Recently in Backyard Beekeeping Category

What do you think when you're told you have to retrain someone?

You can imagine what I was thinking when I was told I'm going to have to retrain my bees.

Not all of them, just the ones that keep sneaking into the hive from the back side under the lid top.

It all started last winter, when a mouse family moved into the bottom super - or floor - of Gertrude hive, the hive that struggled most of last year after loosing the queen bee.

Each colony only has one queen but she sets the tone for the hive, and the bees since her only job is to lay eggs - as many as 1,200 a day.

Using the shiny silver insulation from the styrofoam I wrapped around the hive around Christmas, the mice took over 2/3rs of the hive floor with their beautifully decorated nest.

I removed the mouse nest early March and replaced the damaged hive frames with new ones.

A few weeks later, I found wax moths had moved into a frame with dappled cells - the girls were raising drones, or male bees. They'll raise about 1,000, then kick them out of the hive this fall before winter sets in.

To get rid of the wax moths, I had to destroy the whole frame, including drones, which are male bees, don't sting and have large black eyes - by placing the frames in a bag in the freezer for a day.

The bees clean out the frames once I return them to the hive.

Bees are very fastidious about their home, they like - and keep it - very clean.

I was sure this was the end of this one bee colony but they still seem to be surviving, only now they're used to coming into the hive from the back side - "Baptist bees," someone said at the last beekeeping meeting.

Not an issue now when the colony is small. When the hive is at its peak mid-summer, there will be 75,000 bees coming in and out of the hive and they will definitely need a bigger doorway.

I was told to wait until dark, after they're all settled in, and quietly remove the stick that holds the hive top open for ventilation. Then I'm to "tape" the top edge shut, at least until the bees fly around the hive and locate the original entrance. I have to wait for several clear days because it may take a couple of days for them to find the front door, and bees can't fly in rain so I don't want to drown them.

Come to think about it, those itty bitty little circus hoops may be easier...














Charlotte Ekker Wiggins shares gardening and beekeeping adventures from her limestone MO hill.

Copyright 2012 all rights reserved.




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It's been a busy winter for honeybees.

Scientists have confirmed bees have distinct personalities; distinguish between human faces; can find the shortest distance between two points faster than any computer; have moods, and now have a parasitic fly that leaves them like zombies.

Even though a lot of money is being invested in research, bees continue to die in record numbers. Between immigrant European honeybees and local wild bees, 70-80% of our food is produced through their pollination.
 
The latest scientific theory is that besides loss of habitat and a range of different pollen sources, clothianidin pesticides have been partially responsible for their continued demise.

This nerve agent is widely used in commercial crops and insecticides. Some scientists believe prolonged exposure to the pesticide is weakening bee DNA and making them more susceptible to factors that normally wouldn't affect them if they were strong and healthy.
 
Any beekeeper will tell you how different a healthy hive responds to challenges compared to a weak one.

One of my hives went into winter with low colony numbers and not enough stashed honey.

Even though I wrapped both hives in styrofoam, set up top feeders and winter was mild, bees can starve if they can't use their delicate wings to move to a food supply - or, in the case of an early spring, if they can't find pollen.

Gertrude hive had quite a year last year. Three times it lost its one, and only, queen.  The loss meant no eggs were laid so bee numbers went down - a worker bee in summer lives for only 6 weeks producing 1/12th of a tsp of honey. With less bees, there was less honey stored to make it through winter.

This hive also went through a hail storm killing off returning bees; the assault of several spiders catching bees in their web; an infestation of wax moths - imagine tons of miniature Jabba the Huts - and over this past winter, a mouse moved into the bottom floor and destroyed four frames, or about half the hive section, to create a snug nest.
The colony, however, appears to be persevering.
 
When I opened the hive top to check on the level of sugar water in the feeder, I was greeted by a healthy guard bee entourage actively  fussing around me. They may make it yet!

When I opened the other healthy hive, bees were too busy cleaning the hive and tending to eggs to be distracted with my presence. I was able to quietly add sugar water mixed in equal parts to the top feeder and leave.

Actually I could have saved science money years ago.

My skeptical, scientist brother will attest to the wild bee in Minnesota who dogged me after I inadvertently moved rocks from around her ground hive. Other family members could go outside undisturbed but the minute I stepped outside, Miss Mary Jane Bee was buzzing around my head.

There's no scientific proof yet but mark my words, bees are also landscaping critics.

















Charlotte Ekker Wiggins shares gardening and beekeeping adventures from her Missouri limestone MO hill.

Copyright 2012 all rights reserved.

