Feb 12: None of my colonies survived winter, unfortunately
The northern colony was weak, and I didn't have a lot of hope for it. The southern colony, on the other hand, was strong and healthy, for the most part, and I believed they had a good chance of surviving. Unfortunately, both colonies were dead when I checked on them on the first warm day of february; The southern colony had a decent amount of honey reserves left; I believe one of the frames had even more honey than I left them - they probably managed to forage some rosemary/acacia/honeydew in winter. Northen colony had very little honey left
Most of the comb is in good condition; I saw one frame with what I think is wax moth fuzz, but it is in initial stage of infestation; I put it in the freezer to kill the moth larva, if it's there
I was thinking of making new swarm traps this year, since the ones I made last year were infected with black mold by the end of season; but I got a good offer from https://horizontalhive.com/ to buy 5 high quality swarm traps for less than half the price, so I went with that option.
I've used recovered frames from dead hives in swarm traps; each one has 1 frame of dark comb, 1 frame of pure comb, 2 foundation frames, and 2 random frames of whatever was left
I'm planning to hang the traps on the last weekend of February; I think I have a better idea of where to place them. I've been writing down plants and bee activity during my hikes this year; I believe Mendocino National Forest is the best place to catch wild bees in the area.
So, I still have 3 hives, a lot of frames, some foundations left from last year, and 7 total swarm traps. Hopefully this year I will do better
Also, I signed up for a https://horizontalhive.com/ natural beekeeping seminar on April 1-2. Flying to Missouri in a month and a half
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Mar 16: So, I still haven't placed the swarm traps. March has been rather cold and rainy, so I've been postponing it for a while. Long term forecast said it would only get warmer on the 21st/22nd, so I was thinking there was no point in hanging the swarm traps sooner than that
But, today I was up for a suprise; We had an unexpected warm day, and a bee swarm was reported not far from where I live. I felt that catching a swarm out in the open might have been a little above my level, but I couldn't miss the opportunity, so I volunteered to catch it
When I arrived, the swarm has taken over a bush in the residential area
So, I placed a box under it, put on my bee hat and gloves, and proceeded to hit the bees with a broom, so large clusters of bees started comically falling into the box. The queen must have ended up in the box pretty quickly, since the bees seemed to have no urge to return to the branch
Ok, that went well.. with a bit of smoke and a brush, I pushed them off the edges into the box, and closed the lid
The scouts kept returning, so I had to sit around and wait till 6:30. Finally everyone was in the box, so I headed to the southern site, where I prepared a hive with 6 frames (clean yellow comb from old hives), and dumped the bees in
At the time this picture was taken, most bees have already marched into the framed area
Those swarm traps are heavy
There was at least twice more bees than in one of the packages I bought last year, so it was not a small swarm
I'll visit them tomorrow and give them a frame of honey from a deadout hive; it should be safe, I'm certain they died from varroa, and definitely not foulbrood, so it should be pathogen free
Now, we can only hope that the bees will like the hive and will not abscond; it is always a possibility, but this is a nice roomy hive with wax comb ready, and it smells like propolis, so the bees should love it. Also I hope the swarm wasn't queenless; queenless swarms are not unheard of, so that would be a bit of a disappointment
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Mar 17: I decided that, since there are swarms out there, I might as well go out and place the swarm traps
Adding 2 slow release lemongrass oil tubes to every swarm trap
Put wedges in place, and we're ready to go
But first, check out the bees in the southern hive. Looks like they're getting familiar with their surroundings
Then I drove north to the Mendocino forest.. I had places for traps in mind, but to my surprise it turned out that that part of the forest is closed off for winter, and hasn't been reopened yet.. it makes sense, some parts of that road go through high elevation, there must still be snow..
So I had to do some scouting and find new places for the traps
Good enough, I think
The part of the road between traps 2 and 4 goes through high elevation and is covered in deep snow, I did not dare drive through it; had to go around
The plan was to take pictures of all swarm traps, but looks like I didn't take the very first one.. anyway, here they are
Hanging boxes on trees is very hard work!
Anyway, I failed to hang the very last one, it was getting late; I decided that I would bait the hive at the northern site and hope that maybe a swarm moves in. Will keep the box empty in case there is another neighborhood swarm that needs catching
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Mar 18: Today I baited one of the northern hives, and moved the other one to the southern site. Foraging scene is much better in the south, especially in late summer/autumn
The swarm has not absconded, and they seem very lively. I have a good feeling about this colony
I didn't open the hive today, since I didn't want to give them the impression I will be invading their hive every day. That's something that might make them abscond, especially in the early days
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Mar 24: It's been over a week since the swarm settled into the hive
The good part is that they have not absconded, are actively foraging, even on a chilly day like today, and are doing a lot of comb construction/repairs
Bad part is that I couldn't find any larva or eggs on any of the frames; Maybe there were some that were covered by bees I didn't push out of the way; but, by the look of it, this swarm might be queenless, or has a non-laying queen.
Maybe I'll find some brood during next inspection
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Apr 08: A lot happened recently
- I've went to dr Leo Sharashkin's seminar in Missouri. Learned a lot
- Got in touch with a local gentleman who does bee removal from walls and such. He was kind enough to sell me a swarm. It's a rather small swarm (probably an afterswarm), but it's wild, and should have good genetics. They moved into my remaining northern hive
- The swarm i caught last month and thought wasn't viable because they didn't seem to have any larva a week later? Now they have larva and capped brood, pattern is healthy. Also, they got rather strong, I might split them soon
- I put down a deposit for 3 bee packages with April Lance; It looks like I might not want them after all, but maybe I should still get them
No pictures today, will try to get some next week
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Apr 09: I checked the swarm traps today. Still nothing
What is the most frustrating, there are bees in the area; but somehow everyone wants to forage buckbrush, but no one wants to get into the box
So that's how you wanna play it, bees. I see.
