The purpose of this site is not to provide information on how to keep bees.  There are plenty of sites that do that.  The information within is what has interested me in my search to learn about honey bees.  This page is a journal for me of my bumbling's as I learn to be a beekeeper.  

Our journey began in the late summer of 2007 when fellow worker and backyard beekeeper, Kevin, suggested the possibility of him placing a couple of hives on our 5 acre homestead.  The idea of free honey sounded good to me.  However by midwinter of 2008, the idea had metamorphed into us buying hives and bees; and he would mentor us in the fine art of beekeeping.  Our daughter Roni had expressed the year before a desire to try her hand at beekeeping so when we told her we were about to start this new journey, she jumped on board.  

                                             ***************************************

Last entry: January 12

2012

January 3: 2:30 pm, 56°, calm, mostly clear, slightly hazy.  Breaking all kinds of records this year. One snowfall a month ago. No snow in the valley. Some snow on the mountain tops. People are losing hives.  Checked mine today. All three are still alive. Need to make up syrup to place on all hives.

Hive 1: lots of activity at the entrance.  Had a qt of syrup made up.  Gave it to them. The reasoning being more are flying, need more food.  Whether that is correct, who knows.  Did not get into the hive.  Bees were very calm, totally ignored me.
Hive 2: very little activity.
Hive 3: fair amount of activity, mostly at upper entrance.

January 4: Put syrup on the other 2 hives.

January 12: Good weather still here but due to change tomorrow. Put 2 qts on all hives.

 

 

2011

March 3: 2:30 pm, 49°, slight breeze, mostly overcast. Finally warmed up enough to feed the bees.  Three weeks ago it was sunny and in the mid 50s.  I was out of town so Steve checked the bees for me.  Bees were flying everywhere, the south side of hive 1 (southern most hive) was covered in bees.  He did the heft the back to check the weight test.  It was heavy so figured they were fine on honey stores.  I'm sure by now, they are a lot lighter.  Put 2 qts on all three hives.

March 11: 7:45 am, 49°, calm, sunny. Checked the syrup.  Hives 2 & 3 have not touched it.  Hive 1 has taken a small amount.  Beautiful morning.  Think I'll go feed the other girls (donkeys) and then go for a walk.

March 30: 2:00 pm, 52°, calm, overcast.  All 3 hives out of syrup. Last weekend hive 1 had about 1 cup left, 2 & 3 about 2 cups left.  Put 2 qts on all 3 hives.  Good activity at all hives.

On vacation this week.  Two more days and I'll be retired.

April 11: 2:00 pm, 52°, calm, sunny. Beautiful day. Finally there is some sun.  Been overcast with rain/snow.  All 3 hives are flying well today.  Hives 1&2 were out of syrup, hive 3 had about a cup left.  Put 2 qts. on all.

April 19: 12:00 pm, 50°, calm, overcast. Been raining off and on for the last couple of days.  Things have really greened up.  Dandylions are blooming.  Ornamental flowering trees in town are blooming.  Peach trees are starting to bloom. Apple trees are not.  Miss the cherry orchard to the west.  Hopefully he will replant it.

April 24: 4:00 pm, 52°, calm, overcast.  Well, it was overcast until I decided to go out and accomplish something.  Then it started to rain.  Been gone, got home yesterday.  Checked the bees this aft.  Hives 2&3 are flying good.  All 3 hives are out of food. Need to call Charlie to see if he thinks I should feed again.  The large peach orchard is in full bloom and peaches are a good source of nectar.

April 25: 9:30 am, 45°, breezy, mostly clear. Charlie said feeding is good insurance.  His bees weren't flying, and if mine were maybe it was because they needed the food.  Sounds good.  Put 2 qts. on each hive.  Only a couple of bees were out.  Spilled my bottle of Honey B Oil, lost about a quarter of it.  Dang it all.

May 4: noon, 54°, breezy, clear. Well, I promised 3 people splits off my hives.  Sam came out today to get his.  He wanted them off my deep hive, hive 1, as that's what he has.  That hive hasn't been flying too much.  Got in there, and there are only 2 frames of brood.  One frame had a start of a queen cell on the bottom.  It was empty.  Good bee population.  Didn't see the queen.  Can't see eggs.  They had about a third of their syrup left.  They have plenty of capped honey.  Possibly tending to honey bound. Pulled the syrup.  Called Kevin to see about getting a carnolian queen. 

Got into hive 3, the carnies, 3 brood boxes.  Their syrup was totally gone.  They have plenty of capped honey. They've been flying the best. Booming population.  Gave Sam 4 frames of open and capped brood.  Didn't see the queen.  Hopefully he doesn't have her.  Didn't see any eggs either, but then I can't see eggs.  Sam is going to check for both when he gets home and let me know. Didn't go any further into the hive.  Put on an empty brood box to ease congestion.  Probably going to start Steve's brother a hive with the carnies also, if the population permits.  Will look in hive 2 tomorrow.

My 2 cherry trees started blooming this week.  Planted Steve's mini orchard of 2 apples, 2 peaches, 2 pears, 1 bing cherry, and 1 nectarine.  Due east of the bees.  Wasn't able to plant them immediately. Hopefully they will survive.

May 5: 12:30 pm, 56°, clear. Got into hive 2, Italians.  Two full boxes of bees.  The bottom box had 3 frames that were not being used. Put it as the middle box. Good brood pattern.  Lots of capped brood. Took out a magnifying glass and saw an egg! Added a queen excluder and and a honey super.

May 6: Steve's brother Jack came out.  His wife won't let him keep bees.  Took some more frames of bees from hive 3 to Sam.  Pulled 1 box of bees off hive 2 to ease congestion and put it on hive 1 with a newspaper in betweeen. Put an empty brood box on hive 2.

Hummingbirds have arrived.  Made up some syrup for them.  My cherry trees are in full bloom and the apple orchards are in full bloom also.

May 7:   I'm having the worst attack of allergies in years. Also missed out on the mother day picnic and the kid's birthday dinner. Steve picked up the package of bees and hived them over at the neighbors, Hive 4.

May 12: 10:00 am, 56°, calm, clear.  Finally a nice spring day!  Last 3 days have been overcast and rainy.  This one storm  gave use the entire month's allotment of water.  Spent the weekend with the worst hayfever attack in years.

Checked hive 4.  The queen has been released.  Syrup is over 2/3 gone. 

Checked hive 1.  Lots of bees, capped brood. Saw brood that at the most is 2 days old. Honey stores are still plentiful. Looked for but did not see the queen. Put on the queen excluder and a honey super with 3 frames of frozen nectar from last year.

Yesterday about 4pm I walked by the bees to see how they were doing.  There was 100-200 bees outside of hive 1 in several small groups on the ground and in the grass blades.  Not flying, and not moving much.  Their wings are not deformed, did not see any mites on them. Some of the bees look young as they are still fuzzy and a lighter color.  They did not move back into the hive when it started to cool off. Finally covered them with a blanket.  They were still alive this morning, still not moving much.  The ones outside were Italians.  The added ones were Carnolians.  Did the Carnies force the Italians out?  Talked to Charlie and Lee.  Neither of them had any idea what's going on. Came in and cooled off, before tackling hive 2.

1:00 pm, 62°. The bees that spent the night outside the hive are gone.  Did they move back into the hive, did they swarm away, who knows.

Checked hive 2 to see if they still have a queen since we pulled the one brood box and put it on hive 1.  Didn't see the queen, but it does have larvae.  Been six days.  Take nine days for eggs to larvae to getting capped.  Sure would help if I could see eggs.  No queen cells.

Put frames of last year's nectar in honey supers of hive 2 (2 frames) & 3 (3 frames).

May 21: 1:00 pm, 66°, slight breeze, mostly clear.  All hives are flying good.  Hive 4 was out of syrup.  Knew it would be.  Today is the first nice not rainy day since the 12th.  Put 2 qts of syrup on hive 4.

May 27: 9:30 am, 66°, slight breeze, mostly cloudy.  Been raining for a week. Hive 4 out of syrup.  Put on about 2 cups, what I had made up. Checked hive 3 for brood.  Next to no brood.  What is there is capped. 1 1/2 boxes of bees. Bottom board covered with dead bees.  Talked to Charlie.  He agrees with possible pesticide poisoning as bees die away from the hive. Don't know where they would have gotten into pesticide.  None of the neighbors spray.  Maybe the peach orchard to the north.  The other hives seem fine.  Called Kevin for a queen.  Leaving town for the weekend. 

May 31: 11:30 am, 71°, slight breeze, high clouds. All hives have good activity.

Hive 1&2: lots of bees and brood.
Hive 4: feeder was empty, pulled it. A lot of capped cells. I put in pre drawn frames.  They were hived on the 7th, the queen was released by the 12th.  It's been 19 days.  Capped brood emerge on the 21st.

June 1: 7:30 am, 63°, calm.  Got a new Carnolian queen from Kevin last night.  Put her in Hive 3 this morning.

June 8: 8:00 am, 63°, calm.  Checked Hive 3, queen has been released.  Did not look further into the hive.  The frames of honey/nectar from last year have been cleaned out. Checked Hive 2, they cleaned out their frames of honey also.  Moral of this story is next time we won't be putting partial honey frames back in so early.  Checked Hive 4, good bee population, good small larvae population.  Bees a little aggressive.  Smoke calmed them down. Put 2 qts. syrup on.

June 10: 5:00 pm.  Roni called. Her new package has no brood.  Gave her 4 frames of capped brood and larvae, and possibly a couple queen cells with larvae from Hive 1.

June 15: 9:00 am, 71°, clear, calm.  Hive 3 has no brood.  Don't know what happened to the new queen.  Maybe I can pull a frame of brood from hive 4. If not, I'll combine with hive 4.  I'm not going to try splitting hives again. Hive 3 was my best hive this spring and now it's going away.  From now on the hives can just swarm.  Checked Hive 1.  No more new brood in the medium.  When the capped brood hatches I can remove the medium.

June 16: 9:00 am, 67°0 , clear, slight breeze.  Rained last night.  Impressive lightning.  Quite a few strikes on the mountain to the east.  Sat out on the back porch under the clear patio roof and watched the show.

Checked Hive 2.  Lots of capped brood.  No larvae.  We had moved a box of bees from Hive 2 to Hive 1 on May 6 to ease congestion.  Didn't see the queen on any of the moved frames. Checked Hive 4.  Bees not agressive today. Lots of capped brood, some larvae of various size.  Some bees in box 2 but no brood.  Some fresh wax drawn out. Feeder empty so pulled it.

June 23: 8:30 am, clear, slight breeze. 
Hive 1 and 2: both have lots of capped brood.
Hive 3: my only Carnolian, still has a good amount of bees, combined with Hive 4. Not enough time left in the year to give them a frame of brood and let them make a queen.  Hive 3 was the best coming out of winter.  Sad that it's now history. 
Hive 4: now has 4 boxes of bees and a honey super. 

July 4: 8:00 am, cloudy, calm.  Hive were calm. Hive 1 and 2 both have lots of bees, capped brood, and larvae.  Both have bees in the honey super though no honey.  They still have room to store in the brood boxes.  Hive 4 at the neighbor's is an island in water.  The hive stand is keeping the hive out of the water.  Apparently the sprinkler pipe is leaking as the water is bubbling out of the ground.  Moved it hive up to the gravel area around the pond.  It's fairly level ,won't get watered, and they'll have a ready ready water source in their backyard.  Charlie said his new packages are still not out of brood box 1.  Another crazy weather year in the life of a beekeeper.

August 2: 8:00 am, 76°, clear, slight breeze.  Finally back home.  My brother died in a motorcycle accident on July 17, he will be missed.

Hive 1: couple frames of honey in the honey super.
Hive 2: honey super looks and feels full.  New wax on some of the combs.  Added new honey super below with some drawn out comb.
Hive 3: no honey in the honey super.  Three brood boxes full of bees.  Denny showed me a couple of possible locations to move the hive.  They are not the best either, but at least the hive would be out of the water path when he irrigates.

August 22: 7:30 am, clear, calm.  Back from our Alaskan cruise.  Told Steve I'm not moving to Alaska.  It's too cold (mid 50s). However the mid 90s here at home are too hot. Russian sage is blooming good.

