Of Birds, Bees and Apple Trees

It has been an active spring season on the homestead, and this post is the resulting "grab bag" of topics.  Last year I had made a commitment to myself to put up a couple of nest boxes, in hopes of convincing a pair of tree nesting ducks to stay, as opposed to passing through on migration as they did last year.  Perhaps it was a bit too late, but I did in fact build and install two nest boxes.

Everything I purchased for the project is pictured (L); 12 feet of 1 in. x 10 in.
cedar board, cut in half at the lumber yard, a roll 25 foot roll of 2 foot wide
aluminum flashing, and a box of 50 stainless steel deck screws; the
instructions are from Ducks Unlimited.  In the second picture (R) the boards
have been cut to length using the Skillsaw.  Not pictured are a few roofing
nails for attaching the flashing to the tree, two big nails for mounting the box,
and some 1/2 in. hardware cloth, all of which I had on hand.

As projects go, this one is simple and easy.  Simple in that the design of the box is simple, and in that little material and few tools are required.  Once I had the materials and tools assembled, it probably took me less than three hours to build and install both boxes; most of that time was spent building the first box.

Of course much tree duck habitat has been removed to make way for development or agriculture, but the biggest reason for providing nest boxes is to protect the ducklings from predators.  One study I read [1] put duckling survival rates at about 35%.  "Of the total number of ducklings produced, about 65% (11 l/171) were lost and over 68% (76/l 11) of all duckling mortality resulted from the loss of entire broods."  The loss of entire broods was attributed solely to predation, specifically to mink predation.  Yes, this study looked at Mallard ducklings, which nest on the ground, not tree ducks.

Left (L) image shows hardware cloth that allows ducklings to climb to the
entrance, and the 4-1/2 in. wide by 3-1/2 inch tall entrance hole. The image on
the right (R) shows the box mounted on a maple tree, with the predator guard
in place below the box.

A second study [2], this one of Wood Ducks, indicated that the "overall survival of ducklings only ranged from 15-28%," though this study was made in Mississippi, so it too is perhaps a bit "weak" as an indicator of duckling survival rates in Michigan.  Later in the paper: "By now, you are probably wondering what was responsible for the relatively low survival of ducklings? The answer was PREDATION!"  From my point of view it seems safe to say that duckling mortality is high, something close to 65% - 70%, and that protection from predators can improve the survival rate.

Another first this spring was grafting.  The cleared area around the house has on its perimeter approximately 25 crab apple trees, which are well established and date, I am guessing, to the early 70's when the house was built.

Left to Right, cutting through the outer and inner bark to the cambium
layer (L); the bark has been "slipped" at the cambium layer and the prepared
scion inserted (C); and finally the wound has been protected with grafting
compound and the branch wrapped with grafting tape (R)

The deer love the crab apples, though the same cannot be said by any humans I know.  Fruit trees have been a part of the plan since the earliest days, and grafting apple scion onto established root stock is one of the quickest ways to a harvest of eating-apples; 2-3 years or so.  I used Tanglefoot 300000529 1-Pint Tree Wound Pruning Sealer and Grafting Compound and Parafilm® Grafting Tape (Genuine by Parafilm®) 90' Roll Clear (1" - One Inch).  I chose Honeycrisp and Winesap apple varieties for this experiment, and am now putting a frequent eye on the scion for growth; it felt right, but we shall see. <Leafing out of some scion was seen on 16 May and growth continues.>

And finally, on the "sad news" front, there is the condition of our sole remaining colony of bees.  When the temperatures were peaking at over 50 degrees F in mid-April, and no bees were flying, I decided to go into the hive.  What I found was certainly not what I had been hoping for all winter.

A mouse or a vole had taken up residence in the hive.

Dead bees preserved in time at the top of the hive.  There was

no honey in the hive; they either starved or were chilled,

or more likely some combination of the two.

It was a complete mess, as the picture at left attests.  Some sort of small rodent had taken up residence, and of course destroyed most of the comb in the process.  Even in the comb that was still intact, there was no honey.  I am not a specialist in failed hive forensics, but I believe the colony had failed and all of the bees had died before the squatter showed up to stay.  In the first part of June last year, with only two boxes on the hive since installation of the colony in mid-April, I checked to see how much comb the colony had built out.  Sure enough, they had built comb all the way to the bottom of the lower box; I felt lucky to have been just in time in adding boxes to make more room before the colony swarmed.  This was documented in the 18 June 2014 post entitled, "Late Spring Update from the Homestead, Part III, Beekeeping."  As I took the hive apart this spring though, it was perfectly clear that the bees had built no additional comb in boxes three or four, none, since the end of the first week of June.  What happened I do not know.  Is this what "colony collapse disorder" looks like?  I cannot speak to that.  Regardless of the reason why, I do not think that two boxes would hold enough food stores to get the colony through the long Michigan winter.