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Apr 14: Inspected both hives today
Bees in the southern hive are doing well. They have 4.5 frames of brood (one frame is mostly nectar, with some brood)
Comb construction/repairs going well
Northern hive: there's some comb construction going, and I'm sure I saw some eggs, but couldn't take a good picture of them - eggs are really small, light has to be at a very specific angle for them to be visible
But! I did manage to get a little footage of the queen. Can you spot her?
She jumped off one of the frames to a wall in unframed area during the inspection
She's very pretty, and I hope her colony grows strong
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Apr 15: It's mid April, and commercial bees are finally available. I'm back in the line of shame for bad beekeepers who didn't catch their own swarm
I got 3 packages of commercial bees. Little do they know, this year I have much more sinister plans
One went into a spare hive on the old southern site
Two more were moved into empty swarm traps on a completely new site, another small farm 2 miles away from the southern site
The queens. Those poor, poor queens
Now everyone is settled in, and I need to procure some new hives
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Apr 23: Examined all sites. The swarm bees have 3 full frames of brood. I believe i wrote down that they had 4.5 frames last time, but i must have been wrong, I think i counted sides of frames. It must have been 2 and a little bit. Anyway, one of the frames I gave them was old comb chewed up by wax moths; they have done a great job repairing it, and dedicated a large part of itto drone brood. Very healthy behavior
To be clear, only one frame is like this, and there's less drone brood on the other side; the other frames are just worker brood
Moved western bees from swarm traps into proper hives. Spotted the queen in one of the hives. Can you see her?
If you can't find her, here she is
Northern bees are doing well, considering they are a very small swarm; 2 frames of brood, good progress with comb repairs. It's been only 2 weeks, so the new workers aren't hatching yet, but I believe in them.
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Apr 30: A lot has happened this weekend
Inspected all hives on Friday Apr 28; All wild colonies are doing well
Packaged bees on southern site are doing well as well, good amount of brood, comb constuction under way
Packaged bees on western site: one of the hives has a good amount of brood, and also building queen cells. I don't think they want to swarm, they have enough space plus a little extra; attempting to requeen? Well, I trust they have a good reason. I meant to replace their queen regardless, but whatever
Can you spot a queen cell here?
The other package colony on western site doesn't seem to have a laying queen at all; I've found some eggs, but some cells have 2 eggs; that's a sign of drone laying workers.
There has certainly been a live queen in the package. Something wrong with package queens this year. Well, I was planning to replace them anyway, so all good
In the morning of Apr 29 I gave the queenless colony a frame of capped brood and larva, and a cell of mostly eggs from the first swarm colony. This way they'll be able to requeen themselves with feral genetics, just as I intended them to. Gave them some nurse bees as well, sprayed everyone with anise seed water so they don't fight among themselves
I need to make sure they have queens growing next weekend. If everything is good, to requeen remaining packaged bee colonies I need to remove the queens from the 2 remaining colonies on May 9
Then cut out pupating queen cells and introduce them to the newly queenless hives
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On Apr 30 I was notified of a swarm
Once again, I have gracefully swooped in and shoved them into a cardboard box
By 8 PM all the bees were in the box, and I gently shook them out into the hive. Now I have 3 hives on the southern site
I have 6 operational colonies total; time to come up with a numbering/naming convention for them. I'll number them in the order I got them
| Hive Id | Hive Name | Location | Bee Source |
| 1 | Methane Wolves | Four Oaks Farm (Southern Site), under the oak | Swarm, South Santa Rosa |
| 2 | Ammonia Foxes | Mark West Springs (Northern Site) | Swarm, bought from Chris Conrad (Bee Concious Removal) |
| 3 | Copper Pandas | Four Oaks Farm (Southern Site), by the pear trees | Packaged, April Lance |
| 4 | Propane Monkeys | Longer Table Farm (Western site), under the oak |
Packaged, April Lance Requeened from Methane Wolves |
| 5 | Vermillion Bears | Longer Table Farm (Western site), southern corner |
Packaged, April Lance |
| 6 | Silver Crows | Four Oaks Farm (Southern Site), under the oak |
Swarm, Four Oaks Farm |
This should do it
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May 05: Checked all colonies today. Here's my notes in the order I inspected them
Hive 3 (Copper Pandas, packaged bees) are doing especially well; 5 frames of brood, lots of bees, generous strips of honey on top; And they've only been there for 3 weeks
I gave them an extra frame with a foundation. I'm now thinking maybe i don't want to requeen them; I'll just do a split/recombine a little later. It would be a shame if they suffer a varroa collapse, but I'm really impressed by how they're doing so far; maybe they deserve a chance
Hive 6 (Silver Crows, the most recent swarm) are not doing great; they have not absconded, and some foragers go in and out, but for the most part they're just chilling in a tight cluster in the far corner of the hive; no comb construction at all. Were they a queenless afterswarm? Or maybe they had a virgin queen that did not return from her mating flight? Anyway, i'll think of something
Update later the same day: I emailed dr Leo regarding this problem; his advise was to move them to the framed area (already done) and feed them. Will feed tomorrow
Hive 1 (Methane Wolves) seems to be doing well; lots of brood, lots of bees; I'm not sure i saw a whole lot of eggs and larva, the queen might have slowed down her egg laying efforts; or maybe i just didn't notice them, i didn't shake the bees off the frames yet. Anyway, if the queen was unwell, I would see them raising emergency queens, and there's no sighs of that
Hive 4 (Propane Monkeys) were queenless last week; I gave them some brood and eggs, and expected them to raise new queens
I've found only one pupating queen cell; there were more queen cells last week, but they've apparently been dismantled
But that's ok; if they raise 1 healthy queen, that's all the colony needs
Hive 5 (Vermillion Bears) was raising new queens last week; Multiple queens are now pupating
There's still a decent amount of brood, but apparently no larva. Looks like their queen died at some point
Well, they'll have plenty soon enough.