Hive 1: Lots of bees in top honey super. Couple frames of honey. I'm betting the lower super is full of honey, though I didn't check.  The lower super came from Hive 2 to lessen the population in Hive 2. Put a queen excluder below it at the time of the move to keep the queen out of it once the existing brood emerged. The top super is slid back from the first.
Hive 2: Couple frames of honey in lower box.  Talked to someone this week.  Their bees had filled a super in 2 weeks. Here I am 20 days later with 2 frames.  There are 12-15 hives in the neighborhood. Don't know if that is part of the problem.  Good activity outside of both hives.

Sept 9: 11 am, clear, calm. Pulled honey supers today.  One box on Hive 2 was completely and and capped.

Hive 1: Had moved a medium box of brood over from hive 2 in the spring.  Apparently put the queen excluder on above it sometime this summer, so it is still full of capped brood.  Oops. Pulled 1 8 frame medium honey super: 3 frames 80% capped. 1 frame half full.

Hive 2: best hive.  First box totally full and capped. Second box: 5 frames full, 3 frames half full.

Hive 3:  Queen excluder in wrong place.  Don't know how I did this one backwards.  Have 4 boxes of brood.  Any way 2 full frames, 2 half full frames.

Sept 13:  Extracted 15 frames of honey.  Got about 4 gallons of honey.  Weighed 48 lbs.  Used a conglomoration of jars. Figure there is about 36 pints.  Put about 3 pints of 2:1 sugar water on each hive.

Sept 23: Checked the feeders.  All were empty.  Put 2 qts on hive 1 & 3, about 3 pints on hive 2.

Oct 7: Put 2 qts of syrup on all hives on the 3rd, the feeders were all empty. The neighbor boy wanted to watch me feed the bees.  I gave him my full suit and wore just the helmeted jacket. Hive 1 was not real friendly.  Hive 2 not happy at all with one bee stinging me on the thigh which ended our visit to the hives.  Later went to hive 3.  They didn't care that I was there and fed them without incident.  The sting didn't swell or itch much.  Made concious effort not to scratch.  Back to normal today.  Been raining the last 2 days with snow coming 3/4 down the mountain.  I'm not ready for this.

Oct 11:  Noticed a few days ago, quite a few dead bees on the landing board.  Didn't check, assume they were drones that had been kicked out.

Hive 1: out of syrup.  will have to make more.
Hive 2: about 1/2 qt syrup left.
Hive 3: out of syrup.  Seeing how they were the light hive, they got the syrup that was made up.  1 1/2 qts.

Oct 18: Nice weather continuing. Bees actively flying at all hives. Put syrup on all the hives since the 11th. Did hive 3 today. 8 cups sugar:4 cups water fills my 2 qt feeders to the top.

 

 

 

 

                                                            

 

2010

Feb 8: 4:30 pm, 43°, calm, partly sunny. Lifted the hives. They are all light. Had enough syrup made for just one hive. Put it (1.5 qts.) on hive 4 the (swarm).

Feb 10: 4:30 pm, 45°, calm, cloudy. The books say check your hives on the first warm day and if they are light, feed today, don't wait for the weekend. Well, we lucked out hive 1 and 3 are still buzzing.Put 2 qts on each. The top of the frames were totally covered with bees in Hive 1. Does that mean I have a lot of bees or that they have gone through their honey supply? Didn't pop the inner cover of hive 3, could see quite a few bees through the hole. Guess I should've looked to see how much sugar they had left. With syrup on, they probably won't eat any more sugar. Need to make up more Syrup to put on hive 2. Hive 2 was the weakest going into winter. Figured if I was going to lose a hive due to lack of food, best be hive 2. Sorry guys. Hang in there one more day.

Feb 12: 4:30 pm, 48°, calm, partly sunny. Didn't get the syrup on hive 2 last night. It was a little too cool. Then we wake up to snow this morning. It didn't last long and with the sun shining it was a pretty nice afternoon. Checked them about 1:30. All hives were flying. Hive 1 had the most bees on the door step. Did get into the hive 2 and put on 2 qts of syrup. Popped the inner cover. They were totally out of granulated sugar and they have removed a good portion of the newpaper which looks pretty glued down to the frames. Didn't see a lot of bees.

Feb 26: 6pm, dusk, cool. Be a Beekeeper, the kid's beginning beekeeping class (19 kids), starts tomorrow. Need a complete hive for show and tell. Thought I had extra, but couldn't find a top cover or an inner cover, so borrowed them from hive 2. A couple of bees flew when I opened up, but most stayed in the hive. One however, crawled up the inside of my beesuit and stung me on the shin. As far as my stings go, it wasn't bad. Not too red, didn't swell too much, nor itched too much. I did take benadryl immediately followed by an ice pack tied to my leg so I could go back out and close up the hive. I bought a new suit for this year. I didn't like the hood on the other, but it had velcro tabs at the ankle, the new one doesn't- didn't know that when I bought it. Going to have to rectify that.

Hive 1 and 4 were totally out of food. Will put 2 qts on each in the morning before heading to class. Hive 2 and 3 still had over a qt.

March 3: Talked to Charlie the other day. He had put out dry pollen substitute on 5 gallon bucket lids. Said it looked like a swarm above them, and bees were rolling around in it. Okay, I'll give it a try. Put some out yesterday about 4pm. Tonight it looks they they've taken about half of it. Will have to put out some more.

March 9: 1:30 pm, 52°, calm, overcast. Checked on Hives 2 & 3 yesterday. Knew they would be out of syrup. Hive3 was totally out, hive 2 had about a cup left. Put 2 qts on each. Bees were calm. Been dealing with bronchitis for a week, only had the strength to do the two. Checked hives 1 & 4 today. Hive 1 was totally out of syrup, put 2 qts. on it. Only one bee latched onto my veil. Hive 2 had third of its syrup left so left them as is.

Put out more dry pollen subsititute yesterday. There were a number of bees hanging around it. No bees there today when I checked. The pollen had crusted over so broke it up. A little bit later saw one bee checking it out so maybe she will bring back more friends. Supposed to precipitate later today and tomorrow.

March 28: 8am, 35°, calm, sunny. I've been sick have not been able to check the hives. Was able to yesterday afternoon. Hive 3 (south side of the bldg) was all buzz. Hive 1 & 2 had some activity. Hive 4 (the swarm) had only a couple bees coming and going. Have I lost hive 4?! Hives 1,2 &4 were out of syrup, hive 3 had a couple of cups left. Filled everyone up. When I opened hive 4 there were no bees in the top brood box. They soon appeared from below. They must be living in the lower box. Don't know why they weren't as active yesterday as everyone else.

Don't know when the dandylions are going to bloom. Have a low laying weed with tiny little yellow flowers blooming around the shop. Hopefully the bees are able to get some nectar from them. The dirt patch is turning green. I assume with wild gernamiums. They have purple flowers the bees like. The white clover we planted last year on the slope should bloom this year. Want to get Russian sage and plant along the top. The bees will like both of those.

March 30: 6:30 pm, 62°, windy, very hazy. The wind started blowing hard last night. Blew all day today. Just checked hive 3 (the only hive I cannot see from the house) on the south side of the shop (the direction our wind comes from). Hive 2 blew over twice on that side of the shop last year before I moved it to the east side of the shop. Should've checked this morning, it was all over the place. Picked up the pieces and moved it to the east side of the shop. Closed the bees in so they will re orientate when I open it back up. One of the boxes had bees, hopefully it also has the queen. And hopefully there are enough bees to start over. Need to make syrup and put it on in the morning. That was my most productive hive last year and the only Carnolian hive I have. Guess no more hives on the south side of the shop.

March 31: 4 pm, 37°, breezy, overcast. Winter has returned. Snowed this morning, didn't stick. Supposed to snow again tomorrow. Decided hive 3 wouldn't make it on its own with the cold, so moved it into the heated (50°) shop; they're completely closed up with syrup and a pollen patty. There's only one bee space of bees. They're not going to make it. I'm sure it's because they ran out of food when I was sick, not because the hive blew over. Regardless, I'm sad as they were doing so good by the amount of bees that were flying; and now because I failed them they are essentially gone.

April 5: 6:30 pm, 40°, breezy, overcast. Weather is acting like it's March, windy, wet, and cold. Not being bee friendly at all. Hive 1 and 2 were out so filled them up. Don't want them to get syrup bound and not have any place for the queen to lay. Hive 4 still has 1/2 jar of syrup. Don't know why they are not taking it like the others. Wish the weather would shape up so I could take a look inside the hives.

April 8: 4:15 pm, 64°, breezy, sunny. Our yukky weather is supposed to be over. Today is great weather wise.

Well, did some major re-arranging last night at almost dark; wanted the bees to be clustered. To recap: hive 3, south side of the shop, my only Carnolians, blew over 9 days ago, was salvaged and moved into the garage due to cold weather coming. The suviving colony was really small. The bees were closed in the hive. Hive 1, 3, and 4 are on the east side of of the shop. Hive 3 was moved from the south side to the east side last spring after blowing over twice. Hive 2 really prospered on the south side. It was the most active and produced the most honey last year. The east side gets shade by mid afternoon. I don't know how much that figures into things. but back to the re-arranging. The hives were arranged in this order, numbered by sequence in which they came; 2, 1, 4 (the swarm). When we were done, they are now in this order: 1 ,2, 3, 4. Did this for a couple of reasons. They are in order for me, and seeing how the hives only moved 4 feet at the most, some foragers from 1(the strongest-moved two spaces) would probably return to their old location now occupied by hive 3, the blown over hive. Hopefully it still has a queen (haven't done a hive inspection on any of the hives) and the extra bees will help.

Hive 1 is most active, possibly with help from displaced hive 2 foragers. Hive 3 is next most active, probably with displaced foragers from hive 1. Hive 4 is least active.

April 10: 3:30 pm, 64°, slightly breezy,partly sunny. Bee were flying even though the hives are now in shade.

Inspected hives 4(the swarm) and 3(the blown over one). Hive 4 has next to no bees in it. Did not see the queen nor larva, but with the sun not out and in the shade and what bees there were covering the frames there could be both. While they were out of syrup, they have a lot of capped honey cells. Filled their container.

I'm pleased with the amount of bees in hive 3. The cluster we saved after it was blown over on the 30th wasn't very big, but we have bees amply covering both sides of 7 frames. Some were light colored and probably moved in when we rearranged the hives. Saw the queen on the 3rd frame. Didn't see any larvae in this hive either, but if we have a queen, we have larvae. They have some capped honey, though not as much as hive 4. Their feeder is still full.

Both colonies were in the top brood box. Neither one seemed to have much pollen. Will check both hives again in a couple of weeks when the sun is still shining on them.

April 18: 10:30 pm, 64°,calm, sunny. So now it's 12:30. F0ur hives is a lot of work. How do people do it with more?

Hive 1 has all it's frames drawn out. Lots of bees, capped and uncapped brood. Can't see eggs. Syrup jar was empty, removed it. Put on a queen excluder and a honey super. Bees bringing in pollen.

Hive 2 also also a good population of bees, though not as much as hive 1. Also has capped and uncapped brood. It's jar was also empty and removed.

Hive 3 has a small amount of brood. Had a 1/3 of a jar left of syrup, removed it.

Hive 4 only has a handful of bees and no brood. Took a frame of brood from Hive 2 (hive 1 has deep brood boxes) to give to hive 4. Seeing how I can't see eggs, one can only hope there are eggs on it.

Removed the entrance reducers from hives 1 & 2, turned hive 3's to the larger opening, and left hive 4 with the small opening.

Except for hive 3, the bees were not concerned about me. Hive 3 while a little pushy could have been worse. No stings, and that is always a good thing.

Noticed the first dandelion (one) on the 8th. You'd think they'd be popping soon. One of the neighbor's fruit trees (plum I think), has been in bloom for a week, and the peach trees in the orchard are in full bloom.

April 22: noticed bee hives in the apple orchard. My pie cherry tree (bush) has started to bloom. Not seeing any color on the either the apple or cherry orchard.

