Going Commando

Things are a bit lonely around here without the bees in the backyard, I'm finding I have lots of time on my hands in between shifts. No longer can I sit out on my lawn chair and watch the hive of activity. The animal control officer didn't stop by yesterday or today. I'm not sure if they'd actually talk with us or just walk around back to check that it was gone. In all honesty, I was very tempted just to box it up throw it in the garage for a day and then put it back out in the yard. If I changed the location I bet my kooky neighbour wouldn't even notice, however if she did I can't really afford the $500 fine.

It's been about 2 weeks since I hived the nuc package, the bees should be almost at the point of needing a new super to be put on. Tomorrow I will be heading out to check how they are doing, and to do a quick inspection. I want to see if they are drawing any comb on the Mann Lake foundation and maybe move a few things around. Today I made up some foundationless frames. It was a quick procedure and I took some pictures so you can follow along.

Foundationless frames are exactly what they say. They are wooden frames that don't have wax foundation installed into them. They only have a small piece of wood at the top and the bees take it from there. Wax foundation is somewhat frowned upon by natural beekeeping because the template stamped into it make the bees draw a larger cell size than they normally would. Also, most commercial foundation is made from wax that comes from large commercial bee yards where they "sheep dip" their hives regardless of what diseases they have.

I started off by assembling the frames with wood glue and nails, standard procedure and you can't really do it wrong. I then took some paint stir sticks I obtained for free from the hardware store and stuck them into the upper grove along the top bar. The stir sticks are the perfect size as they usually require you to hammer them into place, this very tight fight negates the use of any wood glue. Some frames do vary, so wood glue can be use if they are pulled out easily by hand. It takes about 1 and a quarter stir sticks per frame. Here is what they looked like.

Next I took some of the burr comb I had saved from my first inspection, this wax would hopefully be less contaminated as it was freshly made since I installed the nuc. I melted the wax down in a pot I had purchased from goodwill, I didn't want to ruin any of my good pots, and then painted the wax onto the stir sticks. This little bit of wax will entice the bees to draw the comb starting from the top. Voila! Foundationless frames.

Burr comb in pot

Melted burr comb

Application with paint brush

Coating the entire stir stick

There are a few things a beekeeper has to be aware of when working with foundationless frames. First, new comb is very fragile so when you inspect your hive you must keep the frame vertical while holding it up to look at. If you turn the frame horizontal, the weight of the wax will break the comb off at the stir stick. This isn't an issue for frames with foundation because it holds the weight of the wax. Secondly, you must ensure that your hive is level both front to back and side to side. (a little forward tilt won't hurt to ensure rain runs out of the hive) When bees festoon, hang in a ball by joining limbs to drawn new comb, on foundationless frames the direction in which they are pulled by gravity will affect the direction of the comb. So if your hive was tilted to the left, all the natural comb would be angled to the left inside the box crossing frames and causing a mess. Ensuring a level platform will ensure the comb is drawn straight down.

Also, I've made a few changes on the right side. I now have an email setup so everyone can contact me. I've also put up an inspection schedule. If you live in Edmonton or greater area and want to come out with me to check out the bees feel free to send me an email and we can set up a meeting. If I get a high amount of interest, I will go out and purchase some extra gear so you can get up close and personal.

Smooth Move

Just a quick update to let everyone know that my bees are successfully in their new location. Bright and early this morning, 6am, I headed out into my backyard before the bees had a chance to wake up. I taped a piece of screen mesh over the top entrance and stuck the entrance reducer on the bottom. The bees didn't even seem to notice, except one or two of the guard bees that were confused by the screen. My bee friend Bea showed up and we packed the hive into the trunk of the car with the cinder blocks and headed out.

It was a short trip to the new site because it is just outside the city limits. It was also a bonus that the road was paved all the way there which is great because I can hop on my motorcycle to check on the bees when I don't need to bring hardware. Mario was already up and about in his greenhouse tending to his tomatoes. In farm fashion he just had us follow him across the lawn in the car until we got over to the bee yard. Mario threw out some corrugated sheet metal and topped it with a piece of plywood. I setup the cinder blocks and we arranged the hive on top just like it was in my backyard. Mario then showed us around his hives. Taking the tops of various ones to show us how they were doing, all without a veil or gloves, he'd just gentle pop the top off and have a look. I found it funny that when he had a look in mine, one of my girls took exception and stung him.