Gardening catalogs are starting to show up in my mailbox.  They're a good reminder that one of the advantages of being a gardener is that you don't really have to grow up.
By that I mean you're encouraged to try new seeds and plants, and to test new techniques and toys - oops tools, I meant tools.

Unfortunately for gadget manufacturers, I'm not too drawn to newfangled gardening accessories, probably because gardening on a Missouri limestone hill means a pick ax is the main, and sometimes only, gardening tool that will work.

The following is my list of top things to try this year:

1. Composting. I like the tumbler-type plastic composters with a side handle for easy turning. I also have a table top Nature Mill composter in my garage. I collect compost material in a bag in my freezer, then move it outside when the bag is full. It's amazing to me how composting reduces the amount of garbage. Colleagues in my business office also have been kind enough to help save coffee grounds and fruit peelings. In return, I bring in fresh flowers for our coffee break room and amend my raised bed kitchen garden.

2. Start vegetable garden seeds a little earlier than end February. I'm still trying to decide how to protect lettuce seedlings in my deck pots, maybe plastic over the top will work.

3. Conserve water. I'm amazed at how much my rain barrels collect during rain storms; and then how happier my plants seem to be when watered with
rain water.

4. Use  soaker hoses to minimize water runoff; add a timer to your irrigation system so you don't forget to turn it off.

5. Make a concerted effort not to use pesticides. Today there are more earth-friendly and safe alternatives. take a little extra time to read labels and learn about non-traditional options like spraying plants with hot pepper-infused water. Being less critical of a less than perfect
flower also helps!

6. Create an inviting habitat for garden visitors by providing food, water and shelter for birds, butterflies and other pollinators like bees. Birds are natural predators, and pollinators will help your garden have more produce.

7. Mow less grass; expand flower beds.

8. Add fruit-bearing shrubs and compact fruit trees. They're not only pretty when in bloom but can provide you with fresh fruit.

9. Plant more low maintenance native flowers. Rolla area is in USDA zone 5B. Natives require less water and will adapt faster; some have long blooming seasons like black-eyed susans.

10. Don't toss out those green tomatoes you finally grew. Try ripening them by storing in a cool, dark place in a brown bag with an apple. They don't have as much flavor as vine-ripened
tomatoes but they are still better than winter, store bought ones!


Which one of these have you tried already?







Charlotte Ekker Wiggins is a master gardener sharing gardening adventures in and around her Missouri wildlife garden. 

Copyright 2012, all rights reserved.

Do you like to make New Year's resolutions?

I don't either so I don't make traditional ones. I like to think of the new year in terms of doing something new.

I've always loved corn in the cob so 1998 was the year I tried barbecued corn and developed my own favorite corn muffin recipe. Nothing personal but even though I tried several different combinations, there's something not quite right about grits.

That was also the year I tried to grow corn in a new, sloping plot in back of my house. Actually I did grow it, only to have raccoons decimate the whole crop the first night the corn was ripe. Raccoons and deer were amazingly efficient, the little plot looked like a tornado had ripped through it. I still want to know how they knew the corn was ready for picking.

I was left with a lovely supply of corn stalks and corn husks so I used them, and dried flowers, to decorate outside wreaths around my house. That is, until the morning I opened my front door and I found two deer standing several steps up on my deck calmly having breakfast as they took my wreath apart.

Over the years, several habits have developed from having yearly themes. Not that I need another reason but having a theme gives me a place to start when shopping for books.  I also go out of my way to watch theme-related TV shows and movies, sometimes traveling to a related place or event.

Last year, for example, started out as the year of honeybees and ended up being the year of honey.

When I adopted two bee hives two years ago, the idea was to have bees pollinate my flowers and vegetables with no intention of ever harvesting honey. Beginning beekeepers are forewarned it could take several years before their honeybees produce extra honey so I was counting on at least 2-3 years before having to decide what to do with any extra.

Bees need about 70 lbs of honey per hive to make it through winter. One of my hives this past year ended up producing several hundred pounds of extra honey so I not only taught myself how to harvest honey by hand, but I bottled it to sell and for gifts.

My brother, who received my first-ever harvested honey for his birthday, gave me a coupon for Christmas for an electric honey extractor so I will be shopping for one before the next honey harvesting season, assuming my bees have another good year.

Both hives seem to be doing fine so far. With the warm weather we've been having, it's easy to spot them moving around on the white styrofoam suits I have winterizing the hives. Bees don't hibernate; they bunch up inside the hive and keep it very warm while eating honey they've stored. If the hive gets too cold, bees can't use their delicate wings and can literally die millimeters from honey.

