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My Archives: January 2006

Thursday, January 26, 2006

I am still working way to many hours. I hvaen't really been home for any length of time for almost two weeks and I leave for another job on Monday.

The small hive beetle issue has not gone away so I am going to help it. I don't have a queen that I can see. So maybe the queen cell did not take. The small hive beetles have been destroying hive that that the bees don't work on. So as a drastic move I removed frames that did not have a lot of bees on them. You could see the small hive beetle crawling through the cells of the hive. I was going to put empty frames in but I decided no to. The nuc box group of bees is doing pretty well , no signs of infestation. Leonard from the beekeeper group is going to come by on Saturday. I hope I get home from work in time.

The difference between a hive that is full and a hive that is not is dramatic.

Okay I have to go back to work.

Posted by understudy @ 05:57 PM EST [Link]

Monday, January 23, 2006

My hammer as I squish them. The cardboard trap I used today revealed two small hive beetles. The bastards! I took a serial killer type satisfaction as I ended their miserable lives. My future as a pacifist is in question. However my future as the next leader of a genocide movement is showing great promise.

Posted by understudy @ 07:45 PM EST [Link]

Friday, January 20, 2006

Well after paying mad money to have a cardboard box overnighted so I could transfer the bees I bought into a cardboard nuc box temporarily. I received the cardboard nuc box. This nuc box is a small bee holder and only holds five frames. A normal hive box will hold ten. I have a wooden nuc box coming ups ground. So it will be next week when I receive it. I needed to return the orginal bee box back tot he guy I bought it from. So when the cardboard nuc arrived I was very happy I had a place to transfer the bees to so i could give the orginal box back to it's owner.

I have been working way to much the past couple of days also. I have had about 2 hours of sleep each day for the past 4 days. And after dicovering the queen cell I was reall happy. Today I had a chance to just go and see my bees. I figured I would not really go into the hive and then I saw a damn hive beetle crawl out. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot win. I take a peek inside and sure enought here are about 5 hive beetles crawling around. There also some larvae that are long. I suspect they are hive beetle larvae, they are very different from the fly maggots. The are longer and gray in color.

I didn't see the queen cell when I was cleaning out but I didn't look real hard and I didn't want to disturb to much. The hive I bought seems to be doing pretty well. They haven't started building on the new frame. I didn't expect them to, however there were no beetles in their hive.

Things I have learned:
I should have place the hive when I relocated it into a nuc box. The nuc box should have had four brood frames and one honey frame.
Constantly looking into my hive is probably not helping.
I need to stop working so much overtime, it is not worth it.

Posted by understudy @ 06:05 PM EST [Link]

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

My bees are bastion of confusion to their owner. I am almost certain they are doomed and I am going to do everything I can to rescue them and just as I am about to complete it. I discover I may not need to.

Basically my bee numbers were dropping like flies (bad joke there). I knew there was no queen from the last inspection. Okay let me say 99% certain there was no queen. So after my discussion with Leonard from the Palm Beach bee keepers group at the fair. I got some numbers of some people who might be able to get me a queen. I called most of them to no avail. Then when hope is diminishing to utter bleakness, I try again and got in contact with a honey grower in my area. He will be more than happy to sell me a mated queen and some brood cell. Uphoria is mine. Not exactly. He doesn't have a queen cage and I also wanted some brood cells to go with it. Well here is my issue. I am worried just stuffing the bees in there may not be the best for my orginal bees. I know they have no queen and I am worried the tow sets of workers in the hive wil rage holy war. He explains to me that if my hive is weak then I will not really have an issue. Replace some of the frames with no bees in my hive with the brood cell and all should be right with the world. I am willing to try. The best part is since he has bees on the frames . I will need to borrow his box because of this . He has no problem with that and is very cool about answering my silly questions.

I will put the bees in the frame tomorrow as it is getting dark and I have to pull a night shift for work and a morning shift. So I leave the other bees alone in their box and place it in my yard near mine. Worst case I figure while I am gone the strong hive I bought will move into my hive.

I come home from work and I am all set to go into my hive do a final check and throw in some frames. I do a complete look over for a queen. No queen and then just as I am about to put the frame back I see it. A section of hive that looks like a peanut sticking out of the hive. A queen cell, my decimate, demoralized, tiny group of bees is not done yet!

