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The male is just a little longer, but a lot thicker. Also, he has no DNA of his own, like the female workers. He only has his queen's DNA and when he mates with another queen, her eggs will have both of those queen's DNA. The drones are just shells, even though they are bigger bees. Wierd stuff!
I'm confused about the frames. From what I understand, the box is in segments that stack on top of eachother. The frames fit inside each box. So if you lift the top box, it will take all those frames with it right? Looks like you stack 3 or 4 high.
Well the link on how to build the frames has a LOT of cuts that, to me, don't make sense. It looks like all you need is a frame with a channel in it all the way around the interior for something (not sure what goes in it yet, but I've seen pictures of something that looks like plastic). So can't I just notch the top rail and side rails so the fit together and attach them? The link in post #30 is the one I don't understand what all of those cuts are for. Even the pics of the ones you made YCC don't look the same.
YCC, your's look like you notched the side rails top and bottom, then made cuts into the top and bottom rails, for a simple box joint. Is that really all it is? I also see the ledge for holding the frames in the box, which is easy to make as well.
I'm a carpenter so making this stuff is easy, I just didn't understand the frames from that link. A lot of cuts for something that doesn't seem to need it.
JP - here are a few of pictures that may hep a little.
http://bestbeekeeping.com/blog/wp-co...ve_diagram.jpg
http://www.honingraat.eu/2381-857-la...-10-frames.jpg
http://0.tqn.com/d/localfoods/1/0/x/8/-/-/beehive2.jpg
Thanks Crash, that last pic showed me something I didn't see in the thread, the little notches so the frames can't move. Would there be notches on the bottom as well?
Though I still don't understand why the side rails on the frames are narrower at the bottom than the top.
I'm not sure about the taper without looking it up. The notches are actually spacers to ensure that the bees have enough room between the frames to bee buzzy.
Fascinating pictures. I do not like bees, except honey bees never seem to bother me. I am also learning some things about honey bees I did not know before, great post.
Let me see if I can address all the questions..
The frames rest on a rabbet along the top edge of the ends of the box. This is so that when boxes are stacked on top of each other, there's still room for the bees to get between.
The top rail of the frame is notched vertically for the siderail legs to nest in. The part of the top rail that is wider is so that when the frames are set next to one another, the space is reduced to 3/8 so the bees won't fill it with burr comb. The side rails add another 3/16" which when you have two frames side by side, leaves a 3/8" gap for the same reason: bee space (actually 5/16").
The long cut along the side of the top rail is so you will have a wedge to nail in place to hold the wire hooks that are embedded in the foundation (the wax pattern that the bees build upon). The wax foundations are brittle and delicate so you can't do a whole lot of bending with them. The bottom of the foundation drops into the slot of the bottom rail, and the wedge is nailed back in place on the top rail, giving a secure fit for the foundation without having to bend it. IMO the end bevel cuts are useless and I did not make them beveled on mine, BUT they do need to be trimmed down to fit on the rabbet to allow bee space.
The side rails mate with the top and bottom rails in a basic box joint, yes. So it really is that simple, but you have to remember that there has to be enough wood left to nail through and not be so weak as to come apart in the centrifugal extractor. In the case of a brood chamber (big bottom box) that will NEVER be extracted, you could probably fudge a little on that, but since I was making all my pieces on a jig, I went ahead and cut them all the same way.
--IMO there are a few cuts that are unnecessary, like the bevel on the edge of the side rails, or the bevel on the ends of the top rail. One good example is the "spacers" that are cut into the rabbet in the pic that Crash posted. I simply eyeball the spacing on mine and don't worry, the frames won't move anyway.. The bees will literally glue them down in place with a substance called "propolis" which is basically sticky plant matter from random plants. That's why you need a hive tool to pry apart the frames from the box when you do an inspection; they are all glued down!
Sorry it took so long to get back to you on this. I must have missed the post somehow.
