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

2018 The Future Looks Bright

"Never pet a burning dog," - movie quote from, A Good Year.

I do my best to keep this blog purely focused on my beekeeping but something strange happened last week that I don't want to forget - so indulge me and then I'll tell about my extraordinary beekeeping year thus far. Or just skip down past the italic part.

On Wednesday, 4/18/18 I woke up singing the 90's song "If I had  a Million Dollars" by the Bare Naked Ladies. I like the group so that's not really odd. 

However, the first thing I heard when I got to work was a conversation that had this line in it, "You got me F***ed up talking about what I would do with a million dollars." Not an unusual conversation given I work in a casino.

Then I went to Walmart after work and the overhead speakers were playing... "If I had a Million Dollars" by the Bare Naked Ladies! So I drove to Arkansas and bought a lottery ticket - and, of course, I didn't win. 

The time between when I bought the ticket and when the numbers were drawn were filled with pure childlike daydreams. I imagined all the things I would buy, the way I would invest, the people I would help, and those I would shun. I also thought how empty all of my future achievements would be and how lonely my wife and I might end up. In the end, I wasn't even disappointed not to have won the lottery.

I've spent a lifetime looking for signs and have never found one. Nonetheless, if this year proves to be an epic success, then perhaps I'll look back on this day and say, "All the signs were there."

What a great bee year so far:

It has been three weeks since I made my splits and they are all doing well... no, they are all doing awesome!

I didn't realize it had been three weeks until just now. I don't have a great excuse, other than the weather has been fairly cold and rainy. Not to mention that last week, Dr. D's father died - I keep my bees at his family's country homestead.

However, that is all spilled milk. Saturday, I went to Dr. D's and my bees were busting at the seams and about to swarm.

I moved 5 frames of queen cells to a new hives with nurse bees (Hive number 14). I would have split 10 of my hives but I didn't have enough lids and bottoms to do it.

In the other hives, I did my best to cut the queen cells out. This is always risky, as you might miss one.

Queen Cells

I then went home and got more boxes and frames and added a box to the 10 overly full hives. The other two hives were doing well but still had two empty frames each - so I left them single stacked for now.

If all goes well, then Wednesday I will make lids and bottoms and Saturday, I will make 10 more splits.

Hive Count: 14 Hives.

BTW: I had a heart scare two months ago and so I have been meditating in the mornings before work to lower my blood pressure. Well, the bees were fairly cantankerous at first on Saturday but then I took a minute to control my breathing and meditate, the bees calmed right down. I suspect my agitation was putting off pheromones and once I relaxed so did the bees.

Queen Cages: (4) living (3) Dead (1) Stillborn

Just a note: The Queen Cells I caged Monday have hatched. As stated in the title, (3) are dead - the cause of death is unknown but I suspect starvation.

This has been a hard year filled with ups and downs. However, I take these setbacks, not as failures but as lessons. This lesson is easy: Queens are fragile and, no matter the weather or life conditions, the queens must be systematically dealt with.

I knew I should have checked the queens on Tuesday but I let the heat keep me inside. Yesterday it rained and I took that as an excuse to again avoid the extreme heat (92 degrees - 60% humidity - 105 heat index) - though I did at least check the queens.

Of course being a better beekeeper doesn't mean I have to have a heat stroke. If queens are fed, they can be kept caged for a week before mating them (They must be introduced to the hive the same way that a mated queen is introduced). Yesterday I dripped a little honey on each of the four remaining queen's cages - Noah is going to do the same today while I'm out of town. Then Saturday, I will get up early and get my beekeeping done before the heat sets in.

The two lessons here are:

1. Pre-plan all queen rearing activities.
2. Regardless of the weather, the show must go on.

My First Successful Grafts

"The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities." James Allen

At least two of my grafts have been accepted. This is that quintessential first achievement that opens the door to all my future successes. I realize this fact. So why am I not more excited?

I made (12) grafts and (2) were accepted - 16% success on my second attempt. Of course I am 200% more successful than I was on the first attempt. So I really am counting this as a huge success.

My joy was a little muted when I found roughly (10) or (12) beetles in each of the hives at my house. I mashed them all - that is my new beetle strategy - manual annihilation. I don't know why there are beetles but the hives seemed okay - well Hive-A.1 seemed to have a little damage to the comb as though the beetles have been eating on it but there was no sign of larva. That was Friday - today is Monday and I will check again this afternoon.



Hive-VE

As you can see in the picture, VE is packed with wonderfully docile bees. Yes I found beetles but they were all hiding together in the corner of the lid - obviously being cowed by the bees.

