Cozy for winter

The top photo shows the hives prepped for winter per Paul Kelly's instructions posted here on 29 October. The middle photo shows the reduced entrance in process of discovery; and the bottom photo shows the new top entrance, ditto. That top entrance is designed to allow moisture generated inside the hive to escape so the hive stays warmer, and/but at the moment the bees seem enthusiastic about this as an entrance/exit. Perhaps they're just assessing how much trouble this will be to guard.

Today, the YBeek was felled by an alien bug (i.e. not a honey bee), along with his mum. Get well soon!

So...the YBeek's dad and I winterized the hives.

RE weight of the hives, we found the red hive "heavy" in both boxes although lighter in the bottom box; the yellow hive judged 3/4 of that weight.

The front feeder rigged in the casserole pan with 1:1 sugar syrup with a bit of honey dribbled on top was enjoyed during the past couple of days; the inside feeders were almost completely disregarded for the past month. Rain during the night diluted the front feeder's contents, and I will soon go down to fix that.

RE beek clothing: The more successful (this time) rig for the person not wearing the bee suit was pants covered by overalls tucked into rubber boots, a long sleeved cotton shirt tucked in, and an Eddie Bauer windbreaker with the wrists clamped tight, the bottom string as tight as possible, zipped up, the hood up and closed tight as possible, and this was completely successful preventing entry to the lower 4/5ths. The bee hats worn over the hood were unsuccessful. The bee hood worn under the windbreaker on the third try was the most successful. I will soon buy another adult (supersize) bee suit.

NB for 2010: In 2009, those inside feeders have proven themselves useless, particularly with a fall formula sugar syrup, which crystalizes over the holes through which the bees are supposed to feed. Poor bees!

Chat with Paul Kelly

Conclusions after chat with Paul Kelly today re prepping bee hives for winter:

1. lift off both brood boxes from a hive;

2. remove screen bottom board, and clean bottom board;

3. replace bottom brood box, making an assessment as a matter of interest of its weight; if it is entirely empty, no brood, no bees, no honey, this can be removed, but his advice is just to put it back in that instance;

4. with syringe, dribble evenly between the frames 25 ml of 8.75 grams of oxalic acid crystals mixed with 250 ml of 1:1 by weight water and granulated syrup (I explained that our 1:1 crystalized immediately and I diluted it a bit so it wouldn't but he didn't seem to think this mattered much);

5. place the second box on top of the first, having very approximately estimated its weight, i.e. "heavy" or "light" or "in between" and

6. dribble as in (4) above;

7. place above that the inner cover, from which has been cut a 3" wide slot from the rim, and this 3" slot is placed directly over the top edge of the top super at the front (in the summer, flip this and place the slot uppermost at the back);

8. close off the oval opening in the middle of the inner cover (we have bee-escapes and can seal these);

9. place above this a piece of insulation board, 1", cut to fit;

10. place the hive lining over the hive, so that the bottom rests on the hive base, and

11. place the front entrance so that the smallest hole is useable by the bees, this should allow ready egress and entrance if all goes well with the liner;

11. place the hive top above the insulation board and

12. put the cover on top and place several bricks on the cover.

Repeat for the other hive.

He said that if our bees aren't eating the sugar syrup in their top feeders, there's something wrong with the feeders, OR the hives are so full there's no place to put the feed. I know that the red hive is not THAT full because those bees were so keen to clean up the partially-capped frames. I will rig a front of the hive pan feeder.

Candle

Melted down the wax on the honey-pail strainers from yesterday's project, divided this in half (split 50-50 with the YBeek et al), combined my half of the 2009 wax with Patrick's many (20? 30?) years worth of beeswax candle leftovers, melted this in the old beeswax double boiler, and, using the heaviest candle wick Michael's carries, cast a 3"-diameter x 3.5" high candle. (Last fall I cast several candles in this mould using Patrick's wax collection, but the wicks turned out to be too thin to burn correctly; today made one trial candle with the heavy wick, and will very soon ship this to Logan Ave.; hope have got it right this time!)

Straining honey from partly-filled honey super frames

P.P.S.: 8:09 p.m.: Another nine pints strained; the YBeek and I will use the odd pint for the baklava (see P.S., below). Commenced to wash up. Honey gets everywhere!

P.S.: 6:15 p.m.: Fetched the YBeek from school; he helped strain and bottle 12 pints, plus a cloudy 2/3rds of a pint pressed from the wax which we will use to make baklava tomorrow.. More will strain through during the evening. The bees have completely cleaned their first nine frames; inverted the Roughneck box over the frames on the cart in case it rains tonight. If it's warm and clear, I will give them another nine frames tomorrow.

Noon: Today it is finally warm enough and dry enough to scrape the capped comb from the partly filled honey-super frames, and to put these frames in front of the hives for the bees to clean.

We have 18 of these frames; some capped one side only, some partly capped one side; some with comb partly raised and otherwise empty; when we took them off, we put them into four RubberMaid Roughneck boxes. Then we installed varroa mite strips in the hives, and began to feed with fall formula sugar syrup. The frames have been stored in the barn, waiting for the rain to stop and the weather to warm a bit.

Today, I scraped off capped comb with a big spoon and a spatula, and am straining the honey from the broken cappings through the two honey-strainers and into the honey bucket with the honey gate.

The bees, who have been somewhat casually flying now the goldenrod and asters are coming to a close, a few seconds after I began to unload the first box-load of processed frames onto their cart which I had set in front of the hives, came out to hang in a curtain on the fronts, my guess is, getting organized to take advantage of the bonanza.

Thank you, Robyn!

Robyn sent along this e-mail--thanks, Robyn--

You may have seen this already, but I thought I'd pass it along anyway:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091002103210.htm

Bees Fight Back Against Colony Collapse Disorder: Some Honey Bees Toss Out Varroa Mites

Source: www.sciencedaily.com

ScienceDaily (Oct. 5, 2009) Honey bees are now fighting back aggressively against Varroa mites, thanks to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) efforts to develop bees with a genetic trait that allows them to more easily find the mites and toss them out of the broodnest.

Rainbow pot of gold!

The YBeek aka Junior Beekeeper phoned after the weather cleared late in the afternoon to say he was admiring a rainbow which ended right above the bee hives. Well, of course there's a pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow: clever rainbow!