Maybe I'll give the new queen a chance too; after all, half of the genes are from the drones she mates with. Maybe they will work out
Hive 2 (Ammonia Foxes) is doing reasonably well; they have 3 full frames of brood and 4 frames of bees; they started as a very small swarm, but now it seems they're turning things around
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May 06: Gave the Silver Crows a frame of honey from Methane Wolves
Methane Wolves were not happy about this arrangement. I even got stung through the t-shirt (my first sting this year). I feel bad for them, every time a different colony is having trouble they are the ones to bail them out. Last time it at least helped them spread their genes
Silver Crows were already engaged in comb construction when i checked on them; so forcing them into the framed area helped. Now they also have a good amount of honey to fuel comb construction. I really hope having all that honey will not lead to robbing; they're a rather small, weakened colony in posession of significant amount of honey. My only hope is that bees are less likely to engage in robbing in spring than later in the year. Anyway, soon enough we'll see
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May 12: Inspected all hives
Methane Wolves and Copper Pandas are pretty strong colonies ready to split
I'll have a hive at a new site for Methane Wolves split next week. Left them alone for now
Copper Pandas: since they have a packaged queen, I don't want to establish new colonies with their genetics yet, maybe next year, if they survive. I think i'll try to do a split/recombine within the same hive with them. Switched to middle entrance; there was a lot of confusion among returning workers at first, but eventually they figured it out. Next week they'll be ready for a split
Also, they both started building comb on divider board.. There wasn't even a lot of space, but they have somehow squeezed it in. Next time i'll have to scrape it off
Ammonia Foxes: slowly gaining strength. Blackberry hasn't started blooming yet, so i suppose forage is rather modest in their area, mostly wild legumes
Propane Monkeys: Found second queen cell. Both still pupating. This timeline is reasonable, but they will hatch no later than May 15
Vermillion Bears: Queens have hatched, but no new eggs yet. It is understandable, it takes a virgin queen about 5 days to complete her nuptual flight, and then about 5 more before she starts laying, so most likely i won't see anything next weekend either. Maybe i won't even open their hive next week at all
Silver Crows, the latest swarm i caught, have made decent progress with comb construction, but still no eggs/brood. Well, I suspect they might be an afterswarm, in that case they are led by a virgin queen; she will need a little more time to mate and start laying
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May 19: Decided not to check the western site this week - both colonies should be preparing new queens, there probably isn't any brood yet. The best I can do for them is leave them alone for now
Copper Pandas: split the colony inside the hive; they should start raising a new queen soon
Methane Wolves: Doing well, strong colony, ready to split
Ammonia Foxes: Slowly building up strength; Blackberry is starting to bloom, but buckeye is also about to bloom. Gave them a couple more frames
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May 20: Evenly split Methane Wolves. I thought early in the morning they would be lethargic and won't fight me too much. I was wrong. They fought me fiercely, but i managed to get 6 frames into a swarm trap
New split colony has been established in Vallejo, about an hour drive away. I hope they'll thrive. It's a good area with a lot of decorative trees, they should love it. I hope they'll grow strong
| Hive Id | Hive Name | Location | Bee Source |
| 7 | Ethanol Hounds | Al's Backyard, Vallejo | Split from Methane Wolves |
Next week we'll find out which colony is raising a new queen
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May 22: I went to check the swarm traps on Sunday. Traps 1 and 3 had some bee activity at the entrance. Trap 3 seemed like scouts, but Trap 1 looked like there actually was a swarm inside, with bees coming and going. I assumed it was a small swarm, with the numbers of foragers being low, but I was fairly certain it was a swarm
So, I took swarm trap 1 down with the intention of merging it with Silver Crows; perhaps 2 weak swarms can figure things out together
Unfortunately, there was no swarm inside the swarm trap, just a few straggler bees. Oh well, I guess wishful thinking got in the way. I'll check trap 3 in a month, maybe there will be bees there by that time
Anyway, I thought I saw some eggs in the Silver Crows hive last time, but i must have been mistaken. I guess at this point i can assume that colony is not viable
Ammonia Foxes, on the other hand, is growing very strong; I hope they'll be smart enough to stay away from the buckeye trees that are just starting to bloom
Also, it looks like they're now strong enough for a split; I'm going to split them and settle their child colony into the Silver Crows hive. Remaining Silver Crows workers should be helpful
Ammonia Foxes are currently occupying 8 frames. I gave them 4 extra frames, so they have 12 total. They should start developing new frames soon. On Friday morning May 26 I'm planning to perform the split
Bonus content: Ethanol Hounds washoarding their new hive entrance
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May 26: Made a split of Ammonia Foxes today, moved them in with what's left of Silver Crows
| Hive Id | Hive Name | Location | Bee Source |
| 6 | Silver Crows | Four Oaks Farm (Southern Site), under the oak |
Split from Ammonia Foxes |
Bees fight really hard when you try to split the colony in the morning, when all the foragers are home
