I put down some patio blocks and I assembled the frames and foundation for my hives. I positioned them in the back half of my property which is mostly woods. I tried to position them where the neighbors will have trouble seeing them, but there are no leaves on the trees and bushes so if they wanted to they could spot them.

It was cold today and I put the foundation in the frames outside. By the time I finished the first six, the wax was brittle so I had to bring it back inside. I ruined one foundation.

The nucs will come with five frames each so I only needed five frames for each hive. I will pick up the package that I bought in May. I have until then to paint the last hive and assemble ten more frames.

The bee guy arrives with my nucs on Monday.

This is the hive I’ve named Martha:

This one is Ethel:

I took a few minutes to unpack the two hives that I received from Brushy Mountain. It took me about 8 minutes to glue and nail one of the hives. I will paint it the first coat of dark brown camouflage tonight (I don’t want the neighbors to know I am raising bees just yet.

The frames won’t be so easy.

Brushy Mountain only sent me enough nails for one hive and 10 frames. I have to find out where I can get those nice thin nails they use for frames. By the time I email them and go through the process of getting $3 worth of nails the bees will already be here.

I just checked with UPS tracking and they said that my hive kits are on the truck and will be delivered today.

I ordered two hive kits from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm. They are in North Carolina so the shipping is steep, but they had the cheapest total price on the complete hive (Top, bottom, hive box and frames).

The scary part was that I ordered them on March 18, which I thought would give me plenty of time to assemble and paint them. It took three weeks for them to get the stuff to me, though. I will try not to order my beekeeping supplies during the Spring beekeeping rush again.

My first batch of bees arrive on Monday. This gives me 6 days to assemble and paint a hive. The first hive that I bought is already painted. I will then have three weeks before I get my package for the third hive.

I went a little crazy on this, getting three colonies, but I am afraid that if I got just one then it would die. This way I can still have 66% failure rate and still have one hive.

I am now looking for scrap lumber, the kind that comes in large packing crates, in order to make some supers. If I can find the cheap lumber, then my friend Skip and I will make some sawdust with the possibility for producing a few supers. I decided not to buy the supers until I have a living prospering hive. In a month I will know if I will have a hive that will make me enough honey to justify a super.

Quite by accident I picked up a copy of Scientific American and there was an article on bees. It was about Colony Collapse Disorder and it was written by two of the main investigators into this tragedy. It has some very good in-depth discussions of the problems that beekeepers are experiencing and is well worth the read.

The web page has part of the article and quite a bit more information.

Scientific American: The Buzz on Bees: In-Depth Reports

It looks like my first batch of bees will arrive on April 13. That is a Monday.

Erica does not want to be left alone to handle the bees. I will try to coordinate to be there, but if I can’t, I’ll try to talk the guy into dropping the frames into my hives. The alternative is to just leave the nuc boxes on the walk and I’ll transfer them as soon as I get home. The nuc boxes cost $5 each so I would rather not have to pay for cardboard boxes.

I started beekeeping this spring and have yet to actually have any bees. Still, learning about and preparing fo my bees is taking up a lot of my brain energy. I dream almost every night about bees.

I check my automated digest site: Beekeeping Digest regularly. I noticed an article on Top Bar Hives. The website is one of those wonderful amateur websites, Top Bar Hive Beekeeping, without the slick design, but so rich in information that you want to read every word.

Bees in the wild will find a hollow tree or a hole in a cliff face or a sheltered place under a tree limb. They will attach their combs to the ceiling an the comb is drawn downwards. They will not attach comb to slanted sides, usually.

The Top Bar Hive takes advantage of this by making a hive with top bars and slanted sides. The bees naturally build their comb down from the bars and the bars a easily lifted to inspect. It is more economical than a Langstroth hive to build and there are no critical measurements so they can be built from scrap lumber in a variety of sizes.

Since they don’t have supers the hives don’t produce as much honey and it is more difficult to keep the bees from swarming.

