Day Three

I kept an eye on the bees yesterday. The "die-off" seemed to stop later in the day. I saw very few dying bees just bodies. Earlier there had been a lot of bees crawling around before dying.

Most days when I look I have seen orientation flights around 3-4PM. I saw the same type of activity much earlier yesterday and it continued until 7:30P which seems odd so I replaced the entrance reducer. Things finally calmed down at 8PM when it was almost dark but there were random foragers going in and out. Do bees have swing shift? That was when I swept up most of the dead bees and dealt with more ants which came back after had I removed the Diatomaceus Earth powder earlier.

I went out at 8AM today and so far no extreme number of dead bees but there have been orientation type flights going on The entrance reducer is still in place and foragers are moving in and out, something not very evident yesterday. I looked closely and see nothing like bees fighting or protecting the entry so I have decided to leave them alone and assume things are fine inside the hive.

I will leave them alone unless there is another die-off or other odd activity. There were a couple suggestions about the cause of the die-off, worker bee die-off or poison at the nectar source.
It is highly unlikely that anyone has put poison near my hive because of the location.
I have no clue, it seems an inordinate number of bees to be tossed out of the hive and there is no obvious poison source.

So now I wait and go in search of Tanglefoot to put around the base of the hive so I can stop using the DE. I may not know what is happening with the bees but I can take care of the ants.

It Continues

Late yesterday I went out and washed away all of the diatomaceous earth. There were no additional dead bees that I noticed.

I went out today and found more dead bees.

I had swept up all the bees around the entrance except those in the circular space. All of the others are newly dead/.

This is the way they are acting on the ground.

There is little or no activity around the hive entrance. I wiped off the dead bees and installed an entry limiter. I will get back out and for another hive check later. One note suggested worker bee die-off. Maybe, I have no experience with that. The weather has not been too hot. In fact I swear we have missed most of the Summer, especially the dog days of August. When I get back out I will try and get a close-up shot of the bees on the ground to see if they look tattered.

ADDED NOTE: Maybe they are tossing the workers out. I have been back out several times and there do not seem to be any added deaths this afternoon . In the morning they were staggering and flying on their backs all over the place. None of that now. I had put the entrance limiter on and there was more activity around that. When I got closer one or two bees seemed annoyed so I have removed it. Since then there has been more activity which I think is orientation. Later this evening I will go and remove the carnage so I can gauge it better tomorrow.

Live and Learn

The old saying is "Live And Learn." A more appropriate version might be "Learn And Live," at least more bees will live on. With my bees within easy reach out back I make a point of checking them out everyday. This is just a cursory glance not like going into the hive. This morning I was working in the yard trying to salvage my mildew trashed tomato plants and doing other stuff to feel useful.
A couple days ago I had trimmed the volunteer palm tree by the bees and left the fronds on the ground. I was going go remove them today when I glanced at the bee area and saw this!!

The ground was littered with bee bodies in numbers I have never seen before.
There are always a few dead bees but not like this.

This is the area below the bee porch. The bit of string had been holding
comb in place and the bees removed it.

Here are some of the bees trying to move bodies off the hive. I had planned on getting into the hive to check out the frames that had been cut down last week. This looked more serious so I suited up and checked things out. Before I got into the hive I swept up the majority of the bodies scattered about. Time to get into the hive.

The top super had little activity and no new comb but there were a few bees wandering around. I had moved a frame of comb with honey into that super last week, hoping to lure more bees up. I removed the top super and looked at the #2 level where there were bees.
Sorry about the lousy shots, I need an assistant badly. This is one of two frames with lots of capped honey in level #2, along with lots of brood and bee activity.
Another shot out of frame (pun intended) showing lots of brood along with larvae which I could see but you cannot. Trust me, they are there but do not ask about eggs,. My eyes are too old. This frame is one of the re-sized frame that Russell and I put in a week ago after cutting the comb to fit The comb was held in place with string and rubber bands. The bees remove it when they are of a mind to do so. It is looking good with the comb re-attached all around the frame and I assume the other three re-sized frames look just as good.
At this point I had come up with my answer to the bee deaths and did not need to go any deeper into the hive. I had already disturbed them enough last week and killed some of the workers. They obviously knew what they were about even if I did not.

By all appearances they are thriving and all the frames in #2 super had comb except the in one with numbers on it. That is where I took out the frame with comb and moved it to the top super.
The bees seem to congregate on the left side of the hive, inside and on the porch. That may be due to the original long frames with brood being installed on this side on Day #1. The next time I make an extended check I may move those initial brood frames to the center. Or maybe I just have left handed sinister bees.