I went 0 for 3 in 2014; three colonies installed, zero survived to spring of 2015.  The list of mistakes I made at colony install in 2014 is long.  In mid-May of 2015 I installed two new colonies, and benefiting from the failure documented here, and from additional research, it seems we are enjoying at least more early success than last year.

More will be posted on the 2015 grafting and bee installation in a future post.

Thank you for reading and commenting on the blog.  Your comments and criticisms, your inputs and acknowledgements, are welcomed, and will help me to improve my posts.

 Please "follow" the blog by clicking on "g+ Follow," or by e-mail at  "Follow by Email."   Also, "Like" us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/swmichiganhomestead.

-- John, 29 May 2015

[1] "Survival of Mallard Broods in South-Central North Dakota," http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1050&context=usgsnpwrc, accessed 24 April, 2015
[2] "Wood Duck Broods in Dixie:  Striving to Survive Early Life," http://www.fwrc.msstate.edu/pubs/ducklings.pdf, accessed 24 April, 2015

Beekeeping: A Short, Cautionary Tale, From a Beginner

In recent weeks I have thought of the need to add a 5th box to the bee hive; I have been seeing many bees congregating at the hive entrance, and was worrying that they might have expanded to fill the available volume, and bee looking to swarm.  Since Nathan was around as an able assistant, having helped me to add the 3rd and 4th boxes back in June, the time to add the 5th box had come. After adding the 3rd and 4th boxes, I summarized the event in a blog post by stating, "The process of adding the boxes went more smoothly than I probably had any right to expect; it was executed without incident."  As it turns out, I indeed did not have any right to expect that it would go so smoothly.

Nathan and I assembled the necessary materials; the 5th hive box with top bars, a bee brush, the sugar-water spray, and a hive tool, suited up, and headed for the hive.  I took off the roof of the hive, leaving the quilt and 4 boxes sitting on the hive floor.  Nathan sprayed the bees at the entrance lightly with the sugar-water mixture.  I was worried about how heavy the hive would be.  When using a Langstroth hive, additional hive boxes are typically added above existing boxes, however with a Warré hive the new box(es) are added below the existing boxes.  Of course this requires that the existing boxes be lifted off of the floor to enable the addition of the new box(es).  And by now I expected those boxes to be full of comb and honey.  Keep in mind that honey is heavy, while water weighs 8.3 lbs. per gallon, honey weighs 12 lbs per gallon.  In the four existing boxes there could easily have been 80 to 100 lbs. of bees, comb, brood, and honey.  Of course the consequences of dropping the hive while attempting the move it, is not something I enjoy imagining.  Fortunately the hive did not seem to weigh more than 50 or 60 lbs., although my sense of the weight might have been off substantially, as I was more than a bit distracted.  No sooner had I lifted the hive off of the floor than the bees attacked with a vengeance.  With 50 or 60 lbs. of hive in my hands, I was unable to defend myself, or even to run for my life, so in short order I took four stings to the head and two to my right leg, but who's counting.  The bees were exceedingly unhappy with me, and would not let up in their defense of the colony.  Six of them made the ultimate sacrifice.  I went ahead, with great haste, and looked into box 4 to see if it was full of comb.  Box 4 was unexpectedly found to be empty of comb, so as quickly as prudence would allow, I replaced the hive on the floor, returning the colony to its original arrangement, without having added the 5th box.  After putting some distance between ourselves and the hive, Nathan and I discussed the need to put the roof back on the hive.  I thought it would be no problem, because with the quilt in place the hive is closed up, from the bees point of view.  I got within about 30 or 40 feet before they renewed their attack.  Discretion being the better part of valor, Nathan replaced the roof on the hive.

A reasonable person might ask, "well, dummy, how is it that you got stung with the bee suit on?"  And, that would be a great question.  The answer is that I did not properly don the bee suit, while Nathan did, and he escaped unscathed. In short, the top of my head was exposed, and there was another vulnerability in my preparations where the bee suit met my boots (see picture below).

I got lucky at the June install of boxes 3 and 4

The picture is from the June install of boxes 3 and 4, and it is exactly as I was also ill-prepared for the install of box 5.  If I had been wearing a hat, and if I had better secured my pant legs at my boots, I would not have been stung. Still, I was amazed at how quickly the bees found the gaps in my protection; it took only seconds, and very few of those.

