Hive Inspection #1: Ants, skunks and sweet honey.

We did our first hive inspection after installing the nucs. This was two weeks after the install. Rosario walks out just to check the area around the hives each day, but this was our first time opening up the hive and checking out all the frames.

Scraping off the burr comb.

With a hive inspection, its best to approach the hive from the side rather than block the front entrance that the bees use. We stood to the side and removed the telescoping lid which had a bit of burr comb on it – a sign that there is probably lots of burr comb on the inner cover. Burr comb is excess comb that is built in places other than on the foundation – we had lots on the top bar of each frame and on the inner cover.

The inner cover was sticking to the top of the frames with burr comb and sticking to the corners with propolis. We used our hive tools to gently pry off the lid. The burr comb on the lid had lots of bees working on the comb and producing honey. Instead of trying to scrape them off while they were still working, or having to smoke or brush them, we just laid down the lid (bee side up) by the hive entrance and by the time we had finished looking at the frames most of the bees had walked back into the hive making it simple to scrape off the excess comb. We also scraped off the comb on the tops of the frames. The unfinished honey was so sweet and light tasting which was probably due to its high water content, being uncapped.

Wax foundation on the bottom, drawn out comb towards the top.

The frames looked great – there were eggs, larvae, capped brood and open cells so it looks like our queen has been busy laying. The brood kept a pretty good pattern of being centered at the bottom of the frame and arcing out into honey. The bees have been busy drawing out comb on the wax foundation of the new frames. We didn’t spot the queen, but there were several big clumps of bees near the brood area that she may have been in. Also, our queens are unmarked and I’d like to mark both of them on our next visit to make it easier to spot her.

Scratches near the entrance. 

In the second hive we actually saw scratch marks at the entrance of the hive. My guess is skunks. Skunks like to sit at the entrance of the hive and knock – the bees walk out to see who is there and get swiped up and eaten. There were not as many bees in this hive which may help support our skunk eating theory.

Ants breaking down the wood of the inner cover. 

Also, when I lifted off the lid I saw some very large ants around the inner cover. I brushed them off quickly with the bee brush and saw that they had actually started to eat through the inner cover – there was saw dust from their chewing to get at the honey inside. I turned the cover around and have since learned that if we cut back some of the brush nearby that should help control some of the ants – my mom had the same idea so we will have to do that on the next trip.

The second hive also had more junk on the bottom board – I’m not yet sure that this is an issue, but it was a clear difference between the two hives. One question I have is how to clean a bottom board that doesn’t slide out? Should I purchase a tray or is there an easy way to do that?

We spent some time watching the bees with their pollen baskets walking around the hive. We then put the hive back together, set up the straps and added a bit more sugar water to their feeders. I think with the heat we are having this week we would do well to fill the feeders with fresh water.

We took home the burr comb and honey – the honey tasted so sweet we just ate it with a spoon in the kitchen. Can’t wait for the honey harvest. 

Burr comb and honey for taking home.

Honey Harvest

We collected our honey in late July - we had a total of 9 full frames from two different hives. Both honey and brood cells are capped, but the capped honey has a waxier, shiny look and the capped brood has a papery, dull look to it. We looked for frames that were full of the waxier capped honey.

Lots of beekeepers use a super on the top of their brood box with a queen excluder in between. The excluder keeps the queen from entering the super which means she won't be able to lay any eggs in the super - keeping it for honey only. Our hives were set up with two brood boxes and no super, so we had to look for frames that had the least amount of brood. Typically, the brood is towards the centre-bottom of the box so the frames that are closer to the outside of the box were full of honey. 

It's important to only take what is surplus honey for the hive. The honey they are producing is meant to keep them through the winter. They will continue to produce honey and it's ok to take this surplus, but you need to make sure they will have enough food source to over winter successfully. Lots of beekeepers that sell their honey may prioritize harvesting honey and then supplementing their bee's food source with sugar water. I would prefer they have the more nutritious honey for their food. One thing I learned is if you are anticipating a cold winter the bees will actually require less honey since they will be less active, if it's a warmer winter they will be more active and will require greater energy. 

Also, if you do harvest honey it's a good idea to keep some to be able to feed to the bees if they need it. Instead of feeding sugar water you could feed the bees some of their own honey which would be more nutritious (and less processed.) If you are collecting from multiple hives, be sure to label since you should feed the bees only honey from their own hive. 

The Harvest

We pulled out each frame to see how much honey it had, we took frames that had about 95% capped honey. If you decide to take that frame, make sure you brush off (with a bee brush or a soft brush) the bees on the frame back into the hive. We then put each frame into a large plastic tote with a lid to keep the bees off of it and also any wasps that may be interested in the honey. When we brought them inside, we made sure we didn't have the windows open since we would most likely get some panicked bees concerned we were robbing. 

To start we scrapped all of the wax off of the frame with a uncapping scratcher. We put all the wax into an old ice cream pale to make lip balm with later. We were sure to do this work over some baking trays to collects any sticky drips. 

Once the wax was scraped off we placed the frames inside a honey extractor. The extractor holds two frames at a time - you insert them vertically and then close the lid. A hand crank causes the frames to spin quickly and the centrifugal force pulls out the honey from the frame and flows down to the bottom of the extractor. There is a valve at the bottom that can be opened and allows the honey to flow out into a container.

We transfered our honey to a collection of glass jars and we had tons! 

Afterwards we returned the empty frames back to the hive to be filled again by the busy bees. 

The two hives we harvested from were only 2 km away and look at the colour difference! The one on the left is from the Strathcona community garden and the one on the right was from the Mt. Pleasant neighbourhood.