Updates:

I moved my queen breeder box to Mom's

I moved my Barrel hive to a buddy's (Huff) house in Price

I moved my Golden Wootens to a yard in Spanish Fork

I killed the unproductive queen in my north hive at moms. Put in a frame of eggs and brood from one of my queen breeder hives.

I Added another super to the hive at Brent's

Videos:

Drones hatching

Honey bees fighting off a bumble bee

Honey bee fighting a wax moth larva

several updates

queen in small nuc box was killed - nuc was robbed out.

moved 2 hives to moms - the split from rosiers - the split from pattersons

queen in queen box south is hatched and walking around - no sign of eggs yet

pulled honey from haycock cutout

pulled box of brood from haycock cutout - put it on tree cutout

moved both haycock cutout and tree cutout to tavaputs ranch - flowers everywhere!  - put them in a "bear proof" dog kennel - added 4 empties to haycock cutout (8 total boxes) - added 3 empties to tree cutout (5 total boxes)

jared tells me the bees in the hobble creek bee tree are still very active. maybe it was too early in the morning when I checked before.

Now you see it, now you don't (but the other way 'round!

queen box north - now has a laying queen - i found brood open and capped

took 2 queen cells from my queen builder

put one in queen box south (queenless)

put another one in a nuc box with a frame of nurse bees/honey and a frame of pollen

queen cells

2 queen cells in my queen breeder - 1 capped  :)

queens

rosier hive - queen hatched - other queen cells ripped open
no longer queenless!

My queen rearing box is queenless on both sides. I took some eggs from (rosier split) hive the other day and put them in my queen box - 3 queen cells growing now. :)

Ephraim cutout (14 feet up)

Got a call a couple weeks ago from an apartment manager in Ephraim. He had a colony of bees in an apartment that he wanted removed.
We talked about it for a bit and decided we'd give it a try.

They were entering the building between the bricks at the end of a rain gutter above the third floor. We first checked the wells and ceiling inside the apartment (was vacant) but found no bees. We started poking holes in the wall of the entry stair and finally found them in the ceiling. We had 2 12 foot ladders but were not comfortable doing a cutout standing on the top of a ladder. The apartment manager rounded up some scaffolding for us. This positioned us about 6 feet beneath the hive and put them in easy reach.

We set up a bee vacuum on the roof to catch any field bees returning to the colony.
This worked great. The only thing I'd change is to set this up earlier. Maybe let it go all day (time permitting)

Video of bee vac in action.

I don't know why but it's funny to me to watch the bees get sucked right out of the air.

exploratory holes

Found 'em!

scaffolding setup

Mess

job done

Things we did right:

1 - The double bee vac system was awesome. We didn't end up with 30,000 bees on the outside when we were done.

Things I'd do different:
1 - start earlier (we didn't actually start the removal until about 8:30 pm (finished at 2)
2 - cover the ground better (faster clean up)
3 - make sure we have everything we need (including water) right where we are so we don't have to wander in and out tracking sticky mess
4 - take a cookie pan to place the comb on instead of trying to hand hold it or carrie it on a bucket lid. The cookie sheet will contain the mess better, plus we will be less likely to break the comb if it's fully supported.
5 - I need a better veil - mine isn't really suited for working above my head
6 - have all the empty frames prepared beforehand for tying the comb in. This includes already having the twine precut and attached. (or wires if we are going that route).
7 - Maybe  3rd vac for mess clean up. Can't clean up the mess with a vacuum already full of bees.
8 - Setup our comb tie in area closer to the actual cutout. less mess walking around with comb.
9 - Extra power cords
10 - learn how to use the bee vac to get the girls from between the combs. If we could remove ALL bees before attempting to cut comb, it would be a lot less messy. As it is, we can remove the bees from the side of the comb we can see, cut the comb, then hold the comb (dripping) while we remove the bees from the other side. Messy
11 head lamp mounted over my veil

updates

Checked a few hives last night.

Apricot swarm/sun barrel - building nicely (and straight) I had removed the stabilizers because they were a bit narrow. I made them wider and put them back on. I'll have to be careful when opening this one, If the burr-comb to the lild, when I open the lid it lifts the frames.

wax scales dropped on the bottom of the hive

Very happy with this one.

Lilac swarm (deer repelant). this swarm is also building nicely. lots of eggs. very calm bees.

Rosier split. This is the box that had the queen. She is laying nice and they are building new comb. Lots of bees. This is how a split should be. I also cut out a bit of comb with eggs in it to put in my queen box. I cut out about a 4 x 1 inch chunk and just attached it as one piece to the queen box. 

