I wasn’t ready for how fast a honey-robbing situation happened…

Posted on August 27, 2021August 27, 2021 by Wayne Davids

New Brood on a split hive frame — © Wayne Davids

Successful Hive Split!

Against the advice of most experienced beekeepers (I know, I know, listen to the advice) I split both of my first year hives since they were doing so well. I did Hera Hive first, followed 9 days later by Persephone Hive. It was late July for the first split (23rd) and then August 1 for the second split. Both of my original hives were packed with bees and I decided to give it a try.

Both splits started well initially, however I did lose the first one, the Hera split. They were doing well, I was feeding them, and suddenly they just crashed. I failed to realize it until too late, but the original hives were robbing the weaker two. The forage bees from the split loaded up on honey and sugar water from the feeder, took it back to the parent hive, and then showed all the other workers where the free meal was located. Things were great, until they weren’t and I did not recognie the robbing behavior until it was too late for that first split. When I opened the split I found numerous dead bees in the bottom, the brood hatched out, and the resources pilfered.

When I realized what was happening I moved the remaining split hive across the yard, as far away as possible, from the original two hives and reduced the entrance to the smallest opening possible. I then took one more frame of brood from the stronger hives and bolstered the fledgling split with more bees to hatch. The moment those bees hatch, despite being initially from another hive, they will consider the new hive home which means they won’t migrate back to the old queen.

I kept my fingers crossed for several weeks, checking the hive regularly from the outside, but only opening it to replace a pint feeder jar I had housed in an empty medium deep honey-super over the frames of brood. On August 24th I opened the hive, inspected for the first time, and was delighted to see open brood and eggs in the new hive.

They successfully raised a queen and she was now laying. My first shot at splitting hives and I am batting .500. That being said I won’t try a late season split again like that until I am much more comfortable with my bees. I got lucky, and I know it. If I hadn’t been doing daily exterior inspections of my hives and recognized that the stronger hives were robbing the weaker, then I would’ve lost both of them and a lot of bees would’ve been wasted. Instead I did get one more hive out of it and it still has two months of nectar flow from grasses and late flowers. In addition, I do plan to feed them through the fall to bolster their numbers.

Next year I hope to do some splits again, but in the spring when the bees are naturally pre-disposed to swarming. Since the split replicates a swarm, to the hive, it seems more natural to me. Also, since the springtime is a nectar rich time, the bees are far less interested in robbing or stealing each other’s honey. With this being my first year I wasn’t ready for how fast a honey robbing situation happens. But now I recognize the behavior at the entrance to the hive since I have seen it first hand.

Included below are pictures of uncapped brood, eggs, and the bees steadily getting honey ready on the edges of a frame in anticipation of the queen laying brood in the middle.

Uncapped Brood

Newly capped and uncapped honeybee brood — Uncapped brood dots the frame and the small larvae can be seen inside as the nurse bees attend to them. © Wayne Davids

& Some More

multiple uncapped brood cells in a honeybee hive — Multiple uncapped cells in a new, split, honeybee hive. © Wayne Davids

Honeybee frame ready for queen to lay eggs on — This frame was drawn previously in the parent hive & I used it in the split. While waiting for the new queen to emerge the workers dutifully packed the corners with honey & left the center open for her to lay eggs
© Wayne Davids

Honeybee comb with difficult to see newly laid eggs — More hive comb just started to be re-populated by the new queen. The right side has eggs in many of the cells, but they are hard to see here.
© Wayne Davids

Finally in the above two pictures you can see the empty frame I took from the parent hive when I split them. It had contained capped brrod, but most had hatched. I took the empty drawn frame and stuck it in the new hive so they had a jumpstart on some frames. While waiting for the queen to hatch they packed it with resources and got it ready to receive eggs.

The bottome picture is a frame being worked after just having had eggs laid on it. The lower right side has some eggs visible, but I apologize they are hard to see. They will be capped once the nurse bees take care of preparing the new egg to grow and develop.

