Edmonton's NewBees

Extraction

2011-09-23T11:18:00.006-06:00

Hey Folks,

Due to some technical difficulties, and the release of a certain yearly Xbox hockey game, it's been quite some time since my last post. However, in that time I finally got all my honey extracted. Here's a bit of a quick run down of how the process works.

On a fine Labour Day weekend, we headed out to the bee yard to grab whatever frames of honey were ready for extraction. Early that week I had received and assembled my 2 frame extractor and was excited to test it out. Out at the bee yard, our friend Mandy donned the bee suit to act as my assistant in removing the bees the frames before we put them into a separate box.

Mandy, looking dapper in her bee suit.

We were soon joined by our other friends, along with my smallest bee keeping assistant yet, Piper. She was super excited to see the bees and to find out where honey comes from because she absolutely loves it. I know understand why Patty Milligan loves all the school programs she does. It's so exciting to see young kids who aren't afraid of bugs.

Piper in a homemade veil.

Once all the frames we collected to headed back to my garage to start the extraction process. The first step was to use the honey punch to pierce small holes in all the cappings. I had read a few reviews online about the honey punch and it's ease of use and must say that they were all true. As apposed to the other ways of removing the cappings, ie. heated knife or scrapper, this was super quick and for the most part mess free.

Once the cappings were thoroughly punched, I put the frames into the extractor and applied good 'ol elbow grease and this is when the problems started. After 1 good spin the gears started to skip and it wasn't possible to build up the centrifugal force needed. A few minutes of problem solving discovered a few issues, the only remedy being to order a new gearbox from the manufacture. Lucky, that 1 good spin did manage to extract about a liter of honey and after sitting in the sun for a bit we opened the honey gate and let it flow out.

Wonder how long until I want a motorized extractor.....

Arrrrr, we've struck gold Mateys!

After I received the new gearbox I extracted the rest of the frames and got around 8 liters of honey. All that from around 8 frames because there weren't as many fully capped frames as I had hoped this year. Either way, I am happy with the performance of my extractor and really look forward to putting the fully drawn comb back into the hive next year to have the bees fill it up next year.

That's a lot of honey.

Thanks to all my friends who came out for my first extractor party. It will be the first of many. Also, if you still haven't gotten your name in for honey do so quickly.

Summer Vacation

2011-08-30T11:08:00.004-06:00

Hey Everyone,

I'm back from my summer hiatus with a little bit of news. Forgive my lack of posting, but to be truly honest I don't really think posting just for the sake of posting is productive. The summer has come and gone. Yes, I've come out and said it, the days are getting shorter and the weather cooler. The bees haven't been at all pleased with how the weather has been, at least here in Edmonton. We had A LOT of rain this summer, not exactly what you'd call great nectar gathering weather. Mario's hives have done, for the most part, poorly. Although he did say he got 54, that's right count them 54!, frames of honey from a single hive. Yowzas!!

So here are a few of the things I made mental notes of during my few inspections over the summer. I've done a few things to my Langstroth this summer. First I blocked the top entrance off for 2 weeks and then I added a modified bottom board. Here is a picture of what the hive looked like a few weeks ago when my in-laws were up to collect some cut comb honey.

Quality time with the girls.....oh, and the mother-in-law.

The first thing you may or may not notice is that the bottom board I modified now places the long side of the box to the front. This serves two purposes: 1) It positions the frames in such a way that when standing behind hive the beekeeper doesn't have to reach or make any weird contortions to remove the frames. I found this absolutely wonderful. 2) The bottom entrance is now larger which allows for better airflow and less bee congestion.

Another issue I had to deal with was the top entrance. I do like the idea of having it as it provides great ventilation for the bees, however after winter it became the main entrance for the bees. This is due to the fact that all the new bees emerging from winter orientated to it because the lower entrance was blocked with debris and an entrance reducer. Even after I have cleaned out the hive and removed the reducer the bees were still using this entrance. It will come down to personal preference, but the issue you will come across with having a top entrance is that when you do inspections there will be a higher volume of bees flying around. This is due to all the foragers who are returning coming to where the entrance was. I didn't really like the extra commotion, so I simply duct taped the upper entrance closed. After a week, all the bees had re-orientated to the lower entrance and it wasn't an issue anymore.

I'm sure all of you that missed out on honey last year, or those who want more, just want me to get to the part about how much honey my bees made this year! From the looks of it, I'll have around 10 frames of honey. Some of you may think that pales in comparison to Mario's single hive 54 frames, and it does, however considering that last year I extracted 2 liters of honey from 2 frames I should have plenty to go around. I managed to find a cheap 2 frame extractor from a company out of Vancouver with free shipping and it should be arriving soon. Once it's all setup, I'll extract my frames and get it all bottled up and ready for delivery.

HONEY IS FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE!! If you would like a jar this year, please email me at newbees@telus.net. Also, I do have a single frame that I can make cut comb honey (honey still in the wax), if you would like a square of comb honey please let me know because quantities are limited. Donations are welcome :-P

My Mother-in-law holding a honey frame, minus two pieces of cut comb.

That's all for now, stay tuned for the Calgary top bar saga in the next few days. I will also be posting pictures and tales of how my adventure with the extractor go.

Until then, bee cool!

Calgary Tale; Part 2

2011-06-27T10:21:00.004-06:00

Greetings readers,

So you've recently learned about how it easy it would be to setup at hive in the city of Calgary. I wanted to do a little bit of follow up because I can't believe how well the bees are doing down there. I was down this past weekend visiting and had the pleasure of simply lounging around on the deck watching and listening to bees come and go from the hive and various plants around the garden. Right next the deck were some Allium giganteum and the bees were all over it. It's indescribably relaxing just sitting in the sun and listening to the sporadic humming as each bee goes from flower to flower.

The other fun activity to do was to sit and watch the dozens of bees going to and fro the watering hole that has been setup on the deck near the hive. It consists of a terracotta saucer filled with specially selected geologically pertinent rocks, both my in-laws are geologists. I hope the bees realized that's petrified wood they're walking on, it is possible to spoil bees?

With my Dad having done his last inspection 2 weeks earlier I had the pleasure of having a quick look to see how things were progressing, and I must say things are going gang busters! Here is a before and after shot of the same top bar during a span of 2 weeks. My dad might have to start engineering a way to install a second hive on top of this one if they keep growing at this rate.

Before: Taken June 12th, 2011.

After: Taken June 25th, 2011

On a completely unrelated note I wanted to post this awesome picture I took of the most marvelous creature I have seen in our garden to date, not including my bees of course. I took this last week, on the 21st, when I noticed something hovering around the back fence. I couldn't quite figure out what it was because it was too small to be a bird but too large to be a bumblebee. As soon as I noticed it had landed on my Delphiniums, I ran to grab to the camera. Here's what I saw!

After a little research I found this to be a Hemaris thysbe, Hummingbird Clearwing moth. It is called that because it will hover in front of flowers to feed like a hummingbird and due to its very large size can be easily mistaken as such.

Isn't nature cool! Queue SONG!

Tales from Calgary

2011-06-23T10:39:00.004-06:00

Hey Everyone,

As I promised a few weeks ago there was a second tale of Top bar beekeeping I had to tell. Again, I got bogged down in other things and have finally gotten around to rounding up all the pictures of my adventure.

It started in February when I went down to Red Deer to meet up with Eliese Watson. Eliese is the founder of Apiaries and Bees for Communities, A.B.C., down in Calgary. For the past couple of years she has been working non-stop to promote pollinators of all kinds but her hardest work has been growing the urban beekeeping scene in Calgary like nobody's business. I had learnt that she was planning a Co-op purchase of nucs from a local source, Bill Stagg, out of B.C. and I was thrilled at the idea of getting my hands on some locally raised bees and queens so I eagerly signed up.

During this time my father was showing quite a lot of interest in beekeeping. He grew up in the prairies on the farm so it wasn't anything unfamiliar to him. When I posed the question as to if he wanted to keep the Nuc I ordered down in Calgary in their backyard he was on it like white on rice. Due to his connections with friends that have wood working shops my Dad was able to build his entire top bar in a weekend, goes to show what having the right tools will do for you, it took Beatrice and I 2 weeks to build ours. As the pick-up date grew nearer though, my mother was growing more anxious about all the perceived issues and problems of backyard beekeeping. In the end, she would have nothing of it and I started my search for an alternative location within Calgary so that my Dad could continue on and enjoy the beekeeping experience. The help came from none other than my own Mother-in-law, she is an avid gardener and had no qualms with the bees...as long as she didn't receive too many complaints and only if my Dad did all the work.

Dad's hive, right next to the house.

The weekend of the Nuc pickup was quite the spectacle. Eliese, who had obviously been working like a bee, had around 100 people show up to pick up their bees and learn about how to hive them. Men, women and children of all ages were there in veils and bee suits, Calgary is definitely headed in the right direction. The weather however had different plans for that week. After we put the bees in the backyard it proceeded to rain and be miserable for a week. Eventually the sun broke through and my Dad was able to put the bees into the hive. Since then he and my mother-in-law have been avid beekeepers, doing their inspections and observing the hive. From all the emails and pictures they send it's quite obvious that the hive is doing very well. I am still a bit envious that I cannot have a top bar in my backyard without risking another call from my loony neighbour, but I think maybe after all our landscaping is done I might sneak one in next year and let the chips fall where they may.

Great looking comb.

Can you see the queen?

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

2011-06-13T14:39:00.003-06:00

That's right folks, today marks 1 year of Edmonton's NewBees! It's been so much fun teaching and talking to all my friends about beekeeping here in Edmonton, and everyone is so supportive and inquisitive.

Things have been busy and things have been dormant, like bees during winter, but there always seems to be new things to share. Thanks for sticking it out during those long winter months without any posts. Here's hoping for another year of great beekeeping info.

In celebration of this milestone, I've gone out and picked up a new URL for the site. You can now access the site by using www.newbees.ca If they ever make beekeeping legal in Edmonton this will eventually be transformed into a urban beekeeping website so that everyone who needs info or courses can find that information!

Apologies and Top Bars

2011-06-07T10:32:00.003-06:00

Hey Everyone,

I'd like to start off this post with a sincere apology to those readers who contacted me via newbees@telus.net. I honestly forgot about this account as I had only received a few emails from friends and a tonne of spam. While puttering around today I remembered to check it and had half a dozen emails from readers dating back to January. I will be more vigilant in checking in the future!

Now onto the good stuff. Top Bars! I know you are all thinking, "Finally! He's been muttering and carrying on about these for months." Yes, I have and now have the tale of 2 top bar hives.

The first tale is one you are already familiar with. My friend Beatrice and I have been building a set of top bar hives together starting back in April. I decided to spare everyone a giant photo montage of the building process as there are hundreds already out there on the web. I thought I'd focus more on the nuances and differences between Langstroth hives in future posts. As for the building process, it took Beatrice an I about a week and a half to build our hives. We didn't quite have a great woodworking shop and were using whatever tools we could find, we did eventually get the job done though. Beatrice's package arrived May 4th at Bee Maid, and we headed out with her hive and everything else we needed to hive the package. The bees came in a cardboard tube with plastic ventilation caps, which is different then the screened box you see in most YouTube videos. I do think this makes for a much easier installation process.
If you have children, be sure to save it. Its heavy duty construction would make it the Excalibur of any cardboard tube sword fight.

We arrived at the acreage, within the city limits, and got the top bar hive setup. Once we have everything arranged properly we unleashed the bees. This process was extremely simple. First, using a spray bottle filled with a 1:1 sugar syrup you give the bees a good spray down on the end of the tube you are going to open. This will limit the amount of bees that will fly once you pop the top. After they are sufficiently covered in sugar water, you remove the staples holding the plastic cap using a screw driver. You want to do this at the end that has the green mesh hanging out, because this is what the queen cage is attached to. Then, making sure you have a hold of the green mesh, you give the tube a sharp tap on the ground to get all the bees at the bottom, remove the cap and slowly pull out the queen cage. Once you have taken that out and have placed it on the hive, you can turn the tube upside down over the hive and give it a good shake. All of the bees will come out as a clump and then you can lay the tube with the open end facing the hive in front of the hive, any bees that are still inside will find their new home eventually. The last step is to remove the cork from the queen cage and hang it from the middle top bar. If there is no candy in the queen cage, you can easily make up a soft fondant using icing sugar and water, or if you don't want to do that you can come back 2-3 days later and release her manually.

Overall it was a super easy process and the bees loved their new home. Beatrice's most recent inspection last week has shown that the bees have already drawn out 6 full bars of comb and are still building. As a side note, you will always want to provide a feeder for bees coming out of a package. They don't have any food stores and if the weather is lousy or there is a lack of forage they will need it to start building some comb.
Such a nice colour!

The queen cage is suspended in the middle, the happy bees below are fanning pheromones letting the other bees know to come on in.

The second tale I have is about my nuc that I had ordered from Eliese down at ABC in Calgary, however there's a twist! Come back in the next few days and you'll hear about my adventures down in Calgary.

Queen of the Sun

2011-05-30T12:11:00.003-06:00

In case you didn't know yesterday, May 29th, was the day of the honey bee. A nation wide lobby is pushing to get this day recognized in as many provinces and municipalities as possible, and so far they are doing a pretty good job. As part of the celebrations Metro Cinema, in partnership with Lola Canola Honey, brought the documentary "Queen of the Sun" to Edmonton. Yesterday was the first screening, but there are 4 more. 7pm and 9pm, on May 30th and 31st. I would highly recommend that anyone with any level of interest in honey bees, or the plight of the honey bee go see this movie.

As for my personal thoughts on the movie, it did a very good job of touching base on all the things a person, who knows nothing about bees, should know about honey bees. It interviews a wide range of people from all over the world who are directly, or indirectly, affected by Colony Collapse Disorder. Noting that I am not, or never will be, a film critic I did find some of the cinematography off. There were also a few sections and cuts that seemed to be a bit out of place or off topic, but generally the flow of the movie was OK. The only other criticism I would have, and this may differ depending on who you talk to, was that most of the people they had tended to skew more to the Hippie side of things, for lack of a better word. Yes, I acknowledge that because of how honey bees are so closely intertwined with the very essence of nature there will be more than a few hippies, tree huggers, and environmentalists preaching the virtues of the bees. However, with the exception of one bloke in London most of the urban beekeepers came off on the extreme end of the scale, and even he was a bit eccentric but then again you do have to be a bit eccentric to become a beekeeper.

I was hoping to see more about the average person who falls in love with the bees once they are exposed to a hive for the first time. A teacher, a lawyer, or a child; people who don't necessarily practice yoga and eat only whole grains and vegetables. A powerful message that screams out that bees aren't dangerous and if you just stopped for a minute, allowing your childhood fear to melt away into the peaceful humming of an busy apiary on warm summer's day, you too could fall in love with these insects.

SO GO! See for yourself and find that love! There are 4 more screenings. Check out these links for more info. It is being shown downtown at the Citadel Theaters in Ziedler Hall.

