Robber Barons and the War of the Roses

This week, my hives are called York and Lancaster. York is currently in power.

Yesterday, York got greedy.

I'd noticed that the hives hadn't produced any new comb since I slowed down the feed, so we must be in a dearth. I fed the bees, putting large ziplocs full of sugar water inside each hive. Then I put small slits in the tops of the baggies.

Three hours later, I noticed a surge in activity outside York. This hive is visible from my back deck, a useful setup for a newbeekeeper.

They seemed fairly organized. They were bunching up in front of the hive, flying in tight circles by the entrance as if there was a backup on the landing pad.

As I watched them, I realized that the bees leaving the hive had changed their path...from a straight flight path across the valley to one of three new paths: up and to the west, down into the valley and to the west, or straight into the trees just west of the hive. You guessed it--Lancaster is to the west, and down in the valley. I ran down to check out my other hive (formerly known as the "natural" hive).

Sure enough, it was busier, too. But there was no organization. More like a circus with all the acts going at once. Bees flying around the front of the hive, bees flying around the whole hive in a big circle, bees flying straight up 30 feet above the hive and then straight down again. There was even a cirle of bees flying 30 feet above the hive. It was like hula hoops of bees going every which way. And bees were entering the top and bottom of the hive at an alarming rate.

As I snuck up, I saw dead bees at the hive entrance, and in the weeds in front of the hive.

This hive was clearly being robbed. And I knew who the robbers were. The other hive, and now newly christened Yorks. (I may be reading too many novels about medieval times.)

I waited until early the next day and shut both hives down, closing top entrances and putting a cleat in the bottom entrance. The cleat shrinks the entrance, allowing the Lancasters a smaller gate so they have less real estate to protect from intruders.

Nowhere is it written that I should do anything to the robber bees, but I shrunk their gate as well. Might as well make it difficult for them!

Seemed to work. Activity slowed at both hives. Today, before I added more feed, I watched the Lancasters. They were bringing in lots of pollen (but no nectar), so I guess all is well. After all, when the castle is under siege, the farmers are fighting, not working.

Maybe I won't have to paint the Lancaster's hive red.

Doin' the Two Step

It's been hot out here, in the nineties and humid as all get out. My poor bees seemed really stressed, they were on the outside of the hive doing what beekeepers call washboarding. If you watch this video, you can see why they call it that. They moved back and forth, just doing the two-step. It's as though they are cleaning the outside of the hive, or maybe a line dance. Not much is known about why bees do this, but mine have been doing it since it got hot and humid. Of course, we are also in a dearth (lack of nectar producing flowers).






Naturally, I was concerned with my beekeeping skills. Slumlord that I am, I apparently wasn't providing sufficient a/c. So I increased ventilation by putting a good 1/2 inch vent between the top super and inner cover. Previously, I had a vent between the inner and top cover but this didn't allow much ventilation.

I was so proud of myself! The bees kept washboarding, but they looked happier with all that ventilation. And there seemed to be fewer of them on the outside of the hive.

This is what is called "projecting." Turns out, I was happier. But I was about to learn about robbing behavior.

Trouble in Paradise?

Turns out everything is fine.

I was concerned when I looked in the natural hive. After reviewing the pictures, I found some dark cells and dark larvae, as well as some larvae that seemed mushy. Apparently, though, as the bees reuse the cells, they get darker.














I also noted that some of the capped cells were turning a greyish color, as at the top of this frame. However, that is just the older larvae that are about to hatch. I was excited to catch a couple of bees just emerging in this picture, too! They are just north of center, where the greyer cells begin.

Living in La-La Land

I decided that the best way to calm my bees down was to fill the goldfinch feeders that sit next to the hive. I can't find anything on the web that talks about locating bird feeders next to bee hives; but then again I am afraid to click on most links that come up when searching on the birds and the bees.

Having all those birds flitting about the hive is beautiful and entertaining to watch from my kitchen window. And it seems like the hive did calm down a bit.

Bees Are Getting Testy

My traditional hive is decidedly less pleasant.

When I first went in, they were noisy.

I had a veil on and was smoking the heck out of them. As I was working them, I thought maybe I should put on my gloves. Just then, a bee stung my knuckle. Hmmm, should have listened to my intuition. So I ran and put on my gloves.

