Attention Bees:
hang in there honeys, better days are coming.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
The First Flower - Spring 2011
Saw this flower today, the first one this spring.
Attention Bees:
hang in there honeys, better days are coming.
Attention Bees:
hang in there honeys, better days are coming.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Tourist among the Ruins
Friday was a "use it or loose it" vacation day for me and I had a slew of things on my to-do list.
My back was still not 100% recovered from my fire-hydrant snow shoveling binge after the last big snow storm so I decided to continue refraining from my usual aerobic hour. I did, however, get up and record three of my preferred exercise programs (w/o commercials) for use when my back feels better.
My primary goal for the day was to read as much as possible of Dr. Tom Seeley's books HONEYBEE DEMOCRACY and THE WISDOM OF THE HIVE. I've found that the best reading environment for me is an NYC bus or subway car, so the day was planned to provide a lot of mass transit time.
(I had a ticket to hear a talk by Dr. Tom Seeley that had been arranged by NYC Beekeeping for the next day in Manhattan.)
I started my travels with a bus ride out to East New York Farms to check out their bee hives, which I had seen mentioned on the Internet. I took the B7 bus out to East 98 Street where I had to wait a while to transfer to the B15 bus. While I was waiting I got into a discussion about beekeeping with a woman who was also waiting for the bus. A guy who turned out to be an exterminator came along and mentioned that he captured bees by spraying them with soapy water and carrying them in a box out to Long Island. I gave him my contact info and told him he could give his next batch of bees to me.
The B15 bus came along late and was already packed to the front door. By the time we passed the East New York Farms address, the bus was so crowded that I missed the stop. I got off along with many of the other riders at the next bus stop, the end of the line for the number 3 train. It was a walk of four short blocks back to the building where the Farms had their office located at New Lots and Schenck Ave.
I met with Deborah Greig and explained that I was taking the free beekeeping course with NYC Beekeeping and trying to put together a map showing the location of hives in the city to track overlapping foraging areas and varroa hot spots. Deborah was very helpful and gave me the locations of three other community gardens that also had bee hives.
I walked back to the subway station an arrived just as the B6 was pulling in to it's end-of-the-line bus stop. I often take the B6 and B49 buses home from work and I knew from experience that it would be less crowded than my recent ride on the B15, so I decided to make the B6 bus my mobile reading room for the trip back.
When I arrived home I got into my bee gear, even though I was pretty sure my bees had died, and there was little danger of being stung. I went out into the backyard to do a quick post-mortem on my hive. This required a bit of shoveling to clear the shipping pallets I used under and beside the hive to provide a surface the cats I rescue were not likely to use as an outside cat box.
When I removed the top cover I saw there was a small column of dead bees right up against the inner cover. Their heads buried in the honey comb of the frame located right next to the south side of the hive. They had starved to death within an inch of unopened honey cells. There was plenty of honey in the hive. The bees had broken their cluster and were scattered in starved groups throughout the hive, trapped by the cold and unable to move over to the honey right next to them.
One frame lower down and right up against the north side of the hive was completely full of honey, both sides, edge to edge, top to bottom of pure, white capped honey - ready to put into any honey extractor that could hold deep frames.
Sigh.
Within 10 minutes of opening the hive I noticed a bee flying around. As all of my own bees were dead, I assumed that this bee was a tourist, out exploring the ruins of my hive on the warmest day of the winter so far. (The radio said the forecast was for the mid-sixties that afternoon.) By the time I had reached the bottom of the hive, a few minutes later, a second bee had arrived. I had misplaced my hive tool and was using the sharp side of a hammer to pry the frames loose. This resulted in some leaking honey. I got the hive put back together and sealed to prevent robbing. By then there were four "tourists" flying around checking things out.
That was a good sign for me: some bees nearby had survived the winter. Perhaps I could capture a swarm later on in the Spring and give it a home. I had recently put in an order for equipment to build two new 8-frame medium hives. NYC Beekeeping was putting together a coop equipment purchase for local beekeeprs.
