First Splits

-Posted by Isaac

What a fun week we've had.

Here's our Monday starter:

Followed by a Tuesday teaser:

And after that, things took a turn for the worst.

Tornados, floods, sleet and snow throughout the state. Maybe my whining a month ago was too early? In fact, as I write, I'm once again looking out across our snow covered yard. What a spring! Is this April 7th? It's almost laughable. I complained my way through last week's post, and I told Jayne I'd try to stay positive this week. But it's just so damn hard.

It's hard to stay positive and it's hard to make splits with this horrible weather. But no matter, a little bit is better than nada. We're going to start with a few and go from there. We're doers here, right Honey?

I mentioned making these 20 splits in the rain last week. For this week's post, I thought I'd show you the steps. A little tutorial. But keep in mind, there are about a hundred ways of splitting a hive, and I'm no expert with any of them. Take notes on what you like, and discard what you don't.

First, you need a strong hive. Hard to find in this, our never-ending-winter. But they are out there. By late April, hopefully, there should be many many more.

You want brood in the top and bottom box. Preferably four frames in the bottom. A hive with four or five brood frames will still be big enough to make you some spring honey a month and a half from now. Or even split again in May.

Second, you want to isolate the queen. You don't need to find her, just know which box she's in. I like to accomplish this by shaking all the bees into the bottom box, then putting a queen excluder between the boxes.

The problem with this is that it requires another trip to the yard. If you find the queen, you can do it all in one trip.

Next you need to gather your equipment. You're doubling your hive count, so you'll need to basically double everything. 

And oh yeah, don't forget the feed.

When you get back in the bee yard a few days later, you can start pulling brood from that top box. I like to make my early nucs with two to three frames of brood and a frame of honey.

I then replace the pulled frames with foundation and give the original hive a hefty slurp of feed.

Don't forget to take out the excluder!

It's too early to make your own queens in Ohio, so you have to order them. By mid May, you can try your hand at queen breeding. Unfortunately, this timing doesn't work for us. Most of our nucs are sold by May. But I still try my luck at home bred queens later on.

The first batch is a big deal in this household.

They don't stay in a shoe box for long.

I usually wait a couple days with a queenless nuc before putting in a new queen. Possibly better acceptance? I'm not sure if this is true, but it's what I've been told. Anyway, what's the rush?

A week later, you can check to see that your queen is out of her cage and all is well. You may even find eggs, but sometimes it takes a little longer.

A little protein and a touch of syrup doesn't hurt.

And off they go!

The willows (in the background) will be feeding the bees a week from now. The dandelions and the purple deadnettle (presently beneath the snow) are coming on strong. If we could only get a little heat... stay positive!

Now I wonder

-Posted by Isaac

I'm so disgusted with this weather.

Dumbfounded, really.

About a month ago, we had a teaser. A few warm days in February right about the time the maples bloomed. The bees got to work. And so did we.

Pulling that heavy load. Feeding and watching, hoping to coax our girls into spring. It's hard work going from yard to yard, sloshing through the mud with a protein laden wheelbarrow. But it only lasts a week or two, right? The warmth and growth and pollen will soon arrive. Right?

Wrong!

Not this year. No relief. If it's not cold, it's wet. If it's not wet, it's windy. In at least a month, the bees haven't had a taste of real pollen. It's disgusting. Tomorrow is April 1st. And the beekeepers are the fools. I guess that's what I get for being naively hopeful. I have now pushed our queen schedules and nuc schedules back two full weeks. And that's crossing my fingers, pressing my luck. Looking at the hives, I think we're at least three weeks behind last year.

Well almost everything is behind. Of the 500 queens now pushed back, I took a gamble and kept 20 coming this way. So early this week I made splits. In the rain. 

It was probably a stupid gamble, but I couldn't help myself. 

Maybe we'll talk splits next week. For now, I just feel like complaining. I was by myself the majority of the week... bucking a wheelbarrow through the mud, at times in a downpour. Disgusted. The girls are hungry and hive bound. We can't just let them starve. Not now. Not at the very cusp of spring.

My family left me. 

There's some kind of bunny worshipping holiday coming up, and Aunt Becky came over to teach our kids the prescribed rituals. 

They were out of school three days for this sacrilege. It was truly blasphemous. 

After the fun with Aunt Becky, off to far Grandma's they went.

Me? I stayed behind to feed bees. In the rain. Anyway, I wanted no part of their pagan holiday.

Got another song for you. Feeling sorry for myself, this popped into my head on Wednesday and stayed there for the next three days.

