Installing two 3lb packages of bees.

smcharchan · Post by **smcharchan** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 7:41 pm

They finally arrived. I'll let the pictures do the talking...

chrismartin · Post by **chrismartin** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 7:48 pm

I believe we were promised mead...

Get to fermentin'!

You have until Friday!

Twinsen · Post by **Twinsen** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 7:51 pm

What's the basic deal with having bees? They turn sugar into honey, or they just create honey from stuff they find?

chrismartin · Post by **chrismartin** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 7:55 pm

Twinsen wrote:What's the basic deal with having bees? They turn sugar into honey, or they just create honey from stuff they find?

All you need to know about bees...

smcharchan · Post by **smcharchan** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 8:25 pm

All you need to know right here (and not just about bees): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMlAl0eZk-A

smcharchan · Post by **smcharchan** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 8:28 pm

Actually, how they make honey is not as interesting as how they make wax into perfect geometric shapes that follow the golden mean.

Twinsen · Post by **Twinsen** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 9:55 pm

K, looked it up. Bees find natural sugar and put it in cute little bear bottles in a form called "honey".

And yet it looks like you're feeding them sugar.

Diomed · Post by **Diomed** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 1:56 am

That's a lot of bees. Any injuries during the installation process?

chrismartin wrote:I believe we were promised mead...

Get to fermentin'!

You have until Friday!

THIS!

smcharchan · Post by **smcharchan** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 6:08 am

Twinsen wrote:K, looked it up. Bees find natural sugar and put it in cute little bear bottles in a form called "honey".

And yet it looks like you're feeding them sugar.

Yeah, new hives must be fed, and established hives may need feeding in early spring and late fall.

They are young colonies tyring to establish a hive, and the "nectar flow" isn't in full effect yet. Without established combs with capped honey inside they would starve if I didn't feed them.

Diomed wrote:That's a lot of bees. Any injuries during the installation process?

No sir, not a single one.

smcharchan · Post by **smcharchan** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 6:46 am

How honey is made:

Honeybees use nectar to make honey. Nectar is almost 80% water with some complex sugars. In fact, if you have ever pulled a honeysuckle blossom out of its stem, nectar is the clear liquid that drops from the end of the blossom. In North America, bees get nectar from flowers like clovers, dandelions, berry bushes and fruit tree blossoms. They use their long, tubelike tongues like straws to suck the nectar out of the flowers and they store it in their "honey stomachs". Bees actually have two stomachs, their honey stomach which they use like a nectar backpack and their regular stomach. The honey stomach holds almost 70 mg of nectar and when full, it weighs almost as much as the bee does. Honeybees must visit between 100 and 1500 flowers in order to fill their honeystomachs.

The honeybees return to the hive and pass the nectar onto other worker bees. These bees suck the nectar from the honeybee's stomach through their mouths. These "house bees" "chew" the nectar for about half an hour. During this time, enzymes are breaking the complex sugars in the nectar into simple sugars so that it is both more digestible for the bees and less likely to be attacked by bacteria while it is stored within the hive. The bees then spread the nectar throughout the honeycombs where water evaporates from it, making it a thicker syrup. The bees make the nectar dry even faster by fanning it with their wings. Once the honey is gooey enough, the bees seal off the cell of the honeycomb with a plug of wax. The honey is stored until it is eaten. In one year, a colony of bees eats between 120 and 200 pounds of honey.

Source: http://fordshoneyfarm.com/honeymade.html

Belched up pollen passed to another worker who gnaws at it for a while, then stores it in wax... tasty!

flip · Post by **flip** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:29 am

MMMMMM bee spit. How do you process the combs? Any special equip.?

smcharchan · Post by **smcharchan** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:45 am

flip wrote:MMMMMM bee spit. How do you process the combs? Any special equip.?

I'll probably just put pieces of comb in one mason jar and place it upside-down over another with some cheese cloth between the two. I've read that doing so allows gravity to do the work and works just fine. If that doesn't work I'll invest in a centrifugal extractor.

Ghostwhite · Post by **Ghostwhite** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 9:33 am

you can get old school extractors pretty darn cheap if you know where to look. If you do use the drip method use one of These
http://www.beekeepingstarterkit.com/product/M00752 to open them up.

Those are some interestingly designed hives, any specific company make them?

Honey Bees is the family business and my pops runs about 4000 hives a year. If you got anymore questions just ask

bakerjw · Post by **bakerjw** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 10:05 am

WooHoo!!! good deal.

