The First Swarm Capture

Emily, Maggie, and I took a trip to the hives on Saturday morning.  The blue sky dotted by puffy white clouds provided the usual hot and humid South Florida summer day.  As I geared up I explained to my companions the goals of this hive inspection.  "I am checking for worker brood lay patterns.  I want to see tight brood patterns and lots of them.  I am also looking for amounts of drone cells and the presence of any queen cells", I told them while pulling the gloves all the way up my arms.   Unbeknown to us, we had walked by something very special and never realized it!

We walked right by this and didn't notice until it was pointed out to us!

As Jerry scrambled to get a box together to catch the swarm, I continued my work on the colonies so I could finish and go help.  Queen Sophia continues to lay plenty of brood.  The hive still contains plenty of room and no signs of honey production, so I put it back together and will check next week for more progress.

It is nice having someone else there to take the pictures...but I feel compelled to "ham it up".

Moderate bee levels with a great tight lay pattern in the middle of the frame.  Also, this is from the upper box, which is a good sign of the overall health of the hive.

Queen Sophia has been busy.  All those filled cells are worker brood!

The other hive, however, had signs of preparations to swarm.  These signs include: crowded chambers, queen cells (not hatched) attached to the upper frame, and tons of healthy worker brood.

The inner cover and the hives are pull of propolis!  This plant substance glues things together pretty good. 

Always start a full hive inspection with the bottom box.

There is still room to draw comb and continue to expand populations...so I don't think it was this colony that swarmed.

This colony needed more room to expand!  Plenty of empty cell remained for continued worker brood development, so I removed a frame of honey and added it to a new box.  This new box placed atop a queen excluder is called a "honey super".  It will only contain honey since the queen cannot fit through the screen I placed below and prevents her from laying eggs in the box.  The extra room also allows the bees to spread out a bit and helps prevent swarming.  This delicate balance between an apiarist and their hives remains the never-ending challenge and one that takes a while to master.  I am no master.  The hive now contains 3 boxes and will, hopefully, have a box full of honey within the next few weeks (depending on the local nectar flows).

All the white is capped honey.  Bees cap the honey when it is at the right moisture content and ready to be stored.

There were two frames that looked like this.  I moved one up to the new honey super.

Close up of the capped honey.

Adding the honey super above the queen excluder.

Now to the swarm!  Jerry geared up as well and we both marveled at the sight of tens of thousands of honey bees stuck to the branch.  The simple plan consisted of lightly misting the bees to weigh down their wings then clip the branch off, hold it over a new box, and shake the branch.  Getting the queen into the box means a successful catch.  So that is what we did!

Jerry getting ready for the capture by cutting back some excess branches.

Placing the new box.

Maggie and the Swarm!!!  She shows no fear!

Going over the plan. 

Weighing down their wings with a little misting of water.

Removing the swarm infested branch from the tree.

It only took one shake to get the bees off and into the box!

Pretty impressive!

Sealing up the box to trap the queen inside.

I think we got her seeing how attracted to the box all the bees are.

We are not too sure where the swarm came from.  Jerry has quite a few hives and mine did not show strong evidence of already swarming.  Either way, this rare opportunity greatly increased my understanding of the swarm and capturing it remains one of the coolest things done since starting this new hobby.

A special thanks to my lovely wife, Emily, for documenting this trip!

Next on the agenda: procure extracting equipment, make a solar wax melter, start harvesting honey (hopefully sooner than later).  Being in South Florida, we have 11 months of honey flow.  The rest of the US has a few weeks of flow in the spring and autumn.  This proves that life is sweeter in Miami...HA!  So until next time, bee kind to your neighborhood pollinators!

Long Live the Queen(s)

"..and so, Queen Sophia ruled with passion and kindness over her kingdom and they all lived happily ever after.  The End."  No way a story about honey bees would ever end that way!  I mean, really!?!  Although maybe...


The Colony's New Queen by Jon Hofius

The sun beat down upon the colony the day it all went down.  A new queen arrived and word had spread throughout the buzzing town.  Leary and defensive, the colony quickly investigated her new cage.  This queen looks young, can she rule the colony at this very very young age?  Without saying a word she began to direct her new subjects right away.  They all got to work collecting pollen and nectar for this queen they had to obey.

Some workers stayed back trying to free their queen but a cork would not allow.  Until three days later the keeper came back and switched it with a marshmallow!  They ate away with all their might working around the clock.  It was kind of like the marshmallow was some sort of delicious lock!  Once released, Queen Sophia got busy laying eggs.  New worker brood, in tight patterns, meant everything was going to be ok. 

