My Bee Stuff Pile of "Junk (tm)"

As usual, my hobbies tend to generate a lot of clutter. Most of my projects are a WIP – Work in Progress – which usually end up with what my wife would call “Junk ™” that tends to accumulate as my gumption meanders. For most of the year, this merely festers, but with the advent of the holiday season and the imminent visitation from our relatives, these piles of very useful Project Components – “Junk ™” – can become a sore spot in any relationship. So, it’s time to clean things up. Part of that includes assembling the rest of my beehive woodenware and getting that out of the way. Since I don’t have a workshop yet, this stuff tends to accumulate in the dining-room – a room that we really don’t use all that much for most of the year but that becomes a focal point during the holidays. Hence – a huge pile of “Junk ™.”

Stack of hive bodies and telescoping covers being painted.

Step one for that particular pile is to finish the hives and get them outside. After all, the best place to store hive equipment like beehives is out in the bee-yard. I have lotsa empty hives out there already – which attracts swarms in the Spring. So, this weekend has found me painting my boxes and telescoping covers and then I’ll be gluing together the last of my unassembled frames and getting those guys outside as new beehives. That’ll just leave a few items like my tools and extractor that will be much easier to make less visibly obtrusive.

Of course, that’s just one of my piles. I have several others that I’ve also been nibbling at too. It’s amazing how fast this stuff builds up. But my wife has been sorta patient so far – but like anything else, it’s better to not rest on that patience and get that stuff taken care of pronto. While others may see a Spring Cleaning, this represents for me a Holiday Cleaning. It’s dirty work – but someone has to do it.

Honeybee enjoying a Texas Bluebonnet

Up until I got bees, flowers were just pretty colorful things growing on the weeds in my back yard. And until I got bees, I had no idea just how many flowers I had growing back there – and how many there are. There are just a ton of them back there. Always could be more, of course. There are a few that I’ve yet to identify, but I’ll amend this when I do.

For years I hesitated to get bees because it just didn’t seem that there were enough flowers to support them. It’s rather dry here for much of the growing season and part of the time we have lived here was in a pretty extreme drought. However, I finally took the plunge and as I got into bees I seemed to have my eyes opened to just how many flowers were in this area.

Texas Bluebonnet – Lupinus texensis. A yard in Texas isn’t complete without a patch of that growing. This stuff grows in a nice patch on the very worst soil on our property:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/754/

Prairie Bluet - Stenaria nigricans. These are sneaky little plants. They come in early, but are very inconspicuous. The plants are small, and the flowers diminutive. Very pretty. It took me a while to identify this – but there are years before I got bees where I’d walk thru these flowers and I could hear the hum of bees working them – they love them. So now, so do I:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/62754/

Great Plains Verbena – Glandularia bipinnatifida. I’ve yet to see a honeybee on any of these but they’re growing all over the property and deserve an honorable mention:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/62648/

Texas Paintbrush – Castilleja indivisa. This baby comes in shortly after the Bluebonnets make a showing. Usually they’re growing intermixed. They’re lovely flowers that compliment the bluebonnets perfectly.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/62386/

Blue Vetch – Vicia cracca. I’m fairly certain that this is the correct vetch identification – fairly. Close enough for me anyway. Very pretty, and some years very prolific.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/57178/

Cut-leaf Daisy – Engelmannia peristenia. This is a flower that always attracts my bees. I think this one gives them a good jumpstart – lotsa pollen for the brood and surely lotsa nectar. It’s also a very pretty plant and a pretty flower. I have a lot on my property, but I have seen fields in this area that are just totally blanketted with them – something I’ll have to work on here:

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/55987/

Indian Blanket – Gaillardia pulchella. When I see my bees coming in with a red or dark orange pollen, I know that they’ve been working the Indian Blanket patches I have here and that grow in this area. Another stunning plant that’s just gorgeous to look at and one that the bees appear to like as well.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/55987/

Spider Milkweed – Asclepias asperula. This is a very plain milkweed, low growing and often disappears in the low tufts of grass that it grows in. But, the bees seem to like it – I see them working this plant often.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54138/

Texas Thistle – Cirsium texanum. Thistles are not popular to gardeners and landscapers – but aside from their prickly nature, their flowers are attractive and the honeybees really seem to like them. Last year I had a huge patch of them. This year only a few. They seem to come and go with the years.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/62786/

Red and Yellow Coneflower - Ratibida columnifera. Same species but the flowers are very distinctive between the two – and I have both. There are the coneflowers that have straight yellow petals, and the coneflowers that have mostly red petals with yellow rims. Otherwise they look identical. Lovely flower – and one that I’ve seen the bees visit as well.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/801/

Lemon Bee Balm – Monarda citriodora. Another very pretty flower that has made an increasing presense in my yard. I’m hoping that the more exhaustive pollination by the honeybees will help this flower multiply even faster.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/301/

White Horsenettle - Solanum elaeagnifolium. I’ve yet to see a bee visit this flower, but this plant grows reliably regardless of how wet or dry it is here – one of the toughest of the flowering plants that I’ve seen here.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/31750/

Plains Coreopsis – Coreopsis tinctoria. This is another very pretty flower that comes in late Spring. Oddly, I can’t recall ever seeing a honeybee on this flower – but it looks to be a good pollen source at the least.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/31/

Texas Lantana – Lantana horrida. This plant stinks. No really – next to the stink melon, this is the worst smelling plant I’ve come across growing natively here. It just takes walking thru a patch of this and you’ll be happy to get thru it as quick as possible. But the flowers sure are pretty. I have yet to see my bees work these plants either but will keep an eye out for them.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/53836/

Western Ironweed – Vernonia baldwinii. I was going to pull these weeds when I saw them sprouting up by the house – but decided to leave them. I’m happy I did – their blooms are prolific and lovely – and the bees really like them a lot.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1429/

Dandelion – Taraxacum officinale. What landscape is complete without the ubiquitous Dandelion? Long used as the mascot by herbicide companies, this plant is actually a vegetable that just happened to find our environment ideal. While I’ve read that the pollen isn’t the cat’s meow for bees, it makes up for it with rich nectar forage – and you can still batter and fry them flowers afterwards. This plant seems to prefer our front yard over our back yard, but I routinely kick the seed-heads in hopes to spread it out a bit and get more growing. It is variable tho, never overpowering the landscape but rather just giving a scattering of beautiful yellow flowers on a rich green grassy background.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/885/

Sow Thistle – Sonchus asper. This plant is often assumed to be Dandelions by people less interested in plants and more interested in killing weeds. But rather than the cut-leaves of a Dandelion, this plant has spiny leaves like a thistle. Nevertheless, the flowers do bear a remarkable resemblance to the Dandelion, and it is suitable as a pot-herb as well. I don’t think enough grows on our property to really make a difference with the bees – but that could change in time – they’re really pretty when in bloom.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/55202/

Queen Anne’s Lace - Daucus carota. This plant grows prolifically on our property, especially down in the moister parts. It’s a pretty plant and produces loads of flowers that results in lotsa seeds that stick to hair, clothing and are hard to get out of your socks and whatnot. I’ve noticed that my bees don’t seem to prefer this particular flower for forage. While I’ll see the bees going crazy over my Cut-leaf Daisies and Prairie Bluet, I hardly see a bee hitting up these abundant flowers.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/688/

Leavenworth Eryngo - Eryngium leavenworthii. A very spiny plant that often grows as a single long stem terminating in several branches with an odd pineapple-looking purple flower at the tip of each. It is an annual that typically blooms in late August.. When there’s a lot of them, they turn the view purple and are actually very pretty. I’ve yet to see honeybees working them tho but will keep an eye on them.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54682/

Pricklyleaf Dogweed - Dyssodia acerosa. A diminutive and extremely drought-hardy little plant with small gray-green leaves and diminutive little yellow flowers. This plant grows all over the place here and everywhere on the driest parts of our property and remains green even when the grass whithers and turns yellow. I’ve not seen bees working these flowers tho but hopefully they do provide forage when better forage is lacking.

http://www.google.com/images?q=dyssodia acerosa

Garden Sage – Salvia officinalis. This is a newcomer to my collection. But from what I’ve read, there’s nothing quite like sage honey. Mine will still be a mix of wildflowers but perhaps my sage will add it’s blessing to the mix anyway.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/313/

