Does anyone have bees?

[Ariel301]

We're getting all the tools to go with the bees as well, so we will be all set up.

I'm still checking to see what issues we may have with bringing the bees across state lines, if we need any paperwork like we do with other animals.

The funny thing is, a few months ago when we were helping to clean out my husband's grandparents' house after his grandma died, we found an old book about beekeeping (his grandparents used to have a beehive). My mother-in-law presented it to me, thinking "hey she likes animals, she'll want it"--and I didn't know of any use for it, so I got rid of it. We weren't considering bees yet.

I love raw honey, I grew up eating honey from a bee farm just down the road, and now the storebought stuff tastes terrible to me.

 

[Ariel301]

Well, the bees have been here a week now. They've been out and about checking out the garden in between rain storms. It turned out they were not in a "real" beehive, it was some homemade contraption in a plastic barrel that is pretty hard to get into to work with, so we will be building a new hive for them and moving them into it in the spring. I figured it would be better to leave them in their familiar home until they are quite familiar with the new surroundings, so they don't leave or get stressed out. They're pretty neat. We're excited to get in there and look for honey, but the weather has not been nice enough to open the thing up too much.

 

[simple life]

Its kind of late in the season to be going into the hive and they need to keep all of their honey at this point but you should evaluate the hive and see if they have enough stores toget through winter.
The issue now is that they will be going into their cluster soon and you do not want to to open the hive then, if they break cluster they will lose their heat.
How long has your friend had them in that barrel type hive? What are they using for frames?

 

[Ariel301]

They've been in the barrel for about a year, they were captured by my friend as a swarm. There really are no frames, and that's the biggest issue I have. He covered the barrel with slats of wood that fit together tightly, and the bees have hung their comb down from that, pretty much however they feel like, so it's a bit of a mess. I've been trying to see what is in there, make sure we have a queen, and just generally inspect things, but it is difficult to do it without tearing anything up or really irritating the bees. :/ I got some small frames that will fit into the barrel, so I am going to put some of those in there where there is some empty space.

We have such mild winters that we have flowers all winter. The bees don't really go dormant for the winter here like in most places and only cluster maybe a few days at a time during a rainstorm before it warms back up again. We average 40-70 degrees all winter long, and our gardens are in full bloom right now! We would certainly leave most of their honey, but were planning to get a little taste for ourselves, just a couple of little jars to satisfy ourselves and give a taste to friends who are lining up wanting fresh honey.

I'm a little concerned about their aggression level, but it may be because they are still not used to the area....when I try to open the hive up and see what we've got, even with a good thorough smoking, going slowly, and being quiet, as soon as I lift one of the wooden slats an inch or two, I end up with a few dozen angry bees buzzing around my face and trying to sting me through the veil! It seems like they know where my face is, and that is the only thing they go for. I wear white heavy clothes so the stingers can't get through them, as well as gloves and a hat/veil, but it's unnerving having that many around my face! Not sure if that is normal behavior...They will follow me swarming around me when I leave the hive, all the way back to the house a few hundred feet away. (I'm only trying to mess with them in early afternoon on clear, sunny, warm days, as advised by their former owner)

 

[journey11]

Congratulations on getting them home!

Sorry to hear that they are in a bit of a mess like that. Next spring you will have to go to some trouble, cutting out the combs and tying them into frames, but it can be done. I had a similar problem with my "free" bees making freeform comb where there were 3 frames missing and they made natural comb diagonally and connected it to the inner cover. I even killed some brood when I pulled up the inner cover, but I couldn't know that was like that until it was too late!

Bees are usually a little more aggressive in the fall when they are protective of their valuable honey stores. If they are still acting like that in the spring when you visit them, I'd suggest requeening with a calmer breed like Italians or Carniolians. It could be your technique where you are new to working with them (I was bad about over-smoking them in my newbieness), or they could just be an aggressive bunch. It's not a loss either way. Join up with a local beek club or find a mentor who can check them out and help you decide what to do next.

Welcome to the exciting world of beekeeping! Good luck and have fun! :bee

 

[simple life]

I don't know about your exact area but there are some states that are having trouble with the africanized bees and Arizona does happen to be one of them.