METRO CINEMA

LOLA CANOLA HONEY

The Andrenids are amoung us!

2011-05-26T09:38:00.003-06:00

Two weeks ago my wife and I were outside getting our vegetable garden prepped and seeded. While I was puttering around I noticed what I thought to be a few honey bees buzzing around. However, their behavior was very odd. They were slowly flying around the ground, occasionally landing to walk around a bit before taking off again. I began watching intently as my curiosity peaked. Laying on my stomach I followed the progress of one of these insects, as I landed in front of me I noticed that it was very close in appearance to a honey bee. The differences were subtle, while the head looked like a honey bee and it still had a fuzzy thorax, the hair was reddish yellow in colour, the abdomen was shiny jet black and smooth much like a fly. Another thing I noticed was that they were almost silent during flight, many times flying over my head without a sound. After a few minutes of observation, I noticed that one of the bees had permanently landed and was starting digging a hole into the dirt. Most curious. I ran inside to get my google on.

My instincts were right! It was a solitary species of bee native to Alberta. The Andrenid Bee, also known as "mining bees". These bees will dig a nest so they can lay an egg. They will then forage for pollen which they can stock up around the egg. Once there is enough food for the egg, the female will seal up the entrance and leave. While considered a solitary species, usually there will be many nests in close proximity giving the appearance of a colony.

This leaves me in a bit of a dilemma because the bees have setup home in the clay I placed around my house last year to grade. I had planned on compacting it and laying some topsoil and sod...can I do that now? Decisions, decisions.

Here are some pictures of the nests and bees. They took me a while to get and I bet my neighbours thought I was a bit nuts crawling around my front yard military style with camera in hand.

One of many burrows.

Bee inside a burrow, if you look closely you can see her face.

Posing for her close up.

Lazy Days

2011-05-18T23:15:00.003-06:00

Hey Folks,

Just a quick update to let everyone know that I will be posting a few posts in the coming days. I've been a bit lazy in getting pictures off my camera and have lots to show everyone.

Everything from the new Top Bar hives that my friend and I have built and more recently installed a package of bees into, to my new local friends the Andrenid bees.

Be sure to check back soon.

Spring has arrived!

2011-04-11T19:22:00.003-06:00

Hey everyone,

I've been meaning to post on how my installation of the candy board went last week, but I got busy with preparations for my Top bar hive building adventure. I'll squeeze it in with today's post.

So spring has finally arrived here in Edmonton. We've had almost 2 weeks of above zero highs and the majority of snow has melted away leaving brown/green spots of grass. Before that happened though, I went out to the bee yard to put my candy board on the hive so the girls have something to eat until local plants start to bloom. Everything went well, but I was surprised by the size of the cluster. I was expecting only a small corner or a quarter of the top to be bees, when I opened the cover they covered half of the frames. This created a bit of an issue because I now had to herd the bees around in order to place the candy board on top of the frames. I solved this by breaking the board up into smaller pieces. Next year, I will just forgo this issue by pouring the candy directly into a spare cover that way I can just replace the covers and be done.

Herding bees as I add pieces of candy board.

I headed out today to ensure that my hive wasn't bogged down in a lagoon of melting snow. Mario had expressed some concerns about his hives, but I think mine will do fine because I have them on cinder blocks. As expected, Mario's acreage was very soupy and I might actually have to purchase a pair of rubber boots for my next visit. A balmy 14°C meant a flurry of activity at the entrances of the hives, and the past 2 weeks of warm weather had melted all of the snow from around my hive providing easy access. With the easy access, I decided to unwrap the hives and do a little spring cleaning. Mario had an extra pollen patty as well, so I quickly popped the cover off to put it on top of the frames. The pollen patty will help the colony to start raising brood until they can start gathering larger quantities from blooming flowers. I was happy to see that the bees had been feasting on the candy I had added a week or so before.

Pollen patty, right side, and remnants of the candy board.

Once the hive was unwrapped I removed the entrance reducer and with a hooked piece of metal began fishing around the lower entrance. I was surprised by the amount of debris and dead bees that kept coming out with each swipe. I took a solid 15 minutes of scraping until the hook came out clean. The giant pile of corpses was quite a depressing sight, however it highlights the stark reality that beehives face during winter. So many bees give up their lives so the colony can survive and continue their genetic line.

Mounds of dead bees form a mass grave in front of the hive.

With my spring cleaning done, its back to playing the waiting game. When the weather gets even warmer I will be able to do a proper inspection to ensure everything is peachy keen. Until then, I sit and cheer on the dandelions....and maybe build a top bar hive or two.

BEFORE.

AFTER.

Mmmmmm Candy

2011-03-23T10:23:00.004-06:00

Looks like old man Winter isn't quite going to give up so easy this spring. While temperatures are still fairly mild, it looks like there will be on and off flurries for the next week or so. It won't really get nice until early April. The bees have been stuck in their boxes for nearly 6 months now and food will be running low. On the bright side, it has been warm enough for them to break cluster and move around the hive to get at all their stored honey.

To help prevent starvation issues there are a few things a beekeeper can do. The most obvious is to provide a liquid form of food, either honey or sugar syrup. People that live in southern regions wouldn't have issues with this, but up here in the cold temperatures that syrup will quickly turn into a solid block of ice. Us northerners need a dry option that won't be so hard to access for the bees.

The Mountain Camp method is a simple and basic way to do this. With this method you add an empty super on top of the hive, place a piece of newspaper over cluster and then pour dry sugar on top. The newspaper acts as a barrier preventing the sugar from flowing freely down into the hive. The bees will then chew small sections away from the newspaper and feed off the sugar. The sugar also acts as a moisture absorbant preventing any condensation from dripping back onto the bees.

A slightly more complex method is to cook up some candy boards. To make candy boards, you take 2 cups of water and 5 pounds of sugar and cook them to approximately 240°F. After it cools it will result in a hard board that is much easier to work with than loose sugar. You can also add vinegar/acid to the process which will invert the sugars into glucose and fructose which is easier for the bees to digest. These boards also have the moisture absorption properties of the mountain camp method, but have the added benefit of being easier to remove once the bees start gathering their own nectar. Here is a quick run down of my candy making experience.

Materials Required. 2.5 lbs of sugar, 1 cup of water, candy thermometer, electric mixer, pot, and pan with parchment paper. (essential oils optional)

Add everything to pot on high heat. If you want to invert the sugar, add 1 Tbsp of lemon juice or cider/white vinegar.

Bring to boil at 240°F, the temperature will plateau at certain points like 230°F but given time it will slowly start to rise again.

Once 240°F is reached, remove from heat and let cool to around 200°F. Using the hand mixer, beat the mixture briefly every 2 or 3 minutes. Once the mixture starts to crystallize and is a smooth white semi liquid paste, pour into the sheet pan and let harden.

The Bee Dr. Is In

2011-03-15T09:51:00.003-06:00

Good Almost-spring day to everyone!

I hope everyone is having an enjoyable end of winter. It's finally looking like there is light at the end of the tunnel here in Edmonton. We just made it past a nasty cold snap at the start of March and things are looking warmer for the next week or so. Hopefully it will melt all this snow we have, the snow is making things feel more depressing despite how much has already melted away

I was a tad concerned about the recent cold snap so when it was nice and warm yesterday, about 2°C, I went to ensure the girls were still alright. To my pleasure things looked great. They was a lot of activity at the top entrance as everyone was out enjoying the sun. I took this opportunity to test out a method of checking on hives during cold weather, despite being obvious from the activity they were doing extremely well. The method is meant more for checking during colder weather when there is no sign of activity at all. My nurse friend was kind enough to snag me a spare stethoscope. The premise is simple, using the stethoscope you listen for the gentle hum of the cluster. With my curiosity peaked, I tested it out yesterday. The hum was extremely loud due to all the activity but the method seemed to work well regardless of all the extra wrapping Mario had added to the hive. If it does get really cold again, I'll have to go test it out then to see if I can hear anything when the bees are clustered more tightly.

I also took the opportunity to find my smoker yesterday. I was searching all over my garage without a trace and then I remember I use to store it beneath the wood pile next to my hive at the bee yard, I must have left it there. If such was the case, I would have to remove it before the snow started to melt causing it to rust. The only thing that lay between it and myself was a waist high snow bank......

Let this be a lesson to always keep your smoker in a safe and dry place, although it did bring back fond memories of building snow forts as a kid.

The speckled landscape of bee poop....lots and lots of bee poop.

Girls gotta stick together as my wife helps out a stranded bee.

This week I'll be making some candy boards to put on top of the hive in the next week or so. Food stores will be getting towards the low end and the bees will need something to feed on until the snow melts and the dandelions bloom. Check back soon for pics and instructions on how to get that done.

I'd also like to thank my wife for another great artistic picture of me in the bee yard. Check it out on the main page, it will be a great alternate "About Me" picture during the winter months.

Warming Winter Days

2011-02-17T09:43:00.003-07:00

Hey Folks,

So the weather has been quite variable as of late, swinging from 5°C to -20°C in a matter of days. However, a week of above zero temperatures was a great excuse to go out and see the bees. Hopefully some of the drifts had melted away allowing easy access to the hives.

When we arrived we noticed that Mario had managed to get his tractor out to the bee yard, making the trek so much easier. I was concerned to see that the city had already begun moving and grading dirt onto Mario's land. Mario's acreage is quickly being encroached on by developers and they approached him with a proposal to put all the top soil removed from their sites onto his land. At first I was concerned, but Mario said they are going to grade it properly and then in spring it will be covered in Alfalfa by the farmer who he leases the land to. It's a win win for Mario and the bees.

The hive was buzzing with activity in the warm sunny day. The bees were obviously happy to get out and stretch their wings, not to mention use the washroom. Most people don't know that bees will not defecate in the hive, so they can only relieve themselves when the weather permits. This was blatantly apparent with all the patches of yellow spots that littered the snow drifts in front of the hive. A good note for any urban beekeepers is to make note of which way your hive is aimed as I hear bee poop isn't the easiest of things to clean off, say, a car or patio furniture.

Unfortunately, on a sadder note, the good weather also means that newer born bees will also take the opportunity to get out of the hive. Without the proper flight skills they often end up landing on the snow which will slowly, if not surely, kill them. I was touched to see that when Mario came out to greet us, he took time to pick up some of these nurse bees and attempt to sheppard them into a hive. An extremely touching gesture akin to those baby duck videos that litter YouTube. If there is anything that can swing a person's mind as to the "voraciousness" of bees, it would seeing 2 grown men herding baby bees back home.

A nurse bee soaking up the rays on my finger, she did eventually take flight.

I had intended to remove the entrance reducer and using a bent coat hanger clear out the bottom of the hive of dead bees, however Mario had so thoroughly wrapped my hive it would have been very difficult to get it off. Also, there was much more activity than I was expecting and with the snow drifts around the hive there was no easy way to gain access without sticking my head right next to the top entrance. Without a veil that situation could be precarious. It appeared that the bees were doing a good job of cleaning the hive themselves though as all around the hive lay the bodies of fellow bees, it is quite astonishing how many bees die during the cold winter months.

We are starting to get into the spring prep months so check back soon for new posts on the activities I will be doing. These include building a top bar hive, making spring feed, and possibly even making my own pollen patties. Until next time, bee cool.

Calling All Newbees!

2011-01-11T22:07:00.003-07:00

Hey Beekeepers!

It's that time of year again when beekeepers start making preparations for the new season. It's actually a pretty hard thing to consider especially since we just got a dump of snow here in Edmonton and apparently there's more on the way.

I was trying to scheme with Patty and Eliese about setting up a Urban beekeeping course this spring, but both are fairly busy and I'm not really sure if there's time to effectively set one up. I know Eliese's courses in Calgary have been selling out like hotcakes, but she has the added advantage of beekeeping being legal within the city down there. I'm not entirely sure how many people I could round up for a course in Edmonton.

That said, I've been speaking with Jane regarding her acreage within the city and she's still excited and willing to allow some hives out there. I've emailed all my old classmates from Patty's class last year to see if people are interested in getting starting this. I've received a few responses which is great! I will also be holding a woodworking shop with Patty to build some Top Bar Hives for these new beekeepers.

If you live in the Edmonton, or surrounding area, and would be interested in getting started into beekeeping let me know! If you don't have understanding neighbours or just don't want to risk it, there is plenty of room on Jane's land. Just shoot me an email at newbeestelus.net and I'll get back to you with any information you might need!

New Year's Checkup

2011-01-03T20:26:00.004-07:00

Happy New Year Beekeepers!

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Christmas and a happy new year. My wife and I had a great holiday and with the cold weather breaking for a brief period I headed out to see how my bees have been coping with the bitter cold -25 days we've been having lately.

The drive out to the acreage wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be. I assume this is because they roads we travelled on are all technically within city limits and are therefore plowed eventually despite being low volume. Another possibility is that because of all the housing construction out there the large vehicles have made short work of the snow.

We arrived to find Mario in his tractor plowing his driveway, one of the disadvantages of having an acreage is the long driveway you have to shovel in winter. As always we had a brief chat with Mario about how things have been. Fortunately for us Mario had attempted to plow a path out to the hives, but after almost getting stuck gave up the venture. Even though it wasn't complete it saved us from having to trek through some ugly drifts.

We arrived to a very quite and solemn looking hive. Mario had kindly placed a snow fence in the treeline behind the hive so the snow drifts weren't that bad near the hive. He had also placed a burlap skirt around the bottom of the hive to keep snow from getting under the hive. He was worried about the airspace below my hive because of the cinder blocks I am using as a hive stand. I indulged Mario as I have never really worried about it because everything I've read says it's not the cold temperature that will kill your bees but moisture, hunger, or disease. If anything the snow below the hive would act as an insulation anyways.

It took some effort to get closer to the hive as the snow was knee deep. As I neared the hive I noticed that the specks in the snow at the front of the hive weren't the tree debris I had initially thought them to be, they were dead bees.

Yesterday we had some really warm weather so my first assessment would be that the hive was active and doing some house cleaning, getting rid of the bees that have given their life in service to the hive. Another possibility would be that something or someone had come by and given the hive a good enough knock to send out a defensive force, but seeing as there weren't any type of visible tracks near the hive I ruled this out. I am taking these dead bees as a sign that the hive is in exceptional health as they are still performing hive duties when the weather permits. Another positive sign is that the plastic covering the top entrance had some condensation on it meaning that there is still warm moist air coming out.

I briefly cleaned the lower entrance as some ice and snow had built up blocking any sort of ventilation. I have read that you can increase ventilation by using a grill type entrance device instead of a solid piece of wood. As I'm not sure if this is just for warmer climates I'll do more research on the subject and let you know what I find.

Until my next post, stay warm and stick to those resolutions!

Winter Reading

2010-12-19T16:27:00.003-07:00

Just touching base so people know I'm not hibernating like my bees. I am still very much active in my beekeeping hobby.

