Beekeeping

[Rick]

Yeah, I asked my friend at work tonight and he gave me a look that pretty much reflected what you said in words. He did say he sees dead drones, but his other question was effectively, "even if there were a bunch of dead ones in there, how are you going to get them out?". I suspect he has a protective suit but doesn't want to unnecessarily disturb his bees. He also runs a pretty big organic farm and runs a booth at a farmer's market.

I used to have a contact who was a biology teacher. He had a neat set up in his classroom. Clear plastic tubes let the bees go through the wall to the outdoors. He always had a pile of dead bees for me, but I guess they must have just been accumulation over months, rather than the die-off I had suspected. So, where do all the bees go in the winter (naturally...i.e. wild bees)? I see queen ants and yellowjackets and bumble bee queens in the spring, each year. I figured queens overwintered and honey bee queens would too. So, does that mean that honey bees in human-built hives have a more stable (non-seasonal) life cycle, or is this one of those situations where all the workers are females under the control of the queen and mostly stick around as long as she's around?

I get dead bees, especially after heavy rains. The other bees remove them from the hive. Drones are kicked out at the end of summer to die since they do no work in the hive. With the exception of the drones, honeybees remain alive inside the hive all winter by eating their stored honey. Our climate here is pretty mild so it is not unusual to see the bees foraging in the middle of winter. 40 degrees F seems to be about the minimum temperature for the bees to be active. They cluster within the hive during cold weather and create heat.

 

[ScienceGirl]

Sorry I haven't posted. Mantids have all been released and school keeps me very busy. Hope you, your bees, and your mantids are all doing well.

I am lol, it keeps me awake on my overnights at the hospital (mainly lol).

Honey bees require fairly low maintenance. They care for themselves. Beekeepers mainly just have to collect honey, monitor the hives and prevent problems from occurring (disease, colony collapse due to loss of queen, etc).

If you're interested in beekeeping, you're on the right track! I read A TON of books before I got my hives. See if you can maybe accompany a local beekeeper on their next visit to the bee yard. Also, if you're planning on starting up hives in the spring, you should plan on placing your order for your bees and equipment the fall or winter before so that you can assemble equipment.

If anybody has a pile of (dead) bees in decent condition from seasonal die-off, I'd be interested in chatting with you.

I've got a local friend with a few hives so I'll have to hit him up too. He gave me my first jar of honey with actual honeycomb in it a few years back. I'd never actually seen honeycomb up until that point so it was an experience to see...and eat! I mixed some into my oatmeal with blueberries and bananas for ~breakfast yesterday.

Yeah, I asked my friend at work tonight and he gave me a look that pretty much reflected what you said in words. He did say he sees dead drones, but his other question was effectively, "even if there were a bunch of dead ones in there, how are you going to get them out?". I suspect he has a protective suit but doesn't want to unnecessarily disturb his bees. He also runs a pretty big organic farm and runs a booth at a farmer's market.

I used to have a contact who was a biology teacher. He had a neat set up in his classroom. Clear plastic tubes let the bees go through the wall to the outdoors. He always had a pile of dead bees for me, but I guess they must have just been accumulation over months, rather than the die-off I had suspected. So, where do all the bees go in the winter (naturally...i.e. wild bees)? I see queen ants and yellowjackets and bumble bee queens in the spring, each year. I figured queens overwintered and honey bee queens would too. So, does that mean that honey bees in human-built hives have a more stable (non-seasonal) life cycle, or is this one of those situations where all the workers are females under the control of the queen and mostly stick around as long as she's around?

What do you do with the dead bees?

In the winter, honey bees stay in their hive. They form a cluster, with the queen in the middle, and take turns being on the outside and being in the inside of the cluster. They'll flex muscles that are similar to pectoralis major (pecs) in humans. This creates heat that will warm the area that they're in - not the whole hive. Throughout the winter, they'll continue moving upwards and uncapping and eating the honey that they've stored.

