Keeping Bees

[matt walker]

I too was picturing a Three Stooges short when I was reading your story, too funny! It really is a great story Guy, eventually you may find that the story is worth the stings. Maybe. As for your son, I'm so glad he's going to have the voice of experience there to guide him. What could go wrong?

[mannytheseacow]

I get so much insight into human nature by watching the animals that share my little parcel. Observing a bee colony is certainly no exception. Guy, I would encourage you to spend a lot of time [10 ft away] with them. Just watch them, what they do, how they work, how organized they are... it's so amazing. They are some fierce little suckers but they react to aggression. Get used to them landing on you and don't swat at them or brush them away. They won't sting you or be aggressive unless you act that way to them (though unknowingly sometimes little movements in our clothing are percieved as threats when you're only a mm long). I'm sure they were picking up on your nervousness as you were introducing them to their new home and in the act they were being nervous, too! The good news is, when it comes to introducing bees to a hive, you are no longer a new bee! You have experience now!

Bees are just like most other things in life. The best approach is to relax and have a homebrew before getting started, then approach it considering the other side's perpective. Maybe this approach would work for the Israel/Palestine conflict.

[Lollykoko]

Guy, I am so glad that my comedy of errors this week did NOT include bees!

[mannytheseacow]

How are those bees doing, Guy?

My new hive arrived today. They look pretty good, much bigger than my old ones, and a little more docile I would say. The easy nature of these new bees might just be because it's still fairly cold by me, but they're definitely some big fat bees. My old ones were pure Russians and these new ones are Russian hybrids.

So for anyone that's interested, this is how they come:


I mist them with some water just because they're thirsty from their travels. I pried off the Masonite panel that covers the can of sugar syrup, as shown in the picture. Just to the left of the syrup can is the queen cage. Remove the queen with her attendants in the cage:


You can see the metal tab on the left side and the hole plugged with candy on the right. At each end is a little cork. I remove the cork on the candy side and poke a small hole in the candy with a finishing nail. They bees will slowly eat the candy to get to queenie, and by that time accept her as the queen. This is how I learned to do it, right or wrong... I dunno.

I take out the middle frame and hang the queen cage in there between two center frames. They always put that metal tab on the end to hang the queen cage by but I hate that. If one of the attendants dies then they fall and block the hole. I put some finish nails in the other end and suspend the cage by the nails with the candy facing up. Anyway, queen in... then I take the big cage with all the workers and take the syrup can out. Hold the big cage over the hive and give it a couple good whacks and the bees will pour into the hive like a liquid. Pretty fascinating.

Matt, this can take sugar off that grocery list of yours.

[matt walker]

Huh, wow. I'm fascinated, you make it look pretty dang easy. Great post man, thank you for sharing that. Gets me thinking for sure.

[pa_friendly_guy]

My package of bees came like that, but the queen box was on a yellow plastic strap and you had to remove the can of sugar water to get at her. I was anticipating a set up more like yours where you could just pry up the queen box, unplug it with a finish nail and then release to rest of the bees and dump them right in the hive. I like your set up better. Mine seemed to be a screw up for me. Of course the way I did it I would have most likely screwed up putting the bees in either way.

[pa_friendly_guy]

Went up to check the bees again today. I had, in my infinite wisdom, decided not to put the frames in the upper brood box because I wanted the bees to fill in the lower box 1st. Turns out the bees don't care much what I think or what I want They just made comb where ever they wanted to, turns out they wanted their home in the upper brood box. They made a lot of comb and attached it the inside cover of the hive. So when I go to feed them I mess up all their work because I have to remove the inner cover. Oh Poop. So today I took my hive tool and removed all of their work, tried to put it into the frames, with little success, put the frames in the upper brood box and left them to repair all the damage I had done. I am afraid that I will be paying for this little mistake for some time. Now I hope that they will have to put the comb where they should be putting it, because there is no other space in the hive. This being a New Bee is certainly one of those Learning Experiences we have hard tell about. I hate felling so stupid. Maybe in a few years I will learn. By the way, they have been making honey already, so maybe I do not have to feed them as much now. The dandy lions are starting to bloom and my apple orchard is about to pop any day now. Then there should be plenty of flowers for them to forage and I am hoping that they will at least make the summer.

[Lollykoko]

Guy, I read somewhere that dandelions are an ideal plant for bees, since they are a food source all year long. Lucky you!

[pa_friendly_guy]

Yes Lolly the Dandelion blooms are a big deal for the bees. Unfortunately most people spray their yards now and there are very few Dandelions compared to years ago. But every Bee Keeper talks about their blooms as a big deal for the bees. I think it is time for things to go into full bloom, so I think they will be OK. at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[mannytheseacow]