Bee Whisperer

Today was one of those day dreamy days in a person's life. One of those days where you bear witness to something so beautiful and rare, so special and precious that your breath is gone and letters do not make up adequate words to describe what is unfolding in front of you. You forget to pick up your camera and take pictures of the things that are now held captive in your mind for all the rest of your days. You just hold your breath and wish for it to go on forever.

I took my grandson Seth to see the bees today. I dressed him in the little jacket that was still too big for him (a gift Les Hiltz), tucked his pants in his socks, pulled a net over his Angry Birds cap and fitted him with some gloves. I told him, if the bees seemed happy to see him we could take off the veil and gloves.

What follows is what I can't put into words.

Seth was well received by the hive. He stood in awe for a few moments and then slowly sat down at the hive entrance. For the next 30 minutes he whispered to and petted bees.

Enjoy, this one's on me.
Karen

Finding the Queen, or Not - a follow-up

Better late than never right?

In my previous post you may have recalled we were going on a queen hunt. Well we suited up, scoured the hive and did not find her. What we did find were fewer bees than we had anticipated AND a whole bunch of capped queen cells.

What we think has happened is this: we missed a swarm. We missed the old queen's exit with her share of ladies in waiting. They are probably happily setting up new quarters near by in a hollow tree. What remains in our hive are about half of the bees we started with and new queens waiting to emerge and claim the hive. This sets us back a bit.

The hive was super unfriendly. I took three hits to my finger and a sting up my pants leg (and never mind where that sting ended up at) The day before Kris took a hit from the same hive and had a welt on her leg that Bill described as looking like a veal cutlet.  There was honey in the bottom deep. Not a ton of brood and then the queen cells. Further inspection showed about the same in the second deep and there was little to no activity in the supers.

We decided to check the other hives. Again, no queen, honey capped and uncapped in the deeps and capped queen cells in both. Fantastic. What to do? Once a colony has decided to swarm there is little to do about it. We discussed the clipping of the queen but she may try to fly anyhow and land on the ground and then what? Or if we clip her the hive could decide that she is weak or broken and raise a new queen anyhow and kill her off. Either way we are behind.

I called Les. I wondered if we could buy an empty nuc out. After conferring for 20 mins he suggested that because we had capped honey in the bottom that we were probably having a nectar run. The bees were storing the honey in any empty comb. Since the supers were not drawn out yet they were using the deep. The queen, feeling she was crowded now had quit laying eggs and the hive had decided she was failing sooooo....deep breath...making a replacement.

Complicated this bee psychology.

Kris and Bill went out the next night. Rotated a few frames and now our fingers are crossed. And our toes. And our eyes. All I know for certain at this point is bees will do what bees will do.

Peace,
Karen

Rising From the Ashes - Burning Down the House

Capped Honey

Well I've been a little preoccupied with a wedding. My son wed his best friend on Saturday! Congrats Steven and Emily.

The fact that I had a wedding does not mean the bees have been neglected. Kris has been a diligent bee-keeper and checks them daily. All the hives have been behaving, well, until last Thursday when this report came in from Kris:

I went down to look at the bees tonight. Lyle told me that if I saw bees crawling up the hive before taking off, they were stealing honey and preparing a swarm. They climb the box before take off to get the extra lift they need due to the extra weight of the honey. Well, I saw bees doing that on the Phoenix hive. So, I took off the lid, and holy-moly the Phoenix has risen. This hive didn't have any supers on it.
So, I suited up, grabbed a queen excluder and a super and went in. Their were queen cups on the bottom of several center frames. There were also drone cells. The second brood box was full. I scraped off the queen cups, no capped queen cells, and the drone cells. They were pretty angry and I had no smoke, so I didn't look for the queen. I also didn't look for eggs/larvae b/c it was obvious she has been laying by the amount of bees. So I just smushed what need to be smushed and put the excluder and super on.
Lyle and the Dudist looked fine. Some bees above the excluder, but still drawing out comb.

Good enough. As aptly named the Phoenix hive has risen. Yay bees.

