Sunday, September 30, 2012

First Encounter of a Top Bar Hive Kind

I met Patrick several weeks ago. He is the first Top Bar Hive beekeeper I ever met in person and he lives only a few miles away from where i study self-sufficient householding. What a concidence since Top Bar beekeeping is not popular in Sweden and there is just a handful of beeks practicing it at this time. I made sure to pay him a visit and thats what I did today. He keeps the Nordic Black Bee. His farm is high up on a hill facing south and the view is awesome. The whole area is pure woodland. Dream land for a bee colony. He kept bees in top bar hives for 4 years now with great success.
Patrick uses duvet as winter insulation with good results  :)
two beautiful Kenya Top Bar Hives coated in Linseed Oil and Wax.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Winterising TBH - taking out empty comb to reduce hive space

I decided to take out all the empty comb and move the follower board closer to the bee cluster. One hive has 8 full combs the other 10. I am still feeding with sugar syrup via Jar Feeder which is behind the follower board. The bees dont eat it that fast anymore. 

Friday, September 28, 2012

Varroa is our Friend certainly Not the Enemy


The Varroa is a little red mite
it comes from Asia so they say
it came all the way around the world
and now its living in the USA
Its living on the comb
and looking for a home

When the first time I saw the Varroa
It was sucking on a Bee
After a round of brood I saw it again
and it made a whole family
Its living on the comb
and looking for a home

Well a beekeeper took a pesticide strip
and he put it in the hive
now all the honey and wax are ruined
and the mite it still aint died
Its living on the comb
and looking for a home

I tried oils and powders and poisons
but still the mites are strong
the bees got weak and sick
and now almost all are gone
we ruined their home
we cant leave them alone

Well the Varroa told the beekeeper
you better get some more bees
a coupple of 3 pund packages
make a tasty meny for me
I'll make 'em my home
and make them disease prone

Well the bees didnt make much comb
and they didnt make much honey
all year long Im pulling out my hair
and spending all my money
Im hooked on bees
someone help me please

If anyone should ask you
who was that wrote this song
tell 'em the only beekeeper
and all the bees are gone
They left their home
looking for cleaner comb

I aint gonna fuss about nothing no more
I know I cant fight the mite
I'll get out of their way and then one day
the bees will be allright
Happy in their home
Living on the comb
Happy in their home
just leave them alone

A song by Sam Comfort from Anarchy Apiaries

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Natural Comb has Various Cell Size

I have built 2 Kenya Top Bar Hives for the school of Self-sufficient Householding in Sweden and am taking care of them. I have removed a few emprty combs from the back of the hive so to move the follower board closer to the cluster which will contain the warmth much better.
One of the combs cought my eye. The cells on the left side of the comb were small and the cells on the right side were large. After measuring them I figured out the right were Drone Cells and the left one ranged from approx. 4.8 to 5.2 mm I have not measured this carefully but it was obvious that the cells on one single comb were of many different sizes (unlike wax foundation) and it was amazing to see how the bees decided to place the Drone cells to the West side of the hive and the Worker Cells to the East. Does this mean anything? Doesnt matter. What matters is that bees can decide what is best for them at any given time and build accordingly.
Here are the shots of the same comb and the same side of the comb (the comb is dark because of the mould);

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Bee devastation: Campaign for total ban of neonicotinoid pesticides

A third of UK bee colonies have been lost over the last two years and there have been many explanations given for this. There is strong evidence that neonicotinoids – a class of pesticide first used in agriculture in the mid 1990s at exactly the time when mass bee disappearances started occurring – are involved in the deaths. The evidence against these chemicals is strong enough that they have been banned or suspended in France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia – but not yet in the UK.
Neonicotinoids work as an insecticide by blocking specific neural pathways in insects’ central nervous systems. The chemicals impair bees’ communication, homing and foraging ability, flight activity, ability to discriminate by smell, learning, and immune systems – all of which have an impact on bees’ ability to survive.

It seems bees genetic make up makes them particularly vulnerable to neonicotinoids. Recent mapping of the bee genome has revealed that bees’ capacity to detoxify chemicals is much lower than other insects. Instead bees have two strategies to protect themselves. On the first day of foraging in a new area, scout bees are sent out first to taste the nectar and pollens – if any are adversely affected they will be expelled from the hive immediately, and the colony will avoid the area.