Thanks for sharing in this with me – hopefully my next post will involve harvesting at least a wee bit o’ honey.

Until next time-
Wayne Davids

Brown Turkey Figs, Tomatoes, Herbs, and Preserving it All

Posted on August 23, 2021August 23, 2021 by Wayne Davids

Brown Turkey Figs, Tomatoes, Herbs, and Preserving it All

Ladybug on a fig. Not just the honeybees enjoy the sweet treat.

Brown Turkey Fig

My two Brown Turkey Fig bushes in a photo taken this spring. I can tell it’s a Spring photo because of the number of dandelions. I’m going to go with the excuse that I left them for the bees, but my neighbors would quickly point out that the dandelions far preceeded the apiary.

Now that August is here, the figs are in full swing the honeybees have no interest in dandelions anyway, they are feasting on the figs that I miss and get over ripe on the bushes. Pollen and nectar are spotty to scarce so the bees delight in pulling sugar straight from the figs which will be converted into honey once back in the hive. As fall approaches they become more aggressive about packing their hives with resources, i.e. honey and pollen, to sustain them through the winter.

Anyway these bushes are powerhouses that are several years old but really just started coming into their own last Summer (2020) when they produced 22 pounds of figs between the two of them. As of this writing (August 23, 2021) they have produced 20 pounds so far and are on track to beat last year’s number.

So what do you do with 20+ pounds of figs? I’m glad you asked, let’s check it out.

Raw & Dried

Figs are great right off the bush. In fact many of mine never make it to the scale so the harvest numbers I gave above are probably skewed low. Figs are relatively low in calories, packed with fiber, and a good source of daily potassium. Their high sugar content means they have a natural sweetness that needs little augmentation from refined white sugar. As such they can be eaten plain, doused in cream or honey, blended or served atop a bit of ice cream just to name a few possibilities. A favorite midday meal, for me, during the heat of the summer is sliced tomatoes from the garden topped wth a wedge of mozarella, fresh basil, and then drizzled with either straight olive oil or my honey – olive oil vinaigreitte. A side of a few halved figs provides a sweet complement to the dish.

Dried, figs are a sweet treat that resembles a dried date. A great snacking food or participant in homemade trail mix they provide a nice pick me up in the form of fructose carbohydrates.

Brown Turkey Figs in the crockpot — Brown Turkey figs in the crockpot awaiting their transformation to butter

Fig Butter

Fig butter, like other fruit butters, is a mixture of spices, fruit, and added sugar cooked down into a preserves. It can traditionally have butter added to it to make it smoother, I however choose not to. I also limit the added sugar since the figs are already sweet and I am diabetic. I know, I know – if I’m diabetic I shouldn’t be eating them at all. That being said I do enjoy them, but only in moderation.

This method of cooking down and preserving fruit is easy to do and lends itself well to other choices such as apple, strawberry, and peach. All make delicious preserves.

Fig Leaves

Did you know that fig leaves can be dried and made into a tea? Fig leaves are high in calcium and phosporous and at least one small double-blind study showed a potential benefit in controlling glucose levels and reducing the need for insulin when drank regularly. To see the abstract for that study click HERE

San Marzano and Roma tomatoes ready to be canned

Hot tomato ladled into a canning jar — Hot tomato being ladled into a canning jar before being processed in a hot water bath

Tomatoes

Canned my first tomatoes of the season, almost two gallons. Deer tore through my blossoming plants early in the season so I am behind, but it was still a good haul.
Canning tomatoes is a labor intensive process I learned as a child from my grandmother. My grandparents had a “garden” that took up about two acres; and grew a multitude of vegetables. I was far older than I should have been when I found out vegetables can be packed in metal cans. I had only ever seen them in Mason jars.

Here (top picture) you see my San Marzano and Roma tomatoes which are small dense fruits that are very meaty and designed to be used for cooking with a rich, heavy tomato taste.

