Swarm

Two of the barn hives swarmed in the afternoon yesterday.   I first saw a small swarm on an apple tree when I got home & started to get ready to collect it when it flew. I think it was a swarm from the hive in the swarm trap that was sitting in the barn, because it wasn't very large, and it looked like they may have even gone back into it as they were all around it. Shortly afterwards Theresa saw a swarm in a wild plum tree where they have landed before. This was considerably larger and because of the reduction of activity today in the Langstroth hive by the barn, it probably came from there. This hive was from a cut out I did on the barn wall last year right after they moved in..

 They collected up above the higher ladder first. I didn't get the queen and they left the box and reformed lower down to the right.

Dropped a few on the way down.

 I carried it down and shook them into the box. This time I got the queen inside and the rest followed.

I then moved the hive about a half mile away so that the workers wouldn't be tempted to drift back to the original hive. In a couple of weeks  I may bring it back. There were a lot of bees. When I lifted the inner cover to add several frames, it was pretty heavy. 

Easiest swarm yet!

Sometimes it pays to be lazy! I didn't get around to setting this swarm trap out and the bees didn't wait for me, & just moved in yesterday.

(Yes PP. That's a practice bomb behing the trap)

Just took a few minutes to move the frame of comb & shake the rest of the bees off the top bars & into the new hive. 99% are inside now. Not a real big swarm, maybe a small football's worth, but they have plenty of time to grow. It was a cool day & they were previously all getting ready to build comb, so not much outside action.. I gave them a frame of honey, a 1/2 a pollen patty, & mostly drawn comb. Forage isn't that great right now, but should improve soon with the blackberry season being early..

Guard bees! :-)

One drawn frame against one side  & 5 top bars. They seem to like that arraignment.

The trap reset in another bay.

The feral house hive has swarmed

It was a pretty good sized swarm & by the time I got my camera all but a few were inside already.

Look at all those fat little tails up in the air. 

As you may recall from a recent post, the hive had grown considerably.  I was mowing the lawn today and was under the largest apple tree  and I looked up. I was in the middle of a swarm. I was expecting it, but never saw them come out or settle anywhere, but now I bet they were in the tree all along. In any case, I turned the mower off & walked with the swarm towards the barn expecting them to ball up in one of the fruit trees. It seems they already had, and were headed to the old feral hive in the corner of the barn. Sure enough, they moved in.  This should be an easy cut out if I do it right away. I wish I had more time, I'm already way behind on everything.

Although I didn't see them come out of the house, the heat signature from the hive is now much smaller. Still a good size hive though, they may swarm again.

before

after

I wish they had gone into one of the empty hives I didn't get around to setting up. :-)

Candy boards

Info on building these and the also idea comes from here:

This is how Todd, a valuable member of the WVBA. does it. These are his photos and description. Click to enlarge

:

I installed these on seven of my hives in the fall. I just checked and they still have loads of sugar left.

I used 10lb of sugar per board. I didn't add any pollen patties, 

I also cut and press fit a piece of 1/2" insulation board into the top cover. I didn't worry about covering the hive bodies.

I feel that there are several  advantages to these boards.

It is cheap insurance, as they didn't take long to build, and as Todd says above, anything left over can be mixed into syrup in the spring

Rain is a big factor here in the PNW., and the sugar absorbs moisture and the excess moisture is evacuated through the upper hole which also gives the bees a handy and close exit on suitable days. Last year I just dumped sugar on the inner cover, but I think this is easier on the bees as it is closer to the cluster and it also doesn't chill them as much when inspecting as they won't be up on the inner cover when the outer cover is removed. I can see the state of the candy board through the hole in the inner cover without removing it.

Winter inspections are quick and easy by simply lifting the cover quickly to see if there is still sugar. The state of the bees themselves can then be checked from outside the hive with the FLIR One which not only locates the cluster, but gives a pretty good idea about it's size.

                                                      Video proof of concept of the candy frames. 

http://goo.gl/photos/SV5Bn2qgpUmWypqN7

                      Look at the heat coming out of that small vent hole on the candy board frame below on top of the upper deep! (and moisture too of course)

I have a swarm trap full of bees!!! Viewed with the FLIR One

This is a 6 frame swarm trap which I left alone with a swarm in it to see if it would over winter. It was nearing fall & I didn't want them to have to rebuild comb, so I left them alone as an experiment. It was time to change the camera cards in a couple of game cams & I thought I would justify the FLIR ONE purchase & use it to check out the trap.

