Bees - Step 1

I apologize for the quick succession of blog posts, but things have been happening and I want to keep up.  I mentioned several months ago that I was going to get a bee hive.  In the meantime I mentioned this to a friend who said she knew just the fellow to give me any help I needed.  His name is Aurel and he lives close by.  He makes his living with bees--leasing them out to pollinate orchards in different parts of the country.  He came over once, shook his head at my 'hobby' hive, told me the additional things I would need, and showed me where the hive should go.  Not to look lovely in my meadow as I had planned--but to the spot with the longest hours of sunshine--near the grapes and my fruit tree saplings. 

This is Aurel--yesterday he brought me a 5-frame nuc he'd made for me

I was going to order a box of bees shipped to me.  But Aurel said I'd get a head start if I started with a nuc.  A nuc is a number of brooding frames (where the eggs are laid and hatched) from an existing hive that already have bees working on them.  It includes a queen.  Otherwise, I'd have had to add a box of bees to a brood box with empty frames and wait for the queen to start laying eggs.  This would delay my honey making season.  

The variety of bees Aurel brought me are Saskatraz--a specific strain or breed of honeybee that was  developed in Saskatchewan, Canada.  These bees are a hybrid variety that combines genetics from Carniolan bees and Russian bees, two subspecies known for their hardiness and productivity.  Guided natural selection resulted in bees that have a strong resistance to mites, an increased winter survival rate, a gentle temperament, high honey production, and overall good health. 

I have a lot to learn and Aurel is very knowledgable 

On each of the frames in a brood box there are a variety of activities happening simultaneously.  There is some honey stored to supply nourishment.  There are hexagonal cells with worker and drone eggs, each in a different stage of development.  Fertilized eggs will become worker bees (female) or potential queens.  Unfertilized eggs will become drones (male) and are laid in 'drone cells' which are larger cells than those of workers.  A potential queen bee is laid in a special 'queen cell.'  All of these eggs are attended by young (worker) nurse bees that have not yet left the hive (between 5-14 days old).

Somewhere in the midst of all the frames is the queen of the hive.  Aurel showed me how to search for her--gently moving aside the clusters of bees.  Sometimes queens are marked by hive owners with a special paint drop on their backs.  My new queen isn't marked, but they're longer than the workers, and we finally spotted her.  

The queen

A queen lays between 2000 and 3000 eggs a day.  After three days of incubating, the grain of rice-sized egg hatches to reveal a larva.  After six days of larva development, nurse bees will cap the cells with wax for protection.  They then go through a metamorphosis--the larva begins to spin a cocoon around itself and pupate.  It will shed its skin (molt) several times as it grows.  All larva are fed royal jelly for the first 3-4 days.  After that, they are fed jelly according to the caste they belong to--either 'worker jelly' or 'drone jelly'.  Queen bees are fed royal jelly from egg stage throughout their lives.  All of these jellies are secreted from the glands in the head and the salivary glands of the nurse bees.  The final change to adult bee is when they sprout hair and eat their way out of their cells--queens in 16 days, workers 18-22 days, and drones about 24 days.  Baby bees don't require nurturing.  They're ready to go, and know their jobs from the moment they leave the cell.

Here I am, handling and adjusting my first frames of honeybees!  I bought the top half of the gear (no pants) which comes with gloves.  But as I've seen in demonstrations and with Aurel, gloves aren't really necessary and make it more difficult to handle the frames delicately.  And actually--unless the bees are unduly riled up--honeybees are quite docile and aren't looking for trouble.  They land on you, as they would a bush.  I think the jacket and hat are mostly to keep them from unwittingly wandering up a sleeve or down a collar, getting trapped and swatted, and then doing what they're meant to do--protect themselves with their stinger.  

Stay tuned...