Washboarding - Cleaning the hive

It's late August and the bees on all the hives are washboarding,

They move almost in synchronization back and forth.  It looks like a dance.

I find this a good sign of a healthy hive because they are doing well enough to spend time cleaning the outside of the hive.

This particular hive had the bees lined up in rows.

Lazy Bees ...Not

Have you ever seen your bees all standing around on the front porch and thought, are those bees lazy?

Well guess what - they're not..

Foragers will hang out on the front porch ready for duty. What they're waiting for is a forager to return and dance about a great location. Then all these workers will leave and take advantage of it.

What they're waiting for is a good enough patch to be worth their while so they're not just waiting for any dancing bee. They want a large grouping of the same flowers for their call to duty.

So, if you see bees waiting around that's what they're doing. Waiting for that sweet dance.

Chart of bee growth for all castes

This chart shows the daily progression of honey bee growth and cell building for workers, drones and queens.

It comes in very handy for queen breeders who refer to the chart when looking for young eggs that are between 1 to 3 days old to use for grafting.  The age of the egg is revealed by it's position in the cell (upright, slanted downward, etc)

I have my chart laminated and keep it with me in the bee van.  It's hard to remember all the details of when cells are capped and when they hatch so referring to the chart while at the bee yard is really helpful.

Note that queen cells always point downwards on the frame so the queen comes out from underneath, as picture.

The scan is a bit cut off on Day 24 where it shows the drone hatching.

I did a review of the book The Biology of the Honey Bee written by Mark L Winston.  It's a really good book and has a ton of information which you will find useful.  It's well worth the purchase.

Book -The Biology of the Honey Bee by Mark L Winston on Amazon.

Book Review: The Biology of the Honey Bee - this link is to my review on this blog.  It's worth a look because it mentions some bee glands and such which you may not know about...

Bees Hanging out on the front porch: Bearding

New beekeepers can get a little worried on hot summer days when they see a thick mass of bees that resembles a swarm hanging off the edge of the hive or hive platform.

That's not a swarm because when swarming the bees fly out away from the hive and land somewhere else close by and then gather together with the queen in a mass.

On hot days when the fanning bees are busy cooling the hive, the other bees that are home and not doing chores stay out of the hive.  Sometimes they hang out on the front porch.  Other times they gather in a mass.

Bees create air conditioning by bringing water into the hive.  They coat the water on the combs and then fan it.  You can try this at home by spraying water on concrete and then setting a fan on it at a safe distance.

Having the extra bees out of the way gives more room so ventilation is greatly improved.

And who doesn't enjoy sitting on the front porch on a nice day?

The bees will go back inside when they're ready.  Sometimes they'll stay out all night.

Something Really Simple to have on hand: Water

I keep any large water bottles and refill them with tap water.  I keep a couple in the bee vehicle and also in each beeyard.  Here's why:

• in case of a spark or fire from the smoker
• to poor on myself to cool off
• to wash hands
• to wash the bee brush which gets stuck up with honey as I sweep the bees off the combs
• to rinse off a bee that's covered in too much honey
• to refill any water dishes set out for the bees
• to drink in case I don't have anything else with me

Maybe we need to rethink how we keep bees

Here's a really interesting article on how beekeepers in Slovenia keep their bees:  Slovenian Beekeeping

The article lists the advantages and disadvantages of keeping bees this way.  Major advantages are that there's no lifting of boxes.  It's designed so that the frames slide out from the back.  That alone makes my knees want to swoon!

You work inside the hut and from the backs of the hives.  There's ventilation, bottom screen boards, etc.  And there's no wind or rain inside so you can work any time.

A disadvantage could be that the frames aren't Langstroth size... but if you build an outfit like this yourself you could build it to Langstroth size.

I'm an older beekeeper with really bad knees and a sometimes bad back.  I must admit that this set up is super appealing.