Here is an article that was pointed out to me a while back.
Most of you probably are aware of the waggle dance that bees do to direct their sisters to the best nectar sources.
This article discusses that dance, and a couple other bee dances as well as how bees are able to navigate. They really are amazing little critters!
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Updated Inventory!
Just a quick note to let you all know that I have updated the inventory on the Etsy storefront, now that we have had a chance to catch up on some bottling. There are still a couple gallons remaining from August to get into jars and that will be up soon as well.
We took this past weekend, after Thanksgiving to swing by our different locations and pick up the last of the honey supers that I had taken off the hives a couple weeks back. These will be extracted as soon as we can find a moment.
Meanwhile, sitting in our back yard we have a sort of sad hive body from our fifth hive that just didn't make it this year. I'm not sure what the problem was, but the colony, which we stared from a swarm, just never was able to reach critical mass with its population. Finally they colony just dwindled away. In case it was disease, we don't want to reuse the wax or frames. We also don't want to try extracting this honey since a lot of it was never quite cured, and there has been some wax moth damage to the comb (including the moth eggs, silk, etc.) I need to scrape down the frames so I can separate the wax and melt it down, then we will burn the frames and scorch the interior of the hive body over a fire to kill any infection that may linger. No sense in endangering another colony by exposing it to any potential disease that may have caused this colony to wither.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
We took this past weekend, after Thanksgiving to swing by our different locations and pick up the last of the honey supers that I had taken off the hives a couple weeks back. These will be extracted as soon as we can find a moment.
Meanwhile, sitting in our back yard we have a sort of sad hive body from our fifth hive that just didn't make it this year. I'm not sure what the problem was, but the colony, which we stared from a swarm, just never was able to reach critical mass with its population. Finally they colony just dwindled away. In case it was disease, we don't want to reuse the wax or frames. We also don't want to try extracting this honey since a lot of it was never quite cured, and there has been some wax moth damage to the comb (including the moth eggs, silk, etc.) I need to scrape down the frames so I can separate the wax and melt it down, then we will burn the frames and scorch the interior of the hive body over a fire to kill any infection that may linger. No sense in endangering another colony by exposing it to any potential disease that may have caused this colony to wither.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
The Chronicle had an article about Bi-Rite this week. In it our hives our mentioned, although we are not called out by name.
However, you can see the honey from one of those hives, alongside our own Noe Valley Honey (from July) on the shelves in the store.
You should do yourself a favor and try the Rooftop Honey -- it is amazingly tasty. I kinda wish we could have it under our own label.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
However, you can see the honey from one of those hives, alongside our own Noe Valley Honey (from July) on the shelves in the store.
You should do yourself a favor and try the Rooftop Honey -- it is amazingly tasty. I kinda wish we could have it under our own label.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Getting Ready for Winter
This past week has been about visiting all four of the hives that are still going and getting them set for the Winter. Not that Winter poses a big issue for the bees in the Bay Area, but still with much rain projected this year we want to make sure that the hives are set.
A few days back I visited the Dolores Park location to check the two hives there. One hive still had a lot of activity in both hive bodies, and brood and supplies in each. I took the super off the hive and set it aside for extraction -- about four full frames of honey there. The top hive body still has plenty of honey for the bees to use. They will have both hive bodies for the winter, but they seem to have a large population so it won't be an issue for them to heat.
The second hive had not been opened for a long time, though we took a super full of honey off it a couple of weeks ago. When I started pulling frames out of the upper hive body I realized that the entire upper body was all honey, no brood, no pollen.
The lower body contained a little brood and some eggs (meaning the queen is still present and healthy) and a lot of honey with some pollen. Clearly this hive has backed off on brood rearing in preparation for the Winter. I went ahead and took the hive body full of honey off and left just the one hive body for the bees. Less space for them to keep warm, but still plenty of supplies.
Rescuing honey!
On Saturday, we both went to our friend's to check the other two hives. These are both now very busy hives. Both hives had brood and supplies in both hive bodies, and the hive that had started out so slow actually had a super full of honey! The other stronger hive had a super full of capped honey, and one that just had a few frames of nectar not yet cured. We removed all the supers but left both hive bodies on each hive. We added entrance reducers to all the hives to aid in keeping down drafts and minimizing the need for them to dedicate guard bees when they need all the bodies they can get to keep warm.
We will extract all the honey in the supers and the one full hive body (another 80 lbs maybe?) The one super that has only nectar will be stored and returned to the bees in the Spring. They won't have to heat the space over the Winter, but they will have the supplies as a head start in the Spring.
A quick dusting of powdered sugar in all the remaining supers to keep the mites under control and we closed everyone back up. We'll come back to them in February or March, when the rains start to let up to check on how they fared.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
A few days back I visited the Dolores Park location to check the two hives there. One hive still had a lot of activity in both hive bodies, and brood and supplies in each. I took the super off the hive and set it aside for extraction -- about four full frames of honey there. The top hive body still has plenty of honey for the bees to use. They will have both hive bodies for the winter, but they seem to have a large population so it won't be an issue for them to heat.
The second hive had not been opened for a long time, though we took a super full of honey off it a couple of weeks ago. When I started pulling frames out of the upper hive body I realized that the entire upper body was all honey, no brood, no pollen.
The lower body contained a little brood and some eggs (meaning the queen is still present and healthy) and a lot of honey with some pollen. Clearly this hive has backed off on brood rearing in preparation for the Winter. I went ahead and took the hive body full of honey off and left just the one hive body for the bees. Less space for them to keep warm, but still plenty of supplies.
Rescuing honey!
On Saturday, we both went to our friend's to check the other two hives. These are both now very busy hives. Both hives had brood and supplies in both hive bodies, and the hive that had started out so slow actually had a super full of honey! The other stronger hive had a super full of capped honey, and one that just had a few frames of nectar not yet cured. We removed all the supers but left both hive bodies on each hive. We added entrance reducers to all the hives to aid in keeping down drafts and minimizing the need for them to dedicate guard bees when they need all the bodies they can get to keep warm.