Tree Cutout - I was worried this one was queenless. But I found her last night and she's even started laying eggs. :)

House Cutout - these girls are ornery! Jerry speculated that perhaps they're ornery because I tied their comb in 90 degrees out from the way they had built it in the house. They don't know which way is up. Possible. Huge colony. Tons of brood. Tons. Building lots of comb too. Almost filled 5 mediums now.

Cut Down Split progress

It's been 2 weeks since I split the Patterson hive and a week since I split the Rosier hive.
I checked both this afternoon. Both had queen cells. Pattersons had 3 (that I could see - tricky to see sometimes). Rosiers had 6. Very encouraging. Meanwhile they are packing in the honey. :-)

Bad News, Good News, and Really Good News!

Bad News:
I had Jerry (from Moab) come by to inspect my hives and take bee samples for a USDA survey he's working on. The first hive we decided to work was my queen box in the back yard.
We went through the entire hive, both colonies and didn't see any open brood or eggs. There were a few capped drone cells and a few capped worker cells but that's it. I had split these hives 18 days ago (story here). We did here piping on the north end and we found opened queen cells on both ends. I'll wait a week and check again before I really worry.

Good News:
I had Jerry look through my dying rustic hive and he agreed with me that there are no signs of a brood disease. It's so helpful to have experienced eyes looking at the comb with me. He pointed out "entombed pollen" on some of the comb. I'd seen it before but did not know what it was called or what it was. The girls decide for some reason that the pollen in that cell is no good and they wax it over. Interesting to me that they wouldn't just remove it. They must know what they are doing.

Really Good News:
I was showing off my Sun Barrel Hive to Jerry and we determined that they are building some very nice, very white, very straight comb. Right where I wanted them too. I removed the comb stabilizers from the bars in the hive. they are a bit small (just a touch) and they were pulling the tops of the bars together. I'll adjust them and put them back on or maybe I won't worry about it. They seem to be fine without the stabilizers. We also noticed what looked like a pile of salt on the hive floor under the cluster. When we picked some up it was wax flakes. They must have been producing so much wax that they dropped some. The comb they had built was also packed with honey. I did not see any eggs but I didn't remove any bees to really look either. Once I do, I'll remove the queen "includer". I'm very happy about how this hive is working out.

view from below

with stabilizers on

from above (showing comb)

from the front (showing comb)

Sun Barrel Hive swarm install update

I peaked in the hive after work tonight to see how they were. Looked good. They were clustered on the top and on the bars. I'm a bit worried that they'll start building comb from the lid instead of from my bars. I guess I'll watch for a day or two to see what they do. Quite often ideas that are brilliant in my own head are less than impressive to the bees.

I put a queen "includer" over the entrance hole to hopefully prevent them from absconding. There are a few other bee size holes in the hive that I plugged up for now. The hive still has the smell of the wax/oil/turpentine finish that I put on it a week or so ago. I hope the smell doesn't drive them away.
The nasty weather today (and predicted for the next couple of days) should keep them inside and hopefully building comb (and building it where I want it).

Apricot Tree Swarm - Sun Barrel Hive

I got a swarm call today. I was just leaving work for lunch so I drove out to catch them.

They were hanging in an apricot tree about 4 feet from the ground. I placed the basket under them on a sheet. I pruned a few small branches out of the way. I couldn't find a way to really shake the main branch they were on so I ended up kicking it. That worked. Video here.

Most of them dropped right in the basket. The force of the kick sent a little less than half of them beyond the basket and onto the sheet. I ended up shaking the sheet into the basket.

The fliers all returned to the tree. I kicked them off several times but they kept going back. The fanning bees in the basket made no difference. The wind was pretty strong. I think it must  have been blowing the nasanov away. In the end I cut about 10 inches of the main branch off and shook them directly into the basket. With no branch to return to, they all found the basket.

I took them home and installed them in my new barrel hive. I think I'll call it the sun barrel. It's modeled after the sun hive that I've seen online quite a bit. Here's to hoping they like it and build where I want them too.

Notes:

1 - Attach  basket liner to bottom of basket to make it easier to shake bees out without loosing the liner.

2 - Fix barrel hive lid so it doesn't squish bees when I close it.

3 - Find a way to keep comb guides erect. They are easy to tip over and I'm worried about the weight of the bees making them topple. Once the combs are complete the weight will be centered and I'm sure it will be fine, Until then they might be too top heavy.

Don't burn the damn house down!

Some of the best safety advise you will ever here: "Don't be stupid!"

Living by those three words will help keep you safe and out of trouble.

The following is a story of one of the many times in my life where I forgot to "Don't be stupid!".

I have quite liked this new sealant I've been putting on my hives.
It's my first season doing it so I don't know how long it will last before it needs reapplied but I think it will be a while.