Top Bar Hives are a fun alternative to commercial style beekeeping. The hives are smaller, much prettier (they look like bird houses) and more cheaper to make and maintain.

I had heard that there was money in the stimulus package for beekeepers. It turns out that this was a one of those weird interpolations by politicians who are against the stimulus package. Whether you agree or disagree with the way the administration is implementing the stimulus package, rest assured that there is no money in the package for bees.

As important as beekeeping is, it would be a stretch that somehow supporting beekeepers through direct aid or hive insurance would be a good fit in an economic stimulus plan.

Once again: No bees in the stimulus package. Anyone who says otherwise is mistaken or a liar. Unfortunately there are politicians who don’t care about the truth or bees and are trying to attack the stimulus package by depreciating the importance of beekeeping.

No Stimulus For Beekeepers

Michelle Obama is planting a garden on the White House lawn. This will be the first garden planted by a first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt planted her “Victory Garden”.
The Garden will include a beehive – some reports say three beehives.

There is a great deal of criticism of this. Some people seem to think that this is an ingenuous act and that the president’s wife should not be out hoeing the garden.

Politics aside, raising vegetables is a very rewarding activity and I think people should find other things to talk about.

As for the bees, it is an interesting part of this project and can only help beekeepers everywhere, by at least drawing attention to the art of keeping bees.

First lady breaks ground on White House veggie garden

The starter kit deals at the various mail order houses are a good deal. You get nearly $300 worth of stuff for about $150. Here is my first hive waiting for the bees. I painted it dark brown because I am putting it in the wooded area behind my house and I don’t want the neighbors to know it’s there.

First the Base with the mite board. You cover this with Vaseline if you start getting mites and the mites stick to it.

This is the divider board.

This is the Hive box and the empty Frames. I have the foundation, but I am not putting it in the frames just yet. The bees won’t bee here for another three weeks.

This is the box with the aluminum covered top.

These are some of the other knic-knacs that you get. There’s a feeder, an entrance reducer, a hive tool, a brush, gloves and a smoker. I also have fuel for the smoker.

Here is a jerk modeling the bee hat thing.

In addition to this you get a book, which I have talked about and a video on DVD from 1991 that is sometimes very good and many times very funny.

I was very upset to read that bee colonies have very real problems with disease. Apart from killing the bees outright by mismanagement, bees suffer from a variety of health problems. In fact, almost 40% of all bee colonies die during the year. Many of them die over the winter, but disease, mismanagement and pests can threaten a beehive all year round.

Here are the things to watch for.

Varroa Mites

Probably the one problem that is bothering all beekeepers is Varroa mites. These mites attach themselves to bees, larva and pupa and weaken them. It is not an issue of whether or not you have these pests, but if they are enough to threaten the colony. Just about all hives have Varroa mite.

From the University of Kentucky Entomology web page:

Early detection of low levels of mite infestations is key to its successful management. While they can be spotted during colony inspection if present in high numbers, this tends to only identify larger infestations. There is a product available, Apistan, that will kill the mites and cause the mites to drop from the bees. Two strips should be hung in the brood nest area of the colony for approximately 4 weeks. This is to be used with sticky paper and a fine-mesh screen on the bottom board of a colony to capture any mites that may have been present. A considerable amount of cell cappings and other debris will also collect on the sticky paper, so it is best to inspect the sticky paper carefully for mites after removal. This method is able to detect low level infestations. Apistan strips are available from most of the large beekeeping suppliers and can be used both for detection and treatment of varroa infestations.

If a colony is found to be infested, all colonies at the site should be treated for mites with Apistan strips in the same manner. These strips contain the miticide fluvalinate and are not to be used during honey flow, or when there is surplus honey present in the colony that may be removed for human consumption at a later date. Therefore, late fall, after removal of surplus honey, or early spring, prior to honey flow, are the best times to treat for varroa mites.

Acarine (Tracheal) mites

Tracheal mites get into the throat of bees and choke them to death. This pretty much killed every bee in England, and it took a while before the British beekeepers could recover. The mite entered the U.S. in 1984 and is still spreading. Brother Adam at the Buckfast Abbey create a hybrid called the Buckfast Bee that is resistant to these deadly mites.