April 26: 1 pm, 60°, slight breeze, sunny. Anxious to check hive 4 to see if they drew out a queen cell on the frame of brood I put in. They didn't. It's capped; by far mostly drones. Don't see any new larvae. Will have to get a queen from Kevin on the 7th.

Hive 3, the blown over hive, is looking good for the amount bees. Pulled out a couple of drawn, empty comb to put in the empty hives I placed at Denny's place and at Charles' place to see if we can persuade swarms off the hives in the apple orchard to move in. Put in part of a keenex soaked in lemongrass oil in hopes that might help. The queen excluders came. Put on a honey super.

Hive 2, most of the brood in the top box is capped drone, just like the one we swiped from here and put in hive 4. Put on a honey super.

Hive 1, tipped the top box, no queen cells. Top box is loaded with bees, not many bees in bottom box.

April 27: Another big storm due tomorrow, possible snow. I'm a little concerned about the nectar/honey supply, what with all the capped drone cells, and bad weather returning so put syrup back on the hive.When all those drones emerge, they are going to be a big drain on the resources.

May 7: 2pm, 50°, slight breeze, sunny. Checked hive 4 for bees. Have 3 frames of bees. The frame of brood I put in, in hopes of them drawing a queen has mostly emerged. Put in a Carnolian queen from Kevin.

May 9: 9:30am, 50°, slight breeze, sunny. Been thinking about hive 1 and not many bees in the bottom box. Decided to pulll some brood down into the bottom box to may encourge them to use it. There was no brood in bottom box. In checking my frames I did not see mcuh honey, pollen, and no larvae. About the time I was thinking I was queenless, I saw her. She is the marked queen I got from Lee last year, and should be laying good this year. Apparently she has been laying as the top box was plumb full of bees.

May 15: 4:00pm, 65°, slight breeze, sunny. Checked hive 4 this morning before leaving for bee class to see if the queen had been released. It's been a week. She had not! Pushed in the candy plug. Checked when we got home from class. She was out. Check again in a week to see if we have larvae.

Hive 3, bees in both boxes, but it is not a booming population. Good brood pattern. Lots of capped brood. Set for a population explosion.
Hive 2, bees in 3 boxes, not as good a brood pattern, some capped brood. Few larvae.
Hive 1, bees in 2 deep boxes, lots of bees, capped brood, some larvae.

Did not see any queens.

May 17: 6pm, 78°, slight breeze, sunny. Got a swarm call about 4pm from my neighbor. One of their friends called, they had a swarm of bees in their globe willow tree, and they knew we kept bees. Now Steve was in the middle of making beer, so there was no choice there, he wasn't going; so I gathered up my stuff and went on my own.

Took about 15 minutes to get there. A huge swarm. The branch they were on was at least 5 inches in diameter, close to the trunk. Doug, one of Steve's beer making buddies, threw a rope aound the end of the branch, then put on Steve's veiled jacket. We put a cardboard box on top of an 8 ft ladder, I climbed up, held onto the box, and Doug gave the branch a jerk. In went the bees. The bees that didn't fall in probably flew 20 feet from the tree. Lots of bees in the air. We all went inside for a few minutes, then checked the progress, A lot of bees were on the outside of the box, and the air was mostly clear. Called it a success, said we'd be back around dark to gather up the box and bees. Was home by 5:45.

May 17, 5pm. Picked up the bees at 8:30. Took them home and hived them in 3 boxes (maybe should have done 4). Steve took 4 stings on the legs (both knees were out on his jeans). The stings didn't swell and didn't itch (some people have all the luck). According to the neighbor they swarmed again about 2:30 this afternoon. When I got home at 4:30, the hive was empty except for about 20 bees (maybe they had been out scouting when the others left). Talked to another neighbor who said when she came home about that time she had about 200 bees in her gas fire place and some in the house. She solved the problem by turning on the fireplace.

May 21, noon. Checked hive 4 (the swarm caught last August). It's offically dead. The other bees are robbing it out. Don't know what happened to the queen. She wasn't on any of the frames or the bottom board. So sad, it's my first hive to die.

May 30: 10:30am, 60°, calm, sunny. I combined the frames of hive 4 that held a handful of bees with hive 3. Afterwards, I wondered if that was smart. Today, I found 2 wax worms and 2 wax worm cocoons on those frames plus 1 mite! Will have to do a full inspection possible powdered sugar treatment tomorrow.

June 3: 2:30pm, 78°, calm, sunny. It only took about 3 tries to get my smoker to stay lit. Was able to get through all 3 hives with it! Bees were very calm in all three hives. All hives had a good crop of capped brood with a smattering of larvae. Only hive 1 had nectar that I could see.

Did not see evidence of moth worms in hive 3 or varroa.

July 3: 8am, 70°, calm, sunny. It's been a month since I've been in the hives. Between hot weather (I dress with 2 shirts, one with long sleeves, long pants and a full bee suit--don't like stings), bad weather, and manning the bee booth at various functions, there hasn't time.

Checked hives 2 and 3. Hive 3 seems to have recovered from the blow over this spring. Both hives had good brood pattern with most of it capped. Plenty of food stores in both. Didn't see the queen in either hive. One hive (can't remember for sure, but I think it was hive 3) had one queen cell at the bottom with a large larva in it. Part of the side of the the queen cell was missing. So did I accidently tear it open removing the frame, or did a new queen open it? Didn't check the larva, guess I should have, it looked healthy. Left it alone. Hive 3 had a solid bottom board so changed it out for a screened one.I had put what I wanted to be a honey super on hive 3 (has plastic foundation in the frames) and didn't put a queen excluder on. She accomodated me and filled it up with brood. Checked the frames real good and didn't see the queen, so put an excluder under it. When the capped brood hatches, they can move down.

Hive 2 and 3 are the cedar boxes from Brushy Mtn. As I've said before, I'm not that impressed with them. The boxes all came without the metal railing. Bought some and installed them in some of the boxes Iwasn't using. Changed out all the boxes in hive 3. Will change out hive 2 another day.Instead of installing the rails with the one side pointing down, I installed them with the side pointing up. Lee said it would make getting the frames out and cleaning the propolis both easier. Sounds good anyway. We'll give it a try.

Didn't check hive 1, got hot and tired, so will do that tomorrow.

Removed the hummingbird feeder from the back patio. The bees wouldn't leave it alone. Mowed the clover on the slope, the flowers were all shot. Hopefull that will give us another good crop of flowers.

July 4: 2pm, 70°, breezy, sunny. Actually it was mostly calm and overcast all morning, which was a good thing. It allowed me to plant the 20 Russian Sage bushes I bought yesterday. Been looking for them all season and HD finally got some in. They had one price listed in the group of them and another right above them saying select flowers on sale.Well, when the checker rang them up, it was at full price, so we went and looked at the sign. I got them at the sale price. I used a gift card I had received, so my 20 plants cost me under $4. Need 7 more plants, hopefully I can get the same deal. Russian Sage really isn't a sage, I think it belongs to the mint family. I don't like mint, so hopefully my doing the bees a favor, doesn't flavor my honey like mint.

On to hive 1. They've started to draw out the new foundation in the honey super. The top brood box was so heavy I couln't tip it to peek below. Lots of honey, lots of bees, a little brood in the top box. Didn't smoke the bees so they were a little agitated by the time I was done, no stings though.

Finished up, put my things away, and went out to the shop to see how Steve was coming on his project. This bee kept head butting me. She'd butt, I'd leave the area. A few miutes later I would go back She'd start in again, I'd leave, then we would start the whole thing over again. Now all this started a good 20 minutes after I was out of the hive. After being chased out of the shop a half dozen times, I'm sitting there and she tries to fly up my nose. I brush her away and take off to leave the area. Back she comes. She had already tagged me, my upper lip just under my nose is burning. Apparently she didn't get a direct hit the first time as she came back for round 2. So here I sit typing away one handed, with a third ice cube on my lip which I can feel getting bigger by the second.

Steve just came in, not to check on me, but to get a beer. Apparently since I left the area, she started in on him. When she wouldn't give up, he did her in. At least he didn't get stung.

Now, that was one persistent bee. Where I was sitting was 50 feet from the hive , 60 if you count the 10 feet inside the shop. Of course as the crow (bee) flies (straight line through the wall) it was probably only about 20 feet.

You know what I just realized, I won't have a swollen upper lip, I'll have an Angelina Jolie lip, and without paying for it! It feels like it's going to be lopsided, but hey, what do you expect for free.

UPDATE: the whole front of my face swelled. The good news is it was only swollen for 2 days and did not itch. Cherie, my good friend and neighbor, informed me that I did not have an Angelina Jolie lip, but rather a Marge Simpson overhanging lip. Talk about adding insult to injury!

July 18: 7:30pm, 92°, calm. Sun was behind the cloud so it didn't seem so hot. Took a peek into the honey supers. Bees in all, with hive 1 having the most in the honey super. Don't see much activity going on in the way of comb or honey in any of them. Hive 1 was the only hive that came at me, with one bee head butting me.

Sept 10: 2:00pm, 64°, calm. Pulled the honey supers, Sept 6, 4pm. The hives were in the shade so the honey robber to drive them out didn't work. Pulled each frame, smoked and brushed the bees off. No one too upset. Neither Steve or I got stung.

Hive 1, the oldest, though it was requeened in the spring, did absolutely no work in the honey super. No honey, no drawn comb.

Hive 2, nothing in the honey super. Brood box 3, some brood on 4 frames; 1% brood, the rest was honey. Pulled 2 frames of capped honey. The other 2 frames hadn't been touched.

Hive 3, the Carnolians that blew over twice in the spring; 6 frames fully utilized with capped honey. The other 2 frames, not touched.

Had queen excluders on all 3 hives. The only hive that ignored theirs was the Carnolians.

Put 2 qts 2:1 syrup with 2ml Bee Oil on Hive 2 & 3. Hive 1 got 1 qt of medicated syrup (recipe only made 5 qts). Hive 1 got the least on the assumption since they didn't give up any honey, they probably got to keep more.

Sept 10: Kevin W. came over this aft with his honey and extractor. We had 12 frames of honey, and ended up with about 3 gallons of honey which weighed in at 36 lbs of extracted honey. Looked liked Kevin got about 2-2.5 gallons from his one medium 10 frame super.

Sept 10: Jarred the honey this afternoon, ended up with 27 pints (3 1/3 gallons. Last year we had 37 pints (4 1/2 gallons). This year's honey is dark in color. Last year's honey was really light. Talked to Charlie, my bee mentor and expert. He is disappointed in this year's crop. He averaged about 2 gallons per hive (22 hives) , which is about what hive 3 produced.

Sept 10: Put 2 qts. on every hive.

Oct 2: Put 2 qts. on every hive.

Oct 10: Put 2 qts. on hive 1 and 2, and about 1 3/4 qts. on hive 3. Hive 2 had a lot of activity going on. Not so much at hives 1 and 3.

Oct 30: 8:30am, 48°,overcast and calm. Went out yesterday to pull the feeders and boxes, but it was in the 60s and the bees were flying. Decided to do it this morning when they would mostly still be inside. There were a few bees hanging out at the upper entrances and a couple that were flying. Hive 1 had the most activity. Murdered several wasps, always a good thing. Need to get the wasp traps out in a more timely manner next spring, though they weren't too bad this year. All the feeders were empty. Didn't put sugar on them this year, due to lack of time on my part. Hopefully next year will not be so hectic and can devote more time to the bees again. Really need to figure out a new place to put them. Maybe if they were out in the full sun they would do better. But the only place that doesn't get heavily watered is the south side of the shop, and the hives get blown over there.

Everybody is giving rave reviews on our honey this year. Of course, what else can they say when they get it for free.

 

Our Second Year 2009
the honey season.

They say to check the status of your hive (are the bees dead or alive) during the winter, rap on the side of the hive. The hum of the bees will get louder as a result of being disturbed. Well, did that that on several occassions. I could hear no difference. Are they dead, am I deaf, am I beeless? It got warmer; Kevin W. said his bees are flying and wanted to know if I saw my bees flying or any signs of the bees making cleansing flights. I don't get home early enough to see if they are out, and my snow is as white as the driven snow. No buzz, no sightings, no yellow stains on the snow. Kevin made the pronouncement, Your bees are dead! Dashed to the ground my faint hope my bees are okay. It probably was inevitable. It had been a weak hive all summer, they had started the winter with a small colony, their chances had never been very good. Heavy sigh.

