Sandi works for a company that orders printing from me all the time. Whenever she would call, I’d bore her with my excitement about bees. At that point I didn’t have any bees and was building swarm bait hives, wondering where I could place them, and in general being hyper about getting some. Eventually, I got some bees. So when Sandi called in late June to say she had a swarm on her property and didn’t want them because she was allergic, I felt obligated to get them. She had suffered through my bee-brain ramblings, so I better come through. I was still smarting from the feral bee hive transfer to Bee Beard Log Hive and didn’t want a third hive, but there was a couple whose daughter had built them a top bar hive that needed bees. I called them and yes, they still wanted bees.
I’m sure there are better ways to capture a swarm. These bees were snug against the trunk of a small fir tree. I couldn’t bend the tree over the bucket to shake them in so I just sort of ‘brushed’ them into the bucket…watching for the bees to stick there rear ends up and fan the pheramone…”the queen is in the bucket.” Hearing the grandkids exclamations are priceless.
I don’t understand it. I got stung 25 times when transferring bees into Bee Beard and didn’t swell up as much as this time with only 5 stings!
I’m happy to report my Bee Beard log hive came through the hurricane-force winds without getting blown over. The bamboo and ‘staked’ hay bales must have protected it enough.
Since we are new to beekeeping we try to pay attention to the advice of more experienced beekeepers. We have been warned about robber bees attacking the hive…robbing the honey. I shot this video in an effort to find out if my log hive is getting robbed. I don’t know whether these are robber bees or just the normal activity of the hive. They are still bringing in pollen so I’m assuming (naively?) it’s all normal behavior. The bees came from a feral hive in a tree on private property. Maybe it’s strong enough to defend itself.
A short video of my Warre Hive is included. Much less activity can be seen around the Warre. Is it because I’m feeding them sugar? Maybe the bees don’t feel the need to venture out.
It’s early November when the clouds parted and the sun popped out. The day started warming and the bees started flying. It had been overcast and rainy for about a week, so I guess the bees were anxious to get out, but I was surprised to see so much pollen coming back in. The Warre hive had bees flying but not returning with the ‘gobs’ of pollen like the log hive…could it be because I’m feeding sugar to the Warre hive and not to the log hive?
I have no idea what kind of pollen they are bringing back. Nothing is blooming in the garden but rosemary and borage and I don’t see many bees on it. Is this normal behavior this late in the year? Comments are appreciated.
After reading the comment from Emily Heath, I started looking around the area for ivy. To my surprise it was growing all over the place. It’s one of those things that you don’t see until someone points it out to you. I had to get close to see the blossoms and that’s when I saw the bees. I hope some of them came from my hives.
When I decided to place my new Bee Beard Log Hive I considered many things. I wanted it placed where it would get the morning sun shining into the entrance, well beyond the long reach of the tree shadows in winter, and protected from the raging winter winds that blast from the southwest. Also I wanted the hive to be visible if possible, on the edge of the garden, so we could observe the bees whenever we worked outside. The placement of the hive in front of the bamboo satisfied all the requirements. What I didn’t know is that bamboo attracts wasps. When I started seeing all the wasps on the bamboo I started to panic. What are they doing around my log hive? I started recalling the stories at the bee meeting about all the hives that are lost to wasps. How did I know bamboo attracts wasps? Is that common knowledge?
Wasp on Bamboo leaf over Bee Beard log hive.
The bamboo was leaning over the log hive…are the wasps going to attack my bees? What to do?
I plugged the last gap by stuffing the inner tube into it. Wasps won’t get in here
Found a piece of bamboo that fit the 1 1/2″ (3.81 cm) hole. This reduces the hole making it easier to guard against wasps.
After consulting the internet about bamboo I found out that wasps gather fibers from the bamboo for their paper nests. That’s what they are doing on the bamboo, not attacking the log hive,
We feel that wasps have a place in our garden. We won’t kill them because they really aren’t bothering us or the bees, The ground hive is almost never used the next year and once the cold weather hits, it will be inactive.
