The Birds and the Bees Farm

Well, we pulled up a hive frame today and it appears that none of the cells are being capped.

That’s bad.

That means that no new bees are being being born and raised.

So we decided to buy a new queen.  Once a new queen has been introduced to the hive and starts laying eggs, the entire worker bee population will soon begin to change (into the new queen’s offspring).  

The reason we buy a new queen is to introduce a (hopefully) more productive set of genes.

We’re keeping our fingers crossed!

It is now mid-June and our Carney honeybees are busy (pun intended) building up the comb in their hive.

We have some concern about the awkward formation of the comb in the hive.  It also appears that some of the cells are not being capped.

We would also like to see more comb being built by this point (three months along). 

But we ARE happy to see lots of busy worker bees building comb furiously and collecting pollen for the hive.  More updates coming soon!

Today is Tuesday, April 7, 2009 - otherwise known as BEE DAY! WOOHOO!!!

 

 

Ahem, today the bees arrived.

 

 

John sorting through the bees freshly arrived from California- there are millions of bees in his car!

 

 

Andy Joseph, Iowa State Apiarist, hauling bees.

 

 

BEES!  Our bees are Carniolan or “Carney bees.”  (”Smell of cabbage… small hands.”)

 

 

 

Dad with the bees.

 

 

Mom with the bees.

 

 

I had no idea they would be beautiful!   Each bee is like a tiny golden gem and they smell sweet!

 

 

Gorgeous.

 

 

When the bees got home we spritzed them with sugar water and carried them out to the hive site.

 

 

Mom tamping down the bees, preparing to remove the feeder can.

 

 

A closeup of the bee box.  The feeder can is in the middle and the metal strip is where the queen is hanging in her cage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hive with feeder box on top.  The frames are hanging below.

 

 

We removed five frames.

 

 

Dad removing the feeder can.

 

 

Covering the hole.

 

 

Removing the queen’s cage.

 

 

The bees are very protective of the queen, even though these bees are not related to her.

 

 

The queen in her cage.

 

 

Dad hammers two nails into the top of the queen’s box to hang her from the frames for the night.

 

 

A marshmallow that we use to plug the hole in the queen’s cage for the evening.  The time it takes the bees to eat through the marshmallow will keep the workers from getting into the box and killing the queen.  They need to get used to her for a few days, otherwise it will be “off with her head!”

 

 

Marshmallow plugging the hole.

 

 

The queen’s cage hanging between two frames.

 

 

Spritzing the bee box with sugar water again to calm them down.  The bees will be so busy cleaning the sugar off of their bodies that they will be less likely to sting when we dump them in the hive.

 

 

This bee quickly found the leftover marshmallow!

 

 

Suiting up for the “messy part.”

 

 

Dumping the bees into the hive.

 

 

 

 

Settling into the new “house.”

 

 

 

Replacing the remaining frames.

 

 

 

Setting the sugar water feeder and protein patty on top.  This will sustain the bee colony until flowers bloom and bees are able to feed themselves with sugar (nectar) and protein (pollen).

 

 

The hive from the front.  The opening is the little platform on the bottom.  We set the feeder box and hive top on top of what you see here. 

No stings today!

 

A box full of wooden hive parts.

 

 

Hive gear.

 

 

The hive stacked, unpainted.

 

 

Putting together the frames (these hang inside the hive).

 

 

Painting the hive white (a bee-friendly color).

 

 

Painting the hive white.  Bees like white and light colors.  It is thought that bees dislike the color black because of black bears raiding their hives for honey.  

 

 

Assembling the wires and melting the beeswax “starter comb” onto them.  We used a welder to heat the wires and then sunk them into the beeswax.  This is what the bees will use to start their comb.

 

 

Another shot of the frames.

Hello!

My name is Hannah and I live in the Midwest with my family.  My family and I believe in the importance of sustainability and decided to implement sustainable practices on our 3 acre property.  This website will document our first year of keeping bees for the purposes of increasing the pollination of our garden and (hopefully) producing honey!

We are not professionals.  In all actuality, we have very little experience in beekeeping.  We did take a beekeeping class this past winter and are learning as we go along.  No matter what, our first attempt at keeping bees should prove to be highly entertaining so stick around!

-Hannah