Just a quick note to announce that followers of this blog can now subscribe to my blog, and receive instant updates whenever I update the Harmony Hollow Apiaries site.
Thank You
Rex & Shannon
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Be sure to take a looksee at the new face for Bohemian Utopia at BohemianUtopia.com. There’s still many updates and cleaning to be done… but it’s made it a long way! Rex I wanted to send a special shout-out and thank you to Kevin Inglin of Beekeeper’s Corner. Kevin noted this blog (and Harmony Hollow Apiaries) in Episode 31 of his podcast BKCorner. He also has a Facebook page HERE. I have yet to build the hive-stand of Kevin’s design – however, I do plan on doing so in the near future. (Possibly in the Fall or winter “rebuild time”) I’ll keep you tuned in and will post photos as soon as I have it built. On a separate note: My rescue line for the Dallas, Texas area will be inactive as of the end of June 2012. I will update the page to list only the line from our Tyler, Texas location. It was time to bump up 2 of my 5-frame nuc hives to 10-frame boxes. I waited until the rain had subsided to a slow drizzle, and fired up the smoker.. and moved 2 nucs to 10-frame deep hives with screened bottom boards. I believe that this will give the bees something to do besides sitting on the front porch.
Also – Note that we are now listed on LocalHarvest.com One of my 7 hives is bearding outside the 5-frame nuc. Temperatures here in North Texas are in the mid-to high 90’s right now (1st week of June 2012). Update on 6/6/2012… We’ve had about 4-inches of rain today… and the temps are down to 70 Deg F. The bees are STILL bearding – Holding out – under the board – whilst it’s raining all around them. I’ll check their hive tomorrow to see what’s going on. Strange subject line, eh? My oldest hive seems to have lost its queen over the last month or two. The brood boxes are full of honey and pollen.. and LOTS of drones… but not a single egg, larvae, or capped brood in 2 deeps and 2 supers. My latest captured swarm has filled out EVERY available newly waxed cell with eggs – so this evening, I took one of the new frames of eggs, and placed into the lower brood box of my original hive. I knocked down the bottom 1/3 of 7 or 8 of the cells in order to persuade them to create a new queen from one of the freshly laid eggs. I’m REALLY liking the last captured swarm.
I received a message from a friend today about a swarm that had taken up a temporary home in a tree in her back yard. I loaded up the extension ladder, and high-tailed it to her home before it got too late in the evening, and evaluated what we had going on… It looked to be about 2-3 pounds of bees firmly holding on to a thick branch.. about 18-20 feet in the air.
It was dusk, so I decided to leave the box until I can make it back to check on them. It may be a few days – so hopefully, they decide that my nuc-box is a great place to live. I’ll find out then whether or not the queen has decided to take up residence in the box.
Today I checked up on a trap-out that was started about 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately, the 1-way screen was blocked with masses of dead bees – and the survivors chewed through the other blocked entrances/exits to get out. I can’t say that I blame them for their industrious nature! I made the appropriate repairs to the trap-out, and re-sealed the openings – this time, I embedded a physical barrier of a galvanized wire mesh into the sealant. So they will not be able to exit via these spaces again. unfortunately, this means that the trap-out essentially “starts over” from today. They’ve been adding pollen & nectar for at least the last 1 week. Video to come later in the week. Update 5/10/2012 Yesterday I picked up 4 new queens with which I have made 4 new hives from my original hive that was 3-deeps of brood/stores + 2 supers on top. This should make the original hive much more manageable – and provide the nucleus frames and some genetics for many hives to come in the future. On another note – I have found a local (Farmersville, Tx) source for the PERFECT pallet size for single beehives. These pallets are appx 20″x20″ square, and work perfectly with my langstroth hives. and finally… a note/commentary about safety. Yesterday I tried taking a shortcut with my equipment – and paid dearly for it. I was going to remove a single frame of eggs. In and out in less than 5 minutes. So I decided it was not worth it to fire up the smoker. Bad idea. It took me well OVER the estimated 5 minutes – and the bees got upset at my intrusion. First the ‘roar” of the hive raised audibly. Then they started warning me. Well – I kept on. I *knew* there had to be a better frame of eggs. Wrong. Dead wrong. Several bees decided that they would go exploring. Up my pants leg. Yep. you guessed it. at least 2 up each leg in a coordinated effort to reach “sensitive areas”. 2 got my hips, and a 3rd.. well, she got the blue ribbon for ringing the bell. I made it back into the house to evaluate the stings. And realized that I still had to go back out there to close up the hive and let the ladies settle down. My bee-suit took better than 200-250 stings after my return to the bee yard to close things up. They were on the rampage, and I still had not lit the smoker to send them into a “survival mode” to return to their honey stores and consume…. I took a combined 27+ stings to my body. Through the nitrile heavy-duty gloves. Through the elastic area of my bee-suit (at the wrists), through my socks… and afterwards – to my scalp after I made it back to the house and took off my jacket. Yes 27+ stings. My hands slightly swelled up. My ankles/calves were slightly swollen… I immediately took some liquid Benadryl (children’s) – and I think that’s what blocked much of the normal swelling. I learned my lesson about safety. Sometimes it takes an incidence like this to remind us of the little things that make big differences.
The suit has now been washed (properly) to remove the “alarm scent” that is given out by the honeybees when they sting someone/something. and my hive equipment has also been washed to remove the alarm scent. Today’s excursion to create the hive splits went effortlessly – thanks to my renewed thoughtfulness about beekeeping safety. Hawk’s Nest has formally changed. Our new name is: Harmony Hollow Apiaries – a division of Bohemian Utopia. |
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