When Good Girls Go Bad
When I wrote last week, I had a very harrowing experience with Large Marge’s hive and got stung several times on the neck. Her hive was very aggressive, and I went back the next morning when the temperature was just above 50 hoping the girls would not be as active. That was so not the case. Just opening the outer cover sent them boiling out of the entrance, and I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and quickly closed up the hive.
I reached out to a bunch of experienced beekeepers in the area, and most believed that the new queen in Marge’s hive mated with an Africanized drone thus eventually turning the hive into the aggressive mess I dealt with last weekend.
My initial plan was to requeen following the instructions by Michael Bush. I was a little nervous about this process especially after reading this paragraph:
First, Be prepared to be stung. Be prepared to walk away for a while. Be prepared to run away for a while. I find running through some brush is a good way to get rid of clinging and following bees.
Luckily, my beekeeping friend Jim Hogg was going to walk me through the process as he has lots of experience in these types of situations.
However, plans changed when one of the chickens of Baab-Brock Farms was found dead a few days later. All the chickens got chased around the yard for several hours when Marge’s hive was stirred up. We didn’t find any evidence of the chicken being stung to death, rather we think her poor heart gave out from the stress. The other three chickens are still alive and will most likely need counseling from this ordeal.
At this point, I felt the responsible thing to do was move the hive out of the neighborhood. I ended up selling the hive to Konrad of Round Rock Honey who will come move it to one of his remote apiaries. The current plan to is to move it one evening this week weather permitting. I’ve never moved a hive before, so this will be a new learning experience and extra precautions will be needed. I will certainly try and get pictures and write about the process in my next post.
Filed under beekeeping
Swarm Season in Central Texas
With the mild winter Austin had this year, swarm season is already upon us. I decided to create a page on my blog to consolidate information on who to call to report a swarm as well as some general information about them. I borrowed heavily (i.e. stole most of the content) from the wonderful Albuquerque Beekeepers web page.
I don’t have too many folks on the list yet, but the two people I currently do have, Konrad Bouffard and Jim Hogg, I know personally, and they will do everything they can to safely remove the bees. As I find other folks I trust, I’ll update the list accordingly.
Filed under beekeeping
Spring Time = Sting Time
In my defense, we’ve had an abundance of rainy weekends this winter which has prevented me from getting out to check the hives as often as I would like. This early spring has also thrown off my timing, and when I showed up to inspect the hives today, I really thought I would have a nice easy inspection.
Boy was I wrong.
Both hives were busting out at the seams which made them super aggressive during the inspection. I checked Knives’ hive first and the top super was still all honey. I had a heck of a time getting it off because the girls had built comb between the frames of the two supers and used them to raise brood. I ended up ripping up the comb to remove the super killing the poor brood in the process.
This was my first giant fail as a beekeeper. Poor Knives had to overcome so much last summer from the drought, a supersedure, and a pesticide incident, and now I don’t add an extra super early enough.
Instead of sulking, I need to repair the situation because Austin will be in full blown nectar flow in a few weeks if we don’t get a freak late freeze. I added the bee escape to take off a super full of honey and also added an extra box of empty frames. I’ll harvest the honey tomorrow and put the super back on for them to clean up the leftovers.
I then moved on to Marge’s hive, and it was a good thing I did her second. I honestly had a “I may get stung to death” moment after I got down a few supers. She also built comb between the frames for brood which made it extremely difficult to remove the frames and the supers. I was just covered in angry bees and got stung twice on the neck through my veil. Even though I couldn’t go all the way down, I feel that the bottom supers may be empty as they moved up the hive during the winter. I’m going to try and check tomorrow morning when the temperature is closer to 50 degrees. I’m hoping the colder temperature will prevent as many bees from taking to the air, but not be too cold to get chilled brood. Any advice on dealing with a hive gone completely bonkers would be much appreciated.
I’ll end this post with a macro shot of what a stinger looks like after it is removed from your neck.
Filed under beekeeping
Florida Bees
I spent the past few days visiting my folks in Jupiter, FL which is just north of West Palm Beach. One of their neighbors are hosting some hives on their land for a Florida beekeeping during the “winter” months. This particular beekeeper mainly provides pollination services for the various citrus groves in the area as well as farms and orchards on both the coasts.
Right now, a small ground cover weed is in full bloom in the area which the bees are hitting hard. Looking at the blooms individually, they are very small and not an obvious source of pollen or nectar, but when you have 1 or 2 acres of the stuff, it is all of a sudden an excellent food source.
I stalked this one bee for a long time before I finally got a good shot to show all the pollen these tiny flowers are producing. This girl was loaded down with the stuff and wasn’t even taking the time to move all the pollen to her pollen sacs. She was literally covered head to toe with this white pollen.
Bees will take advantage of whatever is available and goes to show that what most people consider weeds are vital for the local pollinators during the lean months before the major spring and summer blooms.
Filed under beekeeping, pollination
Bee Starvation
It is not a very fun topic, but starvation is a major killer of managed bee hives each winter. Austin has experienced a very mild winter, which ironically, can put more of a strain on the hive’s resources than a cold one. We’ve had plenty of days where it is warm enough for the bees to go forage, but the energy expended finding food is no where near equal to what is available as most of the plants are dormant for the winter months. They would actually spend less energy clustered together in the hive if the temperatures were lower.
