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2024 Beekeeping records

Jan 29: Manzanita is blooming, weather is getting a little warmer, bee foragers are bringing back pollen. New beekeeping year is starting

I'm still to confirm how many surviving colonies I have.

I had a chance to have a look inside the Cyanide Sharks box on Sunday. Spotted the queen (looks healthy, slightly tan brown), some brood (maybe a frame, all stages, including capped). The colony isn't very strong, maybe 2 frames of bees total, but i see no reason why they wouldn't gain strength in a month. I wanted to give them a proper hive, but given how few of them there are, I think it would be best if they live in their box for at least a couple more weeks. Two of their frames are just undeveloped foundations. I'll move them into a hive when they build comb on those frames. They have some honey left too on tops of frames, so they should be good

I've had my landlord with me who took some pictures, if i get any from him I'll post them here

From what i heard, Ethanol Wolves 'are alive and doing bee things'. I'll consider them alive for now, but I'll need to make sure they have brood when I visit Vallejo

All Santa Rosa hives were alive on Jan 1 when i last checked them, and I'm feeling fairly optimistic about them. I'll give them a proper inspection next time there's a warm sunny weekend. This weekend looks like it's going to be chilly and rainy, but forecast for next weekend looks good so far

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Feb 5: Today i got footage of Ethanol Wolves in Vallejo doing orientation flights

I've also seen Cyanide Sharks doing modest orientation flights a few days ago when it was warm, but this one is pretty intense. I'll try to have a look inside their hive this weekend, hopefully it will be warm enough

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Feb 11: Checked all colonies this weekend

Ammonia Foxes: Alive and well, several frames of brood, lots of foragers bringing pollen. All pollen seems to be dark rusty orange; Manzanita is pale yellow, so they found somethign blooming that they like better than Manzanita. I wonder what it is. Clover? Wild cherry? Blackthorn?

The colonies at the Four Oak farm are pretty desolate, I think the 2 colony collapses in Autumn (one wild colony, and one Copper Pandas main colony) has spread more parasites than they could deal with

Copper Pandas: The main colony died in Autumn, but I had the split colony in a swarm trap near the hive that was alive at least till January; it's dead and being robbed now

Methane Wolves: Dead, being robbed

Silver Foxes: Alive, but barely. There's a queen and a bit of brood, but not a lot of bees; they weren't even strong enough to remove dead bees from the bottom of the hive. Though it might be because they weren't able; I only left a narrow slit of the entrance open, and they sealed most of it with propolis, leaving a very tight opening; maybe they were physically unable to drag the corpses out. Some foragers going in and out, but haven't seen anyone bringing back pollen. They might bounce back, but I don't have a lot of faith in them

Vermillion Foxes: Alive and very strong

Ethanol Wolves: Alive and very strong

So i have 2 dead colonies, and one that might recover and might not; 3 very healthy ones, plus Cyanide Sharks in Lakeport that were a late swarm and weren't very strong going into winter, but managed to get by and are regaining strength now

So, could be worse. I should be able to repopulate dead colonies with splits in March

So things are ok; could be better, but ok. I'll wait till March to do the splits

I've performed the cleanup in all hives (blowtorched the hive walls, moved bees to a different side, opened a central entrance in preparation for the upcoming split)

I didn't take any pictures this time, had to clean a lot of hives in a short time, and had places to be later. Will take some pictures next time

I saw some mold on frames that were behind the divider board, especially the ones on the far end from the bees; looks like it's the pollen that got moldy. I didn't have this issue with the frames i had at home, it must be the humidity inside the hive. Anyway, it shouldn't be an issue, i believe bees must be good at cleaning out mold

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Feb 24: We had a remarkably warm day today.

I had a look inside the Cyanide Sharks box; last time I looked inside in late January, they had 2 frames of bees. Now they have 3 - 3.5

Last time there was a modest patch of brood, mostly capped, on one frame (both sides)

Today there's the same patch, plus a lot of eggs plus a bit of young larva, 2 frames total

I believe till very recently they didn't have a whole lot of nurse bees, so the queen wasn't laying much. But she started laying eggs for reals 5 days ago or so

Also, here's a few pics of their queen

They don't really need to move into a larger hive yet, but since it's finally a warm day I decided I'd rather move them now than later

I think there's no point in opening the hive for the next 3 weeks or so

Also I mentioned last time there aren't a whole lot of honeybees on manzanita bushes; there's a lot of buzzing, but it's mostly bumblebees. I took a walk in the neighborhood, and looks like all the bees are pollinating almond trees

Also I discovered that almonds are in the Prunus genus, along with plums and cherries

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Mar 8: I examined all the Santa Rosa hives today

Ammonia Foxes were healthy and strong enough to be split. Lots of worker brood; didn't notice any drone brood, but I had to act very quickly during the split, might have missed some. Actually spotted the queen during the split, and moved her to the southern site along with half the colony; She is the queen of Copper Foxes now. Ammonia Foxes will have to raise a new queen

They have been very docile during the split, but it's probably because it was still chilly and they were a little drowsy; by the time i got them to their new hive, it's gotten warmer, and when i tried to move them from the swarm trap box into the hive, I instantly got stung twice, had to run to the car and put on the space suit. Anyway, I hope Copper Foxes will florish at their new location, and Ammonia Foxes will raise a great queen