Up until last week the winter we'd been having a fairly mild winter up here in Edmonton. Things took a change for the worse as we were hit with a foot of snow and some cooler temperatures. I was planning on checking in on the bees sometime this month but seeing as my car is having troubles getting around the city I hardly think country back roads would be kind to me.

To pass the time I have been reading forums and checking out Phil Chandler's webpage. Phil specializes in top bar hives. A few months back Patty approached me about setting up a top bar workshop for everyone in Edmonton she could find that would be interested in starting some top bar hives. Top bar hives haven't really been used in North America since most commercial operations use Langstroth hives. With the increase focus on natural beekeeping many new beekeepers are looking at top bars as a way of bucking the trend, regardless of benefits or draw backs. Currently Eliese with ABC in Calgary has been really promoting the top bar hive and the response has been great. With beekeeping being "legal" in Calgary many beginner course has been selling out as people are drawn to this new hobby. Hopefully Patty and I can start getting things rolling here in Edmonton.

In November I received "Natural Beekeeping" by Ross Conrad from my in-laws for my birthday. I had heard about Ross while browsing around forums, so I had put the book on my list. After finally getting through it, I had only been reading it during my Saturday work shift, I am extremely glad to have done so. Ross is very straight forward to his ideas on organic beekeeping, while not being too pretentious or sounding too granola. He presents both sides of the story with pros and cons of both. His personal experimentation and trials are very well explained and illustrated. I would highly recommend this book to anyone considering trying to go organic or even just more nature friendly.

Along with preparation for a top bar hive workshop this winter I also still have to get around to making my beeswax lip balm. I'm such a procrastinator.

Winter Storage Issues

2010-11-13T14:38:00.004-07:00

My lord it's been a long time since my last post. Things really do slow down for beekeeping with the onset of cooler weather. I hesitate to say winter yet because we here in Edmonton have been fortunate enough to not have any snow!

My bees have been nicely put to bed for winter. Mario had some extra winterization material so he graciously let me use it. Basically the hive is first wrapped in some roofing paper and a piece of 2" thick Styrofoam is placed on top. Then Mario has made some custom sheaths that provide a protective entrance that slips over the top of the hive. Once all of this is placed onto the hive it gets a final wrapping of bungee cord to ensure nothing blows away. Here is what the final winterized hive looks like:

Although there isn't much to do with the hive during winter there is plenty of other things to keep me busy. Some of the issues that beekeepers face during winter is storage of all the extra frames of wax and supers. Because I crushed and strained my frames of honey I'm glad that I don't have any extra wax frames. Large producers have to be concerned with pests that like to use these frames for food or nesting. Wax moths can make quick work of destroying nicely drawn frames. Ants are always a pest and I have even had to ward them off in my garage. I wasn't however prepared for mice. Mice like to make nests in stored supers and also in active hives. If you don't reduce the entrance of the hive mice will take advantage of the warmth generated by the bees. The bees are too concerned with keeping warm to chase the mice out, as the mice get comfortable they will start chewing up all the wax.

While organizing my equipment I found this

I would assume it was either trying to find some place to sleep or was trying to eat the spilt honey. Unfortunately I think it got entombed in the honey and subsequently died there. I will save everyone the tale of removing a soft squishy mouse encased in taffy like honey.....it wasn't pretty. I've since properly stored my equipment to hopefully avoid such death traps.

I'll try to update everyone with any interesting information about beekeeping throughout the winter.

Accidental Winner

2010-10-09T18:32:00.002-06:00

Thanks everyone for your tireless photo scanning abilities as well as your multitude of guesses. So what was the magical winning number? It was 13 and a large number of people came very close to the answer. The one thing that people seemed to forget is that free loading men aren't exactly ones to follow orders. The thirteenth drone was this one stubborn guy who just had to get back into the hive, and he was furiously working on that goal. All you could really see is his very large thorax and abdomen. Here is a picture in which I have placed a red dot on each drone in the picture.

The winning guess was 13 actually done so in a humorous, non-serious manner saying there were 13 as proven by a submitted photo shopped picture but, unbeknownst to them, they were actually right. I'd like to congratulate Goran for his humorous, yet accurate guess. He will receive my last full mason jar of honey. Mmmmm mmmm good.

People are always curious as to how my bees are doing. I did a quick inspection on Thursday when the weather was nice and am happy to report that taking full advantage of my feeders and have filled the entire upper box with capped winter stores. It appears that they should have plenty of stores for winter. With the future forecast looking very good, I believe it will be a while before I actually get around to having to wrap my hive with roofing paper and putting some insulation on top. I also need to decide whether or not to move my hive into city limits.

Last Guessing Day

2010-10-06T22:23:00.002-06:00

Just a shout out to all those looking to win my last jar of free honey. You have one more day to submit your guess. I will close the polls at 8PM MST. Enter in any of the comment sections of the last 3 posts or email me at newbees@telus.net

Hints and Deadline

2010-09-29T12:19:00.002-06:00

OK, so I've already gotten a few guess for my last jar of honey. It appears it's a bit easier for me than for someone who hasn't had any sort of beekeeping experience. So I'll clear the guessing slate because the first few where on the high side and I'll provide a few hints to help people improve their drone hunting. Also when I clicked on the picture to make it larger it wasn't as large as the original file so I'll provide a link to my full size picture. That will allow all you guessers a chance to zoom in and look for the details. Onto the hints!

1) As already stated, drones have large fly like eyes. They cover almost their entire head.

2) Also stated was that drones have very large bums that are squared off. This means they are quite a bit larger than worker bees.

3) One can than assume that because they have bigger bodies, they have bigger wings.

4) Drones make up a small portion of the hive population, around 11%.

5) Because they are being forced out, they aren't allowed near the entrance to the hive.

Hopefully that will be enough to help all you out. Below is the link to the full size picture, remember to make the picture bigger if Windows automatically reduces it to fit in your browser window.

FULL SIZE PICTURE

The deadline for the contest will be Thursday October 8th, make sure to get your guess in before then!

Acclimation

2010-09-28T09:28:00.011-06:00

I'm a bad blogger. Either that or I've become use to being stung, I believe it's the later. I bring this up because I have totally forgotten to update my sting counter to 4. It happened back when my parents were out and we were harvesting my 2 frames of honey. After I had completed everything I was standing around waiting as my Dad discussed beekeeping with Mario, apparently one of my girls had gotten up my pant leg and gave up trying to find a way out. She stung me on my calf much to my surprise, and the irony lies in the fact that I had specifically changed out of my shorts and into pants for harvesting because I thought it would be better. Had I stuck with my shorts I most likely would have been fine.

Yesterday I went out to setup my fall feeder. It's a really simple setup, much like a hamster water bottle. You fill up a 2L jar or ice cream pail, punch a few holes in the lid, then invert it. Eventually the vacuum that forms because of the air pocket will keep the syrup from completely flowing out and the bees can then take it at their leisure. The syrup that drips out during the process also lets the bees know there is a food supply nearby. Around the feeder you put an empty super and seal it off, this prevents bees from other hives from coming and robbing the feeder. In really bad situations, after they are done with the feeder they will start stealing honey stores if the hive is too weak to defend itself.

I'm getting more comfortable with my bees so I'm working without gear.

How the feeder is setup inside.

The third super provides the empty sheltered space for the feeder.

This is also the most satisfying time of year for all the female beekeepers out there. As my readers know, all the worker bees are female and do all the work in the hive. All the drones are male and do absolutely nothing in the hive except go out to mate. If they aren't out flying they're getting fed and groomed by the workers. As winter approaches though winter supplies becomes an issue and having a bunch of freeloaders hanging around doesn't help. There's only one solution, the freeloaders have to go except they don't really want to. This leads to the worker bees literally dragging and attacking drones out of the hive. The front entrance of my hive was full of drones trying to get back inside.

You can handle drones because they don't have a stinger. You can identify drones by their very large, fly like, eyes. They also have a very blocky abdomen with a squared off bum.

Now that you know what a drone looks like it's CONTEST TIME! I have one mason jar of honey left and due to my small harvest I don't have enough for everyone who wants some. So if you want a shot at my last jar you need to tell me how many drones are in the picture below. (The picture below is a full resolution shot, so it may take time to load the larger version when you click on it.) You can submit your guess in the comments below or by emailing newbees@telus.net

Three's A Crowd

2010-09-24T10:01:00.003-06:00

Hello Everyone!

So I've been agonizing over what to do with the third super still on my hive. The problem is that the bees have only really drawn out a few frames and of those frames the honey is only about 50% capped. With the chilly weather starting to move in I really wanted to get it off, so yesterday I went out and took it off. I tried using a method where you take the box off and lay it perpendicular on top of the hive. If you do this after all the scout bees have gone home for the night it won't cause other bees to come steal the honey and nectar in the box. After a few hours of sitting there the bees that are in the box realize that something isn't quite right and will migrate back into the hive. Well when I went back Mario had decided to speed up the process and brushed the bees onto a wooden ramp he had set up leading towards the entrance. I arrived at about 9:30pm it was pretty chilly out and the bees had started to cluster up to keep warm, the only problem was they weren't anywhere near the entrance, so I took a stick and brushed them on top of the entrance. I hope they managed to find their way back in.

This is what it would look like, but without the use of a bee blower. You naturally let them go back in the hive.

When I got home I decided to see if I could scrap off only the capped honey into my straining rig, all of the rest I put into a separate bucket to feed back to the bees later. It seemed to have gone well, but when the honey filtered through by the next morning I was a bit concerned. Apparently I didn't do a good enough job at scraping because this honey was extremely thin. I also think that since Mario had started his fall feeding for the past few days there was a lot of sugar syrup rather than nectar. Rather than distributing thin and artificially sweetened honey I went ahead and added the bee feed to the straining rig as well. Once it's all strained through I will put it in some smaller buckets and take them out to feed back to the bees. (pictures to come)

Harvest Followup

2010-09-21T09:27:00.003-06:00

I had the happy privilege of dropping off my first official jar of honey harvest to the winner of my previous contest. In case you don't recall I promised a jar of honey to the first person who could correctly find the bee in a picture of my hive when it was still in my backyard. The winner was really excited about her prize.

I waited a few more days to let the rest of the honey drip out and more importantly to let any rogue wax bits or other debris float to the top. After it appeared to have settled I went about doing some rough calculations to find out how many jars I would need. Turns out I had about 2 liters of honey. I started about filling my jars up, but once again my homemade valve made this process excruciatingly long. Eventually I managed to fill them all up, after which I'd let them sit a few days and then skim off any debris that made it into the jars and here's what I was ended up with.

Now that I had honey I need to decide what to do with it and sticking with my original plan I decided to make some Baklava, one of my favorite desserts. I stuck with the recipe of my favorite TV chef Alton Brown. It wasn't as hard or labour intensive as I thought it would be, however in future I might boil the syrup less to give it a slightly more liquid consistency. After a night of baking, I let it sit for a night to let all the syrup soak in. The next morning I had a piece, and in all honesty, I wasn't really impressed. However, it seems to get better with age as later in the week I was addicted and would recommend the recipe to anyone else who's a Baklava fan.

As for the bees I'm sure they've had a tough week, the weather has been really crappy of late. The nights have been dropping below zero and the daily highs have been single digits. The forecast for this week is looking better, double digit highs, so I plan to start getting all my winter prep done. This includes moving the hive to the acreage within city limits. I'll be sure to post about the move as soon as possible.

Crush and Strain

2010-09-14T09:25:00.004-06:00

The weather finally decided to cooperate on Saturday which allowed me to head out the bee yard to harvest some of my honey. My parents were in town from Calgary so they joined me. When we got out to the acreage Mario was already suited up doing his own harvesting. Working as quickly as I could I picked out the best looking frames to harvest, and I was only able to harvest 2 frames. When taking frames for harvest you want to look for ones that are at least 80% capped, any less and the percentage of water in your honey will go up. Honey is around 18% water, but if you harvest too much uncapped honey that hasn't been concentrated it will raise the water content which can cause the honey to ferment.

Once home we started the process of getting our honey out. Being that extractors are expensive and I don't know anyone nearby that I could borrow one from, I have to use the crush and strain method. I felt bad doing this because it destroys the drawn comb, next year I will have to find/buy an extractor to avoid this. I started by using a plastic window scraper to get all the comb into the top bucket. This bucket had a bunch of holes drilled into it to allow the liquid honey to flow into the bucket below. Once both frames were scraped I finished crushing the honey with a angle scraper on a pole. I then added a few layers of cheese cloth between the buckets to catch any wax that may slip through the holes. After that it was time to play the waiting game.

Two days later the honey had all drained into the lower bucket. On this bucket I added a PVC spout I made from some stuff I picked up from the Home Depot. Normally you would add a honey gate onto the bucket, but the ones at the local bee store were $25. I built mine for $4.50, however I would soon learn there is a reason why you use a honey gate. Thinking that I would have more honey to harvest I picked up some 500ml canning jars, with only 2 frames worth of honey I would only fill 2-3 jars. All of my friends are quite excited about my honey so I need to go pick up some 250ml jars so I can spread the wealth. I did happen to have 1 jar in the cupboard so I cleaned it out and started to fill it up, which took a reaaaaaally long time. You see the cheaper alternative valve I put on my bucket was only 1/2" wide which didn't allow a large flow, the honey gates you get from the bee stores are 2" wide making them quicker and cleaner. Lesson learned.

My honey looked beautiful. It is very light in colour and has a very mellow taste. I'm not an expert in honey but I imagine it's mostly Alfalfa and clover. Now I just need to get started on making some Baklava.

To bee, or not to bee:

2010-09-10T10:23:00.002-06:00

That is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The stings and arrows of honey fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?

So after I said I would harvest some honey this week the weather decided it was going to be miserable. This puts me in a dilemma, do I got ahead regardless of weather or wait for a nice sunny day.

On one hand, I'd really like to have some honey for my party. I planned on using it to make some baklava and honey mustard sauce, I could also have some small jars to give friends. However, when I started beekeeping I did so with the mind set that I would be different than commercial beekeepers. Because for commercial beekeeping it's all about making money and they treat their bees like garbage, harvesting regardless of weather. Sure they "care" about them because without them they wouldn't make money, but they don't respect them. No matter how innocent I think popping the top of the hive in cold rainy weather only for a few minutes to grab a frame or two it isn't good for the bees, or at least I don't think it's good for the bees. It also makes things more complicated because during bad weather the foraging bees aren't out in the fields so that means a lot more bees inside the hive.

It is the exact thing I'm trying to avoid; taking advantage of my bees. This sort of practice has to stop if we don't want our bees to die off, but it's up the individual beekeeper and I have chosen to side with my bees. I'm not by any means granola or hippy, but like any family pet I just want the best for my bees.

That said, I'll wait for the weather to change so I can go harvest some honey. I hope my party guests will understand.

And now for something completely different...

2010-09-08T12:38:00.009-06:00

In the famous words of John Cleese I am straying from the path of beekeeping to focus on something completely different. What's so important to put beekeeping on the back burner you say? Food, glorious food.