@ woodsman86: Bees won't bother you most times, unless they have become africanized, or you squish one, thereby releasing the death pheremone that prompts others to attack. The death pheremone smells like banana. While bees and wasps are similar, they definately have polarized dispositions. A wasp might sting just because you got too close. A bee is unlikely to sting you AT ALL unless you hurt one of them. They'd much rather go about their business of pollinating our gardens and gathering honey.
I'll try to remember to get some better pictures of the frames and the stuff (foundation) that goes in it today.. In my next post I'll tell you about yesterday's bee adventure and how my inspection went last week.
So after a grueling day at work, I got home and started unloading tools, when the phone rang. It was a fellow whose house I just covered, said he was moving some irrigation from one field to another. As they lifted the center-pivot they revealed a well established colony of bees, and he immediately called me to come get them.
Now, I've never recovered a bee colony like this before, so I didn't know what to do other than to don my veil and gloves, use my big knife to cut the comb out of the pipes and drop them in a bucket.
I arrived to find comb that must have been 3 or 4 years old, inside an 8" pivot pipe, 3 feet deep into the ground and a foot up into the irrigation itself. I started high and worked my way down. The top combs were fairly easy to remove, and even though I squished a few bees I managed to save most of it. The real excitement was getting those 3-foot-long combs out of the pipe going in the ground.
Imagine sticking your WHOLE arm into a tunnel of bees, all-the-while, them humming in the key of A not more than 3 inches from your face. I'd say it was terrifying, and I'm sure to the uninitiated it would be, but the classes I attended and talking with some of the extremely helpful friends I made at the classes had my confidence through the clouds. I carefully reached the knife down inside and trimmed the combs from the walls of the pipe, reached in and recovered as much as I could possibly get.
Yep.. I had gotten myself about 3000 bees in about 30 minutes. Sure I had to lay on my belly, inches away from the hum into a pipe that was covered in bees, but it was worth it. Still not absolutely certain I got the queen, but if they die, it won't be for lack of trying on my part. Was I scared? absolutely not. Bees do NOT want to sting you, and somehow I felt like they knew I was trying to help them. If I hadn't gone to save what I could, they would have been doused with gasoline and set on fire and the whole colony destoyed; combs oozing with honey and larva.. all would have been lost.
It breaks my heart to know that the ones that were left behind are dead now, and the ones out in the chop shop cannot find their home.. they are lost. Out of the few thousand I did manage to save, I feel as if it was a job well done.
So I didn't have a new hive ready for them, so I wound up driving 80 miles late last night, to the local (I use the term local very broadly) beekeeping supplier, who waited for me to arrive. I got there about 9PM, and he applauded my efforts to save the bees and I think he saw in my eyes that I genuinely care about them. He gave me a hive body, screen bottom board, and beetle traps for free, and the only thing I had to buy was the frames and foundation. Of course, I still had to assemble them all, so I was up till 4:30 this morning building and moving bees from the buckets into their new home. Best to do this sort of thing while the bees are asleep for the night so that you know they are all in there. I lost a few and some are still lost, not to mention those that got squished in handling.
I only got stung twice, once in the bend of my elbow.. I think I mashed one that was crawling on me, and once when I was reaching down into the bottom of the pipe blindly, I mashed a few with the back of my hand, apparently hard enough to get stung through my gloves. Besides the veil and gloves I was wearing the same ordinary short-sleeved tee shirt and bluejeans I wore at work yesterday. The stings itch a little now, but honestly, I hurt myself at work MUCH worse than that on a regular basis (ever hit your finger with a hammer??) Those babies didn't want to hurt me and I expected the stings to feel much worse. I have been stung by ants that hurt 10x worse than the bee stings. Unless you are allergic, I say there is nothing to worry about. Bee stings don't even make me flinch.
I've had my nuc colony for nearly 4 weeks now and check their bottom trap-board every day, this is the first time I've been stung and that was only because I was being careless and squished some. BEES DO NO WANT TO STING YOU!
For all my effort, I sure hope they survive, not for my sake, but for theirs.
Very nice. A pest control operation would have charged a good amount to remove them. Your roofing customer got a great deal.
