Assuming an Apiary - Bees at SPARK Elementary School

When I give talks about bees, I always begin by saying that if you ask ten beekeepers a question, you'll get at least twelve answers. Beekeeping is as much an art as it is a science, and so there are many ways to keep them.

I was asked to become the beekeeper at SPARK Elementary school - the school where my oldest grandkids have been students. So absolutely I wanted to do it. They have had bees for about three years at SPARK - and the beekeeper was an interested volunteer - not a parent or a grandparent. He just wanted to do it. But he was leaving for Army training and needed to give up his bees there.

I knew there would be differences in how we kept bees, and I agreed to meet him and the PTA president at the school in late May to get introduced to the bees there. He had two hives and a homemade observation hive. The school hives are on the rooftop of the building. It's extremely hot up there - in the 90s at least every summer day. And the sun beats down onto the hives.

Here's how they looked:

Hive #1:

Hive #2:

Note: this is from my second trip - on my first trip the hive had four boxes on it. It also had four foot tall weeds directly in front of it and a mountainous fire ant hive diagonally in front of it. The PTA worked hard between my visits to take care of the weeds and fire ants.

Hive #3:

This is a homemade "observation hive." In reality, this is a nuc hive with two deep boxes. On each side of the nuc is glass and there is no cover for the hive.

I keep my bees up off of the ground on cinder blocks, so I didn't say anything critical to him, but I knew that if I were going to be in charge of the hives, one of the first things I would do is raise the hives. They also are on solid bottom boards. 

So I went back on my own and really looked at everything. If you go back and look at Hive #1, I'd be interested in what you observe. SPOILER ALERT: I'm going to put some space in here so as not to reveal anything until you scroll back up to see what you see.

There are three things of note in Hive #1:

1. The bees are obviously in need of ventilation because they are spilled out in a dinner plate sized circle which would have been a beard if they were not on the ground.

2. The top box is coming apart, so the bees are guarding the large opening just under the top cover.

3. The top box has NO handles or cut-ins or grips of any kind to lift it.

HORRORS! 

Note also that I use only 8 frame mediums and these hives are in 10 frame deeps and shallows.

So I went alone on my second trip and realized all of the above. I couldn't get the top box which was full of honey off of the hive. All I was able to do on the second trip was to put beer caps under the top cover to give the hive a little ventilation. I also took a completely empty top box off of Hive #2 and put it on Hive #1 to give them some more circulation.

I also noticed that probably in response to my gasping comment about the observation hive: "They don't have any cover?" that the former beekeeper had draped a beach towel over the hive.

So on visit three I took Jeff, my son-in-law and strong beekeeper, the MABA hive lifter, a screened bottom board, a slatted rack, and a ten frame medium (the only one I own) which, of course, does have hand grips.

This is how the bees looked when we arrived. You can see the extra box I added and can see that it really helped with ventilation since now, although there is still a beard, the bees are not spilled all over the ground. You can see the handle-less box is splitting at each corner.

Jeff lit the smoker. You can see the extensive rooftop garden behind him.

We took the empty box off of the top and covered the exposed second box with a hive drape. We set up the metal hive lifter (on ground surrounding the hive) and moved the hive to one side. You can see the empty dirt where the hive was sitting.

Roaches were enjoying life under the hive.

 We set up the cinder blocks and put the screened bottom board (in photo) and the slatted rack (not in photo) on the cinder blocks.















We returned the old hive to its elevated position. Now to deal with the falling apart hive box.

We removed the hive frames one at a time to the yellow box I had brought. They were all filled with honey - which is great for the bees. And the box was equipped with spacers which spaced the frames so we didn't have to pry up propolis. I've never worked with a box with these spacers and it was a pleasure. I wanted to find a photo of one to show you, but the commercial companies don't appear to carry them any more. You can see the spacer (I thought it was called a rabbet) on the end of the hive box in the photo below if you click on it to enlarge it.

Actually I finally found these on Pigeon Mountain Trading Company. They are frame spacers and turn a 10 frame hive into a 9 frame one by spacing out the frames, allowing the bees to make thicker combs. 

 The former beekeeper had queen excluders on both of the full-sized hives and since the bees are used to that, I left them for now. Next year, I may remove them.

Then we put the yellow 10 frame box on top of the hive and returned the empty third box to the hive.

We walked away from the hive and suddenly I realized that the leaning board was the former bottom board. The bees were not moving into the hive - what if the queen were there? I didn't photograph, but did lean the bottom board against the hive so the nurse bees could walk in, but not before checking well to assure myself that the queen was not outside.