I don't want to scare you but it does happen that they get crossed so if they keep that up I would requeen them.
There is no good reason to tolerate a hot hive.You won't enjoy beekeeping if they continue to be that aggressive.
When was the last time the former owner inspected them to make sure they were queenright and had a good amount of honey put away? Sometimes that will make them behave aggressively as well.

What you have is a homemade topbar hive. Top bar hives are great if they bees stay on course with the bars and its checked frequently to keep it from getting wavy comb or cross comb.
Unfortunately that hive is going to be a mess to fool with if they have built cross comb across the bars.
You will have to transfer the bees and maybe not get the combs out without breaking them.
If that happens and the combs are in large enough pieces you can tie them to the new frames or use elastics so you don't lose brood or food stores.
The bees will chew through the elastic or string eventually or you can remove it when the comb is stable or repaired by the bees.
There are a couple of ways to do it but its best if the comb is fairly large.
One way is the elastic and the other is to put very small nails in the frame every few inches and then tie the string around one and then zig zag the string back and forth going around each nail until you have kind of a net to keep the comb in.
If none of it is salvageable then you need to move them only when there is a real good flow on or they won't have the resources to make wax for the combs and nectar to store.
You also have the option of feeding them artificially if it came down to it.

You should check with your local clubs for advice on beekeeping in your climate and when your flows are on.
You can have a garden full of flowers but they may not be nectar sources for honeybees so hooking up with local beeks will help you to recognize when to expect a good flow and subsequently when to work on moving the bees into a new hive.
Its nice to have the support of other local beekeepers and getting involved with a club is a good social outlet as well. They usually have picnics and outings as well as the regular monthly meetings.
They also organize group buying of jars, nucs, packages etc.
Here is a great site for beekeeping information.
Michael is a really nice guy and devotes alot of his time to helping other beekeepers.
http://bushfarms.com/bees.htm

Good luck with the new hive and have fun!

 

[Ariel301]

Thanks for the advice!

We do have issues here with Africanized bees, which is what makes me a little nervous around these, knowing they were wild-caught. I'm sure my techniques are less than ideal, since this is my first try at things...they probably think I'm a big clumsy idiot lol. They seem to know EXACTLY where the bottom edge of my veil is, one got in earlier and I got a sting on the back of my head. It seems they go straight for my face and head when I upset them, even if there's a few buzzing in the garden, they seem to gravitate to my head! Maybe they like my shampoo?

I don't know when or if the last owner has opened this hive up. He asked if I had gotten any honey out of it, and how it looked if I did, so I'm guessing it's been a good while. That's one thing I need to ask about next time I hear from him, and if they were ever aggressive towards him. And how he managed to keep the top on the smoker we got, it doesn't seem to fit tightly enough and if it is tipped too far sideways, the top just falls off. That causes problems, obviously. I duct taped it down to stop it from coming off, but the duct tape doesn't last too long.

My husband had a professor at college last semester that he found out was a bee-keeper, we are going to see about getting another hive started from some bees of his bloodlines, so we could potentially re-queen that way if necessary. Unfortuantely we have been unable to locate any experts or clubs anywhere closer than a few hours away from us.

 

[lesa]

I think I would just let them be, for now... At the very least, you will be confident that you have enough bees to keep your flowers happy. I have had bees for two years and never been stung. With a very light smoking (and sometimes with none at all) the bees just don't bother us...
Good luck!

 

[lesa]

I was just thinking of some advice an old sage, beekeeper gave us- that might help you, if you want to work the bees.... He says, smoke yourself. You can smoke the bees directly, but before he opens an angry hive, he runs the smoker around his arms, etc. He swears by it- just an idea...the smell of smoke really confuses them. They are attracted to carbon monoxide- which is why they go for the face/mouth....

 

[journey11]

Hey Ariel, here's a cool video on requeening a mean hive I just came across a little bit ago. It was linked from Backwards Beekeepers, one of my favorite bee blogs. http://beehuman.blogspot.com/2010/10/video-re-queening-mean-hive.html

I hope your bees aren't as mean as these gals in the video! They are wicked mean!

Lesa, I do that too...smoke myself, especially if I got a sting. It is good for masking scents.