Keeping Bees

[mannytheseacow]

Oh I'm the worst guy to give advice on bee keeping! For one I lost mine so what do I know, and for two I'm a really low (no) input kind of guy. I figure if they need me babying them then the heck with them I don't want them.

Honestly, I'd say do it once and do it right. But in your case take what you can get, especially the first year when you're goin to be learning a lot and then put in a good queen next year. I don't think it's necessary to requeen every year though.

[pa_friendly_guy]

I painted my boxes yesterday, going to put a 2nd coat on today. This morning I finally got through to the old guy that is getting the bees for us and put in my order. He drives down south some place to get the bees, they will be in Freedom Pa on April 9th. That is about an hour from me and I have to go get them. That is better than my sons guy who is in Brookville Pa about 2 hours from my place. I have not joined the local Bee Keepers Association yet but I plan to, it only cost $10 and I think they will have a lot of help for a New Bee like me. It costs $10 in Pa to register your apiary no matter how many hives you own. So my one hive costs the same $10 as someone who owns 100 hives would pay. I guess the Hobbyist can help subsidize the commercial produces a bit. There are currently 40,000 registered bee keepers here in Pa, that number is down from 80,000 just a few years ago. That says a lot about the decline of the honey bee and what is going on around the country.

[matt walker]

Good news that you've got the bees on order Guy. I'm getting excited just reading along with you. I think I may have to get in on this before too long. Can't wait to see the hives out on the hill!

[mannytheseacow]

The state inspector came out today and said it was most likely an issue of poor ventilation and a hard winter. She recommended a better location for my hive and gave me some other tips. She took a sample of bees and a sample of comb to send away for tests. She said there was an odor to the hive but she suspected it to be mold, but they're going to test for foul-brood anyway. Lots of bees in there, lots of honey left, and lots of eggs indicating a good queen. Just too cold and damp for them to make it through the winter.

She also said that we've got about 3 years left to make the bee population rebound in this country or the S*** is going to hit the fan.

Oh, and there was that other thread that Graham posted the other day about the TED talk... the hive inspector recommended a TED talk by Marla Spivak at the University of Minnesota-- she said it's the real facts and none of the conspiracty-scare tactic stuff that sometimes appears in the mass media. I haven't had a chance to park my duff in front of the screen and watch it yet; maybe tonight:

[pa_friendly_guy]

I talked with a friend of mine today about his Bees. He lost about 1/2 is colonies this winter, but expects to have about 20 going into the spring. He is into Bees big time. He traps bees as well as raising some of his own queens to replenish his colonies. I need some bees wax to coat my frames and he said he had what I needed no problem, it would take him a day or two to round it up for me. That is one thing I really like about Bee Keepers, they are all ready to help you and give you pointers. As a New Bee I need all the help and pointers I can get. I was in Pittsburgh this weekend and stopped at a friends home in Squirrel Hill who is getting her 1st hive this spring. She has a flat roof on their home with a raised bed garden, solar panels and now she will have a Bee Hive up there. She was a bit worried about one of her neighbors complaining so she went with Italian Bees because she was told they are the calmest least aggressive type. In her kitchen she must have had 10 books on keeping bees. For a functional illiterate like me I was impressed. She is trying to practice permaculture on an in town lot, similar to what Boo is doing with her place. I am sure that she and I will be able to help each other from time to time. Now my boxes are all painted with 2 coats of paint, the bees are ordered and will be here April 9th and now I have the wax I needed to coat the plastic frames that will give the bees a good start. I am set.

PS Did I mention that I am excited !!!

[pa_friendly_guy]

