Share The Seeds
Gardening Area => Beekeeping => Topic started by: Sunshine on March 12, 2016, 01:59:27 AM
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So I finally got some extra money to start beekeeping. I'm almost finished building a top-bar hive with my dad. I've spent around 30-40$ on the wood so far. I chose this style of hive due to it's simplicity. It is far easier to build a top bar hive as opposed to a langstroth, which was my original choice. In Africa they build top bar style hives out of anything; old refrigerators, oil drums, etc. Its basically a long box with bars that sit across the top for the bees to build their combs along. The one my dad and I built is 4 ft long, with 3 1in entrance holes in the center of the box lengthwise. We still have to build legs and a roof, which I hope to get done within the next few days. I glued 2-3inch tall pieces of brood foundation to the top bars using melted bees wax.
I've purchased some pollen and some natural sugar to feed to them so that they can get a head start when I put them in. Today I finalized a deal with a local beekeeper to get a 3lb Italian bee package w/laying queen at a decent price(135$).
Umm...that's sbout it for now. Pics coming soon.
Oh...I also bought a smoker, some queen hormone, lemongrass oil, and a feeder which accepts mason jars which I plan on filling with sugar water/spearmint oil/lemongrass oil.
-Sunny
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We finally finished the hive!!! ;D 8)
To be honest, it was more hassle to build it than it's worth. So unless you're a carpenter or someone who is really good with wood I recommend you just buy one. I probably spent 70-90$ on the wood for it. Plus an extra 40-50$ for other stuff which I would have had to buy anyway like the smoker and wax frame foundation, etc. Professionally made ones go for around 200$. I guess it's cool since it's something I built myself from start to finish though, so there's that.
Here's the pictures of it;
crap...attachments not working?
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Upload to imgur and post the link here :)
nobody
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I have not been able to attach images either. For now, imgur or another external hosting site would work.
So this might seem like a dumb question, but how do you actually start the hive? Do you get a queen and then just put her in the box? Or do you wait for it to naturally get populated? I'm asking because I'd like to get into caring for bees in the distant future, but I'm not sure how a colony is started.
Thanks!
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No such thing as a dumb question. Feel free to ask anything bud. :)
You need to either buy a package(3lbs of bees and a queen, costs around 130$), a nuc (a small hive with already built comb, brood, bees, and a laying queen, costs around 175$), or you can try to trap a swarm. If you build a 'swarm trap' bees will naturally take it over come swarm time in your area if you're lucky. To increase your odds you can use swarm lure which is made from queen hormone and other stuff like lemongrass oil. I've heard this is hit and miss for people. Some get bees on the first year they try, others don't have as good of luck. Since I put so much effort into building the hive I just figured I'd go with the sure thing;packaged bees. I've been contemplating whether or not to build a swarm trap to test out as well since I already have lemongrass oil and queen hormone.
I could be wrong, but I think if you just had a single fertile queen and put her in a hive she would die due to either being killed by something, starvation, or getting too cold. Queens don't build comb or go out to forage. It might work if you fed her sugar syrup and gave her already built comb, but keep in mind any eggs she lays will take 14 days to hatch(iirc) so she'll be essentially defenseless until they do.
(http://i.imgur.com/74MHQ6c.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/Dy7UofO.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/4f5J8O0.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/GBAQ6a4.jpg)
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I tried to make a GIF...........HEY IT WORKS! WOO!
(http://i.imgur.com/jxg3ysa.gif)
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Nice work Sunshine! Love it! :)
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<3 bees!
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So they REALLY seem to like lemongrass laced sugar water. Apparently it mimics there queens pheromone. I haven't had to use my smoker yet.
Sometimes when they get a little buzzy and start flying around I'll spray them with either plain water or sugar water to calm them down. I put some oil on my gloves so that when I open the hive and they smell me they get a good wiff and know I'm cool. 8)
It'll be day 3 tomorrow and the queen still hasn't made her way out of her cage. I'm hoping they eat through her sugar cork and set her free by then. They're about 2/3rds the way through now. She must be dying to get out and lay some eggs. I'll leave her be tomorrow and only open the hive to put in their feeder jar. I feel as if taking her out stresses out the hive.
I've been reading up on essential oils and what not. There is stuff that a lot of beekeepers use as a food additive called honey-b-healthy. From what I've read it contains mostly sugar water, along with spearmint, lemongrass, and thyme(?) oil. I also read they LOVE anise oil. Tomorrow I plan on going to pick up some spearmint, anise, and thyme oil. Perhaps I can make a nice mix of all 4 of those to use in my sugar water.
Something that's disconcerting to me is that since they're so docile, which may or may not be because they're a new/small colony, they may not be as defensive as they should be. Bees and other insects such as wasps 'rob' other weaker colonies. I noticed a couple of hornets buzzing around when I went out today. I'll have to keep an eye out for robbers. People say that lemongrass oil can greatly increase chances of robbing.
