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I started my beekeeping adventure in the Spring of 2019. In February, I went to a beginning beekeeping class put on by the Omaha Bee Club and ordered two 3 pound packages of bees, each with a mated queen. I was so excited to learn as much as I could before the bees were scheduled to arrive in late April. And I found that bees are extremely fascinating creatures!! Did you know that all of the worker bees are female? And that the only job of the male bees, or drones, is to mate with a queen? This is probably the reason they aren’t allowed to stay in the hive over the winter! 🙂 The queen takes a mating flight after she emerges from her cell and mates with 10-12 drones before returning. She has collected enough sperm to last her the rest of her life. Granted, that’s only about 2 years, but holy cow!! See, fascinating, right??
We initially made the decision to keep bees when we once again didn’t get to harvest fruit from the trees in our personal orchard. We attributed the problem to a lack of pollination. In reality, it is probably a combination of different things, but that is for another post. My husband suggested we keep some mason bees to help with pollination, not only for the trees, but also for the garden. It seemed to make sense. But, mason bees do not make honey. And if I was going to go through the work of keeping bees, I figured I might as well keep bees that can give me some of that liquid gold!
The bees arrived later than scheduled because of the weather. It stayed cold that year well into the Spring months. But they finally did arrive, on Mother’s Day. It was perfect.
The bees needed to be picked up from the Club in Omaha. So my two younger daughters and I made the 30 mile trip into Omaha in our Toyota Highlander to pick them up. When we arrived, two of the Club officers were waiting next to their vehicles with several packages of bees sitting on the ground next to them and a LOT of bees just flying around. I hadn’t expected bees to be loose! But they assured me that it would be fine for them to ride in the back of the car and if a few were loose inside, they’d fly out an open window or just hang out in the back with the packaged bees. So we loaded them up, opened all the windows, and began the drive home.
There were a few loose bees buzzing around in the back and a couple did fly out of the windows before we closed them up when we got to the interstate. They didn’t bother us, though. I was pretty surprised. It is true that bees die once they sting you……aaaand a fake stinger like Barry’s in The Bee Movie won’t save them. So they don’t just go looking for someone to sting. They have to be provoked in some way. And since we were up front and they were in the back, there was no provoking going on!
My husband built the bee boxes and we ordered the frames and foundation before the bees arrived. We had set up the hives on the south side of our garden in preparation for the arrival of the bees. When we arrived home, I put on my protective gear and brought the packages over to the hives.
The queen was separated from the rest of the bees in her own little protective cage. The reason for this is because the bees come from many hives and the queen is new to them. They have to accept her, in a way, before she is let loose with them or you risk her being killed by the worker bees. I removed the queen’s cage and set her aside. I then tapped the package on the ground to shake most of the bees to the bottom of the package. With the bees at the bottom, I removed the can of sugar water that fed them during transport, turned the package upside down over the bottom brood box, and shook the bees into the hive. Several good shakes was enough to get the majority of them out. The rest were left in the open package nearby to eventually find their way in.
I placed the queen, still in her cage, inside the hive nestled between a couple of frames. I left her there for several days before releasing her to make sure the worker bees were used to her. With the queen inside, I set 3 mason jars filled with sugar water on top of the frames. We simply punched small holes in the metal flats and fitted the rings on the jars. Once turned upside down, the bees could drink from them without it just running out. I then put a medium box on and finally the lid. The sugar water is used to feed the bees until they get oriented and can find their own food and encourage them to build comb. It is also used at other times, but we can talk about that in future posts.
My first day of beekeeping seemed to go pretty well. Nobody, except for our dog who was a little too curious, was stung. The bees seemed to be getting used to their new home and we had some Spring flowers, aka dandelions, blooming for them to feed on. It was a success!
I continued my bee adventure, checking on them every two weeks or so and things seemed to be going pretty well…….that is until fall. I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but there is this tiny parasite called a varroa mite that feeds on honeybees. They have decimated many hives over the last several years. I was keeping an eye out for them, and didn’t notice any until the day I decided to do a sugar roll test. This is an interesting test where you place a handful of bees in a mason jar with powdered sugar. Instead of a flat and ring, you place a screen that has holes large enough for the mites to go through, but not the bees. You gently roll the bees in the sugar until they are coated. The mites can’t hang on to the bees with the sugar, so they fall off and you then shake them out through the screen onto a paper plate. With the mites now on the plate with the sugar, you spray it with water to dissolve the sugar and count how many mites you see. This gives you an idea of how many mites per 300 bees you have in your hive. Apparently a handful of bees is 300……..I didn’t count! When I lifted the frame to get a handful of bees I could see several mites on the bees. I was expecting to find some, but not see that many without even doing the sugar roll test. So, instead of doing the test, I closed the hives back up and decided to treat them.
The next weekend, I gathered supplies to treat them. I’ll explain different treatments in the future. I went out to the hives, opened up the first one only to find the entire hive dead. I couldn’t believe it! I had waited too long. These mites aren’t messing around! I opened the second hive to find it still alive, but they had struggled to build up much honey. I treated them and gave them the honey from the first hive. We insulated around the hive for the winter and hoped for the best.
On warm days in the winter, bees will leave the hive for a “cleansing flight”. Otherwise, they stay in the hive all winter long, huddled together for warmth and eating the honey they had worked so hard to make during the warmer months. I didn’t open the hive over the winter because the bees are very susceptible to the cold, but I did check on them from the outside a few times. Hoping to see some activity on warm days, I’d head over to the hives and check out the entrance. No activity. I was concerned they were dead, but had to wait until Spring.
Since I had lost one hive for sure, I decided I needed to order some new ones for the Spring. I ordered two nucleus hives from a gentleman in Bellevue, just 15-20 minutes north of our farm. I’m hoping that bees with a mother that has survived at least one Nebraska winter, will fair better. Oh, I had probably better explain a nucleus hive….. This is a mini hive that is created as a “split” from a larger hive. I can explain more in detail in a future post, but it has some worker bees, a laying queen and about 5 frames with honey comb, eggs, and capped brood. This is different from the package bees, because the package doesn’t have any comb, eggs, or capped brood. There are different opinions on which way to start. I guess I’ll find out which I prefer.
Well, best laid plans, right??? With the weather not seeming to want to warm up, the nucleus hives are late. They aren’t going to be ready until late May. In early March, my husband received a phone call from a friend at our church. He was headed to Iowa to pick up some package bees and wanted to know if I wanted any. Since our fruit trees were blooming, we asked him to pick us up one package if they had extra and they did! We brought them to the farm and I’ve installed them. They seem to be doing very well. I was able to give them a bit of a head start by giving them some comb and honey that I had saved from my dead hives. Things seem to be on the right track. And this year, I’ll know I need to treat much earlier for those pesky varroa mites!
I’ll continue to post about the bees as we move forward. Keep in mind that I’m learning as I go, so I may not always have answers to questions. I will, however, try to find the answer or direct you to any resources I am aware of that may be able to help. Here’s to a better, more informed year of beekeeping!!