May 1, 2016

Spring has been cold and slow this year, so the package bees are running late, as is everything else.  They should now arrive from Georgia tomorrow, on May 2nd. A whole pallet load is being picked up and driven immediately up here to Eversweet Apiary in Kearneysville, WV and I will be there bright and early to get my two packages. Then it is home to install the poor things in their new home with some already drawn comb from last year, to help them along. Mixing up sugar syrup today with 1 and 1/2 gallons( = 12 pounds)  hot water to 12 pounds of granulated sugar) to pour into their top feeders and thawing some pollen patties to feed them as well.

I  will have five hives this year, which means there should be enough brood to share between the hives if needed. I painted them all a pretty spring green so they blend in better with the landscape.

The lowest box holds ten frames, some of which has already drawn comb and one with a little honey on it. The second box is initially to surround the opened package so they can calmly walk out and move into their new home on the frames below. The queen will hang in her tiny cage between the frames until they chew their way in to her and let her out in a day or two. Meanwhile they can get used to her pheromone smell and hopefully accept her. They will kill her if she doesn’t smell right.

The third box up is the sugar syrup feeder which has a round screened light vent cut into it to keep them from building comb up there. They prefer to build in the dark and I do not want comb all over the place. I want them organized on the hanging frames and easily workable.

May 2

I picked up the bees, brought them home and had a problem right away. The queen in box one arrived dead. she was wedged up in the sugar with her head close to the screen and the bees probably stung her to death. So I had to drive back and get a new queen, which cost me an unexpected $37.  This time I got a Carniolian Queen  instead of the Italian that was shipped. They are supposed to do better here and not eat so much in the winter.

Got the Queens hung on the frames and packages opened and turned on their side in the empty box above. Installed a half pound slab of pollen patty across the top of the frames as well, to supply protein to enable brood rearing. Then I poured a gallon of syrup in each feeder for carbohydrates that enable them to build comb.

I was not sure where to install the inner cover, above or below the feeder,  so I put it on top of the feeder and then the roof on top of that.  I missed the first class where they discussed this and I can’t find an answer on line or in my books.

May 3rd

I called Ed Forney at Geezer Ridge this morning and asked him what to do with the inner cover and he told me not to use it when a top feeder is in place because there is a notch in it that will allow the bees in to the very top and they will drown in the syrup. Sure enough. I went back out right away and took them off but had already lost about 60 bees to drowning. With things put together right the bees access the syrup from underneath and climb out on the wire mesh.  It could have been worse.

While I was out in the bee yard, I removed the now vacated packages and the hive boxes around them. I also checked the queen cages but they had not been released yet so I left them alone. I will check them again in a couple more days. The international marking color for queens this year is black, which is useless. They need to erase that one from the list. There is no way to see it when there is so much black on the bees. Normally, painting them with the annual color could be helpful in spotting them. Glad I did not pay extra for it.

The eleagnus, or Autumn Olive, is blooming right now as are the ranunculus or Buttercups. Also the invasive garlic mustard and the yellow mustard, dandelions and phlox divaricata, or Woodland phlox, are all in bloom, so there are a few things for the bees out there. It has been really cold, damp, dreary and rainy lately, which is not good for bees to fly in. As soon as there is sun  they will be out doing double time.

Adding the links to these plants has informed me of the toxicity of the ranunculus to horses and cattle. Great. I opened up the small paddock covered in them just yesterday. Now I will be going back out and closing it off, although apparently horses don’t usually eat it unless they are starving, which she is definitely not. It is all mixed in with  orchard grass and clover, which I hate to have to kill. Sometimes I feel as though I cannot win. I will keep trying though.

-Wendy lee,  writing at Edgewisewoods