Then today, while I was at work. This message came from Kris:

Bee emergency!!!!
Sealed queen cells in Lyle's hive. I scraped them off. Definitely swarm cells. Bees very agitated. I got stung. (I was in a t-shirt and flip flops. My own damn fault) Bees were very agitated. Not much going on above queen excluder, so I went into top deep. Bees did not want me in there. Now I know why. So, I need my bee bitches to come look. I did not see evidence of egg/larvae?? Maybe they need a new queen? Maybe I shouldn't have done that? I need to call for a meeting? I leave for a week out of town on Sunday.

Let me explain as simply as possible - THIS IS BAD!

A phone call later, the plan is to go in at 8 am tomorrow morning and hunt down our queen. At this point we don't know what is going on. We have narrowed it down to one of two things a) we have a failing queen or a dead queen  or b) they just want to swarm.  If we find our queen we are going to make a grab for her and clip a wing. The reason for this is to keep her from flying off with half of the hive. We also need to look at brood pattern, eggs and larva to determine if we even have a queen in the event we don't find her. This may be why we have queen cells; they are trying to make a new queen.

Gaaa. It's all so confusing!

I hope we find the queen. This would ease Kris' mind. See, she scraped off some queen cells today and is now concerned that if we don't have a queen she may have complicated things. Plus, to add insult to injury she has been stung on the thigh and has a rather large welt from our very aggressive hive. There seems to be no lack of things to concern new bee-keepers. Or maybe it's how it is with all bee-keepers? I don't know. Anyhow, here we are, as ever, confused and going to school on the bees. One hive rising from the ashes and the other trying to burn itself down. 

Peace,
Karen

Naming the Hives

I miss our bees. Oh no! We haven't lost them. It's just we haven't needed to go in and do anything with them since the dronectomy. Kris has been checking the hive and had this report on the 29th:

I picked up three drawn out supers. I checked the hives tonight. Lyle's hive is doing just fine. Bees still very busy working the deep/super we put on last Friday. I next checked the Phoenix hive. Just fine. Bess still in the center of the second deep. The Dudist hive, however, had bees all the way out to the outer frames. So, I put a queen excluder on and our first super. I used one with drawn out comb. Electric fence working fine. I have been checking regularly. I am targeting June 9 for the next delve into the hive? 

So, your next question is probably what is she talking about? Lyles hive, Phoenix hive, Dudist hive? Lemme do some 'splainin.  We named our hives.

Let's start with the Dudist hive. This hive is our most laid back hive. It has a real Zen quality about it. You open it and the bees are like the scene from the Big Lebowski where he's all peaceful in the bathtub with whale music on. They seem to say, "Aggression will not stand, man."

Next is the Phoenix hive. We worry over this hive. It's our smallest hive and seems to struggle. Yet we think, no believe, it can rise like a Phoenix and be a great producing hive. This is the only hive we have where we have not seen our queen. Still, eggs and larva are present and they are building up into the second super. We have faith in this one.

Then there is Lyle's hive. We call it Lyle's because it came from Lyle Robinson, another local bee guy who is a wealth of knowledge and teasing. The other two hives came from Mann Lake. It's easy to tell Lyle's hive apart from the other two because it is painted a light blue-green. Plus, like Lyle, it gives us a little grief each time we visit it. This is our most aggressive hive and the one that "sends us to school" on a regular basis.

Each time we go into the hive we log what is going on inside that hive. We chart how the bees behaved, if we saw the queen, eggs and larva. We log brood pattern, pollen and honey stores and if we see disease or predators. We will use this information in future years for comparison and hopefully as a predictor of what we should watch for and when so we may be proactive.

Sunday is our next foray into the hives. It will be good to see the "Ladies" and get some bee therapy. Our weather has been cool and wet. Flowers are everywhere and it is my hope that the weather warms so our bees can get out and do what they do best.

Peace,
Karen

Far From Perfect

Six yards of beautiful dirt was delivered to my home yesterday. The dirt came from a place where they dredged a pond and is a nice mix of peat, topsoil and loon shit. When we ordered it we had some choices one of which was topsoil off an alfalfa field. I wouldn't even consider that one because of all the chemicals I was sure they have used on that field. I didn't want that stuff in my garden.

After a nice paddle on the Turtle River my sister came over to help me shovel the dirt into my raised beds. She's putting in sweat equity in exchange for fresh produce. Two of my newer beds are filled with grass. I couldn't even dig it out it was so thick. So, I walked into the garage, grabbed the Round Up and headed to the offending beds. I pumped air into the sprayer and pressed the nozzle. Nothing. I pumped some more. Nothing. On my third round of pumping I realized what I was about to do. I stood up, looked at my sister and said, "Well, I guess this is the Universe speaking to me."

