The Saga Continues Again.....

As I talked about in my last post I have decided to re-queen my hive when I make my divide.

After my bees stung the yard guy and the pool guy I decided to re-queen my hive with a nice Italian queen. It was perfect timing because I made a very nice split from hive number one today. I was able to take 12 bars of honey, nectar, and different stages of brood. It is important when splitting a hive so late in the season to make sure that it is large enough with enough pollen, nectar, and honey stores to sustain the winter. Although in Florida we are lucky because we don't have very hard winters. Sometimes we don't have winter at all!! Soon we should have a very good nectar flow happening again when the Brazilian Pepper starts to bloom.

I wanted to do this divide and experiment to see if I notice a change in temperament with this new queen. Italian queens are supposed to be very gentle, good honey producers, although more prone to robbing. I should know in about three weeks or so. Hopefully the hive will accept the new queen well. I have never ordered a queen before. I usually allow my hives to re-queen themselves. I have mixed feelings about buying a queen that isn’t local. Allowing the hive to re- queen itself is actually better to do because the queen mates with feral or local drones. A nice feral hive is more resistant to disease and more acclimated to our local environment. The down side to this is that the hive may have some AHB within their genetics. There is supposedly a greater population of AHB south of I-4, according to Dr. Kerns from the University of Florida. That has been my concern when working the hives, especially since they have been eliciting such aggressive behavior. Since this is my first year as a Florida beekeeper, I am not sure if all bee colonies become aggressive when they are queenless, but I know mine do and I cannot risk the safety of others.

I had never installed a queen into my hives before. Inese and I decided to cut a little area out of the comb with enough room on top for the bees to eat the candy and release the queen. Hopefully that will work well. My bees looked very interested in the new queen. I will be out of town for the next few days moving my youngest son into a new apartment as he is starting his second year of college. This distraction is good, otherwise I would be watching the hive like a hawk and hoping all is going well. It is important to leave the hive alone for at least 5-7 days after installing a new queen. When I return I will go back into the hive to see if they accepted the new queen. I hope so, she looked like a very nice queen.

With this split I will now have 5 TBHs. Not bad for the first year of beekeeping!!

The Saga Continues

As a new bee keeper in Florida it is important to know what plants are in bloom in your area. Here is a recommendation from the University of Florida on the management of beekeeping in the state of Florida. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in848. As an organic beekeeper keeping TBH, I do not agree with pest management, but would rather have a strong hive with good strong feral stock, allowing them to draw out their comb naturally without foundation. Hopefully this organic way of beekeeping will allow them to manage their pest without the use of artificial pesticides. I do however; use this page to follow what plants are in bloom in the state of Florida. Right now in my back yard my palm trees are blooming. Last week when I was looking for the Atala butterfly in my yard, I also discovered all the bees and blooms around the Christmas tree palms. It was amazing because there were so many bees around these blooms.

The bees seem happy in my yard. If those are not my exact bees at least I am providing enough nectar and pollen sources to keep the foragers happy.

I went back into my hives and they are looking very good. I need to split my 4th hive again. The queen in that hive is so productive. Her laying pattern is amazing!! I feel like I am raising a “box of brood.” That hive doesn’t produce a lot of honey but has allowed me to make several divides this year. As I inspected hive #3 I found a ball of bees. My mentor Inese was with me and she thinks they were balling the queen. We did find eggs, larvae, and capped brood present in the hive, but we would expect to since they were balling her as we entered the hive. This behavior from what I have read is very typical of Africanized Bees. I need to go back into that hive in a few days to see if there are queen cells present then I will know for sure whether it is queenless or not.

The bees were very gentle the other day. I didn’t receive any stings, which was greatly appreciated. However their behavior lately has been extremely irritable. As a beekeeper I try to understand what might be making them irritable. Their hives are not over crowded, they are not honey bound, but two weeks ago hive #2 was queenless with numerous queen cells present. Now hive #3 may be without a queen, if in fact they were balling her. Hive #4 has room in the brood area but the hive is almost full and needs to be split. The nectar flow in July and August is not good. All these examples can make bees irritable. I know my bees do get aggressive when they are queenless because they have chased me around the yard. Last week they stung my pool guy and this week they stung the yard guy several times, enough that he needed to go to the clinic. From what I could find out he is ok but my yard men are not coming back until I get rid of the bees. My husband is concerned because he doesn’t want the bees harming anyone, I mean, I could have died a month ago from my anaphylactic reaction and we cannot afford to have anything happen to anyone either. So right now I am very upset because I really do not want to get rid of my bees. My beekeeping started because I wanted to help the bees but I can also honestly say that I enjoy all aspects of beekeeping from taking care of the hives, to all the wonderful by-products the hive provides.