Feb 4: 4pm, 49°, calm. Time to confirm the death of the hive. Popped the top, and behold, there were live bees! What a relief! A quick look, they cover 3 bee spaces, they have honey. The reason why I couldn't hear the buzz, I had forgotten I had pulled the empty frames and insulated the sides to help them make it through the winter.

I quickly make up some syrup to put on. It might be early to start feeding, I don't know, I don't care. I do know they won't move horizontally to feed if the weather is too cold. Made 1:1 syrup. Probably should have made 2:1. The thinner syrup stimulates brood rearing. It's better they don't start rasing brood in February, puts too much strain on the bees and their resources so early in the season with no nectar and little pollen available to gather.

On the other hand how much brood can they raise. The outsides frames are full honey. There are no other empty frames available to them other than the ones in the middle. If they fill those with syrup, the queen can't lay eggs. If they don't, they still don't have much space for brood rearing.

Time will tell, whether giving them syrup at this time was wise or not. As long as they make it through February, we'll be happy.

Feb 13: Association bee meeting. Sixteen kids applied for and received hives, bees, and bee keeping equipment. So starts their journey. I am as anxious as they are for spring and bee season to come.

Feb 24: 4:30, 60°, calm. Steve has said he's seen the bees flying, but today was the first of the season for me. Hopefully the weather will be good this weekend to get a good look at what's going on.

April 13: 1:00,55°, calm. Checked the bees a couple of times since the last entry. I know I made one entry but must not have saved it (you'd think this computer would eventually learn to do what I want regardles of what I do). The association funded 16 kids in the BAB prrogram this year. We had 100 people attend our beginner class. WOW!

Steve boiled some of my new hives this past weekend. 80 lbs of bees wax, 40 lbs of rosin, one 55 gallon barrell to use as the kettle. It took a long time (most of the morning) for the wax to melt.The weather wasn't overly warm and the wind came up. So he moved three vechicles around the pot to act as a wind break. (I guess it's okay to burn up my company vehicle, his company vehicle, our personal vehicle, but not his shop which would have been the much better wind break). Once the wax was melted, he put in the rosin which melted quickly. The melted wax was of great interest to the bees. One fell into the wax and got cooked. To keep them out of the barrel Steve put the lid on. With the lid on, the bees lost interest. The new package of bees arrives next week.

Okay, to today's inspection. I saw the queen!! First time ever! She's a nice golden bee. However, saw little brood. The bees have started at least four supercedure cells. Apparently they are not too happy with her either. If I don't have a new queen by the time Lee gets his queens in May, I guess I'll have to get one from him. Last year I wrote it off to them being honey bound with no place for the queen to lay. Maybe she's just not a good queen.

They have drawn out some new comb, not much but some is a start.

April 18: 4:00,cool. Picked up our Italians this morning. Hived them uneventfully this aft. Using foundationless frames. Hope they like it. Last year, we removed 5 frames and put the shipping box inside the hive. This year, we just dumped them out. I guess this means spring has offically started. Helped the boys across the street (BAB participants) hive theirs. They are so excited to have their bees.

April 19: 4:00. Picked up a package of Carniolans this morning. Steve got stung on the finger through the cage. Hived them without any problems. Didn't spray them with sugar water, so they flew quite a bit.

April 23: Went out to the corral to give my other girls (donkeys) their shots. I was a good 20 feet from the the Carnolian hive, the closest. Had one bee that wouldn't leave me alone. Finally went in and changed from my salmon pink t-shirt to a white one. That seemed to help. Hopefully that is not a precursor of how things are going to be with them.

April 24, Friend Kevin W., who got me into this bee business, gave me 3 frames of brood and bees and 1 frame of honey today. swarm prevention on his part (post script-it didn't work, they swarmed anyway). Steve got stung on the hand again-apparently there was a bee on his hand and he stuck it in his pocket.

Now what do I do with them? They are on deep frames. My new hives are all 8 frame mediums. They are currently residing in 2 medium boxes. Didn't check for eggs at Kevin's. Was going to do that today, but can't because of the weather.

Would like to keep them as a nuc to see how they do. But with no defintive answer on eggs, what kind of queen would we end up with, if any. Lee is out of town so no getting a queen from him this weekend.

Could combine them with the new package hive; Lee's and Michael Bushes suggestion. Forgot to tell them about all mediums boxes.

Could combine them with the weak hive from last year. Those brood boxes are deep so that would solve the deep frame issue. Wanted to check them today to see if brood production has picked up. Going to requeen this spring if they don't pick up.

I'm really leaning toward combining the nuc with the weak hive and getting a new queen. Hopefully the queen I saw last week was new and improved. It is such a gentle hive, I hate to lose the genes by putting in a different queen.

April 25: Disaster yesterday! Actually it was last night. Big wind storm. Blew over the new Italian hive. Steve found it mid morning when he was out working. Thank goodness he had stuff to do at that end of the property, as the new hives can't seen from the house. The bees were clustered together within the box. He put everything back together (I was not at home) and got the bees back inside. With everything back in place, the front porch was covered with bees fanning their come hither phermones. So between them all being clustered together and their fanning, Steve is confident the queen (the queen cage was empty) was still there and okay.

This is also the hive that I am doing with foundationless frames. They had one frame started with comb. That all broke off. Steve picked it up to show me. After some consideration, I went out to the boiling barrel and got some wax. I slit the comb on the top edge, put it back over the starter strips and poured melted wax over the edge. It worked. The bees will have some repair to do, but at least they didn't lose all that work.

The Carnolian hive is on regular wax foundation, is about 8 feet from the Italian hive. Heaven forbid it was the one that could have blown over. Rowland luck strikes again.

Knew they would be out of syrup due to the disaster so made some up this morning. It's been cool and overcast all day. Started raining about noon and hasn't quit. Did manage to get syrup on before it started raining. The Carnolian hive was out of syrup also. Both got 2 more qts. Need to reassess the feeder situation. Of course now that a week has gone by I can check them for food more often.

The green (old hive) is on the east side of the shop and can be seen from the house. The new hives are on the south side of the shop and out of view. The old hive is shaded from mid afternoon on. It didn't seem to slow the bees in the afternoon. We decided to put the new ones on the south side of the shop so they would be in full sun. However that is the direction our weather comes from and am concerned about winter weather. Who'd a thunk wind would be bad enough to blow them over.

Ordered a new hive from Brother B, 8 frame mediums of course. He figures first part of June. My (Steve's) foray into building hives is not for me. He really doesn't have the time nor the desire, and Bro B is a real craftsman.

Was on the swarm list, but removed my name this weekend over concerns for boxes for the honey flow (forever the optimist). Of course with 1 weak hive, 2 new packages hives, what are the chances of honey this year. Lee said it would be the end of June before the honey flow, which gives plenty of time to get the new hive, so maybe I'll put my name back on the list

Neil did call Steve the other day about a swarm. We weren't prepared to go. We are now.

April 27: 1:30, 60°, sunny and calm. Well after 2 days of overcast, rain/snow, the sun is finally shining today. Of course my vacation is over and it's back to work tomorrow. What a wasted 2 days of vacation.

On to the bees. I've basically got 4 hives at this point. I took me 2 hours to look at them. When I was done, I went in the house and took a nap. And people do this as a hobby, on a larger scale, and call it fun?! I'm sure it would help if I wasn't covered up from head to foot in bee garb. It does get hot! S'pose I could get one of those $400 vented suits--nope.

Started with the original hive, now known as Hive 1, as what's happening in there is going to affect the nuc. What's happeing there? Nothing is what's happening in there. I think they might have drawn out some more comb, but the brood area is very small.

The consensus of what to do with the nuc, aka Hive 4, was 2 votes for combining it with a new package hive, 1 vote not to combine with a new package hive, and 1 vote to combine with last year's weak hive. I agree with the not to combine with package hive. Need to see how they do on their own for reasons we'll go into later. So that leaves combining with the weak hive or letting the nuc make its own queen.

I was hoping to find the queen going gung ho in the weak hive. I saw what I thought was a supercedure queen last time I looked. There was capped brood, but I didn't see a whole lot of larvae, which there should be if there was a new queen. Time to get a new queen.

The nuc has been closed up since its arrival here Friday afternoon. Didn't look inside as I figured they better orientate first. Hopefully tomorrow will be nice and I can pull the frames to see what's going on. The frames had lots of capped brood, but I don't know what it had in the way of eggs. If no queen cell is going on, will get a queen from Lee and combine the nuc with the weak hive. Lee says to let the weak hive die out. I understand you can't save them all, but I think by combining them with the nuc, will help the nuc.

Had to do some fancy footwork to get what wooden ware I have to go around. The weak hive is basically just in box 1, so I pulled box 2. I then took the frames out of box 2 and took them to the house (wax moth prevention). Need to figure out what to do with them short term.

After being unable to get out for 2 1/2 days, I thought the bees would come boiling out. They didn't. I put on 2 qts of syrup and covered with box 2 from hive 1. The Nuc is also going to be known as hive 4 (how original). Box 2 is a 10 frame deep. The nuc is in 2 medium 10 frame boxes (my honey supers). The frames are deeps. So when I get into the nuc again I will move the deep frames into the deep box.

Going to jump to hive 3, the Carnolians. They were hived 1 day later than the Italians in hive 2. They are on wax foundation, medium frames. They basically had all the (8) frames drawn out in the upper box. Nothing had been done in the lower box. The queen cage, which was empty, was in the lower box. Reversed the upper box with the lower box. They were all over the feeder. Hive 1 never did that. They have consumed 1/1/2 qts. of syrup. Filled the feeder. They have brought in some pollen. They were calm.

Hive 2, the new Italian hive. The bees have partially drawn out 6 foundationless frames. They are using the frame of comb that I "glued" back together for them. There was some burr comb, but not much. They are doing a pretty job of building straight comb. They are, however, behind in comb building as compared to Hive 3. Steve thinks the Carnies were a 4 lb package and the Italians were 3 lbs. How much does the two different races play into comb buillding? Also,while Hive 2 had a day head start, it is the one that blew over. While inspecting the frame with the least amount of comb, due to the way I turned the frame, the comb started to bend. Lesson learned: fresh comb is fragile. Handle foundationless frames gently until totally drawn out and connected to all four sides. The bees had consumed 1 qt. of syrup. Who knows how much they had consumed before the blow over. Filled the feeder. Like Hive 4, they were all over the feeder, even more so.

April 28: Left my notebook in the van, so went out to get it this evening, and because the wind had been blowing, thought I'd look at the south hives (2 & 3). Hive 2 was on its side again! Lost less bees this time than the first. Had Steve come out and we moved it to the east side of the shop. Placed south of Hive 1 & 4. With the shop blocking the wind from the west and the hives blocking it from the north, I sure hope we don't have to do this again. Poor bees!

The bees weren't flying, way too windy. Most of the bees were still on the comb and just had to put the frames back in the boxes. When we were trying to pick them up on a piece of thin cardboard the wind would just blow them away. Picked them up one at a time and cradled them in the gloves to get them back in the hive. They were not interested in stinging. Good thing. When I went to unzip my hood, I had never zip it up! Closed up the hive for tomorrow so when we open in 24 hours they will orientate.

Three paddles of comb had broken off. The ones I glued from the first blow over were still glued. Will glue these back on also.

Just looked, the paddles have eggs! Lost of eggs! Wasn't going to glue them back in tonight, but guess I will so I can get them back in the hive in the morning.The eggs won't be viable, but at least they'll have their comb back.

My BAB neighbors called this evening. They have eggs in one hive but can't find any in the other. Referred them to Lee. Will have to check back with them.

April 29: 5pm, mostly sunny, mostly calm. Opened up Hive 2 and put the repaired comb back in. Looked at Hive 1. Don't see activity in the way of brood. Combined it with the nuc (Hive 4). Didn't see any queen cells. Emailed Lee about a queen.

