Mark McGrath on ground bees

Garden Hero Mark McGrath's latest column on WTOP is about bees. Ground bees, but still, BEES!

http://www.wtop.com/41/3600792/Garden-Plot-Dont-want-to-get-stung-You-wont

Swarm!?

Just after I wrote that last post, Lisa called me outside. The bees all came out of the hive in a cloud. They flew all around the front yard and started to gather on a tree branch. I made some preparations - I taped a bucket to a pole, and put our empty hive on the stand next to hive one. I called the pwrb swarm hotline and talked to David but when I went back outside, they were gone from the front yard! They had flown back to the hive again. I took out the entrance reducer and they all went back in.

David said they may have swarmed with a virgin queen and abandoned her, or maybe they left and the queen didn't go. He said up to 20% of hives have two queens, so maybe they followed her back in.

David also said, You usually need two buckets for a swarm. Put the lid on and put it in a cool dark place. It needs some ventilation so its best to have a bucket prepared with screen windows. If you don't take them at least five miles away they will probably notice the scenery hasn't changed and swarm again. I wonder if Mike Bush's trick of stuffing the entrance with grass would work.

Hive inspection

Inspected hives Sat 4/19. Saw queen, and brood. Starting to draw out center of 2nd super. In bottom super they are still working, and haven't drawn out the outside of the outer frames.

Hive entrance seems to be a choke point, lots of bees waiting a landing spot. Want to switch to larger opening. Bees all seemed healthy. Scraped off some "queen cups" 2 empty 1 may have had a pupa.
Not much burr comb -  lots of extra space for them to draw frames instead.

Sugar syrup jar lasting longer than a week, many flowers out - dandelion, Henbit. Bradfords and cherries are done, forsythia close to done but redbud is full.

hive inspection

Inspected hive one today. Saw the queen. comb is drawn on all of the new frames, the far outside just getting started. Also starting burr comb between top of frames and lid. We added a super of new foundation (8 frames) and changed syrup jar.

 We saw several stages of larvae. did not identify eggs (they are hard to see). Very pleased. We did notice some suspicious supercedure-cell looking things, downturned lobes but did not get pics. A couple had holes in the bottom.

We pulled out the bottom board for more ventilation. we identified 3-4 mites on the board. 

Lisa fetched the eyeclops and took this photo of the nasty vermin. He was still moving.

Varroa Destructor (photo (c) 2014 L. McClinton)

Global bee study

Scientists begin studying annual bee death rates in a really substantive way http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/Dg8isvv3zD0/story01.htm

First hive started

First hive started!

Five frames of over-wintered nuc from Ann I.

Good brood pattern lots of capped brood some nectar and pollen. We saw brood for sure, Ann tried to show us eggs but we didn't want to take a lot of time with the new bees. Queen was on the first frame we transferred, which was nice.  She brought the box in the afternoon because it turned out to be too cold in the morning. We transferred the frames to our hive, and she took her nuc box home. Frames are numbered 13, probably built last year. She has treated them for nosema with fumigillin feed.

Ann said she thought we would need the next box in 2 weeks. The flowers are really starting to come out, forsythia and cherry and magnolia and the early trees. We have a second box ready, with frames and foundations, they just need bobby pins. We also have a second 2-body hive in our chosen 8-frame deep pattern.

Making a new entrance reducer to fit next to the Boardman feeder. It was agreed that the Boardman is inadequate. Putting the standard entrance reducer next to the feeder results in a second entrance, a gap bees fit through. One of the objectives is to give the new bees a smaller entrance to have to defend. Duct tape would also work to seal the gap. Ann had closed off her nuc box with duct tape.