Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Hive Check: Week 4

Gary, Indiana.  Bees ERRYWHERE.

Trouble, oh we got trouble,
Right here in Fort Greene!
With a capital "T"
That rhymes with "B"
And that stands for Bees,
That stands for Bees!
We've surely got trouble!
Right here in Fort Greene,
Right here!
Gotta figger out a way,
To keep the young ones from killin' their queen!
Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble...


Time to play catch up! I'm gonna try to bust out the last couple of weeks worth of hive inspections over the next couple of days, so bear with me.

During my weekly inspection, I noticed that Hive #2 was doing well, albeit still a bit spotty. The queen looks healthy, and was producing a decent amount of brood, but the hive seemed to be stalled building comb.

This lack of comb building behavior can have a variety of root causes. It may be that due to the (still) chilly nights, the bees would rather build vertically than out to the sides. Building vertically allows them to maintain the temperature within the broodnest with less effort and with fewer bees. Remember that heat rises, so the warmth from the bottom of the hive will rise up between the frames and directly between the frames above them.

Difficult children.

The behavior is called 'chimneying' and can be most often seen in young, small, or overwintered colonies trying to conserve heat. If temperature regulation to the sides is the problem, then it can be remedied it by giving the bees more vertical space (another hive body.) The bees should take to it quickly and build up and onwards. Once the temperature becomes more consistent, and their population larger, you can start rotating the outer frames closer to the middle, encouraging the bees to draw them out. Try to avoid breaking up the brood nest.

I need to get this queen jazzercising or something.  Wheres Joan of Arc when you need her?  Hanging at the Circle K?

Alternately, the lack of comb drawing may be caused by a poor queen. This is harder to prove, and is a judgment call. As I've mentioned previously, the queen in hive #2 is weaker than I would like and a bit spotty, but not terrible. This has been a bad year for bee production and with the extreme weather in the South (which also resulted in our packages being delayed for over a month), it is likely that many of the queens provided in our packages are poorly or inadequately mated. I have heard from other beekeepers who started packages at the same time as me that they have been having similar issues.

Never let me go!

Ishiguro: Secret Beekeeper?

Unfortunately, the abundance of weak queens means that the supply of quality replacement queens is tight. Even if you know you need to requeen, getting a replacement that is robust, healthy, and well mated can be a problem. Under ideal circumstances, a new queen will supercharge a stalled colony, laying ridiculous amounts of brood, resulting in a population explosion of young bees that are just rip-roaring to build up comb and fill it with delicious nectar.

Hive #1 drawing out new comb.
Those really are the whitest cappings EVER.

Continuing the trend, Hive #1 decided that it wanted to be a trouble maker as well. While it is being better about drawing comb than Hive #2, the bees seem to have determined that they want a new queen, despite the old one being a wonderfully prolific and solid layer.

I wanna see!  I wanna see!

Opening up the hive, I was met with several frames of lovely capped brood, and some more beautifully made queen cups. Opening one up, it was clear that they were more than ornamental.

Baby queen.  Sorry girl.

Why, bees, why? Your old queen was so good!

Flipping through the other frames, I was greeted with no less than 6 capped and developing supersedure cells. I didn't see the old queen, so it is possible that she was damaged or that I 'rolled' (accidentally squished) her during a previous inspection. Seeing as I saw her last time and she was doing fine, I'm really not sure what happened to her, but being the adventurous type, I decided to let the bees do their thing and make their own queen.

See the cat? See the cradle?

Risky Business.

During my next inspection, I should see a bunch of empty queen cells. With any luck, over the next week or two the surviving virgin queen will take several mating flights, mate with a variety of local drones, not get eaten by pigeons, make it back to the hive and start laying.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Monday, June 13, 2011

Weekly 101 (6/13/11)

Bees + Drinking = Love

Meg Paska of BrooklynHomesteader.com is putting together another one of her Beekeeping Gab n' Guzzles:
The next Beekeeping Gab 'n Guzzle hosted by The Honeysuckle Rosies will be at Spuyten Duyvil in Williamsburg (Metropolitan and Havemeyer) this coming Thursday at 7 p.m. in the back garden. Bring tales of swarm catching and requeening! Bring pictures of your rooftop apiaries! Or just bring yourself! All are welcome, new-bees and wanna-bees, or seasoned beekeepers!

We can't wait to see you all! BZZZZZZ!
It's goin' down at Spuyten Duyvil in Williamsburg Brooklyn on Thursday the 16th, starting at 7PM. Come and talk shop with us!


If you want something a bit more hands-on, I'll be at the Added Value Farm in Red Hook this Saturday, giving another one of my FREE Public Hive Inspections!