The rest of the day was spent doing more vacation oriented travel. I took the subway into the City to have a long delayed meal at one of the Soup Man franchises (made famous in the Seinfeld episode). After eating, I hopped the subway back to Brooklyn for happy hour at my favorite micro-brew beer-serving bar, the Pacific Standard, which is located on 4th Ave and St. Marks, a few short blocks from Atlantic Avenue stop. Along the way I managed to get quite a bit more bee-related reading accomplished while traveling on the subway.
My back was still not 100% recovered from my fire-hydrant snow shoveling binge after the last big snow storm so I decided to continue refraining from my usual aerobic hour. I did, however, get up and record three of my preferred exercise programs (w/o commercials) for use when my back feels better.
My primary goal for the day was to read as much as possible of Dr. Tom Seeley's books HONEYBEE DEMOCRACY and THE WISDOM OF THE HIVE. I've found that the best reading environment for me is an NYC bus or subway car, so the day was planned to provide a lot of mass transit time.
(I had a ticket to hear a talk by Dr. Tom Seeley that had been arranged by NYC Beekeeping for the next day in Manhattan.)
I started my travels with a bus ride out to East New York Farms to check out their bee hives, which I had seen mentioned on the Internet. I took the B7 bus out to East 98 Street where I had to wait a while to transfer to the B15 bus. While I was waiting I got into a discussion about beekeeping with a woman who was also waiting for the bus. A guy who turned out to be an exterminator came along and mentioned that he captured bees by spraying them with soapy water and carrying them in a box out to Long Island. I gave him my contact info and told him he could give his next batch of bees to me.
The B15 bus came along late and was already packed to the front door. By the time we passed the East New York Farms address, the bus was so crowded that I missed the stop. I got off along with many of the other riders at the next bus stop, the end of the line for the number 3 train. It was a walk of four short blocks back to the building where the Farms had their office located at New Lots and Schenck Ave.
I met with Deborah Greig and explained that I was taking the free beekeeping course with NYC Beekeeping and trying to put together a map showing the location of hives in the city to track overlapping foraging areas and varroa hot spots. Deborah was very helpful and gave me the locations of three other community gardens that also had bee hives.
I walked back to the subway station an arrived just as the B6 was pulling in to it's end-of-the-line bus stop. I often take the B6 and B49 buses home from work and I knew from experience that it would be less crowded than my recent ride on the B15, so I decided to make the B6 bus my mobile reading room for the trip back.
When I arrived home I got into my bee gear, even though I was pretty sure my bees had died, and there was little danger of being stung. I went out into the backyard to do a quick post-mortem on my hive. This required a bit of shoveling to clear the shipping pallets I used under and beside the hive to provide a surface the cats I rescue were not likely to use as an outside cat box.
When I removed the top cover I saw there was a small column of dead bees right up against the inner cover. Their heads buried in the honey comb of the frame located right next to the south side of the hive. They had starved to death within an inch of unopened honey cells. There was plenty of honey in the hive. The bees had broken their cluster and were scattered in starved groups throughout the hive, trapped by the cold and unable to move over to the honey right next to them.
One frame lower down and right up against the north side of the hive was completely full of honey, both sides, edge to edge, top to bottom of pure, white capped honey - ready to put into any honey extractor that could hold deep frames.
Sigh.
Within 10 minutes of opening the hive I noticed a bee flying around. As all of my own bees were dead, I assumed that this bee was a tourist, out exploring the ruins of my hive on the warmest day of the winter so far. (The radio said the forecast was for the mid-sixties that afternoon.) By the time I had reached the bottom of the hive, a few minutes later, a second bee had arrived. I had misplaced my hive tool and was using the sharp side of a hammer to pry the frames loose. This resulted in some leaking honey. I got the hive put back together and sealed to prevent robbing. By then there were four "tourists" flying around checking things out.
That was a good sign for me: some bees nearby had survived the winter. Perhaps I could capture a swarm later on in the Spring and give it a home. I had recently put in an order for equipment to build two new 8-frame medium hives. NYC Beekeeping was putting together a coop equipment purchase for local beekeeprs.
