Honeybees in Iris Heaven

Last weekend when I arrived to do a hive inspection, I was so blown away by how pretty Emily's backyard looked. There was a sea of irises and allium blooming! So pretty!

A photo posted by Mimi (@meemsnyc) on May 18, 2015 at 4:33am PDT

This is my favorite time of year! Isn't this just stunning! I just love spring flowers, and they best thing about bulbs is that they naturally split, so year after year, more and more bloom! Look closely, you can even see bleeding hearts blooming too!

A photo posted by Mimi (@meemsnyc) on May 18, 2015 at 1:43pm PDT

I brought our dog to beekeeping for the first time. And she loved it. Valentina spent the day exploring the backyard.

A photo posted by Mimi (@meemsnyc) on May 18, 2015 at 9:09am PDT

Valentina, was loving the backyard. Smelling all the flowers. Finding sticks. She even got pollen on her little forehead. She is the cutest!

The alliums are so pretty against the lush green!

The beehive looks amazing! I added an additional honey super box on top of the beehive. I already saw evidence of them making honey!

A photo posted by Mimi (@meemsnyc) on May 18, 2015 at 12:28pm PDT

I was using a feeder on this hive, but since there are so many flowers in bloom now, there is no longer a need for a feeder. I removed the feeder and found that the bees have made some burr comb to fill in the space. It was very pretty! I removed all the burr comb.

A photo posted by Mimi (@meemsnyc) on May 18, 2015 at 5:36pm PDT

It was a perfect beekeeping day. Can't wait to see how the season progresses! Hope to get a good honey flow this season!

Installing a new bee package for 2015

Two weeks ago, I went over to my friend Amy's house to check on her beehive. She installed a new bee package on her rooftop hive and it was looking good. Her kids help her beekeep too! I love that. Teaching a whole new generation of beekeepers!

A photo posted by Mimi (@meemsnyc) on Apr 12, 2015 at 11:59am PDT

Then I went over to my hives to install a new package since one of our hives did not survive. My friend Amy picked up the bee packages from Beehive Barn in Cranbury, NJ. This year, I decided to do the gentle install of the bee package instead of pouring the bees out of the box.

A photo posted by Mimi (@meemsnyc) on Apr 12, 2015 at 5:16pm PDT

To do this, you remove the Queen box and put it in between two beehive frames. Then you leave the open bee package box next to the frames in the deep. The bees will come out of the box to find the Queen. This is a more gentle way of getting the bees out instead of pouring them out of the box. Here is the Queen at the top of the Queen box.

A photo posted by Mimi (@meemsnyc) on Apr 12, 2015 at 6:45pm PDT

Here is the hive all installed! In 3 days time, I come back to check that the Queen bee is released from the Queen box by her attendants. They will eat the sugar plug to let her out. We named this Queen George Lee. Long live the Queen!

A photo posted by Mimi (@meemsnyc) on Apr 12, 2015 at 8:29pm PDT

First day of beekeeping season 2015

On April 4th, it was finally warm enough to open up our hives for the first time this season. I was so nervous to see if any of our 3 hives survived. At the first hive, I didn't see any bees flying in and out of the hive. This is always a bad sign.

A photo posted by Mimi (@meemsnyc) on Apr 4, 2015 at 10:27am PDT

I unwrapped the hives only to find frame after frame of dead bees. The whole hive of frames had mold. And on this frame you can see all the bees clustered together trying to stay warm. Moisture and mold killed these bees. I feel so sad. All these frames along with the honey went into the garbage. I don't want to reuse frames that have mold on them. It might be diseased as well and I don't want our new bees getting sick from it.

A photo posted by Mimi (@meemsnyc) on Apr 4, 2015 at 11:48am PDT

We decided that we were going to purchase a new package of bees to install into this hive. Then I went to our other beehive location. I saw bees flying around and already knew that this was a good sign. One of the two hives in this location had survived the winter! What a relief!!

A video posted by Mimi (@meemsnyc) on Apr 4, 2015 at 3:20pm PDT

I was smiling, grinning actually from ear to ear. This makes me sooooo happy! We had a really harsh winter with lots of cold days and snow. So to know that this hive survived is pretty amazing! Here is another video of a closeup of the hive.

A video posted by Mimi (@meemsnyc) on Apr 4, 2015 at 5:50pm PDT

I moved the hive back to it's original location and removed all the tar paper wrapping. So happy to see the bees flying around!