We will extract all the honey in the supers and the one full hive body (another 80 lbs maybe?) The one super that has only nectar will be stored and returned to the bees in the Spring. They won't have to heat the space over the Winter, but they will have the supplies as a head start in the Spring.
A quick dusting of powdered sugar in all the remaining supers to keep the mites under control and we closed everyone back up. We'll come back to them in February or March, when the rains start to let up to check on how they fared.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Upcoming
Next on the agenda, bottling and labeling all this honey!
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Third Extraction of the Year
This past weekend was spent extracting more honey. We had accumulated three supers full that we were storing in our laundry room until we could get the extractor from the bee club and make some time to actually extract it all.
Those two requirements converged this weekend and we were able to get it all done. We had a total of about 70 lbs. of honey when all was said and done. One of the supers had frames with two clearly distinct shades of honey so we separated them out into two batches. Therefore, when we get everything bottled and labeled you will see a total of four different batches available in our shop - July, Early August, Late August and September. It still amazes me how distinct each different batch can be from the other.
Meanwhile -- we all know how crucial scent is to honey bees. In Britain, according to the Daily Telegraph, this trait is being used in surprising ways. Honeybees are being trained to respond to specific scents and then used to sniff out explosives! See the photo essay here.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Those two requirements converged this weekend and we were able to get it all done. We had a total of about 70 lbs. of honey when all was said and done. One of the supers had frames with two clearly distinct shades of honey so we separated them out into two batches. Therefore, when we get everything bottled and labeled you will see a total of four different batches available in our shop - July, Early August, Late August and September. It still amazes me how distinct each different batch can be from the other.
Meanwhile -- we all know how crucial scent is to honey bees. In Britain, according to the Daily Telegraph, this trait is being used in surprising ways. Honeybees are being trained to respond to specific scents and then used to sniff out explosives! See the photo essay here.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Maintaining
Not too much has needed to be done with any of the hives for some time. They are all still bringing in nectar, which is great this late in the year.
We did have an opportunity to remove a super of capped honey from one of the hives at the Dolores Park location for a photo shoot done by Bi-Rite. They have a book in the works about food supply chains and wanted to include some shots of the hives we maintain for them.
The book will not be out until later in 2011, but we'll surely keep you posted.
Meanwhile, we've also taken honey off of the newer hive at the original location a couple more times. We are just waiting now for a chance to get the extractor and spin it all out of the comb. This makes a total of four supers from the one hive so far, plus one more from the new location. Lots of sticky sweetness.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Extracting
The busy hive in location number 1 has been going great guns! We had put a new honey super on just before our trip (which makes three that were on the hive) and it was nearly filled when when we checked on Sunday. We took the first super that we had added off the hive, and brought it home for extracting. The other two were still not quite full, so we left them for the bees to work, and added a new empty super for good measure.
Upon extracting the honey, we had a good 27 pounds or over 2.5 gallons. We'll have it up for sale as soon as it has settled a bit and we get it bottled.
This batch was being gathered in June and early July -- it has an interesting walnut or tea color, a deep brown with a bit of green to it. The flavor is quite mild, and herbal -- nearly grassy. It seems to smell of the California lilac amongst other things. Sweet, it is still not cloying. I am very pleased with it.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Upon extracting the honey, we had a good 27 pounds or over 2.5 gallons. We'll have it up for sale as soon as it has settled a bit and we get it bottled.
This batch was being gathered in June and early July -- it has an interesting walnut or tea color, a deep brown with a bit of green to it. The flavor is quite mild, and herbal -- nearly grassy. It seems to smell of the California lilac amongst other things. Sweet, it is still not cloying. I am very pleased with it.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Swarm Fun
No sooner had we arrived home from our vacation, then we got a call from the Dolores Park location to let us know that there was a swarm on the power lines over the street. They weren't sure if the swarm emanated from one of our hives or not, but we rushed over to take a look.
We took with us a small bottle of lemon grass essential oil from the local health food store.
When we arrived we were able to get on the roof just opposite where the swarm was located. There was a cluster hanging from the wires just next to the power line pole in front of the building, but it was about 15 feet out -- too far to comfortably try to reach a box out to the swarm.
Bees are strangely attracted to the scent of lemongrass when they are in swarm mode. Some have said it is because it smells to them like the queen but I am not sure if that is true. However we set up a cardboard box on the roof (on top of a med super to give it a little more height) and put a couple of frames in it that we drizzled with honey and wax from one of our existing hives. It would have been preferable to use a spare frame that was already drawn with wax, but we didn't have one handy. We also sprinkled a few drops of the lemongrass oil in the box and the closed it up except for the handle holes that were already on the sides. Hopefully this would entice the swarm to try to take up residence in the box.
We considered our options. We could send a pole or ladder out from the roof edge with a similar box on the end to put under the swarm but the very last thing we wanted was to accidentally drop something onto a car or passers-by. We decided that perhaps we could run a rope over the pole carrying the power lines and use that like a laundry line to run a box out closer to the swarm. Occasionally a bee would fly over to the box and hover around it. Once in a while one would crawl into the box and back out.
Deno ran to get rope while I remained on the roof to watch the swarm. While he was gone, the breeze picked up slightly and at the same time the ball of bees on the power line began to dissipate. It appeared as though the breeze was "washing them away" from the cluster like moving water breaks up a clump of soil. Soon there was a cloud of bees over the street and rooftop with me in the middle of it!
Deno arrived on the street about that time and came rushing up just in time to see the cloud of bees begin circling the box and making their way in.
We had done it -- we had coaxed the swarm into our box!
Inspecting the hives we had at the Dolores Park location it seemed clear that the swarm was not from one of our hives. Both hives had eggs and generally when a hive is preparing to swarm, the bees stop the queen from laying for a few days, and stop feeding her to prepare her to be able to fly.
We left the box on the roof until after sunset to allow stragglers to join the rest of the colony. Then we combined the bees with one of our existing hives. It wasn't a large enough swarm to easily start a new colony, particularly so late in the year.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Monday, July 20, 2009
The Queen was Where?
Strange goings on in one of the hives at the Dolores Park location.
