Skunks Again

The other night about 2 a.m. Dan and I were awakened by the strong smell of a skunk. Dan went out to check but didn't see it. My concern is for my lone, remaining beehive.

Daylily Hive with skunk guard

Apparently skunks think honeybees are quite a delicacy. Skunks are nocturnal and so work at night, but are still able to bother a hive by scratching at the entrance. Guard bees come out to investigate and the skunk finishes them off. It's a problem that can decimate a colony and even drive them off to find new quarters.

A popular skunk deterrent is a "bed of nails" placed in front of the hive. Nails can be driven through a thin piece of plywood or carpet scrap and placed with nail points upward so that a skunk would have to walk on them to get to the hive entrance. I didn't want to do that because of our cats, but I liked the fence idea given to me by fellow beek RonC. Apparently striped skunks (the kind we have here) aren't climbers and won't attempt to get over the fence.

It took a ten-foot length of welded wire to completely circle the concrete base on which the hive sits (repurposed brick pillar tops saved from our front porch demolition). I cut the four-foot wide fencing down a bit so I can still remove the top of the hive. It's held together in a circle by carabiners.

So far so good. Let's just hope it stays that way.

Skunks Again © May 2016 by Leigh

at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Requeening (Or Trying To Anyway)

I just installed my package bees last month, so isn't it a little early to be requeening? Under ordinary circumstances the answer to that would be yes. But this is me, and my adventures with critters always turn out to be anything but ordinary. (The stuff of entertaining Critter Tales, right? ;)

Periwinkle (left) and Daylily (right) hives in the morning sun.

Early last week I donned my beesuit in order to remove the feeders from my two hives. Activity levels have been different with each colony, so I was also curious to get a closer look at what was developing.

Daylily Hive was busy, busy busy, with so much traffic at the entrance that I decided to enlarge it a bit. It seemed that almost every other bee coming in was carrying pollen, which is a good sign because it means they are feeding brood. The top box is almost completely drawn out with comb and I was happy with their progress.

Daylily has been consistently active.

Periwinkle, on the other hand, has been a concern. Activity has seemed sporadic to the point where I've sometimes wondered if anybody was still at home. I've been able to see the comb full of bees through the observation window, but I was still concerned. I wanted to take a closer look and see what was going on.

Periwinkle hive has been much less active.

I discovered that no more comb had been drawn since the last time I'd checked about three weeks ago.

Not much progress in Periwinkle Hive.

I pulled each top bar to examine them more closely.

To examine the comb I used my smoker to puff away the bees

The combs were covered with bees who appeared to be busy, and I found the queen running around, but there were no eggs, no capped brood, and no food being stored. What in the world were they doing?

I didn't know the answer to that question, but I did know that my queen was a dud. It had been a month and she should have presented the colony with brood by now. I reassembled the hive and went in to call the bee store. The guy I talked to on the phone said it sounded like she was either a virgin or lazy, but yes, they had replacement queens available. I told him I was on my way.

The first step to requeening is to dispose of the old queen. Two queens in one hive is a deadly mix. At the bee store I was advised to "kill and drop." This is where the old queen is killed and her body dropped into the hive. The rationale here is that with a body, the colony knows for certain she is dead. They won't be confused by any lingering pheromones, assume she's still in residence, and attempt to kill the new queen. Did that ever stir things up! I left them to mull that over while I went in to make a fresh batch of sugar syrup. I could see that numbers were down and that they would need help if I was going to save them.

I've described the queen cage before (photo below from my "Honeybees! (Here at Last)" post, where you'll find pictures of the entire hiving process).

With packaged bees, the queen has traveled with them
so that they are somewhat familiar with her presence.

There are holes plugged with corks at both ends of the queen cage. The one at the candy end is for a slow queen release while the bees eat through the candy. The one at the other end is for quick release because it opens directly into the queen's chambers. Because Periwinkle was going to be mourning the loss of their old queen and was unfamiliar with this one, I simply set her cage in the hive without removing either cork. They would need a minimum of two days to realize that a new queen was present and become familiar with her.

