What did you do in your Apiary/Bee yard today?

[Bill Murray]

Smashed a bee.

[Terri Yaki]

That has possibilities.

[The15thMember]

Another thing to consider as far as grumpy bees is weather.  Case in point, what happened to me this morning.    We are finally getting some rain, and it's expected to rain all weekend and deep into next week.  It looked like it wasn't going to start until later, so I figured I'd check the supers of two of my colonies before the rain got here.  By the time I was suited up and had my smoker going though, it was starting to spritz and there was thunder in the distance.  My hives are under the trees, and it wasn't even noticeably raining in the apiary, so I figured I'd just take a quick peek to see if there was any honey I could pull and make sure the bees didn't need any more space.  I removed the lid from the first colony and 5 bees shot out at me instantly, two stung the wrist of my suit, one stung me on the hand, and the other two were desperately trying to find a way into my veil, one with her stinger.  I did happen to notice that the colony wasn't drawing anymore, so the sourwood seems to be over, which at least means I don't have to worry about anyone needing any more room at this point.  And as a consolation prize for my wasted time, I get to try my new nettle tincture on a sting.  Lucky me.     

[The15thMember]

Holy cow, this nettle tincture I made completely worked!  I've been looking for a reliable sting remedy for myself basically since I started beekeeping.  Nothing short of 2 Benadryl pills will take my swelling down, which is almost always severe if the sting was a solid one.  I have tried everything everyone here has recommended, plantain, cortisone, Benadryl cream, meat tenderizer, etc., and without fail I swell up like a balloon.  I had someone on the School of Traditional Skills community chat recommend me nettle tincture, and my mom happened to be growing some stinging nettle this year.  I freeze dried some and tinctured it in vodka.  I had tried it on a sting last week and it worked too, but that sting was basically just a graze, and it wasn't from an aggressive bee, just one who I crushed, so I wanted to test it on a good solid sting from an angry bee.  So yesterday every few hours I applied the tinctures of nettles, plantain, and St. John's wort, and it took the swelling right down, and today all I have is a little bit of tenderness at the site!  No swelling, no itching, no redness, nothing!  I'm so happy!     If it continues to work this well, maybe I can stop wearing a full suit every time I inspect!

[Terri Yaki]

That's interesting. I'd like to hear what the process consists of. And why is mom growing stinging nettles?

[The15thMember]

My sister and I got my mom a collection of medicinal plant seeds for Christmas, and it was in there.  Stinging nettle is anti-inflammatory, diuretic, lithotropic (it breaks up kidney stones), and as I discovered, a natural anti-histamine.  It's also very nutritious and makes a very nice tea herb.  Once it's been freeze dried of course, since when it's alive, it'll do more harm than good with its own stinging!  My mom has been stung by it, and she says it's not fun.  Fortunately plantain and dock are the antidote, and we have plenty of both. 

Tincturing couldn't be easier.  All you need is 80-100 proof alcohol and whatever plant you'd like to tincture, although it must be dried first.  I freeze dry, since we have a freeze drier, but a dehydrator or even just air drying with a fan works too, and I use vodka because it's the cheapest.  Then you just stick your herbs in a mason jar, cover them in vodka, and let it steep for at least two weeks, shaking the jar whenever you think of it, but preferably every couple of days.  I do grind my herbs to help it to tincture faster, but you don't have to.  After two weeks, or more likely, several months when I finally remember it , I strain out the herbs and voila! homemade medicine.   

You can apply a tincture topically or take it internally.  The internal dose for an adult for most tinctures is 1/4-1 tsp. 2-4 times a day, and topically in almost all cases you can apply it as frequently as you need, since most herbs have a wide margin of safety.  (Disclaimer: Always check with a healthcare professional if you are pregnant, nursing, or taking medications, especially before taking a tincture internally.)  Tinctures also have an almost indefinite shelf life provided they are kept out of sunlight. 

I also tincture propolis, but because that is a resin, I use Everclear as the solvent.  I have a thread with instructions for that here.  Propolis is anti-microbial, including anti-viral, -bacterial, and -fungal.   
https://beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=56180.msg513889#msg513889                   

[Terri Yaki]

Freeze drying doesn't take anything special as long as you have room in your freezer and aren't in a hurry. Pro tip: If you ever get a book wet and you want to save it, place it into a freezer and let it freeze dry. It might not be perfect but it will be serviceable. Check on it every few weeks and pull some pages apart but it will eventually dry out.

[The15thMember]

I'm not talking about ambient drying something in a freezer, I'm talking about using a Harvest Right freeze drying machine, which removes the water from frozen food by sublimation, thereby making it shelf stable.  Think freeze dried ice cream.  It's like dehydrating, but the food comes out way higher quality and lasts much longer.  We use it for all kinds of things.  Herbs are one of our favorite uses for it because you basically make at home what you get in a bottle from McCormick, just with more flavor and for a fraction of the cost.  I should probably mention that medicinal herbs should never be dried above 95F, as the more delicate medicinal compounds will be destroyed above that temperature.   

