My First Beehive Inspection

7/9/2015

The bees were feasting on their own
honey. What a beautiful sight!

I spent the first week and a half of my bee guardianship just visiting my bees and spending time inches from the hive entrance. I often put my hand right up to a pile of bees and let them feel my energy and let them use their olfactory senses to determine my good intentions. I have an empirical theory that bees "know" when someone is a threat, and also know when they are adored. Science might not be able to entirely back this up, but enough information exists to suggest it's quite possible.

My 10-frame Langstroth hive

For years, research has focused on how various animals, and bees are included here, detect and categorize the diverse and numerous chemical molecules in the environment. The sense of smell is a critical component in decoding the complex makeup of life and plays a significant role in determining how well a life form survives and reproduces.

The role of the olfactory system helps shape the complexities into "pieces of relevant information that will allow the animal to make decisions and engage in adapted behaviors. Major tasks of the olfactory system are for instance the identification of food sources, the detection of possible dangers (such as fire or predators), the recognition of potential mates as well as allowing social interactions." [source]

If the sense of smell helps bees survive on the planet knowing things like when a foreign bee is trying to enter the hive, or where an abundant source of food exists, it's no big stretch to believe bees can smell other things like human anxiety, fear, loathing, and even love.

Science Correspondent, Richard Alleyne, claims researchers have discovered that human fear really does have an odor. He says that chemical signals are emitted by the body in sweat when a person is scared and can be picked up by others and can trigger fear in their brains, essentially concluding that the smell of fear in humans can be contagious. [to read more go to source]

The olfactory system is a fascinating topic all its own, but for the purposes of my bee blog, suffice to say it plays a big part in how humans and bees communicate, and it's worth respecting. Since I have zero anxiety around my bees, I believe my presence doesn't worry them. I'm sure an errant bee may freak out one day and choose a suicide defense by stinging me, but that'll be just an off day. I don't worry about it.

Different colored pollen being brought into the hive. A single bee can carry about half her own body weight in pollen.

Nurse bees consume most of the pollen brought to the hive. I figure seeing the bees bring in pollen is an indication that there are developing bees in my hive. Nurse bees care for the growing bees as they undergo the metamorphosis from egg to larva to pupa, and finally to adult. They use the nutrition absorbed from the pollen to secrete royal jelly from their special glands. The jelly is fed to young larvae, including workers, drones and queens. Another job of the nurse bee is to maintain a steady 95 degree temperature for the brood.

This is called the inner cover. See the diagram above.

Today, I chose to do my first beehive inspection. I only have reading sources to turn to for guidance or I can email a group of student beekeepers and email questions to experts, but no one on the ground to accompany me and advise on site. Reading a book or an email is very different than going over to a honey bee hive and taking the lid off and then removing the frames while hundreds of bees are busy at work.

My hive has ten frames per box and I have two boxes at this stage. The lowest box to the ground is called the brood box and the second one on top of that is called the honey super or just super. All of this terminology is new to me. I've heard it before, I've read it before, but it just didn't sink in until I took the lid off and began to examine things. Pictured above is what I found directly beneath the top lid to the inner cover. Below is a partial view of the top of "frames" beneath the inner cover, before I pulled them out.

I'm supposed to have a special pry tool made for beekeeping to gently pry apart the frames, but I don't own any beekeeping tools yet, so I just grabbed a dinner knife. It worked perfectly fine. Just prior to taking out the frames, I decided I better google and see if it was highly recommended to smoke the hive. I was just going to open it without a smoker. After reading from my two books and on the Internet, I found it was strongly advised to use smoke, and even though I sometimes foolishly try to reinvent the wheel and do things my way, I thought I probably should try a smoker. I called around town to see if anyone sells them. The feed store and the hardware stores said no and no one knew of any place that did. It's a small town and beekeeping is not a big thing around here.

I have an old smoker I bought years ago because I liked the 'antique' feel of it and never once intended to use it. The bellows are worn and I figured it wouldn't work right. But it was all I had and I was champing at the bit to see inside my hive. I grabbed some paper and weeds and a piece of wood I found in the yard on my way to the hive and took a small book of matches with me; I had three matches left. I got the paper to light a tiny bit and fizzle out leaving some smoke. I quickly put the smoke (about as much as you might have when you blow out a large match or a small candle.) It sifted toward the entrance and dissipated quickly along with my patience. I truly believed my bees would cooperate and would not send out a guard to attack me. I knew some oddity could happen -- there could be a bee who was wired wrong and could over react - but it would be a fluke. I decided to just dive in and find out. I had zero anxiety. I just wanted to see my bees.

An old smoker I bought years ago before I paid much attention to bees.

With one hand holding my camera, and my other hand holding onto the frame full of bees, I began taking pictures. The bees were quite happily preoccupied and seemed unfazed by me or by having their home pulled apart. Supposedly, if I accidentally kill a bee while moving the frames around, which isn't hard to do, it sends pheromones into the air and signals trouble to the other bees, which could mean becoming a target since I caused the death. I needed to be very careful, and holding the frame with one hand while photographing the other is going to be a talent I want to hone.

I don't wear a bee suit. I spent a year around wild bees and have become completely comfortable around them. I listen, observe and go by feel around them. It seems instinctual. One day, I may regret going suitless, but it simply feels so natural, so right, and so easy to just be with my bees without any armor. It's not an ego thing. Had I just gotten into beekeeping without ever having spent time with bees, I'm sure I'd be dressing up in all the gear. But I came to beekeeping in an around about way; a way that helped me understand their nature. I've written about it before, so I won't repeat it here. (Feel free to inquire.)

Honey is getting capped here.

What I'm supposed to see upon my first inspection includes eggs, larvae, sealed brood, pollen, honey and sealed honey. One article I read said I was to do my first inspection 9 days from the day I received my bees. The number 9 had to do with some sort of cycle. I can't find the article again, so I don't know exactly why it was the chosen number. I didn't know there was a schedule I was to follow until I read that. I was at day 12. I'm not much of a follower though. I would rather feel my way along and learn as I go while supplementing with knowledge from others and then finding a balance of my own.