Silver Foxes are confirmed dead, unfortunately. There are robbers in the hive, but i retrieved 2 frames that were mostly untouched by robbers; gave them to Copper Foxes, I hope they'll put it to good use

Vermillion Foxes are stronger than i anticipated. The hive is actually crowded

The plan was to see if they're ready for the split, and then wait till sunset to actually split them; but with a hive this full, i decided not to wait for all the foragers to return; they put up too much of a fight as it was

Lots of worker brood, a good amount of drone brood, some drones. No queen cells yet. I guess i split them in time

So I got 6 brood frames and moved them to Lakeport

Not sure if they got the queen with them; I guess we'll know soon enough

There will be some rain in the next few days, but starting Wednesday Mar 13 it will be sunny and warm. That's when I'll move them into a proper hive

Also I should take a day off from work and hang some swarm traps

Also they need a new name; I guess they'll have to be Kerosene Foxes

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Mar 13: I split Ethanol Wolves today. Spotted the queen, left her in the original hive at Al's place, since the Four Oaks farm already has one colony with a queen

The new split will have to raise the new queen. I settled them into the hive they originally lived in, so i have Methane Wolves again

Here's a picture of them before the transfer. They look very impatient

So, Silver is the only hive i have withoug bees at the moment. I don't have another colony ready to split, but maybe I'll catch a swarm soon.. or one of the recently split colonies will grow strong quickly enough

Then i went back to Lakeport and moved Kerosene Foxes into a proper hive; they've been living in a tight box since Friday, i hope they appreciate having some space. Here's a picture of them right after the split

I didn't spot Kerosene Foxes queen during the transfer, but i saw that they aren't building queen cells, also they have eggs and very young larva; the queen must be there somewhere

And yes, this is a different hive model; it's a little cheaper than the ones I used before, less insulated, but should do for mild California winters

I also finished hanging swarm traps for the year. I have 1 at my place in Lakeport, right above the next hive site, 1 near Glen Eden hikind trail, 1 near Highland Springs Reservoir, and 2 around lake Pilsbury. I think 5 should be enough for this year

I hope I'll catch something

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Mar 17: Checked all hives that have the queens removed; all have queen cells; I found 3-5 per hive, fewer than what I expected, but there probably were more, covered by bees

I also had a look inside the Cyanide Sharks hive; they don't seem to be growing in strength; only found 2 small patches of brood. I'll need to strengthen and requeen them as soon as possible. Probably on around Mar 20-21 I'll try to remove their queen and give them some brood from Kerosene Foxes

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Mar 20: I was planning to remove the queen of Cyanide Sharks today, and giving them some brood and nurse bees from Kerosene Foxes

However, I took a look inside their hive, and it looks like the clusters of brood are growing, there's some young larva.. maybe I should give them some more time to recover. There will be time to do it later

Kerosene Foxes are doing very well - a lot of comb has been developed, found the queen laying eggs on freshly built comb

Caught a couple of small hive beetles (I think) inside their hive. I think it's under control for now, there's no infestation

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Mar 24: Visited the Ethanol Wolves, they seem completely unphased by the recent split

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Apr 01: I want to split Kerosene Foxes inside their hive so they raise a new queen, but they aren't completely adjusted to the middle entrance yet. It's been a week since i switched it, and tomorrow is the last warm day, then it will get chilly till next Monday. So I guess I'll have to do the split in a week from now

In 2 weeks I'll know if Ammonia Foxes andVermillion Foxes have successfully raised new queens; a week later I should know about the Methane Wolves

Here's a picture of bees on Western Redbud (Cercis occidentalis) I took during a hike today

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Apr 06: Cyanide Sharks hive has been very active today. It looked like a large orientation flight.. or has the colony collapsed and was getting actively looted by the neighbors? It doesn't look like it, some of the foragers were still bringing pollen, no signs of fighting, no wax flakes at the entrance.. but it's surprising to see it go from barely alive to very active so quickly. maybe they did manage to finally raise a new generation of workers. Today is a little chilly, i decided not to open the hive yet; it will be very warm starting Monday, then I'll properly inpect it

Went on a hike today. Redbud is still blooming, but it's no longer very popular; now everyone is foraging Clematis Lasiantha (Pipestem Clematis)

Its pollen is very pale yellow, almost white

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Apr 17: I haven't posted updates in a while, but a lot has happened

• I bought 2 colonies from Chris Conrad, the local bee removal professional. One freshly caught swarm, one swarm that has been living on Langstroth frames for a little while, The swarm i simply shook out into a swarm trap, for the established colony I built a little shelf to put inside the Layens hive.. hopefully they will move into Layens frames closer to the entrance soon

I need names for them, so i guess they'll have to be Porcupines and Marmots

The swarm I kept in Lakeport for a week and a half, and then, as soon as the weather allowed it, took it to the Four Oaks farm in Santa Rosa, where I had an empty hive (formerly occupied by the Silver Foxes)

The nuke colony will be living in Lakeport now

• I bottled the Vallejo mead

love the taste. I got 25 bottles total, already gave away 2, and took one to the local homebrewers meetup. I still have 1/3 of that bottle left, will finish it tomorrow

