Marvelous Mama Meesh

For over a year now, I have been compiling a myriad of reasons why his crazy idea would never work.

Bears, moose, skunks, raccoons and a hundred other varmints live in them thar mountains!

And every one of them would love a tasty snack of honey and bees. Not to mention the cold summer evening mountain temperatures, strong winds, and lack of a beekeeper constantly watching over them. Gladly he ignored my misgivings and a few weeks ago placed Mama Meesh and her hive of honeybees high in the Cache Wasatch National Forest on property belonging to our very good friends.

Scott and Dean believe the wildflowers and the snowberry bush will make delicious honey. Seriously, if you were a bee wouldn't you want to live here?

After a two week settling in period, it was time to check on the bees to see whether they had even survived the move. Just the two of us made the drive into the mountain property that day...where a lovely light breeze scattered the scent of the forest around us. The afternoon was nothing short of a spiritual experience.

What we found was a busy thriving hive. The girls were actively flying in and out with bright yellow pollen filling the sacks on their tiny legs. Pollen is immediate sustenance for hard-working bees.

Mostly likely they were gathering it from this bright yellow mountain flower along with sweet sugary nectar. Using a straw-like proboscis, the worker bee drinks the liquid nectar, storing it in a special honey sack (almost like a honey tummy) within her body. The bee continues to forage, visiting hundreds of flowers until the honey sack is full when she brings it back to the hive.

Approaching the hive, we immediately noticed the absence of guard bees protecting the entrance. They usually zig and zag into your face. This hive was completely and inexplicably docile.

Even after opening the hive and moving frames around, Dean declared it to be the happiest beehive he's ever seen.

Signs of brood on this frame

and many others indicate the hive is expanding mightily

Sweet sugary nectar is already making the transition to delectable mountain honey.

I watched him methodically go about his work...

searching for the illusive Queen Mama Meesh

and placing the next honey super on.

Dreaming of harvesting the amber colored ambrosia next fall.

The face of a very happy beekeeper who should never listen to his wife!

The beekeeper and I sat on that mountain for quite some time and absorbed the magnificent vista. Casually he pointed out a grove of Quaken Aspen trees at the very tip top of the mountain overlooking the bees...Jocie's mountain. Her monument lies in that bright green grove. And her spirit wafts continually through these trees both winter and summer. It's no wonder that Mama Meesh is content and thriving with Jocie the beekeeper magnificently watching over her.

And then I couldn't help but giggle as I envisioned fifteen-year old Jocie and her girlfriend Lindsay frolicking among the trees that live here!

Mad Apiary Skills

Fact...raising chickens is much easier than keeping bees.


Feed the chickens, water the chickens, gather the chicken eggs and clean the coop every now and then. It doesn't take a genius to maintain a flock. It's so easy, even a chicken could do it.

Keeping bees is undoubtedly more intense and complicated and spring is one of the busiest times for a beekeeper.

Frames must be inspected for healthy bees and brood. Brood is the continuation of life in the hive and the honeybee queen's main goal. Although the term "queen bee" is frequently used loosely, she does not directly control the hive. Her sole function is to serve as the reproducer.

This smaller worker bee on the bottom is valiantly trying to drag the larger drone bee out of the hive. He must have done something naughty!


Dean likes to give the honeybees a little dose of antibiotic to maintain good health.


He mixes the antiobiotic with powdered sugar and sprinkles it on top of the frames. The bees quickly gobble up the tasty sugary substance.


Dean has the uncanny ability to pick the single frame from a hive which contains the queen. Scanning literally thousands of bees to spot her.


Just at the tip of the yellow hive tool say hello to Queen Oy Vey...of Hebrew descent.


Again in the first frame he picks up from the next hive, meet Queen Mama Mich in the center of this photo.

Be sure to check back soon for Mama Meesh's amazing story on an upcoming blog post.


Upon close inspection of one of the frames in the third hive, he notices a supersedure (emergency queen) cell. Supersedure is the process by which an old queen bee is replaced by a new queen. It is initiated by the worker bees who suspect an aging, diseased or otherwise failing queen. Being the quick thinking beekeeper that he is, he makes the decision to split the hive immediately.


