Beekeeper Class

Class on November 14 at Jacqueline’s was quite informative; she shared that she has a psychic connection with bees. Although it was a basics class, I learned a few things…as usual...and will share them below.

As she went through the life stages of the bee, Jacqueline said that on day 16 the newer bees set their magnetic compass (GPS in our vernacular) during their orientation flight: they fly to a spot a few feet from the hive and hold for a few seconds, move to another spot, and another holding in place each time before returning to the hive. She observed that they do this at 11a and 1p.

Also, drones are not lazy and only for mating. I already knew they helped warm and cool the hive. Jacqueline told us that drones also sing to the babies in their own hive and are welcomed into other honey bee hives whereas any other bee is barred from entering; the drones then go to the nursery area and emit a “droning” sound. There’s a theory that they are sharing ‘bee history/life information’ with the new bees—what a wonderful concept.

Jacqueline related a winter time experience in which the beekeeper thought the bees were dead because of the extreme cold, harvested some of the honey and called her to come get the remainder, and placed the hive in the basement out of the weather. When Jacqueline arrived, the bees were moving around—they had been in “torpor” which is a cold weather survival mode. She and the beekeeper reassembled the hive, left honey that hadn’t been taken, placed it back outside, and now hope for the best; she is not optimistic that the hive can survive because of the disturbance and without the full complement of winter honey.

Opening the brood area is not advised at any time—even during the hot days of summer. Brood needs a 95° environment and even a slight dip in temperature stresses the larvae and pupae. They might hatch and do fine if there are not additional stressors but are weaker than they would have been.  I’ll definitely not be looking at brood from now on unless it is critical to do so. One can tell if brood is doing well by observing hive entrance; if pollen coming in, queen is laying and brood is fine.

We heard about “emergency queens” which is where the current queen has disappeared or has major problems and it is imperative that new one be established. The bees will take one of the newest laid eggs, revamp the cell to be vertical instead of horizontal and feed the new larva royal jelly continuously. This is in contrast to an intended queen where the cell is built vertical initially. The emergency queen then follows the normal mating procedure but is replaced within a few months by an intended queen who can be viable up to five years. I believe something similar happened in my hive. The queen cells found June 17 had me thinking that the hive was about to swarm, but it was really too new and didn’t swarm. And we found an unmarked queen on July 23 instead of the white dotted queen that came with the package in April. Jacqueline agreed that may have been the case as package queens are artificially inseminated and could be considered an emergency queen. So, in the end it appears this hive is actually quite healthy and further on the road to being as nature intended.

Jacqueline indicated that moisture is a problem in our area, most often mildew shows up in the spring when there are warm days that cause more heat in the open hive space and condensation happens when the outside cold returns. I plan to insulate the attic of the hive to have a more gradual temperature contrast in an attempt to prevent condensation.

Although it’s a 100 mi drive to Battle Ground, WA, the trip was worthwhile and Jody and I plan to attend Jacqueline’s classes when possible.

A late fall hive check after all...

Mild, overcast day, slight breeze, 55° and bees are flying more than they have in the past week. Probably cleansing flights, although there are blossoms in the yard and nectar/pollen to be had; this is not the time. They should be in their hibernation mode by now.

Opened the end of the hive to see if comb on B14 was empty and I could remove the bar to show Ken how bees were attaching comb to the wider V on the bar. B14 was empty on the left side but had capped honey filling almost half the comb on the right side. Good news, actually, that they are not decimating their winter food supply as I thought might be happening when I last observed the combs on Oct 19 and found the left side of B14 empty. B13 left side also had a good amount of capped honey remaining. So, B14 left in place and top of hive closed.

B14 right side

B13 left side

Then I unfastened the securing straps of the bottom board, which had been put in place last week to keep the board tight against the hive for winter, and removed the bottom board for a look there.

Lots of debris on the board: bits of casing, bee carcasses and bits, and mites—yes, mites have now been seen. Will have to keep an eye on the number. By the nature of the natural comb cell size in the TBH (top bar hive) the mites are supposed to be scraped off the backs of the bees as they move into the cells…we shall see.  It appears the bees are not able to remove dead bees and other debris from the bottom board as easily as they did when board was not sealed. While I had the top space open two bees came out through the opening each with a dead bee in tow; maybe the bottom board should not be sealed—our winters are temperate, Phil Chandler in England (http://www.biobees.com/index.php) has mesh bottoms in his TBHs, and bees like a clean environment so dead bees and debris might be a stressor for them. Jody and I plan to attend a beekeeping class Monday evening—that will be a good question to explore with Jacqueline (http://www.friendlyhaven.com/classes.html).

Not being sure about the best way to handle the bottom board, I returned it to the closed position. No detectable moisture in the hive at this time; that is another concern I have because of our wet winters here and the fact that mildew was in the hive last May. Lots of questions to be addressed during this first year of beekeeping…fortunately there are people who willingly share their experiences.