…but it’s pretty effective. This is my Warré hive winter protection from high winds driving copious amounts of rain against my hive. Since October, we have gotten 66.5 inches of rainfall (1689 mm).
A look through the observation window in December shows lots of natural honey comb.
I think this bright yellow pollen is from the Hooker Willow which thrives in soggy wet soil along The Oregon Coast.
I’ve been somewhat afraid to write about my bees. They seem to be doing fine with my efforts to protect them, but I didn’t want to jinx them. This is the end of February. The Hooker Willow has started flowering and bees are returning with bright yellow pollen, so I think they will make it. Also the gorse (Ulex europeaus) is blooming as it always does in February. The video shows bees on both.
April 16…Andrea called to let us know she had a newly formed swarm, hanging about chest high off the yellow plum tree…did we want it? “ABSOLUTELY!”
It was pretty easy to ‘pop’ the bees into the bucket…
…and into a Warré hive. Back to having bees again. Thank you, Andrea Gatov!
I’ve been protecting this echium plant for two years. It has finally paid off with these bluish-red blossoms. Just in time for the bees. I think this is Wild Prettii echium.
The day after we hived Andrea’s swarm, the bees were all over this shapely echium plant.
One of our new guests partakes of the nectar.
Yellow-faced bumblebees like it too.
Turnip flowers collect bees. Is that a ‘hat’ on Bee Beard Log Hive???
2016 has not been a good year for my bees. My ‘end-of-year’ hive status saw four bee hives that had activity. Now I have only one.
After being in denial for a few weeks, I figured I’d face up to the fact this Warré was a goner.
Dec. 25, 2015…I had pulled off the empty top box and pinned some protection from rainwater getting in. It was too late.
Feb. 7, 2016…This is the top box. There was plenty of honey on the four outboard bars, but very little in the middle.
The two combs in the middle section were mostly empty as can be seen in the photo to the right.
The few bees that are left are head-first into the cells. I believe that’s a sign of starvation. There was plenty of honey two frames away. Could it be they were too weak that they couldn’t reach the honey bars?
There’s honey on this bar.
…and more on this one.
Dec. 20, 2015…I assumed that bees entering with pollen indicated a laying queen. Yes, there were some dead bees on the screen, but there were also bees removing them from the hive.
Biting the bullet I figured I’d better find out ALL the bad news…and opened up Bee Beard log hive. Somehow rainfall had gotten inside here too, even with the hat and headband. Because of El Niño, we’ve had copious amounts of rainfall. Yes, it’s good for the forests, but not so good for the bee hives.
2-20-16 I pull off Bee Beard’s hat.
Footnote to above…I’d like to make a waterproof ‘hat’ for this hive. If anyone has a suggestion, please pass it on to me.
A look at the quilt box. SOW BUGS…this can’t be good.
With the quilt box removed, more sow bugs.
With top bars pulled off, honey is visible…lots of it.
Some combs are solid with honey.
…but these combs are mostly empty.
Wow…look at that orange pollen.
So why have these hives died back? Could it be the El Niño effect? Record rainfall in December? Ron lost his hives around December. This year I didn’t cover my hives very well. I should have been more careful.
Another thing that’s been bothering me for awhile is the questionable source of swarms I get from time to time. Where are they coming from? I’m beginning to realize they might be coming from the commercial hives in the cranberry bogs. The commercial hives, I just learned from a cranberry grower, come straight up from the almond orchards in California.
These ‘almond orchard bees’ could be infecting my bees and I DON’T GET any payment.
March 25, 2015…..Less than 3 miles (4.8 km) distance away from my bee hives is the staging area for the commercial cranberry hives. These hives are most likely coming from the almond orchards south of us in California. They were being held here prior to being placed in the cranberry bogs. Arrrrgh! Bog bees…”diseased and loaded with mites.”
My wife suggests I ask Bill W. if he sells any Warré nucs. Bill lives inland about 150 miles (241 km). I tell him of my suspicions of commercial hives. His reply…
“Hello Pat, I don’t have Warré nucs for sale. I get a lot of “bad” swarms also. These are mostly from poorly kept urban high density colonies having bees from poor commercial sources. I pick up a lot of swarms with poor genetics and failing queens. It has caused me to put out more hives and rely upon higher colony failure. In the Willamette Valley, many commercial beekeepers will keep their colonies here when not busy with almonds or cranberries or something else. Good luck. -Bill”
The Grand Kids Log Hive is most likely inhabited by “bog bees.” Maybe I should say “was inhabited,” because it’s been silent for almost two months. I thought it successfully superceded, but I’ve not seen any activity since early January.