The rest of the day was spent doing more vacation oriented travel. I took the subway into the City to have a long delayed meal at one of the Soup Man franchises (made famous in the Seinfeld episode). After eating, I hopped the subway back to Brooklyn for happy hour at my favorite micro-brew beer-serving bar, the Pacific Standard, which is located on 4th Ave and St. Marks, a few short blocks from Atlantic Avenue stop. Along the way I managed to get quite a bit more bee-related reading accomplished while traveling on the subway.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
What a differance a day makes: the Snow Hive Melt Down one day later.
This picture was taken 24 hours after the image in the previous post.
The snow on the side has melted and fallen down and away from the lower hive body.
The hive is in a shaded alcove caused by extensions on the buildings on each side of my fully attached house. Daytime temperatures only got up to 37 degrees for a short time the day after the storm.
The Little Honeys must have partied hardy all night in their Mead Hall, burning the beeswax candles at both ends to have generated that much heat.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
The Snow Hive
This picture was taken shortly after dawn on Thursday morning, January 27, 2011 at about 7 AM.
The lower deep brood chamber is completely buried in snow and the upper deep and medium brood chambers are coated with about an inch of blown snow on the side facing the camera.
The radio said that Central Park recorded 15 inches of snowfall before the storm ended earlier this morning.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
NYC Beekeepers Calendar
During last nights beekeeping class given by James Fischer of NYC BEEKEEPING one of the topics covered was Beekeepers Calendars that one can find on the net. James pointed out that the problem with such calendars is that a beekeeper has to remain flexible in his or her timing depending on the particular seasonal temperature differences that vary from year to year. He pointed out the importance of keeping track of "degree days" in order to have an idea when flowers will bloom.
I believe James is making an important point and hope that NYC beekeepers can come up with some way to build an adjustable sequenced timetable to remind ourselves of things that should be done each year.
As a member of a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), I have helped design numerous Search & Rescue Radio Drills and developed protocols for conducting foot patrols in a save and orderly way. One of the concepts that we found helpful during our exercises at Brooklyn South CERT was to require S&R teams to have pre-designated "checkpoints" along their patrol routes. Every time a S&R team came to an intersection where they were going to change the direction they were going, they would call in on their radios to let the Planning Section (aka "Maps") know where they were and which way they were headed.
This enabled the Incident Commander and others at our Operations Center keep track of each S&R team in case they lost radio contact.
I think that instead of using particular months to divide up our beekeeping calendar, we should adopt the "checkpoint" concept to plan our beekeeping year.
I'll give an example of what I mean as a starting point for discussion. The following was adapted from pages 23 and 24 of the Purdue Extension 4-H Beekeeping Division II - Working With Bees PDF and of course would have to be fine tuned to some extent for NYC conditions. The main concept I would like to put forward is that the "checkpoints" could be moved forward or back each year in response to seasonal variations.
So: here's a First Draft suggestion of how such a "calendar" might look:
I believe James is making an important point and hope that NYC beekeepers can come up with some way to build an adjustable sequenced timetable to remind ourselves of things that should be done each year.
As a member of a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), I have helped design numerous Search & Rescue Radio Drills and developed protocols for conducting foot patrols in a save and orderly way. One of the concepts that we found helpful during our exercises at Brooklyn South CERT was to require S&R teams to have pre-designated "checkpoints" along their patrol routes. Every time a S&R team came to an intersection where they were going to change the direction they were going, they would call in on their radios to let the Planning Section (aka "Maps") know where they were and which way they were headed.
This enabled the Incident Commander and others at our Operations Center keep track of each S&R team in case they lost radio contact.
I think that instead of using particular months to divide up our beekeeping calendar, we should adopt the "checkpoint" concept to plan our beekeeping year.
I'll give an example of what I mean as a starting point for discussion. The following was adapted from pages 23 and 24 of the Purdue Extension 4-H Beekeeping Division II - Working With Bees PDF and of course would have to be fine tuned to some extent for NYC conditions. The main concept I would like to put forward is that the "checkpoints" could be moved forward or back each year in response to seasonal variations.
So: here's a First Draft suggestion of how such a "calendar" might look:
NYC Beekeeper’s Calendar
Prepare Equipment Checkpoint
• Prepare equipment for coming season.
• Perform emergency feeding with sugar candy or dry sugar
on top of the inner cover, if necessary.