As I swept up the bees I noticed a majority of them had white powder on them. I could blame the ants but like we do in the "show dog world" I declared a "handler error" That means the dog or bees in this case are just fine, the problem is with the two legged beast who thinks he is in charge.

A week ago when we cut down the large frames and installed the comb on medium frames we ended with five frames with comb remnants on them. We decided to leave them out for the bees to clean up. A nice gesture but they were resting on the ground and inviting other denizens of the yard to attend the feast. When I went out the next day the hive had ants all around it and on the frames too. Nothing like leaving a trail for the ants to find the Mother Lode.
I have Diatomaceous Earth which I have used successfully to fight ants around my worm bins. I sprinkled it around making sure none got on the hive except a back area where the ant approach was. Bees do not go there so I applied a bit in their path and also removed those frames and put them inside. (Another DUH moment, the ants found them there too. They have since been secured and stowed properly.)
By the next morning the ants were mostly gone and I used my bee brush to clean the remainder off the hive. Things looked well until today.
I have no idea what lead to the surge in deaths but I am certain most deaths were due to bees getting into the Diatomaceus Earth after my over exuberant application when fighting the ants.
There may have been 1-2 hundred dead bees, a big number but not compared to the number of bees in the hive. The hive is thriving and if I do not mess up and slaughter more bees we will have honey one day.

Lesson learned:
Don't leave honey things to attract ants.
Be cautions when using things to solve the ant problem with out making it a bee problem.
Sorry bees, I promise to do better next time.

Moving Day

I had a couple issues to deal with in my hive. First I use medium hive boxes and had two large frames which extend from the upper super to the bottom hive box. I wanted to exchange them for the proper size frames and make it easier to inspect the hive.

I also had this swarm I collected off my neighbor's BBQ. I was very curious to know if I had the remains of a queen cell in my hive. Did the swarm come from my hive?

The two issues converged with Russell Bates the blogger for Backwards Beekeepers. He has more experience than I do and happened to need bees for another hive. Voila, solution, he would give me a hand and I would give him some bees. He showed up and after a brief introduction to my dogs we went to work.

Applying a little calming smoke.

We moved the top (3rd super) and went to work.. There was only a little comb in the top box. The other two had lots of comb. Here Russell is inspecting the first frames we removed to make space to move the frames around.

Russell looking for eggs. He spotted some with the magnifying glass. I still could not see them. This is a case of old eyes looking through a veil at a repetitive pattern. I was lucky to not fall over from vertigo. It was very wise to have some younger eyes on hand.

Check this one closely and see if there are any eggs. I still cannot find them.

This is one of the two large frames that we would be cutting down and putting into four medium frames.. Both of these frames were loaded with brood. We were going to swap the lower and middle hive boxes but with all this brood it was decided to leave them as they were. You can see the comb extensions I had to deal with at every inspection.

This is one of the large frames cut down and put into two medium frames. There was a lot of carnage. The large frames had wire and the comb had to be cut around the wires, losing a number of larvae. Sad to do that but the Queen has been very productive and will have no problem providing more eggs.

One of the new mediums installed. They were held in with a combo of string and rubber bands.
Russell installing the last of four new medium frames

All done and back together.

Russell about to leave with his reward but he had a passenger in his hair! I could not spot it at first but Russell was very adamant that he could hear it!! A couple seconds later and I removed it.

Russell in a better mood with his box o'bees. I really appreciated the help and I must say the bees were very calm and cooperative considering the extremely invasive inspection and changing frames. We did not find the remains of any queen cells so it is extremely unlikely that swarm originated from my hive. So all questions were answered and both of us learned a lot today.
It was a fine Bee Morning.

"There is a bee hive in my back yard"

My bees seemed much less active the last few days and I did not know why. Now maybe I do.
I had just arrived been back home from a trip to the Vets and my neighbor was at the front door. This is sort of a reclusive couple but he did know I have a bee hive.
"There is a bee hive in my back yard"
I double checked with my bee guru Kirk on what to do. As I was calling him from the kitchen I could look out the window and see into the neighbor's back yard and spotted this.

It was a swarm on the underside of his BBQ. I went over for a quick survey and took a couple pictures.

