More cheese bees, and a tree hive

What could be the connection between bees in a commercial space on Laurel Canyon (please admire the warning sign, by the way) and a tree colony in Bell Gardens?

Why, the fact that Kirk's birthday is coming up on Monday, of course!

That's Backwards Beekeeping for you.

Sue pushes the reset button.

Here's how the equation goes:

Sue's queen poops out.

Sue and Kirk find a flower pot full of bees in Arcadia (enough to fill 5 deep frames).

Sue and Kirk collect those bees.

Sue is happy.

And by the way, callers (as Kirk will explain): keep in mind the time difference before you give those of us on the West Coast a ringle jingle in the morning.

If at first you don't succeed....

.....try, try again.

OK, so wish me luck—I'm steadfastly trying again [see the post above for pictures].

I installed my nuc box at Camp Waterloo on Easter Sunday (I know at least Curtis remembers this!) It consisted of two deep frames of what seemed to be a decent amount of brood, a couple of medium frames barely started, and a reasonable number of bees. And, what looked like a nice queen cell.

Six-plus weeks and four inspections later: Same old same old. Nada mas. Zip. Just one quarter-sized bit of new comb in all that time. Lots of bare-naked frames. A handful of larva in sorry-ass cells. Queen cell is gone, but I have never seen a queen. And believe me, I looked. Bees are coming and going, and I'm loving watching them do their thing, but there seem to be fewer and fewer of them. Plenty of drones, though, which makes me worry. I am trying not to be jealous reading posts from all my fellow beekeepers who have to keep adding supers because all their frames are filling up. The fact that my apple trees, tomatoes, and blackberries are loaded with blooms and fruit is of almost no consolation to me.

Finally, fifth inspection last weekend: Aaaaargh! Drone cells everywhere!!! No queen to be seen. That same old ratty brown comb. And a zillion ants have taken over, lined up dozens deep all over the sugar water baggie.

Emergency call to Kirk. He suspects a dud or absent queen is the cause of all this failure-to-thrive. (I prefer my own alternative scenario, about a rogue rebellious lesbian feminist bee who wanted nothing to do with the pampered diva lifestyle, being royally f***ed while 300 feet up in the air, endless childbearing, etc.—so she gathered up a bunch of her home girls and took off to set up a little rural commune with leadership by consensus.) OK, whatever—so now what do I do? Beekeeping for Dummies (and boy do I feel like a dummy) says to dump them all out on the ground far away from the hive and start all over. Dump my bees?? This can't be good for whatever's left of my karma.

Another call from Kirk: bees in a flower pot in Arcadia, and if I can drag myself out of bed at the crack of dawn on Wednesday, I can come along and do the cut-out with him. Carpe diem, I tell myself, and set the alarm. The flower pot is in the back of the backyard, upside down and half-buried in the dirt and debris from the redwood tree it is under. It's a nice big terra cotta bowl, CHOCK full of comb and bees.

I am excited. Kirk is calm, cool, and collected, and armed to the teeth with the smoker and a huge butcher knife. I have come prepared with 5 deep frames, which we quickly (but calmly and cooly, of course—I think Kirk could do a cut-out in his sleep) tie up with big slabs of brood comb cut out of the bowl. These go, with many bees attached, into a cardboard nuc box. Huge numbers of flower pot evictees are massed on the ground and on the adjacent cement wall. Kirk places the nuc box next to the wall, and we give them a half-hour or so to do their nassanoffing thing. And wonder of wonders, mostly all of them eventually stream (or are brushed) into the nuc box. Duct tape it all tightly shut and off we go.

I've neglected to wear my high boots, and somewhere along the line a suicide bomber has gone up each of my pant legs, so I come home with two painful souvenirs (now they just itch like crazy) along with my big box of bees. We transfer the new frames into the deep super that I built for my original group (in a vain attempt to encourage them to DO something,) squash the larva in what might pass as a supersedure cell on one of the old frames, add an empty medium as a shim for the baggy, sweep away some ants, and I'm on my own.

