Oh, it's almost winter already?

So, I've neglected to update.  A big part of this is a lack of interesting photos.  A big part of that is being so focused on simply trying to keep my bees alive (and not getting stung) that I forget my camera.

Winter is upon us in just a few days and my bees are safely nestled in their wooden box.  They managed to store some honey and cap it, but not nearly the 40 lbs a healthy hive would need to survive the winter.  That's a lot of honey!

Once fall arrived, I realized that my bees situation was desperate and if they were to make it to spring, they'd need some help.  I guess that's why they call us beekeepers and not beewatchers.  I made sure to continue supplying the bees with sugar water from my feeder, but this truly is bee junk food.  Not to mention, my ant problems returned thanks to the sugar, albeit in the form of tiny ants this time.

Watching the bees fend off the miniature, by comparison, ants is fascinating.  The ants are too small for the bees to attack.  Instead, they "herd" the ants away, flapping their wings and vibrating furiously.  Undoubtedly some ants evade this technique, but it keeps them from overwhelming the bees' access to the sweet sugar water.  The ants were incredibly numerous, though, and enough of a problem that I scattered diatomaceous earth (DM) around the legs of the hive and along the trail of ants through the grass.  There is a lot of controversy surround DM and its safety for use around hives, but I've noticed no ill effect on the bees as it is not a chemical and must be transferred to the inside of the hive to be harmful.  I'm sure the ants caused some traces to enter the hive, but not nearly enough to cause as much a problem the ants were.





I mentioned in a previous post all the swarms of bees I had seen this year always at inconvenient times. Another swarm showed up at an unexpected and fortunate time for a change.  One of the bluebird houses on the nature center property had new residents and it was my intention to introduce them to my bees so they could make friends and collect the last of the season's nectar together.

Unfortunately, I wasn't sure whether a queen was with this strange swarm or not.  I would need to investigate.  This would prove difficult as the bees in the bluebird house were incredibly aggressive at any sign of disturbance.  So, I squirted them with sugar water and covered the hole!

I carefully unscrewed the house from its pole and gently began to lift it.  Then, I dropped it.  Oops.

The thin paper towel held up, but I could hear the now ticked off bees buzzing inside and see them trying to swell out of the box as the paper towel moved.  By the time I made it to my hive, reinforcements arrived and were in full on attack mode.  Eventually, they must have gotten disoriented due to the location change and left me alone.

My hope was to put these bees in the other side of my top bar with a divider between them and my colony.  They could eat through the paper towel and enter into a cavity where they could actually buid productive comb (though they clearly lacked the resources.  This would let me locate the queen, if there was one, and (sadly) smush her, allowing the hives to peacefully intermingle.

Well, the bees did come out of the bluebird nest by the following day, but they did not make their way out through the paper towel.  They must have found their way through a small opening in the bottom of the box and one by one emptied out to a very small space between the box and the bottom screen of the hive.  Unfortunately, this meant most of the bees (probably 95%) were dead by the next day.

Upon opening the nest, there were a few survivors, including a queen which flew out and briefly landed just long enough for me to see her.  Sad that I wasn't able to add these bees to my colony and help them survive the winter.  They surely would not have made it on their own with such short time to prepare.

So, this leaves me with the problem of trying to keep my colony well fed over the winter.  I'm using a combination of techniques, but lacking a regular supply of untainted honey (Store bought could have traces of foul brood.  It's best to use honey from a known source.) there is a slim chance they will survive to build back up in the spring.  This first year of beekeeping has been a great learning experience, an interesting hobby, and will surely benefit me as I prepare for season #2.