I shot a short video showing the wasps on the bamboo as well as the very active ground hive.,,
In anticipation of the wet stormy weather that the Oregon Coast is known for, I closed up some gaps on the log hive with a bicycle inner tube.
Bee Beard gets a headband to protect against the cold winter winds.
Bee Beard with headband as seen from side
Bee Beard as seen through the observation window 10-8-12. Bee-built tunnels provide access to the honey.
The large number of unfilled cells is a concern, but the bees are still packing pollen, so hopefully they will get filled with something.
This truck inner tube covers the gaps in the ‘wood plug’ that covers the observation window. It’s removable so I’ll be able to look through the window from time to time.
This log hive has exceeded my expectations for the summer. It has built up fast, didn’t swarm like my hive last year, (swarmed two months after I got it), and has out performed the Warre hive even though I got it going about the same time. Now for the real test…will it make it through the winter? I haven’t taken any honey from it, I’m not going to medicate or hang miticides, and I’m not going to feed it. It came from a natural living tree hive and made it through the winter last year without intervention so I feel it has a good chance. The only intervention I have given it is to peer through the window from time to time. If I get a swarm from it next year, I’ll count it as a success. Maybe I’ll have my next log hive set up in time.
Quite a mouthful. This photo was taken the evening before.
The bees started being very active fairly early in the morning. I ran to get the video camera to document what was going on. They grouped up on the outside of the hive entrance. The group slowly moved up the right side of the hive and then under the nose. My wife thinks this was a bunch of drones hatching, because they look bigger. I couldn’t get couldn’t get a good fix on the eye pattern. The next day was normal activity. Any ideas? We welcome your comments.
Burying the very available crab shell and coffee grounds to spice up the soil is the first thing. Warre hive is on the left and Bee Beard carved log hive on the right. I’m in good company.
Potatoes…should we harvest now or leave them in to grow more? If I leave them in, the voles might eat them…I better take them out. Then I can plant buckwheat in both beds.
Red Pontiacs – Three at once
A mole tunnel…the moles dig the tunnels, the voles follow the tunnels to the potatoes. More than a few potatoes had been chewed on, so it was good idea to get them out of the ground.
Some of the potatoes harvested from this first potato bed. We could have left them in to grow more, but the voles would have taken a big bite out of our harvest. This way we can grow buckwheat in both beds for the bees in September.
We’ve been fairly successful in the “no tilling” method for a few years. We think it’s important to use less manufactured energy and more physical energy. Is spading ‘as good as’ using a tiller? Probably not, but it’s important to be able to grow food without using fossil fuel for the possible time when we don’t have any.
We have dug in crab shell, kitchen scraps (no meat), comfrey leaves, and coffee grounds to enhance the soil. Now we’re planting the buckwheat seed.
The drip irrigation grid and the deer netting are in place.
Why do we need deer netting? Because of her…and all her offspring!
According to this article by the Thomas Jefferson Agricultural Institute “…buckwheat crop seems to improve soil tilth, and is reported to make phosphorous more available as a soil nutrient, possible through root-associated mycorrhizae. Buckwheat flowers profusely, making it popular with bee keepers and an attractive crop in the landscape.”
Sept. 9, 2012…about 5 weeks after planting, buckwheat is looking good. Bees have been working the blossoms for a couple of weeks already.
Sept. 9, 2012…Honeybees attending to the buckwheat blossoms under the deer netting.
A fly mimicking a bee on the buckwheat blossom.
My wife saved me the ultimate embarrassment of thinking I found some kind of new bee. “Honey, that’s a FLY!” “Ulp.”
This short video shows the progress of the swarm that was transferred from the bait hive to Bee Beard on June 2nd. Now after 7 weeks, viewing through the observation window, you can see the bottom of the bee cluster is below the level of the mouth entrance. Initially, bee beard would face southwest into the winter wind. For that reason, an alternate entrance was drilled towards the north rear. When we decided to locate Bee Beard facing east, that alternate entrance was plugged with tissue paper. To my surprise, the bees have just pulled out that tissue paper and you can see a bee flying out with a bit. In the slightly out of focus video through the observation window, you can see bees carrying out bits of paper. Also seen are bees carrying pollen from blackberries and St. John’s Wort…my bees won’t suffer from depression!
