May 5th - Added bees to hive

Well, it's done.  I officially have bees in the hive.

I traveled down to Holliston, MA to get my Nuc and brought it home earlier this afternoon. Then I proceeded to get things ready to put them into the hive. Here's how it was given to me. 

The nuc box is a heavy cardboard box and it's disposable. It was strapped down with some sort of packing tape and had vents on either side. Boy, could I hear the bees in there wanting to get out of that box.  The people I purchased them from told me they'd been in there just since the day before.

My hive was already in place, but I needed to add the top hive feeder so brought that outside.  I brought out my hive tools and the smoker as well as the sugar water for the top hive feeder...and a bucket to put everything in.

Then I went to start the smoker.  Next time I will prepare better for the smoker.  I hadn't planned to use it  but it was recommended  by the sellers of the bees.  I tried to rush making the fire in the smoker so it went right out.  I should know by now never to rush making a fire or skipping steps.  When I try to rush it, it doesn't work out. I think the smoker only it provided one or two puffs. I started with pine needles that were a little too damp from all the rain we got over the past week.  So when that didn't work very well, I used one of those pellets that came with the smoker..  Perhaps I should have used a few because that went out right away too. Actually tomorrow is another beekeeper class and using the smoker is part of that class so I'll do better with that next time.  I think I was just a bit too anxious.

This is something I'll run into time and time again, I suspect.  Different people giving different instructions.  I had instructions to spray the bees with sugar water when putting them into the hive from the demonstration a few weeks ago...and not to use a smoker when adding bees to the hive.  Most other times, the smoker is used. So, in the end, I relied mostly on spraying the bees lightly with the sugar water when the smoker failed.  It all worked out fine I think.

Then I did as I was instructed. I removed 5 frames from my hive box and put two empty ones in...then add the 5 frames from the nuc, one at a time, in the order that they were in within the nuc.  They did say one empty frame could go in the middle.  So I did this:

empty frame
empty frame
nuc frame
nuc frame
empty frame
nuc frame
nuc frame
nuc frame
empty frame
empty frame

Then I added the top hive feeder above the bee chamber, and added sugar water.

Then I added the inside cover

Then I added the top outer cover

After that, I thought I was done and brought things into the house.  Then I reread the instructions and saw that I had the entrance reducer wrong.  The small opening needed to be at the top instead of the bottom so I had to go adjust that.

Also the top inner cover has a hole in it...a slot about 3/4" wide and 3" long...but the instructions said to close that off with something...so in my second visit to the hive, I used a clump of grass to block the hole and will leave it there until the bees are acclimated to their new home. 

I feel a sense of accomplishment.  I was very nervous but kept my cool and didn't panic when bees were swarming around me.  I did panic a bit before opening the box at the start though.  They were humming away in there and I could picture them all coming after me.  But nothing like that happened.

Now I see bees outside the box...hanging around the entrance.  I've seen bees come in with yellow or orange stuff and enter the hole.  I'm thinking it must be pollen but really?  Is that happening already?  I was a bit worried about all the bees on the outside of the box.  But a little research on the web assured me they'd go into the box when it got colder last night...and sure enough, by nightfall, there were no longer any bees outside!

I set up a chair and have a small pair of binoculars so that I can observe, which I did just for a while earlier last night.  I think it will become a ritual for nice evenings.  I found it very relaxing.

Making sugar water

In my Beekeeping book for Dummies, it tells you how to make sugar water for when the bees arrive in 6 days!! I'm getting excited now.  So I'm making the sugar water as follows:

2.5 quarts of water brought to a rolling boil
Shut off stove
Add 5 lbs of granulated sugar...just regular sugar, no brown or fancy sugars will do

Let sugar melt in the water, stirring to help it along.

I will then refrigerate the sugar water until I need it on Saturday.  Then I will have placed some sugar water in a spray bottle that I will spray on the bees as they are placed in my hive.  Or, if I can't put them into the hive on the same day and need to wait another day, I would spray then two or three times a day to feed them.  It also keeps them from noticing anything else (you) as they are licking the sugar water off each other.

I'll let you know how it goes. I'll be reading instructions all this week to make sure I do it right. And I did watch it being done which was very helpful.

Anxiously awaiting bee arrival

I know it's been a few weeks since I sat down to write anything...but I've not been idle.  I've been creating some new gardens that I have partially planted and will be adding flowers, shrubs and vines over the coming months.

