Moth Prevention & Winter Preparations

My last preparations before winter: #8 hardware cloth lined with dryer-sheets and covered with cedar chips. The whole feeder cost roughly $6 to build and fill. However, I believe it will prove brilliant on all fronts. The dryer sheets should catch the beetles - the cedar should deter moths - and both should insulate the hive, while wicking away moister.

I also placed a Fat Bee Man corrugated sign trap in each hive, as well as a swiffer sheet and beetle buster trap on the top bars. That's every trick in my bag.

After having the temperature dip into the 20's I thought I might have waited too late to winterize my hives. Luckily, I was blessed by God with a nice warm 67 degree day. Noah was working so I asked my 13-year-old nephew, Zane to help me out. He was a huge help and I wouldn't have gotten done without him.

We staged all of the feeders and traps on top of each hive to minimize the amount of time each hive would be left open.

We then cleaned up the apiary and removed all the unused equipment - a full truckload (which might be part of my pest problem).

Lastly, we began placing the feeders. The first hive I opened was dead and filled with wax moths. I felt sick. The second hive looked good but then the third hive was dead. I could have thrown up!

With no other choice, I carried on. In the end, I lost three hives.

"Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes." Zig Ziglar

Last month, when I extracted honey, I placed the empty supers back onto the hives in hopes that the bees would clean them and refill them. However, the flowers were all but gone and I think this gave the moths a window of opportunity. I think this was the cause of my losses.

I started the year with 7 hives. I made all successful splits and increased to 23 hives and 1 NUC - however, I lost a total of 6 hives in the past few months. Leaving me with 17 hives and 1 NUC. If God is willing and I don't loss any hives over the winter, I should be able to divide 17 into 68 or possibly as many as 136 (that would be 4 successful exponential splits).

My actual goal is 100 hives by the end of next season. So for the rest of the winter, I will be in the wood shop building hives. I'll post on that as I progress.

However, for now my bees are in God's hands - I have done all I can do.

Hive Count: 17 Hives and 1 NUC

Hive Top Feeders - How To Build

I've used a lot of feeders but my favorite one is Don "The Fat Bee Man" Kuchenmeister's Hive Top Feeder. They are really easy to build and make checking on your bees super convenient. However, I have made some slight modifications.

In the first picture you can see the finished product. It is simply a 1x4 box with a #8 hardware cloth bottom. Before it goes in the hive, it will be lined with dryer sheets and then filled with cedar chips - hopefully this will keep out pest.



Now before we get started, I cannot emphasis how helpful Jig's are in the workshop. Because I already had a Jig built for cutting Supers out, I was able to cut up (15) 1x4's in just 15 minutes.

Later, as I began assembling my outer frames, I was struggling and losing time - until I tacked a board to two sides of one of the assembled boxes and used it as an assembly jig. In the same amount of time it took me to build two boxes without the Jig, I was able to assemble the other (13).

Take the time to build your Jig's - the time you spend building the Jig will pay dividends for years to come.

 
The required items are:

(2) 1x4's cut 19 7/8" long
(3) 1x4's cut 14 3/4" long
(2) scrap 1x4's cut 5 1/2" long
#8 Hardware Cloth 16" x 23"

"If you would be wealthy, think of savings as well as getting" - Benjamin Franklin

Now I needed to build (15) feeders. I found that if I cut (3) 8'-1x4's I can get (8) 14 3/4" cuts and (8) 19 7/8" cuts with little to no waste. (See Picture)

From (1) 8' - 1x4, I can get (6) 14 3/4" cuts.

So (2) 19 7/8" cuts plus (2) 14 3/4" cuts make the outer box.

Then the (2) 5 1/2" scrap cuts are placed at one end with a gap in the middle.

Then take the third and last 14 3/4" cut and rip (2) 3/8" pieces off long way. (1) strips will be used as a cross bar support for the screen. The other (1) will be cut into (4) even pieces at 22.5 degrees to create the enclosed ladder.

Finally staple in place the #8 Hardware cloth across the bottom and trim off the excess. Then trim that remaining piece to 3" wide.

Now assemble the (4) ladder pieces two on each side and wrap with the hardware cloth leaving a 1/2" exposed on the bottom side for an entrance. Place the ladder in the gap - making sure that there are no gaps that might allow the bees to enter the feeder outside of the ladder.