Bee Beard sports a great entrance hole, but the bees use the slot between the hat and the top of head most of the time.
I don’t understand it…I give them a beautiful 1.5 inch (3.81 cm) diameter entrance hole in my log hive, yet they insist on using the small slot between the hat and the top of head.
The entrance the bees are using is less than .25″ (about 6 mm) even though a beautiful round entrance hole was provided for them below.
A short video can be seen here showing the bees entering through narrow slot between hat and top of head, followed by a shot looking through the observation window to see the natural comb. This was shot 17 days after the transfer from bait box to log hive.
The creation of Bee Beard was influenced by many different people. Hal (The Story of Hal’s Bee Trees) was the main instigator. He started his first log hive around May or June 2011. I was impressed that a swarm had actually picked his log hive to live in. I liked his hands-off log hive credo…
“BEES WILL NOT BE MOVED, MEDICATED OR ROBBED OF HONEY
THE COLONY MAY SWARM AS DIRECTED BY NATURE”
I wanted to try the same thing, but not being retired I knew I wouldn’t be able to spend so much time hollowing it out. I looked up log hives on the web and came across Gaia Bees. I emailed Michael Thiele who gave me directions on hollowing out the log. It was about this time that a new beekeeping friend, Terry Kelly of Berkeley, a writer, top bar beekeeper, and mushroom log grower, started sending me packets of bee articles he liked. My log was partially hollowed out when another packet of articles came in the mail. The very first thing I saw were copies of Slovenian Bee Hive Art. Not only were there paintings but there was a face carved on the front of a hive that served as the entrance to the hive. The bees entered through the mouth, nose, and eyes into the hive. It took all of 10 seconds to decide I wanted to do something like that on my log hive.
I shared my idea of a wood carving with my wife, and she suggested I try the new chainsaw wood carver in town. I talked up the idea with Brian and Zada Vorwaller. He offered some suggestions and we came up with Bee Beard. His wife, Zada videotaped the carving and my son-in-law, Jim Montgomery edited, sped it up, and made it you-tube acceptable.
I wanted feral bees if possible, but commercial hives are placed in the bogs near me between late May into mid July. I knew I had to populate the hives before the bog bees got interested. How to get feral bees became an obsession. After reading McCartney Taylor’s book on Swarm Traps and Bait Hives, I built 9 bait hives. Hung them mostly on private property. I want to thank Bernhard Zaunreiter (see Swarm Trapping 2012) for posting a photographic “how-to prepare bait hives” post on the biobee.com forum,” and answering my bait hive questions.
I finally was rewarded after placing two boxes on or near feral bee hive trees. On one of the weekly inspections, both had caught swarms. This bottom tree supplied Bee Beard.
The transfer of bees from bait hive to Bee Beard was quite an adventure, but the bees are settling in now and the itching is subsiding.
I want to express my appreciation to Phil Chandler for creating biobees.com forum. I’ve got so much to learn and this is a very friendly, positive and informative place to do that. Thanks to those stalwart friends who gave me encouragement during my dark days of no bees, when I started regretting not ordering package bees and despairing that I wouldn’t get ANY bees for another year. Mobeek, Bugscouter, KittyLabyrinth, newwoman, baz, and jaywoo kept me going.
This short video shows the bees entering through the hat. I left a little gap in the quilt box to make it easier to pull out. I think that’s where they are going. A few enter through the mouth entrance. I’m hoping when the comb gets built down that far, they will use the mouth entrance more.
I noticed the bamboo is shading the hive too much in the afternoon…the Warre Hive, on the south side of the bamboo works 1-2 hours longer, so I’m going to trim back the bamboo to get more sun in late afternoon. After all, that could spell the difference between making it, or not making it.
Adventures in Natural Beekeeping 