June 24: Supering the Super Russians

At about 6:30 pm tonight (in the 70s), I inspected both hives.

Italians
I saw lots of Italian eggs. Yeah! They have drawn out more frames in their 2nd brood box and look like they have gained in population. Since there is still syrup in the feeder, I left it on, though they may not be taking it.

Russians
The 3rd brood box on top is full of larvae! I pulled out 2 frames which contained both wax-capped (older) and uncapped (younger) larvae. Very nice frames. I've included a closeup pic (see above) of the brood with nurse bees. It's time to add a 4th box to the Russians which will be the honey "super" (same type of box as the other brood boxes but this box will be devoted to honey collection).

Here are the details of my 10 step inspection process:

1) I lit the smoker (with cedar chip bedding as the fuel) and puffed smoke first into the front of the hive to distract the guard bees and then up around the top cover.
2) I removed the brick, top cover, and inner cover and set them aside on the ground.
3) Using my hive tool, I pried out and inspected 2 frames in the top box.
4) I sprinkled powdered sugar over the top box (bees between the top frames get misted with sugar) to stimulate grooming behavior for mite control.

5) I added a queen excluder to keep the queen from laying eggs in the honey super (see left). The metal grid allows the smaller workers to pass through but theoretically, the queen cannot fit and she stays down in the brood boxes.
6) I added the super with a drilled ventilation hole and 10 frames (4 with honey from last year and 6 frames of foundation from last year).
7) I put the inner cover, then the outer cover, and then the obligatory brick (to keep the covers from blowing off) back on top of the hive.
8) I removed and inspected the vaseline-covered poster boards and checked for mites. Mites appear to be under control.
9) I refilled the water trough.
10) I put out the smoker and dumped its contents.

Very well-behaved bees tonight! No stings.

June 21-22: Six Hobbies, One Weekend

What a great weekend! I was able to experience six of my hobbies in two days: 1) beekeeping; 2) camping; 3) hiking; 4) geocaching; 5) yoga; 6) reading.

Beekeeping
On Saturday, I attended the Ohio State Beekeepers Association summer meeting at Athens High School. It was very informative. Over the next few days, I will attempt to summarize the sessions.

Geocaching
Saturday afternoon, I drove to Waterloo Wildlife Area to search for a geocache. Geocaching involves using a GPS device to locate a hidden container at a set of coordinates that are published at geocaching.com. As usual, I set out unprepared. I had written down the coordinates for the cache on a scrap piece of paper. I arrived at the site and discovered that the area was absolutely gorgeous, isolated, and quiet. I hiked and drove around aimlessly before I remembered that duh, it's supposed to be on Trail 26: that's the name of the cache! There were no maps on site and of course, I didn't print one. I did not have appropriate clothing or insect repellent on me, was absolutely starving (no veggie lunch at the conference) and worried about getting a campsite, so I gave up. I hate giving up on a cache!!! I have risked life and limb to get to caches. But it was worth the trip, as I have never seen so many butterflies in one place (picture from internet). There was some butterfly weed in bloom in the meadows. It is also a site on the Hocking Valley Birding Trail, with 80 species of birds. I'm not much of a birder though.

That is the best thing about geocaching: it takes you to places you would never discover on your own!

To be continued...

June 23: Top Feeder Update

The Italians have about 3/4" of syrup left in their top feeder. There were quite a few bees up there. I plan to open both hives tomorrow for a more thorough inspection.

June 20-21: Ohio State Beekeepers Association Meeting

AGENDA FOR SATURDAY
June 21, 2008

• 8:30 A.M. Registration
• 9:00 A.M. Welcome & Introductions
• 9:15 A.M. Keynote Speaker: Dr. Dave Tarpy, “Healthy Queens, Healthy Bees”
• 10:00 A.M. Break (Visit the Vendors)
• 10:15 A.M. Breakout Session I
  • “Backyard Queen Rearing, It’s Not As Hard As You Think” Dr. Dave Tarpy
  • “Beginning Beekeeping Basics” (Athens County Instructor)
  • “Ohio Queen Project” (In the beeyard) Paul Cline, OSBA Regional Queen Coordinator
• 11:00 A.M. Break (Visit the Venders)
• 11:15 A.M. Breakout Session II
  • “Making Summer Splits” Dr. Jim Tew
  • “Mead Making” Chuck Harrington, Athens Co. Beekeeper
  • “Dumping a Package, Inspecting a Hive” (In the beeyard) Bob Hooker, OSBA
• 12 Noon - Lunch
• 1:00 P.M. Breakout Session III
  • A. “Marketing Your Honey” Jack Cantrell, Athens County Beekeeper
  • B. “Pests and Diseases” John Grafton, Ohio State Bee Inspector
  • C. “Making Summer Splits” (In the beeyard) Dr. Jim Tew
• 1:45 P.M. Break (Visit the Vendors)
• 2:00 P.M. Breakout Session IV
  • A. “IPM For Beekeepers” Bob Hooker, OSBA
  • B. “Reading A Frame” Joe Kovaleski, OSBA, EAS Master Beekeeper
  • C. “In the Bee Yard” Dr. Dave Tarpy
• 2:45 P.M. Break
• 3:00 P.M. Panel Discussion, Plenary Session (Business), Raffle Drawing, Departure

Learn more here.

