I'm no expert, so I asked for directions

So just what I said! I am at a loss. After my last post I was stung two more times, once right in the face! Luckily I the reaction wasn't as bad as my leg. I have one sting on my arm right now that is very itchy! It's been really really hot here, and my bees have been very aggressive. I am just too new at this to know what to do, I'm still feeding them, as they are still taking the food. I don't know the level of flow right now here, I have a huge garden and berry bushes, all blooming, but pollen is not nectar! I just don't know! I'm way too green! I belong to a couple of bee keeping boards, one of which is http://www.beesource.com I put out a call for some info. I got a lot! Whew! I also put in a call to Tim, who I got my bees from, as I know if anyone knows, he will know about MY bees. He gave me some great advice! So, things are gonna change around here with the bees.
Here's what I learned today.
1) They could be more aggressive because the queen is dead. (I don't think this is the case, but need to do a full inspection to check for day old larvae)
2) They could be agitated because of predators, again, don't think so because I have 3 cats in the back yard, who keep out visitors, I have also seen no evidence of anything messing with the hive, even though I have vented it.
3) I NEED TO SMOKE MY BEES! I didn't want to, but let's face it, the a'natural way isn't really working out
4) Smoking the bees won't hurt them
5) I need a top feeder, the front feeder is too hard to deal with and they keep "glueing" it to the hive with propolis
6) I need to work my bees during the day, during the heat of the day when most of them are out foraging
7) being a little afraid is HEALTHY!
8) I will likely wear more protection, ie, pants when I work the hive
9) my hive has doubled (at least!) in size and it was easier to work when it was half the size, so I was more "confident" now, I need to learn more!
10) I probably should join a bee club, although I'm not that social....

So that's what I learned today. I need to do an inspection, but before I do I ordered a smoker and some new vented gloves. Likely I will also get a new white jacket for working the hive, as my white one now is just worn out and the zipper is shot, I've been wearing my light green one, but I am not sure the bees love the bright colors. It's a learning process!
After I inspect the hive I will give Tim a call back and discuss some findings with him, I shall report back.
I have to admit, I feel somewhat defeated that I couldn't do it all by myself, but I realize that I am learning and everyone needs help! I want to do right by my bees and make sure that my hive thrives, so I won't be afraid to ask for help! In the meantime, here is a picture of my hive last night, it's clear my bees are HOT this is an example of bearding. They were dripping out of the hive. Actually, pretty cool.

I'll keep ya posted!

That stings!

     As a new bee keeper one of the things you worry about is getting stung of course. I've been stung a total of 6 times since I've had my hive, and one of them was simply because I sat on a bee while going out to watch my hive. I normally just sit on a little bench out there by the hive and watch. I call it getting lost in the bees. It's very soothing and meditative. Since that time however, I've been more careful to look before I plant my butt...even though it was my upper leg that got stung!


     A special consideration in our house is that my husband thought he was allergic to bees, or he used to be, he hasn't been stung in a long time. He used to carry an Epi-pen because he was so alergic. Of course prior to getting a hive, I read everything book under the sun, and every one says the same thing. NOT JUST THE BEEKEEPER WILL GET STUNG! We discussed and decided it was a risk we could take, with some precautions. He stays away from the hive for one, and for another we have an epi-pen. We've had the hive for about a month and a half almost two now, and until last night I was the only one who's been stung.


     Normally, when I get stung it's like a mosquito bite on crack. I'm not gonna lie and say it feels like a massage, but it's not so painful I can't stand it either. I was stung the last time I did an inspection about a week ago. I don't know if I got an especially toxic (to me) bee or what! It took me a bit longer to remove the stinger since I had on a hoodie that covered my glove tops, so I had to whip off a glove and remove the stinger, which I did. It was less than a minute, not too shabby. I also washed it and put some baking soda on the site, it didn't hurt more than normal, so I went about my business. Shortly after I was done with the hive I felt like my leg was on fire and noticed I was swelled up around the sting site about the size of a half dollar. Not too unusual.

it's a little hard to see how bad it was swollen 

The next day I was swelled the size of my palm and MAN O MAN did I itch! It kept swelling for another day, finally ending up the size of my palm around and a good half inch above my skin! Oy! The picture here is my sting the second day. On the 3rd day it was pretty much the same, even though I'd taken some Benadryl. On the 4th day it went down, but still itched, although not as bad. It's still itching today, although not as much.