After assuming my troubles have come from the cranberry “bog bees,” I asked Steve about his bees. We had gotten a swarm of bees, (most likely they were from cranberry hives) last year, May 30th.
Feb. 17….. Steve sent this photo and said…”My bees are fine, but I fed them 50 lbs of sugar in the fall.” Should I rethink feeding sugar to them?
Then there’s Pete’s beehives. I asked him recently about his bees. He is near cranberry bogs too. “They’re doing great. Out flying every non-rainy day, getting into madrone blossoms and other things, possibly even gorse, bringing back all kinds of pollen.”
Bob (of home-built bee vac fame) said his hives were doing fine too. Bob is located near the bogs too. Hmmm, maybe I can’t blame my bee problems on the bogs.
February 23…the Green hive in the tree is the only active one left. The bees are flying in small numbers on sunny days…even bringing in pollen, but again in small numbers. When our willow tree blossomed, I expected to see bees all over it. I was disappointed. Few bees were seen. Maybe it was the almost constant rain.
Since my tree hive seems to have lasted through everything, I decide to try another one. I’ve got to do some trimming around it, but this will be the location for the next one. It’ll hold Warré sized bars, but it’s too heavy to lug around for a bait hive, so I’ll be trying to attract a swarm.
I’ve got to cut back the laurel hedge limb and holly tree. Then I’ll custom fit the hive box between the trunk and the angled limb. I’ve tried it. I think it’ll work.
Bottom line…I think it was the El Niño rainfall. I chose NOT to cover my Warré bee hives this winter. Why not? I didn’t see other beekeepers cover their hives up. I think the difference this year is my observation window covers are slightly warped (outward) Some rain possibly entered there. With so much more rainfall this year than in other years, it was just too much. Somehow the rain got into Bee Beard Log Hive too. I’ll have to work up some kind of ‘head gear’ to shed water. As for the Grand Kids Log hive? I still have to figure that one out. Maybe it WAS a weak, diseased strain of bees from the commercial hives.
Standing tall, Bee Beard Log hive is doing well since it was revived in August 2014. It swarmed at least once on May 11 of this year, but that swarm moved on without us getting it.
Sept. 23…Lots of good orange pollen being carried into this hive. This hive will go into winter without me intervening in any way.
Sept. 17…These birdhouse bees are doing so well, I’m starting to think that small bee hives are the way to go. This hive has no other openings other than the entrance. I don’t understand how they can survive without much ventilation, but they are doing well, which is a good way to head into their second winter shadow.
Here’s a closer look at the entrance showing how crowded they are.
May 14…Ron got this one. He lives just up the road. I’m happy to report that Ron says they are doing well. They are active and bringing in lots of pollen. They can be seen flying well here…
Sept. 23…I’m down to only one Warre hive now. It’s doing well with lots of pollen coming in. You can see Bee-atrice Log hive ‘shuttered’ in the background. When the wasps were running rampant inside, I had to wrap it up. I’ll clean it out (scorch it) come spring and try to attract another swarm.
Bees head into the Warre loaded with pollen. This hive is heavy. I haven’t taken any honey from it. I think they will make it through the winter without me feeding.
Sept. 23, 2015…Sad to say, the Grand Kids Log hive is not going to make it. The temperature started falling in mid July, and now I see wasps nosing around and drones flying out.The Grand Kids are back.
Sept. 3…Temperature is down to 87F (30C)
Sept. 21…Looking up into the empty combs, I see a lack of bees. Clearly the queen isn’t laying and I’ve seen a few drones exiting. Footnote: This hive must have superceded a queen, because there are not only new bees, but also new comb. This is the only hive I can see from the house…from where I eat actually, and I gotta say, I’m so happy to see the bees flying to and from this hive when I sit down to eat!!!
Steve says his swarm ‘is hanging in there,’ but he’s starting to feed again because they haven’t built up enough comb to get them through the winter.
We are headed into autumn with four hives, which is all I ever really wanted, but I had really hoped that Grand Kids Log hive would be among the survivors. It begs the question…are smaller hives better? I’m beginning to think so. I’ve thought about partitioning off the big log hive, but then there might be air flow issues. The birdhouse bees seem to deal with lack of air flow, so maybe it won’t be an issue. Right now I’ll let nature take it’s course and hope I can attract another swarm in spring.
Aug. 17…Please don’t sting me!!! This wasp wouldn’t stop crawling on my fingers while I was trying to bury crab shell in the garden.