I wasn't even thinking of the implications or what a hypocrite I was when I grabbed the Round Up. I was just looking for an easy way out of the weeds. Convenience at the expense of...health? Bees? I wasn't even thinking about how I rail against Monsanto or Cargill or Bayer. I just wanted to get the weeds gone.

In the end I found that we had some weed block fabric which we put down and shoveled dirt on top of. The Round Up is back in the garage next to the Seven Dust and another insect killer I bought last year for the Japanese Beetle infestation I had. I'm not sure what to do with my poison collection for now. I do know that I will not be using them this year or ever again. Next year I'm planning on a hive or two of bees for my property. I can't be using stuff I know will harm them.  I'm already concerned about the lack of pollinators for  this years garden.

I assume the Japanese beetles will be back as will the cut worms, potato beetles, slugs and other insects. My garden will be far from perfect this year. I will probably not get all the weeds out, especially the grass in the new beds but I will, at least, not be running more chemicals into the ground and doing in my beneficial bugs. And the bees....my garden will be a safe haven for bees. That will help me sleep better at night.

Peace,
Karen
(who is far from perfect)

Bees and MPR

As I was getting ready to write today's blog I spotted this on Facebook. Below is a  link to an MPR* segment about the diminishing bee population. While our hives are thriving there are many who have hives perishing. This should concern all of us whether we keep bees or not. Bees are critical to our food supply and, as I was told over the weekend by a local bee keeper, if the bees were gone today we'd be gone about 4 years later...something to think on.

Here is the link: 
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/05/26/environment/pesticides-suspected-in-minnesota-bee-deaths


Peace,
Karen

*MPR - Minnesota Public Radio

Radical Apiary Dronectomy

The following blog contains graphic descriptions & images....you have been warned!

The Bee Team

If you've been tagging along on our journey you know that a few nights ago Kris and I discovered a problem in one of our hives. A drone problem to be exact.

We (Kris, Bill and I) along with our auxiliary team members David, Dee and Mike and special guest Lisa went back down to the bee yard to solve our little drone problem. In full bee gear, except me because I have a bad case of bravado, we went in with surgical precision and performed a procedure which we now call a Radical Apiary Dronectomy.

Fist we anesthetized our bees with smoke, then we carefully lifted the frames one by one, checked for the queen and using the hive tool we scraped all the drone cells off of the bottom of the frame. It  was not a pretty site. Large white drone larva oozed from the cells and dripped onto frames. If the sight of carnage was not enough there was also an accompanying sound which I believe David described as popping a chocolate covered cherry. I thought it sounded more like running over army worms with your roller blades. This was not for the squeamish. We lost a few of the auxiliary members at this point.

After we scraped the drones off we also removed supercedure and swarm cells. Threw on the queen excluder, added third deep and closed up the hive. Surgery was over. We hoped we had not accidentally scraped off our queen. This was our only concern.

Below are pictures of our latest adventure in beekeeping - special thanks to David for taking them. As we looked at the pictures that night we were happy to discover we had a picture of our queen. She was up in the second deep safe and sound.

Peace,
Karen

Our ladies of the hive

The mass hanging below the frame is drone cells

Drone Cells

Drone Cells on the ground next to the hive tool.

More Problems than Pictures

Ask two bee-keepers a question and you'll get three different answers.

The problem? Mostly amateur beekeepers and our big super hive aka Lyle's hive. It has a lot of bees and apparently not enough work. Kris and I were on our own today for hive inspection. Bill was out on the soccer field with grade school kids. (Another kind of problem all together) All went well until our last hive, Lyle's, which we always save for last.

A week or so ago we put a second deep on that hive because it was so big. Our theory was give them more to do and reduce the risk of a swarm. Just so you know, swarm is good and bad. Good if you catch it because you get another hive of bees for free. Bad if you don't because you lose 50 - 70% of a hive which will not be able to recover enough to produce your honey for fall.