     Jump to last night. It's been super hot here in CO, record breaking days of heat for Denver. We live in a modest home, with no air, so it's a fan in the window! Our bedroom faces the back of the house, were the hive is. We were laying in bed watching television before we zonked out, and out of the blue my husband jumped out of bed like he's been stung... which as it turns out he had been! At first I was convinced it was a wasp, because the stinger didn't look like a bee at all! Forgive the graphic nature here, but there were no entrails, only a hard spiky singer. However, we couldn't find a bee, a wasp etc.. in the room, only then did I find half a bee on my side of the room, on the floor. It didn't look like a bee who'd just stung, it looked like a bee that had been cut in half, but was still alive. My husband, was stung on the foot, near the ankle. He didn't seem to have any issues, no breathing problems, no swelling, nothing. As a precaution we gave him a dose of benadryl but all it did was make him sleepy. I'm relieved that he didn't have a reaction! I'm not wholly convinced it was a bee sting.

Geddy Images, off the web I didn't take this! 

Since I've been keeping the bees I've been asked a dozen times, aren't you afraid of being stung? YES! it hurts! I doesn't feel terrific, and the last time sort of freaked me out with the swelling. I am a bit worried that perhaps I have developed an allergy myself. This is one reason I'm not working the hive again until someone is home with me.  I was more afraid of my husband being stung and thankfully he is fine, but if you are following along and maybe thinking of keeping bees, I thought perhaps I'd answer the question of what a sting feels like, what it looks like etc... I hope you find this helpful!

Just a look at the hive today.

Do a little song, do a little dance get down tonight! A look at my hive today from the "bee's eye view"
(yes, Daddy got a new toy a GoPro, so we will have some fun vids!)

Enjoy! Happy Father's day!

What's all the buzz?

     Whew, so it's been fairly hot here in Colorful Colorado! I've seem some bearding on my hive, not extensive but enough that I can recognize this behavior from my reading. I like to sit to the side of my hive on a little rolling bench I have installed there to watch the bees daily. I think it's one of the most relaxing activities I've ever found in my life. I have mentioned before that I like to watch them fly in with yellow or white pollen sometimes they just sit on the edge of the entrance and just flap their wings for all they are worth, it makes a really relaxing sound! The quiet buzz that emanates from the hive while I sit and watch is very soothing. It's made about 10X better because my cats seem to have no fear of the hive, they just cozy up to me while I'm watching and curl up and purr, so it's a double dip in the relaxation bucket!

     Tonight, it's a bit cooler, but still fairly warm. I have been putting off opening the hive since I replaced the second super, I had taken it back off after I felt I was a little premature in putting it on the first time. It's been on about 7 days now again. I had been putting off opening the hive a bit because really, bees do what bees do, so who am I to open up the hive and disrupt their work? However, the past few times I've fed them I've had to wiggle the feeder off the front of the hive because it's been "glued' to the hive with propolis. I was a little concerned about what I'd find when I opened the hive! I wasn't disappointed! Boy, those girls have been working their stingers off! Well, at least one of them did because I did get a sting tonight. I guess all things considered not too bad. The brood box on the bottom is FULL and I don't mean like halfway, it's doggone stuffed with bees! The comb is totally drawn out, a TON of capped cells, lots of larvae, and bees! Just check out these pics! The two boxes were glued together and a lot of comb between them. I cleaned it up, much to the chagrin of the bees. They seemed to get a little riled up, and I'd step back. As usual for me, I didn't use smoke and I didn't use sugar spray. I just had on my normal shorts, hoodie, gloves, veil and just my garden shoes. I got one sting on my upper leg, right were I stood up against the brood box. I have noticed my bees being a bit more aggressive the past few days, I think it is the heat.

     Once I had the bottom brood box checked and cleaned up, I went for the top box. I checked the frames inside, there are just a few frames with comb starting, it's clearly just in it's start phase, which maybe why my bees are eating an entire jar of food per day of 1:1 ratio sugar syrup. I feel like I'm just going through it like wildfire! I have to take a trip to Sam's tomorrow to buy a second 25 bag of sugar. I may just pick up two so I won't have to make another trip anytime soon. As I mentioned I have noticed my bees being a bit aggressive. I put this down to hot days, which is why I choose to work my hive in the evening, when it's getting cool for the night. They were not too aggressive tonight. I am happy with the fact that I cleaned up the hive

Christopher, my son, the honey hound. Robbing the bees way too soon! 

 *don't be concerned, it's just a burr comb!

   
   

Inspection time!

It's been a week or so, and it's time to open the hive & see what the girls are up to. It's been pretty hot here and we've had some wicked hail along the way as well. My hive has some hail damage on the telescopic cover, as it's got a tin cover. Bees did fine, but the hive did get some dents and dings on the top. (see pic)
The wood wasn't damaged on the hive itself and the bees are fine!

It was was time to check out the inside of the hive, on my weekly inspection. My Husband and youngest son were on-hand as I did the inspection.

I have opted to wear shorts for my dealings with the open hive since it's less likely I'm going to get stung, it seems the couple times I have on my legs it's been because I've had a crawling bee up my jeans. I could probably tuck my jeans into my boots but it's been quite hot, and it's just easier to wear shorts.

