Lots of activity out front!
And a whole lot of activity inside!!!!
It’s like they are building miniature comb on the floor. Weird! 
beekeeping/PermApiculture/Perone hive
Perone Bee Hive Update August 2013
Although it’s hard to tell with this many bees in the hive, they have now built comb clear to the lone empty comb that was built next to the queen cage when the bees were first installed (about four months ago).
Can you see the bees with pollen in this next one?
So, my sweet friend A came over a few days ago and a bee got stuck in her hair and stung her on the scalp. It was so crazy! The bee was buzzing so loudly to try to get out of her hair. If anyone wants to keep track, this hive has now stung my beekeeping mentor twice, me once, Adele once, and my friend once. Kent is yet unscathed.
So, August is winding down and I still haven’t fed my bees (I would ONLY feed truly raw honey to my bees). I tried one day, but they weren’t interested. I figure as long as I can still find a bee or two with pollen, we are good. There has been a quite heated discussion among beekeepers in my area about the wisdom of “treating” and “intervening” with the natural habits of the bees. It seems like the people on the beekeeping board mean well and genuinely care about the bees, but they just can’t imagine not treating with chemicals and feeding sugar water. And they really get defensive when people suggest letting bees do what they want to do. I haven’t weighed in because I have no idea what I’m doing and my bees haven’t even survived one winter yet, but I REALLY want to.
Perone bee hive update 7.18.13
First of all, let me say that I haven’t yet figured out how to use the manual focus, BUT I did figure out that if I press the camera lens all the way up to the window, I get a much clearer shot and somehow it knows to focus on the inside of the window.
It’s been so hot! Today’s actually a bit overcast, so the bees seemed pretty chill when I went out there. Lots of bearding! For some reason a lot more bearding on the top entrance versus the bottom.
Wow! They’ve gotten pretty creative with this cross-comb turning a corner and back again joining this comb with two separate combs going perpendicular to this one.
Note how there are hardly any bees on the comb. Most are out of the hive or on the windows and floor.
Here’s a close-up from the same window. It looks like the honey is just going to drip out of the comb!
Here’s an unusually clear shot from the other window. You can see the wavy comb and how they’ve attached it to the support bar.
Same view, but closer.
A surprisingly large amount of pollen in this comb – protein for brood!
P.S. Check out my heirloom tomatoes. It’s so funny because I bought and planted fully expecting to move out at the end of this month. I just put them in my cart on a whim and figured the new home owners might appreciate them. But now I get to eat them!!!! If I’d known we were staying, I would have planted cucumbers, onions, carrots, leeks, garlic . . .
Read about our beekeeping adventures (you can track the progress of our hive too) HERE
Perone Bee Hive Update – July 10
In order to really get a sense of the hive right now, you need to imagine you can hear a loud, irritated buzzing and see the quick movement of hundreds of bees flying through the air and near the entrances. I couldn’t even get close enough to see the entire hive without getting buzzed in my face. I just backed off and let them get back to work. I had planned on feeding the bees honey around the end of June (just this first year while they are building so much comb – to help them survive the winter). I think I’d better do that soon because these bees seem hungry!
Bee Update June 27, 2013
There is A LOT of progress out in the hive, but I haven’t been able to get any good pictures. If only I knew how to manually focus my camera . . .
Today’s picture, if you can make it out, is about seven cells with white bee larvae (curled up like a little caterpillar) on the cross comb that is right against the window. This was shocking to me because I thought that the queen would prefer to lay her eggs in the more protected inner parts of the comb, but this is right in the prime viewing area. Which means that the queen herself was there – even though I never saw her. I will definitely be visiting the hive several times a day to see these larvae develop! If you live nearby, you’ve got to come see this for yourself!!!
Perone Bee Hive Update May 2013
It’s time for a bee hive update. If anybody reading this lives nearby, I would really encourage you to come over and see it for yourself. It is soooo hard to get a good picture with the camera (terrible glare), but it’s crystal clear in person.
And, from the other window, you can see a cross comb (parallel to the window instead of perpendicular like these combs) right up against the length of half of the window. You can see the bees depositing nectar into the comb, pollen on the legs of the pollen gatherers, and you can see the wiggle dance that tells the other bees where to find great forage. Unfortunately, I have yet to get a good picture from that side with the camera. It’s just impossible (for me) to get the camera to focus on the inside of the hive instead of the surface of the plexiglass.
These bees are pretty darn cool if you ask me =)
Bee Update 4.21.13 – I opened up the hive BY MYSELF!
That empty comb is so weird. The smaller group of bees has either joined the big one on the left or just all died (maybe because it’s been so cold the last couple of nights?). There were two pieces of comb on the right, but when we removed the queen cage, it brought one of the combs with it. It was partially filled with pollen and some nectar too. Yum! Now the empty comb on the right looks so strange and lonely. I’m sure the bees will utilize it when they build closer to it.
This pic is from last week when my beekeeping mentor came out and opened up the hive to remove the queen cage. Wow, he is the bee-whisperer! He got stung twice and didn’t even flinch or try to remove the stinger. He said that beekeepers live the longest of any profession and some people pay for bee stings in doctor’s offices because it helps with inflammation (like arthritis). It was such a mental shift for me – I almost wanted to get stung to help with my hands.
My mentor thought we should remove the upper supers to give the bees less area to keep warm, so that’s what we did. After he left, I decided I want to store the supers and extra comb grids up on the hive, but with a divider board to so the bees are only working with the smaller space but I don’t have to worry about the rest of the hive getting damaged or moldy in our damp basement. Kent made me a board that evening, and the next day, I — ALL BY MYSELF — opened up the hive again and put the board in there. Once I got over being afraid of being stung, there was nothing to fear, and it was awesome. I love having bees!!
When my mentor was here and we went into the hive, Adele was right here with us and she tried to pick up a bee by its wings. She wasn’t careful enough and got stung on the tip of her finger. She freaked out at first, but after I gave her a bandaid, she calmed right down (I swear bandaids have magical powers for kids with ouchies). I just now asked her if she is scared of bees and she said, “No, I like them.” When I got stung on my hand it was a bit swollen after the first day and it itched quite a bit for a few days after that; but Adele didn’t seem bothered by her sting at all after that first day.
I think I read somewhere that it takes 21 days for bees to hatch out from their eggs and move through the pupa stage into new honeybees. Since we installed our bees on April 8th, we should have our first new bees by the end of this week. I haven’t seen any eggs or brood since I can’t examine the middle pieces of comb (in a Perone hive, the bees’ space is sacred and we don’t open up that part of the hive), but I’ll keep my eyes open for some signs of new bees.
You can read all about our beekeeping adventures HERE.