Starting the new year with something new doesn't have to be complicated.

Take parking my car in my garage. Years ago, I installed my old kitchen cabinets around my garage, including my old kitchen sink - to make gardening storage room. It was wonderful until the motor burned out in my VW and I had to shop for a new car - couldn't be more than 17 feet long or it wouldn't fit. My Honda Fastback fits like a glove, as long as I accurately "guess" the distance between the cabinet and closing garage door, and don't place anything in front of the cabinets.

My car and I are starting the new year with a tennis ball tied to a string at the point where I have to stop the car in the garage before I take out the cabinets.

Should also stop my having to explain the dents on the side of the hive boxes, my bees are not taking their hives out for a joy ride...happy new year!


Charlotte Ekker Wiggins is a master gardener and writes about gardening in and around her Missouri wildlife garden. 

Copyright 2012, all rights reserved

Bet you can guess what my family and friends are getting for Christmas this year.

It's not just any honey - it's my first batch, successfully harvested and bottled in spite of all I didn't know about what I was doing!

According to the IRS, harvesting honey officially makes me a "bee farmer" and, be still my heart, requires that I fill out a new tax schedule.

You'd think I would be a honey farmer since what I harvest is not bees but I'm not about to argue.

It does explain one of the comments I heard a couple of years ago at a Mid-Missouri Beekeepers Association meeting. The experienced backyard beekeeper said raising bees was "just like raising cattle only the guy who spends $10,000 on a bull is not as hurt as a beekeeper loosing a queen."

Can you find the queen in this photo? She's bigger than the rest....

The queen is the only egg-layer in the colony and without her, the colony is literally lost. Whereas a worker bee lives only for 45 days, a queen bee can live 4-5 years, assuming nothing untoward happens to her, and she sets the tone for the colony's production, and success.

I lost a couple of queens this past year; no one is sure why. My well-intentioned experiment of letting the bees raise their own queen after the first one disappeared resulted only in a wax moth infestation, which I had to try to manually clean out once a week. Wax moths are sold by the pound in bird food catalogs but they look like wriggling Jabba the Huts and are amazingly destructive for being so tiny.

I didn't have much luck with the second queen, she died on the way to the hive.
 
The third one, I hope, is wintering over nicely with the rest of the all-female colony. By now worker bees have found and tossed out the male bees, or drones, to reduce colony numbers so they can bunch up in the center of the hive and survive eating their own honey stores. The boy bees are escorted out because they do nothing more than wait to mate with the queen; the colony will grow new drones when spring comes.

I didn't cook or any way alter my honey; it's the way it came out of the hive, which means it may become cloudy from pollen.

If it's kept in temperatures below 70F, it may also crystalize on the bottom - proof that it's unpasteurized, real honey but a new concept for some people used to imported, diluted and processed honey.

Cooking removes all good enzymes.

I also added honey comb to my honey bottles. There's something intriguing about seeing a piece of the perfectly-created comb bees make floating in honey - and it's a delicious treat, too.

To help my bees make it through winter, I added hive top feeders so I can easily give them sugar water, or a little honey, every few weeks. This way they can move in and out of the feeders from inside the hive, which means less chance their little delicate wings will freeze from exposure.

I also added insulation to the hives, duct-taping 2-inch wide styrofoam pieces and leaving openings at the front, and at the top, of the back of the hives.

I was feeling pretty good about the insulation until my handyman said two scrappers had been in the neighborhood asking if I had two old refrigerators I wanted hauled off.

Reminded me of the days when I was on the City Council and the city would periodically get reports I was growing grass - the green, lawn kind - over the 12-inch maximum. It only took the city one visit to my garden to see I don't believe, nor do I grow grass - but it became an early warning system that one of my votes had ticked someone off.

Well, part of me hopes word does get around that besides bees, I'm now planting old kitchen appliances. It's a great way to keep the neighborhood watch on its toes!

Here's to you having an equally sweet holiday with family and friends - Merry Christmas!












Charlotte Ekker Wiggins is a master gardener and writes about gardening in and around her Missouri wildlife garden. 

Copyright 2011, all rights reserved.

PS the queen honeybee is the upper left hand corner of the photo, darker and bigger than the rest!

My friend Paul in Washington DC has a wacky sense of humor.  When he led one of his recent emails with "don't look now but your honey has been laundered," I thought he was sending me a link to some weird news story about a beehive making it through a car wash.