The next day I returned to remove the rotten bottom board and falling apart top box and the bees looked as happy as bees can look.

We'll return next week to put Hive #2 on cinder blocks with a screened bottom board and a slatted rack (if I have 10 frame stuff in my basement). And I'll put an oil cloth cover over the observation hive. There are bees in that hive but none on the outside frames which are totally exposed to light every single day.

Now THIS is a Beard

This hive started from a package that I got from Jarrett Apiaries at the beginning of bee season.

I got home in the 90 degree June (??? - feels like August) Atlanta evening and found this hive looking like:

And when I went around to the back, there were even more bees consigned to the outside of the hive!

This is a HUGE hive and I have not opened up the screened bottom board.  I haven't done that for the last two summers.  But for this hive, I may have to.

I wanted to give them room to spread out inside the hive but it was 8 PM when I got home.  So I went out and put on two empty boxes - undrawn frames - just to give them some hangout room inside the hive.  (This hive has a slatted rack at the bottom.)

I carefully moved the top to avoid upsetting the bee beard at the back and gently put those girls on the inner cover.  Still it was hard to find a handhold.  I only got stung once in this whole maneuver, though, on the ball of my thumb.  I put the two empty boxes on and closed the hive up.

One bee seemed interested in the salty sweat on my hand:

However, as night fell, the beard was hardly disturbed and no bees appeared to go inside. I expect the space needs to be distributed throughout the hive for them to take advantage of the extra boxes I gave them. 

After a hot night, the beard was only slightly smaller this morning, but there were no bees bearding at the back of the hive.  I'll put some beer caps on the inner cover to lift it up a little and that might help as well.

The nectar flow is over and it's time to harvest and make splits. I'm not certain about this hive because at Jarrett Apiaries, they use oxalic acid, so this hive may not be able to deal with varroa mite on its own.  Still, it's such a strong hive that I will make some overwintering nucs from it for the winter.  

I'll have my work cut out for me for the next couple of weekends!

The Slatted Rack and the Empty Bottom Box in Early Spring

Every spring in most of my colonies, the bees have moved up in the hive and when I open the hive for the first time, there is nothing going on in the bottom box.

I keep a slatted rack on all of my colonies and this serves at least two purposes. I say "at least" because I'm sure there are other ideas than mine on what the slatted rack does. As you can see in the photo above, the slatted rack is simply a box about 2 inches deep fitted with slats that parallel the frames in the hive boxes. If the slats parallel the frames, and if you are using a screened bottom board, varroa mites fall through the cracks and through the SBB. If the slats run 90 degrees, then the varroa mite might bounce on a slat and not fall through the SBB.

Note: the photo above is an adapted slatted rack in that the slatted rack is for a 10 frame hive and my boxes are eight frame, so I have put a board above the unused two slats and put an eight frame box above that, but ideally the slatted rack is the same size as the hive. I just hated not to use the available 10 frame and that's the only photo I could find this morning!

First the slatted rack gives the bees somewhere to hang out in the hot summer. In the heat of Atlanta summers, the slatted rack cuts down on hive bearding. The slatted rack helps keep the brood from being chilled. And secondly, because the slatted rack provides a layer between the hive entrance and the bottom box, the cold air coming in through the entrance doesn't immediately chill the brood. As a result in the brood frames, the queen often builds brood from end bar to end bar instead of the usual football shaped pattern.

In the spring in Atlanta, the nights can be pretty cool. This spring we had a particularly cool-night laden spring, with night temps often in the 40s. In my survivor hives, over the winter the bees move up in the boxes. Partly this is to orient the cluster to the food sources so they can live.

However, in every hive when I open it for spring for the first time, there is no brood in the bottom box. There are some exceptions. My nuc hive was only building brood in the bottom box but it was not on a screened bottom board and was in a solid nuc box. In the other hives the bees were up at least two boxes and the queen was building her early brood there.

While my first thought was to remove the empty box to give me the convenience of being able to clean out the old wax, I re-thought it and left the empty box on at the bottom. After all, with no bees in it and these cool nights, the empty box and the slatted rack together should give the bees more protection from the air and allow the brood to thrive.

When I consolidate the box for winter, I will remove the box and clean out the wax in the frames, but for now, I will let it act with the slatted rack as an insulator. Now that we are deep into the nectar flow, I only check my hives for the need for a new box, so I have no need to go all the way down to the bottom box. We'll see what leaving the empty bottom box on this bee season does for my hives.