Copper Pandas are doing well, according to plan; I've actually spotted a queen in one half of the hive, while the other half has several queens pupating
Methane Wolves have several (at least 3) queen cells, unsealed, with larva inside (sorry, couldn't take a good picture)
Propane Monkeys and Vermillion Bears have had queens hatched roughly 2 weeks ago (Vermillion Bears a little more than 2 weeks, Propane Monkeys a little less than 2 weeks). I couldn't find any brood today; that's still within a reasonable timeline, i think; but at least Vermillion Bears foragers are bringing back pollen. Maybe they have some eggs/larva I've missed. Anyway, I'll give them all more time
If they don't actually have viable queens, I'm not sure what to do; I could give them a frame of eggs and brood from a healthy hive, but my 2 good hives have recently been split, and won't have any extra brood any time soon
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June 02: Checked all hives
Methane Wolves: Requeening, capped queen cells
Ammonia Foxes: Healthy and growing, lots of eggs and young larva
Copper Pandas: Split is going well, queens have hatched in one half, no eggs/larva yet, but it's too early. Probably won't see any next week either
The half that has the old queen is doing well
Propane Monkeys: No brood/larva, apparently requeening attempt failed. Will have to think of something
Vermillion Bears: mostly drone brood, but also some worker brood i think? At least I hope it's worker brood, not drone brood crammed into worker cells. Anyway, I think they just need some time
Silver Crows: Requeening, uncapped queen cells
Ethanol Hounds (actually checked last weekend): very good, lots of eggs and young larva. A little more attention from the ants than i would have liked, but they don't seem to be Argentine ants or Pharaoh ants; asked my friend to leave some borax ant traps next to the hive just in case. Also, i was happy to see no small hive beetles; I heard they might be an issue in Napa county, but apparently not in Vallejo, at least not yet.
So, i need to do something about the Propane Monkeys soon; I thought about getting them a couple queen cells from Methane Wolves, but i couldn't find a lot of queen cells there, maybe 5 total; though i suspect the rest of them were disguised. Anyway, I'd rather not mess with Methane Wolves at the moment, i really want them to requeen successfully
I could use some eggs from Ammonia Foxes; Though they've just been split last week, they seem to be doing the best. I think I'll try to take some eggs from them on Sunday
Update: I've been notified of a swarm in Sebastopol later the same day. It was the smallest swarm i've seen, probably an afterswarm, but they probably had a queen with them; they gladly got into the box. I merged them with Propane Monkeys; Everyone got misted with anise perfume, so hopefully they won't fight
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Jun 10: We had a rather gloomy weather for a week, but no rain, so the bees have been foraging as they should have
Ammonia foxes have recovered from a split, and have 6 frames of brood now; I could split them again if i wanted to
Copper Pandas have raised a second queen. I have not seen any eggs or larva yet, but she is just a week old, so it's normal; I have been able to locate her though. She is very golden, much lighter than her mother
She should have completed her mating flight by now, but as she hasn't been laying eggs, her abdomen has not fully developed yet. Next week she should be larger, and there should be some eggs/larva in her half of the hive
Vermillion Bears are confirmed to be hopelessly queenless now, with drone laying workers. I'll think of what to do about them. It might be too late in the year for them to raise a new queen
Propane Monkeys might have accepted their new queen, but it's too early to tell yet
Methane Wolves and Silver Crows are undergoing requeening, it's too early to tell if they've been successful; with Methane Wolves I should know next week
I haven't had a chance to visit Ethanol Hounds this week, but hopefully I'll see them next weekend
Jun 16: Checked all the requeening hives. No eggs or larva found, unfortunately
Spotted second queen of Copper Pandas; She looks healthy, and her abdomen has grown a bit (but not a whole lot)
Couldn't spot any other queens today, but queens are not always easy to spot, especially when they aren't bright yellow like that
Anyway, Copper Pandas, Methane Wolves and Propane Monkeys have one more week till I declare them hopelessly queenless; Silver Crows have one more week
I'll try to raise more queens; I have a plan to split Ammonia Foxes on monday and Ethanol Hounds next weekend. Ammonia Foxes and main colony of Copper Pandas are extremely energetic. I'll see Ethanol Hounds on Sunday, but i believe they should be doing fine
Toyon seems to bloom later this year. Last year on June 04 it was already in full bloom. Now it's barely starting to bloom on June 17
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Jun 18: I checked Ethanol Hounds today, they seem to be doing well. I counted 8 frames of brood, plus one more frame that has a few eggs in the center
I think I'm going to 2-queen them as part of my queen breeding initiative. I've switched them to the middle entrance, next week I'll split them within their hive
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Jun 19: I have split Ammonia Foxes this morning. They fought hard, but in the end I won
I put the split colony on my balcony for now. Let's see if the building management has any objections. I couldn't get a coherent answer from them in the past
The bees are getting used to the surrounding area. Soon enough I should know which colony has got the queen
Also, I think I'll change the naming convention; I still want the colonies to be named as post apocalyptic scavenger tribes, so it will still be chemical + animal, but I think the chemical part will be defined by hive location, but the animal part will be defined by the queen they originate from. This way it should be easier to track their gene lines
