This is home of The Bees In The Dale and novice beekeeping tales along the Backwards and truly Organic Way. The bees are feral bees collected from wild swarms. Bees do it all alone, no help from me, no drugs, no meds, no treatments by humans, just shelter and water.
Earthday took up an entire weekend. The first stop on Friday was at the LA Zoo Magnet school with Ruth Askern(in front of the screen) and Summer (off to the left). This is a small school buried between the Autry Western Museum and LA Zoo. If no one told you it was there you would not find it. We had four classes of teenagers in 50 minute sessions. Summer made a great Powerpoint program which was a fine starting point for the talks. Summer and Ruth did most of the lecture work and I added a few pithy comments and took bad pictures with my camera. From all reports the presentation was a big hit, especially Ruth's Observation hive. There were about 20 students in each session.
.
Saturday found us at Ballona Creek Wetlands. They were doing a trash clean up and invasive plant removal day with a lot of scouts doing the work. The weather turned out perfect for us, no hot sun and not too cool.
Ruth and Alyssia did most of the talking and demos as I sat off to the side fielding Bee Rescue Hot Line calls.
Ruth's bees up close
Alyssia talking to the crowds. We had about 120 kids that signed up to work plus their parents and adult group leaders. There were just enough to keep us busy
On Sunday BBK showed up at Lunada Bay in Palos Verdes, finally with a banner. At Ballona Creek Wetlands we were close to ancient burial grounds so nothing could be put into the ground and no banners, No such problems in Palos Verdes.
Laura checking out some of the local wildlife that showed up at the table
Bees, comb, frames and books, just as some people and we were ready
Phoenix in the BBK shirt, Laura behind the table, Susan in the bee suit and Ian at the far end were ready for all questions.
Ian was there to check out how the event was done so he can do the same the next weekend in Orange County.
Observation hive bees
What Earthday demos are really all about.
The first weekend was taken care of and next up will be at Polliwog Park in Manhattan Beach the following Saturday
Several calls came in to the LA Bee Rescue Hot Line looking for help. The bees were on an arbor under which the kids played. This turned out to be a very easy capture. There was a basketball goal handy which I pulled over under the swarm. I put a nuc on it after removing three of the frames. Using a bee brush I swept most of the festooning bees into the nuc. The bees were clinging to vines on the arbor so it was hard to tell if i got the queen with so many bees still up among the vines. I gently scooped as many of the bees as i could. This had to be done carefully. If I killed the queen this entire swarm would have been doomed. The swarm had not started to make comb so there was no place for her to lay eggs. No eggs meant no larvae to make an emergency queen.
Look at all the little butts up in the air and nasonoving.
Eventually there were a lot of the bees nasonoving and I was confident She was in the nuc and shortly after that the other bees started to get into the nuc also. I slid the nuc lid over most the top, opened the hole in front and left the bees there.
I returned at dusk and all of the bees were inside. I closed the lid, plugged the holes and took the nuc home. It is now resting on my back garden wall. I hope to get them to a new home today or tomorrow.
This is one of the easier ways to capture a swarm, it was a pleasant operation. Now to see if the bees decide the nuc is okay as a home for a while. At least 50% of captured swarms move on, seeking better accommodations. Such is life for the Beekeeper.
Late Saturday afternoon the LA Bee Rescue Hot Line got a call about a swarm in Redondo Beach. I contacted Susan to get it I could not get away. Rain was coming and the bees might prefer being under cover.
This was a nice compact little swarm which was very reachable. The homeowners put a blanket on the grass to watch what was going on. I pontificated on bees and by the time I turned around Susan had them in a nuc. That is why there are not bee collection pictures, it was over quickly and the nuc closed up. We left the bees under that bush overnight. The nuc was well away from passersby would be secure. Susan picked it up at 6:30AM on Sunday. At the Backwards Beekeepers meeting later in the day Susan found someone to give them a new home.
Forgive the artsy effect but my hands were full and this is the only shot I have of the house. Catherine had a swarm in a camellia bush along her driveway in Redondo Beach.. I was not on bee duty so mid afternoon I went to check them out.
After clipping some branches I was able to slip the nuc under the bees and shake them in.
A bit of of nasonoving said the Queen was in residence. I slipped a lid over the nuc and left them to adjust until the next day.
Catherine was very happy with the result
I went back to collect them this morning. They were very active and Catherine informed that yesterday after I left they make a big swarm cloud but apparently decided this space would do and returned. Rather than disrupt them right away I will wait until after dark and go seal the nuc and bring them back to the Apiary In The Dale. I do not know if they will stay or if this will be a layover spot. We shall see. Fro now I have enough bees.
Still wrapped in the transport laundry bag, the bees are now parked The Apiary In The Dale, their home for a few days.
Uncovered and settled in for the night
The residents are not very active but one solitary bee traveled here outside the nuc but inside the laundry bag. It will find its way inside soon.
Weather in the area has been up and down, hot then cold and hot again. It finally stabilized enough for a hive inspection and Randy brought Laura along to assist. (Randy took the pictures.)
This hive has always made a lot of propolis and sealed things very tight.
The top two supers had empty and sparse comb. If it had been filled, the bees used it over the winter. The next two had nice looking honey.
Some was in darker comb and some in light comb. There were a few larvae cells but not a lot in these two supers.
Laura got to work the propolis sealed super #4. The frames were very tight and hard to get out.
Some of the frames were cross combed or had comb going between two frames so they was some damage during the inspection. The bees will fix it when they need the room for honey storage.
New comb with new honey not yet capped.
These used to be the Twitchy Bees but this time we were in the hive for the better part of an hour and they did not even buzz us. They were extremely calm and peaceful. For some reason these bees seem to prefer entering on the far right side of the entrance. They use the whole space but most in/outs occur on the right corner.
We damaged a couple of frames with honey and ended up removing 2.5 frames of honey. There was absolutely no indication of problems with the hive so we did not go into #1 and #2 supers.
I crushed the comb to get to the honey.
I finally got to use my new wire strainer (thanks Bro). I left it draining over the weekend as I headed off to a vintage trailer rally near Santa Barbara
While i was there I found some bees gathering nectar and pollen off Eucalyptus trees. The bees were all rather dark.
When I got home I pulled off about 60 ounces of very nice honey. The bees are still active and may provide me with more in a couple of months. In three years i have taken only 5 frames of honey from this hive. They slowed down a lot during the winter but seem to getting back up to speed..
Thanks to Randy and Laura we have actual Honey from The Dale in The Dale, a great start to a new year of beekeeping.
The daffodils, roses and lavender say Spring is coming to the Southland
The bees are flying about
and checking things out.
On this side
On that side
All around the lavender bloom
Off to the side and everywhere.
Waiting for a close up! Look at all the fuzz, this girl has not been out foraging much this season. A couple good weeks of the Spring flow and much of that hair may be gone.
It has been a winter with little bee activity since October. Warmer weather is predicted for next week, a good stretch of warm sun and the bees will start popping. More bees will mean more blog activity from the Bees In The Dale