May 02: 5:00, 57°, partly sunny, slight breeze. Been raining off and on all day.Looks like we might be done with rain for awhile. Picked a queen from Lee this aft. Nice golden. Steve hived her. Thought he could just pop the lid and stick her in. (Does that sound a little familiar?). No hood or gloves and a dark shirt. One crawled up his sleeve and nailed him on his wrist. The others chased him 30 feet. That's 3 stings for him in a matter of a couple of weeks. Oh well, he's in a prettty good mood today. He found some time to go brew up some beer, so he's happy.

Checked all the hives. Wanted to verify no laying acitiviy in the nuc before running out to Lee's to get a queen. Hive 2 has drawn some comb out on 8 frames. The BAB neighbors 2nd hive had eggs so they didn't need a queen. They had removed a large burr paddle of comb which they gave to me. So I cut it in half and melted onto a frame and stuck in Hive 2s upper box. Maybe that will encourage them to build up there. They still had about half a qt of syrup left.

Hive 3, the Carolians were out of syrup, don't know for how long. They've drawn out comb on 8 of their frames also.This black bee crawled onto my glove. By the time it registered black bee=queen, she flew off. The wind wasn't blowing so hopefully she hung around and made it back into the hive. Need to call Kevin and see what he says. At least we know there are eggs in this hive. Saw some larvae.

Hummingbirds are back. Put out some food for them. Mowed the lawn yesterday. Took forever, but it sure beats looking at dirt. It came up really good last fall. Looks like a golf course out there.

May 7. Christopher, The BAB neighbor kid came. We (he) took a quick look for eggs to see if the queen had returned to hive 3. There were eggs and larvae so apparently she had.

May 9, 2:30, 68°, sunny, slight breeze. Started with hive 3. They've got two medium brood boxes drawn and covered with bees. Added a third. They are going really good. They've taken a qt. of syrup. Hive 2 has also taken about a qt. of syrup. (No drowned bees in either hive.) They have not drawn out any comb in box 2. They do have larvae. Hive 1 has lots of bees. Saw the queen. Marked queens are wonderful! Didn't look any further. She's only been in residence for a week, so there should be plenty of room in the bottom box for her to lay. There were 2 supercedure cells in the upper box, but both were empty. Apparently the bees are happy with the new queen.

May 14, Received a call from Kevin C (not the same Kevin talked about before) at 8pm last night. He had a swarm to retrieve about a 1/2 hour from us. So we hurried over there to observe. This swarm was in a rose bush about 18 inches off the ground. Kevin put his hive boxes under the bush, shook the branch, and in they fell. If we ever get a swarm call, Rowland luck decrees it will never be that easy. Due to the time of day, they bees never flew much, and were pretty much all in by the time we left.

May 16, 10:30, 57 °, sunny, slight breeze. Steve and Jim (Roni 's husband looked at the hive 1 last night about 8pm. Just popped the cover. The bees were not happy and Steve took a hit on the eye brow. His eye is mostly swollen shut this am. That's 4 stings for him in less than a month from Kevin W's bees.

Started with Hive 2 today. Saw the queen on the second frame pulled. There was quite a bit of capped brood with a little bit of brood in the top box. Nothing has happened in the lower box. Put the frame with the queen and another frame of capped brood in the lower box. The neighbor's donated comb is there also. The queen will have a place to lay and hopefully it will encourage them to start drawing comb .

Moved to hive 3. They are 3 medium deep. They have not done anything in their other box either. They had lots of capped brood, but didn't see any larvae. Didn't look in the 2nd box, as I did see the queen in the first. Neil told me the other day that if you see the bees lined up looking at you from between the frames, that is where you'll probably find the queen. And that is where she was! Never saw the queen last year and only saw the bees looking at me once.

Both hives were out of syrup ( no drowned bees). Refilled both feeders with water. On the forum, on of the old time beekeepers said he feeds his new packages a gallon of syrup and that's all they get. Keeps them from getting honey bound. Both hives have stores so they are on their own.

Hive 1 we dealt with last. Actually didn't do much with them. Added the honey (queen) excluder and put on a medium super for honey. It's there if they want to use it. Saw the queen last week so hopefully she is still in residence. Will do a check next time.

June 26, 12:30, 74°. I think we're turning into Seattle, rain and cool all month. Bees aren't doing anything. Put the honey super on Hive 1. Not even a start of drawing out comb. Put 2 qts 0f syrup on Hive 2. They've got 4 full combs drawn out in box 2 with a start of a comb on frame 5. Put a honey super on Hive 3.

July 12, noon, 80°. Went to feed hive 2. They haven't drawn out any comb in brood box 3. The other two hives haven't drawn out any comb in their honey supers either. I guess this is a one way relationship; with me doing all the giving and them doing all the taking. this is getting a little irrating.

Aug 1, 9:30, 74°, calm. Beautiful morning so far. Mowed around the trees, admired my clover, pulled some weeds, sprayed some weeds, checked the bees.

Hive 1 is finally starting to draw out the honey super. It is covered in bees. Six weeks left of bee season. I suppose there is a chance of honey this year, but I'm not holding my breath. Hive 2 & 3 are doing nothing in drawing out more comb. Need to make up some syrup to feed hive 2. At this rate hive 2 is going into winter with 16 frames of bees and food.

Where the clover is getting water, it is looking great. Not blooming. Must have a couple of plugged sprinkler heads. Steve needs to clean them. Was out pulling weeds out of the clover the other day. It was heaven walking barefoot in the clover. The ground was moist, the clover soft. Had it about 3/4 weeded when I stepped on a wasp. Not worried about an allergic reaction , as wasp venom is a different chemical makeup then bee venom.( Been stung lots of times by wasps). Headed into the house and doctored the sting with apple cider vinegar, itch reducing gel, 2 benadryl, and an ice pack. Benadryl puts me to sleep so I knew 2 of them would knock me out. It didn't. Between it all, my foot didn't itch too bad, and didn't swell too much. Wearing shoes all day helped, but I when I got home from work, shoes and socks were the first thing off. Then the itching would start. Ice packs are wonderful.Hopefully in the next day or two, my foot will be back to normal.

Aug 7, 8:30, 66°, calm. Absolutely gorgeous morning. It has been 98° for so long! A front has been working its way through for the last couple of days. Wind really blew last night. Air was just thick with smoke from fires. Still hazy this morning but not like last night. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be in the mid 70s with chance of rain. Hopefully not too much chance on Saturday as we are hosting the annual bee association picnic. Over a 100 have rsvp'd.

Checked the bees this am. Hive 1 honey super is full of bees. Can't tell if they've done much since last week. Don't see the need to disturb them when there are still many frames needing to be drawn out. Hive 2 was out of syrup. Gave them another 2qts. There is getting to be quite a few bees in their 3rd (8 frame medium) brood box. Hive 3 has just barely started to draw out their honey super. Frame 8; aren't they supposed to start in the middle?

We got a couple acre dirt patch between the lawn and the pasture. The other girls (donkeys) love to be on it. Decided to fence them a little area. They ate the dead weeds down to the dirt. Why they like dry dead weeds when they have green pasture grass is beyond me. Daughter Karen is for fencing the whole area in so they can eat it and then she won't have to mow it.

Aug 11. Well, this evening sure turned out different. Got a call from a lady about 6pm. There was a swarm of bees in a tree in her apt. building.Told here we would be right over. I was busy loading bee stuff when Steve pulled in from work. We hopped in the truck and drove 40 minutes to the bees. They were still there on a branch about 6 feet off the ground. It was a large swarm. Steve figured at least 6 lbs. of bees. He suited up and I took some pictures. One shake of the branch and they fell into the hive below. Those that landed on the ground started crawling up the hive and in. By 9pm they were done flying and in the hive. We closed up and went home. It was an uneventful first swarm catch. When we arrived home, Steve got the hive out of the back of the pickup and carried it to its new location, next to hive 1. There were a few bees on the outside. Unfortunately 2 of them crawled inside Steve's shirt and stung him on the arm and chest. Who's counting, but I think that is sting 5 & 6 for him. So sorry.

Aug 21, 11:30, 78°, calm. Wanted to check hive 4, AKA the swarm. They have 4 frames completely drawn out.Supercedure and swarms cells all over the place. I don't understand.They have 4 more frames and and another 8 frame box for room. Can't see any brood. It's been two weeks.

Hive 4 had made a paddle kiddywampas to where it should be. Removed it and brought it in to glue into a frame. It's got several queen cells on it. What I thought was sugar water is actually larvae! Now what do we do? Called Charlie.

Hive 1 has a super full of honey. Put another box on. Gave hive 2 another two qts. of syrup. Hive 3 hasn't done anymore in their honey super. Pulled the hive apart looking for a frame of brood to give to hive 4. They only have brood in box 1. Most of it is capped. So no brood for Hive 4. Box 2 & 3 are full of honey. Will there be enough bees to get through the winter?

Aug 26, 7:30, 80°, calm. Charlie brought over queen curlers and other various stuff. Looked at it tonight. I thought they pressed into the comb, but not so. Apparently you remove the queen cell and put it in the curler. That is more than I want to do without watching someone do it first. Don't want to damage them when the bees think they need a new queen. So the queens are just going to have to duke it out themselves.

Only one frame hasn't been started with comb. The bees were chaining on it. They've got at least one frame of honey they have started to cap. Their syrup was gone so gave them two more qts.

Sept 7. Had our family and Friends pig roast yesterday with about 40 people. Steve and his brother finally built a motorized spit this year. Somehow, it just don't seem right. You know, them sitting there watching the pig turn and occasionally throwing some wood on the fire; just doesn't seem like work. The pig was delicious and everyone had a good time.

Charlie came over around three to assist in our first extraction. Kevin Wilcox had brought his extractor and stuff over earlier for us to use. BAB (the association's beginning youth program) neighbors Christopher, Gregory, and family came with theirs. Only one hive produced honey for them this year, 2 qts. Not much, but that's 2 qts. more than I got last year.

The last power outage killed the compressor on a refrigerator Steve used for aging his homemade brew. It's an older apt. sized frig. Steve removed the door light switch, and moved the switch in his temperature control unit (for his beer) from cooling to heating. The frames fit in the frig almost perfectly, sitting on the ledges that used to hold the shelves. I pulled my honey supers yesterday. Set the temperature for 90°, so the honey would stay warm. Bottling turned out to be quite fun. Ended up with 4 1/2 gallons (37 pts) of honey.

Two thirds of it came from Hive 3, the Carnolians. That is a new hive this year and the only one on the south side of the shop. The rest came from Hive 1,Italians, last year's hive that's on the east side of the shop. It was supplemented with four frames of brood and a new queen in the spring. I would have thought it would have done the best. Maybe being in shade in the afternoon isn't the best. but I have no where else to put them except on the south side of the shop. That is the direction our wind comes from and it blew over Hive 2 twice this spring when it was there.

All the hives are heavy except for Hive 4, the swarm.

The bees went into panic mode with their honey gone and swarmed the hummingbird feeders en mass, here and at the neighbors. That's not good for a couple of reasons, the most important being the syrup is 1:4. They'll never get it dehydrated. Hummers were here on the 21st of last year. That's too late to leave supers on until they are gone.

Sept 11, 8:30, 70°, calm. Finally got some 2:1 syrup on the Hive 4. The bees are still in one box. It's been exactly 3 weeks since we first saw the queen cells. They've torn down the queen cells, though there are a couple open ones still present. Guess they'll deal with those when they get around to it. The bees were calm, didn't see any brood. So hopefully they have a queen they are happy with, and we still have time and drones for her to get mated and start laying winter bees. They have some honey stores, but not enough to get through winter. Seeing how I won't be getting into the brood boxes again this year, I set them up like I did last year. I put 3 frames of bees in the middle of the bottom box. Three frames of bees in the middle of the second box, and 2 frames in the middle of the top box. I had pulled 4 frames off hive 3 that had nectar in them. Was wondering what I was going to do with them; put them in the top box. That will give them a start on more honey and drawn comb.

Sept. 20. Nice day today. Put more 2:1 syrup in a drip container on Hive 4. They still have syrup in the other. I think it is too hard for them to get the thicker syrup out of it. Saw no hummers today. Saw two yesterday. Took down the empty feeder. Felt bad about not filling it for the last 2 weeks, but can't have the bees taking it.