If you are interested in canning or processing fruits there are plenty of how-to books on the subject as well as internet sites with instructions and videos. My goal here is not to instruct how these things were accomplished, but rather share my activities in the blog. Canning should always be performed under the most sanitary conditions possible, with defect free jars, unused lids, and the best possible disease free fruit. Canning times, procedures, and guidelines can be found in many sites such as this one from the University of Minnesota Extension Office.

To can tomatoes they are first dunked in hot (but not boiling) water for several minutes which causes the fruit to swell in the skin. Then transfer them directly into an ice-bath, which causes the fruit to shrink rapidly and loosens the skin. From there I usually cut off the stem end of the fruit and squeeze the pulpy tomato flesh out of the skin, which is discarded.

From there the skinned tomatoes are cooked down, then ladled hot into canning jars along with an additional acid source and salt added to each jar. Lemon juice is often recommended, but I prefer lime. It has a higher acid content, and we always seem to have it on hand becuase of, you know, margaritas.

It is a time consuming process and I find it elicits an almost trance or meditative state from the repetitive nature of the operation. Music and good conversation can help break the monotony.

It can be oddly peaceful as well. I use it to think and reflect on all manner of things as the fruits pile up in the pot and the skins in the bin marked for compost. I find that because the skins can take some time to break down, and they add an acidity that my soil doesn’t need, I reserve them for around my azalea and rose bushes or my garlic bed.

For a thorough list of plants that love acidic soil check out this site.

Herb Update

Just took my last cutting of herbs this week. Rosemary and sage are all that are left. I will probably save a bit for seasoning, however I have several friends who smudge and they have requested herb bundles, so I am trying my hand at making them this year. My chives stay with me year round so I just cut those fresh when I need them. In addition I cut some fig leaves to try the fig leaf tea I discussed above.

I have a dehydrator, but I only use it for jerky or for drying fruits and vegetables. I like my dehydrator and it does very well for me, but for delicate herbs I prefer the old fashioned method of hanging them. This (top picture) is my east facing kitchen window with rosemary, sage, and the fig ‘tea’ leaves hanging in it. It doesn’t get much sun because the Rose of Sharon bush outside, despite being pruned back heavily this spring, has grown up and blocked much of it. I will remember next year to really scalp it. The flowers are lovely, but it grows like a weed, blocking my kitchen window and sometimes encroaching on the AC compressor.

Next post should hopefully be an update on the honeybees and harvesting some honey.

Thanks for reading ‘Brown Turkey Figs, Tomatoes, Herbs, and Preserving it All’, and here’s to your bountiful earth magic.

sage, rosemary, and fig leaves hanging in a kitchen window to dry — sage, rosemary, and fig leaves hanging in my kitchen window to dry

flowring chives — A few remaining chives peeking thru the short wooden fence with their flowers

Site Work – Getting Ready for the Hives to Arrive. My Apiary (Part II)

Posted on July 22, 2021July 27, 2021 by Wayne Davids

Initial Site

Site Work - Wayne Davids Apiary — My ditch before I started widening & deepening

In-Progress

Finished

Wayne Davids – My Apiary (Part II)

Welcome back, I’m Wayne Davids and this is the first step in my Beekeeping journey. My first problem I ran into was the extremely wet, low, area I wanted to place my hives. We have hard clay soil and it has very poor drainage, multiple rains would leave it a muddy mess for weeks at a time. I have very limited choices for my hive location since my wife is pathologically terrified of bees. Not allergic mind you, just terrified. We needed to come to an agreement on getting the bees and where they would be located. The back corner of the property was the spot, but it can be very muddy.

In March 2020 I began widening a small ditch (far left picture) that ran the length of the back property line to widen and deepen it so that it will hold more water. I then graded and smoothed the excavated dirt to raise the surrounding area in order to allow it to drain better. The final result was acceptable; a twenty foot by sixty foot enlarged ditch that is about a meter deep most of the way throughout (right hand picture). The dirt that came out was spread and smoothed to create several swales and fill in low areas so the water would drain into the newly expanded ditch “pond”.

