Silver Honey Bees

Vitex negundo are in full bloom at home, and about 20% at Mom's.

Time again for my recurring PSA. Honey Bee Swarm Season is in full swing. You DO NOT want bees making a nest in your walls, ceiling, soffit, etc.

Please examine your home, business, shed, ... and identify any openings 1/4" or larger. Plug or screen them. When honey bees swarm they are looking for a defensible opening with an area behind the opening about 5 gallons total volume. They love the eaves, walls, and ceilings of homes, chimneys, the space between floors, and under wood floors. They'll move into the walls of an RV, shed, etc.

If the hole is small, caulk or glue work well. If the hole is larger, or should not be closed (such as weep holes in brick), steel wool works well. For larger areas, screen works if secured well (1/8" hardware cloth is tougher and more rigid, but harder to find). Don't even think about using spray foam, even the "insect resistant" stuff. Honey Bees seem to hate foam, and will remove it just to get rid of it.

Honey bees can build a colony of 30,000 bees behind a 1/4" hole. Common weak points are failing caulk, failing mortar, where siding or soffit meet bricks or stone, around conduit or pipes, gaps in soffit or siding, and around light fixtures unless they fit tightly.
Bee colony removal from inside your building is likely to cost $400+, with $1,000+ possible, and that likely doesn't include repairs afterward. Insurance usually won't cover the removal and/or repairs, because the insurance considers it a "maintenance problem". (You didn't do the maintenance, so it is your problem).

If you see a swarm (typically bees in a cluster, hanging off of almost anything), call a beekeeper ASAP. DO NOT delay to see if they leave. (They will, but someone may not like where they go.) I'm a beekeeper, but there are many others in Central Oklahoma. Beekeeping Etc 405-600-7200 maintains a list, as does the OSBA at https://soonerbees.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=444951&module_id=448994

If you see bees checking out an opening of any size, but they are not regularly coming and going and especially if you see no pollen on their legs, (pollen looks like colorful English riding pants), PLUG THE HOLE NOW!!!! Scouts from a swarm investigate every nook and cranny. If they are scoping out your home (etc) blocking the hole will buy you time to do permanent repairs. However, if they are brining in pollen, you are too late, and will need someone to come remove them. You DO NOT want to kill a colony in your walls. First, killing a colony is not nearly as easy as you might imagine. Second, dead bees stink. Third, without the colony's protection, small hive beetle and wax moth larvae will run rampant through the comb. Small hive beetle larvae look like housefly larvae ("maggots"). Picture several hundred crawling through your walls leaving a fermenting slime trail, and then crawling out from your baseboards.

If you're not in Central Oklahoma, there are undoubtedly local beekeepers you can call upon. A search for beekeeper and your town name should help you find them.

As you've seen above, honey bees can become an expensive nuisance if they build a nest in inappropriate places. Let a beekeeper capture them and put them somewhere where they can prosper and not cause problems.

Swarm Catcher Listing - Oklahoma State Beekeepers Association

I ran across this in a commercial beekeeping group. It is mostly about SE USA migratory beekeeping, but I thought it was cool.

American Honey Bee Farmer - Youtube Version A Song Dedicated to all Bee Keepers & Honey Producers and their Life of Working Bee's...

I like to use screen to reduce entrance size. It allows for some airflow, and is both reusable and adjustable. Someone asked for pictures.

Regarding the highly publicized "Africanized Bees Attack Man" stuff going around ...

A. Never trust a media report about anything to be even remotely accurate, especially if there are ratings at stake. In my 60+ years I've never seen an accurate report on any topic I personally know anything about.

B. The guy ATTACKED THE BEES, which were minding their own business, waiting on their sisters to find a new home. Honey bees are not aggressive, they are defensive. He sprayed them, and they fought back. Do not flail, do not swat, do not mo**st the bees. It is a fight you cannot win. They have faster reactions, fly faster than you can run, and outnumber you. A colony is much harder to kill than most people think, and it isn't necessary. Move away and leave them alone. Call a beekeeper. If you don't know one, Google: your-town beekeep

C. If they were Africanized (AHB), he'd be dead. Per the USDA, a non-allergic human (99.8% of the population) can handle about 10 stings per pound. If he was 180 lbs, he might survive 1,800 stings. Reports from some outlets of 7,000 stings are not survivable by any reasonably mobile human. AHB don't leave you alone just because you're laying in your yard. Once triggered, they'll follow you for a mile or more, and wait for you to reappear if you manage to hide.

D. 200 stings in 3 hours? Not AHB behavior. 200 stings in 30 seconds, yeah. 200 stings aren't any fun, but they're not life threatening for most adults. He hurt himself by (a) attacking the bees, and then (b) panicking when they fought back. If he'd shielded his face and walked away he'd have been fine.

