swarm | Adventures in Natural Beekeeping

Posts Tagged ‘swarm’

Hal Nails Log Hive #4…Patti Shows Us Her Garden

Posted in Hives, Log hives, Swarms, Videos, tagged 1x12" log hive, attracting a swarm, Hal Strain, log hive, natural beekeeping, Patti Strain, swarm, Wannebee log hive on May 25, 2015| 6 Comments »

May 21, 2015.....Hal stands proudly next to his log hive #4. The bees voted his hive as their top favorite place and moved in about two weeks ago. How tall is it...? Eight feet tall (2.4 meters) Bee hive capacity is 7524 cubic inches (123 liters)

May 21, 2015…..Hal stands proudly next to his log hive #4. Bees voted his hive as their top favorite place and moved in about two weeks ago. How tall is it…? Eight feet tall (2.4 meters) Bee hive capacity is 7524 cubic inches (123 liters)

Frames are cut away to be able to see the comb being built through the observation window.

Looking inside the hive during the construction phase, you can see the screen Hal nailed in to let the mites fall down.

Looking inside the hive during the construction phase, you can see the screen Hal nailed in to let the mites fall through.

Bottom board holder slot

Hal explains the construction of it.

May 18...Comb length after about two weeks 3 days. Note the mid entrance hole.

May 18…Comb length after about two weeks. Note the mid entrance hole.

May 21…Three days later, the comb is even with the mid entrance hole.

Log hive #5? Hal already has the wood for it. He will be using cedar this time.
Solarbeez might have to build one too. 🙂

It's Garden Time...and time for Patti to show off her garden.

It’s Garden Time…and time for Patti to show it to us.

Patti, a young 80 year-old, built this fountain and pond completely by herself.

Patti, a young 80 year-old, built this fountain and did all the landscaping for the garden. The surface she’s standing on are old recycled roofing tiles.

Lobelia grows between the steps that lead to the deck.

Cosmos are blooming already.

Sedum will provide much needed nectar during August and September. I’m very grateful to Hal and Patti for alerting me to this wonderful nectar source for my bees.

What do you do with a log hive that has rotted out? If you're Hal and Patti Strain, you'll make a pretty flower bed out of it. They've already had some requests to make more.

What do you do with a log hive that has rotted out? If you’re Hal and Patti Strain, you’ll make a pretty flower bed out of it. They’ve already had requests to make more.

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Mystery Tree Revealed…It’s a Birch Tree

Posted in Follow a tree, Log hives, Swarms, tagged Birch, Grand kid log hive, natural beekeeping, swarm on May 13, 2015| 13 Comments »

Many thanks to Jeff Ollerton and HB for giving me the identity of this tree.

It just so happened that at the same time I was trying to identify the tree, we walked by Barbara's house. She grows many bonsai trees. We asked her if she knew what the tree was. "Clearly it's a River Birch," she says, "compare it to my little River Birch on the left."

It just so happened that at the same time I was trying to identify the tree, we walked by Barbara’s house. She grows many bonsai trees. “Clearly it’s a River Birch,” she says, “compare it to my little River Birch on the left.”

This leaf shows a wedge-shaped base typical of the River Birch.

The weird thing about the leaf is that there are two different shapes. This one shows a more squarish base. That really threw me when trying to identify the type of tree. Both leaves are from the same tree. Does the age of the leaf determine the shape?

May 13, 2015…Looking at a bunch of leaves together, we can see various wedge shaped bases…some more acute than others.

May 13, 2015…Looking upward into the umbrella, you can see the white bark limbs…

…but looking at the trunk, you’ll see cinnamon colored bark.

According to Wikipedia, “Betula nigra (black birch, river birch, water birch) is a species of birch native to the Eastern United States from New Hampshire west to southern Minnesota, and south to northern Florida and west to Texas.”

It grows in the East, not the West. I guess the jury is still out on the type of birch it is.

5-13-15…Big news today: A ginormous swarm is moving INTO my Grand Kids Log hive today! Detailed post to follow.

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Mary’s Swarm Lands in the Backyard Birdhouse

Posted in Bee to Flower relationship, Bee-loving flowers, Natural Beekeeping, Poached Egg Meadowfoam, Swarms, Videos, Warre Hive, tagged bee-loving flowers, beekeeping, bees on Oregon Coast, honey bees, macro nature video, Mary Schamehorn, Mayor of Bandon, natural beekeeping, nature photography, poached egg meadowfoam, swarm, Warre hive, Wild pollinators on May 16, 2014| 10 Comments »

…that’s when she called me.

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 in.

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 the birdhouse next to the newly assembled and baited Warre hive. I was hoping the bees would recognize a 4 star lodge with ample room to grow.

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 I 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 my wife I knew what I was doing.

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.

Mayor Mary’s side of the story… (Scroll towards the bottom til you see the birdhouse swarm)

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Adding ladders to a Warre and ‘Tanging’

Posted in Hives, Swarms, Videos, Warre Hive, tagged beekeeping, natural beekeeping, swarm, swarm video, tanging a swarm, Warre hive on May 1, 2013| 9 Comments »

What to do if you need to add ‘ladders’ to your Warre box, but you don’t have any comb. I don’t want to use any plastic foundation or anyone else’s comb. So I’m using melted organic wax and painting it on posts hung from the top bars. It worked last time so I feel confident it’ll work this time.

It doesn’t take much wax, or much time to melt, so stick around when you do this.

It doesn't take much melted wax to coat bars and posts

Coating the bars and posts

These are how the t-posts will hang down once they are in the hive

These are how the t-post ladders will hang down once they are in the hive…trouble is I couldn’t remember if the bees build comb with less than 3/8 inch or more than 3/8 inch.

I started gathering the items together, went out to my bee hives and observed what looked like a swarm forming. I grabbed the melting pot and spoon and started tanging. Three days ago they headed back in when I tried tanging. Maybe this time too, then I’ll add the extra box and maybe they’ll be happy.