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I just went out and checked out the queen cage(hey, I couldn't resist!), half thinking she would still be in it. But she's NOT!!!! She must have escaped sometime last night/this morning. I also checked out the frame I had her hanging on and they have already started to build up the comb off of the foundation. :D
My guess is now that she's out of her cage and ready to lay eggs they'll go into overdrive building comb. Time will tell. :)
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I'm so jealous... whelp... someone's gotta new hobby on the bucket list!
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there is some very interesting and beneficial information in this video of Paul Stamets on Bees and how they stay healthy. something that you could easily do to help them thrive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAw_Zzge49c
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I know this video is long but very much worth the time to watch. Bee Man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za-vIdak3bI
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I'm so jealous... whelp... someone's gotta new hobby on the bucket list!
"clandestine stil" and "meat/cheese smoker", as well as making the latter are on my bucket list as well. ;D
On another note, the bees were noticeably more agitated upon opening the 'queen end' of the hive today. (ver heavy buzzing, loud, still not agressive though) It could be because I ingested bananas shortly before opening it (smells like their alarm pheremone), or that they're viewing the hive as their new home now since their queen is laying eggs. It could also be that I didn't give them feed all morning, or that it was late in the day...any number of things, really. At any rate, I think it may be a good idea to keep a smoker handy if I open that end of the hive again.
Regarding feeding bees mushrooms(I presume that's what the video is about? Too tired to watch it atm but will later!) I've looked into it. I guess red rieshi is what I want. A friend of mine will be sending me some in the future to test it out.
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The Bee's drink a sweet nectar produced by the mycelium there is some very interesting. Somewhere recently (but I cannot remember where) was an that I read about Bee's have facial recognition. Perhaps they have learned you are the good guy. Great job on the Bee condo that you have built. I suppose you have seen the system where the honey drains directly into external jars? thanks for supporting the Bee's.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_pj4cz2VJM
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No I dont. Top bar hives are actually the worst type of hive to build if youre beekeeping for honey since you cant extract the combs using a spinner like you could langstroth frames.
Those flow hives use a lot of plastic frames which done allow the vibrations to pass through to opposite sides. I heard they interfere with communication between the bees. But hey, if they work they work.
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More on top bars not being great honey producers;
When you harvest the honey you have to cut the whole comb off the bar. You can't spin the honey out of the frames. So each year the bees have to spend energy and time rebuilding the lost comb rather than on making more honey.
The upside to top bar hives is that they're easy to make and cheap. Some people also say that they're better because they allow the bees to build the comb in an eliptical shape rather than into retangular frames...so they say it's more natural.
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They look wet because I sprayed them with sugar water to calm them down. I haven't had to use smoke yet. This is the end comb. They get progressively larger towards where the queen cage was. I'm debating whether or not to shift them around and bring them towards the end of the hive.
(http://i.imgur.com/qMYATlU.jpg)
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Lots of nectar stores evaporating down into honey yet to be capped as well as tons of excellently patterned capped brood. My grandma spotted the queen with her white spotted back. They are reluctant to accept sugar water laced with lavender oil. I'm going to try and lace some sugar water with fresh spearmint and see if that does any good. If anything it will help keep mites at bay. They may be avoiding feed because nectar from flower intake is high at the moment....
I think robber bees may have been raiding the hive yesterday so I plugged two of the entrance holes. Tons of bees of different sizes(maybe* drones?) were in and out, as well as different colors(not sure if strong color variation is unusual?)....but anyway...that's all for now.
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Okay, so just for my records;
April 13th is when they were first hived. The queen didn't escape her cage until 3 days later.(April 16th) I think she can start laying as soon as she escapes. Today, May 7th, marks exactly 21 days since the queen escaped her cage and presumably the first egg was laid.
It takes 21 days from laying an egg to the point where they chew themselves out of their comb and are 'born'. So, if my math is correct that means today a bunch of new babies should have been born. The queen can lay up to 2,000 eggs a day. Since there wasn't a lot of comb built when she escaped I'm betting she didn't lay nearly as much. I know at least one side of one end comb has quite a bit of almost-matured brood on it and I'm sure if I opened up the hive and took a look-see most of the others will have mostly mature brood as well. (Edit, last time I checked it looked as if some had 'hatched'. Also adult bees were noted being balls deep in the empty ones speckling the brood comb, presumably feeding newly laid eggs???)
I should expect higher aggression in the coming days since these new bees will see the nest as their only home. Of course this part is speculation so if they do increase in aggression it may not be due to that. I do know that as a colony increases in size it will become more aggressive. I also have read that the more honey stores and the more capped brood a colony has the more aggressive it can *potentially* be since they have more to lose/defend.