Blackberry – Rubus fruticosus. The subspecies is only a guess. It’s a blackberry, folks. Thorny, viney, lotsa white flowers, lotsa tart to sweet berries with a moderate number of plump, black drupelets. Nevertheless, blackberry honey is popular and while I only have a few of these vines growing completely unattended on my property, I do plan on propagating them massively and getting a LOT of blackberry plants growing here before long. Happy bees, happy me – bees like the nectar and pollen, and I so like to get berry-faced.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1982/

Honey Mesquite – Prosopis juliflora. I’m fairly certain about this identification too, tho I could be wrong. Nevertheless, this mesquite is considered a weed by most of the ranchers in this area, but it grows thickly and prolifically all around here and on my property as well. I have to say that if there’s a single most influential source of nectar for my apiary, this would be it.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/31989/

Jerusalem Thorn - Parkinsonia aculeata. This one isn’t growing on my property but very close by and I have seeds – very soon I’ll have a patch of it growing here before long. This is an odd looking tree but it just covers itself thickly with yellow flowers and is in bloom currently.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/53709/

Smooth Sumac – Rhus glabra. This is a lovely tree that flowers profusely in the late Spring and early Summer here. Every time I walk by there are bees all over it. During time of drought here I firmly believe this is one of the trees that allowed the colonies to keep storing up honey. I have a few on my property and across the road and there are some along the creek and I hope to dig up starts and get more growing.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/62278/

Staghorn Sumac – Rhus typhina. This is a very tropical looking Sumac that has luxuriant and large foliage and an almost succulent looking trunk. It resembles a multi-trunked palm especially when it’s fairly young. Another profuse flowering tree that the bees just adore. It’s Fall foliage is also very colorful to. It may be a weedy tree, but I can certainly think of worse to have around and don’t mind this one at all.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/2190/

Chickasaw Plum – Prunus angustifolia. I first noticed this clump of shrubs and trees a few years ago. Normally, it is very inconspicuous, growing amongst the other trees and not really standing out. But come spring, before the leaves emerge, these shrubs and trees just get completely plastered with little white flowers. My bees really appreciate this early injection of nectar, not to mention every other bee, wasp and butterfly in the area.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/55260/

This list is a work in progress, of course. There are still more wildflowers I need to identify. Some non-native flowering plants I have here are peach trees, roses, lotus, and I’m sure the bees get pollen from my cattails too. And let’s not forget the ubiquitous dandelions that seem to stick to our front yard. And the list continues…

Stack of freshly painted hive-bodies.

I often get asked what I buy and where I get my components from when it comes to building my hives. Entering into your first experience of shopping for components to build your first beehives can be daunting, even tho the beehives themselves are extraordinarily simple. There is very little product differentiation – only so many things you can do with a Langstroth hive – so you see a lot of redundant sources, nearly identical prices in some cases, and you’re forced to do the eeny, meeny, miny, mo thing in deciding who to buy your woodenware from. Since beekeepers often get asked about their own preferred sources – and having been in the asking position before, I figure I’ll list my preferences here. Note that I have not ever purchased a “Kit” that many of these retailers sell. Often the kits come with 5.4mm plastic foundation and I’m very particular about my frames and keeping my bees on natural comb.

Every beekeeper ends up settling on their own preferred sources so this is just a basic guide. It’s what has worked for me tho I’m sure there’s always room for improvement. Here is my basic shopping list for my hives. Remember, buying in bulk often saves you a bit – many have price cuts at 5 or more components for the major hive components and a price break on frames purchased by the case.

Telescoping Cover:
http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/10-Frame-Telescoping-Top/productinfo/667/

Inner Cover:
http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/10-Frame-Goble-Inner-Cover/productinfo/671/

Bottom Board:
http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/10-Frame-Cypress-Bottom-Board/productinfo/668/

Hive Body:
https://www.dadant.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=23_37&products_id=62

I usually buy a case:
https://www.dadant.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=23_37&products_id=61

Frames:
https://www.dadant.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=23_39&products_id=91

I also buy these by the case too:
50 –> https://www.dadant.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=23_39&products_id=92
or:
100 –> https://www.dadant.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=23_39&products_id=95

All the stuff I buy from Dadant I order over the phone from their Paris, TX office – shipping is a bit cheaper that way. Find a branch near you:
http://www.dadant.com/branch/

Basic accoutrements includes frame eyelets and wire:
https://www.dadant.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=25_49

…don’t forget the eyelet punch on page two:
https://www.dadant.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=25_49&sort=2a&page=2

Beyond that, Titebond III glue works well for me. There are those that swear by Gorilla Glue, but for me cleanup is easier with the Titebond. Just glue and nail your boxes together – making sure they are square when you do so. Prime and paint or seal the wood however you want or perhaps not even – I know some that just leave their wood untreated. Admittedly, I do have my old unpainted TBH equipment sitting out in the weather and it’s still looking pretty good after more than three years – more than four for one, so I have given serious thought to just not painting mine. But we’re relatively dry here so I could probably get away with it better than woodenware sitting in a moist meadow. The advantage of not painting is that the hives tend to blend better with the background, which makes them less a target for complaining neighbors and from thieves.

For the frames, I use a frame jig http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/Frame-Assembly-Jig/productinfo/911/ which has proven well worth the money, and I put one nail in thru the top-bar of every frame to hold it tight while the glue sets, and then just glue the bottom-bar.

Here’s how I did my footers:
http://www.naturalbeefarm.com/2010/04/23/easy-footers/

I used chamfer trim on my foundationless frames for comb guides, but may opt for tongue depressor sticks on my next set:
http://www.naturalbeefarm.com/2010/04/23/foundationless-frames/

In the spirit of shopping around, here are links to some of the major suppliers that I’ve shopped at or plan on shopping at:

Mann Lake: http://www.mannlakeltd.com/

Dadant: https://www.dadant.com/catalog/

Walter T. Kelley: http://www.kelleybees.com/

Brushy Mountain Bee Farm: http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/

Better Bee: http://www.betterbee.com/

If explaining my logic is remotely possible, here’s my thoughts on my shopping list. For me, the less assembly that’s required the better, with limits dictated by economics, of course. For instance, assembled hive bodies are a bit more expensive than unassembled hive-bodies. I opted for getting my telescoping covers from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm because they’re already assembled and are pretty good quality. I’ve used Better Bee’s telescoping covers before too and theirs is also pretty good quality. Since I buy other stuff that only Brushy Mountain Bee Farm has I often group my purchases together. The inner cover Brushy Mountain sells has a nifty little notch in it so that it can double as a top-entrance if needed. And I like the cypress bottom-board Brushy Mountain sells for longevity. Since I buy my hive-bodies and frames in large, heavy cases, I order those from their Texas branch to save a bit on shipping. I avoid kits and pre-made frames because often they’re filled with plastic 5.4mm foundation and I don’t use foundation, preferring to allow my bees to make their own comb that is often 4.7 to 4.9mm in cell size.

It’s really as simple as that.

Trap-out screen in place and trap-hive... trapping.

Up until now, my primary method of acquiring bees has been via cut-outs or swarm-capture. I like cut-outs because for all intents and purpose it’s a turn-key colony complete with queen, bees and brood. I have had trap-out opportunities in the past that I passed up because of lack of brood-comb, but I decided that these opportunities needed some more thought and innovation. Sans brood-comb to act as a bait (and provide eggs to make a new queen) what is the best option? A queen. Of course, I am reticent to buy bees, but in this case, there was little choice. I am just not at the queen-breeding stage yet for providing my own queens. That is certainly something I’d like to explore later on, however right now I’m just concerned with growing my apiary and grow up the hives that populate my apiary. So far I’ve collected swarms – which are often very easy to handle. And I’ve performed cut-outs. Now it’s time to do a trap-out. So, just what is a trap-out?

The queen who is to be the bait for the trap-out surrounded by her attendants.

There are several ways bees can be removed from a property. If the colony is a mass of bees hanging from a branch or similar, it is usually called a swarm and can be shaken into a bucket and removed from the property. If the colony has sequestered itself within a cavity tho, removal becomes more complicated. They start making comb right away and can have several large combs in the space of a couple of weeks. There are generally two choices to remove these bees therefore. The first option is opening up the cavity, either by removing panels if in a wall, removing soffits if they’re in an eave, or by whatever means for whatever cavity they have set up shop in, and then physically cutting the combs out and tying to frames and then collecting the bees. This is called a cut-out. It usually takes around four hours, perhaps longer if the cavity is harder to get into. The other option is less destructive to the structure containing the colony, has a few caveats  and takes a lot longer. It involves sealing up all entrances to the cavity but one and covering that with a one-way exit so bees cannot enter back in. A trap-hive is placed very close to the old entrance and baited to entice the bees to enter and make that their home. To convince the bees to stay in the trap-hive, often brood-comb is put in it with eggs so the bees can make a new queen. Or a weak hive can be used too – the influx of bees from the trap-out would significantly strengthen the hive. This is called a trap-out. It can take six weeks tho – and it leaves the comb within the cavity. But it’s non-destructive and if done correctly can facilitate using the same bees to clean the old cavity of its remaining honey so there is little to cause decay once these bees have fixated on the new hive as their home.