Now turn the feeder over and cut the hardware cloth out of the 3" x 3/4" hallow space so the bees can access the feeder.

"Winter is Coming" and this coming Saturday will likely be my last chance to slip my feeders on before the temperatures drop into the 50's. Tic-toc, tic-toc.

I hope you find this blog helpful. Please leave a comment if you have any questions.

Linda Passed Away

"A year from now you may wish you had started today," Karen Lamb

I have been overwhelmed as of late. I can't put my finger on the exact cause of this feeling but it is there just the same and it has been crushing my productivity.

Nonetheless, Monday (12/4/17) I finally managed to winterize my hives. It went very well despite working in a light misty rain. However, it was warm and the bees were agreeable.

I did not merge hives B.1.1 and VSH as planned. I made all the preparations - I reduced B.1.1 to one single super and placed paper over it. However, when I opened the VSH hive it was full of both bees and beetles.

B.1.1 is small and should make it through the winter but I doubted it could survive another beetle attack. So I closed up both hives and left them separated.

Only time will tell if this was the right decision.

On a personal note: My mother-in-law past away on Tuesday (12/5/17). She has been sick for years with a mental condition that mimics dementia and over the past couple of years she had required full-time care. The task was divided amongst my mother, nephew, daughter, son, paid sitters, me, and my wife (the order of those names gives the magnitude of contribution with about 90% of it falling on me and my wife).

It has been exhausting. Her passing feels like a blessing but saying that feels selfish and cold. My wife has now lost both of her parents in the past 18 months and that breaks my heart for her. Just the same, I am sure that the reduced stress of caring for her mom will actually make her life infinitely better - once she has finished grieving of course.

I don't know if my feelings of being overwhelmed are significantly linked to my mother-in-law or if I am just lazy. The weeks to come will answer that question. Either way, 2017 is coming to an end and Spring will be here before you know it.

I have two goals for next year: 100 hives and mastering queen rearing. I think I'll make a chart to hang in the shop and mark off each hive as I build it - then do the same in the spring and mark them off as I fill them with bees.

BTW: My chickens started laying eggs the day before Thanksgiving and I am getting an egg every day now.

A Good Day to Make Splits

"Five hundred. … five hundred fights, that’s the number I figured when I was a kid. Five hundred street fights and you could consider yourself a legitimate tough guy. You need them for experience. To develop leather skin. So I got started. Of course along the way you stop thinking about being tough and all that. It stops being the point. You get past the silliness of it all. But then, after, you realize that’s what you are." Vin Diesel, in Knockaround Guys

After a long (very hot) afternoon of beekeeping, I came home and jumped in the shower - that's when I saw them. Four stings on my forearm. I knew I had gotten a couple of stings; one on my back and one under my arm but that was it. That's when I realized I had come to a turning point. I quit counting stings about a month or so ago (right after the day I got those (60) at one time). It stopped being the point... and I got past the silliness of it all.

This may be as much to do with the calmer hives I have begun to breed. At present I only seem to have one cantankerous hive left at Dr. D's place. Hive-A is still fairly aggressive but Hive-A.1.VSH has become as calm as a Hindu cow.

All and all it was a great day of beekeeping. Here is what we did:



Hive D.3.VSH has succumb to the hive beetles. In fact it has also begun to have Wax Months. There was still about a cup of bees in the hive but the beetles had destroyed all the wax. For now we just left it but I will retrieve it this weekend.

Hive A.1.VSH was dealt with next. We opened the top and found it full of bees. No further inspection was needed. We stapled #8 HW Cloth over any openings and ratchet strapped the whole thing tight. We then loaded it up and took it to the house.

Hive B was then split. I did this in the walkaway split style. First I moved the top two boxes of honey to the new location. I then placed the brood chamber on top. From there I split the brood chamber in half, making sure to put eggs and stores in both. I then used the frozen frames (after they thawed) to fill in the open spaces. I then placed the single box with about two frames of nurse bees back on the original location.

When complete, I had a new hive... Hive B.1 I didn't put a VSH egg in this one because it was already calm and I want to keep some genetic diversity in the apiary.