The other joy stealing issue is that other than my two grafts, no other cells were created. Not just on the failed grafts but none on the Miller Frame I placed in VE and none on the VSH frame that I placed in A.1. The question is why?

Did the Miller frame get too dry while it was on my table - did I take too long making my grafts?
Did the frames get jostled too much on the drive home?
Did VE not have sufficient time to settle in before I gave them the larva?
Did the beetles have something to do with it?

Perhaps but I don't know.

All and all, I am very excited about the two new queen cells but the presence of beetles is robbing my joy. I half expect to find the two new cells abandoned and all three hives filled with beetle maggots. I pray this is not the case.

Nonetheless, if the two queens survive, I plan to name them. I'm taking suggestions if you care to leave a comment.

Lucy and Ethel?
Thelma and Louise?
Eve and Lilith?
Cagney and Lacy?
Julie and Julia?
Kate and Ashley?
Emile and Zooey?
Lavern and Shirley?

Well, you get the idea.

The Beetles Kill Another Hive

The bottom board of Hive-D

"I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me," John Lennon... but then John never kept bees!

I was sure that all was well in my home apiary. I had strong (though queenless) hives and minimal comb. So you can imagine my surprise yesterday afternoon, when I went to check my hives and saw beetle maggots dripping out of the front of  Hive-VC.

I quickly went to the shop, donned my veil and lit my smoker. VC still had all the bees I left in it but they had given the frames over to the beetles. I had only put (3) frames in VC but they were destroyed.

I took the hive apart and put the beetle larva in the sun.

Close-up of Hive-D

I then checked Hive-A.1.VHS only to find that it was queenless. Luckily the hive didn't have any signs of beetle damage.

Lastly I opened Hive-D and found that beetles had already begun to destroy seven frames. The hive had (20) frames in it but some of them were either empty comb or bare plastic. So I stripped the hive down to just four frames of honey and one frame of empty comb. I then added the bees from VC - Creating Hive-VD.

I also made a few of Don the Fat Bee Man's sign traps. The ones I made before using Borax didn't seem to work. This time I made them using straight Boric Acid that I bought off Amazon.com.

Don had remarked that the only reason these wouldn't work is if they were filled too full. So I took one and cut it in half to check - it was correct. I then placed about (4) on each bottom board. I also set one Beetle Buster in Hive-A.1 and my home made Beetle Buster in Hive-VD.

I took a total of (10) frames and put them in the freezer. The other (2) didn't seem to have any beetles on them but I left them in the sun just the same.

I harvested three frames of honey from Hive-A.1 and will continue to harvest through out this week until I get the hive down to just (10) frames.

Wednesday, I will go to Dr. D's and bring home some VSH eggs to graft.

In all I have lost (5) hives to beetles this year - or to be more dramatic (33%) of my apiary has been lost to beetles.

No Queens - What to do?

I finished up teaching classes on Saturday and so Sunday I finally had time to check my backyard bees -- The two Mini Nucs and Hive-D.3 -- sadly not one of the three had a queen.

That being said, I suspected the queen was gone from Hive-D.3 as soon as I opened it because when I gave my first puff of smoke the hive began to roar with the sound of flapping wings. I also got stung (6) times - those queenless hives are cantankerous.

The last time I checked D.3, I couldn't find any young larva or eggs but there were (3) frames of brood. I told myself that it was just late in the afternoon and it was too dark to see - but it wasn't. The queen was gone and now there is no brood left in the hive.

The two mini nucs are building comb but there is no eggs, larva, or brood - so no queens either.

I think I have reached a turning point because none of this bothered me. Not because I don't care but because I am sure I can fix the problem.

Wednesday is my beekeeping day and so I think I will bring home a hive from Dr. D's and take Hive-D.3 out there. If Hive-D has a new queen (Which I pray it does), then I will bring it home (assuming it has now calmed down).

If that goes according to plan, then I can start grafting queens right away from Hive-D.

As for Hive-D.3, I will place a frame of eggs from Hive-D.2 into it and let it re-queen itself.

While I have a queenless hive and two queenless nucs, I am still leaving my count at (9) hives and (2) mini nucs.

A Swarm Is Like Manna From Heaven

I caught my first swarm last night and it was like God just handed it to me.

