How are the bees doing? - Part II

Here are more pics - mostly from today. I pulled out 3 frames to inspect.
The top photo is of frame #8. They are starting to fill this frame with honey, esp. on the right side of the frame. Good - but hoping they are able to really get some honey saved before winter (thought they would've had much more made by now).

The 2nd frame pic on the is frame #4. The queen was on the left side of this frame - which is a great sign. She has expanded her egg laying further out on the right side of the box.

They haven't moved into the upper box yet, but hopefully will do this sometime in August.

The last photo that I posted in this entry - on the bottom, right - darker photo - is one that makes me smile every time I see it. The story: Each night when I come home from work, I stop at the hive and take a peek. I came home one night in June and the bees were outside the hive entrance like in the photo. I worried a bit - wondering what might be going on inside. Plus, the way they gathered, many of them were walking on top of each other, which seemed odd at the entrance. They were moving around slowly - an unusual sight for the busy worker bees. I did a little research on the Internet, and discovered that they were simply 'hanging out on the front porch on a warm summer's evening.' Now when I see them doing this, I picture a porch swing, glasses of lemonade, and perhaps a few of the most hardworking bees have a nice refreshing margarita as their relaxing sugar source for the evening!

So how are the bees doing?

This is the fun question that is posed to me often...by friends, family, neighbors, and others who know I've got a wonderful beehive in my backyard.

I try to gauge this question...just as you might when someone asks "how are you doing?" I try to answer the question, connecting to what they seem interested in...and not overdo it with my geeky love of all things bees. Luckily, it seems that many people have their own fascination or interest in honey bees (even if a little fear is involved).

So I'll include some photos for those who just want a highlight - and warning - I am going to document some of the details - as this is the closest thing I have to a bee journal.

The bees overall seem to be doing well. I have seen the queen several times (sometime she 'hides' and it's tough to find her). She always looks good, and the cells with eggs and larvae are expanding.

I haven't seen many drone cells yet. The hive needs some drones, but the preference of a typical beekeeper is that you don't want to see too many. I just saw a few today, but not many at all.

I remind myself of what I imagine a new parent is like with their first child. Attention to details that if I had more hives, I might not worry as much about. One example: I decided today to number the frames in the hive body (bottom 'box' and the super (top box). This will help me monitor the growth of the hive a little better.

Look at the middle picture (taken by my official photographer, Rich, during an early June inspection). You can see only a small amount of bees on top of the frames. The hive is expanding out from these center frames as more eggs are laid, larvae are cared for, and little bees (yes, they do seem a bit smaller!) emerge from their cells.

The top photo I took today. You can see many more bees and they have expanded out a bit more. Many more bees on top, mean many more bees down in the hive body (and then all of the bees that are out and about who should return this evening).

They look really good overall. I'm a bit concerned because all of the rain this summer has slowed them down. Just like us, they mostly have to stay in when it's raining - which has meant this summer significantly less time for foraging.

Their mission is twofold: to support new bees so the hive can grow - and to build up honey and pollen for the winter. With less time for foraging, they have not made much honey. I just hope that with mother nature's and my support, and their industriousness, they will still have plenty of time to make the honey they need to get the hive through the winter.

It's official: I'm an urban beekeeper!

It's likely you've been wondering what been going on with my beekeeping (since January was my first and only blog so far). Well...I've been doing lots to get ready for today.
For the 2nd year, I attended the Bluegrass Beekeeping School held at KSU (March) .http://www.kyagr.com/statevet/bees/09BGBKSchool.htm

I've been connecting with local KY beekeepers, and attended the winter Beekeeping Association meeting. http://www.kyanabees.com/

Best of all, Foxhollow has been hosting what are hopefully monthly 'gatherings' of beekeepers, led by Richard Hosey of Hosey Honey in Midway, Kentucky. It's a group of KY beekeepers who are interested in learning and using more natural methods of beekeeping - and espcially focused on biodynamic methods of beekeeping.

More on biodynamic beekeeping later...I could on and on about it. For now, it's enough to know that Gunther Hauk led a workshop last year that Richard Hosey and I both attended at Foxhollow. Mr. Hosey has decades of experience working with bees. I am in my second year. We are both big fans of Gunther Hauk, though, and believe that he teaches some of the methods that will be critical to the survival of bees.

More about Gunther Hauk here: http://www.spikenardfarm.org/index.shtml

So back to TODAY! Rich (my husband) and I have been working on our little backyard, getting it ready for the hive. Rich had a fence put up along the back alley, so it fairly hidden and protected. He prepped the soil, and I planted ground cover including wooley thyme and creeping thyme. These will be great groundcovers surrounding the hive, so we don't have to worry about mowing.

This afternoon we drove the hour to Midway to pick up the 'nuc' (nucleus hive) from Mr. Hosey. A nuc a great starter hive, consisting of 4 or so frames of bees, their queen, some brood, honey, pollen, etc. It's a stronger start to a new hive, as it has all of the natural parts of the hive.

We put the nuc in my car's trunk, and only had about 6 bees get into the back seat area of the car on the way home. They just buzzed around the back window and didn't bother us at all.

I installed the bees into their new hive by taking out each frame of bees from the nuc box and placing them into the actual brood box. Rich came to get an up close look at the frames while I was holding them to try and find the queen (didn't see her).

It was about 4pm this afternoon when I was done putting the bees in their new hive. Surprisingly, after about 20 or so minutes of a few of them flying around outside the hive, they all seemed to have gone in the hive. Rich and I sat for a little bit and watched them (he brought a chair out and sat about 5 feet away, where we watched the activity at the entrance to the hive. Now, they are in the hive for the night, and are very quiet.

Two notes: 1. I had on my full gear, which is a windbreaker, straps around my pant legs (jeans), my hat and veil, and gloves. By the end of working with them today, I felt like I didn't really need any of it, but it does help with the confidence of not worrying about getting stung.

2. Sorry there are no pics. We couldn't find the camera - but I'll post some photos soon.

More more more to come...!

Adventures in Urban Beekeeping...2009

Last year was my year to fulfill some of my lifelong dreams - the year when 'someday' became 'today.' Getting a great new job, travelling to Thailand, getting together a hiking group (of some of the most inspirational women I've ever met), and becoming a beekeeper were the most significant of these events. Beekeeping was special - as it was the thing that had been on my list since childhood - since my father kept a few hives behind our house. It was something that, like travelling to Asia, I might have never quite gotten around to doing. But 2008 was a magical year, when some of my life dreams became a reality.

For now, the short version is that I connected with the state apiarist, who is amazing (Phil Craft). He is generous in spirit and connected to the mission of his position. He told me about the Bluegrass Beekeeping School - held in March at KY State University in Frankfort. Getting up that morning, and driving to Frankfort, I felt more lighthearted and joyful than I had in a long time. I was amazed and inspired to see over 100 new beekeepers, plus the experienced ones, there for that day of learning and connecting. It was the experience that tipped me over to the other side...from an observer (reader) to do-er.

So I have had a year of beekeeping experience under my belt (maybe more on that later). For now, I am compelled to start this blog as I embark on this second year of beekeeping. This will be the year that I try to start a hive in my backyard - in an urban setting.