May 05, 2019
The prairie was planted in February 2018. The second spring displays a multitude of plants, some of which are still very tiny some others already vigorous.
Tom surveyed the prairie today and found more than I expected. We are blessed with the diversity and the abundance of the native plants in this new prairie.
May 05, 2019
The bees build now quickly in the brood box, some started to store honey in the top box in which I add wedged frames.
Each hive is made of a bottom box filled with shaving for insulation, a middle box for the brood separated with a queen excluder from the top box for the winter honey stash. The bees were set in 6 weeks ago and the population increases quickly now. I opened the tunnel of the top box last week and they started to refill the two frames of honey I had added for them to feed on at installation. It was time to complete the box with wedged frames in which they will build the comb first and then store the nectar to be cured into honey. Working in the bee barn is a rare pleasure. The sound of the bees from inside the box, the temperature which is close to the hive temperature and the dim light keep the bees very quiet as the disruption is minimum. The video is long, 4 minutes and 30 seconds of one single shot. The task in itself is very standard, so not much to learn here, but the environment is just exceptional. It is possible to work without a veil, but I rather be safe with my eyes. In any case the bees barely notice me and run on my hands and arms to get back in the box. These hives indoor were experimental, they seem to be to the liking of the bees.
May 04, 2019
Wanda and Mike live in Hudsonville, 1 mile South. Swarms flying through their property triggered their desire to set a hive.
Wanda and Mike’s property is mainly wooded with a clear around the main house. Hudsonville is a patch of woods, pasture and a few fields growing soybeans, corn or cotton.
As a first attempt in 2018, we set up a modified Langstroth with a late small swarm I had attracted in a baited box on Tom’s property . The swarm never really thrived and the hive was empty by August 2018. The lack of success did not alter Wanda and Mike’s determination, it was decided to install a hive for the following season.
Mike and the first hive populated with a swarm.
In the meanwhile they got a grandson and Wanda got concerned with a hive at ground level. The hive would be up in a tree close enough to the house though so they could see the bees from their porch when having a morning cup of coffee. Mike likes to interact with nature and a log hive or a freedom hive high up would have been too remote, Wanda was interested to get a bit of honey every so often. The Gilbert Veuille hive was more interactive but there was no way to collect some honey. A Langstroth on a platform came as a possibility but the platform requires a fair amount of adjustment and I did not want to impose in their yard for a couple of days. The hive could hang and finally in February I came up with the idea of a top bar hive tucked in a wooden frame hanging from a lower branch of their very large oaks: I was just coming back from Mali where I saw these hanging hives made in half barrels cut longitudinally.
On March 10th 2019, the hive was ready and installed in one of these majestic oaks, the entrance pointing South.
On May 4 2019, we opened the hive to move the dividing board and we were really pleased by the progress.
The re-wilding projects of Hudsonville create special bonds within our small community.
May 01, 2019
The bee Barn has four rooms:
1- A kitchen where honey is pressed, wax and combs are stored.
2- a large central corridor to store the hives built at the workshop during winter
3- a room for the sunhives westwards
4- a room for 6 langstroth hives eastwards
This article deals with the langstroth hives room.
The room for the langstroth hives is 30 feet long and close to 8 feet high. It faces the East and is prolonged by an additional roof to protect the wall from the rain and winds. The wall is insulated as is the rest of the room so that the amplitude of temperature is limited and its change is very slow, keeping an environment in which the temperature control at the brood does not require much energy. 3 windows allow some light inside the room. The room contains 6 langstroth hives the bees access through tunnels in the wall. There are two tunnels per hive, one per box, so 12 tunnels in total. The bees transit through these tunnels between the interior of the hive and the exterior where they fly off to their duties. The visitor in the room can hear the bees in their hives and can peak through windows in the hive body when they are uncovered, but the visitor is never in contact with the bees. This design was initially intended to limit the need to control the temperature by the bees but the practice found that it provides a room for visitors in which they can safely look into a hive and see the bees at work.
1- The initial idea of a bee hotel in my sketch book on my way back from Bavaria in August 2017
2- The tunnel idea is getting refined. The actual tunnel is actually pretty close to this idea. The bottom of the tunnel is flush with the body of the hive and the hole in the tunnel matches the hole in the hive.