Like water off a duck!

It makes the wood look beautiful.  And the water runs off like magic. I can't help but think it will last a long time.

Recipe:
1 part boiled linseed oil (I buy it raw and boil it myself)
1 part melted beeswax
1 part turpentine

I boil the oil and melt the wax at the same time (never sure how long to boil the oil to be able to call it boiled?), Once I decide is it boiled (or just when I get bored waiting), I turn the heat off and add the turpentine. I then poor the mixture into a can or metal container and set it somewhere to cool. It cools into a paste that can then be rubbed into the wood with a cloth****. When it dries, the wood looks great and feels waxy.

****Oils in cloths will self combust. Use care and put used cloths in an appropriate metal container (or just burn them).

This last time I made the finish I decided to apply it while it was still liquid so I could just paint it on with a paint brush. I had made some hives with some rough cut western red cedar and applying with a cloth was difficult.

I boiled the oil. I melted the wax. I left the heat on low to keep it warm and I added the turpentine.
Boiling oil, even with wax, doesn't really boil. Not like a rolling boil. Not like water. It just gets hot.
The turpentine added to the boiling oil/wax boiled like crazy. The fumes coming off the top eventually contacted the flame and poof. Burning oil fire!

I had cleared a huge area in the middle of the garage. I was wearing my safety glasses. I thought I was prepared. I thought I was being safe. I thought wrong. Instantly the garage starts filling up with thick black smoke. I had the back door open and the garage door cracked for ventilation but not enough to let the smoke out. Also the flames were licking the rafters! This was one of those "Oh F*?@, what now?!" moments. I actually said that out loud. I quicky looked around as I tried to decide what to do. My leather gloves were right there. I was tempted to pick it up with the gloves and take it out back to just let it burn.  The thought of boiling (and burning)  oil splashing all over me (and the garage) quickly changed my mind. Lid! Lid! where is my lid!? Old pot - no lid. I did the next best thing and put a board over the pot and held it down for a fewseconds. Instantly put the fire out. I turned off the burner before lifting the board off the pot (half expecting it to reignite. It did not. Whew! It took a while to get the heart rate back to normal. Lesson learned I think (I hope).

Here is a picture of the board I used to smother the fire. I might frame it. It kind of looks cool. Not cool enough to risk the house again, but still cool.

I still painted the hives with a paint brush until the mixture started to set. I then was able to put a very low flame under it to keep it liquid (with no fumes). I'm pretty sure it was the fumes from the boiling turpentine that caused the initial ignition. Scary!

Live and learn.

eggs - no eggs - split

Checked on the small swarm colony today and found the queen. She's light with dark bands (her thorax is visible in the bottom left quadrant of this picture). She's been busy laying eggs and the girls have been busy building comb.

i checked on the tree cutout colony today also. No sign of queen. No eggs. I pulled a couple frames of eggs from the house cutout hive. We'll see what they do.

I checked on the house coutout hive today also. Huge colony. Brood everywhere!!! I added 2 medium supers with starter comb.

checked on the hive at brents. they were very busy at the entrance. Several drones. they had built and capped 2 frames of honey in the 3rd box (above the queen excluder). I removed the excluder and added a 4th super. Very calm bees. did not inspect nest.

split the hive at rosiers. brought queen and open brood and honey/pollen in a new box to my house. was not a lot of open brood or eggs.

Left all capped brood (quite a bit actually) and some eggs in the existing location. i'll check on them in a week.

Small Swarm - Deers don't eat bees!

Got a call from my uncle Brent the other day (5-23-13). His wife, Sandy, was visiting a couple that had a small swarm in one of their trees. He was wondering if I was interested. Free bees! Yes please!

He called me back with the address and I took a bit of a long break from work to go catch them.

small swarm

They were hanging about 2 feet off the ground in a small lilac bush. There were quite a few dead bees on the lawn underneath the swarm. The lady living there told me that the swarm had been there for several days and that her husband had been spraying them with deer repellant until she stopped him. What the!? I guess I should be glad that the deer didn't eat them. Or glad that he didn't have a can of raid.

Well he may have killed some but there were still enough to make it worth catching.  I spread out a sheet on the lawn under the bush, set the hive directly under them and gave them a little bump. They all dropped into the hive. A minute or two later, about half of them were back on the branch. I knocked them down again. Back to the branch. The third time I actually pruned that bit of the branch and dropped it into the hive with them. Success!

Hey Sandy, aren't you afraid of bees? :-)

All gathering in

fanning nasanov - "This is the place!"

I closed up most of the top of the hive and they all moved in.

I waited about 5 minutes and closed it the rest of the way up and took them home.

It's a small swarm but it's early enough in the year, I think they'll do fine.