Wild (Starfruit) Bees Move into permanent home

Thursday April 8, 2010

The plan was to move the wild bees from the temporary waxed cardboard nuc that they have been living in since Stacey and I captured them in early December into a newly assembled and freshly painted hive body.

I thought we would have to completely rip apart the existing comb, brood, and honey in the existing network of comb that the honey had originally drawn out on the branch that we took from the starfruit tree and just placed down inside the nuc box along with 1 frame with foundation and no comb. Since December, the bees have drawn at least 3 times as much comb out in irregular pattern (at least to me) within the enclosure and a bit on the one frame that we placed in with the existing hive.

Luckily, another beekeeper, Earl, stopped by and had a much better idea. He had cut a piece of plywood about the same size as the hive body with a square cut out in the center. We place this board on the top of the new hive body and then place the waxed cardboard nuc, top down, on top of the board. This setup will force the bees in and out of the new hive body and allow them some time to drawn out new comb on the 10 frames with wax foundation in the new hive body and still allow the brood in the old temporary quarters to fully develop and the new bees to emerge, allowing the bees to use the existing pollen and honey stores as well as time to gradually get used to and migrate into the new digs. It worked great and was much less stressful on us and the bees and quick.

The bees are quite active now with the days warming up into the 80s ...

I've refurbished the older hive bodies from the 2 hives that died out, repainted them and I'm now ready to find 2 more wild hives and get a total of 4 hives up and working for me. I purchased 2 new screened bottom boards for these older hive bodies and hope this will help with the moderation of the summer heat in the hives as well as helping the bees to manage the mites and other pests in the hives.

Mini-Nuc Comes Home

Wednesday April 7, 2010

I was able to go up to Bradenton yesterday to pickup a mini-nuc ( 2 frames with brood and a bit of honey) from a friend that had recently re-queened one of her hives and instead of killing off the old queen, just moved her and a small entourage over into a temporary nuc box.

Moving them was quite easy and I drove the 25 miles home and setup the waxed cardboard nucs in the backyard near the other nuc of wild starfruit bees (see previous posts).

It will take quite a while for this hive to grow in size and drawn out the other 3 frames in the nuc box, but its a start and with the spring nectar and pollen, I'm hoping they will get at it right away.

Watching bees is very relaxing and the sound of the "buzz" inside the hive is a comforting sound to the ears. Thank God for bees!

Two hives die

Yesterday, Saturday Feb 20, 2010, I stopped at the office to pick up the last of 3 packages, a hive body on backorder. Most of the afternoon, I worked on assembling 1 hive body, 2 supers and several super frames, glueing and nailing each to ensure their strength. I then got a first coat of primer paint on the hive body, supers, bottom board, inner cover and telescoping outer cover. I decided to drive up to the farm … they were having a Movie night, Food, Inc. … and I wanted to check on the 3 hives. I got there about an hour before the movie and with a enough daylight to see the bees coming in for the evening. To my surprise, 2 of the 3 hives had absolutely NO activity. I pulled the tops and found both of the hives “dead” … both with lots of rotted comb, wax moths, ants, cockroaches … ugh!

I didn’t have time (or my equipment with me) to inspect the other 3rd hive, but bees were coming and going and I could hear a strong buzz when I put my head up side the hive body. I’m not sure what happened … cold weather and not enough stores of honey? … colony collapse disorder? … a queen that died off or wasn’t replaced in time? I grabbed a stick and attempt to scrape off as much crap as I could from the hives and placed the hives unassembled as they would fit and the blocks there were on into my car to bring home.

Today, I spent most of the day working on cleaning up the hive body and supers that were up at the farm ... scraping the wax moth silk and larvae from the frames and boxes. It was nasty work. I also worked on painting the 1st coat of exterior white on the new hive. This will be the new home for the Carambola bees.

Stacey came over this evening and helped. We inspected the wild bees in the waxed cardboard nuc and they we gentle, but active in the hive with new comb and more bees ... a good sign. We assemble more deep brood frames and added foundation to some of the super frames. I'll continue getting the new hive ready and we hope to move the bees into their new home soon.

Starfruit Bees are very active today!

With a cool start to the day ... in the 50's F ... I mixed up another batch of syrup and placed it outside the hive. Little activty this morning ... by 10:30am the sun was upon the hive and the bees were swarming everywhere and in a frenzy and quickly consuming the syrup. It is a good day for these newly domesticated bees in sunny Florida! I ordered a proper hive body and related equipment yesterday from Brushy Mountain Bees ... it will need assembled and painted after it arrives. I hope to have the bees "moved in" to their permanent home by March and ready for the spring nectar flows.

