The guest hive is aggressive and mean. I get stung going within 20 feet of it. It shows little activity otherwise. My assumption is that the queen is dead.

I rode down to summit NJ and picked up a new queen.

When I opened the hive thousands of bees swarmed out and attacked me. They stung me through the gloves and found my socks where I was stung at least a dozen times. My feet are now swollen to the point where I can’t put on my shoes.

I pulled a frame and dropped in the queen. I could hardly see what I was doing because of the swarming bees. I had to leave the frame out. I ran back and had to run around the house before the bees lost my trail. I can’t go out on the back deck because of bees waiting for me. I had to leave the frame, covered with bees, in front of the hive.

I blame the owner of this hive who smoked it almost every day and took out all the frames several times. I believe he killed the queen. I have never heard of a hive so upset.

I will ignore the hive for a month, and it is still like this I will kill it. I can’t have a hive that is so mean in my yard.

We were getting down to the last of the honey that I harvested last May. On Monday night I put it into my improved centrifuge and got around 25 pounds out of 8 frames. I only took honey from the hive named Fannie because it was so hot. The bees were unhappy and I was near feinting in the hot bee suit.

Erica bottled the honey and we have 34 bears.

I saw this on an auction website.

The local new station did a thing on allergies and local honey. The pretty much quoted from my www.westnyackhoney.com page.

I only had 4 bottles left so I went back and pulled 8 frames from hive named Fannie. It was very very hot in the bee suit and the bees were not happy. I uncapped and extracted and I got around 20 pounds.

I will print out the labels and tomorrow Eac will bottle up about 25 or so bears.

I expect that this weekend we will sell most of this.

I have just come back from feeding the bees. There is some good news and bad news.

First, it has been 50 days since I split Connie. This was a walkaway split and I did not have high hopes for it. Connie has since swarmed. If I had waited a bit, I might have had some of the swarm cells in the split. The life expectancy of a bee is about a month and a half. There was brood in the split box, so the hive would be officially dead around now. I can say that there are nice healthy bees coming and going in the split. I did not see any returning with pollen and it is 1/4 the activity of the Connie hive next to it. Is it alive? Maybe. It could also be “drift” from Connie, who like living next door, although their queen is really Connie. I am hoping that it builds up over the summer and that the Russian genes, that like to build up quickly take over so that I have a strong hive going into the summer.

The best news is that Ethel and Fanny are doing well. Fanny is named after my great-grandmother. These are the packages that I got back in April and they already have two honey supers, one with about 25 pounds of honey and the other about half full. I fed Fanny, but the feeder on Ethel is all gummed with propolis and I had trouble getting at it. The plastic screening I used to cover the top is all chewed up so it offers me no protection. Ethel was quite upset with me fumbling with the inner cover and sent out a few girls to drive me off. I was wearing a short sleeve shirt and already had 4 stings from William’s hive so I gave up. I’ll come back later when I look at the honey super with a suit. She is strong and has lots of honey and can do without sugar for a day or so.

Martha and Justine are doing OK, but they are not showing a big buildup. The look healthy enough, but I’d like to see them with more activity. Justine has a second deep added, but Martha has yet to fill the first deep with honey. This is a concern, because I would like to see them with two deeps going into the winter. I will feed them as much as they can take in July and August when there are fewer flowers blooming.

My swarm trap hive looked like I might be getting a swarm, with lots of interest in the hive, but that has died down and there are not bees visiting it today.

I have a guest hive for  a beekeper named William who needed a temporary place for his hives. The queen seems to have failed a few weeks after the package installed, so we put in a few frames of brood from Ethel. The hive is very bitchy and I was stung four times while feeding it this morning. There is a lot of activity at the front of the hive, but I think that it could be robbing, getting the last of the hive’s honey. It looks like lots of newly hatched brood, though, and not the larger bees of robbers. Perhaps the frames we added are hatching and the activity is from a queenless hive. It has been a little over two weeks, which means that activity might be the advent of a queen’s maiden flight. Keep your fingers crossed.

I am of the opinion that there are enough bees in the hive that a queen could restart it. A queen costs around $25 and there are a few apiaries in north jersey that will sell a queen. If William doesn’t find a queen, I might do it.