Kris and I cracked Lyle's hive. The top deep had new drawn out comb in the center which was good. But the big question was...do we check the bottom deep or not? *cricket, cricket, cricket* I voted for yes. Kris was with me on it. But if we remove the top deep and the queen was in it and she fell out because we set it down and we didn't know?.....*cricket, cricket, cricket* So, the plan went like this: set the hive lid upside down, take the top deep and  it in the lid so if the queen did fall out we could collect her and reinsert her.

We were pretty proud of ourselves and were feeling really bee-keepy at that point. Then it all went to hell. We pulled the first frame of the bottom deep, then the second. The bottom of the second frame was pendulous with drone cells, half of which we had ripped open when we extracted the frame. Big fat drone larva oozed out. We were mortified. A look down into the hive bottom revealed more drone cells attached from the bottom of the frame to the bottom of the hive. Houston, we have a problem, but what kind and to what extent?

Kris ran for her phone. We got one of the bee-boyfriends on the line he gave us some options - vent the hive, let cool air in, make them think "Tornado" which will distract them from swarm behavior and buy you time because they sound like they are gonna swarm and they will to it at 10 in the morning so be there to watch  and catch your swarm and you will need another hive to put them in....or....you can split your hive. Make them think they actually did it themselves but you will need another hive and another queen. He suggested we go to a website and watch a video on how to split a hive.

We vented the hive, gathered our tools and did the only thing we knew to do - we went to the house and opened a bottle of wine. There we watched a video and decided to call the other bee-boyfriend who said, "Oh just scrape those drone cells off. All droned do is eat and take up space. You don't need them they are beetle magnets."

We felt better after hearing this. We had another glass of wine. Then bee-boyfriend number one called back with different advice: put another deep on top to give them more to do. They will forget about swarmning. Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.....

So, you will forgive me tonight if there are no awesome pictures of our bees. Trust when I say they were magnificent and we didn't get stung twice in a row. We think we have a plan for tomorrow at 6 and there may be pics then. For now, however, we have more problems than pictures and clearly not enough wine to go around.

Peace,
Karen

No Stings - once in a row

On Sunday we went in to treat the hives for the last time. We were advised by our bee guys to do this. So they got a medication for bee diarrhea and one for a bacteria that wrecks our brood. Either way we are done with that sort of thing unless we some other problem crop up.

We checked for eggs, brood and stores. Stores are pollen cells and honey cells both capped and uncapped. We had all these things! Our bees are doing what they are supposed to do. We saw two of our three queens and on one of the frames we saw a brand new bee emerging into the world.

I'm proud to say that we went into all three hives and for the first time no one got stung! Kris, Bill and I were pretty impressed with ourselves on this one and fist bumps abounded.

Below are a few of my favorite pictures from our day.

Peace,
Karen

The queen is the long bee in the center.

Kris pulling a frame of bees

Bees just hanging out on Kristine's hat.

Looking into the hive.

Community - A blog by Kris

I have never blogged before, and I am really enjoying following Karen's blog about our bee journey. But it is more than a bee journey, it is a human journey. I have wanted to keep bees, but I don't think I would have had the courage to do it alone. Once I had recruited partners, there was no turning back and I did it. My friends  provided me courage and I thank them for that.

Our bee journey has also been an opportunity to allow new friendships to flourish. Bill, Karen and I, and our spouses, have become good friends. David and Mike have become canoeing buddies. I look forward to a season of frequent get-togethers to tend bees and tend friendships.

Finally, this fledgling bee journey has reminded me of the importance of community.  I have been introduced to veteran bee keepers Les and Lyle. Both have willingly and frequently offered advice and support in the practicalities of bee keeping.  Without their help, I am certain we would have failed. They both take time to answer my questions whenever I call, and I have been to both of their homes on numerous occasions for hands on help. Both Les and Lyle want us to succeed and I thank them both for their wisdom, humor and tolerance.

This is a journey well beyond bees.

Kris

First Hive Inspection

We have this super hive. It's in the box we bought from Lyle. As you recall from Sunday Lyle is the bee guy in Benedict who rescued us with the correct feeders.  Lyle's Hive, as it is now known, is our strongest and most aggressive hive. Today we felt it prudent to check on this one, or rather into this one, to make sure it wasn't going rouge on us.

The pics below are from our first hive inspection. It is thriving. So much so we added a second deep to it. We also cut off a developing queen cell. Hopefully the extra room will prevent the hive from rearing a second queen to split with half of the hive and also settle this colony down a bit. Kris has taken more than her fair share of stings from these ladies and apparently they depantsed Bill yesterday. I can't say more about the latter and there is no photo evidence. We just take Bill at his word.