Starfruit Bees move South

The wild hive is now setup on my A/C unit just outside my lanai. I placed them there on Monday morning and setup a feeder with sugar/water syrup. I watched early that morning as the first bees exited the hive ... they flew out and straight up in a spiral movement to about 30 feet and then off into the neighborhood. By late afternoon when I returned to check on them, the bees were quite active on the feeder and foraging bees were already returning to the hive with orange pollen on their sides. Seems they are adjusting quite well. With the colder temperatures, I"m sure they are enjoying being out of the wind and in their nuc. A picture of the new setup is top right ... a waxed cardboard nuc (small temporary hive) sitting on my A/C unit near the lanai. The yellow container is a feeder with a 2-to-1 Sugar/Water mixture. The other smaller container is a water source.

Wild Bees in a Averrhoa carambola Tree

A few weeks back I attended a book club gathering of the Slow Food Sarasota group ... they were discussing a book, "Fruitless Fall", about the decline of honey bees. It was held in the Rosemary District the evening of Rosemary Rising, an annual holiday open street party and event.

I met someone who was interested in learning more about beekeeping. She told me about a wild hive near her house in a Starfruit tree.

Yesterday, December 20th, was the day we had decided to capture this wild hive and give it a proper home. It was a small hive without much comb or honey stores and it would not likely make it through the cold temperatures.

The hive was attached to a dead branch that was stuck in the "V" in the trunk of the tree. I started by smoking the hive, although the bees were huddled tightly in the comb, probably due to the cooler weather. I trimmed the ends of the branch with a saw and then used my hive tool to loosen the hive where it was attached to the tree trunk. I was then able to easily lift the hive and place it in a box. We left the box open at the base of the tree and returned near dusk, to allow time for foraging bees to return.

This morning, I tranferred the hive into a waxed cardboard nuc box and set it up in a sunny location near the lanai in my backyard. I also set out a feeder with a sugar syrup ( 6 cups sugar and 3 cups water).

I watched the hive this morning as the first bees exited the hive flying in a spiral pattern straight up about 30 feet, then away.

By late this afternoon, bees had found a pollen source and were feeding actively on the feeder and returning to the hive with bodies laden with pollen. Amazing, after being transplanted from the Starfruit tree to a location almost 15 miles away, they wasted no time in locating a source of pollen in their new neighborhood.

Thanks to Stacey for her help in getting the bees captured ... And for the chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal cookies and coquito that we enjoyed afterwards. With a little help, this hive should survive the winter and be in good shape once the spring nectar and pollen sources are more abundant.

Two pictures of the hive as it was in the Starfruit tree are to the right!

Summer persists in Mid-October

With temperatures still in the 90's a friend who wants to learn about beekeeping and I ventured back up to my apiary. My goals were to add to supers which I had cleaned and added new foundation, inspect the three hives for evidence of active queens, and install several AJ Beetle Eaters to help control populations of Small Hive Beetles (SHB).

It was a sunny, very hot morning and we were setup and working the first hive by 11am.

Activities included:

First Hive (middle)

• pulled 1 super for extraction and replaced with empty super with new foundation
• may need to enlarge the small entrance to allow for better ventilation
• Added AJ Beetle Eater
• Inspected brood chamber, mostly honey stores and a few drone and queen cells
• No visible queen activity or worker egg and/or larvae
• note: 3-4 plastic frames in brood chamber to replace on future visit

North Hive

• Top super had 1.5 capped frames and others partially full, pull for extraction on next visit
• Added empty super with new foundation
• Lots of comb and honey built on and around inner cover and queen excluder
• Removed inner cover
• Added AJ Beetle Eater
• Lots of bee in brood chamber, Lots of Drones, capped worker brood, pollen cells
• No visible queen found

South Hive

• Hive has brood chamber, Ross round super, and two regular supers
• Added AJ Beetle Eater to brood chamber
• 1 plastic frame in super to replace on next visit
• No supers ready with capped honey.
• Lots of bees and activity in supers and brood chamber
• No inspection of brood chamber, too hot and needed to stop for the day.

Afternoon work included extraction of 9 frames, producing about 2 gallons of honey
I'll work to cleanup and add new foundation to frames in this super in the near future.

I hope the next visit will be in much cooler weather.