Great bees

Did a check of all four hives this afternoon, although only two thoroughly. They are all doing great. Given all the uncertainties this year, I’m happy with where they are. Will add a super on one this week, then probably on two more next week. More this evening.
–Slim

Good bees

Quickly: installed a new queen in the queenless hive a couple weeks ago. She’s doing great. Helen has been checking a couple of the hives, I’ve been checking the newly queened one and another. They all are doing well, and the new queen–a Carniolan–is laying well. She’s still new, so I don’t want to disturb her or the bees, but each of three frames I checked before coming upon her was full of eggs and brood. More on this topic in the next couple days.

– Slim

Bees here and elsewhere

Helen has moved the hives that were at her house back to the restaurant, and they’re doing well; she may check them tomorrow, or I may over the weekend.

Meanwhile, a friend from work sent me a story about a swarm delaying the San Diego Padres-vs-Houston Astros game this afternoon. Here’s a link to the Associated press story. A couple photos from the Union-Tribune are HERE.

– Slim

Up and down

So while South2 is doing very well, South1’s self-raised queen has disappeared without being productive. Once I consult with Helen, I’m going to order a replacement queen and see if we can’t salvage the hive. We’ll see. The hives Helen has at her house–our splits–are doing well, and they should be back on the rooftop soon. South2’s queen has been busy, and has five-plus frames of brood ready to hatch, plus new eggs and larva wherever she can fit them. I’m expecting to add a second brood chamber on next week or the week after.

I’ll augment this post tomorrow, and add some photos in another post. In the meantime, I ran across an interesting story–albeit likely from a military press release originally–on U.S. military efforts to help revive beekeeping in Afghanistan. A link is HERE. 

– Slim

Scottish cops, newsies get bees wrong

Another example, I’m afraid, of a reporter getting the tone wrong in a swarm story, this time in Glasgow, Scotland. In this case, I think it’s more the fault of city officials, specifically police, getting it wrong and “warning” people to stay away from the harmless swarm. A story is here.

More on hives and new photos in the next few days.

– Slim

Chicago bees lecture

Although I missed their lecture, here’s a link to what sounds like a comprehensive and interesting presentation by Michael Thompson of the Chicago Honey Co-Op and a University of Illinois at Chicago lecturer about urban beekeeping in Chicago. 

And here’s a slight update on the New York beekeeping situation from the New York Daily News. Looks like the Manhattan Borough president is in the bees’ corner.

All they are saying, is give bees a chance

Beekeepers in New York are protesting the Giuliani-era ban on beekeeping in New York. A story here. The New York Times has had a couple good pieces in the last few days, one a general piece on beekeeping in the city, another a blog post about a beekeepers’ ball.

While I’ve been singled out a few times over the years as a reporter inclined to look askance at Chicago’s Mayor Richard M. Daley, I note that his administration issues press releases touting his support for them, instead of issuing ridiculous bans on them.

–Slim

Queen trouble

We’ve been having queen trouble with one of the hives, but the ones at Helen’s are both good, and South2 at the restaurant is laying really well. Saw her today, and saw a new queen in South1. Once we figured out South1 lacked a queen, we decided to see if they would raise a productive new one. (I saw the original queen a couple times after we installed the bees, so I’m not sure what happened to her.) Anyway, they have raised a new one, although she may not have mated yet and isn’t laying yet. (She’s at most 6 days old, probably only a few days old, and the weather has been wet for mating flights.)
Will update more tonight.

New York bee swarm

Well, apparently the Associated Press isn’t educating their video reporters on bee topics any better than New York public schools are teaching their kids. This report on a bee swarm, which says that employees at a video store were “trapped” in the shop for hours because of a swarm shows a complete lack of understanding about swarm dynamics. Bees don’t sting very often, and they really don’t sting when swarming. So the video unfortunately feeds into the general ignorance about bees in NYC, where beekeeping is inexplicably illegal.

Here’s a link to the video.

Splitting and checking

Did a quick check of the two hives on the restaurant roof early this afternoon. Helen still has the smoker, so I suited up and checked them without it. Not always advisable! But although they were a little annoyed, no bees stung me.

To distinguish among the hives this year, as we will soon have four, I’m going to call the ones that are on the roof now South2 and South. We have two hive stands that each hold two hives, one that my friend Joe built last year, and one that Helen’s husband Mike and others made this year.

Diagram of our stands

First, an update on the splitting. It was pretty simple. I made sure the two empty hives had enough frames and constructed hangers out of copper wire for the queen cages.  (Queen cages that come in packages tend to have strips of metal attached, but that’s not always the case when the queens come separately.) Without something to hold a cage between two frames, it may slip down into the hive and the queen may not be released.

I may have taken a few too many bees from South2, the north hive of the two, but otherwise everything went well.

Today, S2 seemed busy, if less populous than South. S2’s queen took longer to get out of her cage, and so I wasn’t surprised when I saw no brood in my quick check of the hive. (it can take a while before a new queen starts laying.) But I also didn’t check all the frames. South, however, whose queen was released earlier, already has some brood going.

They both are bringing in honey and pollen, and still eating sugar water. More later.

– Slim