3- Two sets of access holes on the two most Southern hives as the wall is built, the insulation and the additional roof are visible
4- The two sets of tunnels have been added on the finished wall
5- David finishes fixing the tunnels to be flush with the hive on the other side of the wall.
The hives are ten frame Langstroth hives of the usual dimension. They are made of spruce and present the following features:
1- the access is through two holes at 1/3 to the bottom of each brood box, the dimension of the tunnels flush with the box has been outlined around the access holes
2- the lower box is an insulation box with its bottom made of mesh and filled with cedar/oak mix shaving. The box provides insulation but also shelter for the micro flora and fauna of the hive (pseudo scorpions can be found hiding in the shaving for example), but also absorbs moisture. The two access holes at the bottom of the tunnels are visible above the box and will fit with the holes in the brood and stash box.
3- the second box is the brood box in which the queen is confined, the hive is in effect a one box brood hive
4- the queen excluder separating the brood box to the stash box
5- the stash/honey box is the third and top box
6- inside board
7- telescopic insulated roof
The six hives stand along the wall and the bees transit from the hive to outside through the tunnels in the wall. Each box displays windows covered by a blinder.
1- the hives with some blinders removed
2- the hives as they are set on each side of the windows.
The queen and the brood are confined in a single box. The box placed above it is separated by an excluder where the workers store honey for winter. I wanted the brood box to be rather small versus the usual Langstroth volume for several reasons.
1- The usual Langstroth hives with two boxes give too much space to the bees versus the cavities they chose in nature. The average volume is 45 liters in nature and the volume of one Langstroth box is close to 42 liters. Two boxes at 84 liters are on the real large side of a natural cavity maxing out in general at 60 liters. This being said I have seen bee colonies in above 100 liters volumes, so this is a gross generalization.
2- The local control of temperature at the brood level is easier in smaller volumes.
3- The varroa would kill very quickly in a smaller volume with as smaller colony and would limit the horizontal propagation to the other hives. This is especially valid in the bee barn set up where 6 hives are really close to each other. Abnormally close if it were in a natural environment.
4- The bees would swarm every year, here again interrupting the varroa cycle at the brood level, but also propagating the bees in a natural manner. The barn is a place where natural swarms from various locations of the area are being hived. They provide a diversified genetics and adapted bees to the locale. The swarms re-wild the area without any further intervention.
On May 1st 2019, only 3 hives are occupied. 3 more will be set as soon as I transfer some baited box swarms. I still wait for a couple of weeks to make sure that the swarms are brood bound prior I transfer the frames into their new home.
The video shows how the hives are set up and how the bees transit through the tunnel.
May 01, 2019
The Japanese hive is a traditional hive that does not guide the combs with frames, the combs are built freely, the volume of each box is limited and the entrance at the bottom is thin preventing invading hornets to get in. The walls are thick, the configuration is simple. The roof is mainly designed to protect from the rain, while I like the roof to be an additional insulation at the top. Some find its inspection too arduous while I think it does not need to be inspected at all and some others consider that harvesting honey is too demanding while I think the honey should simply be left to the bees.
The site beekeep.sakura.ne.jp displays a tutorial in 5 parts on how to build a traditional Japanese hive and I followed pretty closely the indications. I have used wooden pegs instead of screws to build the gird plate, I used wood instead of steel for the crosses to support the comb and as already mentioned I have built an insulated roof instead of the tin roof as the tutorial has it. The boxes are simple to cut and assemble, there is a great need of precision so that each box is flush to the one below and over it. The whole operation takes 6 hours inluding the improved roof.
1- The plate gird and the wooden pegs
2- Boxes and their wooden cross
3- The hive and its roof on a stand.
I moved a swarm into the hive on May 14, 2019. The hive is set in the Bee yard III. I have prepped the top of the hive with comb sealed with wax to the gird plate. The swarm seems to be a secondary swarm as it is relatively small and a bit late in the season (3 swarms moved into hives today at the bee yard III). This hive will be the object of specific attention for the coming month till the colony makes it.