But first... I’ve decided not to post so much about my personal life on here. I imagine if you are reading this, it’s because you are interested in bees and not in me. That being said, I have to tell this part before I tell you about my swarm:

On January 25, 2017 a collection agency accidently froze my bank account for a bill I had paid in full two years ago. They’ve admitted their mistake but my account is still frozen while they take their sweet time sorting it out. IT'S CRIMINAL. Yet when I called Morgan and Morgan (for the people law firm) to file a lawsuit yesterday, they said my case was "too complicated" for them and then wished me luck.

I can’t believe someone could do something like this without some sort of legal ramifications. Nonetheless, I was surprisingly not that upset - I think it might be because I feel conflicted about suing anyone.  However, I still think these people should be held accountable, whether I benefit or not. So I prayed about it and then emailed a local lawyer. That is the end of that story for now.

Now back to my swarm story:

“So there I was,” (You ever notice how often redneck stories seem to start with that line and end with, “hey - watch this”). Well anyway, there I was sitting at home feeling sorry for myself when my sister-in-law texted me that she had a friend with a swarm of bees.

I have never caught a swarm before so I didn’t know what to expect. I mean sure, YouTube makes it look super easy but I've also see YouTuber’s working their bees without a veil and I call horse shit on that too.

Just the same, I grabbed my gear and headed after it. It turned out the swarm was only a block from my house and, to my surprise, was only about twelve feet in the air.

Well I got my veil and gloves on and climbed up a ladder. Then, using my bee brush, I just swept the bees off the limb and into my box. It couldn’t have been easier! Of course half the bees went back up to the limb, so I repeated the process, this time using my gloved hand. Then, Bibbidi-Bobboidi-Boo, I had a new bee hive.

The two greatest parts of this story are:

First... at the very moment I felt like God wasn’t listening to me, he sent me this swarm of bees like a low hanging fruit. It felt like God was giving me a little nudge on the chin.

The second great thing about this story is that I caught the hive in one of my new beehives that I made from a repurposed pallet. That means I actually have a hive that cost me ZERO dollars.

So just like that, I now have 10 Hives. Hey - watch this... video. :)

p.s. sorry for the vertical video. :(

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!

Summer of 2015 Final Tally: 7-Hives

Dale (father-n-law) moving supers

Hello beekeeping fans,

Well, it is now the end of summer and time to tally my efforts for the 2015 year.  No suspense, the answer is 7 hives.

So here is a summery of this years splits.  I started with 4 hives but one of those died shortly after the spring started.

Then I had 3-hives: so I split them into 6-hives but I didn't know what I was doing so only 1 made it.

Then I had 4-hives: so I split Dr. D's hive three times but one died.  So then I had 3 at the Old Farm and 3 at Dr.D's place.

Then I had 6-hives: so I bought 8 queens and split the hives into 14 total hives.  5 of those queens died right away (or swarmed) - leaving me with 6 at Dr. D's and 3 at the Old Farm.


Then the moths killed one of my original splits and one of my newly queened hives swarmed.  So that left me with 7-Hives for 2015.  Of course I still have a month or two to fortify these 7 but I am hopeful they will all survive the winter.

LESSON LEARNED:

I think the biggest set back this year was due to the bleached frames I put in the hive.  I did this on the advice of another beekeeper.  The actual advice was to bleach the frames then lightly coat them with new wax - however, I didn't have any wax to use so I just bleached and cleaned the frames.  The bees did not build on any of them.  This made the hives inhospitable and the bees just left.

Of course the other thing I have learned is how to properly identify brood.  My first splits failed because I simply didn't know what I was looking at.  I am confident that I did not put enough young larva in the splits and therefore the bees could not raise new queens.

Both of these issues will be resolved for next year.

THE HARVEST:

The original hive at Dr.D's place has 100lbs of honey in it - however, I accidentally put mite chemicals in the hive with the honey and that made it unsuitable for harvest.  I will distribute this honey between the hives at the end of September.  The Beast (at the old farm) had 100lbs but when the hive fell over, the honey was robbed.  All the other hives are barely filling two supers deep which they will need for the winter.

So my total harvest consisted of one single frame of honey I took from a hive at the Old Farm - barely a mason jar full.

CONCLUSION:

After a hard year of ups and downs, I have not become a beekeeping mogul just yet.  I have however doubled my hives.  I think next year will be a much more successful year.

PLAN FORWARD:

What is my big plan?  PALLETS and WILD BEES!  I will explain in much more detail later but I plan to recycle wooden pallets to build supers.  I then plan to lure feral bees in with lemon grass oil.  I already have a area to quarantine these hives until I can get them disease free.