E. The best way to keep AHB out of an area is to have managed honey bees (of known genetics) filling the ecological niche in the area, thus maintaining a docile gene pool. It is no fun to work cranky bees, so most beekeepers maintain docile stock.

F. Oklahoma is considered by ODAFF to be "Africanized", because AHB HAVE been found in most counties. The map hasn't been updated in almost a decade, because they don't track it anymore. However, in most of the state, AHB don't survive our long "dearth" (period with little/no food available) because they swarm frequently and thus don't build up the large honey reserves needed to survive. They move in from W-TX/NM/AZ/SoCA on heavy equipment in the spring/summer, then starve when times get harder.

G. In 14 years of beekeeping, I've encountered 1 colony which was likely significantly "Africanized". They were destroyed.

H. There is no way for you to tell by looking if the bee is "Africanized". AHB are a hybrid of various European bee species and one very defensive African species. They look very much like a European bee. It requires microscopic analysis by an expert or a DNA test to tell if a given bee is "Africanized".

Got a text from a nice homeowner in The Village Saturday afternoon. We've chatted before, because she's got a bee tree in her yard. She'd contacted another beekeeper about a swarm, and they had not responded, so she was looking for help.

She had a swarm about a week ago too, same little tree, different branch, about 9' up. Decent sized swarm, probably a secondary swarm and thus a virgin queen or two.

I set up a ladder to hold the Pro Nuc box with a couple of frames of comb near the cluster, and transferred a few handfuls of bees to the box. After they fanned a bit, I shook the tree a couple of times to stir up the rest of the cluster, and the whole swarm moved into the box.

Meanwhile we had a lovely chat about bees and other topics.

Nuc box is at home with feed. I'll open them tonight (which is early for me) since they likely have virgin queens which need to mate. Risky, but necessary.

3.

Got a little swarm near 17th and Drexel Friday morning. Conveniently, only 2 miles from home. About 1/2 on a burning bush, and about 1/2 on the ground. The 1/2 on the ground looked dead when I arrived, but they were just cold. Used a piece of bare foundation to get the ones on the ground to crawl out of the grass. Not large, but viable. Closed 'em up and gave them syrup. Sorry, no pics this time.

Homeowner says he's had a colony in the corner of his roof for years, and they throw swarms every spring. He said he didn't think they're hurting anything. He kept my number. :) 2.

We didn't catch any swarms in 2022, which is unusual. I got a text during class today about 4:30, which I didn't see until I got in the truck to go home after 6:00 pm. Caught this cute little cluster and had them home and fed by 8:00 pm. They'll stay in a nuc box for a while, and need some extra brood infusions to get them up to speed. 1!

Time again for my recurring PSA (a little earlier this year, before swarms are likely):

Please examine your home, business, shed, ... and identify any openings 1/4" or larger. Plug or screen them. When honey bees swarm they are looking for a defensible opening with an area behind the opening about 5 gallons total volume. They love the eaves, walls, and ceilings of homes, chimneys, the space between floors, and under wood floors. They'll move into the walls of an RV, shed, etc.

If the hole is small, caulk or glue work well. If the hole is larger, or should not be closed (such as weep holes in brick), steel wool works well. For larger areas, screen works if secured well (1/8" hardware cloth is tougher and more rigid, but harder to find). Don't even think about using spray foam, even the "insect resistant" stuff. Honey Bees seem to hate foam, and will remove it just to get rid of it.

Honey bees can build a colony of 30,000 bees behind a 1/4" hole. Common weak points are failing caulk, failing mortar, where siding or soffit meet bricks or stone, around conduit or pipes, gaps in soffit or siding, and around light fixtures unless they fit tightly.

Bee colony removal from inside your building is likely to cost $400+, with $1,000+ possible, and that likely doesn't include repairs afterward. Insurance usually won't cover the removal and/or repairs, because the insurance considers it a "maintenance problem". (You didn't do the maintenance, so it is your problem).

If you see a swarm (typically bees in a cluster, hanging off of almost anything), call a beekeeper ASAP. I'm one, but many others in Central Oklahoma can be found at http://centralokbeekeepers.org/swarm-and-cutout-resources/ . If you're not in Central Oklahoma, there are undoubtedly local beekeepers you can call upon. A search for beekeeper and your town name should help you find them.

As you've seen above, honey bees can become an expensive nuisance if they build a nest in inappropriate places. Let a beekeeper capture them and put them somewhere where they can prosper and not cause problems.

Swarm and Cutout Resources | Central Oklahoma Beekeepers Association, LLC (COBA) Swarm and Cutout Resources This page is information and resources for swarms and cutouts. Here you will find definitions of a swarm and of a cutout, and you will find a list of people that do one or the other, or both. SWARM – A swarm is normally seen when a hive has become too crowded and so the ...

