Humming Along

I received a message from the Dane County Beekeepers that the nectar run is on in our area.  I dont know exactly what that means, but I suspect it means honey is pouring into the hive right now.  I went last night and removed the divider board so the bees have the entire hive.  I also took out the feeder, since there should be plenty for them to eat in the prairie.  I should do a hive inspection one of these days to take a closer look at the honeycomb, but it looks fine from the window.  Here's a current view through the window:

Keeping Cool

Here is what bees do to cool off a hot hive:

Here is what kids do to cool off hot feet:

Heat Wave

Its hot here in Wisconsin!  Yesterday was over 90 degrees.  It looks like summer has finally come!

The high heat is apparently another big debate in beekeeping.  When the outside temperature exceeds about 95 degrees, it can begin to soften or melt the beeswax in the hive, causing it to fall off the top bars.  Dont worry, I checked mine last night and its ok!   The debate is over whether to ventilate the hive or not.  Some people say yes, ventilate because it allows it to cool the inside off.  Others say no, dont ventilate because it allows the hot air in.  The tipping point seems to be moisture.  I dont see any condensation in the hive, so I figure I'm good with the  balance of ventilation I have.

The heat wave has also brought something else to the house - a pool!  Erin set up the pool on our deck.  Its about a 10' diameter, 2 foot deep pool for the kids to swim in.  Yep, they've been in it every day since Erin filled it.  Even when the water was about 50 degrees straight from the hose!  It looks like a really fun summer for the kids!

Young Farmers

The girls got a treat this weekend!  We stayed over night with my cousin Dan and Kristin at the farm!  In the morning, after they treated us with pancakes, we got a tour of the farm.  Emma has been learning about dairy in school this week, so all week she has been asking if she could milk a cow.  Emma and Ginny jumped right in!  Here's some photos of the young farmers:

 It was a lot of fun.  I have such good memories of exploring the farm with my cousin Dan as a kid, so it was great to share the experience with the girls!  Thank you again to Dan and Kristin for being such wonderful hosts!

Hungry Bugs

The bees are really hungry!  Tonight, I refilled the sugar syrup jar in the hive for the third time.  I've gone through over a pound of sugar so far!  I never thought I would pay this close attention to the weather and when things are blooming.  Apparently, the cool, wet weather keeps the bees from foraging as much.  Everything that I've read says that when the bees can find natural nectar, they prefer it to the syrup.  When that happens, I shouldnt have to feed them for a while.  Well, it isnt today.  Nothing I can do but keep feeding and watching.

It is pretty neat to watch them build honeycomb.  I'm pretty impressed at how much they have built.  Here's the view from the observation window tonight:

Its tough to get a good picture with the glare on the glass.  Anyway, hopefully you can see the rows of honeycomb in the picture, going up and down, perpendicular to the glass.  Just like its supposed to.  The space between the comb looks to be full of bees.  The cluster seems to be getting much bigger, but it might just be comb taking up space and making the same number look bigger.  I now know where the phrase "Busy  as a Bee" comes from!

Better Lucky than Good

Lefty Gomez, a pitcher for the Yankees in the 30's, once said he'd rather be lucky than good.  Lefty had a lot of good quotes, that you can read here.  Anyway, I feel that way about beekeeping this morning.  One of the first worries for a beekeeper using the type of hive I have is that the bees will build honeycomb in nice clean rows.  This kind of hive doesnt have a guide, or foundation, comb for the bees to follow.  You want the comb to be built along the bars, perpendicular to the observation window.  The danger is that they will build it across the bars, parallel to the window, which makes it very very difficult to work with.  Even if they build it they way they are supposed to, you want it to be very straight.  There are lots of strategies for making this happen.  First, you want a level hive.  I took some extra time before putting the bees in the hive to make it level.  Second, you can paint your bars with beeswax in the direction you want them to build comb.  I read this after the bees were in the hive, a little late.  Third, you can pray, which is essentially what I did!

When I checked on the hive this morning. I could see the honeycomb peeking out of the bee cluster perpendicular to the observation window, just like its supposed to be.  I changed out the feeder jar for a new one and noticed it was too close to where they are building comb.  The bees had turned the last comb and attached it to the jar!  I took that piece off and moved the feeder jar to the other side of the divider board so they wouldnt build comb next to it.  Hopefully the comb there will be built straight now that I've corrected it!

So this is what the comb I removed looks like:

Its very white and clean right now.  I left it sitting on the counter, and when I came back and moved it, I noticed there was a little drop of honey left behind.  Tastes good!  There's no doubt I am not yet a good beekeeper.  At this point, I'm happy to be lucky and having the bees build the comb right without my help!

Queen Cage Is Empty

Tonight, I went to check on the hive and noticed the bees were going through the syrup pretty quickly.  Maybe its the rainy weather, so they dont go out and forage as much?  Or maybe there just isnt enough nectar yet. I made up another jar of syrup and got all beekeepered up and went out into the hive.  While replacing the syrup jar, I spilled some of the syrup.  I need to remember to spill outside of the hive next time, because after that, syrup was dripping from the bottom, but I couldnt tell if it was what I spilled, or if the seal on the jar was leaking.  It slowed down over time, so I think its fine.

While I had the hive opened, I retrieved the queen cage.  It was empty!  Dont worry, thats good news!  It means the bees ate through the marshmallow cork I put in and released the queen.  Looking at the massive number of bees in the hive, I suspect the only time I will see the queen was when she was in the cage.  I'm not nearly good enough to identify her in the hive.  So instead, I have to look for evidence she's there.  If there is capped honeycomb that's not golden, its called brood, which is where the eggs are.  Capped brood is a sign the queen is in the hive.  And thats good.  I could tell the bees were building honeycomb.  Its a very clean white right now.  They build it down from the roof.  The ones I saw were empty, but its not time to worry yet.  I'm sure Magnolia is busy in there somewhere.

Here is a picture of the empty queen cage.

On the left side, you can see where the cork was.  On the right side is the hanger that held it in a slot in the package.  I put a quarter in the picture so you can see how big it is.