That started me on another venture, something I do fairly often.  I get outside, start to do one thing but end up veering away because I've seen a need to do something else.  That may often lead to yet another item to tend that has nothing to do with my original task.  That means that sometimes, I have projects in flux a little too often and nothing totally complete...something that drives me crazy. :).  Guess I bring it on myself.

So I bring that up only because my adding a bit more garden sent me off on a task to build an archway using downed trees.  You can see both the new gardens that I'm enhancing now with compost as well as the incomplete archway.  My goal is to have that done this week.  I decided to plant birdhouse gourds there this year...and may start a climbing rose or other climber there for a more permanent solution.  But I thought the gourds would be pretty there.  Their white flowers open at night and they will fill the archway quickly since they're a fast grower.  I may put them in planters on either side of the arch.  Not sure yet. That would give them the best growing medium.  I'd use Promix, which all my plants start out in.

There are "sort of" 4 oval gardens, two to each side of the archway.  Notice the little birdbath on the right in the back oval garden.  I've added some stones in the water so that, when the bees arrive, they can drink the water without drowning.  They will have something to perch on while drinking.  This looks pretty bare right now but I have high hopes for something pretty later on this summer.  Stay tuned.

It's good to get this work done now before the bees arrive.  The date is now set at May 5th. I'm getting so anxious and looking forward to them arriving.  Imaginethathoney over in Swanzey, NH held a short class a few days ago to show us wannabee (get it?) beekeepers how to add bees to a hive.  They showed how to add a bee package and also how to add a nuc to the hive.  Naturally I was most interested in the nuc since that's what I'll be getting.  I had a chance to wear my veil and hat and gloves.  My jeans were tucked into my socks. I wore an old chambray shirt I've had for years.  I DID NOT GET STUNG.  My only fear was that I wore my crocs.  Then realized, oh goodness, they have holes in them!  But I had good, thick socks on too.  It turned out to be ok but it was recommended to wear full shoes to not take the chance.  After seeing the bees inserted firsthand rather than reading about it, I was much less nervous about it.  Looks easy enough so I am now looking forward to it.

Naturally, as I begin to beautify this area near the bees, I've decided I need a pathway and want to get some grass growing in the bare areas.  I had several trees cut earlier this spring and kept the wood chips so I will use these wood chips for my path once it's dug out.  I will plant the left side of the path this year.  I want a garden to the right of the path too but that will need to wait a bit longer.  Not sure I'll get to it this year.  I feel like I have enough to do for the moment.

The pathway...in it's beginning stage. The newspaper is marking the left line of the path which will be 3-4 feet wide, enough for two people to walk side by side. I have quite a lot of vinca that I will plant to the left and it will form an evergreen matte that will bloom in the spring with pretty blue flowers. I am digging the path down a few inches and using that dirt to pile up on the left.  Once it's all dug out, I will add some compost and plant it.  I will also add some shrubs.  And of course, woodchips on the path itself.  I will lay black landscape cloth under the chips to keep out weeds.

Getting the gardens ready

I realize it's been relatively quiet in terms of bee activity since the fence was put in.  It's working great.  I check it every few days with the voltage meter and it's registering about 4,000 volts each time.  A new apple tree will be added to the fenced area, probably today, as it's waiting in its pot to go into the ground. Last night was in the low twenties so I kept it in the greenhouse for the night.  The next several nights will be much warmer so it should be ok to go in now. I do have other fruit trees in the space already and was told to just keep watering them through the cold weather and they should be all right.

More gardens were dug over the weekend, right in front of the fenced bee area. All I added to the clay soil so far is sawdust, but compost will also be added and probably some peat moss to lighten the soil.  I have time to work on enhancing the soil while plants are growing in the greenhouse.  But I haven't really designed each of the gardens yet.  It's good to have at least a sketch of a design so you can plan to have something in color in every season.  And of course, I'm striving to give my bees plenty of pollen in my own yard, although they will travel up to three miles to obtain pollen.

I'm concerned about people using pesticides in the area so I've developed a flyer that I will give to my neighbors to hopefully make them aware of the dangers of using them and how they affect the bee population (and us, for that matter). In my flyer, I will include the abstract below from a Science Magazine article sent by an UVM Cooperative Extension worker who happened to think of me when she read it. Here is the abstract I included which helps give validity to my concern:

Growing evidence for declines in bee populations has caused great concern due to the valuable ecosystem services they provide. Neonicotinoid insecticides have been implicated in these declines as they occur at trace levels in the nectar and pollen of crop plants. We exposed colonies of the bumble bee Bombus terrestris in the lab to field-realistic levels of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid, then allowed them to develop naturally under field conditions. Treated colonies had a significantly reduced growth rate and suffered an 85% reduction in production of new queens compared to control colonies. Given the scale of use of neonicotinoids, we suggest that they may be having a considerable negative impact on wild bumble bee populations across the developed world. Read more.