#8 hardware cloth cone ready to become a one-way exit over the cavity entrance.

When the flow of nectar and pollen stops coming into the old cavity and the numbers of bees declines sharply, the queen stops laying. Nurse bees eventually get old enough to leave the hive and when they do the population drops even further. What is left are the queen’s attendants and the freshly emerging brood. Generally, when things get to that state, the rest of the bees abscond from the cavity altogether and leave to find another home. This can take a while if there are a lot of stores in the hive – but a month to six weeks seems to be an average period for this. Once these bees have left, the trap-out is effectively over. However, before removing the one-way exit, some time needs to pass for the bees to more solidly fixate on the trap-hive as their home, as well as to allow for a good amount of brood to be produced which will further identify that hive as their home. However, we don’t want the remaining honey in the old cavity to go to waste or get too badly infested by wax-moths, so after a bit of time goes by without any activity within the old cavity, the cone can be removed. The bees will now go in and rob out all the honey from the old cavity, leaving little more than chewed up comb. They can rob pretty quickly – a day is often all that’s needed. Once they start ignoring the old cavity the trap-hive can be removed and the old cavity can be sealed.

Business end of the screen-cone. Bees exit thru that hole at the tip, but are unable to find their way back in.

In this case, the cavity is within a tree. The owner desires to keep the tree but not the bees. So a non-destructive trap-out is prescribed for this removal. Since my other hives are still growing and I don’t want to remove valuable brood-comb from them I opted to use a queen as bait. I’ve not read of anyone else doing this, but I am confident that it will work. The idea is to get the bees fixated on her and let them bring the rest of their sisters in. Once she’s been in there for a couple of days, she will be released and start laying eggs as their new queen and this colony will continue to grow as the old cavity empties out. These bees will very quickly build new comb too. Most of them are returning from foraging with crops full of nectar and it has to go somewhere.

The queen-cage braced against the wires and comb with a rubber-band.

I scheduled the trap-out for last Saturday, April 22 and ordered a queen from Bee Weaver Apiaries. They stopped treating their queens for mites about nine years ago and have developed a pretty decent strain of survivor queens that should blend well with the survivor feral genetics I keep in my apiary. She arrived the Wednesday before the trap-out and I kept her and her attendants in a cool, dark location for a couple of days, putting drops of water on their cage so they don’t dehydrate. There was candy in the cage so the bees had food. I sewed up a square of 1/8″ mesh hardware cloth into a cone and got the wooden-scaffold that would hold the hive up by the cavity’s entrance ready and loaded in my truck along with the trap-hive.

It didn't take long to attract a crowd of bees with the queen cage - confirming my idea of using a queen as bait for the trap-hive.

The entrance to the cavity is perhaps nearly 7′ up in the side of a tree. The cavity was apparent by the bulge in that section of the trunk – it was easy to get an approximation to the size of the colony in there. I expect a single trap-hive will be sufficient for this particular trap-out. I will be looking at another trap-out that may let me use two trap-hives to clean out. Driving back there and setting up made me thankful I had a pickup-truck – an essential tool for beekeepers who remove colonies. Up until this year I had a diminutive Ford Focus and had to squeeze the bee-hives in the back seat. Not anymore. I rolled the scaffold out of the truck, taking it from upside-down in the bed to upside-right on the ground, and positioned it by the tree. The bees hardly noticed. Then I backed the truck up next to it so I could access it from the bed of the truck.

The one-way exit attached to the cavity entrance with nails and a lot of caulk.

After positioning the hive approximately, I got to work mounting the one-way exit to the entrance of the cavity. The screen cone fit over the entrance perfectly, but it was rather hard nailing it in – my next trap-out cone I’ll make sure I have nail-tabs cut to make it easier. The bees did take notice when I was putting a cone over their entrance and hammering nails. I got enough nails in to hold the screen steady then I got to work with the caulk-gun, laying a thick, messy bead around the base of the cone to seal up the gaps. Very quickly, the bees had only one way to exit the cavity – through my cone. Already there was a small cluster of bees hanging from the bottom of the cone while they tried to make their way back in. That was promising. I observed for a little bit to make sure I didn’t leave any gaps.

A nice little cluster forming. There's lots of bees on the other side of the comb too.

Once I was sure that the bees had found no gaps, I got to work on the next stage of the trap-out – setting up the trap-hive and installing the bait. Since the queen was a stranger to these bees, I opted to leave her in the cage for a couple of days to make sure the bees accept her. So I took the cage and put it against the wires of one of my frames that had some old comb on it and secured it in place with a rubber-band. But, I didn’t put the frame in the hive right away. Before I left I wanted to be sure that the queen would be well cared for. And I wanted to make sure I had a cluster of bees in the hive. So I put the frame on top of the hive by the screen cone and waited. A few bees landed on the cage and it looked like a few immediately started trying to feed the bees within. That was promising. A few others were biting on the screen, as if trying to release her. None of them seemed agitated as if they were trying to get to an intruder. I probably could have released her directly into the hive by the way these bees were acting, but decided the cautious road was safe. As bees started clustering on the screen, I held the frame with the queen-cage under the cluster – close enough to let the bees crawl on and most did crawl onto the comb and queen-cage. Before long I had several dozen bees on the comb and I rested it against the hive and watched as more bees landed on the comb. I noticed a lot of fanning on the comb too – scenting, which no doubt attracted more bees. They were certainly infatuated with the queen.

The bait-frame put back into the trap-hive, all ready to be closed up.

When I was satisfied that most of the bees were now going to the comb rather than clustering on the screen, I gently inserted the frame into the trap-hive, re-inserted an empty frame and closed things up. Then I waited and observed. It seemed at first that the trap-hive was going to be ignored, but soon I saw bees crawling into the hive and other bees crawling out. A couple crawled out and started fanning, which helped guide other bees into the entrance. With perhaps four hundred bees inside the trap-hive, I felt that was a good start to baiting the rest of the returning foragers and I strapped the hive to the tree, put a large stone on the lid and called it a day.

Bees scenting on the landing board and on the tree, letting their sisters know where the new home is.

Monday after work I decided to go release the queen. When I got to the location there were a lot of bees flying around. No clusters on the screen tho – it looked like most were coming and going from the trap-hive. I was eager to take a look inside. I parked the truck next to the scaffold and clambered up to have a look-see. When I opened the box I was amazed by the amount of bees in there. Easily two or three thousand bees. Some were working on the existing cut-out comb, making repairs and extending it. Others were festooning from the comb-guide of the next frame, getting ready to make a new comb. And still others were busy filling the cells with nectar and pollen. It was quickly becoming  a hive. All that was needed was a laying queen. I pushed the cork in and to the side in the candy. I would have pried it out but it didn’t cooperate. Then I poked a hole thru the candy. And that was that. As I was re-inserting the queen-cage under the rubber-band, there was already a bee in the hole chewing on the candy to release the queen.

Queen-excluder entrance guard in place to prevent the released queen from leaving the hive.

I closed up the trap-hive and put a queen excluder over the entrance. That would keep the queen from absconding if for some reason she wanted to. But I have a feeling she’ll be right at home there with her new brethren, ready to start laying and making that colony uniquely hers. I’ll check on the hive the weekend after next to remove the cage and queen-excluder and check for brood and activity in the cone. If they’ve made a few combs, I’ll open up the new broodnest with an empty to begin developing straight foundationless combs. Then I’ll leave the hive be for a couple more weeks.

Most of my work is now done and it’s a matter of letting the bees make themselves at home in their new hive and waiting for the brood in the old cavity to hatch out and leave the old hive to join the bees in the new trap-hive. When I determine that the old cavity is no longer active and there’s new brood hatching out in the trap-hive, I’ll remove the screen-cone to let the bees rob out the honey in the old cavity then I’ll retrieve the hive the next day and I’m done. The cavity will then be able to be filled with grout to prevent re-colonization and I will have started a new hive by borrowing the bees from the old hive and giving them a new queen. The old queen and a cluster of attendants will have flown off to a new home, and the property owner will be happier without the bees causing problems.