By the time we got back the house Geri had two Benedryl capsules at the ready, and I took them immediately.  Then I asked her to get her tweezers, which she did, and she pulled four stingers out of my head, while Nathan pointed out where he had seen bees burrowing into my hair, and another two out of my right leg, just above my boot.  I do not know if pulling the stingers out is supposed to help, intuitively it seems like the right thing to do, but I do know that within a half hour I felt just fine.  Aside from a little itching, there has been no lasting discomfort.

All involved got a large dose of adrenalin for the day.  Which reminds me, we have stocked our medicine cabinet with two EpiPens to treat anaphylaxis if necessary (Epi is short for epinephrine, which is another word for adrenalin).  Obviously I am not allergic to bee stings, but we occasionally have guests who are, and it seems like a good idea for beekeepers to have EpiPens available.

Another lesson learned is that I need to find a mechanically advantaged method for lifting the hive off of the floor, it is simply too risky to be doing it by hand.  I could easily have panicked and dropped the hive boxes full of honey and bees.  I will be doing some research on how others are adding boxes to their Warré hives.  More generally speaking, it was yet another humbling reminder of how much I have to learn.

Did you know?  "...about 50 U.S. physicians report good results using <bee venom> to treat not only pain but arthritic conditions, multiple sclerosis, and other health woes."

Thank you for reading and commenting on the blog.  Your comments and criticisms, your inputs and acknowledgements, are welcomed, and will help me to improve my posts.

 Please "follow" the blog by clicking on "g+ Follow," or by e-mail at  "Follow by Email."   Also, "Like" us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/swmichiganhomestead.

-- John, 11 August 2014

The (Early) Education of a Homesteader

I have heard several questions along the lines of, "how did you learn how to do that," "where did you learn to do that," "when did you learn to do that," or "did you grow up on a farm," and so on.  The short answers to the "where and how" questions are, between the covers of books, on YouTube, or by trawling the internet, and by asking folks who know more than I do, either in person or in on-line forums.  The answer to the "when" question is, recently, in most instances.  And to the final question, the answer is "no."

In fact, in my inaugural post I stated:  "I also realized that what I do for money, provides directly for precisely none of my or my family's needs, in fact I am quite practiced in doing nothing that can be bartered for anything, except for money.  This last piece of the puzzle is tantamount to having one's "man card" revoked, or at least it was in my opinion.  Until 1995 I had never had a vehicle in a repair shop, I had never had a maintenance man of any sort in a home I owned, I had never paid anyone to mow my lawn, I was a fairly proficient welder with oxygen and acetylene, and could recharge my air conditioner properly with Freon, I had fairly recent memories of successfully hunting and fishing, and if I dug deeply enough, trapping.  Until only recently though, I had done none of that for the better part of 20 years.  And for food that is grown from the earth, I was almost completely blind to its sources; I didn't know that broccoli was a seed head, or that Brussels sprouts were a bud and the plant a cultivar of the cabbage group, and worse."

So in short, my ignorance, and lack of skills, or at least a lack of recently practiced skills, were key to my decision to homestead.

Now, when I reflect a bit more on the subject, I will tell you that I learned quite a bit in my idyllic childhood; on the subjects of cooking, camping, boating, hunting, fishing, canoeing, and trapping to name just a few, with family and friends.  It seems like every few months I dredge up a great old memory of my childhood and share it with my Mom and Dad.  I learned a great deal from my parents, and from my aunts and uncles, who were more than generous with their time, experience and wisdom.  Oh the stories of adventure, and misadventures, they would tell, and do tell.  My eyes moisten just thinking about it.  Later, I became enamored with machines.  Motorcycles at first, then cars of course, and engines in general, all things mechanical; I had a great thirst for knowing how things work, and still do.  Most things electrical are still a mystery to me, even though I remember building more than a few Heath Kits.  It still amazes me, that radio I once built from a kit, on a small circuit board, with no speaker, only an earphone, and it worked without a battery!  Amazing.

And so it is meaningful that I often tell people, that when on the homestead I feel like a kid again, and large parts of that feeling I suppose, have to do with spending all day most days outside, until the dinner bell rings, and to having the opportunity to learn so much so quickly.  Yes, we have a dinner bell!  I just walk around with a smile plastered all over my face the bulk of the time.  I am well and truly blessed.

Boy, have I digressed!  Before I started this post I imagined it to be of four or five lines, simply introducing the "References - Sources - Links" tab at the top of the page.  I will finally get on with it then.  On the "References - Sources - Links" page I have pulled to together some of the resources that Geri and I have referenced in making a start in southwest Michigan.  I hope you will find it informative.