Three days later I opened the hive and checked on the queen cage. I found it covered with bees, so I puffed them away with smoke to make sure the new queen was still alive. I read that an ill-tempered colony can try to bite through the cage and kill the new queen, although this bunch of bees has been just the opposite. She was alive and well, so I removed the cork from the candy end of the box.

The next day I took a peek through the observation window.

Bees completely covered the queen cage. You can also see that she
has fresh new comb available after release, ready to receive eggs.

Three days later the status was the same. I wanted to go in and do something to help, but it was pouring rain so I waited until the following day. What I discovered was that they had eaten through the candy but left a lump in the middle of the path. I probably should have gently poked through the lump but instead I pulled the cork on the queen's side of the box. She climbed out and flew away.

Have you ever noticed how an idea is brilliant if it turns out okay but stupid if it doesn't? Well, after that I felt anything but brilliant. There were still bees on and in the queen cage, so I set it on one of the hive box handles.

When I went to the garden to get salad for dinner, I took a detour past my hives. I was surprised to see that the queen cage was piled with a mound of bees. I took a closer look and saw that the queen had flown back to her box! I tilted up the top hive body box and gently set the queen cage inside. Hopefully I'd gotten her!

About half an hour later the little mound of bees was still there and so was the queen! I gave the entire mound a gentle squirt with honey-b-healthy (in hopes it would keep her from flying off again) and brushed them into a little box. I dumped them into the top box hoping this time she was safely installed.

When I went to check again I found her outside again in front of the hive. Apparently she did not like that hive! She evaded my attempts to re-catch her. I spent some time looking for her but by that time it was late and starting to drizzle again. I gave up.

When a colony abandons a hive it is referred to as absconding. For whatever reason they just up and leave. Considering Periwinkle's circumstances, however, I suspect (hope) that much of its former population had already drifted over to Daylily and taken up residence there. So perhaps it was the low bee numbers that the new queen didn't like, perhaps it was the carpenter ants which were making a pest of themselves, or maybe the wax moth I'd seen through the observation window. All of these are probable contributing factors, but who truly knows the mind of a honeybee?

So that is the sad tale of Periwinkle hive. As of yesterday afternoon a dozen bees or so were still holding vigil over the queen cage but the hive itself is now woefully empty. Hopefully I'll catch a swarm in my bait hive, and there's still time to set up Periwinkle as a bait hive too. Other than that, I will just have to remain the humble servant of all my critters on the homestead, honeybees included.

Requeening (Or Trying To Anyway) © May 2016
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Bait Hive

I've been mulling over the idea of a swarm bait hive for awhile now. I hadn't seen many honeybees around our place until we got ours, but I know they're out there. With Honeysuckle Hive now vacant, I seem to have no excuse not to try. After all, if I do nothing I can expect nothing. It's my old "something is better than nothing," and who knows? I may be successful.

Honeysuckle Bait Hive

It's not the perfect set-up, but it does meet quite a few honeybee qualifications. Studies have been done on this subject, plus almost every beekeeper who sets out bait hives has valuable experience from which to learn. Bees do have preferences about potential homes. Scout bees will go out, preview the options, and choose the one best suited for the swarm.

There are no hard and fast rules about this, but in general they are said to prefer:

• Height of 8 to 12 feet. (Some say as low as 6 feet or as high as 15 feet). Set on the stump mine is only 5 feet off the ground, but I don't see how I can get it any higher at present. I can't see me carrying it up a ladder or hoisting up a tree; and then bringing it back down again after dark! Then I read Pioneer Preppy's "Swarm Traps" post and learned that he's been able to catch swarms without the height, so that was the green light for me to give this a go. 
• Visibility. If the scout bees can't see it, they won't know to consider it. Some say this is the reason for the height placement, since bees don't fly along the ground but rather up in the air. I would say mine is highly visible as it rather stands out in the yard.
• Volume of approximately 40 liters, which is roughly 9 point something US dry gallons. One Warré box is roughly the size of one of those square cardboard boxes that are used to ship four gallon jugs of milk, although a little shorter. For a Warré bait hive, two boxes are recommended as being close enough. Also recommended is placing top bars in the top box only. Top bars in both boxes will give the impression of smaller volume, and apparently, scout bees actually do measure the space.
• South or east facing. Got that.
• Near a water source. This is near our outdoor faucet which is used several times a day for watering critters. I've seen bees collecting water dripped on plants and in the mouth of the faucet.
• Some shade. Besides height, this is my other concern. Sun hits the hive at about 8:30 in the morning and shade returns about 5 p.m. That means the hive is in full sun during the heat of the day, which I hope is not a deterrent. 
• Correct scent. For this, lemongrass essential oil is recommended because it is similar to the pheromones the queen emits. I use this in my homemade honey-b-healthy, so I was good to go there. 
• Previous occupation by honeybees. This probably contributes to correct scent. I read that apparently they like to find the dark, used comb, also propolis. This is where my old comb from Honeysuckle came in. Because there was evidence of wax moths in that comb, I stuck in in my deep freezer for 24 hours. This is said to kill any eggs, or larvae, or whatever.
• 300 meters from parent hive. My apiary is only on the other side of the house, but I'm not expecting my new colonies to swarm this year. So I think I'm okay on this requirement as well. 

Of course there are exceptions to each of these "rules," so maybe my points of noncompliance won't matter to a swarm of honeybees in need of a new home. According to our cooperative extension service, swarm season in my neck of the woods is May and June. I'm ready.

Lastly, a few links of interest:

• Catching a Swarm with a Bait Hive at Natural-Beekeeping
• I LOVE SWARMS: The Complete Guide to Attracting Honeybees at Horizontal Hives
• Bait Hives at David Heaf's Warré website.

Bait Hive © April 2016 by Leigh
at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Queen Check

Yesterday afternoon I opened Periwinkle and Daylily hives to check on the status of the queens. The weather was warm and mostly sunny, and the bees have been here four days; I needed to see if the queens had been released and remove their cages if that was the case.

First I checked on Periwinkle. You can't tell in the above photo, but the bees are building comb along the top bars; something that Warré beekeepers are always happy to see.  The queen, however, had not yet been released. 

The bees had eaten through the candy and she should have been able to exit the box, except for this.

Two of the attendant bees were dead and one was blocking the entrance. I tried to gently move it out of the way with no success, so I decided to remove the cork from the other end. After I did that I took another look, but the queen was gone. Now I was concerned because I didn't want her lost or squished!

Thankfully I saw her dotted back disappearing under the top bars below, but then I was worried I might kill her when I put the top box on again. The only thing I knew to do was to puff a lot of smoke into the bottom box and then slowly side the top box in place. I reassembled the rest of the hive and then wondered whether or not I still had a queen. As I stood there pondering, the hum in the hive began to crescendo loudly, which I'm hoping means they were welcoming their queen! I'll keep an eye on pollen coming in, which will indicate they are busy feeding brood.

Daylily was busy too.

They are also building comb along the top bars and seem to be a little further along than Periwinkle. I have to say that in general, I see more activity around Daylily than Periwinkle.

The Daylily bees had eaten through the candy on their queen cage too, but she had yet to emerge. No dead attendants, so I just put the cage back for another day or two.

It was interesting that with both hives, I used my bee brush to clear the way for the feeder to be replaced. Periwinkle was very docile about the whole thing, but Daylily did not like it! Is it hive personality? Or did the status of the queen make a difference?

The last thing I did was dismiss my snoopervisor.

He was about worthless anyway.

Queen Check © March 2016 by Leigh
at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Honeybees! (Here at Last)

After one week's delay, bee day finally arrived: overcast, cool, and lightly rainy. This time, I called ahead to make sure they were ready for pick up. I brought two packages home.

