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A quick check on the bees. During a brief moment of sun the bees take to the air in their constant search for nectar and pollen from flowers in Hyde Park.

The activity at both hives looks good. There wasn't enough time to check on the queen cages, but a simple inspection of the entrance provides clues to what's happening on the inside.

Bees coming and going through the entrance and flying off in just a couple directions shows that the scouts have found flowers and that the hive is responding to their news.

The entrance can be a crowded place with workers coming and going from the hive.

I don't see any pollen in this picture but I'm sure we'll see some soon enough!

Bee Installation 2020!!

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Hey there everyone! I know it's been a while since the bees have made an appearance on the web but they've been busy!

This year's two new colonies of bees arrived in the mail on Wednesday. They come in a plastic box called a 'bee bus'. It sounds funny, but packaged bees come by the pound! One pound of bees is about 5000 individuals so each three pound package as approximately the15,000 bees. Plus one queen! We'll get to her in a minute.

Here are the two colonies patiently waiting to get into their new homes! The bees have a can of sugar water to eat while they are waiting. 

But first we need to set up apiary...clean out the hive parts and get them set up properly.

Here's the bee bus on top of one of the hive boxes. The long wooden objects are the 'frames' that the bees will use to build their wax comb off of.

Here's a couple of frames removed to make room for all the bees!

If you can believe the crazy beekeeper opens up the bee bus and dumps the bees into the hive!! This is what you see - a big ol' pile of grumpy bees!! They will spread themselves out quickly and begin to explore their new home.

That small box on the upper left is the 'queen cage'...so let's look more closely at that. 

The queen that comes with the package of bees isn't the workers' mom. So they're not quite ready for her to be their queen. So for now she's kept in this small wood box with the screen side. There's a cork in one end. 











Here you can see the queen inside! She is larger than the worker bees and a bit darker in color. 













In order to help the workers and their soon to be queen get along we replace the cork with a mini marshmallow!

Here's the mini marshmallow in place of the cork...thankfully the queen didn't escape while I was switching them!

Once the queen is set, the queen cage is placed in the hive, another layer added and the whole thing covered. During the time it takes the queen and the workers to eat the marshmallow she will have filled the hive with 'queen pheromones'. These impressive molecules that she makes and releases into the air are all she needs to get the 15000 workers to work for her! Once she's out she will start laying eggs and the pollination and honey production will begin!

Happy Beekeeper!

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!