Starting at 11, I will go through a basic inspection for each hive, starting with a lesson on lighting a smoker, moving on to visual inspections of the comb and a short talk on what to keep your eye out for (with examples!), and finishing up with another short talk on what we should expect to see in the next inspection.

DID I MENTION THAT IT'S FREE!?

It's all going down at the Added Value Red Hook Community Farm, located at 3-49 Halleck St, Brooklyn, 11231.

To get there by Subway:
A/C/F train to Jay Street/Borough Hall. Exit the station and walk west to Boerum Place and Joralemon Street. Take the B61 bus going towards Red Hook. Exit the bus at the IKEA store, and the farm is across the street.
F/G to Smith and 9th Street. Exit the station to the rear of the train (there is only one exit in this station). Transfer to the B77 (right in front of the station) Take the B77 to Van Dyke and Dwight street. You'll find yourself in front of the Liberty Heights Taproom. Take a left crossing Dwight Street and proceed up Van Dyke to Red Hook Community Farm (one block walk, from the bus stop you can actually see the farm at the end of the street).

This event is taking place during the Farm's open volunteer hours, so anyone who comes out should consider sticking around for a while after the inspection to help out! I'll be sticking around for a while to answer any lingering questions and hang!

If you ARE feeling brave and want to help out, consider wearing light colored long pants and a collared shirt. I've got an extra veil I can lend out to particularly courageous volunteers!

Special thanks to Added Value for hosting this, and future, FREE PUBLIC HIVE INSPECTIONS! They're doing great work, and are always looking for volunteers. If you'd like to help them out, check out their website here!

Friday, June 10, 2011

Hive Check: Week 3

Don't panic, boys and girls.

We've entered the package slump. The oldest of the package bees are starting to die as they wear out their bodies foraging for nectar and pollen, and the oldest of the brood has yet to emerge. The drop in population can be precipitous and dangerous. If the temperature is still dropping into the low 50s at night when the population drops, it can result in chilled (and killed) brood as the reduced population of adult bees struggle to keep them warm.

With an ageing population you should also expect to see a drop off in the amount of comb being drawn. As the house bees get older, their bodies become less efficient at producing wax and they start to move to other duties. As the first generation of young workers emerge, they will rush to take over house bee duties; raising their sisters, maintaining the environment within the hive, building comb, and storing food.

Lookit them pokin' their little noggins out!  So curious!

We started our inspection with Hive 2 this time. As you can see, there are hardly any bees working the outer comb, but you can see the majority peeking up from the center. The brood pattern is still a little bit spotty, and it's hard to say why. It may be that the queen is very young and inexperienced, which will clear up as she hits her stride. It could be that some of the earliest brood got chilled and the bees removed them to make spaces for "heater bees" to help keep the surviving young alive. Jim Fischer at the NYC Beekeeping Group suggested that theory.

I had a similar brainwave, and it makes sense- the temperatures dropped down into the low 50's those first couple of nights and this hive had brood a few days earlier than the other one, which has a solid pattern. If it was only a loss due to the chill, the bees should clear it up and the next brood cycle or two should be nice and solid, especially once the population starts growing. In either of these cases, the queen should have gone back and re-laid in the empty cells.

Side 1:  Spotty brood pattern.

Alternately, the queen may just be kind of cruddy. She's not a complete failure, though. The hive isn't in danger of just dying out- she IS laying quite a bit of brood, it just happens to be spotty. If it's a problem with the queen, we'll be able to tell because it won't clear up over the next couple of inspections.

Side 2: More spotty brood.

Hive 1 continues to be spectacular. As with its sister, not much more comb has been drawn compared to Week 2, but the brood nest is phenomenal. These guys are going to POP over the next couple of weeks.

Big fan of Magritte.

"Busy, busy, busy."

Remarkably white cappings.  If they keep it up, I'm going to make cut comb honey next year.

The frame perch you can see hanging on the left of my hive is probably one of the most useful beekeeping gadgets I own.

We spotted the queen and something curious...

First look at the queen of Hive 1.  Respect.

Queen of Cups.  Getting all mystical.

A queen cup! I spotted this in the fold of comb where I removed that bit of burr comb last week. Rather than just drawing out the comb further and evening out the frame, the bees used the space to build a lovely white queen cup.

Hive 1 is capping plenty of stores.

And they also have quite a bit of capped brood.  These ladies will be emerging this week.

You shouldn't panic when you see one (or many) of these. I know you're going to anyways, but queen cups aren't something to worry about. Some hives are just genetically predisposed towards building them, but just having them doesn't mean that they're going to USE them. Sometimes they just like having them handy. Russian bees in particular are famous for building full blown queen cells and tearing them down days before they emerge as new queens. *Insert Russians <3 Revolutions joke of your choosing here.*

Larvae!  Tasty grubs!

I just can't get over how white these cappings are.

