Borage for Bees and a Baby Robin

trust your bees I am telling myself, they know what they are doing....

This is a bunch of drone comb. You can tell the difference between drone comb and worker comb by the shape of the cap. Drone brood comb have a bulbous, rounded cap, while the worker cap is flat and flush with the rest of the comb.

For over a century, many beekeepers have gone with the thought that a lot of drone comb is bad. Their reason being that drones are lazy, only sit around eating honey and make a colony less productive. While it is true that drones are bred to mate with the queen and they sit around the hive and don't even feed themselves, some beekeepers think they are more worthy than they are cracked up to be. For instance, some beekeepers think that because the varroa destructor mite, a kind of little red tick parasite that plagues the honeybee bees, prefer to feed off of drone brood. So, it is thought by some that the bees strategically lay drone comb away from their worker brood comb. Therefore drones are in actuality, whether they like it or not, noble martyrs for their fellow sisters. The carefree life of a drone isn't so carefree. They can't even catch a break while mating as their reproductive organs are torn from their abdomens, killing them during the mating flight. Poor fellas even get kicked out of the hive and are left for dead before winter sets in. No mercy. Tis the fate of the drone bee. So give him a break and leave him bee.

This is a comb with some honey! Yay bees!

more drone comb.... I may have a few laying workers on my hands...

have to keep an eye on this. More about laying workers later.....

Almost at the bottom of this comb, in the center, there is what looks to be a supersedure cell, that is a new queen cell, where a baby queen will develop. It almost looks like a little peanut hanging down. Usually there are more than just one. The first queen that hatches makes a 'beeline to the other queen cells and tries to sting them to death before they hatch or they will fight the others to the death if they have hatched unnoticed. Sometimes the present queen may try to do them in before they hatch as well. I am not sure that this one pictured is in fact a queen cell because there was a hole in the comb and they may have just been building to close it. However, evidence of these types of cells could mean a swarm is in order, or that the queen is old or failing as she may not have enough drone sperm collected and stored in her spermatheca (this contains the sperm from one mating flight with several drones and lasts throughout her lifetime- some queen can live up to 4 yrs I am told) . If a queen's mating flight is sub par, or rather if she doesn't collect enough sperm, she will eventually lay unfertilized eggs. Unfertilized eggs which still hatch but become drones. This happens because the bees that are born have a half set of unpaired chromosomes. They are haploid bees.

another couple of views...

more drone comb

this is not a good thing... it is what chalk brood looks like. Little white, chalky looking, mummified brood parts on the hive floor. They eventually get spotty and may turn black. Workers will act as undertakers and lug these to the entrance of the hive into a pile and then, eventually take them out of the hive. Chalk brood is caused by stress on the colony, usually from cold, damp weather and not enough nourishment. It is actually a type of spore-forming fungus that infects the larvae. There is no treatment a beekeeper can give... only honey made by the colony can help so I am told. Makes sense, honey is very nutritious. It's like chicken soup for them. The good news is, that it seems that this colony has made it through the chalk brood days of spring with all the rising, dry temps this summer. However, they are still struggling with a low population and are still not as active as the other hive. They only have 6 bars of comb total, while the other hive is building on their 11 th, would be 12 th comb (one comb was donated to the weak hive containing 6). So, naturally, I am worried that they will not have enough bees or food stores to get them through the winter. This is my first year though, and I may not know any better. This all may turn around for the better. Keeping my fingers crossed and my faith and trust in them to know what to do.

A clarification- the weak hive is the one that had chalk brood a much fewer bees and comb and with what I think is the queen cell. The strong hive is the one with all the drone comb.

If you have read this, and you are a beekeeper or have knowledge in these sorts of things, please tell me of your ups and downs, your worries and your hopes and suggestions about this amazing bee venture we share. I'd love to hear what you have to say.

This link has some interesting info

this one especially too- link

Give Bees a Chance

I have gone apiarian

There's no turning back. Today I stood in a bee yard at a local community farm with at least 30 top bar hives, bees everywhere. I came home with a wild hive from Pine Plains, NY, and another full of Russian stock/feral genes bred in NY by Sam Comfort of Anarchy Apiaries. I guess after we get better acquainted, me and the bees, I'll find out just exactly what that means. B.A.N.D. - Beekeepers Association of Northern Dutchess is set to meet at the end of the month, so I am on my own until then. I have to be up and about before the bees tomorrow morning to move them from the back yard to the 'bee yard' a little further into our back woods. I'll post some photos of the hives in the yard soon. Bee photos to follow in a few days after they adjust to their new surroundings...

So, only 1 bee sting today (on the leg) -pretty good considering I was sans bee suit and standing next to a guy wearing way too much cologne (he came to find out bees don't like that sort of thing). I haven't been stung since I was probably about 11 or 12. I'll always remember that day I was fishing with my father. We saved a honeybee that was drowning, that is, until it stung the palm of my hand and died. I put mud on the sting from the shore and the pain went away after a while. I think, maybe subconsciously, that day may have been the catalyst for all of this bee geekery. At least I'd like to think so. Its been a long time coming. (weird, Sam Cooke pops into the picture as I type this- A Change is Gonna Come) The memory is and always has been very vivid. Not the memory of the pain from the sting, but of the moments I watched the bee crawling on my hand knowing that despite the fact that it could sting me, and did, I still felt compassion for it. I was sad it stung me because I knew that meant it was going to die. Unless you are allergic, a honeybee sting really isn't so bad... think of how much worse it is for the bee.