I have included some pictures below, and you are free to chuckle at me getting the tractor stuck several times, once having to wait a day or two for the ground to firm up before being able to pull it out with a pick-up truck. Nevertheless the end result works for me and it provides a natural catch that the bees would need later in the season when the temperatures soared and the hive can be consuming a liter or more of water per day.

The second part of my site preparation involved having ‘stands’ or bases for the hives to sit on. Hives should ideally be around 18 inches off the ground. This elevates the hive entrance to reduce entry by mice or insects but also keeps the hive dry, makes an easy landing and take-off the bees, helps keep out larger predators like skunks, and finally is a good height for the poor beekeeper to be moving heavy boxes on and off the hive which can easily weigh fifty pounds or more.

Wayne Davids "Hera" Hive 2021 — Current Hera Hive with two supers and two deep brood boxes – and while it is leaning in the picture, I fixed that afterwards and adjusted the hive on the cinderblocks

For myself, I used cinderblocks as stands. One stand had 2 courses (16 inches) and one stand has 3 courses (24 inches) so I could get an idea of what worked best for me since I am 73″ tall (185.4 cm). What I found was, that at the beginning of the season, when I only had one brood box, the taller stand made for much easier work since I had far less bneding over. Now, however, I have two deep brood boxes and two honey supers. With a 24 inch stand the hive is getting tall, close to my shoulders. This becomes difficult to work with the boxes since they are almost at eye-level.

Next year I intend to doule stack cinder blocks (16 inches) and then lay 2 paralled 4×4 (actually 3.5″ square) posts across them as I have since seen done. This will put the hives 19.5 inches off the ground. High enough to keep out pests, but still low enough to manage.

Both hives shown on pavers and cinderblocks — Hives shown on cinderblock hive stands and leveled pavers.

Finally, I had several slabs that used to be walking stones on the side of our house when we bought it in 2009. I removed them, but being one of those people who hates to throw things away, I kept them stacked on the edge of the property. They paid off as bases to stack the cinderblocks on after I leveled them. It is important to keep the hives as level as possible since bees orient their comb vertically. Hives that are tilted or slanted can end up with a mess inside as the bees try to build their comb on the vertical inside a tilted box.

My next installment will talk about the arrival of the bees. Both my hives came from local beekeepers so I didn’t receive either through the mail.

Thanks for reading. I hope you are enjoying my journey.

My Apiary 2021 (Part I)

Posted on July 19, 2021July 19, 2021 by Wayne Davids

Apiary

2021

Setting up

Site Work

Equipment

Assembly

BeeKeeping

Placing bees

Maintaining their health

Extracting honey

Starting my own apiary has been a dream for many years, one I intended to pursue in 2020. Then 2020 arrived, and everything that came along with it. I decided, however, that 2021 would not get away from me, and so in the fall of 2020 as well as winter 0f 2020-2021 I began purchasing equipment and materials needed to pursue this dream. In addition to the bees, and hives, there are is a surprising amount of gear needed and I have had a huge learning curve from the beginning. Over the next few months I am going to share my experiences here, and what I have learned. It has been an overwhelmingly positive experience and I am thrilled to be experiencing it and living it.

The simple honeybee Apis mellifera pollinates approximately 80% of the world’s crops, and it is in dramatic decline. A world without honeybees is a world that will struggle to feed it’s almost 8 billion person population, even more than it does now. For that reason, and others, I started my small apiary, in my small corner, to help honeybees have a fighting chance against a host of environmental, social, parasitic, and chemical factors that endanger it’s continued existence.
All images © Wayne Davids

bees on a frame producing brood

hive brood boxes & honey supers

yours truly in a bee-jacket

bees on a frame producing honey

bees with partially capped honey

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