I Am Going To Bee So Happy When I Get Some Honey

I decided to try a different top bar design this year. I found that comb would break off of the flat top bars and read that this method is better. I bought some cove moulding to use as a comb guide and some very small nails. 

I had to drill pilot holes to get through the oak moulding. I rubbed some bees wax on the edge of each piece of moulding. 

This is the damage wax moths can do to wood. These are cedar top bars. I was pulling dead larvae out of the holes when I cleaned them up. 

Thousands of bees on the dining room table. The cats kept coming up to the boxes and sniffing, then running away. These bees were packaged and picked up from Georgia by my local bee supplier in the same day.

No matter how ridiculous you look, always tuck your pants into your socks. I have heard first hand accounts of horrible / hilarious stories relating to bee stings and naughty bits. 

This is when I discovered that the queen that came with this hive was dead. Bummer.

Not sure how long she made it but she looked like she had been dead for a while. You see all that white stuff  on the bottom? That is a sugary substance that the colony will eat away to free the queen.

Luckily my bee supplier always gets extra queens. He gave me a marked queen. Can you tell which one is the queen? This queen has been packaged with worker bees to feed her.

After I got back from my emergency trip to the bee suppliers house I forgot to do something very important. Can you see what is wrong with this image? I am not rocking the stylish jeans tucked into socks look that is popular with the youth these days. Luckily I did not have an incident while I dumped the bees into their new home.

Here I am closing up the hive. For all the good that did me. I will elaborate later.

I am installing the sugar water that came with the colony. I have a hole drilled in the separator board so the bees can leave the main hive area and get food while still in the hive. 

Here I am admiring my work. I made a critical mistake though. The hive that had the healthy queen had been together for days and the colony had enough time to accept the queen. The colony I put the new marked queen into did not care for her to much. I did not put a stopper on the entrance and all of the bees left the hive. I checked them this morning and they were all gone. I don't mind making mistakes I just don't like the ones that are $80 a pop. The other hive is doing well. I hope they make it through the winter so I can possibly split the hive next spring to put in my empty hive. 

Bee Update

So first of all, three days after I put my bees in the hives one colony decided they didn't like my handy work and took off. So I am down to one hive but they are doing very well!

This is the first bar they drew for brood. I find it so amazing how they work so fast, when I sit down in front of the hive I see hundreds of bees go in and out in a few minutes. They are very docile. I have only been stung once and that was because while I was watering my newly sown squash seeds, I must have angered a bee I didn't see, stung me in the neck. 

So this is the other side of the hive. They are up to 6-7 bars now, mostly brood I think. I will start adding on honey bars soon. I will not take any honey this year. If there is enough next spring flow I may take a little. I want to make sure they make it strong through the winter.

This is the sugar / water mixture I am feeding them on the recommendation of the man I bought the bees from. I drilled a whole in the bottom of my follower board to let them access the mixture. I will let them finish this off and I will stop feeding them. Hopefully I will never have to do this again. I will put back honey stores for them in the future in case of an emergency. If all goes well I will split the hive next spring and raise a queen to populate my other hive.