That wasp didn’t sting me, but the one in my glove did. A little mud works wonders.
I decided I’d better wear a bee suit to keep the wasps off me. Wasps are carnivores. Maybe they eat the soft parts of the crab remains, but they always gather around whenever I pop the lid open. Lately they’ve taken to crawling on me as well.
August 16, I just got the largest single day load of crab shell ever. I can’t have wasps holding up the process. Bury the crab shell. Plant directly on it four days later. We will plant beets, winter lettuce, and more turnips on this batch.
Aug. 20… Beets on left, turnips in middle, Sue plants winter lettuce on right. (Yes Pat, you did remember to put ashes under the beets.)
Planted 4 days after burying crab shell, hoops up, deer netting on, let’s watch you grow. 🙂
Oct. 5…Beets are already bigger than the ones we planted a month before. It must be the crab shell.
Oct. 6…Those turnips might be crowding out the lettuce, but we’re happy everything is growing so well.
July 1…I spotted this Ancistocerus antilope wasp getting into my Mason bee tubes. I relocated them in the house immediately. I hope the wasp didn’t lay many eggs in any tubes before I moved it, or I’ll be hatching wasps in the back bedroom.
I shot some video on the Warre hive just to make sure what was going into the hive were wasps. Yes, there were some robber bees, but mostly wasps.
August 7…The numbers of bees at the entrance of the hive has been lessening. Looking down at the pile of dead bees, I notice there are mostly drones, but there are also some dead wasps.
August 7…I picked up a couple of dead wasps from the pile in front of the Warre. Did the bees kill them? I doubt it. There were very few bees left.
This hive (the one on the right) was real active back in June, and heavy with honey weight. What happened?
Most of the comb was empty like this. No eggs, no larva, spotty drone cells. We might have had a laying worker.
This is what the wasps were after…a comb or two of honey.
After removing most of the comb, I put these top bars out for the bees to clean them off, but where are the bees? These are all wasps!
August 16…Wasps are in search of sugars. Here’s one on the blackberries.
Sadly, Bee-atrice log hive is infested with wasps too.
Bee-atrice log hive…Looking through the observation window, we see the final indignation…wasps are roaming at will inside. We must remove the comb. I won’t kill the wasps, but I don’t want to grow their numbers by feeding them honey.
What’s the bee suit for? There aren’t any bees, but a bunch of wasps. The wasps didn’t attack me like the bees would have, but I had already been stung once as an accident. With that many wasps flying around, I wasn’t taking any chances.
This is where the ground nest is, in the laurel hedge area. My wife discovered it when she was coaxing the cat out. Luckily, she only got stung once. In the video you can see how fast they move…at least twice as fast as a honeybee.
July 8…We won’t be killing the wasp nest. Wasps are good for the garden. My wife spotted this wasp flying into the cabbage to rid us of the cabbage worm. We haven’t seen ANY this year. In years’ past, we would have to painstakingly pull little green worms off the seedlings. The wasps didn’t kill my bee hives…they just took advantage after the bees had died out.
Are there more wasps now? We think so. The winter was mild, we didn’t get as much rain as usual, and the wasps had an earlier start.
Bee-atrice log hive is on the left. The inner tube is a draft reducer, not what it looks like, so no snide remarks!
Here’s a better shot of Bee-atrice log hive. The blue tarp in the background is protecting my Tower of Jewelsechium plants and artichokes. I’m hoping they will bloom this year because the nectar is so good for the bees and they’ll bloom all summer.
The outside temperature is a frosty 34˙F. Barely above freezing. It’s no wonder the bees aren’t flying today.
While the outside temperature is 34˙F (1˙C), the inside is 50˙F (10˙C), which means there is something warm inside. Someone should have cleaned off the cob webs before he shot the photo. 🙂
Looking through the observation window of Bee-atrice Log Hive reveals lots of honey. It’s such an improvement over last year’s status of ‘no bees.’
This hive in the tree swarmed three times during summer. Two went to Bob and one we transferred into Del’s Warre hive below.
Del’s Warre hive…the bees came from the green hive in the tree. After hanging on the pine tree for about three days, I tried to get them to crawl into an inverted swarm catcher scented with lemon grass oil. No luck. They finally disappeared. I thought, “Good, I’ve got enough hives,” only to find them on a branch of this spruce tree. After they had hung out for a total of 6 days, I dropped them into this hive that I had planned to donate to the bee club. Lost it…see below.
Del’s hive catches the afternoon sun. Some bees responded to the warmth and gathered outside.
