My Newest Beehive
In May, I told you about how Carlos and D.J. Haverkamp from Bedford Bee Honeybee Service, split one of my beehives, in hopes of forming a new colony. Well, recently, Carlos and D.J. opened up that hive to check on its progress. Most new beehives are started by purchasing a 3-pound package of live bees, which contains approximately 12,000 honeybees, including one queen. Essentially, these are foreign bees, brought from another area. The beauty of splitting a hive is that bees in the new hive are local and native to the farm. This is desirable to a beekeeper because the overall bee population will be stronger and will produce more honey.
1 D.J. Haverkamp and Carlos opening the new hive, which was created by splitting the one next to it. These are native bees, grown right here on the farm.
2 After removing the outer and inner hive covers, D.J. used his hive tool to loosen the honey frames in the upper super. The upper super is for honey production. The lower super is where new brood is formed.
3 Being a brand new hive, the honey frames were still rather empty, but there was new honeycomb being built. The honey in this new hive is not for harvesting, but will be for the hive to use as food next winter.
4 Carlos lifted and removed the honey super so that they could monitor the bee activity in the lower brood super.
5 Using his hive tool again, D.J. carefully loosened one of the frames.
6 He lifted out the frame to begin his inspection. It always amazes me how fearless beekeepers can be.
7 D.J. was checking this new colony to see if there was a queen and if she was laying eggs.
8 At the peak of the summer season, a healthy and productive hive may have a population of about 20,000 to 50,000 bees.
9 These bees are busy building wax comb on the frames. Newly formed comb is a pure white, like this one.
10 As it ages, the comb oxidizes, turning a dark brown.
11 This is a very good sign. There are eggs and larva inside the comb. The eggs hatch after 3 or 4 days and nurse bees immediately begin feeding the larva for a total of about 5 days.
12 You can see collected flower pollen in these cells. Pollen is used by the bees as food and is fed to the developing larva.
13 When feeding stops, worker bees seal the cells with a wax cap. Inside the capped cell, the larva transforms into a pupa and then becomes an adult.
14 There is good evidence of that capping over on this frame. Capping over each cell takes about 6 hours.
15 Miraculously, how and what a larva is fed will determine what type of bee it will become, whether it be a queen, a worker (female bee), or a drone (male bee).
16 Worker bees live between 4 and 6 weeks during the active season. Drones are only present during the spring and summer and die immediately after mating with the queen. Any drones remaining in the colony in the autumn are evicted from the hive by the worker bees.
17 A queen can live for 1 to 3 years. Her body is longer and narrower than a worker bee and her head and eyes are smaller.
18 The queen also has a shorter tongue and never drinks nectar from a flower, as she is always fed by her attendants.
19 Finally, D.J. spotted the new and healthy queen. This one fertilized reproductive female is the very heart of the colony. She spends her entire life laying eggs in these brood cells and is constantly fed by the worker bees. She takes no part in the building of comb.
20 After closing up the new hive, D.J. wanted to check this hive. During a prior inspection, the queen had been accidentally trapped in the upper honey super and he wanted to see if she made her way back down to the brooding box.
21 This narrow top super is called a honey super and this will eventually be for human consumption. You don't want the queen laying eggs here.
22 The queen did, indeed, lay her eggs here, but those bees are emerging. D.J. saw no new eggs, which means that the queen is back where she belongs.
23 And, you can see that the empty cells are being filled with honey, which is made from flower nectar.
24 After the bees make and fill the comb cells with honey, the cells are capped with a layer of wax for an airtight seal, which preserves the honey.
25 D.J. and Carlos then looked for the queen in the lower brood super.
26 These are empty queen cells. A hive can have only one queen and as soon as the first one is born, she finds all the other queen cells, rips them open with her jaws, and stings the others to death, establishing her dominance.
27 This hive is working well and it seems like there will be an abundant honey harvest. After closing up the hive, Carlos placed a large stone on top, preventing heavy winds from blowing off the top and disturbing the colony.
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Fascinating how the bees can create those beautiful honeycombs. Must be especially satisfying to taste honey harvested from one's own farm! Thanks for sharing this.
Posted by: BG in SF | June 29th, 2012 at 1:44 am
I never realized there is so much to know about bees and honey. About the only thing I ever knew about bees was...back in the day, when we lived on my grandparent's farm, I walked well away from where the hives were.
To go down into the pasture to bring the cows home every evening, we had to pass through a narrow space behind the cow barn to go from the barn yard to the pasture and in that narrow space is where the bee hives were. I walked as far to the other side as I could walk because I was afraid I'd get stung.
I never did, till years later and miles away. There were bees in the end wall of my now dream(?) home, and one would come in every once in a while. I was irioning in the dining room, and made the remark that I'd never been stung, only to take a step backwards and step on one. I can tell you...it HURT.
