Bee Situation! 2016

 For those of you who follow my blog, or remember Indiana weather in March, 

Easter Sunday was beautiful.  We were outside in short sleeves!

 I had five hives and they were all alive and buzzing.  

Then the following weekend, this happened.

 And it was bad.  My parents, who live closer to town, lost power for hours.  They tried to  make it to our house and couldn't because the storm picked up so much they couldn't see to drive.  You couldn't even see the pond across the road.  In this picture you can still see it.  It would sleet, then rain, then hail, then snow - sideways!

 A few days later I remember trying to beat this storm home.

 Two weeks after Easter, more snow.  You can see in this picture how green our grass was from all of the warm weather, then we get snow and cold, and if it wasn't snowing it was raining, almost the entire month of April. 

This robin looked up at me and chirped, "WTH?" Bee Lady?  

"I know, right."

"It's Indiana."

 

 Sad to say, I lost four out of five hives during the first two weeks of April.  I called my mentor beekeeper friend because I was so distraught.  He told me it happened to A LOT of beekeepers and there isn't anything we can do about it.  What happened was the Queen started laying eggs as though it were summer.  It felt like summer!  And the bees could not maintain the warmth they needed in their little bee cluster to stay alive. 

 Vickie and I spent an entire day taking down dead beehives and extracting the honey left over from winter out of the hives. It was a long, sad day.  

 

I had the one hive left and I was praying no more cold weather.  I opened it one day and just wanted to cry because the queen was not laying.  I found out that was a good thing.  She wasn't laying because it was too cold out for the amount of bees in the hive to keep any more brood warm. 

 How smart are these creatures!

So, I had one hive, and I had an empty hive set up with the frames we extracted.  And would you believe a swarm helped themselves to that empty hive! What luck!

So I was back up to two hives. 

Mid-May, My Shug and I decide to escape to warm weather in Florida!

 I'm sitting by the pool enjoying this drink...

And I get a call!  Someone has a swarm! 

Are you kidding me! I'm almost 800 miles away and I get a swarm call.

 Now, my cousin Vickie and I joked about her getting a swarm for me while I was gone.  

I told her she COULD do it!  

We even joked about a 

bee mantra for her to say while she was getting the swarm.

Breathe.... Bzz Bzz

Breathe.... Bzz Bzz

And when the owners sent me this picture of this swarm I KNEW SHE COULD DO IT!

My Shug was floating in the pool, "Don't send her after that."

"She can do it" (My fingers were flying on my my phone e-mailing her)

No she can't, he says.

She can too.....She's helped me for years, I say (I'm texting her) 

I'm begging her to call me.  

She was at work, she had a game to work that night (she's athletic something or another where she works)

and after all of that......

I think it's the third swarm in my history of beekeeping that didn't require a ladder! 

Her husband is helping her! 

(THANK YOU AGAIN VICKIE AND ROBERT!)

  Just like a pro!

Hive number three!

  Then on the way home from Florida I got a text from someone who has bees in a whiskey barrel on their front porch.

 We went to get the bees and decided to come back that night and get the barrel instead.  When you are getting a swarm, it's best to do it during the day when the sun is shining and they are occupied looking for a home.

When you move a hive, even if it's in a whisky barrel, you should do it at night when the bees are inside.  So, we were not even home for 24 hours when we were off getting a whisky barrel of bees.

We brought it home that night, and the next day in the sunshine (when the bees were occupied) My Shug sawed the lid off of the barrel.

 Unfortunately, the comb was on the lid and it fell into the barrel.  Which had apparently housed robins for years and years.  PeeYew! stinky  But look at all those bees!

 I won't go into the details of how I did this, unless there is a beekeeper out there that needs to know.

 But it worked!

 After a few days, no bees in the barrel, and all the bees were in the hive!

Hive number four!

We returned the barrel to the owners and they were happy to not have bees. They were also going to keep the hole to the barrel plugged up.

 And yesterday, Vickie and I split a hive that was FULL!

It took us two hours to find the queen.  Hot, Heavy, Hard work.

When you split a hive, you do it in the sunshine and you do it in hopes that the hive will not swarm from becoming too full.  This was the hive that had just moved into my empty hive body that was in the yard. 

So now I'm back up to five.

(If this split works)

I don't know how much honey I will have this year.  I'm starting with new hives again. And I know, most people want the honey.  I, however, want the bees.  

