Or, An Adventure of Queenly Proportions 

Alright, enough with the funny stuff! Determining that Hive #1 (as you may recall, the only surviving hive) was indeed queen-less, and that the population was rapidly declining, I started hunting for a queen. 

For starters, when Daddy called the folks we buy our honey from, he inquired into the possibility of acquiring a queen from them (apparently, they do sell queens when they have them). No go.

With that option closed, I immediately went to the websites of two bee-supplier/supply shops within driving distance--one north, one south. I heard back from the northern most one first--no queens. I was a little disappointed, even though I did not really like them much the first time I had dealings with them--not that there is probably anything wrong with them, I just didn't "like" them, if that makes any sense. It was very odd since I don't normally have that reaction to people unless given a reason to dislike them. However, moving on.

I had, two years ago, attempted to buy a nuc from the second of these two companies--but since I got around to "putting myself on the list" too late I was unable to buy from them. So, knowing about them, I shot an email off and soon a reply came back: "I have two queens". YES!! (And ten bucks cheaper than the other place!)

The long and the short of it is, I made an appointment to go pick Her Majesty up at 2:30 this afternoon. Daddy and I left here at about 1:30 and due to a hang up at the gas-station we really left town at closer to 1:45. From there, we took another accidental fifteen to thirty minute detour due to "new roads" and a consequential wrong choice on the freeway. Oh...AND the wind. Horrendous straight winds of gale proportions requiring a slowing of driving speed.

At anyrate, we reached the place (in a beautiful residential neighborhood), and in under five minutes, I handed over $30 and walked away with a queen cage tucked inside Daddy's jacket to keep the wind off her ladyship and her maids on the short walk back to the car. (He had her because I had to dig my wallet out.)

The ride home was uneventful except for a pit stop at a gas-station where it was amusing to watch people nearly blown off their feet. I think Daddy drove about 45 all the way home.

It was snowing when we arrived, so I waited until the sun popped out again (it's been doing this on and off all days--sun--rain/snow/sleet--sun--repeat). Then I grabbed my hive tool, wrenched the cork out of the candy end of the queen cage, hurried out, pried up the hive body (in order to break the propolis free so I could slide the entrance reducer out), slid the queen cage in, put the entrance reducer back in and ran back inside. 

I cannot remember if I have explained the re-queening process on here or not, but the basic idea is that you put the queen cage in, still closed up basically, and let the bees eat through the candy stopping up one end of the little box--thus giving both sides the time to acclimate to each other. I imagine my girls will be so happy to have royalty amongst them that they will eat her out rather rapidly (hopefully the cold will not hinder the process). However, if she is not out by tomorrow afternoon when I get home from church, I will go ahead and pry the wire off and let her out. I need babies fast.

It got practically 70 degrees today and with prompting from my dad to feed the bees, I decided to open the hives. 

Hive #1 is doing fine apparently. They even still have some capped honey. Regardless, I put a little more honey out.

Hive #2 on the other hand is, well, dead.

ALL those bees are dead.

I raked them off into the garden and Daddy helped me strip the comb off. We're going to melt the majority of it (some of it was kind of spoiled) down--there are all kinds of use for beeswax, so it's not a complete waste.

While I cannot say that I'm happy about this, I find that I am strangely calm about it all. Maybe because I don't feel so well--and I still have ONE hive going!!

After a month of no updates here on The Bee Project, I have a report.

First off, last week when I checked my bees, the decline in the population of Hive #2 was noticeable. I suffered a few moments of anxiety before shoving it to the back of my mind, trusting the Lord that IF I were going to have a queen hatch from that frame of brood that I put into the hive from Hive #1 on the 4th of August, that I'd find the evidence in good time.

Well, today was "in good time". First I saw the larvae. Then I saw--THE QUEEN!!!!!!!

I think I hollered. You'd have to ask my parents who were clear across the yard.

This queen is rather black-ish. She's the darkest one I've seen yet out of the half a dozen I have seen. ;) 

If that wasn't enough of an exciting day in the hives, I actually saw the queen in Hive #1 too!! She's nearly an inch long at this point. Once I see queens, I wonder why I ever got a worker bee mixed up with a queen. :D It's a very obvious difference. 

Anyway, good news today. :)

In checking my bees this morning, for the first time since their transfer into the hive bodies, I discovered that the queen from Hive #2 (which, ironically, is the one I check first) was on the bottom board, DEAD. 

WAH!

