Last week EHS 130 came to the apiary for a visit. 

They saw the hives in the apiary...

checked out a frame full of honey...

and got a lesson in tasting the bees most precious product!

It's the time of year when we remove frames to extract the honey. These frames were all removed and prepared for honey removal!

ESH 2nd grade room 231 visits the bees!

Students from Ms. Marinho and Mrs. Bissonette's class visited the apiary today to see what the bees were up to. It's the end of summer and they are busy tending their stored honey and thinking about the coming winter.

We had a chance to pull a frame out of the hive and examine the bees at work.

The telltale honeycomb isn't readily seen here because the bees have sealed over each cell with wax - permanent storage!

A sample of empty honeycomb for passing and 'testing'.

A little tasty distraction of some of the garden's mint.

And of course a little honeycomb squishing....

followed by a tentative taste...

that's good!!

Stay tuned for honey extraction!

SPRING SWARM!

One of our hives has been so successful that they produced a new queen and she left the hive in search of her new home, taking a few thousand workers with her.

She stopped for a quick rest int he magnolia tree in the garden...

Dr. Calleri happened to be able to provide them an empty hive to move into... the hard part was getting them in there. In this video, you can see some of the bees doing their "wiggle" dance to tell the others where they think they found a good place to live. 

We had to convince them that our hive was better then any other spots they might have found, so Dr. Calleri took action. Donning a bee suit and climbing up a tall ladder, he clipped off the branches that the bees were hanging on, and moved the whole ball into our empty hive boxes, trapping them inside with the exits blocked. Soon the queen's pheromones will make the new hive "smell" like home and we will be able to open up the entrances so they can come and go as they wish. 

New Bees 2017

The bees that we kept last summer did not successfully overwinter in the Lab School garden.

The school purchased two new colonies this weekend from a bee supplier in Wisconsin and they arrived to school yesterday. (Hopefully these are more hardy midwestern stock.)



The bees arrive in a screened box with a supply of sugar water that lasts them a few days. The queen is sequestered in a small plastic cell that is capped by a sugary candy substance.



Her cell is placed into the hive so that the pheromones she produces will make the hive smell like her during the time it takes for her daughters to free her.

Once she is in, the remainder of the bees in the box are unceremoniously dumped into the hive.

Once they are in, and empty set of frames ready for honey comb, and a third "super" with a supply of sugar water is added.  Then it's on with the roof and the bees are in their new home.

Spinning out the honey-Fall 2016

The Lab Bees have had a great summer and have filled many frames with honey comb that is chock full of the pale honey they produce. The bees fill the individual cells of the honeycomb and then put a wax cap on the top to keep them from dripping out.

Dr. Calleri removed two layers of the hive recently and is now in the process of extracting the honey from the comb.

First he has to remove the wax caps.

Then he places the frames in a large spinner to use centrifugal force to pull the honey out of the comb.

Here are some links to a few videos that will let you all see how the process works.

Using the heated knife

Spinning!

Empty Frame

Honey from the tap! Yum!

Trouble in the hive...

This week Mr. Maharry and his 5th grade class were out working in the garden and he noticed some trouble in the hive we call Zeta. This hive survived the winter and has been reduced in number since getting back to work. Mr. Maharry noticed a large number of males hanging around the entrance to the hive. Hives naturally produce males, but generally not until June - when the weather is warm enough to fly high into the air and find a mate. They are about 3 to 4mm longer than female workers and a bit wider too. Their most striking feature is their eyes. Their heads look like one big eye. This is how they find females on the wing.

 A lone male.

Here's a group of males around the entrance.

This picture a small group of 4 bees at the entrance. The two facing each other are female on the left and a male on the right. You can see the size difference and the eyes as well.

Upon closer inspection the hive has some odd brood pattern and might be producing queens too. Hopefully the hive can get itself back on track soon.

New Bees moved in today!

 The new bees arrived in their screened box with the workers surrounding the queen...

 Who is contained in a tiny cell so that she is easily located.

 The cork confining her is replaced with a marshmallow that the workers will eat so they can get to her. Her cell is placed in the new hive so that her workers will follow her and move in. They are also given sugar water so that they will not have to leave the hive to feed.

 The roof is placed on and..... voila! The bees are in their new home.