Now that's what Ilike to hear. It really does your heart good to hear of folk thinking of the bees first.
I was gutted last week. A solitary Bumblebee had made it's nest under the window of my bathroom. I had no idea it was there until I opened it and tore the nest to peices. This is the second time this has happened, there's no way of checking under the window frame to see if there's anything there!
I had to toss a little rep your way. That was above and beyond in my book. Not many would have drove that distance or stayed up that late to protect those bees. Good job.
I set up a medium honey super in the chop shop last night and nested a piece of their old comb, still rich with the scent of old queen and honey, and trapped (just a guess) 250 more bees. Relocated them with their sisters just a few minutes ago. There are only a handful left flying around out there now.
Not sure I have a queen in there, so I have two options: give them a frame of 1 day-old eggs and they'll rear a new queen in 16 days from one or more of the eggs, OR merge that colony with my existing colony, bringing their numbers to somewhere around 8-9000. I really want to expand to two colonies, so I'm gonna think about it for today, and decide what to do. The Chehaw event is today so we'll be heading there in a little while. My 4-week inspection is tomorrow, so I'll know if I have any viable eggs for requeening, or if I should just merge them. Of course, I could buy a queen and stick in there, but there is always the possibility they'll reject her and I'll just be out that money, but it is virtually impossible for them to reject a queen that they raise themselves, so I will be going one of those two routes.
Found a hive beetle and a few SHB larvae on the bottom trap last sunday. I FREAKED and did an inspection. Couldn't find any beetles or larvae on the combs. I felt that the bees were keeping them cleaned out so I put it all back together and stuck a beetle blaster on top. Got lots of pics to put up, but no time today; gotta get ready for the festival and head out. Suffice it to say that in 7 days time they went from 55% capacity, to 85% capacity, so on Monday I put on a honey super for them to draw out and start filling. With any luck they'll stock it and be ready for winter.
Another inspection is due tomorrow, if only to find viable eggs so be expecting lots more pics.
Bee explosion this weekend.. no, not terroristic bees. come on now...
A fellow keeper had one of his hives to swarm yesterday, so he called a mutual friend to see if he had any place to put them. He immediately called me to see if I had any equipment to put them in, and I DID! Drove over to his house, which was surprisingly right in the middle of a neighborhood, very close houses with small yards, and he took me out back to see his apiary. I figured he had a box or two, being in a neighborhood, but I figured wrong. He said he produced 110 gallons of honey from those 7 hives, and every one of his colonies was teeming with working girls.
So I got a chance for a whole new experience late yesterday evening.. Installing a swarm! A swarm occurs when an old queen is about to phase out. Several things happen and it's hard to pinpoint one cause. Normally a queen will lay new queen eggs every year, either due to her age, due to congestion, or perhaps she or the workers sense something amiss, so she prepares a new colony of bees by producing queens who will rival until the strongest emerges the victor. Then the old queen and about 1/2 to 2/3 of the old colony follows her to a nearby random location to make room for the "renewed" colony. A swarm will usually only hang around for a few hours at most. I was very lucky to have an experienced beekeeper to collect them for me ALONG WITH THE QUEEN in a 5-gallon bucket with a screened lid.
If you order a "package" of bees, this is basically what you get: a queen, anywhere from 3-5000 workers with drones, nurses, and foragers, and nothing else. A swarm is a free "package" of bees. Installing them in your hive is as simple as misting them with a little bit of water to make their wings sticky so they can't fly. Bump the bucket on the ground so that the bees up top fall from the lid, remove the lid and 4 frames from the center of the brood chamber, and gently pour them in, as if you were pouring pancake batter in a fritter pan. After a minute or two, the bees will move to both sides of the hive, leaving room in the middle to replace the frames you removed. Being very gentle, as to not crush any bees, the frames, cover, and lid are replaced on the hive, an entrance reducer put in place so that they can waft the queens pheremones throughout the new hive.