Barrel of bees with the evaporative cooler resting on top of it.

This morning, I was all set to go move a 55-gallon drum of bees. Just that. The home-owner is interested in keeping them and transferring them to a proper hive but at the moment we needed to get them away from her house until she can acquire some basic beekeeping equipment. Easy as peas, right? Besides, the colony was only a few weeks old and the comb would be rather soft – it’d be nice for it to mature a little before handling it. So, what was that saying about best made plans?

I got a call a couple weeks ago about a swarm that had parked themselves on a 55-gallon drum. When I arrived, tho, most of the bees appeared to be gone. Little did I know, they weren’t actually gone. The drum was being utilized as a stand to hold up an evaporative cooler for a greenhouse. I went out there later to take another peek at the hive as the bees were not all leaving – and with a swarm usually they all vacate pretty quickly. What I saw was bees regularly coming and going to the little cluster on the side, and it sounded louder than it looked – there were more bees there than were visible. Based on that we determined that this was not a swarm that moved on to a new home, but a swarm that moved in to a new home – the barrel.

The entrance is a bullet-hole covered up by these bees.

That would have been fine to the homeowner who was very happy about her bees, except for one thing. She frequently caters to guests and parties and the bees are in a spot that could lead to an unfortunate incident. If it were just her, she’d likely leave the bees there. But with guests, the risk of trouble was too great. The barrel was pretty exposed and easy to get to, and if the bees were swarming on the day of a party chances are good that it would probably lead to less than gratuitous attitudes from the visitors. So, they had to be moved. But, the home-owner is intensely interested in beekeeping – she didn’t want them removed. But she wouldn’t be ready to actually acquire the equipment until after a pressing engagement so we decided that we’d move the barrel further from the house and then cut them out later at our convenience.

Where the combs once hung - almost as clean as if they'd been cut out.

It was a nice cool morning. No hurry – I enjoy some nice home-roasted coffee and relax in the morning. After all, I’m just moving a barrel of bees. How hard can that be? The morning was very pleasant and it was nice soaking in the view of my freshly planted vineyard near the house and the beehives up at the back of our property and all the green thanks to Spring. Sunday is made for that kind of thing, after all. Of course, one can only relax so much – it’s time to get off my keister and get to work.

What does one need to move a barrel of bees? Well, a bee-suit. And that’s pretty much it. The home-owner wanted to help, since she’s an aspiring beekeeper, so I brought my spare veil and gloves. I figured it would take an hour at most, including time to chat and watch the bees flying around. Of course, the hardest part would be removing the evaporative cooler from the top of the barrel, but then after that, how hard could it be? That’s a question I’d regret asking.

After arriving to the property, we do another survey to figure things out. There was a wooden fence immediately behind the barrel that’ll have to be removed and some minor disassembly in the greenhouse to get the evaporative cooler out. Since we had to move the hive about 200′ or so and the property was pretty smooth we decided to put the barrel on a garden-cart and pull it over to the new location carefully. I wasn’t too worried about the comb because it was fairly cool that morning and because we would be going slow and careful.

The garden cart with the scrap comb - honey and pollen.

Getting the land-owner suited up was an interesting endeavor. I brought a spare veil and gloves. She provided a light coat and two pairs of cover-alls. Putting that all together reminded me of getting the kids ready to go play in the snow – and she looked like she’d be comfortable playing in the snow. Which meant, uncomfortable now that there is no snow and it was rather warm. So we didn’t waste any time. After helping her tie up the veil and making sure there were no gaps, we got busy right away.

Moving the evaporative cooler was easier than I thought it would be. It felt heavy when I shifted it, but once we both lifted it, the weight wasn’t that bad at all. She had pulled a truck up to the fence and we put the evaporative cooler on the tail-gate and she pulled the truck away so we’d have room to get the barrel out. The bees were actually pretty tolerant at that point. They did get a bit curious when we lifted the barrel. It turns out that the bottom of the barrel was likely the top and was is completely open. The entrance the bees were using was a bullet-hole in the side, but now they suddenly had a very big entrance and made good use of it. Still, they were more curious than agitated and we were able to place the barrel on the cart without any trouble. This was turning out to be a pretty easy move after all.

The new bee-hive, closed up and ready for a rock to keep the lid down on windy days.

We got the cart pulled about half-way to the new location when the home-owner got a bee in her bonnet. Somehow the bee found her way in – perhaps when the home-owner was looking down at the bees coming out from the bottom of the barrel the veil and hat separated briefly. Hard to say. But, while she was distraught, she handled it pretty well. She was really nervous when it was time to actually work with the bees but she was determined and now she tolerated the bee without too much fuss. It was a bit disconcerting but often bees within the veil are often more focused on a way out. So we left the barrel and walked a bit away from the bulk of the bees and I worked on coaxing the wayward bee out of her bonnet. It took a few minutes but eventually, the bee was released and I double-checked the integrity of the veil to make sure no more would get back in.

Their entrance with bees coming and going.

Of course, all of this meant leaving the barrel sitting in the sun for a few minutes. We got back to it and started pulling it again and the home-owner noted a whoosh of bees coming out the bottom of her barrel. We didn’t give it much thought tho – in cutouts I frequently get that and we were moving their home. When the cart was positioned and I was preparing to move the barrel, it became apparent that the whoosh of bees was from another cause altogether. As I lifted the barrel – which I noticed seemed pretty light – I uncovered a stack of combs sitting on the grate of the cart. The heat of the sun was just enough to soften the comb beyond it’s breaking point and it all fell onto the cart.

The bees really chewed up the scrap comb when they were retrieving their honey.

I carefully put the barrel back over the comb so it wouldn’t be exposed and went to retrieve a hive-body. It looks like our cutout was going to occur today after all. When I returned with a hive-body and some gear the land-owner suited back up and we got busy. I was hoping against hope that the queen didn’t get buried in the comb. Usually when the colony is stressed like this the queen will be herded into a safe corner and surrounded by a cluster so it’s possible that she was still clinging to the top of the barrel. I quickly put rubber-bands on my frames and got things prepped then removed the barrel and set it aside. The combs were amazingly large for their young age – this ranch property has some excellent forage and this was a robust colony. I sized and cut comb and placed it in the frames, placing the rubber-bands over the combs to secure them and plopped them into the hive-body. Nearly all of them had a cap of honey and I trimmed that off and set that to the side – I was more interested in rescuing the brood and the bees can rob that honey and put it back in the hive once things settle down.

The bees had accumulated a tremendous amount of pollen, indicative of a heavy buildup. I hope they continue that in their new home.

With the exception of trimmings, we got all of the brood-comb tied up and in frames. I then set about getting the bees in there. Most of them were up in the barrel so I placed an empty hive-body on top of the bee-hive to act as a funnel, misted a cluster of bees on the outside of the drum with water, and then lifted and after the home-owner brushed the bees off the outside of the barrel into the hive I shook the drum sharply over the hive to dislodge the cluster within. A lot of bees fell down onto the frames and quickly crawled down onto the combs. I let the bees re-cluster and repeated, slamming the barrel down on top of the hive-body to jar the rest of them into the hive. Then I set the barrel down and put a cover over the hive and retreated to the porch to wait for the bees to figure things out. I expected to find another cluster or two as the flying bees coalesced on their old home and wanted to give them a chance to settle down so I could get as many as possible.

Stragglers clinging to the outside of the barrel. The barrel is close to the hive and they'll make their way to their new home soon.

After a bit I returned to the hive to inspect it. The bees were busy robbing out the comb, even removing some of the new comb itself, and I didn’t see any significant cluster within the barrel. I removed the cover and noted that the bees had retreated down onto the frames so I removed the empty hive-body and put the cover down on the bee-hive itself. It appeared for the moment that we were done. However I surveyed the old location and noted a large cluster of bees hanging from part of the fence that didn’t get removed – the foragers returning from the field and the bees that had been robbing out the honey, no doubt. I grabbed a bucket and after misting the bees swept the cluster off into the bucket. It was the size of a decent little swarm. This I carried over to the bee-hive and dumped on top of the frames. Using my fingers, I gently broke the cluster up, herding the bees a bit, and as they de-clustered they retreated down onto the frames. I got another bucket of bees – smaller this time, and poured those on the landing board and watched as they started crawling into the hive. With that, I closed everything up – this cutout was finished.