I talked to my mentor Kate out in Santa Fe Saturday morning. We decided that this might be the perfect time to requeen the hive. Since I need to spilt hive #4 this week, I could get a nice Italian queen instead of allowing that hive to make a queen, and then I might be able to see if I notice a difference in temperament. If I do I may actually requeen all the hives except hive #4 since that queen is my best laying and strongest hive. I know that a strong feral hive is the best, more resistant to disease and pest, more acclimated to my environment. Having aggressive bees doesn’t exactly make my beekeeping hobby enjoyable. As Kate has said to me “Life is too short to have mean bees.” I do not need to be worrying about the safety of myself or others. So I have decided that getting a new queen might be the answer. I guess time will tell…. Hence the saga continues…. Wish me luck!

The Atala Butterfly

I have been butterfly gardening for years and it is very hard to attract the Atala Butterfly. The Atala Butterfly (Eumaeus atala) is a small but beautiful butterfly that was almost extinct but is making a comeback. Its coloring is amazing with black wings, on orange red abdomen and fluorescent blue spots. Common names for the Atala butterfly are the Atala, Atala hairstreak, and Coontie Hairstreak. The Atala butterfly can be found in Southeastern Florida, the Bahamas, and Cuba. The Atala butterfly has been reported from Dade County north up to Martin County, Florida.

Like all butterflies, atalas need a specific host plant on which their larvae feed. The host plant for atalas is a coontie, a relative of the sago palm whose primary natural habitat is pine flatwood. When I first started to garden for butterflies I planted a few (1-2) Coontie plants thinking that would be enough to attract the butterfly. I was wrong and later found out that you needed many (20) coontie plants to attract the atala butterfly. Fairchild Garden does a beautiful job attracting the atala but they have so many coonties planted. When I visit Fairchild’s Butterfly Garden you can see the atala larvae on the coontie plants.

Coontie plants contain a natural toxin, which atala larvae accumulate in their bodies and use to repel birds. Without coontie, adult atalas have no place to lay eggs and no eggs means no new generations. Wild coonties’ demise began with starch: Long before Europeans arrived in Florida, Native Americans used coontie as a source of starch. Coontie, in fact, is a Seminole word that means “bread” or “white root” because the roots can be made into flour. Settlers continued the practice on an industrial level. In the early 1900s, several commercial factories in South Florida processed coontie roots for the manufacture of arrowroot biscuits. Coontie plants started disappearing throughout Florida, and so did the atala butterfly. By 1965, federal and state authorities thought the atala was extinct. The atala is making a comeback because people are using coontie in landscaping and because people are becoming interested in butterflies.

During this year I have noticed several atalas in my garden. The first time I saw one I thought I had to be mistaken. I only have one coontie plant so I thought there was no way I would have the atala in my yard, but I do. In fact I have several atalas in the back of the yard by several flowering palm trees and the logustrum tree. Adult butterflies take flower nectar and sometimes roost in trees. This is why I think they were in the back of the yard around the flowers of the palms and were roosting on the logustrum tree. I also have several other Florida natives that are nectar sources for the Atala, i.e. spanish needle, butterfly bush, lantana, pink powderpuff, etc. I am so happy to have this little visitor in my yard.

Happy National Honey Bee Day!

Today we celebrate National Honey Bee Day and the many contributions of our favorite pollinators. Thanks to them we have almonds, apples, cherries, peaches, cucumbers, and so much more.

Our bees continue to be in trouble. They continue to disappear at alarming rates, with beekeepers reporting astonishing losses this spring from New York to Ohio, and Minnesota.

The National Honey Bee Day program is held one day each year. That does not mean that you can’t get involved the rest of the year. Awareness of the environment around you is a yearlong effort.

Here are a few ways non-beekeepers can support, help, and save the honey bee.

