I Break Frames!

The crooked nail asails
the thin and splintery rails.
Fragile frames they be.

Ah me!

Pictures of my bees

Boysenberry is getting on the job training. He'll be my assistant.

My busy bees :)

This is the second package. The first package went in the night before.

These are my brandy new bee hives! I nailed them together myself-- well a couple of them anyway. My brother John finished them up while I glazed a chicken for baking.

Building Bee Houses

I purchased hive kits rather than fully assembled hives because of the cost factor. The exception I made was to buy 20 fully assembled frames from Lagrant's in Ware because I ran into a time issue when I didn't get my frame kits in time to get it all together for Bee Day.

Now I am assembling the frame kits I received a couple weeks ago. It is a little tedious, but there is a certain satisfaction that you get from assembling these parts, knowing that in the end you will have built a perfect little house.

Anyway, I've started whacking the rivets into the sides of the frames. It's a begining.

Sugar - oops.

Now that I'm thinking back, I may have made the sugar water mixture too light. Its supposed to be 1:1 and I think I did 1:2. Gosh, darn it! My poor bees are suffering! I'm so bad! I hope they forgive me.

My brothers little ditty, 'A pints a pound the world around' has been circling my head for days now. But I only just started thinking about my sugar mixture a few minutes ago. I used 5 quarts...I think. I should have used 5 pints.

Well here's hoping it won't irreparably damage them. Holy moly.

Better Late Than Never!

The well was dry when I finally got my bees their sugar water. I would have given it to them yesterday morn, but it had to cool down. I didn't want to scald their little gullets.

This morning I put on my new white jacket that I got at Walmart. I saw it in the store hanging on the rack, and it looked just perfect for the job. $28. Not bad. A whole bee suit can run into some $$. Then I put my hat and veil on, but couldn't find the gloves...oh well. Only one sting, poor bee.

Then I took my jug and salad tongs and the hive tool and went out to open the hives. It was quite chilly and I imagine the bees were not at all happy about the draft, but I think they will be happy to find their food supply restored.

I opened the first hive, filled the tank, then broke the queen cage free (the queen was out of it). Unfortunately the bees had really worked the cage into the comb structure. After it came out I found the frame had a rectangle shaped hole in the comb. I wanted to see if the queen was laying so I took a frame out to look. It was covered in bees and hard to see. I did see lots of cells partly filled with nectar and pollen, but I couldn't see eggs...and it was chilly too, so I didn't want to keep it out too long. Anyway, I put the frame back and closed up that hive and on to the next.

I was quicker with the second hive. I opened it, filled the water tank, then wiggled the queen cage free...this one came out easier. Then I closed it up again.

I know mornings aren't really the time to visit a hive, but I'm a little hampered time-wise, so I have to do it that way if its during the week.

I'll be able to take some good pictures soon. I found my old film camera and that does have a macro lens...I just need to get a battery and some film!

Sugar Water

Well, I haven't refilled the sugar water tank yet and its been 9 days. I bought sugar last night, but this morning I had an appointment and could not fulfill my beekeeping duties. I shall have to do this tomorrow morning.

Hopefully my bees will forgive me. I've been reading that bees can recognize faces. This seems far fetched. I would think they more likely recognize scents, since they seem to sniff out pheromones of fellow workers and the like. Hopefully they won't associate my scent with the massacre of several bees in my last attempt to bee friendly...by taking the cork out of the bottoms of the queen cages.

I've been making many lame bee jokes and puns lately. I hope this trait wears off after while. I'm not sure how long friends and family will tolerate the nonsense :}

I really must feed my bees though, they must be thirsty by now; although nectar is on the way. We have a fruit tree in flower in the front yard (I cant remember the species)...but there are so many to come...I wonder how they like Magnolias?-- although that's not a fruit tree, just a pretty flowering one.

Well, lets hear it for Saturday!! Its going to be 80!! The bees ought to love that.

The Queens

On the mornings of April 14 and 15 2009, I opened the hives to dig the little cork out of the ends of the queen cage.

Now I trust to luck. I was surprised that the cages were hard to pull out of the hive and found it was because the worker bees were busily attaching the cage to the foundation with beeswax. I managed to break it free using a pair of salad tongs. If I was wearing gloves I probably could have just used fingers.

Unfortunately I think I accidentally smooshed a few bees when I was trying to re-seat the frames. I don't want to look. Well, I don't really have to look for a few days. Next time I open the hives will be on a nice sunny day when many workers will be out looking for nectar and pollen. I'll use the smoker. I saw a video on youtube.com about smoking. I'll have to practice lighting the smoker this weekend. I might look on Sunday to see if the queens are out.

Now I want to take pictures of my bees, and found my current lens on my SLR lacking, I have ordered a new lens from Dell. Then I thought maybe I don't need a telephoto lens so much as a macro lens... so maybe... next week? The macro is actually cheaper than the telephoto...the two together are way outside my budget...but I would be able to take excellent pictures of my bees.