I admire anyone who can work with bees because I'm still afraid of them, and I've been stung many times since then. They are no longer in the end of the house, but somewhere inside the chimney.
If my dream ever came true and I was able to live in the house, I guess the chimney would have to be torn down and rebuilt to get the bees out. It needs rebuilding, anyway. I'm curious as to how much honey is in there.
Well, Martha, we're expecting 105 today, and over the hundred mark every day this weekend, so I pray we don't all melt. I need to get out early and give everything an extra drink of water.
Take care and have a great weekend.
Gloria G!!
Posted by: Gloria | June 29th, 2012 at 2:54 am
That Uncle Carlos is just invaluable! You can tell DJ loves what he does. Go Queenie!!!
Posted by: Just B | June 29th, 2012 at 7:08 am
I never tire of the blogs about your beehives Martha, bees are fascinating! I'm also amazed by D.J and his ease and comfort of handling the bees and their hives, especially bare handed. By the way, I have your new CraftStudio app and I am having the best time creating! I did enter the pinterest contest, my fingers are crossed!
Have a great weekend everyone, love your comments Gloria G!
Posted by: Cindy F | June 29th, 2012 at 7:56 am
Happy Friday! Thank you Martha for an interesting and informative post.
Wish you a wonderful weekend xo
Posted by: Rowaida Flayhan | June 29th, 2012 at 8:28 am
You gotta love the bees...........:)
Posted by: Sharon | June 29th, 2012 at 9:26 am
Hi Martha, Not only do you teach us about cooking, baking, crafting, animals, gardening, etc. but learning all about bees if fabulous, also! Carlos and D.J. do an excellent job of working with you super bees there at Bedford farm! Those two guys are absolutely brilliant and how lucky you are to now have four beehives to produce more honey and have much stronger beautiful bees that travel all over your farm! The process that these guys shared with us is fantastic and these photos are fabulous to view! All of those bees look beautiful and how fun to see the queen bees, also! Your earlier May blog was terrific also! How do those guys keep from being stung by the bees? They didn't even wear gloves and D.J. didn't cover his head! Can't wait to see more blogs about your farm and all of the beautiful things that are always there! Was so sad to see Ann Curry on the Today Show yesterday telling us about not being a host anymore-it made me cry also because I felt she was the best host and was so great being with you on Today . I'm going to miss her daily presence. Was great to see you on a video of a cake contest yesterday-you looked so great and the winner was so happy! Sure hope you have another great day and a terrific weekend, too! Off to see The Daily Wag with Gk this time! Jan
Posted by: Jan Erickson | June 29th, 2012 at 10:06 am
I love reading about beekeeping on your farm. We're looking to purchase a small hobby farm on Vancouver Island and I can't wait to start beekeeping there.
Posted by: Andrea | June 29th, 2012 at 10:29 am
Mmm...appears to me that you will have good production when honey extracting
time arrives. Love to have a taste of honey when my energy level feels lethargic.
Well...what's Summer without bees?
Posted by: Sherey | June 29th, 2012 at 11:10 am
Hi Martha,
This is so interesting. I've only thought of bees as those little buggers that sting you but thanks to you I now know they are much more than that. For a queen bee to know from birth that she can be the only queen is mind boggling enough but then she sets out and kills all the other females. No wonder those drones and workers can't please her enough! The queen bee my foot, she's more like the queen biotch. I've read all of your comments twice because I'm just so fascinated with your bees. Thanks. Trish
~
P.S. Saw some cute pictures of you out with Jude and Truman the other day. No picture of Truman but Jude is a little doll. She appeared to want "out" of the stroller - no doubt so she could start exploring! I wish I had a grandchild but my son won’t cooperate!
Posted by: Trish | June 29th, 2012 at 11:23 am
Bees are an amazing creation of God!!!!! We had 55 hives at one time, and now two of my girls have hives in their yards... one has 10 now. You have such interesting recipes such as the new crisp topping.. yuuummmy!!
Amazing creatures!!!!!
Posted by: Bel McCoy | June 29th, 2012 at 3:52 pm
Thanks Cindy.
I pray everyone is keeping cool. I'm not, but I am Blessed to have some fans and some people don't even have that in this waaaaaay over 100 degree weather.
Have a good weekend EVERYONE!!!
Gloria G!!
Posted by: Gloria | June 29th, 2012 at 6:18 pm
Martha, I just thought of something...I don't know how hot it is up there, but...what do the bees do when it gets really hot like it is here right now...over a hundred. Are they able to keep cool?
Gloria G!!
Posted by: Gloria | June 30th, 2012 at 9:19 pm
Just so fascinating what the littlest of nature's creatures can accomplish.
Posted by: Klinares | July 1st, 2012 at 1:20 pm