The Lady Beekeeper

I forgot to show everyone Will’s video of me searching for the queen!  I was doing one final hive visit while the weather was above 55 and sunny.  I was a bit worried about getting in another visit  before winter set in since it had been in the low 40’s the previous week.  I left work early to get to my hive before the sun started setting.  My main mission: check on honey stores and the queen.

Since it had been so cold I believed the queen’s egg production would have slowed down or stopped by then.  This means the only way to tell if the queen is alive is by actually finding her.  Previously I’ve had a lot of trouble finding Rosalinda since she is unmarked. (Most people will request a “marked” queen that is painted with a small dot on her back.)  I searched for a good 15 minutes in the lower deep and I finally found her!  She is huge compared to the other bees, even the drones who are significantly larger than the workers.  I won’t make you sit through the entire 15 minutes of searching – but Will caught her on tape.  The clip of Rosalinda’s hollywood debut is below!

Well the leaves are changing colors, the days have been getting shorter and we have been BUSY!  I apologize for my drought of updates – we’ve had weddings and a vacation keeping us busy.  Since its been getting cooler the number one bee question I’ve been asked lately is, “what do bees do during the winter?” I thought I’d let you all know.  Its an excellent question.  They certainly don’t fly south – those little wings wouldn’t make it to Rhode Island and back.  Instead they pretty much hunker down in their hive, which we beekeepers have helped fortify.

As the temperatures start to drop in the fall, the bees continue collecting nectar and sap for propolis.  They store the nectar and sugar syrup away as honey for winter food stores and they use the sap to make propolis.  Propolis is a sticky mess initially, but it hardens to a strong orange varnish.  The bees use it to fill in any cracks and holes that may make the hive drafty during the winter.  During this time period the queen slows egg production and they start kicking the drones (male non-worker bees) out of the hive so they don’t have to feed extra mouths.

When the temperatures drops to the low 50’s (F) the bees form what is call the winter cluster. It is exactly what it sounds like – the bees cluster together on top of their honey stores, eat the honey and vibrate causing friction and heat.  The worker bees take turn swapping from the outside of the cluster to the inside.  The queen remains in the center of the cluster the entire winter where temperatures remains in the upper 90’s (F).  While in the cluster she stops laying eggs until spring.

The bees pretty much take care of themselves – but aside from feeding them sugar syrup to replenish their food stores there is a bit beekeepers can do to help.  To further prevent drafts, many beekeepers cover the entire hive with roofing paper.  Unfortunately drafts are not the only thing beekeepers must worry about.  With so much heat generated from the winter cluster, and temperatures so low on the outside of the hive condensation can form without proper ventilation.  Beekeepers must insure proper ventilation for their hives or risk cold condensation dripping onto the bees and killing them.  I researched a bit and discovered that some beekeepers use a product called homosote – an insulating sound-proofing material – for the top of their hives.  In addition to providing insulation, the board will hold moisture caused by condensation.  This prevents it from dripping back down on the bees, but allows the bees to retrieve the water when they need it.

Finally – with the warm temperatures inside the hive the bees will sometimes get freeloaders looking for warmth.  While the bees normally can defend against mice and other critters during warmer weather, they can’t do much when they are vibrating to stay warm.  For this reason beekeepers will add what they call a mouse guard – a metal device at the entrance of the hive that allows the bees to come and go, but is much too small for a mouse.  It is important that the guard be metal since mice are known to chew through wood entrance reducers to get to the warmth inside.

Next time I’ll tell you about my lip gloss making experiment!

So I apologize that I didn’t update last week – I was at a conference for work in Portland, OR.  While I was presenting my poster at the conference one of my co-workers that I hadn’t seen in over a year stopped by to chat about the poster.  After discussing work, the conversation drifted to hobbies – he mentioned how he had several chickens and had been recently raising goats.  Apparently his children were showing the goats in the state fair that week.  While on the topic of agriculture, I mentioned how I started raising bees this year.  His response was that coincidently he’d gotten bees himself.  We chatted for a while about our hives and he mentioned how he decided to get them – he thought it would be a cool hobby to do with his son.  He said initially his son was afraid of bees, but now has warmed up to their honey bees and will sit near the hive to watch them!

This conversation wasn’t at all out of the norm.  I’ve had dozens of experiences like this, meeting fellow beekeepers randomly by mentioning my hobby.  Its almost like its a secret society, where you utter the right word to a fellow member and you have an instant bond.  And this underground beekeeper network is vast – almost everyone I mention beekeeping to has some connection to the hobby.  Most often they have a neighbor, friend or relative who keeps bees, but sometimes they are a beekeeper themself.  A couple months ago my co-worker forwarded my name to one of the managers in the other building – turns out he got his bees the same week I did! (This is a shout out if you’re reading this.)   After that discovery my husband likes to joke that beekeeping is better for networking than learning to golf!

I opened my hive again today and things went very smoothly.  I checked all the frames and found about six and a half frames fully built out. Several had a layer of honey, a huge layer of brood, and finally a layer of pollen.  There were all levels of the life cycle from egg to pupa. I even saw the miracle of life!  A new born worker bee was slowly emerging from her cell!  So basically things looked great.  It was completely uneventful – I’ll post that semi-uninteresting video tomorrow.

As I was leaving the hive my husband remarked on the uneventful visit (well uneventful for viewers like my husband and you folks – extremely interesting for me!).  He said it would make for a boring blog post.  Well he was almost right, except for the events later.  Later that evening, around twilight, while we were sitting next to the sliding glass door that adjoins our screen porch, we heard a rapping at the screened window.  I thought a large black bird had hit the screen window but my husband swore he saw a large black cat jump up on the window.  We were the only two who noticed anything.  My husband immediately walked outside to investigate and our friend followed.  After returning from his investigation, my husband detailed the situation and claimed that he saw a huge black cat stand on his hind legs and put his paws on our garden to peer in (we have a 4×8 raised garden bed covered in bird netting held up by PVC piping to deter deer). He swears it was a giant black cat or perhaps a bear.  We chuckled and believed he was seeing things.

Fifteen minutes later my friend (who is facing the window) shouts that there is a black bear in our yard.  My husband and I turned around in time to see a small black bear lumber into the empty wooded lot behind our house, 8 feet from the beehive.  I guess my husband wasn’t crazy after all.  (Except for the fact that he ran out after the bear to investigate, despite my shouts of disapproval.)  For reference about how terrifying this is to me and my bees I must add that Winnie the Pooh’s addiction to honey is based on fact.  Bears indeed love honey, and will gladly destroy a whole hive to consume the sweet larvae and honey inside.  I am really hoping he didn’t find my bees attractive.