A photo posted by Mimi (@meemsnyc) on Apr 5, 2015 at 7:07am PDT

Frustrations of Urban Beekeeping

I love beekeeping, but sometimes it can be frustrating in an urban environment. Especially when you have neighbors that don't want you there. Two weeks ago, at my last inspection, I arrived to the backyard where I keep two of my hives. It's a beautiful yard, full of blooming flowers. I was getting ready to do an inspection, I started up the smoker. Only to be greeted by an angry neighbor behind the fence, screaming at me. In a very angry voice she was shouting at me to stop what I was doing and to not open the hives or continue with my inspection because she had guests in her backyard for a party. I was going to comply with her requests, and then she starts threatening to call the police on me. Upon which I stated, "Go ahead, call the police. My beehives are registered with the Department of Health. These hives are completely legal to own and have." I proceeded to tell her that she didn't have to scream at me in that manner and all she had to to was ask nicely to not do the inspection, and I would have complied. Apparently, she was stung by a bee the previous day, and now she feels scared of them. But how does she know they were my bees? And what if it was a yellowjacket, or wasp, or hornet? They all can be mistaken for honeybees. I now feel frustrated with having my hives here, if there is a chance that I will be accosted every time I show up for an inspection. I can tell she seems pretty unreasonable to talk to, since every time I tried to calm her down, she would talk over me loudly. People like that don't care that honeybees are an integral part of the eco-system, and that without them and their pollination, we wouldn't have the fruits and vegetables we consume.

Have you ever experienced something like this? It makes me really sad and start to rethink the location of this hive. Would I need to move it elsewhere? Somewhere where there are less neighbors perhaps? I have an upcoming inspection this Sunday. I'll have to see if I get into another verbal altercation with this neighbor. Hopefully, she has calmed down a bit. Fingers crossed.

Urban Beekeeping in Brooklyn!

Every Saturday, when I see this bridge, I get excited. Only blocks from this bridge lives our Brooklyn honeybees.

This is one of the locations where our hives are located. How pretty is this? Idyllic if you ask me! The fragrance alone is dreamy!

 

The magnolia tree was in full bloom last weekend. Just gorgeous! Can you see Oscar, the beekeeping kitty in this photo? He likes to watch us every weekend when we inspect the beehives.

At this location, we installed a new package of bees 2 weeks ago. So our goal was to see how well the new Queen is laying. It's important to make sure she is laying well in order to have a strong hive. We need the numbers of worker bees to increase.

I look forward for the week to go by, just so I can do this. There are so few things in life that make me happier and more calm than when I'm beekeeping.

We had to use all new deep frames in this beehive because we had to throw away all the frames from last year due to mold. The worker bees haven't had enough time to build out new wax comb on the new foundation. Sometimes when there is too much room between new frames, honeybees will build out burr wax comb or "wild wax comb" to fill up the space between the frames. Honeybees will try to fill up as much space as possible, they don't like open spaces in their hive. Check out this beautiful burr comb that they built in one week!

 

We carefully removed the burr comb. Dave took this picture of us, but he got his finger in the frame. hahahaha

 

We saw that the Queen was laying pretty well. As fast as the worker bees can draw out wax comb, she is laying on that comb.

Here is a closeup of the capped brood. We can tell she is laying well because she is laying in every cell, one after another. That is a perfect pattern. When you see a Queen laying spotty, all over the frame, that is a sign that there is something wrong with the Queen.

After we finished this hive inspection, we went to our second location which houses 2 hives. They were brimming with activity! I didn't get any photos this time of the inside of the hive.

But I took this quick video of how active the bees are! Pretty amazing! I love watching them returning to the hive. Pretty cool! So far the green hive is doing really well! They are booming in numbers of bees because this hive survived the winter. We are doing so well in fact that we put a Queen excluder on and have put a honey super on top! Woooo! Excited!

Honeybee Highway

This is the location of our second beehive. I just love this location. It's nestled under a gorgeous Magnolia tree, and when it's in bloom, it's just spectacular! It not only smells amazing, it looks amazing. Since we had only installed the bee package the previous week, We had a pretty low maintenance inspection, all we needed to do was to check a few frames to see that they started building out wax comb. We also needed to refill the sugar water feeders. Since it's April, there aren't enough flowers in bloom for foraging so we have to help and feed the bees with a sugar water solution.

This inspection was pretty quick, we saw they had started building out comb and then we closed up the hive. The Queen has not started laying yet, because all the frames are new with foundation, and the bees have not build up the wax yet. We didn't want to disturb the box too much so we just literally peeked in and that's about it.

Here is a photo of the guys chatting about where we will be installing the next hive. We have ordered a second hive for this location and we will be installing a Nuc in mid-May. I can't wait!! I'm beyond excited!

Here's a photo of the hive, very little activity going on, they are all busy inside building comb or out foraging. Also, the number of bees in the hive are still pretty low since we just installed last weekend.

Here's a video of the bees coming back to the hive after we finished feeding them. They are coming back to feed. Looks like a honeybee highway doesn't it?  It's fun to watch!

Bee Package Installation: April 2014

This year we were lucky. We only had to buy one package of bees instead of 3 because 2 of our beehives survived the cold NYC winter. I truly believe it was because of two factors. The first being that last year, we bought our Queen bee from a NJ Apiary that raises Jersey Queens from wintered stock. Picking winter hardy bees will help your stock survive the winter. We also wrapped our hives for the first time.  I think both of these factors contributed to the hive successfully surviving the winter. We picked up our package at the Beehive Barn in Cranbury, NJ. You can read all about our pickup here! Then we installed the package into the one hive that did not survive.  Installing a package is pretty simple. Keep a water bottle with sugar water handy, you can spray the bees with it to keep them occupied and to calm them down before you pour the bees in. You remove the sugar water can and set it aside. You remove the Queen box, and then you literally shake the bees onto one of the hive boxes. I wrote a more extensive write up about installing bee packages here.

