An avid gardener and outdoorsman, I started beekeeping in 2009, give or take, and began using this journal as a way to document my trials and tribulations. Over the years, it has become a part of my hobby, recording events here.

First January Hive Check

It’s been a tough few weeks with miserable temperatures and a couple of spots of snow. It’s really been an unusual Winter…at least when compared to the last few years. Regardless, I was able to check my hives today and all is good, despite my constant hand wringing.

To begin with, we had a couple of bee meetings this week. The first was ERBA’s monthly meeting, which really did not have much on bees that hit home for me. But, the Richmond Beekeeper’s Association had a discussion from 1st year beekeepers and their adventures. The main thing that I picked up from the folks that spoke here was that a purchased package of bees must usually outperform a nuke of bees in the first year. I think Tom Fifer mentioned something about this back in the Fall of 2008, but I do not think I really understood the difference until I saw what these other fellow’s hives did.

To begin with, they picked up their bees in late March, whereas I picked my nuk’s up in the middle of May. I really think this must have been the biggest difference, as one fellow was actually making splits with his bees in August! But, one of the fellows lost his whole hive! He went out to check them recently and found them in a tight cluster, all dead. Kenny (who is also a member of the Richmond Beekeeping Association) said that they starved to death. He also said the problem was the Queen. This circles back around to my initial strategy of getting local bees. Hopefully, they will prove hardier (over the long haul) then these other bees. I forgot to ask the newbs if they treated their bees, as I do not treat mine with anything except for powdered sugar and a heavy dose of my own ineptness. One of these days, I will purchase a package or two just to experience that kind of thing.

But, on to the good news. When I went out to check the hives, I initially glanced at the strong Hive (they face East and I come from the West, whereas the weaker hive faces South, so it is harder to see the landing board until I am up on it.) Not much was going on here, but when I got to the weak hive, I found all sorts of bees flying about and several on the landing board. I am assuming that these are some orientation flights, but regardless of the reason, it was great to see them moving about!

When I took the top off of Hive 2, I found them busily sipping up the syrup that was still in the feeder. Several were floating in the liquid. At some point, I need to figure out how to get them out of the syrup. I carefully removed the feeder to get a look inside. I was happy to see that the cluster had not already moved up into the top deep. I had been worried that their lack of stores would mean that they would be nearly out and already eating at the last of their stores. Instead, they had yet to touch any of their capped honey in the top deep (which is only about 5 frames worth, but is better then nothing!)

I placed several pieces of pollen substitute on the top of the upper deep and left it at that. All in all, I am very impressed with Hive 2.

Hive 1, what appeared to be the stronger hive last Fall, had much less activity. A few bees were hanging around on the south side of the hive, but only one or two flying about. This may be due to the orientation of the hive. It faces East, whereas Hive 2 faces South. At any rate, I opened these gals up and found a few hanging on top of the upper Deep. From what I could tell, these bees were also primarily in the lower Deep. But, I really needed a flashlight to look down in there and be sure. I hope to check on both hives with a flashlight tomorrow.

This hive has received no food since Fall, so I decided to put a single layer of paper down over a portion of the top and dump some sugar on it. I gave it a misting with the water bottle and immediately received a couple of dive bombers attacking me at every spot. Now that I have this food on (I also gave them some pollen substitute), I am much more comfortable about everything.

All in all, this was a resounding success. I look forward to a brief look tomorrow (with my flashlight!) and will report back then.

Winter is a time for Education

As the cold spell continues (and my hope of the weaker hive surviving dwindles), I continue to immerse myself in educational material. A couple of local items have appeared on the circuit that I might take advantage of.

Lewis Ginter is offering their annual Beekeeping for Beginners course. I really should have taken this last year (I believe that my gardening obsession got in the way), but might attend some (if not all) this year, just to see what they have to say. If I join Lewis Ginter, I stand to save a lot of money for multiple courses. Click here for more on the Richmond Beekeeping Course.

Although I am very active in the East Richmond Beekeeper’s Association, I have never attended the Richmond Beekeeper’s Association meetings. They have a program for Thursday, January 14 (7 to 9 pm at Lewis Ginter) on the travails of the first year beekeepers. I definitely want to try this out, as I am sure that I have much more to experience in this regard. Here is a snippet of the topic from that group : The topic this month is The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: My First Year of Beekeeping. People entering their second year of beekeeping will discuss the highs and lows they experienced for those of us starting to keep bees for the first time.

The topic this month is

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: My First Year of Beekeeping. People entering their second

year of beekeeping will discuss the highs and lows they experienced for those of us starting to

keep bees for the first time.

