I did not intend to go back into beekeeping. I had helped my father as a teenager when he kept bees, but like many teenagers I did not pay much attention to what dad was trying to teach me. What a shame - he could do so much and I could have learned so much.
In 2003 I purchased one established hive. I purchased them mid-summer with some honey stores. I will not go into the possible reasons my hive died out - but most of the ones I can think of were my fault. I was disheartened and did not intend on getting back into beekeeping.
Late in the summer of 2004, we found a colony of bees working out of the wall of my house. I'm not sure where they came from. I don't think they were a fall swarm from the hive I killed. I did not want to kill them. I tried several things that was supposed to diminish the hive, catch the workers, etc. None of them was successful - so I hired a beekeeper to come Monday of the next week. This was in May 2005. On the Thursday before the beekeeper came, the bees swarmed. They swarmed low and I hived them in the old hive I had sitting around. This is the number 2 hive in the pictures below. (counting from left to right in the one showing four.) I had caught the beekeeping fever again.
Contacted West Virginia Extension Office. They referred me to a local Beekeeper to remove the bees.
The beekeeper removed a wall board and part of one floor joist. Here is the beekeeper on the ladder:
He opened their "hive". (Probably 30,000 to 60,000 bees)
Here is what the bees looked like in the wall:
Here is another
picture of the bees in the wall.
He brings the bees out with their brood-comb. This is comb that contains the young bee larvae and pupae, honey and pollen. He tries to save this so a hive can be established.
The picture below shows a close-up of the bees on the comb. In the center of the picture - the peanut looking piece of comb is a queen cell. They were preparing to swarm again. There was a total of 12 queen cells found. The large cells in the comb on the left is drone cells. Drones are the males in the colony. The smaller bees are the worker bees. (basically all in this picture) They forage for food, guard the hive, cool the hive, remove the dead and anything else not wanted in the hive, they feed the queen and the young, they scout for honey and they build comb and honey. T
The goal is to put their established comb in frames so it will save them work, save their brood or young. The beekeeper used rubber bands and cardboard to hold their comb in place. They will repair the comb and fill the missing areas.
Finishing the cleanup. Get them ALL! Before Kelly moves out.
Did not use the Beekeepers name because I have not asked his permission. He did a wonderful job. You can tell he knows what he is doing. Many Thanks!!
Now I have two hives of bees, the swarm and the ones taken from the wall. I was liking it so much that I contacted the beekeeper I originally purchased my first hive from and purchased a nuc and swarm that he placed in a deep and shallow combo. Both were started this year.
From left to right:
Hive #1
From the wall of the house
Hived with some brood comb as show above
Kept at the beekeepers house for couple of weeks
Not very strong, a month and a half later they have barely filled the deep hive body.
Very gentle
Hive #2
From swarm I hived
Doing very well - started with plastic foundation, They have filled the first brood chamber with brood, pollen and honey.
Filled Medium super with mostly honey.
Hive is strong and gentle.
Hive #3
Hived from swarm by a beekeepers wife. (not mine - I purchased these)
Cordovan (Blonde bees)
Relatively strong, has filled the brood chamber and the shallow.
A little aggressive, not bad.
Hive #4
Nuc - started this spring by another beekeeper. (purchased this one as well)
Think they are 3 banded italians.
Strong producers, easily angered. They don't get mean unless I bump the hive or get careless. Many bees take to the air when I expose them
They have filled two deep hive bodies, one shallow, the first medium is full but not capped. (July 4th 2005)
Here is a closeup of hives 1 and 2:
Closeup of hives 3 and 4:
The bees on the entrance landing of Hive 4. These are the ones I think are three-banded Italians. (this is what I was told when I bought them.)
Here is a couple of AVI's where I have the camera angle wrong. I'll get some more soon.
Bees flying to and from hive 4.
Bees flying to and from hive 3.
I intend to learn all I can, share all I can and make the most of my beekeeping this time. Hope you enjoyed my beekeeping story. I will eventually revise this site to multiple pages with some formatting. But I wanted to get up.