Then, as I was pulling frames closer to the center of the brood, a bunch of bees flew out and were flying in circles around me, buzzing loudly. I walked away, smoker in hand, and blew smoke all around me. The bees went back to the hive. I approached the hive and they stayed put.

But every time I tried to pull a frame, a bunch of bees, maybe 50-100, would fly out of the hive and buzz me, doing circles around my head. They didn't land on me, but they seemed to be flying right in front of my face, telling me to GET LOST.

I took the hint and abandoned operations for that day.

Next day, I went back in. This time, I made sure I wasn't over-smoking the bees. I managed to pull the last three frames, but they were still decidedly unpleasant. The hive is stonger, filled out 7 of 10 frames in a deep. They have more honey to protect, so maybe this is normal and I'm just not used to bees? Or perhaps the new queen is laying a more stressed out bee?

I have two foundationless frames that I added a couple of weeks ago, and one of those is drawn out. I had to cut a piece of crazy comb off one end and rubber band it into a new frame, but that went well.

While this "free comb" was laying on top of the frames, the queen crawled onto it. Glad I checked it, and I'm really glad I have a marked queen so I didn't drop her during the rubber banding procedure.

Also, the brood pattern is beautiful. So the hive is stronger, but hotter, too. I hope I don't have a mean hive brewing.

After all this, I checked out my other hive, and it was calm and enjoyable by comparison. When does the steep slope of this learning curve start to level out?

Foundationless Stick-to-it-iveness

Ahhh, the messiness of the foundationless hive. After applying the triple fix, I waited ten days to reinspect. I only found minor improvements. Even though a reader named Grumpy had prepared me for this, disappointment and frustration ensued. I understood the Grumpy moniker! Little Miss Perfection was not getting everything her heart desired. Luckily, perfection and obsession seek each other out (not to mention organization).

How does the saying go, "When in doubt, try, try again?" I think I'm learning that with Foundationless, a little stick-to-it attitude is important. And after cutting out comb, everything is sticky indeed.

So I continue with the three fixes:
1) Push comb around to straighten it
2) Cut out comb and put in rubber banded frames
3) Move frames around to alternate foundationless with foundation.

This Just Might Work
After another two weeks I reinspected, and WHOOHOO things are looking up.

I am now feeling much better about this hive. I have some frames with the most gorgeous, straight, foundationless comb. As any frizzy-haired girl knows, straight is where it's at. I've spent my whole life pursuing straight. No stinkin' hive is going to best me, at least not yet.

Of course, it's still not perfect. But there is a silver lining to every cloud. In this case, it is the opportunity to take better pictures of the rubber banding method.

Here is a picture of the rubber banded frame with no comb in it (with popsicle sticks glued in to the top to provide a guide for the bees). In the next picture, you can see the comb in the frame. As a new beekeeper, I'm sure there are other methods, but this is working pretty well for me. I pull the rubber bands apart to drop the comb in. Before I do this, I'm careful to lay the cut comb on top of the frames, in case the queen is on the comb (I actually found her on it, and had to shake her into the hive before putting the comb into the frames...don't want to accidentally drop her in the grass). Also, I probably don't act quickly enough, and thus am a little worried about chilled brood. But judging by the sweat dripping down my neck, the days are plenty warm.

As an aside, a close up of some of the rubber-banded comb reveals an unusually nice picture (for me) of larvae and eggs. The green tinge worried me a bit, but I think it's just the green grass in the background.

Does rubber banding work?

This frame used to have rubber bands on it (you can see the lines at the top where the bees stuck propolis between the rubber bands and the frame). It is now has straight, drawn comb. And no overlapping comb, I'm happy to see.

Interestingly, the rubber bands all break away for some reason. I remove them if they are still stuck to the frame. If they aren't stuck, the industrious bees kick them out, and I often find rubber bands at the hive entrance. Clean little buggers. I LOVE that.

I do have some overlapping comb on some foundationless frames that didn't ever have rubber bands on them. It seems to maintain the bee space, but maybe I'm wrong about that. So much to learn. Can I leave it, or should I cut it?