(Update: the building manager saw the bees and was livid. I'll be moving them to the western site this evening. It's a shame, I was really looking forwards to seeing the bees fly as I worked)
(Update: the newly split colony has been moved into the hive of Vermillion Bears, but i decided to isolate them for now, so i have 2 colonies in the same hive, one hopelessly queenless)
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Jun 23: Checked some of the hives; good news, found that 2 new queens started laying eggs, and already got larva going. But first, a change in naming convention
First word (chemical) will be for the location of the hive. I'll stick with the ones we had before:
Second word (animal) will indicate the source of original queen;
Plus one more gene line of bees that might or might not be queenless:
So, today i learned that:
Methane Wolves now have a healthy laying queen. Queen spotted, also some eggs and larva found. No capped brood yet
Copper Pandas have had a split within their hive 5 weeks ago; i spotted the new bright yellow queen during each inspection; however only today i found eggs and larva in their half of the hive for the first time. No capped brood yet
New queen picture:
Since I've been able to take a picture of this queen every week, here's a little arrangement side by side
Silver Foxes: Didn't open the hive, the split has been performed 4 weeks ago, so there might or might not be eggs/larva. Will check next week
Ammonia Foxes: Seem healthy/recovering after the split; no queen cells found, so they probably have the queen with them, even though i haven't spotted her. Very defensive, got stung in the nose and 2 fingers during inspection
When i got to the Longer Table Farm to inspect 2 remaining hives, i discovered that the battery in my bee vape died, so i went back home to recharge it. Will try to finish the inspection tomorrow
-----Jun 24: Checked Propane Monkeys, can confirm they're hopelessly queenless. No drone laying workers, but also no eggs or larva of any kind
Vermillion Foxes seem to be doing fine, but i couldn't find any queen cells. Lots of pollen foragers though, and larva of varying ages; Couldn't spot any eggs, but they are rather belligerent, it's not too easy to work with them. Does it mean they have the queen? I haven't seen the queen cells in their parent colony, Ammonia Foxes, but maybe i just didn't look hard enough.. I was stung a lot during that inspection, maybe I should have been looking more closely
Anyway, I'll try to find out for sure next week. I'm not opening them again this weekend
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Jun 25: Successfully split Ethanol Wolves inside their hive
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Jun 30: Checked Silver Foxes - couldn't find any eggs or larva; Though i see a lot of foragers bringing back pollen. Perhaps there was some brood i missed? I'll not write the colony off as queenless yet, will check them next week
Confirmed that Vermillion Foxes have the queen with them; eggs and larva found
The queenless colony in the same hive had a bit of dysentery problem
No signs of dysentery inside the hive; I've cleaned up the front and gave them a couple days; no new signs of dysentery found. I decided it probably wasn't an infection, more likely they ate some sugary juice from a rotting fruit
I had reservations about merging them with their healthy neighbors, but decided that if I do that i should do it now, so i got them merged
I also asked dr Leo for advise, but didn't get a response for a few days; too bad when i recieved it the colonies were already merged. He responded that colonies that have been queenless for a long time are not worth saving, they often have hormonal issues that might make them kill a healthy queen
I wish i waited for the reply for a few more days.. now it's too late. I hope I won't lose the queen because of it. We'll see next Friday
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Jul 02: Checked Ethanol Wolves; One side of the hive has a lot of queen cells, already pupating
I decided to try to 3 queen them; replaced divider board with queen excluders; In the seminar we were taught it's the best way, the bees will be raising queens as the same colony
I hope the queens won't stab each other through the excluders. That would be not ideal
Anyway, it's best to not open the hive till 5 weeks after the split, July 30
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Jul 07:
Silver Foxes: Last time I found no eggs or larva; The hive has been split 5 weeks before, and i believed it might have been queenless. On the other hand, many foragers were bringing back pollen, I decided to give them another week. Today found some eggs and young larva, I think; It might still be that they are queenless and started drone laying; But eggs seem to be in the center of the cell, laid in a good pattern. Maybe their queen finally figured things out? I'll keep checking
Methane Wolves have successfully rased a queen after a split; However, today I found a lot of brood, but no eggs or larva; and, to my utter disappointment, a dozen of pupating queen cells; Have they lost their queen already? Words can't express how I feel. Anyway, at least they are trying; I'll give them another month, maybe they will recover
Vermillion Foxes: I was worried previously queenless workers i merged with them could have killed their good queen, but so far it looks good; I saw young larva; no eggs found, but eggs are easy to miss. Will check next week, but i hope everything will be fine
Confirmed that Propane Monkeys are queenless; no drone laying yet, but it's way too late, and I won't have a split/new queen at least till the end of July. I'm thinking of euthanizing their colony.