For this particular week, it was that line about rain that seemed to fit the bill. I learned this song years ago during a rough patch, and to my amazement the whole thing was still in my head, more or less unblemished. So this week, many a beehive got to enjoy my version of the Chris Isaak therapy. 

I don't know if it helped anything, but the memories sure poured past. I worked from morning to night. No family to come home to, what else was I going to do?  My own gods demanded reverence.

The bees, not the cows.

By Friday the sun began to show itself. And by noon today we had about five minutes when the temperature finally crested 50 degrees and all was calm. The bees shot out to taste some deadnettle. Did they have an hour? Maybe two?

By this afternoon, when I went back Grandma's long lane to get the kids, the forsythia was whipping in the wind. I've been told that the end of winter can be reliably predicted by what that plant does or doesn't do. But I've been told a lot of things. Preachers, teachers, farmers and beekeepers... I've been told a lot of things.

And now I wonder.

Train Song

-Posted by Isaac

Spring officially arrived this week and right on cue, look what happened.

March 20th was nice. Chilly, but nice. We went to bed, woke up on the 21st and peeked out to find this marvelous Ohio surprise. It came in the dark. Like a midnight train with a big load of cold.

I put that picture on the commercial beekeepers page, saying something like, "Spring has arrived! Hurray!" 

I don't think they got my sarcasm. 

But I know you do. And I also know you're tired of hearing me bitch about the weather. Are we going on four weeks now? Let me tell you, it can get worse. Just ask Jayne.

I had the pleasure of working with my lovely wife this week. (No sarcasm there.) Katie, who does all the work around here, was out with the flu. After about three days, it occurred to us that we'd better knock out some of those online orders that were piling up. So, much like in the good ol' days, we put on our favorite music and got busy.

No, not that. We were working.

Honey house work very appropriately flies by with The Honeycutters. You can just savor every line...

We made a day of it.

A bit of bottling,

a bit of labeling,

and a lot of packing and shipping.

As fun as it was, I was ready to get back to the bees the next day.

On one trip, I had some help.

And once again, the help got the good bee suit. Dad as always, gets the raggedy old scraps.

But some had to go without. I guess if you're using the smoker like a fire extinguisher, you really don't need a suit.

Maizy started off as my photographer. Below is a five second "photo."

Wow, five seconds! Instagram worthy. 

Although it was only a blip of time, Maizy was still able to capture the essence of what we were doing in the bee yard.

1. Messing around without proper sting protection.

2. Screwing with Dad's phone.

3. Letting Dad fill his usual role as Mr. Beast of Burden. 

This is the way it goes with good help. On my many other alone trips this week, I was mostly just making one last check. Checking for food, and checking for split potential. If the hive is left with a brick on edge, it will be split sooner than later. If the brick stays flat, the split comes later than sooner. Or not at all. That simple. 

Now you know my March brick language. But you're not yet fluent... it changes in April.

In this strong yard, 12 of 16 will be split by the middle of next month. Not bad!

These bees happened to be only two miles away from the Mt. Sterling Dairy Freeze.

And you have to keep the help happy. 

We filled ourselves with sugar and grease, but you can see I had the presence of mind to grab some good literature. I thought at the very least I could talk bees and entertain my young captive audience.

Nope, foiled again. The bee talk would have to wait.

Not even ice cream can compete with a train.

Eden to the rescue

-Posted by Isaac

Happy St. Paddy's! Unfortunately, there's still nothing green out there. Three weeks ago I was blogging about winter being over. Maybe I was a little overzealous? 

With the cold hanging around, I had to call for more propane and we hauled in another couple loads of wood. Hopefully the last.

Nothing brutal, but winter is staying put just enough to keep us complaining.

Us and the bees.

Well, maybe they're not complaining. This yard happened to look great. But they were hungry and cooped up inside with that big bursting population. No pollen coming in because of the the cold.

These girls finished our last few boxes of patties.

And on Thursday they even had a couple bright hours of flying. But just a couple. Highs in the mid forties aren't cutting it. But when the weather does finally break, we'll be ready. We finished up the nuc boxes this week.

So we're staying busy despite the cold. And at least it's been dry. The firm ground enabled us to jump into another small project-- moving bee yards.

Here is what a bee yard should look like:

As neat and orderly and awesome as this is, sometimes it still doesn't suit. I try, every time I put in a new location, I try to warn the property owner. These are bees... not hamsters. They can go anywhere they want. But still, despite my warnings, every year there are a couple yards that need to be moved. Too close to people... too close to animals... need to run a fence through that area... want to put my garden there... that's where I walk the dog... the bees are on my hummingbird feeder... my chicken feed... my horse trough... my dog dish... my swimming pool... my bird bath, etc...

