OK, so here’s a bit of our bee adventure.
Let me start by saying that I am so grateful for my amazing husband to not only allow me to take on this crazy adventure but even to help me – especially while he’s so busy studying for his boards in July!
Last Sunday, after church, we drove down to Marbury, which is about an hour south of our house, to pick up the bees. We received two boxes with wooden frames, but the walls of the boxes were screen material. And each box was FILLED with three pounds of buzzing bees. OK, so the boxes were closed, but then there were the hitchhiker bees around the outside; apparently, regular bees are attracted to the scent so they hang out and ride along. We put the two boxes of bees in the back of the Kia and made sure the front windows were down the whole way home. I think Derm Dad was a little bit freaked seeing several bees flying around in the back of the car while we were driving on the freeway. I was imagining a blissful beekeeping scenario where the bees loved me and never stung me, so I was just enjoying the buzzing without any fear or trepidation.
It’s best to install the packages in late afternoon or early evening so they will stay in the hive overnight and hopefully decide to stay in their new home. Thus, we waited a few hours while we got everything ready. The first location I picked was not nearly level enough so we went with my second choice (and I actually think it works better). I used some cement blocks we had in the basement for a stand. Once we were sure it was level, I remembered I needed to spray the bees with sugar syrup. I ran into the house to find a spray bottle. The first THREE bottles were clogged! Once I finally found the fourth one, I sprayed the bees on all sides through the boxes. I loosened the staple holding down the queen cage with my hive tool and unfortunately it came all the way off. I thought, OK, I’ll just hold this little strap while I shimmy out the syrup can and I won’t drop the queen cage into the thousands of bees inside this box. Well, as I shimmied out the syrup can, of course the bees started flying out and buzzing around my head and in the heat of the moment I dropped the queen cage without realizing it. I had to reach into the bees to grab the cage and release the queen into the hive before I dumped all the bees in there. First of all, there are bees everywhere and also crawling all over the queen cage – so visibility was a major issue. I saw the cork and pulled it out, expecting to see a candy plug behind it. What I didn’t realize was that there are TWO plugs, one with candy and one with nothing. So, I put the cage in there anyway, and proceeded to shake out as many bees as I could into the hive. We closed it up as carefully as possible and tried not to squish any bees.
The next day we tried to open up the hive to remove the queen cage. A bit about that – you are supposed to hang the queen cage from the bars at the top (that the bees will built their comb on) and let the queen crawl out at her leisure. The candy plug gets eaten slowly by the worker bees. The process takes a few days, which gives the bees a chance to get used to the queen’s scent. This was especially important since we had two packages and one queen. But, since there was no candy plug, I wanted the queen cage out of there ASAP, so that they didn’t build their comb around the cage. So, when we tried to open up the cage, the bees freaked out! They came streaming out as soon as we moved the boxes a crack. I used my bee brush to move them over so I could see the boxes and try to get the queen cage (which was hanging by a thumb tack). Well the bees got stuck inside the bristles of the bee brush and they thought I was attacking them so one stung me on my left hand. My dream no-sting experience was shattered on only the second day and I thought, “What was I thinking? Why did I bring this beast into my backyard?” We closed up the hive as quickly as we could, unfortunately squishing a few bees in the process, and came inside to regroup. I called my natural beekeeping mentor Stephano and asked him what we should do. Long story short, he’s going to come over in a few days and inspect the hive to make sure the queen is present and healthy and also to remove the queen cage. Although he did say it wouldn’t hurt anything to leave it in there and that releasing the queen without the candy plug was probably fine too.
I’ve been out there as much as possible to look through the windows. There are already building their fourth piece of comb!!! Three are going perpendicular to the entrance, in the direction of the top bars, but one is a cross comb (maybe to block the bit of light that comes in around the window even when the door is closed?). I really love having two large windows, because sometimes I can’t see what is happening from one side but the visibility is great on the other. In fact, I wouldn’t mind three windows!
So, today is cold and rainy (yesterday was in the 90’s!!!!), but I went out in the rain to check on my bees. Because of the yucky weather, they were tightly clustered in the corner where they are building the comb. Usually during the day, there are bees everywhere (climbing on the windows and the walls and the floor) so thick that it’s hard to see what’s going on. Today, in their cluster, the window was perfectly clear. It was so cool!
If I could make one recommendation to another new beekeeper, it would be to put windows in your hive. It is SO great to be able to open the window and see what’s going on without opening up the hive and disturbing the hive’s temperature and humidity for the bees. We chose plexiglass instead of glass for the windows; in general I avoid plastic for everything, but I read that glass can be too cold and too hot for the bees.
This pic shows the second entrance, which we added in the bottom of the first beekeeper’s part super. The info we read on the Perone hive suggested adding the second entrance a bit higher so it was less of a journey from the brood area and also to help with ventilation. We added the landing strip without scorching it so it looks a bit out of place. =) The bees don’t seem to mind; both entrances have been quite busy!
Here’s Adelie-pie hanging out by the viewing window. She is the perfect beekeeper already. She doesn’t rush or fuss near the bees. I don’t think you can see them very well in this picture, but there are bees flying all around the air near her head! I did have to admonish her for spraying the hose too close to the beehive. =(
You can see from this pic that the entrance is right over one of our raised beds. I think it will be good that we won’t need to mow in front of the hive and the bees will have a bit of their own habitat for walking around near the hive. This particular bed is mostly perennial herbs, so I won’t have to be fussing with it too much.
You can read all about our beekeeping adventures HERE.
