Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Wish your bees would carry my pollen balls.....

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Nice work Vin, the bees owe you and Grace both!

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Noticed the bees working around the flower pots on our front stoop, and they weren't interested in the flowers as much as they were focused on the droplets and small puddles of water in the pots. Apparently they're thirsty.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4415/...d82b1193db.jpg

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4354/...83f5fd429f.jpg

I put out a shallow bowl with water near the hive to give them another drinking source. Filled the bowl with some extra crushed stone we had laying around to give the bees some surface area to land on.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Never new bees were so cool, Vin! One of these days a I need to go visit a bee farm.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

I bee thirsty too. Please leave a not so shallow bowl of Guinness near the hive, with a non-crushed lounge chair for me to land on. :)

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

You are the bestest bee Mom, Vin :tu

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Got the hive wrapped for the winter last week now that the overnight temps are dropping lower. I used roofing felt which provides a bit of a wind break as well as helping to warm the hive by absorbing solar gain in direct sunlight.

The entrance to the hive remains open as does the notch in the top board to allow for circulation and air flow.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4462/...943c59b4b4.jpg

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Those bees are going to be pretty cozy!

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

You mean the notch covered by the giant f'ing rock? :sh

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Technicalities counselor, technicalities... :noon

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

The notch is actually in the top board which is beneath the hive cover.

The hive cover is a little larger than the hive boxes which allows for a bee-sized gap between it and the top board. In a pinch, the bees can enter/exit from the top of the hive if necessary although I've never seen them do it in my hive.

To be clear, there's nothing under the rock except the metal wrapping over the hive cover. The rock's just there to help keep the cover in place when the wind blows. :D

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Hey Vin, looks good. How's the food supply going into winter?

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

I have wanted to get into this but the kids are terrified of bee's. We even have a local company here in Cincy that will let you house hives (4) and get the first batch of honey for them for free. Then eventually if you like it you can purchase the hives from them.
Maybe after the kids grow up a bit....

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

The frames are packed in pretty good with honey. Very little brood - which panicked me at first, but as I understand it, that's normal for this time of year.

Hoping for a mild winter, or at least one with some intermittent warm-ups over the course of the season.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Vin - have you heard about this hive?

https://www.honeyflow.com/

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Mr. Mark - have you heard about this flow?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKQU8j8lzRg

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Should have stayed out of Vegas, I told him, he wouldn't listen to his homey jew.


Hive looks awesome, Vin, do you check on them during the winter like open the hive and see what's going on, or do you basically leave it sealed up and trust that they know what they are doing and will be okay?

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

If you're cold, they're cold, bring them inside :r:r:r

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Yes, but I wanted to go old school for the sake of experience

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Just like Tupac! :banger

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Sad news in the world of bees: as I feared, the ladies did not survive the brutal cold snap we had to start to the winter. I peeked in the hive yesterday as temps got up to 50* and was concerned I didn't see any activity. Even in the winter months, the bees will leave the hive when the temps get way enough in order to make cleansing flights to relieve themselves.

Looks like the entire cluster froze to death in a big ball. :(

Plenty of honey stores in the hive, so I know they didn't starve.

Grace & I are going to give things another shot this spring. Going to order a nuc instead of a package. A nuc is a working mini-colony of bees: 4-5 frames of bees who have already drawn out comb and are working with their queen. You slide the frames into the hive, and away they go. They'll have a head start on honey stores from last years hive -- I think I have 6-8 full frames of honey still in the hive -- so the hope is this helps them to rapidly build up & strengthen the hive.

Look forward to continuing the adventure, but kinda' sad about losing the bees.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Sorry about the bees, Vin. Glad that you are going to continue.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

I'm strangely saddened by the news...thru this thread, and personal conversation, invested in the project from afar... anything that would've prevented the result?? ...looking forward to the next round

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Sorry to hear about Grace and your loss of the colony, especially after all of the nurturing given to the bee's.

Maybe before next Winter set's in, some form of wind break with a heat lamp pointed in the direction of the hive. That is, just enough heat to keep the freeze off the hive. Just a thought...

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

You'll tweak it a little and have better success next winter, I am sure, Vin.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

May look into planting some shrubs as a wind break. I knew going in that could be an issue, but I thought the area was wooded enough to provide a natural break. Need to research what kind of shrubs do well in heavy shade.

Not sure a heat lamp is a solution. As I understand it, artificial heat can cause the bees to think it's warmer outside the hive than it really is, and they venture out and die.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Sorry to hear about this, Vin — I hope your next attempt is much more successful!

As others have said, I really looked forward to reading this thread and am saddened. Looking for to future updates later this year.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Sad news indeed, maybe their memory bee a blessing.

Seems like they didn't give their tiny lives in vain as you are already researching and looking to improve next time!

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Sad news, Vin. May round two bring better success.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Vin, sorry to hear that you lost the hive. I'm sure you'll have much better luck this time around.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Sorry to hear it, Vin-Bob. That sucks.
You can wrap the hives come winter, insulating them.
Or build a break with hay bales, or do a lot of other stuff.

