Honey Bee on the Siberian Squill = Spring!

(c) 2014 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

I know, I know, I've been absolutely AWFUL about posting.  Beyond awful.  But rather than getting bogged down in that and feeling guilty, I'm just going to post right now... because I want to, and because maybe then I'll start to feel like, "Hey, I could post that!" and be better about writing here!

  

In the spring, usually right around tax day, our backyard is filled with lush green foliage and electric blue-purple flowers that we're pretty sure are Siberian squill.  Seriously, the whole backyard.  It's the best it looks all year, by far.  In fact, a while (man, I GUESS a while!) ago I posted pix of my two gorgeous (and WAY smaller) girls in the squill flowers.  

Well, today I've got a picture of a different one of my "girls" in the squill.  Of course, this one's in the squill because she's busy collecting the pretty blue pollen in the pollen baskets on her back legs as well as the nectar.  :)  

Freaky 5K - Beekeeper edition

(c) 2013 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

As you probably know, I've been doing this 5K running thing for a few years now - 4 to be precise.  I ran in one my first year, 2 my second, 3 my third, and now I've completed 4 in my 4th year as a runner!  The only one I've done every year is our town's invariable HOT one in July, but I've now completed the Y's Freaky 5K for three different years!

One of my favorite parts about this race is that it's a costume-friendly one.  And I LOVE costumes.  (But I think people who enter the costume contest in outfits they didn't run in are totally cheating.)  

Anyway, presenting my 2013 Freaky 5K costume...

Beekeeper Being Chased by Bees!

I'd been toying with this idea in my head for a while, but last night I decided I really did want to do it, so after the girls went to bed,  I made the bees with some scrap fabric, a really big Sharpie marker, some rubber rings (for their heads/to hold open them in a windsock fashion), and milk carton side wings.  And thread.  A lot of thread.  Fishing line to attach them to my hat/veil combo.

I was worried that the wings would make them top-heavy, so I ended up sewing a largish bead inside each one at the bottom of the last stripe.  I think it helped.  Not that I ran fast enough that they really flew, but still...

The hat was a little more annoying than I thought it would be in that the front kept wanting to slide down lower than I liked, and my earbud cord was pulled on some by the elastic of the veil, so it kept falling out, but overall, not an awful one to run in, for a costume race anyway!  Lots of compliments and smiles, so that was nice.   I figure I'll just detach the bees' string from my hat and throw 'em in my costume tote 'cuz you just never know when this sort of thing will come in handy!  :)

Too Darn Hot, even to the Bees!

(c) 2013 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

It's hot.  In fact, it's DARN hot, especially for this northern US clime!   We've had a stretch of around 90F days,  with not much cooling down at night, which is rather uncomfortable!  Luckily for us human types, we can escape to the magical land of Air Conditioning!  Fortunately for the Kluges/Huis household, we gave in and purchased window air conditioning units for the 3 bedrooms last summer.  Thank the Lord for those, 'cuz hot = nobody sleeps (well) = grumpy pants family!  

But my poor little bees haven't got none of that air conditioning business!  Instead, they do this:

They hang out on the front porch when it's hot.

Sometimes there's enough of them hanging out outside that they end up just climbing onto & hanging off of each other... then it's called "bearding."

Here's how bearding looks from the side...

...and the back, so you get a sense of just how many bees are hanging off of each other.  Pretty crazy, huh?

This is a view from above(ish) of the landing board.  Notice anything different about some of the bees?

The ones on the left (south) side that are lined up in rows are fanning - standing there, buzzing their wings like nobody's business, to try to move some (hopefully cooler) air into and up through the hive.

And that concludes your beekeeping lesson for the day!  Hope you enjoyed it! 

I'll name you Beatrice, you're Beulah, and you can be Bea... I'm gonna need more 'B' names...

(c) 2013 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

 We've been thinking about doing this for a while and Mr. Kluges finally talked me into it last September.  We ordered our equipment, put it together, and today, picked up the final and most necessary component to our new endeavor...

That'd be a box full of bees, folks!

We are now beekeepers!  

Mr. Kluges and the girls watched from the back roof/balcony while I installed them into their hive.  To start we got a "nuc," which is basically 4 frames out of the middle of a hive.  They should have an active/laying queen and a bunch of her daughter bees along with eggs/pupa/larvae in various stages, and honey and pollen, too.  All I had to do was carefully remove them from the cardboard box they're in and put them into their prepared permanent home.  I looked for the queen, but didn't see her, which isn't too unusual considering my lack of experience. :)  I'm not too worried (well, not too worried), but I'll look again in a few days and see if I can find her then, or at least eggs, which would mean she's there & doing fine.

Here are some photos of the process.

This is the nuc of bees riding home in the trunk of the car.

After I took the first frame out of the nuc, I showed it to my 3 observers. There are bees everywhere on that thing!

Taking a look at a frame of bees to see if I can spot the queen, observing the capped brood, looking for eggs, etc.

Adding 3 new frames to each side of the hive for the bees to fill with pollen and honey for themselves.

Putting on the inner cover.

Since they're just getting established, I put an empty box on top of the inner cover, then a container of sugar-water for the bees to help feed them until they get going finding nectar sources.

Finally I put on the outer cover and a big ol' rock.  The empty nuc box was placed in front of the opening so the couple of dozen bees still in it could find their way out in their own time.

I retrieved the camera from Mr. Kluges while I was still geared up and took a few pictures.  This circled bee is sticking her rear in the air and giving off the homing pheromone, to help the other bees find the opening and realize that this is now home.

I've already been out to look at the hive quite a few times today because it's just so dang cool.  I even saw a bee returning to the hive with the pollen baskets on her legs packed full of bright yellow pollen (dandelion?) less than an hour after I'd installed them.  The bees seem to have settled in fine, but I'm looking forward to continued observations.  Yay for honey bees!

Cross-posted to House of 42 Doors