The Wonder of a First Spring Opening: Bustling Bees

Last weekend (the 23rd) I opened my backyard hive for the first time.  This hive has regularly with the warmer days between our frigid January weeks brought out seemingly tons of dead.  The pile beside the hive grew mountainous on each warm day.....and I worried.

Were these bees diseased?  Why were so many being carried out dead.

Well, I got my answer when I opened the hive that went into winter in four medium eight frame boxes - there are thousands and thousands of bees in the very busy hive.

The queen had been working hard - this was one of a number of frames that were end bar to end bar filled with capped brood.  Billy Davis would say that this is medium biscuit - dark biscuit brood which means the bees will emerge really soon.  I believe she laid most of these in the week between our snows when it was still icy cold in Atlanta.

I took this photo from one end to the other to show you how close to the end bar she lays the brood.  In many hives with a slatted rack, this is often the case.  I think the slatted rack puts an obstacle between the entry and the brood, allowing the queen to use the space fully, without the brood getting chilled.

This hive had plenty of honey in reserve.  This was one of many frames.

In the top box, they were bringing in and storing new nectar.  I am not feeding these bees, nor any of my bees, but this must be from the red maple or another early blooming plant in the area.

These overwintered bees look pretty fat and pretty healthy.

If you click on this picture to view it larger, you'll notice that these are large cells.  In these cells are eggs which means that drones will be raised here.  Also you'll see a number of small hive beetles who overwintered with the bees.  Next weekend I'll put on a beetle jail or two or three.

I saw brood in all stages in all three of the lower boxes.  Interestingly, the newest eggs and larvae were in the bottom box.  In the top box where the newer wax was (the last few photos), there were some drone eggs and some newly stored nectar.  I have high hopes for this hive.

Next weekend I'll check again and will either checkerboard boxes 3 and 4 or add a new box and checkerboard boxes 3 and 4.  I don't want this strong hive to swarm and their natural inclination will be to do so, but with the eggs I saw, I expect we won't have drones flying until the third week of March, at best.  Since swarms can't happen without drones, I should have another week to spread out the space in the hive.

Sad Bee Mother Reports on a Sad Bee Event

Today I had a special time for Mother's Day with one of my daughters getting a manicure and pedicure, something I NEVER do - it was so relaxing and a really lovely experience.  But before the mani-pedi, I was rushing around checking on bees.

I checked on the bees at my house.  The package installed this year was full of honey and needed a new box.  I moved one of their drawn frames up into the new box and was happy about that one.

The drone layer hive was calm.  They had not used the frame of brood and eggs I gave them on Thursday to make queen cells, so I believe they do have a queen, but I didn't go down deep into the box.  I did give them a new box because they were also full in every box with nectar being capped.

The Patty swarm hive had not filled their most recent box, so I didn't change anything in their configuration.

I only had an hour before I needed to be ready to go with Sarah.  Over the weekend, I had heard from the Stonehurst that they had dead bees all over their driveway.  I had to be creative with my path to Stonehurst because with the gorgeous day in Atlanta, everyone was trying to drive to Piedmont Park and the inn is one block away from the park.  But when I finally got there, the bees looked healthy but didn't need another box.  I didn't see that as cause for worry because it has been so rainy - when could they have collected nectar?

So I had about fifteen minutes to stop by the Morningside garden hives on my way home.  I had an extra box with me - it's a fabulous hive and was filling itself up with honey.  I also had a ladder with me which is required for me now to get the seventh box off of the hive.

I got to the top of the hill where the bees are.  Should be a great place for bees.  There are blackberries blooming all the way down the hill and kudzu everywhere.  Not to mention the organic community garden at the foot of the hill.

A terrible smell met me as I approached the hive.  In front of the hive was a dinner plate size round of dead bees in a pile about 2 1/2 inches deep.  Thousands of dead bees rotting in the sun.  What I was smelling was dead bees.

I have corks as hive entry reducers on this hive and one of them was lying at the edge of the pile.  I wanted to throw up, but what I did was cry.

This was my best hive.  And here was a pile of dead bees the size of a swarm.

I got kind of paranoid and with the cork on the ground I thought someone had poisoned the bees - pulled out the cork and sprayed Raid or something into the hive.

But there were still bees flying in and out of the hive, crowding the entrance.

I didn't have time because Sarah was coming to pick me up for our Mother's Day fun, so, sad that I couldn't figure it out right then, I went home and went with Sarah for such a relaxing mani-pedi that I almost forgot about the death on the hill.

I couldn't quit thinking about the hive after I got home, so I called my friend Jerry Wallace who lives near me and is a great beekeeper.  He came with me to open the hive around 7 (I figured with the foragers all home, we could see how bad the damage really was).