I probably should point out the difference in the two terms, hive, and colony as they are not entirely interchangable. A hive is just a box, with frames and foundation, top, bottom, etc. A hive with no bees is still a hive.
A Colony on the other hand, is a group of bees. A group of bees with no hive is still a colony. A colony lives in a hive, which could be a box we made, or a hollow log or tree, or even a wall of your house, or even a 3 foot deep pipe in the ground.
While I've got you here, I wanted to share some more great news: I did a brief inspection of my established colony yesterday, and all frames are drawn and laid with eggs, except for the very outside of frame 10, which they were very concentrated on, and they have begun drawing on the honey super from monday. I spotted the queen on frame 9 and she looked happy and healthy, so I put it all back together and moved to the colony I tried to save.
This feral colony must be extremely resilient. Much of the comb I saved in wired cages had hatchlings emerging!! This is great as now they have a head start on repopulating their colony. To top it all off, frame 7 had a piece of white comb, meaning it is brand new and from this years drawings. It MUST have had day-old eggs in it as I found 3 queen cells being prepared on that 3x3 inch piece of comb. The working girls are requeening themselves with some of the eggs I managed to save!! WOOHOO!! ALL IS NOT LOST!! Within the next 18 days, I will have a new queen for that colony, and since workers are emerging she'll have plenty of attendants.
I spent a great deal of time removing debris, and dead bees from the combs, dead larva, and I found a few SHB larva on the old comb (not surprising since it was in the ground). I couldn't get it all clean because it is all very delicate, and I can just let the ladies work their magic of cleaning and prepping.. It's what they do. I will still be keeping a very close eye on this colony, doing checks every 3 days as opposed to 14, to check progress, pests, and queen rearing.
I have to apologize for not posting pics.. I've got a ton of them and haven't had time to upload them YET. Had a fun and busy weekend and this week is full with work, but hopefully I'll get the chance one evening to get the pics up for those of you who are following this thread.
I now have 3 colonies of bees, all gentle enough to handle with bare hands. Even have a picture of me handling them bare-handed while wearing buckskin, so the "animal fibers" myth is completely false. Wool might be a concern, I don't know because I don't own any, but rich smoky buckskin does not provoke them to attack.
Pics coming soon, I promise!
So I'll just link you to the albums and post a few shots here.
Part of the salvaged colony framed in a cage
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/DSCN6349.jpg
Even in this sad state, new bees are emerging
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/DSCN6351.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/DSCN6354.jpg
A new bee almost out and ready to go to work. This is the third day, by the way, so hatchlings will be wax-makers soon.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/DSCN6359.jpg
A nice clean comb I managed to save
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/DSCN6362.jpg
It's hard to see, but there are some odd-capped cells in the next few pics: one on top left corner, one slightly below and to the right of that, and one on the bottom right corner. Those are queen cells from 1-day old eggs. At day four, it will hatch and become a larva, which they'll feed royal jelly.
I was lucky to have saved this piece of comb with fresh eggs. Very lucky.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/DSCN6367.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/DSCN6368.jpg
It's in bad shape, but with a little work on the part of the hatchlings it'll get cleaned up and attached to the frames.
The swarm I went and picked up, moved out, but this is what they looked like for about 16 hours, then vanished the next afternoon.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/DSCN6381.jpg
A few cool pics from today. They've started using the birdbath, so their watering hole must have gone dry. A peek inside.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/DSCN6385.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/DSCN6388.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/DSCN6391.jpg
The hive inspection is here, it's actually from the 10th.
The hive beetle and larvae that prompted the inspection
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...1/DSCN6224.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...1/DSCN6227.jpg
A nice shot of worker larvae being fed a mixture of nectar and royal jelly
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...1/DSCN6238.jpg
The queen is laying eggs on frame 10 which is ready on the inside and almost complete on the outside
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...1/DSCN6257.jpg
Of all the things that seem to bother them, the stink of shingles, right after work seems to really agitate them. They bump me a bunch, but still don't sting. bumping is their way of sayin, "hey.. Get out!"