VC was last. VA and VB are the two five frame nucs that the beetles destroyed. I've decided for now just to keep the letters running in order. VC was filled with two frames of brood, eggs, & bees from Hive A and one frame of just eggs from Hive VSH. We then took it home with us. At home, I took the mini mating nuc full of bees and added them to VC. I also took the VSH frame of eggs and placed them in Hive D.VSH.

I would have like to have done more but the heat was pretty bad and my suit was stifling. Saturday I plan to do more. Nonetheless, it was a great day of beekeeping and I felt confident in all of my hive manipulations. It is late in the season but I think I still have time to make some gains.

Hive Count: (9) Hives and (1) Five Frame Nuc

The Harvard of Bee Yards

If "failure is the best teacher" then my bee yard is the Harvard of bee yards.

This weekend proved to be heartbreaking. The two Five Frame Nucs I made have both been destroyed by hive beetles.

Out of the two nucs, one was filled with lots of bees from Hive-A. It should have been a strong hive but I didn't secure the bottom of the feeder properly and it left a hole for the bees to get in. Half of them drown while the other half got trapped in the feeder box leaving the hive defenseless.

The result was an inch thick layer of muck and beetle maggots on the bottom board. The infestation was epic. The fowl smell emanating from the boxes distinctly resembled a hog pen.

The other nuc was also infested and destroyed but not like the first one - though dead is dead.

I took all the frames out and brushed the bees into the air over a Mini Mating Nuc - letting them fly down to the box that I placed in the location of the infected nucs. I then placed each frame on the ground (not the best move but I was scrambling). When I was done, I took the (8) most infested frames and placed them in a trash bag that I put in the freezer - I tried to fit all ten but I didn't have room. The other two I put in the sun.

I finally went for the nuclear option in hopes of preserving Hive-D at my house - I used Diatomaceous-earth. I spread it in a 4'x4' area under the hive and then covered that with cedar chips.

This was the last thing I wanted to do but my bees are in dire straights. My way of thinking is that the beetle larva will burrow into the ground beneath the hive to pupate and when they emerge the beetle will pass through the Diatomaceous earth and die - while the cedar chips will keep the bees from being exposed.

I am also looking into getting some chickens. This option is only possible at my house but I'm going to try it out. However since I can only seem to find baby chicks (rather than grown birds) it will be a couple of months before they are old enough to be of any use.

Tractor Supply sells them by mail but you have to get (10) and I only want about (3). That being said, here is a quote from the website:
Egg Production Rate: Females ONLY; Ranges from 264-285 eggs/year

You just know they had to put that "female ONLY" part in there because some jackass called complaining that his roosters just weren't laying.




No Eggs and the Night Dreads

My daughter’s boyfriend, Noah is interested in beekeeping and so he spent the weekend helping me – which was nice since I enjoy his company. I did my best to work on interesting projects and to allow him to observe the bees without getting stung. Nothing squelches a new beekeeper's enthusiasm quicker than getting stung repeatedly.

BTW: I got (6) stings this weekend but they were all well deserved for doing stupid shit.

I'd like to point out that I have a vast amount of beekeeping knowledge. I’ve studied beekeeping books and videos for years and I can answer most questions people ask. I’ve also gained a lot of experience through my own screw ups and I’m pretty good about only making the same serious mistakes once. That being said, there are so many times I look into my hive and feel as dumb as a dog looking at a doorknob.

We did manage to find both of the new queens out at Dr. D’s place but no eggs. At (43), I may need new glasses but I couldn’t find any eggs and I doubt all three of the new queens are just not laying. They may also need more time. Either way I felt defeated.

Once all the bees were fed, we called it a day. At home I did my best to waterboard my disappointment with a couple of bottles of Rascato but with very little success. So when all else failed, I went to bed.