New Year Comes in a Chill

Not much to report today, except to note that the gals are having to endure an incredible stretch of cold. Today and for the next week or so, we’ll see lows in the low 20’s and highs in the low to mid-30’s in Richmond, Virginia! Beekeeping is a stressful hobby for the novice these days, as I have no idea what to expect going into my first Winter. Each beehive remains quiet (or at least nobody is coming out of the cluster to fly around), which is to be expected, but gives the clueless beekeeper a bit of worry.

Hopefully, we’ll get a batch of weather in the 50’s next week and I can put some granular sugar out for them to enjoy.

The Storm Passes…the Sun Arrives

Dead Honey Bees on the Landing Board — Casualties from a Cold, Winter's Night

Late last night, perhaps around 11:30 PM, I took the dogs out to do their nightly nature calls and noticed that snow was still coming down, ever so lightly. The temperatures had dropped into the 20’s and were scheduled to get lower here in central Virginia. My thoughts to the bees were only of passing curiosity and a lot of amazement. How they can keep the cluster warm in times like these is nothing short of amazing.

This morning, the good ole Sun finally poked through and we quickly went to a full sun day. The temperatures have risen to about 35 degrees and are expected to go a bit higher. Regardless, they will not get high enough for a bee to come out. Still, this morning I went to look at the hives and found several dead honey bees out on the landing boards on both hives.

A dead bee in the snow — A dead bee, about a yard from the hive

I have to assume that this death is natural. I wonder if they actually dragged themselves out to die or not. It is said that part of a honey bee’s defense system against disease is its altruistic behavior of flying off to die away from the hive when it feels poorly. Perhaps these bees were sick. Or, maybe they were simply some of the older bees that could not take the weather of the past couple of days. Still, if they did not drag themselves out, I am wondering about those brave girls that took them out in this cold weather. I am guessing that they must have dragged themselves out. There were a couple, beneath each hive, in the snow around the hives. One was a few feet away, so flight took her to her destination. Who knows if it was her own flight (most likely) or that of a sister carrying her to her final resting place.

Hopefully, all is well. It will be at least a week before I can check them again, which is probably for the best. I would like to put some more feed on the weaker hive. We’ll see if that ever comes to pass.

Winter Bee Equipment Order Placed!

Snow on my Bee Hive — Eight inches of snow in December

I am doing a lot of reading these days, some of it in books and periodicals, but the majority of it online, reading a couple of the really great forums out there. While on Beemaster.com, I found a post stating that Dadant was shipping bee equipment for free in December! Since I am a Dadant man, I gave them a call today to confirm.

The kind lady confirmed this great news and I have ordered a set of deeps, shallows, some swarm lure (for fun) and a few honey-harvesting related supplies (who knows! I might have honey this year!)

At any rate, this was a great find and something I will remember to check next year. I had planned to make a special trip while down at South Boston with the Inlaws over Christmas, so this was a great time saver.

One note about the foundation – they do not like to ship that this time of year. The temperatures and treatment (in the mail) can damage the foundation pretty badly. They only ship ‘at the buyer’s risk’ and advised me against it. I was cool with that, as I can always make another trip later to get that (or maybe have one of the beekeepers in the East Richmond Beekeeper’s Association pick it up during one of their trips.)

At any rate, this was a great Christmas present.

A Warm Day Arrives in Central Virginia!

Beekeeping in the Winter is clearly going to be just like the Summer – I look at the bees and wonder what the heck they are doing, if they are struggling and, finally, is the mere act of me ‘messing’ with them setting them back further!?! All of these questions ran through my mind over the Summer and it’s deja vu all over again.

Regardless, Richmond, Va had a day of fairly good weather. They were calling for the mid-50’s, but the only time that I could check the gals was over my lunch break at 1 pm, when it was 58 degrees (that’s in Richmond, as my thermometer says 55 degrees.) Regardless, Tom Fifer always said that ‘if the bees are flying, you can check on them’ and my bees were definitely flying today.

Hive 2

The weak hive was alive with activity. As always, I wondered if I was looking at some of my bees coming out for a breather (lots of wet and cold weather these past few weeks) or if I was looking at a battle to the death between my bees and some neighboring hives (feral or maybe my own!) I could see no fighting and, of greatest interest, I could see a TON of the workers coming in with pollen packed to the gills! I am terrible with colors, but it looked like a pale yellow to me. Maybe some grass pollen? Even my camellias have stopped blooming, so I have no idea what could be blooming out there now. It must be left over grass pollen. There were a few (maybe 3) bees dead or dying beneath the hive, but I am guessing these are the old gals that are going to the great big bee hive in the sky. At one point there were 60+ bees either flying about in front of the hive or climbing around the small entrance hole. By the time I opened them up, it was much less (more like 15 bees, with most on the landing board.)

