Category: Beekeeping

So it’s official, I’m now a beekeeper. About 11:00 a.m. I picked up my honeybees from the local Post Office.

 

A few weeks ago, I’d already found the perfect spot. Shade most of the day and the sun peeks in on part of the hive in the mid afternoon. Also, there’s honeysuckle in the undergrowth behind the hive and my does it have the area smelling sweet.

 

Since I was waiting to take my Warre Hive outside, the honeybees didn’t arrive in the hive immediately. Instead, I found a shaded spot to rest my honeybee package while I got their area ready. My daughter and I were fascinated with the honeybees. In the above photo I’d sprayed them with sugar water and was watching them use their little tongues to clean the sugar water off themselves and each other. 🙂

It took about three hours to get the Warre hive situated.  I had to dig up dirt that also had several roots/clay mixed in to make the task more challenging. After that was finished, I flattened the dirt to make it firm.  The leveler showed me that the hive was now level, I also made drainage tunnels since that rainwater would not well up around the hive. Much thanks to my father who lent a hand, if it weren’t for him this process would have taken much longer.

Installing the honeybees into their Warre Hive

After donning my bee suit, I lightly sprayed them with sugar water and shook the package honeybees to make sure they fell into the bottom. I really didn’t need to spray them with sugar water. Michael Bush, suggests that this isn’t needed. Next time, I’ll install the honeybees without and see what happens.

 

I removed the feeding can that was included with the package honeybees and also grabbed the queens cage. What you can’t see in the above picture, are the queens attendants. There were four in the cage, one was dead. I removed the plug and replaced it with a marshmallow, and then placed it into the Warre hive.

 

Since I now had the hive area  just the way I wanted, it was time to install the honeybees.

 

 

 

And I must say the installation was easy. I shook them out into the Warre hive a few buzzed around me. It’s hard to describe the feeling, seeing and hearing a living vibrant community of 10,000 – 12,000 honeybees buzzing about you, it was almost zen-like and a tad bit intimidating for a first time beekeeper but I remained calm. I’ve seen numerous videos and know this usually isn’t a big deal, and I was right. I had a few that buzzed and landed on me, they flew away after they were satisfied. Perhaps they were thanking me for releasing them from their tiny prison?

Afterwards my daughter and I hung out with the honeybees for at least three hours. About an hour ago, I strolled out to the hive and was pleased to see that they were doing well. There was only about twenty honeybees outside. I walked up to the hive, without a bee suit, and hung out with them for a while. I’m one happy beekeeper.

Here’s hoping my honeybees decide to stay.

Earlier this morning, I received  a call from the US Postal office that my honeybees have finally arrived. I don’t have any pictures since I haven’t picked them up from the Post Office.

I’ll be getting them around 11:00 a.m EST. Hopefully, I’ll be able to post pictures sometime today. My daughter is almost as excited as myself. I’ll be picking her up from school early, so she can accompany me when I get the honeybees. She begged to come along.

I held off setting my Warre Beehive outside, but I’ll be doing that once I return home. I ordered my honeybees from, Draper Bees I called them yesterday. One of the owners (the son) chatted with me a while and told me that if I have any questions to give them a call.

Next year, If I do have to purchase honeybees, it’ll be local however if you do have to order package honeybees I have no problem recommending Draper honeybees. Their customer service is excellent and they’ve done an amazing job keeping their customers updated through emails and posts on their Facebook page.

If you can hear pacing, that’s me waiting on my honeybees. This weekend, much to my disappointment my honeybees didn’t arrive. You really shouldn’t be surprised, because if they had arrived one of the first photos you’d have seen this morning were my honeybees. According to my supplier, I should receive them early this week.

The good news is, I have everything ready for my honeybees, the few last minute items needed have been acquired and so now the waiting begins…
(drums fingers impatiently.)

I have to give a shout out to Roger Williams, president of the Central Maryland Beekeepers Association. He’s always responded to the emails I’ve sent to him. He’s always giving me additional information that has been extremely helpful. While he’s not technically my bee mentor, I consider him to be one because of all the helpful advice I’ve received from him! Thanks Roger, for helping this new beekeeper feel at ease.

Once, I get to the level where I have a lot of hands on beekeeping experience I’ll definitely volunteer to help out a new beekeeper. The thing is, if you’re going to volunteer to be a mentor, you really should do that. If you don’t want to, don’t offer to be a mentor.

Part of my fascination with honeybees, like many of God’s creatures, is their intelligence…

Sure they’re tireless workers which is evident with the myriad of tasks that go into keeping a hive healthy and functional but they also use a variety of strategies to handle potential robbers. Sometimes they’re effective in keeping out uninvited guests by ruthlessly shutting down these potential thieves and other times they aren’t as fortunate.

 

Below is an interesting video of how the Asian honeybees tackle a much bigger visitor, the Japanese giant hornet.

 

And while it might not seem like such a big deal, since it’s only one hornet, you have to remember the hornet is much larger than these honeybees. One hornet can kill forty European honeybees in minutes. If they round up a few other hornets they could easily wipe out an entire honeybee colony

Which is evidenced in the above video, 30 giant hornets took out an entire honeybee hive. If it’s an established hive, that’s about 40,000 honeybees. Yep, hornets are no joke. They are ruthless killers in the insect world.

