TBBA Bee Day at Willow Springs - July 8, 2012

Hey everyone! Thanks for coming to Bee Day at Willow Springs on July 8! It was great to see everyone.

Here's a little background. We now have three hives. The first was a swarm caught in town very early in the year. It lived on the wheelchair ramp for almost a month until we had the bee-yard built and protected with an electric fence. By the time it was installed, it was ready to be split - Bob Hughdie found swarm cells during a weekly inspection, so that made Hive # 2. Hive #3 was a nuc that Willow Springs purchased from Dean Harron.

We purchased a polystyrene hive box from Betterbee (thanks Beth!) to use for one of the hives, so visitors would have the opportunity to see one. I for one love it - and the bees seem to as well - they started drawing out the foundation on the black Pierco frames with no hesitation - probably due to being split - but comb-building is very obvious with white comb on black foundation! We will see how they handle it in cold weather. One minor down side is that the inner cover provided with the poly box won’t fit properly (bee space) over the wooden honey supers - it’s too big - the inner cover is designed to fit the wider poly box, so we will have to use a regular inner cover while the wooden honey supers are in place.

Barry Tabor brought an IPM bottom board for use on one of the hives - it has screening and a board that slides in and out on which paper and grease can be used to trap varroa and other critters for counting. Barry set this up, and we will inspect it.

Small Hive Beetle - persona non grata

Rob Rupert, our bee inspector, brought everyone a Small Hive Beetle trap and explained its use. We will install it under one of the hives. I’m not sure if it will fit a polystyrene hive without being adapted in some way. Thanks Rob for your explanation. We will put the trap in when we check the hives next week.

Barry showed us an icing sugar roll to sample for varroa. It seems to be a very easy technique to use.

One thing we didn’t get to was hygienic testing - Barry could not perform the liquid nitrogen test - the bees in the selected hive must have known what he was planning because they wouldn’t let him near it! We also forgot to do the pin prick test ... unless someone did it and I missed seeing it happen.

So, what did we see when we opened the hives?

In #1, our first hive (named Alistair, after the person whose yard we recovered it from): one frame had 13 swarm cells on it!! None of the others had any. Good thing Barry looked. That frame went into Hive #3, which appeared to have either a laying worker or a drone laying queen - there were capped drone cells and drones everywhere. We never did find a queen. The idea of putting the swarm cells into this hive was to provide a new replacement queen and strong enough pheromone from the introduced brood to kick in the process. It should be stronger than any pheromone currently in the hive. Barry talked members through the process, and showed us frames so that we knew what to look for with a drone layer.

Hive #2, the poly hive (should we name it Polly?) [editor's note: Wendy here - yes, call it Polly!], looked wonderful, strong and queenright, so Dean Harron used a frame from that hive to do his grafting demonstration. Sorry I missed it, but I hear it was excellent. Dean also showed members how to check for swarm cells by tipping a brood box on its end. Much less intrusive than pulling out frames. Thanks Dean.

I think that’s about it for the hive examinations.

Just as the hives were being reassembled, the heavens opened and dumped rain - whew! Some deluge! We all ran inside to start making pizzas and chat. Perfect timing. Unfortunately (not really, since the day was full anyway) we didn’t make it to the predator control portion of the day, as we were too busy making pizzas, eating and talking. A predator-proofing handout will be e-mailed to members. Thanks to those who submitted suggestions. Sorry Bob and Gerry that we didn’t get to see your suggestions in action, but thanks anyway! Thanks to Diana for coordinating the food part of the event.

Oh yes, and we had a tailgate bee plant give-away/exchange. Several members potted up plants - the upshot of a discussion that we had at dinner with Werner Gysi last month. Vanderwees donated two trays as well. Thank you. Next year, we will have it earlier in the year so that the plants can get established before the heat sets in.

For a first-time event, with so many unknowns, it was very successful. The bees were on their best behaviour and gave our experts lots to work with and pass on to members.

