Bearding vs. Swarming

The reason I post this here is that HobbitWife saw that they were bearding pretty heavily this evening, around 7:00 PM. (And it's that time of year, when bearding will occur.) She was concerned, and called me at work.

i got lit up last night weeding my gardens. found a bee hive in the middle of my oregano plant i was thinning out. how do i get rid it with out burning my gardens down or getting stung?

I think you mean wasps or hornets.  Spray them thoroughly at dusk.  Put nest in wife's driver seat the next day.

either way how do i get rid of them with out getting stung, poisoning or burning my gardens down?

I checked my hives yesterday. In my older hive I found one frame that was pure honey: no nectar or bee bread, no larva. There was lots of larva (capped and uncapped) and honey elsewhere so I harvested it. Got almost a pound of wonderful honey from it! It's a somewhat darker color than the honey I harvested earlier this year from some burr comb I cut off. HobbitWife rendered this over a double boiler; she says there's lots less wax in it than earlier. We got the same amount of honey from the first harvest.
Every frame has some comb on it in various sizes, from filling the whole frame to a small leaf-shaped comb smaller than my hand.
Two of the earliest frames that I got from the beekeeper who got me started have very dark wax on them, which doesn't have normal honey comb "cups" on it. I'm planning to cut this out and discard it.

My newer hive is going strong. Lots of brood, lots of uncapped brood, but relatively little honey. I think the honey is being made into wax, because they are building comb like gangbusters! (CW says that it takes seven pounds of honey to make one pound of wax.) Since it's a new hive (started in May) I won't harvest from it at all this year.
I found one empty queen cup; it was at the bottom of a bit of burr comb. I'm going to keep it under observation.

So how did  your day go?

BTW we are having a terrific monsoon this year! Last night we got hit fairly hard, lots of rain. And every evening there's rain in the desert within flying distance from my hive, so I think we'll get more desert plants blooming through September.

Endofdays, here is an article I found about ground-dwelling bees.

My comb honey production is in full swing.  We decided to try comb honey this year because last year so many people asked for it.  If it goes well, I may switch over entirely to comb honey production.  We are using shallow supers with no foundation other than a small strip to serve as a guide for the bees.  I had originally had a queen excluder between the shallow and deeps just to make sure the queen didn't expand her brood nest, but the bees didn't seem interested in the shallow super (I guess the old adage is true: queen excluders = honey excluders) so I removed the queen excluders.  Took a few attempts configuring the frames before the bees did what I wanted:

1st try - Frames with 1" of thin wax foundation attached to the top of the frames.  Bees built comb all over the place.  I removed it before they got too far along.

2nd try - Frames with 1" of thin wax foundation on the bottom of the frames.  The heat caused the foundation to slump over.  The bees began to chew their way through the wax and construct comb irregularly along the bottom of the frames again.  Took it out once more and cleaned things up.

3rd try - Frames with 1/4" of thin wax foundation placed in the slot on the bottom of the frames.  This did the trick.  The bees built their comb up quickly from there filling the entire frame perfectly.  This was also easier (no need to attach the foundation with melted wax), and uses far less thin foundation.

It took about 10 days from the first to the third try.  Once there though, the bees had the frames drawn with comb and filled with honey in about 10 days.  I added more shallows to my other hives with equal success and have added additional ones to the hives that have filled their first shallow super.  I have a couple of supers that are nearly all capped so I will be pulling them in the next week or two.

I purchased clam shell boxes for the comb and we have our own labels that my kids designed (this is one of their money making projects).  Each super will produce 40 4.5" squares of cut comb.  After that, the combs go into the freezer for a couple days to kill any potential wax moth eggs.  My kids will start selling the comb honey next month if all goes well.  Fun project so far, I will post pics once we start harvesting.

1 - Yes.  The shorter strip of wax across the bottom (so it doesn't slump over) worked better than the 1" strip hanging from the top.  The bees basically ignored the strip hanging from the top.

2 - Once the comb is drawn, filled and capped, I will freeze the frames, thaw them, then cut and package the comb.

Uh-oh.