You see, in complete honesty, if I was a woman I would want to have Alton Brown's baby or at the absolute minimum be married to him. For those who don't know who Alton Brown is, he is a Food Network chef who's television series "Good Eats" watches more like a Bill Nye: The Science Guy episode than a cooking show. On one hand he is a great cook and on the other a nerdy science geek, the combination of these two traits leads to a cooking show that explains why we do the things we do when cooking. As a slightly mad genius he is always coming up with basic, and cheap, alternatives that still adhere with what chemically needs to happening in cooking. This weekend I will be testing out one of his creations: the ceramic smoker.

BBQ, true BBQ unlike grilling that most people incorrectly think of as BBQ, is the low and slow cooking of tough meat with smoke to make it finger licking good. You can go out and purchase a smoker at a store for a few hundred dollars or you can follow these simple steps to create your own for under $100. According to my idol this cheaper alternative will do exactly the same job as one of those fancy $500 smokers. I have to decided to take up the challenge and will be the judge of this. In fairness everything else I've done under his tutelage has been true, so don't bet against me.

The Materials:

2 16" Terracotta flower pots - $45
3 Terracotta feet - $5
1 Hot Plate - $20
1 Heavy stainless steel pie plate -$4
1 14" Cooking grate - $14
1 Grilling/Candy Thermometer - $5

The premise is quite simple. Using two flower pots you create a thermally stable chamber which within you place your hot plate, the circular cooking grate rests above on it's own weight. Placing the wood chips in the pie plate creates the smoke as well as provides heat. The drainage holes in the flower pots provide a place to run the hot plate power cord at the bottom and to place to rest a thermometer on top.

Obtaining the materials was super easy, any large garden center (i.e. Home Depot/Rona) will have large terracotta pots. The largest at Home Depot was 20" however it was double the price of the 16", so in keeping with the cheap theme I got the 16" instead. The 14" cooking grate I got from my local BBQ store, it is a replacement grate for the 14" Weber Smokey Joe. The rest of the materials were purchased at Wal-Mart, does everyone else feel as guilty as I do purchasing all my cheap goods there?

Construction should also be as easy, however I managed to purchase a hot plate that was too big to fit in the bottom of my pot. It required a little McGyvering but I managed to take it all apart and get it threaded through the drainage hole to work, here's hoping I never have to BBQ in the rain. Once the hot plate was in it was just a matter of putting the pie plate on top, then the grate, then inverting the second flower pot.

Even after removing excess junk, the hot plate is still a tight fit.

I rigged the thermostat in a tuna can to keep it from causing any shorting issues.

Voila! A cheap smoker. I will let everyone know how it works, but I imagine I will be having all sorts of fun with it in the future; ribs, brisket, tenderloin, fish...the options are limitless.

HONEY!

2010-09-06T17:35:00.004-06:00

Today Mother Nature once again spat in the face of the local weather forecaster. The predicted cloudy with rain forecast gave way to a beautiful sunny day and I have been itching to get out to check on the bees. There have been a few days in the past week with single digit lows so I've been curious as to how the bees have been doing.

We arrived at the bee yard at around 2pm with a temperature of around 18°C. The bee hive was as I have never seen it before, I wish I would have remembered to bring my camera. I'm not sure if it's because today was the nicest day it has been in a few days but there was tonnes of activity and a whole group of bees hanging out around the front entrance. Normally bees "beard" because of high temperatures during extremely hot days or because of space issues. I wouldn't really call today bearding, but it was pretty close. This is what a true beard looks like.

I wasn't quite expecting this amount of activity and all I was planning on doing was quickly adding an entrance reducer and taking a quick look up top. That was why I decided to wear shorts today, but I haven't had any issues in past and my bees really are very nice to work with so I decided to go ahead and do my thing.

Based on the amount of bees coming and going I decided not to add the entrance reducer, so I lit up the smoker and popped off the top. About 4 of the 10 frames on top were more than 90% capped honey, with 4 others being worked on and 2 completely untouched. I decided to rearrange the untouched frames into the middle of the box hoping the bees will start working on them and surrounded them by fully capped frames for further encouragement. Once that was done, I quickly took a look a the middle frame in the box below and saw numerous amounts of fresh eggs in a nice laying pattern so I know the queen is still doing her thing, and doing it well.

After a quick talk with Mario about what to expect for honey production and fall prep, I was pleased to find out that I should be able to harvest some of the frames that are fully capped. While 4 frames doesn't seem like much they are about 5-7lbs of honey each, so I should be getting around 20lbs of honey. I wasn't exactly prepared to harvest honey , so I need to start collecting materials. Initially I planned on doing it next week but we have a large deck party coming up this Saturday so I just might get some honey for some Baklava and maybe even a honey based BBQ sauce for the 12 hour smoked pulled pork I'm cooking up. Yummy! I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of my honey extraction process.

Essentially Screwed

2010-09-04T22:13:00.002-06:00

It appears from the reader comments that making some chap stick from my newly rendered beeswax is a popular choice. I figured it would be a good thing to learn how to do because it would be one more thing I could sell at a farmer's market stand along with my honey.

I set out to find the ingredients required, some are pretty easy to find yet others seemed a bit more difficult. I have been looking around for some essential oils for the past few weeks. The only catch is that I want to use some of them for organic treatment of my bees, so they have to be pure/food grade/pharmaceutical grade. I did a brief search on the Internet but eventually decided to go with LorAnn Oils that Craig, the Southern Maryland Beekeeper, recommended on his site. Their prices seemed really reasonable, even after I factored in shipping...however I forgot to factor in UPS.

The day after I phoned my order in I received a call back from UPS, they wanted to clarify my COD charges. That's right, I foolishly forgot about UPS's infamous "brokerage" fees or to be completely frank their "you already paid for shipping, but we want more money out of you" fees. I've always disliked UPS and during that awesome period of time when the Canadian dollar was worth more than the American green back I did a lot of online shopping. If you can ship through United States Postal Service no matter what, that way you only pay the duty and tax. However, if you do have to ship through FedEx or UPS I just learnt something very useful.

I'm my pure hatred of UPS I started googling brokerage fees and came across a forum that was discussing this. One of the posters really seemed to know his stuff and posted that most of what UPS tells it's customers is a lie. Basically UPS will tell you that only they can declare your package and pay for the duties and taxes and that this must be done at the port of entry your package comes through, it's this process that requires them to charge you a fee for acting on your behalf. Interestingly enough though the Courier Low Value Shipping program allows anyone to do this. This is all laid out in the Canadian Border Services Agency's document D-17-4-0. Anyone can declare the contents of their package and pay for the duties/taxes at any customs office. So next time if that thing you have to have can only be shipped via UPS or FedEx, feel free to contact me and I'll fill you in on the details or from what I hear if you phone up and yell at the person on the other end of the phone they will most often give you a "one time" exception.

It's too late for myself as I gave them my credit card information when they called before I found out about this. All the stuff I need is on it's way so I need people to vote on what oil I should use for my first batch. You have the choices of the following, vote below in the comments; Lemongrass, Spearmint, Lemon, Eucalyptus.

Liquid Gold

2010-08-25T22:14:00.005-06:00

Success!

Being that I have this week off I am running out of things to do, besides the finishing touches on my deck. I did a little bit of work on it today, honest! I decided to finish processing my beeswax. Yesterday I had gotten it into a semi refined state, but it still had a large portion of debris in it though. Today I would use my wife's beat up old panty hose to finish the job.

I started by taking my wax disc and putting in in a pot with a large portion of water. I brought the mixture to a boil and as it was coming to a boil I set up my filtering apparatus. It was very fancy.

As soon as the wax started to boil I began to pour it through the filter. As the first bit of liquid hit my trampoline tight panty hose it decided to take a flying bum drop leap onto the kitchen floor, oddly enough it was at this exact moment that I remembered a quote from the website in which I took this filtering method from. "I do this outside. Wax is also a bear to get off of your kitchen floor and it's not something you can easily hide from your husband/wife."

No real harm done, just 10 minutes of scraping wax off the floor with a old plastic gift card. As an added bonus that section of the floor is now nicely smooth and waxed. I removed the panty hose containing what is known as "slumgum" and tossed it into the garbage, although I hear if you spread it out on some newspaper and let it dry it makes a great fire starting material.

Below lay a cloudy miso soup type liquid that I placed in the garage to harden.

A few hours later I retrieved it and was astounded by the purity, liquid gold indeed. Now I'm not entirely sure what decides how dark wax will be, if it's related to the species of bee or the age of the wax but my disc is a brilliant yellow.

I haven't decided what I'm going to do with this wax yet, it seems almost a shame to use it on my wooden frames because of the effort I went through to filter it. I have found a lip balm recipe though, so I may give that a try.

Close but no cigar

2010-08-24T22:14:00.005-06:00

Yesterday you read about my attempted exploit into refining wax. I left the pot out in the garage to cool overnight and when I went this morning this is what I found.

It was a nice solid disc of wax but there seemed to be some debris causing discoloured veins. After I removed it from the pot it was apparent there was still a lot of debris on the bottom.

I have scrapped this off into the garbage but there are still a few large objects embedded in the wax. I have purchased a second pot from Goodwill so I will melt it down and strain it. I'll post pictures of that when I get around to it.

My troubles with wax

2010-08-23T20:38:00.004-06:00

Greetings once again readers. Forgive me for the long period since the last post, I have been busy building our new deck after my weeks of backyard preparation.

The weather for the past few weeks has been pretty lousy and the forecast for the upcoming weeks isn't looking to great either. It seems that fall is finally upon us, barring any freak heat waves. I did do a quick check-in on the bees last week to see how they were managing. I'm happy to say they've started working on filling the 3rd box with honey but I don't think there will be enough nectar to finish the job. There aren't any major flowering crops at this time so they'll only be foraging on what little blooming plants they can find. I'll have to start feeding them so they can build up enough stores for winter. The forecast is looking good for tomorrow so I'll be heading out to do a full inspection to make sure they are free of disease and pests. The last thing you need is a hive weakened by those issues going into winter.

Today I decided to try and get my two buckets of burr comb refined down into some liquid gold. I'm not sure how much I'll get, but I need to free my buckets up so I can use them to collect more burr comb in the future. Having talked to my instructor from the beekeeping course on various ways in how to go about melting the wax, I started off by getting all the comb into my pot in a double boiler setup.

This appeared to be going well, but there wasn't enough heat to completely melt all the wax, it was hardening up on the last piece of comb I put in the pot forming a wax ice burg. All other sources I've read said you need to get a water and wax mixture boiling so I threw out the double boiler idea and put the pot directly on the stove and added some of the boiling water.

As soon as it began boiling I realized that I had an issue. I don't have any other metal vessels into which I can strain the large debris out of the wax, oh sure, I could have used one of our nice cooking pots but not if I wanted to sleep in a cozy bed tonight.

I've decided I'll just put the mixture out in my garage for the night to see how well it separates and hardens on it's own. I may have to melt it down again to strain it but I don't have any plans on using it for candles or beauty products so if it's not 100% clean it's not a big deal. I'll post a picture tomorrow of how well the separation went. In the mean time I'm off to the Good Will store to see if I can get some cheap metal vessels.

Everyone Needs Their Own Space

2010-08-11T14:49:00.004-06:00

So there was a very cool observation during my last inspection and a great learning experience. As I was inspecting the middle box I noticed that a foundationless frame I had pulled out was not completely drawn out. It looked a little something like this, forgive me for my lack of MS Paint skills.

My first thought was that it was normal, the bees just hadn't gotten around to drawing the comb all the way down to fill out the entire frame. However, while I was sliding it back into the box I noticed a very large piece of burr comb on the frame behind. It appeared to be drawn onto the outer frame and I was frustrated because I thought I had fixed this problem by adding a 10th frame. Upon closer inspection thought it was actually drawn upwards from the top of the frame below, and the outer frame was just fine. After some cursing I realized I would have to remove the middle box in order to cut this comb out. It was either that or somehow reach my hand down in between frames. I wasn't planning on getting that far down into the hive, but it had to be done. So why did they create this comb?

I am quickly learning about the importance of "bee space". This is what Lorenzo Langstroth discovered in 1852, the space in which two bees can move past each other back to back, 1cm. This is the space between two drawn frames of comb, any more space results in burr comb as the bees try to ensure this bee space. The problem of foundationless frames is that they don't really offer any sort of guide for the bees leaving them to their own devices, resulting in some very unexpected architecture. Because I had failed to properly line up the frames from box to box, the bees fixed the bee space on their own. There are actually frame spacers you can buy that will ensure the frames between boxes line up vertically and I am starting to wonder if I should have invested in some of these.

As you can see, the foundationless frame allowed open space for the bees to build comb both up from the frame below and down from the paint stick guide on the upper frame. Because these didn't actually line up at the point in which they would have joined it caused both to stop. The top frame looks incomplete because the large shark fin shape comb filled the rest of the space below.

All in all a new lesson learned and something to keep in mind when I add new boxes, maybe I will even purchase a few frame spacers to add next season.

Busy as a...well, you know

2010-08-09T20:28:00.007-06:00

Man have I been a busy boy for the past week or so. I've been trying to get our backyard ready for some deck construction this upcoming weekend so I haven't had much free time to blog.

A few days ago I headed out to the hive to do a quick inspection to see if the frame feeder was empty and to check on the progress of the 3rd super I added. The feeder was bone dry so I removed it, however the bees hadn't made any progress on drawing comb on any of the frames. Being that I wasn't doing a real inspection I figured I'd save deeper analysis for later.

Today was a gorgeous day, hot and sunny without a trace of wind. I packed up all my gear and headed out to see how the bees were doing. Activity around the hive was looking good, I always take time each visit to watch the bees behaviour coming and going from the hive. A lot of beekeepers will tell you that you can always tell if there are any issues in the hive by what is going on at the front entrance. My girls looked just fine, in fact they're working hard to keep the house cool. Bees regulate the temperature in the hive all by themselves. If it's too cold they will huddle together and vibrate their flight muscles to generate heat and if it's too hot they will use their wings to force air through the hive. Here you can see the bees lined up in a row fanning their little wings to keep the air flowing, it was the same up at the top entrance with the exception that the bees were facing the other way. Blow air in one entrance, suck it out the other. Smart creatures indeed.

Fanning air out of the bottom entrance.

Fanning air into the top entrance.

The bees had started drawing comb on the new frames, there were even a flew places where the honey was capped. Once the bees have gathered enough nectar they will use their wings to fan the nectar so that it loses moisture and when it finally reaches the proper viscosity they will cover the cell with wax. When I moved into the box below I was extremely happy to see that the outer most frame was completely capped with honey, there was a small patch of pollen at the bottom but mostly honey. Bees always build their nests in a ball shaped pattern, the core of the ball is where they raise brood and as you move towards the edge they store pollen and then finally honey. The outer most frames are usually solid honey. This layer of honey also serves as insulation in order to keep the brood nest at the correct temperature to raise young.

Outer frame fully honey, and a small bit of pollen at the bottom.