Last year I was excited and nervous, so I didn't try to take photos. In fact, I had to take a card and write out all the steps for hiving the bees. This year I was just excited. I mentally rehearsed the steps and got everything ready, including my camera.

The first step is to pry off the cover of the bee package.

A hive tool comes in handy for many things.

Under the cover is the syrup can. The next step is to pull it out.

Being heavy, it's a little awkward to grab the rim and remove. The white packing strap holds the queen cage in place (unlike last year).

The queen cage is pulled out and inspected to make sure the queen is alive. She is bigger than her attendant bees and marked with a white dot on her back. The color of the dots changes every year so the beekeeper knows how old his or her queen is.

She's in there, alive and hopefully well.

In the above photo you can see that the queen's box has three round chambers. There is a cork plug at each end. The chamber on the left contains sugar candy. The cork on that end is removed.

The bees will eat through the candy to release the queen. This is referred to as an indirect release, as opposed to a direct release. Direct release means the beekeeper releases the queen rather than letting the bees do it. Direct release is not considered the safest way unless the bees are accustomed to that particular queen. If she's in any way unfamiliar to them, they will kill her.

There are different methods for hiving the bees, so what I'm going to show you is not the only way. For those who may not visit my blog often or may not remember, my hives are top bar Warré beehives. (Details here.) To receive the bees, each hive is set up with two boxes like you saw in the first photo. The queen cage is placed on the top bars of the bottom hive box.

Next the bees are dumped rather unceremoniously out of the package and into the hive on top of the queen.

Some folks make room for the package inside the hive, but if I did that I'd have to go back in and remove it. I'd rather not disturb my bees any more than I have to; let's just have one big brouhaha rather than two smaller ones. I will have to remove the queen cage in the near future, but that will be less of a disturbance.

After the majority of the bees are dumped in, the top bars of the top box are put in place.

The feeder comes next, taking care not to squash any bees while putting it on. I used my bee brush to brush away any bees that were in the way and then slid the feeder slowly into place.

I am using 1:1 sugar syrup (by weight) with homemade Honey-B-Healthy
This year I made my HBH with powdered lecithin instead of liquid lecithin.
I think the essential oils blended with the sugar water much more quickly.
The trick is to let the powder soak about an hour before blending in the oils.

The above photo was actually taken the next day when I topped off the feeder. Last year the feeder was open when I put it on and I had a number of bees fly into the syrup and drown. This year I kept it covered with a piece of plywood, sliding the plywood off as I slid on the quilt.

The quilt is a simple box with a burlap bottom. It is filled with an
absorbent material to insulate and absorb excess moisture in the hive.

Lastly I put on the roof. The package still had quite a few bees inside, so I laid it near the hive entrance. By nightfall they found their way into the hive.

So here they are. May I present

Daylily Hive

And

Periwinkle Hive

The last thing I did was to put a welded wire skunk guard around each of the hives. I'll have more on that in an upcoming post, along with other precautions I'm taking to keep my bees safe.

I placed a strip of wood in each entrance to make them smaller at first. The bees have a lot to do to get established, so having a smaller opening will make it easier to defend the hive against potential invaders.

Honeybees make me so happy. 

Next - Queen Check

Honeybees! (Here at Last) © March 2016
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

The Death of Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle Hive
Photo taken last spring.

Oh my, this is sad news to report. Since my "Preparing for Bee Day" post, I've discovered that Honeysuckle Hive didn't make it. Our winter has bounced from cold to mild temperatures, so sometimes I've seen the bees out, as I reported on February 7th. Bees are inactive until perhaps the mid- to upper-50s F (lower- to mid-teens C), so when we recently got a few days around 70°F (21°C) I started looking for activity. Except for a random bee, not much was happening.

That concerned me so I had to investigate further. The first thing I did was to pull out the bottom board that came with my screen bottom. I found about half a dozen dead Small Hive Beetles on it. I was not happy to see that. Next, I removed the cover to the observation window in the bottom hive box.

Shot through the window so not a good photo.