I love the hives. I've never seen that style before. Where did you get them or the plans?

smcharchan · Post by **smcharchan** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 10:38 am

bakerjw wrote:I've never seen that style before. Where did you get them or the plans?

Ghostwhite wrote:Those are some interestingly designed hives, any specific company make them?

They are called "top bar" hives. Golden mean top bar hives to be specific. I made them myself, but a simple google search will yield some manufacturers. I can dig up the interior dimensions I came up with if anyone is interested.

Ghostwhite wrote:Honey Bees is the family business and my pops runs about 4000 hives a year. If you got anymore questions just ask

That is very kind of you to offer. Thank you!

bakerjw · Post by **bakerjw** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 2:19 pm

Ghostwhite wrote:Honey Bees is the family business and my pops runs about 4000 hives a year. If you got anymore questions just ask

Very fine offer. Thanks

MD3C · Post by **MD3C** » Tue Mar 30, 2010 9:40 pm

Great TBHs and installs. Way to go.
Thus far my two hives are so-so. One is Fantastic, the other less than so.
Keep the great pix coming.
M

Teufelhunden · Post by **Teufelhunden** » Wed Mar 31, 2010 1:21 am

I have a question, I have been considering raising honey bees over the past few months. I would not pursue this for a year or two, but how would I go about selecting the proper site to raise them. I have seen some guys use 50 gallon drums of sugar and water, and then I have seen some utilize the fruit trees, plants, etc. Can anyone explain, or suggest for a beginner. I am researching, but I would also like to hear from you guys as well. Thanks in advance

st33ve0 · Post by **st33ve0** » Wed Mar 31, 2010 9:02 am

So what is the meaning behind those interesting logos on the hives?

bakerjw · Post by **bakerjw** » Wed Mar 31, 2010 9:37 am

Teufelhunden, there are a lot of good resources out on the net. I have some PDFs that I use that cover a lot of the questions that you ask such as site location that I found at some university websites. Good hive locations need access to water and most importantly sunlight. The sun gets them up and going so the earlier sun hits the hive the better. Also late in the day as well. you really only need to feed bees when they don't have access to nectar. The books cover it pretty well.

Ghostwhite · Post by **Ghostwhite** » Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:11 am

A good site is out of the way of the general public and within 1 mile of some good nectar producing plants, try and find out what is good bee plant in your area and adjust accordingly. Bees will travel up to two miles to collect honey but that isn't optimal.

You will need to feed them when you don't have good honeyflow. Even during the honeyflow it is a good idea to feed them syrup. This keeps them from using the honey as food and yields a better honey crop.

I know a lot of people use large containers of feed but we don't. The reason is you don't want the hives to get too strong. If they get too strong and run out of space, the whole hive will "swarm" out and start a new hive in some trees, making it pretty impossible to collect honey. When the frames fill up you have to switch them out with new/empty frames or add another box on top.

You can adjust the strength of the hive this way too, add a box or wait to add a box, also food is a booster too. Don't be afraid to slop some food over the top of the frames.

Are you using frames in the pics above??? I don't see anything

smcharchan · Post by **smcharchan** » Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:11 am

st33ve0 wrote:So what is the meaning behind those interesting logos on the hives?

Good eyes.

Some publications suggest that bees can better find their specific hive if unique geometric shapes are placed at the entrance. I figured it couldn't hurt to add them.

Ghostwhite · Post by **Ghostwhite** » Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:16 am

There have been studies on bees recognizing color and geometry but not enough to really change my mind, they use smell and "guard" bees to find their entrance.

CKOD · Post by **CKOD** » Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:23 am

smcharchan wrote:
st33ve0 wrote:So what is the meaning behind those interesting logos on the hives?
Good eyes.

Some publications suggest that bees can better find their specific hive if unique geometric shapes are placed at the entrance. I figured it couldn't hurt to add them.

Should have done red instead of blue on the symbol for the other ones. Blood hive vs Crip hive

Also, somewhat dissappointed that it wasnt for a dog that shoots bees out of its mouth when it barks, but nothing wrong with your own honey.

st33ve0 · Post by **st33ve0** » Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:53 pm

smcharchan wrote:
st33ve0 wrote:So what is the meaning behind those interesting logos on the hives?
Good eyes.

Some publications suggest that bees can better find their specific hive if unique geometric shapes are placed at the entrance. I figured it couldn't hurt to add them.

Neat, and I agree whether it helps or not it can't hurt. That's a nice touch having the plexi so you can see inside the hives too. Some day when I have the land I want I'll have to look into this further.