We took every box off all the way down to the bottom, figuring that if someone had poisoned the bees, we would be able to smell the Raid in the wood of the slatted rack.  The slatted rack smelled normal, no poison residue, and I have a really good nose.  Jerry nor I could smell anything.  He pointed out that even if someone had sprayed a poison in the hive with the SBB and the slatted rack, the spray would have been deflected by the slats back through the SBB.

The most likely possibility, however, is that the bees have found a nectar source that has poison on it or in it.  They don't know the difference and are taking it in and dying.  So the hive is not out of the woods yet.  I often anthropomorphize my bees, attributing wisdom and emotion to them.  The fact of the matter is that they signal each other about nectar sources but aren't wise enough to notice that each bee who goes to that source comes back and dies in front of the hive.  The bees may not yet stop collecting from the poison source.

Meanwhile there are at least two full boxes of honey in the hive and still thousands of bees - it's like a very strong hive after a swarm when you can hardly tell the hive swarmed because so many bees are still there.

So maybe there's hope for the future.   Maybe they will switch to another nectar source.  Maybe all is not lost and the Mother's Day Event may turn out better than I think.

What a difference a Slatted Rack Makes!

Yesterday Lenox Pointe looked like this at the end of the day. Bees were hanging off the entry and lined up on the sides. Although you can't see it in this photo, there is about a 3 inch wide row of bees around the corner on the shaded side of the hive.  It's about 90 degrees.



Last night while sorting bee equipment in the basement, I found to my astonishment that I had another 8 frame slatted rack. I pulled out the blue paint and painted it as well as a few hive boxes in need of new paint.

This morning before I went to work, I added the slatted rack to Lenox Pointe. Now at night tonight around 9 PM, the photo below is what the hive looks like. Many fewer bees are hanging out on the entry. If you compare the two photos, you can see the raised area at the bottom of the deep box that is the slatted rack, missing in the upper photo.

Bees in South Georgia are Doing Well

These hives have been installed as packages for about six weeks now. They've been through a heavy windstorm in their second week with tops blown off. Last Wednesday in Georgia we had devastating tornadoes and heavy winds. We've had to rubber band in errant comb and deal with queens who died (probably were balled by the bees) as a result of the storms when the hive tops blew off of several hives.

No end of problems, but the bees are still going.

We did lose one hive who absconded the first week, but other than that all hives have bees.



I passed tornado damage in Griffin, GA as I drove down.



Damage was on both sides of the highway.



Our hives were not affected - the tornado missed the farm. One hive appeared to have opened queen cells - or maybe queen cups but the ragged edges looked like a queen had emerged. A new queen may not be laying yet.  Even though there was no sign of a queen in this calm hive, we gave it a frame of eggs just to make sure.



Jeff got really good at spotting eggs - he also worked on how to hold the hive tool so that he didn't have to keep putting it away while he worked. These guys are getting to be good beekeepers.



Greg applied powdered sugar with my new toy to the hives that were in the best shape.



Most of the hives had lovely frames of brood that looked like this.



I'm not reporting extensively on these hives here because we take SO many pictures as a record of what we are doing down there. But I will keep all of you who are interested updated with an overview when we go down and check on the bees.



We did add a slatted rack to every hive. The Georgia days are getting warmer and we want the bees to use their energy in some other way than keeping the hive cool. The slatted rack helps with ventilation.

These have been back-ordered from Betterbee since February 23 - they finally came this past Thursday (April 29) - who knew there would be a run on slatted racks this year? I actually don't know too many beekeepers who use them and who need the 8 frame version, as we did.

(Our private theory is that Betterbee forgot my order. I wrote them an email last week to inquire about the two month old backorder and suddenly the order showed up this week.)

Bee Discouraged

This is turning out to be a discouraging bee year.

• First I get this gorgeous swarm from my friend Gina and install it into the top bar hive only to find that they didn't like the accommodations and took off for parts unknown.

• Then I opened my Aristaeus2 hive to find that the lovely queen that was there three weeks previous (photographed, no less) is apparently no more and there is NO BROOD, implying a queenless hive.

• Yesterday I transferred the L Hive to a new hive box and, where there was the prettiest brood I have ever seen on March 27, now there is absolutely NO BROOD.

• I opened the hive at Blue Heron (from the Jennifer Berry nuc) yesterday to add a super. It looks great but I got an email from Jennifer today saying that because of the great bloom we are having, I should expect that hive to swarm.

I transferred the L Hive to a new home, cleaner and in better shape than the one in which they were housed.

