THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN UPDATED SINCE ORIGINALLY POSTED.
One of the first things I noticed about our honeybees is how they line up in front of the hive, hold their ground and beat their wings to cool the hive (detailed photos). (I assume that’s what they’re up to.) I usually see 3 or 4 bees in a row, but today I saw about 6 of them forming one long line from the edge of the bottom board going right into the hive. I suppose you have to hang around bees for while to get excited about this. At any rate, I grabbed the camera and managed to record about a minute of it. The line wasn’t as straight and unbroken by the time I hit the RECORD button, but still, bees are cool…
THE 480p SETTING MAY PROVIDE SMOOTHER PLAYBACK.
UPDATE (Jan. 24/11): They are ventilating the hive either to help regulate the temperature inside the hive so the developing brood don’t overheat, or they’re trying to create an air current to evaporate nectar into honey, or both. They’re also likely releasing the Nasonov pheromone which helps foraging bees orient themselves to the hive.
THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN UPDATED SINCE IT WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED.
I got an email from someone who noticed our cats in a few photos. They asked, “How well do your cats get along with your honeybees?” The short answer is: it’s not a problem.
We have two cats, a young cat and an older cat. The older cat, Nigel, is so completely laid back, it’s absurd. He doesn’t even notice the bees, and so far the bees haven’t taken much notice of him either.
The younger cat, Winston (seen in the photo), will chase after anything that flies. He approached the bees cautiously when he first saw them. Then he got bolder and sat in front of a hive entrance one day and tried to catch a few bees — and got stung in the face. He didn’t make any noise when he got stung, but ran away and tried rubbing the sting off with his paws. A couple minutes later he was back to normal and hasn’t tried to catch a bee since. He will notice bees crawling on the ground once in a while, but even then he’ll just sit there and look. Cats learn fast.
UPDATE (Nov. 25/10): Nigel eventually got stung in the face and freaked out. He didn’t know what to do or where to go. He rain in circles, didn’t watch where he was going and banged into the fence, and eventually ran for the back door and we let him in the house. Now whenever he sees a bee, he runs away scared.
Our other cat, Winston, continues to keep a respective distance from the bees. As seen in this photo, he gets very close to the hives at times, but seems totally at ease around them.
THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN UPDATED SINCE IT WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED.
I found some dead baby bees outside Hive #1 today, and now I’m thinking I may have made a mistake when I added the second brood chamber over the weekend.
Sad looking, isn’t it?
The forecast called for sunshine today, but the sun did not come out.
It was cold and wet all day, not a good day for bees, especially after I split up the brood nest the day before — and that’s probably what I should not have done.
Read on . . . »
Here’s a video of Jenny and me inspecting Hive #1 two days ago, scraping some honey off the frames and adding a second brood chamber.
SWITCH TO THE 480p SETTING FOR SHARPER AND SMOOTHER VIDEO PLAYBACK.
The editing isn’t the greatest because I asked our friend, Vanessa, who was shooting the video, to take some photos during the video as well. I read in the manual that my camera can integrate photos while still rolling on video. But it didn’t work like I thought it would, so I had to cut out most of the integrated photos. It’s a choppy edit. Details on expanding the hive were posted yesterday in the Adding a Second Brood Chamber post.
UPDATE (Sept. 17/10): Just for my own records, we added the second brood box to Hive #2 around August 28, 2010, about two weeks after Hive #1.
Related posts: Dead Baby Bees and Foundationless Frames.
THE FOLLOWING AS BEEN UPDATED SINCE IT WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED.
Another long post packed with photos…
We added a second brood chamber (or deep body or brood box) to Hive #1 yesterday. As far as I can tell, it went well. The bees were extremely calm being misted with sugar water, way less agitated than when we’ve used the smoker on them. All the frames had drawn out comb except one. We put about half the drawn frames in the new box on top with empty foundation frames between them. We installed 4 foundationless frames in the original box, placing them between drawn out frames. The honey and the brood seemed mixed together on the frames, so there were no all-brood frames or all-honey frames. There was brood in just about every frame we inspected. We saw some honeycomb hanging off the bottom of one frame, but no swarm cells. Hive #1 appears to be doing great. We’ll see how the colony adjusts to the new box and having all their drawn out frames spaced out. The big experiment is the foundationless frames in the bottom box.