As I moved towards the center of the box I found solid capped brood that was topped by capped honey. In the picture below you can get a sense of how the ball shape forms. The top of the frame is covered in capped honey, and as you move down you see the different shades of yellow pollen, finally the capped brood goes to the very bottom. If you imagine this as the upper cross section, the capped brood would continue on the frame below in the lowest box. The laying pattern of this queen isn't stellar as there are a few missed cells with no capped brood. Overall not a great concern because a higher percentage of the cells did have eggs laid in them.

A visual cross section of the "brood ball".

I was very tempted to take one of the outer frames of honey to come home with, but I decided against it. The bees are doing a fine job and I imagine they will probably be able to fill up the top box with honey by the end of August. I was speaking with Mario and his neighbour to the south has an Alfalfa field. Alfalfa has two blooming periods because it grows so well and gets cut down after the first bloom. Turns out the second bloom will be starting within the week. With any luck my bees will be working their little hearts out to gather some stores for winter and maybe, just maybe, some excess I can keep for myself. I really don't want to steal everything because I think it's best for bees to eat honey over winter as apposed to sugar water feed. As I read on the bee forums, "Until you have a colony of bees survive it's first winter you are a bee haver, not a beekeeper." Here's hoping.

The Lazy Man's Hobby

2010-08-03T12:35:00.003-06:00

Beekeeping has often been quoted as "The Lazy Man's Hobby" and it's really quite true. If you only have a few hives and you take a minimalistic/organic approach there really isn't a whole lot for you to do. You simply check the hive every 10 days or so to make sure the bees aren't having any issues with disease or space constraints. There is much more work to be done during fall and spring than winter and summer, but most of the time you are just leaving the bees alone. This leaves a lot of downtime that needs to be filled.

I've spend my time reading the bee source forums, a great resource to all things beekeeping. Any question you may have will quickly be answered by beekeepers all over the country and there are countless threads in which you can just read to learn more about bees. I've added the link on my side bar if you wanted to check it out!

I've also been thinking about what I can do to promote urban beekeeping here in Edmonton. I haven't really heard much from the city developers my counsellor got me in touch with other than "we're looking into it." While my original train of thought was to try to get beekeeping legalized, which will eventually happen judging from other cities around the world, I have thought of a great plan to get bees into the city that avoids the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard). I would call it "Buzzing With Business" and it would be a program that would allow local business with accessible flat rooftops to have a hive. My main issue is that I would still need to get the city on board to provide permissions because quite frankly it would be hard to get businesses on board if it was illegal for them. If enough business signed up it would allow for training of people who wanted to learn about beekeeping as I wouldn't be able to manage all the hives. The best part is the hives would be out of site and out of site = out of mind. After a couple of years pass without incident it would provide valuable evidence to the city for legalizing beekeeping.

As for my other projects I'm still really keen on getting some Newbee TV episodes filmed and edited. I would love some input from my readers though! I need episode ideas and as it will be focused towards new beekeepers/people who want to become beekeepers, what sort of things would you like me to cover? Post below in the comments!

I will be heading out to the hive tomorrow if the weather is nice, I'll post up with some pictures so everyone can know how my bees are doing!

Summer Lovin'

2010-07-27T13:11:00.006-06:00

Wow! What great weather we have been having for the past week or so. Granted there was some pretty hefty rain that came and went, but as of late it's been sunny or sunny with cloudy periods. I can honesty say I was a bit worried because I feed my bees with the notion that it would be lousy out, not sunny, so I didn't know what to expect when on this inspection. Would they have ignored my feed with such great weather allowing for nectar collection?

I'm a little ahead of my proposed inspection schedule, but with today being such a glorious day with the hot sun and lack of wind I just had to go out. With all this great bee weather I decided to pack up an extra super along with 10 Mann Lake frames just in case the bees happened to doing extremely well. When I arrived at the hive things were definitely looking good, my hopes and expectations immediately rose as this is what I saw.

The entrance was busier than I have ever seen it before. Lots of bees guarding the entrance and even more coming and going. I quickly suited up and got my smoker going. I was going to try working without a veil today, but I'm still a bit nervous about that prospect and I think my nerves were strained when I saw all the activity at the front. I did work again without gloves though, that sting last week hasn't deterred me and my finger is back to normal size. Most people are very concerned with the swelling of a bee sting even though it is the bodies normal reaction to the foreign proteins. Everyone is technically allergic, however a small population is extremely allergic where the reaction spreads beyond the local area. Given a few days the swelling will go down and all is well.

I popped the top off and was happy to see the bees were "all up on" my frame feeder, I guess they had no issues with the help I was offering. The feeder was only about half empty so judging from what I have read on some bee forums they aren't using it at a crazy rate, I was expecting it to be empty after a week.

I removed the feeder and instantly had a problem...I didn't have anywhere to put it. I couldn't prop it up against the hive like I do with my other frames because the syrup would run all over the place. I reluctantly placed it on the ground and in the process squished a whole lot of bees. Not to sound like a bleeding heart because a lot of bees do die during an inspection, however I can't help but feel guilty for the ones that I could have prevented with better planning. Feel free to avert your eyes from the carnage below.

(I apologize for the lack of focus, but those fuzzy blobs are dead bees)

After a quick prayer for the deceased I started inspecting the frames on the top super. Every single one of them was drawn out! It's incredible, my bees are doing fantastic. A closer look using the sun behind my back showed hundreds, more like thousands, of eggs in the newly drawn comb on multiple frames, this is going to be one strong hive once they all hatch into bees in about 3 weeks. I am delighted that I decided to bring my 3rd deep super because this hive was ready for it. I scraped some of the burr comb off the top of the frames to make room for the lid and to my delight some of that burr comb happened to be capped honey, I set that aside for later. I added my 3rd super and voila! Inspection done. Isn't it a wonderful sight!

Oh, as for that burr honey I collected, I ate it when I got home(wax and all). So delicious! Literally, to get any fresher the bees would have to deposit the nectar in your mouth, fan it and cap it. I am really hoping my hive is strong enough to produce enough honey stores for winter so that I can take just a bit for myself.

Feeding the Bees

2010-07-20T12:38:00.007-06:00

I apologize for any crazy typos during this post. I was working gloveless today and happened to make the mistake of pinning a bee against the frame, now my right pointer finger is about twice it's normal size. I was in the process of trying to flip a frame around so my wife could take a picture of some odd looking comb. The worse part was that I was holding the frame and didn't have enough hands to remove the stinger meaning more and more venom was still being pumped in. I put the frame back in and used my hive tool to scrape it off, but enough about my stupidity, on with the post.

Lately I've been a bit concerned with how my bees are progressing. They appear to be building their numbers sufficiently, but they aren't really drawing out new comb. The 4 middle frames in each super are fully drawn out with nice brood patterns, but keep in mind 5 of those came with the nuc already drawn out. However, the other frames they aren't really taking too. They have drawn some nice beautiful comb on a few of the foundationless frames, but this was after I moved them into the middle of the brood frames. I think that will be the key to getting all the frames drawn out will be to slowly start rotating empty frames into the middle of the brood chamber so they draw them out, I can't do this too quickly though because you don't want to separate the brood by more than 1 empty frame. Some beekeepers are using 8 frame boxes because they find the bees really don't like drawing comb on the outer frames of a 10 frame box, however it's too late for that because I've already purchased all 10 frame supers.

In an attempt to help the bees along I have decided to mix up some 1:1 inverted sugar solution to feed the bees. The last week or so has been really mixed weather, but mostly rain. When it's raining outside the bees won't fly, so they need to rely on stored nectar during that period. Adding my frame feeder of syrup will help them cope during raining days so they aren't using up all the stores they've been previously saving up. Feeding bees also helps them draw out comb faster because the extra resources allow them to focus on other things than just feeding brood.

I made up my batch of feed using 5 pints of water with 5 pounds of sugar. I brought the water to a boil and then slowly added the sugar. Once dissolved I brought the solution back to a boil, added 3 tablespoons of vinegar and then boiled it for 20 minutes before letting it cool. The boiling process and added vinegar help break down the sugar into fructose and glucose, the idea being that it's easier for the bees to digest. While bees naturally have an enzyme that breaks sugar into fructose and glucose, it's thought that this allows them to use more syrup in a shorter time. There are many differing opinions on feeding bees, and I decided to give this a try first. In future I may just dissolve sugar in hot tap water to save both time and energy. I will need to purchase a food scale though because trying to weigh out 5 pounds of sugar while holding a pot on our bathroom scale was too time consuming. I didn't really document this process, but I will need to make up another batch for when I go out for the next inspection. I'll make sure to take some pictures then.

Once I got the solution made up it was just a matter of transferring it into the frame feeder and installing it into the hive. Unfortunately our camera battery died during the hive manipulation so I only have pictures of me filling the frame. When I go out to check on the hive in 2 weeks I'll get some picture of what it looks like installed.

Filling the feeder frame with 1:1 Syrup.

The feeder frame is hollow. It takes a spot of a normal frame in a super. The white plastic mesh helps the bees get to the syrup without drowning.

My wife took this thinking the white corner was the weird comb, however this is what a good frame should look like. All the white area is capped honey and the middle of the frame is where the brood is raised.

Honey Bees

2010-07-19T12:34:00.006-06:00

Most people aren't able to recognize a honey bee when they see one. They are wrongly associated with both bumblebees and wasps. Honey bees are much smaller and have a body more like that of a large fly. The reason why people aren't familiar with honey bees is because they are not scavengers like wasps so unless you are an avid gardener with lots of pollinator friendly flowers, you will not commonly see them around your patio.

Name: Honey Bee - Apis Mellifera
Size: 1.0 - 1.5cm
Colour: Pastel Yellow, Brown, Black
Nesting Sites: tree hollows, large man made hollows
Nesting Material: Wax Comb
Colony Size: 10,000-80,000
Food: Pollen, Nectar
Stinger: Barbed, can only sting once

Unlike wasps and bumblebees, a honey bee colony will survive through winter by forming a very tight cluster and vibrating for warmth. The population will gradually decline through winter, but when spring arrives and the weather improves the colony will immediately begin foraging and starting to raise brood. Once there is sufficient nectar and pollen available the queen will start laying more eggs, a productive queen can lay anywhere from 1200-2000 eggs a day. These eggs take around three weeks to become new nurse bees. Once a nurse bee hatches she immediately gets to work feeding young larva and eventually she will graduate into a guard bee protecting the hive entrance. She will then start taking orientation flights and will soon become a forager until she dies. Honey bees work very hard during their life and will only survive 6 weeks, they are literally worked to death. During the summer the colony will work hard to produce enough stores to survive the winter. Depending on the climate a colony will need anywhere from 30lbs to 60lbs of honey to survive, they use this honey as energy to generate heat by vibrating their flight muscles. A honey bee queen can survive many winters, living up to 5 years, but eventually she will start running out of sperm to fertilize eggs. Since all workers are female that hatch from fertilized eggs, they will sense the old queen is failing and start making a new queen. Unfertilized eggs hatch into male drones that do no hive work while draining hive resources and only exist to mate. While the life of a drone may seem glamorous, they die in the mating process and any drones left in the hive before winter will be forced from the hive by the workers to freeze/starve to death.

Honey bee colonies reproduce in what is known as a swarm. Most people hear swarm and they immediately think of an angry mass of attacking bees and this could be the furthest from the truth. There are many reasons that hive can swarm, but the most common is that the hive population has grown to large for the space it is in. The bees will recognize this and start making a new queen. When she hatches she will take over the duties of the old queen who will leave with a large portion of the bees to find a new nest location. While at first glance a swarm can be unnerving with thousands of bees flying around and forming a large hanging cluster, they are actually very docile. Because honey bees die when they sting they are very reluctant to do so. They will only ever sting to defend their brood or if their own person life is in danger. Since a swarm has no hive to defend they are not in the mind set to sting, also because they have stuffed their bellies full of honey for the journey it makes it very difficult for them to physically bend their bodies to sting.

There are many species of honey bees with different positive and negative beekeeping traits. They all slightly differ in colour and the most common are seen below:

Carniolan, Apis Mellifera Carnica

Italian, Apis Mellifera Ligustica

Caucasian, Apis Mellifera Caucasa

German Black, Apis Mellifera Mellifera

Maybe the most infamous of honey bee species is Apis Mellifera Scutellata or as the media have dubbed it the "Killer honey bee". The africanized honey bee does not differ in any way from the regular European honey bee, but it does defend it's hive in a more vigorous manner. They are very territorial and will chase any intruders to their territorial boundary. While being labelled as killers these bees are still manageable and are kept by beekeepers in southern climates. Originating from a warmer climate in South America, africanized bees have migrated as far north as Southern California but cannot survive the cooler winters of northern states.

BumbleBees

2010-07-16T10:24:00.008-06:00

The cute and fuzzy teddy bear of the skies, the bumblebee, is probably the most recognized bee species in Canada. Around 45 species are native to Canada so all varieties of size and colour can be seen. I will cover the basics of what most people would recognize.

Name: Bumblebee - Genus Bombus, with too many species to list
Size: 1.3 - 2.5cm
Colour: Yellow, Black, White, Orange, Red
Nesting Sites: Old mammal burrows, tree hollows, man made hollows.
Nesting Material: Wax
Colony Size: 100-300
Food: Nectar, pollen
Stinger: Smooth, can sting multiple times.

A bumblebee queen will hibernate through winter in a protective spot that she previously found in fall. Come spring she will go about finding a suitable location to start her hive. The queen lays about six eggs at a time. When the eggs hatch, she seals the larvae in cells with bits of food from a ball of combined pollen and wax that she creates. When the larvae eventually pupate, the queen spins a cocoon for the pupa. After a few days the pupa emerge as fully grown worker bees, ready to work to support the colony and their queen. The queen continues to lay eggs, delegating the work of collecting nectar to the worker bees. Near the end of spring and into summer, the queen spends much more time in the hive than she does collecting nectar. By summer, the queen and worker bees have built the hive to a desired capacity. The queen then lays eggs that are intended to become next year’s queens and drone bees. Once hatched, the drones leave the nest and live solitary lives with their only purpose being to mate with the young queens. Unlike honey bees, the young bumble bee queens continue to live and work in the colony for the rest of the summer and fall. Once the first frosts begin, the newly mated bumble bee queen locates a safe location for hibernation. The cycle then repeats itself, like Wasps individual hives only last one season.

Bumblebees are pure pollinators and feed strictly off of nectar and pollen provided by blooming flowers. Usually the workers will not travel further than 5km during foraging, but distances up to 20km have been recorded. They can visit 10 to 18 flowers in a minute but are not big honey producers. They create and store just enough honey to allow the colony to survive through times of food shortage. Bumblebees are actually more efficient pollinators than honey bees and are also commercially used by green houses. While Honey bees pollinate indirectly in the process of obtaining nectar from the flower, they will land close by and then walk into obtain the nectar, bumblebees "belly flop" directly onto the surface of the flower allowing for more pollen to be transferred.