When you DO see one, take a look inside. Most of the time it'll be empty and you can safely ignore it. If you see a larvae swimming in royal jelly, then you have something to be concerned about and a potential problem to solve, but that's a talk for another time.

Tim + Bees = <3

Birds and the Bees.  Distinct lack of ray guns.

Surprise! You're a beekeeper

Tim clocks in at over a dozen years experience as a beekeeper, so he asked me to be the one to write about what’s surprising and strange to a first-timer to help out anyone who’s in my shoes or considering getting started.

The first thing that surprised me was how easy this is. For highly evolved eusocial organisms composed of tens of thousands of venomous individuals, it’s not too difficult to figure out what a bee colony wants and needs. Sure, I have Tim around to do a lot of the heavy lifting (literally, in the case of getting packing pallets up to the roof to keep the hives off the hot rooftop surface). But it turns out getting started is only as complicated as you want it to be.

That wasn't so hard.

Worried about time and money? Pshaw. You can get yourself set up for about $300 in the first year and not much at all in years after if things go well. And check this: these pets feed themselves. You’ll only need to spend 20 minutes every two weeks inspecting your hives once they get going.

Equipment catalogs like Brushy Mountain and BetterBee make it simple to order as much or as little gear as suits you. Think you’ll need Velcro bands to keep your pant legs tight around the ankles? They’ll hook you up for just $3.95! Or if you prefer the minimalist or DIY approach, check out the so-called Backwards Beekeepers of LA or Anarchy Apiaries in the Northeast.

Local beekeeping associations (find yours here) offer classes and lectures, and pair up newbies with mentors. Visit their websites and you might even find a message board with people sympathetic to the cause offering up their backyards or rooftops—no small wonder, if your primary hurdle to getting started is space. As for me, I’m forever indebted to Jim and Liane of the NYC Beekeeping Group for the courses they’ve provided to me and literally thousands of my fellow Gothamists, free of charge.

Don’t forget to check out the lit. Tim’s got a great list of print and online resources to get you up to speed, although if you only get one thing, make it The Beekeeper’s Handbook. That is, until next year when the book by our friend Meg Paska (aka the Brooklyn Homesteader)—the book first ever to specifically address urban beekeeping—will make its debut.

From The Beekeeper's Handbook. Developmental stage charts, and diagnostic dissection diagrams? Yeah, you want it.

Most of all remember that beekeepers, like the little bugs they care for, are social beings. If you haven’t connected to people in your area who can help you out, you’re not trying.

Next in the series will be things that surprised me about hive inspections themselves. In the meantime, what concerns do you have about getting started? Or if you too are new to the game, what have you experienced that you weren’t expecting?

P.S. Here's a preview of the other rooftop project we've got cooking. They're not gonna be on my windowsill much longer...

Friday, June 3, 2011

Weekly 101 (6/3/11)

Bees! You can meet them this Sunday! At the Eagle St. Rooftop Farm in Greenpoint!
2 PM - 3 PM

Beekeeping with Brooklyn Homesteader

Join Megan Paska of BrooklynHomesteader as she discusses the start up, set up and spring activity of our three beehives. Whether you're a beeginner (oh yes we did) or a beekeeper with Q's for our Miss Meg, you'll get 'em answered
It's free, and you can check out their greenmarket while you're there! Follow the link for more details!

Rooftopfarms.org


On Tuesday, the NYC Beekeepers Association is hosting one of their monthly lectures:
Beekeeping: Local and Global

NYCBA will have double the fun on Tuesday, June 7, when Peace Corps beekeepers Dan Carr and Lebohang Moore share their international beekeeping experience.

Dan Carr is a beekeeper at Stone Barns, an 80-acre nonprofit farm and education center located in Pocantico Hills, New York, 25 miles north of Manhattan.

Dan is a Colorado native and holds a bachelor's degree in history and political science from the University of Montana. After working on a Scottish dairy farm through the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) program, Dan spent three years in Malawi as an Agriculture/Environment Peace Corps volunteer. While in Malawi, he fell in love with keeping bees and confirmed the notion that he wanted to spend the rest of his life working the land. Dan will share photos from his Malawi beekeeping days, discuss how he cares for the bees and livestock at Stone Barns, and reveal what it's like working with a cool chef and environmentalist (we are fans of both Dan's, Carr and Barber).

We are also pleased to welcome Lebohang Moore, a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College (B.F.A., Dance Performance) who was a Peace Corps volunteer in Bolivia and Peru. He now works in Zambia with Tiny Tim and Friends, an NGO that supports HIV-positive children through organic farming and an animal husbandry training program. Lebohang will talk to us about beekeeping in Bolivia and Zambia, including different markets, honey harvest methods, and use of traditional and new hives.