Sept. 27, 9:30, sunny, light breeze. Been deer hunting/camping this week. Returned last night with no deer. Been wondering how long to feed. The Assoc. newsletter was here, saying feed until the first hard freeze or until they stop taking it. Figured Hive 4 would be out of syrup so made up a batch. Only wore Steve's veiled jacket and one of them buggers nailed me on the back of the leg through my dark brown pants. Thought about finishing up but decided against it. Came inside and grabbed an ice cube to put on the sting. Cherie, my neighbor, gave me some clove oil as she heard it would negate a bee sting. So I put some on. It stung worse than the bee sting I think. Put the ice cube back on. Then I rubbed my eye. You don't want to do that with clove oil on your hands. Grabbed a wet towel and put it on the eye. That took a minute to calm down. Now that we have everything under control, guess it's time to unload the camper.

Don't know if the clove oil helped or not. The sting area swelled to about 2 hands in area. It was more of a red welt than swelling. It really didn't itch much and then only itched for 4 days. If I was busy, I didn't notice the itch at all.

Oct. 17. Beautiful weekend so far. Yesterday I put newspaper and granulated sugar on top of the frames in 3 hives. Hive 1 had a good gathering of bees on top of the frames. Thought I would wait until early this morning and maybe the cold night would drive them down into the frames. It didn't. So guess they will winter this year without sugar. They were heavy when checked on Sept 7. Bees are still bringing in pollen.

Nov 21. Got a call the other day to remove some bees from a tree. The tree and bees were on the college grounds by the football stadium and the grounds keeper was concerned people would throw rcoks at them. Okay, so I'm confused. They are supposedely 12 feet up in the air, it's in the low 40s, the wind is cold, the bees shouldn't be an issue if they are in the tree trunk. But they are not in the trunk, they built their comb off the branch and with the leaves all gone, they are very visible. Go over and sure enough, it's bee comb hanging off a branch. Only saw 2 bees fly in while we were there, and couldn't see any on the comb, but it is cool outside, they all could be on the inner comb. Made an appointment to come back this morning at 7am. If there are bees, they still should all be home and not flying due to the cold. The college provided a lift truck and the saw. For the rest of the story and pictures.

The Journey Begins
2008 The Learning Season

We started by reading books loaned to us by Kevin, and scouring the internet for information on bees, hives, and beekeeping paraphernalia.  Who knew there was so much to learn.  I admit, being an uninitiated honey consumer, I thought the process went something like this, I would provide a fine home for the bees and they would pay me rent in the form of pure home grown honey.  I really thought you went out to the hive, appropriated some of the honey (hopefully without getting stung), and that was all there was to it.   Silly me!

February 1st,  Steve, my husband, Roni, and I attended the Utah County Beekeeper's Association meeting, our first.  I should mention before we definitely decided to become beepers, I asked my husband, "If I decide to get into beekeeping, are you going to do it?" (Better they sting he than me concept).   At the meeting we met Lee from whom we would purchase our bees and queen, and Brother B (Stephen) a local bee hive builder. 

February 5th, Roni ordered 2 packages of bees from knightfamilyhoney.com   We're getting Italian bees with Minnesota Hygienic queens.   Italians are noted for their gentleness and Hygienics (of Italian Lineage) for keeping a cleaner, and therefore, healthier hive. 

February 8th, Ordered 2 hives after Steve kept telling me if I didn't act in a timely manner (as in now) I would have 20,000 bees on my hands with no place to put them.  Brother B only takes orders on a first come first serve basis, for only the amount that can be built before the April arrival date of the bees.

February 13th,  The books say to paint your hives so the stark whiteness doesn't draw unwanted attention from less than happy neighbors or vandals.  What a path that has led me down.  The internet--what a wonderful thing, if it doesn't drive you crazy.  Everybody agrees bees don't see red.  However the uneducated public has different opinions when it comes to yellow.  Some say yes, some say no.  Then there is green.  I wanted to paint my hive a nice muted sage green.  However bees have a hard time telling red flowers from the green leaf background.  Since they don't see red, does this mean they don't see green?  Somewhere in all of this, I ran across someone saying the primary colors are red, blue and green.  WHAT?  I thought the primary colors were red, blue, and yellow.   So now we have to stop momentarily researching what colors bees see and delve into the human color spectrum.   Do bees see yellow?  What ARE the primary colors?  The answers to these and other color questions can be found on the colors bees see page.

February 29th, leap year day and the day we drove to the city (ie, Salt Lake CIty) to purchase my bee gear.  I bought a full suit with zippered on hood, though I probably won't use it much once I get acclimated to 20 thousand bees; gloves that I probably won't use at all as I'm the official photographer ( that doesn't mean I'm good at photography just that I'm the one taking the pictures) with the husband being the official bee handler (and chief sting risk taker); 2 hive tools (I read two are better than one and they were cheap); and a new bee book (I liked the glossy pages, the glossy color photos and it was cheap--are we detecting a pattern here).  The new book, First Lessons in Beekeeping by Keith S. Delaplane, ( not to be confused with one one written by the Dadants) says there is a newer type of hive tool (always a day late and a dollar short), so guess we'll have to look for it and give one of the originals to Roni.  Husband Steve will have to go online (as he buys next to nothing locally if it can be purchased on the internet) to purchase a smoker as they were out of stock,and to find his hooded jacket, which I'm sure will give way to just a veiled hood. 

March 5th, Steve's internet order has arrived.  He ordered the hook type tool.  I like the open weave hat he opted for.  We will need to find out how the strings on his veil tie.   I'm so ready for spring and the bees to be here!

March 8th,  Our Beginning Beekeeper Class started yesterday, and continued today.  Loads of information.  Unfortunately, it snowed so no field trip to the hives.  Deep supers were brought to the class for practice on manipulating the frames.  According to Lee placement of my left hand "killed bees".  Sorry guys--I mean girls, I tried to tell him I'm the photographer.

April 19th,  Bee Arrival Day has finally arrived!  It took 45 minutes to get to the bee pickup location. Bees were flying everywhere.  Thank goodness they could care less about us humans.  The day was okay, the sun was shining and it wasn't too hot or too cold.  We picked up our bees and Roni's bees as she and her family were on vacation in San Francisco.

I don't think I've talked about the Rowland luck. It goes basically like this, if anything can go wrong, it will.  Temperature dropped from 68 to a whole lot colder.  Wind gusts to 40mph, so much dust in the air the entire sky was gray, and no sun.   Guess the girls will have to wait until tomorrow to settle into their new home.

April 20,  elevation 4700 ft., temperature 48°, wind 18 mph, overcast due to dust. WInd blew hard all night.  Blew all day today.  Steve went out about 4:30 to see if the shop was breaking the wind at all.  It was, so we decided to go for it.  Son Michael came to take some of the pictures, the ones before the bees were out.  Remember the Rowland luck?  Batteries on the camera died.

We had opted to hive our bees by placing the whole cage.  Once the cage was in, the feeding can was pulled and a cover put over the opening to keep the bees in.  Moved the cover a little bit to get the queen cage out.  Pulled the cork using a screw.  Spent more time trying to plug the end with a marshmallow than we did doing anything else.  All in all, I don't think more than 20 bees came out of the cage, and I doubt we lost more than 10 outside the hive in the process.  Sadly, I must report there was one fatality.  One of the first bees out, stung Steve on the thumb.  Thank goodness he had his gloves on.  Now we wait.

April 21,  Did I mention the Rowland luck?  The wind died down and the sky cleared a couple hours after hiving the bees.  Today has been  a beautiful day.  Not too much activity around the hive.   Late afternoon, Roni came and picked up her bees around.

April 22nd, Called Kevin.  Had loaned him my new books, you know the one tells you how to hive the bees by placing the whole cage in the hive.  Needed to find out how long you leave the cage in the hive.  24 hours.  So it's been 48.  Called Steve at work.  He came at lunch, fired up the smoker.  The wisp that came out probably didn't qualify as smoke.  Forged ahead without.  The queen cage was empty, the other cage was not.  A lot if bees were out, a lot were not.  This time, those still inside were unceremonious dumped out of the box, and the box placed near the hive entrance for the others to come out on their own time frame.  All in all, the bees were pretty calm.  Far as we know, there were no fatalities.

Talked to Roni in the afternoon. Things did not go well, (that Rowland luck thing again).  When she picked up her queen cage, the cork fell out and the queen flew away!  Roni gave chase, but to no avail.  Left message with Lee, our bee supplier.  She hived the bees anyway.

April 23rd,  Call this am, 7:30, from Lee.  He was headed my way to get a queen for Roni.  The apiary where he keeps his queens is at my end of the valley, thank goodness, so didn't have to drive all the way to his place.  Didn't go over to the hives with him, as he has been in them every day and the bees were testy.  Was interesting.  Wondered how they kept queens without the queens killing each other.  Now we know,  They are all in there own little queen cages. So the next question is how do they  get queens fertilized and in those little cages without them killing each other.  Maybe that will be my next research project.

Anyway, back to Roni, got a new queen, thanks Lee, and headed her way.  Thank goodness she lives at this end of the valley also.  She was suited up and ready to go when I got there.  Her bees had not absconded, were still in the hive, and not out.  Placed the queen without incident. I'm sure the bees are happier, and I know Roni is.  For once the weather cooperated, even if it was breezy (5mph)and cool (55°), and overcast.  I'm sure it helped keep the girls inside.

Back here, I had checked my bees before leaving.  They weren't out.  Apparently they are not early morning bees.   Of course, there was no bright sunshine to get them motivated.  I can understand that.  I need the sun to get motivated myself.  Lifted the outer cover for a peek, they were totally out of syrup in one container.  Thank goodness there were 2 containers.  Filled and replaced it before heading out to meet Lee.   Need to get another bigger container (we knew that).  

May 9th,  Went to check sugar water.  Only gear I had on was gloves. After all I was just looking to see if they had food.  Once I was there, I couldn't resist the temptation to peek below the inner cover.  All seemed fine.  Didn't pull any frames as I didn't have a veil on.  Can't believe how docile the bees are.  They could care less about me.  Went to push up my glasses, not realizing I had a bee on my glove.  She stung me on the cheek.   She didn't get me good, I don't think she left a stinger.  I did brush my cheek several times with the side of my finger while on the way to the house.  No stinger in cheek upon inspection.  Lathered on a gel someone had told me worked well for bee stings.   While the sting felt like a hot needle, it didn't last long, nor did it swell very much.  It did get red.  So whether she didn't get much venom in me or whether the gel really worked, I don't know.   I just know by the time I made it back out to the hive to close it up, it no longer hurt.

May 10th,  Monthly bee meeting.  A gentleman was there with a bee sting on his cheek.  He had swelled from the side of his nose to his eye to his ear to his jaw.  My swelling was the size of a quarter at most.  Boy, did I get off easy!

The lady who has maintained the booth about beekeeping at the fair for the last ten years decided she wants a break, so they were looking for volunteers to man it this year.  I was among those offered to help. (That by default includes Steve).  Hopefully, I will be able to speak authoritively and knowledgeably by then.  If nothing else we get into the fair for free.

People were talking about their eggs and larvae. We had capped cells so had figured things were coming along fine.  After the meeting, being concerned we checked for eggs and larvae Saw nothing other than cells containing honey.  Panic city.  Called our mentor Charley.  No answer.  Called Lee, no answer.  Was getting ready to call Neil, president of the bee association, when Charley called back.  He only lives a few miles from us and said he could come right over.  I was dressed in my full gear with all the tools of the trade ready when he and his wife Karen arrived.  He put on his veil and gloves and we went for a look.  Everything was just fine.  What we thought was honey, was larvae floating in royal jelly.  We even found the queen.  What a relief!

I still couldn't see any eggs.  Where as most people with "senior" eyes put on reading glasses to see things up close, I take mine off.  The veil precludes taking off my glasses.  Don't know how we are going to resolve this.  You got to know if you have eggs to know if the queen is still around.