[The15thMember]

I noticed some bald-faced hornets hanging around the hives today, so I put robbing screens on any of the colonies that have fully opened entrances.  I'm working on crushing and straining the sourwood, and I put my hive top feeder on my smallest colony so they can clean up the wax for me.  Also, my youngest sister got finished painting landscapes on two of my new boxes, so I clear-coated them to protect them from the weather.  I can't believe how good they turned out!   

[Terri Yaki]

That is nice artwork. If I was you, I'd have killed that hornet queen that you found and rescued.

[The15thMember]

Haha!    The hornets are no big deal for me, and I don't mind if they snag a bee or two out of the air.  I just don't want them to succeed in getting into the hives.  I'm not 100% sure they really want to, they may just be hunting the bees, but I did see one attempt a quick dash into an entrance, and we don't need that going on.  I needed to get the entrances reduced on the big hives anyway, since the sourwood flow is over and robbing season is starting.   

[Terri Yaki]

Nothing on tap for today but yesterday I went through my nuc hive. Their numbers look low to me but I wouldn't bank on my knowledge. They're in a double deep five frame with a box of cleanout frames on top of that. They have one deep frame packed solid with honey down on the first floor and man that thing is hard to grasp with the fingertips. I saw some larvae, some brood and no eggs but the queen is out and about and she was marching all over that frame full of honey on the outside for some reason. They're still not doing much with the upper brood box so I swapped out empty frame for frame of brood and see if they get the hint. They've pretty much cleaned up the extracted frames and I'll pull those out in another day or two and give them some syrup and see if they want it. There always seems to be enough left on the 'cleaned out' extracted frames to cause a feeding frenzy when I lay them out for final cleanup.

I put two quarts of syrup on my swarm hive yesterday and it's half gone already. It looks like they've stored it all on the bottom floor but they need to get with making more comb down there. Does that sound like a lot of syrup  to be used?

And last night we got a storm for the history book. It seems a red storm cell parked itself right on top of us for several hours. My pool indicates that we got 4" or more of rain out of it and while I didn't' hear it, it finished off with some pretty strong winds. Everybody around me got some sort of damage and I got off easy with a lot of branches out of my poplar tree and the loss of one patio umbrella. And today, all three hives have found some yellow pollen and are working it hot and heavy. I don't know how my hives all survived but I think I'm going to put anchor bolts in the wall that they're on and tie them fast. Mother nature cut me a break this time but next time she might not be so inclined to do so.

[The15thMember]

I put two quarts of syrup on my swarm hive yesterday and it's half gone already. It looks like they've stored it all on the bottom floor but they need to get with making more comb down there. Does that sound like a lot of syrup  to be used?

Not necessarily.  Now that we are past the solstice, the bees are thinking "winter prep" and are keen to put up as much honey as quickly as possible.  I am surprised though that your queens aren't laying even though you are feeding them.  Are you feeding 1:1 or 2:1?     

[Terri Yaki]

1:1, should I up that?

[The15thMember]

It depends on your goal.  I'd feed 1:1 if I wanted to stimulate the queen to keep laying (although that doesn't seem to be working).  I'd feed 2:1 if I just wanted them to pack in the syrup for winter storage.  How much pollen was in the hive?  I know you said they are brining it in, but did they have any stored?   

[Terri Yaki]

Not much in stores that I noticed in any of the hives.

[The15thMember]

Okay, then the limiting factor is likely pollen.  The bees simply can't raise much brood without it.  I don't know how much of a fall flow you are expecting, but in my area the fall flow is variable.  If I were you, I'd probably switch to 2:1 to get them storing syrup quickly, because you've only got probably 3 more months of flying weather. 

Because I have pollen coming in all year round, my bees are never starved for it, so I'm not sure if pollen sub of some kind would be warranted here to boost your population of winter bees.  Any thoughts on that, anyone else?       

[Bill Murray]

So I personally have never had any luck getting bees to raise brood on pollen sub patties, even though it would disappear. Hence why I trap pollen and make my own, Actually the main reason was something else entirely, but I found they would raise brood on a homemade pollen patty. vs pollen subs.

UNF did a study on this a few years back. https://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/entnemdept/2021/07/13/research-update-following-pollen-substitute-patties-in-a-honey-bee-colony/ and kinda re affirmed what I was thinking.

IDK. Some people swear by it, I just never had any luck with substitutes.

[Lesgold]

That artwork is outstanding Reagan. Congrats to your sister. She has a rare talent. Don?t think the bees will get confused as to what their house looks like.

[Ben Framed]

Probably the prettiest bee boxes in North Carolina!