Dead bees - definitely not a good sign. I went inside, suited up, and lit my smoker in hopes I'd need it. When I removed the roof and quilt, one lone bee flew up and out the top. Was there life in there? I looked down inside, but except for a few dead bees on the combs, the hive was vacant. Everybody was gone. I disassembled the hive.

Top box on the right. The comb on the right broke when I removed the box.

I found comb in the top two boxes, the bottom two were empty. The comb was perfectly aligned with the top bars, and only one was attached to the bars below.

Broken by yours truly when I removed it from the box.

There was some capped honey, and while the box was full of comb, quite a bit of it was empty. In the bottom box there was one small patch of capped honey. I found pollen cells, but no brood (which I wouldn't have found in the winter anyway(?)), also two or three more dead Small Hive Beetles.

Here are more photos for clues as to what happened.

Dead bees with their heads stuck in empty cells is said to be an indication
 of starvation. Of the dozen or so bees, I found only a few like that.

This was the only capped comb in the bottom hive box.

 I found evidence of wax moths in about half a dozen
places, although most of the comb was untouched.

Now I wonder if the bees I saw out last month weren't foraging because they were getting ready to move, even though I never saw them swarm. If they did, it certainly wasn't because they were overcrowded. Was it the wax moths? The Small Hive Beetles? Varroa? And what does all that darkened comb mean? Since I'm still very much a novice beekeeper and this is my first hive, I can only make observations and turn to research and the experience of others to try to make sense of the clues.

As an aside, this comb interested me...

The larger cells would be drone cells, built for hatching drone, which are larger than worker bees. I found them only on this one comb in the lower box. The smaller cells are of particular interest to me, because my bees were raised on standard foundation comb, which is imprinted with the larger cell size. Without that larger cell pattern to follow, they naturally made smaller cells. There is a lot of controversy over cell size because of the claim that smaller cells are not attractive to varroa mites. I am not inclined to be drawn into that conversation, but if you're interested, you'll find it all and then-some at ResistantBees.com.

So, in the time-honored tradition of silver linings and counting my blessings, I can at least be thankful that we will get a little bit of honey to enjoy. I have to say though, that looking out my kitchen and dining room windows and seeing no Honeysuckle Hive makes me very sad indeed.

New bees arrive next Saturday, so at least there is that.

The Death of Honeysuckle © March 2016 by
Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Beekeeping Resources for Natural Beekeepers

Honeysuckle Hive

Welcome to all of you who have clicked on over from Farmer Liz's! For those who don't know what I'm talking about, I did an interview with Liz about Warré beekeeping on her Eight Acres blog. If you aren't familiar with Liz's blog, please visit and you will undoubtedly become a regular reader. Click here for my Warré post.

What you'll find here are links to more details on my own Warré experience, plus a list of resources for Warré, top bar, and natural beekeeping.

My Warré Blog Posts:

• My First Beehive - includes photos of the various parts of the Warré hive.
• Getting Ready For My Bees - preparing the top bars, quilt, and more
• Beehive: Painting and Naming - I don't usually name things
• Essential Oils and Feeding Bees - EOs for Varroa mite control
• Hiving Success! (But I Wish I'd Gotten Those Bee Gloves)
• First Hive Check - checking on the queen cage
• Second Hive Check - a peek at how things were going
• Honeysuckle Hive Varroa Mite Count - a how-to
• Nadiring Honeysuckle - adding hive boxes to the bottom
• Getting Ready for Winter - general homestead checklist plus the beehive

Warré Hives and Beekeeping

• Warré Beekeeping 
• Index to David Heaf's Warré Beekeeping Pages - scroll to the bottom of the page for extensive link lists. David is what you might call the father of the modern Warré beekeeping movement. 
• The Warré Store - Articles on Warré beekeeping

Horizontal Top Bar Hives

• Less Invasive Beekeeping by Sam Comfort. Why top bar hived bees are healthier for the bees and the environment.