Charley said everything looked good, other than we had a lot of drones.  On one of the pictures I had taken, there looked to be many drones.  It had surprised me, as I had assumed they only sent worker bees.  Charley (and Karen) left, but not before discussing smoking meat (Steve had taken a smoked brisket to the association potluck) and home brewing beer.  They both do both.  I can see a budding relationship here.

My phone had rang while Charley and I were doing our thing.  After Charley left, I checked to see who it was.  It was Lee.  Told him I was just being a nervous new mother, Charley had said other than for the amount of drones, everything was fine.

May 18th,  We were gone for a 4 day weekend.  Arrived back home around 5:30pm.  Figured it was late, but wanted to check on the girls.  When we had checked last weekend, I was surprised how much more comb they had built out from the week before.  Now I was surprised how much they had added this time; not much.  Was I expecting too much, or is it my free loading drone population?

Their pollen patty is just about gone. Lee had handed out pollen patties at our first bee meeting.  He makes his with high fructose corn syrup.  HFCS isn't good for people. Research says isn't good for animals.  How can it be good for bees?  The pollen subsitute is on back order.  Hope it gets here soon. 

May 24th, Spring has been really different this year, like there hasn't been one.  It's been cold with no moisture (we've been 2 inches behind in rainfall).  Now it's been overcast, breezy, and rainy for a week.  How are my poor girls supposed to do their thing in this kind of weather?

Was I complaining about the weather?  The tornado in WInsor Colorado devasted the area 4 blocks from my brother's house.  He only sustained heavy hail damage to his pickup parked outside and to the roof of the house.  The same afternoon a tornado landed near my mother's house in Laramie Wyoming.  The cars at the end of her street lost their windows and some buildings not too far away lost their roofs.  Mom lost part of her fence.  Thank goodness son Michael happened to be there to help.

May 25, 4pm, 64°, wind 10 mph.  Sun is shining with a slight breeze. Visited the hive this afternoon.  Quite a bit of activity around the outside of the hive.  Except for a couple of bees, I was mostly ignored.  Saw some very light colored bees.  I wouldn't think the new bees would be outside of the hive yet.  They should be house bees at this point.  Maybe they were on the inner cover when I took it apart.  Looks like there is a lot of larvae, lots of capped brood, some capped drone cells.  Wish I could recognize the eggs.  Saw something that looks like a white dot in the bottom of a couple cells.  Are those eggs?  Pollen subsitute is here.  Put it in the hive, dry (manufaturer says dry is okay.  We don't do HFCS).  

May 30th,  Beautiful day, no wind, sunshine, warm; good day to check on the girls.  Suited up and took a peek.  Things look good.  Sugar water was empty so took the container (2 qts) inside to make some more.   When it was ready, I didn't bother to put the veil on.  Just going to pop the lid and put it inside.  Well, that was the plan anyway.  One very insistent bee had other ideas, and chased me off stinging me on the ear.  According to "Beekeeping for Dummies" book, less than one percent of the population is allergic to bee stings.  That means over 99% are not.  Seeing how I spent the afternoon in the emergency room due to a bee sting,  I think we now know which group I belong to.  Accordng to the information given us at the ER a severe reaction includes: dizzines (yes), fainting (almost), trouble swallowing (swollen throat and tongue), trouble breathing (some), severe itching, hives, and redness (yes, yes, and yes).  Am Ithe proud owner of an epi pen? yes.  I am I ready to give up bee keeping?  Nope,  but I will be fully suited up whenever I visit the girls again.

June 8th,  Bees have not drawn out any more frames.  They taken some pollen subsitute but not much.   Added a small amount to the sugar water (manufacturer says you can).

June 15th, Still no more new comb.   I'm concerned for their welfare this winter.   Don't anticipate any excess honey this year at this rate.

June 18th,  Kevin came.  He used the smoker. The girls while never very aggressive except for the occasional guard, totally ignored us.  He shook off all the frames.  Didn't see any problems, other than still no new comb.  The bees really aren't taking any sugar water.  They had only taken about an inch.

June 24th, Peeked to see how much sugar water they had taken.  They only had about an inch left.  Maybe the holes had been plugged, and moving everything opened them up.  Talked to Lee and we decided they bees aren't taking enough sugar water.  Seems to me I've read somewhere they need nectar to produce wax.  That would explain things.  Will have to research that.  With all the sugar water they drank, they really drew out more comb.  Boy are we excited.  With only 3 frames not worked, I put on the 2nd brood box.  I pulled 2 capped frames up into it.  Lee informed me no 2nd brood box until the first is capped.  Oops.  He said to leave on.  When the brood hatches, the bees will go back down.  So I got excited and only remembered the 70% part and not the capped part.  I am new at this, after all. 

June 25th,  Peeked to check on the sugar water, very little left.  Made 1 gallon of sugar water and filled the container.   After talking to Lee (those that are taking sugar water are doing good and those that are not are like mine) and reading an email from Neil (started with 15 hives and now has nine), I guess maybe this wasn't the best year be a beginner beekeeper.  Lee said not to give up just yet on a honey crop this year.

On the other hand,  Denny, the neighbor across the street, had a bumper first crop of hay on his 5 acre lot, due to same cool wet spring that has put the bees a month behind. We bought all of it for my first set of "girls", 2 BLM wild burros, sweet Belle and problem child Sadie.  More than what they'll eat this winter.

June 26th,  Put a 2nd container of straight sugar water on, 2 qts.  The 1st container is almost half empty!  The girls were all lined up looking at me.  Read about it, but really hadn't noticed it before.  Kind of neat.  This week I've been checking them about 6:30 am, on my way to work.  I llike the early morning time, and so far they don't seem to mind.  Beats doing it in the heat of the day (it's been high 90s).

June 27th,  9:15,calm, 72°.  Steve helped with the inspection.  Bees are drawing out comb in the 2nd box, but it doesn't look they've done much more in the first.  Saw several capped cells that were starting to open.  That was exciting.  Made 1 gallon sugar water..

June 30th, 6:30am.  Container 1, 2 qts, is empty.  Refilled it.   Had the usual 1 or 2 guard bees not impressed with my visit.  The others could care less.  Is anybody working a stingless honey bee?   Went to the site hosting my website, just to verify that I'm the only one going there.  I mean who else would know it's even there.  Wrong.  400 hits last month!  From around the world!  So I googled what I thought others who ended up there might be looking for.  Nothing came up.  I don't know.  Hopefully the visitors found something not covered elsewhere, and enjoyed their vist here.

July 3, 6:45, calm, 72°.  Container 1 was empty (4 days); refilled it, 2qts.  The other is about. 

July 5, 8:30, slight breeze, 78°.  Container 2 is empty (9 days).  Checked the bees.  Not seeing much larvae.  Never have been able to identify eggs.  Moved the full frames back down to box 1, left 1 drawn frame in box 2.  

Watched the foragers coming back this aft.  That was kind of fun.  Guess I'm going to quit worrying about the bees.  Not going to check them anymore for progress.  Will just see what they are doing by looking through the top bars when we  check on their sugar water.  If they make it through the winter that will be good.  If not, we'll have drawn out  frames for next year.

July 6, 7:30, breezy, 72°.  Put on Container 2, 2qts.  C1 close to empty.

July 8,  6:00, calm, 70°.  Container 1 (5 days) was empty. Probably empty on the 7th.   Made 1 gallon sugar water.

July 10,  8:00 calm, 72°.  Put on container 1, 2qts.  C2 was empty (3 days).  That surprises me.  They prefer container 1 which is a different style.  But it does show they drink from container 2 when container 1 is not available.  Container 1 is an inverted jar.  Container 2 is the smallest pet waterer I could find then outfitted with a styrofoam bridge. No drowned bees, no leakage.  Did see ants this am below the stand.   Need to get the hose and spray off the area.   Will buy a second container 2 to replace the jar.

I did peek at a few frames.  Saw no new bees about to emerge.  Saw few larvae.  Saw no queen cells.  Looked like that they had done some work in 2nd brood box.

July 11, 8:00, calm 70°.  Put on container 2, 2qts.  C1 is at about 2 1/4.

July 16, 6:30, breezy 75°.  Container 1 was empty.  Refilled it, 2 qts.  C2 will be empty tomorrow.  Didn't see more activity than usual in Box 2. 

My little colony of bees were hanging out under the screened bottom board the other morning.  Took a picture.

July 17, 6:30, breezy, 71°.  Container 2 (7 days) was empty, refilled it, 2 qts.  C1 was down but not much.  Peering down through the frames didn't reveal new comb or activity other than the two in the middle.

July 18,  7:00, breezy, 74°.  Not much activity at C1.  Maybe the holes aren't positioned right for the bees to get at.  Bought another pet waterer to replace C1 so hole alignment isn't a problem.  Emptied C1 into the new C1. 

July 19, 4:15, breezy, 88°.   Standing a respectful distance watching the bees.  (Have nothing better to do such as laundry and house work).  There were wasps at their watering hole.  It looked like wasps were bothering the hive.  So suited in this hot weather for a closer look.  No wasps at the hive.  I guess every flying critter with legs hanging down are not wasps.  C1 will probably be out of syrup tomorrow.

July 20,  2:00 and hot.  Did thorough inspection today.  Fillled C1 (9 days), 2qts.  Beeks from the Beemaster forum looked at my pictures  Everyone said the bees are honey bound.  Apparently the bees were not taking the opportunity to build more comb with all their free syrup.  They have built comb, just not in Ithe amount I wanted or in proportion to the syrup provided.  Do have eggs and Larvae, and pictures.

Was a moth on the inside lip of the outer cover (but not inside the hive).  Had all the boxes off set for ventilation.  While there was no evidence of moth activity inside the hive, squared up all the boxes to lessen the opportunity.

July 24, 7:00, breezy, 74°.  C2  (8 days) will be out of syrup today and C1  (6 days) tomorrow.  Will pull both containers when empty. 

Aug 1, 7:00, breezy, 78°.  Removed both empty containers. Bees were very docile.  Think I have finally figured out how to keep the smoker smoking.  Have 6 frames of bees and some brood in box 1.  Box 2 has 4 frames of bees and what looks like a good population of capped brood.  Few drone cells.  Didn't shake the bees for a better look.  Moved up 2 frames of partially drawn comb from box 1 that doesn't look like they've done much with in building out more comb. Maybe they'll work it in box 2.   Going to be in the 100s for the next few days.

Aug 16,  8:00, calm, 72°.  To whoever took my calm bees and replaced them with the ones that are here now, Please return my girls!   Normally only one bee follows me from the hive for about 20 feet.  Today several chased me for more than 100 feet.  Didn't smoke them.  Never been necesary before.  The weather has been good.  Never have taken any of their honey.  Don't know what their problem was.  I guess we all have off days.  Hopefully we will get along better next time.

Saw several baby bees emerge.  There were 3 half emerged bees in adjacent vertical cells trying to get out.  Several cells to the right of them were not built out.  These bees struggled and struggled trying to get out but never did.  Others were popping right out.  So I took a twig and helped all three out.  Damaged the cells but the bees were free.  One had a damaged right hind leg.  If I did it (and I probably did, so sorry little bee), but I don't think you would have made it out on your own.  You struggled for so long getting nowhere.  

If you help a butterfly out of its cocoon, it will not never be strong enough to fly.   It needs the struggle of getting out to develop the flight muscles.   That is why I waited and watched as long as I did to help the 3 bees.  They made no progress in getting free.  If they are not ever able to fly, at least they didn't starve to death in their cells, and should be able to carry out duties in the hive.

Aug 23,  The Utah County Bee Association had their  annual barbeque last night.  Tons of people and food.  Steve did some of the cooking.  The grease from the lamb chops caught on fire, so there was a little excitement there. After dinner there was a hands on demonstration removing the honey super to extracting the honey.  The beek used Bee Gone.  It cleared the super and the one below it in no time.  Only a half dozen bees made it into the extraction room.  After being showed how to decap the frames, all those who wanted to try decapping gave it a try.  Then the frames were put into the extractor and spun.

An auction was held and enough money taken in to sponsor 10 young beekeepers next year.  Applicants to the Youth Program write an essay about bees and those whose essays are chosen are given a complete hive with bees.  They are required to attend meetings.  This past spring 14 youths were given hives.