Think about the size of the hive vs. the size of the colony (which I think you already have a good grasp on).
There's gotta be enough bees to keep the heat up in the hive. If the little buggers are already chilled, they'll bite the dust on cleaning trips even though they'll shorten them.
Consider maybe even a styrofoam cover you can cob out of blue construction foam and tack on, or remove a section?

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Vin, sorry to hear you lost the bees. fingers crossed for the next attempt!

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Bees 2.0

Having successfully managed to freeze my bees to death over the winter, I was left with a hive full of comb and a lot of usable resources like pollen & honey, but no ladies to work their bee magic.

The pic on the left shows the bees basically frozen in place between frames all bunched together as you might expect for warmth. Pic on the right is after I pulled the frames apart.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/968/2...4df0731d_n.jpg https://farm1.staticflickr.com/943/2...4d4733b5_n.jpg

This time around, since my first batch of bees had already laid a lot of the groundwork, I opted to go with a nucleus (or "nuc") which is basically a mini working hive of five frames complete with bees and a queen already making brood and storing honey and generally doing bee things.

It comes in a box like this, and thank god I brought bungee cords because one big bump on the road and that top comes flying off. Then voila -- bees in the Jeep!

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/964/4...5bffd041_z.jpg

And with that, I was ready to transfer the frames from the nuc to the hive ...

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/975/4...d0d434ae_z.jpg

More later.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

The hive is alive! :wo

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Sweet! Maybe you should let the new hive winter in the Jeep?

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

so much win here!

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

I will definitely buy honey

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

man I would love to have the time to do this

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Can't wait to meet the new bees! :D

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Sweet! We have bee sign!

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Bee careful... ;)

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Congrats on the new ones!

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Meet the new bees... Same as the old bees.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Very cool, Vin!

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Here are some shots from when Grace & I transferred the frames from the nuc to our hive.

In this photo, you can see we've put in a feeder tray (far right). the bees climb down the opening in the tray to drink the sugar syrup. This helps stimulate brood rearing, especially in the spring when resources (flowers) are not yet plentiful. The little orange thing in the on top of the frames in the left corner that looks like a sponge is a pollen patty. The bees can eat that as well as a protein source in the absence of other pollen sources.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/968/4...b5f1199d_z.jpg

This is a look inside the nuc as we were transferring frames. It's really a mini hive, and the bees were already working away building comb, storing honey and raising brood. The hope is this head start, plus the leftover resources from my hive last year are enough to jump start the colony and give them a strong foundation for the year ahead.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/823/4...2b053e1c_z.jpg


The ladies working on building out comb and packing it with honey. In the upper right, you can see a lot of honey that's "in process". Once they get it to the right moisture content - somewhere around 17% - they add the airtight wax cap so it stays at just the right consistency. My understanding is the bees cap honey in groups of cells whereas brood cells are capped individually. That's why capped honey can appear dimpled whereas capped brood looks to be more raised.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/979/4...b1f71dbe_z.jpg

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Damn, I got fooled again!

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

So sorry Vin about the ladies. So, cool that you are trying again. Can't wait to see the progress.

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

Took a peek in the hive today and we located the queen doing her thing. Big treat for us because this queen is unmarked -- no colored dot on her back like the queen from last year, so spotting her among the thousands of other bees gave us a thrill as well as a confidence boost that we're progressing as beekeepers.

On the downside, we were a little too slow with the camera and didn't get a clear pic of her. Hopefully next time!

However, we do know she's doing her thing because we were able to see freshly laid eggs and larva that are only a few days old.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/978/4...de683cdfa4.jpg
The egg is the little grain of rice looking thing sticking up in the lower left corner of the honeycomb.


Here's a shot of larva that's more fully developed. Based on its size, I'm guessing the bees will be capping these soon.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/824/4...5ae226d998.jpg


This is the same frame, but further away. The honey comb that contains the larva had baby bees emerge from them just a few days ago. Once the new bee eats through the wax cap and pops out of the comb, she immediately gets to work cleaning and polishing it so the queen can deposit a new egg in it to start the process all over again. Initially the honeycomb produced by bees is a translucent white, but it darkens as it's used again and again. The darker the comb, the more times it's been used to produce a bee.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/903/4...18431ae739.jpg

Re: New Hobby: Bee Keeping
 

During our hive inspection we also determined that between the new frames we added from the nuc and the leftover frames of honey we had from our bees that didn't survive the winter, our boxes were pretty full. In a situation like this where there's ample resources coming in but nowhere for the bees to put it, you risk having half your hive swarm out and leave to find greener pastures.

To avoid this, we put on our first honey super. However, we don't want the queen laying eggs up in the new honey box so first we place a screen - called a Queen Excluder - on top of the brood box. The screen allows worker bees to pass through its slats, but the larger queen will not be able to do so; keeping her in the bottom two hive boxes to keep popping out bee babies.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/905/4...f882751c70.jpg

With the screen in place, we add another box of empty frames, called a honey super. This box has ten frames like the brood boxes but isn't as tall. The bees will need to build out comb in this new box, and once they do, they'll begin storing honey there. With luck, we'll have our first-ever batch of honey later this spring!!

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/907/4...9e27657ba1.jpg

Here's what the hive looks like now ...

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/825/4...eee045c51e.jpg