 

[devetaki9]

Sounds good sciencegirl, thank you for the input, I will locate a local bee keeper and see if I can apprentice with them this spring. Gonna start ordering some gear, I know Rick mentioned kits were just fine to start with

 

[Rick]

Just tucked the bees in for the winter. We're finally getting a cold enough night this week. Of course later next week back into the 70's. This involved installing the bottom board and the mouse guard.

 

[Rick]

Lost an entire hive!

 

[sally]

Oh no...What happened?

 

[Rick]

Oh no...What happened?

Hard to say really. I went out last Friday to change the syrup jar and noticed there were only a couple bees around despite it being 55 degrees. I tapped on the hive and was met with silence. Finding this odd I opened it up even though I had to leave in a few minutes. No bees inside. I noticed some yellow jackets just causally walking into the hive. So I sealed the opening to protect any honey.

Next day I took it all apart. There were some dead bees but not that many so I think they just left. They didn't starve because I extracted a gallon and a half of honey that day which is more than they need around here for the winter. There was some evidence of American foulbrood so I sent some brood samples off to the USDA. They do free tests in case you didn't know.

I also did a mite count and the mite load was very high. I believe the varroa got them this time of year which isn't uncommon. Even though this hive was nearly four years old and never had a problem for whatever reason it took them down this fall. Sad because I had a lot of bees just days before this. I'll be getting a new hive this spring.

 

[sally]

Sorry you lost the hive.

 

[jamurfjr]

Sorry, Rick.

 

[Rick]

Got my results back from the USDA bee lab. No evidence of AFB but they detected Varroa which I already knew. Somewhat good news.

 

[ScienceGirl]

Got my results back from the USDA bee lab. No evidence of AFB but they detected Varroa which I already knew. Somewhat good news.

That's very interesting. I knew that you could send in samples, but I didn't know it was free. There're also state inspectors, but I'm not sure about whether there are charges for those...

Both hives are doing well here. I thought I was going to lose one because the bee count was low last time I inspected, but there were more bees flying out of that one today than the other hive. Since Thanksgiving, the weather has cooperated enough twice to allow the girls out for their cleansing flights. They went out today and Friday. Everyone seems to be doing well.

The weirdest part about going into fall was not seeing all the hive activity out the kitchen window. Being able to listen to the side of the hive and hearing their buzzing was so reassuring. I had been pretty worried about whether they'd winter over well or not.

We also had a 50 mph windstorm yesterday, but it didn't knock the hives over (thank goodness).

 

[ScienceGirl]

Thought I'd share a bit of my favorite pieces of honey bee poetry and quotes... ^_^

“Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don't they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers.”

― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine

“I like pulling on a baggy bee suit, forgetting myself and getting as close to the bees' lives as they will let me, remembering in the process that there is more to life than the merely human.”

― Sue Hubbell, A Book of Bees: And How to Keep Them

“The bee is domesticated but not tamed.”
― William Longgood

“Unrealistic? I think not, that bee was about to murder me.”
― Devyn Dawson, The Light Tamer

^though it wasn't a pretty piece of poetry, that one made me laugh

 

[ScienceGirl]

56 f and sunny today. This is the third day this winter that's been warm enough (lower than about 48 is where mine draw the line) to permit cleansing flights and water and pollen gathering. There were definitely very happy girls flying about.

I'm not sure what plant they're harvesting from, but they're bringing home green pollen. They seemed to be much preferring the water in my dormant flytrap's dish on the deck to any other avaliable source.

Still have 2/2 hives. Super happy about that since the "trouble hive" appears to be problem free right now.

 

[ScienceGirl]

Drones and dandelions, oh my!

 

[jamurfjr]

This spring, both of our original hives swarmed. We were able to capture two swarms, bringing us up to four hives. The bees have been testy(fluctuating weather, I think), so I've gotten my share of stings. How is everyone else doing with their bees?