Whether we retrieved the queen or she survived the fall of the combs we don’t know. There were lotsa eggs in the comb tho so I’m hopeful the bees will make a new queen if the old one turns up missing. I expect the foragers to be confused and will likely fly to the old location first before circling and then flying to the new location. They’ll do that for a while but as a new generation of forager hatch out things will start to normalize. The hive is in the shade of a tree currently. I was going to put the steel barrel there because, ironically, I didn’t want the top to get too hot in the sun and cause comb to drop. However, shady locations are not ideal for bees in the long-term. Small hive beetles thrive in shady, moist locations. So next weekend or the one after we’ll shift the hive another 25′ or so to get it out from under the canopy of the tree and into what hopefully will become a happy bee-yard.

This is what I saw when I removed the soffit.

I got a removal-gig referred to me by the guys at work – a home-owner had bees in her eave and really wanted them out. As it turns out, she also has a bee-tree that she wants to remove (tree and all), but that’s a post for another day. The colony in the eave was occupying a guest house that the home-owner’s mother is now living in and the bees were extra lively, making the homeowner a bit nervous. This was a taller eave – up near the top of the gable on the end of the building, perhaps 12′ high. And it was a fairly new colony. She didn’t see any activity last winter, and noticed them when she returned this Spring. So it’s a first-year colony, perhaps only a month old. Which is good – not as much honey to muck things up, but also can be a pain – the new comb will be very soft and extra care will be needed in handling.

Scaffold set up under the eave and smoker... smoking.

We settled on a weekend to perform the cut-out and the homeowner, graciously rented a scaffold for me. I really do need to get one of my own – that was a very handy tool indeed. I had intended to use the large wooden crate that my 18/9 Mann Lake extractor came in, reinforced a bit and sitting in the bed of my pickup-truck, but her solution was ultimately more practical for that location. She had a fence that would have needed removing to access the area with my truck.

The soffit is off and the colony is exposed. Lovely combs!

Saturday started off unusually cool. Since I wanted to avoid chilling the brood-comb any more than necessary, I waited until a bit after lunch to perform the cut-out. Ideally, I want the colony to pretty much pick up from where it left off, and having to discard hundreds to thousands of brood because they got chilled would definitely set the colony back. Fortunately, it warmed up a bit – enough I think to ensure the brood was safe. As usual, I loaded up my truck with way more than I needed. There are always unforeseen variables in a cut-out and you just never know if you’re going to need something. This time around I remembered my water spray-bottle – forgotten on the last cut-out. It’s handy to have to reduce flying when the bees are being swept into the bucket and dumped into the waiting hive. Of course, my implements of demolition too – what would a cut-out be without a couple of crow-bars?

A view of the colony from below.

I wanted to try something new this time and brought along an empty hive-body with me along with the receiving hive. I’ve seen some packages installed by placing an empty on top of a framed hive-body and pouring the bees into that, with the empty helping contain the bees while they go down into the hive. This can be covered with the inner cover for a few minutes while the bees settled in. So, I figured that would work as well when I started dumping bees into the receiving hive too. Just about every cut-out I do becomes an experiment of one sort or another – I’m still quite the student of bees and beekeeping and there’s always something neat and new to learn.

The end-comb that's loaded with honey and pollen and some eggs.

When I arrived at the location the bottom part of the scaffold was already assembled. The bees were lively as ever but fairly docile. I decided that we’d need one more level put onto the scaffold to allow me to adequately reach the cavity. With help from the homeowner, we popped on the next level, bumping the side of the house in doing so. A couple of bees came down to investigate and we both got tagged. Sigh. Well, life of a beekeeper…

Frames are prepped with six 3.5" rubber-bands ready to receive comb.

After getting the scaffold up, I suited up and got the smoker going. This I put on the scaffold to infuse the air around the hive with the scent of smoke. It was perhaps 7′ below the hive, but just enough that the hive would start getting ready by sucking up honey. This tends to calm them too and the smoke hides the alert scent. While the smoker did it’s work, I got busy putting everything in its place – mise en place. This included preparing the empty brood-box by removing the frames, and placing six 3.5″ rubber-bands on the receiving frames. I positioned the scaffold platform so that I just had to bend over a little to access the cavity. The top of the second level supported a 2×6 that made a perfect work-bench for me. I placed the hive-body on one end of the platform and my various tools on the other and got busy removing the soffit.

Scaffold in place, soffit removed, it's time to start cutting out some comb.place

Very fortunately, the soffit came out really easily. The nails just pulled out without a lot of prying. The last job was a bear to get out so this was a big relief. I had to move the scaffold back slightly to fully remove the soffit as the top level was in the way but that was all. Once removed there before me was a beautiful colony on fresh comb. It was only a month old perhaps but it already had eleven combs, nine of which were fully drawn to fill the cavity. Very straight and very clean. This is definitely going to be a good cut-out. Challenging in that the comb was going to be very delicate and I was wearing my leather gloves this time. But everything was in reach and right in front of me.

Two end-combs tied up and ready to go in the receiving hive-body.

I grabbed a frame from the receiving hive and placed that on the 2×6 that served as my work-bench. Then I puffed just a little smoke on the end comb to clear the bees away. With my fancy paint scraper – which I had sharpened the night before – I carefully excised the comb from the ceiling, making as flush and straight a cut as possible. This comb was primarily nectar at top surrounded by a ring of pollen and around the edges there were empty cells containing eggs. It was smaller than the rest. This I placed on the wires of my wired frame. Since it was smaller, I had room to place the other end-comb so I went ahead and cut that one out too. With eleven combs, this meant all ten of my frames will be occupied with comb. I placed these two end-combs side-by-side close to the top. I didn’t press it into the wires – the bees will cement them to the wires on their own and I’ll probably rotate this comb out as the bees make new comb. Once positioned, I carefully work the rubber bands over them to secure them in the frame and this I put in the receiving box. I grabbed the next empty frame and repeated the same on the next comb – smoking away the bees, cutting the comb and positioning the rubber bands over it and putting it in the box.

Comb full of bee-bread (fermented pollen) and nectar.

It actually proceeded very quickly and in very short order I was down to the last comb. I like cut-outs that are as quick and smooth as that. And virtually no scrap comb! Now, the bees were heavily clustered on the last comb so I decided to leave it be for a bit and prepared to start collecting the bees themselves. I grabbed the empty hive-body and placed that on top of the receiving hive-body. It will form a sort of funnel that’ll help contain the bees as I dump them on top of the frames. On top of that I placed an inner cover that had screen stapled to the escape. If the bees were going to exit the hive, I wanted them to have to crawl down the tied up comb first – which will motivate them to start identifying this new cavity as their home. That way I would retain more bees, with less flying back up to the original cavity.

Egg visible in a cell near the lower right-hand corner - looks like a little grain of white rice. Cool!!!

I grabbed my water mister and misted the cluster carefully, taking great pains to avoid misting the comb itself. Then with my bee-brush I brushed the cluster off into my square bucket, almost like brushing a swarm off. This I quickly dumped on top of the frames of the receiving hive, recovered with the inner cover and misted the cluster a bit more and flicked more of it off into the bucket and repeated the dumping. Just a few times and virtually all of the cluster was now within the receiving hive.

Now that the last comb was exposed, I cut it out and placed it on the frame and secured it with the rubber bands. Before putting it in the receiving hive, I lifted off the inner cover, flipped it on it’s edge and knocked it down on the hive to remove the bees clinging to it. That I set aside. I repeated that with the empty box, jarring it down to knock the clinging bees down into the receiving hive-body. Most had already gone down onto the combs but there were enough clinging onto the insides of the empty that I wanted to clear it first before setting it aside. I set aside the hive-body and put the last frame into the receiving hive-body and then put the inner cover on top of that and that was that.

One of the pristine combs meticulously cut out and trussed up, ready to go back into the receiving hive-body.

There were still bees clustering in the cavity so I periodically misted them, flicked them into the bucket and dumped them at the entrance. Most of them entered the new hive immediately – a good indicator that the queen was in there and that the smell of the brood was making that smell like home to them. I couldn’t get all of the bees that were clustering as many were hiding behind the corrugated tin cladding of the building. However I got it down to just an estimated few hundred bees. I’d let them cluster then I’d wrap the tin with the butt of my bee-brush to encourage them to come out and then I’d mist those and sweep them into the bucket and dump those in front of  the receiving hive.

Happy looking brood - future bees that will emerge in the new hive.