Peace,
Karen

 Smoking the hive

Bees at the entrance to the hive. Notice the closest two. One is taking nectar from the other.

 Looking into the hive from the inner lid.

 The Queen is the brightest yellow bee in the center of the pic.

 Capped brood. Pollen cells (yellow). Larva in cells (white)

Bill holding up a frame of bees.

Bee Emergency

 (Our bees. Pollen patty top left. Beetle trap top right)

What constitutes a bee emergency? Drowning.

We got our hives home on Friday and set them up. Two with a basin type feeders and one with a two hole canning jar thingy. The canning jar rig is about how you'd imagine. A piece of wood with two holes the size of canning jar rings. You poke holes in the lid of a canning jar and invert it on the top of the hive.  Holds two quarts of sugar water. Nothing hi-tech.

For the basin type feeder picture, if you will, a cleaning caddy with a handle in the middle. Cover the handle and the opening of the handle with hardware cloth. Now fill each side up with half a gallon of sugar water and basically you have a basin feeder. The idea being that the bees will crawl down the wire to sip the sugar water and then head downstairs to the hive to work, make honey etc. Holds two half gallons of sugar water.

We are giving our bee buddies sugar water in order to jump start them. It's barely spring here and we are a bit low on flowers at the moment. We pitched in a pollen paddy for extra protein. We also installed a beetle trap to catch any nasties that think they want to move in to the hive. We are trying to be good bee keepers.

So, imagine Kris' horror on Sunday when she lifts the lid on one of the hives and sees bee bodies "swimmin' with the fishes". She also notices more dead bees out in front of the two hives with the basins than the one with the canning jars (which happens to also be our Super Hive). What to do?

Call Lyle (this is Kris other bee boyfriend). He says we have to switch to canning jar feeders and we can come get the set up from him. So, Kris and I make a "haulin' ass" run down to Benedict; about an hour and a half round trip. We find out that the basin in this climate also cools down the hive because it can hold so much liquid. The bees try to warm up the hive. Their heat hits the bottom of the basin and causes moisture. This is no good. Bees do not like saunas.

Back home, Kris and I suit up. Kris suits up. I put on gloves and my bee veil. We replace the feeders. The sun comes out. Our bees look happy. We have all just survived our first "Bee Emergency". Kris and I go pour wine. Two bottles of wine.

Peace,
Karen

Installing Bees

This is us getting our bees.

 

Peace,

Karen

Our Bees

If you ask Kris she will tell you it took 5 hours to drive to Clearbrook. For the rest of us it took about 45 minutes. It's not that we weren't excited it's just that this is Kris' baby and we have been graciously invited along on her incredible journey.

We arrived in Clearbrook and promptly drove past the bee yard. We turned around in a driveway where the sign read "Honey" and went back. What we saw Mike aptly described as a scene from the X-files. There were people, mostly guys, in white bee suits, gloves and white pith helmets covered in netting. Bees were everywhere. They clung in clusters to the people handling them,they hung in small clouds above the open nucs, they filled up trunks, toppers and in some cases the inside of cars. As we drove in there was a guy driving out in his hatchback. He was still in his suit and the car was full of bees. He was certainly not a desirable traffic stop.

Our buddy Les was there to direct us. We donned our suits and got in line to get our bees. Now, apparently, bee keepers have a sense of humor and we were teased by one of the guys that since we were newbies we were to be given inferior hives because we wouldn't know any better. As it turned out, one of the nucs we were going to get had a sealed queen cell. The guys set this one aside because there were "shenanigans going on with this hive and it looked like it was going to supersede." In other words the hive was raising a new queen because they perceived a problem with their old queen.

Not getting that nuc turned out to be a good thing because the next nuc was a huge thriving hive. We have been calling it our Super Hive. Dana took a second and showed us the queen on one of the frames. He pointed out a drone which he called a big bull. He also showed us capped pollen cells, capped honey cells, worker cells, drone cells, eggs and larva. I just wanted to get my hands on a frame.

"They are your bees." Dana said as he handed me a frame. The weight of the frame with the bees was surprising. Even more so was the vibration I could feel through my gloves. Bees, hundreds of bees, all working toward a common goal just like Kris and Bill and me. They are our bees. OUR bees!

Now our adventure is real. We are all excited and nervous in our own way. For me this is a big bucket list item come true. I've wanted this for years and thanks to Kris the wanting is over. Now the Odyssey begins.

Thanks Kris!


Peace,
Karen

Yes, We Have No Bananas

 It's a tough day. All of us are waiting as fast as we can to go get our bees. Facebook has been a flurry of activity, not unlike a bee hive. Messages are flying back and forth. Plans are tweeked. Lists are being made and remade and schedules are being rearranged.

I think my day is a little tougher than Kris and Bill's because I can't have a banana. I, like my dad before me, eat a banana every day. I either peel and eat one or blend it into my morning green juice. Today, however, I am bananaless. I could have a banana if I wanted and I could entice a bee sting if I wanted to but I don't. That's what eating a banana could do.


 It turns out that when a bee stings, she releases an odor called an alarm pheromone to alert others to the danger. This alarm pheromone smells like bananas and attracts other bees to come to the defense of the hive. This is why eating a banana and waltzing into a bee yard is a bad idea.

Today, I stopped at the grocery store. I grabbed a plastic bag, slipped my hand inside it, grabbed a bunch of bananas and turned the bag inside out around them. When I turned around a lady was staring at me. "Bees" was all I said.  I think she bought apples.

Peace,
Karen

Building a Foundation

Bees don't just arrive, get dumped into a hive and go to work. There is some prep work involved. We have brand new hives with  brand new foundation and we have Dee to tell you what we are doing with that foundation and why.

As promised, a word from our spokes model Dee Sweeney.


Peace,
Karen

Black Lake Bee Farm - Meet and Greet

We haven't officially named our apiary. Maybe that will happen in the truck on the way to Clearbrook or on the way back on Friday.

In the meantime I thought we'd do a little meet and greet.

Kristine Kolar - Head Bee Keeper 

The operation is her brain child and the apiary is located at her house.

We rely heavily on Kris for two things:

1) Information - from the palm of her hand she can tell you at a glance things like: compass headings, weather patterns, honey recipes and who said what on Facebook

2) To worry enough for all of us.

Kris is also our financial backer and "old bee guy" handler.

 William Edwin Smith - Nuc Engineer

No kidding he's a Nuclear Engineer turned bee handler.

Bill gets to do a lot of the heavy lifting and heavy thinking. He's a selfless individual and seems to be the first to shed a little blood and "take one for the team".

We saw this first hand when tested our electric fence.


Bill is, however, against democracy, and thwarts any movement in the direction of a vote.





Karen-lisa Forbes - Apprentice, Most Likely to Be Stung First

Her personal motto - How bad could it be?- is what landed her a position in the bee world.

Full of bravado and a C'est la vie attitude Karen brings a background in horse farming and not much else to the table.

Karen does not worry or long range plan; she problem solves and is prone to being present somewhere else when she is most needed. 

Karen's biggest desire is to stick her hand into a swarm. "How bad could it be?"

 Dee Sweeney - Support Staff

Dee is married to Bill. They are a package deal.

Dee is boss at painting wax on foundation or any other menial task we give her. She is nothing if not meticulous when it comes to clean up and is the first to ask a question we cannot answer.

Dee is also our spokes model. Video coming soon.

Dave Harrington & Mike Forbes - Skeptic Services

Dave and Mike are the very tolerant and understanding husbands of Kris and Karen.


Mainly in charge of teasing and sarcasm they are occasionally coerced into manual labor. 

While not "into bees" they are into bees and we suspect they are secretly envious of Bill and his ability to attract women using bees as a ploy.

There you have it. The entire staff of The Black Lake Bee Farm. We'll let you know on Friday if the name sticks. Oh, no pun intended.

Peace,
Karen






 

There's No Place Like Comb

Our hives are ready. Three bases attached to three "deeps" sit in the back of Mike's truck waiting for our nucs (more on this later) which we will pic up on Friday.  A deep is one of the boxes that make up a hive. It's a deeper box in which the queen lives and lays eggs all the while attended to by her workers. She lays her eggs into cells  made by the workers. These six sided cells are built from wax on a plastic foundation which we have suspended from frames.