One of my main tasks today was to remove the top feeder and then, on the next warm day, put down some fondant. This is a new substance to me that I recently read about in one of my bee magazines. Bees apparently have a hard time dealing with syrup in the Winter months. I probably should have executed my plan, but (as will be noted when I upload my pics) the bees were all over the syrup. A ton of them were taking it in. I simply decided to let it alone. There was not much syrup left and I might check with Tom Fifer on his thoughts about feeding syrup through the Winter before I remove this feeder.

Looking into the hive, it was not terrible news, but these gals do not have enough food to make it through the Winter. I probably have 5 frames full of honey in the top Deep super. The other frames are really mostly empty (or not even fully drawn out.) When I took a few frames out, I could see that the cluster was up towards the front of the hive (which would be the South side) in the center. There were a bunch of them and it made me wonder if part of the cluster was in the top super. I recently was advised not to break the cluster, so I stopped there. Of course, this made me wonder why the heck I opened it at all (to remove only two frames.) I need to check with some of the experienced beekeepers to see what they look for in Central Virginia (which may have different strategies then the ones I have heard from others.)

Hive 1

Hive 1 had much less bees about the front and I could not find a one with pollen loaded. I stayed for awhile (the sheer number of pollen bearers coming in at Hive 2 made me want to believe Hive 1 was at least doing a bit of this gathering.) But, I could not find one bee going into the hive with any pollen. Not really sure what this means.

Upon opening Hive 1 (which has no feeder), I found bees all the way to the top. Most of their frames are full, so I am guessing they are moving some honey around and otherwise moving up into the top super. This is the one that I will have to watch for swarming (or maybe doing a break to get another hive.) I am reluctant to do anything that would set them back, as I expect to get a big load of honey (or at least my first jar of honey) from this hive. I decided not to mess with any of the frames on this hive.

Next month, I will go a bit deeper and get some pollen patties on top of the brood next to give them a bit of food for the coming Spring.

More Thoughts on Winter

We are now running about 6 weeks of wet. I have not been keeping an accurate count, but I am fairly certain that we have not had longer then a 4 or 5 day stretch without rain. The problem is two-fold, as the weather has turned cold (so less evaporation) and the ‘spots’ of rain have sometimes been down pours! I have actually filled up my 8 inch rain gauge twice (in 6 weeks – it’s pretty much a record in central virginia and certainly in Varina, Virginia.) Weather like this is not good for the bees or the beekeepers!

At any rate, the temperatures today have hovered in the low 40’s and are heading to the low 20’s tonight. This means that the only thing I do with the bees is kwalk by the hive and think about them. I actually placed my hand on them today, just to see if I could feel any warmth. But, this drove me to do some more reading about the bees and winter in my Zone 7 area, so I have documented these notes below, for future reference.

Ventilation

This whole ventilation concept has been one of those things that I typically do not learn unless I experience it. I apply most bee concepts to myself, so the thought of creating a natural vent (opening a window in the basement and one on the second floor of my house) was repugnant to me. How in the world could that be helpful!? I would be really mad about it, if I were a bee.

The thought, or so I have been told, is that the bees maintain a temperature that is a bit above 90 degrees in the cluster (the area where the bees all huddle in a ball and rub their hands together because it is so cold!) This heat, when present in a cold environment, causes a steam of a sort to waft up the hive and condense on the cover. Soon, as it cools on the bottom of the cover, it forms droplets that eventually fall back down (at a much colder temperature then when they wet up) into the center of the cluster (assuming the cluster is in the center of the hive.) This is fatal for the bees.

So, this is one reason why they strongly recommend against painting the inside of your deep/brood chamber. It is better to leave it unpainted, so that it can absorb some of that moisture (as open wood is likely to do.) But, many folks recommend creating a ‘draft’ (a small hole at the top of the hive to pull air up through the hive and push the wet air out) to help the bees out with this.

Today, my misgivings have been mostly laid to rest, as I have read where a very successful beekeeper from New York (an area much colder then my Varina bee yard) creates a ventilation by pushing his top Deep back about an 1/8 of an inch so that a small gap is created between it and the bottom Deep. This has actually worked for him, although I have to maintain that his bees get mad about it! Still, it must be a good plan.

To close out my discussion of this subject, I found where a good number of beekeepers in my area will take a Popsicle stick, cut it into 4 pieces and place one at each corner of the top of the bottom deep. This creates a narrow (about 1/16 inch) ventilation area. This will be my plan going forward.

Wind Break

My stronger hive has no real wind break, which has been bothering me. One fellow recommended putting up two fence poles (T poles) and spreading burlap between the two of them. I might try this before January.

Battlefield or Leg stretching?

The weather has been horrible this Fall, from the standpoint of both a beekeeper and a gardener. I will record the final total, but I have already received 12 inches of rain in the past 4.5 to 5 weeks. For some of my plantings, especially in the lower areas, I am not sure that their roots have had a bit of oxygen during this time. I am fairly certain that there will be casualties.