Take a shower and don some buckskin and they are as gentle as kittens.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...9/DSCN6282.jpg
Very nice pictures YCC and thanks for the info. I would love to have a hive, just not sure whats around for them to survive off of. I don't see that many of them around often.
They are very resourceful and will exploit any pollen and nectar source they can find.
If you live in the big city, neighbors might be more of a concern than anything else!
hmm, I may have to look into it then sometime in the future. I don't really have the means right now to be buying a bunch of stuff for the bees though. Thanks for all the info.
It can definately get expensive. That's why I liked making my own stuff out of scrap wood. The only expense is really the foundation and the sugar-water.
On a positive note, one of my neighbors found the swarm that escaped. Got them all boxed up and locked in with a jar of syrup. Screen front so they nor the queen can escape, and this time I used two drawn frames from my first colony as an incentive to get them to stay. I used my equipment to get them out of the tree (veil and gloves), but once I got them home, I took it all off and worked them with no shirt, veil or gloves. Just a little spray bottle of water and a smooth stick to rake them into the hive. Very gentle bees. Gotta love that. Thousands of bees on my bare skin and not a single sting!
Now if I can just get them all out of my hair before bed LOL.
I'm giddy with joy that I got my babies back babies back babies back.
YCC - I know nothing about bees and I've stayed out of this thread because of it. I've enjoyed following you on it. I just couldn't help envisioning you walking into a colony of Africanized bees with only a veil and gloves. I know in this case your neighbor had already worked with them so you knew what you had but, as I understand it, you folks have the Africanized in your neck of the woods so I just wanted to throw out a caution to you on those colonies that are strangers to you. Just concerned about your safety.
You don't have to know anything about bees to be able to tell if a colony is africanized. You wouldn't get within 10 feet of an African queen without getting stung. If you encounter a colony that seems particularly aggressive, it's best to leave them alone and call an experienced beekeeper (i.e. I'm not very experienced).
And I'm not saying that to Rick in particular, but to bring it to the attention of everyone who's following along. There was an article on the front page of the Albany Herald about it on Sunday. The only way to tell for sure is through genetic testing, but their behavior will tell you a lot about that colony. Time of day/year, temperature, and weather all play parts in how they behave, and so do particular smells. All that must be taken into account in your survey of the colony BEFORE you try to handle them with or without equipment.
It's the time of year for swarms, so if you hear a strange buzz in the air, and have not been stung yet, you've probably got a nice colony of Italians. Don't freak out and pour gas on them.. With Africans, you'll most likely be stung or at least bumped a few times before you even hear the hum.
I appreciate your concern very much, Rick. I must admit that some of my actions are not textbook, and most people wouldn't dare walk out half naked into a field of bees, nor buckskin.. not even experienced beekeepers. The only way I can justify my actions is through handling, and training (which is still not good justification). Experience is the best teacher. The classes and continued support from my keeper friends really has helped me to be confident and unafraid. Eventually I will learn my lesson, I'm sure. Till then, I'm going to push myself to continue without fear. A few hours of working that colony with equipment on, let me know that these bees were very much safe. A few minutes of working them without equipment let me know that they are not aggressive or threatened. With the knowledge from the classes, and simple observations in the field, I am getting a "feel" for them.
A few tips for non-beekeepers: If a bee lands on you and doesn't sting you, dont' swat it. You'll make it mad and probably get stung. If it starts flapping it's wings and you feel the vibration, don't freak out, she's just cooling down. If she starts to hum while crawling, she's just saying "hi, nice to meet you. We can bee friends". In a few minutes of determining whether you're friend or foe, she will most likely fly off and rejoin her group. As kids we are taught to be afraid of them, like snakes, but that's just not the reality.
By the way, the neighbor that called is allergic to bees and did not handle them at all. He stayed well away from them and called me. From his perspective, every bee could mean death. As Rick suggests, it is very dangerous to do as I did. Follow your own instincts and if you sense something isn't right, get away and make a phone call. African queens are extremely dangerous.