The night dreads – that’s what I call it when I wake up in the middle of the night and begin imagine the worse case scenario for my life. It's not just empty thoughts; I think about sick family members, money issues, work problems and so on but I also obsess about all the things that could go wrong. I know the whole thing is compounded by the fact that I'm half asleep but it’s hard to tell if I’m insane or if I’m just really stressed out. I constantly worry that one day I’ll flip out like Leonardo Decaprio in The Aviator and my wife will just find me in front of the mirror muttering, “It’s the future… it’s the future… it’s the future… it’s the future…”

Nonetheless, at 4:00am Sunday morning, I woke up and began thinking about my beekeeping plans. Even if I could build (10) mini-nucs each weekend, I could still only get about (500) built in time for next spring. To make matters worse, at the rate I am splitting hives, I won’t be anywhere near (100) full size hives.

That was when a thought came to mind that I have rarely ever had about anything: “Maybe I should just quit.” It seems silly to think of it in the daylight but at 4:00am it seemed like a good idea – for about a half of a second anyway.

I can’t give up – this is my Plan G!

Plan A was Architecture but after designing a couple of dozen houses I got tired of designing other people's dreams. Plan B was when I became a fireman but the pay was so bad, I gave that up after about (4) years. Plan C was paramedic but that job is what sparked my anxiety issues. Plan D was offshore life but that dried up. Plan E was to become a writer but so far that hasn't panned out either - though I would gladly do that full-time. Plan L is to finish my degree and become a full-time teacher (I already teach part time). Around Plan Q is becoming a standup comic but my wife doesn’t think that shit's funny at all. And Plan Z is to keep doing what I’m doing as a Safety Man but that is far from a desired option.  (Note: I'm only kidding about my wife not being supportive - she actually supports anything I want to do... she is awesome! It sounds like pandering but she doesn't read this crap.)

So giving up on professional beekeeping is not an option. Of course reaching my goals this year doesn’t seem realistic either. That only leaves the third option; do what I can and be content “if” I do my best.

So my goal is still the same: Master grafting, create (750) mini mating nucs, and create (100) viable hives. However, that is my overall yearly goal. I need to set more obtainable, short term goals. So I made the following spreadsheet for this month and will do the same each month that follows for as long as it is helpful.

60 Stings – like being molested by a briar bush.

My wife, Jen

I drove to Philadelphia, MS Friday and picked up my three new queens. More importantly, I got to visit with Johnny Thomson of Broke-T Apiaries – what a nice guy. He answered all of my questions, which was a huge help because I couldn’t seem to find the answers anywhere. Here were the questions:

1.       Do you put Virgins or Queen-cells in the mating hive? I hear both ways but Johnny said he gets better acceptance with Queen-cells.

2.       Can you sell Virgins? Yes

3.       How long do you leave the queen in the mating nuc? 21 days. That seems a little long but he charges $25 a queen rather than $20 and that seems to make up for lost time.

4.       When to start grafting? Mid February.



a.       I had been told by other beekeepers not to split until Easter but Johnny started his splits March 1^st. I should have done the same.

5.       When is the breading season? Mid February to the end of June – not much market for Queens in the summer but there is a market for Queens in the fall.



6.       What do you do with mating nucs when the season is over? Johnny uses a (3) frame medium mating nuc and combines three of them together to make a new hive in June. He said he doesn’t have an issue with bees fighting when he does this.

7.       Do you need to add bees and food to the mating nucs? No. Once the nucs get going they are self-sustaining – but if a hive doesn’t make a queen it will have to be given a frame of brood to keep its numbers up.

So these questions helped out a lot.



New hive configuration after splits

When I got home that afternoon, I went to the doctor’s place and split my largest hive (D). However, as I began checking it, I found that it did not have any fresh brood and was full of drones.

Then I started to get stung. Once or twice at first but the longer I worked the more I got stung until the bees made their way into my shirt and began stinging me over and over.

I had already split the hive into three new hives – two on the location and one to take home with me. The problem was that I wasn’t sure if I had put enough young bees in the new splits. Yet with the stings mounting, I found it hard to remain focused. I had brought sugar syrup but I only fed Hives (A) & (B). The rest of the food I ended up taking home with me as a fled the scene.

Of course I didn’t leave until all the hives where in order and closed up but once at home I couldn’t help but worry I hadn’t made proper splits.

My wife helped me scrape out the last of the singers and then counted the red whelps – (60) in all... my personal best. I didn’t feel too bad but I was chilled the rest of the night. Nonetheless, by morning the stings had shrunk to little red spots and I was no worse for the wear – though as I type this, a few spots on my chest are still itching but not bad.