I do hope my neighbors think before using pesticides and hope even more that they don't use them at all.

I'm noticing the sun changing the light around my house so soon I will do another chart to see how the sunlight has changed during the month. I think it might be fun to do this for the year, say once a month, so chart out the sun in my yard over the course of time.

Installing electric fencing

I've taken advantage of this unexpected summer-like weather, and after my research on sunny spots last week, I chose a spot for my beehive and installed the electric fencing and the beehive.  I ended up choosing the site to the left of the greenhouse.  That area gets a good amount of sun and dappled light later in the day which the folks in Swanzey, NH. emphasized that some dappled sunlight was good as it can get pretty hot in the hive in midsummer. 

Here it is. You can see (barely) the 4 posts that mark the spot. The length of fencing is 80 feet, but a square didn't work for me so I went with 25 foot length and 15 width which worked out fine from my perspective....except now I want to add on to it already.

I moved my peach tree into the fenced area in the right back corner.  My cherry tree too...that's so small, I'm not sure if you can see it in the photo but it's at the front left corner.  I'm hoping it survived the winter. It's not showing any buds yet.  If it didn't survive, I'll get another one...maybe a larger one. I am buying larger plants and trees these days so I have a chance to see them mature.  That's something I'd never have thought of in my younger days when I thought my life was endless. 

Back to the subject...  I also want two dwarf apple trees, which is why I'd like another electric fence because, without the electric fence, I fear I won't be successful getting any fruit.  I've never had good luck with fruit trees, even before, when I lived in places that had no bear around..  The few I've had haven't produced fruit for me, or something happened to the fruit.  Like last year, the peach tree I had planted in Maine 6 years ago had lots of fruit for the very first time...and a few weeks later, it was stripped clean by something. My tenants will need to deal with that tree this year.

Here, I will try some netting  if I'm lucky enough to see fruit on either the peach or cherry tree.  Because I just moved them, however, I'm not sure I'll get anything this year but it's not impossible so we'll see. Here's the peach tree and you can see where it's positioned within the fenced area.

The fence is called a mesh fence and I bought it, along with the entire setup at a great farm in Harrisville, NH called Wellscroft Fence.  They were terrific and gave me an in-depth overview of this fencing solution for apiaries.  They walked me down to show me their setup, and always, a picture is worth a thousand words.  I was able to see exactly how it went together and got it all done within a few hours when I installed mine this past weekend. 

Notice in the image below...something red and something yellow.  The red item taped to a stake is the battery energizer that electrifies the fence.  It runs off 4 D batteries that need to be replaced monthly. It comes with a metal rod (to the left of the energizer) which goes into the ground and you attach the green clip to that ground rod.  You can just see a yellow wire going from the energizer off to the right.  That yellow wire clip attaches to a clip at the end of the fence and that completes your connection.  If you want to shut down the fence while children are around, for example, just reach over and remove the yellow clip. 

You want this inside the fenced area so that animals can't get to it and break the connect.

That dark object hanging off the fence is the voltage meter that monitors the strength of the current at any given time. According to the guy at Wellscroft Fence, it's a good tool to have around because weather, interference due to high grass touching the fence, and other factors, can interfere with the strength of the current.  So you want to monitor the current to be sure there's enough voltage to deter any animal that tries to get near the beehive.  You don't leave the voltage meter on the fence by the way.  But you hang it when you're taking a reading and there's a little probe that you stick into the ground and that registers how much voltage you have on the meter where lights flash.  Then you remove it until you want to check voltage again.

I set up my hive, or some of it, in the center of my fence.  I ended up laying down some black cloth and covering with wood chips so I wouldn't need to worry about mowing right next to the hive.

And then I baited my fence with some bacon.  The idea is to hope a bear comes now, before the bees arrive.  The bear gets a shock and decides that my yard is not a happy place for them and leave and never come back.  I do wish I had a camera set up so I could see if a bear comes through...but I wouldn't enjoy seeing them shocked.  My carpenter's dog got shocked yesterday and it made me feel awful, but I had warned him and was willing to shut it down while they were here.  But instead the dog got a lesson and she didn't go anywhere near that fence again.  So it works.

