Charlotte's sweet beekeeping adventures at Bluebird Gardens
Lauren Kastner was warm and friendly in her initial email. She had read about my keeping bees and wanted to visit my apiary before she graduated from University of Missouri's Journalism School.
Several dates postponed due to weather and a head cold later, we were ready.
It's spring and honeybees are busy building wax comb so they can expand their numbers.
One of the challenges beekeepers have is deciding when it is time to add a new story to the hive. Some say when 80% of the frames are full of bees it is time to expand.
Bees themselves have their own way of letting beekeepers know when they need more room. They start building comb straight up from the top of the frames.
They look ready for more room, don't you think?
Charlotte
On a lunch break from bringing a nursery bee hive back home May 2015, I captured one of the honey bees flying loose in the car. To keep her safe, I shared an orange peel in a cup to give her a safe place to light.
The bee came out of a "nucleus" box destined for a beekeeping friend. As we were ordering lunch, other friends selected beers to go with their lunch.
Knowing my friend was a beer connoisseur, I asked him in a text which of the beers his honeybee would like.
Not that bees regularly drink beers. They will be attracted to any sweet beverage, especially if there isn't much blooming.
I suppose I should have guessed the answer. He said she would take one of each!
Charlotte
As a beekeeper, winter days can drag on seemingly forever, keeping us from seeing our "girls" to make sure they are healthy and happy.
On the first warm, sunny day of March suggestive of spring, beekeepers head to their apiaries to see if their bee colonies made it through winter.
It's too cold yet to open up hives so verdicts are rendered based on close observation.
These are my friend David's hive, down the hill from where we hold our monthly bee club meetings.
Honeybees are flying in and out of all hives so the verdict - so far, so good!
Charlotte
One of our local radio stations 104.5 FM has a morning show where they invite guests to stop in. It was a bit early for me but fun to get back into a radio studio; took me back to my first job out of college, producing features for a public radio station.
During half an hour February 11, 2015, we spent a few minutes between breaks talking beekeeping: why bees are important, how fascinating bees are, and how I started beekeeping, then continued the conversation on air. No, I'm not in a padded cell, more like a padded room!
Once we were through, I was invited to "sign the wall" so I did. Although it was a little hard to reach, I managed to add a little honeybee friend.
Thanks for the invitation, Sunny 104.5 FM!
Charlotte
I don't always scan incoming boxes for their outside markings. As I was bundling up boxes from Christmas, I found this little hand-drawn honeybee on the side of a box that shipped me a bee-related Christmas gift.
Wonder who drew it?
I imagine maybe someone's youngster was lending a hand and took a magic marker out for a little extra spin or maybe the owner was tired of just taping boxes and decided to add a little embellishment.
Take a closer look, this honeybee even has a little stinger.
So cute!
Charlotte
My beekeeping friend Eugene Makovec photographed and produced this lovely 10x14 inch 2015 honeybee calendar. It's a beautiful tribute to his father and a delightful way to celebrate bees, and beekeeping.
Here's a sneak peak at some of the pages, an excellent buy for $10 each:
Nice gift idea for beekeepers, and bee lovers on your gift list!
They're in a cold oven drying, homemade sugar patties to feed my baby bee nurseries when warm weather allows.
This is my first winter to try to pull starting bee nucleus colonies, or "nucs," through. So far, so good, although when temperatures dip in the single digits I tend to want to move the little colonies into my basement to keep them warm.
Don't laugh, I know people who have done it. Not the basement exactly but an enclosed porch, which is close enough. Starter colonies have less bees than full colonies. They lack protection in numbers as they rotate in the cluster and try to eat so I try to give them food as close to the cluster as I can.
Last year, when winter lingered into a short spring, i made these sugar patties to pull my full size honeybee colonies through the wetter than normal season. In addition to food, dry sugar patties whick moisture, helping to keep hives dry. Here's the very simple, but tricky recipe:
Bee Winter Sugar Patties
5 lbs granulated sugar
7.5 ounces of water (make sure this is exact)
2 drops food grade essential oils - spearmint and lemongrass.
Directions
Mix well. Spread in pans. Leave overnight in cold stove to dry out. If you end up with still moist patties, re-mix and add a little more sugar, then dry again.
I use bread pans for the larger sugar patty blocks and cupcake pans to make smaller round patties for the nucs.
If I don't need to feed, I store extras in a sealed plastic container.
When honeybees aren't rummaging for pollen in bird feeder cracked corn, they like a drink of sugar water from one of my bird baths.
If honeybees didn't have access to sugar water, they would be eating stored honey so I keep their "bee bars" stocked. That way they can save eating honey for colder winter days when they can't leave their hives.
Fun to see them out and about, I miss being with my bees in winter.