Much to my surprise it is full of bees! The display has a range of color combinations I can use. This one shows the entire box hot with the main cluster on the right 1/2 which is normal, as that is where the entrance is. They were flying in & out.

Left side

 Right side

 Bottom view

The Willys MB

It seems I have more hives that I thought I had.

Moths pollinating and of course another honey bee or two.

Click on the photo & look closely & you'll see she has less than half her wings left. I don't see how this old girl can still fly. This was probably her last flight. They literally fly their little wings off.

Lots of pollen. She's a beauty!

I'm waiting on an ID for these moths. They really liked the Aster flowers.

Update!   The Alfalfa Looper (Autographa californica) is a moth of the Noctuidae family. 

And that is what it is!

A lucky shot! In flight!

Getting the honey house in shape

 I may have posted this photo before, I'm not sure, but I'm partial to it & this post needed a bee so here it is!.

                                 

Everything is wired at last. Lots of outlets and three sets of switched lights, center section and each end. That way I save a little power using only what I need.  The 3'x8' work table at the east end is in, and the little compressor plugged in under it. It is nice to be getting all the bee stuff in one place. There are lots of jigs, tools, and wood ware still in the basement. I still need a rack to hang frames and a couple of shelves, but it's almost done. I salvaged a couple of old tool box drawers from the  wreck we had moving here & used a set of slides I scored at the dump. Someone tossed a dozen nice drawer slides, so I quietly picked them up. The landfill doesn't approve of those things. They would rather see them buried. One day I picked up a dozen tee posts.

Plenty of storage room on top at either end.

Excuse the tippy camera phone photo.

Honey house

After having bee stuff stored on the porch, in the basement, in the barn, and in in several other places in the house, at last everything will have a a place to go. With the cut outs & swarms, I'm up to ten hives now this year. We harvested from only three, but got 15 gallons of honey from four supers and a deep. Next year should be even better and if nothing else a whole lot easier. I still have to wire it with outlets and hang some salvaged light fixtures, and add something better than a hose for the water line,  I'll tap into the overhead line from the house to the barn, at the pole about 15 feet to the right of the shed. Then racks for frames, a work bench & some shelves.

10' x 20'

Some of the frames were light colored, some really dark. I just let them mix. The honey is much darker than last year

more bees

We cut this hive out about 4 weeks ago & I left a little comb thinking maybe another swarm would move in. After all, the horses that used to use this barn are long gone.  The owner said the hive had been there last year.

Lots of drones, lots of mites, but tons of really friendly bees.

Judging by the age of the brood, the new swarm moved in a couple of weeks later. Not as big or populated as the previous tenants, but no mites that I could see, and the same dark friendly bees and enough to fill a deep box. Unlike the previous hive which had very little honey stores, the blackberries are now in bloom and this hive had plenty of honey. Everything got sticky. 

  This is the next stall over. Another swarm moved in here about the same time as the other one.
The Bushkill bee vac
 sucks them right into a hive  The first hive filled three deeps, two of bees and foundation & one deep of brood, the other two just one and a western of comb each. It works really well. After you remove the vac assembly, you set the banded brood box on top, pull a divider out, and the nurse bees move up to the brood. A screen on top keeps them cool for the ride home.

 Learning from my mistakes, this time I added rubber bands to one side of the frames using small frame nails. It made it much easier and faster to add bands only to one side with the cut out comb laying in the frame and it was a lot easier on the brood as well. The new comb is pretty fragile. We got a box full of eggs, brood, pollen, and honey banded up. When I got them home, I reversed the boxes on a hive bottom & added a top

 Most of the bees in front have already been removed, there are plenty more between the next layers of comb..

By the time I worked my way up to the top, I still hadn't seen the queen. Then my wife saw her. She hid in the crack in the corner. We chased her from one side of the wall to the other back and forth  until I caught her.

                                      

 There was some interesting pollen here. At least I think it is pollen. It looks like mud. (edit: probably blackberry pollen)

The owner has another hive in the ceiling of a small storage shed.