We checked on four of the five hives in a little whirlwind yesterday. Most of them are super busy which is great news. The one slow one in the original location is still slow, but seems much healthier than before -- there is a lot of brood ready to hatch, and the queen is laying nicely. They probably just need a bit more time.
The first hive by Dolores Park though was very interesting. Last time I checked them a few weeks ago, they had filled the top hive body with brood and honey, so I put on a queen excluder and added a honey super. The super even has its own entrance which is supposed to encourage the bees to bring in more nectar since they don't have to travel through the excluder to get to the super.
When we opened the hive, there were no bees in the super -- they hadn't touched the frames, not even to build any wax. But Deno sharply spotted the queen wandering around on top of the excluder! When we examined the frames in the upper hive body, we found it filled to the brim, and we counted eight hatched queen cells, but no new queen cells.
Our best guess is that perhaps the hive swarmed and the new queen took her mating flight, but returned to the wrong hive entrance and went into the honey super entrance instead of the main entrance.
We made sure the queen was moved down into the top hive body, and reversed the hive bodies to put the relatively more open hive body on top. Replaced the queen excluder and are now hoping that the queen starts laying.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
We checked on four of the five hives in a little whirlwind yesterday. Most of them are super busy which is great news. The one slow one in the original location is still slow, but seems much healthier than before -- there is a lot of brood ready to hatch, and the queen is laying nicely. They probably just need a bit more time.
The first hive by Dolores Park though was very interesting. Last time I checked them a few weeks ago, they had filled the top hive body with brood and honey, so I put on a queen excluder and added a honey super. The super even has its own entrance which is supposed to encourage the bees to bring in more nectar since they don't have to travel through the excluder to get to the super.
When we opened the hive, there were no bees in the super -- they hadn't touched the frames, not even to build any wax. But Deno sharply spotted the queen wandering around on top of the excluder! When we examined the frames in the upper hive body, we found it filled to the brim, and we counted eight hatched queen cells, but no new queen cells.
Our best guess is that perhaps the hive swarmed and the new queen took her mating flight, but returned to the wrong hive entrance and went into the honey super entrance instead of the main entrance.
We made sure the queen was moved down into the top hive body, and reversed the hive bodies to put the relatively more open hive body on top. Replaced the queen excluder and are now hoping that the queen starts laying.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Baseball Swarm
Fun Story from Houston, regarding a swarm that held up a baseball game. There are a couple of ignorant quotes, like the guy who wanted to make sure the bees didn't swarm onto a person. Otherwise, it is pretty entertaining. It is interesting that they moved into a girl's jacket.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Two hives still lagging
Well, the slow start seems to be picking up finally. We have three hives that are doing quite well. These are all hives that came from packages or a split. The newest hive in the original yard is growing very rapidly. It took them a mere few weeks to fill the second hive body and now we have been able to add a honey super. 
The first hive at the Dolores location also has a honey super on it, but the bees have been reluctant to start using it. I drilled a hole into the front of the super to give the foragers an entrance above the queen excluder and hope that that will make it easier for them to start storing the nectar up there.
The second hive at that location is also growing rapidly, but not quite so rapidly as the one at the Chatanooga address. I have just added the second hive body to that hive -- perhaps a week or two later than I should have. Hopefully they will catch up quickly.
Unfortunately the most recent hive, which we started from a swarm and have already given a new queen is still very slow. The population is so small. The queen is still present, we have seen her milling about and she is laying eggs. However it is as though they just are not able to get the critical mass of population they need to start thriving. We took a frame each from the two hives at the Dolores Park location and added them to the poor hive to see if the newly hatched bees would give the hive a boost. We need to check soon to see if it has worked.
Finally, our initial hive is also lagging. There continue to be a lot of dead bees around the entrance again. At first we thought it was the mites that were causing this, but after the mites had cleared up and the colony seemed to have bounced back, the population has dwindled a little again. There are eggs present and some capped brood. We added a frame of brood from the new hive at that location which is doing very well and again will see if that population boost helps the situation.
There are a number of diseases which can affect bees, aside from the mites which we treat with powdered sugar. Most of these diseases have distinctive characteristics like dead brood, strong smells, etc. But there are a couple which don't exhibit strong symptoms other than a general population decline. I am beginning to suspect nosema, which is a digestive disease of bees. It would explain the dead bees we find and the fact that the population remains small. We don't want to medicate so we will continue to watch and see what happens. Often, once there is substantial nectar available the disease will abate. We also gave them a patty of mint treated shortening and powdered sugar, which is a treatement for tracheal mites in case that is the problem. But in the case of tracheal mites, you will see the bees showing signs of fatigue or listlessness. Our bees appear perfectly healthy, except of course that they don't seem to be building the population.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
The first hive at the Dolores location also has a honey super on it, but the bees have been reluctant to start using it. I drilled a hole into the front of the super to give the foragers an entrance above the queen excluder and hope that that will make it easier for them to start storing the nectar up there.
The second hive at that location is also growing rapidly, but not quite so rapidly as the one at the Chatanooga address. I have just added the second hive body to that hive -- perhaps a week or two later than I should have. Hopefully they will catch up quickly.
Unfortunately the most recent hive, which we started from a swarm and have already given a new queen is still very slow. The population is so small. The queen is still present, we have seen her milling about and she is laying eggs. However it is as though they just are not able to get the critical mass of population they need to start thriving. We took a frame each from the two hives at the Dolores Park location and added them to the poor hive to see if the newly hatched bees would give the hive a boost. We need to check soon to see if it has worked.
