Two Hives Inspected

I was finally able to inspect Lib-Bee-taria and Worker Bees... yesterday. The temperature was in the upper 60s (F) with a partially sunny sky. Both hives were very active, having been essentially cooped up inside for the last 5 days with cold, cloudy weather, and occasional showers.

Both hives were doing fine. I found the queen in both. Eggs laying seems very good as I found evidence of brood in all stages of development. I also noticed that the bees' temperament was much calmer and "gentler". I moved some frames around in each to get the bees to draw on empty frames and dusted both with powdered sugar. I also exchanged drone brood frames. I put a queen excluder and honey super on Worker Bees...

While I was in the yard, I placed the Cloake Board's queen excluder back on Bee Glad... between the 2nd and 3rd boxes. I will again do some queen rearing.

Step Four: Capped Queen Cells

It is the fifth day since I grafted larvae into plastic queen cups. This afternoon, I went out to check to see if the grafts  took and the cells were capped. As you can see in the second photo below, all but one graft was accepted by the bees.

Drones Are Flying!

Drones have begun to fly out of Beelandia during the day. I will take this as an indication that my queen rearing project can begin. On Friday, I will turn the bottom entrance of Bee Glad... around 180 degrees, move the queen to the two bottom boxes, place a Cloake Board between the second and top boxes, and move frames of open brood into the top box. This weekend, the process of grafting from the Worker Bees hive will begin in earnest.

I plan simply to walk-away splits to the top bar hives when and if queen cells appear in either hive.


For more information on queen rearing, check out the following books:

Bee Glad... for the Hive is Packed With Workers

Thursday was a beautiful, almost summer-like day in Winona with temperatures in the high 70s F. I couldn't pass up this day without looking into the hive that seems jam-packed with bees: Bee Glad...

I knew this hive was thriving but I wasn't aware of just how well it was doing. It already has three box filled with bees though most of the egg-laying is going on in the top two. The top box was heavy with honey as well. (Where the bees got this I don't know!) I did do a partial reverse, placed another pollen patty on top of the brood nest and closed it up. I have definitely decided that this colony will serve as my cell builder and finisher when I begin queen rearing with my Cloake Board in a few weeks.

Spring Plans

I am huddled here at home after the season's first big blizzard, I've looked out over the snow-covered hives and thought..."Well what are my plans for the spring?"

After doing some research and attending the "Queen Rearing" course at the U of M last summer, I guess my focus next spring will to begin some queen-rearing. (Of course, all this depends are my hives surviving the winter. They were fed extra sugar and pollen in October and early November, and packed away nicely. There were less mites than last fall, and also very few bees with virus-like symptoms, so I am bit more confident) This means some preparation this winter, so here are my goals:

1. Finding places to place hives and mating nucs. I have one colleague (a former exterminator) who has expressed an interest, the Catholic Worker House one block away, and a small-scale perennial nursery and orchard. I have pretty much reached my limit in hives in Beelandia itself.

2. Equipment Purchases-- I made a number of purchases last summer in preparation for queen-rearing this spring (e.g. card board nucs, grafting equipment, etc. ) My new purchases might include more Pierco plastic frames (With a little extra bees wax "painted" on each frame, the bees accepted these well.), and some pollen substitute.

3. Reading and Rereading More Books-- I am obsessed with collecting as much information as possible on queen-rearing, and, unfortunately, had not had time to do that reading this fall with classes, assessment, advising, and presentations.

Did I forget anything?

Queen Mated and Laying

I did an inspection of the 5 frame nuc that I put Gary Reuter's queen cell in. The queen is beautiful, and is laying eggs. Do I use her to requeen a hive this fall or do I try to overwinter her in the nuc a la Kirk Webster?

Last Day of Queen Rearing Course

I finished up the queen rearing class at the University of Minnesota this morning. Our primary activity was taking our grafted cell bars out of the swarm boxes to see whether the bees started any queen cells. Of my eight grafts, only two were being cultivated into queens. One unlucky group's swarm box had included a virgin queen, so none of their grafts took. (There is a lesson there, there could be two queens in any hive so be careful when you shake bees into your swarm box!) After examining the bars, they were all placed in prepared hives for "finishing". These queens will be used in Marla Spivak's classes to teach the techniques of artificial insemination.

We all left with a pleasant surprise. Gary Reuter gave each of us a ripe queen cell grafted from a strong survivor hive. We actually packaged the cells in the nalgene bottles we were given the day before. When I got home I placed my cell in a 5 frame nuc created from frames and bees taken from Bee Glad... We will see if a mated queen will result from this. This allows me to experiment with wintering a double nuc.

First Two Days of Queen Rearing Course

Thursday night, Monta and I were off to St. Paul so that I could take the queen rearing course taught by Marla Spivak and Gary Reuter at the University of Minnesota. (While I took the course, Monta wandered about St. Paul and also did art.)

The first morning of the first day of class was spent discussing bee biology and stock selection. Some of the highlights of this morning included our discussion of the importance of drone colonies in the queen mating equation, and the importance of creating a queen system that allows the bees to do what they are "hardwired" to do. Dr. Spivak also explained why she and Reuter will no longer maintain the Minnesota Hygienic line of bees. If I understood her correctly, her intention was never to create a hygienic super bee that all beekeepers would eventually use, but to develop a method of selecting and developing hygienic bees that all queen rearers could use on whatever type of bee they manage. Developing a dominant line of bees would be self-defeating in the long run, destroying what's left of the genetic diversity in the American bee population. The selection of hygienic behavior can and should be used on all lines of bees.

Dr. Spivak spent a good deal of time warning us about using chemicals in the hive to treat diseases and pests, although many of the no chemical purists would probably be disappointed with her not saying NEVER! As a top bar beekeeper, I appreciated her discussion on the taintededness of foundation. A three-year cycle of comb use was suggested.

Next, Gary Reuter described the types of equipment that they use to raise queens through their system. I never got the feeling that Spivak and Reuter were presenting their way as the only way or the right way. They recognized that we would adapt their methods to our own needs and locality.

Saturday was our time to get our hands dirty! After a short review of Friday's information, we got to actually work with the equipment, and do labs. Our morning was spent doing "beeless" run-throughs of the various steps of their system. We manipulated beeless finishing colonies, set up beeless swarm boxes, and learned to graft larvae into queen cups. In the afternoon, we actually did all of the above on the "real" colonies at the University. Class members grafted larvae into six queen cups, and placed them into a swarm hive we students also set up. We also learned how to test for nosema, and varroa. We watched a demonstration on the use liquid nitrogen to test for hygienic behavior.. We left the second day with a Chinese grafting tool, and a nalgene bottle.

The course ends tomorrow morning. Students will be able to exmine how well their grafts took in the swarm box. I will report my grade Monday.

Learning Queen Rearing Long Distance

One of the joys of the internet is "picking the brains" of beekeeping experts all over the globe. I had one such experience today, spending the afternoon in a facebook chat with Gabriel Antonio Bussoli, operations manager for Agrovivo in Vina del Mar, Chile. Gabriel breeds queens that are exported around the world. Mr. Bussoli offered me a "short course" in queen rearing this afternoon, complete with emailed photos from his own operation. Despite the difficulties communicating at times (his English is much better than my Spanish and my Italian is non-existent), I learned a great deal in the two hours were we were online. After his short and clear explanation, I finally feel confident in trying my hand at queen rearing in the near future. Thanks so much, Gabriel.