I am glad I transferred the L Hive, even in its no-brood state. In the original box, the screened bottom board was closed up with an old sticky board and in the space between the screen and the board lived an ant colony of large winged ants. No air was coming into the hive, thus the immense beards that I have been seeing.


I gave this hive a screened bottom board that is wide open; I put on a slatted rack; and I moved them into 8 frame boxes.



I also looked at every frame because since I was downsizing them to 8 frames, I had to choose to leave out two frames from each box. I of course shook and brushed all bees off of each of the rejected frames.  There was no evidence of a living queen.



So here it sits in its new digs, in all its queenless glory, soon to die out if I don't find a solution to the problem.



OK, so I tried to think positively about this hive and all its problems.

• It's possible that there is still a queen in this hive but she quit laying because of bad conditions....hmmm, not too likely. 
• It's possible that she was killed in the move - a lot of bees were killed in this hive when we attempted to close the entry with screened wire previous to moving them. And a catastrophe can happen when you move a hive with frames sliding and the hive parts moving.
• We moved that hive on the 26th of March.  I found beautiful brood on April 4.  Now on April 10, all of that brood has emerged and there's no new brood.  This would imply with 21 days to emerge, that the queen probably died on moving day.
• It's also possible that the bees, angry with the queen for the disruption after four years of peaceful, undisturbed, albeit poor, living conditions, balled the queen and killed her after the move.

The obvious solution would be to add a frame of brood from another hive and allow the L Hive to make a new queen. But I currently don't have good resources to do that.  Mellona, my one ongoing hive, has only two frames of brood and eggs in it at the moment - the brood is about the size of a coffee saucer and while I did see eggs yesterday, I can't take one of only two frames of brood out of that hive. I took a similar frame out of that hive last week for Aristaeus2.

I haven't inspected the swarm that moved into Bermuda. They've been there just a week at this point. I added a super to them yesterday but didn't explore for brood. I could go deeper into that hive and steal brood from them. I'm a little burned from the swarm leaving the top bar hive and don't want to make these bees want to go away.

I also could inspect the hive at Blue Heron. Yesterday I only added a box to them and didn't go into the brood box. Perhaps I could get some brood from them and see if they have swarm cells at the same time, since Jennifer emailed this moring that I would probably find that. I am also cautious about doing that because I have to open up that hive on Tuesday for a boy scout troop and don't want to disturb them every two seconds.

On Friday, I called and emailed a N Georgia beekeeper in Ball Ground, whom I understand is the only person still selling packages, to see if I could buy two packages from him to fill my top bar hive and the hive I am supposed to install in Rabun County. I've now heard back from him that he doesn't have bees available any more and no possible queens until after April 20.

As I reread this sad post, I think today that I will inspect the brood box of the swarm hive and if I can, I'll take a frame of brood and eggs from it to add to the L Hive.  I'll not disturb the Jennifer hive at Blue Heron until I open it on Tuesday, but if I find swarm cells or a brood frame to spare, I'll take it and move it to either L or Aristaeus2. I'm on the swarm call list for Metro along with tons of other people, but maybe I'll get a swarm call for the top bar hive.  Sometimes I get a call from someone in Atlanta because they find this blog and call me......however,

I "bee" discouraged.

Hive Transformation - the Resurgence of a Dead Hive

Now I know for sure. A swarm moved into Bermuda on Sunday, Easter, morning. It is the rebirth of the hive on a significant day. I took these pictures at dusk with a flash and you can see that the bees have taken possession of this hive. How exciting this is!

Every time I leave old equipment out around my house a swarm moves into it. My second year of beekeeping a small swarm moved into a hive box that was sitting on its side on my deck. The next year a swarm moved into a nuc box that was sitting in my carport. This year a swarm moved into Bermuda and appears to be happy there.

I might put out another empty hive set up with some old drawn comb in it and see if that garners me yet another hive!



Another dusk view of the entry way.

Meanwhile the L Hive is desperate for my attention. They are bearding and even with the new yellow box (which is pretty much full of empty frames) they are so crowded that they are hanging out and festooning off of the landing to keep the hive from being too hot indoors.



I can't wait to put a slatted rack on on Thursday and take an "after" picture.

Of course, Thursday is an iffy proposition.

I have been called for jury duty that day and am on the call list. I get to call in the night before to see if I actually have to serve. The last time I was called for jury duty a couple of years ago, I did have to go in, so I'm hoping my chances are good that I won't have to go on Thursday. I cleared my books because it was highly likely I would be out of the office. However, if I am home instead, then it's a beekeeping day, for sure.