Click on the tab near the top of the page

 We all know much less than we don't know, though I usually have a hard time admitting that.  I almost always reach for a book first when I want to learn something, and so you will find many books on the list.  I have also found that there is such a thing as "YouTube University," and while you might not find it by that name, the breadth and depth  of information available on YouTube is impossible to quantify.  And podcasts are a great source of information on many, many topics, and can turn your commute into class time.  I have linked to Amazon for the books that can be purchased there, for two reasons: 1) I am inherently lazy and it is an easy way to connect you to more information on each book, including alternate forms of the book (paperback, hardcover, Kindle, etc.), and 2) because I get a small cut of the action.  There, I said it!  Of course you do not have to buy through Amazon, that is your choice.

Pull down at the arrow
on mobile devices

My cut is 4 cents on the dollar if you do choose to click through the link I provide, and purchase one or more items.  The price to you is not increased.  If you want to know how to also become an Amazon Associate, let me know.  To access the "References - Sources - Links" page, click on the "tab" near the top of the page on your desktop or laptop computer, or pull down at the arrow on your mobile device, as shown in the graphics.  I will update the page from time-to-time, as additions to the "virtual bookshelf" are made.

Thank you for reading and commenting on the blog.  Your comments and criticisms, your inputs and acknowledgements, are welcomed, and will help me to improve my posts.

 Please "follow" the blog by clicking on "g+ Follow," or by e-mail at  "Follow by Email."   Also, "Like" us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/swmichiganhomestead.

-- John, 14 July 2014

Late Spring Update from the Homestead, Part III, Beekeeping

The initial bee install took place the weekend of 5 April 2014, and I added a box to the hive the weekend of 12 April, as documented in the post, "Late Spring Update from the Homestead, Part I," dated 23 May 2014.  I checked on the bees regularly, and there was plenty of activity, with bees coming and going, and the bees were carrying in loads of pollen from their foraging activities.  The hive appeared to be very healthy.  I knew that I should be adding more boxes to the hive, and as the weeks went by I became more and more anxious that the colony might swarm because there was insufficient space in the hive for the growing colony.  Finally, adding the boxes rose to the top of my work list, and coincidentally Nathan was available to help me in the process.

Nathan (L) and I suiting up,

inactive hive box after step 1

just to my right in the back-

ground

Proving again that dogs in their late adolescence (i.e., me) can still learn new tricks, I broke out the bee suits.  Actually, this is not so much about not being stung, it is about being less anxious of being stung, allowing us to be calmer in the midst of the bees, and feeling less hurried as a result.  Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.  Another change made to the process of hive maintenance, was to use a spray bottle of sugar-water, instead of the smoker, for calming the bees.  The smoker did not seem to have the desired effect at the bee install, and worse yet, we spent too much time keeping the smoker smoking rather than making progress in the hive.  The smoker is just one more thing to worry about.  In a sauce pan I mixed up the sugar (regular table sugar) and water in a 1:1 ratio, 1-1/2 C. of sugar and 1-1/2 C. of water.  Over medium heat the mixture was warmed while being stirred periodically, until the sugar was completely dissolved into the water.

  I then poured the sugar-water into a new spray bottle purchased for the purpose, and then put the bottle in the refrigerator to bring its contents back to approximately room temperature.  We also prepared two hive boxes, which involved applying beeswax to 16 top bars, 8 for each box, and placing the top bars in the boxes.  Other equipment we took to the apiary included a hive tool and a bee brush, the former for separating the existing boxes from the floor, and the latter for gently moving the bees about without agitating them.  With our preparations in order, and bee suits on, we made our way down to the hive.

At step 3, calming the bees

with the sugar-water mist

At the hive, Nathan and I followed the step-by-step process below:

1) Remove roof, quilt and top bars from the inactive hive; we will use the hive box as a rest for the active hive boxes while placing the two new hive boxes on the floor of the active hive (unlike the Langstroth hive, new boxes are placed beneath existing boxes in a Warré hive)
2) Remove the roof from the active hive; this is no problem, because the quilt is still between us and the bees.  I simply remove it because it adds unnecessary weight to the lift that will need to be performed, and because it would make the assembly of two boxes (and the bees, comb, brood and honey within them), the quilt, and the roof, top-heavy and more difficult to handle.
3) Lightly spray sugar-water onto the bees at the entrance, emphasis on lightly.  Bees do not like to be wet.  They will be occupied by cleaning themselves of the sugar-water, or at least that's the theory behind the method!
4) Carefully remove the two boxes (plus quilt), as an assembly, from the floor, and set aside on the exposed box of the inactive hive