My bees want to thrive and damn if they are not going to! Great brain boy, you go and buy a queen and bees and brood and now can't put them in there. So now I need to grab a quicky Nuc box and relocate the group I bought and give the other guy his box back and see about managing two hives. Also as a fallback if my first hive dies out even with the queen. I can still use the second group of bees.

Posted by understudy @ 04:41 PM EST [Link]

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Today I went into the the bee hive to do an inspection. The results were less than stellar. It is almost certain that there is no queen. For the last three days the pupae have been tossed on the landing. I was hoping they would make new cells ready for eggs. I was hoping they had built a lot of new comb nest also.

Bees don't always do what you think they will. And unhappy bees do even less.

When I opened the hive I saw very little nest building. The last two frames were the only one covered with any bees. Then things got worse. The last two frames were almost completly uncapped. There were no signs of eggs in the cells. After lifting out the last two frames I saw a pile of fly maggots. There were a lot of flies in the box but I didn't think anything of it. I am thinking a lot about it now.

The bee count seems greatly diminished. I am bummed because it looks like the hive will pass away or become a drone hive. I went back to the South Florida Fair.

Well this time at the fair I actually got to meet a hobby beekeeper with a bit of knowledge. We discussed my issue and without a queen the hive is on it's way out. My problem is that most of the people selling queens are up north and don't sell until spring. The one person I tried to contact in Florida was on vacation for a week. Well Leonard the hobby beekeeper I met at the fair has passed along a couple of numbers and some information that may be helpful and Monday I will be trying to get in contact with some people. I will try to get a queen and additional brood nest.

I hope I can remedy this.

You can see the pictures at http://www.understudy.net/images/inspection/index.html

Posted by understudy @ 09:28 PM EST [Link]

Yesterday was cold I think the high was like 60F/15C the bes didn't go out early because it was so cold. Then when it started to et closer to the high temps, the wind started going. In some cases we had gusts that reached amost 30MPH/40KPH. So no reall bee flight yesterday. I really want to go into the hive today but it is cold currently it is a round 46F/8C. In south Florida that is damn cold. No comments from snowbirds about how it is -5 up where you live, that is why I don't live there.

I am going to go into the hive today and do an inspection but I don't like doing it in the cold weather. All those bees huddle up nice and warm and here I come ripping the roof off the house. I will try to take some photos so you can see what it looks like. No promises though.

I received my second deep hive box and ten frames. I spent the evening assembling it. The hive box is ready to go now. Hopefully I can use this to avoid a swarm issue. I am probably going to order another one next week. I think that mann lake is going to have my credit card number on file for a while. I need to cut and build these on my own. That takes time which I don't seem to have a lot of.

Alright I am off to see if I can do this without getting stung.

Posted by understudy @ 09:50 AM EST [Link]

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Okay it is around 55F here in West Palm Beach. The sun is up and I am checking on my bees. Last night I cleaned everything off the landing pad. No more branches, they should be reorentied by now. No more old comb, they have cleaned it out. No more feeder jar they weren't that interested in it anymore.

But are the bees out flying, hell no. They poke their little heads out and say it's to damn cold, I can't go to work today. As I sit here and get ready to go to work, I look at the little bastards and wonder how come they don't work when it is cold and here I am on my way to work. It's Saturday I don't want to work either.

Damn lazy bees.

Posted by understudy @ 08:31 AM EST [Link]

Friday, January 13, 2006

The landing area of of my hive looks like the waste can at an abortion clinic. The dead Pupae litter the area. It's a high body count, but I am taking it as a good sign. If the cells are being emptied, maybe a queen will go through and fill them.

I went to the South Florida Fair todau. They have a beekeeper display there. They had two volunteers there who really didn't know much about bees. I was given the card of the local beekeeper club. They meet the first friday of every month. I will be working when they have their next meeting. :(

I received my second deep box and frames. This time I had them sent unassembled. Which means I will have to build them. It kind of like assembling a grown up version of lincoln logs.

Posted by understudy @ 10:40 PM EST [Link]

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Well things are starting to get back to normal with my feral beehive.
I still am not certain I have a queen. However I noticed that the bees are running a more normal routine.
One of the things the bees are doing is throwing out the pupae. I am not sure if this is due to the fact that they are defective or because they are making their own queen and those that were fed royal jelly aren't needed as they have already made one or the queen got place in the hive after my return trip to the boat.