Before long, enough was enough. I was concerned that the queen may have sequestered herself behind the tin because I didn’t see as much fanning on the hive entrance as I’m accustomed to, however I knew there were eggs and that 95% of the bees were now in the new hive-body so queen or no, I had a new colony – they’d make a new queen if I missed her. Nevertheless, I loath leaving lotsa bees behind and have seen bees move the queen into a new hive before so just in case, I decide to leave the hive there overnight. Of course, it’s often not 100% – some bees just don’t get the message. However, every forager I get to take with me is a forager that can feed my bees.

New hive positioned up near the old cavity to help stragglers find their new home.

The “work-bench” 2×6 was actually the perfect height to bring the new hive very close to the level of the old cavity. So I put the telescoping cover on the hive, and put a ratcheting strap around the hive to secure it together. Then I carefully lift it up and place it on top of the 2×6. I grabbed another 2×6 to make it more stable and then carefully slid them over until the hive was right underneath the eave. Then I sat and watched the bees for an hour or so, observing traffic going into the hive fairly consistently. Returning foragers are no doubt going to be confused, but with the smell of the new hive so close, and with their sisters going in and out, I was certain I’d mop up most of the stragglers. With that thought, I packed up and went home.

Empty cavity after the cut-out with just a few stragglers.

Sunday evening I went back out to the hive. It had been cloudy all day but got sunny just as I arrived. I stood on the ground observing the hive for about an hour, noting that most of the traffic was going into the new hive itself. There were still bees going up into the old cavity but not as many. As the evening rush started to wane and the bees started settling in, I got suited up and grabbed my Florida Moving Screen and some duct tape. Very carefully I climbed up the scaffold, trying hard not to jostle the hive and produce more flying bees. They’d almost settled in for the night, even tho it wasn’t particularly dark yet. When I got up there I observed a much smaller cluster of bees behind the tin. Way too few to mess with – likely the older foragers who were too stubborn to adopt their new home. They will have to be left behind. Activity in the entrance of the new hive was now very low so I put the screen over the entrance and duct-taped it on. A few bees came out and crawled on the screen, but none crawled out the entrance holes. Pretty nifty device.

A bee scenting on the landing board of the new hive.

With that, I carefully lower the hive down to the scaffold platform and then climb down to the ground and grab the hive and carried it to the truck. Then I dismantled the scaffold and put that against the home-owner’s barn. That pretty much marks the end of the cutout. The remaining bees didn’t budge and there were none flying around that I could tell so I removed my suit and continued wrapping things up and departed the premises. I was a little nervous that perhaps all the bees had abandoned the new hive and gone into the wall underneath the tin – the low activity behind the screen made me a bit nervous. However as I drove and the wind was blowing on the entrance, I noticed a lot of bees coming out and crawling around under the screen. That made me feel better.

Florida Moving Screen worked excellent to keep the bees in while moving the hive.

I got back to the bee-yard with enough light to see what I was doing. A first for me – usually I move bees when it is pitch black. That screen really made a big difference. Once I parked the truck beside the bee-yard I carefully carried the hive to it’s final position and put it down. With a lot of bees crawling on the screen I was reticent to remove it right away – they were in a new location, the sun was going down and I was certain they’d get lost. Maybe not, but I didn’t want to risk it. I grabbed my water-mister and misted the bees on the screen. That told them that it was raining and in short order their numbers went way down as many started crawling back into the hive. After waiting a bit, the buzzing in the hive calmed down and most of the bees went back inside. I carefully removed the duct-tape and took the screen off. A few bees were crawling around – these I shook off onto the landing-board. With the screen set aside and out of the way I put the entrance reducer on. I suspect my strongest hive may have been robbing the hives that never went anywhere so this entrance reducer would help a lot, producing less entrance for the guards to defend and reducing the robbing opportunities. In front of that, I placed a twig of leaves that the bees would have to go around to fly off. This would prompted the bees to re-orient themselves to the hive so I’d have less drift into the other hives. And that was that.

Entrance reducer in place and curious bees getting to know their new home.

Today the bees are foraging and are very active in their new home. I’ll go into the hive in a week or so to inspect for comb development, the queen or queen-cells. I expect  them to fill out the frames pretty rapidly because we’re in the middle of a pretty decent nectar flow right now and I hope to grow this hive into at least two hive-bodies before winter. The homeowner reported a handful of bees flying around at the old location – those stragglers will eventually die and that’ll be the end of bees in that old cavity. After a bit, the homeowner will put the soffit back up and seal it in better against future colonization.

Here is a video that the property owner shot of part of the cut-out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHTQIY7gCyI

Happy bees scenting on the entrance of their new home.

I’m running a bit behind on blogging – this cutout occurred on the last weekend of April. My friend Ty of Windy Hill Organics wanted to get into beekeeping so what better way to introduce one to keeping bees than with a cut-out? You get a complete hive, bees, queen, brood-comb – and you get introduced to the structure of the colony and get a chance to experience a LOT of bees flying around you. My first hive was from a cutout I did solo and it’s been an adventure ever since.

The eave where the bees have taken up residency.

The particular colony in question had taken up lodging in the eave of a house. The homeowner had tolerated them for a bit but needed roof-repair work done and it was time for the bees to go. Since it was late in the year, I convinced the homeowner to wait until the Spring to give the bees a better chance of survival. And a good thing I did because local organic farmer Ty decided it was time to get into beekeeping and the timing worked out perfectly. He got his equipment and top-bar hive shortly before the cut-out.

Me trying to wrest the soffit from under the eave.

There are no better honeybees that a beekeeper can keep than those that don’t require the beekeeper for survival. Many potential beekeepers spend money on equipment, build up high hopes and buy an expensive package or nucleus colony of bees, only to have the hive collapse after a year or two, and after spending a lot of money on and applying a lot of dopes in an attempt to keep them alive. For me, my favorite bees are those that cost nothing to get – so at worst case I’m not out anything and have empty wooden-ware to fill with other bees, and at best case I have bees in my wooden-ware that are trouble-free and don’t require dopes to survive.

That soffit was a challenge to get opened. Here you see the bees going thru their entrance up where the wires goes thru the fascia.

So we have a hive that’s in an eave of a house to remove. We decide on a day and meet at my house to get loaded up for the removal. As usual, I bring much more than I need, while at the same time end up leaving behind things I would have found useful, like my water-mister bottle. Oh well – not a critical piece of equipment. With directions to the location, we’re off to retrieve a bunch of bees. My first cut-out of the year. Ty’s first cut-out altogether. I got my start performing cut-outs – for me it’s the normal way to acquire bees. One I prefer – comb, brood, queen, bees – I get a complete colony with a cut-out that is ready to rock-n-roll.

Finally, soffit comes down and lookee there - a cavity full of bees.

After a quick survey I decide that we could reach the cavity from the bed of my truck. I had hoped so, since climbing up and down a ladder would be very tedious. Being able to stand on my tail-gate really made the cutout go easier. I backed the truck up close to the hive, trying hard not to hit the house or the peach sapling growing in the corner then got to work setting up. We suited up and I got the smoker going and gave the entrance a few puffs. It would take a few minutes to get everything else set up so I wanted to give the smoke some time to waft deep into their hive.

The top of one of my Lang hives would be the cutting bench to cut the combs. I was going to bring some cardboard to put on top of it so clean-up would be simpler, but that didn’t quite work out. However, now I tend to keep a bit of cardboard in the truck – it would have made things a bit easier to have a sort of cutting board. Anyway, the tin top of the hive worked just fine – better than some of the surfaces I had to use to trim comb in previous cut-outs. With the tools to cut the comb positioned on the shiny tin surface, I got the distinct impression of some mad scientist operating table. Perhaps it’s just me, tho.

A decent colony of bees filling up their cavity.

Ty’s top-bar hive sat on the ground next to the truck. I pulled out various implements of demolition and cutout – a couple of pry-bars, a fancy paint scraper, a bread knife, bunches of rags and whatnot. We got busy cutting cloth strips to tie up the combs. These strips will form a hammock around the comb and are tied to the top-bar on either end. I’ve found that this method keeps the comb pressed to the top-bar far better than string which can cut into the comb and cause it to sag.

With everything prepped and ready to go, it was time to begin the demolition. I smoked the entrance again, then got to work removing the soffit. In this case, the soffit was flush with the rafter-tail, which meant that the maximum height of the combs would be four to six inches or so. Not ideal for a top-bar hive cutout – I prefer a deeper comb, but not a show-stopper either. The soffit was rather difficult to remove but I was able to get it down to look into the first section between rafter-tails and saw nothing but mud-dauber nests. No beehive! They had completely skipped the first cavity closest to the entrance. So I kept prying at the soffit until I finally got it completely down and there it was, a cavity completely filled with comb and a LOT of bees. They were less than happy with the ruckus, of course, but were still pretty docile all things considered.

