The story of honeybees and their importance in sustaining life

Honeybees in peril.  They're kind of fragile little things . . . if you hadn't already noticed.

http://www.naturalnews.com/041194_honeybees_neonicotinoids_pesticides.html

Reduce No More

Thanks to Carolina for taking a look at the blog.  She noticed that I still had my reducer on and told me that it was more than time to take it off.  I had kind of been thinking that since all the hives I'd visited were missing their reducers.  But the girls have been so busy and I haven't had a day that I was up early enough, or remembered late enough, or dry . . . blah blah blah.  I took the reducer out today.

Reducer removed for summer!

I also took a peek at the frames in the super.  There didn't appear to be any new comb, which is a bit distressing.  So I took them out one by one and there was a bit of new wax.  There was a lot more activity, and i could also even see some nectar already in the half built comb.  This made me feel a lot better.  The hive body seems to be stuffed, so I'm glad the girls have FINALLY moved up and are drawing out the super frames.  Honey for ME!!!  I'm feeling pretty blessed that it's such a great summer for the bees.  I hope mine turns out half as well.

Queen Marking

I was pleased to be able to attend a "Queen Marking" class today with Carolina and Crystal.  I really just wanted to be able to do something with the NCBA and ask some questions of some experienced beekeepers.

The "not-supposed-to-be-irrigated-tick-hive"

As it turned out the "non-irrigated hive" was being irrigated, so we had to walk quite a ways around the field to get to it.  It wasn't long before we found the "Tick Hive", as the "non-irrigated hive" has been dubbed, was aptly named.  Shortly after having opened the hive, Carolina squished a tick that was crawling along one of the frames.  (I found one crawling on my arm later when I was sitting in church)

Inspecting frames

This hive had been recently re-queened, because the package queen wasn't performing very well.  Carolina showed us the shotgun brood pattern that still existed.  She also pointed out eggs and larvae for those who hadn't seen them.  It was also good to see that she noticed a potentially alarming sick larvae.  It was kind of crystallized in the comb, which could be a problem, and something a beekeeper should keep an eye out for.  We didn't see any others, so it's likely just an anomaly.

Crystal, happy to answer "new-bees" questions

Carolina and Crystal are great to work with.  They are both really knowledgeable and so willing to answer questions.  I shot a bunch of video which I hope to have a chance to cut down soon.

Carolina at work

And then we started the queen marking since that's why we'd assembled to begin with.  Part of the reason to mark your queen is to be able to understand who is in your hive.  Marking the queen identifies her by year, and let's the beekeeper know if a new queen is present.

The international color code is:

White:  for years 1 or 6

Yellow:  for years 2 or 7

Red:  for years 3 or 8

Green:  for years 4 or 9

Blue:  for years 5 or 0

Carolina had actually brought green model paint since we would be practicing on worker bees.  With a plastic marking tube she managed to corral the queen.  It simply a matter of gently pushing the foam plunger to the mesh end of the marking tube and carefully trapping her with her back exposed.  Carolina explained the best tool to use to apply the paint is the stick end of a match.  They hold just the right amount of paint which applied directly to her thorax.  I think we waited a minute for the paint to dry before releasing the plunger so she could at least move around the marking tube.

Capturing is the hardest part

Most everyone tried capturing worker bees and marking them.  It was interesting to see how the distressed freshly painted bee, called for help and was attended to by other unpainted workers.  They don't seem to like it, but as long as you don't use too much paint, it's not particularly harmful.

Don't squish her!!

We put the hive back together, and Carolina added a SEVENTH super on top of the rockstar hive next door.  It's a fantastic year for bees and they are flourishing!

A super frame FULL of nectar

Super Seven!

Thanks so much to Carolina and Crystal from the NCBA!  It's been a joy to get to know you and learn from you both!