And I'm going to do everything I can to increase my hives so that I have bees. 

 

Beekeeping is not only hot, hard, and heavy work, it is also emotional.  I was so excited this year to get into beekeeping again.  Not that I quit, but the last few years I was always beekeeping in a hurry, with the house always on my mind.  

After going to the big beekeeping meeting in February, I was anxious to get started and I want to learn all I can.  I want to try new things.  I remember that day, only a month ago, I was choking back tears, to now, when I'm a happy bee lady once more!

Cindy Bee 

PS. I know, I know...this is not short and sweet.  C'est La Vie as my sister would say.

Honeybee VS Yellow Jacket

This photo shows the difference between a yellow jacket and a honeybee. 




You can see many more pictures like this, by clicking HERE.  This photo is courtesy of that same website. 

This time of year it is impossible to eat or drink outside.  I can barely walk outside without being attacked by yellow jackets or wasps.
Here are a couple of differences between honeybees and yellow jackets, besides the way they look.  Many people confuse them, but as you might notice, yellow jackets are skinnier and honey bees are fuzzier or harrier.
Honeybees only want the nectar or pollen from a plant, and the occasional hummingbird sugar water.  Yellow jackets are carnivores.  They will eat meat, sweets, and whatever else you might be eating.  They will also eat honeybees.
Another difference is the sting.  Yellow jackets will sting over and over again and not die.  Honeybees will sting one time, and die.  So, this time of year when you are thinking of those pesky bees, more than likely they are not pesky bees at all.  But rather yellow jackets.
And to other honeybee stuff...
Yesterday my cousin, Vickie, came over and helped me work in the rest of my hives.  She has helped me a lot in the last couple of years with my beehives.  Who knows why?  She certainly doesn't!  But I appreciate it a lot!  We got into a lot of my "iffy" hives yesterday.  One needs a new queen, which is sad because it was the hive that made it through the winter.  Who knows what happened there?  A couple of them are questionable, but the rest SHOULD make it through the winter.  And I am feeding them all right now.

One thing we did find out for sure.
The hive I cut down from the outside of an apple tree a few weeks ago is still alive, however....

they did not go up into the frames I supplied for them.  They stayed like this.  Who knows if they will make it.  They had brood so I let them be.  If you have brood, that means you have a queen.

 And my cute tree hive

Totally dead and gone.  I pulled this comb out of it.  Empty

 Here's the thing....when you have an unprotected beehive, it invites all kinds of predators.  Yellow jackets, hornets, and wax moth.  And honey bees visit each others hives.  So when bringing something like this home, you need to be careful you don't bring home disease that you give to your other beehives.

Ok, after a somewhat stressful morning, I'm heading out to Coral Belle.  I cannot wait to show you some pictures of her!  Maybe tomorrow...

Cindy Bee

Outside projects

Yup, still working on this vacation agenda....and yup, vacation was over two weeks ago!  But I'm getting there....we took the car in to be painted and fixed.  The one that got totaled last summer.  We bought the car back from the insurance company, found the wrecked parts from a 'junkyard' car, and let it sit through the winter.  Now it's getting painted.  So I'm getting my car back.  Mark that off the list.

And those bricks....those damn bricks....finished that story on the house blog.

So, the rain has stopped for the most part.  It's been cloudy a lot, but plants are finally starting to bloom.  I don't have many flowers blooming out here but I do have trees.  Redbud, apple, pear, peach.  And I got this idea off of She Junks.  You don't always have to put flowers in a vase.  You can bring in some tree blossoms!

I've been slowly going through beehives.  And moving them.  I am putting them all around the edge of the woods.

Rather than spread out in the whole yard.

I've also been painting the hives that died.  I want my beeyard to be colorful.  It's where Coral Belle will reside when she is finished.

And I've been painting gourds and turning them into birdhouses.  I actually started this project last year. But as it is with most projects around here, you only get stuff started...never finished.  Because something else more important than painting gourds pops up.

Hopefully, I will find time to get some flowers.  My Shug and I worked together on our flower boxes Sunday.

We dug out the clay and added nice soil.  Once I finish those bricks, I'm going to plant flowers.

With all of the hard work I do, why aren't I this tall and this skinny?

 I don't get it.

Cindy Bee