Finally, our initial hive is also lagging. There continue to be a lot of dead bees around the entrance again. At first we thought it was the mites that were causing this, but after the mites had cleared up and the colony seemed to have bounced back, the population has dwindled a little again. There are eggs present and some capped brood. We added a frame of brood from the new hive at that location which is doing very well and again will see if that population boost helps the situation.There are a number of diseases which can affect bees, aside from the mites which we treat with powdered sugar. Most of these diseases have distinctive characteristics like dead brood, strong smells, etc. But there are a couple which don't exhibit strong symptoms other than a general population decline. I am beginning to suspect nosema, which is a digestive disease of bees. It would explain the dead bees we find and the fact that the population remains small. We don't want to medicate so we will continue to watch and see what happens. Often, once there is substantial nectar available the disease will abate. We also gave them a patty of mint treated shortening and powdered sugar, which is a treatement for tracheal mites in case that is the problem. But in the case of tracheal mites, you will see the bees showing signs of fatigue or listlessness. Our bees appear perfectly healthy, except of course that they don't seem to be building the population.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Waiting
It has been kind of a slow start for the bees this year. I'm not sure why. We have had to replace one queen already (need to check her this Thursday to make sure she's out). Other hives are developing but slowly. We have put supers on three of the five hives now, though, and will add one to a fourth soon.
Meanwhile all the hives appear to remain healthy if not extremely populous yet. Most importantly, the mite issue with hive #1 seems to be under control. Powdered sugar is the cure -- completely safe and organic, yet effective!
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Bees and Flowers Circadian Rythms
Here is an article in the New York Times about how bees and flowers coordinate their schedules to maximize the pollination/nectar trade.
We just went Friday to see our new hives and make sure that all is well with them. The two packages are each doing great. The Noe Valley one has eggs and the Dolores Park location hive has larvae already.
The swarm with the new queen on our friends roof is off to a very slow start -- the queen had not been released when we checked on her on Wednesday so we let her out of the cage. There were not many bees left in the hive, so we are hoping that the queen can start laying quickly.
The first hive that we had at the Dolores location is very busy. We put an empty deep full of frames on top of it to give them more room, but we might want to take a frame of brood out of it and move it to the rooftop hive.
Finally the initial hive in the first location seems quite sluggish. The colony is small and while I saw very young brood indicating that the queen was present within the past few days, I didn't see any eggs (though that might just be that I didn't look in the right cells), and the quantity of brood is very small. There is one sealed supersedure cell in the hive so it is possible the queen really was laying too slowly and was kicked out. If so well hope that the new queen hatches and is mated soon so she can start laying eggs and build up the population. Otherwise we can move a frame from the strong Dolores hive to this hive as well and see if that gives them more options for either allowing the newly hatched queen more time to start laying fertile eggs or raising another new queen if necessary.
I am concerned a little that the slow start on all the hives is going to translate into a late harvest which means that while we still have a few small jars remaining, it could be September or October before we have inventory again.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
We just went Friday to see our new hives and make sure that all is well with them. The two packages are each doing great. The Noe Valley one has eggs and the Dolores Park location hive has larvae already.
The swarm with the new queen on our friends roof is off to a very slow start -- the queen had not been released when we checked on her on Wednesday so we let her out of the cage. There were not many bees left in the hive, so we are hoping that the queen can start laying quickly.
The first hive that we had at the Dolores location is very busy. We put an empty deep full of frames on top of it to give them more room, but we might want to take a frame of brood out of it and move it to the rooftop hive.
Finally the initial hive in the first location seems quite sluggish. The colony is small and while I saw very young brood indicating that the queen was present within the past few days, I didn't see any eggs (though that might just be that I didn't look in the right cells), and the quantity of brood is very small. There is one sealed supersedure cell in the hive so it is possible the queen really was laying too slowly and was kicked out. If so well hope that the new queen hatches and is mated soon so she can start laying eggs and build up the population. Otherwise we can move a frame from the strong Dolores hive to this hive as well and see if that gives them more options for either allowing the newly hatched queen more time to start laying fertile eggs or raising another new queen if necessary.
I am concerned a little that the slow start on all the hives is going to translate into a late harvest which means that while we still have a few small jars remaining, it could be September or October before we have inventory again.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Three more hives, Three Swarms, Two Packages and a Spare Queen.
It has been a busy weekend. We have installed three new hives bringing our total in the City up to five!
It took a little doing - especially since not everything worked out the way we had planned exactly.
We were going to put one more nuc on the roof off Dolores park, and use packages for the other hive in the original location and the new hive on our friend Brad's roof. The same woman who had sold us the first two nucs this year had another hive she wanted to split.
Friday morning we went to her house to pick up the nuc. When we arrived she was in her back yard already and we were ushered through her house by her cleaner. We entered the back yard to find her trying to entice a swarm into one of several nucs and swarm traps that she had about.
We watched the swarm with her for a bit as it settled on her neighbors' fence. She explained to us that the best way to catch a swarm if you can act as it is happening is to use lemongrass oil to entice them into a box, which is what she was attempting to do.
We left the swarm to find its way to the nuc, and went to look at the hive to be split. After examining the frames we quickly realized that the hive was queenless. There was no brood and no eggs to be found. We put that hive back together since we would not be able to use it for the split and our friend looked around her yard for another. The one we chose must have been just ready to swarm because the moment Deno opened it the bees went for it!
Now bees always fly about when you open their hive, naturally. However, this was a HUGE number of bees and they were making the high whiny sort of hum that is characteristic of a swarm. They were even starting to settle on some allium near the hive.
We began to put the hive back together because we could not make a split from it either. The queen would have left with the swarm.
Strangely, once the hive was closed again, the swarm quickly returned to it and went back in. The best we were able to surmise is that the hive was indeed getting ready to swarm, but was not really quite set to take off. However, when we opened the hive and some of the bees took flight, the others interpreted that as a signal to swarm and followed. Once the hive was closed and they realized that it was a false alarm they all returned to the hive.
Anyway, we did not get a split and so were unable to install the new hive in the Dolores location. We decided to fall back on one of the packages arriving Saturday instead and just let Brad know that his hive might have to wait until we could find another way to get a colony.
Saturday arrived and Deno grabbed a car so we could go pick up our two packages that were arriving. We had arranged with our friend who provides the original location to install the new hive that afternoon, but on a tight schedule. As luck would have it, the packages were late in being delivered so we had to wait for nearly an hour for them. Deno had to go drop off equipment at the Dolores location and return the car before we had a chance to pick up the packages.