I went back out to the hives Sunday and found that the queen in (D.1) had been released and accepted. (D.2) had plenty of bees but had not let the queen out yet. (D.3) the hive I brought home is full of bees and the queen is close to being released. I have put brood builder feed in all of the hives now and will feed again on Tuesday.

For now it seems that all of my splits are doing well. As for hive (D) which is the one that stung the hell out of me – well I think it is queenless and I will put a frame of eggs in this weekend if the new queens can spare them.

I also went by the old farm Friday but the field was a swamp and I couldn’t get back to check those two hives. For now they are like Schrodinger’s Cat. The good news is I have a lead on a new site that is closer to my house and so I will be moving the hives from the old farm to there as soon as I have queen cells.

I know this all sounds like a horror story but I take comfort in each sting I get, knowing that if it were easy, everyone would do it. I know it might sound bazaar but I feel that each sting it a little penance that must be paid for a great reward. I’ve spent years and thousands of dollars to earn the beekeeping education I have (weak as that knowledge may be); I’ve gone too far to turn back now.

The new hive count is (9).

How Many Stings Does It Take?

Last night I divided 1 ½ gallons of 1:1 sugar syrup mixed with 3/8 cup (90ml) of Don’s Brood Builder between the (4) hives at Dr.D’s place. I went out after work with just a veil so I got stung... again. However, unlike last Friday when I got stung(4) times or Sunday when I got stung (9) times (on my arm which swelled up so much that I had to remove my watch), this week there is almost no swelling - nor was there any real swelling on my chin where I got stung the day before.

This begs the question: How many stings does it take to build up immunity?

I found the answer on the New Scientist website:

"High doses of bee venom early in the year block a normally potent immune reaction for the remainder of the season, says Mübeccel Akdis, an immunologist at University of Zurich in Switzerland, who led the study."

It also says, "After an average of 13 stings a week, beekeepers quickly desensitise to the bees’ barb, which delivers a large dose of several venoms, including a membrane-busting protein called phospholipase A."

The study concluded that the immunity wears off in the winter and so the cycle is repeated each year.

So here is an update on my Hives:

I ordered one VSH Queen back in January from Johnny Thompson in Philadelphia, MS. He was very nice in my first emails and agreed to let me pick the queen up so I could bend his ear (Pickup was scheduled for the first week of April). I scheduled a day off from work for March 31st to get the apiary ready. However, I sent him two emails over the past couple of weeks to confirm the time but he never replied.

I only ordered one queen so I knew I was a low priority but not responding was just rude. Nevertheless, low and behold, I got a phone call from Philadelphia last night. Johnny apparently hadn’t gotten my emails and was calling to let me know he had three extra queens and that if I wanted them I could pick them up Friday (the 31st).

So now I can make three easy splits – one of which I will be taking to my home in town. This will be my breeder stock. Having a hive at home will make grafting queens much easier. I am sure I will screw up a lot but this will allow me to practice every few days – and practice makes perfect.

First Inspection 2017 - Trying not to screw the pooch!

Hives (A) & (B)

On Friday, March 24^th I took my nephew Zack with me for the first hive work of the year. I went to my (4) hives at the doctor’s place and I couldn’t have been more pleased. The hives are strong and healthy. Since I didn’t gather much honey last year, the super count on the (4) hives goes like this: Hive A had (2) supers, B had (2), C (3), and D (4).

I “checker boarded” A, B, and D with new foundationless frames adding a super to each. On Hive C, I added last year’s empty plastic honey frames. I also added FBM type Hive Top Feeders with 1:1 sugar syrup treated with FBM Brood builder essential oils. 2 quarts was given to each hive.

On that note:

Don the Fat Bee Man has carved out a wonderful niche for himself as a teacher. I love teaching and I think Don is a very smart beekeepers, so good for him. That being said, his YouTube videos are filled with errors. I can’t figure out if they are intentional or accidental. I left comments for clarification but he doesn’t respond – so I suspect they are intentional.

Two things I’ve been very interested in are Brood Building and Mini Mating Nuc’s. This is where I found the most frustrating of errors. His nuc dimensions don’t add up and in his recipe for Brood Builder, he uses one oil while saying the name of a different one. I guess he wants you to join his class to get the accurate info.

