I was a little concerned with all the open cells last week in the first two supers of the hive. As a new beekeeper, I still have a hard time finding just the right angle to hold the frame to see eggs so I’m hopeful that Large Marge is still going strong when I check the hive tomorrow morning. Since it has been a week and if all is well in the hive, I should see a lot of capped brood or at the very least, larvae ready to be capped to complete their final metamorphosis.
Still Life with Smoker and Frame Perch
I was able to use my new frame perch this past weekend, and it has really helped with getting better photos of the bees. Before I had to try and hold the frame still while someone took the shot which is very difficult to do especially with a macro lens where the depth of field is limited. Now photos can be taken of the frame in the perch while I continue inspecting the hive. This helps reduce the amount of time I have the hive open plus the photos come out better.
Filed under beekeeping, equipment
Exclusive Behind the Scenes Footage!
Beehives are communal affairs inside the hive and the same goes for all the folks outside the hive. I’m lucky to have so many people interested in this beekeeping adventure, and who are willing to lend their support and cameras to document this effort. I have not one but two camera crews plus an ever rotating group of friends and neighbors interested in the entire process.
Setting up the tripod because bees are constantly moving around and closeups require a steady hand.
Gitanjali smartly dressed in her best bear colors taking some shots from afar.
Everyone pitching in to check for blasted beetles.
Even Chicken and Ostrich like being out during the beekeeping activities and do their part to eat potential pests.
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Week 10 Activities
It was a hot and humid morning in Austin even at 10:00 a.m. when I opened the hive. The 4th super was filled with bees drawing out comb which was a nice change from last week’s queen excluder mishap.
If this is even possible, the 3rd super seemed even more full of honey. All 8 frames were pretty much full up with only a few areas of capped brood.
I went ahead and moved some of these 3rd super honey frames up into the 4th super to encourage more bees to move up. Plus I’d like to see some brood in the 3rd super instead of all honey.
I ended up going all the way down to the 1st super today because my sticky board used for mite checks had fallen in the bottom board and I couldn’t remove it. I really didn’t want to do this, but I figured I better bite the bullet and just get it done.
The 1st and 2nd supers were mainly brood cells and pollen. There were a lot of open cells which initially had me worried, but a good majority seem to have eggs in them.
This is me with my wife after the hive was put back together. Did I mention it was hot today?
Filed under beekeeping
Häagen-Dazs Helping Bees
It is nice to see a company trying to do their part to help the plight of bees in this country. Häagen-Dazs has an informative web site on what they are doing to help.
They also have a fun little tool to create your own bee. Below is an artistic rendition of Large Marge.
Filed under honey bee research
Need to move your bee hive? Here’s the lazy way. (via mistress beek)
This topic came up at the Austin Urban Beekeeping Meetup gathering this past Sunday. Hopefully, I will not have to move too many of my hives, but if I do, I’m going to try this method first.
via mistress beek
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The Latest in Bee Fashion
After my previous post on hives being stolen, I started to look around the internets for anything around hive security or bee tracking. I found an article from National Geographic which made me laugh mainly because of the picture below. The article is a few years old, but it is cool concept tagging bees to track their movements. However, I think they need to shrink the tags a bit before they can be used on honey bees.
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Hell Hath No Fury Like a Beekeeper Scorned
I found the following story last night, and I can’t even imagine trying to steal one hive let alone 48.
I know I would be pretty upset if I made a visit to my hive only to find the entire thing missing. Maybe I need to equip Large Marge with a GPS tracking device…
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Week 9 Inspection- Additional Information
Even though the 4th super was devoid of all but 6 brave bees that went through the queen excluder, there were still a lot of good signs in the hive. For one thing, the brood pattern on most of the frames was quite good meaning it was uniform without a lot of open cells in between.
I also saw Large Marge in the 2nd super. It is always nice to see your queen to confirm she is still there. While I didn’t see any eggs, there were plenty of capped brood plus larvae in various states before being capped. All in all, I think this is a healthy hive and hopefully with the queen excluder removed, the girls will draw out the 4th super to give them much needed room.
Filed under beekeeping
Week 9 Inspection – Seriously Covered in Bees!
Last week I added a 4th super because Large Marge and the girls definitely needed more space. Unfortunately, when I opened up the hive this morning, there were zero bees in the 4th super. I think this was due to both the queen excluder in between the 3rd and 4th super, and the fact that the 4th super had brand new undrawn frames. I put the excluder on when I added the 3rd super three weeks ago which in theory was suppose to get the girls used to going through it, but that theory is busted.
Below you can see me putting the hive back together and the girls are busting out at the seams. I was worried that this overcrowding would initiate a bunch of queen cells for a swarm, but I didn’t see any during my inspection. The 3rd super was almost all honey, and the other two were almost all brood. The bees were also a lot more feisty this morning probably due to all the honey in that 3rd super.
Adding the 3rd super back on the hive.
I removed the queen excluder and put the 4th super back on. Once they get comb drawn out, I can add it back on as long as I make sure Large Marge is in the 3rd super or below.
Lessons Learned:
- Make sure your spectators don’t wear black so they look like bears. No one got stung, but there were a lot of close flybys and some chasing involved. My wife (for once) didn’t wear black this time and she was fine.
- Only use the queen excluder if you have drawn out frames or you at least put one frame with honey in that super to entice the bees up.
- Find exercises for low back strength. That 3rd super full of honey must have weighed 40 to 50 pounds. I’m so glad I decided to go with medium supers for my entire hive. I can’t even imagine lifting a full deep brood box without some sort of system of levers and pulleys.
Filed under beekeeping
Urban Beekeeping in Austin, Texas 