Bee Log Archives - The Thousand Yard Stare

Category Archives Bee Log
Main » Bee Log
What I did my summer (non-vacation) – Bee Log Stardate 86

Posted on July 26, 2014 10:48 am by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

Partial Inspection: Day 86

Time: 11:30am

Weather: 92

Blooming: Nothing that I really noted.

Combs:

After last weekend’s flood of angry bees, I had to check the cross comb situation……and…..it’s gonna be sticky. D’OH!

Bar 12 is now okay. Bars 13 through 16 are a little wavy, bar 17 is next to the follower board, so the small comb they’re building on 17 is straight. I scraped off some of the wavy and pressed some straight on 13 through 16, so I’ll have to check again next weekend.

This may take a while. There’s a lot of bees inside the hive. They’re crowded but I can’t open it up until they get the wavy situation corrected.

On the plus side, the destruction wasn’t as bad this time, the bees didn’t flood out in a massive ball like they did last time.

Bee Log
Bee Log Star Date 79

Posted on July 19, 2014 4:56 pm by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

Partial Inspection: Day 79

Time: 10:30am

Weather: 82

Blooming: Nothing that I really noted.

Combs:

After the party we threw and another “lost weekend” before that, it had been a while since I opened the hive. I opened it, and to my horror, I had cross-comb! *gasp*
It was my own damn fault really. 6 bars of wavy comb. I added too many bars in a row and they didn’t keep straight. Damn organic really. The smoker came in super handy.

Sooooo…..I took my handy dandy beehive tool and scraped straight down on the comb, straightening out the comb. A veritable FLOOD of honey drowned the hive. Bad, baaad beekeeper.

They were not amused (below), but they were back to normal the following day. Not sure about the internals, will have to fire the smoker up again and check out the bars and make sure I fixed it “right”.

Bee Log
Bee Log: Stardate 64

Posted on July 4, 2014 10:10 am by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

Partial Inspection: Day 64

Time: 10:30am

Weather: 82

Blooming: Crepe Myrtle

Combs:
Long story short, on day 49 I inspected a comb (bar 3) and it fell over and broke off the bar. It sucked. I wired it back up using wire, which didn’t go well. In the meantime, I ordered a smoker since mine had never shown up, and it’s pretty great. It’s making everything a lot easier.

Been feeding them up to three times a day – I just opened the hive today, removed all the wire. Busting up that comb slowed them down a lot. I’ve got 17 bars in there and they’re only building on 16 right now. Before/during the process of breaking the comb, I ended up adding another four bars. So we’re at 16 bars, smoker is goo.

Bee Log
Bee Log: Stardate 44

Posted on June 7, 2014 11:30 am by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

It seems like all I do right now is update my bee log – but I’m really busy with work right now with pretty much zero down time.

Partial Inspection: Day 44

Time: 11:30 am

Weather: 80

Blooming: Roses, Dewberry, miscellaneous bushes in backyard

Combs: Wow! Oops! All 10 bars are full of comb! Added two bars, you can see where the original was built, and then they added on because they were running out of room. ……ended up adding another bar on Sunday (Day 45) because by Sunday morning they were building on the two bars I added on day 44. Bad beekeeper!

Swarming: N/A

Queen Issues: None, she’s out and laying.

Celebratory Beer: N/A – do that later.

Bee Log
bee log: stardate 30

Posted on May 24, 2014 1:10 pm by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

Inspection: Day 30

Time: 1:30 PM

Weather: 81

Blooming: Yellow Clover, some pink bush in my front yard has blossoms.

Combs: Comb on Bars 1, 2, 3, 4,5, 6 small comb on 7 and all straight. After being stung last week, didn’t feel up to a full inspection, just tilted bars. Bees were not exceptionally angry. Need the smoker first (in the mail) before really pulling out comb.

Swarming: N/A

Queen Issues: None, she’s out and laying.

Celebratory Beer: None. I’ve got a cold and don’t feel great.

Notes: After being stung last week, I made sure that my suit was tucked into my shoes. I was wearing black socks last time, which also may have contributed to being a target (white suit with black socks = contrast). I also marked each bar with a number so that it’s easy to count/keep track of the comb. Comb on #1 and #2 is now getting super wide. Since I haven’t been feeling well, I haven’t been refilling the sugar syrup every day. Some days they go through 14oz, some days they don’t even go through half of it, so I leave it there. I had kind of expected that they would continue on this fantastic pace of building comb but they’re still chugging away, and haven’t really filled any more bars. But judging that they’re on track, I’ll continue to feed.

The bee stings on my foot (actually three of them) I had rubbed while I was sleeping and the absentmindedly scratched while I was waking up and my foot puffed up *yesterday*. It’s back to normal today – note to self, don’t do that.

Planted some white clover in my front yard as ground cover. Just planted and watered so it will be a while.

Bee Log
“Nobody can describe a fool to the life, without much patient self-inspection” Frank Moore Colby

Posted on May 4, 2014 8:28 am by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

Partial Inspection: Day 11

Time: 9:00 am

Weather: 76

Blooming: Roses, Dewberry

Combs: Comb on Bars 1, 2, 3, 4 and all straight. Worker brood capped two or three inches at top on bars 3 and 4 so queen is laying.
Plan on different timing, opening up the hive this time got them really irritated. Didn’t pull first bar because they were already really really angry.

Swarming: N/A although they are bearding outside when it is warmer. When it’s cold they are stuffing themselves into the hive.

Queen Issues: None, she’s out and laying.

Celebratory Beer: N/A – do that later.

Bee Log
Clever Post TItle

Posted on May 1, 2014 11:55 pm by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

Partial Inspection: Day 8

Weather: 79

Blooming: Roses, Dewberry

Combs: Comb on Bars 1, 2, 3 all straight. . Large 6×6 on bar 1 , smaller 6×4 on bar 3. Removed empty queen cage, she’s wandering around somewhere.