The mites are hard to detect without a microscope, but is treatable with a special grease patty made of vegetable oil and sugar. Sometimes menthol is added to the patty and it disrupts the mites.

Nosema

Nosema is bee parasite that causes dysentery. It affects stressed bees, I am told, so it is important to treat bees that have been shipped to you as Bee Packages. It sometimes affects bees that are feeding on sugar water instead of honey.

The treatment is a shot of Fumigilin-B when you get the bees and once more in the fall to help the bees make it through the winter. A bottle with enough medicine to make 6 gallons is about $25.

Small Hive Beetle

The small hive beetle is a pest that gets into the hive and grows in the comb, killing the young brrod and eating the honey. They will drive the bees out of the hive in search of clean living quarters.

The treatment is to put barriers around the hive to prevent it from entering. Pesticides can be used in a device that lets the small beetles get at the poison, but does not let in the bees.

Wax moths

Wax moths don’t attack the bees, but eat the honeycombs. They like wax. This disrupts the honey and kills larva and pupa. The bees themselves usually kill the moths, but a sick colony may not be able to. Lots of wax moths is an indication that there is something wrong with the hive.

There are lots of treatments for Wax moths. Since they usually attack in the winter on parts of the comb where there are no bees, one thing is to remove the infected frame and let it freeze, exposed to the weather for 24 hours. The moths live in the warn hive, but die if frozen.

American foulbrood (AFB)

AFB is a nasty disease caused by a bacteria. It is one of the most common colony killers. The bacteria is present in most hives, but it usually only affects a weakened colony. Beekepers can smell the disease and there is a test you can do with a toothpick on dead larva – they have a ropey appearance.

There are some antibiotics that beekeepers can use as a prophylactic such as oxytetracyclene, but it is not recommended that the colony be treated until the beekeeper is sure that the hive is infected.

The treatment is to burn the hive and frames. The disease is known to stay in an unused hive for 40 years.

European foulbrood (EFB)

EFB is less deadly than AFB and is associated with a stressed hive. The hive usually recovers. Antibiotics can be used on a sick hive, but the antibiotics get into the honey so it can’t be used.

Chalkbrood

Chalkbrood is fungal disease that cause the brood to starve. The larva die and appear chalky white. It is a problem where humidity is high and the cure is to ventilate the hive.

Stonebrood

Stonebrood is another fungal disease. It causes mummification of the brood. It is also deadly to humans and other mammals.

Luckily a good hive will clean out the victims quickly and control the spread of the disease.

Bee viruses

There are a number of bee viruses including Acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV) or (APV) that are associated with Colony Collapse Disorder. These Dicistroviridae viruses have many forms. The actual connection to Colony Collapse disorder is not quite confirmed at this time although there is some evidence that there is a connection.

There’s not much you can do about a virus. Either colony dies or it doesn’t.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)

Colony Collapse Disorder is a mysterious disorder. It is not classified as disease because the causal nature of the disorder is not proven, yet. It is a reference to the drastic increase in the number of colonies that just disappear. In a matter of weeks, sometimes a few days, the entire hive just wanders off and is presumed dead. The queen and some brood remain, but not enough to support the hive. The colony dies. There are no dead bees around the colony so it is hard to say what happened.

The disorder is associate with Varroa Mites, Nosema and other diseases, and is especially associated with a Dicistroviridae viruses. There have been some rumors that CCD is caused by a Dicistroviridae virus, but the final decision has not been verified, at least not officially.

Bee colonies are at a tremendous risk, especially to CCD. This is one reason why it is important for novice beekeepers like myself get into this on a hobby basis. The world needs its beehives. Professional beekeepers need all the backup they can get. Being an amateur pours money into the bee industry as the demand for bees goes up. We are helping to keep the bee infrastructure going while increasing the number of colonies.

I just hope my bees make it through the first months and I have something to be proud of this time next year.