bottle.
For this type of extraction, you scape off the comb and honey into the first bucket.
Here’s a closer shot of the sweet sweet honey on the frame.
The top bucket has a sieve that catches the wax cappings. I saved those to be melted at a later date to get some beeswax. I put it in a baggie and stuck it in the freezer.
The honey goes through the sieve and then through a nylon mesh bag for further straining. After that it ends up in the bottom bucket ready to be bottled.
After that you can bottle the honey. Three full frames got me 21 8 oz. bottles of honey. Considering the 3rd super is all honey and the 4th is well on its way as well, I need to get a lot more bottles here quickly.
Filed under beekeeping, equipment
Week 11 Activities
My fears of Large Marge’s untimely demise were quickly put to rest after this week’s inspection. I found plenty of capped brood, larvae in various stages, and cells full of eggs in the 2nd super. The girls have decided that supers 3 and 4 are just going to be honey which makes the whole debacle with the queen excluder even more absurd. I didn’t bother checking the 1st super as I want to start minimizing my time in the hive, and I need to trust that the girls know what they are doing.
After lifting supers filled with honey the last two weeks, I decided my back was never going to last unless I implemented some bee yard ergonomic improvements. A card table next to the hive eliminated having to put the supers on the ground.
I was pleased to see a lot more frames that had capped brood with empty cells already containing eggs or larvae.
I think I also finally found a good angle and position of the sun to see eggs more clearly. You definitely want the sun hitting the frame directly so the cells get illuminated. Having the black plastic foundation also has been an advantage.
With supers 3 and 4 almost all honey, I decided I could safely harvest some. I put an escape screen between supers 3 and 4 to clear the bees out the 4th super. An escape is designed to let bees go down into the hive, but prevents them from moving up. The fewer bees you have in the super you are trying to harvest the better for obvious reasons. I’ll check back tomorrow afternoon to see how many bees are left.
Filed under beekeeping
Urban Beekeeping in Austin, Texas 