The link was to Food Safety New's early November 2011 findings that 3/4rths of imported honey sold in grocery stores doesn't qualify as honey.

As I understand the issue, it boils down to detectable pollen, which means the honey source can be identified. In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration says any product that's been ultra-filtered and no longer contains pollen isn't honey.

Ultra filtering is a high-tech procedure where honey is heated, sometimes watered down with corn syrup, table sugar or water; then forced at high pressure through extremely tiny filters to remove pollen, which is the only foolproof way to identify the honey source. It is a spin-off of a Chinese technique, who have "illegally dumped tons of their honey - some containing illegal antibiotics - on the U.S. market for years," according to Food Safety News.

When I first started beekeeping two years ago, I frankly had no intention of harvesting honey; I just wanted honeybees pollinating my garden.
 
When one of my hives started making extra honey, I decided it was a good opportunity to harvest and I removed honey from one of my hives at three different times.

I chose to bottle the honey "raw," or uncooked, the way it comes straight out of the hive, to preserve healthy enzymes.

Once stored in glass, some of the honey can become cloudy. Nothing wrong with the honey but we're used to buying cooked honey, which eliminates natural enzymes that reportedly help with developing immunity to allergies but keeps honey clear.

Honey can also be different colors depending on when it is harvested, and what kind of pollen bees have been bringing back to the hive.

Early honey tends to be lighter; honey harvested later in the season, like the honey in the jar in photo, tends to be darker and should have a different flavor.

Through sheer luck, I also bottled raw honey with comb harvested at just the right time, before the comb becomes hard. I love the way the bottle looks with a piece of comb floating in the honey; it's also a great treat to chew.

Comb honey is more expensive because it means honeybees have to rebuild comb next year before laying eggs or storing honey; it can also be a challenge to harvest at the right time so it takes more time to manage.
 
Comb honey in some areas is at the forefront of rapidly changing honey prices. With the continued demise of both honeybees and wild bees, which together contribute to 90% of our food sources, the price of honey is on the rise.

During the Missouri State Beekeepers Association meeting end of October 2011, one of the speakers said comb honey is selling for $10 an ounce in parts of the east coast - compared to $1-$1.75 an ounce around here.

The bottom line is, if you want real honey, buy from a local beekeeper. Like so many other things, prices may be going up but at least you know you're getting real honey and all the benefits associated with it.











Charlotte writes about gardening, bees, and her Missouri wildlife garden. 

Copyright 2011, all rights reserved.

My assignment over July 4, 2011  weekend was to find one of my honeybee queens and (sigh) kill her.



One of my two honeybee hives has been struggling since late spring.

The verdict from more experienced beekeepers is that my queen bee - she's the only one in the hive of 40,000 plus honeybees that lays - is not laying her 1,200 eggs or so a day so she needs to be removed.



Normally a queen bee will live 4-5 years, as opposed to a worker bee's 6 weeks of life producing half a teaspoon of honey.

In nature, honeybees will determine when the queen bee needs to be replaced and grow their own new queen.The two queens will fight it out; sometimes the old queen will split from the colony and take worker bees to a new colony, or the new bee queen will kill the old queen and take over.



My bee mentor, Don Moore, had patiently helped me last year when I found out bees toss out and outright kill the drones, or male bees, in fall. Since they don't do anything in the hive but mate with the queen, the laggards are booted out as the hive prepares for winter.

According to Don, there is no such thing as drone bee rescue.



You'd think it would be relatively easy to find the largest honeybee in the hive. The challenge is there are 39,999 plus other, also moving honeybees, 20 frames to check, and worker bees helping to hide the queen.



I tried to set up the checked frames in a box to the left of the main hive; then I had honeybees all over the area.

At one point, I felt a bee inside my face net.

After quickly hiking back to the house, telling myself "stay calm," I removed the hat with the netting, released the bee, and found two spots where the screen was torn.

 For the record, I was not stung, although they would have had every right to do so. Wouldn't you be upset if someone bigger came along and tore up your home??

Rows of staples closed up holes in the net before I headed back to the mess I had left around the hive.


By the time I arrived back on the scene, my smoker had almost started a fire from the bale of straw where I left it as I moved quickly up the hill. 



Bees are now none too happy to have their hive taken apart; I started to periodically apply a whiff of smoke around me to keep myself calm.



I took the opportunity to clean propolis build-up on the hive.

Bees make this amazing glue-like substance from tree sap to seal hive holes but it can make quietly moving hive floors around difficult, and noisy. It's like trying to sneak into a house stomping boots on hardwood floors, hoping no one will notice.


