You Can Help The Bees

These days bees seem to be in the news a lot. People often ask what they can do to help the bees, and one way to do so is to provide them with water during the summer. If you want to go even further, you can make a simple sugar syrup to fee the bees during the dearth (when most sources of nectar are not flowing.)

You can add either liquid to any number of containers: a plain plastic plate with some rocks in it, a bucket with some corks, or a chicken waterer with some pebbles. The important part is to a) ensure the bees have good footing so they don't drown, and b) if you're feeding sugar syrup, to do it right, and change it before it gets moldy.

A small bucket with corks for the bees to perch on,
and a handkerchief for them to suck water out of,
works very well (they won't roll the corks, don't worry.)

Making sugar syrup for bees is easy. You use a ratio of 1 part granulated white sugar (nothing else please, not honey, not corn syrup, not brown sugar) to 2 parts water.

I use an electric teakettle to boil the water (recommended to remove anything that might make the syrup mold faster), pour it over the sugar, stir, and let cool.

A simple plastic plate with some rocks for the bees to perch on.

Another great way to help bees and other pollinators is to plant wildflowers and trees in your yard which provide nectar for them. A long list of these for plants in North America can be found on Wikipedia here.

It's also really easy to sow white clover in your lawn. It doesn't get too tall (cuts down on mowing) and is a good source of nectar for the bees throughout much of the summer.

Even the simplest of things, like a bucket of water with some corks, can a great help. Just remember to change it regularly and keep it clean. And thanks! The bees appreciate it.

Even a chicken waterer with some pebbles works.

Splitting a Bee Hive

Earlier this week I was invited to help a local friend "make a split" of one of her beehives. Beekeepers do this to keep strong hives from swarming and to ensure the bees have enough space to grow.

Bees reproduce by swarming. In nature and in apiaries, sooner or later a strong hive of bees will run out of room, and will feel the urge to swarm. A swarm generally has the old queen with it, who will accompany a large group of foragers and nurse bees to a new location a scout finds for them.

The hive left behind will have newly laid eggs, from which they will hatch a new queen. Every egg laid by a queen bee has the potential to be a queen, it is the nurse bees who decide when to create a new one, either to supersede a queen which doesn't live up to their standards, or to replace one that has been injured or has died.

A strong hive booming with bees

Making a split allows a hive to grow without going through the swarming process. Beekeepers who are paying attention in the spring know that splitting a hive will both a) give the bees the space they need and b) give them yet another free hive of bees!

It's a pretty simple process, but you do have to pay attention. The way my friend N does it is to start by inspecting a hive to ensure it's healthy and has a booming population.

She leaves the queen behind in the original hive body, and moves four frames of new eggs, brood, and nurse bees to a new hive. It's important to ensure you have newly laid eggs, as the bees need one under three days old to convert to a queen, which they do by feeding the developing larva royal jelly and making the cell large enough to hold the larger queen body.

Choose four frames with
newly laid eggs and brood

Once she moves the four frames, N uses sliding dividers in the hive to close the frames up, which ensures the bees don't have too much space to try to keep warm, which can be problematic. Brood needs to be kept warm, and if the bees have to protect too much space as they're doing so, the brood might suffer and the new queen not hatch.

In a week or so N will check the new split to ensure they've made a new queen, and take other steps if they haven't. Simple and effective, making splits is a skill every beekeeper should know how to do.

A finished split

How to Render Beeswax

One of the most valuable things that beekeepers get from our bees is the wax that they make. It's valuable in several ways, not the least of which is for the frames we give the bees to use. When bees have drawn comb (used their wax to make the honeycomb that they store honey in or use for their brood and pollen), frames can be used over several times, and that saves bees the effort of drawing new comb every time they need it.

Wax that has been rendered and filtered twice

So when we harvested honey this year, we used an extractor (thanks S & L!) and used its centrifugal force to whip the honey out of the frames (after we remove the caps) and save that valuable drawn comb, as opposed to just crushing and straining all the wax and honey off the frames

After extraction of the honey the cappings, which are scraped off and drained, are very useful for a variety of things, not the least of which is candles, lotions, lip balms, and to melt and use to add to new frames to assist the bees in drawing them out later.

The process of rendering the beeswax is fairly simple, although it does take some time. (Also, see this great video, which is one of several from which I got the inspiration for this post. Thanks Cameron.)

I used the following:

A cheap slow cooker (which will be dedicated to wax from now on)
Some cheesecloth
Some paper towel
Water
And of course, wax that needs to be rendered

How To:

Put about two inches of water in the bottom of the slow cooker.

Over that, stretch a double or triple layer of cheesecloth. I taped it to the slow cooker at both ends, the corners, and the middle.

Cheesecloth and paper towel over the top
of the slow cooker, taped to it.

Over that stretch a layer of paper towel. Tape it down as above.

Over the whole thing, put a large rubber band of some sort (the slow cooker I bought came with one.)