One week later, the keeper returned and smiled upon the hive.  "I'm just glad to see things are back to normal and the queen is still alive."  TO BE CONTINUED....

Of course, in true South Florida fashion (summer time fashion at least), it was perpetually overcast and a thunderstorm loomed in the distance.  I learned my lesson and now wear a veil and gloves on those days.  So yes, Queen Sophia saved the colony from impending destruction and they will continue to grow the colony back to normal size and have started collecting food.

The other hive, I am happy to report, shows about 40% capped honey comb on at least 4 of its frames.  This discovery means that the colony finished its summer expansion and it is honey time!  If it appears that I have at least a month left in Jerry's backyard (because the city is not done laying the sewer pipe in the Plantation) then I might add a honey super (that is a hive box above a queen excluder that keeps the queen from laying brood where I want to be collecting honey)!  The bees will still have to draw out the comb on the new frames and then fill them with honey, so the first time will take much longer than subsequent honey flows.  I will check in the next week to see how much more of the frames are capped to see if the food supply will support a quick fill of the super.

As for the naming of the colonies...I have still not named them.  I mean, it took enough brain power to name the new queen Sophia!  Maybe it is time to name the other queen (picture on request, will get as soon as I can).  So far names that have been suggested: Isabella, Nina, Santa Maria (Rob's suggestion)...let me know.  Her nature is gentle and highly productive...and keep the name suggestions Italian! 

Thanks for reading and as always...bee kind to your neighborhood pollinators!

Queen Sophia

Terrible news...I lost a queen.  She died during the transit from the Plantation to her new home in Jerry's backyard.  Jerry has several colonies of his own and allowed me to keep the two colonies in his backyard during the sewer pipe laying endeavor by the city of Miami through the Plantation.  The queen could have passed for many reasons, but the important take away remains that re-queening needed to happen ASAP!  How do you get a new queen that has already been bred?  The Internet.

Lighting the smoker.

Taking apart the hive.

The bottom box.  I was checking to see if another queen returned that the colony produced...there was no evidence of a new queen.

Removing frames.

As you can see, there are no filled cells...no eggs, larvae, NOTHING.  This is hard evidence of a lack of a queen.

Empty frames...sucks.

The queens death was recent enough that bee populations have not been greatly affected yet.

Worker bees can sense when queens are ill, old, or need to be replaced and will start to make a new one.  They tried in my hive, but they were not successful.  Also, it is better management practice to re-queen with young queens from reputable apiarists because it prevents the growth of Africanized colonies.  So I introduce to you, for the first time, Queen Sophia.  Emily thinks Sophia sounds Italian enough...and it the name is close to my niece's name.

Queen Sophia in her cage with some workers.  This is how she came shipped to the house.  She is the big one on the right.

When colonies lack strong leadership, they get lethargic and protective at the same time!  The queen introduction got a little ugly and I had to wear the hood and gloves.  Oh, I forgot to mention that it was overcast and thundering in the distance...you think I would learn my lesson about working the bees on ugly days.  Anyways, I was very thankful I had my hood and gloves nearby or I would have paid for the weather by more stings than I already got (two, direct hits to the thumb)!  I left her in the cage for two days before going back to get her ready for release.  When I returned to the hive, the bees were bringing in lots of pollen and their temperament had improved greatly!  I popped the cork out of her cage and put in a marshmallow.  I will go back in two more days and see if she is released and laying.  Why a marshmallow?  The bees can eat through it and release Queen Sophia into the hive while it is all closed up.

The hood comes out.

Chickens share the yard with the bees...they stay clear of the hives.

Taking care of business all dressed up!

Queens Sophia's official welcoming to the hive.  She cannot be released immediately or she will be killed.  A few days later I came back and set her up to be released into the hive.

The other colony, however, is producing small amounts of honey and has become a bit more protective themselves.  Also, the amount of propolis (a sticky bi product bees use to seal things up) was ridiculous!  When I was taking the boxes apart they would POP and the bees would get airborne and start stinging me.  Needless to say, I am still learning and a little embarrassed I had to whip out the protective gear.  I will continue to keep it close by, but most of the time I am able to work the hives without it (plus it is super hot out and the gear doesn't help).

That is about it...oh wait, forgot to mention one lesson I learned a very hard way: smokers are HOT!  As I was quickly scooping all my gear up to get out of there, I picked up my smoker and let it rest against my arm equating to a second degree burn instantly.

Swelling thumb.

The burn...the blister already popped...gross.

 Thanks for reading, send me your questions at buenobees@gmail.com and I can address them here.  Until next time, bee nice to your neighborhood pollinators!