Beekeeper thoughts: I was watching a Blue Bloods rerun tonight. The gun runners had 3 cops and a crook with a heart of gold (aka a Red Shirt) cornered in a field. But the gun runners stopped directly in front of a line of beehives. My immediate thought was "put a few rounds into those hives and the gun runners will have other concerns." It has worked before.

Time again for my recurring PSA:

Please examine your home, business, shed, ... and identify any openings 1/4" or larger. Plug or screen them. When honey bees swarm they are looking for a defensible opening with an area behind the opening about 5 gallons total volume. They love the eaves, walls, and ceilings of homes, chimneys, the space between floors, and under wood floors. They'll move into the walls of an RV, shed, etc.

If the hole is small, caulk or glue work well. If the hole is larger, or should not be closed (such as weep holes in brick), steel wool works well. For larger areas, screen works if secured well (1/8" hardware cloth is tougher and more rigid, but harder to find). Don't even think about using spray foam, even the "insect resistant" stuff. Honey Bees seem to hate foam, and will remove it just to get rid of it.

Honey bees can build a colony of 30,000 bees behind a 1/4" hole. Common weak points are failing caulk, failing mortar, where siding or soffit meet bricks or stone, around conduit or pipes, and gaps in soffit or siding.

Bee colony removal from inside your building is likely to cost $400+, with $1,000+ possible, and that likely doesn't include repairs afterward. Insurance usually won't cover the removal and/or repairs, because the insurance considers it a "maintenance problem". (You didn't do the maintenance, so it is your problem).

When you're cleaning off hive stands and pop the top on that "empty" nuc that has been sitting there all winter ...

I got to attend the NEOBA Big Bee Buzz again this year in Tulsa. This was the first time it has been held since 2019. As usual it was an excellent event, with lots of good information.

On my way home I missed a text. Our first swarm call of the year. By the time I got home and saw the text, the swarm had moved on.

OKC swarm season is underway. Get your swarm gear together and put it in your vehicle!

Now it's easier to send Silver Honey Bees a message.

When you take your airless paint sprayer instruction book with you, but forget to move it away before you start painting.

Silver Honey Bees updated their info in the about section.

12 splits, Queens installed. Waiting for warmer weather.

I set up 7 more splits Saturday 4/17 and pulled the splits off the donor hives this evening 4/18. The queens (in the pictured cages) will be added Monday night, and the candy exposed next Saturday 4/24. 5 days for queen introduction is on the high end, but results in high success rates.

Varmints

This is one of the best swarms I've ever gotten. Prolific queen, reasonably gentle, filled 2 deeps and a medium in my back yard. Colonies NEVER make a super of honey, funny or not, in my yard. Until last year, which was a TERRIBLE year for honey. Nobody told these girls.

I inspected this colony today after work. Brood from wall to wall in the top deep, and about 1/2 the medium. I reversed the deeps, shook all the bees out of the medium, put a queen excluder on the deeps, put the medium on top of that, and installed an inner cover with a notch cut out to allow drones to exit. The nurse bees will move back up to care for the brood, and the queen now has an entire box of open comb to fill.

I need to raise some daughter queens from this lady!

I would hive them in the dark.
I would hive them in the park.
I would hive them in the rain.
Something wrong with my brain.

Thank you to the Bennett family and Carter Poole!

Nice swarm! Gentle even in the dark and light rain.

Our first catch of 2020. Fit nicely on 10 frames. Probably 6-7 lbs.

As expected, I went to the southern bee yards (apiaries) today after work.

Blanchard colonies were both dead, which is odd, because I'm pretty sure they survived the cold snap. In fact, there were no dead bees in the west hive. Plenty of food, and yes I did treat them for mites. I spoke with the landowner, and he still wants bees there, so we'll bring some more back when I can pull splits.

Tuttle had already lost 1 colony in the cold, which was not a surprise. They hadn't ever really taken off. Might have been Nosema Ceranae, but I think she just wasn't a very good queen. It happens.

However, the remaining Tuttle colony is going like mad. 6+ frames of capped brood in the top box, which will become 12+ frames of bees very soon. The lower box had many eggs and larvae, so I did NOT reverse the boxes, because that would have split the brood nest, which is not a good thing to do. Reversing the boxes really doesn't accomplish anything if she's laying eggs in both boxes anyway. This colony is growing so fast, I'm going to have to monitor closely for swarming. To try to keep that out of their tiny little heads, I added a 3rd deep box with open comb in the bottom and honey in the top, hoping she'll expand into all 3.

I got home too late to inspect the last hive at the house. Maybe tomorrow night after work, if the weather is good enough.