I went into the boat last night and vaccummed out a last clump of bees that probably got back in when a section of tarp got loose from the dew on the tape. I resealed the entrance after getting the bees. I know from the bee forums that bee keepers like working with the bees during the day and I can understand that since most of them are out foraging. However when trying to capture and relocate bees, doing it at night works for me. Most of the bees are there and they are far more docile. I suspect that is due to the cooler weather.

Well off to work.

Posted by understudy @ 07:55 AM EST [Link]

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Okay, The aftermath has been interesting. I am certain I have no queen. The bees started gather in a group outside the hive. They went down the barrel and were gathered on the ground. I was nervous as hell that they were either going to die or swarm and leave.I moved the hive off the barrel on the ground next to the bees and knocked the bees off the barrel. Then I placed some newspaper on the ground and leaving it there over night most of the bees stuck to it. I lifted the hive off it's base and shook the bees onto the base. I then put the hive back. I put the newspaper on the ground over the small section of bees that remained on the ground.

I came home after work and there were no bees under the paper. I felt much better. I haven't really gone into the hive yet. I put the hive back up on top of a fish tank.
I put the entrance reducer in the hive and have left things alone for tonight.

You can see the pictures here:
http://www.understudy.net/images/aftermath/index.html

Posted by understudy @ 10:45 PM EST [Link]

Sunday, January 8, 2006

The bees have been moved from my neighbors boat.
It was an ugly job.
It took 6 hours.
A sawzall was involved.
There is now a hole in his boat.
I am not certain if I have a queen.
Most of the bees died.
I have a profound respect for proffesional bee removers.
You can see the pics here:
http://www.understudy.net/images/bees/index.html

Posted by understudy @ 09:09 AM EST [Link]

Wednesday, January 4, 2006

My neighbor has a boat with a bee colony in it. I am going to relocate it to my yard. Today I went and looked at the bees so I would know what I was dealing with. You can see some pics here

Posted by understudy @ 01:49 PM EST [Link]

Monday, January 2, 2006

Well happy new year everyone.
I want to wish everyone a happy new year. Well almost everyone. The Florida Department of Agriculture can kiss my bum. A little while ago I received in my mailbox a request from them to sign a consent form so they could search my property and remove any citrus trees from my property. This is the effort to eradicate citrus canker. While I understand the effort to eradicate citrus canker, I do not condone the methods being used. They are without concern for any citzens property or for that matter the actual dealing with citrus canker.

The best part of this is that I do not have any citrus trees in my yard. I haven't had any in the entire time i have lived on my property. That has been almost five years. My wife contacted Ray Toth. (954 931 4062). According to the conversation my wife had with him they need to check for growth from citrus plants that were on the property more than five years ago.

Okay a couple of notes here. As I mentioned it has been my residence for almost five years. The fence that surronds my property is only four feet high. There are no blind spots in my yard from my fence line. And after 3 hurricances in 2 years I have one tree left in my yard. A strangler fig.

So my wife explained to Ray that I was not going to have the consent form signed. Ray mentioned that they would then go to court and get a warrent. Now here is my issue. What is the evidence they have that a judge would issue a warrent for them to search my property? I have a real problem with this. They can see my property without having to come on it. If they can garner some evidence even photos of a citrus plant growing on my yard they can present this to the judge.

I think I should be allowed to go to the hearing where they try to get the warrant and oppose this. I don't think I will be able to. I doubt I will be told when they are going to court or anything else.

Somewhere along the line the government decided to toss the forth amendment. Just in case you forgot :
Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

I mentioned my issue on a local radio show. Another called in and basically stated the NeoCon position that if you aren't doing anything wrong you don't have anything to hide. Let me state this for you morons who spout this crap. I am not doing anything wrong. I am not growing any citrus plants. And I am not doing anything wrong by trying to make sure the government follows the law also.

If I can find a way to fight this I will. In the meantime I am not signing a consent decree for them to search my property.

This could easily break into a whole different issue of whether or not there is actually citrus canker on a citrus plant on someone's property. Or the complete waste of money that has been misspent doing this eradication. The complete lack of funding for finding a treatment for citrus canker. All of those issues have merit, but Not inh my case. I have no citrus trees on my property. If you have received one of these notices do not sign it. If you know a good (inexpensive) lawyer who specializes in agriculture law, drop me a line.

In the meantime remember if you live in south Florida your citrus tree is illegal

Posted by understudy @ 12:03 AM EST [Link]

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