I am of the opinion that opening a hive out of curiosity is a good way to kill the hive. You can tell most of what you need to know by watching the front of the hive. You open the hive if you are worried that it is not queen-right. You open the hive to rob honey, and you open the hive if you feel you would like to do something like re-stack the supers to prevent a swarm. Looking into the hive just because you are interested is not fair to the bees. The queen is incredibly fragile and the brood needs a constant 98°. You put the queen and the brood in jeopardy every time you mess with the hive.

I have killed two hives by opening the hive and pulling frames to see what is happening. I don’t do it all now. Bees have been taking care of themselves for millions of years. If they can’t make it on there own, there is not much that I can do.

The next tasks will be to add supers. I might take off the full supers and do some extraction of honey. The honey I took out last month is about 2/3 gone, but we have not been selling recently. If we sell out, I will spin honey on July 4th, perhaps. There are about 50 or 60 bears worth of honey now, so It would be a good thing. Traditionally, beekeepers leave the honey in the hive and only harvest in the fall, but I have read that you can take the honey as soon as they make it and the hive doesn’t care, as long as you leave 60 pounds of honey in the hive for the winter.

I robbed the bees. It was only two medium supers and it came to about 45 bears. I printed the labels and as soon as Erica gets them ready, I’ll put the sign out.

Last time we sold out in a few hours, but that was only about two dozen bears.

Erica has some appointments in the morning so I guess the sign will not go up until tomorrow afternoon.

Connie swarmed. I put off putting on the second deep, too long. She felt crowded and it was in the 90s these last two days. She was hot and decided it was splitsville time.

I now have a new queen. The hive was very gentle and quiet after the swarm. (she was bitchy before the swarm). I took the top medium super off and put in the second deep. I spun the honey from the super and a super I had placed on the side when I rebuilt the other hives. I now have three gallons of honey. I am running it through the filters now and soon I will have 60 or so bears full of spring honey.

I went down to Montville, NJ to get my nucs. It took about an hour each way, counting stops for garage sales.

When I got home I suited up and set up the material for doing lots of bee maintenance.

1) I set up the supers for the two hives I got in April. They have filled up the supers with comb and it’s time for honey.

2) I set up a feeder for the Connie hive that I split. When I split it, I did not have a top feeder so I have been feeding half with a front feeder.

3) I set up to add a deep to the other half of Connie. She is now one deep and a honey super, but she needs another deep.

4) I set up the new hives for the nucs.

First thing that I found was that the frames in the nucs were medium frames. I had set up deeps for them. I thought about using the deep and letting them make their own comb off thebottom of the frame, which is not a real problem for the bees, but I have plenty of medium boxes so I changed plans and put a medium on the bottom and a deep on top of that. It went fast and the bees seem happy with the transition.

I have 14 extra medium frames and 20 extra deep frames. The next time that I order wood, I have to remember not to order frames.

Next I put the honey supers on the two new hives (I have to name them). No problem. They were agitated but that is good because there were a huge amount of bees in them and that means they are doing well. The deeps that I gave them had old comb on them so they filled it out fast and there was capped honey in the top deep. Very good. I will be able to harvest honey from the medium supers if the nectar keeps up.

Next I put the feeder on one half of Connie – She was very upset with me and I was stung through the glove.

Next, I tried to take the other half of Connie apart. This is a very strong hive with a huge population and they have made crazy comb all over the place, gluing everything together. I was stung multiple times through the gloves and once through the veil on my ear.

Connie was so upset with so many bees attacking me that I decided that I would come back and smoke her to get her apart.

I went back and unsuited and sat for a few minutes. I went back then to see if there was anything really wrong. One of the feeders is not straight and I will fix that. A bee attacked my hair and before I knew it, I had another sting on the back of my head.

I have a nasty headache from the sting.

I need a beer, but there is none in the house.

I pick up my Nucs this weekend. These are 7 frame nucs. Most nucs are 4 or 5 frames. Seven frames is almost a complete hive, so this is a very good thing. I received this in my email concerning the pickup and I thought that it would be interesting to my readers.