It's endless. When I get the call, I don't argue. I don't scream or growl or cuss or call them names. I just say ok. Then I throw my phone.

We've averaged two or three moves every winter. This week we got a couple more out of the way. Cold dry weather makes is easy. You can work in the daylight.

And I had some help from my little helpers. Eden was the very first to show off the new suit from Mann Lake. Maybe I bought a size too big?

But she didn't need a bee suit for what happened later in the week.

Opps. This was out on Rte. 56. Someone got a bit too close with a tractor.

We left it like that a whole day. To my mind, it was sort of amusing. Plus I was busy doing other stuff. It didn't seem to hurt the farmstand crowd. Maybe it caught a few eyes, brought in a little more business? Sympathy business? 

Thankfully, Eden came to the rescue.

Heavy lifting for a four year old, but somehow she prevailed. I wish she could have touched up the paint a bit...

But maybe we'll tackle that another day. The Eden heroics were needed elsewhere. 

We got Mason's 4-H project this week-- four baby ducks. So far, Mason has taken very little interest, even though he requested ducks over goats and bees, his 2017 projects.

But no matter, those little babies have garnered all the love and attention they could ever want from our own valiant Baby.

Birthdays

-Posted by Isaac

The first week of March is special for this family.

And we make sure the extended family shares in its specialness.

This year, Mason the elder turned ten. Eden the baby turned four. They both got skates.

During this special week we all step into our respective roles. Mason and Eden: entitled, openers of gifts. Maizy and Bridger: loud, eaters of cake and ice cream. Dad: present, eater of cake and ice cream. Mom: 100% of everything else- party planner, gift buyer, food preparer, gracious host, etc...

Mom is the reason we have birthdays. She's also the reason we have a thriving business and can afford to throw these lavish parties with such decadent desserts. But lest we forget what this blog is about, let's get back to Dad. The present one. The eater of said desserts. And the beekeeper. That's right. For better or worse, Dad is the reason we have bees. 

The girls are building up and looking strong. It's time to think about splits. Bees are explosive in their spring growth... we will soon be celebrating four to five hundred more birthdays. 

And we need nursery boxes for all these new births. This week I traveled to Mansfield to pick up the first batch of 300 custom nuc boxes, compliments of Ohio Bee Box Co.

We then did a little customizing of our own.

And we put all the replacement frames where they belong.

As part of the Mansfield trip, I killed two birds. The first week of March is time for the big Tri County workshop at ATI. I made it over to Wooster and joined about a thousand other beekeepers in this annual event. This year they brought in the big hitters- Randy Oliver and Jamie Ellis. For two days, I mostly followed Randy Oliver.

Any of you who have had the distinct pleasure of talking to Randy Oliver know he can be somewhat abrasive in person. But sitting back and just soaking it in is a much better experience. He's a fountain of knowledge. I went to four of his talks and I must admit, I've got a crush on him. A bee crush. Just look at him strutting across that stage!

Randy filled my head with lots of bee thoughts. Management ideas. Queen rearing ideas. Varroa treatment options. Nutrition basics...

Oh yeah... nutrition. To make lots of bees, you need lots of protein. That's the gist of it.

And during the first 10 days of March, Mann Lake (We Know Bees!) runs a huge sale. Mann Lake Madness. Dry Ultrabee protein is part of it. But the deal is, you have to go and pick it up. I punched some numbers and figured that if we bought the year's protein needs now, we'd be saving over $1000. Thing is, the closest Mann Lake store is about an eight hour drive. One way. Was it worth it? Of course! You know I'm a sucker for a road trip.

Old wipers. Busted windshield. Yes, preparation is key!

In the mountains of Pennsylvania, as my eight hour trip turned into 10 hours, I began to have second thoughts. I was catching the western end of that big nor'easter that slammed the east coast and shut everything down for about three days.

 Eventually, after much white knuckled driving, I made it and got my 1500 pounds of dry powder. The things we do for our babies.

The crew knew I was coming, and thankfully they waited patiently. Immediately following my departure, they shut the plant down and everyone went home to cuddle with their families.

However, my cuddling would have to wait. I probably should have been thinking hotel, but about half way across Pennsylvania the clouds parted and the late day skies turned beautiful. By then, I was lost in my birthday thoughts and I just kept driving.

Without a birthday marker amid all the chaos, it would be easy to forget that your baby, your kid is actually growing up. 

With bees it's a little different. Here we have a quiet and orderly explosion.

As soon as that first extended flush of spring pollen starts rolling in, you can almost mark the calendar. In about a month, we'll be making splits, placing queens, and we'll be celebrating hundreds of birthdays.