Spontaneous Beekeeping

Due to an issue at the post office, Dee and Kwao went to Annotto Bay and I stayed home. I had done some chores and was taking a nap when they came back, and we immediately suited up to go get a beehive.

This is what we do. 

We learned from Kwao's friend at the hardware store that it had been in a tree that had been bulldozed. All the comb had fallen from the tree and there were a million crushed bees. :(
We made short work of the comb, which I tied into the frames. For this hive, we used a Langstroth hive, partly because it was available. Many of our hives are still "in progress" and not completely ready for bees.
Dee found the queen! It took quite a while to find her, since this hive was the first one we took out that had drones. Drones are huge, male bees that exist solely for the purpose of mating with a new queen. They don't fight or do anything productive really. Their existence in the hive suggests that the bees may have been planning to swarm.
We came back the same evening to move the hive to the yard because we were worried about other people stealing the hive since bee products are a little scarce in Jamaica. They didn't have honey, but it was still a concern.
During the car ride, I sat in the trunk with the hive. It was wrapped in three garbage bags, but the box definitely wasn't bee-tight, so I could feel a ton of bees under the plastic. When we released the bees, they were everywhere. Today we checked on them, and they seem content in their new home. Hopefully the presence of drones won't cause them to swarm.

Goodbye Tom!

Tom, our visiting beekeeper, left for his home in Honduras yesterday morning. He definitely added to our bee knowledge and helped us improve our beekeeping!

You can find him on the forums at BioBees or Beesource.

One Month Down, One to Go!

To commemorate the halfway point in my internship, here is a list of things that I haven't done in a whole month (co-written by Dee!):

• Driven a car
• Watched TV or a movie
• Used a mirror
• Shaved
• Taken a hot shower
• Listened to something that wasn't reggae on the radio
• Made my own food
• Gone to sleep past midnight
• Gone a day without seeing a goat
• Worn a sweatshirt
• Used a dishwasher

And here are some things I've done only a few times:

• Eaten something that wasn't vegan
• Eaten sugar
• Worn pants (only for the bee suit)

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Today Agape gave Dee and I the day off, which started off great. Agape has friends visiting, so we all took a group visit to the beach. Everyone was down in the water and having a great time, when Agape called Dee and I over. Apparently, one of Kwao's friends had just informed him of a beehive that had fallen out of a tree and needed someone to come get it in a box ASAP, before it rained. It was very Ghostbusters-esque.

Naturally, we immediately suited up and and went out to the hive. It wasn't exactly out of the tree yet - it had fallen off the branch, but was still suspended by a few vines. We cut it down, and went to work cutting the comb off!

Not quite detached... yet.

This hive had a TON of bees, and a fair number of combs. We weren't really ready for this situation, so we put this hive into an older Langstroth hive. We don't have foundation for it, so we just tied in the comb like a top bar hive and put it in the box.

This hive also had honeycomb - our favorite reward for doing hive cut outs! Naturally, we put it all in a bucket and promptly ate it once we got back home.

Honeycomb!

Plantin' Plantains

Today we went up to the farm to plant some plantains and move a few boards down to the yard. We took the plantain suckers (small, already sprouted plants) and stuck them in holes that Kwao had dug earlier. Then we had to use tools to break up the clay-y soil and make the holes deeper, which was a serious workout. I had the ax, which gave me quite an ab workout.
It had rained earlier that morning, so for a while it was nice and cool, but as soon as the sun came out it was straight back to being humid and very warm, despite being only 10 am. Once we finished that job, we got some jelly coconuts as a reward.

After the plantain were all in the ground, we rode home once again with boards hanging out the back of the jeep. We also stopped along the way for some bamboo, which is actually a plentiful natural resource in Jamaica. We're in the middle of making a bamboo hive, which you guys will hear all about later!

Sad news: we lost a hive. A wild hive that we had cut out of a pimento tree decided not to stick around. There are several reasons that this could have happened, but I think it might have been because the hive was simply too large for them. It was a small hive, with only three pieces of comb. It was probably just too much space for the bees to defend. We also found a few hive beetles and quite a few wax moths inside the hive, which is never a good sign.

Dee, Kwao and I with the hive that absconded :(

Riding in Cars with Bees

Last night I learned yet another reason why it's important to have the top bars fit securely on the top of your hive.

We've put several wild hives into boxes in the last few weeks, which means we have about 5 different boxes scattered all around. Once the bees are settled into their new homes, however, we can move them to a new location to set up an apiary. Kwao had cleared an area on his farm for some bee boxes, and most of our hives are ready to be moved. Last night, we went on a mission to move one of those hives to their new home.

To move a hive, you have to close up the entrance and put the box into a large bag, and then transport it to wherever you want to leave it. For us, that meant that we had to ride several miles of road with a box full of disgruntled bees. Nothing to worry about...probably. The whole operation also took place at night, since that's when all the bees will be inside the box.

We went after dinner, around 7:00. It was dark by the time we reached the hive. We closed up the entrance with folded plastic bags, and used three trash bags to enclose the box. Kwao carried the hive on his shoulder to the car (since he's a giant) and Dee and I rode in the back, attempting to make sure the hive stayed steady. However, we were driving into the bush on dirt roads, so this turned out to be an impossible task. By the time we reached the site of our new apiary, the bees were buzzing around their box pretty rapidly. Fortunately, we probably didn't have any pieces of comb break off, since that can be a magnet for ants and other critters that we don't want in the hive.

We set the hive on cinder blocks for a hive stand, unwrapped the trash bags and took the plastic bags out of the entrance. A few bees wandered out, which is a pretty good sign that no comb broke during the bumpy ride.

Inspecting the beehive

Tonight, we repeated our little adventure with two other beehives, with the same positive results. Hopefully when we check on them tomorrow, all of the bees have decided to stick around. We now have the makings of two separate apiaries!

The Basics of Top Bar Beekeeping

So, it seems that I've neglected to actually explain what a top bar beehive is, and how it differs from the commercially-used Langstroth hive.

Langstroth Hives:


Langstroth hives (named for the guy who invented it) use a wax-mold foundation in frames to convince the bees to build their comb within the frames. This makes it easier for the beekeeper, since he or she just has to pull out separate frames with comb to get honey.

You can see the bees building comb over the foundation. Credit: www.backyardecosystems.com

However, bees don't always build comb in the same sizes. The circumference of the comb varies based on what the bees put inside, so honeycomb is smaller than comb for eggs, and queen cells are shaped completely differently. And in many commercial operations, the foundation is constantly remolded from old wax, which can be full of pesticides and medications. Some scientists think that large-scale foundation contributes to Colony Collapse Disorder.

The other downside of Langstroth hives is the cost. Small scale beekeeping with Langstroth hives is very difficult, since the foundation is costly and the frames are difficult to build without skill in carpentry.

Top Bar Hives:


The dimensions of top bar hives can vary widely. Ours are trapezoidal to mimic the way comb hangs down, but some are rectangular, and some are even inside of logs! Instead of using frames, there are only bars laid across the top of the hive with a slit cut down the middle. We started sticking wax into this slit as a starting point for the bees to build comb, but after we ran out of wax we just let the bees do their thing, and it seems to work out fine.

Top Bar Hive with wooden cover

We build a frame of sorts to transfer wild comb to our hives, but don't use foundation in the process.

While the construction is still fairly demanding, top bar beekeeping is much more affordable and accessible to many people. Dee and I have built several hives ourselves, so it can't be that hard! 

If you have any questions about top bar beekeeping, feel free to comment!