Step 4, setting aside the active hive boxes and
quilt; based on how far the bees had progressed
in building comb, I would say these boxes were
being added just-in-time

5) One at a time, place the two new boxes on the floor, using the bee brush and the sugar-water spray to calm the bees and move them out of the way as necessary
6) Reinstall the two active hive boxes and quilt on top of the two new hive boxes on the floor, again using the bee brush and the sugar-water spray to calm the bees and move them out of the way as necessary
7) Reinstall the roof on the hive; addition of hive boxes is then complete

The process of adding the boxes went more smoothly than I probably had any right to expect; it was executed without incident.

I had planned to buy another package of bees for the now-inactive hive, but the delivery date of the packages was delayed one week and that caused an unavoidable conflict for Geri and I.  Still, I will investigate to establish that we can still expect success if we install another package this late in the year.

Step 6, reinstalling the two active hive boxes

Thanks to our iPhoneographer, Susan, for making the raw photos that you see incorporated.  She noted pointedly that she was the only one of us without a bee suit!  Fortunately she maintained a safe distance, and was not injured in the making of this post.


Laying down cardboard for

vegetation suppression

Informed by what I have read, it seems best to keep the vegetation down in the apiary.  A reason is that when the bees return to the hive fully loaded with pollen, and if they miss the landing board, it can be difficult or impossible for them to "take off" again if they are in deep vegetation.  So, Nathan and I also took on suppressing the vegetation by laying down cardboard and then covering it with wood chips.  (We are doing the same in the garden, and it is amazing how much cardboard can be "re-purposed" in the fashion.)  This is certainly not a permanent solution; it will require ongoing maintenance.  At some point before winter I will also be installing a fence/windbreak to protect the hives from the cold winter winds.


Thank you for reading and commenting on the blog.  Your comments and criticisms, your inputs and acknowledgements, are welcomed, and will help me to improve my posts.

Please "follow" the blog by clicking on "g+ Follow," or by e-mail at  "Follow by Email."   Also, "Like" us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/swmichiganhomestead.

-- John, 18 June 2014

Before and after weed suppression by cardboard sheet mulch and wood chips

Late Spring Update from the Homestead, Part I

It has been almost 8 weeks since I made a post, and I offer my humblest apologies; really, there has been little to write home about.  Well okay, perhaps, just maybe, that is a not entirely true statement.  Actually, the homestead has been a veritable hive of activity, in fact our life has been very busy over the past several weeks, and that level of activity seems likely to continue into mid-June.  And, it is wearing on me a bit that I have two blog posts to complete, "Warré Bee Hive Construction - Part II," and "Winter 2013/2014: Lessons in Hardening Homestead Electrical, Potable Water, and Heating Systems."  I will get to those eventually, promise.

Meanwhile, I will start where I left off, at the last post containing

homestead content, which was in late March, 26 March to be precise.  The weekend of 29 March offered the opportunity to evaporate yet more sap to the state of delicious maple syrup.  The yield was 16 cups of syrup.  While we stopped collecting sap on the 6th of April because temperatures were routinely staying above the freezing mark, and because sap had largely ceased flowing as a result, the business of evaporation continued through the weekend of April 12th; at that point there was no more snow to maintain the sap for extended periods of time without refrigeration.  In fact, we still have about 30 gallons of sap in the chest freezer awaiting processing.  We learned a great deal about maple sugaring this season, and I hope to be able to expand the operation significantly next year.  Our first season was great fun, and allowed us to connect with so many people while engaging in such a traditionally American endeavor; we will treasure the memories.

It is safe to say that we have hundreds of sugar maples on the property, though expanding from 13 taps to even 100 would require a much higher capacity and more sustainable evaporation process than that we have currently provided for.  Based on the production of our trees this year, 100 trees would deliver more than 2,000 gallons of sap, resulting in approximately 50 gallons (800 1-cup bottles) of syrup.  If I assume a 5 week season, 400 gallons of sap would need to be processed per week, or about 115 gallons every other day.  To put that in perspective, we collected, in total, approximately 250 to 300 gallons from 13 trees this year, processed in batches of about 25 gallons, each batch requiring a full day (sunrise to well beyond sunset) to be reduced to syrup.