Comb cut and being tied up to the top-bar. Hive-top works pretty good as an operating table.

Using the smoke, I gently cleared the first section of comb and cut it out with my nifty paint scraper tool. Since there was a lot of comb, I decided that we’d only use the best of it for tying up so after a few smaller pieces I got some nice comb suitable for tying up. I cut and attached it to the top-bard and handed it to Ty who put it in the top-bar hive and we went like that as a team, cutting comb, selecting good ones for hive, trimming and tying them up and putting them in the hive. As I went along I’d give a little puff of smoke to clear the next comb and corral the bees further back into a cluster. The goal is to keep them pretty much together as I remove comb so it’ll be easier to sweep them into a bucket later on and so it’ll increase the chances of getting the queen, who will feel safer in a large cluster rather than a bunch of smaller clusters.

Handy dandy fancy paint scraper. I gave latex kitchen gloves a try too but the bees still tagged my hands. Oh well...

Before long I started coming across honey. This I do not like to tie up so I put this in another bucket. The honey-comb is drippy, sticky, heavy and just too unmanageable to tie up onto a top-bar. Most of this would be fed back to the bees so they can make repairs to the comb and put it where they wanted it. Of course, that also meant I was nearing the end of cutting out comb, since the honey is almost always furthest away from the entrance. The bees themselves had formed a massive cluster hanging at the back of the cavity and now when I remove the comb I carefully pull it away with part of the cluster and hand that to Ty to shake the bees off into the hive. The brood-comb already in the hive has by now filled it with the scent of home, and many of those bees are nurse bees that are not as prone to flying just yet so we very quickly accumulated a lot of bees in there as I removed the last few pieces. Many of them hung out at the back of the hive, interestingly and some started festooning from the comb-guides even, forming drapes that herald the creation of new comb.

Before long I got to the point where any bits of comb left were now covered by the cluster. It was time for the bee-brush and bucket. Normally I mist them with water, but seeing as I brought everything and the kitchen sink with me, the mister was the one thing I forgot to bring. So I did without this time. Speed is key to collecting the bees. The brush is used to more knock them into the bucket than sweep them, using quick flicks. This way bees are not dragged along the face of the building which would produce more alert hormones which would produce more flying bees. Instead, most of the cluster was startled into releasing and falling into the bucket. This I quickly passed to Ty who in turn dumped the bees into the top-bar hive and then covered up the top-bars to help prevent them from just flying out.

As the hive filled up, they start scenting, or fanning, on the entrance. A sign we got the queen.

Collecting bees this way takes a bit of persistence and patience. The cluster had split to the next cavity so I had to alternate, flicking bees from there then when I get the bucket back, flicking bees from the other cavity as the flying bees return to start clustering again. As the cluster fragmented I waited for them to build up to a decent number then I flick them into the bucket and hand that off to be dumped into the hive. Before long, the sizes of the clustering bees began to significantly reduce and not build back up as more and more bees remained in the top-bar hive. As I waited for the remaining bees to re-cluster I strung up a few more choice pieces of comb to pass the time. Interestingly, the bees we put in the top-bar hive were clustering at the back of the hive, far from the entrance – similar to how their old hive was configured. And that’s where they formed new comb too. Definitely some interesting bees.

Scrap honey comb left by the hive for the bees to rob out.

Once we determined that there were no more clusters to get, I sprayed the interior of the cavity with diluted Pinesol to destroy the hive scent, avoiding the remaining bees, of course. That helps reduce clustering and returning foragers are more likely to smell the new hive scent. We closed up the TBH tight and that was that. There were still a fair number of bees flying around but not so many now. A lot of bees were on the entrance of the new hive and there was traffic going in and out – a very good sign. A few bees clustered by the old entrance of the old cavity but the bulk of the colony was now in their new home.

Empty cavity with just a few stragglers. The roofers will close it up and seal it against future occupancy.

Shortly before sunset we returned to retrieve the hive. There were still a fair number of foragers clustered up in the old cavity so we decided to give the hive one more day and get it the next night. That morning the foragers would depart then most of them on returning would migrate into the new hive. There were still a few left the next night but not nearly as many. We taped screen over the entrance of the hive and put it in Ty’s truck. Unfortunately, since the roofers were coming the next morning and one was extremely allergic to bees I couldn’t sweep the stragglers into a bucket because with a full moon there would be many flying bees that would remain the next day to be a threat to the roofers, so I spritzed them with water and vacuumed them up in my shop-vac. We spot treated any stragglers until there were none left. That was the saddest part of the job, but there was no other choice.

Ty reported a week later that the bees had formed combs at the back – six or so, tho they were still using the cutout combs too. It is an interesting hive to say the least. But they were foraging and have brood – which means we got the queen thankfully. Another successful cutout and another beekeeper on the road of natural beekeeping. May this be the first of many hives for Ty.

Bees like Milkweed Flowers

Scattered amongst the wildflowers I let grow on the back part of our property grows milkweed. A green variety that stays low to the ground and produces greenish flowers with bits of purple within. They’re neat looking plants and I hear tell that Monarch butterflies will lay eggs on them – so I leave them be. However, they have yet another benefit too – my bees seem to love them! I expected as much, but it’s neat to see the bees collecting from these flowers. The plant itself isn’t all that remarkable and the flower-heads are distinctive but not showy. And yet, the bees are so intent on these flowers that I was able to put the camera an inch from them to get closeups without their flying off. That must be some really good nectar!

I believe this is Asclepias asperula - Spider Milkweed, also called Antelope Horns

Unlike other flowers where the bees will fly from flower to flower fairly quickly – even if the flowers are part of a raceme, in this case the bees crawl over the surface of the ball of flowers, going from flower to flower meticulously. They also seem to take longer collecting nectar from these flowers than I’ve seen from other flowers, as if they’re sucking up a large amount of nectar. I have no idea just how nectar rich these flowers are and will attempt to find out with a little more research, but it seems that they hold a special attraction for my bees. So far I only have a small scattering of these plants on my property, tho they are common across the ranch-oriented landscape in this region. But I can reliably find bees on every flower-head with open flowers – usually two or three bees at that. They seem to ignore the butterflies that settle down beside them, and don’t give much attention to the crab spider that ambushed one of their sisters.

Bees are totally engrossed in these flowers, completely ignoring me.

I periodically collect seeds from these milkweed, intending to sow them when I get around it hoping to provide for the struggling Monarch butterfly. So far I haven’t gotten the gumption – just so many other projects clamoring for my time. But I may want to give further attention to these seeds and collect fresh seeds too. Normally they waft away into the breeze, never to be seen again. I’ll collect many of them, remove their filamentous umbrellas and scatter them back out over the property to get a denser growth of them going. It’ll be neat to see them sprouting next Spring and producing a lot more of these balls of flowers for the bees. And perhaps I may find a Monarch caterpillar or three on them too.

Happy bees very quickly filling up their one-box home.

I borrowed a frame of brood and nurse bees from my strong hive to bolster a struggling hive and I put an empty in it’s place. While I was in the strong hive, I split the brood up. I opened up the brood-nest, leaving an empty frame between every two drawn and populated brood-frames. I only had three empties – they were filling up the box fast! That was last weekend. Today I decide to go give the hive another looksee. Normally I’d ignore the hives for several weeks while they’re busy working, but with seven of ten frames of this hive occupied, this one is nearing maximum capacity and in need of another box. If I wait too long, it will form a swarm-cell to raise another queen and then it’ll swarm, removing several thousand bees from the work-force and setting back honey production for that hive.

Comb drawn out like drapes, quickly filling in most of the frame after only a week.

I pulled a frame to inspect it and it turned out to be one of the empties I put in last Sunday. Lo and behold – it’s already over half-way drawn. It’s neat to see how several combs were started on this frame and then joined up into a single comb, perfectly built. The other empties were likewise filling with comb too. I didn’t look for eggs, but after examining one of the pictures I took of it later, I could easily tell that the frame was heavily laid with fresh eggs. The queen was busy and the colony is ballooning rapidly. I’m very happy about that, what with the set-backs I’ve had this and last year. I’m hoping to get a little honey harvest from this hive this year and perhaps a much bigger honey harvest next year.

Fresh, well made comb without any help from foundation whatsoever.