I have been wearing a hoodie, my veil and gloves for inspections, for routine maintenance stuff, like feeding I don't do that.

So, after pulling one of the frames to make room, I set the removed frame off to the side on top of a box so that it wouldn't touch the ground. The frame I pulled first was almost all drawn out with comb, I could see the larvae, the capped cells and LOTS of bees! I scooted it over after I used my bee brush to sweep some of the bees out of the way. For the record, this should be done gently and slowly, I think I got a bit overzealous in my first sweep, as that buzzzzzzz was not a happy one! So, I took a step back to let them settle down. I've mentioned this before, but I don't use smoke. I have a spray bottle of sugar water but I've yet to actually use it. I just take a break whenever they seem to be agitated or in a frenzy.

Each of the frames I pulled were not only heavy, but also had full capped cells. I saw larvae, and even some cells that had bees coming out of them. I'm not sure if they were coming in and out of the cells because they were feeding larvae or what. Not really sure, heck, they could have been being "born" so, interesting. I did see my queen an inner frame, she has a yellow dot on her, and she looked different from the other bees with her elongated belly.

The day I did the inspection it was overcast and looking ready to storm, so, I did a little bit of clean up with my hive tool, I scrapped the hive the bees had built that was on the inner cover, I moved the frames a bit to make sure they weren't glued down with proplolis, did a visual inspection of all frames. At this time, I also noticed that even though I'd added the second super, I had been a bit premature, no comb had been drawn and the brood box was only about 3/4 full on it's frames. I opted to remove the second super. It had some comb on it, but not much, and only at the bottom of the frames where it looked like the bees had drawn up from the frames below.

I put the inner top and the outter top on the hive. I put the extra super away again.
My bees seem to be eating at a break neck rate, I'm replacing the 1:1 ratio pint of syrup once a day.

I have also been watching the bees do this cool little dance, where they sit on the end of the entrace to the hive, and wiggle their behinds and flap their wings like mad, but never leave. I'm not sure what they are doing, but it's neat to watch.

I also have seen that on the days when we are have been close to 100 degrees that they are bearding, not the whole hive, but a good part. Haven't had  chance to catch that on pics yet.

I will be doing an inspection again this week or maybe a the start of next week.

That's SUPER (says the Valley girl)

     After driving in from VA, in 2.5 days, I was pretty dang tired, but I suppose I couldn't really complain too much since the bees are always working their little tookuses off. Given the average life of a bee is somewhere around 60 days I can't complain I suppose. I mean, really? 21 days as an egg/larvae then 21 or so as a hive worker and then 21 or so as a forager if you don't get killed before that! Whew... my paltry 2.5 day trip in the cab of a moving truck seems trivial...
     Anyway, as soon as I got home I checked on my hive visually inspecting the outside to see if there was anything amiss, all looked well. My son had fed them two jars of syrup while I was gone, which seemed like a lot given that they had not been eating that much, but it was full when I got home and I noticed this AM that it's down a quarter to about 3/4 this morning. I have noticed more ants in the area, the large red ones, so I am going to pick up some ant traps today when I run to the store. The ants are not excessive but I see a few stray ones on the feeder when I fill it, I would like to head off any ant problems now. If it's one bug I can't stand, it's really ants, they just heeb me out, it seems that they are a sign of a dirty house, which I know isn't really true, since I keep a tidy ship and I get them every spring.
      So, after I visually inspected the hive last night, I decided to check on what was going on inside, so I donned my veil and gloves, grabbed my hive tool and brush. I took off the top and WOWSERS! these little girls have been BUSY! The inner cover was a bit hard to get off because heck if they hadn't built a big comb into it! I did remove it, and saw that almost all the frames were covered with bees and comb on a good part of them! So, I decided to add a second super to the hive. I pulled a couple frames to check for the queen, in the fading light of twilight I wasn't able to see her, but she is for certain in there working, lots of capped cells and larvae present. I didn't stay fooling around in the hive for long, just a quick peek really. I put the inner vented top back on and went over and got the other super that was ready to go. I also retrieved a soup cup. When I got back to the hive I again removed the inner lid, and brushed the bees off of it, into the hive. I set the new super (a deep) onto the top and made sure it lined up right. Then I used my hive tool to scrape off the comb the bees had created on the inner cover into the soup cup. Quite a lot of honey in there! I then put the cover back on the top of the new super and added the outer cover.

     Since I have now mastered the strap, I let the strap out and snapped it into place. We have evidently had a lot of wind here in the past few days. I took my raided honey comb and left the bees to explore the new digs.