12-31-14…Birdhouse bees. These bees came from Mayor Mary’s backyard birdhouse swarm. When I couldn’t get them to move into my new Warre, I ‘posted’ them here. Today they are not flying. Too cold. You can see frost on the ground in front. They are in the shade possibly until March.
A closer look at the birdhouse bees still shows no bee activity. Guess I’ll have to wait til it warms up. This hive is in the coldest part of the property. If they make it, it’ll be because they are strong bees, not because I treated them.
Warre 3…These bees came from Warre 2, May 10, 2014. They built up fast but only in the top box. This ‘shelter’ leaves something to be desired because every time we get a stiff wind, the sheets of fiberglass blow off, thus the reason for the tie down. Lost it…see below.
So there it is…from three hives a year ago to eight hives this year. As a third year natural beekeeper, I believe in letting my bees swarm. I like the article written by British beekeeper John Haverson that “Swarming Bees are Healthy Bees,” so I don’t destroy the queen cells or otherwise try to thwart their natural tendency to swarm.
I go against the recommendations of my local bee association which advises to kill the varroa mites. I know there are beneficial mites in the hive. According to long time beekeeper Michael Bush, who wrote “The Practical Beekeeper,” there are over 30 kinds of mites in a typical hive. If you are killing varroa mites, you are upsetting the ecology of the hive. I think we should let the bees adapt to living with mites. Conversely, if we poison the mites, they will eventually build up a resistance at the expense of the bees.
Since we have just started winter, I know that it’s possible that some hives won’t make it, especially if I choose not to feed them. Those would be the weak hives. As a fairly new beekeeper I’m constantly questioning whether I’m doing the right thing. Right now, I am of the mindset that we should not be propping up weak hives because we will be passing on weak genetics. In my humble opinion when you capture a swarm, you should not kill that queen, but keep her with the swarm. She has survived the winter and proven herself. All my bees have come from swarms.
If my bees can make it to early February, the pussy willows will bloom and weather permitting, nectar and pollen will be available in a critical stage of winter.
Yesterday I noticed honeybees on the gorse blossoms down the road from me. This was a happy surprise because I don’t usually see bees on gorse blossoms possibly because gorse is harder to work (or so I’m told), but if there’s nothing else available, the bees will be able to get nourishment. Some individuals around here hate the gorse. It’s spiny thorns make it impossible to walk near, it grows prolifically, and it’s blamed for burning the town in the big 1936 fire.
March 4th note…We lost Del’s hive. It’s not a surprise because it never really built up any ‘honey weight’ pre-winter. I haven’t taken it apart yet, but when I do, I’ll clean it out, put in observation windows, and donate it back to the bee club.
We lost #3 Warré too. I took it down last week after I saw robber bees visiting it. There was still some capped honey in the combs. About 125 bees were dead on the bottom. Some of the combs were moldy, so I’m guessing it’s been dead for awhile. Both hives were weak hives. While I’m upset at having lost them, I’m thinking that maybe it’s for the best because if the bees can’t survive in our relatively mild winter, maybe they shouldn’t be in the gene pool. I’m down to six hives now, but the willow tree has been blooming for about three weeks and I can see the bees bringing in orange pollen and that means nectar too!
January 15, 2014…I noticed a bunch of varroa mites on the bottom board. What was I going to do about it? “NOTHING!” (I was hoping the bees would know what to do)
A pile of dead bees that had been dumped out of the hive sometime earlier. This picture was taken from a video I shot in April. The dead bees had been there for a while, but I just couldn’t bring myself to photograph them. Too depressing. It’s possible these are all drones with deformed wing virus. I wish I had looked closer and examined them. I guess I should be happy that the other bees cleaned them out of the hive. It shows there are healthy bees that are cleaning up.
April 18, 2014…Box #3 is almost full, I’d better add a 4th box, which is what I did, but that was before the hive started to swarm. Compare the numbers to May 20th below.
May 10, 2014…The second swarm that came out of Warre2 in less than two weeks. I was able to transfer this swarm into a third Warre hive which is doing fine as of this date. (I just noticed some evidence of DWV bees being evicted in October ’14.)
May 20…Ten days after the second swarm, there’s only a few bees left in this the third box.
June 11…There’s been a small group of bees milling around the entrance for weeks. They don’t seem to have any ambition. Are they sick? Maybe.
July 14…Even fewer bees in July. That means (to me) only one thing. This hive is going nowhere. It’s all over except for the robbing.
July 14…this is a shot at the middle box showing very few bees. I’m just waiting for the robbing to start, but after tilting the hive, I realize there’s really no honey to rob.
