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.

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.

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.

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.