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. 

The Scoop on Bee Poop

 

Honey bee hives - early spring

As an apiary tour guide I get asked a lot of interesting questions related to honey bees. One of the most prevalent questions that inquiring minds seem to want to know is … do honey bees poop?

The answer is, yes they do.

A drop of honey bee poop in the snow

All honey bees are very well ‘house trained’ and never poop in their hive. The first order of business as soon as the temperature outside is warm enough to allow flight, is a ‘cleansing’ flight. The snow all around these four hives is covered with little, yellow dots … or honey bee poop.

If cold weather begins in October our little honey bees may have all six legs crossed if spring is late!

Honey bee hive with Nosema

This is absolutely not something any beekeeper wants to see on a hive. This is honey bee diarrhea. It is caused by fungi and is capable of decimating an entire colony in short order. This is Nosema.

If one bee becomes infected with Nosema and has an ‘accident’ in the hive a house cleaning bee immediately cleans up. She is now infected as well. All the bees in the hive can become infected very quickly. Beekeepers can treat for Nosema yearly as a cautionary measure, but there is little to be done once it’s established. The hive and its contents are burned to stop the spread of this devastating disease.

Have you ever seen something that looks like this …

Or this … on your vehicle?

You guessed it, bee poop! It’s sticky business, not nearly as sweet as honey, and takes some real elbow grease to remove!