Plans to build Top Bar Hives

• Plans for Constructing a Warré Hive at Warré Beekeeping.
• Top Bar Beekeeping by Michael Bush. Plans for both Kenyan and Tanzanian hives, plus an excellent FAQs section.
• How To Build A Top Bar Hive. Free eBook with plans for a horzontal top bar hive by The Barefoot Beekeeper.
• Warré Hive Construction Guide step-by-step photos and instructions at The Bee Space.

Books (All but the last link will take you to Amazon US, so you may need to do a search of your favorite regional online bookseller to find them closer to home.)

• Beekeeping for All by Abbé Warré. The original source book for Warré beekeeping. Paperback copies can be purchased at Amazon, or it can be read online for free here.
• Natural Beekeeping with the Warre Hive: A Manual by David Heaf. Includes hive plans.
• At the Hive Entrance by H. Storch. If natural beekeeping is less invasive, then how does the beekeeper know what's going on without opening the hive? The author maintains that the condition of the colony can be ascertained by observing activity at the hive entrance. The book contains about 60 pages of seasonal observations and their explanations. Besides the paperback, it is available as a free PDF download here.
• The Bee-friendly Beekeeper by David Heaf. I confess I haven't read this because it is a bit expensive to buy, but I would love to. David knows what he's talking about.
• Top-Bar Beekeeping: Organic Practices for Honeybee Health by Les Crowder and Heather Harrell. This is another book I have not read but certainly plan to. 
• Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture by Ross Conrad. This is not specifically about Warré or top bar hives, but it is an excellent read for anyone interested in natural beekeeping methods.
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping by Dean Stiglitz and Laurie Herboldsheimer. Promotes treatment-free beekeeping.
• Keeping Bees with a Smile: A Vision and Practice of Natural Apiculture by Fedor Lazutin. This book was recently recommended to me by a fellow beekeeper and blog reader (thanks Ron!) In addition to natural beekeeping techniques, it discusses the Lazutin horizontal hive which uses frames. Follow the link for more information on the book (including excerpts) and other great information.

Websites Promoting Natural Beekeeping

• The Best Beehive? at beethinking. A comparison of Top Bar, Warré, and Langstroth hives.
• The Practical Beekeeper: Beekeeping Naturally Bush Farms
• ResistentBees.com promotes hygienic behavior of bees, small cells, and no chemicals. Numerous technical articles on these subjects can be found here.
• Natural Beekeeping: An Introduction at PerfectBee

Groups and Forums

• warrebeekeeping at Yahoo Groups. Moderated by David Heaf. While this group focuses on Warré hives and methods, there are frequent technical discussions about bees and beekeeping in general. 
• Natural Beekeeping Forum

Natural Beekeeping Treatments

• Natural Treatments at Wolf Creek Bees

Miscellaneous

• I LOVE SWARMS: The Complete Guide to Attracting Honeybees by Dr. Leo Sharashkin. How to get free bees! Dr. Sharashkin is the editor of Keeping Bees with a Smile. His website is worth a look around and includes free plans for various horizontal hives and swarm traps.
• Warré Type Bait Hive for trapping swarms, by David Heaf.
• Plants That Bees Love at Honey Bee Suite. Downloadable region specific lists of nectary plants for honeybees. Offers US, Canadian, and International lists.
• Identifying pollen by color at Wikipedia. Nice color charts by season.
• Solar Honey Extractor by David Heaf
• How to make a hornet/wasp trap. Another of my blog posts. Fortunately, we didn't have a problem.
• Hive lift plans for the Warré hive. Another of David Heaf's links for those of us who can use some help hoisting those hive boxes!

If you have any questions I'll be happy to answer them if I can. If I can't, I'll try to point you in the direction of finding more information.

Beekeeping Resources for Natural Beekeepers ©
Nov. 2015 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Getting Ready for Winter

In some ways, it's hard to believe that October is almost over. Where does the time go? Earlier this week we were under a frost advisory for several days. No frost and I hope we'll have a late first frost - like in November. There's still so much to do! Here's the list autumn chores we've been busy with.