I do appreciate your reinforcement that bees are really friendly. As a kid, we had a couple of elderly Italian brothers in our neighborhood. They had prolific roses and the big black and yellow bumble bees loved them. The old guys would very often reach down and let one of the bumble bees walk onto his hand to show us kids. They always said the bees wouldn't sting and as far as I know neither ever got stung but we always backed up when they moved our way with the bees.
The big black ones are carpenter bees. You'll notice the males have white faces (at least I think it's the males). The ones with white faces don't have stingers, so they can't sting you even if you do make them mad lol.
Bumble bees aren't much bigger than honeybees and live in nests in the ground, usually in the straw in flower beds. They are excellent pollinators too!
I know when my Grandpa had bees all he used was a little smoke to clam them, no suit or the like. Maybe your smoky buckskin has that effect on them?
The only time I've ever been stung is when I swat at or accidentally sit on or squish a bee. When you hunt wild edibles bees are everywhere, especially when the flowers are blooming. They will fly in my face and land on me, but as long as I don't show fear and panic or try to swat them away I never get bit. I just let them crawl about, buzz my face or what have you and they eventually go about their way. I'm also careful as I pick edibles not to accidentally squish any bees or disturb any nests, etc.
I'm surprised the swarm of bees was so mellow, as I'd think they'd be a bit angry over all the commotion they've seen recently.
Hard to compare size on that pic, but that looks like a carpenter to me. Bumble bees have less yellow.
http://pestcemetery.com/wp-content/u...stcemetery.jpg
@ rwc. If one is buzzing around your face, it is attracted to the carbon dioxide in your breath. Usually if you stop breathing for a few seconds, they'll just go away. I applaud your fearlessness with them also, and the care you take not to harm any. Experience with your grampa taught you how to behave around them I'm sure.
And a bit of great news. I managed to cage the queen tonight! The swarm will stay in the box now and I can clip her wings in a day or two, once her scent has filled it and they start drawing comb.. Which they started on frame 6 today and many were eating from 4 & 5. Took me a few tries to catch the queen but I got her.
During all that commotion, a few crawled up my pants legs and stung me as I was moving around. I imagine I squished them a little while they were in there and that's why. I hate that those couple bees will die, but the stings were totally worth it to cage that lovely lady! No doubt now that any stragglers will adopt the hive. Was too dark to take any good pictures, so maybe in a day or two I can get pics of clipping and tagging her in the cage.
So this is where I am: Original colony is FULL, and very busy. Might need to add another honey super next week. Salvaged colony is still building though I think they are still queenless. Might merge them with this new swarm. Latest colony lost quite a few in transition, but still very populated, and now that the queen is trapped, they'll make a new home there. One great hive, one bad hive, and one starting anew.
I gotta build some more boxes and frames!!
And a side note: the stings are more like ant bites than the torture most folks make it sound like. Not like getting stung by a wasp AT ALL.
It's a bumble bee, not a carpenter bee. They look the same except the carpenter bee will have a "shiny hiny".
Thanks for clearing that up Crash. I thought bumble bees were smaller. Fuzzy butt is bumble. Shiny hiney is carpenter. Good way to remember! It's all in the little details :D
The stings are itchy more than anything.. About to scratch the skin off one. The itch is far worse than the little sting. I've had burns from making fire that hurt worse than the sting. Might take a benadryl to see if it helps, but I really hate taking medicine.
A quick update: The swarm didn't survive. It almost looked like they had gotten into some sort of poison that proliferated all through them after I caught the queen in a cage and clipped her wings. Once I let her out of the cage, she disappeared the next day and all the bees were dead. At least I tried, though I failed. I took it pretty hard, but some things are simply beyond our control. Talking with some of my keeper friends made me feel much better after I beat myself up for it all day.