At the same time, I will also split my existing 7-hives during the spring.  I think I will split The Beast into 6 even hives and requeen them with Italian queens.  I will split the other 2-hives at the Old Farm into 4 each (if they are strong enough).  I will leave my strongest hive at Dr. D's un split in case this all goes wrong but I will split the other 3-hives three times each (by removing 2 frames of brood and bees in March, April, and May.)  For a total of 24-hives.  With what I have learned this year, I think this is doable.

If I can pull this off in 2016 then in 2017 I should be able to divide my hives into a large enough number to turn a profit.  Only time will tell.

PERSONAL NOTES:

I did not get the USDA job.  My wife and I were devastated by the news.  So for now I am still unemployed.  My wife is a RN and is working extra days each month which has put us in the black by a little bit.  Of course I feel like crap letting her support me but it is what it is.  I find myself in a panic most days, trying to figure out how I am going to get back to my six-figure salary when all of the jobs around me are for about $9.50 an hour.  I hadn't realized how much I took my income for granted.

I used to scoff at the pro-ball players who would make millions and then find themselves bankrupt a couple of years later.  Now I feel I have done the same stupid thing.

However, today I feel calm.  I feel this way because God has blessed me so much.  Not only are we slightly in the black due to my wife's hard work but out of the blue we received a large (totally unexpected) escrow check from where we had been over paying the house note.  It is a miracle and soothes me.  This is the 3rd time in the past 5 years things have gotten tight but in both of the first cases, God sent me a windfall right at the last minute.  With this escrow check, I feel as if God is letting me know, the windfall is coming, just be patient.

I don't know what the future holds but I know God is with me and it will be okay.

God, Family, and Bees

My oldest and dearest friend, Chip Burnside (who is also my cousin) came for a visit.  So of course I
took him to my apiary.  He had a great time and took lots of pictures.  However, that is not what this blog is about today.

Today I want to talk about God and prayer.  I have a hard time imagining a beekeeper who is an atheist.  However, I suppose for the same reason a Christian looks at the wonders of bees and sees the divine - the atheist sees evolution.  Nonetheless, I am a man of faith - a foul-mouthed, perverted, angry, often self-serving sinner - but a man of faith just the same.

My cousin, Chip (I refer to him in that way so much, I think his proper name should be My-Cousin-Chip).  Anyway, Chip is a devout Christian of amazing faith - he's delightfully flawed but I know he is close to God.  I feel that he is more loved by God than me - though as I write this, I can see the error of that sort of thinking.  Just the same, I rely on Chip for spiritual guidance (even if I don't always agree with him).

This brings me to the point.  I have applied for a job with the USDA office.  I am perfectly qualified for it and the opening is right here in my own community.  The pay is very good and I would be home every night (unlike my offshore job).  So I have been praying for this job.  Praying constantly - since there is no job I have ever wanted more.  My family (especially my wife) are praying for this too.  I should know the full outcome in the next 41 days.

I of course asked Chip to pray with me about the job -- and of course he did.  But he prayed, "God, if this is your will, then let it be done."  My father-n-law echoes this same prayer each night at supper.  They both believe we should not pray for what we want but only for God's will.

Before I go any further, I know that God knows what is best for me.  I know that his will is better for me than mine.  I truly believe in Romans 8:28

King James Bible
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

However with that said, I question this notion that we should pray for "God's will".  To pray for God's will is like praying for the sun to rise.  Only God's will is ever done!  I believe that God is in control of everything (though I don't believe he controls everything - some things he allows to happen without causing them)... but his will cannot be overcome.  So to pray that God does whatever he wants is like praying that the sun will rise... pray -- don't pray... it will still be done.

My point is this, Mark 11:24 says "...whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."  The same is echoed in Matthew 21:22, 1 John 3:22, and many others.

Luke 22:42 Jesus prays "Take this cup from me.  Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done."  In this verse, Jesus asks that God change his will but agrees to be okay with his will no matter the outcome.

God's "will" is always accomplished - so I do pray that I will be okay with whatever his will is.  However, I also pray that he will give me this job and make it a blessing to me and my family.

I'm not a preacher, and I am sure that there are people that will both agree with me and others that will think I am a moron (if not a heretic).  I think I am writing this blog today, as a way to walk through my feelings on the subject.

I have prayed and I am confident that my prayers will be answered.

BTW:

The moth infested hive has died.  I am now down to 8 hives.  One of my other splits has hive beetles. And the three hives that contain my new Italians are doing well if not still a bit slow.  I also found the queen in one of my hives.  It is the first time I have found one all year (I normally look for brood rather than disturbing the hive for a long period of searching).  I'm glad I got to share that with Chip.