It didn't go all the way to dry, final gravity is 1005. A bit of a funky flavor in the background, but very subtle

• Checked the hives that were raising new queens

Mehane wolves are healthy and have a new queen

Though when i moved the frames together the bees started humming loudly and started acting agitated, but a couple puffs of smoke calmed them down.. i hope i didn't accidentally squish her.. I'm not sure what the song of the queenless sounds like, I hope it wasn't it. I'll know for sure during next inspection, when the weather allows. I hope I just spilled some honey or something

Ammonia Foxes are alive and well; they are a very small colony, 3 frames of bees, but they have a good amount of capped brood, larvae, and eggs. I couldn't spot the queen, but someone must be laying all those eggs

Vermillion Foxes are dead. Huge pile of dead bees in front of the hive; looks like pesticides/poisoning. Several hatched queen cells, no brood. Decent amounts of leftover honey, but I'm not harvesting honey from a poisoned hive. The robbers can have it if they're so brave

I checked Ethanol Wolves on Apr 14, and it looks like they are requeening; they still have capped worker brood, but no eggs/larvae, and no queen. Several pupating queen cells. Need to check them in 3 weeks

Updated list of hives:

Also here's a picture of Silver Porcupines queen

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Apr 18: Today Kerosene Foxes have swarmed right in front of me

Well that was unexpected.. The swarm has settled on a branch at the top of an oak tree, probably 40 feet from the ground. There's no way I can get them down from up there

There is hope that they might move into the swarm trap I have on property, but it's too close to their parent colony, so I don't think so

There are some pupating queen cells inside

Well.. I think I'll try to split them inside the hive later today, so they raise 2 queens

Checked Cyanide Sharks, they now have 2 full frames of brood.. looks like they are growing, so I'll give them more time

Propane Marmots are moving to Layens frames, just as i anticipated. They have built some comb on my Langstroth frame holder, but now main cluster has indeed moved to the Layens frames

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Apr 19: Yesterday I was concerned by the lack of scout activity around the swarm traps, so I took 2 extra boxes i had and baited them

Put one in the forest a little bit away from the hives, and one on my porch. The one in the forest has been ignored by the scouts; the one on my porch sparked a lot of interest. There was a lot of scout activity right away, then the next morning too

Around noon today the scouts vanished; I was afraid they picked a different place to move into. Then the swarm arrived

Took them 20 minutes to completely get inside

I'll have them live on my porch for a few days, maybe a week, and then take them to the Blue Legs farm in Santa Rosa

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Apr 27: This morning I moved the swarm from my front porch to the Vermillion hive. So Vermillion foxes are back. Spotted the queen, looks healthy. Also saw some larvae and even a little bit of capped brood on frames. Didn't take any pictures or perform a thorough inspection, the bees were very chill and i wanted to finish the transfer before they became agitated

Also I moved the hives to the opposite corner of the farm, further away from the vineyard. Now it's next to a pasture, nothing gets sprayed there

I put an extra hive at the same spot; I have a feeling I'll have some extra bees soon

While I was in the area, I checked Methane Wolves and Silver Porcupines. Both are alive and have active queens; a good amount of young larvae, walls of capped brood. Methane Wolves are getting strong now, lots of foragers. Silver Porcupines do not have a lot of foragers, but soon the new workers will start hatching and they will catch up. I was afraid i squished Methane Wolves queen last time, but apparently she's good and laying.

P.S. looks like a wild swarm moved into a contraption at the Four Oaks farm. I saw the foragers bringing in pollen

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Apr 30: A lot has happened, but I don't have any pictures

I've done my first cutout job on Sunday Apr 28; had to totally destroy the lady's bathroom wall to extract the bees

I'm not sure I've done a great job; I've done my best to cut out the comb, and attached most of the brood comb to frames (with rubber bands). Then I vacuumed all the bees i could reach with a bee vacuum (yes, i bought myself one). The bees have only been there for around 2 weeks, but they've built a lot more comb and stored a lot more honey than I expected. I never saw the queen, I'm pretty sure she wasn't on the comb I extracted. She must have been in one of the large bee clusters I've vacuumed, i think.. unless she was hiding in some crevice. But anyway

I've moved all the extracted bees into a box, put it in the same area as other hives. They all got inside (on the first night there were large clusters of bees hanging on front and back of the boxes, but everyone got in eventually). I don't see anyone bringing back pollen today; a lot of workers are doing what looks like orientation flights; probably getting used to the new location? Anyway, we'll see if they recover; Even if the queen has escaped my vacuum, they certainly have some eggs and young larvae in there; i think they should be able to raise a new queen. I'll watch their progress. I hope they survive, I was really impressed by the progress they made inside the wall. Their code name will be Asbestos Woodpeckers

The swarm trap I left in Higiland Springs has a swarm settled in; I see some of the foragers bringing back pollen. I think I'll leave them there for now, and then move them to an empty hive at the Longer Table farm

The swarm trap on my porch is seeing a lot of scout activity since Saturday, but no swarm has moved in yet; there's some fighting happening at the entrance, there's probably 2 swarms in the area looking for a new home. I think one of them should move in soon