Luckily, most of the plants in Austin seem just as screwed up as well, and we are seeing a bloom cycle 3-4 weeks earlier than normal. The roses in my garden are about to go into full bloom when normally February 14th is the day in Central Texas where gardeners recommend pruning them.
This is why it is important to check your hives in the winter months on those mild days to ensure adequate foods stores still remain in the hive. If not, beekeepers usually recommend feeding granulated dry sugar as opposed to syrup during the winter as it is hard to keep the syrup over 50 F. If you find yourself in a situation where you have to feed in the winter, you will need to continue feeding until enough is blooming in the spring for the bees to become self-sufficient.
Filed under beekeeping
Austin City Ordinance Meeting
Last evening, I got to participate in a review of a section of the City of Austin’s Beekeeping Ordinance. A resolution was passed last November basically stating Austin wanted to be more bee-friendly and prioritize removal and relocation of bees whenever possible over extermination.
The current language reads as follows under a section entitled DESTRUCTION OF WILD OR ABANDONED BEES:
Without notice and a hearing, the health authority may destroy:
(A) a colony not residing in a hive;
(B) a swarm of bees; or
(C) a colony residing in an abandoned standard or man-made hive.
The proposed language would add this language to the section:
Wherever reasonably possible, the City shall prioritize the removal and relocation of wild or abandoned bees over destruction.
It is not a large change, but at least Austin is attempting to update their codes in the recognition of the plight bees are facing in this day and age.
Perhaps the best change, in my opinion, is updating the contact list 311 uses when people call in with bee swarms or wild hives on their property. The list currently has extermination services first with bee removal services near the bottom. The new updated list will have removal services first with those that only provide extermination services at the bottom. Priority on the list will also be given to beekeepers and services that will come get swarms free of charge. The hope is to encourage people to use relocation services as opposed to killing the bees.
One of the local news stations was out covering the story that you can watch by clicking the link below.
Filed under beekeeping, education
Final Check of the Season (one month later than I planned)
Austin had an unseasonably warm weekend to ring in 2012 so I took the opportunity to get in one last inspection of the hives. Between rainy weekends, Thanksgiving, our trip to Kauai and the holidays, it was later in the season than I would have preferred, but sometimes you just have to roll with the punches.
My main goals were to verify honey stores, remove any unneeded supers, and flip over the inner covers for better ventilation. The girls were not very happy to have their cozy hives opened up. This was the first and last closeup from the unsuited photographer.
Marge’s hive looked good with the top super still having 6 out of the 8 frames filled with honey. Knives’ hive was another story.
The late nectar flow we had in October was enough to fill two supers full of honey, but the fifth was asking too much. I ended up taking the top super off as there was minimal wax drawn out. Knives had a rough 2011 so I’m hoping 2 supers of brood and 2 supers of honey will get her through the winter and let her kick some butt next spring.
Happy New Year to all my readers and may 2012 bring you good health and happiness.
Filed under beekeeping
Kauai Honey and Mead
After our visit with Matt Moore earlier in the week, we stopped by Nani Moon Mead today and met with owner Stephanie Krieger for a 5 flight mead tasting.
Stephanie produces small batches of mead using honey and fruit produced on Kauai and the other islands of Hawaii. Matt Moore is one of her suppliers of honey which made the visit to Nani Moon a nice bookend to our beekeeping adventure on Kauai.
After the tasting, we decided to go with the Winter Sun which is made with Kauai wildflower honey, starfruit, and passionfruit. Here is a picture of the mead with a bottle of Matt’s BeeWise Honey.
Here is a video of Stephanie talking about her mead and all five varieties she produces.
Filed under honey
Beekeeping in Kauai Part II
After Matt Moore took us on a tour of the gardens, we suited up to go visit the apiary. Before I get into that, here are some facts I learned about beekeeping in Hawaii:
- Kauai is one of the few places left that doesn’t have Small Hive Beetles or Varroa Mite (I think it is ok if we hate Hawaiian beekeepers a little bit for that)
- They do have wax moths and do have to worry about the common bee ailments like chalkbrood and nosema.
- Starting a hive in Kauai is actually pretty hard because of all the restrictions on importing bees. Most folks have to either catch a swarm or make friends with a local beekeeper to get a split.
- Coconut husks make great smoker fuel
I really liked this sign as we walked towards the apiary. The farm is 10 acres with fruit trees all over the place so this is a nice reminder you are entering an area with lots of bees.
Here is a shot of the apiary.
This is Matt Moore taking a cover off of one of the hives.
Matt has an interesting way of removing supers (at least interesting to me). Instead of stacking supers as he removes them, he upends them as shown in the picture. He feels he squishes less bees this way.
Matt’s lit smoker with coconut husk as fuel. It burns really well and produces a nice cool smoke.
Matt and I opening up one of his hives.
We spotted a queen on one of the first hives we opened up. Matt says the golden color is very typical of a Hawaiian Queen.
This was a nice frame of honey pulled from one of the hives.
I was going to make this a two part post, but I still have a bunch of miscellaneous photos from our visit that I’ll post soon. All in all, this was a great visit, and it is amazing how bees can adapt to all sorts of climates and geography.
Filed under beekeeping
Urban Beekeeping in Austin, Texas 