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Jul 15: I've decided to euthanize Propane Monkeys; It looks like they have failed to raise/accept queens i gave them, and the colony is only going downhill from here; I thought about merging workers with another colony, but chances are high they'll kill a healthy queen. So it's isopropyl time. I gave their leftover honey to Vermillion Foxes, hopefully they'll put it to good use
I'm trying to turn Ethanol Wolves into 2 or 3 colonies; I think I'll move one of those colonies into their hive once they're ready. I've visited them yesterday, the entrances on the sides look active, but middle entrance has only some token activity; maybe it's a sign that they failed to raise a queen. Anyway, I didn't open the hive, the new queens shouldn't be laying yet
Copper Pandas are very active; the side that made a new queen seems to be growing stronger
Vermillion Foxes are doing well; Didn't check every frame, but found eggs and young larva on the 2nd frame from the far side; looks like the queen is fine
Silver Foxes are confirmed to be fine; even found a queen inside
She started laying a little too late, but seems to be doing fine now
Methane Wolves and Ammonia Foxes are still requeening, so I didn't open their hives today
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Jul 21: Checked Silver Foxes; lots of healthy brood inside; the queen is doing her job
Ammonia Foxes have successfully requeened. Found capped brood inside
Didn't do full inspection this time, just moved apart the frames in the middle; in both cases capped brood on both sides. Didn't remove frames or go deeper, but that's fine
Foxes seem to be the most prolific bees so far, I have 3 of their colonies around. They are also the meanest bees I have, but that's fine. I expected Wolves to do better, but they seem to have a lower requeening rate for some reason; currently they have one active colony (potentially with multiple queens) and one requeening
Last year i had hordes of three lined cockroaches (Luridiblatta trivittata) living under the hive lid; this time I don't see any. Not sure why, could it be that the nematodes I introduced last year ate them all? Anyway, I don't think anyone would miss them
Didn't check anyone else; Copper Pandas are really active on the outside. Maybe it's time to merge them? I wanted to wait for Ethanol Wolves to grow a queen; If they are successful, I'll move their second colony into the empty Propane hive; if they fail to establish the second colony, I'll go with Copper Pandas instead. But if i find Copper Pandas even more crowded during next inspection, I might have to merge them prematurely
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Jul 30: This Friday I had to travel to the Clearlake area, so I decided to check the box, or take it down if there's no swarm inside; it's pretty late in the season anyway
And I found something I didn't expect
At first I didn't understand what was happening; there were bees going in and out of the box, but also a large cluster on a branch next to it. Was it two swarms?
As I later discovered, a swarm tried to move into the box, but looks like it got some direct sunlight in the afternoon; the box has overheeted, and the colony has evacuated itself to the branch right outside; they even built a bit of comb under the branch. Not a large one, they probably haven't been there long
Anyway, i was not very well equipped to deal with this, but I've done my best. As any sane person, I immediately drove to the nearby dollar general and bought a trash bin. I wish I also bought a hoodie, but it's summer and they didn't seem to carry hoodies. Well anyway. I had a hat and a pair of gloves, but no jacket of any kind
It took me a few hours to get all the workers into the bucket; good thing I had a headlamp with red light in the car, it made things much easier
The comb inside the swarm trap was all crooked from the heat, so I removed it and gave them some new foundation and one frame of empty comb i happened to have laying around. Also, since they seem to have been through a lot, I made them a quart of sugar syrup. I didn't have any white sugar at home, so I used cane sugar. I hope it won't give them too much of a diarrhea
They had to spend a night in my car, and next morning I drove them to a location in Lakeport. I could have settled them into my empty hive on the western site, but they are high elevation bees, and Lakeport has the climate they are more accustomed to
I'll see in 2 weeks if they have any brood. I hope their queen survived all the tribulations unharmed
They'll have to live in the swarm trap till spring. I'll try to get some kind of second hand woolen sweater to insulate the top of the hive for winter. If they survive till spring, I'll get them a real hive
I suppose they'll need a name; Cyanide Sharks should do
On Saturday I checked Ethanol Wolves; they seem to have only one active queen
On the other hand, they have built up really impressive honey reserves; the hive is close to being honey bound; I'll be very busy moving to a new place next week, but I'll try to find some time to remove some of their honey and give them some empty frames, this way they will at least have space for brood
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Aug 15: I've been moving to a new place in the last couple weeks, and was too tired to write updates, but things have been happening
Methane Wolves have raised a new queen, i see brood and larva of all ages; the colony is very weak after 2 requeenings in a row, but they still have time till the end of october to prepare for winter. The brood pattern is.. not too healthy. Not exactly a 'salt and pepper' pattern, but i see some large gaps in brood.. maybe it's just nurse bee shortage? Anyway, i'll see if they recover, not doing anything yet. I don't see wasps or ants attacking them yet, so good so far
Checked Ethanol Wolves, wanted to make sure the hive isn't honey bound; not yet, apparently, they have a lot of space. Also they are getting really defensive, i believe they have stung some an electrician and a contractor who came to dig a ditch in the backyard, and possibly a neighbor.. if they keep being like that we might have to move the hive to one of the farms in Santa Rosa
Ammonia Foxes are healthy, but the area they are in is running out of forage, so i see them wrapping up their operations
Silver Foxes are healthy and much more active than their forest sisters, since there's a lot of forage in the area
Vermillion Foxes are healthy and extremely active
Copper Pandas gave me some trouble.. they were so full i decided to split them, and move half to the empty hive on the Longer Table farm; but i underestimated how many bees there were in the hive. It was absolutely full, and they did not enjoy being disturbed. I was wearing full protection, but ankles, wrists, and the back of the neck was not fully protected; i got stung at least 100 times. Had really strong fever and vertigo when i got home. Woke up 3 hours later, fever and vertigo were gone, but i felt weak for the whole next day, had to take a sick day at work
I managed to complete the split, but the swarm trap was covered with bees on the outside, so i couldn't move them to the other location, so i just left the swarm trap next to the original hive.. will figure it out later
I didn't check every frame, but it doesn't look like they have a whole lot of honey in there; looks like commercial bees are selected for quick breeding, not honey production
Cyanide Sharks are doing well, i saw capped brood and larva of all ages, so the queen is healthy. The area has a lot of oleander blooming (useless for bees, unfortunately), but also a fair amount of privet, trumpet creeper, and mimosa, so they seem to be having a blast. Should be able to build up proper reserves for winter
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Sep 13: I haven't posted updates in a while, but there wasn't anything new happening. All colonies are doing well, even the Methane Wolves who have been weak after second requeening in a row seem to be recovering; I hope they'll gather enough strength to overwinter successfully. Cyanide Sharks are very lively too
There's a lot of yellowjackets everywhere this year. You'd think it a result of my beekeeping efforts, their colonies growing fat on dead bees, but no, even in areas with no bees they are out in large numbers. I'm putting out as many traps as I can, each ending up with a pile of dead wasps, but it doesn't seem to be doing much of a difference
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Oct 13: I know I haven't posted an update in a while, but there really wasn't much to say; All colonies seem to be doing fine. I'm a little concerned about Methane Wolves and Cyanide Sharks, I don't know if they have enough reserves for winter; Methane Wolves will probably be fine, in Santa Rosa there will be plenty of warm weeks in winter when they can go out and forage rosemary and acacia. Cyanide Sharks are going to have a real winter here in the mountains, but hopefully there will be a warm day after I harvest the honey when I'll be able to let them lick the extractor clean.