Happily, another woman waiting with us for some packages of her own offered to take us home with our bees. We called our friend to let him know that we would have to delay until Sunday afternoon and let the owners of the Dolores location know that we would be by a little later than planned to put in the hive there.
Luck struck again and we read on the SF beekeepers list that there was a) an extra queen available, and b) a queenless swarm that someone had caught. Deno made some quick calls and sent some e-mails and we were soon in possession of both! These would make a fine third colony. We called our friend Brad and let him know that he would get the hive on his roof that weekend after all! Yeay!
We then focused on getting the first package installed on the roof by Dolores Park. Following is a short video of the package -- inside the mass of bees is a small cage with the queen and a can of sugar water with a drip feeder attached so the bees can eat while they are waiting to be put in their new home. The queen's cage entrance is plugged with a sugar paste candy that is very like dried icing. The new hive is set up and the bees are dumped in (rather unceremoniously). The queen, in her cage, is then suspended between two frames and the hive is closed up. The bees will eat the sugar paste because bees like sugar. It will take them a couple days to eat through enough of it that the queen can escape her cage and join the hive. In this time the rest of the bees will have become accustomed to her scent and hopefully accept her as their new queen. At the end of the video you see the new hive set up with some of the bees going in and out of the entrance (which is reduced to help the ward off intruders until their numbers are strong enough to be able to guard the full hive entrance). The jars in the top hive body are there to provide sugar water for the bees to eat so they can get a jump star on producing wax and making the comb so they don't have to rely solely on foraging for nectar and supplies while they get started.
On Sunday afternoon, the other package was installed in its new hive in our original location, and the swarm and the extra queen were installed on our friend's roof in the same manner, except in that case the bees did not have a can of sugar water to sustain them since they had been caught so they were a little more cranky when we installed them in their hive. Consequently they buzzed around quite a bit before they started to settle into the hive. However, Brad let us know the following day that they had all made it into their new home and were already peacefully exploring the neighbors fruit tree which is in full bloom.
Here we are on that roof while the bees try to find their sisters in their new hive.
Next week we'll have to make round to check on each of the new hives to see that the queens have all been released and are laying properly.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
It took a little doing - especially since not everything worked out the way we had planned exactly.
We were going to put one more nuc on the roof off Dolores park, and use packages for the other hive in the original location and the new hive on our friend Brad's roof. The same woman who had sold us the first two nucs this year had another hive she wanted to split.
Friday morning we went to her house to pick up the nuc. When we arrived she was in her back yard already and we were ushered through her house by her cleaner. We entered the back yard to find her trying to entice a swarm into one of several nucs and swarm traps that she had about.
We watched the swarm with her for a bit as it settled on her neighbors' fence. She explained to us that the best way to catch a swarm if you can act as it is happening is to use lemongrass oil to entice them into a box, which is what she was attempting to do.
We left the swarm to find its way to the nuc, and went to look at the hive to be split. After examining the frames we quickly realized that the hive was queenless. There was no brood and no eggs to be found. We put that hive back together since we would not be able to use it for the split and our friend looked around her yard for another. The one we chose must have been just ready to swarm because the moment Deno opened it the bees went for it!
Now bees always fly about when you open their hive, naturally. However, this was a HUGE number of bees and they were making the high whiny sort of hum that is characteristic of a swarm. They were even starting to settle on some allium near the hive.
We began to put the hive back together because we could not make a split from it either. The queen would have left with the swarm.
Strangely, once the hive was closed again, the swarm quickly returned to it and went back in. The best we were able to surmise is that the hive was indeed getting ready to swarm, but was not really quite set to take off. However, when we opened the hive and some of the bees took flight, the others interpreted that as a signal to swarm and followed. Once the hive was closed and they realized that it was a false alarm they all returned to the hive.
Anyway, we did not get a split and so were unable to install the new hive in the Dolores location. We decided to fall back on one of the packages arriving Saturday instead and just let Brad know that his hive might have to wait until we could find another way to get a colony.
Saturday arrived and Deno grabbed a car so we could go pick up our two packages that were arriving. We had arranged with our friend who provides the original location to install the new hive that afternoon, but on a tight schedule. As luck would have it, the packages were late in being delivered so we had to wait for nearly an hour for them. Deno had to go drop off equipment at the Dolores location and return the car before we had a chance to pick up the packages.
Happily, another woman waiting with us for some packages of her own offered to take us home with our bees. We called our friend to let him know that we would have to delay until Sunday afternoon and let the owners of the Dolores location know that we would be by a little later than planned to put in the hive there.
Luck struck again and we read on the SF beekeepers list that there was a) an extra queen available, and b) a queenless swarm that someone had caught. Deno made some quick calls and sent some e-mails and we were soon in possession of both! These would make a fine third colony. We called our friend Brad and let him know that he would get the hive on his roof that weekend after all! Yeay!
We then focused on getting the first package installed on the roof by Dolores Park. Following is a short video of the package -- inside the mass of bees is a small cage with the queen and a can of sugar water with a drip feeder attached so the bees can eat while they are waiting to be put in their new home. The queen's cage entrance is plugged with a sugar paste candy that is very like dried icing. The new hive is set up and the bees are dumped in (rather unceremoniously). The queen, in her cage, is then suspended between two frames and the hive is closed up. The bees will eat the sugar paste because bees like sugar. It will take them a couple days to eat through enough of it that the queen can escape her cage and join the hive. In this time the rest of the bees will have become accustomed to her scent and hopefully accept her as their new queen. At the end of the video you see the new hive set up with some of the bees going in and out of the entrance (which is reduced to help the ward off intruders until their numbers are strong enough to be able to guard the full hive entrance). The jars in the top hive body are there to provide sugar water for the bees to eat so they can get a jump star on producing wax and making the comb so they don't have to rely solely on foraging for nectar and supplies while they get started.
On Sunday afternoon, the other package was installed in its new hive in our original location, and the swarm and the extra queen were installed on our friend's roof in the same manner, except in that case the bees did not have a can of sugar water to sustain them since they had been caught so they were a little more cranky when we installed them in their hive. Consequently they buzzed around quite a bit before they started to settle into the hive. However, Brad let us know the following day that they had all made it into their new home and were already peacefully exploring the neighbors fruit tree which is in full bloom.