The salvaged colony with old comb got infested with hive beetles and wax moths. Looked like most of the hatchlings were out, so I removed the contaminated combs and disposed of it. The commercial keeper from Atlanta is supposed to be bringing me a hygeinic (sp) queen when he comes to collect his migratory hives this weekend, so hopefully they'll be able to make a comeback. They are actually drawing cells on the new frames and foundation I gave them and making queen cells on it, even without eggs. Introducing a fertile queen (if she takes) should really help that colony grow back to strong numbers. The rotten honey smelled horrible, so I think they'll be much happier now without all those maggots crawling around on one side of their box, and the stench gone. They are hanging in there like real champs, so I'm gonna keep trying them.
My original nuc colony is doing so good that I had to add another honey super on top today. They have drawn the first honey pot to 95% and filled it to about 80% capacity. As they continue to dry and fill it, they should start capping frames some time this week, and start the next pot really soon. There are so many bees in it that I had trouble taking the frames out to check the capacity. I felt like they needed more room. It's possible that I could harvest some honey this year, but I think I'll let them overwinter with whatever they make this year and try getting actual honey for personal use next year, along with making a split. two full honey pots would make an excellent split!
Sorry.. no pics today. Gotta get batteries.
I read...I'll have to see if I can find the article...but I read that it's a mite that has been killing off the bees. That apparently it's a mite that other animals and insects deal with...but because bees are so busy collecting pollen, they don't clean themselves as much as other insects, so the mite sets in, is brought back to the colony, where they all get infected and die. Have you been able to find any stragglers? Maybe you would be able to see if it's the mite. I would hate for you to bring a new colony into an infected hive.
I'm a huge honey lover...I love that you do this. :)
Good news! I've found a series of Solitary Bee colonies in one of the raised beds. I think they're Andrena haemorrhoa ssp. I've marked the nests so I don't disturb them when I'm weeding. I found yet another way to waste my time, as if chicken watching weren't enough....
Trabitha, the colony that died was healthy a few days before. seems strange that so many would die all at once. Trachael mites can't be cleaned as they enter the bees airways and lay eggs. They are microscopic so it's not something I can check without spending a ton of money on lab work. Varroa mites, by comparison, are large enough to be seen with the naked eye on the bees. Neither mite would be able to kill an entire colony of thousands of bees in the span of 3 days, I wouldn't think. There might have been 10 bees left in there still alive. Long story short, a beekeeper caught the swarm, gave them to me, I housed them, they left, I caught them again down the road, re-housed them, then they died. Could have been stress, but I'm really leaning toward pesticide. Mites just wouldn't be able to do that sort of damage that quickly.
Winnie. I'm really glad you've marked them. They will help all your flowers and herbs when it gets warm enough for them to forage. Even solitary bees are colonial for part of the year and as they reproduce, numbers and yields will also increase. I'm glad I posted this thread up, if only for the sake of educating a few folks about NOT destroying bees. That post makes it totally worth it. Thanks for sharing.
Bee watching is very rewarding, imo, because you can see which plants they like the best, how they exploit a resource by priority, and you can compare plants that you know they foraged, to plants that might not be, to see the effect the bees have on the yield.
Andarena haemorroah (they resemble our "german" bees)
This brings up the obvious question for me. By gathering rogue bees and bringing them home do you run the risk of contaminating the other clean hive/s?
It sucks they all died, mass suicide?
mayan bees? any tips on finding and domesticating swarms in east texas?
@rwc. Theres little risk of cross contamination. Bees know their queen (somehow) and will only stray from her if it is impossible to reach her, or she dies or swarms away. If mature beetles or mites, or diseases like foulbrood are inside the combs, there is a possibility of some reaching other hives, though not very likely simply because each colony guards it's hive entrance to not let "strangers" in which could be carriers. Foulbrood is a bacteria that reproduces by spores; that means one infected cell on a comb has literally billions of seeds to spread by robbers or simply on the wind. I wish I could give a more concrete answer, so I'll say the risk is "generally minimal".