A single, empty queen cell. This is at the bottom of a burr comb, not in the center of the frame. This is from my newer hive, with a brand-new queen. She's still hard at work; I found lots of brood, both new and capped.

Some of you have said that they'll make one "just in case." This is the only one I have seen in this hive.

Here in central PA, the clover flow is just about over, but wildflowers (lots of thistles) are still providing nectar. Seemingly not enough to coax the bees to draw out foundation, but enough to fill already drawn comb.

I have 4 double deep 8-frame hives. One was overwintered from last season, one is a spring split of said hive, and the other two were captured swarms from early and late May. The overwintered hive has given me 5 medium frames of light capped clover honey so far, with another 3 still ripening, and a few more frames beginning to be filled. The split hive is just beginning to work their medium super of drawn foundation. The other 2 hives are almost ready to be supered, but I don't think they'll draw foundation in August, and I don't have any spare drawn foundation.

We have a reliable goldenrod bloom here. I'm thinking about extracting a few capped deep frames from the hives which haven't been supered yet. The extracted frames could be refilled during the goldenrod bloom. Is this okay to do as long as I leave the majority of the capped stores alone?

I figure this would let me harvest a bit more clover honey while leaving the goldenrod honey for the bees, and it would help keep the brood nests of the unsupered hives open in case I can't get them to draw foundation this time of year.

As Kitties stated, that is a Queen Cup. It is common to have them throughout the hive at any given time. During your next inspection, look into the Queen Cup and see if they are putting eggs in it. If so you need to make preparations.

That is completely up to you but I have a rule of not taking ANY honey from the brood nest. We typically over-winter in a two deep configuration. Anything above those two deep brood boxes is fair game. If you have a colony that has not started to draw comb in the supers, you can use either a frame feeder or Baggie feeder on the top bars or a can feeder to get them to start drawing out the foundation. Once they have drawn out a frame or two, stop feeding. You don't want syrup in your supers. It is not a good time to open feed or use entrance feeders if you have supers on some of your colonies. This time of year is also when robbing of smaller colonies starts. I have reduced my entrances down and eliminated top entrances as a precaution. I would also caution you not to use any supplements or essential oils (Honey Bee Healthy) in your syrup as that can also promote robbing behavior.

I'm thinking about a strange way of harvesting from my top bar hives. Typically, bees create a layer of honey above a layer of of brood. To harvest the honey here would involve cutting the brood layer below the honey, and losing the brood.
Instead I propose to cookie-cutter a round piece of comb out of the comb and letting the bees repair it.
Think this would work, or should I leave well enough alone?

Most of the time when the bees have to repair large areas of comb like this, they make mostly drone comb. Something to think about.

Comb honey was a complete success.  I pulled two supers full of capped foundationless comb.  The comb is pretty fragile, but that just makes it better for eating.  I am looking forward to concentrating on comb honey production next year.  

ETA - I can't get the images to post.  I will try again later.

I too have experienced this: my earlier harvest was all burr comb, and my latest was an almost perfect sheet of comb... Got the same amount of honey from both, but the sheet comb was lighter, had less wax in it.

Seems that we are entering a dearth so I started feeding. Yesterday they took down 6 gallons of 1:1 syrup. Today they took down 8 gallons. I have pre-made another 8 gallons for tomorrow. Tomorrow I will be purchasing another 100 lbs to get me through the next few weeks. I have abandoned the frame feeders and set-up an open feeding station. These seem to be working well.

What is everyone using for Varroa Mite treatments this year? I will be using OA as I had very good success with it. Our state Apiarist has told a few of us that Varroa is starting to show some resistance to some commercially available treatments. Has anyone heard the same?

I've been doing the powdered sugar-sprinkle routine. Seems to keep 'em down.
I had 8 or so mites when I inspected my hive a few weeks ago, sprinkled 'em with PS; the new hive only had 1 or 2 so I didn't treat there.
One of my bee mentors suggests putting some yellow or orange poster board, smeared with Crisco, in the bottom of the hive. The red mites stick to the poster board and are easy to see.