P.S. I saw something strange this afternoon - i noticed a while ago that one of the halves of Kerosene Foxes was not very active; today it looked like a swarm was moving inside? or maybe i misinterpreted what happened? i don't want to open it yet, i'll leave them alone for a week and then see if they have queens

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May 1: I've been noticing that Kerosene Foxes have been leaving some discarded pupae (various stages) outside the entrance. Many of the late stage ones seem to have deformed wings. Not a large pile, usually a dozen, on some days a couple dozens; it looks like they're cleaning up brood for varroa infestation

Which is, i would say, probably a good thing? It's a hygienic behavior, after all. Maybe swarming was also a resopnse to rising Varroa levels rather than lack of space

We'll see how they handle things

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May 3: I moved the bees from swarm trap in Highland Springs to a 25 frame hive at the Longer Table farm

Since they need a name, they're going to be Cobalt Badgers

They're a fairly large swarm. Saw some eggs, didn't notice any larvae, but there probably was some under all the bees. Saw the queen, but couldn't take a picture, left the phone in the car. She's a proper grown up queen with a large abdomen, not a recently mated young one

I hope they'll like their new cool hive

Cyanide Sharks were active today, and i had a look inside to see how they're doing. Not great, 2 frames of brood plus one frame with eggs. Propane Marmots only moved into their hive on Apr 9, but they already have 1 frame with drone brood (not full frame, maybe 1/3), 3 frames of worker brood, one with worker eggs. Cyanide Sharks will need to be requeened at the first opportunity

Speaking of Propane Marmots, the Langstroth frame they had has some unhatched brood that's overdue

the circle seems to imply that they're roughly of the same age? something went wrong on a specific day; were they of a certain age when something bad happened? maybe they were chilled? To be clear, this frame was full of brood. So it looks like the center has hatched, and the outside has hatched (or was relocated/removed? i'm not sure)

I checked brood on the Layens frames, and it has a good healthy pattern. On one frame the middle has hatched and now has new eggs. I guess this frame got a bit neglected. Anyway, I decided to remove it

Also, the bees turned my Langstroght conversion shelf into a piece of bee art

I also noticed that Asbestos Woodpeckers are bringing in a normal amount of pollen now. I'll check their queen status next week whenever the weather gets warm

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May 6: Checked Ethanol Wolves this weekend; the hive is empty, maybe has 50 bees in it. Several hatched queen cells, one unhatched. Looks like they have absconded as soon as they made a new queen. I wonder why, they seemed to be happy at this location

They left behind a considerable amount of honey; ants are now all over it. I left some borax traps and generously applied diatomaceous earth behind the hive; that should slow the ants down. I should get replacement bees asap. no robber bees. I sealed the hive so it doesn't get robbed by the neighbors

I'll see if Methane Wolves are ready for a split. If not, i'll probably try to split the Copper Foxes? They're strong. Though to be honest i was thinking of not opening their hive again and letting them focus on honey

The swarm trap on my front porch has some scout activity (though reduced after the storm this weekend). The box in Highland springs has a lot of scouts at the entrance; if I'm lucky, maybe I'll have a new swarm by the weekend? i could use one

I also hanged a new swarm trap in Highland Springs this evening, on the other side of the lake, about 1.5 miles away from the first one. Accidentally found a tree with a feral bee colony. Placed the new swarm trap around 100 yards away, hopefully that's enough

Kerosene Foxes keep piling up discarded pupae at the entrance. I hope swarming has allowed them to cleanse from the varroa infection they had, or whatever that was

It was a little chilly today; tomorrow it will be a little warmer, i'll try to have a look inside the Asbestos Woodpeckers box; I'm still concerned they're bringing in less pollen than i would expect; though they definitely do bring some

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May 7: Today i looked into the box of Asbestos Woodpeckers for the first time after the cutout. Didn't see the queen, but found some larvae

This means their queen is alive and well

Also, the 2 frames that had cutout comb have been repaired in a very crooked way (as i expected). I'll need to remember to remove those frames together when I transfer them into the hive

I'm really tempted to have a look inside the Kerosene Foxes hive, but I shouldn't open it till at least this weekend. The queens might or might not have started laying; I suspect they might, I see pollen coming in into both openings. I believe they should be good, but I think I should try to be patient

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May 8: I checked the swarm traps in Highland Springs during lunch break today. The newly placed trap at the southern tip of the lake seems to already have a swarm inside. I haven't seen anyone bringing pollen, but they go in and out with determination, not poking around like scouts. Also i got stung in the forehead; I have a feeling these bees might be a little on the mean side. Anyway, I'll figure out what to do with them later. I'll check again probably next week to make sure they're bringing in pollen

The swarm trap at the old place where I caught Cobalt Badgers has a lot of scout activity, but no swarm yet. Maybe soon, if I'm lucky. I want a colony to merge with Cyanide Sharks who are underperforming, but I don't want the mean bees. I think the mean swarm I'll probably take to the Longer Table farm and put them in the far corner where they can help pollinate without harassing anyone

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May 12: Yesterday i moved Asbestos Woodpeckers into Al's hive; i guess they're Ethanol Woodpeckers now

There was a lot of collapsed comb. The bees have chewed away the rubber bands that were holding the cutout comb on frames, so it all fell to the bottom of the hive

