My Sunday mocha with the bees…7am, 62°, bees flying and returning with big bags of pollen*, gold and orange. Now that the huge rhododendrons are gone, there’s a great spot for observation chairs next to the hive—sun was out and it was the perfect morning for coffee outside. Since we’ve had upper 80 and 90° days this past week, I opened the bottom board for more ventilation…actually it was probably more me wanting to do something and that seemed fairly innocuous. Have seen very few wasps around this year…maybe the new family of scrub jays are taking care of that issue for us; see http://www.paulnoll.com/Oregon/Birds/Likely/likely-Jay-Western-Scrub.html. There are several bumblebees on the crimson clover* next to the hive. So, I am not concerned about hive robbing at this time and felt comfortable with the1/2” opening along the sides of the bottom board. Anyway, bees are clustered on the board and on the edges under the right half of the hive where brood is located. Since there was so much activity and appears to be more bees, I looked at B12 to see what’s happening there…it’s been a blank comb for weeks now. Well, things have changed at B12. Bees were covering the whole comb and festooning over to B14, which in the past indicated they were drawing comb, or considering it. I just removed B15 and B16 for a peek and did not move B12, B13, or B14 this time, nor take time for a photo. So once again, what do I know?! Mentioned a few days ago that they probably had stopped comb drawing, blah, blah...I just need to sit back and observe, letting the bees take the lead in my learning here.
*Recently learned that crimson clover, my favorite garden cover crop, is not a nectar source for the bees. The bumble bee has a long enough proboscis/nectar collector to reach the nectar but honey bee does not. I wondered why they were not taking advantage of this hearty patch of crimson clover just outside their front door! Back to the list of plants to plant...
August 16, 2011
Sunshine, mid 80’s. A cloud of bees flying within 4’ of the hive with several bees on the side and roof “fanning”…this must be an orientation flight for the younger worker bees. As they get ready for the foraging stage of life, the young bees fly out a short distance and turn back to the hive and then move farther away and return. It is like they are fixing their GPS for future flights and memorizing local environment. The older bees are fanning to spread the hive pheromone so young bees can find their way back. Quite fun to watch the seeming chaos in front of the hive, lasted about 20 minutes and then all back to normal. I think they must gather a bunch of recruits to go flying and line up older bees for fanning…how they know to do all this is fascinating.
Found better information on the Oregon State Univ site about those “queen cells” of concern in June. They are actually ‘queen cups’ formed as a precaution in case they are needed. See excerpt from the article on the June 17 post.
On Sunday morning I set out new feeder tray from Ken in front of hive with a jar feeder and zip baggie feeder of 1:1 sugar syrup. Bees were not using either feeder at the end of the day which indicates that they are finding plenty of nectar. However, the ants had found the syrup by Monday morning and word had gone out to the entire yard it seemed. So I removed the system; will reinstall at end of honey flow and then deal with ants. The tray sets close to the entrance and should work well when feeding is needed.
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| Exterior tray feeder w/jar and baggie of 1:1 sugar syrup |
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| B12 top view, nothing in cells yet |
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| B12 view from bottom; empty top bars 13-16 |
Lifted B2.5 (installed July 25 in brood area) about ½ inch and could see that comb had been drawn and nectar was in the top cells. So, assuming drawing comb took 2 days, eggs 3 days, larva stage 5 days, pupa stage 12 days for worker bees, young bees would emerge about Aug 10 and be making their nursery flight between 6-10 days…right about now! Will observe that comb more fully during next hive check, sometime at the end of August or first of September.
List of worker bee’s life/duties (from Beekeeping, A Seasonal Guide by Ron Brown)
0-4 days cell cleaning and incubation
3-12 days feed larvae
About 4th day power of stinging fully developed
Between 6th and 10th day orientation or nursery flight, usually around midday
6-15 days wax making and comb building
8-16 days reception and storage of nectar; packing pollen in cells
14-18 days entrance guard, debris clearance and funeral bearer duties
19th day begins to pay attention to bee dances
18-30/35 days foraging for nectar and pollen
25-30/35 days collecting propolis
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