The third, and last, in our series of beekeeping classes was
largely a review. We started by discussing how to hive bees in a top bar hive.
This is pretty much the same as hiving them in a Langstroth hive, with two main
differences. First, after you dump out
as many of the bees as possible, rather than leaning the mostly empty package
against the entrance (a top bar hive is elevated off the ground), you
clothespin a sheet to the entrance board and drape it down to the ground. Place
the package on the sheet so that the bees can crawl out of the package and up
to the entrance. Second, you band the queen cage to one of the middle bars,
rather than suspending her by the wire in the top. Otherwise the process seems
pretty much the same.
We also talked about “setting up” the top bar hive. The
teacher of the class recommended using a thin (about ½” wide) spacer at the end
to keep the top bar closest to the entrance from being close enough that the
bees will glue the comb to the front wall. She said it also allows a little
more room when you need to remove the first bar. One of the most important things
with a top bar hive is making sure the bees are off all the upper surfaces
before putting the bars back in. This avoids squishing bees (bad: kills bees
and releases the alert pheromone which stirs up the rest of the hive) and
trapping them in the upper section of the hive (bad: if the bees get trapped up
top they’ll start building comb there). You want to start with about seven bars,
with the follower board behind them. When the bees start filling those up,
simply add more bars. It’s apparently a good idea to try to keep five empty bars
throughout the summer.
We talked about lighting the smoker. This is assuming that
you use it very often (more on that in another post), but even if you don’t,
you’ll surely need it from time-to-time. We got ours in our first batch of supplies.
I’ve enjoyed taking it apart and checking it out. It’s recommended that you
learn how to light it before your bees arrive and you need to use it. It takes
a while to get the hang of it, and it takes a while to get it going good. It’s
best to light the smoker before heading out to the hives. Get some paper or
shavings going at the bottom (nothing potentially carcinogenic like charcoal),
then add your burn material slowly until it starts smoldering. It’s best to use
juniper bark because that smoke kills off some of the mites that like to camp
out on bees.
We talked about supplemental feeding too. This is important
if the bees run out of stored up honey to eat. At the end of the summer, you
have to leave lots of honey for the bees to feed on over the winter. When the
winter is very cold, the bee population decreases some; and the bees fly very
little – really only to get water. If they fly very little, they eat a lot
less. But if the winter is mild, like this one has been, the bees fly a lot
more, which means they eat a lot more. It’s a good idea to check the hives in
February to make sure they have enough to eat. This can be done in a Langstroth
hive by simply lifting it. If it’s still heavy, there’s probably still enough
honey. With a top bar hive, you kind of have to open it up. Unless you have windows like we will! Then
you should just be able to peek in without disturbing the bees! If you find
they don’t have enough honey, you have to feed them. Plain white sugar is the
best. Or sugar water made from plain white sugar and water. You can modify one
of those gallon size chicken feeders by using a circle of #8 hardware cloth to cover
the feeding tray. This is so the bees can walk on the cloth and suck the sugar
water through it, without falling into the water and drowning. (For the same
reason you will want to put something the bees can light on while drinking in
the water source you have planned for the bees. We are going to get some sturdy
pool toys – or the like – to float in the pond, as we plan on that being the
bees’ main water source.)
And finally we talked about planting for bees: apparently blue
is their favorite color. For that reason, in this area, it is recommended to
plant blue sage, Russian sage, borage, bachelor’s buttons, and blue lupine, but
bees also love all kinds of fruit trees, willow trees, lavender, white clover,
lilac, bee balm, hollyhocks, and roses (among numerous others). We already have
six apple trees, a pear, Russian sage, lavender, hollyhocks, lilac, and five
roses, in addition to the blossoms that occur in the garden (the various
squashes, cucumbers, pumpkins, etc.). But we’ll also be planting others this
year especially for the bees. I’m most excited about the borage because that
has great use for fertilizer, and is really good for “heating up” the compost
pile, as well.
And that was about it. I’m so excited about all of this, I
can’t believe we still have another two months and 15 days before the bees
arrive!