June 18: State Inspection: My $5 At Work

Yesterday, I got home and found a slip in my mailbox from the bee inspector. He wrote: "Bees look good. Good brood pattern. Super as needed." I was thrilled! Doesn't seem like much but it's validation for a beginning beek. I just wish I would have been present for the inspection.

Apiaries in Ohio need to be registered. It only costs $5.00 per location. That seems pretty cheap to me: especially since the Ohio Dept. of Agriculture has proposed cuts to the apiary program which would eliminate the position of the chief bee inspector for the state. I would pay a lot more for an annual inspection, and that's what I said in my email for the letter-writing campaign.

Did you know? There were 3,128 beekeepers registered in 2007 in Ohio which represents 4,898 apiaries, or an estimated 16,654 colonies.

June 17: Feeding with Syrup and Essential Oils

After a lot of thought and reading, I made the decision to feed the Italians. The population is low and struggling. I'm hoping the feeding will keep them from starving, give them enough energy to forage, and stimulate wax production and brood rearing. That's the theory at least.

Last night, I made 1:1 sugar syrup with 8 pounds regular white sugar, 4 teaspoons Honey-B Healthy (feeding stimulant with spearmint and lemongrass oils) and 4 drops of wintergreen essential oil.

There has been some suggestion anecdotally and in one study that wintergreen oil may repel mites. Thymol and spearmint oil have also been recommended for mite control. In my opinion, essential oils may or may not help but they probably don't hurt. Ross Conrad's book (Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture) is excellent if you want to read more about natural beekeeping.

Tonight, I poured the cooled mixture into the top feeder and placed on top of the Italian hive.

Did you know? Most essential oils are created by distilling parts of plants over water. They are said to capture the "essence" of the plant.

June 15: Latest Inspection Results

I opened both hives on Saturday to check progress, powdered them (to stimulate grooming behavior and mite falloff), and added new sticky boards (so the fallen mites can't climb back into the hive). You can see from the view looking down between frames that the population of the Italians is low.

June 15: What is healthy? What is normal?

I inspected my 2 hives today. I feel a little disappointed. I guess I was expecting more progress and now I'm worried. It doesn't help that I just watched "The Silence of the Bees" on PBS about disappearing honey bees (Colony Collapse Disorder). I'm trying to do my small (very small) part to help save the bees, but I feel like I don't know what I'm doing. As if the future of honey bees rests on my shoulders!

A recap: Both colonies were started from packages installed on April 20. One of the hives got started late due to a failed queen which I replaced in mid-May. The other hive made tremendous progress but seems to be slowing down considerably if you measure in terms of capped frames.

Hive A: Italians: 2 medium boxes: top box is partially drawn out and I see eggs but not many bees and not very much activity presumably because of the late start with the queen troubles and progressive die-off of older bees.

Hive B: Russians: 3 medium boxes: bottom 2 boxes are completely drawn out and capped and top hive box is partially drawn out but with little nectar or pollen. A lot of bees but they don't seem to be making much progress on that 3rd box.

Are these hives doing well? Is this normal? Are we in a nectar/pollen dearth? Should I be feeding? Should I combine the hives? I have no idea. I'm an amateur. A novice. A beginner. A newbee.

And that's why I rely on information from the International Beekeeping Forum. The people are polite, helpful, and respond quickly. I've posted my concerns to the forum. I'm sure the masters will have good advice and reassure me!

MBI Lecture: Real Democracy - How Honeybees Choose A Home

The Mathematical Biosciences Institute at Ohio State University is holding a free public lecture at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday (6/17) in 355 Jennings Hall (MBI Auditorium). Thomas D. Seeley, assistant professor of kinesiology at Cornell University will deliver “Real Democracy: How Honeybees Choose a Home.” A reception will follow.

Real democracy — when citizens meet in a face-to-face assembly and bind themselves under decisions they make themselves — has been practiced for some 2500 years by humans, but for more than 20 million years by honey bees. We will examine the remarkable democratic decision-making process of a honey bee swarm as it chooses a new home. We will see that bees have evolved sophisticated ways of working together to identify a dozen or more potential dwelling places, to choose the highest quality one for their new home site, and to make a decision without undue delay. We will conclude with some take-home lessons from the bees (“swarm
smarts”) on how to foster good decision making by democratic groups of humans.

More information...