I spoke to one of the vet tech instructors at the junior college a few days ago. She told me a few interesting things:

1. The Feds have recently gotten into the business of controlling the method of mite control.  She said it was mostly of concern to commercial beeks.

2. She said that as far as animal regulation is concerned... bees are herd animals!!Anyone else heard of this?

The Feds are regulating the antibiotics used in beekeeping.  We learned the vet does not have to be a beekeeper to prescribe them but the hive has to be seen by the vet before the scrip can be written.  In other words you can't tell them what you have or the symptoms, the vet must physically see the hive(not the inside of the hive).  In other words you pull up with your sick hive in the bed of the truck all closed up and the vet can look through the window and give their blessing.  Amazing isn't it???

Well, this is a PITA.
We had a warm winter and now the cockroaches are invading the home.
Is there a way to kill them that won't endanger my bees?

It is a PITA. Thankfully, our State Apiarist has gone above and beyond to educate Veterinarians about this. She has hosted open hive meetings to get them comfortable with bees as well as identifying common diseases.
The Veterinarian that we use for our dogs is very cool and lives only a few miles from me. I am going to touch base with him and have him come over and do some inspections with me. I did a cut-out at his neighbors house last year and he pulled up to BS with me. He seemed very interested in keeping bees so maybe I can sell him a hive or two.

There are a few indicators that I use to determine this.
1. We are in a very dry period. Once most of the local flora dries up, it's dearth time.
2. When doing hive inspections, I notice that they are not storing nectar and are actually eating through stores.
3. The bees start acting a little more agressive.
They start looking EVERYWHERE for food sources. They come into the garage, are flying around my house, etc...
4. A friend of mine has a very cool contraption to monitor trends in hive weight. He purchased it last season to do work with the Bee Informed Partership (BIP). He sends them data every week. The product can be found Here. I will be purchasing one this fall. He sends me screen shots when things are changing.

I just had  flash of inspiration.
Earlier this year, and last year when I started my first hive, I saw that when I put syrup out for them in an internal feeder, they went crazy, with a lot of bees flying around the hive. I started worrying that they were being raided!
I just figured out that when they get their first shot of syrup, it fools them into thinking that there's nectar out there, so the bees who are ready to start foraging make their first orientation flights!
There were a hundred or so bees flying round and round the hive, there was no fighting that I could see. This is typical orientation flying.
So that's my contribution to the art for today. I don't remember if anyone else thought of this so I won't take credit (yet).

I'm going to put some syrup out there, 1:4 or so. If they go for that then there isn't any nectar out there. (They seem to prefer nectar to syrup.)

BTW HobbitWife used "organic sugar*" out for the bees AND her humming birds; they refused to take it! There's too much molasses in it and they won't come to it.

*This is the brown-colored organic sugar, not to be confused  with brown sugar. It's very large-grained, too, and a little harder to melt for the feeder. We use C&H white  sugar, which says it is non-GMO-verified... a little nicer for the bees.

The ratios to use are 1:1, 2:1
1:1 makes them think that there is a nectar flow on and gets them to draw comb.
2:1 makes them ripen it and store it faster.

I would not under any circumstance, I repeat NOT use sugar that has molasses in it. That's asking for trouble IMHO...

Here is the latest trends from my friends hive scales. This indicates that the dearth has been short lived and bees are not eating through their stores. The drop that you see on July 28 is from doing an inspection. This information is very valuable to me and shows that we should be putting supers in place for our fall flow.

ME???

Lol
Youv'e been talking to my wife again...Lol

My bees forage mainly on alfalfa that is in bloom.  There are hundreds of acres of it around so they usually have some place to get it.  As soon as the last cut is made though (around the end of August), it is a guaranteed dearth because of how dry it is.  That's when the robbing and paper wasp attacks begin.  I will be putting entrance reducers on in a week or two.

Started mite treatments today. I love my new Vaporizer. It took less than 1 hour to treat 50 hives. It is a good idea if possible for people to start soon as bees born around this time forward are the bees "winter bees" that will be occupying the hive during the winter months
You want these bees to be healthy and relatively disease free if possible.