Pirate Bees

Bees are pirates.    I'm not kidding.

We're talking pillage and destruction.  Marauding and mayhem.  Pirates of the Caribbean in my bee yard. 

There were screams and cries of, 'Take no prisoners, me hearties!'

Seriously.   That's totally the way it happened.

Sort of.  

Our bees were perfectly behaved all season until late September.  We worked them with smoke and veils, but no gloves.   Then they got a little testy.  

We have a hummingbird feeder that the bees use as much as the hummingbirds.  All summer long, there was an uneasy truce between birds and bees.   Some hornets would show up  and some yellow jackets and one monster yellow flying thing that was twice as big as a hornet, but generally it was orderly.   Busy, but orderly.

Then one day I looked out and the bees were in a frenzy around the feeder.

Frenzy.

Noisy and agitated and dropping in clusters from the feeder.    Not normal behavior at all.   In fact, it reminded me a lot of the behavior that I saw on Linda T's blog when she posted about robbing.

So I decided to walk up to the hives to see how they were doing because I figured those were my bees acting that way.    Also,  the hives really smell of goldenrod honey right now, which can bring in robbers.   Also, I was using boardman feeders [upside-down quart mason jar units] on both hives, something else which often encourages robbing.

And sure enough,  things at the hives were frenzied and loud.   Both hives had large clusters of bees at the front entrances and bees were trying to get in the hives along the top cover edges and seams between the boxes.   And they were all over the boardman feeders.  And I could see some combat on the bottom boards out front.

When I opened the back window of the Tardis to check things out, there were more clear areas of combat going on, but no large clusters of bees dropping out of the entrances and the bees between the frames looked pretty calm.

Then I saw bees flying inside the hive.   Not normal!

Bees don't fly in the hive.   They walk.   Just like you don't run in the house, they don't fly in the house.   So when I saw a couple of bees in the back window flying [or trying to fly], I knew they were robbers.  Sure enough, in a second, they were being surrounded and attacked by the home bees.   

Even with all that activity, it looked like the hives were holding their own for now so I zinged back to the house and researched what to do to stop robbing.  

Then I suited up, gloves and all.

The first thing you do is take out the boardman feeders and close up the hive entrances so that there's just a small entrance for the home bees to defend.    Any other bees that get caught in there are either killed or forced to join the hive.  

The Lang was easy to tighten up because it had an inner cover.   I took out the boardman and closed up the entrance with an entrance reducer.

Here it is with the smaller entrance.   Much easier to defend.

I already had small entrances in the center of the bottom front for the Tardis, away from the feeders and that had helped prevent robbing so far, but I really had to get that feeder out and close it up tighter.   

I had to reduce further so  I took the feeder out, closed out the right side completely.  and on the left side, I put a reducer in with a small entrance toward the center [pic].

The problem was the top.    Since this is a horizontal hive body, two deeps wide, we didn't have inner covers on it. We did have a telescoping top cover on it, but there was plenty of open space around the edge for ventilation and for robber bees to get in.     And they were getting in.    I had to figure out a way to close it up until we could get the inner covers made and on the hives.

So I picked large handfuls of grass and stuffed them in the openings all around the top of the hive.  [This is why you suit up and wear gloves!]  Handful after handful until it was clear that new bees were confused and couldn't get it in.  

When Eric got home, he cut a piece of plywood to put on the top of the hive under the telescoping cover to seal it up temporarily until he had a chance to finish the new inner covers.  While he was standing there, he got pinged on the back of the head.  

The next day, I went back to check on them.   There was still a lot of action, but it loooked like the hives were defending well.   I was just standing there watching, not even too close and got pinged on the cheekbone by an overzealous defender.    These guys were really testy!

The next morning, Eric finished the inner covers and we went up to take the supers off and batten down the hatches.  [More on the honey harvest later.]

Of course, as soon as we opened the hives, the frenzy started again, so we smoked well and fairly constantly.   We worked as quickly as we could and then closed things back up, with the new inner covers and smallest entrances.     

It rained for the next couple of days and when I went up there again, the hives were very busy, but orderly.    Plenty of pollen going in and no combat on the bottom boards [front porches], or in the back window of the Tardis.    

Whew.   

Next year, we won't have to feed through the summer so we won't need to use the boardman feeders.   If we do need to feed before winter, we can harvest the supers, then put the boardman feeder inside an empty super on top, with the inner cover on top of that and that should prevent robbing.   

Feeding the bees

Feeding the bees has been really interesting.  

First of all, let me reiterate:  Do not feed your bees honey unless you know exactly what hive it came from and that that hive is disease [AFB] free.   

So now we're feeding sugar water in a 1:1 ratio.   It's cheap.   It's relatively easy.    Since we have two hive types, we are feeding in two locations, using jar feeders.   Jar feeders have lids with holes poked in them.   You turn them upside down and the bees will drink it.   Easy. 

This is a jar feeder in a boardman feeder setup.   The base fits under the edge of the hive, then we can put in an entrance board that restricts the rest of the opening down there to keep robbers out. 

Robbers are bees from other hives that steal from an easy target.   There are guard bees posted to keep robbers away.  

This is what it looks like when the guard bees deal with a robber.  It isn't pretty.

The bee in the middle didn't last long. 

Because robbing can be such a problem, experienced beeks recommend that whenever possible you put the feeder inside the hive. 

This is how we do it on the lang.  

We take the telescoping cover off, then set the jar upside down on the inner cover [no base needed], then set another super around it, then put the telescoping cover back on.

We put the inner cover with notch down.   The bees can get in and out without going past the feeder.

The hive looks like this with the extra super on it.   The top level is empty except for the feeder.   

This totally eliminates robbing from the feeder and helps keep it warm, too.  