In the meantime, I drove to Lake Pilsbury last weekend and left a couple swarm traps on trees; I wanted to do it this year, but the lake was inaccessible during the swarm season, since you had to drive through the mountains, and the road was snowed in. Hopefully next year when the road is open I'll have some wild swarms. I know there's plenty of wild honeybees in that area, maybe I'll get lucky
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Oct 21: Checked all colonies; everyone seems to be doing fine
Silver Foxes and Ammonia Foxes seem to have slowed down their operations, probably preparing for winter. For Ammonia Foxes it's understandable - there's very little forage in their area at the moment. Silver Foxes i expected to be more active, other hives at the Four Oaks farm are much more active; maybe they just didn't wake up yet when i was checking? it was still around 10 AM, and morning was pretty chilly. Anyway, there was some forager activity, just not as much as the other hives
Vermillion Foxes are clear champions, a lot of activity
Methane Wolves are pretty active, it's good to see they have recovered their strength
Ethanol Wolves are doing well, but I saw some ant activity; put some borax ant traps around the hive
Also, i saw a few dozens of bees poking around the hive lid and the upper ventilation openings; I'm not sure what those are, but my version is that these are wannabe robbers from neighboring colonies, who aren't brave enough to go through the main door, but are trying to find an alternative entrance. Well that's fine, and i don't think they'll have a lot of luck storming the front, the colony is very strong. I hope borax will put an end to the ant invasion soon. Also they aren't Pharaoh ants or Argentina ants, so hopefully they won't do too much damage
No one else seems to be getting any attention from the ants this year, which is a pleasant surprise. I was expecting them to be out in force in Autumn
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Nov 04: Harvested honey from all hives in Santa Rosa
Ammonia Foxes: Actually had some honey reserves. According to my estimates, I could easily take a frame and a hapf of honey from them, but chose not to; They've done a lot of hard work queen breeding, and deserved a break; Plus they actually have the derth where they are, not a lot of forage till December
Vermillion Foxes: Very active hive. Collected 3 frames, more than half full. Could take more, but chose not to
Silver Foxes: Pretty good foraging activity. Collected 3 full frames of honey. Could take more, but didn't
Methane Wolves: Good foraging activity; Didn't open - they recently recovered from double requeening, and were weak all the way till September, so whatever honey they have I believe they should keep
Copper Pandas: Colony has collapsed, yellowjackets were actively looting the hive. Collected 6 frames that had a bit of honey on them, and sealed the rest with mostly yellowjackets inside. Some signs of varroa infection (mite droppings on brood frames). Anyway, unlike other colonies, they were commercial bees and I liked them less than others. Plus they tried to kill me when I tried to split them in August
They have a split/satellite colony in a swarm trap next to their hive, and it seems to be doing well. Can't harvest honey from the swarm trap though. I'll see if they survive winter
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Nov 05: Extracted honey from frames
According to my calculations, i have 8.800 kg (19.4 pounds) of honey in jars; Not sure how much is in the bucket - more than my scale can measure. The scale's limit is 12 pounds. The bucket itself is 325 grams, so a bit less than a pound; so 11 pounds (5 kg) at the very least? I'm planning to use it for mead when i have a bit of time
This year I actually used a refractometer, and know that water content is 17%, which means the honey wont spoil/ferment
Going to harvest honey from Ethanol Wolves in 2 weeks (Nov 17). I believe they are the most honey rich hive I have, unless something goes wrong and they get robbed
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Nov 8: Got a batch of mead going yesterday
I didn't filter the honey I put into jars, but everything that went into the fermenter has been filtered. I think last year's batch got moldy because a couple bee legs ended up in the fermenter. This year I made sure everything was clean
It's around 5.5 gallons (hard to be accurate, this carboy is different shape from the ones I normally use), and it took around 7 kg of honey to get the gravity to 1110 (which means it's 11% thicker than water, and if fully fermented should make somewhere between 14% and 15% alcohol. I know the calculator says 14.2, but I'm not sure how precise my hydrometer is)
To summarize what went into fermenter:
Starting gravity: 1110
Fermentation should take a couple months, then two more months of aging on oak chips and I should have twenty something bottles of honey wine; I hope it will turn out good
Yesterday evening there was a bit of a krausen line in the fermenter, but now it's gone; I think it's probably normal, honey has low protein content compared to grain juice, so the foam is less robust. I can't remember my past experiments, before I always had a layer of fruit/orange peels floating on top, but now I'm using a much higher quality honey than usual, and don't want to overwhelm its flavor
