Category: Apiculture

Apiculture, Beekeepers, Beekeeping, Bees, Entomology, Environment, Gardening, Urban Farming

Flight Plan

by Meredith A. MayLeave a Comment on Flight Plan

Every hive has a distinct flight plan – a certain place on on the landing board where the bees prefer to land and takeoff. One of my hives prefers the right corner. The other hive is less specific, with the bees landing and taking off anywhere near the entrance.

Today I took a seat on an old tire facing the right-dominant hive, and watched the bees to see if I could get a sense of which way they were going for nectar. They flew out, straight toward me, then rose up and over a fence several feet behind the hive, toward a basketball backboard. Then they banked left and flew toward a tree with white flowers and red berries. Returning, they made the same Blue Angels sudden turn, but in reverse. Show-offs.

Bee Cloud
Bee Cloud

I know this sounds strange, but the most soothing place for me is sitting in a cloud of bees. Their hum is like an “ohm,” and when I am alone with them, time slows down and I finally notice the pulsing microcosmos all around me. Today I saw that many of my foraging bees wipe their antennae clean just before they takeoff. Always important to look presentable before you leave the house, right?

Apiculture, Beekeepers, Beekeeping, Bees, Entomology, Environment, Gardening, Queen Bee, Urban Farming

The Queen Lays an Egg

by Meredith A. MayLeave a Comment on The Queen Lays an Egg
The Queen and her retinue, photo by MaryEllen Kirkpatrick
The Queen and her retinue, photo by MaryEllen Kirkpatrick

It’s always fascinating to watch the Queen Bee at work, laying more than 1,000 eggs a day. She’s picky about her nursery, ambling along the honeycomb and inspecting each hexagon cell to make sure it’s clean, air-tight and worthy of her offspring.

She reminds me of a duck nibbling something underwater, sticking her head in the cell so just her butt remains visible. When she finds a space to her liking, she squats and puts her long abdomen inside, lays and egg, and then does a pushup with her long legs to exit.

Watch her lay an egg below. 

The Queen is an egg-laying machine, in constant motion. But I took the few seconds when she was still, laying her egg, to mark her with a small dot of blue paint. This helps me find her more easily during hive inspections, and also helps me know important things, such as whether she has been overthrown. Each year beekeepers use a different color for the Queen. In 2015, her heiness wears royal blue.

Apiculture, Beekeepers, Beekeeping, Bees, Environment, Gardening, Uncategorized, Urban Farming

Stringing Beehive Frames, Grandpa-Style

by Meredith A. MayLeave a Comment on Stringing Beehive Frames, Grandpa-Style

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On a recent visit to Grandpa’s house in Carmel Valley, he gave me his handmade frame stringer. Before laying wax foundation into empty beehive frames, you must strengthen them first by putting horizontal wiring inside the wooden frames.

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This helps steady the wax sheets so the bees can make orderly honeycomb from it, and wires also keep the honeycomb from falling apart in the spinner at harvest time. I wasn’t sure how his gizmo worked, but I think I got it. I was able to string frames so tightly that I could play them like guitar strings. Watch and tell me if I did it correctly. 

Apiculture, Beekeeping, Bees, Entomology, Environment, Gardening, Urban Farming

BEE-Mail

by Meredith A. May8 Comments on BEE-Mail

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Finally, the long awaited e-mail came. On my birthday. My two new colonies of bees will be waiting for me in Healdsburg on March 29. I’ve been without bees since last fall, when both my queens began weakening, and I tried to save the hives by combining them into one stronger hive with one queen. But instead of joining forces, the two colonies dueled to the death. It was a horrible end to a rough season, and being without bees this long feels like losing a dog. I miss seeing them dart in the air, miss checking for eggs, miss feeling their vibration when I lift out a frame. I’ve been watching the flowers pop out early this year, and trying to remain patient for my order of two new colonies and two new mated queens to be filled. When I got the good news, the first thing I did was go grocery shopping for them.

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They will need sugar water in a 1:1 ratio while they scout around their new home, Little City Gardens in the outer Mission of San Francisco. And the marshmallows? The queen will come in her own individual cage that is corked in one end. I will replace the cork with a marshmallow, and dangle her between the frames. By the time the bees chew through the marshmallow to release her, they will have acclimated to her scent, and therefore not kill her. Bonus.

queen cage

If you are looking for bees too, I ordered survivor stock from April Lance.