Dividing one large hive into two is a risky move, not to mention a physically tricky one. The remaining hive still has a failing queen but now they lack a replacement. The new hive has only an unhatched virgin queen. If splitting is done incorrectly, losing both hives might be the tragic result.

Only time will tell if the beekeeper's risk paid off.

Fast forward a couple of weeks. In the center of this photo you will see where a young virgin queen has emerged from her queen cell. Virgin queens will quickly find and kill (by stinging) any other rival virgin queens whether emerged or still in their cells. Basically, first queen out...rules!

Introducing...Queen Amidala! 

She's the beauty just to the left of the yellow hive tool. Her wings are shorter than the other bees and she is much larger. Dean couldn't be more excited with the new "queen right" hive.

But what happened to the existing hive with the old failing queen?

Close examination reveals four new queen cells. Multiple supersedure cells are created to increase the odds of success. Growing a queen is quite simple. As an ordinary egg hatches, worker bees feed the larvae nectar, honey and extra royal jelly, speeding up the queen development. I look forward to capturing the new and improved version of Queen Lady Gaga very soon.

In the meantime, you may think spring is busy for a beekeeper...but you should hear the chorus of bees in this honeylocust tree practically dripping with pollen.

And the raspberries girls, don't forget those!

It's the close of another day of adventurous beekeeping here at The Garlick Press. 

Naturally Perfect Day

The morning birds sweetly sing a late summer melody as the sun rises in the sky...

 the Zinnias sway back and forth with the slight breeze.

Up early as usual, the buzzing of the bees melds softly and easily with the summer melody of the birds. There is a calm order to nature this morning and it is especially intoxicating.

 Enter the thief...whose mere appearance upsets the natural order of the day.
 
The thief/bee-master sends wafts of smoke into the hive to confuse the hard-working bees.


Stop thief!

The bees are about to be disturbed...angry and disturbed. With nearly 50,000-60,000 bees per hive, you do the math...that's a lot of grumpy bees.

The goal is to remove the frames of honey and load them into the plastic bins without removing any bees from the hive. That's the goal...albeit optimistic!

On this frame you can see that the busy bees have filled and capped about half of the frame with honey.

You'll notice I don't have any photos of what happens next...that's because I'm watching safely from inside the house. Remember this is the tricky part...removing all the frames and not the bees! But you can simply imagine what the photo looks like with thousands of angry flying insects all intent on stinging the thief who steals their honey. And you wonder why I am in the house?

The honeycomb is a marvel of insect engineering; a perfectly formed hexagon made from wax the worker bees produce. Then filled with that glorious amber colored ambrosia! This section had not yet been capped with wax.

Melted by the searing hot knife, the wax cap easily slides the top of the honeycomb off.

 

The aroma of melting wax and warm honey is incredibly enticing at this point. Anticipating this moment...I had fresh bread baking in the oven.

The thief has changed his attire and preps the spinner for the heavy frames.

Getting ready to spin....

Round and round and round she goes...the centrifugal force of the spinning propels the honey from the comb while leaving the comb intact.

And just like magic...the honey begins to flow into the waiting buckets. It's exciting! This is the bee-master's favorite day of the year...next to my birthday of course. He is nearly giddy with excitement as the honey begins to flow into the waiting buckets below.

The honey will go through a filtering process to remove any remaining wax caps as seen in the top of this bucket of Freddy Mercury's honey. Another fabulous honey harvest for the bee master. Here are the results of this year's harvest.

Queen Lady Gaga-2 gallons (Her hive was knocked over by the elk living in our back yard all winter).
Queen Richard Parker-6 gallons
Queen Freddy Mercury-8 gallons
Queen Kate Middleton-7 gallons
And Queen Zella-11gallons of honey! You go girl...best queen ever!

As evening approaches, the bee-master returns the empty frames for the honeybees to clean and repair any comb that was damaged in the havesting process. The bees seem to have forgotten that the thief stole their honey, and are now licking their little bee lips at the messy honey-coated frames returning to the hives. All is well and forgiven and the natural balance is restored once again.