If You Build It, They Will Come

So last year we had two hives of bees, both started from packages installed in the spring. Neither colony made it through the winter. We decided not to buy packages this year, and Trish said offhand that maybe some bees would find our hives and move in. Guess what happened yesterday? A swarm moved into one of our hives. Neither of us were home when it happened, but our housemate reported seeing a huge column of bees around noon. Now there is a lot of activity in the hive with bees going in and out.

Trish never cleared the honey and comb out of the hives, so we imagine that the bees are busy cleaning things up to their satisfaction. We don't think the old colony was diseased or anything, so there shouldn't be an issue with the new colony taking up residence. These bees are the first natural swarm we've had.

By the way, if anyone is interested in keeping bees this year in the Seattle area and is looking for a Warre hive, Trish does build them, so feel free to drop us a line.

Looking Good

Our bees still seem to be happy and healthy. We see them in the yard enjoying the flowering herbs especially. They like our fennel plants quite a lot.

We realized this year that we want to start planting more flowers that bloom later into the summer/fall. Maybe some mums and asters? Please let me know if you have suggestions.

Last year the nectar flow dried out at this time of year, so I know Trish is keeping an eye out this year to see if she wants to supplement their diet with some bee tea.

Buzzing Along

Both of the hives are doing well! We see bees in the flowers and flowering herbs in our yard every day. The bees enjoy lavender and borage, of course, and we also see them in the oregano. If you aren't already planting borage, I would encourage you to plant some if you want to attract pollinators; here's some good info about borage. It has pretty, star-like flowers, and it's also believed to have medicinal benefits.

The other plant our bees love is Crocosmia, or "Lucifer" flowers. Here's a photo from Wikipedia--and it's perfect because we have had hummingbirds visiting ours quite a lot, too (or maybe just one hummingbird who returns quite a lot).

We have been seeing butterflies in the yard a lot, too. It's been nice to see so much activity. Trish's close attention to gardening shows a lot of rewards!

A Hive in a Hurry

This week Trish hurried to finish a hive for our friends Yun and Jade because their hive split. The swarm of bees took up residence in their neighbor's yard, and they called a local bee expert to collect the swarm. The bees waited for a couple days in a screened (ventilated) box (courtesy of the bee expert) while Trish finished up building a hive. Then yesterday she went over and helped install the bees in their new home.

Meanwhile the two hives in our yard are very active, and both seem to be growing every day. Trish thinks the hive by the garden may split/swarm, too, so she is going to add a fourth box to the hive soon.

Remember that if you're in the Seattle area and interested in a Warre hive, let us know as Trish would love to build you one. You might very well be able to get a swarm for your hive as this is a great season for bees so far, and I would think that many local hives will split/swarm.

Warm May Weather, Active Bees

I've lived in the Seattle area my whole life, and I can't remember such a long streak of summer-like weather in May. Well, apparently this is the longest rain-free streak in May since 1946 and 1958.

The bees are super-active, as you might guess. Here are two pictures I snapped today, both showing the hive in the backyard. The other hive is located in the side yard, and it's also been plenty busy.

It's been interesting to have two hives to be able to compare and contrast. The bees in the side yard have always seemed more boisterous, something we noticed the day we picked them up. We heard them buzzing as we drove home from Beez Neez, while the other bees were silent. Trish thinks that possibly the side yard bees are sometimes going into the hive of the backyard bees to rob them of some honey, but we can't be sure.

In other bee news, Trish had a look through the observation windows of the backyard hive this morning and was pretty sure she saw some brood emerging from cells of comb. The timing sounds about right: I read that it takes 21 days for a worker bee to hatch.

I wish I could get a picture that shows how you can look up into the air near the hives and watch the bees heading back and forth. They're pretty high up, like 10-12 feet or more, I'd say. There are so many of them flying so quickly on their looping paths. I've compared them to bottle rockets before in a poem, and today they reminded me of stunt pilots.

The Bees Are Settling In

Last Wednesday (April 17) we were lucky to have a sunny day for our drive to Snohomish to pick up two packages of honeybees. Even better, the sunny weather made for a perfect afternoon to install the packages into the hives. This is our first year having two hives instead of just one.

Trish has become quite the pro as far as the bee installation goes. My job is more to make sure our two cats stay inside during the process because they're very curious and want to interfere (I think if we could ask them, they would say they're "helping"). Right when we got home, one of the cats sort of leapt/charged at the package that was waiting near one of the hives. Anyway, the cat wrangling is the easy part.

The more complicated part, of course, is Trish's role as the bee-installer. Over time, she's come up with a lot of ways to make this easier. For example, she lays out all her tools on a bench she puts near the hive so that everything she needs is just at hand (smoker, pliers, bee brush, etc). She also has learned that it works best to cut away more of the screen from the bee package rather than to try to force all the bees out of the small hole at the top (the first year, we'd watched a YouTube video where the beekeeper shook the package until all the bees came out the hole, and most of them do come out, but many of them linger in the package, and it's easier to get those bees out by just cutting away one of the walls of the package). Well, I'll have to ask Trish for a list of tips she's put together. This was her third time installing packages of bees.

From an observer's perspective, the process went pretty quickly, but I'm sure it felt longer for Trish inside her protective gear. The bees have been very busy and active in their first week here, even over the weekend when the weather was on the rainy side. Go, bees!

Tea for Bees

We're seeing honeybees on clearer, warmer parts of the day, but it's getting to be that time of year where we just have to hope there are enough bees in the colony to keep each other warm through the winter and that there's plenty of honey, too. We're pretty sure they have a good amount of honey, and Trish did decide to supplement their stores with a bit of bee tea.

Instead of just serving up plain old sugar water, Trish uses 1 part organic chamomile tea to 2 parts organic sugar. In the spring, it would be 1 to 1, but a thicker syrup is better this time of year because it requires less energy for the bees to convert the thicker syrup to honey. She also adds lemon to bring the pH of the sugar closer to the pH of honey. Then she adds a pinch of salt, which reduces the strain on their metabolism (according to Gunther Hauk). Finally, she adds a tablespoon of honey she saved from the beehive last year; this contains important enzymes for the bees.

Over the past week, the bees have consumed 1 pint of bee tea.

Goodbye, Drones?

It's been a warmer and drier fall in Seattle this year, and on sunnier days, we're still seeing bees entering the hive carrying pollen here in late October. Trish read that this could be troublesome news as it might mean the bees are still raising brood this late in the season, but since we're not opening up the hive to look, we don't know. The interesting thing about seeing bees with pollen this time of year is that it really makes us look around when we're walking around the neighborhood to guess at possible pollen sources.

The other thing we're seeing is a lot of bee activity and interaction, and we think the workers are kicking the drones out of the hive. Trish saw a couple of specific incidents where it was like one bee was escorting another bee out of the hive, just flying it right outta there and dropping it across the yard. I know bees will remove dead bees from the hive, too, but these seem to be interactions between live bees. Another theory is that maybe there are some robber bees from other hives trying to steal some honey. Well, maybe both of these things are happening!

A couple of savvy yellowjackets have been hanging around the hive, just waiting for any bees who happen to die. The yellowjackets don't care if they snack on drones or robber bees or just plain worker bees at the ends of their busy lives. I guess you might say that yellowjackets are the vultures of the insect world, at least in our backyard.