Well, there was enough brood on the newly built comb.. I hope the bees will recover. The transition has gone pretty peacefully. My biggest concern is that the hive is getting a lot of attention from the ants.. i hope the bees will sort it out somehow. I tried ordering ant resistant hive supports, I hope they'll help

Opened the Kerosene Foxes hive today; couldn't spot the queen in one half, but saw eggs; good pattern, doesn't look like drone laying workers; No larvae yet, but I'll check 3 days later if the. I will assume the queen is there somewhere

Other half of the hive has a bit of larvae (including some capped), and eggs; the pattern of the larvae isn't very impressive, a small circle with inconsistent age; but maybe the young queen is still figuring things out

Also spotted the queen, here's a picture

I hope she starts laying for reals soon. Both colonies in the hive are not very strong at the moment

There's more bees on other frames btw, it's not like there's no workers, they should have enough bees to bounce back

I'll have to monitor their progress closely

I've also brought back the 2 swarm traps from lake Pilsbury. They were empty, of course, but i guess i figured out what was missing - looks like bees need an empty cavity inside the swarm trap; so ideal configuration is 1 old dark frame and 5 frames with 1/3 - 1/4 foundation. this seems to work. Those boxes had full foundation on each frame; bees seem to ignore them when they're too full

I've also picked up the bix with a swarm from Highland Springs and put them next to Cyanide Sharks. I'm going to move them into the hive, have them separate inside the hive for a week or two, then merge them. That's what happens to bees who fail their performance review. I'll keep the name, but I'm planning to remove the original Cyanide Sharks queen and leave them with the swarm queen

I haven't looked inside the swarm trap yet, but that box was heavy.

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May 13: Took down the box from the northern tip of Highland Springs lake. That box was heavy

Put it next to the hive. Was a little concerned about lack of activity at the box entrance

Moved the colony into the hive with Cyanide Sharks. That box was packed with bees

Saw eggs on 2 frames; no larvae, but i didn't shake the bees off the frames, it's possible there was some

Spotted the queen, but she has hidden somewhere while i was turning on the camera, so no picture. But she's very pretty

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May 15: Inspected Kerosene Foxes again, found second queen

Here's a picture of 2 sister queens side by side

There's larvae in both halves; I think they'll be fine

I'll leave them alone and give them a chance to regain strength

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May 17: Inspected Cyanide Sharks and Propane Marmots today. No pictures this time, sorry

Propane Marmots are doing great. I gave them a couple new frames with foundations

Cyanide Sharks (the new swarm) has a lot of larvae, but no capped brood (well maybe a couple cells of capped brood), but this is a plausible timeline. I forgot i only brought them in this Monday, it felt like it was weeks

Also, this Sunday May 12 I hanged a swarm trap on a tree by the Eel River; it felt like the kind of forest where bees would thrive. Well, the tree was apparently surrounded by a growth of poison oak, which i realized only when I got down. The last few days have been very painful.. And if i do get bees in there, i should go back there and get them off the tree? I'm wondering if I should just leave the box there and write off the loss

Update later same day: i think a swarm just moved into the box on my front porch when i went for a walk. I saw an increase in scout activity since yesterday and was hoping to film it when the swarm moves in.. but looks like they picked a moment when i was away

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May 20: Inspected all of the Santa Rosa bees

Everyone is doing well, except for Methane Wolves who have a lot of pupating queen cells; I've never seen this many. There's at least 30. I decided not to destroy them, but there's a lot of bees and a lot of brood in the hive, they're definitely planning to swarm again; I've split them inside the hive, hopefully that will stop them

Spotted the new queen of Ammonia Foxes; took some pictures, but none are very good. Here's one where you can see her giant butt

Ethanol Woodpeckers have been saved from the ants with the power of welding!

The little cups at the base are filled with water and a bit of oil on top, so the ants can't get across

Now it's up to the bees to recover. I hope they'll do well

Full account of bees, so I don't forget

One more thing - the swarm trap I have on my porch definitely has a swarm now. Not sure when they moved in, on May 17 they were probably still scouts, I didn't see anyone there that night, but now the box definitely has bees inside. I haven't seen any pollen coming in yet, but it's expected. Also I have one more box on a tree in Highland Springs that has bees inside; Plus there's a box by the Eel river, but it's surrounded by poison oak; I don't feel like recovering that one, if bees move into it they can have it. So 2 boxes of backup bees so far

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May 22: The lack of activity outside the Kerosene Foxes hive was discouraging; i decided to have a look inside. There were very few workers left. Last time i looked inside, my impression was 'this is not a lot, but i've seen smaller swarms recover'

Now there's too few workers. Too many of the bees i've seen last time must have been old. At least one queen is still alive, but brood pattern is not great - they probably don't have enough nurses to properly care for them. I combined the 2 halves, maybe together they will pull through. Also good thing I have a box of backup bees in the forest, time to move them in. I'll bring them over this evening

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May 23: Got the box from Highland Springs and settled them into the Kerosene Foxes hive

Not a huge swarm, but still pretty solid, 4 frames of bees, 2 frames of brood, a lot of it capped. A bit of a shotgun pattern in the brood, but not too bad, i think they'll figure things out

