First Day of Summer!

Bumblebee on my Nepeta (catnip) in my garden

This week was "Pollinator Week", there were few events in many parks in St. Paul and Minneapolis. But for me it is always pollinator week;)

After so much rain, I was wondering how the bees were doing. I went to visit them yesterday June 20, 2014 the last day of Spring!

Next week, starting with today first day of Summer should be warm and sunny...just like the bees like it.

Hives at the Farm in Chanhassen

The Italian Bees in Chanhassen on the farm are doing well, especially hive 3 and 4. I put 2 supers on them. They now have 3 brood chambers and 2 supers!

Hive 2 is coming along, I added a third brood box.

The first hive is very agitated, and I did not see any eggs. I had given them a frame with eggs and brood but so far no queen cell built...we will see.

The field was extremely wet and saturated, so much so that my car  got stuck in the mud! Hopefully my friend Liz was there and she called a gentleman who came within 3 minutes with his 4 wheeler and got me out in no time! 

The Russian bees on the Prairie in Chanhassen    

New queen cell

Hive 1 has decided that the queen they made not long ago was not suitable, I don't know why. Therefore they decided to make a new queen cell. I have to wait and see. I am bit worry because this hive has not a lot of bees. In 10 days, I hope I will see a new queen. However it is becoming late to "start" a new colony, I may have to combine this small hive with another.

Hive 2 is just fine, 2 brood boxes, lots of bees and it has 2 supers!

At least one Russian colony is doing well.

Keeping bees keeps me on my toes, there is always something going on and one has to stay vigilant.

Enjoy Summer...we deserve it!

It's Hot, Let's Hang outside for a While!

See all the bees on the outside! ( picture R. Wondra)

A few days ago, it was warm and humid in Chanhassen and the Russian honeybees were too hot inside their hive. They decided to go outside to get some fresh air!

This phenomenon is called: bearding, supposedly because it looks like the hive has a beard! This happens when it is hot, and humid, some bees beard more than others. This has more to do with the elevated temperature inside the hive, the number of bees present, and the space available.

When the temperature decreases the bees go back in the hive. 

It is like us, when it is hot we go on the porch and sit there with a cold lemonade to cool ourselves.

The bees fan their wings, bring back droplets of water to cool the hive, but sometime it is really to warm. If the temperature in the hive is excessive it could kill the brood. The average temperature in the hive is 90-95F (32-35C) anytime of the year!

Ventilation box on top of hive

To help them, I built a "ventilation box". It is a shallow wooden box 6 inches deep, and I drilled few holes around each side of the box , and stapled 10 square of mesh screen. This make some aeration for the bees!

I hope the bees like this new box, and let the air go through, and not put propolis to block the ventilation holes! 

A Russian Queen is Born!

Our new Russian Queen!

June 3, 2014

When I received and hived this package of bees in April, the original queen seemed fine though short in length. However, she looked healthy, plump and walking vigorously on the frame. After few mainly rainy, cold and damp days the queen who would not lay one tiny egg for the life of her...started miserably to lay a handful of eggs. That was good but...

I could see that she was not really enthuse about her job! (who would? Laying up to 2,000 eggs per day!) I gave her few days to take charge, but still it was not very impressive. I suspect the honey bee workers felt the same, and concluded that their queen was rather wimpy.
They had to act fast,  only few eggs had been laid and the bees had to raise a queen from one that was less than 4 days old!Then they make the elongated queen cup, and feed the larva lots of royal jelly.

After about 14-16 days the new virgin queen emerged, found the old queen and killed her. Then her next mission was to fly to the Drone Congregation Area (DCA) where she will mate with 15-20 drones (male bees not from her own colony). It is a place where drones fly most of the time after leaving the nest. The DCA is 30-200 m in diameter and 15-40 m above ground . Drones fly back and forth in this area producing audible sound similar to a swarm of bees. Drones can choose among many DCA near their  apiary. During its life a drone can visit few different DCA. Sometimes more than one DCA is visited by the same drone during one day.

The  newly mated queen, after her dangerous travel to the DCA (she can be eaten in flight by a bird or  hit by a car...) came back to her hive where she will never leave again. In some instance , the queen will have to go back to the DCA, if the weather was poor, or low drone count.  But generally one trip is sufficient as she gathers about 6 million sperm which will be store in a "pouch" in the abdomen call: spermatheca. 

Now what I saw today, (a few eggs and a beautiful mated queen) is all that work behind the scene that many  ignore but to me it is fabulous! How wonderful is that!

Time to let her be!   ;)