In addition, once foraging begins, nurse bees in the hive clean foragers each time they return. These strategies protect the colony from mass exposure to lethal doses of chemicals, but they do leave honey bees particularly susceptible to sub-lethal exposures to any contaminants they encounter.

The other really important factor is the complex behaviour of honeybee colonies. For example, the 10,000 forager bees in a typical hive need to co-ordinate their quest for nectar – and they do this through the famed ‘waggle dance’, which communicates the flight direction and distance to sources of nectar. The complexity and precision of these dances is breathtaking, and success relies on the integrity of a nervous system where each synapse is crucial. It is no surprise then that honey bees have been shown to have a higher number of neurological receptors than other insects.

Honey bees live and work as a colony, not as individuals; what seems to be happening is that the cumulative impact of small doses of nenoicotinoids on thousands of bees over time is affecting individual bee’s ability to work and communicate effectively as part of a colony. Because lots of bees in each colony are behaving sub-optimally this can lead to the sudden, and devastating, outcomes that we’ve been witnessing in recent years.

The Soil Association believes that there is already enough evidence to justify an immediate ban on neonicotinoids today.
http://www.cbgnetwork.org/2821.html
Source http://beelore.com

Sunday, September 23, 2012

The Creation of Che Guebee Apiary

My wife and i started removing the trees i cut down the other day. As mentioned earlier I will establish my apiary here in front of the white shed. I have built 3 hives based on top bar beekeeping. I will be buying 2 families of Elgon Bees bred by the known Swedish beekeeper Erik Ă–sterlund. He told me his bees have regressed to the 4.9mm cell size several years ago. This is good news. I am willing to start keeping bees which are able to fight Varroa on their own. Small Cell is not bullet proof but helps alot. It takes several years to get bees regress from the conventional 5.4mm cell size. I dont think i am willing to wait that long hence buying Elgon Bees from Erik.
By the way, my dog friend Bailey also helped ... digging a hole ;)

Let The Sunshine In

"Let the sunshine
Let the sunshine in
The sunshine in..."

There is so much algae on our summer house and some timber is starting to rot I would say. A little bit of investigation made the obvious even more obvious ... the house is surrounded by tall trees and bushes which are casting a heavy shadow on it. The trees make it less aerated also so lots and lots of wet wet wet conditions to rot the timber. I decided its time for some action and this is what I did:
On this photo you can clearly see algaae growing on planks
Excuse the bad photo quality. I just made a fast photo not being aware that I shook the camera. Any way, it will serve the purpose for Before and After image :) So, this is Before I went in with a saw and ax ...
... lots of sweating ... ah uh puh ... and this shot is the After math. A beautiful open sky :) ah I can breath now.
I was surprised at how much there was to cut down ... lots of timber for winter I guess ;) It will take me ages to chop this by hand ... well I have all winter for it. All must go away from this spot since in May next year this plot is to be my very first private Apiary :) which is another reason for cutting down the sun barrier. Our summer house is on the North side of a small hill so South Sun is something we really need to let in.
At the end of this working day a well deserved organic beer while enjoying the new open view :) Cheers

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Che Guebee Apiary got 3 different hives to start with

The Log Hive
It is approx 70cm tall
the inside diameter is approx 25cm. The volume of this log is approx 137 litres.
tickest part of the wall is 90mm
the thinest part of the wall is 35mm
This log will house the first swarm I catch next year 
I placed two supers and a roof with insulation on top of this log


Kenya Top Bar Hive
the first 13 top bars are 34mm wide and the rest got a 10mm stripe to get them wider, 45mm since the new research have shown that bees build honey combs much wider (44mm) than the brood comb (38mm).
The observation window
the winter mouse guard entrance - 2x 8mm holes
the summer entrance witth a landing board and 2 x 25mm holes
blue insultation for the winter time

Vertical "Perone Style" Top Bar Hive
Uploaded from the Photobucket iPhone App

Friday, September 21, 2012

Moving bee info to this blog

I will move bee info from http://chopwoodcarrywaterplantseeds.blogspot.se/search/label/Top%20Bar%20Hive to this blog as soon I start preparing my new Apiary for May next year. Stay tuned.