Bee Report - August 29th, 2011

The bees were extremely busy at Willow Springs this afternoon! Not only were they occupied with bringing in pollen and nectar but with expelling drones (the male bees that are kept on stand-by for mating with new queens from other colonies). The workers were working tirelessly, trying to drive out as many drones as possible, piggy-backing on the more reluctant ones in an attempt to discourage them from returning. The population of bees was plentiful, however my observations led me to believe that they are gearing down for the fall and insuring that they have sufficient honey stores to carry them through the cold months to follow.

As an observation piece and to kill my curiosity, I placed a mint blossom at the entrance to see how the bees would react. At first they paid no attention to my little contribution but one worker got fed up and began wrestling with the flower in attempt to remove it from the landing strip. However, that wasn’t good enough for her - she went as far as insuring it was taken off of the wooden pallet that the hive rests on and depositing it onto the grass below. This odd and humorous behaviour I suspect is linked to the removal of drones and illustrates that the bees were slightly agitated with this laborious task.

~Paul Dosen

Bee Report – August 5th, 2011

When I arrived at Willow Springs this afternoon, the bees were extremely active, more active than I’ve ever seen them! Once I got myself established and was sadisfied that the bees were doing really well, I got the opportunity to meet Commercial Bee Keeper Barry Tabor, who was able to teach me how to properly use a hive tool and perform a basic hive inspection, to insure that the bees are doing what they’re supposed to be doing, and to determine the over-all health of the colony.

When I first lifted off the hive cover and exposed the top honey super, I noticed that the bees remained fairly calm, and were extremely tolerant of my inquisitiveness as I inspected the tops of the frames with my hand. Barry showed me how to use the hive tool to break the propolis seal that was securing the frame to the rest of the hive body. Propolis is a sticky, sap-like substance that the bees collect from trees in order to seal up any cracks in the hive. This substance also acts as an anti-bacterial agent and is used to insure that the hive is kept clean and free of mold and mildew that could potentially harm the colony.

I was given an opportunity to hold a frame with bees on it, which was a very enlightening experience for me, as I realized that the bees were so busy working the frame, that my presence didn’t affect them too much. We tried looking for the queen to insure she was laying properly, but unfortunately we had no such luck finding her. However, we did find some eggs that were layed recently, which led us to believe that the queen is alive and well. After our basic hive inspection was concluded, and I put back the frame that I was holding, I noticed that the bees were buzzing vigorously, which made red flags go up in my mind and encouraged me to close up the hive as quickly as possible. We were able to close the hive without killing too many bees and got the job done with Barry receiving only one sting!

To conclude the bees were extremely happy today, and the colony is doing extremely well!

Here are some photos - you can click on them to enlarge them:


"The Watering Hole"




"Bees Coming and Going"




"Paul and the Ladies"




"Getting Down to the Bees"




"Paul Working His Magic"




"Working Hands"




"Taking Out the Frames"




"Looking for the Queen"


~Paul Dosen

Bee Report – July 25th, 2011

When I arrived at Willow Springs this afternoon, it was raining quite a bit. The bees were fairly inactive when I approached the front of the hive. Today was my first day to crack open the hive and see how the bees were progressing! With Ayla’s help, we were able to take off the hive feeder and inner cover in order to get a good look. To our surprise the bees were lethargic and slow moving. The 10 frames of foundation were being built up slowly but due to poor weather conditions the bees weren’t able to get much work done in this area.

Luckily when Joanne came out to Willow Springs she gave the bees some frames of comb that were already drawn out, thereby giving the bees an opportunity to concentrate more on gathering pollen and nectar than constructing wax comb.

~Paul Dosen


Bee Report - July 11th, 2011

It was a nice day today at Willow Springs - the sun was shining, the wind was refreshing and the bees were buzzing!

Using the railing, I was able to navigate to the fence with ease in order to unplug it from its power source. I then was able to proceed, unhooking the electric fence and navigating to the hive on my own with very little difficulty. When I knelt down beside the hive it was a whirl of activity - the bees were coming and going paying little attention to my presence. The activity remained fairly consistent, with an occasional lull in activity every five minutes for a few seconds, then picked up again.

I noticed when I walked in front of the hive entrance, the bees created a ‘mini swarm’ outside the hive, curious as to what was standing in front of their home. Lucky for their sake, it wasn’t a bear! I also noticed a pesky fly trying to get into the hive. the sweet smell no doubt attracted her and she was trying every trick in the book to get inside. However, the guard bees were on full alert, patrolling the landing pad and surrounding area. The fly didn’t succeed but lived to fly another day as the bees did not take defensive action by stinging, but merely head-butting the fly off of the landing pad. It was a site to behold!

~Paul Dosen

Bee report – July 4th, 2011

When I arrived at Willow Springs today the bees were fairly active considering the rainy weather conditions. I was able to get up-close and personal with the bees, examining the entrance-way and bending my ear towards the entrance to see if I could detect any signs of life inside! The bees are fairly active inside the nest, a true hub of activity - notably the ‘fanning’ of the bees to keep the hive at a consistent temperature.

While observing the bees I was able to position myself right in their flight path to see how they would react and realized that they were more concerned about depositing their goods in the hive than getting me out of the way. However, when they started ‘crashing into me’ I decided to move back a little to avoid a fight with any returning foragers. In addition, I would like to conclude by mentioning that these bees are extremely happy and I look forward to working with them during the next few month.

~Paul Dosen

Bee Report – June 24th 2011

[Paul Dosen is a new young volunteer at Willow Springs, who doesn't let visual impairment get in the way of beekeeping! - Willow Springs Volunteers]

Upon my arrival at Willow Springs, my first challenge was to navigate my way to where the bee hive was located and remove the electric fence wire which ran horizontally across and connected to a latch on each spruce tree. After a while I got used to it, using one hand to trail along the wire while holding the disconnected wire in the other!

My next task was to lay wax foundation into 10 deep frames that were going to be added onto the bee hive so that the bees can continue working on hive expansion. It was quite a challenge bending the wax sheets into the frames and tucking them into the little slots on the inner part of the frame, and embedding the wax foundation into the horizontal wires that went across it. The wax foundation gives the bees a point of reference and acts as a guide for where they are to draw the wax comb, building a layer of wax on top of the foundation.

Next, we had to add this new brood box on to the hive and I noticed how the behaviour of the bees had changed from when I first arrived. The hive had been just opened and the bees were extremely investigative in nature, scrutinizing every move we made and paying close attention to our hands. When the hive was reassembled, the behaviour of the bees changed again, they were extremely curious investigating the hive boxes from top to bottom, propilizing any cracks that were visible to them and insuring that any nosey neighbours were kept at bay.

~Paul Dosen