Jacs' Beekeeping Journey: 3: 3rd/4th ++ Experience

Three days in a row now, I've experienced something bee-related, I just can't seem to contain my interest!

Sunday 8/22, I talked an elderly gentleman from the church I’ve been attending and he said he needed to check on someone else’s hives and would see if I could join him. He asked if I had a bee-suit, NOT YET!

I’m still waiting am thinking I’ll hear back from him about it tomorrow (8/25) which will make it 4 days in a row!

Monday 8/23, I was blessed to have my 3rd and 4th beekeeping experience with my friend. So, I've mentioned this friend, but not by name but now have her permission to share. I met Lacey Schwab and her family a few years ago and have come to value her dearly in multiple faucets.

This is her first year beekeeping and she has been the one who has welcomed me into the world. I appreciated her humility and honesty as she told me, "I'll show you what to not do." and "We can learn together". I think I may have been intimidated otherwise. I've come to discover this is due to my ever developing bee religion.

Side Note: I mentioned in my previous blog post:

Well, I’m a Christian, but when it comes to beekeeping, I’m going the Buddhist route. 👩🏻‍🦰 + ✝️ = ❤️ 🐝 + ☸️ = 🍯

Redacted.

As I looked into it extensively (3 google searches), I've come to the following conclusion:

I am still a Christian, that has holding firm.
👩🏻‍🦰 + ✝️ = ❤️

However, when it comes to beekeeping, I'm taking the Hinduism route.

🐝 + 🛕 = 🍯

Anyway, back to my point my experience at Lacey’s house on Monday morning.

We jumped right into it, and when I say "we", it was a family affair.

Her husband was at work, but all 3 of her kids were involved and helping out. Lacy's eldest, Piper (age 9, pictured below in the pink coat), was especially involved and helpful.

I hadn't really thought about beekeeping as a great educational and family bonding opportunity, but it is for the Schwabs! Now, granted, the Schwab kids are quite well behaved and immediately obedient, which I love. But, if the family dynamic were different, I would imagine beekeeping may not be a great idea. But it was such a blessing to see those kiddos involved.

Piper was a fantastic smoker!

(Not something a person usually boasts about a 9-year-old, but c'mon, CONTEXT people!)

She knew where and when to smoke, where to move, and when a bee landed on her and she let out a very natural "EEK!", she responded immediately to her mother's calm reminder that she cannot react that way to the bees.

When I get my bees, Piper can be my smoker anytime!

(She'll be 10 by then, it's cool).

It was a great lesson for me to realize how much kids can learn about the environment, biology, safety, and critical thinking, while spending quality family time together.

Anyway, back to the bees. 👩🏻‍🦰🎯🐝

Did I mention that I had decided that I wanted to get stung? Yes, it had been years since I'd been stung by anything and wanted to have the reminder of what it felt like because I've been fearless! I also wanted to be sure there was no allergic reaction. Well, of course I would never be foolish enough to provoke the bees, but I did take off the gloves and boldly got in there to do what was needed. What do y'all think, did I get stung?

I was not around for the previous one or even two hive inspections, so there was a noticeable difference between her 2 hives.

First, her left colony was now up to 3 boxes, her right colony were still at 2.

Much like ones pictured below:

As bees store their excess honey, they tend to move up, and both colonies were started at the same time. The bees in the left hive are certainly not aggressive, but understandably protective. They are also productive. The top box had lots of honey.

The right hive did not have the same level of productivity. Lacey asked her mentor about it and he said that the hive's docile behavior was due to the queen and suggested replacing her. Well, Lacey decided, no, and I agree with her decision.

Those are the sweetest bees ever! For me, they're more like pets and if circumstances permitted, I'd just keep a friggen farm of sweet docile bees just to hang out with them!

In fact, I rescued this tiny beauty who had stowed away back into the house, so I took her back outside. She hung out with me on my hand like that for like, 5 minutes! I thought she may have been injured, but she didn't look it- just wanted a friend. I seriously did not want to put her back, but I did...eventually.

Well, when we got into that docile hive, we found some major red flag warnings that something was off.

still many empty frames, like they were just put there
almost no new honey, minimal nectar, some brood (babies)
not 1 but 2 predators in the hive itself and the ladies just let them be there; a wasp landed in the open hive and they didn't care (they normally kill them), a spider had actually made a web within one of the frames!

The predators were the biggest worry, so we searched for the queen.

She's usually easy to find, but we didn't find her.

The sweet ladies lost their sweet queen! 👑🐝💀😱

The workers had even raised a new queen cell that we removed before we realized they actually needed it. Yikes!

A call to Lacey's mentor and then we went out again to try and remedy the situation. We took a frame from the 3 box colony that contained eggs, we spritzed the frame with diluted peppermint oil to temporarily neutralize the pheromones, then put it next to the sweet queenless colony's brood. This way, the sweet bees will raise a new queen and we won't remove it!

Since the sweet bees are raising their new queen rather than introducing a new one, they'll likely have a new sweet queen...at least I think so.

I now understand why it is so important to start with at least 2 hives! When one needs something that the other can provide, it's an immediate resource. I thought it was mainly to have a point of comparison for the beginning beekeeper- nope!

Jeez, I have so much to learn.

Today, Tuesday 8/24, I went to the state fair. I haven't attended in years but wanted to go not only for the usual attractions, but mainly because....well, the bees!

The Inland Empire Beekeepers Association (IEBA) is running a booth and had observation hives, kind of like this:

It was the first thing Kimmy and I saw when we entered the fair and I was so excited; I almost get manic with bee talk!

We chatted with a lovely young lady who was explaining her parent's honey farm. She shared her parent's contact info, but I couldn't find their website. She said the name of their business is Hamilton Hives. She was so pleasant and encouraging, I enjoyed the conversation a lot. She also showed us their basket they entered into the fair and won first place!

Ummm, I don't know what it takes, but I want that basket.

So, I got all manic, chatted with Brenna, bought some honey, got some literature, and plan on taking a class from the IEBA in February.

I'm not sure if I should become a member before the class and show up to their meetings, or wait. We'll see!

I think I'm going to post at least 1 picture from this site each time I blog.

This is the same photographer that captured the shot of Muse.

Daily Bee: A new bee photo every day! https://bees.photo/