I would love to join such a class but to be honest; MOST of the beekeepers on YouTube have such huge egos! I’ve been half-ass beekeeping for about a decade now and while I have learned a lot, there is still so much left to learn. I would love to get in with a group like Ditchdoc 129 on YouTube – they are learning together without egos and doing a great job.

Still there is a certain pride in being self/book/video educated. I’ve spent all winter watching YouTube videos and on Friday’s visit to the apiary, I felt a 100 times more confident about what I was looking at. It was as if I had watched over the shoulder of countless beekeepers for 10 years’ worth of inspections.

Anyway, I digress. So here is the brood builder recipe (I got this from Don’s videos but clarified it with several other YouTubers):

• 1 teaspoon Tea Tree Oil
• 1 teaspoon Wintergreen Oil

• 1 teaspoon Spearmint Oil
• 5-10 drops of Lemongrass Oil
• Mix it with 1 quart of water. Then add ¼ cup of mix to 1 gallon of 1:1 sugar syrup.

Now I should point out that I’m an idiot! I didn’t look for the queen in any of my boxes. I just wasn’t thinking and in doing so I may have endangered Queen “A”. There was brood in the upper box so she might have been on the frames I checker-boarded. I pray I haven’t killed her.

Of the four hives, “A” is my most gentle. It is also the one that has the beard on it and I fear it may be about to swarm. I don’t think it had a beard before I began working on it Friday but it has one now – another reason I worry I may have done something to the queen. I went back out on Sunday and it is still there. I sat arguing with myself over what the beard meant and whether or not to split.

Everyone keeps telling me not to split them until after the Easter Cold Snap but on Tuesday, I plan to do it anyway. I also plan to bring the “A” queen and half of the hive to my house to be my breeder queen and use her for grafting.

Drier Sheet after winter -
Hive beetles are now under control.

Last Note: I got stung 9 times when I attempted to inspect Hive C without smoke – or suit. I had actually only meant to go out on Sunday and inspect the hive top feeders but I accidently bumped it… or maybe I thought I might take a quick look… truth is that once the attack began, I got very fuzzy on the details!

However, I refused to kowtow to those little bitches and so I went and got my smoker and made them behave. When I had checked all the feeders and put cinnamon powder around the hives, I sat down amongst them – meditating and worrying about what to do next.

With the start of bee season, I am sick with worry. This is the year it could all work out – as long as I don’t screw the pooch!

Failure to Thrive

Failure to Thrive is a medical term to describe children who are not gaining weight as expected and have poor height growth.  However, today is seems like a good description of my beehives.

Today I visited my hives at Dr. D's place - I have been avoiding my 3 hives at the old farm since two of them are filled with hateful bees.

Of the hives at Dr. D's place, only 6 are still alive after all of my splits earlier this year.  Below is a picture of that bee yard taken 5 weeks ago but shows the location of all my hives at Dr. D's:

The hives marked with an X are the ones that are now completely empty.  The rest are as follows:

Hive A: This is the first split I made this year.  I have 3 supers on this hive now - each has 3 frames of bees in them and is doing well.  I am feeding them sugar water and they had eaten about 40% of it in the past 20 days.

Hive C: This is the hive that had the moth infestation.  As of today, there are only three frames of bees in it.  This has not changed in the past 3 weeks (since I first found the moths).  I did find some Wax Moth Larva in the sugar water and I tried to remove them all.

Hive D: This is one of my original hives.  The bees in this hive are slightly aggressive but not nearly as bad as the ones in The Beast back at the old farm.  As of now, I have 4 supers on this hive: 2 are filled with brood and one of them is filled with honey already.

Hive F: This new Italian hive has a lot of wax but no brood.  The new Italian queen seems to be gone.  I removed one frame of brood from Hive G that had a queen cell on it and placed it in Hive F.  These bees had eaten half of the sugar water in their feeder trough.

Hive G: This new Italian hive only had 2 frames of brood and one of them had the queen cell on it.  I am confused by this since it is a new queen and there is brood - so why was there a queen cell?  These bees too had eaten half of the sugar water in their feeder trough.