Now, as a nice sort of gesture. I thought it would be nice to let the kids in the hood get a taste of the delightful bounty that my bees produce, given that I will be sharing any honey I end up with. I took the bowl of comb (with the honey) out to the front yard where the kids were playing. They can usually count on me for popsicles in the summer, so when I came out offering treats on a warm afternoon they were thrilled. There was plenty for everyone to get a piece and they were all like, WOW MS LISA! you grew this? I laughed but said yes, (they are all pretty young). One boy didn't care for the wax so he just sucked on his. But my son was happy for his, which he is in love with! Granted its' still the honey that has been produced by sugar water mostly, but I'm getting excited because it seems my colony is really getting a move on! My pics here are not too exciting this go round, let's face it. I was just worn out from a long trip, and this was a purely utilitarian check! I will note that since the hive effectively doubled in side (physically) it "LOOKS" so much more like a bee hive now...

watching the bees dance

It's just time to watch the bees do what bees do right now. I have cleaned the comb and propolis from the other set of hives and supers I have sitting on my back deck. Who knew they would try to make a home here? I had been turning on the hose close to the empty hive and heard a buzzzzzz.... I opened it up and there was comb and stray bees... I actually don't think these were from my hive, they looked different more black, less like mine. I have decided to move the extra hive I have over onto cinderblocks and "bait" it for a swarm. We'll see if anything pops. I am putting queen pheromones inside it to try to attract one. Keep ya posted. Here are a few pics of me working the comb off the hive where they had put it on the lid.

removing wax from the lid 

As you can see I scraped out off the wax they had put in and then re-stacked the hive boxes and put the lid on. If there is an "opening" it's not an easy one to access.

Right now I'm just letting the bees work. I assume all is well inside the hive from the activity I've been watching on the outside. It was cold and dreary here the past couple of days. Not so cold that sitting outside in a hoodie was impossible or that I had my garden was in danger of freezing. Honestly we have been getting seasonal weather rather than the extra warm weather we've been

enjoying most of the late winter and spring. We got buckets of rain on Friday night, it was nice. On Thursday it was in the 80's, go figure. I'm curious about the bees though, and while I know better than to open the hive too often, I have set a bench on wheels next to it so I can watch and take pictures as they go in and out. On Wednesday it was also quite warm, and while sitting watching them go in and out of the door guard I decided it was time to take it off. There was a line of several bees at a time awaiting getting in, and I noticed that they had pulled one side of it out so they could squeeze in. My opinion on this was that if they were wiggling in and out of the space they created, the hive was strong enough to take the door guard off. I have been continuing to feed them a 1:1 ratio of sugar syrup. They seem to be going through a pint of it every few days.

with entrance guard 

without entrance guard 

     I have been taking about 45 minutes to an hour each day to sit on my bench and just watch them. I'm not a drooling idiot, I promise. I'm actually sitting quietly counting. Of course not the amount of bees, that would be highly unproductive. What I have been doing is counting in groups of 10 to 100, and in those counts I make note of how many bees have been foraging and are coming back with loaded pollen sacks on their legs. I also have been checking out the color of the pollen, just for kicks. I note that the bees coming from the South side of the yard (likely over the fence) are covered in yellow pollen, I also note that some over the fence to the North have yellow.



The bees who have been to the West and East seem to have white. I think the bees to the West are collecting
pollen from my raspberry bushes, which is white,

Bee foraging in the raspberries

 I know because I sat on the deck and watched the bees on the bushes become covered in white pollen. It's also interesting to note that many of the bees that were not honey bees in the bushes.
I began to take count o the bees who came back with pollen before I took off the entrance guard.





I counted (estimated of course) around 10 per
100 on about Tuesday, maybe 15-20 onWednesday and as soon as I took off the entrance guard, it seemed like it doubled in a day! Then we had the cold snap on Saturday, with nothing but rain, the hive was not as active. 



However, today, Sunday, we've been busy in the garden finishing up the herb boxes and potato boxes my darling man has built for me, I took the opportunity to take a break sitting on 


















the bench with the camera. I was able to do my count and visual assessment of the hive. Today's count on the bees with pollen was WAY UP! It's every other bee today! Yay! I was a bit worried about my bees to be frank when I was doing my "count" earlier this week with the very low amount of bees I saw with pollen on them, today I'm MUCH more enthusiastic! So I of course took some snap shots. I will also give you a couple pieces of advice. First and foremost, bees usually just make a "bee-line" to their door! So, if you are gonna sit and watch them, it is likely a good idea to sit to the side. I didn't bother with any gear of any sort, since I'm setting around 3 feet from the hive, and just sitting quietly watching them. The biggest deal was the cats who wanted to sit by me and were intrigued by the bees. But you want to sit back a bit so that the bees don't get confused and land on you, so don't sit in front of the entrance :) I am again going to be out of town a few days again and feel confident that they will be fine while I'm gone. I'll feed them before I leave and if they need to be refilled I'll leave it for my husband or son to fill. It's a front feeder, so it's easy to take off and fill.

So, everyone have a safe and happy Memorial day, see ya on the flip!