Return to the Brick House

Dad and I made a return trip to the brick house east of Charleston to try and capture the remaining bees including the queen.  We had word that the bees were still there and hanging in a ball where we had removed the hive.  What Dad and I found was the remains of the swarm rebuilding honeycomb and raising brood.  Dad and I carefully vacuumed the bees and set them up in a hive at the farm.  The original swarm we captured had mostly died out.  I will check on them next weekend and look at adding some bees from another hive to their numbers along with some brood so they will hopefully build up supplies and survive the winter months.

Beekeeping at Old Settlers Day

The Crossroads Beekeepers had a great booth at the Effingham County Old Settlers Day today.  Myself, Dick, Len, and Cathy ran the booth and had a fun time talking with all the people who came by to see what we were up to.  I brought my bee suit, smoker, and a display board on the history of beekeeping among the settlers.  Len and Cathy brought antique bee equipment and an observation hive of bees.  Several people took information home about the club and expressed an interest in becoming a beekeeper.  What a fun day!

Dick getting ready for the day.

Cathy showing off her and Len's bees.

Nice looking display!

The focus point of the booth....BEES!!!

Len's antique bee equipment.

Kids of all ages love bees!

Crossroads Beekeepers

We had a great turnout for the second meeting of the Crossroads Beekeepers.  We met tonight at 6:30pm at Joe Sippers Cafe in Effingham, and had 16 in attendance.  There were 9 beekeepers at this meeting plus those interested in feeding bees or wanting to learn more about beekeeping in general.  There was a wealth of experience at the meeting and it was fun to listen to all the tips offered from those with decades of beekeeping under their belt.  I also gave a short presentation on bee friendly gardens.

Wild Hive Capture: Charleston IL

This afternoon Dick Loy and I met up with Craig Clendening of Lerna and drove to a farm in rural Charleston to capture a wild beehive in an old brick farmhouse slated for demolition.  We met up with the farmer, Paul, who explained how the house was built around 1865 and had been in his family for years.  He believed the bees had been in that part of the house for 30 years.  The house had a double brick wall construction, and last Fall when he started initial demolition work he discovered a large hive between the brick walls.  Today we found a large hive with tunnels throughout the comb as well as tunnels through the rotting mortar.  While we found brood, I don't think we found the main brood chamber, but we didn't trust the old walls enough to knock out more brick.  We quickly wired up the brood comb and some of the honey comb to empty frames and placed in the brood box, then we vacuumed up as many bees as possible.  Dick and I then transported the hive to the bee yard and dumped in the vacuumed bees after dark.  I don't think we got the Queen, so I plan to go up later this week to check them over and order a Queen if needed.

Building Hives at the Farm

Yesterday and today I've been building hive components at the farm in the woodshop.  So far I have one brood box hive completed for hopefully accepting a wild hive I hope to capture.  Regarding boxes, I have five brood boxes assembled and painted.  I also cut out the parts and made all the assembly cuts for 7 more brood boxes and 14 honey supers.  Now comes the time of assembly!

Workers Laying Eggs

I came across this video from TheOhioCountryboy regarding how to tell if a hive is without a Queen and the Workers are lay eggs.  This may be what Dick and I saw the other evening.

Bee Updates

Lots of bee activities over the past few days...let's see if I can remember everything!

• I have been working on building six more hives up at the farm for expanding the operation next year.  So far I have all the wood bought, have built 5 bottom boards, built and painted 5 brood boxes, and have cut out the parts for 7 more brood boxes. 
• I also spent some time getting into their hives this past weekend, and the Queens are still going strong.
• While up at the farm (we were camping with the extended family) I drove around the conservation acreage and saw lots and lots of Golden Rod!  Probably 50 acres of Golden Rod!  It was thick and ready to start blooming.  I'm hoping that this will finish off the honey box on the East hive.  Also, the West hive has been very active with a lot of bees (only two brood boxes with no honey super), so I decided to throw the honey super that I spun out the other day on top of the hive to see what the bees do with all the Golden Rod.
• On Saturday and Sunday I met up with my cousins from Texas who came for the Baker Reunion: Woodward, Woody, and Tim Baker.  Woody is a beekeeper and brought up a jar of East Texas Wildflower Honey to swap for some of my clover/wildflower honey.  His honey had a full and complicated flavor...very unique and good!
• I also met up with Dick Loy last night to check out his bees and to look at a super of bees left over from an extraction.  It was rather amazing...as I pulled out a few of the frames all I saw were Drones!  Hundreds and hundreds of drones with only a few worker bees mixed in.  We were wondering if the hive this box came from had a False Queen, a Worker who takes on the role of a Queen but since she is not fertalized she can only have Drones.
• Finally, I received a phone call last night from Lance Faulk, an old friend from Altamont, who told me that I beat him to the punch.  He apparently was getting ready to start a bee club and was even going to name it Crossroads Beekeepers, but hadn't started it yet.  While reading the news on WXEF he read about our club and decided to give me a call....he hopes to be at the next meeting.
• Oh, I almost forgot, but I have bottled and labled 48 8oz bottles of honey.  I gave one bottle to Mom and Dad, and sold 2 bottles to Pastor Wallace.  I guess now it is time for some financial returns on the investment!

