Category - Bees

Dear Gardeners,

The bees have become a problem. Saturday, we rejected West Garden locations and voted to put the hive on the stone path in the East Garden. On reflection, beekeeper Elaine concluded that this is not a viable location. The heat of the sun plus the retention of heat in the stone path would make the spot too hot. Given the amount of ongoing debate over whether and where to locate the bees, we have concluded that the best solution is for Elaine to take the bees to the country where she has a suitable location.

Thank you for your interest and your patience. We believe all will agree that we want to do what is best for the bees.

Yours,
The Steering Committee

It’s not a zip code, it’s the number of queen bees living in my hive at various times between May and October 2013.  The first queen (1) went into the new hive in May; five weeks later, a second queen was spotted in the hive but I didn’t know where she came from (12). I gave this second one to a fellow beekeeper and a week later, my remaining queen was also gone (120). My last report was about the new queen purchased (1201). This new queen, hived in early September, laid eggs for only two weeks and then stopped for unknown reasons. The honeybee farm that provided her (Johnston’s Honey Bee Farm in upstate NY) graciously replaced her at no cost, and that new queen was active immediately. In early October, Tobias Heller (garden member and new beekeeper) and I discovered some very interesting and good news about the hive when we did a complete hive inspection with Barbara Heller’s help.

1) a queen was laying regularly as evidenced by larvae of different ages visible in the honeycomb
2) we did not see the new marked queen from Johnston’s (with a pink dot for identification) but saw evidence of queen activity (larvae)
3) there was a large amount of capped brood – meaning that eggs had been laid in these cells at least a week earlier
4) there was lots of honey to feed the bees over the winter
5) a good amount of pollen was stored in the hive; pollen is needed to ‘build bees’ so the bees were preparing food for the new population
6) the bee population was noticeably higher than before, another good sign the hive would overwinter successfully; we guesstimated about 15,000 bees – about 10,000 is a minimum winter population needed to keep the hive warm enough
7) there was an empty queen cell attached to one of the frames in the middle hive box, indicating that the hive had raised their own queen from one of the worker larvae and that she had successfully emerged from the cell
8) we DID find another queen (12012), just by her very large size, that was most likely the one produced by the hive and that emerged from the queen cell; there is some chance she was fertilized on a nuptial flight in the neighborhood but we don’t know.
9) we have repeatedly found no diseases or parasites of any kind in the hive although other beekeepers on the upper west side have had such problems.

We hope the hive continues to thrive for the remainder of the fall and through the winter. Minimal inspection will be done from now until March or April and that only to see if the bees need additional food and are healthy

The beehive kindly hosted by W. 104 St. Garden was installed on 11 May in the back of the east section of the garden. I started with 10,000 bees and a queen in a 10-frame hive box. The queen started laying eggs immediately, and the hive was more developed than I expected after only 2 weeks. I reported to a June 8th meeting of garden members that the hive was prospering and was showing signs of a strong beginning. There was plenty of capped brood (developing bee) cells, lots of open cells containing nectar that is processed into honey by the bees, and capped honey cells.

As the hive continued to develop, I added 2 more 10-frame boxes to accommodate the growth in bee population and honey storage. A second queen bee was spotted by a friend who came by to observe my hive inspection. We did not know if she was laying eggs but the marked queen who came with the bees in May (marked with a blue spot on her head) was active and there was no problem leaving the two queens in the hive. There are several photos of this queen on a frame on the garden website, taken by a garden member who happened by when I was there.

When a fellow beekeeper reported she could not find her marked queen, I offered my second queen with the understanding that the final decision depended upon my marked queen continuing her good performance. The beekeeper and I captured my second queen, who was placed in the new hive where she started laying eggs right away. Unfortunately, a week later I discovered there was no queen in my hive; I don’t know what happened to my marked queen. On Aug. 3, we spent 3 1/2 hours checking for queens in the other hive but the new queen was not there. Drama in a small space

My new queen, with her attendants, has just arrived by mail, graciously purchased by an interested garden member. She will go into the hive in her queen cage this evening (8/7/13), and I will release her into the hive in a couple of days after the bees have gotten used to her. We hope she will be accepted as well as the first queen, and that she will begin laying eggs very soon. Bees only live about 6 weeks in the summer so constant production of new bees is important. Keeping up with honey production is also important because all the honey produced in the bottom three boxes is needed to feed the bees over the winter.

I was told that garden members rarely see much action around a hive. That’s pretty much how bees are. Throughout the day they go on forage flights, returning with pollen and nectar. Guard bees (bees with an attitude as our instructor described them) defend the entrance against intruders but the hive entrance faces the back fence. When the hive is too hot, thousands of bees may spread out on the outside of the hive boxes, but the garden location is nice and shady so the hive has remained comfortable even in the hottest weather. Bees fly out when it is light, and go home in the evening. The drama is in the internal dynamics that are not visible to the casual observer. Also, bees can fly 2+ miles to forage so while I expect them to be in the garden, they go where the best nectar is, which may vary over the season. And nearby Central Park offers a diverse smorgasbord of bee food so I’m sure they are foraging there as well.

I was able to inspect the hive on Saturday. Because of the bad weather that day, all the bees were inside which made it a little difficult to see things due to crowding.

The bees were hived two weeks ago on 10 May. Despite a lot of cold and rainy weather since then, the hive is doing very well.

Elaine shows off our new bees.

— The bees have drawn out the wax foundation into comb on the 10 frames in the box installed on 10 May.

— I saw the queen – she is larger than the other bees but with shorter wings; she also has a blue dot on the back of her head to make it easier to find her.

— The queen is successfully and vigorously laying eggs.

…and here is our Queen!

— Both sides of 3 frames are already capped with wax; most of these cells are developing larvae (capped with yellow wax) which should be emerging as bees in 10-14 days; the remaining cells (capped with white wax) hold honey and a few uncapped cells contain nectar which is concentrated to honey by the bees.

— Another 5 frames in the box are in process of being filled with eggs/larvae, honey and nectar, and the last 2 frames are about 1/3 filled with nectar.

— Because the bees are already working all 10 frames of the first box, I added a second 10-frame box on Saturday, and expect to add the third shortly.

All of this indicates a new hive off to an excellent start and happy with its queen.

I hived the bees on Saturday – under somewhat challenging conditions. The downpour started just before it happened so we had to move the assembled hive into the gazebo where I continued the hiving. After the rain stopped, I moved the hive to its current location.

Some bees remained flying around the gazebo after the hive was placed in its corner. Since they did not know the hive and therefore how to get to it, I spent another 2.5 hrs slowly collecting, and taking to the hive, as many gazebo bees as I could. I finally left at 8:15pm. I was told the next day by a member that there were some bees near the gazebo and some dead bees on a picnic table on Sunday morning but none were in evidence when I came around 3pm.

All seems to be OK with the hive. After checking with a gardener, I placed currently-unused fencing in front of the hive. As promised, I will be putting in a sturdier but movable fence as soon as I retrieve it from the country (this weekend at latest).

Garden members who stopped by, including the woman with the plot closest to the hive, welcomed and were interested in the bees which was great. I will be checking the hive about weekly while the bees get settled. I will provide materials about bees for the website as you requested. At some point this summer, it should be possible to have a little bee presentation and show the hive to visitors if that seems appropriate.

I thank you again for welcoming the introduction of the hive.