Catastrophe averted

Yesterday, we performed inspections on our hives. I am happy to report that all three are thriving! Leia's hive is picking up momentum and they were able to store the food that I had given them. I was relieved to see that they were able to make such a swift turnaround. The robbery that I reported has stopped. I plan to keep the entry at a reduced size for a little while longer until the number of bees increases. Catastrophe averted!

Chewbacca's hive is exploding as is Adriana's hive. Both colonies are drawing out comb at an astonishing rate. I noticed that both queens had even begun to lay eggs in the freshly drawn out comb. That is very good news. I will ask my mentor when he thinks I should add a second brood chamber.

The last week or so has been extremely hot. So hot, in fact, that many of the bees have decided to lounge out on the front of the hives.

This is common behavior for the bees. They are trying to regulate the temperature within the hive, so non essential personnel remain outside to help cool the inside. Interesting stuff. Last night a cold front moved in causing an impressive storm. Today's temperatures should be bearable for both man and bee.

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Swarm season

This time of the year, the bees are really starting to bust out of the seams of their hives. Stronger colonies are in full swing, while weaker colonies are trying to build up their numbers to at least become stronger by seasons end. Curiously enough, both situations can also spark swarm behavior for both types of colonies,especially in Carniolans (Apis mellifera carnica). Carniolans have a higher tendency to swarm than, say, Italians or Buckfasts, so of course keeping Carniolans can be a bit tricky and nerve wracking. A few words about swarming. The act of swarming is a natural occurrence, and is necessary for the propagation of honey bees. Since the queen mates only once in her lifetime and each colony only has once queen at any given time, the ability to procreate depends on building a colony to a sizable amount and then by splitting the colony in two. Honey bees, of course, have a brilliant way of doing this. The first thing that needs to happen before a colony can swarm is they n...

Housel Positioning: Simulating feral bee honeycomb building

Technically, I am an engineer. I know, writing software may not seem to be very engineer-y to you, but it does classify as engineering. We design, implement, test, and improve our product until the software does exactly what it should do. Why else do you think your apps are always updating? Engineering. Having said that, me being an engineer kind of also makes me a nerd/geek. I say I lean a little bit more to the geek side of that classification, because I just love anything that is science and/or technical. Well, anybody who likes technology and science needs to spend time learning about bees. They just know how to build stuff to the specifications of their own instincts. That brings me to todays blog entry: Housel Positioning. Housel Positioning gets its name from a beekeeper by the name of Michael Housel. Michael Housel discovered through observation, that feral bees build the honey comb with a specific order. If you were to take a look at honeycomb, and look closely at the bott...

Lodging the artificial swarm

On Tuesday, we lodged the swarm into its new home. Below are some photos and a video of the big move:

Hotham Family Apiary

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