When winter days turn warm enough for honeybees to leave their hives, I find my girls in unusual places around my garden.
Bees make honey for winter food but if the temperatures are warm enough, they forage for pollen. My girls look for pollen wherever they can find it, especially in bird feeders.
I make my own bird seed combination including cracked corn for doves and other ground feeding birds. Apparently honeybees can find pollen in cracked corn, or at least they try hard looking for some!
One of HomeSweetBees.com readers contacted me about getting 30-40 bees a week for therapy for a bad back.
Bee Stings For Arthritis
Although it has not been scientifically proven, some people say applying bees to a certain area of the body helps with arthritis and other medical conditions. Most beehives in Missouri are at their lowest numbers through winter. Beekeepers are not going to open a hive, and expose it to moisture and cold weather, to remove just 30-40 bees a week. Bees form a ball in the center of the hive and make it through winter literally shivering themselves warm. Although a worker bee may only live for 4-6 weeks during summer, worker bees over winter may live as long as 6 months to get the colony from one season to the next.
Personal Observation Hive
Experienced beekeepers tell me people who need bee stings for on-going therapy usually set up an "observation hive," or a hive that's inside with a vent access to the outside so beekeepers can more easily get to, and remove, the needed quantity of honeybees.
Sorry, all of my honeybees are adopted!
Charlotte
It's easy to spot the new beekeepers at a meeting because within minutes they have that "lost" look on their faces. Beekeepers, like any other specialty, have their own language and shorthand when discussing issues.
To better familiarize myself with the "beekeepers'" language, I read as many books as I could, focusing on the terms. I will go over some of the more common terms and tools here because they are as much a reflection of the profession as - well, reading a book!
Bee Brushes
One of the beekeeper's more controversial tools is the "bee brush." Looking like a giant yellow toothbrush, the bee brush has very soft bristles and a long handle for easy gripping. Bee brushes are handy to have if you don't want to hurt or kill bees as you move hive pieces around. Honeybees in a garden are so intent on their work, they often will continue working without realizing their hive frame has been moved, or the top is on the side of the hive. Bees will follow the queen so even though you may be moving bees around, they will all try to climb back into the hive after the queen.
How to Use Bee Brush
To make sure you don't kill or harm bees, slowly move the bee brush across the area where you want bees to leave. And I mean S-L-O-W-L-Y, you are using the bee brush bristles to nudge the bees along, not sweep them off their feet. I like having my bee brush with me when I open hives, even just to inspect. I can more easily guide bees away from areas that may otherwise hurt them as I move frames around or put the top back on.
Don't want to use a bee brush? It also makes a nice tool to brush furniture treated with beeswax!
"How doth the little busy bee, improve each shining hour, and gather honey all the day from every opening flower!" — Isaac Watts 1674-1748
Scientists now know various pollinators have a preference for different-colored flowers. Honeybees, for example, are attracted to yellow and blue flowers; hummingbirds and butterflies to pink and purple ones.
Although honeybees have a preference, I have also found honeybees on pink, red, and purple flowers, especially mid-summer when little else was in bloom. Flowers will stop producing pollen when temperatures go above 90°F, leaving honeybees with limited pollen sources to take back to the hive.
One of the challenges of beekeeping is finding the one, very important queen in a hive.
Fellow Fort Leonard Wood Beekeeper Cheryl decided to mark her queens with these magic makers. She captures the queen in the blue jar, then adds a dot with the sponge on the queen's back.
It would be so much easier if the queen was more like the little princesses I know and wore a teeny tiny tiara.
Charlotte
Well, not exactly.
One of the things I do before opening my hives is tuck my pants legs inside my socks. It helps to keep bugs form the garden out as well as bees.
After I'm done, I sometimes run errands and I don't always remember why people give me funny looks. I'm sure it's not for my fashion statement!
Charlotte
When opening hives and using a smoker, it's best not to set the smoker on
a bale of hay.
Duh.
I was using the hay to give the hives a little winter cover. Not a bad idea, as long as I don't first set the whole place on fire.
Charlotte
When I got my first two beehives, my bee supplier gave me this book on "First Lessons in Beekeeping." Although it's an older book, the principles of beekeeping are still the same.
I asked Don to sign it for me. His dedication reads:
"It's always exciting to get your first hives. Good luck!"
The book made it clear, it was going to take a kaleidoscope of information.
Charlotte
After Gertrude hive lost her queen, the poor hive struggled. Since it wasn't doing well, wax moths moved in.
When a hive is healthy, guard bees will make sure no wax moths get a foot hold.
It took several months of digging out wax moth larvae-filled comb and freezing frames to get rid of them. I gave the frozen wax moth larvae to my birds, they loved the special treat!
Charlotte
Beekeeping Information & Tips