Here’s a shot of the bees after we removed a few frames from the hive:
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I’ll upload some video of the procedure soon. (UPDATE: The video is posted.) Until then, allow me to present a big load of photos and descriptions of what we did. (The full series of photos can be view on my Picasa page.)
Read on . . . »
I introduced some foundationless frames to Hive #1 this weekend. I’ll tell you why and I’ll tell you how. Here’s one of my foundationless frames:
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THE FOLLOWING WAS LAST UPDATED ON AUG. 11, 2011.
The Newfoundland Beekeepers Association does not exist. As of August 11th, 2010, I only know of two professional beekeeping companies on the island of Newfoundland. One is on the east coast of the province and the other is on the west coast. The total between them is something like 150 hives. But there’s not much point in having an association of two, is there? So there is no Newfoundland Beekeepers Association.
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But there is an interest in beekeeping in Newfoundland at least among backyard beekeepers like me. I know they’re out there because I’ve met a few of them, and if they’re like me, they probably wouldn’t mind talking to other local beekeepers — because there’s a lot to know about beekeeping in Newfoundland. I specify Newfoundland because, although cold-climate beekeeping isn’t anything new, beekeeping on a big cold rock in the middle of the North Atlantic likely poses some unique challenges that are best handled by talking to other beekeepers dealing with the same environment.
An informal association of beekeepers on the island would a valuable resource. Even if it’s a bunch of amateurs comparing notes over the internet — you got to start somewhere. So I’m starting here, right now.
I’ve set up a distinct page on Mud Songs called Bee Notes just for talking about beekeeping in Newfoundland, or at least beekeeping in the St. John’s area of the island — or cold climate beekeeping or beekeeping in general. Whatever works. Comments are still welcomed on regular beekeeping posts, but questions and comments about other beekeeping topics can be left on the Bee Notes page. I may also use the page for small updates about my own beekeeping adventures if the topic doesn’t warrant me writing an actual post about it.
In all likelihood, the Bee Notes page will be ignored by most people who visit this website. It could be me and one other person talking back and forth for a long time. Or just me talking to myself (which is my modus operandi for Mud Songs anyway).
But I guess it can’t hurt until something better comes along.
UPDATE (Nov. 25/10): I used a free service to create a website called Beekeeping NL. I set it up as a test to show a friend how easy it is to build their own blog using WordPress. (It took me about 10 minutes to sign in and create the site as it is now.) I was planning to remove it afterwards, but I’ve decided to leave it alone. Who knows, it might become a legitimate website some day. And I love the image I chose for the banner too much to take it down.
UPDATE (March 16/11): I read a report today about various diseases and pests found in Newfoundland honey bees. The results of the report were based on inspections of approximately 100 hives from four different beekeeping operations on the island in 2009. So there are more than two professional beekeepers on the island. Still, not exactly enough to warrant a beekeeping association. More info on beekeeping in Newfoundland can be found at the NL Dept. of Natural Resources page, Research and Development.
UPDATE (August 11/11): Check out Information For New Beekeepers in Newfoundland from the Beekeeping NL website. It’s a collection of the best I can offer from Mud Songs, information based on my experience that may be helpful to other novice beekeepers in Newfoundland.
Here’s a short video I shot yesterday of the bees orientating themselves to the hive and bringing in pollen. I also let the bees fly around my head and I show off one of the board feeders.
SWITCH TO THE 480p SETTING FOR SHARPER AND SMOOTHER VIDEO PLAYBACK.
See the previous post for a close-up shot of the bees loaded down with pollen.
It was cold and wet today until about 3:30. Then it warmed up, the clouds parted and the bees came out of Hive #1 and made the most of the warm weather in a big way.
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Within 20 minutes of leaving the hive, many were coming back loaded down with pollen. You can see balls of pollen on their legs in this close-up.
That’s what we like to see.
Here’s the video of the non-intrusive hive inspection I did earlier today, recorded on my new fancy pants high definition camera. (Change the settings from 720p to a lower resolution if the video doesn’t load or play back seamlessly for you.)
Related post: Non-intrusive Hive Inspection.
UPDATE (Jan. 24/11): The honey comb under the inner cover is called burr comb, and the bees built the burr comb because I had the inner cover on upside-down. Whenever there is more than about 1cm of space in the hive (called “bee space”), the bees will try to fill it in with comb. The upside-down inner cover provided too much open space.
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