Inspection

20 days after catching this swarm I recorded this inspection.

http://youtu.be/vCyF0KB5_SQ

I was quite pleased with how they are building up. 9 good bars of capped brood and a 10th bar half drawn with honey. All very straight.

Elmo Swarm / Lost Swarm

I got a call a couple days ago about a swarm in Elmo (a small town nearby) that had been in a bush in the back yard for a couple of days. We drove out to get it. It was low in a bush near a fence but was perfect for setting the basket under. I only took 2 stings. One on the thumb during the initial drop and another when I shook them out of the sheet. Must have pissed one off then. She followed me for a bit before finally getting  me behind the ear.

It only took about 30 mins for all the girls to go in the basket after I shook them in.
Video here:
http://youtu.be/s1xNi_-8KTs

I tied the lid on the basket and drove it home without trouble. I placed it behind the shed (after dark now) with plans to put them in a hive the next day.

The next day at lunch there were bees coming and going. I had visions of them building comb inside my swarm basket. After work, there were still bees (many drones) flying around the basket. After dinner I went to put them into a proper hive and they had gone. Only a single drone remained in the basket.
I scouted the neighborhood looking to see if they had landed nearby but with no luck.

I had the thought to put the basket in the shade but I didn't do it. I wonder if it got to hot for them, or if it was too light in the basket, or not closed up enough. Who knows. I guess for future, I'll know not to leave them in there longer than just to get them home. I love the basket for catching them. It's huge and is easy to manage. Catching only - not storage!

Another bee tree

I had heard of a bee tree south of town. So today I drove to check it out. The owner told me there were 2 colonies in the same tree. I was only able to locate one. It's far enough up that I don't think it's worth worrying about.

trap out setup

Paul and I set up our first attempt at a trap out. This is the large cottonwood in south Price. The colony is about 4 or 5 feet off the ground. Very convenient. The first thing we did was seal off all the bottom entrances with spray foam. We then fashioned a cone out of hardware mesh and stapled it over the main entrance, tweaking it and adding screen until the girls couldn't find a way back in. There were hundreds of girls returning to the hive trying to find their way back inside. They were pooling up near the bottom of the cone but not one found the small hole at the end of the funnel. They were surprisingly docile bees. Even with me using a staple gun at the hive entrance, they did not get defensive. I even squished a girl or two and didn't receive as much as a head bump.

Once we had the entrance sealed off, we placed a nuc box in front of the entrance. Another mesh cone mounted to the side of the nuc box fit perfectly over the mesh cone on the tree. Any bees coming out of the tree are forced to go through the nuc box. We covered the mesh with a dark towel to make it as dark as possible.The nuc box was supplied with 3 frames of brood (all types - eggs, larva, capped, drone cells) and an empty drawn out frame. We secured the nuc to the tree, put a couple drops of lemon grass oil near the entrance for good measure and left. We'll check it periodically over the next few days and weeks to see if they girls start using the nuc box as home.

Update: Here is a video of the funnel in action after 1 day.
http://youtu.be/5fSoKMroEsQ

http://youtu.be/5fSoKMroEsQ

There's things 'alf in shadow And 'alf way in light

Got a swarm call today. Just about noon. She told me they had just showed up this morning.  This was a referral actually from the swarm I caught the other day.

I went to check it out and they had just moved into the chimney of her house.  She had removed some heavy ivy from the bricks last fall and the ivy had pulled some of the mortar out from between the bricks.

That's all the room the girls needed. I have no idea how big of a cavity is behind the bricks.

There were several openings up the wall. All with bee activity.

We had her turn on her gas fireplace and leave it on. Our hope is that the chimney will heat up and make it uncomfortable for the bees so they will move out. If they just showed up this morning there should be no comb/eggs/honey. If we can get them to move out, I think that's our only shot at saving them.

We'll go back after work this evening and send some smoke up through the holes to see if we can drive them out that way.

Huge Bee Tree

My buddy, Paul, called me this afternoon to inspect a bee tree with him. It was only a couple of blocks from work so I hopped over there.

The tree was huge. Huge! A giant cottonwood tree. The owner of the house has heard that this tree and it's much larger twin in the same yard were the oldest trees in Price. Possible.

The bees have been in there since at least last summer. At some point someone has sprayed the entrance with black paint. Perhaps trying to poison them?

The new renter is worried about her dogs and she, and the homeowner want them gone.

They agreed to let us try to trap them out first. If that doesn't work, we can cut them out.

If that doesn't work, we'll poison them and seal up the tree.

We are hoping the trap out works.

Plan B might be a good option too as they appear to be living behind an old dead branch that has rotted out from behind. It looks easy enough to cut out. It sounds hollow all the way up.

A bee tree no more!

I got a call back in the fall about a "swarm" of honey bees.  Upon inspection, it wasn't a swarm at all but a  well established colony in a tree. The homeowner wanted them gone as she was worried that they were killing her tree. Half of the upper tree was dead already. I'm pretty sure it was dead before the bees moved in. At any rate, she wanted them gone even if it meant chopping down the tree. The tree was a bit bigger than I wanted to handle. I spend some time researching trappouts  with a plan to return in the spring to trap them out. When I looked back in March, the entire tree had been removed. :( bummer.

Peach Tree Swarm Update

I inspected the hive on Saturday (2 days after hiving them).
They had built 3 partial combs. They weren't straight. One of them formed a T pattern. It started straight and then for no reason took a 90 degree turn in both directions.