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Nov 16: It might be my imagination, but I think I can smell a bit of blue cheese in the airlock. Is the mead getting moldy again? That would be disappointing, I've done my best to keep everything clean this time, I don't know what else I can do to make things cleaner
Though maybe I'm just imaginging things; The smell has been getting more boozy, maybe I'm smelling that. At least things floating on the surface look like normal yeast byproducts
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Nov 20: This weekend I got the honey from Ethanol Wolves; 10 frames, mostly full
After a day of hard work, I managed to squeeze 55 pounds (24 kg) of honey out of them
Though, that's around 5.5 pounds per frame? i thought a full frame should have around 8 pounds of honey. 5.5 is a bit more than half of that, but those frames looked way more than half full, i'd say more than 3/4.. well, that's still a lot of honey
The mead is bubbling, and there doesn't seem to be any mold growing on the surface; I still feel a bit of that astringent smell at the airlock, but maybe those are just some phenols that are going to go away during aging
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Nov 21: Left some emptied frames and honey stained tools in the general vicinity of Cyanide Sharks
Here's how excited they are to clean up the honey leftovers
Dec 05: Today I've sold my first jar of honey (one of the larger ones, Santa Rosa, 665 g, for $25)
The buyer responded to my ad on Facebook Marketplace. The ad has been there for almost 2 weeks, this is the first time someone responded. I've already given away 8 pounds (12 small jars) to a local charity (Clear Lake Gleaners), and was thinking of making another batch of mead out of Vallejo honey. I should still have plenty left, but maybe I'll sell a jar or two more after all
I believe this is the first step towards becoming fabulously rich
Dec 22: Small update, I sold 2 more jars since my last post, 1 small and 1 large; total revenue $65. Not a lot, but at least it's something
Made another batch of mead from Vallejo honey on Dec 10; same recipe, 15 pounds of Vallejo honey, 7 grams of Fermaid O, 71-B (I had 3 yeast packets left, so all 3 packets went in). Still fermenting very actively, 12 days in and I'm not getting any of that unpleasant phenolic smell I saw in the other batch
Santa Rosa mead is done fermenting, as far as i can tell. Will rack it into secondary during holidays. While there were still bubbles in the airlock, i could smell a bit of the phenolic smell, but it wasn't very strong; I hope it will age out. If not, I'll have to distill it into brandy.
The last 2 days were relatively warm, and Cyanide Sharks were very active, froaging rosemary, many bringing back pollen. I've seen Ethanol Wolves a week ago, they seemed to be doing well too. Haven't visited any of the Santa Rosa bees in a while, but I might check on them during the holidays if there's a warm day
Dec 23: Racked Santa Rosa mead into a new carboy, added 2.7 oz oak chips
Gravity shows as 1010; so, technically off-dry? apparently there's a lot of different scales for sweetness, and some seem to say 'sweet' range starts at 1008, but i don't think that's right; i definitely do taste a bit of sweetness, but nowhere near what i would call a sweet wine. I'm sure off-dry is more accurate. Maybe it will ferment a little more in secondary
There's a bit of a funky smell that i was worried about, but no bad flavor. I'm sure it will age out after a few months
For Vallejo mead fermentation is still very active. No weired smells
Jan 01: Today was sunny and not too cold (15C/59F), and I happened to be in the Santa Rosa area, so I decided to check all bees
All colonies are alive; everyone with the exception of Ammonia Foxes are actively foraging; Ammonia Foxes are staying in the hive, no sign of foraging activity; that might be because there isn't a lot of blooming plants in the hills where they are located, and also I visited them last, it was already 3 PM, and the hive was deep in the shadow of nearby pines. Maybe they did forage a little earlier
Anyway, everyone seems alive so far, and in 1 month manzanita starts blooming, heralding the beginning of a new season. I hope they'll all make it
Also, I noticed that today Vallejo mead started foaming very actively; much more foam than at the beginning of fermentation
Strange that it's happening 3 weeks into fermentation. I must mention that while i was away my temperature controller glitched and temperature in the fermentation closet dropped to 13C (below recommended range, but not too far). Was the foam the result of yeast trying to stay warm? or maybe it was degassing because of temperature drop? Anyway, i see active bubbling in the airlock, and no weired smells, so i guess nothing bad is happening
P.S. I let my friends try some unaged Santa Rosa mead; i described the weired smell as 'blue cheese without the cheese', but they disagreed and said it tasted 'minty'. Well, if it's minty then it's almost certainly phenols; and phenols are most likely to age out.
I think I'll age this batch a little longer than I planned, maybe till May
Vallejo mead doesn't have any funny smell, so I think I won't have to age it for more than 3 months
Jan 28: As manzanita blooms, faint hope blossoms