• Consider beekeeping as a worthwhile hobby.
• Support local beekeepers by buying local honey and other beehive products. Honey is the best “green” sweetener you can buy.
• Attend and support beekeeper association events throughout the year in most communities such as environmental centers, schools, and state parks.
• Educate yourself on the dangers and risks with homeowner pesticides and chemicals. Choose non-damaging and non-chemical treatments in and around the home. Most garden pests can be dealt with without harsh chemicals.
• Get to know the honey bee. Unlike other stinging insects, honeybees are manageable, and are non-aggressive.
• Plant a bee friendly garden with native and nectar producing flowers. Use plants that can grow without extra water and chemicals. Native plants are the best to grow in any region. Backyard gardens benefit from the neighborhood beehive.
• Understand that backyard plants such as dandelions and clovers are pollen and nectar sources for a wide variety of beneficial insects, including the honey bee. Dandelions and clover are an unwarranted nuisance for many homeowners. The desire to rid yards of these unwanted plants and have the “perfect” yard are sources for chemical runoff and environmental damage from lawn treatments. A perfect lawn is not worth poisoning the earth.
• Communities should not pass restrictive measure or ban beekeeping.

You can get involved with your community! We need to protect our bees! While policymakers remain resolutely stuck—and have yet to take swift action to address the known causes of bee die-offs—home gardeners, backyard beekeepers and ordinary people all over the country have been stepping up.

Whether you create a pesticide-free haven for bees in your yard, write a letter to the editor, or chat with your neighbors about the importance of protecting pollinators, your actions will make a difference.

Build the movement. Create a bee haven. Talk to neighbors. Spread the word. Visit the Honey Bee Haven site for simple tools to help you protect bees from harmful pesticides in your neighborhood. Let’s celebrate National Honey Bee Day by doing what we can to protect them. Every little bit counts.

Here are some links to help protect our Honey Bees!

http://action.panna.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=9948

http://www.nationalhoneybeeday.com/

http://www.honeybeehavens.com/content/honey-bee-toolkit?utm_source=action&utm_medium=alert&utm_content=HBH&utm_campaign=toolkit

Getting Back Up on the Horse

Or so the saying goes…. I finally went back into my beehives. I have to admit I was pretty nervous about it, but I knew I had to get back up on the horse. I did have a friend with me and I am very grateful that she is helping me. It made me relax to know that she was there to help me in case I needed it. It was also good to have a pair of younger eyes, to see the eggs etc. I did wear my complete bee suit, three layers of gloves, and my new bee boots. The bees did not sting me at all through the gloves for which I’m glad. I think the triple layers worked well. I washed my gloves even though they were goatskin leather, to get the bee sting pheromone off. They seemed to wash ok. So the irony is that I am completely covered from head to toe and they still sting me through the bee suit on the shoulder. It is so funny but the bees had never stung me in the ankles, usually just through the gloves. So I protect myself from head to toe and they find a new place to sting me in the shoulder. It is almost like they are laughing at me saying, “Ok you think you are going to keep us away with three layers of gloves, we will just find an easier place to get you!” I did have a slight local reaction, but no systemic reaction. I do believe that the reason I did have the anaphylactic reaction is that I just got too many stings that day. I just bought a B/P machine so that if I get more than one or two stings while in the hives I can take my B/P. If it drops, I stop for the day. I also forgot to mention that I had my epinephrine pen attached to my hip. I will never go into the hives again without my epi pen, and without someone home.

The hives looked pretty good. Hive #1 had pretty good laying pattern, good population, and a few hive beetles towards the back. There is a lot of bearding on the front of this hive. We didn’t see any eggs so I will be watching this hive in case it swarms.

Hive #2 still didn’t have a new queen. The old queen cells were broken down. We did find a few queen cups with open larvae so we gave that hive 4 bars of brood to make a new queen just in case they need it. Hive #3 & #4 looked good. Hive #4 is my strongest hive with the best laying queen. Unfortunately hive #5 that I started the last time I was in the hives didn’t make it. Hive #5 was the mixed origin divide that I did on July 21st when the anaphylactic reaction occurred. Unfortunately I had a cover on the hive that really didn’t allow good sunlight to enter, and I think the rain water was also getting into the hive. When we inspected it, it was full of wax moths, and small hive beetles, and larvae. There were some bees left but not enough to salvage the hive. I actually threw all the wax away and the hive. I took the top bars and placed them in my freezer to kill any larvae that might be hiding. I felt badly but I did not want that larvae infesting my other hives. The most important way to keep pests out of your hives is to make sure they are strong. Hive #5 unfortunately was not strong and I totally ignored it for three weeks because of what happened. You cannot do that with a TBH. Lesson learned!

The good news is that I was able to harvest many jars of honey that is always so appreciated. I don’t think I will ever take getting honey for granted. It is just amazing what a wonderful gift bees give us. We need to not take our bees for granted!