Begin Feeding Checkpoint
• Begin spring feeding toward the end of the month or early in
March.
• Perform emergency feeding with sugar candy or dry sugar, if
necessary.
• Develop an advertising program.
• Order package bees or nucleus hives.
• Prepare equipment for the active season.
• Clean up dead colonies.
Clean Entrances Checkpoint
• Clean out entrances and bottom boards.
• Order package bees and queens needed to replace those that
are failing, or to make splits.
• Continue feeding sugar or syrup if colonies are empty.
Introduce Packages Checkpoint
• Introduce package bees.
• Feed package bees syrup.
• Requeen colonies having failing queens.
• Split strong hives and requeen one half to prevent
swarming.
• Reverse hive bodies on two-story colonies where the queen
is only laying above.
• Check colonies for American foulbrood and Varroa mites.
Begin Supering Checkpoint
• Add a super to each strong colony.
• Remove queen cells to prevent swarming (but make sure
they haven’t swarmed first!).
• Add another super if necessary.
• Provide a ventilation hole.
• Place queen excluder below shallow super on colonies for comb
honey.
• Start to rear queens if you want to raise your own.
Hive Splitting Checkpoint
• Split hives to increase the number of colonies, if desired.
• Remove queen cells to prevent swarming.
• Replace defective combs with full sheets of foundation.
• Provide plenty of super space.
• Requeen toward end of month.
• Check colonies for American foul brood and Varroa mites.
• Remove comb honey supers when properly sealed.
Add Supers Checkpoint
• Add sufficient super space.
Harvest Honey Checkpoint
• Harvest honey supers when they stop filling up.
• With honey supers off, treat for Varroa mites.
• Extract clover honey.
• Remove section supers.
• Do not work bees too much, to avoid robbing.
• Perform fall requeening.
Remove Supers Checkpoint
• Either put empty supers above the inner cover to let bees
clean them, or let bees rob from the supers in the bee yard.
Then store with PDB moth crystals.
• Provide supers for fall flow, or let bees store it in brood
nest.
• Check colonies for American foul brood and Varroa mites.
Mouse Guard Checkpoint
• Put on entrance reducers or mouse guards.
• Extract honey from fall flow.
Stop Feeding Checkpoint
• Complete late fall feeding if hives are light.
• Provide top entrance.
• Provide windbreaks.
• Develop a marketing program.
Book Reading Checkpoint
• Read bee books.
•Continue to develop your marketing program.
• Make equipment for extracting, bottling, etc.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Hive with Snow Cap
This photo was taken from my kitchen window in Brooklyn at noon on Monday, December 27, 2010.
The hive base can barely be seen at the snow line. Hidden by the snow is a hive stand that is held up by a piece of plywood on top of a shipping pallet raised above the ground by plastic coke crates. I estimate the snow is over three feet deep below the hive.
The hive base can barely be seen at the snow line. Hidden by the snow is a hive stand that is held up by a piece of plywood on top of a shipping pallet raised above the ground by plastic coke crates. I estimate the snow is over three feet deep below the hive.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
NPR Science Friday: From Hive Politics to Beekeeping
There was an excellent episode of NPR's Science Friday this past Friday about how bees communicate and make decisions when swarming.
The show was broadcast just before Christmas and the 200th birthday of Lorenzo Langstroth, the "Father of American Beekeeping."
I was especially impressed with the recorded sounds that bees make during the various stages of swarming.
You can find a transcript of the NPR show here and/or listen to the show on-line.
Here's the link to the MP3 if you want to download the show and listen off-line.
The Science Friday page has links to videos with segments including the "piping" sounds that the swarm produces when the decision has been made about the location of the new home for the swarm.
The show was broadcast just before Christmas and the 200th birthday of Lorenzo Langstroth, the "Father of American Beekeeping."
I was especially impressed with the recorded sounds that bees make during the various stages of swarming.
You can find a transcript of the NPR show here and/or listen to the show on-line.
Here's the link to the MP3 if you want to download the show and listen off-line.
The Science Friday page has links to videos with segments including the "piping" sounds that the swarm produces when the decision has been made about the location of the new home for the swarm.
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