The weekend of 5 April was fun-filled, to say the least.  First off of course, more maple sugaring was on tap (pun intended); I lit the burners early in anticipation of receiving a "come pick up your bees" phone call around midday.  Sure enough, the call came in.  Unfortunately I was on my own at the homestead that weekend, and picking up the bees entailed a four hour drive round-trip to Chicago and back, so I lowered the burn rate to ensure that the fires under the sap would not go out before my return, and so that I did not return to evaporators full of burnt maple sugar.

Greg Fischer installing package bees in
Langstroth hives.  Smoker on the ground
to his left.

I picked up the bees at a warehouse in Chicago operated by BevArt: Brewer & Winemaker Supply, and I also received some instruction from its owner, Greg Fischer, on how best to install the bees. Greg is the beekeeper at the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL, and Geri and I took a four-session beekeeping course from him last year.  Greg manages about 100 hives in Chicagoland, and runs Wild Blossom Winery & Meadery, the only meadery in Illinois; their "meads are made from locally produced honey and are international gold medal winners."  You will notice in the pictures that Greg installed his bee packages in one "deep" Langstroth hive box.  Since I use Warré hives, which incorporate significantly smaller boxes, I asked how many boxes I should use, and Greg answered that I should also use one box.  The reasoning behind that recommendation is solid, and is basically that "hey, it's cold out, the bees have no comb and no honey stores, and they need to keep all of that space warm, so keep it as small as possible."  Having said that, if I have it to do over again, and I will, I would use two boxes.

Five packages, somewhere between 60,000
and 75,000 bees, in the back of the Jeep for
the 2-hour ride to the homestead.

So what happened?  I picked up the bees in five "packages," a package includes a can of food (sugar water), a queen in a cage, and three pounds of worker bees (approximately 12,000 to 15,000 bees)), and headed back to the homestead.  Aside from a few bees flying around inside the Jeep, I had no issues, and even those bees gave me no trouble.  On arrival, I moved the bees into the house, since they would not have survived the expected overnight low temperature without the shelter of the hive.  Peter Coombs and I had already prepared an area for the hives, which included a 2 ft by 2 ft paver on which to set the hive floor, and placed the hives on the pavers.  The front of the Warré hives face due East; rise and shine ladies.  The next day, Sunday, I enlisted the aid of Dennis and Tristin Goss to install the bees in the hives.  Throwing caution to the wind, as men will, and in the face of almost total ignorance, I decided that we should leave the brand new bee suits in their packages and "just do it!"  Thank you Nike.  Between Dennis, Tristin and I, we collected 9 bee stings for our efforts, and I think, permanently eliminated any bee-phobia we might have been victims of.  At the first hive I accidentally brushed the smoker (smoke used to calm the bees) against the prepared quart zip-lock of sugar water, holing it, and dousing the hive in sugar water.  Since there were not yet bees in the hive, I was able to clean it up fairly well, though I did not actually notice that I had melted a hole in the bag.  I thought the zip-lock had come open, so I closed it and laid the bag on top of the bars.  Forging ahead, I removed a few top bars to facilitate getting the bees into the box, and shook them from the package "into" the box.  Then, I removed the cork from the queen cage, and hung the cage from one of the top bars.  Finally, I put a "pollen patty" on the top bars, also as food for the bees.  It was not long before we knew we had a problem, as Dennis noticed the queen (there was a green dot painted on her back) outside the hive.  Not good.

We thought she made her way back into the hive, and so I put the "quilt" on top of the box, upside down to make room for the food bag and pollen patty, and then put the roof on the hive.  On to the next hive.  Installation into hive number two seemed to go more smoothly, in fact there were so many bees about that we thought perhaps the bees from the first hive had made their way over to the second.  And, crucially perhaps, I did not melt the bag of sugar water.  Finally, on to the third hive, which is of the "honey cow" type, and hand-made by Dennis.  We took the same approach, and again seemed to have trouble keeping the queen inside the hive; one time I picked her up from just outside the hive with the flat side of my Swiss Army knife blade, and put her back in the hive. Still, hive number three seemed to have gone more smoothly than hive one, which is not saying a whole lot necessarily.  At completion, we had some serious concern about hive one, and thought we had probably achieved success with hives two and three.

Upon checking the hives on 12 April, it was perfectly clear that the bees had abandoned hive one and the "honey cow" for whatever reason(s.)  I have to say that was very disappointing, not to mention expensive.  By the end of the day I figured I was batting .333, not bad, at least in baseball.  On the 13th I had planned to add a second box to the only active hive, hive two.  First, I planned to remove the roof because I wanted to remove the food (supposing it had become unnecessary), turn the quilt right-side up, and then planned to add the second box below the existing box.  I found most of the bees, including the queen, up in the quilt, and I found that the bees had built comb all around the queen cage that I had left hanging in the single hive box at the install.  I decided to not attempt removal of the queen cage, and to simply add the second box on top of the first; I assumed the bees would "move in" to the higher, top box.  I did remove the food bag, and left what remained of the patty in the hive as the bees can be expected to completely consume it.