There was also something that stuck in my head when I went to the EDBA meeting last Tuesday. They were talking about how San Francisco got started into urban beekeeping. It was the community gardeners that were actively seeking out beekeepers to put bees into their gardens. No one understand the role bees play better than a gardener and they wanted bees to increase the harvest. Apparently they use their community gardens to provide food to the homeless. That got me thinking if gardeners can actively seek out beekeepers, maybe it could work in reverse. So I sent an email out today to a community garden in my friends neighbourhood, and I'm curious to see what kind of response I'll get. Granted there will be a lot more leg work to do than San Francisco because they, like Calgary, had lenient bylaws regarding beekeeping. I'm hoping that if I can get support from a community I just might be able to get approval from the city manager to have bees in a non agricultural zoned area. I'll keep ya posted.

This is the hive in the back of the car. Screened on top, entrance reducers on bottom.


Here is Mario's yard. He started with 1 hive in 1999, is this my fate?


The new location of my hive, my girls are gonna love all that canola behind them.

Super Mario!

I have been spending the past few days pouring over the Edmonton zoning map online, it's actually a very cool little tool. Edmonton bylaw states that it is perfectly fine to keep bees on property that is zoned as Agriculture (AG), Urban Reserve (AGU), or Industrial Reserve (AGI). Sounded easy enough, I'd just look at the map and find some places to check out. Talk with their owner, bada boom bada bang, done. It turned out a bit more complicated then that. All the AGU areas on the map are most definitely owned by the city, they are parks and open area in which the city can change if they need to build something. All the AGI areas are primarily owned by large companies, oil and utility, and while in time I may somehow convince them, the time it would take getting through all the red tape would be too long. The few AGI and AG zoned lands on the southern side of the city that did seem possible, I drove out to and had a look. The outlook was bleak. Despite all my efforts in what little free time I had, I couldn't seem to meet up with any of the property owners or the land wasn't quite what I thought it was based on Google Maps. The farm manager from the U of A had called me back and unfortunately because of a canola project they were currently working on, that required minimized pollination, a hive wouldn't be allowed.

However, I am very glad that I went to the Edmonton and District Beekeepers Association, EDBA, meeting this Tuesday because I met so many other great beekeepers. Some of them have been keeping bees in the city for years and others, like me, were just starting their hives up in the city....obviously with more understanding neighbours. Through some contacts at the meeting I met up with Mario. He's a beekeeper who started with 1 hive in 1999 and has been growing ever since. He has a 26 acre plot of land which is literally on the other side of the road from the city limits. It fits perfectly with what I need and is less then 15 minutes away. On Sunday I will be making the move and I'll post some pictures of that venture.

As for my bees, they are doing great. I did a quick inspection today to make sure things were looking good before we move them. A new friend, Bea, from my Bust Into Beekeeping course came out to help and get her feet wet in the world of beekeeping. The inspection went well, I had a few concerns regarding getting the cover off and my Mann Lake foundation. The first hurdle I had to overcome was getting the cover off. The cover I purchased is a little different than the average telescoping cover, as it's basically a sheet of plywood cut to size with 1/4 inch rests stapled to the bottom. It's great because there is a little entrance at the top which allows for better ventilation. The issue was that it leaves a 1/4 gap between the top of the frames and the lid, an area perfect for burr comb. The bees had made nice lines of burr comb on the 3 inner frames that securely held the lid in place. I'm glad Bea was there because as I started lifting the cover off I didn't notice an entire frame was coming up with it. Had she not been there, the wax would have eventually broken and that frame would have landed hard on top of the hive with PO'd bees.

After we sorted the cover out, I started pulling frames to inspect. Full healthy brood pattern is all I found on the first, so I had pulled another because I was looking for eggs. Eggs would tell me that, up to 3 days ago, the queen was healthy and laying. I did find some eggs in the second frame, they look like small pieces of rice in the bottom of the honey cell. I also pulled out the Mann Lake frames closest to the brood nest and was disappointed to find the bees hadn't drawn out any comb on them. They did seem to draw out a small piece in the center, but it had turned into a piece of burr as apposed to the nice comb shape everyone thinks of. I may end up swapping those out for black frames on Sunday because Alvin, the bee supplier, said he really notices that bees will draw out black plastic foundation before white. It also could be that the bees are still building in numbers and have yet to expand outwards.