The colony's honey stores, brood, comb, and numbers are about to get boosted hard from the new births. I need to act now and get my new slats cut down to the right size in anticipation of that. There is but one bar on the end with foundation that has yet to be built on and the one after it is showing fresh comb being built. They will make queen cells and swarm if I don't stay on top of this and make sure their home doesn't become too crowded. I think it may be a good idea to cut and add another bar tonight and prepare the rest with foundation for the coming days.
On another note there is some indication of robbing such as dead/oddly acting bees on the ground in front of the hive. The dead ones could just be ones that died naturally and were tossed out of the hive. I'm not sure what could cause the disorientation of the others. They almost seem drunk.
Last thing I want to mention is that I planted some mint on the corner of the shed nearby. I hope it takes over the strip along the shed. From what I've read bees LOVE mint and it's flowers. :)
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Nice work!...I had the thought of late....start keeping Bees!....So I will go along with that(when I move) Sounds like a good idea.
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Thanks happyh! It's one hell of a hobby.
I just opened up the hive with no gear on. I didn't pull out any frames but I separated them one by one to see how the hive is doing. It seems pretty consistent throughout. The bottom 2/3rds-ish of every comb are capped brood and the top 3rd is evaporating nectar waiting to be capped. I didn't see the queen this time. (Maybe I don't have an eye for her, eh?) However I did see some capped drone brood(wtf?!)...more on this later after I do some reading and consult the other beekeepers.
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5/9/16
As anticipated and with no surprise....
Very notable increase in aggression. There is a handful of bees guarding the entrance now with great vigor. Upon blowing into the entrance several flew out and swarmed around the entrance in highly defensive and agitated patterns. When the hive was opened today one bee climbed on top of a frame with stinger on the ready. To be honest the little girl had me a bit nervous. They are responding to quick movements now. reminiscent of a how a dog acts when one fake throws a ball; following the hand quickly in anticipation, but with anticipation of disruption and attack rather than a friendly game of catch. Slow movements lack the effect of quick ones.
They have already started to quickly build comb on the new bar I put on the end. I haven't checked the other end so I can't comment on the other two I put in the hive but I imagine they've started working their way towards them as well. For the time being I think sugar water spraying to keep down the hostility would suffice, but I should start keeping a lighted smoker on standby just in case. I imagine I'll have to add another bar by the end of the week, at the very least. They are growing faster by the day..
Side note; I'm considering using some queen hormone to give myself a bee beard. hah
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They were SUPER aggressive earlier. One actually chased me. I got startled and shut the bars too quick. Probably crushed at least a few. :-[ :-X
Here's a picture of the same comb as last time, except bigger. See if you can spot the queen. (Top-Old Bottom-New):D
(http://i.imgur.com/qMYATlU.jpg)
(http://sharetheseeds.me/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3374.0;attach=19914;image)
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They've been busy!
What does the queen look like?
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She is marked with a white dot on her back and is slightly bigger than the others.
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Hey peeps! I just did my weekly checkup on the hive. I didn't spot the queen this time but no biggie. There's plenty of capped brood so I know she's still in there staying busy. Unfortunately there was no capped honey yet. I think it's because they've been putting all their energy into building up comb since it's their first year and eating all the nectar they put into the combs as they go.
On a more positive note, while the colony continues to grow their defensive behavior does not seem to be progressing along with it. I think that most of their defensiveness last time had a lot to do with how I handled them and the fact that they were being robbed hard due to being so small.
As I learn more about how to act around them(no quick movements, but move with a purpose and don't be fearful), and use the tools at my disposal(smoker, sugar water with lemongrass) they seem to take a better liking to me as a result. I did squish a bee or two closing frames however, so my technique and patience may need a little more working on.
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Phew! Long day messing about with the girls. Here's what I have going on in the apiary...
First of all, they look healthy. I saw lots of honey/nectar stores, a decent amount of brood, as well as pollen and drones.
I was doing my weekly inspection this past weekend (6/26/16) and while going through frames I found 7 queen cups/cells.
One was mostly built, another clearly had royal jelly in it(indicating the presence of a queen larva), and the rest were just starting to be built or half built, rather. The hive has tiny eggs, so the old queen was active within the past few days.
So I got a hold of a local contact of mine who is loaning me a nuc box and a langstroth setup. I found the old italian queen I had started with and took her out of the hive, along with some nectar/honey stores, some brood, and maybe half a pound of bees and put them into the nuc box. I now have a nuc box with 2 top-bars which I super glued extensions on so that they would fit into the nuc and old drawn out langstroth frames in between every other frame alternating.