Above, you can watch the same video of hornets attacking the honeybees — but with “epic music.”

I’ve already known about the potential hive robbing, more than bears will attack a honeybee hive. I’m just sharing here since I find it fascinating.  Having your honeybee hive(s) wiped out is definitely not something you want to experience as a beekeeper. So it’s important to take precautions (although that doesn’t guarantee your hive(s) won’t be destroyed.  Part of my preventative maintenance is installing the  top bar feeders inside the beehive. Additionally entrance reducers have been placed to narrow the opening into the hive. I’m giving my honeybees every chance they can get to ward of potential risks to their hive.

A few years ago, I started seeing Japanese giant hornets in Maryland. No, they aren’t cicada killer wasps, I know exactly what they look like. We have those also. These were different than any hornets I’d seen in these parts and after a lot of research I was able to identify them as Japanese giant hornets. Earlier this week, I was bitten by fire ants in our garden. While I’ve seen (And felt their painful bite) while in South Carolina, I’ve never seen them here until now.

More news on my honeybees

My bee supplier updated their Facebook page, most people should receive their honeybees either today or tomorrow. And a few people will be getting their early next week. Here’s hoping I get them this weekend! I already told my daughter, if I get the call today, she can leave school early to watch me install the honeybees. I already informed her teacher about this and she seems excited for my daughter.

Slightly off topic

My daughter has done very well this semester. It looks like she will receive straight A’s. Which means she’ll have received honor roll every single quarter. She recently turned ten years old, I  can’t always expect her to  to study independently. Which is why I’m there to assist her, if needed, and help her understand difficult concepts.

My honeybees arrive sometime this week. It’s a new experience for me and it can be overwhelming since I haven’t managed a beehive before but I do believe I’m prepared. I do have the knowledge about honeybees from the vast amounts of reading/research I’ve done on them over the years but that’s still not the same as having my own honeybees, you know?

The list of things that need to be done before the honeybees arrive is small. One thing I didn’t buy was long gloves, I’ve decided to make my own and will sew them after work today. This past weekend I waterproofed the outside of the hive with a clear oil based paint. Today is supposed to get into the high 80’s F so I’ll be painting the inside of the hive with the organic beeswax that I’d purchased. Of course, I’ll have to melt it first!

Tuesday, I finally put together my Warre hive. It was also my daughter’s birthday we chatted as she rotated between drawing with her new Bamboo Splash tablet and playing with her adorable knitted doll.

She seemed quite fascinated with the entire Warre hive construction process and for some reason was particularly loved seeing me use the right angle clamps to make the Warre boxes. I can’t say how long it took to finish the hive, perhaps a few hours. It would have gone much faster if I wasn’t socializing with my daughter but I wouldn’t change that aspect since it made a wonderful experience even more enjoyable.

 

This Warre hive has an observation window, once I take it outside, I’ll be sure to post pictures of how that appears. Tomorrow, if the weather is nice, I’ll paint the outside of the hive with some exterior paint. Initially I was leaning towards linseed (aka flaxeed oil) but from my reading that can take months to cure. I don’t have months, the honeybees can arrive as early as next week.

I’m a bit concerned with the lateness of the honeybess arrival, most honeybee packages appear in early April. However, the unseasonably cool weather we’ve been experiencing in Maryland has delayed shipment for many bee package supplies. I’m prepared to feed my honeybees for a while, if necessary, to ensure they do well. Last month, I purchased a top bar feeder for my honeybees and once the bees arrive, I’ll set them up with a 1:1 mixture of raw cane sugar and water. The placement of the Warre hive might change. I’m now thinking of either placing it inside our fenced in garden, it’s about 3/4 of an acre or setting it alongside our grapevine.

Before too long, my honeybees will arrive and I’ll be a beekeeper. Hopefully the honeybees will stick around so I can share some of my newbie adventures in beekeeping.

You know what? I still haven’t assembled my beehive. I decided to hold off a bit longer until I purchased some Right Angle clamps. Right angle clamps make box making much easier.

 

After a bit of research I decided to purchase the Wolfcraft 3415405 Right Angle Clamp. I purchased two, I should receive them this Wednesday. This time around, I decided to forgo the raw linseed (aka flaxeed oil) instead I’ll use an oil based waterproof paint on the outside of the hive.  The inside of the hive, I don’t have to worry about since honeybees do an excellent job of waterproofing thanks to the propolis the honeybees collect from certain trees. Once the bees take it to the hive, the propolis is mixed with beeswax and the bees saliva to make it more malleable. They use it to waterproof and fill in gaps which will hopefully deter predators from gaining entrance into the hive.

 

I did purchase two pounds of organic beeswax to “paint” the inside of my Warre beehive. I mainly purchased that to make the new home appealing to the honeybees. Hopefully they’ll be happy with their new surroundings and make it their permanent home.

Fun Fact: My aunt told me that my great grandfather kept honeybees. She also said that he didn’t wear a bee suit.