The neighbor had been with me for the first inspection but then barracked himself in the house.
I got my bee suit and a new nuc ( nuclear bee hive box) I just happened to have. When I ordered my bee suit I had added a couple nuc boxes to the order because they were so cheap. It was a good thing to have them on hand today.
I have one medium hive box that I just use when inspecting the hive and those frames were waxed and ready. They are medium frames in a standard nuc box and do not stand up straight or hang properly but Kirk said the bees would not mind.

I put the nuc on a small table and slipped it under the BBQ. I tried brushing the bees off but they were not cooperating and the space was small between the BBQ & the nuc and they were not easy to reach with the nuc in place.
I lifted the BBQ and dropped it a couple inches. The bees were annoyed but the results were better. Some of them, hopefully including the Queen had dropped into the nuc. You can see many of the others marching down into the box.
A little later there was still a fair sized cluster under the BBQ. I tried brushing them into the nuc and they just got annoyed again. I decided to wait and for now the nuc is under that BBQ lip with the lid resting on top to provide shade from the sun. The Queen seems to prefer it dark.. I am fairly sure I have the queen since the initial shake of the BBQ. In an hour or so I will gather up the nuc and move it to my yard.

Got most of them into the nuc and closed it up. The next time I will seal the sides ahead of time.
You can see bees between the nuc side parts up on the right side. I hope the queen was not in there. I tried to not smush them when I put the lid on. A lot of them crawled out the back space later on. Now the front access hole is open, they can decide to stay or leave. I will seal it off tonight after they are all inside and see how they adapt.

There were a number of stragglers still buzzing the area. I tied to wet their wings and sweep them up but had no success with tat. I added some bleach to the spray bottle and misted the area where they had been. Maybe that will encourage then to leave by tonight.

I will not know if this swarm is from my hive or just a coincidence. I will be checking my hive by the weekend and see if there are any old or new supersedure cells.
I have not decided on what to do with the hive. I do not really have space for two hives. The houses here are only about ten ft apart in some places and I do not plan on calling attention to the hive I do have.
Their temporary home right next to the lavender.

UPDATE: The bees overnighted nicely in the nuc and seem to have decided it is a good home.
If they decide it is not a good place they will leave but this AM they seemed happy.

Bee Productive.

One good reason to have bees is to increase the crop size. I cannot guarantee this is due to the bees but the tomato crop seems to be larger this year.
Cherokee Purple on the left, Mr. Stripey in the middle and Mortgage Lifter on the right, all full of tomatoes.
Mortgage Lifter next to San Marizano Roma tomatoes.


San Marizano will be the first to ripen this year. Looking forward to sampling it this weekend and already have Mozzarella cheese and basil ready for Caprese.

Thanks bees.

Into The Hive

This past weekend I planned on going into the hive but things happened and I did not make it so come Monday morning it was time for a solo jaunt in among the bees.

When I removed the top cover the bees were very calm and peaceful. They stayed that way when I too the top super and set it into an empty hive box..
This is the bottom box with the space where the two large frames extend down into the lower box. I believe that bit of comb broke off the #3 frame when I lifted the upper super off. No problems so far, everybody was calm. Until I reached in to grasp that piece of comb. Suddenly no one was happy. I gently took the comb and put it into the #1 frame still in the hive box. I probably should have removed it but I am new at this and those were unhappy bees. They calmed just a little bit so i continued and looked at all the frames, removing all but that #1.

This was typical of the frames in the lower box.

This is one of my Frank Gehry frames still off not square. I would hold that one out and place it into the third super I added as I finished.
I lost track but believe this is from the lower frame and these are brood cells.


This is from the second super and looks to have lots of pollen.
This is one of the large frames that arrived with brood cells and new comb added at the bottom since my last visit about 20 days ago..
I looked for eggs but did not see any. There were plenty of larvae about. If you look at the middle arrow and move to the left there appears to be a bee with a very large brown thorax. This might be the queen. I was unable to positively identify her when I was in the hive and only noticed this one when blew up and cropped the picture.

When I was done I had a three box hive, all mediums. I pulled one of the frames with honey in it and placed it in the middle of the top box.
The next time I go into the hive, 3-4 weeks, I will cut down the comb in the two large frames and replace then with medium frames in the two lower hive boxes. Another learning experience to look forward to. The bees seem healthy and reproducing nicely with evidence of a queen. I have no clue how many they are but we will see how long it takes them to fill most of that third super. Since that will likely be My honey, I will be watching them closely.
As I read other blogs and forums I am happy to being doing this in So Cal where we are not subject to massive rains in the Spring and Summer. With our climate I doubt anything close to a 'dearth" exists around here and my Spanish lavender never stops blooming.