A Humble Hum

Last time I wrote, our only hope was to pray for a package to become available and in the middle of a chaotic work week Busy Bee Apiary in Chapel Hill let me know that some packages had become available on Friday. And I was like heck yes! I love this hobby enough to keep droppin dimes on it! My mom was going to be in town so the plan was to get off work a little early and meet her to pick up the precious cargo. Instead, I got tied up and Mom picked them up for me on her way into town. Thanks Mom! You’re officially a beekeeper’s assistant now. Especially since you didn’t freak out when one of the bees got out in the car. Heh. Sorry about that.

So for the second time in my beekeeping career I got to install a 3lb package, but this time with the assistance of my sister Shelly! You look cute in a bee suit, girl. My plan was to install them into the top box and put some newspaper between them and the stragglers below. I thought I would have to brush bees off each frame in the top box into the bottom box before I did the installation but there were so few bees up there we just stuck the newspaper down there, pulled out a few frames, gave them a good spray, and shook ‘em in. The queen cage is stuck between say frames 7 & 8 which are full of honey and as soon as a little poured into the cage they went right to it! Same with the rest of the package. I set a super on top with just a few frames and the package. I didn’t want them marching into the front entrance and getting into fights. And we stuck some sticks under the inner cover to make an entrance for the new girls. I think 75% of beekeeping is improvisation.

 [ Thanks Mom for the photography & videography assistance! ]

FRIDAY’S PACKAGE INSTALL AUDIO

Also here is a sneak peek from a very exciting Humble Hum project. More details soon!

Yesterday I had the absolute pleasure of cracking open the hive with my grandpa.

He kept bees well before I knew him, when my dad was really little and even before that when grandpa was a high schooler in Lafayette, LA. I think he had two hives most of the time. He built his hives by hand with wood salvaged from fruit crates! He also built an observation hive (similarity: just like he admits he was, I’m probably inclined to mess with the bees more often than I really should). While he was here, Grandpa (and Grandma & Dad!) also helped me put wax into a stack of super frames. He said the wax foundation is pretty much the same as what he used back then.

We didn’t go too far into the hive – it was only 56 degrees, so we checked the super I had put on last week (only a few wandering bees, no progress to speak of, and feeder still full of syrup) and pulled out one outer frame which held uncapped honey and a good volume of bees. Actually it was good to see that most of that top brood box seemed full. Looking down on it, there were bees stuffed between every frame. They were all staring at us like “shut the front door!”

Me and grandpa both think bees are fascinating creatures. It’s pretty neat to share that with him.

(Thanks for the photos Jason & Dad. More here.)

Overall thoughts: Lately the hive has shown a lot of foraging activity which I can see from the deck. Like almost as much as in the spring during the nectar flow. This led me to try and super up one last time as [probably a feeble] attempt at harvesting some honey this year… so when we were done, I stuck the super box back on instead of adding more sugar syrup. I hope this isn’t a mistake and they don’t just keep chewing on my wax foundations.

The box that had been on top (the teal one) was looking really good. Good honey and pollen storage, brood in all stages, all frames in good use and covered in bees. Didn’t see the queen but there were plenty of eggs. After looking at that box I got kind of excited because I thought it would mean the same or better for the bottom box since queens usually prefer to lay down there. But by frame 4 I was really starting to be concerned. The first frame on the side facing me had maybe 15 cells of brown ugly pollen and was otherwise completely empty. Even more frames had up to 50% empty cells, not being used for anything, and fewer bees than I would have expected. Maybe this had to do partly with the fact that I inspected the top box, then took the hive all apart and reassembled it with the white box on top, and the bees had moved down by the time I inspected it (now on top)? And not to mention all the foragers that weren’t home at the time of inspection? But I can’t explain why there would be so little brood in the bottom box besides a bit of capped pupae.