Transport and Care of your Nucleus Colony

Thank you for purchasing your bees at Gooserock Farm! Whether you are a first-time beekeeper or an old hand, we want you to be successful in your beekeeping endeavors. Please take a few minutes to review these tips for getting your bees home safely and keeping them happy once they get there.

If you will be transporting your bees in an enclosed vehicle where they must be locked inside the cardboard nuc box, the most important consideration is ventilation. Be sure the screened ventilation holes in the box are not blocked. The temperature in the vehicle should be a little cool for you – that will be perfect for the bees. Opening windows to create air flow will help the bees stay cool. Don’t put the bees in the trunk. You will be amazed at how quickly bees can die if locked in a trunk on a day that is just mildly warm. Probably the best way to transport bees is in the bed of a pick-up truck with the bees’ entrance left open.

When moving bees, always be sure to place the box so the frames are parallel to the direction of motion. If you move them with the frames perpendicular to the direction of travel, the frames will move back and forth and slap into each other, killing bees and possibly killing your queen.

What to Do When You Get Home

When you arrive home, if you are unable to hive the bees immediately, set the nuc box in the spot where the hive will be located. If you already have the hive set up, you can put the box right on top of the outer cover. Remove the piece of duct tape covering the small round entrance so the bees can fly.

Transfer the frames to your hive as soon as possible. The cardboard box is intended only for transport and has numerous bee space violations. If you leave your bees in there more than about a day, they will probably begin building comb in all the wrong places and you will have a mess when you finally get around to hiving them. Transfer the frames to the center of the super, keeping the same order of frames, with empty frames of foundation or drawn comb placed near the walls to fill out the super. If you are using 8-frame equipment, you will only need one additional frame. If you are using 10-frame equipment, you will need 2 frames of drawn comb or 2 to 3 of foundation.

Give your bees another box of foundation or drawn comb immediately and follow it with a third when the bees have drawn comb and/or filled about 75% of the second box. Your final fall configuration in New Jersey should be 3 standard 10-frame mediums or 2 standard deeps or the equivalent, full of bees and honey. Remember, NJ bees need at least 60 pounds of honey to overwinter. If you live north of NJ, they will need more.

We recommend you feed your bees sugar syrup at least until they have draw out all their foundation. Do not feed once you add honey supers if there is still a nectar flow at that time.

If you will be keeping these bees in northern NJ, PA, and locations north of here, you will need to install a sturdy electric bear fence. You may not have seen any black bears where you live but eventually you WILL see them if you keep bees. Bears can smell honey a mile away. They will find your bees and, if they are unprotected, they will destroy them. It is only a matter of time.

If you have not already done so, please take a good bee class and join your local bee club. Beekeeping has increased dramatically in popularity in recent years and there are numerous books, websites, and blogs on the topic. Some of the information is excellent but some is not. If you do not learn how to control varroa mites, recognize and treat diseases, and evaluate food stores, there is a good chance you will lose your bees. Most importantly, successful beekeeping practices are very dependent on local conditions, and what works for one person in Florida or North Dakota will not work in New York or New Jersey. The only way to learn how experienced local beekeepers manage their colonies is to take a local class and join a local club. We are seriously considering refusing to sell our bees to anyone who has not taken a class in beekeeping. We just hate to see our bees die.

Good luck with your bees! Please take good care of them.

I have two new Nucs ready for pickup this weekend. I ordered these 5 months ago, and I am glad that I did,because of my losses this winter. My hives are all painted and ready. I need to find 4 or more cinder blocks for this weekend.

I am having horrible problems with carpenter ants this year. I put some oil around the hives and in two cases it helped. On the third hive, it made no difference. I am going to buy some more of motor oil and make a more around the third hive.

My walkaway split is still alive, but I think that one of the hives is queenless. There is not much activity at the front porch, but the hive is full of bees. The other half of the split is happy and growing and they are returning back with full baskets of pollen.

The week hive is just about gone. I see very few bees left. I guess that the queen died and that was the end of it. One of my nucs will occupy the space.

We sold out all of our honey in one day. Erica did not even save any for my morning oatmeal!