Once we get smaller covers for the Tardis hive, we'll put that feeder in the top, too. 

Bee installation, or - What not to feed your bees

Our bees are here and successfully installed.    Now, I just hope they like their new homes and stick around.

This is how it went.

First, we did a lot of reading.   A lot of talking.   A lot of studying.

A lot, I tell you.

We painted and placed the hives in full sun on a little hill in front of a big hill.   They should be happy here. 

We watched a lot of videos of bees.

We watched this vid of Beemaster installing bees and we decided to do it that way.

So, Eric went and picked up the bees at Graham's because I was at work in town that day.   And when we all got home around 6:30, we gathered everything up and went to the hives.

When we got it all together, Eric and I looked at each other and said, "I don't want to wear the suit.  If the guys in the vids can deal with gentle bees with no gloves and veils, then we can, too."

And we did.   We installed two packages of bees into our hives, placed the queens, fed them, covered them, etc - barehanded and with no veils.

It was amazing.   Here are the pics.   [Note:  Lily took the pics.  With bees swirling all around.  Fearless.  In a skirt.   With no protective clothing on either.  Wow.]

Our packages, the way they came from Graham's

All the lovely buzzing.  They sounded like an air conditioner.  

These two bees traveled for heaven knows how long on the outside of this package.   Eric noticed them when he put them in the car.  They were still there when we installed them.

First a little smoke to make sure everyone is calm.   Probably not necessary, but since we were not in suits and veils, we thought we'd make extra sure they were calm.

Just a few puffs.

Then Eric took the wood off the sides and bottom of one of the screened sides. 

And the bees started coming out as soon as they could squeeze through.   Which we weren't really prepared for.   

Then they were swirling through the air around us. And we weren't quite ready to dump.   And we missed that little staple in the middle.    But finally we got it and dumped them into the hive.

This is the doublewide hive.  It has a Tardis on the front and a window in the back.   It was designed for top bars, but they weren't ready yet, so we used regular deep frames.   I'll checkerboard them out and add top bars as we add more supers. 

Here are the bees in the Tardis hive.   We only put them in half.

One thing we hadn't thought of well enough was how to keep the bees completely out of the other half.   A couple of girls got in there, so I left a reduced entrance so they could get out of that side and in with the queen.   I hope they do.

And here is the queen!   She has some attendants in with her.  On the right side of the box is a compartment filled with candy.   We opened that up to the other bees, so they could eat her free.   Then she'll lay and lay and lay.

I put her box on the bottom of the hive, under the frames.

Look at the empty box the bees came in.  See that can?   It's still 2/3 full of syrup that they put in for the bees to eat in transit.   We can use that to feed them with once they're in.

In the meantime, the bees were getting diluted honey to eat.   These are regular jar feeders.  I did a 1:1 solution of honey and water. 

That turned out to be a BIG MISTAKE. 

I found out today that honey might carry the spores for American Foul Brood.   Don't feed your bees honey unless you know exactly which hive it came from at that it is free of American Foul Brood.  Unfortunately, I found out too late.  If we do get AFB, we'll have to burn everything. 

In all of the reading and studying and researching and talking to people, no one ever mentioned that 'strange' honey might kill your bees...until I mentioned on a forum that I was feeding honey, but by then it was too late.  Fingers crossed that we'll dodge that bullet.

I put them on sugar water now.   [They're not actually eating much - good nectar flow now.]   UPDATE BELOW!

Here I am installing the second package.   We had a better idea of what to do this time and it went a bit smoother.   [Yet another reason to do more than one when you start out!]

Once the bees were in and the queen was in, it was time to close up the hive.

First I put in the frames we had taken out to make room for the bees.    Since the bees are everywhere, I put the frame in gently and slowly and let the pressure of it tell the bees to scoot.   It took a bit for some of the bees to get the message, but they did.   Then I pushed all the frames together so there's not too much space between them where the bees can go crazy with burr comb.   We don't want burr comb.  Then I put the tops on.

Here are the fronts, with the bees in, tops and feeders on.  You can see a lot of bees in the air.  They soon gathered on the hive and feeders.  The bees love the honey water. 

Lots of bees still on the front of the flower lang.  That's the one we did last.

While Lily was taking pics, some bees decided to check her out.   She took this pic of her own hand, herself.  

These bees are very very gentle!  

When we got done, we watched the Beemaster's vid again to see what we could have done better.   Turns out we did better than we thought we did.  His bees started escaping, too.   It's normal.

We checked on the bees the next morning and despite the damp, they were orienting and moving around. 

Already the hives have different personalities.

UPDATE:  We forgot to completely sterilize the whole feeder units.   So we brought the entire units in - bases and all - and took everything apart to bleach it.   The syrup is a waste, and I'm sorry for that, but we've got a ticking time bomb unless we're careful.     

I put the bases and all the lids - including the extra ones - in a gallon bucket.  Then I filled it with hot water and a good glug of bleach - 1/3 cup or more, then some antibacterial dish soap and let them sit for a bit.   I rinsed each jar out and set it in/filled it with the bleach water to soak for a bit, then washed it out thoroughly and rinsed it again.   All 4 jars that way.   Then washed the lids and bases and rinsed them well.    Now we're putting in 1:1 sugar water solution.    The bees will be a bit confused, but maybe an apian smorgasbord is a good thing?   

This is very stressful, but hopefully a good learning experience for us and anyone who reads the blog.   I don't want anyone to have to go through this if they don't have to.

The good news is that one of the less extreme treatments for AFB is to put the bees in a new box with foundationless frames [burn all the old wood equipment] and have them draw all new comb - which is exactly what we're doing in the first place.  Apparently there's a chance that they'll metabolize the bad spores while they're drawing comb and render the spores harmless. 

Fingers crossed!