Here we are on that roof while the bees try to find their sisters in their new hive.
Next week we'll have to make round to check on each of the new hives to see that the queens have all been released and are laying properly.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Getting ready for more
We are going to spend this upcoming weekend installing three more hives around the City. One more at the original location, one more at the new location, and a final one on a friend's roof. Love that.
The first one will be another nuc -- these have worked out well for us so far. The other two will be packages that should be arriving this Saturday or Sunday. To get ready for them, Deno has been painting equipment and preparing sites.
We took a trip to see the second hive and it is doing quite well. We saw the queen almost right off and there are a lot of little larvae developing in nice patterns in the comb.
We realized on the last visit to the backyard hive that it seems to have a pretty sever mite infestation. This is a problem because the mites are infecting the larvae with a disease that causes stunted and misshaped wings. So we are going to be diligent about dusting all our colonies with powdered sugar to help them keep the mite populations at a minimum.
Here is a drone that was wondering on the gravel outside the hive and a worker bee with some powdered sugar. You can see the difference in size and shape and particularly how large the drone's eyes are compared with the worker bee.
When we dusted the colony they were a little frustrated with us and a lot of the bees that were at the top of the frames took off and started flying around. It is a good bet that a lot of these bees have not been out of the hive before, and of course we aren't really able to herd them back in before we close up. Fortunately, their sisters know what to do. The bees below with their tails in the air are releasing a the scent of the hive from their abdomens and fanning it out into the air with their wings so that any errant bees can find their way back to the hive by the smell.
On our way home, we discovered a large Pride of Madeira that was just covered with bees. Here we see a bumble bee and a honey bee (one of ours) sharing the tip of one of the spears of flowers.
They are perfectly content to share and don't bother one another in the slightest. Notice the bright lavender color of the pollen this one has packed on her legs. The pollen is used to feed the developing brood, so this time of year they are gathering large quantities to bring back to the hive.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
The first one will be another nuc -- these have worked out well for us so far. The other two will be packages that should be arriving this Saturday or Sunday. To get ready for them, Deno has been painting equipment and preparing sites.
We took a trip to see the second hive and it is doing quite well. We saw the queen almost right off and there are a lot of little larvae developing in nice patterns in the comb.
We realized on the last visit to the backyard hive that it seems to have a pretty sever mite infestation. This is a problem because the mites are infecting the larvae with a disease that causes stunted and misshaped wings. So we are going to be diligent about dusting all our colonies with powdered sugar to help them keep the mite populations at a minimum.
Here is a drone that was wondering on the gravel outside the hive and a worker bee with some powdered sugar. You can see the difference in size and shape and particularly how large the drone's eyes are compared with the worker bee.
When we dusted the colony they were a little frustrated with us and a lot of the bees that were at the top of the frames took off and started flying around. It is a good bet that a lot of these bees have not been out of the hive before, and of course we aren't really able to herd them back in before we close up. Fortunately, their sisters know what to do. The bees below with their tails in the air are releasing a the scent of the hive from their abdomens and fanning it out into the air with their wings so that any errant bees can find their way back to the hive by the smell.
On our way home, we discovered a large Pride of Madeira that was just covered with bees. Here we see a bumble bee and a honey bee (one of ours) sharing the tip of one of the spears of flowers.
They are perfectly content to share and don't bother one another in the slightest. Notice the bright lavender color of the pollen this one has packed on her legs. The pollen is used to feed the developing brood, so this time of year they are gathering large quantities to bring back to the hive.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Friday, April 3, 2009
We're Famous! (locally)
The Noe Valley Voice paper has published a really lovely article about us in their April Issue which just came out. The new issue is not online as of today, but should be very soon. The paper is out on the streets in Noe Valley so if you are making a trip to Lovejoy's Tea House, pick up a copy.
We are very proud!
At the same time, this issue is arriving just as we are getting down to our last stock of honey. It will be at least a couple of months before we have any more that we can extract; so while we are very excited about the exposure, I'm afraid that a lot of the new people that find us through the article will have to wait a while to try the Princesses' honey.
Today we are going to go add some room to our original hive and make some space for the new hive going in that location. We want to make sure that as the queen has been busy laying eggs the newly hatched bees have room to start expanding the comb and the field bees have space to bring in more supplies of pollen and nectar. They will be very busy these next couple of months and we want to help them be as productive as possible.
We'll also be adding to the other location in a week or two -- we are going to be filling the new hives we add with package bees instead of nucleus colonies. Package bees arrive three pounds at a time in a wire mesh cage, with a queen in a separate tiny cage of her own. They are basically an artificial swarm -- there is no comb, no brood, no supplies -- they start from scratch. This is the way we started the very first hive three years ago. We'll explain the process as we execute it. First I need to make sure when the packages we ordered will be arriving.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Weekend of Bees
This past weekend was a busy one on the bee and honey front. The adventures started with a call from the Bi-Rite buyer saying that they needed more! As luck would have it we had already given them our entire remaining inventory of jars, holding back only what we have listed on our Etsy storefront. However, we had recently pulled off five frames from the existing hive body to install a nuc. These happened to contain a bit over a gallon of honey that we had extracted. We just needed to order the jars.
The buyer gave us the breakdown in jar sizes she wanted, I ordered jars and we waited.
We heard from the buyer again asking when we would be able to bring the honey by because their shelf was running low. We told her by Saturday.
Well, by Friday afternoon the jars we were expecting that morning had still not arrived. We did not panic though -- we didn't think it would take more than a couple hours to bottle the honey the next morning, slap on some labels and carry it down to the store.
Except the jars arrived late on Friday when we had plans meaning we had to wait until Saturday morning. Upon opening the box on Saturday morning, we saw that the jars we had ordered were the wrong shape (thank goodness they were the correct volume). We hemmed and hawed over whether it was better to use the different packaging or delay the order further.
We settled on using the different packaging -- but the shape of the jars would not accommodate our simple little sticker labels. We had to develop a sleeve to wrap the labels around the ball shaped jars.