I drove to Freedom Pa today to pick up my Bees. It is about an hour from my home. The fellow had driven down south some where with a large U-Haul type box van and gotten a whole load of them. I mean that truck was full of bee boxes all stacked up in rows. When I got there and gave them my name they pulled a box down off the pile and said here you are. They asked if I wanted to see if the queen was living and I thought that might be a good idea to check that before I left. So the old white guy, [ Long time bee keepers are all old white guys, I don't know why, there are a lot of woman keeping bees now, but apparently that was not the case 25 years ago. ] asked me if I knew what I was doing, or if I had ever done this before, I told him No, I was a New Bee. So he asked what type of feeder I was going to use, I told him a Frame feeder. They suck he told me in no uncertain terms, I should have bought a Quail Feeder, they work much better. I told him that I had gotten a quail feeder at the seminar I attended last Feb but I had given it to my son. You were too generous he told me. Then he told me how to heat to feed or the bees won't eat it. He seemed farly gruff to me and after I had taken just about all the insults from him that I felt was appropriate for a new bee like me I left with my bees. The ride home was uneventful, when I got home I put the bees in the garage and went to my Rotary Meeting for lunch and a fine program. When I got home I heated the syrup I had made to 105* got a nail to punch out the queen cage hole for her to get out and got some little marshmallows to plug the queens hole after I had opened it up. The rest of the stuff I had laid out yesterday and it was all ready to go. My son had called me last night and he is going to Hive his bees this Friday, he said he was not going to wear a vale or his bee suit I had given him or even his gloves. He felt that boxed bees like we were getting are very easy to work with and protective equipment was not needed. After our talk I thought to my self, maybe he was right, maybe I do not need to worry too much about Hiving my bees tomorrow, maybe it will be easy. So I put on the gloves but did not wear a hat or vale, I do not own a bee suit, and I decided that the transfer from the box to the hive was going to be quick so I did not fire up the smoker. What I am about to describe will be one of those Learning Experiences we have talked about in the past. There is a hole at the top of the box the bees come in, it is it contains a tin can full of feed for the bees while they are in transit, the tin can is cover with a very thin piece of wood that is stapled down to hold the bees in. The queen bee is in her own box attached by a plastic strap that is also stapled down to the box. Now what I Wanted to do was to remove the staples, remove the tin can, get the queen box free and turn the box over so the hole was down and the bees could not get out. Then I Wanted to remove the candy plug holding the queen, replace it with the small marshmellow and place her into the hive between the frames. After she would be secure in the hive I Wanted to take the box of bees and dump them into the hive on top of the queen, close up the box, done, easy peasy. Now what actually happened, I pried off the wood, saw the staple hold the yellow strap, pried it off too. Now I wanted to remove the tin can, after several tries I got it out of the opening in the box. At this point the box with the queen inside slid down into the bee box because I had removed the staple that was holding it. Oh Poop ! ! ! I had to get her out of there. So I stuck my hand down into the bees to get the queen, this action seemed to piss them off something awful. As you will recall I decided to follow my sons idea and had not put on my Vail or hat. The bees started to sting me right off, it hurt less than I remembered it hurting as a kid, but stull after about ten bee stings [ That is not a very good count , after you are stung repeatedly you tend to lose count pretty quickly. ] I got the queen box and put it on top of the bee hive frames and started to run and wave my hands wildly to get the bees off me. After running some distance from the hive the bees were surprisingly still after me, I had on a dark blue coat so maybe I looked like a Bear to them, or maybe they were just pissed off about being in that box for so long. At this point I ran to the house, got my hat and Vail and went back to get the rest of the bees into the hive. At this point the bees were still primarily inside the box they came in. Now armed with my proper protective gear I tried to start the smoker, after several failed attempts I pretty much just gave up on the smoker and went back to save my bees and get them into their hive. I got the nail and punched out the queen opening in her box, then the bees started to sting me again. I apparently had not put my hat on correctly and they were stinging the back of my neck. To make matters worse a bee had gotten inside my Vail and I figured he only had one thing he could do, and that was to sting me in the face, because he certainly could not get out of there by himself. So again a take off a running waving my arms, and this time I had to get my hat off. As I swung my arms wildly to get the bees off my head I broke my glasses, well I broke the screw holding them together and a lens dropped out. It landed inside my hat so I did not loose the lens. I had been stung maybe 5 more time for a total of at least 15 now. After re-adjusting my equipment and regaining some of my nerve I went back in again. This time I shook the bees out of the box and into the hive, I had replaced the 2nd supper by then so they just fell in, I put the feeder in and put the lid on. A lot of bees were still in the box, or on the side of the hive because the escaped the box . After waiting for them to calm down a bit I when back in, I had to remove the top, remove the inter cover, remove the upper supper, so I could get to the lower supper and check the queen. After I saw that her box looked like it was pointing in the right direction so she could get out, I replaced the upper supper, put the feeder back in, and placed the bee box inside the hive . Then simply replaced the inter cover and the top and I was done. See, its just that simple to hive a box load of bees, just as simple as that. I went to visit the neighbor later in the day, he said I still had several stingers in my face. I reached over to help me remove them but I stopped him. Then you squeeze a stinger it just pumps more poison into your body. The way to remove them is with a knife, you get under them and flick them out. I got his knife and removed them for me, I couldn't see to do the job myself. What have I learned from this experience,,,,,,,,,,,,,Don't Listen to My Son !!!!!!!!!!!

[mannytheseacow]

Geez, Guy! Sounds like you had one hell of a learning experience!! Try the smoker next time. They are very valuable tools to calm those little bastards down.

[matt walker]

[pa_friendly_guy]

That vicarious learning is OK Matt, but nothing beats hands-on learning, I can certainly tell you that when I help my son Hive his bees Friday afternoon I will be able to do a MUCH better job. I know where I made my mistakes, I know what has to change, and there will be 2 sets of hands to get the job done. Besides the fact that its starting to get warmer at night for the next several days so he can spray the bees with water so thy can't fly. I was reluctant to do that because it was cold last night and I did not want to wet the bees and make then survive a cold night. Generally water an bees do not mix.

[pa_friendly_guy]

By the way, I was telling my bee story to some friends and the one friend said it s like Bee Keeping with The Three Stooges. I have to say that I agreed with him. I almost wish I had a video of that fiasco. It was Murphy's Law taken to its ultimately absurd conclusion. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong, and at the worst possible moment.