Hive K: This new Italian hive had 3.5 frames of brood and bees with two additional frames of dark brown wax.  They too had eaten half of their sugar water.

As you can see Hive C, F, G, and K simply are failing to thrive.  Monday I will add brood from Hive D to Hives C, F, and K.  I will also move young brood from Hive K to Hive G.

The local crop for these hives is Soybean.  Soybean produces nectar and pollen from July 1 - August 31 in this area.  So I am hoping that my hives will be able to take advantage of this and increase in size.

BTW:  Today it was 91 degrees without a breeze - the heat index was 100 degrees.  I sweated so much that I could see my tattoos through my drenched white shirt.

A Nope Snake

Nope! Nope! Nope!

A few weeks ago I went to the farm where we first started our apiary and collected all of my old hives.

The mason blocks I originally used had, for the most part, turned to rubble.  This left many of the hives laying in the mud, accelerating their deterioration.

 

However some of the hives seemed to be frozen in time like the remnants of an ancient civilization.  And like the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza, what caused the exodus of my bees can only be speculated about.

With each hive I gathered, my spirit fell a little lower as I began to fully realize how many of my original 100 supers had been lost to rot.  Even now, I feel a little sad at the thought.

As I gathered box after box, my thoughts jumped from the cost of repairs to the hours it would take to  rebuild the supers.  Yet, my thoughts were instantly brought into the moment when I lifted the lid of one of my hives only to find a big ass Nope Snake -- to be honest, I may have peed a little.

I immediately jumped back, keeping the lid between myself and what was obviously an Anaconda!  Now I don't have a phobia of snakes.  I just really hate them.  It's not that I am scared of them, it is simply the fact that I have the reflex time of a sloth in oatmeal.  If a snake were to feel inclined to bite me, my only quick muscle reaction would be in the form of my bowel movement.

My wife was driving the truck along the route as I loaded the trailer with the old supers but I decided not to alarm her until all of the work was done -- no need to worry her.  I took a few pictures from a  distance and then gathered the rest of the hives.  

When I had gathered all of the other equipment, I went back to deal with the snake.  That was when I figured out that the only thing worse than finding a snake in your hive is not being able to find it a few minutes later!  I didn't spend much time looking for him.  No... that is not correct... I didn't spend much time looking for him around that hive.  I did however, fervently search for the Nope Snake all the way back to my truck!  The hive is still out there -- I mean what's one super worth anyway?

Nonetheless, the Nope Snake is not the only horror in the attached photo.  If you will look between the tan box and the white box, you will notice a sprig of poison ivy.  The two weeks that followed this picture I was covered up to my elbows and knees with raspberry colored whelps that itched like fiberglass and alcohol soup.

I love beekeeping but I'm not sure how much more nature I can handle!

p.s.  I looked it up and the Nope Snake is technically called a Speckled Kingsnake.  While I don't have an unhealthy fear of snakes, I must say that just looking at the Google photos of Mississippi snakes gave me a shimmy!

Cleaning a Mountain of Frames - Procrastination tips

Hundreds of old frames

"Procrastination is like masturbation; it's good in the beginning but in the end you realize you have only screwed yourself" - Anonymous

My mother says that when I was a kid I would roll around on the floor and stand on my head to keep from doing homework.  I suppose some things never change.

In the picture on the left you can see over 500 plastic frames that I need to clean.  I've been plucking away at for about a week but it is such a daunting task!  Each frame has to be scraped, scrubbed, soaked in a drum of bleach water, hosed off, and then staked to dry.  It takes about 2 to 4 minutes per frame.

Dale
 (father-n-law & close friend)

The worst part is that my Father-n-law lives next door.  He is the salt of the earth and I love him to death but I know he is thinking, "Damn my daughter married a lazy bastard."  I am slowly getting them done but the misquotes chew on my ass the whole time and I stay soaking wet for the whole job.  I peck away at it 4 hours at a time but I still have a mountain of frames left to clean.

I know i need to get them done but I have found a dozen things to do instead: fix the washing machine's water pump, do laundry, write blogs, wash the dog, cook supper, grocery shop, clean house, etc... See how I made it look like I was doing noble things... FINE!  So also watched about 20 hours of TV this week... you happy now?!