Judi and Ayla of Willow Springs were unfazed by our numbers - it seemed like at least 30 of us? - Fabulous turnout!! - and served the pizzas as quickly as the Midnight Wench could turn them out, in the midst of kitchen renovations and the down pour.

From Gerry Stricker, “Little bit of rain, & some people got a bit wetter than others, but we thought a good day. Good pizzas too! That outdoor oven works great! I appreciate the work that you, Judi & Ayla did.” Thanks Gerry!

I totally agree.

Thanks everyone!

JoAnne

P.S.:  If anyone has photos, feel free to share!  I wouldn’t mind seeing pics of stuff that happened throughout the afternoon. Thanks.

P.P.S.: In case you didn't notice the link above, here's the Predator-Proofing Handout.

Bee Report - June 3, 2012

The Koski Store

We managed to install a wonderful old egg-yolk yellow (okay, honeybee yellow) wooden screen door, originally from the Koski Store (the original Willow Springs building) which had been left in one of the grounds' sheds. It was efficiently re-cut to fit and installed by Judi Vinni, who has been building willow furniture for years and is a fabulous woodworker and builder. 

The legendary door

We also finished the front walls, but we still didn't get to the electric fencing. We wanted to, but realized we didn't have the proper insulators for the 90-degree angle corners. Next week, after more consulting with the internet and searching for appropriate leftover and donated insulators and wire in our home sheds and garages, we plan to erect the electric fence. Yes!! (For those readers outside our area, electric fence is essential here to discourage visits by honey-loving bears.)

I love that everyone has an idea about how to make something work, like using an old screen door for a gate. How creative and unique is that!

~JoAnne Henderson

Beeyard in progress!

Bee Report - May 17, 2012

Got an excited phone call from our board chair Julie, saying that there was a swarm of bees in her friend's spruce tree in town, and did I want to come and get it as her friend was severely allergic to bees? Whoa! Could this be true?

Not only was it true, but the huge swarm was only three feet off the ground. The swarm had been in her tree for almost a week, but it seems that the cold weather had slowed down their scouting for a suitable hive space.


They appeared to welcome the box we gave them. We decided that until we had some form of critter protection in the new partially-constructed beeyard, we would keep the newly acquired hive close to the building, and provide a radio and light (not for the bees, but to deter overly curious night creatures). Ayla gave the new bees syrup to help them get settled. Good thing, as it rained for several days afterward (an understatement, as locals know) and the bees couldn't get out to forage.

~JoAnne Henderson

Bee Report - May 13th, 2012 - Mother's Day

The Willow Springs Bee Blog is back in action for another year!

Our imaugural WS beeyard event, held on Mother's Day, May 13, was to be the day that the beeyard posts went in and the electric fence was installed. Those of us involved thought we had planned this as thoroughly as we could via e-mail, but obviously, we were lacking in the visualization part of the process - that is, we all had a different vision of what the outcome would be! 

We ended up having an exclusive lesson on fencebuilding from Brian Biesenthal (Thanks Brian!), who patiently guided Ayla Ludwig and myself through post-hole digging (no big rocks thankfully), sinking posts, making sure they were vertical and in line with each other, and securing them in place. I guess we made it half way through our list - the posts went in, but the electric fencing didn't. Good thing, because I didn't know where to start with it.

During the ensuing two weeks since Mother's Day, Ayla, Judi Vinni, and several volunteers managed to put cedar on three sides of the yard, and build a platform for the hives. The idea behind the three almost-solid walls is not only to shelter the hives from north winds in winter and create a warm space to collect sun and heat, but to make the hives less noticeable from the road (Willow Springs is on the corner of Mapleward and Kam Current Roads). The front (south) wall will have cedar planks in between spaced electric wire, using spacing obtained from sources on the internet. The idea behind the alternating wood and wire is that, as a bear looks through the gap in the fence (trust us, this will happen), it will contact the wire - hopefully. The wood on the front should also make the hives less obvious to passers-by, and less threatening to those who are fearful of bees. It might also encourage the bees to fly up when they leave the hive - we will see if this works. :)

~ JoAnne Henderson (Willow Springs Volunteer)

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