I removed all comb and reattached it straight by pressing it firmly onto the comb guides.
I places aluminum plate dividers between the bars to encourage straight building.

I also spotted the queen. Beautiful, very light red color.

I inspected again on Monday (today) and found 3 mostly compete straight combs and 2 partial combs.
The bees were building in two parts of the hive. The middle part, where they had built before. I saw many eggs in this comb. They were also building comb several bars away near one of the ends. These bees were acting strange. Almost a queen-less buzz to them. I did worry the other day when I put the hive back together that she was too close to the follower board that I was moving. The eggs in the other part of the hive (new comb) prove that she is a live and well.

I left the dividers in for now.

Ultimate comb guide

So I had this wonderful idea. Perhaps the biggest challenge in top bar beekeeping is getting the girls to build straight comb. If we could give them a no brainer guide to build on, maybe cross combing would be a thing of the past. I've tried many types of comb guides. Waxed kerfs, Non waxed kerfs, Waxed wooden guides half inch tall. The bees don't seem to care what the guide is, they build comb how and where they want.

I had a friend engrave these boards for me with a partial comb pattern.
I was sure that the bees would find this to be perfect.

I installed 3 packages in the last 2 weeks all with these new engraved bars. I rubbed beeswax on the engraving just to make sure.
In all three hives, they completely ignored the pattern and built wherever they wanted to.

Beeswax rubbed on the pattern.

Cross comb

I did make the pattern with 4.9mm cells. I will try again with 5.1mm cells and see if that makes a difference. The bees that I tested this on were all package bees. No doubt raised on large cell foundation.

I think regardless of what kind of comb guide I use, I'll need to be vigilant with my early inspections to ensure they are building straight comb.

Peach Tree Swarm

I got a call tonight about a swarm of bees in town. I got the call just as the sun went down. I checked them out and decided to catch them tonight (tomorrow's schedule wouldn't allow it). They were on a peach tree about 4 feet off the ground. I know of 1 swarm a year within a block of this swarm for the last 3 years. One of them I caught out of an apple tree. It can bee seen here. The other was dead before I got to it. Sprayed by wasp killer by an ignorant neighbor. Large swarms all three.

I took sheet and a large basket. The bees were huddled pretty tight. I placed the sheet on the ground under the swarm. I held the basket directly under the swarm and shook the tree. Those girls were hanging on tight. I was amazed at how tight they were hanging on. I got most of them but there were still a bunch that would not shake off the tree. I scooped up some small clusters from the sheet with my hand and put them in the basket. It was dark so none of them were flying. I took a sting to my right pinky finger. Ouch. Didn't swell much though. We brushed as many bees from the tree as we could.

I drove the basket home and shook it into my rustic cedar TBH. I will place it at the cabin in the mountains in the next week or so. I'm curious how much and how good the honey will be with all the wild flowers up there.

Small video of swarm capture here:
http://youtu.be/oKMPvbSR1ow

package inspections

I checked on the hive at Brent's place today as well as the queen breeder in the back yard.
I've been meaning to get to them for the last 4 or 5 days but haven't had a chance.
The packages were installed 8 days ago.

Brent's hive first.
This one had 2 boxes on the bottom with natural drawn out comb in the top box, extending down into the bottom box. I had hooked the queen cage onto the bottom of one of the combs. It held the queen cage ok. I didn't think about it being able to hold 3 lbs of bees clustered around the queen cage. It had broken the comb and was laying on the bottom of the hive. There was a cluster of bees on it (size of a baseball).
The queen was still in the cage. They had almost eaten through the candy plug but not quite. I released her into the hive.
I then put a box of foundation (some drawn out) above the 2 brood boxes, then queen excluder, then 3 deep boxes with wax coated plastic foundation, the inner cover and the telescoping lid with an opening at the front. This all sits on a screened bottom board. The idea is to manage this hive after the manner of Oscar Perone. The bottom 2 boxes are brood nest and are never touched. The next box is stores for the bees and is also never touched. The three upper boxes can be harvested in the fall and put back on empty. The hive stays 6 boxes tall year round. Not sure how that will work, but I'm gonna find out.
I left the queen excluder on the entrance as she was just released. I'll remove it in a few days.
The bees had filled quite a bit of the comb with nectar and I could see them bringing in pollen also.
Several drones were under the screened bottom board trying to get to the queen.

Queen breeder.
Crooked comb in both sides. worse on the right.
5 bars attached together on the left - 7 on the right.
I was able to cut a bit of it back and put in dividers. Hoping that they'll start straight on the other side of the divider. I was tempted to tear the whole thing out and have them start over. I still might. I won't be able to move brood combs into the queen chamber if they are all stuck together.

3 hives with the laser engraved comb guides. All three with crooked comb. I wonder if I had made the engraved hexagon shapes 5.1 mm instead of 4.9 if it would have made a difference. I may get more engraved and try it.

Pollen can be seen on this rock below the entrance holes. The queen excluder that I've placed there is knocking the pollen off of the bees as they climb through. I will remove the queen excluder (includer in this case) as soon as I see that she is laying eggs.

I had heard from a friend in Wellington that hived bees the same day and his were building crooked also. He had put in wax coated wooden comb guides 1/2 inch deep. Hmmm.

Jared TBH inspection

Inspected Jared's hive today. They had released the queen so we removed the queen cage.
They had built several combs. Crooked too. So much for my laser engraved comb guides! Well I sure liked them, even if the bees didn't

We left 2 bars with cross comb alone and put in a divider and an empty bar on the other side of the divider.

We'll have to see what they do.