My nice neighbour stopped by yesterday to update me on the hot tub situation. Apparently when he pulled his filter up for it's weekly cleaning he found 60-100 dead bees (this might correlated with the Mann Lake issue). I was a little shocked by this number, so I asked him if we could start monitoring it daily by checking the filter. I'll keep everyone posted on what the findings are. I wish I had more time to experiment with the placement/size of my water source to see if I could find a solution but the problem is really moot because my bees are gone on Sunday.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of my inspection. I did have a glorious plan to record some video on my camera and make an episode of "NewBee TV" but it didn't quite pan out. In a way I'm glad, because in all honesty I had too much to focus on with just the inspection. Once I get more comfortable I'll get the ball rolling on "NewBee TV".

I Fought The Law and The Law Won

Today officially marks the start of the one week countdown I have to move my bees before I start getting charged $500/day for every day I don't.

That's right, today an animal services officer stopped by to issue a warning notice because they had received a complaint. This took me by surprise because I had spoken with all my neighbours beforehand and none had brought up any concerns. The officer was nice, non-offensive, and very informative. I suppose she was just doing her job, but she seemed comfortable around the hive as she took pictures. Apparently she used to work with bees. I spoke with her about where I could move my bees within the city and she mentioned that she had a friend who had a place, but then wouldn't provide me with any contact information. I'm not sure if she was trying to be nice to soften the news or if she actually did have somewhere I could move my bees to.

So I started contacting people. The first on my list was Medhat Nasr, the provincial apiculturist; he provided me with the name of Edmonton and District Beekeepers Association president and was very curious about these "sites" the animal services officer spoke about. Next I started scouring the UofA website for contact information of anyone who might be connected with UofA farm land that is within the city limits and less then 10 minutes away from my house. I just heard back from one of the professors and it appears to look promising but I need approval from the farm manager. Hopefully I will hear back from him soon.

Next on my agenda was finding out who the complaint came from and talking with them to learn what could be done differently to avoid any issues in the future. Because heaven forbid once beekeeping becomes legal they start calling the city every day about my bees to the point where the city has to make me move them again. So I took a very educated approach. I started off with the neighbour I knew hadn't phoned in the complaint, the one who was standing in my backyard as I hived my bees, sure enough it wasn't them. Next was the neighbour who I am pretty sure is straight shooting enough that if he had had any issues he would have come and talked to me in person. Again as predicted they weren't the culprits. Although they did have an honest complaint about some bees that were hanging out in their hot tub cover, we discussed it and went on our merry way. That left the third, who I was 95% sure had phoned in the complaint. As soon as I started talking to her it became apparent that my initial evaluation of her was completely wrong, turns out she's a few bricks short of a full load. Highlights of the conversation included that she found out keeping bees in the city was illegal from a lady at the market and a dream she had about bees in her BBQ so she had to go out and check. Which brings me to the pinnacle of my complete disgust. In an effort to figure out if my bees were causing serious problems I asked, "So have you been having any issues with my bees on your property?" to which she replied (and I am not making this up) "Oh yes, they are buzzing all over the place in my garden and are on all my flowers."

Excuse me while I go bang my head against a wall.

Flight School

As I spoke with my father on the phone yesterday I was stopped in my tracks by what I saw outside in the yard. I sat down by the patio doors and continued to watch things develop as I finished up the conversation with my dad. I hung up the phone and immediately went outside to monitor the situation. What was it I saw that concerned me? Also if such an incident was concerning me, how would my neighbours react to such a situation if they happened to step out on their patio.

By my estimation, I would say there were 100-200ish bees all flying around the front of the hive. My inexperienced thought process immediately jumped to swarming, but after thinking the situation through it had to be something different. They hadn't possibly overcrowded the hive in such a short time, 3-4 days, and they couldn't possibly be honey bound (no more room to store nectar) for the same reason as previously listed. That lead me to the only other thing I could think of, absconding.

So I sat in my lawn chair next to the hive for the next 20 minutes watching the bees do their thing. The sound was very similar to the bee yard where we had picked up the nuc from, the yard was no longer quiet like it had been for the past few days. The only saving grace I had was inorder to hear it you had to be within 5-6 meters. Suddenly it became clear as to what was going on. I began focusing on all the bees that were gathered out on the landing board. There were dozens that were just hanging out, inspecting other bees, and grooming themselves or others. Most of them would eventually take flight, however some of those who tried failed to get sufficient lift and landed in the creeping thyme below. They would then continue to groom themselves and eventually successfully take wing.

