First Hive Check

 

Bee Whyld bee yard

The Bee Whyld team ventured out on Monday afternoon to do the first hive check. The new hives have had a few days to settle in, and foraging bees are already busy bringing rich, Yukon pollen in. 

Brood box brimming with honey bees

We were happy to find all the hives brimming with bees. These hives are early splits from the Vancouver area. It is apparent these colonies are quite a few weeks ahead of our Yukon ones.

Jess smoking bees before removing the top box

With Liz’s New Zealand beekeeping tips and tricks, everyone became pretty adept at opening and inspecting the hives. The smoker came in handy to keep the bees calm.

Joel holding a full honey frame

Those industrious worker bees have been busy collecting nectar and have already created full frames of honey. These frames will remain in the larger brood boxes. This honey will be left for the bees to eat.

Courtney searching for the queen on a very busy brood frame

Frames that are situated in the middle of the box tend to be brood frames. Brood patterns were examined while keeping a watchful eye out for the all-important queen bee.

One of our beautiful queen bees in the centre of the picture

It’s always exciting to find the queen bee. These are beautiful hybrid queens. They do not have a solid black, or orange, abdomen. A hybrid queen can produce orange or black drones. There were plenty examples of both.

Younger larva in top left, older larva bottom right, capped pupa in centre

Frames are gently removed with hopes of spotting the queen. If the queen remains elusive, then signs that she is hard at work is enough. This is evident when eggs and larva in various stages of development are present in numerous cells.

Feeding the bees

Finally, before closing up the hive a sugar/water mixture is poured into the in-hive feeder. This is to sustain the bees until the Yukon flowers are in full bloom.

There is simply something magical about spending an afternoon surrounded by thousands of buzzing honey bees.

Bears and Bees

Courtney and Joel with setup split hives

Two of Bee Whyld’s hives came through the winter particularly strong. When this happens, there is always the chance of an early swarm. To prevent this occurrence, and to hang onto our bees, we split both of these strong hives.

To split, a couple frames full of brood (capped larva), along with the attending nurse bees, were moved from the strong hive into an empty brood box. Frames with honey and pollen were also added, including the bees present on these frames. A queen bee, still in her cage, was the final addition. These two new hives were moved to the farm.

The following day, the doors were removed from the queen cages allowing the workers access to eat through the ‘candy’ and release their new queen. She will begin to lay eggs and a new colony will be in fair shape by the time the Fireweed blooms.

Or so we thought … Unfortunately, someone had other plans …

 

Yukon black bear

After a call about a bear in the hives, Liz was recruited to check the damage. Armed with her bee suit, a fresh super of honey, and a large can of bear spray, she ventured out.

This is the scene that greeted her upon her arrival.

 

Bear devastated honey bee hives

Despite popular belief, bears aren’t after the honey as much as they are after the protein-filled larva. Honey is simply a sweet bonus.

Damage assessed and slowing putting it back together

Numerous frames were broken and the foundation removed. Some were licked so clean you would not have known there had been wax, larva, pollen and honey there only a few short hours before.

All the brood has been eaten by the bear

Here is one of the partially gnawed on frames. A lot of the wax and honey are gone, as is the entire brood. The yellow is some remaining pollen.

Lots of dead bees litter the area

You can also see piles of valiant worker bees that died trying to save their hive. Even though the bees would have attacked the bear’s face. They are not much of a match for a hungry bear.

Smart bees saved their queen under the pallet

Beginning the job of cleanup, Liz spotted a small group of bees under the pallet. If one of the queens survived, there would be hope of putting at least one hive back together. As she gently scooped the bees and placed them in a reconstructed box, the queen bee flew up and landed on her face screen! Despite a very cautious attempt, the queen flew away before she could catch her. With thoughts of simply returning the surviving bees to their original hive, the clean up continued.

A queen cage

Under an overturned lid … a queen cage … a wet, dirty, no doubt traumatized, but still alive, queen inside. Liz opened her cage and into the hive with the remaining bees she went.

Their new home

The surviving bees and queen in a reconstructed hive safe from bears (I hope) in my yard.

The queen bee 

A day later, dry and clean, our queen with her attendants and other workers surrounding her.

The season has just begun and hopefully this colony can make a complete recovery after a disastrous start.

Bee Whyld Yukon Update

Four spring bee hives

Dandelion

Spring Crocuses

It’s spring!! The dandelions have been out for a couple weeks now, and just last week we came across a number of my favorite flowers, crocuses!! Bees love both of these early flowers!!

In a beekeeper’s world, spring is a busy time. Before too much is actually done with the bees, there is a little time to build/repair boxes, frames and other equipment for the busy honey-producing season to come. This is exactly what’s been happening at Bee Whyld.

New Equipment

Unpacking the new extractor

It’s pretty exciting when new equipment arrives. This year it is in the form of an electric, 20-frame extractor, or honey spinner! Everyone who experienced last year’s harvest with our little two-frame hand spinner can dearly appreciation the huge contribution this piece of equipment will make to this year’s, hopefully much larger, harvest!

Preparation for Our New Bee Hives

The designer and carpenter

End of the day

With the arrival of 60 new hives scheduled for later this month, the Bee Whyld Team (including the recruitment of a couple friends – thank you Leatha and Emily) has been very busy in the shop building and painting supers (honey boxes).

Assembly line team work

With access to Liz’s bee-keeping expertise from New Zealand, we plan to try our hand at splitting a few of the stronger hives this spring. As a result, additional brood boxes (where the queen lays eggs) were also added to the assembly line.

School Tour

Honey bee presentation in progress

Bee Whyld was honored to spend a day at Johnson Elementary School in Watson Lake, Yukon. The students learned about all the jobs in a beehive, the role of the queen bee, worker bee and drone bee, and the role of the beekeeper. Everyone got to peek in a beehive (minus the bees!) and try his/her hand at running the extractor. And, of course, there was honey to taste. Our delectable, local Fireweed Honey was deemed the favorite and the very different Dandelion Honey received mixed reviews.

Signed by all the students

Sharing our passion of honey bees with six different classes of enthusiastic students made for a fun and fulfilling day.

Candle Making

Candle making is back in full swing. I decided to try some charcoal filtered wax for some white candles. I still think my preference is the more traditional yellow beeswax. With yellow beeswax on order, both yellow and white candles will be available for sale shortly.

Yellow and white beeswax candles

The Bees

Four of our six hives survived the winter. The queens have been busy creating numerous frames of brood. The brood boxes were rotated and a super added last week. Tons of pollen is being carried  in daily, and with the early dandelions, the first honey of 2016 is already in production.