The bees flood out into many masses on the hive and the fence, caucus actively for an hour or so, and then get started on some serious housekeeping. Lots of squashed corpses are dragged out and dumped overboard, many bits of redwood tree debris are carted away, and—I have to tell this part—I believe I saw a large number of perfectly healthy drones being murdered right there on the front porch. Sorry, guys, but there really were WAY too many of you. And as for the Royal One, Kirk swore to me that she is in there somewhere. Or will be. I have absolute confidence.

Cheers,
Sue

From our correspondents

Brock, a Backwards Beekeeper in Louisiana, first got in touch with us a couple of weeks ago. Here he is in action—first rescuing one swarm at a bed-and-breakfast, then another at a strip mall.















Thanks for the photos, Brock!

Are you a Backwards Beekeeper? Send us your photos; our e-mail address is in the right-hand margin of this blog.

Cheese bees, and a true veteran of the craft.

Another day of interesting encounters for Kirkobeeo.

Viewer mail

Bruce writes:

Hello,

I'm a first year beekeeper in Kentucky and I've been reading your blog all spring and really enjoying it. I've looked at some of the trap outs you've been doing and I am now in the position to try one of my own. Bees, about 6 years ago, moved into cinderblocks behind bricks high up on a church. They apparently swarm twice a year and I tried and failed to capture a swarm a few days ago. They showed me where the parent colony lives and basically said I could try to get them out of the blocks or they would finally call the exterminator. I can't take the blocks apart, on the other side is a nice ornamental sign and bricks.

I've read about the method of taking a nuc with a queen in it up by the entrance and use a trapout but I don't think they'll let me bring in more bees to get rid of bees. So I'm thinking about setting up a trapout on the entrance with a tube connected to a box below it and going up every few days, switching for an empty box (expect for a few frames) and combining the bees I get with a smaller split I have using the newspaper method.

Any thoughts or suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

The Local Whale

Kirkobeeo responds:



For more information about trap-outs, by the way, see this post.

Watch your bee meter.

Today's rounds took Kirk to this power meter:




















I wonder what could possibly be inside?


























That's right: power! Oh, and also bees.




















These bees and their comb are headed to new and more luxurious pastures.

The White House bees

Backwards Beekeeper Stan sent a great link to this post on the City Bees blog that gives a bit of background about the First Family's organic garden and resident bees.

On Tuesday, March 24, the first known hive of bees at the White House arrived at their location on the South Lawn. You don't have to count on my crummy photo to see them: just stop by the fence on the Ellipse (south) side: two deeps and a medium of Maryland mixed breed bees, with known Russian and Caucasian genetics.

The White House beekeeper is Charlie Brandts, someone who has been a quiet beekeeper in this area for three years now. His reserve is probably why he asked me to do some of the talking about his idea to include bees in the White House Victory Garden project.

During the 2008 campaign, Michelle Obama emphasized healthy, local food, and since arriving here has tasked her family's personal chef, Sam Kass, with putting a garden in to supply fresh produce for the Executive Mansion and educational events for the community. Charlie realized that this was a chance to include bees, and to show their important role in putting one of every three bites on your plate. Charlie allocated (free of charge, people!) one of his own hives for the White House Victory Garden, and it will both provide hive products and an teaching opportunities.

An Excellent White House Bee Adventure (City Bees)

Also, here's a more recent City Bees post about visiting the White House bees.

Undercover of the bees.

Yesterday Kirk and Sebastian were secret agents, operating undercover to save a hive.

Also, Stan and Kim got their bees, and there was much rejoicing.

Kirk's story is a good one:

Next Bee Meeting - Sunday, June 14th

Our next Backwards Beekeepers meeting will be at 11am on Sunday, June 14th at L'Tanya and Curtis's house. We'll also do a hive inspection with their bees after the meeting part, so bring your bee suit if you'd like to check that out.

Further details (like the address) will be distributed via the Yahoo Group. Click on the link on the right-side of this blog to go there.

Hope you can make it!