After these bees took wing they would hover back and forth in front of the hive for a few minutes and then slowly start making larger circles around the hive and yard. It was clearly apparent that these bees were taking their first orientation flights. A new generation of foragers land marking their hive so they could go out into the world. Why they all decided to do this at once I'm not sure, maybe it's like a change of guard where large groups of foragers are replaced at once. Within 20 minutes of when I noticed the build up everything had returned to normal, quiet and tranquil. Thankfully my neighbours didn't happen to show up, but once I had figured out the issue I could have spoken with them to alleviate their fears. I would also assume my presence of sitting in a lawn chair only 2 meters from the hive would generate some relief. "They aren't stinging him, why would they come sting me."

The most important lesson about this situation though was the power of observation. I would encourage any new beekeeper to simply sit down and watch their hives. A lot of information can be obtained in this manner, besides it being thoroughly fascinating.

The First Sting Is The Deepest

The first sting is the deepest, baby I know, the first sting is the deepest. And when it comes to being lucky I'm not.

Yup, yesterday on accord of my own stupidity I was stung by one of my girls for the first time. Here's how and why it happened. The weather was beautiful yesterday, it had been the first really nice day since I had transferred the bees into their new home and they were out in full force taking advantage of this. When my wife and I got home from some errands I noticed that the entrance reducer was causing much trouble for the bees. There were too many bees trying to leave and too many bees trying to get back in. This was causing a large amount of bees to fly around in a "holding pattern", for lack of a better description. So I decided to remove the entrance reducer and this is when the gong show started.

Stupidity, cockiness, arrogance, or audacity. Call it what you will, but I decided that I could just reach in with some sort of flat utensil and pry it out....without using smoke, first mistake. So I scoured the yard for something to use and found a 5 inch piece of pointed mulch that I thought would work, second mistake. I then proceeded over to the traffic jammed entrance without concern for the amount of bees that were around what I was trying to remove, third mistake. The first nudge went well, but when I walked around the hive to the opposite side to get a better angle one of the bees discovered my shenanigans, she landed on my ear and stung my ear lobe.

It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, no worse than a needle at the hospital but with some added throbbing. I think everyone associates bee stings with wasp stings, but the truth is wasp stings are much worse. If not for the simple fact that they can sting you multiple times. I took this sting as "Listen up dummy, use proper procedures when dealing with us!" So I retreated to the garage, fired up my smoker and grabbed a frame rest that was both thin and long. I gave a few puffs at the entrance and had no issues removing the reducer. So remember, no matter how simple you think a task might be, use proper techniques and you won't have any problems.

The Cats and the Bees?

So everyone has heard of the birds and the bees, but what about the cats and the bees?

Yesterday my wife and I stopped into M.E.C. (Mountain Equipment Co-op) to pick up some materials to make a new cat leash. One of our cats, Avro, was a stray cat that I had found in the parking lot of our old apartment. With our new large backyard she loves to come out and join us when my wife and I are doing yard work. She stands at the back door and meows pathetically until we finally give in and bring her outside. The problem was the only sort of outdoor leash set we could find at our local pet store was for small dogs, medium gauge wire with large stainless steel buckles. Avro didn't really seem to like the weight of the line and buckle that attached to the top of her harness, she would walk around strangely and has on a few occasions escaped the harness because the wire got caught on something. I looked around to see what I could find, but short of cutting off the leash from one of those retractable dog leashes there was nothing to be found. After looking at her harness an idea finally hit me, her harness looks like a little climbing harness so why not attach a little climbing rope and carabiner. M.E.C. was the first place I thought of, it is the most awesomest and bodacious outdoor goods store I know. Best of all, the rope and carabiners cost less then anything available at the pet store and they are exteremly light weight.

This morning I got everything all hooked up and took her into the yard while I went about watering the gardens and watching my bees. The length of her new rope, we bought 15 meters, allowed her to roam the entire span of the backyard freely. It wasn't long before she discovered the hive. At first I was a little concerned because I have seen our cats hunting and pouncing on bugs. However, a strange thing happened, once Avro was close enough to see the entrance she just sat there mesmerized by all the bees coming and going. I'm not sure if it was instinctual because subconsciously she knows they can hurt or if it's because she had dealt with bees before as a stray. She happily sat there for 10-15 minutes watching the bees, and then went about chewing grass in other places of the yard. I even managed to run into the house and grab the camera.

"I'm not doing anything bad, honest, just look at this face"

Mesmerized by bees, definitely Daddy's cat.

This is the closest she got.