Much like honey bees, bumble bees are non-aggressive when out foraging away from their hive. They will sting if trapped and this is why most stings occur. Bumblebees will defend their hive and young, as would any good mother, and their smooth stinger allows them to sting multiple times.

My friend contacted me a few days ago telling me about how his wife was stung by a bee. The discussion went back and forth as I tried to clarify what type of bee it was, but decided it was best to go out and have a look. Turns out they had a bumblebee nest that had formed in a bird house near their back door. I would have loved to have transferred it to my own backyard but unfortunately he didn't know I was into bees until after he had killed the hive. In the picture above you can see the egg shaped nest structure along with a few dead workers and a queen.

Wasps

2010-07-13T10:48:00.009-06:00

If you have been stung in the past few years the odds are you were stung by a wasp. Largely considered "pests", there are many different species of wasps but the most commonly known is the yellow jacket. This post will cover identification and life cycle information.

Name: Common Wasp - Vesupla vulgaris
Size: 1.2 - 1.7cm
Colour: Yellow and Black
Nesting Sites: Old mammal burrows, tree hollows, man made hollows.
Nesting Material: Chewed wood fibers, often grey in colour
Colony Size: 5,000-10,000
Food: Insects, nectar, fruit
Stinger: Smooth, 15 stings per minute

Much like Bumblebees, the yellow jacket queen will hibernate through winter in a protective spot that she previously found in fall. Come spring she will go about starting a small nest, laying eggs, and feeding her first brood. She does this alone and it is not uncommon for early nests to fail, however once the first workers hatch, in 28-34 days, she then focuses her efforts on laying eggs and the colony soon becomes strong. In fall new queens and male drones will start hatching. The queens will stay in the nest to build up fat stores for winter and the males will stay as long as they are allowed to. The males will at some point be forced out of the nest and will then forage for themselves until they find a queen to mate with. Before winter the new queens will leave the nest and find a spot to hibernate, the colony will die off when the weather becomes cold. Normally a nest will only last 1 season, but in warmer climates they have been known to survive and grow into large nests with multiple queens laying. Old nests are not reused by new queens.

Yellow jackets are primarily seen as pests because of their feeding habits. Most BBQs and picnics offer an excellent source of food as they will gladly help themselves to meat and sweet syrups. This is where a majority of stinging incidents happen. Wasps do not usually stray further than 1000 meters from their nesting sites.

While not always aggressive, if trapped or pinched a yellow jacket will sting usually because they have landed on a human food source unnoticed. Wasps will also defend their nests vigorously and with their ability to sting multiple times can cause serious injury. Wasps will secrete a defense pheromone as well as beat their wings in a different frequency to alert the nest causing a massed defense.

Also common in Canada is the bald-faced hornet, Dolichovespula maculata. While not technically a hornet, hornets are usually defined by their hanging nests, they are wasps and can be easily identified by their white and black colouring. They build their paper nests hanging in trees or on sheltered structures and have a life cycle like that of the yellow jacket.

Inspection #3

2010-07-11T15:44:00.004-06:00

Ten days have seemingly flown by. I can't believe it will have been a month since I picked up my bees in a few days. Just goes to show that there's not really a whole lot of work when it comes to keeping bees, definitely a whole lot of opinions though.

This morning I headed out to the hive site and met up with Alexis, she was also another classmate from Patty's course. She wanted to see the hive and help out. The weather wasn't the greatest to do an inspection, it was sunny out and there was quite the wind. However, the next few days are suppose to be really rainy so I need to get it out of the way. I had a few things on my agenda to do. First was to see how the bees were doing with the second super, second was to scrap off the burr comb on the white Mann Lake foundation that the bees had formed into sort of a flattened mushroom shape, and lastly I was going to do it all gloveless.

Upon opening the hive I see that the bees hadn't really done much with all the foundationless frames I added up top. I had arranged the frames up top as such. 111232111. 1's being foundationless, 2's being black Mann Lake, and 3 being a fully drawn brood comb I moved up when I added the second super. The frame I had pulled up looked really good with nice brood and pollen/honey stores, we even got to see the queen and I pointed her out to Alexis. One of the Mann Lake frames looked really good, the bees had drawn it out properly and there was only a small patch of chalkbrood but not bad enough to be concerned about. I am starting wondering if I might have added the second super too soon. The other Mann Lake frame was a disaster, the bees had drawn it out much like the other frame I needed to scrape but the cells were much larger and there were already brood in it. I felt really bad about scrapping off this comb because it had brood so I rearranged it in a manner that hopefully the brood can hatch out and be replaced with honey and pollen, at which point I can scrape it off.

The lower box was really looking good and the single foundationless frame I had put in place of the brood frame I swapped was drawn to perfection. Very beautifully done and snowy white new wax. I'm really wishing that I could have started with all foundationless frames because the bees really know what they are doing and draw nice comb. Noticing that the bees weren't doing much in the upper box, I decided to flip the supers, moving the lower box and putting it as the top box. This would allow the bees to build down on the untouched foundationless frames below.

Overall I wasn't really impressed with how I performed the inspection today. I took too long with decisions and the bees really let me know. There was a noticeable change in hum tone about half way through the inspection so I'm sure the bees weren't very pleased. Either that or, heaven forbid, I managed to squish the queen. I don't think I'll be getting any honey this year at the rate the bees are building up. Mario says his hives are also on the slow side, so maybe it's just something with the way crops are blooming. Unfortunately my photographer wife didn't come out today, so there aren't any pictures. Furthermore, even without gloves, I didn't get stung today despite my debauchery.

My next series of "in between inspection" posts will be about the differences in wasps, bumblebees, and honey bees. I got the chance to go check out a bumblebee hive at a friend's house and found it most intriguing. There was some confusing on their part as to what type of bees they were dealing with and so that was my inspiration to clarify things in a series of educational posts. Check back soon for the first installment: Yellow Jackets.

Bee-utiful Paradise

2010-07-08T10:39:00.008-06:00

Things have finally calmed down around here. All the media have gotten their piece of the pie and I'm yesterday's news. While there are some things that were put into news articles that I wish I could have rephrased, generally all the news stories were great. They, if just for a brief moment, have shined the spotlight on a growing trend that is quickly gaining popularity. I haven't been able to find the CTV bit on their website, it was a short 30 second blurb but the quote they included was excellent. The CBC story was longer and more detailed, it can be found HERE. (story starts at the 5 minute mark)

I've received a few calls since this all started. A farmer south of Stony Plain phoned to inquire if I still needed land for my bees. He seemed like a nice enough fellow and the only issue was distance, but I will keep his info handy in case some new beekeepers need space. I also received a call from Rose Rosenberger after my interview on Wild Rose. She is an ex-city counsellor and was phoning to offer encouraging words. She has a large garden in the city and plants for specifically for bees. She said that if she was still in office she would be behind me 100%. The most exciting call was yesterday when a nice lady named Jane called. She actually has land within the city limits that is properly zoned and would absolutely love to have some hives on her property. My wife and I went out to meet her and have a look at the property.

Her piece of land is about 3 acres, but because her neighbours don't actually live at their acreages it really turns into about 8-9 acres of open space. She is an avid gardener/horticulturist, plants for pollinators, and believes in organic practices without pesticides. The property, in short, is a bee paradise. The matured wind break consist of large willows that surround her entire property. Caragana, cotoneaster, lilac, and mountain ash are just some of the trees she has incorporated into this area that used to be an operational tree plantation. Her garden consists of borage, thyme, raspberries, and more. Just to the north of her property is the Anthony Henday corridor where the undeveloped median grows wild and largely consists of alfalfa and clover. Every Alberta honey flow source is somehow represented within 2 kilometers of her property.

I am very excited to put some hives on her property next spring and I'm sure the bees will thrive in the surroundings. The only thing that has held Jane back from installing her own hives in the past has been knowledge and so she is excited at the chance to learn about beekeeping and I am more than willing to teach what I know.

Wild Rose Interview

2010-07-05T21:40:00.012-06:00

So I thought it would be a great idea to record my live interview on the CBC Wild Rose program this afternoon. At first this seemed like an easy proposition having grown up in a time where recording things of the radio was child's play. It's easy-you just put a cassette tape into the stereo, turn the radio on, and hit record. Yah, apparently times have changed and any stereos that we owned were so old that they didn't really work so well. We solved said technically issues by putting the radio next to my laptop and then recording it with windows sound recorder and the laptop's built in mic. So the quality isn't so good, but I did my best to clean it up with Audacity. Enjoy.

For those who are unable to see the streaming audio player, you can download the MP3 from HERE

Extra Extra!

2010-07-05T13:29:00.004-06:00

Today was the day that the article regarding urban beekeeping was printed. A friend texted me during my morning work to say that she read my article on the Journal's web page, so I picked up a copy on the way home. Funny thing was that I didn't actually look at the newspaper when I picked it up, I just threw it into the grocery bag. After I got home and was changing out of my work clothes my wife screamed out, "You're on the front page!" And that's when the phone started ringing. I received multiple calls from all sorts of news agencies, I even got to do a live interview on Wild Rose with CBC radio.

In all honesty I wasn't expecting this much attention. I was thinking the article would be run on page 5 of the city section and go by relatively unnoticed. However it didn't and now I'm the quasi face of urban beekeeping. I even received a call from an ex-city counsellor who phoned to tell me not to give this issue up as it's very important. I hope this brief media attention on me doesn't take away from all those beekeepers who are out in the city flying under the radar or the long time beekeepers who have been trying to get beekeeping legalized. I feel it's a good thing in the long run and bringing it to the public's attention is cause for discussion. I have to stop myself from reading all the comments posted on the Journal's web page because I know it's the Internet and I know there are people trolling, but some of the comments are just plain uneducated.

Here is the link for the journal article. I will also be on the CBC, CBC National, and CTV within the next few days. Stay glued to those TV sets and you just might see me preaching about the bees.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/Backyard+beekeeper+stung/3235282/story.html

Doing well

2010-07-01T16:22:00.005-06:00

My wife and I stopped out at the acreage today to see how the bees were doing after the move. We hauled out a bunch of extra frames and a 2nd super in case they were doing well. The weather has been both good and bad lately. We've been having nice hot sunny days, but then around 7pm we get some storms that roll in to cool things down. Hopefully the bees have been weathering the storms.

First glance was promising as we walked up to the hive carrying our gear. The entrance reducer was showing lots of activity, and many foragers were coming and going. I geared up and lit up the smoker, I first removed the entrance reducer with little issues, the bees seemed very calm. Then I pried of the lid with less problems then my first inspection. Lots of bees and lots of drawn comb was the initial picture. The very outer frames hadn't been touched yet, but both 2 & 8 were getting drawn out. However, the bees had expanding on that weird formation that I had noticed on my first inspection. I really should have scrapped it off, but I think I'll do that next trip out. A quick look at the brood frames showed no issues with the queen as all stages of larva were seen.

The increased strength meant it was time to put my second super on. I decided to primarily use the new foundationless frames I made up. I placed a frame of brood into the new box and surrounded it by 2 of the black man lake frames. After those I put in 6 foundationless. I then put 1 foundationless down into the original box to replace the brood frame that came out. I also changed out some of the white mann lake foundation in the original box to with black to see if the bees would draw on that better. We'll see how they do in a few weeks. Here are some pictures of the inspection.

Things look good at first glance.

Moving frames around into the new super.

Double Decker hive!

Going Commando

2010-06-29T20:55:00.008-06:00

Things are a bit lonely around here without the bees in the backyard, I'm finding I have lots of time on my hands in between shifts. No longer can I sit out on my lawn chair and watch the hive of activity. The animal control officer didn't stop by yesterday or today. I'm not sure if they'd actually talk with us or just walk around back to check that it was gone. In all honesty, I was very tempted just to box it up throw it in the garage for a day and then put it back out in the yard. If I changed the location I bet my kooky neighbour wouldn't even notice, however if she did I can't really afford the $500 fine.

It's been about 2 weeks since I hived the nuc package, the bees should be almost at the point of needing a new super to be put on. Tomorrow I will be heading out to check how they are doing, and to do a quick inspection. I want to see if they are drawing any comb on the Mann Lake foundation and maybe move a few things around. Today I made up some foundationless frames. It was a quick procedure and I took some pictures so you can follow along.

Foundationless frames are exactly what they say. They are wooden frames that don't have wax foundation installed into them. They only have a small piece of wood at the top and the bees take it from there. Wax foundation is somewhat frowned upon by natural beekeeping because the template stamped into it make the bees draw a larger cell size than they normally would. Also, most commercial foundation is made from wax that comes from large commercial bee yards where they "sheep dip" their hives regardless of what diseases they have.

I started off by assembling the frames with wood glue and nails, standard procedure and you can't really do it wrong. I then took some paint stir sticks I obtained for free from the hardware store and stuck them into the upper grove along the top bar. The stir sticks are the perfect size as they usually require you to hammer them into place, this very tight fight negates the use of any wood glue. Some frames do vary, so wood glue can be use if they are pulled out easily by hand. It takes about 1 and a quarter stir sticks per frame. Here is what they looked like.

Next I took some of the burr comb I had saved from my first inspection, this wax would hopefully be less contaminated as it was freshly made since I installed the nuc. I melted the wax down in a pot I had purchased from goodwill, I didn't want to ruin any of my good pots, and then painted the wax onto the stir sticks. This little bit of wax will entice the bees to draw the comb starting from the top. Voila! Foundationless frames.

Burr comb in pot

Melted burr comb

Application with paint brush

Coating the entire stir stick

There are a few things a beekeeper has to be aware of when working with foundationless frames. First, new comb is very fragile so when you inspect your hive you must keep the frame vertical while holding it up to look at. If you turn the frame horizontal, the weight of the wax will break the comb off at the stir stick. This isn't an issue for frames with foundation because it holds the weight of the wax. Secondly, you must ensure that your hive is level both front to back and side to side. (a little forward tilt won't hurt to ensure rain runs out of the hive) When bees festoon, hang in a ball by joining limbs to drawn new comb, on foundationless frames the direction in which they are pulled by gravity will affect the direction of the comb. So if your hive was tilted to the left, all the natural comb would be angled to the left inside the box crossing frames and causing a mess. Ensuring a level platform will ensure the comb is drawn straight down.

Also, I've made a few changes on the right side. I now have an email setup so everyone can contact me. I've also put up an inspection schedule. If you live in Edmonton or greater area and want to come out with me to check out the bees feel free to send me an email and we can set up a meeting. If I get a high amount of interest, I will go out and purchase some extra gear so you can get up close and personal.

Smooth Move

2010-06-27T21:54:00.005-06:00

Just a quick update to let everyone know that my bees are successfully in their new location. Bright and early this morning, 6am, I headed out into my backyard before the bees had a chance to wake up. I taped a piece of screen mesh over the top entrance and stuck the entrance reducer on the bottom. The bees didn't even seem to notice, except one or two of the guard bees that were confused by the screen. My bee friend Bea showed up and we packed the hive into the trunk of the car with the cinder blocks and headed out.