I’ve seen a hive get robbed. It isn’t pretty. Once it starts there’s no stopping it. If it did get robbed, I was planning to take the new comb, freeze it (in case of wax moths), and save for future bait hives.
July and August came and went. No robbing took place. A swarm from my log hive presented itself on August 6. I contemplated combining it with this weak hive, but in the end, that swarm went into Bee Beard log hive of it’s own accord.
September 20…It’s possible there are a few more bees showing in this top box.
September 20…There are definitely more bees here in the middle box than in the July 14 view. The hive is building back up.
September 28…the activity around the hive has picked up dramatically. No more milling about. Bees are bringing in pollen.
Could this mean the hive has come back? Could it be that by taking this long brood break, the hive has reduced the varroa mite population naturally and now has started building up it’s numbers again?
A look through the observation windows in the back of the hive shows the top box full of empty comb, the middle box being full of bees and comb, and the bottom box with bees and old comb. The question is…why aren’t the bees working the empty comb in the top box?
A short video showing how fast the honeycomb built up. Luckily we are having an Indian summer into October. I’m athinking I won’t have to feed this hive this year as our winters are fairly mild and they have honey stores now.
May 1, 2014 mid afternoon…Photo by Mary Schamehorn. I’m glad Mary got a shot of this. When I got there, they were relatively peaceful.
4:38 pm…By the time I got there, the bees had settled within the birdhouse. I looked at it, determined I could remove it from the post, and got my tools together. Ha ha, the screws were rusty I couldn’t get them to budge before stripping them out. I had to remove the post too.
I placed it next to the newly assembled and baited Warre hive in my bee garden. I was hoping the bees would recognize a 4 star lodging with ample room to grow…they didn’t. I gave them plenty of time to reconsider, but they weren’t having it. I couldn’t leave them there, like that. I didn’t want to grind the brackets off or pry the birdhouse floor off because it would have been too stressful. “Dramatic and traumatic” are words I like to avoid in beekeeping.
Okay, I’ve got to move the birdhouse out of the bee garden because, well, we’ve got to be able to weed and water without the bees buzzing us. After two days, I pre-dug a post hole, waited til night and ‘posted’ the birdhouse among the ferns about 20 feet away. (Something most beekeepers would tell you NOT to do because the bees might not be able to find their way back to the hive.) I stuffed tissue paper into the entrance hole so the bees would notice something was different. They would have to make orientation flights all over again. I’m thinking that maybe the Warre was too close to the birdhouse…if I move it away, maybe they will want it more. My wife said I was crazy to think that. I says, ‘maybe,’ but we’ve got to get it out of the way.
Next day, the birdhouse/hive is in it’s new location. The bees are aware something is different because of the tissue paper stuffed in the entrance hole.
As my wife bicycled to town, I noticed a bunch of activity between the birdhouse and the Warre hive. I got my camera to document my findings…I was going to have it on camera so I could show her I knew what I was doing. They are fanning from the nasonov gland to indicate the queen is within. Wow, that didn’t take long. My wife is going to have to admit I was right, but I’ll be humble and admit it’s just a stroke of luck. But it was too good to be true. By the time she returned the crowd at the entrance was thinning and the bees rejected this hive once again.
Here is where they will stay. It’s the house they chose and while the location has changed a few times, the house is the same. I just wish I could have fastened it to a taller post.
Mary’s bees have settled in now. They have discovered the Poached egg meadowfoam.
Mary’s bee cleaning off her antennae. How do I know they are Mary’s bees? The abdomen colors are different. I’m happy to get new genetics in my bee yard.
In an effort to get the bees to move up to box #3, I made some ladders. The first two boxes were full. I knew I better give them more room, but they wouldn’t move up…until I added ladders.
March 24, 2014…I pulled out some bars so I could replace them with ladders. I’m reluctant to use foundation, so I’m being miserly with what I have left in old comb…MY COMB which doesn’t contain any toxins from mite strips, meds, or antibiotics. As long as the ladders are 7.5″ (19 cm) they work well.
Second ladder is added. In all I placed about four ladders. A 7.5″ (19 cm) length of wood is added for stability. The remaining four bars have small pieces of comb melted on. When I have no comb left, I just use the lengths of wood with wax melted on.
Looking up from underneath the box at the ladders and non ladders.
March 24, 2014…bees moved in right away.
April 18, 2014…#3 box is 3/4 full, time to add box #4.
April 18, 2014…I just added box #4, again with ladders…bees move up immediately.
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 