May Beginners – Observing Your Workers

In general beekeepers don’t go through their hives every other weekend. But, if this is your first hive, that is what is recommended. Each time you examine a hive, you cause disruption and it takes the ladies quite an effort to reorganize. The other side of the coin is that you need to learn much about your new hobby and there’s no better way than by watching the bees every step from package to harvest. This bi-weekly inspection also gets you familiar with your bees, learning what is normal vs abnormal and it dissolves that secret fear you still harbor of “getting stung”.

Smoking bees is something you have to learn to do. Too little smoke and they will release the alarm. Too much smoke drives them out of the hive and the air will be full of bees. Be calm, work very slowly, think about each step BEFORE you do it. Start with a couple puffs of smoke into the entrance. Wait a minute or two and crack the telescoping lid. Give them another puff into the inner cover hole. After you remove the inner cover, one or two more puffs is all you will need for the next 10 minutes. Listen; you can tell when another puff is needed; the hive’s “base” tone changes!

Always keep you hive tool in your right hand, don’t set it down. Most of the bee stings I get each year are on my fingers and are my own fault. I have a habit of putting my fingers in places they don’t belong and am often “chastised”. Use the hive tool to pry the frames up. You pry on the frame’s top bar side, never on its ends. Prying the end will crack the rabbit on your brood boxes. I always remove the second frame first, examine it and then prop it up on the ground against the hive. This frame is usually just stored honey. Then frame by frame cut the propolis between the frame ears and remove each.

If the bees are not working the outer frames, you can move them more toward the middle as long as you don’t break up the broad nest. Frames with brood need to be put back in the order you took them out. Notice I didn’t say put back in exactly the same place; this allows you to move frames about, a bit.

First get the big picture; notice the smell; listen to the soft hum. Start with an estimate how many frames of foundation were pulled out this week. Notice the cells how they are slightly slanted downward, perfect hexagons. Can you tell a few cells are larger then most? How much did the hive eat this week? How much brood is there this week compared to last? Is the brood uniform or does it have a “shotgun scatter” pattern? Find eggs and uncapped larvae. Look at the eggs, are they each one per cell and anchored to the cell base? Look at the individual larvae what day does it start to curve, when does it begin to fill the cell. Each week read a little more about this miracle called metamorphosis and mentally map out the age of the larvae. Can you identify the drone brood’s dome shaped capping vs. the worker brood’s flat capping? Can you tell beebread from newly gathered pollen; fresh nectar from uncapped honey? If your first brood box is largely all pulled foundation, they are starting to use all the frames so its time to add the second brood chamber on top.

Looking at a frame of bees is a very calming experience to me. I get the same feeling as watching an aquarium of fish. I could sit and stare for hours. However, after about 10 minutes the noise level will rise. Although you could give them another puff and continue working; since you’re just observing its time to close it up for the week.

If you haven’t done so, start a logbook and write not only what you see but what you expected and how you felt. Each day write a meaningful paragraph to yourself in the future. You will do a better job of note taking if you image yourself reading this next year; 5 years from now; when you’re retire and looking back on life. The extraordinary details you will give will stimulate your memory of the day and leave you with a logbook that has value to you as new beekeeper. I can look back on this Sunday afternoon from last year, the year before and 5 years ago and compare where I’m at; relatively speaking. My logbook is also my “to do” list which I check next Sunday for items I forgot today. Today’s entry begins … Saturday, April 13 is a beautiful 75 degree spring day with bees coming and going; a few bearing bright orange pollen pellets. I went walking and found my first dandelion flowers as well, all these X^~87&aXX locus trees are in full bud as well ….