Well, anyway, while it is frustrating since I've only had her for five weeks (if one counts today). I think she must have just died (I DID NOT mash her; see picture below for proof) because the carcass was still soft--and you know that insects get a little crisp after being dead for a few days.

I am going to see if the bees will raise their own queen. I'd rather save the $40 if at all possible; but I also want to see how and if they will (which is the natural thing for them to do). I saw no supercedure cell, but if she just died, that may not be exactly surprising yet. So long as they catch a larvae at just the right stage (3-4 days), there shouldn't be any problem.... (I'd cross my fingers if that ridiculous superstition was any good.)

I didn't really take over much stock on how many, if any, eggs were in the hive because at that point I did not realize the queen was dead. I saw her as I was fixing to put the eighth frame back in and close up. So, hopefully, the bees will have enough selection to pick a larvae of just the right age to raise up...

Anyway, in Hive #2 here's an interesting thing to note:

The frame on the right is foundationless. It has been in there for one week and already is pretty near full of comb--which is in turn pretty well full of honey. The frame on the left has the plastic foundation in it. That is the one that I took out to put my experimental foundationless frame in. When I put the bees into the hive body last Monday, I reinserted it into the hive. At the time I initially took it out, it had just a few cells drawn. Once again, as you can see, the bee took to the foundationless with a vengeance and practically ignored the foundation.

So, other than lacking a queen, Hive #2 appears to be doing buzzingly.

Hive #1, like #2, had seen no work done in the super (I forgot to mention that above)...so I went straight into the hive body. I just about had a panic attack (okay, so that is hyperbole), when I noticed a mashed bee on the rim of the hive body. I thought it was the queen! (Obviously, I rather had queens on the mind.) The more I got to looking at it, and comparing it to the workers, I decided that it was not (even though I never did see Queenie). This hive of bees has less 'hair' on their thoraxes anyway, so it's a little easier to confuse them. (Queens have had bald thorax.) 

Not all the frames were filled, but all but one had some noticeable amount of comb drawn on them. 

I saw brood: eggs, open brood, and capped...we even spotted one bee hatching! I literally watched her exit her cell! Daddy tried to get a picture...but she didn't show up...

And just for humour...that is a rather typical Racheal-squinting-at-frames expression. :D

When I closed up, I left behind me two hunks of comb, both with honey, laid against the side of the hive. When I rip it out like that, I leave the comb so that the bees can salvage the honey. I'll bring the wax in and add it to the collection in a day or so.

So, I think, other than my mysteriously dead queen (second one, two different hives, one year), that my hives are doing alright...UNLESS Hive #2 is sick....they were a bit more docile today. Oh dear. I wish I hadn't thought of that...I'll be a little more vigilant on my daily "peeks" at (not in) the hive and see if they seem lethargic or anything...

So my Georgian girls got to move into their new home this morning!

And there you have it! Both my colonies are now in bigger homes. It's exciting!!

Hive #2 (or the S-bees) moved this morning.Or rather, the colony got moved...

And now we have some nasty weather coming through...got to scram!

P.S. Last week's bee-stings are itching like crazy!!

Last week, I got a phone call from Mr. S. In the course of our bee-related conversation, he mentioned that he had talked to his mentor about my decision to stay foundationless. The nuc he had given me was started entirely on foundation, so he was asking the question of his mentor whether or not the bees would take to foundationless. The answer was iffy--on the negative side. So, I decided that I would just give it a try and if they didn't seem to take to it that I would go ahead and buy some foundation. Therefore, last Tuesday, I inserted an empty frame into the hive.

This is the result, one week later:

I confess that I did not expect THAT much comb in the scope of one week. I felt rather cocky and sure of myself that they would take to it (for whatever reason), but I didn't expect to pull out a frame that was almost entirely filled. It humbles me, actually.

I also got actually stung--twice. I had a "half-sting" about three weeks ago, but these were real, full-blown stings. (I went out without long-sleeves and veil, but fixed that after getting stung.) The one on my left arm quit hurting after not very long, but the one on the back of my right hand is still bothering me.

My Georgians were a little more buzzy than usual. I suspect it was because they could sense the storm that was coming in. Anyway, I have five frames of brood in that nuc. I need to get them out soon--I will plan on that for my next hive check--moving them into the full-sized hive body. Same, I think with the S-bees. 

Speaking of hive bodies and such, I got my new supplies yesterday. I got four or six more medium supers (I forget exactly), another hive body--along with the hive stand, bottom board, inner cover and outer cover, and of course, the necessary frames. I have quite a bit of assembly work to do; I intend on starting on that shortly after lunch. I'm already fairly well set up in the garage to do so, I just have to get started. 

