Beekeeping - 1 Month

Ok, so we’ve dumped a ton of bees in a box...now what? Well, sit and watch the bees, of course! We’ve had to do very little during the first month of beekeeping, but we learned a ton.

We’ve been told it’s a tricky balance for beginner beekeepers to manage: check on them frequently so you can learn about their behaviors, but don’t check on them so much as to disrupt them. How much is too much? Our local beekeeping association guesstimates about once a week.

Week 1

Two days after they were introduced to their new home we checked on them for the first time. The queen was still alive and in the queen cage (well, we didn’t actually see her, but we did see activity inside the cage) and the cage was covered in a mass of bees. We used the hive brush to wipe them to the side but they kept filling in the open gaps as if they were a honey-thick liquid. Other masses of bees were found at the top bar of the frames. Well, this is one good sign: will they start to make their comb in the proper place? Overall the bees were very calm and didn’t seem to notice us entering their new domain. 

A day later we checked again, anxiously waiting for the queen to be released. She was still in her box, but most of the candy was eaten through! Shouldn’t be much longer now. We checked on our pint jar of 2:1 sugar water which was almost empty. We decided to replace it with a quart jar since we didn’t want them to run out of this resource when they’re still establishing their new home. Still calm today, still hanging in masses at the top of the frames.

Almost a week in and the queen has been released! Presumably for a few days now, but this is our first time witnessing it. The cage has been completely cleaned of candy, not a drop of this white waxy material was left; we removed the cage. In addition to this major event, the bees are now creating comb on our foundationless frames and flying into the hive with pollen on their hind legs.

With so much activity at the entrance, we decided to open the entrance a bit more so the bees can come and go without a traffic jam. This is done by rotating the entrance reducer, therefore revealing the wider entrance which is more centered than the first smaller entrance. The bees were very familiar with the location of their entrance, and we could tell they were confused when we widened the opening. They kept landing and trying to enter on the left side, circling for a few seconds before stumbling upon the new entrance. Everyone was able to get in, but it took a little time getting used to. This happened for days.

Week 2:

So much activity in the hive; the bees are very loudly buzzing and very actively collecting pollen. There is lots of comb built on about 3 or 4 frames by this point, and the comb is being built in the proper direction: parallel with gravity and with the other frames. Some comb in the top center is connecting 2 frames together, but we dislodged it carefully by cutting with the hive tool. One quart of 2:1 sugar water was refilled again.

The bees have been very calm - almost too busy to worry about being aggressive and stinging us. Well, until now. Matt has been stung! One small sting to his hand, through his glove. Mild itching and discomfort but no big deal.

We might have seen brood comb during this time. What’s brood comb? It’s comb that the bees use for laying eggs and growing young larvae. It looks different than honey/pollen comb (so we’ve learned) and because of this new learned knowledge we think we see brood comb. It’s a great reassurance to see brood comb in a new hive. This means that the queen is definitely present and alive, laying eggs, and the colony is establishing itself and growing in this new home.

Week 3:

We’ve had no doubt that the queen is alive since she leaves hints of her presence. The hive is filled with many bees, they are very actively collecting pollen, and brood comb is present - all of which would not be seen if we didn’t have a queen. But this week we have our first sighting! I thought for sure this was going to take a while, searching ravenously like we’re scoping an Eye Spy or Where’s Waldo book. Thanks to Matt’s research, it was quite easy. The queen will most likely be found towards the center frames. Look for brood comb, and find where new eggs are laid. The queen will likely be close to the newly laid eggs since she’ll be continuing to lay more. When we saw the queen, she was being tended to by the nearby workers; they moved out of her way and they followed her around.

In addition to seeing the queen bee, we also saw eggs and larvae in their comb! We’ve seen pictures of this but, wow, what a cool thing to see up close and witness the worker bees caring for them by filling the comb with nectar and capping each cell with wax. 

Week 4:

With such high pollen-collecting activity, we decided to no longer supplement their diet with sugar water. We removed the feeder and won’t return it until it’s needed again come winter.

Unfortunately, we’ve had our first experience with a sworn enemy of the honey bee: the hive beetle. They’re a relatively new but potentially major problem for the hive. Females will lay irregular masses of eggs in the cracks and crevices of the hive, and the bees will abscond the hive if there’s a severe infestation. The best treatment is CHICKENS! Small hive beetles will spend a portion of their growth (pupal stage) underground nearby the hive; the perfect snack for a foraging free range chicken. By allowing the chickens to forage the ground surrounding the hive, we can create a symbiotic, organic, natural solution for an otherwise pesky problem. We found 12 hive beetles around the hive, most of which we smushed with the hive tool. 

When are we supposed to add a super? Why do we need to add a super?

The first box, called the brood box or hive body, will be the bee’s food reserves for the winter; this is, after all, why bees make honey (oh you thought it was just for human consumption?!) Any box added to this hive body is then considered fair game for us to harvest and use for ourselves. 

If bees have created comb and filled the space they’re living in, they might find it necessary to swarm (leave the hive) and find another larger hive to reside in. When the hive body is about 70%-80% filled, we’ve learned it might be time to add another super on top. 

So, that’s what we did. We added a medium super with foundationless frames atop the hive body. 

We’ve really enjoyed checking on the bees each week, and we’ve enjoyed helping the hive along by smushing beetles and fixing uneven comb. But checking on the bees was more for our benefit than theirs; I believe they would be surviving and thriving even if we didn’t check on them. They’ve released the queen, built comb, collected pollen, and raised young bees. What a great way to help us realize that we are not the all-knowing, all-capable, all-tamable superhuman that at times we think we are. We need to appreciate and respect the abilities of all bugs and animals and realize that we could not find or grow food without them. 

Hoping for exponential growth and activity in the hive this second month!