Suffice to say that after a trip to the art supply store, a trip to the copy shop, and a few hours of arts-and-crafts time we finally had this ready to go.
We got the jars down to Bi-Rite in the mid afternoon. But the weekend was not over yet!
We got a call that same day from the woman who was selling us another nuc for one of the hives we will dedicate to Bi-Rite. She needed us to take the split right away because the colony had grown too big and was preparing to swarm! Tragically, we had not received all of our equipment yet. We called her back to let her know that we couldn't take the nuc because we did not yet have a complete hive to put them in.
Fortunately, she has been gathering equipment for some time and let us know that we could borrow whatever pieces we needed from her until our own parts arrived. Then we would just swap out the hive parts and bring them back to her.
We called the store back and let them know we would be delivering the first of their hives on Sunday morning and reserved a car.
Sunday we went to get the bees. They were still in their hive so we put on our veils and gloves and went to help take the frames from the hive and put them in a nuc. We found the queen quickly on the first frame by her piping. They were indeed getting set to swarm.
Once we got the nuc to the new location the queen seemed to have calmed down -- we didn't hear any more piping from her. Above you see us getting ready to move the frames from the blue nuc to the hive.
The new location is on a roof so we devised a way to tie a cradle around the nuc to lift it to the roof of the building, set up the hive and moved the frames from the nuc into it.
We'll check back in a week or so to make sure we see eggs.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
The buyer gave us the breakdown in jar sizes she wanted, I ordered jars and we waited.
We heard from the buyer again asking when we would be able to bring the honey by because their shelf was running low. We told her by Saturday.
Well, by Friday afternoon the jars we were expecting that morning had still not arrived. We did not panic though -- we didn't think it would take more than a couple hours to bottle the honey the next morning, slap on some labels and carry it down to the store.
Except the jars arrived late on Friday when we had plans meaning we had to wait until Saturday morning. Upon opening the box on Saturday morning, we saw that the jars we had ordered were the wrong shape (thank goodness they were the correct volume). We hemmed and hawed over whether it was better to use the different packaging or delay the order further.
We settled on using the different packaging -- but the shape of the jars would not accommodate our simple little sticker labels. We had to develop a sleeve to wrap the labels around the ball shaped jars.
Suffice to say that after a trip to the art supply store, a trip to the copy shop, and a few hours of arts-and-crafts time we finally had this ready to go.
We got the jars down to Bi-Rite in the mid afternoon. But the weekend was not over yet!
We got a call that same day from the woman who was selling us another nuc for one of the hives we will dedicate to Bi-Rite. She needed us to take the split right away because the colony had grown too big and was preparing to swarm! Tragically, we had not received all of our equipment yet. We called her back to let her know that we couldn't take the nuc because we did not yet have a complete hive to put them in.
Fortunately, she has been gathering equipment for some time and let us know that we could borrow whatever pieces we needed from her until our own parts arrived. Then we would just swap out the hive parts and bring them back to her.
We called the store back and let them know we would be delivering the first of their hives on Sunday morning and reserved a car.
Sunday we went to get the bees. They were still in their hive so we put on our veils and gloves and went to help take the frames from the hive and put them in a nuc. We found the queen quickly on the first frame by her piping. They were indeed getting set to swarm.
Once we got the nuc to the new location the queen seemed to have calmed down -- we didn't hear any more piping from her. Above you see us getting ready to move the frames from the blue nuc to the hive.
The new location is on a roof so we devised a way to tie a cradle around the nuc to lift it to the roof of the building, set up the hive and moved the frames from the nuc into it.
We'll check back in a week or so to make sure we see eggs.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Find Us at Bi-Rite
It is official Bi-Rite grocery, on 18th Street near Dolores Park is now carrying Pollen Princesses Pure Noe Valley Honey. Tell your friends!
Yes, that is me in the picture on their sign. They call us their "good neighbors." The feeling is, of course, mutual.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Picture Day
This morning we are off to have the bees' pictures taken. We'll probably do a group shot as much as we can.
There's actually a reason for this: the Noe Valley Voice is doing an article for April about Pollen Princesses and our honey. We've submitted the interview already, but they are taking the photos.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
There's actually a reason for this: the Noe Valley Voice is doing an article for April about Pollen Princesses and our honey. We've submitted the interview already, but they are taking the photos.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Installing a Nuc
Well, we took another more in depth look at the colony this past Friday and sure enough all the brood from the eggs we had seen were drones. That means it was a worker laying infertile eggs and not a queen.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
As luck would have it, another local beekeeper had some 5 frame nucleii (nucs, basically a small split from a larger colony in a small box) for sale. She called us right away and said she could bring the bees by Saturday morning which she did.
We met her where our beehive is kept and she helped us select 5 frames that were empty or had some some honey and pollen to remove. We kept two frames: one with mostly honey and one full of both honey and pollen. The existing bees were on the remaining three frames except for a few stragglers.
We pushed the three frames of existing bees over to one side of the hive body and then put the two frames of honey and pollen next to them toward the center. We spritzed lightly with a mint tea sugar solution we had made up for the purpose. Then we put in the five frames full of bees and brood from the nuc. We checked for eggs and even saw the queen as we were doing this so we know they are a healthy colony. As we put each new frame into the hive we spritzed with the mint and sugar.
When we were finished we had two unrelated colonies in one box, but they were sparated by a couple of frames, they were going to take a little time to clean themselves off, and hopefully the mint scent would overwhelm their natural scent so by the time they realize they are not all related they won't care.
The weather then promptly turned rainy which will a) keep the bees indoors and hopefully make the new field bees less likely to try to fly back to their old home, and b) keep us indoors so we can let them sort of settle into their new home before we get anxious to check in on them again.
Honestly though, after the past year I think we want to take a less invasive approach to helping the bees manage the hive -- of course we want to minimize swarming, but if we can do that by simply keeping extra super space above them at all times rather than continually going in a messing with each frame I think everyone will be happier.
