Where is the queen?

We had our 3rd meeting of the Bee Stangs last Thursday. We inspected the hive, cleaned the hive and fed the bees.

We were able to look at almost every frame.

No stings!








New Pictures


Mill Springs Bees

Rule number 1: Don't freak out! (Bee Stangs)

Last Thursday was the first meeting of the Bee Stangs here at Mill Springs Academy. We had several students participate.



Everyone was very excited! They dressed up in the bees suits, pulled frames to look for the queen and fed the bees.

Rule number 1: Don't freak out! We had a couple of moments, but they were handled very well. It went something like this,

"Hey Michael."

"Yes"

"All of these bees are freaking me out."

"Okay. What's rule number 1?"

"Don't freak out."

"That's right. Just walk away slowly and go relax for a minute."




Enjoy the photos!


Mill Springs Bees Photographs

The Beard

Last night I attended the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association monthly meeting at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. It was very interesting and educational. The speaker came to the meeting from North Georgia. Check out her site, Mtn Honey.

Also check out the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association Site.

One item of discussion was the temperature of the hive. Bees work hard to maintain a certain temperature inside the hive. In the summer, when it gets hot, the bees work to cool the hive. They accomplish this a couple of ways. One way the bees cool the hive is by flaping their wings to act like a fan. Another, is by getting water and basically spitting it into the air while flapping their wings to act like an air conditioner.

A third way to cool the hive is called bearding. The bees go outside the hive and sit on the outside of the hive box to remove their little body heat and cool themselves off.

Ours are bearding.



Listen out for the buzz around campus this year. We will be starting our Bee Club this fall. More information coming!


Mill Springs Bees

Swarm Success

Yesterday we went out to check the hives. It looks like we now have 2 hives in our garden.

The old hive must have a new queen. We did not see her, but we did see where she had laid eggs.

The old queen is also laying eggs, in the new hive box.

Lots of little bees in both hives. And each hive has more bees than it did 5 weeks ago after the swarm.

Check out the swarm video below. Turn up the volume.




Mill Springs Bees

Swarm!

2 weeks ago we came to school to check on and feed the bees. When we walked out the door I called to Michael G, "come and look at this!" Bees were everywhere. Everywhere!

Mr. D came around the corner and said, "Fantastic. Its a swarm!"



Our bees had decided they needed more room to grow so they decided to leave the hive in search for a new one.



Right before the bees leave the queen gives out a signal. Some how within the hive 2/3 of the bees get chosen to leave and the rest get chosen to stay. The workers that are leaving then fill up on honey and prepare to fly to their new home.

The queen departs along with several hundred of the workers. Once they have left, the queen makes a temporary stop, alongwith the rest of the bees, to decide on a new permanent place to live. Scout bees fly around to look for a new house.

We got lucky. The departed bees stopped in the top of a close by tree.

It was an amazing sight. Thousands of bees flying around all gathered on a limb in a big group. Bees were everywhere, and then, all of them were together.

Mr. D said, "well, you have to go up and get them. We can start a new hive!"

So I did. Twice! The first attempt caused another swarm, to the same tree.





And now we have 2 hives. The old one with a new queen, Novus. And a new hive, which is actually the old hive with the old queen in a new box.




Mill Springs Bees

Sounds in the Hive!

A few days ago Michael Griffeth and I went in for another look. We were looking for queen cells and adding sugar water to the feeder.

I recorded the hive after we smoked them. This is what is sounds like.

Turn up the volume.

Mill Springs Bees

Queen Hunter

Earlier in the week we got an email from Mr. Durocher. He let us know that we needed to check for queen cells.

The hive already has a queen. Apparently, all of the bees in the hive are loyal to the already established queen. If a new queen is born, the hive will swarm and find a new place to live.



We looked at each frame for queen cells which look like a drooping peanut.



We weren't totally sure about a few of the cells, so we removed what we thought might be queen cells. Kind of a gooey white liquid is what we removed. Royal jelly?




More Pictures below.

Mill Springs Bees