It was a short trip to the new site because it is just outside the city limits. It was also a bonus that the road was paved all the way there which is great because I can hop on my motorcycle to check on the bees when I don't need to bring hardware. Mario was already up and about in his greenhouse tending to his tomatoes. In farm fashion he just had us follow him across the lawn in the car until we got over to the bee yard. Mario threw out some corrugated sheet metal and topped it with a piece of plywood. I setup the cinder blocks and we arranged the hive on top just like it was in my backyard. Mario then showed us around his hives. Taking the tops of various ones to show us how they were doing, all without a veil or gloves, he'd just gentle pop the top off and have a look. I found it funny that when he had a look in mine, one of my girls took exception and stung him.

There was also something that stuck in my head when I went to the EDBA meeting last Tuesday. They were talking about how San Francisco got started into urban beekeeping. It was the community gardeners that were actively seeking out beekeepers to put bees into their gardens. No one understand the role bees play better than a gardener and they wanted bees to increase the harvest. Apparently they use their community gardens to provide food to the homeless. That got me thinking if gardeners can actively seek out beekeepers, maybe it could work in reverse. So I sent an email out today to a community garden in my friends neighbourhood, and I'm curious to see what kind of response I'll get. Granted there will be a lot more leg work to do than San Francisco because they, like Calgary, had lenient bylaws regarding beekeeping. I'm hoping that if I can get support from a community I just might be able to get approval from the city manager to have bees in a non agricultural zoned area. I'll keep ya posted.

This is the hive in the back of the car. Screened on top, entrance reducers on bottom.

Here is Mario's yard. He started with 1 hive in 1999, is this my fate?

The new location of my hive, my girls are gonna love all that canola behind them.

Super Mario!

2010-06-24T20:52:00.002-06:00

I have been spending the past few days pouring over the Edmonton zoning map online, it's actually a very cool little tool. Edmonton bylaw states that it is perfectly fine to keep bees on property that is zoned as Agriculture (AG), Urban Reserve (AGU), or Industrial Reserve (AGI). Sounded easy enough, I'd just look at the map and find some places to check out. Talk with their owner, bada boom bada bang, done. It turned out a bit more complicated then that. All the AGU areas on the map are most definitely owned by the city, they are parks and open area in which the city can change if they need to build something. All the AGI areas are primarily owned by large companies, oil and utility, and while in time I may somehow convince them, the time it would take getting through all the red tape would be too long. The few AGI and AG zoned lands on the southern side of the city that did seem possible, I drove out to and had a look. The outlook was bleak. Despite all my efforts in what little free time I had, I couldn't seem to meet up with any of the property owners or the land wasn't quite what I thought it was based on Google Maps. The farm manager from the U of A had called me back and unfortunately because of a canola project they were currently working on, that required minimized pollination, a hive wouldn't be allowed.

However, I am very glad that I went to the Edmonton and District Beekeepers Association, EDBA, meeting this Tuesday because I met so many other great beekeepers. Some of them have been keeping bees in the city for years and others, like me, were just starting their hives up in the city....obviously with more understanding neighbours. Through some contacts at the meeting I met up with Mario. He's a beekeeper who started with 1 hive in 1999 and has been growing ever since. He has a 26 acre plot of land which is literally on the other side of the road from the city limits. It fits perfectly with what I need and is less then 15 minutes away. On Sunday I will be making the move and I'll post some pictures of that venture.

As for my bees, they are doing great. I did a quick inspection today to make sure things were looking good before we move them. A new friend, Bea, from my Bust Into Beekeeping course came out to help and get her feet wet in the world of beekeeping. The inspection went well, I had a few concerns regarding getting the cover off and my Mann Lake foundation. The first hurdle I had to overcome was getting the cover off. The cover I purchased is a little different than the average telescoping cover, as it's basically a sheet of plywood cut to size with 1/4 inch rests stapled to the bottom. It's great because there is a little entrance at the top which allows for better ventilation. The issue was that it leaves a 1/4 gap between the top of the frames and the lid, an area perfect for burr comb. The bees had made nice lines of burr comb on the 3 inner frames that securely held the lid in place. I'm glad Bea was there because as I started lifting the cover off I didn't notice an entire frame was coming up with it. Had she not been there, the wax would have eventually broken and that frame would have landed hard on top of the hive with PO'd bees.

After we sorted the cover out, I started pulling frames to inspect. Full healthy brood pattern is all I found on the first, so I had pulled another because I was looking for eggs. Eggs would tell me that, up to 3 days ago, the queen was healthy and laying. I did find some eggs in the second frame, they look like small pieces of rice in the bottom of the honey cell. I also pulled out the Mann Lake frames closest to the brood nest and was disappointed to find the bees hadn't drawn out any comb on them. They did seem to draw out a small piece in the center, but it had turned into a piece of burr as apposed to the nice comb shape everyone thinks of. I may end up swapping those out for black frames on Sunday because Alvin, the bee supplier, said he really notices that bees will draw out black plastic foundation before white. It also could be that the bees are still building in numbers and have yet to expand outwards.

My nice neighbour stopped by yesterday to update me on the hot tub situation. Apparently when he pulled his filter up for it's weekly cleaning he found 60-100 dead bees (this might correlated with the Mann Lake issue). I was a little shocked by this number, so I asked him if we could start monitoring it daily by checking the filter. I'll keep everyone posted on what the findings are. I wish I had more time to experiment with the placement/size of my water source to see if I could find a solution but the problem is really moot because my bees are gone on Sunday.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of my inspection. I did have a glorious plan to record some video on my camera and make an episode of "NewBee TV" but it didn't quite pan out. In a way I'm glad, because in all honesty I had too much to focus on with just the inspection. Once I get more comfortable I'll get the ball rolling on "NewBee TV".

I Fought The Law and The Law Won

2010-06-21T22:18:00.005-06:00

Today officially marks the start of the one week countdown I have to move my bees before I start getting charged $500/day for every day I don't.

That's right, today an animal services officer stopped by to issue a warning notice because they had received a complaint. This took me by surprise because I had spoken with all my neighbours beforehand and none had brought up any concerns. The officer was nice, non-offensive, and very informative. I suppose she was just doing her job, but she seemed comfortable around the hive as she took pictures. Apparently she used to work with bees. I spoke with her about where I could move my bees within the city and she mentioned that she had a friend who had a place, but then wouldn't provide me with any contact information. I'm not sure if she was trying to be nice to soften the news or if she actually did have somewhere I could move my bees to.

So I started contacting people. The first on my list was Medhat Nasr, the provincial apiculturist; he provided me with the name of Edmonton and District Beekeepers Association president and was very curious about these "sites" the animal services officer spoke about. Next I started scouring the UofA website for contact information of anyone who might be connected with UofA farm land that is within the city limits and less then 10 minutes away from my house. I just heard back from one of the professors and it appears to look promising but I need approval from the farm manager. Hopefully I will hear back from him soon.

Next on my agenda was finding out who the complaint came from and talking with them to learn what could be done differently to avoid any issues in the future. Because heaven forbid once beekeeping becomes legal they start calling the city every day about my bees to the point where the city has to make me move them again. So I took a very educated approach. I started off with the neighbour I knew hadn't phoned in the complaint, the one who was standing in my backyard as I hived my bees, sure enough it wasn't them. Next was the neighbour who I am pretty sure is straight shooting enough that if he had had any issues he would have come and talked to me in person. Again as predicted they weren't the culprits. Although they did have an honest complaint about some bees that were hanging out in their hot tub cover, we discussed it and went on our merry way. That left the third, who I was 95% sure had phoned in the complaint. As soon as I started talking to her it became apparent that my initial evaluation of her was completely wrong, turns out she's a few bricks short of a full load. Highlights of the conversation included that she found out keeping bees in the city was illegal from a lady at the market and a dream she had about bees in her BBQ so she had to go out and check. Which brings me to the pinnacle of my complete disgust. In an effort to figure out if my bees were causing serious problems I asked, "So have you been having any issues with my bees on your property?" to which she replied (and I am not making this up) "Oh yes, they are buzzing all over the place in my garden and are on all my flowers."

Excuse me while I go bang my head against a wall.

Flight School

2010-06-21T11:26:00.005-06:00

As I spoke with my father on the phone yesterday I was stopped in my tracks by what I saw outside in the yard. I sat down by the patio doors and continued to watch things develop as I finished up the conversation with my dad. I hung up the phone and immediately went outside to monitor the situation. What was it I saw that concerned me? Also if such an incident was concerning me, how would my neighbours react to such a situation if they happened to step out on their patio.

By my estimation, I would say there were 100-200ish bees all flying around the front of the hive. My inexperienced thought process immediately jumped to swarming, but after thinking the situation through it had to be something different. They hadn't possibly overcrowded the hive in such a short time, 3-4 days, and they couldn't possibly be honey bound (no more room to store nectar) for the same reason as previously listed. That lead me to the only other thing I could think of, absconding.

So I sat in my lawn chair next to the hive for the next 20 minutes watching the bees do their thing. The sound was very similar to the bee yard where we had picked up the nuc from, the yard was no longer quiet like it had been for the past few days. The only saving grace I had was inorder to hear it you had to be within 5-6 meters. Suddenly it became clear as to what was going on. I began focusing on all the bees that were gathered out on the landing board. There were dozens that were just hanging out, inspecting other bees, and grooming themselves or others. Most of them would eventually take flight, however some of those who tried failed to get sufficient lift and landed in the creeping thyme below. They would then continue to groom themselves and eventually successfully take wing.

After these bees took wing they would hover back and forth in front of the hive for a few minutes and then slowly start making larger circles around the hive and yard. It was clearly apparent that these bees were taking their first orientation flights. A new generation of foragers land marking their hive so they could go out into the world. Why they all decided to do this at once I'm not sure, maybe it's like a change of guard where large groups of foragers are replaced at once. Within 20 minutes of when I noticed the build up everything had returned to normal, quiet and tranquil. Thankfully my neighbours didn't happen to show up, but once I had figured out the issue I could have spoken with them to alleviate their fears. I would also assume my presence of sitting in a lawn chair only 2 meters from the hive would generate some relief. "They aren't stinging him, why would they come sting me."

The most important lesson about this situation though was the power of observation. I would encourage any new beekeeper to simply sit down and watch their hives. A lot of information can be obtained in this manner, besides it being thoroughly fascinating.

The First Sting Is The Deepest

2010-06-19T09:19:00.006-06:00

The first sting is the deepest, baby I know, the first sting is the deepest. And when it comes to being lucky I'm not.

Yup, yesterday on accord of my own stupidity I was stung by one of my girls for the first time. Here's how and why it happened. The weather was beautiful yesterday, it had been the first really nice day since I had transferred the bees into their new home and they were out in full force taking advantage of this. When my wife and I got home from some errands I noticed that the entrance reducer was causing much trouble for the bees. There were too many bees trying to leave and too many bees trying to get back in. This was causing a large amount of bees to fly around in a "holding pattern", for lack of a better description. So I decided to remove the entrance reducer and this is when the gong show started.

Stupidity, cockiness, arrogance, or audacity. Call it what you will, but I decided that I could just reach in with some sort of flat utensil and pry it out....without using smoke, first mistake. So I scoured the yard for something to use and found a 5 inch piece of pointed mulch that I thought would work, second mistake. I then proceeded over to the traffic jammed entrance without concern for the amount of bees that were around what I was trying to remove, third mistake. The first nudge went well, but when I walked around the hive to the opposite side to get a better angle one of the bees discovered my shenanigans, she landed on my ear and stung my ear lobe.

It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, no worse than a needle at the hospital but with some added throbbing. I think everyone associates bee stings with wasp stings, but the truth is wasp stings are much worse. If not for the simple fact that they can sting you multiple times. I took this sting as "Listen up dummy, use proper procedures when dealing with us!" So I retreated to the garage, fired up my smoker and grabbed a frame rest that was both thin and long. I gave a few puffs at the entrance and had no issues removing the reducer. So remember, no matter how simple you think a task might be, use proper techniques and you won't have any problems.

The Cats and the Bees?

2010-06-18T10:14:00.009-06:00

So everyone has heard of the birds and the bees, but what about the cats and the bees?

Yesterday my wife and I stopped into M.E.C. (Mountain Equipment Co-op) to pick up some materials to make a new cat leash. One of our cats, Avro, was a stray cat that I had found in the parking lot of our old apartment. With our new large backyard she loves to come out and join us when my wife and I are doing yard work. She stands at the back door and meows pathetically until we finally give in and bring her outside. The problem was the only sort of outdoor leash set we could find at our local pet store was for small dogs, medium gauge wire with large stainless steel buckles. Avro didn't really seem to like the weight of the line and buckle that attached to the top of her harness, she would walk around strangely and has on a few occasions escaped the harness because the wire got caught on something. I looked around to see what I could find, but short of cutting off the leash from one of those retractable dog leashes there was nothing to be found. After looking at her harness an idea finally hit me, her harness looks like a little climbing harness so why not attach a little climbing rope and carabiner. M.E.C. was the first place I thought of, it is the most awesomest and bodacious outdoor goods store I know. Best of all, the rope and carabiners cost less then anything available at the pet store and they are exteremly light weight.

This morning I got everything all hooked up and took her into the yard while I went about watering the gardens and watching my bees. The length of her new rope, we bought 15 meters, allowed her to roam the entire span of the backyard freely. It wasn't long before she discovered the hive. At first I was a little concerned because I have seen our cats hunting and pouncing on bugs. However, a strange thing happened, once Avro was close enough to see the entrance she just sat there mesmerized by all the bees coming and going. I'm not sure if it was instinctual because subconsciously she knows they can hurt or if it's because she had dealt with bees before as a stray. She happily sat there for 10-15 minutes watching the bees, and then went about chewing grass in other places of the yard. I even managed to run into the house and grab the camera.

"I'm not doing anything bad, honest, just look at this face"

Mesmerized by bees, definitely Daddy's cat.

This is the closest she got.

The Bee Exchange: Part 2

2010-06-17T21:24:00.014-06:00

In my last post, I left everyone hanging on the edge of their seat in anticipation. OK, maybe not. So without any further ado, the conclusion to "The Bee Exchange".

I lit up my smoker and unwrapped the hive box, it was like Christmas in June. I slowly pried the lid open and gave a few puffs of smoke, the bees obliged by moving down into the frames but there were a few large clusters that had made their ways to the top of the cover and into the corner of the box. I slowly and steadily started moving each frame into the center of new box, since the nuc only had 5 frames I had already inserted another 4 on the outer edges to fill the gap. With all 5 frames transferred over, I began the more difficult job of dealing with the large clusters of bees on the cover. I attempted giving the cover a hard shake to remove some of the bees, hoping they would fall like in all the swarm videos I had watched but they wouldn't budge. I finally reluctantly decided to put the cover on regardless of casualties and in the process crushed a few bees that were along the edge. In hindsight, I really should have used my bee brush to gently brush them off. With the cover securely on I positioned the original hive box and bottom board out in front. The clusters of bees would slowly start finding their way into the hive and I estimated by the time I was back from work they would all be inside. With just 10 minutes to spare, I got dressed for work and headed out. My bees were in their new home, AND I didn't get stung.