Honey Updates

Friday I received two boxes from Dadant which included a honey bucket and microfilters, honey storage jug, retail bottles and caps, and parts for making some hive boxes.  It was like a beekeeper's Christmas!  I gently warmed the honey that I extracted the other day to help it flow through the microfilters, and tomorrow I hope to start filling little bottles with the golden goodness!

Dawn & I also took a truckload of summer items to the farm for storage, so I checked on the bees to see how the honey super was coming along.  They have three frames capped, but the others are a long way from capping.  The major honey flow has passed, so I image these frames will take a bit longer than I hoped for.

Tips for Fast Hive Growth

Another video by TheOhioCountryBoy on his tips for quickly growing a strong hive after installing package bees.

Video on Splitting Hives

This is a brief video on splitting hives in the Spring.  OhioCountryBoy splits four hives into a total of 10 hives for honey production the same year.

Radio Interview Today

his morning I was interviewed by William Bence on the morning show on WCRA in Effingham regarding beekeeping and the Crossroads Beekeepers.  It was a fun time with William and we talked about bees for over 20 minutes.  You can hear the interview by clicking on the link below.

Draining Honey & Building Hives

This afternoon I drained the honey from the extractor, mainly because it was making a puddle in the garage.  I haven't measured how much honey we got, but my guess is over 2 gallons.

Later in the afternoon I went to the farm to continue working on building more hives.  So far I have 5 bottom boards and 5 brood boxes ready for painting.  Once I figure out what I'm doing in the workshop, it kind of turns into an assembly line.  By the way, Menards is running a sale on lumber this week!  WooHoo!!!

Girl Scouts Learn About Bees

23 Girl Scouts from Troop 2032 in Effingham learned about honey bees and were able to see them up close and personal today as a part of their Friday/Saturday campout at "Camp Quicksall".  My wife's Girl Scout troop was out at the farm for a fun campout in the country and part of their experience was coming out to the bee yard, trying on a bee suit, and learning about the bees.  While the human girls had a fun time, the bee girls were getting a little testy after being messed with for about 2 hours! 

One facinating thing took place with the West hive.  While I had the top off a moth landed on the brood frames and the bees attacked!!!  I was amazed how they covered and repeatedly stung the moth.  I don't know if they lose their stingers with the soft body of a moth, but one particular bee appeared to be repeatedly thrusting its stinger into the moth.  While the attack was taking place I kept the Girl Scouts back because the bees were definately in a fight mood based upon how they were going after me as well.  After a short while I removed the moth and the bees calmed down within about 2 minutes.  That was amazing to watch!

Honey Extraction Party

Tonight we had a great time at the first ever Honey Extraction Party!  At 6:30 pm we had people start rolling in to see the show.  I had set up a couple of tables with bee equipment on display, and of course the honey extractor and box of 8 frames needing extracting.  The extractor worked great and everyone had a turn at turning the crank and trying a taste of the honey.  Those in attendance were Larry, Dawn, Aaron & Jessica Quicksall; Edward & Eileen Quicksall; Dick & Kim Loy & their two children; Brad & Dana Garbe; Jennifer Rodman & Elijah, Nicolas, Joshua, Zachary, & Benjamin; and Jim Kline.  I will let the honey sit in the extractor for a few days to let it drip down the sides and collect in the bottom before draining.

Swarm or No Swarm

I received a call at the end of work from Dick regarding his bees.  It seemed they were balling underneath his hive, and he was concerned they were getting ready to swarm.  I came out to look at them with him, and it was rather amazing...they were hanging onto the screen on the bottom of the bottom board.  They were hanging onto each other and were at least 2-3 inches thick all the way across the bottom of the hive.  I would guess, basing it upon what my 3 pound package of bees looked like when I installed them, that there were 20,000 under there!  We decided to check the hive for the Queen and for swarm cells to determine if they were preparing to swarm or just too crowded or hot in the hive.  In going through the hive we found the Queen and did not find any swarm cells. 

We also checked the hive of bees we captured a week ago.  As we looked in the hive we didn't find any Queen and we didn't find any brood.  Dick said he saw these bees carrying off the brood over the past week and we could figure out why.  They also weren't building comb on the frames but appeared to be destroying it.  * I later found out from Dave at Long Lane that it is a challenge to keep brood alive when taking them from another hive, especially the capped brood.  He said you have to keep the brood at 92 degrees or they will quickly die.  He usually brings along another hive to install them in with bees who will keep them warm.  So, it looks like the bees were carrying off their dead.  Dick and I discussed the need to get a new Queen to install and save the colony.