Spotted the queen, here she is

The young Kerosene Foxes queen is still in the same hive, but i don't have a lot of hope that her colony will recover.. I guess i should rename the colony to Kerosene Skunks

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May 24: Checked the swarm in a box on my front porch; they don't have a name yet, just 'backup bees'. Lots of comb construction, lots of eggs. Haven't seen any larvae yet, but spotted the queen. She's very pretty

Also, went to Highland Springs to check the swarm trap today. The box I left 2 days ago already has a lot of scouts, I expect the swarm to move in in a few days. Hanged another box at the other end of the lake

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May 27: 2 days ago I went to check the swarm trap on Scotts Valley Road that I haven't checked since early April. I haven't had much hope for it, since it didn't have an empty cavity in it like i later learned to make. I thought I wanted to take it down, since I already have more than enough bees

Imagine my surprise when I found that there was actually a colony of bees living inside

Had to come back at sunset to recover them. Placed them in the far end of the plot here in Lakeport. Will have to move them somewhere soon. No name for now, just 'Scotts Valley bees'

Had a look inside yesterday; Good amount of brood, doesn't look like it's been hatching yet, so I'll assume they've been living in a box for around 2 weeks. No risk of swarming any time soon

Checked all other bees in Lakeport. Kerosene Foxes have collapsed and been robbed; not completely unexpected, Kerosene Skunks are healthy and strong.

Propane Marmots are very strong, an exemplary colony. I gave them 2 extra frames to grow

Cyanide Sharks (the new swarm side) have walls of brood; really impressive. The new bees should start hatching in a week

Weather forecast looks like there's a heat wave coming on Thursday. I think I'll open the central entrance for the Propane Marmots on Wednesday evening.. and will probably merge the two halves of Cyanide Sharks around the same time

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May 28: I did switch Propane Marmots to middle entrance, as I planned

Also found the old queen of Cyanide Sharks and removed her. This is her last picture before she went into the freezer

This is the first time I had to kill a queen. It didn't feel good, but she was really underperforming, and I wanted to make sure the bees don't pick her over the new queen

I hope they don't kill the good queen by mistake. There were no signs of fighting during the merge, so I really hope they will be ok. The hive went back to foraging immediately, they all figured out they needed to use middle entrance in no time.. I think they'll be fine. I'll need to check them during the weekend to confirm the queen status

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June 03: Checked all the Lakeport hives today

Kerosene Skunks look healthy; I've removed the divider board between the 2 colonies, but didn't fully merge them, will let them get used to each other's smell for another day; We have a heat wave starting tomorrow, I'll merge them and switch to central entrance for better ventilation

Propane Marmots are good, but don't need new frames so far

Cyanide Sharks are very good, drawn out comb on all frames now; I've given them 3 more frames, so now they have all 20; Now I'll try to not bother them unnecesarily

Also, saw the queen and brood of all ages; this means they've accepted the new queen, and she's laying. Check out her huge butt

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Jun 09: Drove to Santa Rosa to check all the hives. Things were worse than I expected

Ammonia Foxes have been obliterated

How could that happen? there's no bears near Santa Rosa, right?

Wrong:

(Footage from wildlife camera nearby, provided by Peter the land owner)

Most of the frames have some damage, but mostly it's the wire so i can salvage them. I'll need to melt the wax and make new foundations too

I have some backup bees, but I probably should make the hive stand bear proof.. i could probably add some rebar, either hammered into the ground or just laying on the ground so the stand can't be tipped over

Copper Foxes, to my surprise, have very few bees in the hive.. they also have 3 frames of brood of all stages, including eggs, and a lot of honey

So.. I'm not sure what happened there. Either they very recently swarmed (but then a lot of workers left with the swarm), or they swarmed a long time ago and are about to start gaining strength? I haven't seen the queen, but maybe they got a new one?

They had too much honey for such a small colony. I gave a most of their honey to Silver Porcupines, who are very strong and at least don't have a threat of being robbed

Didn't open Methane Wolves this time, but they have some activity outside the hive. Their 2 queens should have hatched by now, and probably going on mating flights. I'll let them do that in privacy

At the Longer Table farm, both Vermillion  Foxes and Cobalt Badgers are very healthy. Cobalt Badgers were in a mean mood, I got stung 4 times

So, this is the status of Santa Rosa hives for today

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Jun 23: I've not posted updates for a bit, but here's the news

I've welded some rebar to the stand of the Ammonia hive to make it impossible to tip over; moved one of my backup colonies from Highland Springs into the hive on June 18. Land owner has let me know that fresh bear droppings have been spotted on the property, but the hive is intact and the bees are well. Let's hope things stay this way

They need a new name, since they do not have the Foxes gene line anymore; I think they'll have to be Ammonia Bears

I've checked Ethanol Woodpeckers this weekend, looks like they are recovering well; There's a good number of bees, decent forager activity, healthy brood patterns; Also I've finally spotted their elusive queen

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Jun 29: Went to Santa Rosa to check all the hives. Everyone is healthy, most hives have a nice amount of honey

Methane Wolves have successfully requeened, both of hive halves have walls of brood. Also the divider board has shifted and the bees were going back and forth between the halves. Haven't spotted the queens, but they're both there

