Hurricane Sandy

I live in central Maryland, not normally a location associated with severe weather, and certainly not hurricane weather.   Sure, the occasional hurricane manages to work it's way up the coast and perhaps leave us with a heavy rainfall.   A few years back, we even had quite a few trees come down in the Catoctin Mountains.  

Sandy was different though and we were expected to have winds gusting to 75 mph.   Most of our animals are easy enough to secure, but I was concerned about the hives been tossed over.   My preparation plan was to anchor the hive stand to the ground and then strap the hives to the stand. 

I started with the ground anchors which came in sizes from 6 inches to 18 inches.    I went with the 6 inch variety, simply because our ground can be a bit rock and I knew the larger ones could be a challenge.    And I really figured 6 inches would be more than sufficient (and it was).    This is what they look like:

It looks like the tie-down stakes you might put a dog (or goat) out with, but they have a tighter twist and they can rest pretty much flat with the ground, which means you could just leave them in place without the worry of mowing over them.     They are a little harder to twist into the ground without the "handle" on the dog variety.   However, you simply put a pole through the top loop and use that for leverage while twisting and pushing down.  Here is one of them installed:

I then used good rope to tie the stand down to the anchors.   I used a truckers-hitch to create a very taught line.    I won't explain that knot here, but I use it all the time for highlining goats ... so it is one I happen to know very well and it allows you to create a lot of tension on a line.     It worked extremely well here too.

Finally, I put two straps around each hive, securing them to the stand itself.    The final setup looked like this:

The winds did indeed get very intense.   Just next to the hives, a 10" diameter black locust came down, broken like a tooth pick.  Actually, we had quite a few trees broken or uprooted, but the point is that the area where my hives were placed certainly saw some high winds.     But the hive held firm and the bees were none the worse for wear once the skies finally cleared.     

More Bugs

At one of our previous houses, I used to see these awful looking bugs that we called Assassin Bugs.    They were all over the place and I'd often find their egg clusters and nymphs on the leaves of trees.   They didn't seem to cause harm and from what I understood, were beneficial insects.   

After a friend was recently bitten by one, I've since learned that the term Assassin Bug covers a large array of bugs and they are all fairly gnarly looking and have some pretty undesirable behaviors.    It includes the nasty litlle Kissing Bug which finds you sleeping at night and sucks blood from your lips or the soft area around your eyes!  

In any event, I've also since learned that the bugs we used to see are more specifically called Wheel Bugs.  They inject saliva into their prey to dissolve their insides and then suck the juices back out.  Their bites are considered quite painful.     

And why am I going on about these critters on a bee blog?   Because I found one yesterday in the midst of attacking one of my bees!

I'll have to do a bit more research on these guys, but I don't think they pose a serious threat.    I don't think their numbers are that great, but I'll have to keep an eye on them.     The following is a video I found on You Tube where another beekeeper caught a few wheel bugs in the act of acting a couple of his bees.    Not something you really want to see happen to your bees, but it's fascinating nonetheless.

Wasp Close-up

Timing is everything ... I was going to figure out how to get one of these monsters out of the bottle when one crawled out on its own.    It crawled right out the hole in the side (these side holes are not necessary ... the original instructions for this wasp trap used holes on the side, but then I remembered making fly traps by inverting the top, so I ended up with both.   The inverted top works better).

To provide a sense of scale the bottom of the opening is nearly an inch wide!

Giant Wasps!

The yellow jacket trap continues to do a pretty good job.    Recently, though, it has collected maybe a half-dozen of these monster wasps.     I wasn't able to get a good photo through the bottle, but take a look at just size of the head (circled) compared to a yellow jacket body (also circled) or the flies in the bottom.   This thing is huge!!

I believe this is a European Hornet based on the coloring and size.   Cicada Killer was originally suggested to me by a friend, but they are more black in the body and head.     I'll perhaps see if I can get one out of the bottle for better photos.

Yellow Jackets

The yellow jackets have been out in force the past few days.    I had noticed one or two before harvesting the honey, but then they were all over the hives.    When I opened the top cover I saw one that had found its way into the feeder:

Unfortunately, it wasn't just one.   There were at least 30 or more gathering around sugar that has crystallized on the top screen.    The following picture shows them after I have brushed most of them off:

A good friend had lost a hive last year to yellow jackets, so I went about looking for solutions.    Now, this hive is very strong, so it probably would be fine, but I didn't want to take chances.    I found a recipe online for an attractant that would be desirable to the yellow jackets but not the honey bees.    It was more or less this:

1/2 C. Sugar
1/2 C. Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Banana Peel
3 or 4 cups of water.

This was to be mixed up in a two-liter soda bottle, with small holes made toward the top of the bottle.    I instead used a technique that is used for fly traps.  I cut the top of the bottle off, inverted it and then taped it in place.  This creates a larger landing surface and funnel down into the bottle, while the flying insects can't quite fly back out.     I also didn't have sugar on hand, so I used some Sucanat (dried sugar cane juice) I had in the cupboard.


I placed it on an inverted tub just 6 feet or so from the hive and within a couple of minutes I had two yellow jackets in the bottle.   A couple of days later and I would guess that there are a few dozen yellow jackets in there, a handful of moths, a few flies, and a whole bunch of gnats.      But not a single bee!    It definitely works!

Honey Harvest

I finally got around to pulling the super off of one of the hives.    It was completely full and completely capped, but I hadn't had a free weekend to harvest.    I hadn't expected to have a harvest the first year, and to be honest, it isn't as "pure" as it should be as I had a feeder on the hive during some of their production period.    But that's OK, it still tastes like honey and it's fun to harvest ... I'll worry about keeping the honey pure next season.

Having no harvesting equipment, I was a bit at a loss on how to proceed, but thanks to someone I met while volunteering at the beekeepers booth at our local county fair, I got a nice tip.   Lowe's carries white buckets in the paint department and they happen to be food-grade plastic.    They also sell paint strainer bags that fit inside a 5 gallon bucket and work really well for straining the wax.

So I purchased two buckets with lids, and some paint strainer bags and set about creating my own crush and strain set.    I simply drilled large holes in one of the lids as well as the bottom of one of the buckets.    These are then stacked like this:

The bucket without holes is placed on the bottom and it is covered with the lid with holes.    The bucket with holes is then placed on top and the paint strainer inserted.



We next setup about cutting the wax out of our frames.  This was a pain!  I ended up placing the frames over a large plastic container and thenused a dull butter knife.  I think began cutting along the bottom edge.   This come was wired, so I cut right through the wires.   In actuality, the wires tended to pull out of the frame more than actually cut, but they of course remained embedded in the wax.   I left the horizontal wires in place, so the honey was removed essentially in three sections.   As we dumped it into the straining bucket, we picked out the wires.  



Once in the bucket, we just used a potato masher to smash and crush the wax.    Again, messy work, but it worked reasonably well.     It would probably be easier to crush before it went into the bucket.   something to consider for next time.

There is quite a bit to consider for next time, actually, as this whole process was a bit too messy and cumbersome for my liking.  I think we can improve it quite a bit with some simple changes.

Eventually, the bees did find where we were working, but it wasn't a complete frenzy.    They found some spilled honey and proceeded to help clean it all up.    A large bumble bee came along to help out and they all seemed to be enjoying themselves.

The following morning, though, it was a bit of a frenzy as the bees were joined by yellow jackets ... I left the uncleaned equipment out to let the bees clean it up ... but wasn't counting on the yellow jackets!

Beek in Legoland!

A friend shared this from a trip to Legoland, Florida!