When I went out to check on the bees, the weak hive was hopping with activity. The gals were all over the front of the hive, going in and out and otherwise causing me the usual concern.

You always hear about robbing and all of the battling that takes place when it is going on. So, I sat there and watched for 10 minutes or so, sitting up very close to try to catch a bit of foul play.

In all of that time, bees got into a fight one time. I think that was probably par for the course – some random lazy bee from my other hive came over for a free snack of honey and had her rear end kicked out.

Otherwise, it appears to me like they were just out to get some fresh air, enjoying one of the rare dry days over the past 5 weeks.

The other thing of note is the daggone entrance reducer. It should be fairly clear that I was not able to get that into the hive entrance all of the way. Basically, I need to use my hive tool to wedge it in. When I initially tried to do this, it was clear to me that I would have to lift the bottom brood chamber off of the bottom board, which would cause an influx of air. Since it has been both cold and wet, I wanted to wait for a better day to get this done.

At any rate, this is another shot of the bees on ole Hive 2. It should be noted that I do not have nearly the same amount of activity on Hive 1, my (presumably) stronger hive. I watched them from this vantage point for a good while and was unable to find any major skirmishes.

The next goal for these gals is to actually break them open and have another look, if I am lucky enough to get a 60 degree day in the near future.

Swapping Brood Chambers/Supers

As this is my first year in beekeeping, both hives have their brood set-up in the bottom deep (also called Brood Super, Brood Chamber or, as I did, just a Deep.) But, recent reading indicates that older hives will have moved up into the top Deep (assuming you have two deeps for them to work in) by the end of Fall (which is probably late September in Bee-land.) Bees like to move up (and apparently rarely (if ever) move down), so you have a bit of a situation on your hands if your honey is down below at this point.

So, it seems to be commonly recommended to swap your Deeps at this point in the year if you do have a brood nest in the upper deep. This will put the brood nest back down below and let the bees slowly work their way back up again. Although everything we do is for the ‘good of the bees’, I laugh at how often we work against them. I am glad I do not have a People-keeper that keeps undoing everything that I work so hard to do!

This post is mainly a reminder for me next year.

Candidate for Gov Helps My Bees!

I finally Winterized both of my hives, giving them a good once over in the process. Although I came packing for bear, the bees were not very defensive at all. They really acted fairly docile, with only one from the weak hive giving me the ‘in your face’ eyeball (where they seem to buzz around your face in a prelude to trying to kamikaze you). This gave me a good chance to get my chores done and record some observations.

Hive 1

As always, this kingdom of bees looked great. They have nearly 9 full frames of honey in the spare, top deep. The bottom deep has a lot of honey and pollen, although it is hard to tell how much of which. I did not break much of this up, as I was recently advised not to break the cluster in the Winter and (per my recent post) Winter started back in October…

I did put some pollen patties on top of the frames that were covered with bees. I had to slightly push the bees out of the way, but they went without much objection. Makes you wonder if they were a tad cold, but the temperature was at 71, so it could not have been that. There are a ton of bees in this hive, probably 5 fully flush frames. No sign of any nasties, although I know that small hive beetles are in this one (I’ve seen them before.) This is all good news.

Hive 2

The weak hive was looking better, but there were probably half as many bees. They had some odd behavior (per usual). Everyone seemed to be massing up near the front of the hive body. They covered 3 or 4 frames, but only towards the front. I gave these gals some pollen and made sure the feeder was situated on top of a small twig to provide some air circulation.

One thing that I did note was that the bees on this hive were bringing in some very red pollen. They normally bring in nothing but yellow. I was a bit surprised anyway, as I did not know of anything that was blooming right now! I did find a couple of blanket flowers that were blooming in my Red Ace Plumb flower bed. I might try a few more of these next year to see if they will always bloom this long.

Candidate for Governor

Finally, we come to the subject of this post. My primary source for Bee Information (Tom Fifer) indicated that he leaves the covers of his screened-bottom-boards off during the Winter. But, the State Apiarist (Keith Tignor) recently mentioned (at an ERBA meeting) that he would not recommend it. Quite frankly, I pretty much go with Tom’s advice. He’s cut and dry and definitely a pragmatist, which suits my way of operating. But, this whole open bottom board issue has been a real problem for me. I keep picturing them freezing their you-know-what‘s off with such a large opening.

So, for this point, I will not go with Tom’s advice, but instead use Keith’s. It’s definitely better for my ease of mind. To do this on the weak hive, I needed something to put under it (this screened bottom-board did not come with a cover to do a mite count on.) So, I went for a drive. Fortunately, I quickly found a Creigh Deeds sign, flopping in the breeze about a mile down the road.

His run for Gov didn’t amount to much. But, I’m hoping his campaign sign will help my weak hive through the Winter!

Beekeeping in Richmond, Virginia

Author: Jones Tyler