Good morning! This post was planned for two Saturdays ago but where we were staying in Florida I had terrible internet and I could not get my pictures to load up. Now that I am home they loaded up quickly and for this Saturday Snapshot I thought I would share what I did in Florida.
I was working with my friend Amanda and her husband Tim. They own a bee business here in Brainerd, Buck’s Busy Bee’s. The bees go to Florida every winter as the Minnesota winter months are too hard on them. Amanda needs to go to check on them once a month and asked if I would like to come along and help and I said yes, it sounded like a nice break from the cold and I am fascinated by what the bees do.
November turned out to be a longer trip than initially planned. We initially were going to be a week, but weather in Minnesota prevented us from completing some things here that had been planned out so we had to do that in Florida instead. Our trip was 16 days of working sun up to sun down – and many days later than that.
One of our main focuses was to split the hives. Splitting the hives makes more hives and when you have a strong healthy hive it is easy to take a few splits off it. To split a hive each new hive must have:
- A brood. Brood are babies and what the worker bees work hard on to keep warm and protect.
2. Honey. The frame of honey goes up against the frame of brood so the worker bees can feed the babies. Preferably you would like two frames of honey one on each side of the brood.
3. Drawn out frames. (You can see what a clean frame looks like at the bottom of each pic. They are yellow and that is what the bee works off of). A drawn out frame, as seen above can be dark like this one or could be light like the start of a honey frame.
4. BEES. You want lots and lots of bees to go with each hive to start their own. The hives are actually moved at night as that is when all bees are back in the hives and the forager bees are home. These are the bees that go out and bring the pollen back to the hive.
5. A QUEEN. Each hive needs its own Queen. I wanted to take a picture of a queen on a frame but to do that would have involved me to take my big work gloves off and well… it was a bit risky so instead I have this little video to show you the difference between the Queen and the other bees and how to find the Queen (yes I know I don’t have to capitalize “queen” but it seems like I should…LOL, she is royalty after all!)
What takes the longest in this process is that you must find the Queen before you start creating splits as she needs to remain in the bottom box as an existing hive. The other splits will require a new Queen to be placed in each of their boxes/hives.
So how do you keep the Queen in the bottom box once she is found and you are not ready to move the rest of the hive yet?
A Queen Excluder allows the regular worker bees to crawl through the tiny slats, but the Queen herself is too large to fit through. That way, once find the Queen and ensure she is in the bottom box, you put the excluder over the top of that box and then add the rest of the boxes of that hive on top of that.
I enjoyed finding the Queen although it can be frustrating when you go through each frame three or four times and can not find her. Sometimes I felt that I was “Queen blind”. Finding her though brought out the gamer in me, like I had passed that level. She is actually fun to look at and watch. She moves a little slower than the worker bee, but amazingly she is the bee that keeps the whole hive working. Without her the hive will die.
Another thing we did in Florida was we went through and put in each box a small tray of this Beetle Trap Oil which I liked to call Beetle Juice. The Beetle Oil (juice!) attracts beetles that can get in the hive and kill the bees. The beetles which are tiny and black fall into the oil and are killed. Nasty business.
We moved bees at night – over night actually. They were loaded on to a semi truck after dark as that is when the bees are in the hive. I did not do, but Amanda and Tim would then haul the new hives 3 1/2 hours away to host home yards, which are people who had agreed to have bees on their property.
It was a lot of work. We usually started our day between 5:30 and 6:00 am and ended around 6 – 8 pm. I pretty much just worked, ate dinner, and slept. My hands hurt from all the lifting of the hives and frames each day as well as the stings on my fingers (even through the work gloves). My hands are still swollen and I can not get my rings on yet.
That’s pretty much the basics of where I have been and what I have been doing. I am in still recovering now that I am home (arrived Thursday evening). Today I am just hanging around the house doing a little reading, a little audio, just chilling out. My body is exhausted.
Book Journey 
However interesting and friendly the whole business may look, I still think it takes a brave one to operate it. 😉 Thanks for sharing these unique photos.
Absolutely. This is not a job for the meek…lol
Absolutely fascinating!
It really is 🙂
An interesting process, thank you for sharing your pics.
Sure, glad I was finally able to get them posted 😀
Fascinating and informative!!
It is at that 🙂
What a unique experience! You had a fascinating adventure. Thanks for details. I admire how brave you are. 🙂
I like to try new things 😀
Wow, crazy! A young cousin of mine raises bees. Sounds like quite an adventure you had!
Sue
Book By Book
I think so. 😀
Do the bees recognize colors? Just wondering about the different colored hives.
That is a greats question Betty! I know that I have been but I had to look that up. Bees do see colors, not the way we do – but the colors do help them distinguish which hive is theirs.
There’s a lot of discussion & concern about the declining number of bees at the moment, esp in the States, so it’s good to see a thriving hive.
This break sounds like the maxim ‘a change is as good as a holiday’ is something you would understand right now!!
It is a lot of fun learning about the bees 😉
I’m so glad you explained more on what you were doing. I knew it was working with bee hives but good lord I had no idea it was so detailed. I think it’s wonderful you were able to help your friends, and that you are brave! Enjoy a slower home pace.
I think it is interesting so wanted to share the details 😀
Yay! I’ve been waiting for this post, I was fascinated to find out the process of what splitting a hive was all about. One question though…….how do you get Queens for the hives that are split off?
Great question! Amanda actually knows how to make Queens, but in this case there was not time so she purchase them from another bee keeper. I do not know much about the making of Queens but I am so amazed that we can actually do that!
After you have the Queens they are still unhatched in a little cocoon type thing. They are in a tiny plastic cage with a little candy type cork that once she hatches she eats her way out to the hive. Her pheromone lets the other bees recognize her as the queen.
Oh, my, the bees freak me out a little. We had them in our almond orchards when I was a kid, and we had to be very careful walking out there.
Thanks for sharing…and for visiting my snapshots.
LOL, you get used to it 😀
Wow, that’s a lot of work!
Yes! 🙂
What an interesting process.
It is! 😀
That is fascinating – there’s a lot of concern about declining bee numbers here in the UK, so it’s interesting to see how American beekeepers are working to help them survival.My Snapshot went up very late (computer problems) http://chriscross53.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/mushroomy-things.html
Thanks Christine!
This is SO fascinating, Sheila. Thanks for taking the time to share it all with us. I would never do what that beekeeper does, with the bare hands/arms! I love seeing the difference of a queen bee and it’s amazing how it all works. In my opinion, one of the zillions of pieces of evidence that the universe and all in it was created 🙂 Go, bees!
Yeah I was surprised about the video – we do not do that – we are fully covered. 😀
That’s a lot of hard work but seems oh so cool. Gosh you seemed to learn so much. Do you ever get stung? I’d like to try it. Cheers! Have a Happy Thanksgiving.
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It is fun to learn about the bees. Happy Thanksgiving to you as well.
So they do this every year? Wow! What an experience for you, Sheila. Thanks for explaining it – I’m glad you’re back home safe and sound!
Mary they do this year around! When the bees go to Florida in the cold Minnesota months they go back once a month to work with them.
How fun to hang out with the bees, it’s not a process many of us see up close.
you are truly a talented woman!