@ravenscar. It's getting on in the season to be finding swarms, but it's still possible. IF you are prepared to catch a swarm (meaning you have your ppe and a hive ready), the easiest way is to register as a keeper (not sure about texas laws) and call all the local law enforcement agencies and emergency responders to get on their list. I'm listed with the Sheriff, city police, fire department, forestry agency, DOT, and Cooperative Extension office. There are other folks who have been on that list for years and they would certainly get the call before I did, but if they turn down a swarm, at least I'm in line.
I'm going to make a swarm-bucket today. I'll take pictures of it for you. basically just a chlorine tablet bucket with the screw on lid (rinse it out really well). The lid is cut out to replace the center portion with wire screen so the bees can get air. Lots of techniques come into play when trying to catch them and you'll likely have to improvise. On a tree limb, I tied a sheet in the tree under the swarm, misted them with water, and just shook them off, then poured them in the bucket. In the case of a swarm under something like a mailbox, you'd simply brush them gently into the bucket after misting them with water so they can't fly.
I must stress that you are in Texas with seemingly high occurrences of Africanized bees, so protective gear is critical, and knowing a little bit about bees ahead of time will be a big help in determining if they are africanized. If you're not sure, best to just leave them alone or call an expert.
Feral colonies can be very difficult to domesticate. Probably the easiest way is to find the queen in that swarm, clip her wings and cage her for a few days. When her scent has filled the hive and the bees have started drawing comb, they've accepted their new home, and you can set her free from the cage.
Also.. as you can see from my recent experience, none of this is failproof and you should expect failure just as much as success.
Remember, I'm new to this...
I opened up the suffering colony yesterday and introduced a new queen to them. After being queenless for two weeks, this 500 or so bees readily took to her. This is a peek inside the suffering colony. Many of them are along the wall and others are drawing comb on frame 1. With such a low population I had to rob a comb of brood from my strong colony so she'd have someplace to lay her eggs, and to give them some honey and pollen to use.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...0/DSCN6409.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...0/DSCN6410.jpg
Nurse bees were tending her overnight and into the afternoon. It's a good sign they've accepted her. It's also pretty cool to watch them feed her while she's caged. Cage design is really simple. One end is blocked with a cork, the other with candy that is basically cake icing. The candy has no smell. Before I placed her in the hive, I observed that the queen herself smelled like flowers, very reminiscent of lillies.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...0/DSCN6411.jpg
At this point it was time to rob the strong colony, which got them pretty mad at me. I still didn't get stung, but I must credit that to wearing my PPE. I was constantly getting bumped.. That's them saying "Hey! Get the heck outta here!" A peek inside the strong colony showed bees top to bottom, very crowded, keeping the hive clean. This is the best way to force them to do maintenance. If you look back at the first pictures of the nuc colony installed, and compare the population to these pics, you'll see that they've exploded into a healthy colony.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...0/DSCN6414.jpg
.. and since I had it open, I checked on the queen, so seems to be more plump now.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...0/DSCN6415.jpg
After a few hours of hanging in her new hive with the salvaged bees they still hadn't eaten the candy away, so I had to release her. By afternoon, she had made her way into the crowd of bees and onto the fresh comb. Sorry for the blurry pictures.
Can you spot the queen?
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...0/DSCN6416.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...0/DSCN6417.jpg
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...0/DSCN6418.jpg
I have not checked on them this morning, I'd actually like to wait about two weeks before I open them again, but by evening yesterday, the bees behavior had changed, from basically idle, to increased flights and foraging, many tending the frame of brood, many drawing and almost all of them cleaning each other and the hive. Amazing creatures in that way, but it's funny that they seemed "lost" and directionless while they were queenless.
Here's a bee that was tagging along while I was preparing. Most of the bees were covered in wax like this one before queening.. They were aimless and just doing their most basic habits.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/g...0/DSCN6408.jpg
Compare that picture to the pictures of the queen on the comb and you'll see that only a few hours later, the bees had cleaned themselves and were much more industrious. One bit of great news is that I didn't spot a varroa mite ANYWHERE, and there were no eggs present to support hive beetle infestation. IF this colony is able to come back from the brink of destruction, they should prove to be healthy and clean for a long time. Guess we'll find out!