I think I may need to supplement a little with some honey/sugar water since it's been so rainy and nothing much is in bloom...

I was surprised this morning to see Mr. S (see my last post) pull into the driveway. I was occupied at that point in time in seriously setting up for my Director's Interview (which I did manage to squeeze in this morning), but I trotted out to greet him and was invited to go along as Mr. and Mrs. S went through their hives this afternoon! The long and the short of that was an enthusiastic yes! Even if perhaps I didn't seem all that excited...I really was.

After scarfing down a delicious lunch that Katherine threw together (I really could have been more helpful, I suppose), I headed off the few miles to their house. I arrived, got introduced to the Mrs...who pleasantly surprised me by doing something rather more characteristically Southern--she gave me a hug! As the afternoon wore on, I discovered that she is a rather enthusiastic soul who really enjoys raising bees and sharing what she knows about them. 

I rode along with them in the back seat of their pick-up; veiling up at each stop since I didn't want to seem too much of the dare-devil by going veil-less, even though I really was having trouble observing as closely as I would have liked. 

We stopped at five different locations. The first hive I mainly just stood back and peered over Mr. S's arm when he was showing me the brood comb--larva and eggs! Now I know what the eggs look like--only I wonder if I will be capable of seeing them in my cells as they do not have that black plastic backing (I forget the exact name for it). They told me that that hive had essentially gone gang-busters last year and the opted against splitting it--and the colony basically died out over the winter; so that hive was, in a way, just getting back on it's feet. Maybe that was the hive that they had put a package of Florida bees in...I think it was.

The second location, the homeowner (the local middle school principal!) suited up and peered over Mr. S's arm as I actually touched this hive. It had swarmed a couple weeks ago and they were primarily looking to see if one of the new queens raised up by the bees had started laying. For all we could see, not yet.

The third location had three hives total--one of which was located deeper on the property than the first two. I helped Mrs. S in the first two hives while Mr. S drilled round 1"-2" holes in the top of the inner covers (I'll come back to that in a bit). Propolis is really very sticky (bee glue, anyone?)... Anyway, I got to use my hive tool (I brought my own along, which they approved of) and pull a few frames. Both those hives were doing nicely. The second of the first two held bees from Georgia (like mine!) and were probably the most gentle of all the hives we got into. [None of us got stung and apparently even the more ornery ones behaved nicely today.] 

The third hive at that location, set more in the shade, holds what are, they told me, their most vicious bees. I am grateful that they behaved themselves, but I did stand ready, if necessary (whether or not it looked like it as I was attempting to peer into the hive) to start my quick trek to the truck!

The fourth location was right there on Jo's property (Jo is a lady I know from the Farmer's Market)--I didn't know that at first, but I figured it out and asked by the time we were done there. Once again, I got to help a little and those bees, also more normally irritable, were gentle. I think they had requeened that one...or the bees had requeened themselves. Other than that it was the third hive at the previous location. I forget.

The fifth location (after a brief bathroom stop at their house and a new battery for Mr. S's drill), had two hives on it. The first of those was rather weak and they decided to put a feeder on it. 

The second one--oh...my...goodness. BEES. This one was exploding. I was told that they have already split this hive once this year and have already taken one or two honey supers off it--and there are two more ready to come off.

Anyway, as we are poking through the hive, looking at the brood...brood...brood...Mr. S asks me if I think I could a afford a second queen. Well...because if so...he wanted to give me a couple frames of brood!! 

WHAT? Seriously??

I hemmed a little, I guess partly because I didn't want to seem greedy--but FREE BEES!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!! ("Sounds like an agreeable proposition...")

Obviously not, because I now have another nuc sitting in the side yard with two frames of capped brood and a frame of capped honey in it. The nuc hive box I will return when I move them out, but until then, it's on loan. (I need to do some shopping around and find the best pricing on more hive bodies, supers, frame, etc.)

Gee...I tell you what, I want to be those kind of people. So gracious and giving. "Here kid, have some more bees. We want to support you in your enthusiasm and desire to beekeep." Wow.

Anyway, things I learned today:

• Beekeepers cannot be overly uneasy about smushing bees. 
  