I decide that they’re full enough for another box. I remove four brood-frames from the box – in this case two of the new ones and a couple full and mature frames that are mostly capped – and I place them into a waiting empty brood-box. I put them in the center then divided them with an empty frame so I had two pairs of frames with room for expansion in the middle between the pairs and to the sides of the pairs. This became the bottom box. They now have room to build more comb as the colony exploits the robust nectar flow in this area.

Soon the mesquite will be flowering and I want a large population of bees to get that good nectar. While neighborhood trees and flower-beds as well as wildflowers in the area represent the primary nectar flow in the Spring, the bulk of my honey comes from the abundant mesquite trees in this area that blooms when the other blooming plants are subdued for the summer.

And no sooner is the comb made, before it's even finished, the queen is busy laying eggs in it, visible here looking like little kernels of rice.

In the original box I now have room for four empties. With the speed they filled up the three empties from last weekend, I have no doubt they’ll repeat their performance with these. I’m building combs that I’ll use for the next several years here, on foundationless frames no less and they’re as straight as cardboard. The comb-guides help a lot, plus the straight combs on either side of the empty frames. In the original box, I put two empties on either end. I put the other two empties spaced between two or more combs within the broodnest. All brood-combs are at least in pairs so that there’s enough nurse bees grouped together to keep the brood properly maintained – no brood comb is isolated between two empties.

I removed the original box from the bottom-board and put the new bottom on, then placed the original box on top of this. More occupied combs on top and less occupied combs on bottom. This exploits the bees tendency to build downward. They’ll fill the spaces in the top box and will be drawn into the box below by the occupied brood-combs down there. If they build this up fast enough, I may add a third  box in late May to hopefully get a small honey harvest from this colony come August. With a third added on this year, a fourth will go on early next Spring right as buildup begins and then about this time I’ll cut the hive in half and make two hives of it to begin my walk-away splitting process of multiplying the strong hives. I can hardly wait – this one is a very strong and happy hive.

Here are the top-bar hive chamfer trim comb guides in place and ready for bees.

There was a time when bees actually made their own comb from scratch. No really – they actually did. Honeybees really do know how to make their own comb! Unfortunately, their comb making often does not mesh with our desire for order. If left on their own, the combs will often have curves, which is not conducive to movable frame management. There are a few areas in even natural beekeeping where for the sake of managing the hive and extracting a harvest without destroying said hive, we must depart to a degree from the purely natural and give the bees more motivation to make straight combs. In this case, the use of comb guides has proven beneficial.

Comb guides can be a variety of things but their common attribute is that they’re attached to the top-bar either in a frame or a top-bar style hive. There are many options for comb guides – chamfer-trim or similar, Popsicle-sticks glued into a grooved top-bar, a piece of foundation similarly attached, or in some cases just a big of wax poured into the groove of the grooved top-bar.

When the bees make comb, they form little curtains of bees, hanging to gravity. These curtains are what determines the comb’s dimension. With the comb-guides in place, they’ll often grab onto the guide as the lowest point and use that as the base of their comb-making. While they are not guaranteed to stick to the guide, in most cases they do so long as other conditions are adequate – such as top-bar spacing and condition of neighboring combs. If the spacing is too far apart, they’ll begin to disregard the comb guides after a comb or three. And if a neighboring comb has a big bulge at the top – as can happen when they start filling out for honey, the next comb will be likewise off-center from the comb-guides. So the guides are at best recommendations, and it still takes a bit of management to ensure the bees properly utilize them.

Here's chamfer trim comb guides glued and nailed to Langstroth top-bars, ready to go in the frame-jig.

I use chamfer trim attached to my frame’s top-bars for comb-guides. It worked GREAT in the top-bar hives so I simply kept using them on my frames when I migrated to Langstroth last year. The bees appear to have taken to them just as well. Chamfer trim can often be found in the trim department of most hardware stores and I use the 3/4″ chamfer trim, which is all the store here carries. It fits the grooved top-bars perfectly. They come in 8′ lengths and I cut them into 16 3/4″ sections, with five sections per stick plus a little “waste” that can be cut to size to pair with another to fit in a frame. It takes two 8′ sticks per hive-box. With the TBH’s hives, I used to glue and nail the trim to the top-bars – which was rather tedious. My latest batch of top-bars that go on the frames I’m glued and used 1/2″ staples instead of nails and that’s worked pretty well. I purchased an electric stapler to make it easier.

Close-up of the chamfer trim glued and nailed to the top-bars. These will be attached to the frames next.

The basic technique is to run a couple of beads of glue like Titebond III on the chamfer trim section and position it on the top-bar then staple it. It needs to be held firmly to make sure it doesn’t shift while being stapled. Not all the staples go in all the way – sometimes I have to re-staple if the previous staple didn’t go deep enough to hammer in, but in most cases I can just tap it the rest of the way in with a hammer. I prefer the staples with the flat edges rather than the pointed staples. The points are usually angled in a way that when the staple goes into the wood, one part goes in one direction and the other part goes in the other direction, and I want it to pretty much go straight in.

While it may seem more work than Popsicle sticks or paint stirring sticks, I prefer the chamfer trim because the angle promotes the bees to go down to the lowest edge before they start making comb, then they build it up either side of the comb guide as they draw the comb down, cementing the new comb to the top-bar securely. Eventually you won’t even see the comb-guide as the bees will exhaustively cover it with comb.

Here's the frame jig in action - it really has saved me a ton of time and helps keep the frames straight and consistent.

It’s not a 100% guarantee – you need to monitor them while they’re drawing comb as they still can cross-comb. Once you have some straight combs, you can use these to help guide the new combs by placing an empty frame or top-bar between two straight combs. Just be sure that you always have at least two brood-combs together – no “empty, comb, empty, comb” because that makes it harder for the bees to tend to the brood and keep it warm. So, “comb, comb, empty, comb, comb, empty” and soforth is better. It’s also good if you don’t overdo it too – just one or two empties at a time. Of course, this assumes that the bees already have comb to use to help keep neighboring combs straight. If it’s a swarm, you can pull straight comb from another hive and put it in to help get them started. Then just feed in an empty here and there as they draw their comb once they have a few frames or top-bars filled. If you feed towards the center, that will keep the bees making brood-comb and hopefully by the time they start prepping the outer frames for honey, they’ll already be up against the wall and they won’t be able to go so wild with it.

Finished frames wired and ready to host comb and bees.

I wire all of my frames to help support the comb, regardless of whether it’s brood or honey. Since I don’t use queen excluders and run an unlimited broodnest, I like my equipment to be uniform and interchangeable – so it all gets wired. That way, as I rotate my frames thru the hive they’ll always have wire and will reduce blowouts in extraction. Bees build right over it with no problem at all. The wiring also makes attaching cutout combs much easier – I just place the cut-out comb on the wires close to the top-bar and then put the rubber-bands on. I don’t mess with trying to embed the wires – this comb will end up being rotated out and cut from the frames in time anyway and it’s better for the bees and the brood that I get the cut-out done faster.

Here's a foundationless Langstroth frame with drawn comb. Very straight and true to the comb-guide.

In any case, the bees hardly notice the wires when drawing down their comb and the wires quickly disappears under the comb as the bees start filling it with brood and nectar. This makes the comb much stronger, especially if it’s rather young, and simplifies inspection and extraction. It is a bit of work to wire them, but in the end I think they save more of a headache than they cause. Once the bees have fully drawn out a frame, it is nearly indistinguishable from a frame that used foundation. Save for more spaces on the sides and bottom of the frame, the frame is fully filled in and if managed correctly, pretty flat. As the comb is rotated up and used for extraction, the uncapping knife will help level out any bumps and irregularities too.

Foundationless takes a bit more work than foundation, but it allows bees to build the comb as they deem necessary – seeing as most of the time they know what they need better than we do. And it allows bees to size their cells according to their needs and not what we think their needs are. Their cell sizes will generally be smaller than the oversized foundations commonly sold, but honey production will still be high and the difference is often indistinguishable. And finally, the advantage of foundationless over foundationed is money. A dollar a frame for wax foundation adds up, especially if you’re growing your hives up to five or six deeps tall and have multiple hives. While it takes a bit of management to develop straight combs, once they’re built you’ll get several years of use out of them and basically for free. Time to draw isn’t any different from foundationless or foundationed – some report one is faster and others report the other is faster. But the bees can fill a deep frame with comb in less than a week, foundation or no. So give it some consideration. With their own comb, you will always know where it came from.