Once I had the hive back together, in the right order, I hope - bees were hanging out on the front of the hive "bearding," clumping up together.

It's possible they don't have a queen bee. It's more probable I missed spotting her.

I'm hoping the bees realize they need a new queen and are growing their own.

Have you spotted the queen honey bee in the top photo yet? She's the biggest bee in photo, at the top, a little left of center.












Charlotte is a Master Gardener writing her blog, raising honeybees and writing a weekly newspaper column, on a Missouri hill gardening to distraction.
 




Nationwide figures are in.

According to US Department of Agriculture, beekeepers lost about 30 percent of their hives last winter.

Although there are a number of theories why honeybees are dying in record numbers - one out of every three fruit or vegetable we eat is courtesy of honeybee pollination - not having enough good pollen sources is sometimes mentioned as one of the factors.According to US Department of Agriculture, beekeepers lost about 1/3 of their hives last winter.

So last year, after getting my two honeybee hives settled in, I thought I would find a list of favorite honeybee plants and start adding them to my garden.

It wasn't that easy.

First, honeybees don't dart around. Once they find a pollen source, they farm one area and even share the location with other honeybees through a little dance. They may also  travel up to 1.5 to 2 miles to locate pollen, so to produce a certain flavored honey, honeybees have to be given access to 8,000 acres of just one crop.

Honeybees also have color preference.

They  prefer blue and yellow flowers, as opposed to hummingbirds and butterflies, who prefer flowers in the pink to purple range.

 That explains why dandelions are a favorite early, sometimes first spring honeybee pollen source, as well as fall's yellow wildflower goldenrod and my hummingbird feeders full of sugar water.

According to "The Hive and the Honey Bee" by Dadant and Sons, the following are favorite honeybee flowers:

Alfalfa; Asters; Basil; Blackberry; Button Bush; Catnip; Chickweed; Chicory; Red and White Clover; Coneflower; Dandelion; Goldenrod; Honeysuckle; Locust; Milkweed; (yikes) Poison Ivy and Poison Oak; Privet: Redbud; Sage;  Sumac; Thyme; Willow and Yellow Rocket.

In terms of fruits and vegetables, honeybees are also fond of Cantaloupe; Cucumber; Gourds: Melon; Pumpkin; Soybeans: Lima Beans; Squash. Apples; Apricot; Cherry; Peach; Plums and (photo) Pears.

I have to confess, when my garden was up for "inspection" last May before my two beehives arrived, I was very nervous. I knew not using pesticides over the years was good, but I couldn't imagine what else honeybees would need besides a good source of pollen.

Turns out a source of water is important, and honeybees don't particularly like clean water; they're attracted to water with a little taste to it, like leaves.

Honeybees also need a spot where hives are protected from weather elements but still have a clear flight path. The idea is to minimize cold winds getting into hive entrances; bee wings will freeze at certain temperatures.

So far, my honeybee hives seem to be doing well. May-July is the peak of honey-making, and one of my hives is doing exceptionally well.

The hive named after Mildred, my grandmother, has one super full of gorgeous yellow gold honey, a second super half full and I added a third one last weekend.

I wasn't sure how the bees would react to having two top, honeybee full floors, or supers,  moved to make room for a third one. Except for raising the noise level in the hive when I applied smoke to gently move them down into the hive, the process went smoothly.

The new super is designed to help bees produce easy-to-remove comb honey. I'm not sure I put them together correctly but that's part of the adventure!











Charlotte is a Master Gardener writing her blog, and a weekly newspaper column, on a MO hill Gardening to Distraction.
 

Marble-sized hail pellets were striking my house close to midnight May 12,2011 as winds ripped through trees, shredding leaves and deck plants.

What didn't occur to me at the time was this late spring storm was also killing some of my honeybees.

My friend Leona called this our "blackberry winter," one of a number of late spring cold spells we get in mid-Missouri before danger of frost is gone.

Blackberry winter refers to the spring period when blackberries are in bloom, usually mid to late April through May.

Here's how my deck looked Friday morning, after the storm.

The hail storm also killed some of my "mutt" honeybees raised by Don Moore, St. James, who hybridizes and sells then to new backyard beekeepers like me. It's always best to buy, and raise, local honeybees.

Honeybees are tidy housekeepers, flying outside instead of using the hive as a bathroom. 

Gertrude hive, facing southwest with a tree about 4 feet from the entrance, only lost a few honeybees. I imagine these honeybees were on their way in or out of the hive when the storm hit.

This is the lower "porch" in front of the hive after the storm: