As I was about to open up the hive, Alexa came running out asking me to wait for her.  Huh?  The same Alexa who wouldn’t go near the hive last year?  She came back out with a veil on, and and was ready to run the smoker.  She smoked the bees a bit, and I opened up the hive.   The bees had built quite a bit of burr comb in the large space that was made by the queen cage.  We cleaned that up, and checked out the frames – things looked pretty good.

We didn’t see the queen, but since it was still pretty cool outside, I didn’t want to leave the hive open too long.  Alexa enjoyed being near the hive, and seeing all of the activity.  Perhaps our bee class we did for her 3rd grade emboldened her?  Or, maybe she’s just getting older?  Either way, it was fun having her join in taking care of the bees!

Will kept telling me that he loved bees – even when we had the package in the car, and a couple were flying around inside, he wasn’t worried about them at all.

When we got home, Will was going to help me out with the installation of the bees, but when I told him that wearing a veil was a requisite for helping out, he decided that playing would be better than installing bees.   That’s okay – Dad can fly solo with the bees.  This year we got a 4 pound package of bees.  After spraying them down with sugar water to make things easier, I set up the hive, and was ready to roll.

Things went very smoothly – the bees seemed to enjoy their new home, and I buttoned up the hive as the raindrops had started.  We’ll give them about 5 days, and weather permitting, we’ll check them out this coming weekend to make sure that the queen has been released, and all is well in the hive.

Was interesting meeting some new beekeepers and hearing stories of successes and failures by others.   Someday, I hope to have a ’success’ story to share!

The talk was on spring and summer hive management, and it was interesting to hear the different ideas, as well as be a part of a smaller group than the Worcester County group.

Unfortunately, due to impending bedtimes, and a slight case of whine-itis, we left at the half-way mark of the meeting.

And what a bargain – I’m getting a full 33% more bees this time!

I had been interested in his thoughts on whether I should let the hive run it’s course, or be pro-active, and take steps to shut down the hive, and store it for the winter.  He said that I could just let the bees die-out, and then pull the hive, and store it.

I was prepared to do that, but kept worrying about whether I could be asking for problems, as wax moths could find their way to the hive, and do some serious damage to the very valuable drawn out frames.  In a normal hive, the moths aren’t an issue, as the bees can take care of themselves, but with so few workers, my hive is not ready to defend itself against any threat.

On Thursday, we attended the Big E – the New England States Fair – and one of the stops included the Hampden County Beekeepers table, where one of Margaret’s friend’s husband was working – he had answered some initial questions I had about the loss of my queen.

He and the other gentleman there were not in favor of letting the hive run it’s course, as there really was no upside – only downside if I lost the hive to wax moths, so today I decided I’d take the hive in for the winter.

Basically, I needed to move the frames away from the hive, shake the bees off the frames, and then clean up the hive bodies and frames, and get them ready for storage.  Likely the field bees will immediately go back to the hive location, and some will just hang out wondering how they woke up in some strange bed.

I’m glad I decided to do the ’shake out’, as when I opened up the lower hive body, I saw lots of wax pieces on the bottom board, which meant that the bees already had a winter friend in the hive.

Mouse Droppings?

Yes, those wax pieces were from two frames of un-drawn foundation that the mouse ate through to set up shop.  Very glad that he picked the only two undrawn frames to build his nest, so I didn’t really lose much – just need to replace the foundation in those frames.

If you give a mouse a beehive...

Again, during the shake-out, the bees were happily showing off their Nassanoff glands in action – some of the bees that were just on the hive body itself were actively letting their sisters and brothers know where they were!

1, 2, 3, 4, get your butts up off the floor!

After I had shaken all the bees off the frames of both hive bodies, I went to check on the bee ‘pile’ that I had created – most of the bees were back at the hive, but there was a small swarm like collection of bees left at ground zero.  Could this be a group that was surrounding my laying worker?

A huge swarm of perhaps 50-100 bees

After going back to the hive location, and seeing how many bees were there, it was pretty obvious that my 10,000 bees that I started with in April had dwindled to less than 1000.  I’d guess that at a peak I had 40,000 or so, when things were humming along well – then we hit the wall.

However, we’re in good shape for next spring, as we’ve got 16 out of 20 frames already drawn out, so the new bees won’t have to waste time building out comb – instead they can get busy with nectar and pollen collection, and making us some honey!

The last of the mohicans

I brought in all of the tools, as well as a couple of drawn frames that the kids could look at, and brought my honey supers in, and made a mock hive for them so see.  I put together a presentation that covered the history of bees, and the inner workings of the hive – it had lots of great pictures, but the kids liked the video of the bee installation the best.

The kids were great – they had lots of good questions, and were very interested in beekeeping.  The boys cheered loudly when I explained that they got to hang out in the hive while the girls did all the work.   Then the girls cheered, and the boys groaned when I explained come fall, the girls were going to kick them out of the hive.

The best question was “How do the bees watch football in the hive?”.  In my presentation, I had stated that the drones don’t do much in the hive besides hang out and watch football.  So much for humor!  I answered that they had “little tiny TVs”.

One of the most interesting answers was to the question “How many people would be willing to be stung to get some honey?”   The question stemmed from discussion of the Egyptians and how they were very active beekeepers, as honey was their only sweetener, and they had to destroy hives (and likely get stung a lot) just to harvest the honey.

The answer?  About 90 percent of the kids (and both teachers) were willing to take a shot for a batch of honey!  I would’ve thought the answer was about 2 of the 50 or so kids in the class!

While collecting the drones, and putting them in a glass jar, I had visions of some youngster taking the jar, and opening it – and even though the bees inside couldn’t sting, I couldn’t imagine that we’d be able to settle the class down, if they did manage to escape, so I released my male friends.

I was able to get some neat pictures of some of the workers making good use of their nassanoff glands, however.  The guard bees basically stick their rear ends in the air, and use their scent glands to guide other bees back to the hive – however, I had never gotten a picture of them in action.

However, when I shook out the frame on the picnic table, there were many doing this at once.  Here’s one shot of them in action.

The Nassanoff gland in action

Keown Orchards has twelve hives on their property, and while the meeting was well attended, and very interesting, for some reason the kids enjoyed the wagon ride to pick apples and the apple crisp better than the bees!

When looking at the hive entrance, it’s obvious that there’s not much traffic, as typically when you look in the front door, you see a line of bees getting ready to go, or checking on the bees coming in to make sure they are welcome in the hive.   Another hint that all was still not well was evident by watching the incoming bees, which are very dark, compared to the much lighter tints of the younger bees – so my workers are a bit long in the tooth!

Anyway, I wanted to open up the hive to check on the bees, and upon opening the hive was pretty surprised to see so many bees.  In addition, the bees were a little ‘crazier’ than usual – flying all over the place, and very loud – yet another clue, as the drones are a bit louder than the worker bees.

I took a few frames out and inspected them, and, while there is still nectar and pollen, I’d guess we’re about 90% drones to 10% workers right now – not  a great mix if you’re bee keeper – though perhaps attractive if you’re a queen looking for a date!

I’m going to query the pros to see what the best course of action is, as while the laying worker is still laying eggs (unfertilized drones), the lack of worker bees to take care of the drone young will lead to malnourished larvae and young, and might get a bit ugly towards the end.

ManTown

One of the cool things about the drones is that they don’t sting.  Thus, you can have some fun with them – holding them, showing them off, putting them in your mouth – you know, the usual stuff.  Here’s one of our male friends, with no abililty to put a good hurtin’ on anyone.

Mr. Drone