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My Archives: May 2006

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Well this Sunday began the tax free sale on Hurricane supplies. while making a trip to the Lowe's store this Sunday, it was so packed that you would have thought it was Friday night at the hottest nightclub in the area. Well after all these years you would think by now people would be ready for a hurricane and have their supplies. Guess what? They don't.

These are the same people who spend 3 hours in line for $20 of gas when they have nowhere to go.

I wonder how many of these people will end up killing themselves because they run their generators in their garage.

Posted by understudy @ 11:09 PM EST [Link]

Monday, May 22, 2006

I can die now. I have managed to come in contact with the modern day version of the holy grail.
I have touched the weinermobile.
You may envy me.

Posted by understudy @ 12:27 AM EST [Link]

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Okay, I have been busy.
Updates are a little a lacking.
But I have been doing things. Lots of them.
I decided I would try to make a top entrance beehive. I was going to try to make one that would have a slanted roof and allow for air circulation with a screened bottom board. This is south Florida and in the summer it gets hot, damn hot. So I figured I would try to come up with an idea that would also allow to use entrance reducers. I managed to draw up some diagrams here, here, and here.
Then I actually took some pictures.
http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/displayimage.php?album=44&pos=0
http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/displayimage.php?album=44&pos=1
http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/displayimage.php?album=44&pos=2
http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/displayimage.php?album=44&pos=3
http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/displayimage.php?album=44&pos=4

So now it was time to go in and take a look at the hives. Hive 1 was a little slow to accept the permacomb. Note to self the sugar water mix cannot be weeks old and then used to try and con the bees into accepting the permacomb. I ended rubbing some of the honey on the permacomb. That changed everything. They have now accepted the permacomb. They are not as fast as hive 2 but they are making great progress. The permacomb is getting filled with honey. I would like it to get filled with brood. But I am glad that it gets filled with something. I have also noticed that I have one frame that doesn't get filled no matter where I put it. I may have to learn to accept that at least one frame isn't going to get anything on it no matter what. They just not like it. I didn't find the queen but there was lots of brood cells and things looked good there so I am happy.

Hive 2 is busy like central station. As with hive 1 I have one frame in the top honey section they really aren't doing anything with. However all the other frames are full and capped or damn close to it. Which I thought was great. The second layer was the permacomb I installed a while back. Well the permacomb layer went real well. It is 10 frames fill of honey. Someone also lied to me. I went with mediums because I was of the understanding that deeps could be heavy. Well let me tell you I could barely lift the medium filled with honey. I am not a wimp, not Mr. Universe either, but there was way more than 35 pounds there.

Now for the next problem. I could gravity extract the honey, but that would take forever. Also I would need to get some jars and honey bears to put the honey into. I don't have either of those. So next week I am going to order a small hand crank extractor and have my wife spin honey frames until her arm falls off and then have her fill jars and honeybears after her arms have fallen off. The jars and honeybears will be ordered at the same time as the extractor.

Back into hive 2. The queen is doing well and laying lots of brood. I am convinced now that for whatever reason the queen lays worker cells that have a bubble shape definitly in the permacomb. While I still have SHBs the count is down and they are the only sign of pest I have.

Now there is a bit of a followup. The mangrove tree bees absonded they didn't join hive 2. The duckbox bees also absconded. I am learning I have a lot more to do when it comes to trying to capture and keep feral hives. I also learned as soon as the bees leave, the pests move in. I took the remains of the tree stump and chopped into it with the chainsaw. I saw maggots, and small hive beetles swarming in there.
I had done this only about 24 hours after the bees absconded. I thought this was maybe a fluke but it happened again right after they left the duckbox. So I took some photos of the infested comb and and the nastiness that was the affect comb. So when you are looking at all the photos of the infested comb
remember that is stuff that got tossed into the garbage.

http://www.brendhanhorne.com/coppermine_dir/thumbnails.php?album=44

Posted by understudy @ 11:47 PM EST [Link]

Monday, May 15, 2006

Well this past Saturday I went to remove the hive of bees living in the duckbox. The move went ok, not great but not bad.

Things I have learned. Bees which are nice one weekend may be in a bad mood the next weekend.
The bees were really cool when I did the survey. The following weekend when I went to go and take them down they where outright mean. I got up the ladder to check on them and do a little smoke and halfway up the ladder they nailed me. I went up unprepared without bee gear on and got nailed over 20 times. I have developed a nice immunity to it but the swelling and stiffness still sucks.

Honeycomb can be very delicate. Either in taking down the box or moving it or mounting it. Most of the comb broke. That just sucks. I thought the honey was leaking because of the heat issue. I inspected it through a side door and found most of it had fallen loose.

You can create great enviroments and bees will still abscond. The is the third hive I have taken from the wild. Two of the three have flown off. My record is not very good.

I need to learn ways to spot wild queens easier. I really suck at finding the queens. Even in my hives.

So back to the story. The bees in the duckbox stung the hell out of me. I deserved it. I managed to move the bees to my yard and as I was preparing the new hive for the bees. The duckbox fell over. This may have contributed to the damage on the comb. I rigged up another great migration contrabtion to make up for the flaws that happen with the first one. I had not realized the comb had fallen. The bees just hung on the box. Some hung in the new hive which had a stiff pipe to join the two boxes together.
This means was genius I will post pics and diagrams a little later.

However the element of luck was not with me. I noticed honey dripping out of the bottom on Sunday. Not a lot but some. I figure it was due to heat. I drilled a bunch of small holes into the duckbox to increase ventilation. The duckbox has a side door but I didn't want to open it because the the small hive beetles would move in and the robbing would be bad.

