It's the dead of winter here in the Pacific Northwest (Oak Grove, Oregon), and the bees are buckled down waiting eagerly for the arrival of spring 2010. On Tuesday there was a freak snowstorm that brought our city to a standstill, but the bees perservered in their Warre hives as well as their horizontal top bar hives. Here's a picture of our backyard with two horizontal top bar hives, two Warre hives and the natural stump hive that is currently vacant.
Today my wife and I stopped by two Warre hives at Sokol Blosser Winery that we hadn't visited for months.
The good news: The bees are alive and the hives are heavy.
The bad news: Both hives had mice take up residence in the bottom box.
Thankfully it was caught before the mice completely decimated the hives and I was able to remove the mice, their nests and the smelly mess they left. After that I added 1/4" hardware cloth to the entrance to keep the mice from returning. Hopefully both hives will overcome.
The mouse nest:
We've had 3 hive orders in the past two days: a great start for the 2010 year at Bee Thinking, and we look forward to preparing hives for the Spring Rush. Again, if you are looking to get a horizontal top bar hive or Warre hive in 2010, please get your orders in soon!
For a month I read, pondered, tested and finally decided on what seems to be the ideal, cost-effecive, clean method of melting and applying wax to top bars and anything else; the Presto Kitchen Kettle!
Simply put in a chunk of wax, set the kettle to warm and within a minute or two you are left with a beautiful puddle of wax that can easily be poured, painted or applied in any fashion you desire.
The first 200 top bars that we made for the 10 top bar hives were completed using the painstaking heat-wax-and-kneel-by-the-oven method. The kitchen kettle can be placed anywhere -- even in one's shop or outdoors and it never gets the wax too hot. You can find one of these for approximately $30 at most stores.
What a week! After more than 6 months of planning and building, the first 10 packages in the 20 hive apiary expansion have been installed. 5 packages of Italians and 5 packages of Carniolans arrived at Ruhl Bee Supply on Monday, after a trek from Northern California's Oliveraz Bee Company. It was an unusually warm day -- almost 80 degrees in April!
My wife, a photographer from the Oregonian and I met at Ruhl, waited in line for 20 minutes to pay and then entered the holy of holies: The small warehouse containing over 10,000,000 honey bees -- 1000 packages. Our photographer was obviously taken aback by the sight and intense sound, but slowly began to adjust to the idea.
We got our packages, carted them to the truck and proceeded to strap them down for the 3 mile trip to our Oak Grove home where the first three packages were to be installed.
First, I gingerly procured the queen from one of the Carniolan packages and quickly replaced the can so as not to release too many unhappy bees. I removed the cork, covered the hole with my thumb and inserted a small marshmellow where the cork had resided. After that I removed all but the bottom box from the Warre hive, placed the queen cage in the back corner and removed a few bars above her. I grabbed the package, slammed it down to get the bees to the bottom, removed the can, upturned it and began pouring them in on top of the cage. I set the package down for a moment as I got stung in the ear. After swearing, I replaced the bars and added the top box and poured the rest of the bees into that one. I leaned the package against the entrance, added the feeder box and top and walked away from the mass of frantic bees.
It was an exhausting day, but I'm glad we got it done. And I'm glad the Oregonian was there to document the process. The article should be in MIX Magazine in May or June.
This week I continue preparing the 10 Warre hives that will receive the next shipment of bees. It has been determined that 3 hives will be placed at Sokol Blosser Winery, 4 at Lachini Vineyards and 3 at Cameron Winery. I look forward to it!
