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!   ;)

What Am I Seeing in My Colonies?

4 Italian colonies in Chanhassen

May 15, 2014

It is 46F (8C) here and winds at 12 miles per hour! It is cold!!! If I feel cold what do you think the bees are doing? No, not knitting blankets .... but they may:)

For one thing they are not foraging to much, not only because it is cold but it is also gray with no sign of the sun, so they are staying inside their hives. Cleaning, feeding the brood, tending the queen and most importantly keeping warm.
The workers keep the brood (eggs, larvae and pupae) between 91-97 F (32-36C) in any type of weather. To achieve that goal, the workers  have to eat a lot, especially when it is cool outside.
However, some queens like the Russian will lay less eggs, or stop if the temperature dips too much; therefore controlling the size of the nest to keep warm.

When I open a colony this is what I look for: The brood pattern
Is there any eggs, larvae, capped brood? Pollen? Nectar?
Is there any  room (cells available) for the queen to lay more eggs?

How many frames are covered with bees?

For a new colony: is there enough food inside the hive? What is the forecast for the next 7 days ?
These few questions will guide the beekeeper during his/her inspection.
Taking notes for each colony is also important because each "house" may behave differently.

The brood pattern means, how is a frame organized? In the middle of the brood box, one should see 3-4 frames looking like  an oval shape of mostly capped brood, with eggs, and larvae. As you take the frames on each side of the largest oval, the subsequent frames ( as you go towards the outside of the box) have smaller ovals.

(Just like a loaf of bread, as you cut the slices become smaller). This pattern is the brood, the nest. Around this shape on the frame, there is some pollen (colorful cells: yellow, white, dark yellow, orange), around this layer: some cells with nectar, and if lucky some already capped nectar cells call honey! This whole pattern on a frame looks like a "rainbow". This is the perfect brood pattern.

If you could see through the wooden box you could see: small brood shape, medium brood shape, large brood shape, medium brood shape and small again. And every frame with pollen, and nectar/honey, around. This is a perfect honey bee nest!
The outside frames are usually all honey and/or pollen mix (their pantry).

I know what I describe requires a lot of imagination...but you will get there.

See the pattern? Brood ( center), pollen (next arc) and nectar/honey Next layer: Beautiful

See the eggs

Left side: Larvae in royal jelly.
Right side: eggs

Honey bee tending a larvae

The New Bees in Chanhassen

In Chanhassen, Minnesota:

 April 14, 2014 -- I hived 4 honey bee packages of Italians
 April 21, 2014--  I hived 2 honey bee packages of Russians

They must still be wondering why it is so cold and rainy. Let's not forget that the Italian bees come from California, and the Russian bees from Kentucky!

I visited them few days after I installed them, the Italian queens were already laying eggs after only 5 days in the new homes.

The Russian queens are a bit more finicky about the weather and if it is cool, and/or rainy they will just wait until better warmer days! They have a bit of eggs and capped brood but not as much as the prolific Italians.

Russian Colonies

Italian Colonies

See the eggs! 

Beekeeping Class in Eden Prairie

The classroom looked like this one!

Thank you to all who came to the beekeeping class: Exploring Beekeeping. I know the chairs and tables were a bit small and not that comfortable, you were very patient sitting there for 2 hours.

I hope you learned a few things, it is difficult to cover the whole topic of beekeeping in such short amount of time but I hope that I piqued your interest.

Big thank you to Michael who manned the presentation remote control, you were very helpful :)

The next class will be in the fall, probably starting in October 2014. There will be 7, 2h-hour classes, each week will be a different topic of interest. It will be given at a school in Eden Prairie. I will keep you posted.

Enjoy spring!

Where is Spring?

I was just wondering where spring was in the world...because it is not in Minnesota yet! We still have low temperatures in the thirties in the morning. I bet you don't like that, well bees either.

I have installed my packages: 4 April 12 and 2 April 21. What a welcome for my bees coming from Sunny California and Georgia! They must wonder on what planet they have landed!

I will tell you their story.

In order for us in Minnesota to  obtain honey bees in the spring, they have to winter in warm places like California, Texas and Arizona. Therefore many commercial beekeepers move their hives on long bed trucks in October and November to Southern States.

Once the colonies arrive in warmer weather, they are fed carbohydrate (sugar syrup: to stimulate brood production) and protein (pollen patties: make "bee bread" nutritious food).

The beekeeper will feed his bees until each hive has 6-9 frames of brood. After about 4 months, mid-February most beekeepers put their populous hives on trucks to pollinate the Californian almond groves. This pollination not only help the almond business which is value at $4.3 billion, but it helps the colonies to expand.

Then when the almond pollination is done about 2 weeks later, the hives will go back on the trucks and moved North, following the next bloom: citrus, peaches, plums and then apples.

Now the hives are full of bees and ready to swarm. This is when the beekeepers divide their colonies creating packages or nuts to sell. You can see that the package bee business in the U.S has been build from pollination, following the different blooming fruit trees in many states.

Warmer states like Georgia, or Florida for instance don't need to move their colonies anywhere. They provide pollination in their own state, feeding their bees when needed (droughts, or "cooler" winters), then dividing their hives to be ready for April Northern beekeepers like us.

From populous colonies, bees are taken and put into packages. 

Packages are waiting to be loaded on trucks.

Packages loaded, almost ready to go!