Then place the wax cappings on top of the paper towel (and any extra comb you've scraped off which the bees made in places they shouldn't have, which is called burr comb.)

Cappings and brood comb ready to melt

Turn the slow cooker to low, cover it, and let it do its thing. I suggest being patient and not using the high temperature setting, as it can cause the wax to boil, which makes it not smell as lovely when it's done rendering.

Check it about every half an hour or so. And do not leave the slow cooker unattended, too much of a fire risk.

After an hour or three you'll see the wax has mostly seeped through the layers of filter, and there's some ugly black stuff left. This is called slumgum, and is all the dirt that has been brought into the comb by the bees tiny feet, plus other general detrius.

Slumgum left behind

Once all the wax has melted through, turn the slow cooker off and let it cool completely. Once it has, remove the filter material, but save it, as it works very well as fuel for your smoker when you use it to inspect your hives.

You may need to slide a knife around the edge of the wax, but the water should have allowed it to form into a nice patty. Lift it out and there you are.

Patty of wax after first filtering

I find that most times I need to repeat the process, as the first time some of the yuck gets through the filter and seeps into the water, and winds up on the underside of the wax. And you'd be surprised how much dirt a seemingly clean patty of wax still has when you filter it twice.

Filter material after second rendering

When you're done, you have clean wax you can use for any number of things. I made candles, which I'll write about in a subsequent post.

Tips for Aspiring Beekeepers

Last year was our first year keeping bees. We did pretty well (knock wood) and made it through winter with three out of three hives. We have two hives of Italian bees, and one of Carniolan.

We had four hives at the end of summer, but lost one to robbing in the late fall. Italian bees tend to rob a lot, and I learned from the experience, so won't let it happen again.

A number of people are interested in getting into bees it seems, so I put together this list of tips for the aspiring "beek."

In no particular order:

1) Order your supplies/hive components in late fall. This will allow you to assemble and paint etc. with plenty of time. If you haven't ordered things yet, do it right now, this minute.

2) Plan on having at least two hives. That allows you to compare them and their progress, which will help ensure your success.

3) Order your bees in Dec/Jan, depending on your location. Don't wait until spring when bee supply houses are crazy busy. Again, do it now if you haven't done it already.

3) Get at least one good book (I liked Beekeeping for Dummies.)

4) Watch videos on YouTube! You can't watch too many, really.

5) Join a local beekeeping club, take a class, see if you can find a local mentor. They will be invaluable when you have questions and need to see things hands-on.

6) Having done both, I suggest buying a nuc. Packages are slightly cheaper, but nucs will put you farther ahead in less time, and are more than worth it.

7) Plan your apiary location based on local weather. You want some basics: facing east/southeast, easy to work around, raised to keep predators at bay (skunks and the like). Far better to get the location right the first time than have to move the bees.

8) Learn when your local main nectar flow is. Ideally, get your bees well established before it is over, if you can.

9) Learn about what trees and plants provide nectar in your area. You'll want to think about planting some (especially trees) if you can.

10) There are a lot of good online groups and forums about bees, many of which are filled with helpful people. But also, be aware of the adage "Ask ten beekeepers a question and be prepared for at least twelve answers."

Good luck to you! I have found this a wonderful project, and bees fascinate me.

Feed Dee Bees

Yesterday I noticed that there was a mob (and I do mean a mob, at least 25 or so) of honeybees all over the hummingbird feeders. I have two feeders out now, one with "bee guards" that keep the bees from drowning in the feeders, and one without, because the hummers seem to dislike the bee guards. I got the feeder with the bee guards because I generally get a lot of "sweat bees" who climb all the way into the feeder and drown, which makes me sad.

My older feeder, with no bee guards.

The hummers are tiny creatures, and seemed daunted by the swarm of bees. So I did some googling and found that one can move honeybees away from hummer feeders by feeding them. The ratio of sugar to water is much higher for bees than hummers. Nectar for hummingbirds should be made at a ratio of 4:1, four parts water to one part sugar. For bees, you can go 2:1 or even 1:1, depending on the time of year. I opted for a 2:1 ratio.

The new feeder, with bee guards.

As always, I boiled the water (to kill any molds or fungus) then mixed the sugar in. For the first batch I added some red food coloring, but then once I had the bees moved, left it out (and am using a red plate instead to attract them.) They drink a ton, but I figure they need it, we're supposed to have a high of 103 today with a heat index of 110. The thermometer on the back porch in full sun was reading 108 at 11 am, and I imagine it will only get higher!

Here's my set-up for the bees, I put rocks in the plate so they'd have someplace to land and tiptoe down to the syrup, didn't want anyone drowning in it. Not sure how long I should feed them for (have a query in to a friend who keeps bees), but for now, will keep making sugar water and adding it to the plate until some rain falls or they go away.

Using plates and rocks to feed the bees.