Anyway, I looked up procrastination online and was directed to Psychology Today.  Here is what they suggest.

Dr. Ferrari recommends these strategies for reducing procrastination:

1. Make a list of everything you have to do.

2. Write a statement of intention.

3. Set realistic goals.

4. Break it down into specific tasks.

5. Make your task meaningful.

6. Promise yourself a reward.

7. Eliminate tasks you never plan to do. Be honest!

8. Estimate the amount of time you think it will take you to complete a task. Then increase the amount by 100%.
I really like Number 8.  I always get frustrated when things take longer than I have estimated.  That being said, I suspect I will be finish cleaning these frames in about 30 continuous hours.  I'll let you know when I finish.

Bees Can't Swim - Feeding My Bees.

"Great is our terror of the unknown" - Titus Livius.

The day after I found wax moths in one of my hives I placed cedar chips across the hive entrance of all of my hives.  I also sprinkled a little on the top bar of the infected hive.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  However, I woke up the following morning at 4:00am in a complete panic.  Had I just put cedar chips in my hives and made it unsuitable for bees?  I was sick to my stomach at the thought.  I quickly went online and searched the topic only to find equal parts of positive and negative comments - with no conclusive reports.  As soon as the sun was out I rushed to the bee yard and found that the bees were fine.  In fact they had pushed all of the wood chips off the landing and onto the ground.  That was a week ago.

Yesterday, I inspected my hives and I am glad to say, "The moth problem has been solved" - "For now anyway."  The hive that has been infested with moths had absolutely no signs of the home wreckers.  The hive still only has three frames of bees but they seemed healthy.  However, my hives had not grown as quickly as I had expected.  So it's time to feed them.

The US Department of Agriculture's June 19, 2015 Report states:

MISSISSIPPI: Beekeepers are reporting that the bees are in pretty good condition and have produced some honey, though not as much as needed for demand. Privet hedge honey volume was fair and the Popcorn flow has started along with the clover and wildflowers just before the Tallow comes in. Rain has been the main factor for less volume of honey so far this year and supplies appear to be tight again. 

So it seems that my hives are not the only ones seeing slow growth.  For that reason, I began feeding my bees sugar water last week.  From what I read it is always best to allow the bees to gather nectar naturally and I agree.  Yet, with all the rain, is seems the bees just aren't gathering enough food.

My hives are surrounded by woods, wetlands, and soybean fields.  I visited MSU Cares' website and found a great list of pollen and nectar sources and when they bloom.  On that site I found that Soybeans will begin producing a large amount of nectar and pollen from July 1 - August 31.  So I am hoping that the sugar water I feed them now will help boost their numbers for the upcoming months to nectar flow.

Dead Bees in Feeder

Now here is where I can lay some knowledge on you.  When I first started beekeeping I bought Pro Feeders from Mann Lake LTD.  Back then the feeder was just an open trough that was designed perfectly as a bee death trap.  Of course, no one told me,  BEES CAN'T SWIM!!!

The picture on the right was taken yesterday.  It seems I forgot to place lifeboats in the feeder and so nearly 100 bees drown this week.  The best thing I have found to prevent this is plastic spoons.  No, I'm serious.  I place plastic spoons in the feeder and the bees use them as lifeboats.  Packing Peanuts work too but they can easily get blown all over your bee yard if you are not careful.

FYI: 

Another feeder option is to use Mason Jars.  There are two ways you can use the jar:

One is to build or buy a feeder attachment that slips in the front entrance of the hive.  This is probably the best option for feeding but you have the added expense of the attachment.  That is fine if you are a hobbies but for large scale operations, it might be lest desirable.

The other option for using the Mason jar is to simply cut a hole in the outer cover of your hive to accommodate the lid of the Jar and then poke a hole in the jar lid and invert it into the the hole.  This works great but leaves a hole in your lid.  My friend Marvin uses this method but for some reason, I don't like the idea of cutting a hole in my lids.  That being said, this is probably the best option.

However, for now I already own 50 Pro Feeders and so I will continue to use them until I need more. At that time I will reconsider my options.

References:

http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/fvmhoney.pdf

https://blogs.msucares.com/honeybees/files/2014/06/HONEY-PLANT-CHART.pdf