As this blog is meant to be somewhat of a guide for those who may be thinking of starting up I've decided that for every major inspection/hive procedure I will list some things that I thought were done right, and some things that I would do differently. So here goes:

Things that were done properly

1) Get to know your Supplier - Alvin and Judy, from what I could tell as a beginner, seem to run a great business. They were both extremely friendly and answered any and all of my questions. It was evident that Judy loved her job and her bees and it showed by how they behaved and their overall health. She was even mention that on Monday a provincial inspector had visited their yard and found zero mites with the new "shaker" testing protocol. Zero mites is virtually unheard of for commercial apiaries.

2) Keep Your Cool - By slowly working the bees and avoiding any sudden movements the bees remained extremely calm while I was moving them around. My wife and neighbour were no more than 4 meters away, and even during times when larger amounts of bees took wing I kept my cool and just slowly backed away. After a minute or two everything would calm down and I'd start from where I'd left off.

Things that could be done differently

1) Have Your Equipment Ready - Because I didn't have my frame rests in, I had to go through an extra transfer process. If I had already had them in place, I could have just placed the hive on the cinder blocks, unwrapped the hive, and put in a few extra frames. Saving me time and limiting bee exposure.

2) Practice lighting your smoker - I had read a few beginner articles stating that one should practice lighting their smokers before getting bees. I completely ignored these because, come on, how hard can it be to light a fire. Well as it turns out, even according to Judy, keeping your smoker properly lit is a difficult task even for a veteran. My main issue is that I didn't put enough material in which allowed for too much air flow and I ended up with more of a flamethrower than a smoker. You want a nice cold white smoke, not a BBQ.

3) Give Yourself Enough Time - While it seemed like a great idea to squeeze picking up bees in between my split shifts, I really should have done it on a day when I had more time. I didn't allot any time if something went wrong and had there been any issues after I had installed them I couldn't do anything because I was at work. This caused a little anxiety because had their been any issues with neighbours coming to complain and ask questions or if the bees decided they didn't like their new home my wife would have had to deal with it.

Unwrapping the box, however I did not shake it before hand like a Christmas present.

Lifting the lid and giving some smoke.

Transferring each frame.

Scrapping off the excess "burr" comb that was on top of the frames.

The bees would eventually figure out where to go if I left them out front. Look at that cluster in the lower right hand side!

Tranquility of the hive when I returned home from work. The first person to correctly find the bee in this picture and point it out in the comment section below will get a free jar of honey from my first extraction!

The Bee Exchange

2010-06-16T20:01:00.014-06:00

What a great day! After my morning shift I came home and packed up all my bee gear into my car. We negotiated the horrible construction on the Henday and after a short stop at the BeeMaid store in Stony Plain to pick up some additional supplies we arrived at the bee yard around 10:15. Unfortunately Alvin, the beekeeper, wasn't around because he hadn't finished his errands from yesterday. However, his wife Judy was around and she was already out doing yard work and came out to meet us.

The weather was sunny and the air fresh so we geared up and headed over a short distance to where a row of white nucs lined up against a fence. There was a calming buzz, calming to me but you might want to ask my wife, that filled the air. Thousands of bees going about their daily work, completely oblivious of us standing around their hives. Once Judy got her smoker lit, we cracked open the 5 frame nucleus hive and started the process of transferring the frames. We closely inspected both sides of each frame as they came out of the hive in search of the queen. Honey comb, pollen, and healthy brood patterns were all to be found on the first 2 frames. Judy's expertise was astounding as she scanned each frame in a matter of seconds while I tried to keep up. After a few seconds on the third frame, Judy said she had spotted the queen. As a test she asked me to find it, it took me a few more seconds but the size difference of the laying queen soon stood out in the lower corner of the frame. Once we were certain the queen was in my hive we quickly swapped over the two remaining frames. I was astounded by how docile the bees were during this entire process, even after having read countless articles and watching dozens of YouTube videos. I knew that bees were docile, but like everyone who hasn't dealt with bees I had a predetermined idea of what the experience would be like. The frames were then secured into a group using duct tape to prevent them from swinging around and accidentally squishing any bees. After adding the cover, we gave the box a semi air tight wrapping of saran to ensure no bees escaped into the car while we drove home. With time dwindling before I had to be back at work, we loaded the hive into the back of my car, spend a few more minutes talking with Judy and then hit the road.

An hour later we pulling into our garage at home. I quickly started unpacking gear and then began nailing some metal frame rests into an extra super. Frame rests help prolong the life of the wooden supers and I had totally forgotten to purchase some when I had picked up the rest of my hive hardware. The hive box that the bees were currently in didn't have any so I would have to transfer the frames out so I could put them in later. Just as I had finished moving all the gear into the backyard my neighbour pulled into his driveway. As he got out of his car he asked if I had my bees yet.n I mentioned that I did and he was welcome to watch while I transferred them, he was genuinely interested and tagged along. Going along with my agenda of working bees without equipment and from how calm I had seen the bees at the yard, I decided to work without a veil. It would be quite the gamble as the bees could be agitated from the ride home.

How will I do? Did I get stung? (Spoiler Alert: The Sting Tally will always be up to date) Was there anything I could have done differently? Check back tomorrow for the conclusion of The Bee Exchange.

One small step for bees. One giant leap for urban beekeeping. *Please note that stuffing my pants into my socks is not my normal state of dress. It keeps bees from crawling up your pants.*

Checking the first frame for the queen.

Judy has found the queen, now it's my turn.

Duct taping the frames into a group.

Wrapping the box in saran. I can do this well, many a practical jokes done this way.

Loaded into the trunk.

Judy and I. She's a great lady.

The Bee Pad

2010-06-15T21:48:00.009-06:00

Hello Everyone,

So today's bee acquisition plans fell through. In the morning the weather was overcast, not the greatest of conditions to work with bees. Generally you want to work bees when it's sunny out because bees are very similar to us in that they get grumpy when the weather is bad. The beekeeper I am getting the bees from was taking advantage of this downtime to run some errands into Edmonton. We discussed arranging something for early in the evening, but I had some floor hockey to play and he lives about an hour outside the city. Plus with the advantage that I work split shifts, I am able to go out tomorrow morning after my morning shift.

In lieu of obtaining bees, my wife and I took advantage of the extra day to put some final touches on the area where I'll be putting the hive. Our overall plan has the hives sitting on concrete pads just inside a garden bed. I figured we had better clear out the sod around the pads as doing this with a hive present would make the situation more complicated. Due to delays with our backyard construction plans, we are in the process of trying build a deck, my wife has been unable to start any garden beds. She has been itching to hit up the garden center, so I decided since we were digging the sod up we could also put some plants in. I also hadn't decided in what way I would be providing water to my bees. Water feature products, fountains and bird baths, at the local hardware stores are incredibly expensive and I had thought about using a 5 gallon bucket with wood pieces in it, but that would look extremely tacky in a backyard. Once we picked up all our wonderful goods we came home and set it up. This was the result.

My hive will rest on the cinder blocks to keep it off the ground and limit the amount of bending over I will have to do. My work area will be on the left side and access to that is provided by 2 stepping stones. As for the bird bath, it is constructed of a pot holder and a 15" glazed pot saucer. The stones we just found lying around the yard and they aren't quite right but we'll find new ones soon enough. The stones allow a place for the bees to land and gather water, without them the bees would drown.

For the gardeners out there, these are the plants that we have planted around the pads. Along the fence, at the far left corner, are 3 Delphiniums. To the right of those, starting at about the corner of the left pad, are 12 Sweet Peas. On the right side of the pads are 12 Snapdragons. In the front left corner are 3 Silver Mound. Lastly, directly in front between the Silver Mound and Snapdragons are 3 creeping Thyme. I will be sure to post some pictures later this summer when everything starts to bloom, it should look really nice.

Hopefully, tomorrow I will finally pick up my bees. I will also be interviewed by an Edmonton Journal journalist tomorrow. Patty forwarded on an email last week about a man who was looking for beekeepers within the city limits to interview for an article his is writing. Urban beekeeping has become quite the movement, especially with major cities like Vancouver and New York amending their bylaws to allow it. I will keep everyone posted on how that goes.

Finally, as it is a question that most people have on their mind or ask, "How often do you get stung?" I have added a "Sting Tally" to the right side of my blog. Please feel free to point and laugh as this increases. I will be honest by adding all stings and I will also be trying to keep it as low as possible.

Bee Registration

2010-06-14T21:22:00.007-06:00

So I got home today and found my Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development package had arrived in the mail. As per the Alberta Bee Act, all bees must be registered annually with the provincial apiculturist. Also, if you own bee equipment you must register even if you don't have bees.

After I purchased my hives I sent an email to Medhat, the provincial apiculturist, to get registered. He mailed me out the package right away. From what I understand, the purpose of this registration is for the monitoring/control of diseases. Hence all the disease information that also came with the form, as seen on the right side of the picture. After a quick perusal the registration form consists of contact info, number of bees & bee yards, the location of your honey extraction, and the location of your hives. There is also a small box regarding wintering and surviving colonies for stat gathering purposes.

The possible fine for not registering bees, according to the Alberta Bee Act, is up to $2500. While I am not vain enough to think I am the only urban beekeeper within Edmonton, I am still somewhat nervous about listing my hive location within the city limits of Edmonton. However, ignoring any sort of legal breach of confidentiality issues, if for some reason this information was passed onto the City of Edmonton I am sure their bylaw fine would be less then that for not registering them in the first place.

For more information on registering bees within Alberta you can hit up this link. http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/general/progserv.nsf/all/pgmsrv107

Check back soon as tomorrow is the big day. I will be heading out to get my bees. My brave wife will be joining me to take some great pictures.

Starting Equipment and Costs

2010-06-14T10:36:00.008-06:00

In this post I will cover what basic equipment a beginner beekeeper needs, and the cost of starting up.

Personal equipment

As a new beekeeper I have decided to start out with the follow items, from left to right.

1) Gloves. The gloves I plan on using are 15 mil Nitrile gloves. They are very similar to dish washing gloves, but slightly thicker. The authors of the Idiots Guide to Beekeeping recommend these compared with traditional leather beekeeping gloves because they offer higher dexterity and are far easier to clean. When a bee stings they emit a pheromone that promotes other bees to do the same. Being able to easily clean your glove should help reduce this.
2) Hive tool. This is a standard hive tool, with one end being a flat scraper and the other end having a hook so you can easily pry up frames.
3) Smoker. I purchased the cheapest smoker at the store. They do come with heat shields which are basically a wire cage on the outside. Some beekeepers like the shields because it allows them to hold the smoker between their knees while they work on the hive.
4) Veil. Veils have the most price variation of the basic equipment, they vary from $15 for a basic veil which just covers your head to full jumpsuits with pockets all over for $250. I picked up a cheaper version veil/jacket combo.

As new beekeepers become familiar with the trade, they tend to shed equipment to make their jobs easier. Many longtime beekeepers work their bees with no gloves or veils. People are often intrigued by this asking why they don't get stung and what people don't understand is that when handled properly bees can be very docile. I myself will be trying to get to the point of working without a veil as soon as possible as I am trying to be discrete as possible with my beekeeping and quite frankly walking around in my backyard in a veil won't help.

Hardware

Here are the items which you will need to house your bees, from left to right.

1) Frames. Wood/White Plastic/Black Plastic. 10 Frames per hive body. Frames are what the bees build their honeycomb on. They are fitted with foundation and usually they are made of wood but plastic is available too. The white and black frames in the middle are plastic frames with integrated foundation. I purchased these from Mann Lake because they are 4.9mm cell size and virtually indestructible. They do however cost more than wood frames.
2) Entrance reducer (front). This little wood bar is used to limit the size of the entrance of the hive. It can be used for keeping pests out such as mice and skunks or for keeping the bees in.
3)Paint (back). Exterior Satin Latex based paint for painting the hive bodies. Traditionally hives are painted white, but I have chosen a light green to be discrete. To save money I purchased quart tester cans. They have more than enough paint, I painted all my supers and still have plenty left.
4) Frame Feeder. Bee feeders come in all sorts and sizes, this is a feeder that sits inside the hives and takes the spot of a frame. Bees need to be fed during spring and winter if their honey stores become low, they also need to be feed during any dearth. A period in which there are few nectar producing flowers in bloom.
5) Supers. In the picture is a deep/standard hive on the floor, and a medium/3/4 super stacked on top of it. I have purchased 3 deep supers and 2 medium supers. Deep supers are normally used for brood and mediums for honey, however in commercial beekeeping deeps are used for honey. A deep super full of honey can weight anywhere between 75-100 lbs, so many hobbyist beekeepers use mediums to reduce weight.
6) Queen Excluder. If you look on top of the deep super you will see a metal grate in between. A queen excluder is mainly used to keep the queen in the lower boxes so she doesn't lay eggs around the honey. I still haven't decided if I am going to use it, but it does have other uses.
Not Pictured) I am currently missing a cover, bottom board, and stand. Obviously a cover is what goes on top of the hive. A bottom board is what the hive sits on, it provides a small gap along the front of the bottom for the bees to come and go. A hive stand is what keeps the hive raised about the ground to prevent rotting and bugs from entering the hive. I will have pictures of these soon.

Total Cost

Overall I have paid $350 for all my equipment, $80 of that was the plastic Mann Lake frames. I did purchase everything new and if someone wanted to reduce the cost of starting up there is plenty of used equipment available if you know where to look. The only issue with purchasing used equipment is the possibility of diseases, so one must be careful otherwise you'll end up with sick bees. I purchased new to avoid this and if you are only going to be having a few backyard hives the cost isn't unmanageable.

And So It Begins

2010-06-13T16:55:00.005-06:00

A little over a month ago I saw a small advertisement in the local Metro paper for a "Bust into Beekeeping" course. The ad peaked my curiosity because even as a small child I have always had a fascination with social insects, bees, wasps, ants, etc. So I went about getting in touch with the coordinator, Patty Milligan from Lola Canola Honey, and signed up.

Immediately I started searching out beekeeping videos and websites, I wanted to go into the course with a good grasp of Beekeeping so I could get the most out of the course. It was through this searching that I learned of the "plight" of the honey bee. Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD. In the past few years, vast amounts of bees have been disappearing causing much concern throughout the beekeeping community. My research found that many opinions exist for the cause of this, however no solution has been found. Much like politics, every beekeeper has a way in which they do things and everyone believes that their way is the correct way.

I happened to stumble upon the Backwards Beekeepers, a group of urban beekeepers in L.A., because they had some interesting videos posted on YouTube. Their philosophy when it comes to beekeeping, which I have strongly associated with, is to leave the bees alone. Bees have been around for millions of years and they know what to do, you just have to provide them with the things they need to be happy; food and a sheltered hollow vessel for a home. This is the way I will be trying to keep my bees; after all I am becoming a beekeeper because I love bees, not because I need honey.

There is much to learn, so come back often and feel free to send some comments.