However this morning I decided that I would open it. When I did I saw most of the comb had fallen. It was very sad. Also the bees were still uncertain of the queens location based on their behavior. I went to work. I snuck home briefly after lunch and saw that all the bees had taken off. Well I guess they found the queen and she didn't like where she was at.

I will go through and clean out the duckbox. Try to learn some lessons from this.

Posted by understudy @ 06:10 PM EST [Link]

Well the site has been undergoing a zombie attack beacuse there are still idiot windoze users out there who don't properly patch and secure their boxes.

I have updated the ban list and the access list. If you have been blocked patch your box. If you have a dynamic IP and have found yourself blocked thank the losers who share IP address in the pool you use for screwing you over.

Posted by understudy @ 09:25 AM EST [Link]

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Next stop the twilight zone.

I had to go to Tampa for a few days right after I remove that hive. As many of you know there were problems with my ideas. First I should have used black duct tape since it would have held up better under the dew point.

I came back late from Tampa and had discovered the roofers had broken the well motor pipes and I had no water to the house. So I frantically tried to repair the plumbing so I could flush again. Alas it was not to be. The 1" pipe that connects to the top of the pump cross threaded and by that point Home Depot closed. I think a 24 hour Home Depot is a great idea, but than again I think a 24 hours bee shop is a great idea. I have a great future in bankruptcy proceddings. So after late night hours of frustration I was to tired to even look at my bees.

My bees unsupervised for 3 days! Who knows what bad behavior they could be up to.

[Rod Serling] Submitted for your approval a bee keeper, a complicated manic, whose personality disorder is only exceeded by the confusion he creates with. Today this beekeeper is going to attempt to follow his bees into the Twilight Zone.

Well This morning I went and looked at the tree trunk. My wife had removed the hose per my request because it was already falling off. I removed the hose from Hive 2 and replaced the plug. I went to look at the tree trunk and nothing. The bees had completely absconded. Gone, vamushcia, outta here. The only thing remaining were some pieces of comb that were very clean.

So I am thinking my bees are hanging out on the tree branch in some strange persons yard, or are they?

Du do du do du do (twilight zone theme music, work with me here)

I check Hive 2 now the bee population hasn't gone down as a matter of fact it has gone up. Also the drone cells are gone. There are still a one or two but nothing like the bunches there were before. Now I check the top layer which is just the honey and it seems to be doing well I rotated the frames so I could get the empty frames filled with honey. Middle layer is the permacomb. It should be honey and eggs or the remains from the drone cells. Well the cells that were drone are empty. But there are a ton of bees and they are being nice. Okay one or two take me on but that is better than 30 bees. After removal of the middle layer I am in the bottom layer it is a deep box. And the frames have capped worker cells. A lot of them. Now I didn't see the queen but I have never seen the queen in this hive.

So here is my mystery did the bees in the trunk take off and bail and find a new home or did they move into Hive 2. The probem is these are capped worker cells. Which take a few days. I didn't think they have had enough time. I mean Sunday I move the tree trunk Hive into my yard. Monday night my wife calls me and removes the hose. Thursday morning I inspect and find capped worker cells.

I really want to believe that my bees received a cordial invitation to Hive 2 and are not hanging out in someone's yard looking for a home.

Anyone want to lie to me and tell that my bees just moved into Hive 2?

Posted by understudy @ 09:11 AM EST [Link]

Monday, May 8, 2006

My latest bee post is in the forums.
http://www.beemaster.com/beebbs/viewtopic.php?t=5049

Enjoy.

Posted by understudy @ 09:57 PM EST [Link]

Wednesday, May 3, 2006

The bees have gone through another inspection.

Despite moving hive 1 from a nuc to a deep the bees are still bearding at the entrance. They have gone and made comb on the frames. I only have like one side of one frame where they haven't at least built comb. The bees have also made the comb in a bit of a messy manner. I think I am going to let them build the brood chamber in the with the weird shaped comb. I have rotated the frames again to get them to finish building on the last frame and move the mainly honey frames to the edges of the brood box. The small hive beetles are almost non existant in the hive. I believe part of that is simple due to the number of bees. There is a lot of burr comb between the frames, I am leaving that in place so the queen can easily move between frames. I have more medium boxes coming Thurday according to the seller. I am going to add another brood chamber to hive one and then from there it is honey supers.

Hive 2 has a very small bearding problem but not much of one. The permacomb that was added last month has been accepted and is being very readily used. However most of the cells are drone cells. They tops of the frames are honey the lower part being brood drone cells. The bees in this hive are still abit more aggressive than I would like. They popped Janel in the head twice while she was taking pictures of the second hive. The honey super on top is doing very well and almost ready for extraction. I rotated the frames so the bees would finish capping them with honey. The hive will get one more medium on top for honey also . I think that will be enough for that hive.

So things right now are looking good. The small hive beetle numbers are way down. The bee population is way up. It looks like I should be able to get honey extraction next month. I could do it this month with the one honey super but I wouldn't get the full amount.

The biggest problem right now is the second hive is hot, that means the bees are aggessive not killer bee aggressive but they are more likely to come after you than leave you alone. In a beeeeper outfit this is no problem however Janel did not have one, and she got stung twice on the top of the head. She was very unhappy about that and made it known. So I have to get the wife a beekeeper veil.

I could requeen or split on it but for now I am going to leave it alone. I have finally called the State of Florida agriculture department. I am going to move toward getting the hives made legit. It doesn't mean the county will allow them but at least they won't be able to destroy them.

I also convinced my sister to let me keep a couple of hives on her property. I just have to build her a gardenstand like I did for my wife.

You can view pictures of my last inspection here

Posted by understudy @ 02:15 PM EST [Link]

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