Photos? I forgot to take any but perhaps Deno has some. I'll try and post them soon if he does.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Some exciting news
Stay tuned --
We are talking with a local grocery about them carrying our honey in their assortment and perhaps using it in their ice cream.
There is even a possibility that they will want to set up their own apiary and use us as the beekeepers!
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
We are talking with a local grocery about them carrying our honey in their assortment and perhaps using it in their ice cream.
There is even a possibility that they will want to set up their own apiary and use us as the beekeepers!
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Quick Peek
While the sun was out yesterday and it was relatively warm and free of a chance of rain we went to check the hive and see if the princesses had room to start growing their colony -- with the weather being so warm I thought the would likely already be starting to rear brood and I know they've been able to start gathering pollen and nectar.
When we got into the hive we got some mixed news.
We saw a few eggs! But at the same time the hive population is very small -- less than 1 lb of bees total from what I can estimate. And the eggs we did see were very few. Usually eggs are a good sign meaning that the queen is present and laying. With such a small population I expected we would be able to see the queen easily, though and we did not. So I have a suspicion that we have a laying worker and not a queen. This suspicion is strengthened by the fact that in at least one cell there were two eggs.
We'll wait a couple of weeks and see what happens. There is every likelihood that the reason the population is small is that is is late in the Winter. The queen, if she is present may simply not have started laying yet so the bees that remain are only those that have survived since October.
Once the eggs we did see hatch and the larvae are sealed in their cells we will be able to determine if they are workers or drones. And by that time if there is a queen there should be more laying.
If, on the other hand there is not more laying then we will know it is time to order a nuc or a package and start over.
There was not evidence of too many mites on the bottom board of the hive, and no signs of disease which is something to be grateful for.
We did dust the bees for mites with powdered sugar before we left them. Here is one of them fanning to attract her sisters back to the hive.
And one trying to brush herself off.
On the way home, we saw a few bees buzzing around the fruit trees that are blooming in the neighborhood, so there is still hope.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
When we got into the hive we got some mixed news.
We saw a few eggs! But at the same time the hive population is very small -- less than 1 lb of bees total from what I can estimate. And the eggs we did see were very few. Usually eggs are a good sign meaning that the queen is present and laying. With such a small population I expected we would be able to see the queen easily, though and we did not. So I have a suspicion that we have a laying worker and not a queen. This suspicion is strengthened by the fact that in at least one cell there were two eggs.
We'll wait a couple of weeks and see what happens. There is every likelihood that the reason the population is small is that is is late in the Winter. The queen, if she is present may simply not have started laying yet so the bees that remain are only those that have survived since October.
Once the eggs we did see hatch and the larvae are sealed in their cells we will be able to determine if they are workers or drones. And by that time if there is a queen there should be more laying.
If, on the other hand there is not more laying then we will know it is time to order a nuc or a package and start over.
There was not evidence of too many mites on the bottom board of the hive, and no signs of disease which is something to be grateful for.
We did dust the bees for mites with powdered sugar before we left them. Here is one of them fanning to attract her sisters back to the hive.
And one trying to brush herself off.
On the way home, we saw a few bees buzzing around the fruit trees that are blooming in the neighborhood, so there is still hope.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Isn't it cool?
We have been recognized in a local blog and we are in their list of local merchants!
In other news there was an interesting little brief in the NY Magazine about an artist who uses bees to create his sculptures. He provides the bees with wooden templates instead of the traditional frames that are usually put in a hive for the bees to draw their comb on.
It also is becoming pretty apparent that the impending drought here in California is going to impact the bees and their honey production. Less water = less flowers and less nectar produced by them.
We had a little cold spell this past week so we have postponed visiting the hive, but the sun is back out and once it warms up again we will have to get over to see them. I'd like to get them some empty frames for the hive body and put on a honey super so they have some reason to draw comb and somewhere to start putting the nectar they are doubtless bringing in so they don't get bored or crowded. Bored and crowded is surely cause to swarm.
The fruit trees, particularly the crab apples and plums are already well into their blooming and the bees are loving that.
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Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
In other news there was an interesting little brief in the NY Magazine about an artist who uses bees to create his sculptures. He provides the bees with wooden templates instead of the traditional frames that are usually put in a hive for the bees to draw their comb on.
It also is becoming pretty apparent that the impending drought here in California is going to impact the bees and their honey production. Less water = less flowers and less nectar produced by them.
We had a little cold spell this past week so we have postponed visiting the hive, but the sun is back out and once it warms up again we will have to get over to see them. I'd like to get them some empty frames for the hive body and put on a honey super so they have some reason to draw comb and somewhere to start putting the nectar they are doubtless bringing in so they don't get bored or crowded. Bored and crowded is surely cause to swarm.
The fruit trees, particularly the crab apples and plums are already well into their blooming and the bees are loving that.
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Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Jump Start on Spring
The weather here has been absurdly warm -- I mean into the 70's.
Therefore the bees have been out in force. We have seen significant numbers of them on the lavender and rosemary in the neighborhood. The plum trees have not started to bloom yet, though.
In Berkeley, I've seen several bees on the jade plants which are fully in bloom now.
When we visited the Stybring Arboretum in Golden Gate park over this weekend there were bees on almost every plant that was in flower.
You can see that they are gathering pollen from the flowers they visit, which means they are getting ready for brood.
It seems likely that we will need to visit the hive in the near future to make sure that they have enough room. If the warm weather has convinced the queen to start laying again they will need some space for brood and pollen, followed by honey.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
Therefore the bees have been out in force. We have seen significant numbers of them on the lavender and rosemary in the neighborhood. The plum trees have not started to bloom yet, though.
In Berkeley, I've seen several bees on the jade plants which are fully in bloom now.
When we visited the Stybring Arboretum in Golden Gate park over this weekend there were bees on almost every plant that was in flower.
You can see that they are gathering pollen from the flowers they visit, which means they are getting ready for brood.It seems likely that we will need to visit the hive in the near future to make sure that they have enough room. If the warm weather has convinced the queen to start laying again they will need some space for brood and pollen, followed by honey.
Please visit our shop to purchase Noe Valley Honey and other hive products from the Pollen Princesses.
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