Cobalt Badgers were traditionally mean. Everyone else was nice

Ammonia Bears still have some shotgun brood pattern, but otherwise seem ok. I'll give them some more time to figure things out

All Lakeport bees are very strong

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July 27: I haven't written an update in a while, but everyone is fine; all hives are healthy and busy (except for the Ammonia Bears who seem to be slowing down, but that's normal for that area)

On the Longer Table farm i checked the pollinator rows to see what flowers the bees prefer this time of year; looks like Cynoglossum amabile is everyone's favorite; tamarisk and various asteraceae are also very popular

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Sep 13: I haven't written an update in a while, but everything's been fine

Last time i checked the hives before I went on vacation some time in late August, and my observation was that  Ammonia Bears and Copper Foxes were slowing down; but today they're very active again, lots of foragers bringing back pollen. All hives are healthy and active. I only performed outside inspection, didn't open any of the hives, bees are rather agressive this season, but everyone seems very healthy

In August the most popular flower was goldenrod; Now rosemary is blooming, and bees clearly like it more than anything else

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Sep 26: I've been noticing that Kerosene Skunks and Propane Marmots have been slowing down a lot. Opened their hives today, and it looked like they were really ravaged by varroa - very few bees, salt and pepper brood pattern, some bees with deformed wings crawling around. It was obvious they weren't going to make it

I took all the heavy frames they had and extracted the honey this evening. around 50 pounds total, not bad for 2 of the weekest hives.The honey is very dark, and water content is 16%. I'll have to make a batch of mead in a couple weeks

Then at sunset I sealed them in and threw a sulfur candle into each hive. I hate euthanizing bees, but if I let them keep going, they would have been robbed soon and spread the varroa load

The sulfur should have killed varroa as well; Tomorrow i'll open the hives and let the neighborhood bees rob them (I've collected all the heavy frames, but there's plenty of frames with a bit of honey on top)

The last Lakeport hive, Cyanide Sharks, is still very strong

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Oct 05: Went to check the bees in Santa Rosa. Everyone seems fine

Ammonia Bears are healthy and active; they even have a couple frames of pure honey, but mostly uncapped for now, so it's too early to harvest it; I'll see if I decide to harvest their honey in November, or just leave it to them; after all they don't have a lot of rosemary in their area, so they'll probably be unable to forage much from November to February

At the Four Oaks farm i saw that all hives had significant honey reserves, so I decided i could take some now. I'll still come back in early November to take more. So far I took 9 frames; I didn't write down how many frames came from each hive, but I know that Silver Porcupines had more than others, but Methane Wolves and Copper Foxes also had a decent amount

I also visited the Longer Table farm, and saw that Vermillion Foxes and and Cobalt Badgers seemed to be doing fine (lots of foragers on the outside), but felt too tired to open their hives (plus it was getting too hot). I'll collect their honey in late October or November i guess

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Oct 06: Extracted the Santa Rosa honey today; got around 40 pounds

Gave the frames to local bees; wanted to get the honey from the Cyanide Sharks, but the bees seem very agitated after finding free honey nearby; decided not to open the hive today after all

But i got some footage of bees cleaning up the empty frames

Also, i heard Ethanol Woodpeckers are doing well, or so it looks from the outside

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Oct 08: Yesterday I finally got the honey from Cyanide Sharks. They were very sweet and well behaved

Lots of healthy brood, lots of honey, lots of bees. They are my favorite hive/gene line now

Honestly, I've never seen a hive so full of honey. Frame after frame, completely filled up and very straight

2 of the frames have broken up while I was dragging them uphill in a plastic tote (it was a very hot day, wax must have softened up), so I had to cut them up and use the wine press.. didn't enjoy it, too messy. Will be more careful with frames in the future

So, now i have 9 full buckets (135 pounds, i think), plus half a bucket, a few jars and i think i gave away 6 jars so far (pint jars, 23.5 ounces), so I guess I harvested more than 150 pounds this year, and this is not the end, I wouldn't be surprised if I get at least 100 more in November: the hives at the Four Oaks farm should have some honey left, I haven't opened the 2 hives at the Longer Table farm, and I suspect they have plenty, and also Ethanol Woodpeckers in Vallejo should have a good amount, maybe not as much as last year, since they had a bit of a late start, but should still be a decent amount. Plus maybe Cyanide Sharks will have a little more after I let them rob the 2 euthanized hives; the bees there have all been dead for over a week, and varroa should not be able to survive more than a week without bees, so they should be safe to rob

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Nov 01: I was a little too busy to post updates lately, but everything as been fine

I went to harvest honey from the 2 hives at Longer Table Farm in Santa Rosa

Both colonies seem healthy and strong

I've only managed to collect 52 pounds (counted after jarring). I was hoping for a little more, but I guess that's a reasonable amount, given that they had a somewhat late start (Vermillion Foxes on Apr 27 and Cobalt Badgers on May 3)

After removing the honey from hives, I saw some robbing frenzy at the Cobalt Badgers hive, they were attacked pretty badly.. I heard bees might get agitated after honey removal and that might lead to robbing, but this is the first time I'm witnessing it. Anyway, they're a strong hive with a lot of bees, I hope they will repel the attackers, and the attacking hive will soon calm down