As of this writing, all seems well with hive two.  I thought I had pretty well made a mess of things, though I suppose it is not any worse than the inside of a tree.  I plan to add a third box, under the first two boxes, on 31 May; hopefully the colony will not already have outgrown the space available and swarmed.

Next time, I will do several things differently, using the process below:

1) Use two hive boxes under the roof and quilt, instead of one
2) Put the bottom box on the floor, with the top bars installed
3) Cover the hive entrance
4) Instead of making slits in the zip-lock I would poke holes with a small nail or large needle; the slits I made this first time were too long, and allowed bees to enter the bag and drown
5) Place the food on the top of the bars in the bottom box (bag and patty)
6) Put the second box, with half (four) of the top bars installed, on top of the bottom box, effectively to use it as a funnel
7) Shake/dump a third of the bees or so, into the open-top second box, and onto the waiting pollen patty and food bag on the bottom box
8) Pull the cork on the queen cage and shake the queen into the top box; do not leave the cage in the hive
9) Dump the remainder of the bees into the top box
10) Install the the remaining four bars in the top box
11) Install the quilt, "right-side up" on the top box
12) Install the roof
13) Return next day and uncover the hive entrance

Since this post will grow to longer than I would like, I am going to split it into two parts, and end Part I here.  As always, your comments and criticisms, your inputs and acknowledgements, are welcomed, and will help me to improve my posts.  Please "follow" the blog.

-- John, 23 May 2014

Warré Bee Hive Construction - Part I

From relatively early in the process of planning for greater self-sufficiency, it became clear that honey bees would be would be an important part of the design, and implemented early.  Of course the honey harvest is eagerly anticipated, but their service as pollinators cannot be overrated; according to EcoNews,[1], "Honey bees—wild and domestic—perform about 80 percent of all pollination worldwide. A single bee colony can pollinate 300 million flowers each day. Grains are primarily pollinated by the wind, but the best and healthiest food—fruits, nuts and vegetables—are pollinated by bees. Seventy out of the top 100 human food crops, which supply about 90 percent of the world’s nutrition, are pollinated by bees."  The EcoNews article claims an estimate higher than most I have read; nevertheless it seems inarguable that the impact is significant.  Another key reason for early implementation, even before we might be permanently on-site, is that bees are relatively low maintenance.  Depending on the type of hive employed, and whether or not the beekeeper chooses to feed and medicate the bees, only a few visits to the hives may be necessary each year.  As a general rule, we intend to let our bees fend for themselves, save for a feeding upon initial installation of the colonies this spring; a sole harvest would be made in late August or early September each year.

This is a photo of our first Warré
hive almost ready for exterior finish

Having decided to be beekeepers then, there are some other early choices that need to be made: 1) the species of bee, and 2) the type of hive.  We have chosen Italian bees, and the type of hive will be the Warré (pronounced WAR-ray), designed by Abbé Émile Warré in the early 1900’s.  The building of the Warré hive  (aka, the People’s Hive) is the primary subject of this post.
  In choosing the type of hive, there are several factors to be considered, and until only recently I was on the default path of using Langstroth hives.  The Langstroth hive is the most popular in the United States, and is the hive of choice for the vast majority of commercial beekeepers; because of its popularity, a large selection of accessories is also available.  The Langstroth hive is perhaps also the most complex of the common hive designs.  The Warré hive is of the top bar, frameless hive variety, and is a favorite in so-called “natural beekeeping” circles.  It is much simpler, and therefore less expensive and easier to build.  Interestingly, Warré was an ordained priest, and the Langstroth hive was designed by the Reverend L. L. Langstroth.

To build the Warré hives, I have referred to two books, Building Beehives For Dummies, [2], by Howland Blackiston, and Beekeeping for All, [3], by Warré.  The former has designs for several hives, including both the Warré and the Langstroth, with materials lists, cut lists, and detailed assembly instructions.  In Beekeeping for All, Warré explains his design in all its particulars, and gives his original specifications for some critical dimensions.  In general I have executed the Blackiston design, though on occasion I have reverted to dimensions in the original design, specifically with respect to the dimensions of the entrance to the hive.  Obviously I have chosen to build our hives, rather than to purchase new or used assembled hives, or hive kits.  The decision to build instead of buy came down to a matter of “dollars and sense,” and to my desire to actually build something from time to time.