• hay supply
• plenty of straw for bedding
• wood supply
• clean wood stoves
• clean out stovepipes
• clean out gutters
• storm windows or heavier curtains
• dig out the sweaters, jackets, and longjohns
• finish the harvest: cowpeas, corn, amaranth, winter squash, sweet potatoes, etc.

We always clean out the stoves and stove pipes, but this year we also replaced the catalytic combustor in our wood heat stove. When the interior of the stove gets to about 500° F (260° C), the combustor is engaged and begins to burn the gases released in the burning of the wood. The result is cleaner, pollutant-free white smoke, and more heat!

Our old ceramic combustor was damaged

A combustor needs to be cleaned regularly for top efficiency, but also it has a lifespan and must eventually be replaced. Ours is about six years old and the ceramic has become chipped. We decided to with a steel one, because steel will be sturdier and last longer than ceramic.

New steel catalytic combustor installed

Since this is our first year with honeybees, I had one new autumn chore: add a mouse guard to the entrance of the hive. In winter a beehive offers mice warmth and food. The bees are much less active in cold temperatures, so mice will dare to enter. During warmer weather, the bees will defend against their entrance and sting them to death.

The bees have taken this new obstacle in stride.

I used two pieces of half-inch hardware cloth. I doubled it in a slightly offset fashion because I wasn't sure if a mouse could squeeze through a half inch opening. Some say they can't, some say the can.

I've been keeping an eye on the bottom hive box,

but so far no comb is being built even though the bees are still very busy. I thought that if they filled the bottom of the four hive boxes, I might be able to harvest the top and leave them two honey boxes for the winter plus a nest box. I got a late start with this hive, so I'd rather they have good winter stores than an early honey harvest. There's always next year for that.

And here's something that's useful for winterizing - a door draft stopper.

I need one for each of our exterior doors.

Our temperatures have turned mild again and the leaves on the trees are changing. I'm glad to have most of those seasonal chores behind us. What about you? Are you preparing for the change of seasons?

 Getting Ready for Winter © October 2015
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Nadiring Honeysuckle

Morning bee activity at Honeysuckle Hive.
By mid-afternoon, traffic is a lot heavier!

I've been keeping an eye on my bees in anticipation of adding more hive boxes. I got the colony as a 3# package two months ago. In Warré beekeeping, boxes are added to the bottom (nadired) rather than added to the top (supered). According to David Heaf in his Natural Beekeeping with the Warré Hive, this is done when drawn comb fills about half of the bottom box, the idea being to add boxes before the bees run out of room and swarm. To monitor progress, I check through my screened bottom board with a mirror. The other day when I looked I saw this

Looking up through the screened bottom into the bottom hive box

Bees were busy building comb in the bottom box. It was time to do the deed. We removed the roof but left the quilt. I gave the cedar shavings a stir and noted that they weren't very damp, which I believe is a sign that ventilation is good. I loosened all around the bottom with my hive tool, to separate it from the stand. There didn't seem to be a lot of propolis, so the job was soon done.

Dan hoisted the hive,

while I quickly slipped two more hive boxes onto the stand.

I did not to pay attention to box order & my honey
suckle "vine" is not aligned! The bottom box has the
observation window, which was built differently.

I questioned whether to add one or two boxes. It's only June and we have a long growing season, so I'm assuming we can use two. The concern for adding them at the same time is that the hive will be top heavy until the lower boxes are filled with comb, brood, and honey. If we had a hive lift we could add one at a time, keeping an eye on how quickly the bees filled them. But with only Dan's back, I figured it would be easier to add two now. One thing I noticed is that there were quite a few bees simply hanging out at the entrance when the hive had only two boxes. With more boxes they aren't; presumably because there is more room inside(?)

Now it's wait and see. I'm not really expecting a honey harvest because this is an establishment year for this colony and the bees' needs are the priority. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy them for what they are.

Next - Getting Ready for Winter.

Nadiring Honeysuckle © June 2015
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/