I spent 1/2 the day working some of my surviving colonies. Saw the queen in 3/4 of them. Good quantities of bees in all but 1, although they all showed signs of losses from the the extreme cold a few weeks ago, mostly in the form of odd brood patterns.

The 1 weak one clearly JUST survived. While most had 6-8 frames of solid brood, that one had only about a baseball size patch of capped brood, surrounded by larvae and eggs. The queen was there, doing her job, but they're going to need help from a nearby hive to prosper.

Several colonies had drones, but I saw no queen cells and only a couple of empty queen cups.

After a deep inspection, I reversed the boxes on every colony, and pulled extra boxes off where appropriate. Most had honey, but unless they had a lot I still left sugar on them. The early stuff is blooming, some dutch white clover, redbud, dandelions, bradford pear, henbit, magnolia, ..., but not enough to be reliable.

Clover in Edmond is about 2 inches high, and vetch East of Yukon is about 3-4 inches high. The clover will likely bloom first, but the vetch will bloom longer.

I'll finish working most of the rest after work tomorrow night.

Honey Bee Suite is a website/blog run by Rusty Burlew, a Master Beekeeper in the Pacific Northwest. Obviously, that environment, and some of the challenges, are a bit different than Central Oklahoma, but her site is a real asset to beekeepers, and can be wonderful for others.

Rusty recently published this story, which I found to be a delightful read.

Enjoy: https://www.honeybeesuite.com/angel-topped-babies-and-cemetery-honey/

Angel-Topped Babies and Cemetery Honey - Honey Bee Suite When we don't understand how natural systems work, it's easy to become suspicious and afraid. As I child, my great fear was cemetery honey.

The perqs of fall beekeeping ...

What is it about honey bee swarms and trampolines? This is at least the third time I've retrieved a swarm from a trampoline. Last Friday night. Yeah I know, I'm a sucker for trying to save an October swarm.

Moved a small hive tonight, will be combining it with another later this week. Weather was too warm for them to all go inside, even with my water mist trick. Then I misplaced a glove. Then I forgot to put my veil up. Then they reminded me. 2 face stings, 2 neck stings, about 5 on the hands. More stings than I've had in a year, at least. But got it done anyway.

2020 swarm "catch" #3. A first for me.

I've been forwarding most of the swarm calls I get to other beekeepers. It makes sense to share the wealth, especially with newer beekeepers.

But I do keep a few. Tonight, just as I get home from work, a beekeeper calls me and says she has a swarm from one of her hives, do I want it? She knows we're still growing our operation, and she has more colonies than she wants in her yard. I say "Sure! I'll be right over!"

When I get there, she's already captured the swarm in a very nice screened catch bucket she got at one of the Frontier Country Beekeeping Association meetings in Guthrie. All I have to do is dump them in a hive and take them home. About 50% larger than a 3 # package.

And I thought the low danglers were as easy as it gets.

Thanks MB!

Yet another after-dark swarm rescue. Getting them to move at night can be a challenge, but gentle persistence got them to mostly walk in. 2nd of 2020. Probably 4 lbs.

I would hive them in the dark.
I would hive them in the park.
I would hive them in the rain.
Something wrong with my brain.

Thank you to the Bennett family and Carter Poole!

Nice swarm! Gentle even in the dark and light rain.

Our first catch of 2020. Fit nicely on 10 frames. Probably 6-7 lbs.

We're practicing our "Social Distancing" via beekeeping. You don't get much more socially distant than when surrounded by tens of thousands of flying stinging insects.

We chickened out on splitting hives last week. The mild weather has the bees ahead of schedule, but this is still March in Oklahoma. Average last frost in OKC is April 7. Latest last frost on record in OKC is May 3. We got down to 39°F this morning, and many of our hives had chilled brood on the porch. Perhaps we chose wisely.

We only lost 2 hives thus far over the Fall/Winter/Spring, which is very good. We've already replaced both via splits the bees mandated by building queen cells.

We successfully overwintered 13 colonies in nuc (nucleus) boxes (5 frames wide, instead of 10 frames wide). All have been moved into 1 or 2 full sized boxes, and we moved 2 doubles out from home to an outyard this morning. We need to move more, but there's no room on the trailer there right now.

We're still feeding some yards, because there just isn't much blooming yet, other than holly and redbud. Hairy vetch is thinking about it.

We've got lots of equipment to build, and loaded up on glue and paint before the COVID 19 lock. All we need is weather that permits painting. Rain predicted 5 days out of the next 14, but no freezes, so we should make progress.

We have 20 queens arriving in batches over the next 3 weeks or so. We're going to requeen some existing colonies, but most will go into splits. We've overwintered enough colonies this year that we shouldn't need to pull too heavily from any one colony, so all should be strong enough to make honey.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. We'll try to do better.