• The difference between worker brood and drone brood. Drone brood looks more like popcorn.
• I kind of already knew what queen cells looked like, but I saw quite a few in the second hive. There is also something called a queen cup; I guess they keep one or two hanging around in case their queen dies so they can immediately move a larva in? I'm not sure. I reckon I should have asked a few more questions regarding that. (I was probably busy hauling my veil out of my face.)
• Once the bees cap the honey, they are done with that until they start eating it. In other words, they don't build a second layer over the top of it. For whatever reason, I thought perhaps they did. 
• Different breeds of bees really do look different. I am afraid I haven't the slightest notion as to which breed(s) I now possess, but that the bees from Georgia are a smaller, lighter colored bee than the ones the S's gave me. Mrs. S was telling me about some that they got from Louisiana that were even lighter colored yet! 
• Propolis will stick your gloves and hive tool together. Just so you know. That stuff is gooey.
• Mr. S was drilling holes in his inner covers in order to ventilate the hive better. I hadn't heard of that or of the propping of the telescoping cover, but it makes sense. I just wonder if he is going to buy new inner covers for winter or stick the hunks of wood he drilled out back into them? Maybe I'll ask later on.

I had a grand ol' time all in all this afternoon. I thoroughly appreciate their willingness to help me out, to show me what they know, to let me get a little hands on experience...and the little compliment that I heard drop when Mrs. S was talking to Mama when we brought the new nuc over. I guess I was a little calmer around the bees than perhaps she was expecting. :)

I only had any worry of being stung once--and that was at that last, exploding, hive. I got a bee in my glove. But she soon trotted out back into the sunshine. I do not imagine the inside of my glove would be a place a nectar eating insect would like to stay very long in. There were a few jokes about not letting the bees up one's pant legs...I get the impression it happened last time they went through hives...it sounds like the ol' fire-ant reaction. 

I had a really good time and I really, really, really appreciate my new bees!! 

I had barely gotten started in my race to get a little mowing in before the weather hit, when I glanced over my shoulder to see a Ford pick-up slowing down with it's blinker on as it neared our driveway. Curious as to whom this strange vehicle belonged, I crawled off the mower and went to meet the overalled gent who exited said truck.

Mr. S introduced himself, and because I was slightly startled by an unexpected visitor, I forget his first name. Anyway, in the course of conversation, I discovered that he is our tenant's right-hand man's father! Anyway, the first thing that he said upon stepping out of the truck was, "You must be the bee-keeper extraordinaire."

Um...not really...but before he told me, I had put two and two together and figured that our most wonderful mail lady had told him about me, just as she had told Mama about the several other local folks with bees.

Anyway, I showed him my hive and I won't do more than mention the fact that a hunk of comb heavy with honey fell off while he was inspecting a frame...so I'm now draining out some really nicely flavored "golden honey". (I wasn't really upset, after all, I've done it myself already!) My attempt at tying it back onto the frame was rather futile and only resulted in me getting my first sting. (Or half a sting. I barely felt it. Apparently I am not allergic to bee-stings either. I can assure Grandpa of that now.) Mr. S managed to get stung twice, poor man, but I think he'll survive. :) After all, he's been bee-keeping for several years and has over a dozen hives. 

BUT...to my great joy, he was able to assure me that I do have brood--and I could see the larvae in the cells!!! I'm not quite sure I could tell the eggs. That was the frame the queen tumbled off of on Tuesday. I'm so excited!! (I must sound like a nut...)

So...there's my update. Since I have been in them twice now this week, maybe I'll skip next week's check up and let them alone for a bit before looking in on them again.

Mr. S also invited me to go along to the next Bee Club meeting that he's a member of...and if I'm interested in "going through some hives" to drop in. I know where he lives now...so perhaps...

I still cannot determine whether or not I have brood. I did however spot the queen today!
More than that, she took a tumble off the frame I was observing to land at my feet! I sure am glad I double checked that particular insect. I scooped her up on my hive tool and put her back on the frame. Immediately she was surrounded and went about taking the 'homage' of the workers. I was hoping that I might see her lay an egg, but she seemed more pre-occupied with something else at the moment. 

The amount of comb still grows in the hive and several of the frames are getting rather heavy with honey, even though they are not quite half filled in with comb. The last couple of times I have gotten into the hive, I have had to damage a little of the comb in order to lift out the frames, leaving honey dripping down it. The bees gather round and get to work on it even while I'm still holding the frame. It's really kind of neat.

Today I went into the hive with only gloves on for extra protection; my shirt was sleeveless--and I might have had a bee walking up the back of my arm, but I couldn't really tell; it might have just been one of those little gnats that get on sweaty people. Either way, I just held still and pretended like it didn't tickle. I'm thankful that, so far, the bees seem to be really docile and know that I don't intend on hurting them. 

Hopefully I can say for sure soon whether or not I have any brood...