No brood noticed, but only a partial inspection to confirm that comb is all straight, which it is. Lots of comb for only 8 days per the books. Still haven’t smoked (don’t have a smoked) but used the new bee suit. Haven’t been stung yet, haven’t even seen evidence that the suit has been stung. Have refilled the feeder once a day for the last 5 days or so

Swarming: N/A although they are bearding outside when it is warmer. When it’s cold they are stuffing themselves into the hive.

Queen Issues: None, she’s out but need to reinspect in two days to check.

Celebratory Beer: Abita Purple Haze, and Blood and Honey.

Impressive Bee Photo of the Day:

Bee Log
“We’ll try to hold off as long as we can. We’re crossing our fingers.” Mark Sexton

Posted on April 26, 2014 10:53 am by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

Bee Log: Day 3

Inspection

Weather: 75

Blooming: Roses, Dewberry

Combs: Comb on Bars 1 & 2. Large 6×6 on bar 1 (angled), smaller 4×2 on bar 2. Queen is not out of cage yet although they are definitely freeing her, should be out by next weekend. Because I didn’t follow instruction (or at least misunderstood) when installing the queen cage, they build the larger comb at an angle parallel to the queen cage, so I cut that down. Had problems reattaching the comb (it’s like jello) so properly attached queen cage so that comb is built straight and put the cut comb on the hive floor for reuse. Comb on bar 2 is straight

No brood yet since queen is not out, comb is being filled with nectar, comb is completely white since it’s being built with the sugar that I’m feeding them. Bees were pretty ticked off that I was fooling around with the hive. I still haven’t smoked any of them. Haven’t been stung yet, haven’t even seen evidence that the suit has been stung. Refilled feeder once, they had emptied completely after installation while I was at work yesterday.

Also marked the ends of all bars on one side to designate direction of installation.

Swarming: N/A

Queen Issues: None, she’s still in the cage, confirmed that they’ve almost freed her. There’s a bee in there with her which must be a caretaker bee, but I didn’t see him in there before. The hole in the plug may be big enough that one could have gotten in?

Celebratory Beer: Abita Purple Haze

Bee Log 📎and tagged Angry Bees Bee Log Cross Comb Prevention is Key Queen Cage
“I’m not nervous, because it’s hockey. Why are you supposed to be nervous? It’s a game.” Ilya Bryzgalov

Posted on April 24, 2014 8:51 pm by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

Bee Log: Day 2

Last night before I went to bed, I got curious and put on my headlamp flashlight (from my prior life as a coal miner) and checked out the bees. They were globbed up in a clump on the outside of the hive at the ledge, on the opposite side the queen was on.

When I got up this morning, I didn’t see any bees, but it was still dark.

Once the sun started coming out a few started crawling out and buzzing around.

What really worried me is how quiet they are. Very very quiet. Like, “I can’t hear them” quiet.

It makes me think there’s something wrong, but I have a day or two before I need to check for comb, so I’ll just wait for now.

Nervous, nervous, nervous even though I’m sure they’re fine.

Bee Log
“We’re this pack of honeybees just working away.” Ray Garcia

Posted on April 23, 2014 9:09 pm by The Thousand Yard Stare Comment

Gosh what an exhausting day.

The bees finally showed up. Woo-hoo!

The brakes of the UPS truck creaked as it glided to a halt. I peeked out the window as the driver walked slowly to the door, holding the box up so he could see the precious cargo. In the middle of a conference call, I answered the door with a headset and laptop in hand.
“I’ve been delivering packages for about ten years. I’ve delivered live lobsters, but this is the first time I’ve ever delivered bees.”

Me: “Oh really?”

This is what he was carrying. As is. Pretty cool, huh? The scary part: Those bees were mad. Aaaangry. Very irritated. Hearing about a 1000 angry bees in your home is a little unnerving.

As soon as I brought them in, I put down some newspaper and sprayed them with some sugar water. They immediately calmed down. Holy crap! It worked!

It was go time.

I suited up with my army surplus mechanic’s coveralls. Sure they were green, and the bees could mistake me for a bear, or a bear shaped object and sting me to death. I’d take my chances. I put on my pith helmet and the bee veil and gloves.

Game time.

I put on my big boy pants, swallowed my nervousness and grabbed the bees. I ignored the book, went straight from memory. Pulled the queen out, checked to make sure she was good (she was) and then pinned her to the first bar. The first rush of bees when I pulled the queen and feeding can…..uh…..*gulp*. Since there’s a giant mound of bees, the sugar spray really only gets on the outside of the screen. The bees on the inside were pretty excited.

Gathered my wits, installed the bees….uh….and I left the feeder inside. D’OH!

Ran inside with no bees trailing and got the feeder. None of the bees were really in attack mode. I didn’t get stung, I think they were more curious than anything. Pretty interesting.

So I’m also supposed to start a bee log.

So here goes:

Day 1.
Installation.

No comb (obviously)
Refilled feeder once, they had emptied completely after installation while I was at work
Weather: 80 degrees, up to 90 during the day on the day of install.
Blooming: Only noticed dewberry bush in the backyard blooming. All front yard quit blooming about a week and a half ago (during one of the cold snaps) Fruit trees in neighbors yard aren’t doing anything yet.
Combs: None
What is in the Combs?: N/A
Swarming?: N/A
Queen Issues: None, queen healthy, removed cork, they should be eating away.
Celebratory Beer after massive adrenaline rush from installation of bees: Revolver Blood and Honey

Bee Log 📎and tagged 89.3 bees buzzing fear KNON Revolver Blood and Honey