Now then, let’s get to the building of the hives.  The first step is to acquire the materials, and while I will leave the details to Blackiston, my list is:

• five (5) 1” x 10” x 8’ mid-grade pine (not knotty pine, Blackiston calls for knotty pine) boards (hive boxes, the “quilt,” tops bars, and the roof)
• one (1) ¾” x 2’ x 4’ sheet of exterior plywood (floor of the hive, and the inner cover board (roof assembly component)) ( Blackiston calls for 3/8” plywood)
• one (1) 2” x 3” x 8’ pine stud (legs of the hive)
• waterproof wood glue (optional according to Blackiston)
• approximately 150 - #8 x 1-5/8” stainless steel deck screws (Blackiston calls for a combination of #6 x 5/8” and #6 x 1-5/8” deck screws, and 6d x 2” nails.  I opted for stainless steel screws exclusively, to cut down the screws to 5/8” with a small bolt cutter as necessary, and to use deck screws instead of nails elsewhere; I bought a 1 lb. box.)
• primer and paint suitable of exterior use, or boiled linseed oil, or varnish, or some other combination; the point being to protect the exterior of the hive from the weather (avoid dark colors to prevent overheating the hive in summer)
• basswood (due to availability, substituted for balsa wood called out by Blackiston), one sheet 3/16" x 12" x 36"  (cut into "starter strips" for each top bar)
• burlap fabric, one piece 13-5/16" x 13-5/16" (permeable, forms the bottom of the "quilt" box, allows moisture to pass from the hive to the quilt.)
• twenty 3/8" staples (for a heavy duty staple gun, to staple the burlap to the quilt box)
• insulation for the quilt box; e.g. wood chips, coarse saw dust, dry leaves, straw, etc.
• beeswax, 1/2 pound (brushed onto the basswood/balsa wood strips as foundation for new comb)

Floor of Warré hive on the deck of a 1975 Craftsman
Radial Arm Saw (RAS)

The hive is built from the bottom up.  The two-piece floor of the hive is pretty straightforward; I made the
cuts to establish overall length and width of the floor and "landing board" on my "new" radial arm saw, and I made the cuts in the floor (that in combination with the lowest box forms the hive entrance) with a jig saw.  The width of the opening in the floor, and the thickness of the floor, establish the width and height of the hive entrance.  Warré recommends 120 mm by 15 mm, or 1,800 sq. mm, for the hive entrance.  Since the 3/4" plywood floor is 18 mm thick, I made the width of the opening 100 mm to attain the same 1,800 sq. mm opening.  The size of the opening controls not only access to the hive, but ventilation of the hive as well.  In winter there are numerous ways to make the opening smaller to reduce airflow, and to prevent rodent access.

Short side of hive boxes showing rabbet, and stack dado set
and guard installed on the RAS

The design and materials list include the construction of four identical, square, hive boxes.  Warré thought that a square was the next best thing to a circular cross-section as would be found in a hollow tree.  He also thought that relatively smaller was better; the more cross-sectional area, the more empty space that the bees need to keep warm in winter.  Cutting the sides of the hive to the specified length and height is a simple matter of cross-cutting or ripping on the RAS.  However, there is a rabbet on the top edge of the short sides that will eventually support the top bars; to cut this 3/8" x 3/8" rabbet, I fixed a stack dado set and guard attachment to the RAS.

Completed hive box less handles; note three #6 1-5/8" square-drive deck
screws securing each joint, holes of 7/32" are pre-drilled and counter-sunk

The construction of the quilt box and roof, preparation for finish, and finishing, among other things that might be of interest, will be presented in Part II.

Your comments and criticisms, your inputs and acknowledgements, are welcomed, and will help me to improve my posts.  Please "follow" the blog.

Special thanks to Russ W. for having maintained the 1975 Craftsman RAS so well, and for agreeing to sell it to me.

-- John, 27 Feb 2014.

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[1] EcoNews, “Worldwide Honey Bee Collapse: A Lesson in Ecology,” http://ecowatch.com/2013/06/11/worldwide-honey-bee-collapse-a-lesson-in-ecology/
[2] Blackiston, Howland. Building Beehives For Dummies.  Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2013. Print.
[3] Warré, Abbé. Beekeeping for All. Translated from the original French version of L'Apiculture Pour Tous (12th edition) by Patricia and David Heaf. Sixth electronic English edition thoroughly revised February 2010.