Also, I stated the Lakeport and Santa Rosa batches of mead (Lakeport on Oct 26, Santa Rosa on Oct 30).  Both fermenters are happily bubbling, no weired smells so far

I'll be harvesting Vallejo honey from Ethanol Woodpeckers this Sunday Nov 03

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Nov 04: Checked the Ethanol Woodpeckers yesterday. They are very healthy and strong, and very well behaved, as usual. Collected 6 frames of honey, some full some mostly full. Finished jarring the honey today, I got 15 pound bucket for mead and 20.25 pounds worth of small jars. Not bad overall

I'm going to Santa Rosa tomorrow, I'm sure there must be some honey left at the Four Oaks farm. Also I'll need to give some honey to the land owners and make sure all hives are ready for winter

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Nov 05: went to Santa Rosa today

Ammonia Bears have a lot of bees, and good honey reserves. I could harvest some, but decided to leave it to them

Saw their queen, can you spot her?

I couldn't find any brood though. Not unhealthy half hatched brood like in case of varroa, just nothing. Maybe they're already done hatching winter bees? I know in Vallejo they had a lot of brood just 2 days ago, but their area doesn't have a lot of forage now, so maybe they went into winter mode early. I'll see if they're ok in Spring. I have good feeling about them, they're good tough bees

Cobalt Badgers and Vermillion Foxes seem healthy and ready for winter, i hope they'll be good in Spring

Copper Foxes, to my surprise, are dead. Last month they were healthy and strong, now it looks like they succumbed to Varroa and were mostly robbed by the time i got inside the hive

The other two colonies near them seem alive and healthy so far, but we'll see how they are in February. I'm afraid they might have picked up some mite load

I've collected a good amount of honey from the 2 hives at the Four Oaks. Running the extractor now

Full list of colonies going into winter:

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Nov 06: Finished jarring the honey tonight

Got 57 pounds in jars

I'm going to donate a box (24 small jars, 18 pounds total) to a local charity, like last year

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Nov 08: yesterday i checked inside the Cyanide Sharks hive; lots of bees, lots of honey (though mostly uncapped). Took 6 frames of honey that were mostly capped, finished extraction today, got 34.5 pounds in jars

I suspected they might have been honeybound, so i left them 3 frames with empty comb. I didn't see any brood, but i suspect they've already hatched the winter bees. Didn't see the queen, but there were so many bees it was easy to miss her

And this concludes the honey harvest this year. According to my notes, i've harvested 328 pounds

Not bad. 45 pounds went into mead, 18 will be donated to Lake County Gleaners, i've given away a lot to friends, neighbors, and land owners, but i still have a lot left. I'll have to think of a way to sell it

You might notice that the numbers got more accurate in November; on October i've mostly been counting small buckets (15 pounds) before jarring; By November I have upgraded my extraction setup, bought 2 large buckets with a honey faucet and a large sieve, now i run the honey through the sieve into the buckets, and then pour into jars from the bucket. Much more convenient, and I only count the honey in jars

Cyanide Sharks produced 95.5 pounds, which is a lot; from that amount, 60 pounds is honest honey, but the second harvest was mostly from robbing the euthanized hives and licking clean the frames after extraction

I really hope Cyanide Sharks survive winter, they have the best genetics and I'm doing a lot of splits next year

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Nov 17: Finally made a batch of mead from Vallejo honey today

I think waiting 2 weeks after honey extraction was the right idea; the 2 batches i made of Lakeport and Santa Rosa honey had no funky smell at all. I have a good feeling about this year's mead

Lakeport honey has for the most part done fermenting, there's almost no bubbling in the airlock, but I'll keep it in the fermentor for at least another month so it clarifies a little before i rack it

Santa Rosa mead is still fermenting, airlock smells very good

Vallejo mead just started fermenting

Also, I only have 2 aging 5 gallon carboys, I guess I'll have to buy at least one more, plus some oak chips for aging

Recipe was similar for all 3 batches:

 - Honey: around 15 pounds, enough to bring gravity to 1100

 - Yeast: 71B (I was very generous with yeast, 3 packets per batch, to make sure wild yeast doesn't stand a chance)

 - Yeast nutrient: 10 grams of nutritional yeast powder (didn't have enough Fermaid O, decided that yeast powder is pretty much the same thing)

Let's hope it works out, I want to impress everyone at the Lake county home wine festival

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Dec 28: Lakeport mead has stopped bubbling a while ago, so i took a gravity reading. It's at 995, so it's now officially dry, and if there is any sugar left it's very little. Tastes pretty good already, but clarity has room for improvement. I've taken the fermenter to the basement downstairs, will let it attenuate a little before i transfer it into an aging vessel. I have high expectations for this batch

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Jan 20: Saw the first orientation flight of the year at the Cyanide Sharks hive

Based on my observation of foragers bringing in pollen, it looks like the queen started laying eggs around equinox, so I guess this is the correct time for the new generation of bees to be learning to fly

Manzanita and maple are blooming now, almonds will probably start blooming in a week as well

I decided not to open the hive till some time in early February

I know Ethanol Woodpeckers were being active as well; Will check the Santa Rosa hives in February