We keep 9 frames in the box to leave room for the Queen box. At the bottom of the Queen box should be a cork plug holding in solid sugar. Remove the cork plug so that the solid sugar is exposed. The worker bees will eat through the solid sugar to release the Queen.

Here is a closeup of the Queen box. At the top, you can see the sugar. Usually, there will be 3-4 attendant bees inside the box with her to attend to her needs. After your remove the cork, place the Queen box between two frames. In a few days, she will be released by the worker bees. We usually go back to hive after 3 days to ensure that she was indeed released.

Here is the deep box with the bees poured in. We usually leave the bee package next to the bee box because there tends to be stragglers inside the box that don't come out right away. If you leave the box next to the hive, they will eventually make their way in.

Here's a view down the block from where our beehive is located in Brooklyn. I think the bees have a great view! Don't you?

As we were packing up and getting ready to leave, I saw this honeybee trying to drink coffee from this cup. She was half way in the cup with her little legs dangling. These bees made a long journey up from Georgia so they must have been really hungry. No coffee for you little bee, I moved her back to the hive to feed on sugar water.

Roadtrip to the Beehive Barn

This weekend, we took a ride out to Cranbury, NJ to do a special pickup. We were going to the Beehive Barn, an apiary that not only sells bees but sells beehives and all other kinds of supplies for beekeeping. I've never been to the Beehive Barn before so this was a special treat!

It's about an hours drive from Manhattan, and the ride out to the 'country' would not have been bad if we hadn't hit traffic on the NJ Turnpike South. We sat in traffic for about an hour. When we finally arrived, I was beyond excited! Our main goal for this trip was to pickup a package of 20,000 bees and the Queen bee that recently arrived from Georgia.  All the bee packages were stored in this barn.

Sally, who owns the apiary said to me, "Go ahead and go into the barn and pick out your own package!" How cool is that?

As I got closer to the barn, I could hear all the buzzing inside. It looked like hundreds of packages inside. Super cool!

I picked out a package and made sure the Queen was still alive. Then I went over to the workshop to pickup some deep frames with foundation.

Here's a photo of them pulling 12 frames for me. They make these and all the beehives by hand! So cool!

Here's another photo of the woodworking shop! I felt so lucky to be able to see where they make beehives. Whenever I can, I try to support local businesses. This is pretty awesome!

Another view of the workshop.

Right outside the workshop was a flock of chickens. I am so loving this place! This is my "dream farm", one day I want to raise chickens with my bees!!

Here's the package I picked out. This will be installed into the hive that we lost over the winter. Stay tuned for that blog post soon!

First Day of Beekeeping Season of 2014!!

This past winter was really tough in NYC. It snowed and snowed and snowed. Here's a photo of the backyard where we keep two of our bee hives. All the way in the back are the two hives covered in about a foot of snow. This past winter, we did things a little different. We wrapped our hives in tar paper to keep the moisture away and added a box of cedar chips to help wick away the moisture. We did this to give the beehives the best chance of surviving the brutal winter. Last year, they died from too much moisture and mold grew rampant.  Bees can survive the cold but they can't survive the moisture which leads to mold.

Last Saturday, the temperatures finally got up to the high 50s so we could finally open the hive and remove all the tar paper and cedar chips. We removed the tar paper and the bees were already coming out to enjoy the sun! We knew right away they had survived the winter of snow, 7F degrees temperatures and wind! Woo hoo! They survived the Polar Vortex!!! One of the coldest winters we've had in a long time. This method really works!

We opened the lid and was thrilled to see bees! Lots and lots of bees! They were so active! They ate through all of the 5 pounds of sugar we had left for them in the winter.We looked through the frames and saw that the Queen had been busy laying brood! She has survived! We literally jumped for joy!

We were even surprised to find that they had even started making honey!! This is so incredible!! There are some flowers blooming so they must be already foraging on the spring bulbs throughout the neighborhood!

We opened the white hive and so that it too had survived! Honeybees everywhere!  Unfortunately, there was no sign of the Queen. Frame after frame it was empty of brood. We decided to move some fresh brood frames from the green hive and transfer them to the white hive in hopes that the hive will make a new queen out of the new brood. We know that this will work because we successfully raised Queens last year using this method.

Here is my beekeeping partner Paul closing up the hive. Here you will see bees all over his shoulders and back. This hive seems to be very strong as the number of bees was really high.

Even though we had two hives that successfully survived the winter, we had less success at our other hive location 2 blocks away. As soon as we arrived, we knew they were doomed. We saw no bees flying around the hive. Here's a look of the dead bees from one of the frames. Here you will see the bees are clustering together trying to keep the Queen warm. If we looked carefully, she probably is under this large pile of bees.

We found mold all over the frames. Lots and lots of it, so we ended up throwing away all 20 deep frames. You don't want to use moldy frames. They will kill the bees. We decided to purchase a new bee package and frames for this hive which we will install in a week.