We are "new-bees". Our hives are brand new, meaning they have never had bees living in them. The frames inside are all sparkling clean and well, empty. What this means is this: if we were to dump bees inside they would have to build up comb from scratch and that takes time. Since the life expectancy of a worker bee is only 6 weeks and it takes 21 days to make a new worker bee we were advised to bring in some pre-fab housing for our new bees.

Now, when we go get our bees we are getting what is called a nuc, pronounced nuke, or nuclear hive. A nuc is four or five frames from a working hive including a queen. It is a colony that had been working well for a time and the bees know and are related to their queen. The frames contain honey and pollen and eggs and larva. Additionally, Kris purchased a deep of frames from her "bee-boyfriend" (that's a separate blog altogether) with drawn out comb on it. Meaning, comb that is usable for egg laying immediately or almost immediately.

Each one of our deeps has five of these "previously owned fixer-uppers" inside. Once the nucs are placed alongside these frames the bees will have to go to work cleaning up the after the last tenants; get the place ready for the queen and her new family; set up shop and make the hive own. Maybe even hang the sign, you know, the one that reads"

Bee it ever so humble, there's no place like comb!

Peace,
Karen

Preparing for the Worst

Next Friday we are getting our bees. By getting our bees I mean Kris and Bill and I are going to drive an hour to Clearbrook, MN with our three hives in the topper of Mike's truck and have some guys we don't know put some bees inside. About 30,000 bees to be exact. I'm guessing this is going to be our first chance to get stung. Now getting stung in bee-keeping isn't a case of if but when and that brings me to this: who is going to find out they are allergic first?

That's why I made a phone call to my doctors office today asking for an epi-pen. Nurse Melba asked why I needed one. I said, "Long range planning we are about to become bee-keepers and our bees arrive next Friday."
"Are you allergic?" she asked.
"Well," I said,"I don't want to be between Clearbrook and Bemidji when I find out."
  
Long range planning is not normally my forte'. I believe there are too many variables of "what if" to engage in such nonsense. I'm more of a "think on your feet kinda person" not seeing the sense in wasting time trying to second guess future events. Besides, you will nearly always miss the one thing that actually does happen.  I do, however, believe in luck, both good and bad. If anyone is going to turn up allergic to bees it will be me. That's why there is an epi-pen waiting at Target's Pharmacy.

Now I don't want to go borrowing trouble I just want to be prepared for the worst whether it's me or Kris or Bill or anyone who comes to visit our hive. I'm sure we'll all be fine....but what if?????

Peace,
Karen

Bee Space

 A Bee Space is an informal unit of distance used in beekeeping. 

In a hive, bees seal up an opening smaller than a bee space, 

and they fill a larger opening with new honeycomb. 

If an opening is equal to a bee space, the bees leave it open as a passageway.

It's April. We don't have one single tap in a maple tree. The road to our sugar bush has been sealed off to us by several feet of hard packed snow. No amount of horse power has been able to get us to our trees. It should be a sad state of affairs, yet, tonight in the kitchen we agreed we were going to let this maple season go on by. I'd like to say it's that we are more accepting of the things we can't change. I'd like to say that it's the teachings of Ekhard Tolle, Roshi Bernie Glassman & Jeff Bridges or the Big Lebowski and they may have played a part in it but, for me, it's the bees. I'm about to become a bee-keeper.

Earlier this winter my friend Kris contacted me about a knitting problem. Could I help her figure out a hat that was going wonky on her? She came over, the knitting was sorta solved and then beer was poured. Kris mentioned she was getting bees and setting up bee-keeping in her back yard. I mentioned that bee-keeping was high on my bucket list. And that is how I've come into bee-keeping.

Kris and I are not alone on this little adventure our friend Bill  is our third com padre'. Out on the fringes are the support staff, our spouses: Dave (Kris' husband), Dee (Bill's wife),  and Mike (my husband). What you need to understand is that not one of us has ever done this before. We've been reading a lot of books. We've been talking to all the bee people in and around Bemidji. We've attended a 7:30 am Bee Association  meeting and thankfully have found the King of Bees who has taken us under his wing. Our qualifications are as such: Kris is the brains, Bill is the brawn and I'm the bravado. Our mantra is "How bad can it be?" We're about to find out. Our bees are arriving on May 3rd.

Welcome to A Bee Space!

Peace,
Karen