Now I'm ready for the bees.  In the meantime, I need to learn how to use the smoker which will take probably a half hour.  And the next month will be used taking a class on adding bees to hives and growing plants in the greenhouse and starting up more gardens.

Getting ready for electric fencing

Because of where I live, surrounded by woods, I have to think about the bear(s) who came through last year and ate my peaches (not that many as it's a new tree, but still) and it broke a major branch which I hope hasn't ruined that tree.  They rascals then ate and trampled my strawberry patch.  I know they'll be back.

I can't tell you the amount of time I've spent thinking about where to place my beehive and then protecting it.  I've learned that a sunny spot is essential, my first challenge, as I'm surrounded by trees and hills that block sun.

In my beekeeping class yesterday, the Swanzey, NH outfit, Imagine that Honey, spent some time on the placement of hives.  They emphasized that dappled sunlight is the goal so that there is a certain amount of shade cover in those hot summer months. 

So, beginning today, I am going to monitor the sunlight around my yard and try to settle on the placement of the hives within a few weeks.  I will monitor the time on a spreadsheet every hour today and again next week, choosing several sites in my yard, for bees or for gardening.  That will tell me how many hours of sun I get in each spot.  I will need to do this weekly for a while to see how the sun moves across the sky and how that changes the amount of sun in these spots.

For bees, sun is essential.  Coverage is important too...they need protection from the wind.  There's a spot at the left side of my shed is good.  It gets decent sun and also protection from the big hill in back and the shed off to its right.. But is it too close to the house where there is more people traffic?  You can't see it in this image but the garden area is just about 4 feet to your left.  Too close probably.

Legend:
Dark grey - full shade
Light grey - dappled or lightly shaded
Yellow - sunny
I was out from 2-3 so I will fill that timespan in tomorrow.

 

Accessibility is also important, especially in the winter when I need to get to the hive to check it ..I want it close enough so that I can keep a path shoveled and get to it if I need to during winter months. Again, the left side of the greenhouse seems like it would work.

I'm also seeing, through my chart, that the left side of the greenhouse would be a good candidate. And if I place the hive just right, I'll be able to see it all winter from the couch in the living room. This is the site I'm leaning towards at the moment as it seems to fit the sunlight need, shelter, accessibility and out of the way of kids and other animal traffic.

Both of these shots were taken around 9AM today.

By the end of the  month, it's now March 12th, I want my hive placed outside with the fencing (another installment to come) in place and baited so that it can potentially scare off any bear who may come by before the bees arrive.  I'm told I want the bear to come and get zapped so they don't come back.  I will probably move my peach tree and cherry tree into that fenced area to protect them from the bear. In another year, I will fence off  another section of yard so that I can grow more fruit trees. But, I think I have enough projects for this year!

Ordering the bees

I also ordered the bees in January after listening and reading advise about needing to order them early or chances are I wouldn't be able to find any.

Many beekeepers buy 2 or 3 pound packages of bees to start out.  But by doing that, it takes a year to get honey.  The bees need a year to build up the hive for there to be enough bees to produce enough honey for them and me.  The first year, the concern is to produce enough honey to feed the bees throughout the winter.

The second year, there should be enough of honey for the bees and the beekeeper keeps the rest. These 2-3# packages cost somewhere between $80-100.  Most seem to steer the beginner to the gentler bees which are Italian and Russian. Mine are going to be Queen grafted from Danish Buckfast mother, mated in MA with VSH Carniolan-Italian drones!  I learned that there are all kinds of strains on bee, like people, with different personalities, and other traits. Since this is all new to me, I will have nothing to compare them with and I trust that it won't really be a factor in this venture.

I just wanted honey the first year, if possible, so I ended up buying a Nuc (short for Nucleus) which has bees already making honey on frames or foundations. It's essentially a small working beehive.

With a Nuc, you just remove the empty frames from your box (or deep hive) and replace them with your purchased Nucs. My Nuc is going to be five frames, which is a great start.  So, I will remove 5 of these frames and replace them with frames that have bees and honey all over it and put those in my new hive. 

The nuc cost me $130 which I thought was very reasonable...considering it's only about $30 more than the packages and I won't have to wait a year for honey (hopefully, if things go well).

I have sent my down payment to Boston Honey Company and will need to pick up the bees in Holliston, Mass. sometime in mid to late April.  They will let me know.


Lots to do before then. Bears are out of hibernation now, I've heard, so once this snow melts enough, I will get the electric fencing installed to protect my hive.  We'll talk about that next time.