Aug 29,  Calm and getting hotter.  Visited the bees today.  Mostly wanted to give them syrup (1.5:1) in hopes of drawing out more comb.  Put both containers on, about 8 qts.  Washed some gravel to put in the bottom of them, hopefully to have zero drowning of bees.  Also gave them a pollen patty.  Had one bee check that out immediately.  They no longer looked honey bound.  Good brood pattern.   Should've taken my camera out with me.  Looked liked they might have drawn out a bit more comb.  Reversed the outer filled frames with undrawn ones.   After the last visit with no smoke,  we definitely smoked today.  We all had a much better experience.

Sept 1, 5 pm, breezy, 62°.  Wanted to check the syrup this morning, but had our first major rain storm of the fall.  Rained most of the morning.  Both containers totally empty.  Put a gallon on.  Doctored the syrup with apple cider vinegar (nosema treatment) and lemongrass oil. They've been nibbling at the pollen patty.

Had our annual Labor Day pig roast (spitted) yesterday.  Did it on Sunday rather than today for out of towners.  Good thing.  While yesterday was cool and breezy, the rain didn't start until we were eating.  The weather kept everyone ( about 50) inside rather than outside on the patio.  As usual, the pig and food was delicious, and the visiting good.

Must tell you about poor Wilbur.  We've been having this annual pig roast for about 5 years now.  A couple years ago, we had some friends from Albuquerque come up for it.  We were sitting on the couch visiting and I thought I better call the butcher to verify our pig was ready.  After all, it was Friday afternoon of Labor Day weekend.  So any way, we're sitting on the couch and the others could tell from my side of the conversation, that there was a problem.  (The butcher had lost our order and the lady on the other end of the phone didn't know if they had one).   My friend Debbie said, " something's wrong, it must be a 3 legged pig."  Well about the moment the lady comes back on the line and tells me all they have is a 3 legged pig.  I just burst out laughing, I'm sure she thought I was crazy, but I managed to tell her we would take it (what choice did we have).  Have you ever tried to spit a 3 legged headless pig and keep it balanced on the spit?  It doesn't work well.  Any, we named him Wilbur (the only one named to date) after the pig in "Charlotte'sWeb" (how sick are we), and we still chuckle about it.

Hydroseeded our new lawn last Friday, the 29th.  Grass was poking its little spears through by Wednesday night.  The whole yard has a green tinge to it now.  The rain will really help the cause.   Have a pretty steep slope at one end.  Was concerned about erosion from the runoff, but there was none.  I'm sure the mulch helped with that.

Sept 5,  Finally was able to check the syrup.  It was empty.  Only had enough sugar to make   1 qt. of syrup.  Couldn't do it sooner as the brother-in-law had schedualed a repeat performance with some wasps in his yard.  He had been out mowing and apparently disturbed their nest.  Wasps 5, Larry 0.  He borrowed our bee suit, veil, and gloves.  Next round Larry 100, wasps 0.  They had nested in a rotted railroad tie, and the nest was huge.

The State Fair is going on in SLC.  The association has a booth with an observation hive set up, manned by members of the association.  Our stint was today.  It was fun talking to people.  Several were interested in becoming beekeepers.  Never have had much luck in spotting my queen.  Was able to find the queen sometimes in the observation hive.  Steve got really good at finding her.  She stayed on just one frame, moving from one side to the other.   Watched bees hauling dead ones around.  Some were moving them up, don't know why.  

Afterwards we wandered the fair and pigged out on fair food.  Some was good, some not.  Steve had a couple of glasses of beer.  Said it was not as good as his home brew (duh).  We moved his kegarator back into the basement; it had been out in the garage so it was handy for those who were roasting the pig (spit turners and observers).  It holds two 5 gallon kegs.  Must have been good as the kegs were mostly empty.  Surprising, considering this is Utah, and alcohol consumption is frowned upon.  Guess we were about evenly divided between beer drinkers and non drinkers.

Sept 6, noon, breezy, 68°.  The feeder was empty.  Gave them a gallon of syrup doctored with apple cider vinegar, lemon grass and spearmint oils.  They got right on it.  Looks like they might have drawn out some more wax.  Definitely more capped honey. 

Looking out over the new lawn.  Seems so strange to see green, it's been dirt for 5 years.  (We live in the county, no rules on such things).   I'm sure the neighbors across the street are a whole lot happier.   Our little sudivision has twenty 5 acre lots.  We were the third to buy (though not to build) and the 19th to get their lawn in.  The 20th doesn't count cuz they just built last fall.  In our defense, we did plant 2 acres of pasture right off along with 20 trees at the back of the lot.  So we're down to about 2 acres of pasture left to plant, which won't happen until the underground sprinkler system for it is in.  Hopefully next year (one can always hope).

Was walking near the apiary so thought I'd check in on the girls.  Iv'e never seen so many bees flying.  Looked to see if robbing was going on.  Didn't see anything that looked like fighting to me.  Must finally had a good crop of bees.  The amount of bees flying is what I would think a strong hive would look like.   Maybe things are looking up.  Just so they don't get honey bound again.

Sept 11, 3:00, mostly calm, 76°.  It's now dark when I go to work, so no more morning visits.  It's rained the last two afternoons so haven't been able to check the syrup.  Knew it would be empty; it was.  Had a qt. made up so put that on.  The bees got right to it.  Everybody was pretty calm.  There were lots of bees crawling around on top of the frames and in between them.  After I got the hive closed back up went to the front and watched.  Saw several foragers come in loaded with pollen, saw at least two bees get balled and thrown off the front porch, and saw a dead bee being removed.

Sept 12, 8:00, calm, 60°.   Put a gallon of 1.5 syrup on.  Forgot to doctor it.  A 9th grader came and harvested some bees for his science project.  Going to dissect them to look for tracheal mites. Be interesting to see his results.  His dad was long to help.  Said we have very calm bees.  I hear t. mites are not a problem here.  That won't last with commercial guys moving their bees all over the country, and package bees coming from who knows where.  Foragers still bringing in pollen.

Sept 14, 12:00, calm, 62°.   Put 1 gallon of doctored 1.5 syrup on, along with a pollen patty.  Hopefully they'll eat it before it cooks.   There was about an inch of syrup left in one container.  Moved all (2) frames of brood down into box one, for a total of 3 frames of brood.  Put on the entrance reducer.  Boxes are heavy.  Maybe they'll be able to store enough to get through winter.   Hopefully it'll be enough.   Bees coming in with pollen.

Sept 16, 5:30, calm, 78°.  Both containers all but empty.  Pulled one, put on 2 qts of already made.   Don't look like they care much about the pollen patty.  No bees on it.

Sept 19, 1:00, calm, 72°.  A few bees on the pollen patty.  Was reading on beemaster.com pollen substitute really isn't that good for the bees.  Umm.  Both containers empty of course.  Put on 1 gallon of doctored 2:1 syrup.  A few dead bees in both reservoirs.  Didn't have that problem when the syrup was 1:1.  So why would thicker syrup be a problem?  Of course it might not be the syrup.   Think when I pull the containers for the winter, I'll add more gravel in the spring.

Sept 21, 2:00, slight breeze, 74°.  Beautiful day.  The other 360 days of the year should be just like it.  I know there are 365 days in a year, but you need a few not so nice ones so you appreciate the good ones.  There's two hummingbirds still around.  Every day I think they'll be gone, but here he still is.  Mowed the  lawn for the first time yesterday.

Checked the bees.  One container is about gone.  Probably will be tomorrow.  The other will probably be empty the day after.   Rescued one bee out of the first container,  and fished a drowned one out of the other.   The one container had chains of bees from the top of the reservior down to the gravel, providing a bridge for the bees to the sugar water.  Many bees involved.  Very interesting.  I'll have to take my camera with me next time.   The other container just had individual bees standing on the lip of the reservior drinking. 

Sept 23, 4:30, nice, 68°.  Both containers empty as expected.  Put on 2 qts.  Need to make more.

Sept 26, 11:00, beautiful day, 72°.  The girls have only taken 1.5 qts.  Put on another 2 qts. Forgot to doctor it.   Doesn't seem to have the bees in the feeding area that were there recently. It's back to what it was a couple weeks ago.  Maybe I was feeding my neighbor's bees also.  Though there was no fighting going on.   5:3 syrup seems to dehydrate  on the rocks.  Guess the pet feeder plan won't work with syrup other than 1:1.   Maybe I'll just give them a bit of water next time to dissolve the sugar again.  Hopefully that won't create a dyhydration problem for the bees at this time of year.  Haven't seen the hummers since the 21st.

Oct 5, 1:30, cool, calm, partially sunny, 55 °.  Friday was cool and overcast. Drizzled all day Saturday.  This morning was still cold and overcast.  This afternoon the clouds have broken up with the sun coming through.

There were a few bees flying.  Aside from one bee I was ignored.  Knew the bees would be out syrup and they were. Had 1 qt. mixed so put that on.  Also gave them a pollen patty with lemon grass oil on top so hopefully they will find it better.  Maybe it won't cook with the cooler weather.  Also gave them some powder pollen mix with  a couple of drops of lemon grass oil.  Bees were checking out both.  Dug two dead bees out of one container and 3 or 4 out of the other.  I guess the mortality rate could be worse.  Hate having them die, especially in the food supply.  Wonder if them dying in the syrup will spread nosema if they have it.

Oct 8, 3:30,   Winter is coming in a few days according to the weatherman with it starting the downhill slide tomorrow.   Went out to downsize the hive.  Left 6 frames in the bottom super and 7 in the top.  Looked like there was still some brood.  Saw a couple of bees will pollen.  Cut 2 pieces of masonite to make false walls in the hive. Also put in styrofoam in to take up space and insulate.  Syrup was gone.  Will make some more.   Bees on top of the frames are more numerous. 

Oct 9,  5:00 cool, breezy, 62°.  One bee flying.  Put 1.5 qts on.  The bees got right on it.

Oct 17, 6:00 beautiful day.   Winter came and went.  Too bad it can't stay away.  Manned the association bee booth at the local farm fest this afternoon.   Enjoyable.  Made up 2 qts. of 2:1 syrup for the bees.  They still had about a cup left so will check again.  Bees were flying and enjoying the better weather.  Mowed the lawn today.  It needed it so badly, but that should be it for the rest of the year.  Cow enjoyed the lawn clippings.  The burros would too, but they can't have them.

Oct 19, 3:00, 72 °.  Bees out of syrup. Put on 2 qts, doctored.  Bees were flying.  Saw 3 wasps under the hive the bees were harrassing, but not badly.  I managed to moosch one on the side of the hive.  A lot of bees on the the bottom board, but no fighting going on, though all landing bees were checked.  Saw a couple of bees rolling under the hive.   Apparently the neighbor's bees were over, looking for a hand out. 

Nov 1, 3:00, 50°.  Woke up to wet streets and wind.  Looks like our Indian summer is over.  Finally got a break in both, plus a little sun at 110:00 (60°).  Went out to put the bees to bed for the year.  Good thing we went out then as the weather has been raining ever since. 

Syrup was gone.  If I've counted correctly (math is not my subject) they consumed 26 gallons of syprup. (Next year will have to keep track of how many lbs. of sugar we use).  There was a handful of bees on top of the frames.  A few bees came flying, along with one that was in my face, but they didn't fly for very long.  Saw several wasps, with some coming out through the mouse guard on the front entrance.  Murdered as many of those nasty things as possible.  Hopefully they are not doing too much damage inside.  Saw one bee on patrol on the inside of the mouse guard walking back and forth. 

Put sheet of newspaper on top of the frames and covered it with 3 lbs. of sugar.  Also put on some dry pollen substitute (about 1/4 cup) for just in case.  They haven't really eaten it up to now, but who knows, maybe the winter bees will like it better than the summer bees.  Doused both liberally with lemon grass and spearmint oils so they might find it better.  Then covered them with the inner cover, cut with an upper entrance.  A 2" thick piece if foam went on top of that, with the outer cover topping it all off.   Now only the front and back are not insulated; however the back is 2' off a wall. That just leaves the front (facing east) unprotected from the wind and we don't get much weather from that direction.   Girls, you are on your own.  See you in the Spring!