*Help sustain the NYCBA hive by renewing your annual membership. This event is $5 for non-members.*

Tuesday, June 7th
7pm-9pm
Seafarers & International House
123 East 15th Street
$5? International Beekeeping? Totally worth it!


As for me, I'll be at the Added Value Farm in Red Hook this Saturday, giving another one of my FREE Public Hive Inspections!

Starting at 11, I will go through a basic inspection for each hive, starting with a lesson on lighting a smoker, moving on to visual inspections of the comb and a short talk on what to keep your eye out for (with examples!), and finishing up with another short talk on what we should expect to see in the next inspection.

DID I MENTION THAT IT'S FREE!?

It's all going down at the Added Value Red Hook Community Farm, located at 3-49 Halleck St, Brooklyn, 11231.

To get there by Subway:
A/C/F train to Jay Street/Borough Hall. Exit the station and walk west to Boerum Place and Joralemon Street. Take the B61 bus going towards Red Hook. Exit the bus at the IKEA store, and the farm is across the street.
F/G to Smith and 9th Street. Exit the station to the rear of the train (there is only one exit in this station). Transfer to the B77 (right in front of the station) Take the B77 to Van Dyke and Dwight street. You'll find yourself in front of the Liberty Heights Taproom. Take a left crossing Dwight Street and proceed up Van Dyke to Red Hook Community Farm (one block walk, from the bus stop you can actually see the farm at the end of the street).

This event is taking place during the Farm's open volunteer hours, so anyone who comes out should consider sticking around for a while after the inspection to help out! I'll be sticking around for a while to answer any lingering questions and hang!

If you ARE feeling brave and want to help out, consider wearing light colored long pants and a collared shirt. I've got an extra veil I can lend out to particularly courageous volunteers!

Special thanks to Added Value for hosting this, and future, FREE PUBLIC HIVE INSPECTIONS! They're doing great work, and are always looking for volunteers. If you'd like to help them out, check out their website here!

Hive Check: Week 2

The differences between the first and second week inspections for a newly installed package are remarkable. In those short days, the workers ramp up their wax production and are almost wholly focused on making comb to accommodate the brood and stores that a healthy new colony requires.

Bees.  I have them.

In the span of a week, the bees in Hive 1 (I still haven't named it yet!) have drawn out four full frames, two half drawn frames, and two frames of undrawn foundation on either side.

Hive 1

This frame was foundation last week.

Nectar, and pollen, and bees, OH MY!

Look at how lovely and white the new comb is.
Also, lookit all them bee butts.

Frame 3.  The other side is fully drawn out and is being filled with food.  Notice that even with foundation, they draw out the comb from the top center and expand in all directions from there.

There were some minor spacing issues between frames 5 and 6 (the center frames), and as you can see, they built a small amount of burr comb. I popped it off and re-spaced the frames.

Bee space.  Still serious business.

It looks like a schnoz.

Do not want.

Fixing the spacing.

The population isn't growing yet, but there is a HUGE amount of brood. Hive one has 4-6 comb faces packed with eggs (SO MANY EGGS!) The laying pattern looks solid, although it'll be easier to tell once the brood is capped.

The pollen stored in the opposing cells make the eggs much easier to see.

The oldest brood is in a small cluster on the inner face of center frames and is nice and fat and healthy looking.

OMG, those two bees are TOTALLY kissing.
They're also TOTALLY in the way.
Git.

Much better!

The stickyboard under the hive is catching no mites, but a whole bunch of wax scales. For the curious, Hive 1 went through about a gallon of sugar syrup this week.

Wax scales and dead bee legs.

Hive 2 is doing just as well, but is on a slightly different path. I let Emily take the lead on this one, so I stood back, watched and took pictures as she went through the hive.

Hive 2

Emily is brave.

The bees were in an extremely pleasant mood, so we ended up working without protective gear. I don't recommend going veil-less under most circumstances, but once you've gotten into a new hive and checked their mood, you can get away with it for the first couple of weeks. Keep the veil handy though. Bees are fickle and you'll want to pop it back on the instant you detect any signs of agitation. Facial stings are uncomfortable.

Naked beekeeping.

Hive 2 (also unnamed so far!) has drawn out slightly less comb and has laid fewer eggs, but the brood that they have is wonderfully solid and a couple of days older. They've drawn out about 3 full frames and 2 half frames, but they already have a fist sized patch of perfectly capped brood.

See the shadow?

It's brood!  Capped brood!

Covered in bees.

We spotted Hive 2's queen for the second time. She seems to be a lot less shy than the queen in Hive 1, who has yet to show her face.

Fat bottomed girls, you make the rockin' world go round.

Hive 2 is consuming significantly less sugar syrup than Hive 1, but they seem to be bringing in quite a bit of fresh pollen.

So many different pollens!  I have no idea what they are from, but they sure are pretty.

Packin' up.