I brought them 3 blocks to my dads house until I can find a home for them. I don't really have the room for them so if I can't find a spot to keep them I'm going to try to sell them on craigslist. Bees are in high demand and I'm sure a purebred Italian nuc will fetch a pretty penny.
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My future honey bottle labels.
The new nuc hive.
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I just checked on the nuc. Looks like the workers I put in with her are sticking around
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I inspected the hive just now. One single capped queen cell on frame 2 and 4. On frame 13.5(don't ask about the weird numbering) there were approximately 4-6 queen cells, one of which looked bigger and better than the rest. Other than that there were maybe 1 or 2 other frames that had half-assed built cups which looked neglected.
What's odd is that I remember there being a lot more queen cups spread across more frames. Previously on the last inspection frames 6 9 10 12 13 13.5 14 all had queen cups/cells on them. I'm wondering if the bees destroyed some of them because they didn't have eggs in them.
On another note; the split seems to have taken in it's new hive. I shifted the split queen from her nuc to a lang deep setup after a couple of days because they were building the comb on the lang converted top bars to the floor of the nuc. Comb built to the floor = frames which can't be taken out. No bueno.
Now that they're in the Langstroth hive it doesn't matter if the comb is built to the floor because it's in the brood box which I don't plan on taking honey from. Though I don't like the idea of not being able to inspect frames, so I will probably take it out after they build out the new hive's frames more and the eggs from the frame hatch.
I had to refit the top bar converted lang frames AGAIN to fit into the Lang deep. Cutting frames WITH bees on them is no easy task. So I tried to knock the bees off the frames by banging it down. The frame that was filled with honey fell off. DOH! Long story short everyone got a good taste of fresh honey and the bees got to clean up the mess.
P.S. I got stung on the thumb trying to harvest more propolis. It was my fault though...they're not queen right(aka not right in the head) and I accidentally crushed a few of them. -_-
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Hy Sunshine,
Do you know anything about native bees?
Here in South America we have stingless bees, Meliponini. They are safer to handle...
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There is a big hive in the attic of my grandmothers house which has been living there for years. Their coloring is different and I'm pretty sure they are more defensive, though I'm not sure by how much. They are also more cold tolerant since they have been breeding locally for years. I'm not sure about honey production. I bet their varoa mite resistance is high too. My top bar hive queen will be mating with a local feral bee soon so I'll have hybrid genetics. I'll be able to comment more on their characteristics by the end of the year. The native bees are not sting-less here unfortunately.
I wasn't aware that there were any other honey producing bees in SA other than the Africanized honey bee. From what I've heard they are rampant and overtake local genetics quickly.
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I think one of the queen cells in my top bar hatched last Sunday. She should have mated by now hopefully. I haven't done my weekly inspection yet but I should have a update by the end of the weekend. I doubt I'll see eggs. I'm hoping there will be a full frame of honey in there I can harvest. The split hive is growing VERY slowly. I reduced their entrance and fed them some sugar water blended with EOs. Hopefully they take off soon. They don't have a ton of time to build before winter.
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Wow, this is VERY cool! Lots of interesting info. Def. also going on my hobby bucket list! *Following...
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No eggs yet. Not enough honey to harvest either.
On another note, the neighbor walks up while I'm doing the inspection in full gear(net and arm length gloves) and stands literally RIGHT NEXT TO the hive and starts chatting me up. I told him he should back up a few feet because they weren't happy today. He starts telling me "oh they never bother me" and "I'm allergic to them, so I carry an epipen"...at this point I tell him "Dude if that's the case you REALLY should back up." I don't know what this guy is thinking. Here I am fully geared up and I'm not even allergic to them and this guy is standing there like I'm playing with puppies. -_-
Anyway, rant over...he got the message.
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What a rube xD
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UPDATE TIME!
The split Italian hive is still weak and growing slow. They are also VERY aggressive. I opened the hive a few days ago with my veil and gloves on but they were SO aggressive I had to drive back home to get my smoker. The smoke was necessary. I'm not taking the chance of getting hit by a swarm of pissy bees. They haven't built much comb but the queen is still alive and laying.
On a more positive note-
I inspected the top bar hive just now. I was seeing lots of fat grubs...no small fresh laid eggs though(I wonder why?) Just lots of fat grubs, lots of pollen, and a good bit of honey and a couple queen cups(maybe cells?) I'm not sure if there were eggs in them...
Then I saw her; the queen. She was a gorgeous golden color. No black bands. She stuck out like a sore thumb. She is a very interesting colored pretty Italian-NY hybrid. Perhaps she lacked bands because she's young. I only saw her and no other queen. She didn't have a posse following her around, which I also found interesting. I assumed queens always had a small group following them, grooming and feeding them. I guess that's not always the case.
I harvested some honey a week or two ago. The comb cut up into nice sections for packaging and storage.